Chapter 28

Naruto woke up in his bed, his arms, feet and knees bandaged tightly. He felt familiar chakra leftover tingling in the wounds and knew his mother had healed them. Slowly, raised his hands so that they were in front of his face and stared at the white wrappings.

Someone must have found me after I fell asleep or passed out, whichever it was. Probably Dad . . . the Fourth, or the ANBU.

He resisted the urge to rip the bandages off his skin and destroy more stuff.

No, I need my hands. I have to have them healthy to destroy the box and set everything right again.

He let his hands fall back to the bed, ignoring the small sparks of pain that shot up them at the contact.

I never thought I'd regret all the bonds I'd made back home, he thought ruefully, forcing himself to slowly sit up.

I was so happy to have friends, to have people that I loved and who loved me in return. Never thought it would come back to bite me in the ass so bad.

Naruto stood, wincing as his knees and feet protested the movement. Looking back, his temper tantrum last night wasn't that good of an idea.

No kidding. Again, he wanted to go break things, mostly himself, but fought it down.Think like a shinobi now.

This is an A-ranked mission. My friends' lives depend on finding that object and destroying it.

To destroy it, I need to use my Areah Broah in the same way as my chakra. I'll need Mom--damn, uh, Meara, to teach me that.

He limped into the bathroom. If she's going to do that, she needs to trust me. I think I can pass off last night as a reaction to Ino's death, and my sudden interest in training as the need to get stronger because of that.

As he brushed his teeth, Naruto considered his options for finding the device. I need time when I can escape and perform the spells on my own. When am I going to get that? Dad will be watching pretty closely after last night's performance, and I'll have guards in case any rogue ANBU lived through the battle.

As Naruto made his way back to the bedroom to get dressed, he smacked himself at his stupidity. "Shadow clones, duh!" I'll create a shadow clone to do the training and I'll go off somewhere and do the spells. As long as the thing doesn't poof away, no one will really know.

Slowly, he pulled off his pajamas and slipped into some comfortable ninja clothes. "Might as well start with the performance," he muttered, tying his hair back. "I've always been a good actor."

I have? What the hell? Naruto shook it off as one of those random thoughts and walked downstairs. "Hellooooo?" he called. "Anybody up right now?"

Meara peeked her head out of the kitchen. "Hey, you're up! How are you feeling?"

"Like I got beat up by a forest," he answered.

She came over and stroked her hand through his hair. He tried not to lean into her touch too much. No, that's bad. I'll be leaving her, bad. Naruto closed his eyes and thought again of his friends, trying to steel himself for the inevitable heartbreak.

"You'll be okay," she whispered, leaning down and pressing her lips to his forehead.

No, I won't. "Yeah, eventually," he agreed, forcing down the lump in his throat. I've got to change everything quick, or I'll lose my nerve. "So, I was wondering, when would you be willing to train me with my spirit energy?"

Meara frowned as she began to spoon eggs onto a plate for him. "I don't know. Are you sure you want to work yourself? You were pretty upset last night."

"I know, but I want to get stronger, so I can protect all of my other friends," Naruto enthused. "Please!"

"Alright," she sighed, placing the plate of food in front of him. "We'll start later tomorrow with some basic training, then we can move on, okay?"

Naruto nodded excitedly and shoveled food into his mouth. This is one thing I'll miss. She can cook.

"Uh, do you want to know about the funeral?" Meara asked softly.

Naruto froze with his food half-way up to his mouth. "No," he decided. "Not now. Right now, I don't want to think about it. Any of it. At all. I just want to do something."

Meara nodded, understanding. "Obito figured your team might feel that way. You're meeting at training field three, if you want to go find them," she told him. "But don't do anything to reinjure your hands or feet."

When he was done with his second helping, Meara did another quick healing session on his limbs to make sure no infections were developing, then sent him off to find his team.

The teen walked slowly to the training grounds where, apparently, Ryo, Kiba and Akamaru, and Obito were waiting for him. "I hope we're not doing anything too strenuous today," he muttered, inspecting his bruised hands.

