A/N Thanks to the reviewers, and one had mentioned me not splitting Kurama and Naruto's chat when Kurama is thinking to him. Honestly I didn't know if I should have done that or not so I'll be doing that for this chapter, and if you guys like it more, I'll be editing the other chapters about it after the Pre-Academy arc is over. After that, any later changes that aren't spelling mistakes and the like that people point out won't be worked upon until the end of the story proper.
Edit: I figure, since I'm right next to the end of this arc, that I'll do a super mega chapter to finish it off, as well as show a few ideas for the arc that were either moved, deleted, or added. After this chapter will be a Omake chapter featuring Sasuke, Sakura and the others in order to flesh out why Sasuke's personally chilled out, and to give you some extra character developments and the like!
I had originally thought of a scene of Naruto pranking the Hyuuga household with help from Hinata and the rest of the members of the non-Byakugan Hyuuga and meeting Neji at the end and going into a showdown with him that he would lose in order to set up the Chunnin exams rematch more. At first, I thought I would write it in this arc, before thinking about how it wouldn't really make sense. So I decided to save it for either post 2nd main mission, or the Kakashi Training Arc, in order to further build motivations.
Another thing is that at first, I had no idea if this took place before or after the Uchiha Massacre based on how I originally wrote Sasuke. Honestly I think of it as Sasuke being jealous of Naruto and Honoke's relationship, having wanted that between him and his own father, but never being able to before running into Sakura who tells him that's dumb and to apologize.
Another really late edit (Like, 22k words in late) I got Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 now! Ironically, I had read up right to the whole battle with Itachi and Sasuke against Kabuto (I remember bits and pieces of that stuff, but I'm still gonna read it again tbh.) because that was as much as my library had of Naruto. And storm 4 starts right after that and finishes the story, so convenience is nice. I understand the whole Sasuke vs Naruto final fight a lot more now, but I still somewhat stand behind the timing being a bit...off. I mean seriously, RIGHT after you beat Kaguya, Sasuke casually goes "Fuck you Naruto Imma be Hokage and steal away these Tailed Beasts, cause fuck you." and to add insult to injury. Sasuke shows Sakura a genjutsu about him KILLING her. Kakashi put it best and why I hate canon SasukeXSakura.
"Because loving you is torturing her."
Super Edit: Originally this was a mega chapter 6 with 26,000 words in it. However I had been over ambitious and made a ton of mistakes within it that messed up future chapters, so instead of a mega chapter, I decided to cut the chapter into two parts. This is the shorter of the two chapters, being only about 8k words, while the other one is around 16k before editing them both. I doubt it'll stay that way, but I think this should allow me a better time of editing through them. I'm not changing the rest of the AN in case anyone wanted to read it but I will give a little cut content thing real quick.
In the first chapter of this story, I was working with the idea that Sasuke's brother was already dead, just because the creator of Naruto never really said WHEN the Uchiha Massacre happened, just that it happened before the start of the series when Naruto and Sasuke were really young. However, as I begun working on the later chapters, I realized that it would have been better to have Naruto meet Sasuke before the Uchiha Massacre, thus it happens during this chapter in order to set the timeline straight. As such, we never really hear of Itachi and Shisui or any of the other Uchiha until this chapter, since they were never really supposed to be in the story to begin with. My little headcanon is that Sasuke childishly didn't want Naruto and them to be more into his brother and them instead of himself, so he never really talked about them. That doesn't mean that the omake and all of that would make more sense here, as he still had family issues pre-killing, and he probably envied Naruto because he found Honoke, and took it out as any child would when jealous, rage.
Another one, since I'm splitting this into two parts, is that I write the characters a bit like teenagers to begin with. Dialogue was never my best writing style, and I admit it (you can see it in all my stories really...) and thus I noticed that the children sounded little like children to begin with. However, in my defense; during the series proper the children rarely sounded like children in the end. What with them training to become ninjas for the ruler (being the Hokage in this case) it most likely forced the children to mature up a lot faster than most. On top of that, after the events of the First Chapter, they had seen death head on, and Naruto lost the closest thing to family he ever had. I would like to think I did a decent job of writing the characters, but I do understand if they seem Out of Character in a way. On top of that, Kurama is kinda a pain to write, since at this point of the story, he more thinks of Naruto and the rest of the children as kits in his pack in a sense, he wants to protect them all, but he's not beyond teasing them mercilessly. I like to think of Kurama as sort of a second parent for Naruto in a way, and that's kinda how I write him out. He's there to help them, but can't control his temper all the time if that makes any sense to you all.
FINALLY IT HAS BEEN EDITTED COMPLETELY! YES!
On with the chapter!
Chapter 6: Pre-Academy 4 - To be a Ninja
It took a while, but eventually Naruto and the group of himself, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata and a reluctant Choji sat in seiza in front of one Hiashi Hyuuga. Hiashi was looking at the group of five with curiosity, but kept a firm stare at them. He noticed it seemed to scare the group, as they either buckled from the weight, stood straighter, or a mixture of the two. He motioned towards Sakura to explain why they were there with Naruto.
"We joined Naruto here in order to ask for your help in training us, i-if that's alright with you Lord Hi-Hiashi!" Sakura asked, before accidentally meeting his heavy gaze and stuttered, quickly looking down in a deep bow. Hiashi withheld a sigh from the behavior, keeping his bland, unreadable face intact as he regarded the fear that radiated from the young girl.
"Is this true?" Hiashi asked instead, raising an eyebrow as he looked to the rest of the group. Sasuke and Naruto were quick to nod, keeping his gaze with their own and not showing any fear for the most part aside from brief sighs of relief when they felt his gaze fall off of them, while Choji nervously laughed, looking more than a little unsure, but not really afraid of Hiashi.
"Well...I'm not entirely sure if Dad would let me seeing as he rather I learn his own style, but I would love the Taijutsu advice if that's okay with you Lord Hiashi." Choji explained with a calm expression. Hiashi nodded curtly, knowing the struggle of clan politics.
"I believe that Choza wouldn't mind it. In fact..." Hiashi asked, looking towards a clock to his left. It was about 7:30 in the afternoon as he chuckled knowingly, "I think we'll be asking him soon. I'll think about the offer you all make, but know that if I do end up training you all, I will beat you all senseless before telling you the mistakes of your form and helping you. You can ask Naruto about that one." Hiashi smirked when he saw the nervous flinch from said boy as a knock sounded from the door. Hiashi watched as Naruto turned directly to look at the door, looking pleased by the distraction. Sasuke merely looked from the corner of his eye, most likely to make sure that Hiashi was still seen, while the rest struggled to appear uninterested by the person while clearly being interested.
Hiashi kept the smirk upon his face from enjoying the light fear from them. He wasn't vindictive per say, but it was a welcome change from the too well-mannered Hyuuga clan's emotionless faces, and how well the kids broadcast their feelings uplifted his...but he might be slightly vindictive in the end given the situation occurring with a certain Uzumaki in his eyesight.
"Sadly, I don't think we will have time to train today, I'll see you all in the morning before you head to school. Don't worry about being late to class or anything, I'll make sure Iruka is well aware of it happening and I'm sure he will approve of the training in the meantime." Hiashi explained, the smirk shifting back to his neutral face, though a hint of a smile shone through. He stared at Hinata as he withheld another sigh, watching as she struggled to meet his gaze. She also was flickering her gaze to Naruto, who finally turned back from the door with a not-so-subtle glare from Sakura, who was sending her smiles of encouragement when he thought Hiashi wasn't looking at him. Looks like Hiashi was going to be making sure Naruto didn't have any plans with his daughter in mind. He couldn't do anything about the fox inside him, but the boy on the other hand...Hiashi cut that line of thought off as he realized the absolute fear the group had, realizing he accidentally had let killing intent spread.
