35 Enemy Contact

Author's Notes: Hey guys. Sorry for the wait on this one. But like I said last time, I messed up my overall plan for this story and had to figure out how I wanted the rest to go. Let me explain what I came up with. Sasuke is staying in the village now but there will still be a fight against the sound four in this chapter and the next one. Everything dealing with the Akatsuki will remain the same as canon. Other than that though things well be deviating from the path now. Also, each member of Team 7 will at some point have a summons as well as Hinata. Anyway, hope you guys like what comes next.

Naruto, Heza, and Matto were leaving the hospital after their talk with Sasuke and Sakura. As they left, Naruto turned to his teammates and said "Hey guys, my godfather showed me a really cool new jutsu. Want to see it in action?"

Heza and Matto glanced at each other before turning back to Naruto and nod. Naruto grinned and made a follow me motion with his hand before taking off to the rooftops and heading to their training grounds. Matto and Heza jumped after him wondering what type of jutsu their blond teammate would show them.

As soon as they reached their training ground, Naruto led his teammates to an area that had a small grouping of boulders ranging from four feet to twenty feet tall before turning to his teammates.

"You guys might want to step back a little."

As Matto and Heza took a couple of steps back, Naruto rose his right palm and said "Check this out."

Right as he said this, chakra begin spinning around in his palm for a second before condensing into a perfect sphere which gave off a soft whirring hum sound. Matto and Heza's eyes widened as they watched while Naruto smiled at their reactions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Rasengan. This little baby here was invented by the Fourth and packs one hell of a punch. It's made by spinning your chakra and containing it in a sphere. It can either grind over a short time or release everything all at once. Observe."

Naruto then turned and walked up to the closest four foot boulder where he proceeded to grind out a hole in it. Matto and Heza's eyes widened as they watched the Rasengan drill a hole straight through the boulder in ten seconds. Naruto then went to the next boulder which was much larger and shoved the attack into the boulder. Unlike last time, the attack took relatively next to no time at all as cracks instantly formed in the boulder leading away from the sphere before the giant rock exploded into hundreds of spinning pieces.

By now his two teammates were bug eyed as they saw the total destruction the technique caused. Naruto turned around and grinned before saying "If you guys think that's cool, wait till I show you what I came up with for it."

The two looked at him as he took a position a few steps ahead of them before turning back to the next closest boulder that was about nine feet away. Forming another Rasengan in his hand, he drew back his elbow with before thrusting his entire arm out. (Think of a force push from Star Wars) The sphere shot out of Naruto's hand attached to a chakra thread and smashed into the boulder before completely demolishing it.

By now the two brunettes were slightly slack jawed as Naruto turned back around and said "Come on, we need more distance for this next one."

The two looked at him and immediately started backing away. When they were twenty feet away, Naruto formed another Rasengan. Only this time it was in his left hand and half as big as the others. Naruto added another chakra string to it before attaching the other end to another small Rasengan that he created right next to the first. Grabbing the string in his right hand, he began twirling the blue boa before launching it at the boulders.

The attack spun like a boa humming like a buzz saw as it sliced straight through the boulders before ending in a massive explosion that shook the ground once it was thirty feet away from the teens and lost focus. Matto and Heza's jaws dropped to the floor as pebbles no bigger than their finger tips started raining down into a giant crater that was the only thing remaining of the center group of boulders. Boulders that were outside of the blast zone had cracks and scorch marks covering the sides facing the explosion.

Turning to his audience, Naruto chuckled at their expressions before saying "As you can see, I took the original attack and modified it for use to remove the main disadvantage of using it. As you saw before, you could only use the attack when your opponent was in arm's reach. I made two modified versions to solve this problem. I like to call the first modified attack the Rasenlance, named due to the fact that it works much like a lance. I attach a chakra string to the rasengan which allows me to contain it at a distance up to ten feet. This prevents an enemy from getting out of the regular Rasengan's range if they are aware of what it does. I call my next modification the Rasenboa and like the name suggests, I make a boa out of two smaller rasengans and a chakra string before throwing one like a real boa to reach those who are outside of the original Rasengan and Rasenlance's range. This attack requires you to launch it as fast as possible due to its larger area of effect. This is because without a means of keeping the two stable, the attack loses stability quickly and self destructs. The attack is effective at a range up to thirty feet where it explodes after cutting through whatever was in its flight path. So, what do you guys think?"

Matto and Heza stared at him before they shook their heads and Matto grinned before saying "That was AWESOME! Think you can teach me how to do that?"

Naruto chuckled and said "We'll see."