He sighed and again kicked himself for hurting his hands last night. "I suppose I could still do spells and stuff for tracking," he murmured. "But I can't move my fingers fast enough for any decent jutsus."

Naruto eventually made it to training ground five, every pebble and rock hurting his feet through the sandals. Ryo and Kiba were sparring fiercely, Kiba losing. Naruto determined that Akamaru was angry at Kiba for something, because although it looked like he was fighting with Kiba, he was actually just dancing around the edges and barking at inappropriate times to distract Kiba. Wonder what happened. Kiba and Akamaru never fight.

The blonde wandered up to Obito. "Hey. Want me to join?"

Obito shook his head. "No, you'll be working on your elemental chakra today."

"My elemental chakra?" Naruto wondered. What does that have to do with anything?

"Your dad asked me to start you out," Obito explained, rummaging through his pockets for something. "It has something to do with your kekkai genkai, apparently. It also will allow your hands to heal from the beating you gave them yesterday."

"Ah," Naruto muttered. "So how do we figure out what my elemental chakra is?" By putting chakra into this card made from some old trees.

Obito grinned and whipped out little cards. "These are pieces of bark from some of the oldest trees in Konoha, the ones created by the first Hokage himself! Just channel some chakra into it and whatever it does will tell us what your elemental chakra is." He thrust the special bits at Naruto.

"Tell us?" Naruto questioned, taking the square doubtfully. "Will it spell out one of the elements on the bark or something?"

"No! Of course not," Obito laughed. "Just stick some chakra in and I'll show you, okay?"

Naruto sighed, pretending to still be confused. "Whatever. I don't know what this would have to do with anything."

Obito twitched in annoyance. "You'll see, just channel some of your chakra into it."

Naruto sighed, but did as he was told. The paper glowed blue for a minute, then sliced neatly up the middle. He feigned surprise. "What does that mean?"

"It means your chakra is wind-based," Obito explained, taking the bark back and looking it over. "Interesting. I wouldn't have expected that."

"Why?" Naruto asked. Because it's rare, right? I know, Kakashi told me.

"Well, for one thing, wind element is quite rare, you don't see it too often," Obito said, scratching his chin. "And I guess it's pretty ironic, too."

"Why?" Naruto asked again.

Obito grinned again. "I guess I should explain to you how the elemental chakras work, huh? For starters, there are five elements that chakra is based on: fire, wind, lightning, earth and water. Each of these elements suppresses and is suppressed in turn by another element."

"Huh?" Naruto wondered, staring at the older man in mock confusion. "How does that work?"

"Think of it this way," Obito ordered. "Fire burns wind. Wind cuts lightning. Lightning breaks earth. Earth dilutes water. Water extinguishes fire. See how it all works? Each element is greater to another in some respect, but at the same time, is less than a different one."

"Hmmm," Naruto mused on that. Well, I knew about the suppressing thing, but not in the specific way it worked. That's interesting. "But that doesn't explain why my wind chakra is ironic."

Obito laughed. "Your father's strongest element is lightning," he chuckled. "Figure it out."

Naruto frowned as he considered Obito's words. My dad's natural element is lightning, huh? "Okay, but even though lightning is in a way inferior to wind, it doesn't mean I'm stronger than him or anything," Naruto argued.

"Of course not," Obito agreed. "But it does mean that you will be stronger than him in some areas."

"Whatever," Naruto snapped. Inside, he was contemplating. Well, Kakashi did say that someday I could surpass the Fourth. I already have, I combined my wind element with the Rasengan. Even though it's incomplete.

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts when Obito thrust a shiny green leaf in front of his face. "Huh?" he asked stupidly. Aw, man. The leaf exercise again. I kept passing out when Kakashi made me do it.

"You need to use your chakra to cut it in half," Obito explained.

Sighing, the teen reached up and plucked the vegetation out of his teacher's hand. But I did this already. An idea popped into Naruto's head. "Hey, Obito," he called.