Withholding a nervous laugh of his own for fear of scaring them more, he instead got up with a stone-cold face, noting how they all scooted away when he went through before opening the door. Kakashi stood on the other side with his Icha Icha book open, reading as he waited. Noticing Hiashi, he put it away with one of his normal eye smiles. The two shared a look before Kakashi shrugged.
"Yo. Is Naruto, Choji, and Hinata here? I'm here to bring them to the Hokage's place." Kakashi asked as he counted the names using his hand, bored and probably tired if the tone of voice was anything to go by. Hiashi raised an eyebrow before noting the universal hand gesture for 'later'. Nodding his head, he motioned the called three through, who winced when he noticed them watching. Kakashi looked towards Hiashi with what most likely was the eyebrow raise Hiashi gave moments earlier, but all Hiashi did was tip his mouth to a smirk. Saying nothing, Kakashi led the three away. After which, Sasuke and Sakura looked towards Hiashi with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
"So, are you still up for that training?" Hiashi said, mentally grinning from the fear in their eyes. It seemed like he was getting an opportunity to release some pent up stress over Elder business that he been holding for quite a while, and wasn't that fun? Two screams rose in the night as the training began.
He will still swear he wasn't vindictive...but the soon-to-be Team Seven would all claim otherwise.
Naruto, Choji, Hinata, and Kakashi were quickly and quietly escorted to the Hokage's office as masked ANBU agents followed overhead. Naruto wasn't too nervous, but more anxious on the news that it brought. Kurama wasn't that far behind in mood, but held one of apprehension over what would happen, memories of the last meeting they were brought to flashing in his mind, the escort wasn't doing much to help the mood. Hinata and Choji seemed terrified in differing degrees, but Naruto tried cheering them up to minimal success.
The tension as they walked through the night-filled streets of Konoha felt heavy as their footsteps lightly pounded the ground. Soon enough, they reached the dimly lit office of the Hokage.
The Hokage's office didn't change nearly at all since the last meeting, but the night time setting seemed to cast a shadowed stage where Hiruzen's desk stood. Kakashi walked over to stand next to Hiruzen, in front of the desk, but they both seemed to blend into the shadowed night with the other ANBU agents that appeared, including the one that had escorted them. Both wore heavy expressions that Naruto and the group couldn't even begin to understand. Kurama did, he had seen that expression multiple times, but couldn't place from where.
Silence filled the room for an empty minute as the parties stared at each other. They were outnumbered, outgunned even, and as much as Naruto didn't want to feel that way, he even could tell that it was completely against them. Kurama's presence wasn't even enough to keep Naruto from nearly breaking his mask, but this...Naruto told himself that he had to be careful, and Kurama merely nodded. Tension spread like a miasma as the groups stared at each other, but soon, as if in a moment of breaking...
A sigh seemed to creep into the room as Hiruzen looked upon the three in front of him. Hinata and Choji seemed to crumble under the stress around them until Naruto grinned and stepped forward, placing his hands on both of their shoulders. "So Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto greeted casually in his own way of calming his friends down, but also as a way to try and keep himself from breaking alongside Hinata and Choji, "Did you find anything?" Naruto's grin seemed somewhat strained at this, and the red tint seemed to grow slightly.
Kakashi looked towards Hiruzen, who nodded with a grave look upon his face, "We did in fact, and that's why we brought you all here. We originally had intended for Choza to bring you, but he said he couldn't find you before he and Yamato had to go." Kakashi explained, which caused Choji to step forth in surprise and fear.
"Wait what!? Did he have a mission?" Choji asked, surprised his dad didn't tell him about it. Hiruzen nodded sorrowfully.
"He did, and he said that you and Naruto will be staying with the Naras for the time being, but he also said that he's sorry that he couldn't tell you two about it before he left. Now..." Hiruzen sighed once more when Choji calmed down, staring at Hinata for this, "Is there any problems you have Hinata?" Hiruzen asked to the now cowering Hinata. Naruto looked worriedly towards his friend, wanting to go and hug her to calm her down, but knew he needed to stand his ground against the two in front of him, Kurama merely scoffed. Hinata gulped, looking to both Naruto and Choji for help, to which both gave her encouraging smiles. Gulping back a breath she didn't take, she stood shakily towards Hiruzen.
"A-Ano..." Hinata stuttered terribly, her voice failing her. Naruto really wanted to go and hug her encouraging and tell her to take her time, but didn't want to accidentally cause her to faint again, after all that's why she was fainting right? By how close he was getting?
"Kit...you really have a lot to learn..." Kurama groaned mentally through his mind, causing even more confusion for Naruto. What was he doing wrong? "She's your friend, right? Whatever, you're right to wait on the hugging though, that wouldn't really help anyone in this case." Kurama waved the thoughts away as Hinata finally gained the power to speak once more.
"I-I ha-haven't ha-had a-any pr-problems H-Hok-Hokage-sama!" Hinata stuttered out miserably, the lie feeling numb on her throat. Choji and Naruto's smiles broke slightly from it, but neither spoke up about it...Kurama however had no such regards.
"The kit is lying as you no doubt know already." Kurama stated bluntly with a touch of boredom in his tone, the red color whirling in the eyes of Naruto, nearly completely overshadowing the sapphire eyes that Hinata has slowly grown to love. The words cut deep at the young Hyuuga, who physically recoiled at the words, but noticed the change of pronouns.
Hiruzen sighed once again, knowing that this was going to be a long night, "Why hello Kurama, nice of you to join us." Hiruzen said dryly as a way to shift attention off of Hinata, not at all pleased by the development. Kurama gave a toothy grin in response.
"Thank you for the greeting, Old Fart. Anyways, Cyclops, what's the new developments?" Kurama sarcastically replied, tired from everything that had happened in the last few days. Honoke, who they had known for a few months at that point, had died just a mere four days ago. They were hastily admitted to the newly dubbed 'Pre-Academy' and all sorts of things happened to them. Kurama was no stranger to the ninja life being dangerous, but Naruto still had nightmares that Kurama had to help him through, still kicked and tossed and screamed as he recalled the memory of seeing Honoke murdered. Kurama didn't even realize the amount of killing intent or even the rage flowing off of him until Kakashi began speaking with a slight warning tone meeting his words. What scared him the most was the feeling that surrounded Naruto, regret.
"Kurama." Kakashi warned simply, focusing his eye on the absolutely terrified Hinata and Choji, to which Kurama hastily cut the killing intent off with a look of apology. Hiruzen didn't know if he was about to die by the look in his eye, but said nothing in order to not show his shock at the look Kurama gave.
Kakashi continued on with not a single moment of shock, "We found out that there's a group in the Academy trying to set certain students for failure in order to weaken Konoha. There were three main groups in this plan from the schematics that I found, one in charge of making sure you did not succeed by any means necessary, including trying to kill off whoever tries to teach you." Kakashi started, noting the faintly purple glare he got at that, as well as the gritted teeth of not-well-hidden anger that caused him to sigh, "A plot to make sure that the Uchiha secondary heir as well as the Kunoichis are pushed down in grades and fail as ninja by use of a mass-scaled Genjutsu that even our resident Genjutsu mistress had no clue about happening." Hinata's head was the one that looked down in anger on that one, guilty that she could do nothing to help her friends through it, Kakashi carried on, "And finally, one to cause the teaching materials, items, and grades to be fixed in order to pass or fail those that they deem to be the most useful for their own schemes." Choji growled lowly on that one from his rage. Kakashi looked at the three, no, four in their states of anger and looked to Hiruzen, who only nodded. "With all that said, it's much bigger than we had antici-" Kakashi tried before Kurama and Naruto looked up with their glare. The room grew silent and dripped in anticipation as Naruto's eyes glowed a brilliant purple.
