Ch. 1 Enter, The Real Uzumaki Naruto
As far as Kakashi was Concerned this mission could officially bite his ass. It started out so well too, he was going to be taking his first official Genin team on their first official C-rank. It was a simple escort mission to the land of waves.
They'd be able to spend some time out of Konoha, get some training in, bond with one another in a new environment, his genin could get low risk combat experience, and they would learn to deal with an obnoxious client without snapping and breaking their neck.
It was honestly perfect for a first real mission for his team. Kakashi should have realized it was a little too perfect.
When those two Chunnin level missing Nin popped out of that mud puddle he should have just turned his team around then and there, damn the drunken geezer and his sob stories. But in a lapse in judgement he let it be put to a vote.
Sakura would've been just as happy to go home at that point, knowing they weren't yet ready for what the mission had become, but she would side with her crush no matter what he decides.
Uchiha Sasuke, the girl's crush, felt he had something to prove and wished to push on to greater challenges. He voted to continue
Naruto was, at least as he is now, loud, obnoxious, and socially inept, but he had more compassion than anyone Kakshi has or will meet. He was hooked the second the old drunk started spinning his yarn.
Kakashi was outvoted.
Then Zabuza, Fucking A-rank Missing Nin, fucking Demon of the Bloody Mist, showed up and fucking everything went to hell. He would probably be dead and waterlogged if Naruto and Sasuke didn't pull off that crazy fuma shuriken distraction. That little show of teamwork gave Kakashi the warm fuzzies, but he would die a thousand deaths before admitting that to anyone.
The two jounin were so evenly matched it was insulting to the leaf Ninja, who used to tangle with the likes of Zabuza on a regular basis and win handily.
Maybe Gai was right and he had gotten lazy. But that was a problem that couldn't be fixed on such short notice, especially since he was recovering from Chakra exhaustion.
So instead he put his team to work, so he decided to teach them the tree walking technique. It would be useful to them both now and in the future, for one it improved their control by a wide margin.
Sasuke should be able to shoot at least 4 more fireballs before running out of steam and Naruto will be able to spam even more shadow clones then he already does once they both master the technique.
Of course there was another way the technique would help Naruto, but that was a surprise tool for later.
There was also the terrain to be considered. Kakashi estimated that the next combat encounter would be either in the small city of wave, where they would need to be able to scale the buildings to hide or gain an advantage, or on the bridge, where if they got knocked off they could just run right back up. Or better yet hide under the bridge where Kakashi couldn't mess up and get them killed, like everything else he cared about.
The only person who wasn't getting any extra benefits from the jutsu was Sakura, whose chakra control was already so impressive. The only issue was she didn't actually have the chakra capacity to do much Jutsu outside of the basic three.
Though the shushin would probably be pretty good for her, Kakashi mused, so long as she didn't try to go too far too quickly. But again, the issue was the lack of time he had to prepare them.
In retrospect Kakashi realized that he probably should have taught them the technique sooner. But in his defense, the technique usually wasn't taught until after a few low level c-ranks had been completed. But in reality, the reason he didn't teach it to them sooner was a lot less complicated. He actually forgot he needed to teach it to them.
Kakashi learned the technique as a boy before he even entered the academy, as far as Kakashi could remember he'd been walking on walls almost as long as he'd been walking on the ground. It wasn't until he got himself into this cluster fuck of a mission that he realized none of them actually knew the technique. oops?
His musings were cut short as Naruto and Sasuke just walked through the door, leaning on each other. The blond sported a face splitting grin and even Sasuke had an upturned lip.
"So I guess training went well, hm?" the Scarecrow asked his two charges.
"WE DID IT!" the blond shouted to the heavens "we finally reached the top Kakashi-sensei and I got there first, no matter what Sasuke-teme says, 'ttebayo".
The blond took a step forward and promptly face planted, dragging Sasuke down with him onto poor Tsunami-san's polished wood floors. Sakura looked ready to leap at Naruto herself and give him a piece of her mind, and also fist. Thankfully, for Naruto at least, Sasuke spoke up.
"Shut up idiot, and get off of me." the raven headed boy said, pushing the blond off. The two untangled themselves and promptly set about eating absolutely everything on the table. It was at this point Sakura finally burst.