"Yeah?"

"What are the chances of me making a cut in this leaf in one day?" Naruto asked, the evil plan forming.

Obito laughed. "You have two chances of cutting that leaf in one day," he stated. "Slim and fat."

"I bet I will," Naruto challenged.

"Oh, really? You wanna make that a real bet?" Obito asked, grinning at the blond.

Naruto grinned back. "Sure, why not?"

"Alright, if you haven't made a decent cut in that leaf by the end of today, you have to write all my mission reports for the next month," he stated, smiling at the thought of a month without reports.

"Okay," Naruto agreed. "But if there is, you buy me all I can eat at Ichiraku's tonight."

"Deal."

They shook on it, Obito being careful of Naruto's injured hand. The jounin turned to keep an eye on the other two, as Naruto slowly sat down and put the leaf between his palms.

Split my chakra into two and grind the edges together. Naruto followed Asuma's instructions and ground his chakra together until the borders were fine and sharp. Then he began to grind it even harder, getting the cutting edge even sharper. He slowly sliced it one inch into the leaf, stopping just short of the big vein running up the center of it.

Naruto stopped and inspected the leaf. To the naked eye, it looked like the leaf was untouched, but Naruto twisted it to reveal the incredibly fine cut through it. He grinned.

I am sooooo getting ramen tonight!

Until evening, Naruto continued the training, working on making the cuts smaller and thinner. At one point, he was able to make multiple chakra blades and slice it, but they weren't as fine as the single blade cuts. Nonetheless, by the time he stopped, the edges of the leaf were shredded, but so delicately that unless you looked close or moved them, the leaf looked whole.

Naruto noticed Obito calling an end to Kiba and Akamaru's training. Show time.He quickly made a big, sloppy, obvious cut, about half an inch into the leaf to show Obito.

"Well?" Obito asked, folding his arms.

"I hope you brought your wallet," Naruto replied, showing him the split leaf.

The man's dark eyes nearly bugged out. "What?! You-you actually made a cut in the leaf? That size? In one day?"

Naruto nodded proudly. "Yup. To Ichiraku's!"

Obito hung his head. "Damn. There goes my paycheck."

1----------------------------1

That night, Naruto sprawled out on his bed, notes, scrolls and books spread out around him. The reading material was all from GG, in the bag of stuff Naruto had had to lug all the way back to Konoha with him.

"Okay," he muttered, scribbling things down. Even though he didn't have Kyuubi's healing powers, his mother had been healing him periodically since he got home. In a day or so, I'll be able to do jutsus. Until then, I had better stick with spells.

"Until I can leave Konoha and protect myself," he said, looking over all of his notes. "I need big, basic spells to tell me the general area where the stupid thing is."

He scanned through the scrolls of spells GG had sent him. "This one could work," he decided. "But I need a map."

Naruto leaned against the wall. "Where would I find a map of the world? . . . Duh! Dad's office. He shouldhave a map of the world here, right?"

He scrambled to his feet and hurried up the stairs. Just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard Obito's voice from inside.

What's Obito doing here? Probably telling Dad about our bet. I hope he mentions how he lost it! Naruto snickered and leaned in, trying to hear.

"Are you sure?" His father's voice, cool and almost angry.

"Of course I'm sure. He left in on the Ichiraku counter after we ate. I wanted to feel it for myself, so I picked it up."

"And noticed this."

"Yeah. I have never seen anything like it. Unless someone's been teaching him on his own, there is no possible way that a novice could have this much skill."

" . . . Did you ever teach him the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

"Shadow clone? No, that's way too advanced for him."

"He knows it."

"What?"

"And when I asked him about it, he said that you had taught him."

"Me? No way. I suck at that jutsu myself, how would I teach it to Naruto? And why?"

"I don't know. I just don't know. This puts things into a whole new light."

"I don't understand, sensei. What are you talking about?"