"DON'T YOU EVEN THINK OF KNOCKING US OFF THE CASE!" The two roared at him, causing the group to stare at them. Seething from the rage overcoming him, Kurama continued on as the brilliant purple dimmed into a crimson blue, "We have come too far to stop here! So what if it's more than you anticipated!? We knew what we were getting into when Honoke was murdered so close to us!" Kurama growled out, flinching slightly from Naruto's influence.
It seemed Naruto was next to speak if the blue tint that grew slightly was anything to go by, "I know it's dangerous, we all do! But if we don't stop this, then who knows what danger we'll all get into!? We're about to head into this big world where war is all around us and people can summon meteors from the sky in order to defeat their foes! We need all the help we can get and if that Academy goes under from people trying to destroy it from the inside-out, who knows!? The entire village will be in danger and the culprits would get away with it! We still have to get the rest of the classmates out of the Genjustu but we got Sakura-chan out there and the Fox Squad is on the case to snap them out of it! Believe it! We'll show them what it means to mess with Konoha!" Naruto explained, thumb on his heart once more in dead seriousness. Hinata and Choji, after their bout of shocked silence, snapped out of it and nodded with equal looks of determination on their faces.
"I-I-I won't let them tear our village apart!" Hinata stuttered out in her own stand of defiance as she walked beside Naruto on his left, causing him to look at her in shock. She smiled on back and then stared at Hiruzen, the first sign of her Byakugan showing activation with the veins showing up around her eyes. Kakashi and Hiruzen looked shocked of her success as it quickly faded from Hinata's embarrassment at their shock.
"I hate people that hide behind and let others suffer for their misdeeds! I won't just sit back and let them get away with this!" Choji supplied, memories of Naruto being beaten up on the streets or completely ignored flashed through his mind as he growled once more, "I won't let them just walk over what this village means! They'll have to get through us!" Choji continued walking besides Naruto on his right, the three glaring determinedly at Hiruzen and Kakashi.
Secretly, Kakashi and Hiruzen was completely proud of the four's responses. They were definitely in the right mindset to becoming Genin, but their skills still needed quite a bit of work before they would be able to do that. Kakashi smiled his signature eye smile. "I'm glad to hear it, but you might not like how we're going to handle it. Can we trust you all to keep all of this a secret so we can bring them to justice?" Hiruzen asked the four of them, receiving three nods in response. Sighing once again with a light smile on his face, Hiruzen continued, "We will work to catch them in the act. Naruto, they are actively trying to ruin your education so I would like you to learn from Kurama and Hiashi secretly as we try to narrow down who exactly is at fault." Hiruzen explained, noting the red glint in the eye as the mouth opened.
Eyebrow raised, Hiruzen asked, "Yes Kurama?" Naruto's face was oddly serious for once, a crimson glaze over it as Kurama stared straight at Hiruzen.
"Be careful of that man called Mizuki. Naruto trusts him, but Mizuki holds barely contained hate for him, as well as tried punching him after trying to interrogate him about what happened to Honoke." Kurama explained, noting the light glare he received from the aforementioned Naruto.
"He's a good man! What's your problem Kurama!?" Naruto yelled back, not even minding how it looked like he was yelling at himself aloud. Kurama sighed.
"My problem is that he reacted when I revealed my presence to protect you. He grinned and nearly said something about you being the nine something." Kurama snapped back, causing a line of shock to appear upon Hiruzen and Kakashi's faces. Hinata and Choji looked towards each other, confused at this, but weren't able to ask before Kakashi walked in front of Hiruzen.
"Noted, I'll be keeping track of him." Kakashi responded with a nod of his head before Hiruzen could recover enough to approve or deny the action. Hiruzen looked at the combined pair of Naruto and Kurama.
"I'll trust you with this Kurama." Hiruzen said in seriousness as Kurama simply grinned.
"Don't worry old fart, I'll keep the kits safe." Kurama assured Hiruzen in his own sarcastic way, "But, I want first take on Honoke's murderer in return." Kurama continued, and though his tone seemed light, the chilly undertone promising death was ever notable. Shivers went down the backs of everyone in the room, but Kurama did not relent on his actions.
"As for you two...I want you to try and help out the classmates, but not make any comments of the current situations. Choji, keep Shikamaru off of this. The less people that know about this, the better. If need be, tell the group and focus on trying to get the rest of your classmates out of the Genjutsu placed over them, as well as finding who placed it. I don't know if you'll find it, but I will leave that up to you. All four of you here will be under the restriction of never talking about this conversation to anyone else aside from the rest of this...Fox Squad as Naruto had called them. This is an A rank mission for the safety of the village, do you understand?" Hiruzen, no, the Hokage asked them all. Four nods this time met his hard, unwavering gaze. "You know your jobs, go, and we'll get him together. Kurama, I will accept your request as long as we get to give him his punishment first." Hiruzen said right before they all jumped away.
Kurama grinned with a nod before he too broke away from the group.
"What was all of that about Kurama?" Naruto thought to him as Choji led the two to the Nara compound, which was a fair bit farther away from the Academy in comparison of the Akimichi compound. Kurama mentally sighed in response.
"That was the two of them testing us in most probability. They were classifying the mission as an A rank because of the level of importance behind it, since it was a grave message to the village if we failed but not absolutely village destroying, so he had to make sure we wouldn't blab it out to anyone in order to make the plan go through." Kurama explained to the young boy as they followed Choji and the hidden ANBU watching them. "If we couldn't be trusted with that, then they would probably had Cyclops over there work on his own with it without letting us all help." Kurama finished up, causing Naruto to pause a bit with a 'hmm' like sound.
"So why is it A rank of all things? I remember Honoke-tousan explaining them before, and how they function. D ranks were something small within the village, C ranks were mostly escort missions outside the village where you can expect light bandit attacks and the like, B ranks were basically C but with possibility for Genin to Chunnin rank missing-nin, A rank were for high rank missing-nin missions or missions of great political importance, while S ranks were once whatever the mission was about referred to a threat to the village itself. Shouldn't this be an S rank mission, not an A rank?" Naruto asked as Kurama shrugged helplessly.
"Honestly I agree with you there, but I don't think we're going to get the full picture any time soon on that. Right now we have to focus on that mission, and hope later on the pieces fall together in a way we can understand. I think it might be worth an A rank as well as an S, and we're getting the easier of the two objectives in this whole mess." Kurama explained, as honest as he could about his own doubts surrounding the ranking, though he was impressed by Naruto's knowledge of the matter. Naruto mentally sighed alongside Kurama.
"So what could the other ob...ob...objec? WHATEVER! be?" Naruto asked, stumbling on the word as he did so, before mentally giving up. Kurama snickered.
"Ob jec tive." Kurama sounded out for Naruto, who repeated it.
"Objective?" Naruto asked at the fifth repeating, to which Kurama nodded. "YATTA! I LEARNED A NEW WORD!" Naruto mentally yelled in joy. Kurama rolled his eyes in response.
"No idea honestly, but whatever it is...it's probably too much for you kits to deal with as you are." Kurama explained calmly before focusing his attention outward again to see night had fully fallen down upon them with a crescent moon being all that illuminated the calm tree-line side of the village. The breeze whistled through the leafs of the multiple trees overhead as Kurama saw a few houses appearing over the horizon, having to run to keep up with Choji's enthusiastic sprint.
The group had made it into what Kurama assumed was the Nara's household, and met someone that looked much like an older Shikamaru standing by the door asleep in a chair, complete with the same lazy attitude it seemed.
