After watching the 2013 Tarzan movie, it got me thinking of this possibility, hopefully someone will adopt this idea since I can see this happening.
The Maelstrom Of The Jungle
Chapter 1
Pilot
Unknown Continent
This continent was a strange and mysterious place, while the ninjas of the Elemental Nation knew not to enter the place because of the disappearances, there was one ninja that needed to enter the jungle of this large island that's big enough to be called a continent itself, while the ninja was scared, he knew that the best way to get his mission completed was close in hand.
Right now, he was standing over a waterfall, in his hand was a wrapped up package, and he was getting ready to drop it, "Sorry kid, but I was paid good money to end your life, but since I don't like killing children this is the next best thing, so good luck out there."
With his words spoken, the man released the bundle, dropping it over the waterfall, with his mission complete the man made his escape from the cursed jungle, never to be seen again.
What he doesn't know was another set of eyes was watching him from the coverage of the jungle, just below the waterfall, moving from the coverage after the man vanished, the eyes belonged to a female gorilla, this gorilla made it's way towards the water and what it saw would shock any creature.
Laying on the edge of the riverbank was a very young blond haired child, somehow still alive after being thrown from the waterfall.
The gorilla, having just lost her mate and baby, did something that any mother would do for a lost child, she took the boy with her to raise him herself.
As it turns out, due to the fall the blond ended up with amnesia, having no clue who he was or where he came from, so having no where to go, he stayed with his new family.
9 Years Later
It was now 9 years since the gorilla took the blond in, where the now 13 year old learned the ways of the jungle, how to find food in places, like the grub he just ate, as well as finding fruits for his friends, his hair long and shaggy with curtains sometimes hiding his eyes, where due to his upbringing he was now lean and muscular, just past his neck, built for speed and strength, learning from the monkeys that swing through the trees on vines and the trees themselves.
Not only that but his reflexes are so highly tuned that he could catch a snake just before it's fangs can pierce his skin, but he also learned compassion, to never strike at anything out of anger since all animals in the jungle only wish to find their next meal and survive.
But now it would seem that something new was in the jungle, where the teen was now hearing voices of an animal he's never heard before, so deciding to investigate, not knowing that due to his life in the jungle his chakra has become apart of nature itself, almost like a camouflage to hide him from others.
But before his eyes was a strange sight, a few tents were around a clearing, with five strange creatures hanging around the clearing, though one of them caught the wild blond's eye, where he hears the voice of one of them, "Sakura! It's been so long, my look how much you've grown! And look at that, you've finally became a ninja, darling I am so proud of you!"
The pink haired girl known as Sakura hugs the man with a smile, "I know Oto-san, it really has been a long time, and thank you, though Oka-san wasn't too pleased about me becoming a ninja!"
Hearing Sakura talk about her mother caused the man to wince at the thought, suddenly a silver haired man steps forward, quickly changing the subject after seeing the man wince, "So Kizashi-san, how's the research going, have you made any progress on why people seem to be vanishing in this place."
Kizashi was thankful to the man for changing the subject, "Well Kakashi, from what I understand, it's mostly because people have been- (BOOM!) The two men looked over towards the last two, with one of them holding a kunai while the other just had a fake smile towards the men, "Disrespectful to the jungle."
Since it was obvious that the one holding the kunai was the cause for the explosion, Kakashi began ordering, "Sasuke, what seems to be the problem that you would use an exploding tag in the forest before we get any information into how to survive this jungle."
The now named Sasuke just scoffs, "I saw movement in the trees, it could have been enemy ninjas getting ready to attack us." What they don't know was a certain long haired blond ape man had just managed to escape the blast area before it blew.
At this point the fake smiling teen spoke up, "And I was trying to explain to micro-dick, that it's a jungle, there are-were, bound to be animals around, but if there was any enemy shinobis around we would've been able to detect them, though I doubt it because of the legends keeping people away, but he threw the note before I could use logic."
At this Sasuke glared at the fake smiling teen, "SHUT UP SAI-BAKA, Sasuke-kun was just doing it to protect us, since our mission is to gather the progress report and make sure nothing dangerous happens~"
Knowing that a fight was gonna break out, Kakashi quickly got their attention, "Alright you three, let's get ourselves settled into our tents, then if Kizashi-san feels up to it, we can explore the area with him being our guide, if that's alright Kizashi-san" He asks with a eye-smile.
