History's Strongest Shinobi

by Kenchi618

On that day years ago they put their faith in him, Naruto made a promise that he would be the best ninja he could be. Either all alone, or together with friends he was going to make his family proud. Whether the ninja underworld wanted him to or not he'd either die trying, or become the strongest shinobi in history. AU.

26. Sins of the Father

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. One of those two will grant the greatest man alive an audience with them so that I can convince one or the other with my smooth and logical lexicon exactly why they should hand the rights over to me. Or they could allow me close enough to place them into a painful joint lock until they cry and sign over the rights.

Coercion by means such as that is legal in Japan isn't it?

Chapter 26: Sins of the Father

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Normally, Naruto would have been chattering his teeth almost to the point of gnawing on a limb at being forced to sit still while a story of this magnitude involving his parents was told to him, but with what he'd been given in regards to the tea blend he was markedly more agreeable. It was clear that by observing him over an extended period of time, Hayato knew how the boy ticked well enough to have this prepared for him.

Thus he had Naruto's full attention, and he couldn't in any sort of good conscience leave him hanging with this important information.

With a sigh, the towering blond legendary master of martial arts for once felt his age as he dove into the explanation, "I've had multiple run-ins with the Konohagakure organization since the times of my youth. I'm no stranger to them and their ways, but a decade and a half ago or so I ran across a man that changed my point of view on them."

Minato was a bit of an oddity as far as ninjas went. He did assassinations against high-class VIPs and never attempted to harm more people than he had to in order to complete his missions, but when it came to eliminating targets of a skilled nature he preferred to fight them head-on.

It was how the two of them originally ran across each other. It was how Minato had originally met Akisame under differing circumstances elsewhere. And no matter how dire the battle seemed, the man always had a trump card up his sleeve to if nothing else allow him to get away unscathed for the most part.

"You know, Minato-kun never lost to Akisame," Hayato remembered with a chuckle, "Back when he used to travel to learn the truest forms of Jujitsu, the two of them clashed more than their share of times. He was closer to your age back then. Maybe closer to Shigure's."

'My old man took on Akisame and never lost?' Naruto thought to himself before puffing out his chest with pride, 'I mean, damn right my old man never lost to Akisame!'

"It was sort of reminiscent of how you used to fight Miu," Hayato elaborated, "Even at the start when Akisame outmatched him, he would find a way to escape without losing. To imagine the sheer ability it took for him to develop himself enough to actually start winning during Akisame coming to his own in regards to his mastery…"

A sense of mutual respect developed there, as neither ever really fought to kill the other. First battling during Minato's assignments that drew them across one another, a rivalry formed and eventually they fought each other simply for the sake of challenging themselves. The Philosophical Jujitsu master saw something of a different sort in Minato and befriended him. This was before his time in Ryouzanpaku as a live-in member was official however.

It wasn't too much longer afterwards when Hayato himself began to have run-ins with Minato.

"Around seventeen years ago, things began happening all over the region that seemed to be too precise to be anything orchestrated by Yami, but the targets were people that Yami would have gone after," Hayato said, deeply drinking in his own tea as it helped stir his memory as well as allow the words to flow looser. It was quite the relaxant and brain stimulant, "Assassinations, but the only tell-tale sign that anyone had directly caused the deaths were the slight spiral markings the size of a baseball on the bodies of the deceased."

"Rasengan," Naruto said, looking down at his own hand. He knew how the jutsu worked. No blood. No visible wounds. All it would leave was a spiral-shaped bruise on the point of contact, "That's dad's move?"

That would have been welcome information to have when he'd been learning it. But on the other hand he knew why Jiraiya hadn't told him. More important things had been afoot, and if Naruto had known that Minato had created the Rasengan, he would have dwelled on that and sharply impacted the effectiveness of his training.

"Indeed," Hayato confirmed with a bit of mirth, "Really, a genius move. You wouldn't mind showing me so I could perhaps reverse-engi-?"

"No!" Naruto yelled before realizing who he was yelling at, promptly covering his mouth upon doing so.

"…You can't blame an old man for trying. Anyway, it wasn't long after this that I sought him out to stop these killings from occurring. Eventually I did find him, but he ran immediately… and he was more than fast enough to escape each time. He had a very powerful Sekki and could normally feel me coming literally from a mile away."

Nodding, there were still things that Naruto felt were up in the air. All of this was well and good, but if all of this was the case, wasn't this just more of a reason for them to not like him? They weren't trying to make him an anti-ninja ninja were they? Because while he might not have liked Konoha's system and sought to change it so that they all didn't have to skulk and die in the dark, he wasn't going to turn his back on the lifestyle altogether. Never.

"The smile he constantly had on his face when I did get to see him was something infuriating," Hayato reminisced, left hand tightening in anger even then, "TO THINK THAT SUCH A YOUNG UPSTART WOULD SMILE AT THE THOUGHT OF FACING ME! HE WASN'T NEARLY WIZENED ENOUGH TO ENJOY SUCH A BATTLE! FEAR WAS THE ONLY REASONABLE EMOTION HE SHOULD HAVE FELT!" He quickly calmed down upon seeing Naruto turtled up in a corner, armed to the teeth just in case, "Ahem… but we never actually traded fists personally. As a matter of fact we were never even within arm's reach of one another until about a year and a half after he surfaced."

(Flashback – Eleven Years Prior)

Every so often Hayato found it necessary to take his five-year old granddaughter Miu to the park. It wasn't fair to keep her at home or travelling with him all of the time and not give her some time to act her age, even if it was just a few hours every so often.

Sitting on a bench a short distance away he smiled to himself at the sight of the little blonde girl on the swings, enjoying herself despite the fact that she was probably able to jump just as high as the swing could take her at its absolute apex.

It did his heart good to see her be the child that she was instead of the warrior that he was forced to turn her into. For once it wasn't about the martial arts. Not today.

And she was quickly joined by a youngster with spiky yellow hair, standing on the seat of a swing next to Miu's as he gleefully rocked himself into the air. Well wasn't he a cocky little so-and-so? He didn't seem to be very afraid of hurting himself. There was something about him though…

'That boy…' Hayato thought to himself, closely observing the young boy that had boisterously joined Miu in playing, 'He looks exactly like-.'