After opening the door and seeing Naruto and Choji, Shikamaru pointed to one of the back rooms before returning to his room and falling asleep. It was actually Choji that showed Naruto around the much smaller compound. Well that wasn't really true, it was more the fact that the two Naras lived in a much smaller house in comparison to the other two compounds Naruto had visited thus far, as Shikamaru's father felt it too troublesome to move out of his small house when he became the sole remaining heir to the Nara clan during the Third Ninja War. The three that lived there, apparently Shikamaru's mother was resting already so couldn't get up to great them, didn't really mind this and chose to live in one of the smaller houses in the spread out compound. Unlike the Hyuuga's squared compound, or the Akimichi's circled compound, the Nara compound didn't really have a shape to make. It was just everywhere for the most part, but it all seemed to center a tallish oak tree that Choji said was the Nara Sleeping Tree when he noticed the two staring at it.
Impressed, Naruto and Choji split for the night in adjacent rooms and soon fell asleep to empty dreams without any real form to them.
A yawn broke the daylight as Naruto finally got up with the help of Choji, looking equally tired. Turns out that the Nara's home was really easy to rest in due to the temperature of the area, and it was really nice to do so. Shikamaru looked at the two from the hallway and rolled his barely-awake eyes at them.
"So, what caused you two to come in so late? It was about midnight when you walked in." Shikamaru told them, noting that they had a good amount of time before any of them were counted as late for the class, not that it really mattered. Another yawn sounded from Naruto in response to this.
"Dad had a mission to do, but couldn't find us during the day. We were late due to Naruto's practice and the talk with the rest of the group so we didn't see the message till pretty late, so we walked on over afterwards." Choji effortlessly lied to him, but Shikamaru only raised an eyebrow at it.
"Naruto's practice only goes on until about ten o'clock at the latest, with the compound only about a ten minute walk away from the Hyuuga compound. That's about two hours completely unaccounted for. You didn't come with anything from the compound, so it couldn't have been storing up on anything..." Shikamaru continued, causing Choji to sweat slightly. Naruto was kinda too tired to care about his predicament.
"I was really tired from the training so I kinda just took a shower and past out. Choji woke me up about an hour after when he found the note on the refrigerator door on his midnight snack raid, telling him to lead us over to the Nara compound. It was late because I kept nearly falling asleep and we got a bit lost trying to find some food along the way. Proba'ly why it was about midnight we got to you." Naruto slurred sleepily as he took over the explanation. Shikamaru looked slightly impressed.
"Huh, good lie, you would have got me if it wasn't for the fact that when you came, you looked dead tired as well as both of you looking like you didn't eat supper. It's too troublesome to try and expose your lie, but I wish you'll trust me with it." Shikamaru sighed while Choji looked torn. Shikamaru smirked when he turned in a look of walking away.
"Wait!" Choji caved sadly as Shikamaru calmly, hiding the smirk of course, walked back into the room. "Okay but what I tell you stays with you! It's top ultra level secret, okay!?" Choji said in a look of nervous seriousness, looking around during the while. Naruto got to work on shutting the doors and windows and closing the curtains, nearly completely casting the room in shadow before fumbling and turning on a lamp. Shikamaru looked serious as he motioned for Choji to continue. Choji looked to Naruto as Naruto nodded in silent understanding, keeping a watch on anyone trying to sneak and listen in. Shikaku, now awake, merely smirked as he helped them out with the sealing of the conversation, knowing the matter they were discussing.
Only Shikamaru can make Choji cave that fast, looks like I win the bet Hiruzen! Shikaku grinned in thought, before casting his ears back to the conversation unfolding.
"It's about the Genjutsu the rest of the class are under. Naruto and I are trying to devise a method to break them out of it and we also want to try and track down who's to blame for it happening." Choji began, explaining the plan that they had talked about with Sakura and the rest of the group, as well as what Naruto and Choji talked about before heading to school most of the mornings before the events of last night. It revolved around using Sasuke to break the Genjutsu as Sakura said it was his words that snapped her back to her senses. It took Sasuke making her remember why she had liked him to begin with, but didn't seem to break if you used the standard Ram sign Kai breakthrough. It seemed that whatever it was interacted by smell, as she mentioned getting a pack of flowers from Ino and smelling them before her brain filled with thoughts of her and Sasuke together. Shikamaru nodded along as Choji and Naruto explained their plan until the two finished.
"We might not be as smart as you, but we didn't want to get you into trouble or anything, sorry about that!" Naruto laughed, hoping beyond hope that their top of the fly plan to distract the genius worked. Kurama rolled his eyes, but secretly held the same hope as Naruto. Shikamaru scoffed.
"I'll let you get away with it this time, but your sweat drops give away that you're not telling the whole story. You know that I'm going to find out eventually so stop being so troublesome." Shikamaru groaned in annoyance at his friends, who both gave bouts of nervous laughter.
"W-We'll tell you the whole story later, but we'll need to have you visit the Hokage for it..." Naruto nervously explained. Shikamaru nodded.
Shikaku sighed in relief, thankful that they did tell, Shikamaru would have hounded him for a week until he told, and he had bet his entire payday on this one, thankfully Hiruzen had betted two days. Shikaku grinned as he took the seals for proof. I may be lazy, but this will let me be even lazier for the next week, and maybe even take out that troublesome wife of mine for dinner.
"I'll hold you two to it then, let's get going before we're late. Also, don't you know the clean jutsu?" Shikamaru asked, showing the handsigns in full before his messy bed hair and clothes suddenly became clean. Naruto and Choji stared blankly at each other before repeating it, having to focus on the chakra formations before their clothes and body also felt clean.
"What even is this jutsu?" Naruto asked, absolutely confused.
"Well, a Nara made it years ago," Shikamaru explained, expertly ignoring a 'knew it' from Choji, "In order to keep agents in the field from being found out by the smell of their clothes after a long stakeout. By doing this, it makes use of the body's natural cleaning in order to well, clean the clothes and the like." Shikamaru continued, smirking as he noticed the awe in Naruto's eyes.
"That's SO COOL!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin on his face. Shikamaru wasn't entirely sure, but noticed the sapphire eyes clear through, while there was a small red tint around it, pulsing lightly as if it was sleeping. A light frown overtook Shikamaru's face, curious on why Naruto's eyes changed color so often, was it due to the Nine Tails influence like his dad had explained before? Shrugging it off for another day, the trio went off for the Academy.
"Not entirely sure what that jutsu is for, but it is pretty ingenious." Kurama suddenly thought towards Naruto on the route over.
"Morning Kurama. So, what do you mean by that?" Naruto asked, more just for the conversation then actually knowing. Kurama didn't mind much.
"Well, remember Kiba? His clan specializes in smell and finding enemies based on that. Many search teams go for having someone with a keen sense of smell due to Genjutsu being so powerful and rarely transmitted via the scent of smell, so having a jutsu that can clean your body and clothes and masks that scent is actually really beneficial for hiding from enemies when on long stakeouts." Kurama explained carefully, mentally jotting the jutsu down. Withholding another yawn, Kurama soon fell back asleep while Naruto entered the Academy building.
Iruka wasn't there for once, as he was busy with his mission for the Hokage that day. Instead, a teacher that Naruto didn't recognize, a woman if the circles around her chest was anything to go by, was there and glared when Naruto entered the room. The black hair flowed to the woman's shoulders to the point that she looked like she wasn't really paying attention to the class. Naruto ignored her when she kept the glare fixated on him, and went to his seat and sat down, noting how Choji and Shikamaru were also glaring at the teacher in their own ways. A smile upon his face, Naruto couldn't help but wonder when he would be able to see the rest of the Fox Squad again. They didn't really meet all the time in order to keep suspicions off of them and keep them all safe, so they decided to only meet up either in the Academy, but secretly via jutsu signs and Genjutsu provided by Sakura, and 'Naruto's alter ego' Kurama, they would pass messages along to one another.