"Naruto you Idiot, apologize to Tsunami-san right now, you could've dented her floor!" she scolded. Naruto just rubbed his head sheepishly before turning to the woman in a bow
"Sorry Tsunami, I just got a little too excited" he said
"Oh don't worry about it Naruto" the woman forgive easily. A little too easily, that was a nice fucking floor in Kakashi's not-so-humble opinion.
"And apologize to Sasuke-kun for making him trip, you could've seriously hurt him" Sakura said
Naruto put on his 'disgruntled face' but turned to the boy and muttered a quick "sorry… teme"
The Uchiha just shrugged and said "whatever"
Which was apparently the wrong response because Naruto looked like he was about to get riled up again. So Kakashi decided to play responsible sensei and put a stop to what would most likely be a full blown fight about nothing.
"Alright," he clapped to get their attention "finish your dinner and then off to bed."
Dinner continued about as well as Kakshi expected, that Inari brat began hemming and hawing about how 'they were all idiots' and that 'they should just give up and all go home.' Naruto took exception to that, and it soon became another full blown argument about nothing (in Kakashi's jaded opinion).
On one hand he really shouldn't be letting his genin manhandle the clients grandson, on the other hand he really didn't give a shit about the drunken bastard and his spoiled brat of a grandson.
'Oh boo hoo my dad died' yeah you and every other person in the room. Kakashi knew he was being unprofessional and cruel, but again he just couldn't give a shit.
Once Naruto finished his grand counter-speech Kakashi cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"All right my cute little genin time for bed."
Each mumbled their own muted response and started shuffling out of the room. Kakashi waited until they were just about out the door when he said "oh Naruto, stay back for a moment I wanted to talk to you."
The boy in question glanced at his teammates, who both shrugged in response, before turning around and plopping back down in his seat. Kakashi waited a few minutes for the other genin and civilians to clear out of the room before he spoke.
"So you really got the technique down?" the jounin questioned
"Hell yeah, 'ttebayo" Naruto said before jumping onto the wall, sticking securely.
Kakashi nodded "good, come with me. I'm gonna show you a secret jutsu."
Naruto's eyes lit up like a christmas tree. "REALLY YOU'RE GONNA TEACH ME A-"
Kakashi aggressively shushed and said "secret, remember"
The blond dramatically threw his hands to his mouth before nodding.
Kakashi gave the boy an eye smile before leading the Genin up to his room.
"Hey Kakashi sensei," the boy whispered "what are you gonna teach me? Some kick-ass Jutsu right?"
"You'll see" the scarecrow stated cryptically. Once they got to the room Kakashi opened the door, revealing the intricate seal design splaying across the flood and a little up the wall. A Fuinjutsu expert would recognize the design as a class 8 'lock breaker' sequence, designed to dismantle other seals.
"Whoa, what is this? Some kind of crazy potential unlocking sorcery stuff?" the boy asked
"I suppose you could call it that, take your shirt off and sit in the middle of the matrix there" the silver headed man said, pointing to a spot in the direct middle of the floor.
The boy gave him a squinted look "you're not gonna do anything pervy are you."
The jounin gave an equally unamused glance at the blond.
"you're not my type," he said in a monotone.
The blond began muttering under his breath. Something that sounded like 'could've fooled me' and 'thousand years of death my ass.' but he complied and took his spot in the middle of the seal. Kakashi took a few moments to light special candles that created an ethereal blue flame before moving behind his charge.
"Ok so remember how you moved your chakra to do the tree climbing technique." he waited until Naruto gave an affirmative nod before continuing and placed two fingers at the nape of Naruto's neck, just below the hairline.
"I need you to do that but instead of directing it to your feet, move it right where my finger is, don't worry about making it stick, just pool as much chakra as you can into this spot" Kakashi was using his 'serious mission voice' for this. Naruto formed the ram seal and began concentrating. Soon a fuinjutsu pattern emerged right below Kakashi's finger.
He took a deep breath, this was gonna take a while. He pushed some of his own chakra into the seal and felt the boy's behind the barrier, and actually winced. The sheer force of the chakra pushing against the seal actually forced his hand away. The closest thing he could equate it to was feeling someone punching his fingers through a plastic bag.
Kakashi shook his head to clear it and replaced his hand back on the barrier. He pushed his Chakra in, slower this time, just barely brushing at the barrier, letting Naruto's chakra get used to the foreign presence. At this point Kakashi noticed the sweat that was pouring down the Genin's neck, poor kid was still exhausted from the day's training. Time to concentrate.
