Chapter 2:
After around 2 hours of heavy reading, Naruto had come to understand the basic workings of the world he is in.
The 7 Path Sage is actually the 6th Path Sage, since this sage refused to accept the "7th path of Evil'' in his lifetime. This led to the three arts never existing, and hence not forbidden. Of course this also means that the Akuma no Heya was never created, but in this world, the 7th path of evil was very clearly described, and with some thinking and T&E, Naruto could embody the 7th path, and create the Akuma no Heya, activate himself, then ditch the 7th path.
Why ditch it?
The 7th path comes with a curse of pain, and sorrow, which Naruto refused to compromise for power.
Also, Anbu are named after animals, not things. In this world, Anbu Cocoon would actually be Anbu Caterpillar or Butterfly, Fur would be Dog, and such. Elite Anbu aren't a separate faction, and simply operate as VIPs within the ANBU workforce.
Also, the standards in this world are very high, not that it was a problem, but in his old world, during the 8-10th shinobi wars, three consecutive wars with only about a month between them, each lasting about 5 years, they needed many more shinobi. So they signed the "Premature Shinobi Drafting Act" where genin were allowed in the war. Then came the "Shinobi Force Increase Act" which allowed people to become shinobi easier, and be put into the war.
Assuming this world doesn't have those two acts, the standards are still high and the lives of every shinobi was important.
Second, the Leaf Village is the strongest, instead of the Lighting Village. Ever since Minato Namikaze entered the war, he led the Leaf on the path to greatness, before his unrivalled ascension to the role of Kage.
Along with this, many Shinobi wished to live up to Minato's skill, and trained recklessly. It worked as a mass quality upgrade for the Leaf village. Not only this, but the academy went through many changes to make training of shinobi much more efficient. This helped provide excellent footing for many of the new shinobi to grow wonderfully.
And mostly above all, they allowed international matches, to allow ample competition for genin, and chunin, boosting their growth and giving many shinobi a goal.
Naruto was by now already fired up for greatness, he had no plans to let himself down in a village as amazing as this. Plus, he was excited to meet his wife, sure they weren't married now, but at least she was alive.
- About that, your wife was a world specific identity, it's a little complicated, but since every world is different, and they only get more and more different over time. As such, eventually, people are added and removed. Your wife was one of those added, and hence, she was a world specific identity.
Naruto slumped, so he had only one chance huh. But, since he what happened, happened, and he had vowed to himself to let old pages mold*.
*A/N: The idiom "let old pages mold" is the equivalent of "starting a new chapter" in the sense that he would leave the past alone to let it mold and decay.*
Now ready for basic day to day living, he read up on basic etiquette and rules, and while at it, picked up a few D-Rank jutsus to not seem suspicious.
Then after spending over 4 hours in the library, he went to the nearest training grounds. Till sunset, he practiced his cloning. Sure he could pull off one or two, but the chakra coils of this body were at least twice as large as his previous body.
~Oy! Who are you?
'Tsunizu?'
~ Who the hell is Tsunizu, I am Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf, Future Hokage!
'Pffft, I'm Naruto Uzumaki Tsunizu, baka!"
- Well.. you both are right.
Said Tsunizu, in a neutral voice,
- When Naruto Tsunizu entered Naruto Uzumaki's body, their consciousness was occupying the same body, and hence coexisted. You'll have to figure stuff out, although i can only say now, Naruto Tsunizu is the one in control.
~ HUHHHHHHH? 2 Narutos in the same Naruto but both Naruto's are different but now one but still two yet as one?
- I think you might be confusing yourself but it seems as though you have the right idea. You two have to learn to coexist, of course the two Naruto's could handle two different tasks, such as thinking and working, or fighting and conversing. If I were honestly speaking, I would want Uzumaki to help tame Kurama as Uzumaki Tsunizu deals with the outside world. Keep his emotions in check and train your chakra coils into becoming bigger and sharper.