Sakura had some affinity for Genjutsu as they found out in the first Genjutsu class with her after she was freed from her own Genjutsu, and none of them ever wanted to remember the horrors of that day. Even Sasuke couldn't help but feel slightly nervous around her after that. Thankfully she agreed to never use those kinds of Genjutsu on them, she claimed it didn't really fit her, and that she rather fight someone with her fists first, rather than risk getting lost in the web of Genjutsu that illusion fights would always devolve into. Thus she only really focused on how to tell you're in a Genjutsu as well as how to remove a Genjutsu off of yourself.
Kurama chuckled slightly at the memory, surprised that the secret of the Fox Squad's leader still stayed a secret through all the slip ups they gave about Kurama's existence, but didn't mind really. Sasuke was the next one to arrive, followed shortly after by most of the remaining fan-girls, Sakura, and Hinata. Kurama's red tint lit slightly towards the trio as he passed a message along.
"We're gonna meet up after school, the Academy isn't safe now. I'll explain it all later, just keep up the appearances." Kurama sent the message along with a light Genjutsu that didn't even require anything more than sight lines. Some of the girls looked over and just were confused away, wondering what had happened, but the other three gave a simple sign that involved them fixing their hair. Satisfied the message was delivered, the red glint in Naruto's eyes faded away. Yawning, Naruto casually ignored Sasuke, who acted like he was brooding. Sakura and Ino, with only one of them pretending, tried talking to Sasuke about things. Sakura was a lot calmer between the two, but Sasuke ignored both of them effortlessly. Choji and Shikamaru, along with Hinata and Naruto didn't have to pretend to be friends since they were already shown to be friends, but the rest didn't want to give away the plan between them. Shino was one of the last ones to arrive, and along with yet another red glint of Naruto's eyes, he too messed with his hair as a sign of getting it.
The teacher, Ms. Henrissa if the name on the chalkboard behind was anything to believe, (Naruto wasn't entirely sure it was true, and Kurama had a high belief against it as well.) finally snapped at this. "Naruto Uzumaki! Are you pranking these young students!?" She demanded to know as Naruto grinned mischievously. The group, having planned such plans, started itching over as if it was really really annoying and painful. "Get out of my classroom!" She demanded, tossing the chalk at him. Naruto dodged it by scooting to one of the sides on the three man wide seat he was at.
"Ahh don't worry, don't worry! It was just a genjutsu I had learned yesterday! It'll wear off in a bit!" Naruto lied with a grin plastered on his face. As if by an unknown signal, the itching slowly stopped for the involved members. Hasty, prepared glares were sent to Naruto and soon enough, the teacher proceeded to completely ignore Naruto's presence for the rest of class.
It was a class about the application of Chakra that day, at least after the teacher stopped talking about her looks and how superior she was to the rest of the class, and describing the uses of the twelve hand signs. They were all in accordance to the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, being; Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Each one of the signs pass a specific Chakra signal to your Network in order to signal what jutsu you are to use. For example, to use the Cleaning jutsu, you needed to use Rat, Rabbit and Snake in order to clean, preserve and shed away the previous day's yuckyness. There was quite a lot to how the signs worked, with how it also influenced the element in use; as Dragon was mostly fire along with Ox and Tiger, Rabbit and Monkey tended to be Earth, and so on and so forth. A lot of it went over even Kurama's head, so he couldn't really help Naruto with it, but they did notice Sakura quietly and quickly jotting down the information for it. In fact...
"Sensei, that's not correct." Sakura bluntly exclaimed when the teacher had described Pig as the useless sign that did nothing. "Pig in fact is used in order to bind the other signs together to perform dual-layered or even triple-layered jutsu such as the Summoning Jutsu." Sakura continued, before launching onto more examples that surprised even Kurama.
"ENOUGH!" The teacher yelled after the fifth example Sakura gave. Sakura reluctantly stopped and the vicious glare that rushed her way. "You say all these examples, but the truth is that I've been in much more combat situations then you ever have been in so how could you claim to know more than me? Now shut up and listen!" Ms. Henrissa yelled at Sakura, almost daring her to continue speaking. When Sakura said nothing, Ms. Henrissa continued. Sasuke shot a worried look towards Sakura's tearing face but couldn't do anything to help her. Almost mockingly, Ms. Henrissa tried using signs that Sasuke knew were a fire styled jutsu to try and launch a small ember of flame towards Sakura. Sasuke, having saw this, quickly pushed Sakura out of the way of the flame, getting singed lightly in the process.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" Naruto yelled, pounding his desk in the process as the class erupted into madness. The teacher rushed over to Sasuke to see if he was alright only to be shoved away by a snarling Naruto, who had ran over to make sure his two classmates, friends more like, were okay. The door slammed open in the process, revealing a very angry Iruka in front of it.
"I-I-Iruka-san!" The teacher stuttered out in shock, only to have two Anbu agents pop up to drag her out.
"You'll have your punishment for that. Sasuke, Sakura, are you two alright?" Iruka spat at Ms. Henrissa, quickly walking over to the pair and checking the wound with Naruto letting him on through. Sasuke nodded as he showed that the fire jutsu was pretty weak due to the lack of a pig sign after tiger. Sakura however looked at Sasuke with a look of complete shock.
"Y-you got hurt...because of me?" Sakura nearly completely whispered from the complete shock of it all. Sasuke smiled.
"It was nothing Sakura." Sasuke said back calmly. "I'm sorry I didn't stop her from insulting you like that." He whispered before getting back up and putting on his mask when the Genjutsu'd classmates of his ganged up upon him. Naruto walked over to Sakura and helped her up while looking back at Sasuke with a look of apology. Sasuke looked back with a stiff nod of understanding.
"Y-You okay Sakura?" Naruto stuttered out in deep worry. Sakura nodded with an unsure face in order to try and cheer him up.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Iruka-sensei...is the Pig sign useless?" She asked, noting how Naruto flinched back.
"Of course not. Many jutsu uses it in order to bind together multi-layered jutsu as you had explained. In fact, if she had used a pig sign in that Katon jutsu, it would have been at least five times more effective." Iruka-sensei explained more calm than he felt. Sakura looked towards Sasuke fearfully, afraid on what would have happened it she had indeed did that. Iruka didn't try to answer. "Everyone!" Iruka said instead, catching the attention of the class. "Let it be known that she will get the punishment deserving of one that attacks their students, as well as one trying to falsify information to a student with one's personal beliefs. We'll start over the lesson she taught you all with the real one in order to compare what will happen depending on a sign's usage. This can also be shown as a lesson on the dangers of being a ninja and of jutsu in general. It can harm, but it can also heal. Tomorrow we will be discussing the duty of a Ninja, as well as the different types of ninja around in order for you to get a better role of what we will be teaching here in the Academy as a whole. If you do not wish to be in danger, I suggest you quit now and take up a job around the village as a carpenter or a shop owner, for there will be no going back if you graduate." Iruka explained, before doing just that.
Naruto kinda understood how the signs worked after Iruka's lesson, at least a lot more than the rest, and apparently Kurama was able to keep up and provide his own advice to the class alongside it, much to Iruka's happiness. Soon enough, the class was over and it was time for Taijutsu before the day ended. Nothing really happened in Taijutsu class, and soon the Fox Squad, as Naruto lovingly called them, gathered up in the Hokage's office, having been let in by Hiruzen himself.
"Hey old man!" Naruto grinned as he walked in, before being put in his place by Sakura telling him to hold respect for the most important man of the village. The rest of the group went in, but each one kept a worried gaze towards Sasuke and Sakura. Hiruzen had heard of the situation, and merely sent his apologies and assured them that the teacher would be getting her due punishment. Naruto's grin fell a bit into a more serious look as he calmly escaped the headlock Sakura had put him in. Hiruzen looked surprised at this as he activated the security seals surrounding the room, "I came to explain to the rest of the squad about the Genjutsu placed over the rest of the students, as well as the rest of the mission." Naruto explained as soon as Hiruzen had finished his task.