Kazashi replies in agreement, while telling them to stick together and stay with him, since it's very easy to get lost in the jungle, along with the jungle somehow having it's own energy that seems to blanket chakra, so even if they could sense chakra it would be impossible to sense it in this jungle, which made Sasuke proud at using his note in the first place.
As they were walking, Sakura began walking next to her father, since it's been a long time since they last saw each other, "So~ Oto-san, how's life been for you in the jungle, made any discoveries or breakthroughs yet, also, when are you coming home, I've really missed having you around and cracking your lame jokes."
Though her father knew she was gonna bring it up, he couldn't help but point out first, "You really thought my jokes were lame!?"
Sakura just gave him a pointed look, "You're my father, anything you do is lame." Though she had a slight smirk since she did miss him.
This caused her father to release a chuckle, but he became slightly upset at what he was gonna tell his daughter, but he couldn't really hide anything from her since she's now a ninja, her training was bound to teach her how to read people and see through lies, though what he didn't know was that his daughter was more focused on Sasuke than ninja training, but he didn't know because of his time in the jungle.
"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, but I can't return home, not after what your mother did." With an upset expression on his face.
Hearing her father say such a thing, she couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean, what did Oka-san do!?"
Her father released a sigh, "Sakura-chan, 9 years ago, you were being bullied, but a young blond boy by the name Naruto saved you from them, unfortunately, your mother got the wrong idea, she thought you were being hurt by him, so later, she hired a ninja from outside the village to take the boy away, believing that because he was an orphan that no-one would care about it, but the Hokage did care about it, he had ANBU running around trying to find Naruto, but there was no luck, as punishment, your mother had to be under house arrest for 3 years due to being on the council, while I became disappointed at what she did, so I left, using the excuse to come here and figure out why people were vanishing."
Hearing what her father was saying, Sakura couldn't handle it, all this time she thought her father was just on a long term mission to find out what was going on in this jungle, but it turned out that her mother had a hand in ending a possible friendship, she tried to deny it, but she saw the look on her father's face, along with the look on her sensei's, even though it was covered with a mask she can tell he was upset as well, so being who she was, she did the one thing her panicked mind could think of.
She ran, she ran into the jungle, her father and sensei tried to call her back, though Kakashi wanted to race after her Kizashi stopped him, due to the jungle's energy if they split up then they would be looking for more missing people instead of just one, so reluctantly, Kakashi stayed with the group, but Sakura had vanished before their eyes, though Sasuke didn't care, since it would mean one less thing to worry about, and Sai just didn't care at all because of his training.
Though the group never saw the blond ape man chasing after the pinkette.
Deep In The Jungle
Sakura was now resting against a boulder, she didn't know where she was or cared at the moment, since she just found out that her mother and father had lied about the reason her dad was in the jungle in the first place, not only that but her mother was the cause of possibly ending a child's life.
After a few minutes to finally calm down, she noticed that she was now lost, "If ever I get out of this jungle, I'm gonna return home and have a serious talk about what Ka-san did to Naruto-GAH!"
Suddenly she felt a striking pain in her arm, quickly looking she saw it was a snake that bit her, trying to brush away the snake she could feel the venom pumping through her bloodstream, "Oh geez~ T-That's not g-good."
Before she tried to stumble back to the group, a certain crouching long haired blond appeared before her, making ape-like grunts and noises, "Okay, that's even worse~!" Thinking the venom was causing her to see things, she quickly tried to make her way back to the group, but everywhere she turned the blond would appear making ape noises at her, "S-Stop b-being so~ annoying~" Until she falls to the floor and passes out.
The blond noticed the bite mark on her arm and quickly began sucking and spitting the venom out of her system, though before he could continue he looks towards the sky.
Quickly he picks her up and takes her somewhere else.
Night time
Thunderstorm
It would seem that learning from the animals allowed him to tell when the rains would hit, since at the moment the blond was hidden in a cave, away from the storm, though the venom in Sakura's system still needed to be dealt with.