Time Skip: One Month Later Scene: Border of Land of Fire and Land of Tea

The original members of Team 7 minus Kakashi were currently camped in a small clearing currently on border patrol. Or rather Naruto's shadow clones were. The original and his two teammates were currently using the free time Naruto's clones gave them to work on different projects.

It had been an interesting month for Team 7 after Naruto returned. As promised, Tsunade began teaching Naruto basic medical jutsu when they could meet and was impressed with how quickly he picked it up. It wasn't too hard for Naruto since he had long ago read the theory for Medical Jutsu during his "information raids" of the libraries with shadow clones and simply needed someone to show him how it was actually done since the books were pure theory and their methods weren't always the best way to do things.

Matto had been pleasantly surprised when once Kakashi was out of the hospital told him that his ability to manipulate his lightning element was finally strong enough that Kakashi could teach him the Chidori and other high level lightning jutsu. He spent most of his time with Sasuke working on them.

Heza had also managed to finish learning how to manipulate her earth element and spent most of the month on her own information raids looking for earth jutsu that she could add to her arsenal. She would work with Sakura learning the jutsu she found with the two occasionally going to Naruto for help who happily gave them a hand when he wasn't on missions outside of the village.

Naruto himself found him doing a couple of missions solo. One was a minor bandit raid that Naruto made quick work of with a squad of shadow clones backing him up while the other was a quick mission to the Sand village to escort Temari who was assigned as a liaison of the two villages.

It had been an interesting moment when they reached the main gates to find Shikamaru on guard duty for the day. Naruto had laughed for a good minute and a half when she chewed Shikamaru out when he called the two troublesome blondes during their conversation.

Naruto also made sure to spend as much time as he could with Hinata. The two were both busy during the month but were able to have a few dates where Naruto took her to a restaurant or the two just hanged out with each other on the Hokage's Monument while Naruto played one of his instruments for her.

Two days ago, Sarutobi had recommended the three original members of Team 7 for border patrol when it was time for the next week long shift since Naruto's clones would come in handy by covering more ground for longer periods. They also had the benefit of being able to instantly alert the team by mental link to the original if they ever spotted anyone.

Tsunade had agreed with him and had tasked them with watching the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Tea where the fox tracking squads sent by Tsumiaya had found the base where most of the Sound forces from the invasion had originated. Sarutobi had ordered investigation teams to it and other bases found and plans were being made to go after them in the near future.

Naruto didn't have any problem with the mission and Matto and Heza saw it as a chance of uninterrupted practice on the jutsu they were still having problems with.

So it was no surprise to Naruto when as soon as their camp was made and the two hundred clones left to their positions after henging into the local wildlife that they started working on them.

Matto was currently trying to finish the Chidori while Heza was trying to finish the Rasengan after Naruto had taught her how to use it the day after his little exhibition. Naruto himself was reading a fairly large scroll that was part of a seven piece set on different field medical jutsu that Tsunade had given him in a sealing scroll to read while he wasn't patrolling.

When Naruto had seen how large the scrolls he shook his head muttering about harsh slave drivers while Matto and Heza just laughed.

It was the second day of their week long mission and as Naruto was really getting into his reading he heard the sound of chirping birds. Looking up, he saw Matto clutching his wrist with sweat pouring down his brow as he tried to keep the jutsu active for more than ten seconds. Heza watched while she took a break from trying the third stage of the Rasengan which like Naruto, was giving her the most trouble.

Matto had the gist of the jutsu but couldn't seem to hold it very long while Heza had been able to do the first two stages in a week each but still couldn't contain the jutsu for more than fifteen seconds and was slow to create the attack taking five seconds next to Naruto's one.

Matto was able to hold the attack for about fifteen seconds before he let it drop and began panting. Naruto frowned since it shouldn't have been that hard for Matto to hold the jutsu with his increased chakra reserves.

Putting down his scroll, he walked over to where his friend was and said "Need some help?"

Matto nodded and said "If you can. I don't get it. I'm able to do other high level lightning jutsu multiple times, but for the life of me I can't get this one to stay stable for more than a few seconds."

Naruto cocked his head in thought before he made three hand signs. To Matto and Heza's surprise, his hand coated itself in lightning and the sound of birds chirping filled the air.

Matto's jaw dropped as he said "Since when could you do the Chidori?"

Naruto looked up from studying his hand and said "Kakashi-sensei taught me about a month into our training. But I'm only supposed to use it as a substitute for my wind palms technique if I'm ever fighting a fire user who can do a similar technique since my wind is overall stronger than lightning and easier for me to use."