~ So while this brat takes over my body, I train in the background so that he can get even better? THIS IS UNFAIR, HE SHOULD BE THE ONE TRAINING IN THE BACKGROUND NOT ME!
- Well, talk it out.
'Sigh, what about this, you train in the background, while I work, and when we enter a fight, you can help me out. As in, you stay on the lookout for chakra signatures, and pay attention to my peripheral vision, as well as navigation and other things I might not have noticed?'
~ What do I get?
Uzumaki Tsunizu thought about this for a second.
'If you can do this successfully, I will lead you to greatness.'
Naruto Uzumaki grinned, since for him, greatness was in becoming hokage, and the person was promising to make him a hokage, which was amazing!
~ Deal.
'Good to be working with you!'
Now that Naruto (We're gonna call the other Naruto "Inner Naruto" or I.N for short) had dealt with I.N, all that was left was dinner, a nighttime jog, and then sleep before the test tomorrow.
Sasuke had dug through most of Naruto's house, uncovering more and more secrets about his life.
He learnt Naruto was an orphan since birth, and was put into an Orphanage by the third himself. However, the orphanage rarely gave him a place to sleep or food to eat. He was as good as homeless.
He left at four, and bought a small residence with some money the third gave him, which was apparently this place, and became fully independent.
However, the landlord who had control over his residence refused any kind of repairs or fixes that were included with the lease. Not only that, shopkeepers often tripled or quadrupled their prices for Naruto, claiming false taxes and other wild excuses. Milk normally sold for 10, could be sold for up to 50 for Naruto, and the milk would be most likely spoiled or defective produce.
Most of his belongings were overpriced, and if he paid the same amount for his home, but fairly… Naruto could be living in a mansion with a whole army of maids and butlers.
Not knowing how long it had been since he entered Naruto's house, Sasuke sat down, tired and exhausted, but most of all, shocked, shocked to the core.
He noticed a very expensive box in the corner of his living room, and opened it, to find a ripped red scarf.
"Why would he keep this?"
Sasuke shrugged, must be important, perhaps a part of his parents. He placed the scarf back into the box and back to where it was.
He realised he had a test tomorrow, and that coupled with a large roar from his stomach, showed just how hungry and tired he of a sudden, a voice spoke.
"Wanna stay for dinner? Seeing how you're already here, it wouldn't be right to leave a hungry guest, I'd regret it." said the voice from the door.
Sasuke jumped at Naruto's sudden voice, to see him leaning on the doorframe. Now caught in an evident case of trespassing, Sasuke bee lined to his home, and managed to make it out of the window, when Naruto grabbed his collar and pulled him back with tremendous strength.
'Fast!'
"We can't have you leaving so soon right?" said Naruto, a dangerous smile on his face, much different from what he saw in the forest. Naruto reached into his pocket, and Sasuke was ready for a fight, when he pulled out… a coupon?
"Vegetables are 20% off today, it would be a shame for such a rare chance to go unused!" said Naruto, a shine in his eyes.
Sasuke sighed, and nodded. "Sure."
Naruto put down his books, which Sasuke noticed.
'Konoha's History, Basic Courtesy in All 5 Hidden Villages, Beginnings of the Shinobi World? What does he need these for?'
Sasuke followed Naruto out of the door and into the streets. Naruto looked twice before grabbing Sasuke's collar again.
"Let's make this trip faster," said Naruto, before double stepping into the store with Sasuke on his trail.
"Please, give me more adequate warning before you do that!" Sasuke wheezed out, now nauseous.
They walked into the shop, and pickled out some basic vegetables, as well, as some instant Ramen and milk.
They got to the counter, and showed the coupon for 20% off, and the shopkeeper snickered.
"Well, these veggies are about 500, and the milk another 100, 3 instant ramen packets sum up to 600, and unfortunately, the coupon expired yesterday. Then paired with another 100 as a shopping tax and another 100 for basic necessities, like light and cooling! It comes out to 1,400."
'That much for just this? I usually can get this for at most 600!'