Moving around the cave, the blond began picking and chewing on some leaves, then he rubbed the paste onto the snake bite which seems to have stopped the venom from spreading, but that didn't stop the pinkette from shaking because of the cold, seeing this, the blond noticed that it was getting late and the best thing to do would be to bunker down for the night and take the girl back to her camp in the morning.
With Sakura's shaking slowly stopping because of the sudden warmth of the blond's body, but in her sleep she quietly whispers, "Naruto-Kun~" Making the blond teen raise an eyebrow in puzzlement, but shrugged it off for the night.
Morning
At the moment, Kizashi was sitting in his chair, worried about his daughter, he and the ninja had spent nearly all night trying to find her, but they had no luck, as he lifts his head up walking out of the growth was Sakura herself, though she seems to be walking on wobbly legs, seeing his daughter returned safe and sound, Kizashi rushes to her and hugs her, after apologising for running away, with Kakashi reprimanding her about how ninjas needed to keep a level head even with such news, he was just glad she returned safe as well.
Though she tried to approach Sasuke, it turned out he was angry, telling her that she should've died in the jungle since the only thing she's good for was live bait for some animal, with Sasuke saying that had upset Sakura, making the girl realise that Sasuke never cared about anyone but himself, making her lose her crush on him.
Though because of Sasuke's sour look, this caused some of the wildlife to throw fruit at him, causing the Uchiha to get even more angry and just storm off, since a proud Uchiha doesn't let lowly animals to make him angry, since that was unbecoming.
But the antics of the monkeys brought a little bit of a smile to Sakura's face, since it felt like the monkeys wanted to get back at him for her, as it turned out, due to her weakened state, the group had to return to Konoha, with Kakashi carrying her on his back, to make sure the venom was out of her system, along with her father to make sure she was alright, but it was also a blessing since it'll allow Kizashi to report to the Hokage about his progress and possibly try and talk things out with his wife.
But no-one noticed Sakura letting the bandages on her arm where the snake bit her go, "Kakashi-sensei, I think I'd like to try being a medic so things like this won't happen again." This surprised her sensei, but he was more than pleased with what she said, maybe Sasuke telling her off was the best thing to break her out of her fan-girl mode, the bandage however floated in the air and allowed a certain blond ape man to grab it.
The blond looks at the "gift" left by the pinkette, while hanging from a tree branch, "S-Sa-kura-chan!" With a smile on his face he swings back to his place in the trees, having millions of questions running through his head, his gorilla friends tried to cheer him up, but for some reason, he just wasn't in the mood.
Suddenly a colourful bird of prey fly in and landed on his knee, allowing the blond to stroke it, then it flew off again, cawing after the blond, almost like it was telling him to follow it.
As the blond climbed he came across a strange sight, a skeleton in rags was trapped in roots, seeing such a sight caused the blond to jump back slightly in surprise, though in it's hand was a strange black shape, taking the strange thing, the blond began feeling the cold hard thing, until it slightly cut his finger causing him to wince in slight pain, since it made him realise how sharp it was, looking towards the skeleton again he see's some sort of strange rock in it's other hand, taking it he couldn't help but marvel at the glass-like rock, looking towards the sun with it making it have an orange shine to it.
Seeing the orange made him smile, putting the rock away, he couldn't help but remember something about what the man and girl were saying, he couldn't quite understand them, but he managed to pick up a few bits and pieces, such as, "Na-ruto!" Somehow that name seemed to hit him more than anything else.
He arrived at a stream, looking into the water at his own refection, he always felt like he was different than the others in his family, while it is obvious that he was different he didn't feel different from the gorilla family, but deep down, he knew he was.
"Naruto!?"
Shaking his head the animal-like teen smacked the water and rushed away to his tree house he built when he wanted to be alone, he decided to leave things be for now, but couldn't take his mind off of the pink-haired girl he helped recently, along with hanging her bandage over a branch.
Konoha
A Few Days Later
While the group had managed to return to the ninja village, with Sasuke having to grudgingly carry Kizashi because of him being a civilian, when they entered the village, with Kizashi getting of the Uchiha's back, Kizashi stayed close to Sakura to make sure she was alright, the father/daughter duo headed for the hospital to have a check up, both for Sakura because of the snake venom, and her father for being away from Konoha for so long, as it turned out, the herb paste that was on her arm where the snake bit her had somehow neutralised the venom, along with giving her antibodies against it, her father being pleased about Sakura's safety.
