dopliss: Guess what, guys: VACATION TIME! From today to next Monday, I can stay at home and relax while playing games! And I´ll also be able to upload more than two chapters a week!
Disclaimer: I only own this story and the original characters.
The moon shined its radiant light down upon Konoha and the trees around it. Sitting in the nearby forest in a meditative stance, Torabu held out both of his hands to the side so that the palms were facing upwards. He calmly and silently breathed as he concentrated his chakra.
Sitting nearby on a tree stump, Fukigen had his eyes locked on to the boy. "Have you gathered enough chakra, boy?" he asked.
"Yes…" the troublemaking ninja answered. "Now what?"
"The secret of using the Subzero Sphere is to gather as much cold in your hands as possible, then mold that air into balls of pure ice."
"And how do I do that?" the cat-boy asked without breaking his stance.
"The air is mixed with two temperatures: hot and cold. Using the cold air alone along with your chakra can cause it to get cold enough to reach subzero temperatures. Let´s say, for example, that the weather is twenty degrees hot. Even then, there´s still a fragment of cold air which you can use."
The boy nodded. "So, you´re saying that I can use the technique even if I was in a volcano?" he asked.
"Indeed," the Bakeneko answered. "Any other questions?"
"What would happen if I was to use the hot air instead of the cold?"
The cat smirked slightly. "Your roommate has already shown you, by using you as the target."
"Wait…" He looked at the feline sensei. "You´re saying that the Volcano Blast and the Subzero Sphere are the same?" he asked.
"Same, yes, but still complete opposites." He stomped with his staff on the ground. "Now, show me your progress."
Torabu nodded and closed his eyes, concentrating on the cold air around him. Slowly, two balls of ice were forming in his hands. After a minute of concentrating, the boy opened his eyes and stared at the spheres. "Wow, cool!" he exclaimed in awe.
I´m surprised that he could make two of them on his first try outside of his berserk state, Fukigen thought, showing no hint of surprise. But then again, it could be because of-
The cat´s thoughts were interrupted as his left ear twisted, picking up a sound. "We´re not alone, boy," he whispered loudly, causing the troublemaking ninja to look at the feline.
"I´ll chase ´em off with these two!" Torabu said, preparing the spheres to be thrown.
"Only on my command," the cat said, giving his student a sharp look.
Out from the bushes surrounding them, the last participator from the sound village walked out of hiding. "So, you managed to hear me, huh?" he asked slowly.
"Would be ironic if a sound ninja was silent," the cat-boy growled.
"Why are you here?" Fukigen asked, his voice dripping with acid.
Dosu looked directly at Torabu. "You and that sand rat are keeping me from getting to Sasuke," he said ominously. "Once I´ve gotten rid of you and him, I would be his first opponent." He then held out his right arm, preparing to attack.
"You think you can stop me with that sound crap?" the cat-boy asked, narrowing his eyes. He then held up both of the spheres. "See these two? One of them alone would be able to turn you into an ice sculpture. Wanna see for yourself?"
Dosu glared at the two in front of him. "If they are like the fireball you spat at us in the Forest of Death, you know what the result will be."
"Yeah, but that was your little loudmouthed friend that took care of it," Torabu said, smirking widely. "And last time I saw him, his arms looked like Swiss cheese."
"I suggest that you leave now and go practice to your upcoming match," the Bakeneko said ominously. "Resist, and you will receive pain so severe, you will wish we killed you."
Just as that was said, Dosu saw for one second a powerful chakra emitting from the cat. What was that? That chakra… it was almost demonic… he thought, slightly alarmed. I can easily beat the cat-boy by myself, but that cat… something´s hidden inside of him… something monstrous. If I fight the two of them at once… He then let his right arm fall to his side, turned around, and leaped away.
"Let´s hope he´s gonna stay outta trouble for the remainder of the month," Fukigen whispered, and then turned to the cat-boy. "Now, aren´t you gonna throw them at a tree or something?"
"Huh? Oh, right!" the troublemaking ninja said and faced two trees. He then flung the two spheres at the trees, and they froze instantly upon contact. "Awesome!" he cheered.
"Keep it down!" the feline sensei hissed, throwing his stick at Torabu, hitting him in the head. "Do you want to wake the whole town?"
Rubbing his head and lowly grumbling insults, the cat-boy glared at his sensei. "So, what now?" he asked once he had calmed down.