"Hello Fuurinji-san. Fancy meeting you here."

Turning to his direct right, Hayato disguised his complete surprise at finding Namikaze Minato sitting a mere foot away from him on the same bench. Despite sitting at least two full heads higher and being at least twice Minato's size, the younger blond man didn't seem shaken in the slightest at being so close. He wasn't even bothering to look at him.

"You have quite some nerve to show yourself to me in broad daylight Namikaze," Hayato said, keeping a civil tone despite the bite in his voice, "Be grateful that these aren't the old times. A ninja such as yourself could have never shown his face at night and then done so in the daytime and gotten away unscathed."

"The ninja arts can't exist in the dark ages forever. It's all about progress," Minato said, watching his miniature clone play with Hayato's granddaughter, "You have a very special child there. You should take good care of her, but I'm sure you knew that already."

"Are you threatening my family?" It was a failed attempt to read through lines that weren't there.

Minato ignored the underlying intent and simply cut his eyes at Hayato for a split-second, "I'm not here to fight and I don't make threats. I'm just here to take my son to the park. If we're enemies that's fine, but I'd like to keep the children out of it. As far as I'm concerned this is neutral ground, as is anywhere else our kids might end up until further notice. Here I'm not a shinobi, and you're not Ryouzanpaku's Elder. I'm a father and you're a grandfather. Anywhere else, and we can feel free to try and take each other's heads off."

That was… reasonable.

Thus it was firmly established that the park was a place of peace between them, and the same went for any time that either Naruto or Miu was present, especially when they both were.

(End Flashback)

XxX

Outside of the door, Miu let out a soft gasp from where she'd been sitting and trying to sneakily listen in with Kenichi, Shigure, Apachai, and Sakaki, "That's how I remember Naruto-kun. I remember that park!"

They only met a few times, once every month or so, but he was normally the only kid that was constantly there to play with. He also refused to accept that she was stronger than him at the time, which led to a lot of lopsided games of king of the hill.

But less than a year later he simply didn't come back anymore. She never even learned his last name, and her training then intensified. She forgot about her little friend at the park as her skills were forced to improve.

"Wait, so you could remember me when you saw me after you only saw me once before, but you couldn't remember him and you actually used to play with him?" Kenichi asked incredulously, getting an embarrassed blush out of the girl, "…But that's wild. Naruto's dad used to be an enemy to Ryouzanpaku. No wonder the Elder kicked his butt so badly whenever he came here."

"Nah, that was the Elder taking it easy on Naruto," Apachai happily pointed out, "Naruto wouldn't have survived a butt-kicking, apa."

Sakaki let out a barking laugh in agreement, "The old man doesn't hold grudges against the families of people that were his enemies. This was before my time here, but I know that much for certain."

Kenichi frowned in thought, not that he had a problem with Naruto hearing of these things about his family, but why now? What was the reasoning for it, "The Elder usually has a reason for everything, but I don't see what the point is now of all times? What happened or changed? Why not later? Why not sooner actually?"

At that moment the powerful fist of Hayato punched through the sliding door to his room, scaring the daylights out of each of the eavesdroppers, "It's quite unbecoming to listen in on the private conversations of others!"

Kenichi quickly found himself as the only one left in front of the door due to the departure of the others, whom he quickly scrambled off after. The last thing he wanted was to face Fuurinji Hayato's wrath… that and upsetting his friend by hearing private information.

…Mostly the second one… of course.

XxX

Sitting back down in his original place, Hayato sighed and shook his head, "Everyone here is so nosy," He mused before shrugging it all away. He'd replace that door later, "Regardless, as time passed I began to realize that my original assumption of your father was wrong."

"Huh?" Naruto let out in confusion, "Wrong how? He wasn't the kind of guy you thought he was or something?"

"In a manner of speaking," Hayato said vaguely, "…His actions weren't sanctioned by Konohagakure. All of the assassinations that occurred after his moving to our town, everything that had at times put him at odds with the Katsujinken side of martial arts, they were for the sake of another party less morally grey than the shinobi side of things."

Trying to sugarcoat it just left him sending the conversation around in circles. Beating around the bush would do no good, thus Hayato decided to simply come out with it.

"Your father's actions were for the sake of defecting to Yami."

Outrage was the first thing to fill Naruto's heart. Sure, he held no more legitimate love for the Homeland, but to be told that his father was basically a traitor to their way of life, it could basically be summed up as fighting words any day of the week.

And all of this happened while he'd been living with the man? Did his mother know? True, Kushina was usually the one Naruto found himself spending time at home with, as Minato did the lion's share of the travelling, but did that mean she was in on it as well?

Even then he could see Kushina's fair face in his mind as clear as day. He could remember how much they cared for each other. Minato wouldn't have kept anything from her. She knew. Naruto knew that she did.

Hayato saw Naruto frown but accept what he was being told. He only took this so easily because he didn't feel that Yami was so wicked or evil, and he still didn't know the whole story yet. The last thing he wanted to do was rile the boy up, but he had to tell him more.

"I don't know when exactly, but Minato effectively became a member of Yami," Hayato recanted from memory, "He never quite seemed to fit with what one would normally expect of their members, but his skill became so great that he was considered one of the finest examples of a fighter there was. He was so powerful, but so young that the sky was still the limit for him."

Naruto figured that by the time Minato had truly become active with Yami, he'd been sent away to the Homeland for his training. Hindsight would have given him some kind of perspective on what he'd seen if his parents had done anything Satsujinken-related that he wouldn't have had at the time if any of it had ever occurred in front of him.

"I went around the world with Miu, while the masters of Ryouzanpaku at the time prepared to deal with the only member of Yami we knew of in town with us," Minato needless to say, "Upon my return it was more like an aura of tense waiting. Waiting for something to occur, for a move to be made."

But nothing happened as they expected.