They then moved to the Hokage's Office, with the secretary letting them into the office, there sitting behind the desk was the 3rd Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the leader of the village, and at the moment he was surprised to see Sakura's father had returned, "Well Kizashi-san, this is a pleasant surprise, I didn't think you'd ever return after what happened."
While Kizashi knows that his leader was being honest, he also knew that the 3rd Hokage wanted him to report about what happened to make him return, "It's only for a short while Hokage-Sama, at least until I know Sakura-chan's alright and to see if anything has changed between my wife and her "ideals" on her past."
Hearing that something had happened to one of his ninjas, Hiruzen then asked for a report on what happened, which surprised him that Kizashi would tell Sakura what happened to Naruto, though he was thankful that the man thought up a half-truth about Naruto instead of the whole truth about Mebuki hating Naruto for the Kyuubi sealed inside him and hiring the outsider ninja to get rid of Naruto, yet he tried to punish Mebuki for such an act, but the only thing he could do at the time is put her under house arrest and throw her out of the council for such an act, he would've locked her up for a number of years then execute her for such a crime, but she had some sway with the council, until she lost it by being thrown out and under house arrest, also he couldn't bring himself to take the mother away from her child, though he guesses a silver-lining of Naruto not being here was that Mebuki became a loving mother and properly looked after her daughter, she had no pull with the council, nor did she have a reason to corrupt Sakura into hating Naruto since the poor boy was gone.
Granted she tried to push Sakura into pursuing Sasuke, but with the black haired boy showing no interest and Kakashi's training, Sakura never had time to follow through with her crush, though she does ask Sasuke out from time to time with the boy denying her, Kakashi is slowly getting rid of her fan-girl tendency little by little, but now with Team 7 standing in front of him, he could tell something was different, since Sakura was now standing next to Sai's left side, while Sasuke stood on Sai's right, with Sakura making sure to keep her distance.
With all his thoughts happening in just a second, since he needed to stay ahead of the council in case they tried anything, "I see, Sakura-san, please tell us what happened after you ran into the forest."
Knowing she was under order, Sakura began, "Yes Hokage-sama, after hearing that I was the cause of Naruto being taken away, I just couldn't handle the information, causing me to run from the group, wanting to clear my head," Hearing what she thought, the 3rd and her father frowned at this.
"Sakura-chan, it wasn't your fault, your Oka-san was just far too overprotective of you that she hired the outsider to get rid of Naruto, it was no fault of your own." Her father interrupted, since he didn't want her to shoulder the blame.
Hiruzen nodded his head, "Your Oto-san is right Sakura-san, you were just a child being bullied at the time, with Naruto swooping in and saving you, unfortunately, your Oka-san saw things differently, so please, if anyone is to blame it is both your Oka-san for hiring the ninja, and myself for letting it happen under my nose while I was in a council meeting, this happened in my very village and I couldn't stop it from happening."
While the group understood that the Hokage was upset for such a thing to happen, Sasuke didn't care, and Sai... was just Sai.
After clearing his thoughts, Hiruzen looks towards Sakura, "(Ahem!) Please Sakura-san, continue."
Nodding to her leader, "After a short run, I found myself leaning next to a boulder in exhaustion, my mind a whirlwind of thoughts that I could've had a friend growing up, but before I could think anymore about it, I got bit by a snake, I could feel the venom entering my system and felt my head swimming, then before my eyes a strange blond with shoulder length messy hair with blue eyes and whiskermarks jumped in front of me out of nowhere, wearing only a loincloth, I guess the venom was making me see things, since after remembering Naruto when I was four and the venom could have caused me to hallucinate and think Naruto ended up as a wild animal, I tried to return to the others, but the hallucination got worse because everywhere I looked he appeared in front of me again."
The group nodded their heads since it did have the basics of a venom induced hallucination.
She continued, "Though I think what I really noticed was his deep blue eyes, they held such warmth and innocence that I couldn't help but feel safe,"
At this part, Kizashi stepped in and leaned towards her, ""Deep blue eyes"? Should I be worried Sakura-chan~" He couldn't help but tease, causing his daughter to blush and push him away, "OTO-SAN~~~!" This reaction caused the adults in the room to chuckle, but Sasuke and Sai weren't too bothered.