"Practice that technique for three hours, then we´ll sleep," the cat said, turning around. "I´ll go get some blankets for you." And then he was off, leaving his student alone in the forest.
Down on the black streets of Konoha, Kabuto and the jonin of the Sand Siblings looked up at the rooftop of a temple-like building known as Kikyo Castle, where Gaara was up on. The redhead panted heavily, having just unleashed a severely strong power from his body.
"Amazing," Kabuto said. "So, that´s Gaara´s true form, is it?"
Unknown to the two, Hayate was eavesdropping behind a nearby wall, a sword on his back. "Are you sure that the sound ninjas should´ve been used as guinea pigs to test the power of Sasuke?" the jonin asked.
What is going on here? Hayate asked in thought, aware that Kabuto is a spy.
"That´s true… or it was," Kabuto answered. "They´re not necessary anymore. See, the thing is, I was ordered to see Sasuke when he was in the hospital, but I… well, I failed in that mission."
The jonin looked at the spy. "Wait, what?" he asked in surprise.
"That´s right," Kabuto simply nodded. "Yes, that´s right, they´ve discovered that I´m an agent of the sound village."
"Wait a minute. If they know who you are and the people find out that you´re having a secret meeting with me, then the plan to destroy Konoha will be completely ruined. I thought you were Orochimaru´s right-hand man, but after being revealed to them, you just nonchalantly come here and meet with me? You´re a fool."
Chuckling, Kabuto stated, "Well, to be exact, they didn´t really discover what my true identity was on their own. I let them find out." He looked at the jonin and held out his hand. "Yes, I wanted to see just how far Konoha will go when they discovered the truth. And even after they did, I knew it wouldn´t be too late to see Sasuke."
The jonin looked his associate and said, "It´s a plan that was originally posed by the sound village, so if you guys are gonna fail, we´ll have to back off immediately." He narrowed his visible eye. "The sand won´t make a move until the last moment. This is the will of the Kazekage."
Shocked at what he heard, Hayate thought, This can´t be!
"Very well," Kabuto said and pulled out a small scroll from his pocket. "This is the plan that you´re to carry out." The jonin took the scroll. "And remember, make sure you tell them about this plan as soon as possible."
"Yes… I know…" the jonin said.
"Alright…" Kabuto turned away from his associate. "…then I´ll be going."
To think, our ally, the sand village, has a secret pact with the sound village, Hayate thought. I must tell Lord Hokage!
"One more thing," Kabuto said. "I´ll take care of our little spy."
Hayate winced upon hearing that he had been discovered. "Wait, I will handle this," the jonin interjected. "As a gesture of faith in our allegiance, the least we sand ninja can do is lend a helping hand. Besides, it´s just one little spy – it´ll be easy."
Hayate quickly leapt to the rooftops, the jonin following close behind him. After having leaped from roof to roof, Hayate was intercepted. The sand jonin tried to punch the proctor, but he back-flipped and made some distance between the two.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" the sand jonin asked. "If it isn´t the exam proctor. What in the world do you think you´re doing, coming here all alone?"
Hayate coughed a little before saying, "Seems I have no choice but to fight." He slowly pulled his sword out of its sheet with his left hand while making a hand-seal with his right. "Leaf Style: Crescent Moon Dance!" he shouted and ran towards his opponent.
Once he was five steps away from reaching him, Hayate split up into several clones and disappeared along with them. Confused, the sand jonin looked around. He then found his opponent up in the sky, falling towards him, preparing to strike with the sword. Hayate swung his sword and struck his opponent in the shoulder. Even though a little blood splattered out, the sword could not cut any more through the sand jonin.
"Impressive," the Sand Siblings´ sensei smirked. "Leaf Style: Crescent Moon Dance, and being able to master it at such a young age… As I expected, your village is full of talented ninjas." He took hold of the blade with his left hand. "Your talent with a sword is superb. Of course, stopping a physical sword is easy." His smirk turned malicious. "However, a Wind Sword is another story. No one can stop it!"
The jonin made a hand-seal with his right hand, and as a strong gust of wind surrounded it, Hayate stared in horror.
Next morning, outside of the village, three young women were bathing together in a small spring, dressed in their bikinis, giggling as they splashed water at each other. Nearby, hidden in some bushes, Jiraiya was peeping perversely at the women, grinning widely and chuckling silently.
"Oh, wow!" he silently exclaimed.