Matto got an "oh" look on his face as Naruto went back to looking at his lightning coated hand in thought for a moment before letting the jutsu fade. Looking back up again he said "Can you run through the sequence again? I want to see how much chakra you're putting in and where."

Matto nodded and went through the hand signs again while Naruto paid close attention to sensing how much chakra was used and where it all went. Naruto's eyes narrowed in thought as the chirping began again for a few seconds before Matto dropped the jutsu after only a few seconds and began panting again.

'Hmm, the Ox and Hare signs focus and shapes the lightning nature while the Monkey sign acts as a pointer to tell the chakra where to focus at. I wonder…'

Naruto cocked his head while he was thinking before he said "Try doing it again only this time add more chakra to the Ox sign. Hold the jutsu as long as you can then try again doing the same with the Hare sign."

Matto nodded and tried again. Adding more chakra to the Ox sign gave the same results but doing the same with the Hare sign allowed Matto to hold the technique for a full half minute before Matto was forced to release the technique or risk chakra exhaustion.

As he dropped the technique, Naruto nodded to himself before saying "There's your problem. The Hare sign is the main focus point for the Chidori. Normally it takes just as much chakra as the other two signs but for some reason you need to add more to that one to get it work. Just remember to add more for that one and you should be fine.."

Matto nodded and said "Thanks, I'll have to ask Kakashi if he can figure out why that is."

Naruto nodded and went back to his scroll while Heza decided to give the Rasengan another shot.

Two days later, Heza finally was able to get the Rasengan down to the point where she could now hold it for a full minute and her creation speed was down to two seconds. Naruto had told her to keep working on it until she could do it in one like him and hold it for two minutes straight but that for now she could truthfully claim she knew it. (Note that there is a difference between knowing a technique and mastering it.)

Matto had finally been able to hold his Chidori stable for a minute and had happily taken out a few trees with it for the first time.

Naruto was currently almost done reading his third scroll and was about to start on the fourth when he one of his clones sent out a widespread message showing all of the other clones and the original four blurs heading across the border.

Seeing Naruto's head jerk up, his two teammates grew concerned and Heza asked "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto sealed up his scroll and said "One of my clones just sent me a memory message. We've got company coming over the border. Four ninjas moving at high speed towards the village." Naruto frowned as another clone was able to get a good look and dispelled itself to give the rest the best possible visual ids before continuing "It looks like the same four that had raised the barrier when me and the old man fought Orochimaru."

Matto and Heza looked worried as Heza asked "What should we do?"

Naruto cocked his head and sent an inquiry to the clones in front of the group's path. Smirking as he received a reply, he said "Stop them. They have curse seals on them but are only Chunnin level without them. And we should be able to take them with the Rasengan and Chidori if they do use them. I'm sending a clone to the village just in case. They'll be level with our position in fifteen minutes. Pack up, we leave in five."

Matto and Heza nodded as they went about the camp putting out the fire and dropping the tents before sealing everything inside sealing scrolls. Naruto in the mean time created a clone with enough of his father's chakra to reach the Hokage's tower quickly by tree jumping at a good clip and leading a team back to them before sending it off. Right after that, he sent a message to the rest of the clones telling them to head towards the village and to set up chakra traps halfway through in case the original and his team had trouble.

Fifteen minutes later, the four Sound ninja were jumping through the trees towards the village. They kept their senses peeled for any patrols and were starting to wonder why they hadn't sensed any yet. The one with six arms kept looking around.

Finally the female of the group couldn't take it anymore and said "Well you knock the fuck off! Your driving me bat shit crazy!"

The fat member of their group said "Now Tayuya,, that's not a very lady like thing to say."

Before the redhead could retort to that, the six armed one said "Well you guys knock it off! Just because we haven't run into a patrol yet doesn't mean there isn't one out there. There is no way their security is this lax."

As if to punctuate his statement, an arrow with an explosion tag suddenly shot in front of them into a tree. All four sound nins' eyes widened as the tag went off right as they passed it.

With Team 7, Naruto was looking through the forest before turning to Heza who had a bow out and said "Nice shot Heza." Turning to Matto after she nodded he said "You ready for this?"

Matto nodded and ran through a quick series of hand signs before saying "Lightning Style: Lightning Arrow Jutsu!" Right after he finished his technique, a bow made out of lightning appeared in his hands with a quiver of fifteen lightning arrows appeared on his back.

Naruto nodded as well before creating five clones as well and the six blondes did the same.

All eight archers then drew an arrow and drew it back before simultaneously launching them.