"Ahh..." Hiruzen said in realization, "I trust you know the stakes involved in this decision?" Hiruzen tested with a firm gaze upon Naruto. Naruto simply nodded in response, offering no words of encouragement for the other members of his squad, who were starting to look slightly nervous. "I see, then I'm glad you all gathered here. I will allow this to be your meeting room for the length of this mission. Now then...this mission..." Hiruzen started explaining the mission to the squad, watching as the looks of the squad slowly turned more and more determined as they went through. Even Sasuke, who Hiruzen had thought would be a problem with the rising tensions of the Uchiha clan as of late, had agreed to the mission.
Sasuke walked up besides Naruto and locked eyes with Hiruzen. As if reading his mind, Sasuke opened his mouth, "I been hearing from my brother about some problems happening between the clan and the village, is there anything I can do to help?" Sasuke asked, concerned over the rest of his family.
"Sasuke, do you need me to try and sneak in with a couple of pranks and find out?" Naruto asked, equally as serious as his near brother was in his question. Hiruzen's eye twitched as he coughed.
"No need, I have your brother helping hold ties with the clan together, but I might need your help with convincing your family to not revolt against us. It seems the Genjutsu wasn't just upon your classmates, but I never heard of a Uchiha falling for genjutsu before..." Hiruzen said as Naruto snickered at this along with Kurama. Hiruzen looked confused.
"I kinda put Sasuke under genjutsu all the time as a way to send messages!" Naruto snickered out as Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"The only way for an Uchiha that has opened his Sharingan to become placed under a genjutsu is if the other person either has a much stronger hold on their genjutsu, or if it's against another person with Sharingan." Sasuke explained, "It's weird, because it looks like a grand majority of the clan has been under this based on how my trips in the village have been. Shisui-nii has been rushing around in an attempt to try and fix this with Itachi-nii, but I don't know..." Sasuke seemed concerned and scared about the situation.
The Fox Squad looked over with sympathy for their comrade. While Sasuke never told them about his family, they knew it had to be rough given his personality, and the fan girls don't seem to have helped in any of it. He was open sure, but that didn't mean he had his quiet moments. In a sense...he was a lot like Naruto in that regard. Naruto walked up to Sasuke with a light hug.
"Don't worry Teme, your family is going to be alright, believe it." Naruto said with a calmer tone than he felt. Sasuke smiled on back as he accepted the hug.
"...Yeah." He said simply as Hiruzen coughed, bringing their attention on back to him.
"If there is anything you can help with, I'll let you know Sasuke. But for now...I need you to focus on this mission with the others. It might take a while, but I believe you all can do it." Hiruzen assured the young Uchiha.
"Is there any way we can get rid of the Genjutsu upon them? The classmates don't know they're under an genjutsu and I don't believe Sasuke can snap each and every one of them out in the way he did with Sakura." Shikamaru spoke aloud with his question, noting how it was a slow and steady process of systematically snapping the students out of it. Hiruzen sighed.
"That's the problem, it looks like even Inochi, Ino's father, has also been placed under this Genjutsu and that's why he has been encouraging Ino's behavior instead of having her focus on her studies. We had him visit our Mistress of Genjutsu, and she said that all she could get was that it used the person's sense of smell to activate the genjutsu, before binding itself into the chakra flow. Sasuke's desire for Sakura to snap back to normal stopped the flow of chakra in her body long enough to allow the awareness to break free." Hiruzen explained, somewhat helpless before Naruto's eyes lit up.
"I got it!" Naruto exclaimed. "I found a book with Kurama's help when I returned to the library in my off time about something called Fuinjutsu, and one of the lower tiered seals there allows the user to stop the chakra flow in one's body! If we used that..." Naruto said with a grin.
"Yeah, but your writing skill is nowhere near clean enough to write the seal in a way that won't cause damage to one's body. That isn't a bad idea on the other hand..." Shikamaru said in response, looking towards Hiruzen.
Hiruzen smiled, "Okay Naruto, thankfully I have a seal-making friend I can contact, and we can get the Chakra suppression seals off of him. That was a great idea of you, but what caused you to have an interest in Fuinjutsu?" Hiruzen asked, making a note to contact Jiraiya about it in the next note he sends about the mission going on. Naruto shrugged.
"Uh, a part of my brain pointed the book out, saying I might be good at it, but it wasn't sure about it." Naruto tried to explain, Kurama rolling his eyes at Naruto's attempt of hiding his existence still.
"You do know that eventually they'll find out, right? Hinata and Choji don't seem to mind." Kurama snickered a bit as Naruto mentally rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, but they got enough on their back, I'll tell them when things calm down a bit!" Naruto explained back, noting all of the stuff that happened over the last week alone. Kurama couldn't really disagree.
"Yeah, just don't let it get to the point where you forget to tell them." Kurama mentally shrugged at him, looking back at Hiruzen once more.
"Well, do you think you'll be good at it?" Hiruzen asked, knowing exactly what Naruto had meant.
Naruto shrugged, "I would have to practice my handwriting a lot, but after that I believe I can make use of them, my brain just soaked up the seal work and it comes really easily. It's more that my handwriting doesn't allow the detail I need for it, meaning I miss a lot of the seal.." Naruto sighed, taking a piece of paper and a pen from Hiruzen, who merely looked amused, and proceeded to draw a complicated seal that even made Hiruzen terrified by the seal work. It was one that would act as a master seal in order to store more inside of it. Simple in concept sure, but the one Naruto drew was modified in a sense to allow for the seal to become a reactant for whatever explosive or compound he put inside of it. It was rough, to the point where it was unusable, but the concept was readily there. "See?" Naruto said in exasperation as he finished the seal, disappointed in his own seal work.
"Wow, I see what you mean Naruto." Hiruzen said in honestly, impressed and terrified by the seal Naruto had drawn. "How did you even find out about this?" Hiruzen asked as Naruto shrugged.
"It kinda just came to me." Naruto admitted before the seals lowered again.
"Lord Hokage." An Anbu member dropped by, entering via the window, with a scroll in his hands. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but this was urgent." He said, handing the scroll over before disappearing. Hiruzen looked towards Naruto and the others before nodding.
Once the group left, he opened the scroll up, "Oh...that's troublesome..." Hiruzen sighed in response to what it read. Turning his head to his right, where he knew a certain copy ninja was standing, "Kakashi, follow up on this intel." Hiruzen said simply, watching the scroll vanish alongside said ninja. Sighing, Hiruzen hoped that what he read was not true...yet he had a sinking feeling that some of the people on that list were indeed Academy traitors.
Nothing really happened for the next few days, other than the lesson Iruka gave the class Friday about the different types of Ninja. Sakura had kept up and said that she was more interested in healing, not wishing for anyone else to get hurt for her and being able to do nothing about it. The rest of the Fox Squad approved of the motion and helped her with getting the books and beginning jutsu to start her on the path. They started with trying to find how to free the rest of their classmates, but there wasn't much they could do when their classmates didn't realize they were underneath a genjutsu to begin with. Sighing, the group found themselves unable to pursue it for quite a while, with even the route of trying to find Ino's house not going well. While some were freed from it, the grand majority of the class still found themselves under the genjutsu.
The day after Choza left for his mission.
"How far?" Choza asked the quiet Yamato. They were heading off for their mission and were to join up with one of the great Sannin for it.