To this day, Hayato had no idea how he didn't see the truth before it was too late. He himself had his own preconceived notions of the ninja archetype that left him unaware of what was occurring, even with his decades of experience and wisdom.

XxX

"So Naruto's parents were the bad guys?" Kenichi wondered aloud as he and Miu studied for their tests in the common room with the masters. He couldn't focus on schoolwork after learning these things, and it made him think of something else, "Wait… if they're not alive anymore does that mean that-?"

He had to stop his own train of thought. The masters of Ryouzanpaku or any Katsujinken martial artist wouldn't kill anyone, even the worst of the worst.

Having seen where his thought would have ended up, Miu shook her head with a small smile, "I can honestly say that whatever happened had absolutely nothing to do with any of the masters here."

"True enough," An entering Akisame said, entering the room and sitting down on the tatami mat next to Shigure on the floor, "You know, I knew Naruto's father rather well. I would have considered him a friend of mine if our base principles didn't conflict so heavily."

-As in Katsujinken versus whatever Minato was.

Shigure already knew most of this, which was why she didn't react.

"Minato and Kushina's ends…" Akisame said to himself more than anyone else, "…To this day the last conversation I ever had with him remains one of my biggest regrets."

(Flashback – Eight Years Ago)

Minato had to have expected this, coming to Ryouzanpaku of all places in the dead of night.

Standing in the main yard of the dojo he found himself surrounded by all of the masters present, all people that he had clashed with at some point over the last few years.

The current masters of the Ryouzanpaku Dojo; Fuurinji Hayato, Koetsuji Akisame, Midou Kai, and Apachai Hopachai, as well as their expert-class student Ogata Isshinsai. None of them seemed to be giving him any space to make a move, but out of the five of them he knew full well which way he'd go if things really broke down.

"Ogata-kun, you should really wait a little while longer before getting involved in something like this," Minato said in the direction of the youngest of the amassed fighters, "If I actually wanted to break away, I'd be going straight for you as the weak spot," He noticed his attempt at giving advice only seemed to anger the white-haired man unintentionally, "Err, sorry. No offense."

Before he could lose his temper, Ogata was met with a frosty stare from Hayato, prompting the younger man to stay his hand from attacking someone he couldn't quite match blows with yet. Apachai clearly wanted to get himself a piece of Minato as well, and despite being surrounded by four master-level martial artists, there was something odd about Minato.

He seemed detached. As if he were resigned to something already, and anything that occurred there didn't matter.

A fight wasn't the reason that he was there. None of this was Minato's style in the slightest. The path of least resistance and bloodshed was his way, even with his more Satsujinken practices.

The most affable with Minato despite their rivalry of sorts, and the most used to his mannerisms and personality, Akisame noticed this and stepped forward. Minato didn't flinch or ready himself for combat in the slightest, "Namikaze-san… you look awful."

Minato's smile didn't even reach his eyes. It was hollower than anything he'd ever seen from the usually honest and genuine jounin, "I guess I really can't keep it off of my face, can I Akisame-san?"

Something was wrong. Akisame didn't know what, but something was terribly wrong. Nothing about Minato felt right.

"What happ-?"

Akisame's question was cut off by Minato raising his hand. The hurt in his eyes was clearly evident, and it shut him up instantly even though the expression wasn't directed at anything he'd done, "It was one step too far," He said cryptically, "I wasn't going to do that. I couldn't let myself do that, even if it would have secured me as one of the Nine Fists One Shadow."

"What are you talking about?" Ogata calmly asked before any of the masters could, his eyes carefully scrutinizing the blond ninja before him, "You would really tell us anything of Yami's actions?"

"Nothing I ever did was for Yami. Not really," Minato stated with a shake of his head, "It was all for Konoha. My mission was to get as far in with them as I could and try to gain a position to break them from within. But there was never any exit from them. I'm deep cover with no way out, and I can't do it anymore. What Yami wanted from me next… it was too much."

The way he spoke, he sounded like he was going to do something drastic, permanent. Final.

And it didn't sound like it would be to his benefit.

"What are you going to do young one?" Hayato asked, realizing what Akisame had, that something was amiss, "We can help you. Don't do anything foolish."

A content smile formed on Minato's face, as if those words were all he needed to hear to be assured of something comforting, "It's too late for that I'm afraid. This is something I undertook on my own. It was my decision after I learned that they had major plans. There's really nothing the four of you can do."

Ogata's brow twitched almost nonexistently at the thought of not being considered in the same breath as the other masters, even Apachai who was younger than him.

"I do have just one thing to ask though if you're really offering," Minato said with a wide grin on his face before seemingly blinking out of existence. No dust or smoke, nothing to conceal his movements. He was simply there one moment and gone the next, and none of them had even blinked. For once, Hayato couldn't follow his movements for an instance.

Dear God, did he really become that fast? The man truly was a genius of speed.

His final words seemed to carry along the wind right back to them as well.

"Ninjas aren't like Yami. They aren't Satsujinken, but they aren't Katsujinken either. If you ever come across my son, give him the chance to make his own choices, be his own man, so that he never has to put himself or his loved ones in the position I have."

(End Flashback)

XxX

"He was deep cover inside of Yami," Hayato explained for Naruto's benefit after telling him of his last meeting with Minato, "Sent in by Konoha as a traitor to the ninja arts, tired of the way the ninja operated. There was truth to that, but Minato was loyal to Konoha to the bitter end."

But… why? That never explained just what happened? Who killed him? Who in Yami did it?

Taking Hayato's silence as a sign of something else, Naruto's fists shook on the floor, "…Nobody in Yami killed them, did they?"

"I'm afraid not," Hayato said, heaving a great sigh. And here he hadn't been trying to actively turn Naruto on his own way of life, "Your parents were at an impasse. There was something Yami wanted from them that they weren't willing to give to continue with their mission. Had Yami killed them however, there wouldn't have been a single master in the underground world of martial arts that wouldn't have known about it. The fact that no one knows what happened other than Jiraiya and the fact that he hasn't taken an order from them in several years confirms that… they died at the hands of Konohagakure."

