Chapter: 5 (Truth and Consequences.)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise. I only own the puppet designs.
(The morning after the Uchiha massacre. Danzo's mansion.)
Wabisuke Danzo was sitting in his office sipping quietly at some sake. He was content in the matter that the Uchiha were wiped out, he knew there was no way Itachi could have failed at that task. The loss of the Uchiha would be tragic, but in the long run necessary for Konoha's survival. The Uchiha were beginning to grow too powerful, and Fugaku was becoming more, and more harder to appease. The rest of the village knew this to be true, but he was the only one willing to do what was necessary to quell a potential rebellion before it began. Of course killing Fugaku alone wouldn't be enough no. In order to fully prevent an uprising, all but a select few of the clan would have to be wiped out. There was no time to waste on trying to figure out who was truly loyal. Sarutobi the soft-hearted fool, like all the Hokage's before him could never understand that.
His thoughts were interrupted by one of his loyal ROOT ANBU bursting into his office. "Lord Danzo!" He cried. "The village has turned against you. several ANBU, and Jonnin are descending upon this place to arrest you as we speak!
"What!" Danzo yelled. Just then three ANBU crashed through the window. One was the purple-haired woman in the cat mask. Another was a brown-haired man in a bear mask, and the center one was a silver-haired man in a wolf mask.
"Wabisuke Danzo." "Wolf" began. "You are under arrest for the crimes of high treason, and mass murder. Come quietly or die."
"I won't go down that easily." Danzo said as three more ROOT ANBU appeared to fight, and he made a run for it. Little did he know that his mansion was surrounded by over eighty Konoha Jonnin, and ANBU, and that his ROOT ANBU who numbered little more than thirty, were being decimated. When all was said and done, Danzo lay dead. He had committed suicide with a poison capsule rather then face capture. His loyal unto death ROOT ANBU, were wiped out save for one. A young boy named Sai, but that is a story for another day.
(Time-skip four years later.)
Almost four years had passed since the day that Danzo died, and much had changed.
The first thing that had happened was Naruto had gotten a lot more respect. Being labeled as the one who prevented the Uchiha clan from being fully wiped out, had helped him prove himself as a hero in the eyes of many in the village. There were exceptions like Haruno Ikuku, (Mother of Haruno Sakura who in the ultimate twist of irony was one of Naruto's friends.) and Naruto's teacher Mizuki.
The Uchiha clan were the ones who tended to hold Naruto in the highest regard. Under the direction of Mikoto, the surviving thirty Uchiha were always welcoming towards Naruto, and sticking up for him. The only Uchiha who didn't seem to like him was Uchiha Sasuke, the second son of Mikoto, who generally didn't like how close Naruto was towards his mother. In the time since the massacre only one Uchiha had graduated the academy. A girl named Uchiha Suzu, who graduated a year before with average grades.
Naruto had continued to train relentlessly. He spent at least six hours a day, four, or five days a week training and studying in various fields. With the aid of Tajuu Kage Bunshin, he has able to gain anywhere from hundreds to thousands of hours of training in one day. As a result his arsenal of techniques had nearly tripled by the time of his final year in the academy. Although they were mostly Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and Fuuinjutsu.
In the time since the massacre only two major instances of crisis within the village were known. The first was one year afterwards when Jonnin Rokushou Aoi stole the legendary Raijin blade and attempted to flee the village. He didn't get far though as his mutilated corpse was found about a quarter-mile outside the village, the Raijin not on his person. The second was when the legendary stupid brothers Fuujin, and Raijin (No relation to the sword.) broke out of prison, and went on a rampage throughout the village in search of food. After several Konoha shinobi drove them into the forest. They mysteriously disappeared the only clues left behind being trace amounts of blood spatter. There were rumors and speculation that Naruto was involved in both instances, but all investigation into the matters went nowhere. As far as Sarutobi was concerned it was a matter of "Don't ask, don't tell." For the other villagers as far as they were concerned about the missing missing-nin, it was a classic case of "Good riddance."
Naruto had also grown close to several of his fellow classmates of the academy. Among his friends were Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, Akamichi Choji, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Ino Yamanaka, and Haruno Sakura. Naruto had also befriended a boy named Rock Lee who had graduated a year before, along with Konohamaru Sarutobi, the Hokage's grandson. He always found time to spend with his friends, often hanging out at Ichiraku ramen, where he had become the favorite customer for Tuechi Ichiraku, and his daughter Ayame.
In general it was an interesting time, and it was only going to get more interesting in the future.
(The day of the Gennin exams.)
Naruto was having breakfast at Mikoto's home as he usually did. Mikoto had changed her appearance somewhat, as the new head of the Uchiha clan. She now wore a dark purple kimono similar to the one the Kyuubi had worn in Naruto's mind, that Naruto had managed to have made for her fortieth birthday. Her nails were also painted a light lavender color, a practice she hadn't done since Fugaku had forbidden her from doing so early in their marriage. She had also begun to undergo mild Shinobi training for the purposes of self-defense, even managing to activate her latent Sharingan. After they (Naruto, Mikoto, and Sasuke.) ate a delicious meal Mikoto had cooked, Naruto, and Sasuke departed for the academy with wishes of luck from the Uchiha clan head.