Naruto sighed, and pulled out 1,500, and gave it to the cashier.
The cashier then put the stuff in the bag, however, he switched out the vegetables with rotten ones, and the milk with spoiled ones. And gave it to Naruto, with a smile on his face, much more happy than one of simply earning a bit of money, like he was satisfied with something.
Sasuke and Naruto noticed this switch out, as well as the lack of his 100 change. Naruto sighed and walked out, smiling.
Sasuke was confused, he knew Naruto noticed, so why didn't he do anything?
"Why?"
"Better not cause unwarranted commotion. If they all hate me, so be it. If they all cheat me, then that's fine by me. It doesn't bother me. But I guess dinner is just instant ramen for us, sorry." said Naruto, grim and almost depressed.
The two genin walked off, when Naruto took a turn to his home, there was a large group waiting outside. A man from the group came to meet them, and he was big and burly.
"OH! Look who came, we were waiting for you at your home, but you weren't there. You didn't perhaps try to run away did you? Well now that you're here, let you big brothers take care of you, you trust your big brothers don't you, monster?"
Sasuke knew what was about to come, and all this cruelty would only lead to another paper locked away in a folder.
"I have a test tomorrow so could you please postpone this later?"
"A test you say? Hear that! The monster is worried about a test!" said the man jokingly. Before punching Naruto in his belly, sending him flying.
"You're getting easier and easier to punch, have you been eating well?"
Sasuke stood in front of Naruto, to save him.
The man ignored him, and simply pushed right through him. The man looked down confused, to see what he bumped into, but shrugged it off.
Sasuke found it peculiar, did he not see me? Now that I think about it, that shopkeeper would not have done something like that with me around, did Naruto do something?
Now that it clicked, Sasuke remembered that Naruto had grabbed his collar to go to the store. He looked and sure enough, there was a seal under his collar, he pulled it off, revealing himself. But no one noticed him still.
He then looked at the other part of the collar Naruto pulled him from, and there was a seal there too. He went to pull it out, rushing so that he could save Naruto, only to have a rock flicked onto his hand. It came from Naruto's direction, and Naruto gave him a weak smile, while mouthing, "Run away."
Sasuke refused and tried again, only to have the rock flick him away much more powerful.
The victim of the hate crime, Naruto, wasn't even feeling pain, sure he had a high pain tolerance, but his body was already so well developed that none of the punches did significant damage. But he couldn't fight back until he got Sasuke out of the scene.
That being said, Sasuke was hesitant. If he left him, then he would be no worse than the rest of the class, who constantly target Naruto. After all, even in today's crowd, there were some familiar faces.
Naruto was really getting impatient, his rate slowly bubbling. He managed a smile and mouthed "I'll be fine. I still owe you dinner."
Sasuke nodded, he would call for help, he just hoped Naruto could hang on till then.
When Sasuke finally turned and dashed, Naruto grinned.
First order of business was to get off the ground and away from the mob. Best way to do that was a simple substitution. Once away from the mob, he crouched real low, and pulled out a kunai, all while smiling.
"Let me teach you a little lesson in Taijutsu." said Naruto.
Sasuke had found many chunin and genin walking, and all told them about Naruto, only to be met with laughs and had received many remarks, for example:
"He deserved it!"
"Yeah, beat him up real good."
"Where? I'ma get in on the action too."
He knew better than anyone the sheer depth of this problem, but it seemed almost as if Sasuke was the only one thinking right, and Naruto became indifferent to his own problem.
Sasuke clutched his shirt, and kneeled in despair.
'Am I still that weak? Naruto is over there and getting thrashed by all those people, yet I can't even help? I thought I could at least fix this. I can't give up, I have to save him!'
Sasuke checked his utility pouch, 4 kunai, and 5 shuriken, not nearly enough to fight them all.
'I can't hesitate, but what can I do? I know, Iruka-sensei!'
Sasuke turned and made a break for Iruka's home.
'I'm coming to help, Naruto!'