Naruto's chakra was finally starting to accept his own's presence and ignore it, he turned his fingers 30 degrees, lining up with two small open ended swirl designs, the only points of entree in the entire matrix, the seals around the room began glowing a dull green.
Carefully, Kakashi reached out through these swirls with his energy and gently grasped at Naruto's own, it recoiled at first, surprised by the sudden contact. Slowly but surely it accepted the touch. The lock breaker seal began to move.
Now connected, Kakashi began turning his fingers another 60 degrees, gently guiding Naruto's until they were aligned with a set of hollow dots at the very top and bottom of the matrix. The lock breaker began to climb Naruto's body, attaching to the matrix on his neck.
Ok now came what was gonna be either the easiest part or the hardest part, depending on how much energy Naruto had left.
"Alright Naruto, this is going to feel really uncomfortable for the next few minutes, but I need you to stick with me here."
"Yes Sensei" Naruto strained to get his voice out.
Kakashi took another deep breath and reinforced the clasp between the chakra. Carefully he began pulling his own chakra back taking Naruto's with it. The seal let his energy flow through the hollow dots easily enough, but once Naruto's hit the seal's border it halted, the matrix trying to keep the Chakra in.
"Ok Naruto, can you feel those two points that I'm trying to pull your chakra through?"
"Y-yeah, I think s-so." the boy shakily said.
"Good, I need you to push into those points, as hard as you can."
Naruto didn't respond but Kakashi felt the boy's chakra push even harder. The jounin re-affirmed his grip again and started pulling as hard as he could. Kakashi could feel the tension as the seal tried to Keep Naruto's energy from bursting through.
Naruto's breath became laboured and Kakashi could feel the back of his shirt drench with sweat.
"Come on, c'mon, c'mon break damn you." the Scarecrow growled out. He could feel Naruto's chakra slip away as the boy began to slump, almost falling over if it wasn't for Kakashi's other hand. The seal's around the room began slipping back.
"Stay with me Naruto, we Just need one more good push, just one more."
"K-kakashi-sen-sensei, I-I-I c-can't."
"Yes you can, I know you can, dig deep Naruto, Come on."
"Sen-sei…" whatever Naruto was going to say devolved into incoherent Mumbling.
"No Naruto you can't give up now, this is our best shot at getting through this in one piece. If you don't keep trying we could all die. Me, you, Sakura, Sasuke, Tazuna, Tsunami, Inari… Everyone in Wave will be in danger. So come on dig deeper.
Naruto continued to collapse, the Force of his Chakra waning with every passing moment, seal lines falling down and off his body. Until suddenly he stilled. Kakashi thought he passed out, but then the boy's energy surged twice as powerful as before. The
This was it. Kakashi yanked his hand back pulling with all his might. Rail thin tendrils of Chakra with a wired core of red burst forth from Naruto, attached to Kakashi's finger tip.
Cracks formed in the seal and the lock breaker flowed forward. Naruto let out a piercing scream.
"So what do you think Sensei and Naruto are doing?" Sakura asked the Uchiha sitting across from her. They were sitting in the bedroom with essentially nothing to do. Well that wasn't entirely true, Sasuke was under the futon blankets trying to sleep, but Sakura seemed antsy and couldn't put her head down until the other two members of her team came back.
The Uchiha just let out a noncommittal grunt in response. Outwardly he showed no signs of interest, but internally the same question was playing out in his own mind.
Part of him was worried for Naruto, He still didn't have a grasp on just what kind of person Kakashi was. Sure the other boy was an idiot and a deadweight, but that didn't mean Sasuke wanted the other boy to get hurt, he just wanted him to stay out of the way. All he knew about Kakashi was that he was a lazy tardy bastard, he was at least A-rank in skill, and that he had an artificially implanted sharingan in his face.
Sasuke still wasn't sure exactly how to feel about that last part, he spent the last 4 years thinking that the only sharingan he would ever see again belonged to the person he hates most in the world. So seeing it in his goofball sensei was a bit of a shock.
But that was all besides the point, weirdo; yes, dangerous; of course, he was a jounin. But a danger to Naruto, no way, not after all those speeches about camaraderie and friendship.
So what were they doing?
Sasuke's best guess: Naruto was getting some extra training. Which gave him another set of mixed feelings. A small part of him felt jealous, why should the dobe get special attention when he was the top of the class, the most promising nin of his generation, and the last Uchiha.