(At the academy)
Naruto was waiting for his name to be called. He watched as the other students departed for the jutsu test with the majority passing.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Called the voice of Umino Iruka, Naruto's second teacher. Naruto sat up, and followed him into the next room.
"Okay Naruto you know what you have to do." Iruka began. In the span of less then five seconds, Naruto had managed to Henge himself into a perfect copy of Iruka, Kawarimi'd places with Mizuki, and created nine Kage Bunshins of himself.
"He fails!" Mizuki shouted. "The test calls for regular Bunshins, Not Kage Bunshins!"
"There's no rule against that Mizuki, and you know it!" Iruka shouted effectively silencing him. "Even if it was Naruto's scores are more then high enough to pass. Congratulations Naruto, you pass." Iruka said as he handed him a Konoha forehead protector.
"Dammit." Mizuki thought to himself. "There goes my fall-guy, now I have to steal the forbiden scroll myself. Luckily I still have my back-up plan." He thought as he rubbed his right forearm.
"Yes!" Naruto said as he exited. "This calls for a celebration. Ichiraku here I come!"
(Later that night.)
Naruto was in the middle of downing his sixteenth bowl of ramen when he felt a familiar sensation as one of his new found. "Sensory seals" had picked something up. The sensory seal was a Fuuinjutsu he had been able to develop with the Kyuubi's help. The seal created a picture of an eye, and an ear, and when the user was within a couple of kilometers the seal would continue to broadcast limited sensory information directly into the users mind, so long as the seal was intact. Naruto had about a hundred of these seals in strategic points around Konoha. Carefully hidden, and protected by elaborate genjutsu. They were Naruto's primary source of information throughout the village. Naruto saw Mizuki breaking out of the Hokage mansion with the Forbidden Scroll. Quickly excusing himself, and paying for his ramen, Naruto ran off to the point he figured Mizuki would most likely take to escape, and prepared to intercept.
(A little later: Forest of Konoha.)
Now with his curse seal activated to level one. Mizuki threw his last giant shuriken at Iruka, who barely managed to dodge it getting his arm cut slightly. "Mizuki why are you doing this?" Iruka yelled.
"My reasons are none of your business weakling!" Mizuki shot back. "I've always wanted to make you suffer, and now I'm gonna enjoy killing you." He charged Iruka, and swatted him into a tree with a stiff backhand, knocking him out. Mizuki reared back his hand to deliver a killing blow to Iruka's head, when all of a sudden he was cut off by a kunai sailing past his head. He then saw Naruto walking up towards him.
"Well well. Looks like I get to kill the demon brat after all. Tell me Naruto, do you want to know why the whole village hates y-"
"Save it!" Naruto yelled. "I already know about Kyuubi. Right now that doesn't matter. You've betrayed Konoha, now you must pay the price." With that he summoned Fencer, and had it charge at Mizuki. It's rapiers slashed at his body inflicting minor wounds on his arms, and chest. Mizuki counted by kneeing it in the chest, sending it flying back to Naruto.
"You think you can beat me with those mere toys?!" Mizuki laughed. "Allow me to show you my true power!" With that he powered up his cursed seal to level two, causing him to take the a tiger-like appearance.
"Hmmm... Interesting, I was planning to just kill you, but now your body might have other uses to me." Naruto said in an observational tone.
Mizuki began to advance on the boy. "Like a little brat like you could ever get the chance t- AAAGGGHHHH!" Mizuki screamed as he felt something large stab him in the back. Turning his head he saw he'd been stabbed by a puppet resembling a muscular six-and-a-half-foot-tall-man, wearing nothing but a loincloth, and elaborate headdress, holding a spear and a shield.
"I see you've met Saba Simba, Mizuki-teme." Naruto taunted. "The poison in his spear should be taking effect by now." At this point Mizuki felt his muscles, and joints begin to stiffen at a rapid pace. "Don't worry your suffering will end soon, along with your life." At that point Saba Simba opened it's mouth, and fired a single senbon with a high-enough velocity, to completely penetrate Mizuki's brain stem, killing him instantly. Mizuki's body then began to revert to it's original form, but Naruto quickly formed several handseals to reverse the process.
Resealing his puppets, Naruto walked up to Mizuki's body, and hefted him onto his shoulders. "Now lets get you back to my place." He said as he Shunshin'd away. Unknown to him Iruka had awoke just to see the last few seconds of the fight.
"Naruto?" He thought. "What have you become?"
And that is the end of that chapter. In my own opinion this chapter was sub par, and if any of you also think so I apologize to you. I also realize that some of my puppet ideas are kinda either lame, or unrealistic, and if any of you think so I apologize to you as well. Hopefully in future chapters I can advance the story, and have more exiting things take place. In the meantime here's another puppet profile.
Name: Saba Simba
Description: a six-and-a-half-foot-tall puppet resembling a muscular bald man, wearing nothing but a loincloth, and elaborate headdress, holding a spear and a shield. designed with upper body strength in mind.
Weapons: Spear, hand carried, can be poisoned; Shield, mounts 4x shuriken launcher, shurikens can be poisoned, hand carried, High velocity senbon launcher, mounted in mouth, can be poisoned.
(Note: Can you guess where I got the idea for this puppet from?)