As he raced against time, he wondered, why did he want to help him so much? He could leave him alone, and nobody would think bad of him. What was it about him?
Did he feel indebted to Naruto for helping him out of the forest? No something like that couldn't be the reason to try so hard. Did he see himself in him?
He did.
Ever since his clan was killed, he felt unexplainable amounts of anguish and loneliness. And in his frenzy for revenge, he never gave it a second thought, but he was alone and sad.
If one person could be this depressed and vengeful, and become like Sasuke, what about Naruto?
Constant victim of numerous hate crimes, and constantly prejudiced. No one he could consider family nor friends. Sasuke was still part of the Leaf, but Naruto… was alienated and shunned. Just how lonely could someone like Naruto feel?
And on top of that, Sasuke was vengeful because his family was killed by his older brother, and he was betrayed by the person whom he looked up to.
Yet Naruto was constantly being betrayed, called a monster and beaten by the very people he trusts. He always shouts, "I'll become the Hokage" during class, a shine in his eyes full of determination. How does he not want to take revenge for the people who hurt him without reason? Why does he wish to protect those who hate him?
How does he suppress his rage, and continue living normally?
Sasuke's pain can't hold a candle to Naruto's, yet he became an antisocial, emo, jerk. Yet Naruto, was social, didn't have extremely bad manners despite his loud voice, and was, rather, a fun guy to be around.
Sasuke reached Iruka's home, and hoped he wasn't in on this as well. Hesitantly, he knocked on the door. And working 40 seconds, Iruka came out.
"Hmm? Oh! Sasuke, what do you need?"
"Naruto! He's getting beat up! Help!" Said Sasuke out of breath.
Iruka was now concerned, he rather disliked Naruto, but still had a functional sense of justice, and beating him up was not right.
"Where?"
"In front of his house. The shabby apartment complex in the red light district."
Iruka nodded and ran in that direction, Sasuke right behind him.
The third Hokage was notified of a academy student running around asking for help, and at the time, he was uninterested, but then was told it was the last Uchiha, asking for help to save his own godson, Naruto.
The Konoha Jonins were out on missions or recovering in the hospital, and his ANBU informer said that many of the chunin and genin were not of any assistance.
"They are all corrupted." he said.
"Corrupted? Bring me my crystal ball!"
In a flash, was a crystal ball sitting on a purple pillow on his table. He poured chakra into it, and identified the mob that was attempting to attack Naruto.
But what he truly saw was far worse. He saw a monster.
There he was, his own godson, standing on a pile of 20-30 bodies. His eyes were scary, vicious, and monstrous, and deep inside, they bubbled with a most sinister mix of bloodlust and rage.
He had a red kunai in his hand, and his clothes, pristine and spotless. Naruto knew what he was doing, he had killed them and was aware of it. And he cut in places where the blood was the least, and managed to come out of this with only a red kunai. Even the third Hokage would have crimson stained clothes fighting them.
It was unsettling to say the least. He gave of a cold aura, one he could feel through the crystal ball. And for some reason, all the third could think about was how much he looked like a whetted and honed ANBU, the ideal vision one gets when thinking about Konoha's elite force of shinobi.
And yet, to some extent, it was refreshing.
The third always knew about Naruto's beatings. He had a copy of every hospital bill Naruto received. And he always speculated why he was fine mentally, why was his anger so freakishly under control?
How does a childhood like his affect his personality so miniscule?
Yet now that he snapped and his rage was flowing loose, even if it was in the form of mass genocide, the Hokage was relieved.
Naruto was still a normal kid somewhere under all those smiles, or even this ruthless killer personality. Hiruzen was about to leave, when Naruto's head snapped toward Hiruzen, his eyes even more monstrous than before.
Shocked, the Hokage jumped out of his seat, and subconsciously got into a fighting stance.
Naruto's eyes were locked onto Hiruzen through the crystal.
'He couldn't have known I was watching? Right?'