"Just . . . a bunch of small things I've noticed. On their own, they're nothing, but if you add to the fact that he's much stronger than we thought and that he's been lying about it . . ."

"What are you thinking, sensei?"

"I don't know, Obito. I wish I knew, but I don't."

Naruto lowered his fist and turned around. Shoot. They suspect something. I have to be more careful. With a sigh, he turned and went back to his room.

Chapter 34

Naruto was halfway back to his room when the door behind him opened and Obito emerged. He cringed, knowing there was no way to hide the fact that he'd been listening at the door.

"Naruto?"

Damn. The teen turned slowly and grinned at Obito. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

He just barely caught a flash of movement as Obito stuck something green in his pocket. What was that? It must have been whatever gave them a clue.

Green, green?

The leaf!

Dammit, the leaf I shredded during training. I was showing it off and left it on Ichiraku's counter.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" Obito asked. "You had some pretty hard training today, you should be resting."

Naruto ignored the hints and shrugged. "I was just wondering if my dad had a map I could use."

Obito frowned in confusion. "What would you need a map for?"

"Just a project I'm working on," he explained. Well, it's not exactly a lie.

Before the stilted conversation could continue, Minato stuck his head out the door. "What's this about a map?"

"Naruto needs one for a project he's working on," Obito said, his voice saying more than his words.

Minato frowned and stepped fully into the hallway. "Really? What kind of project?"

Damn. He would have to ask, wouldn't he? Of course, just as they start to suspect something, I bring up that I need a map. What for? Oh, nothing, just to destroy the world and more or less kill you.

Do I really have to?

"Nothing, it's not important," Naruto lied, wishing to get away from the piercing blue eyes. "I'm just tired, I'll go to bed."

With that, he turned and made for his room again, but Minato's voice interrupted him. "Naruto, I've got a quick question before you go to bed."

"Yeah?" Naruto spun again. "What is it?"

"Before we left, you made some, ah, corrections to some paperwork of mine," Minato said, an almost smile playing across his lips. "Do you remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Naruto chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "What about it?"

Minato held up a certain piece of paper that Naruto recognized as the kindergarten mission he'd reassigned. He fought down a smirk. I hope Neji enjoyed that assignment.

"Well, you reassigned the mission from 'Hinata Hyuuga' to 'Neji Hyuuga,'" Minato said.

"Uh-huh. What about it?"

Minato stared at him. "Well, the only problem was that there is no record of a Neji Hyuuga."

"What?" No record. What the hell does that mean?

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, I checked all birth records, civilian and shinobi. 'Neji Hyuuga' was never born," he finished.

Naruto stared at his father. Neji was never born? First Gaara, then Neji? What? Outside, he kept his composure, coming up with a semi-believable lie almost immediately. "Oh, sorry. I got the wrong name, I guess. I just thought it would be funny to see a stuck-up Hyuuga babysitting kids. Sorry about that."

With that, Naruto all but fled into his room. He threw himself down on his bed and buried his face in his arms.

I don't want to do this. This sucks. Why do I have to give up my family? Why?

Naruto snapped his head up as a knock came at his door. "Who is it?"

"'smee," Raidon's small voice came through the wood.

"Come on in," Naruto gave in. The boy opened the door and slipped in. With a sigh, Naruto allowed him to clamber into bed with him. "What's wrong?"

"I had a nightmare and Daddy's not happy," he whimpered. "He's really angry about something. He keeps muttering about impostors and you. What's going on?"

Naruto sighed. "Do you trust me?"

Raidon nodded against Naruto's arm.

"Then don't worry. Everything will be okay," he whispered, the lie burning his throat. "Just go to sleep."

"'kay," Raidon agreed. Within minutes, his breathing and heartbeat evened out and Naruto knew his was asleep.

The teen closed his eyes. Do I have to?

Maybe I don't. maybe I made the list wrong, maybe there's somebody I missed that can change things.

Maybe . . .

Carefully, so as not to disturb Raidon, Naruto poofed a clone into existence. The clone scrambled over and began to re-make a list on the desk.