Glaring impatiently at the Toad Sage, Naruto crossed his arms and growled, "Knock it off!"
"We´re truly in paradise, Naruto!" the old man giggled.
"You are so creepy!"
Jiraiya´s giggling became more and more perversely and mad as he looked on. When Naruto had had enough with the man, he changed into his Sexy-Jutsu form, walked up behind the old pervert, and covered his eyes with her hands.
"Mr. Jiraiya, shouldn´t you pay attention to me now?" she asked innocently and sweetly. She then whispered into his ear, "I´m just desperate for someone to train me, and you´re the only one who can do it, super-hunky sensei. Pretty please, Master Jiraiya?"
"So you finally came out of hiding, huh?" the old man asked with a blush on his cheeks. "I´ve been waiting for you!" He then turned around to look at Naruto, but unfortunately for him, the boy had leaped away from him and turned back into his normal form before he saw him. "No fair…" Jiraiya said depressingly. "Hey, are you just making fun of me, Naruto?"
"Listen, there´s nothing 'fun' about this situation," the boy stoically stated.
Just then, the women left the spring to return to Konoha in search for something to eat, much to the Toad Sage´s disappointment. "Damn, now they´re leaving…" he groaned. "Alright, Naruto, I guess I´ll teach you the technique now."
"Well, it´s about time – and you better not be kidding around here!" Naruto sighed.
The two sat down near the spring, and then Jiraiya asked, "Okay, do you remember what we talked about yesterday? You know, that stuff about the two types of chakra?"
"We talked yesterday?" Naruto asked sardonically, remembering all of the trouble he had to go through in order to make the man train him.
"Very funny. Remember how you said you had two different chakras, one red and one blue?"
"Yeah, what about them?" the boy asked.
"You said that when you exerted enormous strength, you felt red chakra."
"I don´t know how else to describe it."
"Alright," the Toad Sage nodded, "try building up that red chakra right now."
"Right now?" Naruto asked. "Well, okay, if you say so." He then made a hand-seal and charged chakra, but it was the blue chakra that surrounded him. he stopped charging and said, "It´s the same chakra as always."
"Aw man, you really have absolute zero talent, don´t you, kid?" Jiraiya groaned.
"Hey, don´t go acting like you´re so great!" Naruto yelled. "Besides, I can´t help it! I mean, I don't even understand those two types of chakra myself, alright?"
"Just keep trying," Jiraiya said in a strangely ominous tone. Naruto tried again with no further complaints. Hmm… so he doesn´t understand it, huh? Naruto probably still hasn´t realized that the red chakra is really the Kyubi´s chakra. Judging by his story, it seems that the excitement caused by danger and also strong emotion are the keys to summoning its chakra.
"It´s just no good," Naruto sighed, giving up. "I´m only getting the usual everyday chakra here." He then got an idea and turned to face his trainer. "Hey, hold on a second. Maybe I don´t even need to summon the red chakra? I mean, what in the world does it have to do with that technique you´re gonna teach me, anyway?"
The old man stood up and pointed at Naruto while saying, "Listen, boy, for the technique I´m going to teach you, the chakra you´ve used up till now is nowhere near powerful enough." He poked the boy in the forehead, causing him to almost lose his balance. "If you wanna use this technique, you have to be able to pull out all the stocks and tap into the other chakra that´s been dormant within you, summoning it up on a moment´s notice."
Recovering his balance, Naruto asked, "Yeah, that´s really cool and all, but how do you even know that I really have that chakra inside of me?"
"Ho-ho! That´s just what I wanted to hear!" Jiraiya smiled. "Actually, it´s because… I am a SAGE!"
"Talk about getting an answer without getting an answer…" Naruto groaned at the man´s silliness.
"Anyway, the special chakra that only you have will become you greatest weapon, I am sure of it."
Naruto looked curiously at the old man. "Greatest weapon? Really?" he asked.
"Yes!" the Toad Sage said and pulled in the boy´s cheeks. "Not using that is like wasting treasure! Look, there´s no need to blindly follow the same training regiment as everyone else, right?" He then let go of him. "Everyone have various strengths and weaknesses, you have your own style. Your training until now has involved maintaining and releasing a set amount of chakra. In other words, it was training you to control the flow of chakra so that you wouldn´t use it all up at once and get exhausted. You have a lot of stamina; you should use your power instead of doing cheap tricks." He sat down again. "You have two types of chakra and don´t exhaust easily, so you should learn to release the largest amount of chakra you can and train yourself so you can increase the total amount of chakra you can use. Once you do that, a whole world of Jutsu will open up to you."