And that was as much as he knew. No idea who did it, how many it took, or anything of the sort. Ninjas dealt with ninja problems and kept outsiders at arm's length at best. You were only privy to what they allowed you to know, and only because they needed you to know it in order to do what they wanted you to.

Minato and Kushina more or less gave themselves up and considered dying at the hands of their clan a better alternative than whatever Yami wanted from them to secure their status amongst them.

As far as the bulk of the ninja population went, Minato had been a traitor. That had been entirely by design, so that his subterfuge against Yami could truly work in the first place.

Depending on the nature of his deep cover, you could count the number of people inside of the Konoha organization who would have known that he was working for them on one hand, and you still would have more than likely had three to four fingers left on that hand. That was how deep cover worked; no one could know that you were actually faking it. The culture and sanctity of the Homeland came before everything else.

Everything.

Once again, Naruto was confronted with the fact that as a ninja, when you died you died alone with only a handful of people ever knowing or caring, no matter how hard you worked or what you fought to achieve for Konoha.

Naruto was pissed. If he gnashed his teeth any harder he might have broken them.

He couldn't bring himself to be angry at the ninjas. Everyone had done what had been expected of them with the information they had. That had been the point of deep cover. How were they all supposed to know that Minato hadn't really been a traitor? Chances were, only Jiraiya and one other knew the truth. Jiraiya as Minato's contact and handler for the mission, and the Kage that had allowed the mission in the first place.

His anger rested with the Kage that had given the loyal jounin such a mission, allowed him to take it, and then refused to vouch for him in the end. He knew that doing so would completely wreck the merits of a deep cover mission, but Naruto was admittedly selfish in this case. He wanted to be with his parents.

Still, there had never been a way out. Even if Minato and Kushina had lived to see the end of Yami, lived to see it taken down, they still would have been traitors in the eyes of the clan. They would have never been seen as ninjas of Konoha ever again.

And then it hit the normally sunny blond like a ton of bricks.

Hayato wondered if there was something wrong when he began to see silent tears fall from Naruto's eyes. He wanted to say something to help, but from the small, understanding smile on Naruto's face, it was evident that Naruto didn't need any help or reassurance.

"They were gonna retire," Naruto said quietly, "There wasn't going to be any going back after they were through with Yami, but nobody in Konoha knows where my house is. Their house," If they did, it would have been the first place they sent the genin squad to kill him, "…When they finally got enough for Konoha to take Yami down, they were gonna disappear."

That was how 'retirement' occurred. Yeah, that made sense.

By then, Naruto probably would have been a ninja for a short while. How they would have worked that out was a mystery, but he believed in the planning and intelligence of his parents. They would have made it so that they could have all been together.

It was all a matter of understanding now. Understanding just what it was that threw the wrench in everything. Something had scared Minato to the extent that he bugged out. He and Kushina considered something proposed to them by Yami as unallowable.

"Well, if they chose a mission like that to fight Yami, there had to be a reason for it," Naruto said, standing up from where he'd been sitting and pulling his goggles down over his eyes, "I would've done it anyway for my friends, but at least now…" He trailed off, giving Hayato a grand smile and extended his hand, "Thanks for telling me all of that. Even if you're a scary-intense old man, you're alright sometimes."

Hayato nodded and shook amicably with the young nuke-nin, "Anytime my boy."

That was more difficult than he thought it would be. One of the most unpleasant things he'd had to do in years. Instead of pulling a band-aid, Hayato would have first compared it to pulling teeth.

Still, with Naruto's… Dou issues, he expected things to go far worse. He was proud of Naruto's apparent control. The boy seemed a bit too impulsive to safely digest that news without the calming agent of the tea, but even so he did a good job of keeping his cool.

Upon getting outside alone, Naruto walked through the garden near the post wrapped in ropes that Kenichi often practiced his striking techniques on.

"RAAAAGH!" Walking past it, Naruto let out a guttural yell and smashed his right hand into it with the Rasengan technique. It snapped in half and flew off into the yard, but he didn't spare it a second glance as he jumped over the wall and headed off.

His right hand, sliced to kingdom come by the jagged wood of the broken post, trailed blood behind him the entire way. He didn't notice for hours until long after he'd gotten home.

XxX

(Elsewhere in Japan)

Ogata chuckled to himself as he looked over his disciples after their training. Ryuuto stood tall and smirking as if to ask what was next. Berserker tried his best to look nonchalant and impassive, but his knees were weak and sweat beaded his face long after his session had been completed.

"Waaaa, master is so harsh!" Rimi exclaimed, sitting on her knees from exhaustion, "Why did today have to be so difficult?"

"Well I don't want to see my disciples fail after all," Ogata said, most of his face disguised by his hood, "Jihan was defeated, and while Yami doesn't suffer defeat for the disciples of the Nine Fists One Shadow lightly, I can assure you that being a prince did nothing to save him from Jenazad's wrath."

Rimi raised her hand as if she were in class, "Uh Kensei-sama, I have a question."

"I have an answer," He replied with a grin.

"Well, I was just wondering, if Suparna is supposed to be the Sole Disciple of the top ten masters, why hasn't he gone after Ryouzanpaku's disciple yet?" Rimi cut her eyes to Ryuuto momentarily with a blush on her face, "No offense Ryuuto-sama! It was just a question!"

Ogata noted that despite his silence, Ryuuto was interested in the answer as well. If the point was to prove that Yami was meant to be the future of martial arts, wouldn't they send their heir after Ryouzanpaku's heir just to get it all over with?

It was just odd. They were giving Shirahama Kenichi the chance to get stronger. Strong enough to fight back.

Motioning for the youngsters to follow him, Ogata decided to explain, "It's because Yami isn't convinced that Kanou Shou is the best choice."

"But he's the strongest isn't he?" Rimi asked, her nature allowing her to ask the questions that Berserker wouldn't bother to, or that Ryuuto would merely ponder to himself instead of voice aloud, "He's been getting training for this since he was really young."

"No, he was chosen to train with Hongou Akira since his youth," Ogata specified, "It wasn't decided until shortly after he'd been brought into Yami's possession that he would be the one that would inherit it all as the Sole Disciple. And the reason for the delay was simple. He wasn't the first choice. He's too perfect."