Naruto ignored the clone and let himself hope and relax.

Maybe . . .

After a few minutes, the clone came back over and shoved the paper in front of Naruto's face. There were quite a few modifications. Naruto interpreted the arrows and lists.

So, in this world, Temari and Ino are dead, in the other world, Dad and Obito are.

I don't really know about Mom and Tama, so I don't know how to factor it in but the same goes for Kyuubi of this world.

In this world, Neji and Gaara don't exist, but in the old world, Kenji and Raidon never existed.

So, in the old world, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka, Kankuro, Tsunade, Jiraya, Gai, Lee, and Shikamaru.

In the old world, who's better?

Me.

That's it. I'm really the only one better in this world, when everyone is factored in.

Naruto's arm unconsciously tightened around Raidon.

But,

But .

----------------------------------------------

"Okay, what's wrong?"

Naruto pulled his head out of the clouds and looked at his mother. "Huh?"

Meara put her spatula down. "You didn't ask for thirds. Something's wrong."

Naruto shifted, feeling his father's eyes boring into him. Everything I do now will seem suspicious. Great. "Oh, it's nothing," he lied. "I'm just not hungry this morning."

"Uh-huh."

The teen put on his Innocent Face. "But really!"

"Yeah . . ." Meara put another plate in front of him. "If you want me to train you, eat more. I'm not an easy instructor."

"Yes ma'am!" Naruto began to cheerfully shovel food into his mouth, purposely avoiding looking at his father.

I wish I could tell you, he thought, half-wishing his father was telepathic. I wish you could help me.

After breakfast, Naruto followed his mother out to the training grounds.

"Okay, Grandpa taught you how to access your AreahBroah" Meara began. "Now, it's my job to teach you how to use it."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I know a little bit of how to control it," he added. "He had me do a tree-walking-like exercise."

Meara acknowledged that and thought for a little while. "Well, I suppose the best way would be to have you start doing basic jutsus and spells with AreahBroah The biggest problem would be keeping you from using your chakra."

She thought for a little while, brow knit in concentration. Naruto took a deep breath and watched her. So, this is where I get my obliviousness from. After about a minute, she snapped her fingers. "Okay, you wait here and start molding your spirit energy."

Naruto watched as she turned and ran back to the house, a rather perplexed expression on his face. "Oookay. Whatever."

Just a few minutes later, she came back out, Minato in tow. Naruto stopped his concentration and watched as his mother dragged her husband forward.

"Uh . . ." Minato raised his eyebrow.

"I need you to seal his chakra," Meara explained. "So that he can only use spirit energy during his training."

Naruto blinked. "Why can't you do it, Mom?"

"You're father's much better at seals," she explained. "Now, go on, seal away."

Minato sighed and looked at Naruto. He could practically see the thoughts running through his head. He's thinking if he can seal my chakra, if I'm a threat, I'll be neutralized, at a huge disadvantage. Naruto smiled brightly. "So, how do we do this?"

"Lift up your shirt," Minato commanded. "It's easiest to seal it that way."

Naruto almost hesitated, an instinctive concealment of the Shiki Fujinkicking in, but in the end, he pulled up his shirt and allowed his father access to his stomach. Minato's eyes seemed to sharpen as he started to go through the handsigns.

Before Naruto could really blink or protest, Minato pressed his glowing hand into his son's stomach. Naruto gasped and his legs gave way as all of his chakra was sucked into a tiny little box and locked away. He remembered Orochimaru in the Forest of Death and almost had a panic attack before his mother's voice pulled him out of it.

"Naruto? You okay?"

The blond raised his head and nodded. "Yeah, that's just a really weird feeling. I'll be okay." He pulled himself to his feet and brushed off his now-dusty pants.

"Is that all?" Minato asked.

Meara nodded and pecked him on the lips. "Yeah. Are you gonna drown in paperwork?"

"Only if you'll give me mouth-to-mouth," he answered with a grin. Meara laughed in response and gave him a shove back to the house.