"We're not that far out, my cover for the mission is Yamamoto, remember that." Yamato explained before the two jumped down from the tree line they were rushing through, "We're about a hundred meters out, but we have to proceed the rest of the way on foot to maintain our cover." Yamato continued, changing his clothes with more citizen like ones. Afterwards he put on a pair of false glasses to try and portray a look of innocence. He couldn't do much about the blank stare he always seemed to carry, but it was believable enough to pass the look off as a character quirk rather than a something that would immediately fail the mission.
Choza on the other hand merely took off his headband and replaced it with a missing nin equivalent from the land of the Rice Patties, then after taking off his jonin jacket and storing it in a seal on the back of his original headband, which was stored within a seal lined to a bag he carried that he would claim contains the ingredients he had hunted down during the time he had been away. After all of that, he put a pair of earrings on, watching as his face had changed nearly completely from a genjutsu contained within the earrings themselves. With a smile upon his now much fat-reduced face, he along with the newly dubbed Yamamoto walked along.
It took a while, but the two gathered around a food truck that seemed really popular with the poor villagers as they gathered around it. A smile upon their faces, they slowly walked through the crowd, watching as they looked at Choza and moved to let the two through with a look of deep respect.
"Why hello there Konochi-san, I hope your trip's been profitable." Jiraiya said to Choza with a smile upon his face as he handed out yet another bowl of soup to one of the villagers. The newly dubbed Konochi rolled his eyes in response, as if to an old friend.
"Hello Jiraiya-sensei. I take it you're here to take me in?" Konochi asked, raising his hands as if to allow Earth-styled handcuffs, as many of the villagers glared at Jiraiya in disbelief. Jiraiya had heard that Choza's alter ego Konochi was popular with the rain village, but he didn't know they liked him this much.
"No, not at all! You're not from our village so why would we mess with you when all we heard from you was that you were helping out other villages, and that your village simply didn't want you to go? You're not even on our bingo books for crying out loud!" Jiraiya hastily assured him and the villagers as Konochi smiled in understanding, lowering his hands as he looked around, noting Jiraiya's...attempt at cooking soup.
"I'm glad to hear it, so...what's that?" Konochi said, looking at the bowl of soup with not-so-hidden disgust.
"Why it's my homemade soup of course!" Jiraiya said proudly, to which Konochi pushed him back with a scoff and headed to his food truck kitchen. About five minutes later, he returned with a dish looking not that different from Jiraiya's. Two villagers gathered around for a taste test, one for Konochi's, and the other for Jiraiya's.
"Please try this if you will." Konochi smiled towards one of the poor villagers that had been waiting nearby. Hesitantly, the lady walked up to him and took a sip of the soup...then another. Soon enough, the bowl of soup was empty and she looked completely satisfied, some of the life flowing back through her weary veins.
Meanwhile the other villager simply spit out the food with an envious look towards the villager that ate Konochi's bowl. Jiraiya was slightly dejected, but Konochi assured him that he can do better. Grinning, Jiraiya and Konochi continued serving people, working together on their soups in order to feed the villagers gathered around them.
Naruto groaned lightly as he got up for the final exams of the Pre-Academy. Apparently, it had been a full year since the Fox Squad took up their first mission and Choza still had yet to return from whatever mission he was on. Choji acted like he didn't care much, but Naruto still saw the pained looks of sadness whenever Choji looked towards the Akimichi compound whenever they walked past. They had managed to get the Genjutsu off of most of the classmates; however, Ino still couldn't be snapped out of it and instead taken to avoiding them all, and without her, they had no way to get to Inochi. His head felt fuzzy for a reason beyond him, but he figured it was just the headache of just waking up and nothing more.
Naruto barely even noticed the door opening to his room as he started getting dressed, lazily using the cleaning jutsu to not even bother with taking a shower while Choji and Shikamaru walked inside the room.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. He had kept silent for quite a while, after his suggestion went ignored by Naruto of simply having Sasuke ask Ino about where she lived, and after that, refused to help out...but he had a mission to do, and his father was starting to get annoyed at Shikamaru for his childishness on a high ranking mission, "You guys have any luck finding out how the Genjutsu off of Ino?" Shikamaru asked, digging into the obvious wound. Naruto growled at him from the jab, not at all happy with the fact that they had made no progress in all the time while Choji merely looked at him with a frown.
"Oh yeah!? What bright idea do you have then!?" Naruto spat out to Shikamaru, who smirked in response and at first simply shrugged. Choji grunted a bit before punching him on his shoulder.
"Shikamaru, I understand you hate being interrupted in explanations, but now is not the time for this! It's been over two weeks at this point!" Choji yelled, frustrated at his friend's inaction as Shikamaru rubbed the wound with a sigh before starting to explain.
"Why not just ask my dad? He was on the same team as Ino and Choji's fathers, so he might know where they live. And when we learn that, we can bring Ms. Kurenai with us in order to break him out of it. Once we do that, we can get Ino out of it and try to ask them what caused them to get under it." Shikamaru suggested, not really as mad as they were when the Hokage refused to tell them where Ino and her father lived in order to test them for future missions. Choji decided to speak up, still annoyed by his friend holding this information from them out of spite.
"Didn't the Hokage say that Ms. Kurenai couldn't break him out of the Genjutsu?" Choji asked, confused by Shikamaru's plan.
"Yes, but we can also bring Sakura and Sasuke with us. Since Sasuke seems to be the key to the Genjutsu, while Sakura still remains the only one that is able to break them out of it. If the pattern continues, with the three of them with us, we can break the two out and begin on our way of seeing what caused the Genjutsu to be placed in the first place. Ino's family runs a flower shop, but no one has been there for just over a year now, almost perfectly to the day that the Genjutsu was probably laid." Shikamaru continued with a bored look upon his face. Naruto's eye twitched with annoyance as Choji blocked the door knowingly. Shikamaru sighed as he muttered how troublesome under his breath.
"Just...don't. Please." Kurama begged in equal annoyance, knowing how troublesome and lazy Naras were after how long Naruto had been staying with the Nara family. Naruto ignored him for once, much to Kurama's displeasure.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THIS SOONER!?" Naruto yelled out, hearing the mental groan from Kurama during which. Shikamaru rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"You ignored me the last time I suggested it, saying you had a better plan." Shikamaru reminded him, as Naruto relented with a grunt before the trio used the Cleaning Jutsu once more, knowing that tomorrow they had to shower in order to not stink.
The atmosphere between the three were tense as they looked at each other. "So, you two ready for the exam?" Choji asked, hoping to break the tension as Naruto hmph'd away, hands crossed in a clear state of anger. Shikamaru shrugged.
"It's not that hard an exam, and I think we're all more than ready for it. The only one that's having trouble is Naruto with the Clone Jutsu." Shikamaru explained as Naruto growled.
"It's not my fault! I keep telling you all-" Naruto yelled back as Shikamaru waved it off.
"That you simply have too much Chakra, believe me Naruto, I know." Choji rolled his eyes at the answer.
"So, what do you want to d-" Choji started saying before heading to Naruto's bedroom window with a look of curiosity. "That's weird..." He mumbled as Naruto looked in confusion.
"Choji, what's wrong?" Naruto asked as Choji pointed to the birds rushing on overhead, but Shikamaru was the one to answer curtly.
"The village is on alert. Dad was telling me about what the birds meant, if they're in a V formation, it's a Level one emergency, u for level two and so on and so forth...why are we in a Level one emergency...?" Shikamaru mumbled aloud as the three rushed outside of the house without a second thought, worried for their friends, and wondering what could possibly be putting the village in a state of alarm.
Tension filled the air as the three ran through to the main village area, ninja rushing on past them and everyone just trying to get through. People rushed towards their homes and Shikamaru noticed that not a single Uchiha police officer was in sight.
"Shi-Shikamaru, what's happening?" Choji stuttered on out as he tried avoiding the crowd struggling to get back.
"H-HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!" Naruto yelled to no avail, still getting pushed and shoved wherever, and not all of it was on accident.