Three sets of footsteps stopped cold as Ryuuto, Berserker, and Rimi all absorbed that touch of information. Shou hadn't been the original Sole Disciple.

"So what happened?" Ryuuto eventually asked, watching Ogata continue to walk forward as if the rest of them had never stopped, "What caused the title to be given to him instead if he wasn't supposed to be the one?"

How to word this? There were so many ways, "There were complications."

"Complications?"

"Yes, let's just leave it at that."

Rimi ran up behind Ogata to continue to try and pry some good information out of him before he retired for the evening, "Oh come on! Rimi wants to know more than that! Kensei-sama, can't you say any more about it?"

"I suppose I can I guess," Ogata said, stopping at a door that led to his quarters, "Fine. The first boy intended to be the Sole Disciple… things had been set up so that it was to be a ninja graduate; the son of a then member. When the man found out however, well things fell apart. The boy is out of our influence now sadly, as a ninja had been the ideal choice for several reasons."

Ryuuto's eyes went wide and upon seeing his master turn to partly meet his gaze he saw the twinkle in Ogata's eye. He had been vague. Expressly vague as if one of them were supposed to catch on to something out of what he'd said.

He would have been more precise if it hadn't been someone that they didn't already know of, and there was one ninja that he and Berserker knew without a doubt. It was impossible though, wasn't it?

"Ryuuto, we've never told Shou that he was the second choice," Ogata said in conclusion, "…Feel free to inform him of that fact if you so wish."

A smirk came to the purple-haired bespectacled teen as he turned to head his own way, "I'll keep that in mind Kensei-sama."

What better way to break someone who was supposed to be perfect than to tell them that they were meant to be beneath a 'dropout'? It was almost too much for him to hold back his mirth to. His reaction, whether upon hearing it or sometime after the fact, would be incredible.

Rimi watched her beloved Odin depart, but curiously wondered what he found to be funny enough that his shoulders shook in silent laughter, "Rimi doesn't get it," She said to herself before looking up and over at Berserker, "How about you?"

The only response the girl got in return was the idle popping of bubblegum.

"Mou…you're so boring."

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Tokyo, Japan – Tsunade's Clinic)

It never stopped. It simply couldn't. Work, work, work.

Naruto, Tenten, and Shikamaru were all good enough to get low-level missions split up between them for the added income it would bring. It was all just good situational training, even if the missions didn't lead to combat. It didn't give Naruto much time to dwell on his parents though, which might have been for the best.

Jiraiya might have intended that from the very beginning.

After overseeing the security of a transport of drugs that could have been turned around for a hefty profit on the street level to a small clinic in Tokyo, Naruto was simply waiting for the call from Jiraiya that the completion pay had gone through so that he could go home.

It helped that he'd been working security for a delivery to a place he'd been before.

Lying out on the roof of Tsunade's clinic probably wasn't the smartest thing Naruto had ever done, but he didn't care. It was pretty comfortable. He didn't see what Shikamaru saw in just staring at the clouds, but he could at least say he'd given it a shot.

It wasn't even as if he were hiding or anything, as it was quite easy for Tsunade's pink-haired teenage apprentice to find him and climb up to get to him.

"So…" Sakura said, sitting down next to where Naruto laid to stare up at the sky, "Thanks for overseeing that shipment," It was just idle conversation she'd chosen to initiate with someone who really looked like he needed a friend, "You've got no idea how many small-time hoods try to put the squeeze on little clinics like this, taking out medicine and things like that."

"Oh. Don't worry about it," Naruto replied in return. It was his job anyway. Kicking around a few hoods wielding chains and bats while the truck had been loading the medical wares had been the most strenuous thing that he'd had to do.

Sakura frowned at the rather dismissive response. She'd expected a more confident retort that would have exclaimed how 'awesome' he was in so many words. From what Jiraiya had told Tsunade and Tsunade had told her, Naruto was normally quite brash, loud, and energetic. That sort of thing would have normally irritated her beyond belief if it was constant, but what she was now getting was such a departure from what she'd expected after their first meeting that it was off-setting.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, noticing his heavily bandaged right hand, "Did you get hurt during the job? Do you need me to look at it?"

Realizing that she was looking at his hand that he couldn't even remember injuring a few days ago, Naruto shook his head, "No, this is kind of old," Three days counted as an old injury to him, and was a testament to how badly he'd sliced up his hand if he was still keeping it covered, "Eh, I'm acting all weird. Sorry. I've just got some stuff going on up here," He declared, poking himself in the head.

"…If you listen to what Jiraiya-san tells Tsunade-shishou about you, there's not much up there to have anything to go on about," Sakura indicated, hiding her mouth slyly with her fist as she attempted to bait Naruto into a stereotypical rebuttal.

It was almost automatic.

"What!? Fuck him, 'ttebayo!" Naruto exclaimed instantly, before covering his mouth at the slip of the tongue, "Err…" Sakura's light laughter let him know that goading him into a boisterous response was what she wanted, "I didn't mean that."

Yes he did, and Sakura knew it. She wasn't one for foolhardy antics or extensive vulgarity, but it was okay just once. He'd have to control himself in the future around her, but just knowing that he was alright enough to be himself was enough, "Just make sure you watch your mouth a bit more in the future."

No, they weren't really friends or anything, not at the moment, but seeing someone like Naruto down in the dumps was like observing a kicked puppy. You had to be heartless to not feel something. His face was simply too emotive to ignore when he was out of sorts.

That, and he represented something that she was rather intrigued by.

"So what's being a ninja like?" Sakura didn't really know a sly way to ease into the conversation much to her embarrassment, but she was naturally curious! Her boss had been one, but absolutely never said anything about it. It was embarrassing that she'd blurted it out so bluntly however, "…If you don't mind me asking I mean."

Sure, Tsunade had forced learning how to defend herself into her body before she would accept her as any sort of employee, but she was no legitimate martial artist. She just knew the basics and a few tricky things she could do in a pinch. 'The life' was a mystery to her.