"Seriously…?" Naruto asked, rubbing his sore cheeks. "Like what could I do?"
Jiraiya stood up. "Well, for example, the Summoning Jutsu that I´m going to teach you," he said while looking around. When he saw a small frog sitting on a stone in the spring, he said, "Ah yes, that one´s perfect."
"Summoning?" the boy asked.
"That´s right," the old man said. "It is a teleportation technique in which you sign a contract in blood with all kinds of living creatures and then summon them whenever you like with Ninjutsu."
"That sounds awesome!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "Teach me right now! C´mon, let´s get going, already!"
"Relax," Jiraiya said. "Before we begin, you´ll have to use up all your usual chakra so just your red chakra remains."
"ALRIIIIIIIIGHT! Naruto roared as he leaped back from the man. He then made a hand-seal and created four clones of himself.
"So, you already know the Shadow Clone Jutsu," the Toad Sage smirked.
"Yeah, and I have a good idea of how I can remove my normal chakra really quickly!" the real Naruto said. He and his clones then created an entire army of clones.
"Well, look at that," the old man said. "And I thought that just one of you was trouble enough."
The real Naruto then ran up so that he was in front of his clones, turned around, and shouted, "Listen up! All of us are gonna have a great, big battle royale! The last one left standing will be the strongest me! We´re going to determine the me among me, get it?" The clones all shouted in agreement.
"Ah, now I see…" Jiraiya muttered. "That´s a pretty clever idea, considering he´s so dumb."
Hours later, the original Naruto stood victorious on the small battlefield, panting heavily and slightly bruised. "Nicely done!" Jiraiya congratulated, getting a 'thumbs up' in return.
"Sure enough…" Naruto panted. "Just like I thought, I´m the strongest me…" He then fell onto his back in complete exhaustion.
"It seems like, at long last, you´ve finally used up all of your usual chakra," the old man said as he walked up to Naruto. "Now I can teach you the technique!"
"Yeah!" the boy cheered as he sat up. "I´ve been waiting for this all day!"
"Alright, first I´m gonna show you how it´s done." Jiraiya then bit a hole in his right thumb, smeared the blood onto his left palm, and with a great roar of "Summoning Jutsu!" he pressed his left palm into the ground, creating a big puff of smoke and causing the orange toad from earlier to appear out of nowhere!
"Whoa, that is totally awesome!" Naruto marveled. "That may be the coolest thing ever!"
The frog had a big scroll in its mouth, and it used its tongue to give it to the boy. "Go ahead, open that scroll and take a look inside," the Toad Sage said calmly. "It´s a contract with the Summoning Toads that´s been handed down from earlier generations of ninjas. Just sign your name in your own blood and stamp the fingerprints of one hand in blood beneath your signature. Find a place where you want to summon the creature, then build up chakra and press down the hand you used on the contract."
Naruto opened the scroll and saw several columns with names written on them. He saw a vacant column, bit a hole in his right thumb, drew his name in blood, and then touched the other fingers on his right hand with his thumb in order to stamp the fingerprints. "Okay, I´m all done," he said. "What next?"
"After burning off your regular chakra, it should be easier to release the red chakra now, so give it a try."
Naruto stood up, faced a vacant spot on the ground, did the instructed hand-seals, and then pressed his hand into the ground. A small puff of smoke appeared, and once it cleared, there was…
…a pathetically small tadpole. Even the frog that Jiraiya had summoned croaked in an unimpressed manner. This kid has no talent whatsoever! Jiraiya thought in disappointment.
Back at where Hayate and the sand jonin had fought, a few ANBU agents along with a bunch of circling crows looked at the remains of Hayate Gekko. The proctor was severed from the left shoulder to the right hip, and his blood was splattered all around him!
A female ANBU agent with long purple hair picked up the deceased man´s sword and looked sorrowfully down at him. "Hayate…! What in the world happened to you?" she asked, sobs audible behind her mask.
Now that a murder has taken place, what will Konoha do? Will Naruto be able to master the Summoning Jutsu? What did Kabuto mean when he said 'Gaara´s true form'? And will anyone even be able to defeat the redhead?
dopliss: Now that we´ve seen two members of Team 6 in action, the third and final member will get his time in the limelight next chapter. But don´t expect it to be a very bright light.