Clearing her throat to get things on track, "Anyway, before I knew it I blacked out, with the next day I woke up with some chewed up leaves over the bite mark and feeling better, though still weak from what happened, with no-one around, but I could see the camp was close by so I walked towards it and that's when Oto-san was sitting at the burned out campfire, after I felt a little better I tried to see if Sas-my team was worried about me, but it turned out that they just didn't care," Hearing the slight slip-up, the adults knew she was talking about Sasuke, giving the teen a "meaningful" look, with Kakashi planning to beat his rules about those who break the rules in his next training session.
"Anyway Hokage-sama, I realised after all that just how weak I am, so I ask for myself, if I can become a medic-nin, I don't want to feel as weak as I did like in the jungle."
Hearing Sakura ask such a thing brought a smile on the adults faces, with Hiruzen quickly drawing a serious look on his face and his fingers interlaced together, "Are you sure Sakura-san, the road to being a medic-nin is not an easy one and isn't for those with a weak will and heart, it is difficult and would require hardwork and dedication."
Sakura knew that if she truly wanted to be a better person and ninja, she would have to force herself into becoming stronger, "I'm sure Hokage-sama, I want to be stronger."
Kizashi placed a supporting hand on her shoulder, "Are you positive Sakura-chan, because that would mean having to stop dieting and buying any products from here on."
This caused Sakura to blush, since she really had been dieting, though it pains her to admit that if her father, who she hasn't seen in over nine years, could tell she was dieting, then that would mean her body wasn't in the greatest of shape.
"I KNOW THAT NOW OTO-SAN! But don't go saying that in front of everyone! Geez!"
Here Hiruzen butted in, "Actually Sakura-san, it is a well known fact that while a civilian can go on a diet, it could be disastrous for a ninja, since a diet would mean that they couldn't exercise right and could make them weaker, a ninja needs to eat the right amount of calories to give them the energy, also if they want to retain their figure, maybe even make it better, they can burn off the excess fat and calories through exercise and training." As it turned out, Hiruzen had entered "teacher-mode" since seeing Sakura finally taking the right approach reminded him of one of his students, Tsunade.
At this Sakura hanged her head in shame, if she had just asked one of the teachers at the academy what the right diet for a ninja was, instead of listening to her mother about keeping her figure to attract Sasuke, then she wouldn't have ended up as a weak ninja.
Seeing how downtrodden the pinkette was, Hiruzen ended up doing something he might regret, writing down on a piece of paper, he passed it to Sakura, "Here Sakura-san, take this note to the address written on it and this person will help you in the right way for a proper diet, though be mindful, she is a bit... extreme."
Taking the note, Sakura read the address and bowed towards the Hokage in gratitude and took off, leaving her father and teacher confused, "Hokage-sama, what was written on the note and who did you send my daughter to in order to help her!?"
Hearing the concern in the father's voice, Hiruzen answered, "As much as I wanted to send Sakura-san to my student, Tsunade-chan, she's unfortunately away from the village, at least until I call her back in order for her to not only train Sakura-san, but possibly the next batch of medic-nins for each team, since it would be beneficial for the village in the long run, but for now, as much as I don't want to, I have no choice but to send her to Anko-chan for proper training and dieting, I also forbid Anko-chan from feeding any dango to Sakura-san since the teen needs a proper diet that a kunoichi truly needs, and that Sakura doesn't pick up any bad habits."
Kizashi was now worried, he's heard how Anko was with people, he just hopes that his daughter doesn't do anything to make the unpredictable snake-user angry.
Seeing the worried look on Kizashi's face Hiruzen quickly replied, "If you're feeling that worried, I'll also have Kurenai to keep an eye on the both of them, since she's the only one who can keep Anko in check."
Here Kakashi stepped forward, "Hokage-sama, do you think it's wise to allow another person to train one of my students?" He wasn't questioning the leader's orders, just being curious and cautious at the possible backlash.
Hiruzen nods his head at Kakashi's questioning, "I understand your concern Kakashi, but this is for the best, it will benefit not only Sakura-chan, but Anko-chan and Kurenai-chan as well, since Kurenai-chan can't fully train her students because they each are from a clan with their own training methods, so this way Sakura-chan has some genjutsu in her arsenal as well as proper training for her mind and Anko-chan can work on her taijutsu and work on her body, hopefully bring her a proper balance as both a ninja and a kunoichi, but now you can "focus" on one student in particular to what it means to be a true ninja of Konoha."