"Honestly?" Naruto said to the pink-haired girl before breaking out into a slight grin, "It really sucks."

Of all the admissions she'd been anticipating about the 'ninja experience', she hadn't been prepared for that one, "It does?"

"Oh yeah. I don't think I can bring up one good thing that comes with being a ninja by itself."

"What about being tough or strong?"

It took a moment of thought, but Naruto proceeded to give a fairly well-processed answer that almost surprised him, "You can be strong with any other martial art and have to sacrifice way less for it," He could shut his eyes and see eight different examples of it off of the top of his head, "I think that if you ever find someone who's a ninja that's happy, it's not because of them being a ninja."

Because being a ninja wasn't the thing that made him happy. It was the people he'd met and interacted with during the course of his time as a ninja. It was the hardships that he'd overcome while he'd been a ninja that he could look back on and say that he endured.

"Well why do it at all then?"

Jeez. Again with another piercing question. And it was piercing. It was quite a good one actually.

Turning over onto his side to look at Sakura sitting cross-kneed on the edge of the roof, he gave her a fitful look in exchange for her inquisitive one. How did he explain this one? Apparently his discomfort in trying to find a way to answer her was evident enough to get her to drop the subject, as eventually Sakura just shook her head and scoffed before looking off at the sunset.

"Don't worry about it," She eventually said, determining that some revelations would just have to wait for later.

Oh well. Some things he could answer profoundly, and some other things all he could give you was a stupid look. It wasn't more complicated than that at times.

"Sakura!" Tsunade's voice called out from inside, "Is Jiraiya's gofer with you somewhere? I sent Jiraiya the rest of the damn money already, so send him home."

"He's with me Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura shouted back before turning to Naruto, "Well, I guess that's your cue. Until the next time I guess."

Sitting up energetically, Naruto stood and kicked his legs out to get some spring back into them, "Sure thing. Don't be a stranger if you're ever in my neck of the woods. You might think my friends are interesting if you met 'em."

Sakura waved farewell to him as he took off along the low-lying rooftops to try and reach the train station. What a weird boy. A nice guy though. It was a shame that Tsunade didn't seem to like him very much, but then again Tsunade didn't like many people.

This was what Naruto thought about as he left the neighborhood that the clinic sat within. Tsunade was 'retired'. If that meant what he thought it did, it meant that she was excommunicated from Konoha for whatever reason and was in hiding for the sake of her peace of mind.

Asking about the circumstances of her retirement probably would have been in bad taste, and probably would have gotten him put through the floor.

It would come up somewhere down the line though. Naruto's rare sense of better judgment prevailed today, but he knew full well he'd be dumb and bring it up later. Commonplace Uzumaki luck would see to that firestorm being set off sooner rather than later.

At the moment he had to get back to town. There was another mission he had to see to that he'd been informed of earlier in the week, and quite frankly he had mixed feelings about it.

XxX

(One Day Later – Despair Island)

A tournament? An open-style elimination tournament open only to fighters under the age of 20? Of course.

The one scenario that every conventional ninja would despise with every ounce of their being, and tread warily at having to face.

…And Ryouzanpaku had been invited to fight in it.

…Because that was how their luck tended to swing.

"You should really cheer up Naruto, apa!" Apachai exclaimed as he watched Naruto lean over the side of the wooden ship that was Ryouzanpaku property, "Tournaments are fun! Tons of people to beat up! None of them ever last longer than one hit from me, but it's still fun!"

In response, Naruto just banged his head on the railing of the ship repeatedly, 'Doin' it for my friends. Doin' it for my friends.' He repeated to himself in his head as his mantra, finally psyching himself up enough to accept the fact that he'd be fighting on display like a show pony. It actually sounded kind of cool. Enough people didn't see him do cool things on a regular enough basis anyway, "Right! I'm gonna win this tournament, and take enough prize money to buy a cool car or something!"

"Apa!"

"And after summer vacation, when we go back to school everybody'll be like, 'What'd you do during the break Naruto?' And I'll be like, 'I won a tournament and bought this bitchin' car!' Yeah!"

"Big fat tires and everything, apa!"

"And the girls will scream! Because women love fast cars and the studs who drive them!" Ma Kensei added, throwing an arm over Naruto's shoulder as he and Apachai kept playing to the game of swelling up the young ninja's ego for battle, "That's a goal worth fighting for my boy!"

Akisame smiled and shook his head at the sight of Naruto's excitable attitude that was affecting Apachai infectiously, "He's confident," He said to Shigure who was watching him from the top of the shelter of the helm, "Hopefully that kind of attitude spreads to our 'Strongest Disciple'."

"Not too much… of it," Shigure added, her brow subtly twitching at Naruto finding some sort of even ground with the perverted master of Chinese Kenpo. Maybe she could knock some of it out of him before the fights started, because while a confident Naruto was well and good, he had a propensity to never half-ass anything, including his own self-assurance.

With the island intended for the tournament surrounding them on three sides from where they docked, Kenichi couldn't help but stare. Rocky cliffs surrounded the entire island with a fortress of a castle marking the bulk of the useable land. Japan had thousands of islands, hundreds that were inhabitable, so to think that a place like this could exist wasn't that much of a stretch.

It didn't make the fact that they were supposed to go inside any easier to swallow. At least before he'd had a brother in his despair in Naruto. Now Naruto looked he'd be willing to cut the mane off of a sleeping lion, he was so riled up.

"How can he be so psyched up?" Kenichi asked, watching Naruto jump over the side of the ship onto the desolate dock, "He looked miserable a second ago."

Miu shrugged her shoulders as she and Kenichi disembarked from the oceanic vessel as well, although choosing to use the more pedestrian method of the gangplank instead of jumping off. Naruto's shift in demeanor could have been because they were literally standing at the front gates of the enemy and he didn't want to appear weak. Then again, it could have just been because that was the way he was.

Sakaki stepped off of the ship with his usual casual sneer on his face, "Tch, no one to greet us, and this whole place looks like a trap."