Naruto was finished with his genocide spree, yet he felt an unsatiable anger. It wasn't coming from him, but rather from I.N. And since they shared the same body, Naruto couldn't help feel the same.
Plus, Naruto was always merciless, and was rather quick to accumulate anger. Paired with I.N's developed anger, Naruto became more than angry. He was livid.
He stood on the pile of corpses, bathed in the situation. The moonlight shining down on them as a witness to his cruelty.
Suddenly, he senses a chakra signature above. Not necessarily angry, but still in the process of calming down, he couldn't help but look at it with his insatiable Killer Intent. Within moments, the signature disappeared (Hiruzen turned the crystal off, fearing for his own safety).
He then stared at the moon in awe. The sky was simply beautiful, especially to one who came from constant darkness.
Suddenly, 2 presences revealed themselves, and Naruto looked at them. Of course, his anger still flowing over and not fully calming down, he again couldn't help but look at them with an overwhelming amount of Killer Intent. His hand soaked in blood, and the pile of bodies he used as a pedestal, only added more to the effect.
The two none other than Iruka and Sasuke. And both of them were terrified to the bone.
For Sasuke, not even Itachi was this fearful, but moreover, Naruto, resembled a wicked beast more than any embellished rumor ever could. Sasuke understood to some extent, albeit incorrectly, why Naruto was a monster.
To think, this was the same man who bought overpriced spoiled milk from a rotten salesman without a single complaint a few minutes ago.
Iruka was just as frightened. All he noticed was the unrealistic amount of seething rage that he only felt once before in his life. The day of the Kyuubi attack. Iruka knew more than to hurt his own student, and he even knew that Naruto was the jinchuriki of the most feared beast of all, but this rage wasn't the Kyuubi's.
Iruka would know Kyuubi's presence when he saw it, but Naruto was not Kyuubi, he was still in control. That meant this rage was coming from within himself. And the last time somebody with that much rage, coupled with insane power, entered the village…
...the 4th Hokage died.
Naruto took a few deep breaths, now realising his need to explain himself. He stayed motionless, as his eyes continued to intimidate them. Naruoto knew he had to calm down before talking to them, otherwise he would only frighten them more.
He closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. After cracking his knuckles in the most un-intimidating manner ever, he decided to first sigh.
Then he jumped off the pile, and walked toward Sasuke and Iruka, cleaning his Kunai with a towel he found on a corpse.
"Well," Naruto said, and decided to make his tone even nicer, "sorry you had to see that!"
Naruto's eyes were no longer freakish, and his body language was calm and friendly. Not a single trace of the Naruto they saw before. Sasuke recognized Naruto as the one he saw in the forest, the kind one who helped him get back to class when he was injured.
Naruto then proceeded to talk.
"Well, I can't really call this a misunderstanding, everything you see here is exactly what happened. I guess I could call it self defense, but I doubt what I did can be considered self defense, even if they attacked first. All I can say is, I won't ever do something like this without reason. And I'll never raise my weapon against someone I deem an ally.
"And even if you can't see me without remembering this scene, and that completely changes me in your eyes, I just want you to know that I feel they deserved it. I had been beaten, abused, called names, and even on the brink of death because of people like them. I managed to hold off my rage and let it stay inside me, without ever hurting anyone, but today, unfortunately, was my limit. I hope you can please forget about this incident for better or worse." finished Naruto, bowing.
He turned to leave, when Sasuke grabbed his collar.
"You still owe me dinner, idiot."
Naruto was shocked but happy. And Sasuke didn't know why, but he no longer felt scared. If anything, he was as relieved as Hiruzen. Naruto was an ordinary kid, with a few, mysteriously powerful, skills, but an equally amazing heart.
"Instant Ramen fine?"
"Good enough I guess, cheapo."
"Shaddup."
Iruka was about to say a word, when an Anbu officer appeared in front of him.
"The third hokage wishes for you."
Iruka was nervous, he only saw the Hokage during mission briefings or during his speeches, but never held a conversation.