"Okay, kiddo," she said, ignoring the way Minato wiggled his butt at her as he walked. "We'll start with some basic molding techniques."

Naruto made a face. "Like water or tree walking."

Meara chuckled. "Well, sorta. But slightly more interesting. Follow me."

She took off leaping through the trees. Naruto took a deep breath and followed her, keeping pace with the flow of blonde hair. "You know, the last time I heard that, I got my butt zapped for hours."

She laughed again and landed by the lake. "I'm going to teach you the most basic spell of the Churaeah."

Naruto frowned. "But I need to learn—"

"I know," she interrupted. "But this will help you mold your spirit energy better. You'll need to do that expertly before you can use it in jutsus. Okay?"

"Uh, how long will it take me to do all of this?" Naruto wondered, hoping that it wouldn't take too long. He was on something of a schedule.

Meara shrugged. "Depends on how hard you work," she answered.

Naruto grinned. "Well then. Let's get started!"

------------------------------------------------

"Had enough yet?"

"Shut . . ." Naruto coughed up some water. " . . . up."

He crawled onto the surface of the water and spit out some water, gasping desperately for breath. His clothes were covered in mud and sticking to him, his hair was dripping with he didn't want to know what, and he had swallowed more lake water than he'd ever believed possible. He shoved the hair out of his face and glared up at his mother.

"I . . . hate . . ." He gasped desperately for breath and pulled some algae out of his ear. "You."

Meara laughed again. She was warm and dry, arms folded and lips curled up in a smirk. Naruto watched her feet carefully, just before she did the spell, she always shifted her left foot slightly.

There! Just as her foot switched, Naruto threw himself backwards, sliding along the water, feet glowing green slightly. He drew on his spirit energy and shouted the words for the counterspell. "Ieraarjorauhuarayearau!"

He finished a split second after his mother. The whirlpool that her spell had begun to form started to dissolve with Naruto's shout. Meara's green eyes flashed. "Oh, no you don't."

She brought her hands up, palm to palm, and poured more energy into her spell. Her green irises glowed and expanded into the rest of her eyes until both of her eyes were completely green. The whirlpool grew in strength and swirled faster, destroying Naruto's spell.

"Dammit!"

He tried to reform it, but Meara's whirlpool was too strong and Naruto was sucked under before he could finish it.

Damn! I was so close that time, too! Naruto pushed spirit energy into his lungs, doing a basic underwater-breathing exercise. She strengthened it at the last minute.

Naruto was floating under water, not bothering to come up. She said that we could go home when I got her under the water.

She never said I had to wait for her to make her move.

Naruto swam under his mother, concealing his spirit energy carefully. With the last air in his lungs, he shouted out the words to the spell, watching the air bubbles float out of his mouth. The whirlpool started to swirl around her feet. Naruto smirked as her saw her surprised expression. She tried to run from the center of the vortex.

Oh, no you don't! Naruto sped through some handsigns. Monkey, bird, bird, cow, dog! Water Style: Water Wall Jutsu!

A huge wall of water sprung up where Meara was trying to run. Even Naruto's eyes popped out at it's size.

Holy crap! That's a lot bigger than when I usually do it!

Unable to run, Meara was caught in the whirlpool Naruto had created. He saw her shout some swear words before she was sucked under the surface of the water. Grinning, Naruto let the spell dissipate and swam up to the surface, pulling himself up onto it, breathing in the air.

A split second later, Meara broke the surface of the water and dragged herself onto it. Naruto grinned at her. "Well, can we go home now?"

"Did you do that jutsu with your spirit energy?" Meara asked, her eyes wide.

Naruto nodded. "I guess so. I just did it on my own."

Meara grinned at him. "Is it always that strong?"

"Nope." Naruto shook his head.

"Good work! Let's go get supper now." Naruto smiled at his mother. They walked back as the sun began to set.

Tomorrow, I can start working on the Spirit energy Rasengan.

The smile faded from his face.