Understanding what his Hokage was saying, Kakashi knew he needed to make Sasuke fully embrace Konoha's true strength, that being teamwork and to never leave a comrade behind no matter what, now knowing that he couldn't slack off anymore, Kakashi was ready to make Sasuke see things Konoha's way, even if he has to knock Sasuke of his high-horse to do so.
As for Sai, there really wasn't a need for him to train, since he already had "previous" training from Danzo, since his mission is to make sure Sasuke wasn't a flight risk, but if Kakashi was planning to beat the risk out of him, then that would mean Sai would have no "worries" about his mission and can focus on his paintings, since seeing the jungle of the continent was quite an inspirational sight, he couldn't put it into words how beautiful the jungle was, so he decided that he'll try and put it onto a canvas and if he couldn't then he'll keep trying, though he felt a slight tingle of fear up his spine at how he thought he sounded a little like Gai, since no amount of training from Danzo could truly stop the fear of someone as "youthful" as Gai.
With that, the group was excused, with Hiruzen sending two ANBU's to tell Kurenai and Anko about the changes in Sakura's training, with that done, Hiruzen stood up from his desk and looked out towards his village with a sad smile, "Even when you're not here, you're still inspiring others to better themselves aren't you, Naruto-kun." At saying his surrogate grandson's name, a slight tear escaped the old man's eye, since he truly missed the blond ball of sunshine, since Naruto's energy just seemed to make things brighter and gave Hiruzen just a slight burst of energy as well.
But now he needs to focus on making things right in Konoha, for starters he's going to send an order to Tsunade to return by their summons, since the Monkey Summons can past the order to the Slug Summons, where the order explains that if Tsunade doesn't return then her travel rights will be revoked and she'll be marked as a missing-nin, he knows it sounds harsh, but he feels Tsunade had enough time to grieve over her lose, now it's time for her to return and do her duty as a shinobi of Konoha, but not only that, maybe in time, take the mantle of Hokage from him, since it was her birthright and he could feel himself getting old.
Though that doesn't mean he'll not want to be by her side to deal with the council, he'll act as her adviser, with the elders having no say in the matter since they don't understand the current affair of the world outside the village.
So leaving out the part about making her the 5th Hokage, Hiruzen sent the order through his summons, making sure nothing hinders the order, though he can tell that when Tsunade returns she's gonna throw a tantrum about being told what to do, but she had plenty of chances to get her emotions in order and have her fun, now it was time for business, no more slacking off, yes things were going to change in Konoha, hopefully for the better.
The End.
There you have it, a Naruto/Tarzan Crossover, it's surprising that no-one's thought of this possible crossover yet, I can see this story appealing to most people, hopefully someone will adopt it, also as you can tell, I wrote Sakura being Naruto's Jane, since the characters just kinda fit together.
Also you can bet that after a days rest from Anko/Kurenai's training session, that Sakura will be gossiping to the other Konoha 12 girls about her "hallucination," along with Sakura describing what she saw, causing the girls to blush at the thought of a teen wearing a loincloth, with Ino badgering her to use a transformation jutsu to show them, which Sakura reluctantly does, after making sure to find a private place to show them, since it was an embarrassing "hallucination" to see.
With Sakura demonstrating how the "hallucination" acted and grunted like an ape, along with standing on all fours and then standing straight, which would allow the girls to see the lean and powerful muscles of the teen that Sakura "saw," causing them to blush, with Ino denying that Sakura could imagine a boy like that, offering to look through her mind to see if it was real or not, since venom might effect the eyes and ears but not the mind, allowing Ino to tell the girls that what Sakura saw was real, causing them to blush even more, along with Hinata fainting at such a thought.
This would give Sakura another reason to get stronger in order to find Naruto and return him to the village, though she'll ask the girls to keep it a secret since if they do tell anyone then they'll have the Hokage send squadron of ninjas into the jungle with no chance of survival, with the girls starring down Ino which she reluctantly agrees to.
I Do Not Own Naruto Or Tarzan.