"Iruka, high chunin shinobi, academy teacher for 5 years, orphan and victim of the Kyuubi attack. That about correct?"
"Uh yeah!"
"You saw Naruto right?"
"Yes."
Hiruzen sighed. "Did you notice anything about the corpses? About Naruto?"
"The corpses?"
"Yes, didn't you find it weird? Naruto was clean, his clothes spotless, only his kunai and hand soaked in blood? Yet all those bodies were pouring blood out of them?"
"That is weird."
"Bring out a few corpses you salvaged." Hiruzen spoke, and an Anbu appeared with a storage seal.
"A table please."
And there was one in front of his Iruka.
Hiruzen unsealed a corpse onto the table and Iruka scanned it thoroughly.
"These cuts…"
"You noticed it now too? These are precise. They hit only vitals, with minimal blood, and the cuts were quick, flawless. For comparison, look at the corpses we salvaged from a mission carried out by a chunin squad."
He unsealed another body onto the table.
"These cuts! They seem shabby in comparison! They looked hurried and stressed almost!"
Hiruzen nodded, indicating Iruka to keep talking.
"The victim looked like it lost a lot of blood before dying. And there was a large struggle between them before he died."
"This was carried out by Kakashi when he was a Chunin. They say he was the best chunin at the time. Now look at this corpse that jonin killed."
Hiruzen put another corpse on the table.
"These cuts aren't as precise, but they hold a lot of practice within them. Lots of bruising before the fatal strike, meaning a big struggle. The battle seemed clean in the sense nothing was especially sloppy, but it was still not as clean as Naruto's corpse."
Hiruzen nodded in approval, impressed by Iruka's eye in scanning corpses.
"Last but not least, this was a corpse from an Anbu mission. The corpse was assassinated and the victim never knew."
"Assassination? Meaning the Anbu had plenty of time to finish the kill, plus he was practically unrivaled. Assuming we only take in aspects of the kill itself, and not stealthiness or technique, I can assume the corpse was attacked on the vital, and perfect."
Hiruzen was truly impressed. And finally unsealed the body.
"These cuts! Are nearly identical! You can tell the styles are different, and different people did it.. But the attack was clean and unstressed at all!"
Iruka stared at the corpse between Naruto and Anbu. And realised something.
"This Anbu was only attacking him right, that too unnoticed and without stress of time?"
"Correct."
"And Naruto was being attacked by at least 30, where time is of the essence and a single mis-step could cost him, correct?"
"Yes."
Iruka's eyes widened in shock. And Hiruzen gave Iruka the last piece of Information.
"Most of those corpses were high chunin or nearly low jonin. Some were genin or civilians, but out 46 total corpses, 34 of which were high chunin. You understand what I'm getting at right?"
It need not be stated what Hiruzen was implying, but he said it anyway.
"Naruto was calm and tactical. He knew full well what he was doing, how to do it, and then perfectly executed it. He essentially pulled 46 perfect assassinations without time on his side, nor the benefits of being hidden, along with stress of being up matched against such a high number of people. Only using a single kunai, no jutsu, all while intentionally keeping his clothes spotless. Iruka… most of our most valued ANBU members can't pull off something like this as perfectly as Naruto!"
"But he's… only 10."
"That's right, I've kept watch over Naruto for most of his life without him even realizing, yet not once did he show skills above genin level. Yet he pulled off an Anbu level feat, and even noticed my presence through the crystal ball! I was wondering if you ever got signs of hidden power from Naruto?"
"No, not once Hokage-sama, I'm shocked as well. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined Naruto capable of doing this."
Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a deep puff. There was only one person who could train Naruto right under his nose all the way to Anbu level, and keep it hidden from him flawlessly.
'Danzo! You idiot, you brewed up a monster didn't you?'
Ending:
Interesting chapter, especially only for chapter 2. We started from 4 hours of learning history at the library, to mass-genocide and investigation.
Anyways. See ya!