Back with the four sound nin, Tayuya was shaking her head as she said "Where the fuck did that come from?"

Before they could say anything, more regular arrows mixed in with even more lightning arrows suddenly shot right at them causing all four of them to curse as they did their best to try to avoid the onslaught of arrows that were now being shot in a wide spread pattern with the lightning arrows mostly going through the trees to flush them out while the regular arrows went straight towards them.

As soon as Matto and Naruto ran out of arrows, they dropped the jutsu and with Heza who had sealed her bow charged the sound nin at high speed hoping to get them fast.

The sound nin with two heads spotted them coming in and shouted out "Nine O'clock!" right before Naruto's wind coated fist slammed into and through his head before it threw the body away. Matto slammed his own fist covered in lightning into the six armed nin's throat while Heza attacked the female team member with an earth hardened fist of her own into the redhead's ribcage.

As those three members flew away, Naruto turned ready to take out the last member but he jumped down towards the ground. Landing, he looked up at the Leaf nin with narrowed eyes.

But before anyone could say anything, three different groups of kunai launched themselves at Team 7 who scattered to avoid them. The three sound nin who they thought they had already dealt with appeared looking like nothing happened but were obviously pissed off.

Team 7's eyes widened as Matto said "No way, those guys don't have a scratch on them. I know that two headed guy got his head shredded by Naruto though so what's going on?"

Said two headed man smirked and said "You brats will have to do a lot better than that if you want to defeat the members of Orochimaru's body guard, the Sound Four!"

Matto and Heza's eyes widened as Naruto sent a mental command to the clones that were still where the three had originally been. His response was a roaring sound as he grabbed Matto and Heza and headed to the forest floor before five huge fireballs roared through the trees and hit the area the three were standing.

But before they could see if that had finished the job, the final member of the Sound Four ran through a quick sequence of hand signs before slamming his palms on the ground with a cry of "Earth Style: Earth Barrier-Clay Prison Jutsu!"

A ring of rocks popped up around the three and before they could react formed a dome surrounding them. Inside the dome, Matto groaned and said "Of all the stupid earth barrier jutsu he could use, why did it have to be this one?"

Heza nodded obviously agreeing with him and Naruto couldn't blame the two. They had ran into it when a C-rank missing Rock nin had been among some bandits during their second bandit raid and used it against them. Fortunately for them Kakashi had dealt with the nin before he could drain them completely dry.

Kakashi wasn't there now but that suited Naruto just fine. He had an idea how to get his team out and he would bet a lot of money on it working.

Before he could start his plan, the three leaf nin heard their captor talking to the other three.

Matto cocked his head as he listened and said "Well I guess that tells us whether or not your clones got them."

Naruto nodded even as said clones took position to ambush the fatso if the original's plan didn't work.

Outside, the Sound Four were talking to themselves.

"You guys go ahead and deal with the rest of the group and then keep going. I'll drain them dry and then catch up with you guys later." The fat one said.

"Very well Jirobo, just don't take too long." The two headed man replied.

Jirobo nodded while the others spread out trying to find the clones who dropped their presences as low as possible before henging into the wild life to avoid them before they gave up and left.

As soon as Naruto received confirmation of the rest of the group leaving their captor from his clones, he got his teammates attention and begin battle signing his plan to them.

As soon as the two nodded and got into position, Naruto walked over to where he thought their captor was. He decided to be safe and double check before he got things started.

"Hey Fatso! Let us out of here right now! This is your one and only chance!"

Jirobo scoffed from his position of maintaining the dome and said "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do from in there huh? Your chakra is mine!"

Naruto grinned and began drawing on his father's chakra before saying "Didn't your mother ever teach you anything? You play with fire, you're going to get burned!"

Right after he said that, Naruto slammed his palms into the wall and poured the red chakra into it sending it straight to its source.

Outside, Jirobo suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his arms which quickly turned into pain as his arms began to blacken from the poisonous chakra. His eyes widened as he jumped back to look at his arms which released the technique.

But before he could shout out a question, he heard the sound of chirping birds and a humming sound. As he looked up, he saw two spheres of chakra hit his lungs and a hand coated in lightning pierce his chest.

Matto pulled out his hand from Jirobo's heart as Naruto and Heza dropped their Rasengans as Jirobo sunk to the ground deader than a door nail.

Naruto looked down at the corpse before turning to the clones who jumped down next to them and said "Locate the others but don't engage till we catch up."

The clones saluted before taking off while Naruto sealed the body for the guys back at the village to study. Turning to his teammates he said "Let's hunt some Sound."

The two nodded before taking off after the clones towards the village.