There was only one place for any ship to dock, at an inland pocket surrounded on all sides but the ocean exit/entrance by high, fortified cliffs. If the enemy wanted to, they could have concentrated a murderous attack from around and above on them.

Hayato laughed as he strode with the others to the massive front gates that marked the only way in and out of the fortress, "It is a trap, but at the same time it isn't one. Yami wants to prove they're the better of Ryouzanpaku in direct combat. Nothing less than that will do in their bid to prove Satsujinken as the strongest."

"One more time-," Naruto said, staring up at the gate that dwarfed Ryouzanpaku's by far in its size and the fact that due to how it had been built into a cliff wall there was no way to jump it or go around it, "-I don't care about that Satsujinken/Katsujinken-blah. You don't gotta qualify to me why I'm doing this. Shigure asked me to, and that's all that matters."

Standing near the back of the pack of the Ryouzanpaku masters, Shigure hid her smile from the others, as small as it was, "He's a good boy."

It didn't take much for her to get Naruto to go. After the invite to the island was received for the Desperate Fight of Disciples Tournament, instead of allowing the others to try and convince Naruto to go in a roundabout way first, which was what they would have done otherwise, Shigure simply took Naruto aside and asked him directly.

Once again, while this wouldn't have worked if any of the other masters had tried it, it was Shigure who had done so. Therefore, Naruto easily agreed even though Jiraiya threatened to kick his ass after he got home and told him what he'd be spending a week doing.

It did not go over well at first.

Sure, there was a lot of yelling, a few smacks to the head, and a whole lot of 'sucker' remarks being thrown Naruto's way. They were all thoroughly ignored until Naruto's backpack was packed for a trip and he was out of the door. Hours later before he got out of phone service range, Naruto called the house and verbally lambasted Jiraiya with a rather colorful five minute tirade, telling the man about his opinion and where he felt he could stick it.

"Just have a good trip brat. And keep that jutsu I've been teaching you in your back pocket unless you absolutely need it. The less of your moves people have seen, the better it is for you."

Quite the docile response, and not one that had been expected at first.

Though somehow he felt that letting loose verbally on Jiraiya set the man at ease after the rather moody week he'd been having after hearing about his parents. Minato and Kushina wasn't a topic that Jiraiya enjoyed. It was one of the true black spots on his life to have been powerless to assist Minato in a relevant way.

But Jiraiya was well aware that he wasn't the father of the ninja kids, whether he had a stake in their development or not.

"Why is this gate so ominous?" Kenichi asked rhetorically, "It's like the gateway to hell or something."

"Some would call it an omen," Hayato admitted with a stroke of his bearded chin. There was just something innately entertaining about trying to frighten Kenichi. Even after everything he'd seen up to that point, he could still be scared alarmingly easily, "Oh well. We all have to die sometime, eh Ken-chan?"

As if responding to the old legendary master's telltale words, the massive gates swung open to greet the Ryouzanpaku contingent.

Kenichi had to be held back from retreating to the boat by Miu after this menacing occurrence, whether invitation to enter or not it didn't matter. It was still creepy.

Contrary to the outside, on the inside, it was more like heaven instead of the hell that it appeared to be at first. Behind a smaller, more reserved gate of iron bars rested a poolside resort the likes of which only seemed as if it would be open to the rich and powerful, at least judging by the high caliber of women that populated the poolside area.

Kensei's heart nearly stopped several times just by looking from a distance.

Best. Trap. Ever.

XxX

(Later That Night)

There had been an opening night banquet. A fancy party of underworld big-wigs that had come to watch the bloodsport and be entertained, a place for the teams to relax and be introduced to their competition before the tournament started tomorrow.

Apparently the Shade Alliance had thought it prudent to crash the party and interject themselves into the tournament.

It was too much of a headache to even find out how they'd gotten there, so Naruto didn't ask. Sometimes there seemed to be some sort of cosmic force that brought things like this together.

He had kept to the rooms provided for the contestants and hadn't ventured out to the party. They didn't have ramen, so he wasn't going to watch a bunch of the criminal guests of the tournament host walk around and size him up like a cockfighting rooster.

Showing off was fine. It was actually one of Naruto's favorite pastimes when the situation allowed it. Being paraded like a show horse on the other hand set him off. It wasn't the same thing. If people were going to look at him and size him up, it was going to be on his terms, not while he was being appraised like a piece of meat in the abattoir.

So practice was the order of the evening, just to keep himself sharp for the battles of the coming day, even after the party had ended and the contestants had retired to their quarters to rest for the challenges that awaited in the morning.

"You should save some for tomorrow," Kensei said, taking a moment to calm himself from being lavished by the lovely female attendants that had been provided for the Ryouzanpaku party for the duration of their stay, "Come on kid, I'll even lend you one of these lovelies for some company! I've heard them say they think you're cute, right girls?"

The girls all sounded off in agreement… except for one whose right breast was groped in the process, eliciting a surprised yelp from her.

…Naruto was never to let Ma Kensei and Jiraiya within a square mile of the other if he could help it. No woman's modesty in the Pacific Rim would be safe afterwards if he did. He had no idea what stroke of divine fortune had prevented this from happening yet, probably that same cosmic force that seemed to drive most of the other odd things that happened around him. God had to have been a woman, and she had to know just what kind of catastrophe would occur if they ever did.

Two super-perverts at the pinnacle of human physical development with plenty of free time and a shared interest between them. Yep, it was definitely divine intervention of some sort keeping them apart… for now.

"I've got plenty," Naruto replied, holding the ram seal in the meditative posture that Jiraiya taught him, seated on a board on the edge of the balcony railing. His sense of balance had been taken to all new levels due to the sadistic old man, as he couldn't think of any scenario where he couldn't land on his feet or maneuver his body through the air, "Don't worry about me."

The night was so calm, looking out at the rest of the island from his room was relaxing despite the fact that it was the stronghold of an illegal arms dealer.

The Phoenix Alliance head sighed in resignation and comforted himself by snuggling his head against the breasts of another maid, "You're a weird kid. I've never quite gotten a handle on you. Children should be simple for adults to understand, don't you know that?"

Kensei liked Naruto. Really he did.