But that childish part of him was drowned out by the part that operated on intelligence and logic. Naruto needs help, he was the bottom ranked student in the entire class and if he was going to succeed as a Ninja then he had to get the extra help.
"It's been a while, do you think we should check on them?" Sakura asked.
Sasuke sat up and gave her an annoyed expression "I'm sure they're fine, Kakashi's probably just giving the dobe a pep talk."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Sasuke and Sakura both jumped to their feet at the same time. They stared at each other for a moment before Sasuke sprinted out of the room, Sakura close on his heels, the same thought going through their minds: 'Naruto'
They raced down the hallway and skidded to a halt in front of Kakashi's door. Sasuke slammed it open and rushed in. only to stop dead in his tracks as he took in the room.
Naruto was facing the door, an expression of utter agony on his face, Kakashi was behind him, Chakra laced around his finger and beads of sweat running down his face. There were these strange symbols and wisps of chakra floating around the room all, coalescing at Naruto's head. The whole place glowed in this ethereal blue-green light
But before Sasuke could do anything it was over. The light went out, the symbols seemed to shatter and all the chakra floating around dissipated in an instant. Naruto was slumped on the ground and even Kakashi collapsed into a heap.
Sakura moved past him and knelt by Naruto, checking his pulse. Sasuke stepped forward.
"What did you do Kakashi?" Sasuke questioned the Jounin.
It took a while for the name to respond, he was breathing heavily and took a few dry gulps before looking at the Uchiha, giving him that weird eye smile.
"Ma ma, Sasuke-kun whatever do you mean?"
"What. did you do. to Naruto. Kakashi?" the boy demanded.
"Ma ma, Sasuke-kun, why the stink eye. I was just getting my little brother back" was Kakashi's cryptic reply.
Something about that seemed to set Sasuke off, but before he could say anything Sakura spoke up "he's breathing normally and his pulse is starting to calm down, I think he'll be fine."
Kakashi responded "of course he'll be fine Sakura-chan, I had everything under control."
"And just what was 'everything' Kakashi?" Sasuke butted in.
"I already told you, I was getting my little brother back," Kakashi said.
At this Sasuke lunged at the scarecrow. Kakashi let the boy grab him by the collar. Only because he was touched by Sasuke's defensive attitude for his teammate, certainly not because he was too lazy and exhausted by the ritual.
"Little brother?"
Oooh, that's what was setting Sasuke off. Shit he should have realized that calling anyone 'little brother' in front of the Uchiha would give him Itachi flashbacks.
"Your concern is truly touching Sasuke-kun, I'm glad you took all my speeches about camaraderie and friendship to heart" he said, eye never changing from that upside down U shape. Sasuke actually blushed a little at that, but his face kept that same hard expression.
"He's starting to wake up," Sakura announced, cutting off the conversation. Everyone crowded around the blond boy.
Naruto was indeed stirring. Well more like groaning, but soon his eyes opened. He looked from face to face seemingly in a fog before his eyes snapped into focus.
"Naruto?" all three asked at the same time.
The boy in question tried to sit up, before stalling and promptly flopping back down.
"Fuuuuuuck" he croaked "you couldn't have done that any sooner Kakashi-nii"
Sakura muttered "Kakashi-nii?" to herself and glanced at Sasuke, who just shrugged in response
"Afraid not Naruto, Hokage's orders." Kakashi said
"Yeah of course it was." Naruto closed his eyes before continuing. "I guess this mission counts as an excuse of some kind?"
Kakashi nodded, "Well not really, but I'm sure I can get the Hokage to see it my way."
"You keep telling yourself that, cyclops." they both chuckled at was must've been some kind of inside joke, which was just all kinds of what how and when the fuck.
"Ummm, sensei?" Sakura spoke up "I don't want to be rude, but what the heck is going on here?"
At this naruto rolled back before flipping up onto his feet.
"That's kinda a long Story Sakura" Naruto said, rubbing and glancing at his left shoulder.
He stopped and took a closer look at that shoulder then Rubbed it harshly. Sasuke was about to ask what he was doing when a flap of skin flapped up from where he was rubbing. As he began peeling at what must have been some kind of fake layer of skin he said,
"Let's just say." He peeled the layer of elastic off completely, revealing a swirling leaf tattoo, the symbol of the Anbu Black ops. "The real Uzumaki Naruto has arrived."