His interactions with him years past had always been amusing for the few moments they'd lasted, and after he'd trained at the dojo he'd been accepted by the other masters despite being purely Shigure's student. Also, from what he'd gleaned from Ryou, his daughter Renka was rather taken with him, and he couldn't help but think she had made quite the interesting choice to be fascinated with.

Naruto snickered and grinned in the moonlight, "Maybe you guys just hit me so hard that I can't keep a baseline vibe? It might be your fault."

"Nonsense. It's your fault for not knowing whose dojo you were trying to invade," Kensei said with a mustached smirk, "Fortunately you've grown wiser in the meantime."

Had he? Sometimes Naruto wondered. Certainly, he was smarter about certain things, but at others he couldn't seem to get a grip or a sense of understanding. Was it him? Was his perspective skewed? To be honest, he had been looking at 'his' culture of the ninja world from the outside. He'd been an outsider for several years by this point, and his outlook was askew. It had to have been.

Halfway in and halfway out. Not on one side, nor the other.

What did being a ninja really mean to him? It was more than just a promise he'd made as a child to his deceased parents. It had to be. He was one for keeping all of his promises, but there must have been something else driving him forward.

With a scoff, Naruto hopped off of the railing and grabbed his balance board as he headed inside. Thinking so hard wasn't his style, not while he was sitting still and doing nothing. His thoughts only seemed to flow when his adrenaline was pumping and there was danger afoot.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there would be plenty of that tomorrow.

XxX

(Elsewhere on Despair Island)

The mission was to observe Uzumaki Naruto and determine the appropriate time to strike. The same as the first squad of Konoha genin that had been sent after the misplaced nuke-nin, only the people currently undertaking the assignment had no longstanding issue with him. There was no hatred against him.

Contrarily, they didn't stand with him in training on the Homeland. They hadn't been acquainted with him. He wasn't their contemporary.

He meant… nothing to them. Nothing other than the fact that he was the target, and he would die. He needed to die. It had been deemed as such by their handler. It was as simple as that, and for ninjas such as them, it was all they needed to know.

A victim, a target. And that was that.

Danzo of the Kage Council had given them direct orders as their sole handler and trainer; assess the situation, and act accordingly.

They had been told to follow their mark wherever they could, to ensure their victory without a shadow of a doubt this time, no chance of escape or survival. When Naruto was on his own he was extremely difficult to track. Deceptively so.

In his hometown there was almost no way to keep track of him long enough to find a good area for an attack. He effortlessly slipped his way through the shadows and back into the light simply out of habit, to throw others off of his travel patterns. In public places he never allowed his back to be facing anywhere that a potential threat could emanate from.

When he wasn't alone in a place where they could actually find him, and he wasn't at Ryouzanpaku (which was avoided for obvious reasons), Naruto always had someone around him capable of easily supporting him in battle. Always. In numbers. At least two. He probably didn't even know that he did it, but he kept good company at all times, even if most of his comrades weren't ninjas. He simply hated being alone.

Whether this was due to his paranoia, or simply because he liked people was up for debate. Either way, the catastrophe that had occurred with Team Neji would never happen again if he could help it. Say what you will about Naruto being a 'dropout', but he learned his lessons well. He usually had to survive them first though.

Despair Island was the best opening that they would have, and they knew it.

It was such an awful place to get into, but their security was flawed. Their exterior was so strong with its fortress setup and powerful gun-laden ramparts that there were never really any intruders that got inside. Their interior guards were lax.

With all of the visiting martial artists coming in for the tournament, it was beneath a high-level chunin's abilities to infiltrate. A team of high-level genin such as them could do it. All they had to do was sneak in. From there, moving around the premises was easier to do than getting inside to begin with.

But this tournament was interesting.

Not because of the martial arts. They cared nothing for that, as none of those people were their targets, thus they did not matter.

No, the tournament was interesting because of the opportunity it presented.

"I think-," Sai said to himself as he looked over his team of six uniformed young genin in plain white porcelain masks, "-Danzo-sama would agree that a tournament with no tricks or ways out would be the ideal time to exterminate the rogue ninja Uzumaki Naruto."

It was a tournament, so he couldn't run. He couldn't hide. He couldn't avoid a conflict. His master-level allies couldn't interfere. No one could, because it was 'against the rules'. The odds could be so deliciously turned in their favor to end his life, it was exactly how Danzo had trained them.

All they had to do was get into the competition somehow. Afterwards, with some simple planning, they would coerce the boy into a situation that he could not escape.

Because this time the attempt on his life wasn't driven by a personal vendetta the way it was with Hyuuga Neji. It was strictly professional. It was why they existed, why they had been isolated from the other ninja children, why they had been driven past the point of recognizing pain, right, wrong, or any sort of ties or bonds other than the sacred one they had to their Homeland.

While the other ninjas were meant to be the modern blend of what was needed for Ninjutsu to survive in the current day and age, they were meant to be the purest form of Danzo's shinobi ideal.

Nothing was off-limits as long as it drew them toward their objective, "Let's procure our entry into this tournament."

If ignorant blood was required to be shed in order to get into position to strike, so be it.

---

Alright you guys, you read it. Take it all in. I've dropped some heavy stuff that will be very relevant soon, and we've got the obligatory tournament arc coming up with some shadow-handed dealings brewing. I've not got much else to say this time around so I'll just leave you with a plug.

I promised my podcast peeps that I'd shill the show again, so I'm shilling it again.

Fandom Flux Podcast.

If you've got some free time to give listening to some free audio, head on overand listen to some insane people talk about all sorts of fandoms under the sun. The podcast is only nine (going on ten) episodes as of now, but it can be a pretty absurd listen in some ways. All sorts of fandoms are talked about, so the scope of conversations can and will get pretty wide.

We're also idiots, so that should lend to some entertainment for you if nothing else if you decide to check it out.

I can't post the link here for obvious reasons, but it's at the top of username Casey W's page, and I may link to it as well if I stop being lazy.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. I have to be off to work now because doing this doesn't pay, so I'll catch you around.

Kenchi out.