Shikamaru barely kept the three of them above the ground and not falling as he rushed to the alleyways to get out of the way of the others. "I don't know Choji, but whatever it is...it can't be good..." Shikamaru said as Naruto looked to the roof and gulped. "Naruto...what are you doing?" Shikamaru asked as Naruto put Chakra on the soles of his feet.
"I'll get up top and try to find out what's happening!" Naruto said as he starting running up towards the roof. His feet started slipping a bit, but he managed to grab on to a fire escape ladder overhead in order to keep climbing up. "You guys try finding out what's happening down there, let's meet back up when we can!" Naruto hollered on down.
Shikamaru nodded. "We'll make sure that Sakura and the others are okay, I think this has something to do with Sasuke's family so make sure he's safe!" He yelled on back as the trio split up to cover more ground.
"Sasuke..." Naruto whispered to himself as Kurama nodded.
"We won't let anything happen to him. Let's just hurry up." Kurama said simply as the two ran off in silence, the flame becoming larger and larger as Uchiha clan members blocked the way in.
"It's our time now!" One said, but Naruto just growled and pushed on past with twin paint buckets in their faces. "Sasuke!" He yelled as the two stilled, unable to do anything while the Academy student ran past. Naruto rushed through the area as more and more Uchiha members rushed at him, only the ones above Chunnin rank escaping unscathed and rushing back at him. "SASUKE!" Naruto yelled louder as the scene fell away beyond him, surprising even Kurama at how well he fell for the Genjutsu.
A young man stood before then in the void of the Genjutsu. "Hello Naruto." He said simply as Sasuke walked forward.
"Sasuke! You're okay!" Naruto said as he rushed on past, with the man smiling as he looked towards the two.
"Itachi-nii, why are you doing this!?" Sasuke cried, phasing through Naruto's outstretched arms, much to his confusion.
Itachi smiled as he looked towards the two. "You both need to know this." Itachi said as his eyes spun, blood leaking out from the Mangekyou Sharingans as the two felt dizzy, unable to even stand as Itachi smiled.
"Naruto, you need to learn of this, to help my little brother out with his own pain. This was events that had happened before you met Sasuke, just the day before in fact while you slept, and Sasuke needs to remember. Please help him for my own sake." Itachi asked as Naruto gritted his teeth against the pain, struggling to his feet.
"O-Okay, b-but why n-now?" Naruto stuttered out against the pain, it fading away bit by bit as Itachi looked towards him.
"Because he's on the move, and after what you and Kakashi-sempai found out, I fear that you might be in danger, he repressed his memories, and you are the only one that I could find connected to him before I'm found in the village. I need your help, please Naruto." Itachi begged as Naruto grinned.
"Just leave it to me! I'll help him out, but can you help my friends out? I think they also got caught in this whole situation and don't know what's happening." Naruto grinned before sheepishly asking. Itachi nodded with a smile.
"They're already getting their own explanation of the events as we speak." Itachi asked as Kurama couldn't hold back the growl, surprising both Naruto and himself at the animosity behind it.
"Didn't you say you could only find Naruto?" Kurama growled out as Itachi nodded, not looking the least bit scared.
"Indeed I did, and I meant it. Shikamaru and Choji aren't as close to him as you are, you and the girl were the ones that forced him to open up after it all happened, but I don't have the time to tell you more. This will be more than enough to explain to him, so please you two, find Sasuke and pass on this message." Itachi pleaded before staring Naruto and Kurama in the eyes, his Sharingans spinning rapidly as he stared at them, both feeling numb as a raven flew from Itachi into Naruto's mouth.
The world turned to black as the scene faded away, leaving Naruto in a state of confusion before a loud slam came from his bedroom door. "Naruto! What the heck just happened!?" Choji's yells pierced the slog Naruto's mind was crawling at. "Naruto!" Choji yelled again as Naruto groaned, trying to move the covers off of him, but just generally trying to recover over whatever had happened, even Kurama wasn't responding at all.
"Mmm up..." He groaned out as he finally opened his eyes, noting Choji standing by the side of his bed about ready to flip him clean out of the bed itself as Naruto groaned. "Man he gave me a headache...I take it he talked to you too?" Naruto asked as Choji nodded.
"Yeah, he was saying something about you passing a message along to Sasuke, right?" Choji asked as Shikamaru sighed, entering the room himself.
"Indeed he was, I take it that was Sasuke's older brother given how he referred to Sasuke as his little brother, meaning it had to be Itachi Uchiha." Shikamaru said, bringing out his bingo book and showing the S rank bounty on him. "He's a huge Genjutsu artist, and apparently we were all under his Genjutsu the whole time?" Shikamaru for once seemed unsure, taking up a meditating stance as he tried to think about it, leaving Naruto to look towards Choji.
"Well, I guess we need to look for Sasuke? Maybe he's over by his home still?" Choji asked as Shikamaru sighed.
"You do realize that we're all going to meet up at the Academy, right? We have our final exams today, we all decided to meet up there before to talk about what we'll do next. This'll be what'll get us into the main Academy, as well as show what we'll be learning from here on out." Shikamaru explained with a sigh as Naruto grinned.
"Then let's just head on over to his house then swing on back to the Academy!" Naruto suggested as Choji smirked victoriously.
"Yeah, let's do it!" He grinned as Shikamaru groaned.
"How troublesome..." He sighed once again as they got dressed, heading on out for real this time in order to see Sasuke.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out as the three of them walked towards Sasuke's house, the once peaceful, yet empty, Uchiha compound seemingly haunted to them as Naruto shivered a bit, jumping at Shikamaru's poking. "W-Why did you do that!?" Naruto yelped as Shikamaru smirked, pointing towards in front of Sasuke's house to see Sasuke walking towards the group with a mixture of confusion and annoyance on his face.
"Hey Naruto, why are you guys here? I thought we were meeting in a few hours by the Academy?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow as Naruto sighed, looking back towards Shikamaru and Choji, both who also looked awkwardly confused about the situation. Naruto turned back towards the confused Sasuke.
"Uh...your older brother wanted us to pass you a message, but I don-" Naruto tried to say as a crow wretched itself out of his mouth and flew over to Sasuke. Naruto hacked and coughed a bit, but Sasuke forced himself not to scream as the memories were ripped out of the box he had shoved them into, all while a Genjutsu came over him, erasing the forged memories that Itachi had put in him and replacing them with the correct versions.
Sasuke looked around as Itachi appeared with a smile, "If you're hearing this Sasuke, then...I'm probably already away from the village." The Itachi told him before continuing on, "I didn't tell you the whole truth for your protection, but now...you deserve the truth." Itachi said as Sasuke finally let loose the roar he held in.
The moment must have only been just that, a moment, but for Sasuke, it felt like an eternity as Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji watched the sleeping Uchiha in front of them. Naruto gulped as he looked towards the others, unsure on what was happening, but Kurama merely sighed.
"I...don't know, but he doesn't look like he's in any danger." Kurama said, gritting his teeth in frustration, unaware of what about those eyes seemed to make him furious, and why it drove some part of him insane. Kurama kept those thoughts from Naruto, but apparently not enough as Naruto gulped again.
"You okay Kurama?" Naruto asked, as Kurama sighed.
"It's nothing..." Kurama dismissed it, not wishing to speak more of it, and instead looking at Sasuke, "He's waking up." Kurama warned as Sasuke seemed to grunt a bit before blinking slowly.
"Danzo..." Sasuke groaned out a bit, the memories rushing at him still as Naruto looked confused.
"Danzo?" Naruto asked as Sasuke looked towards the group of three.
"He dragged my brother out of the village, Itachi's gone because of him." Sasuke said as Naruto gritted his teeth.
"Okay then, the Fox Squad is on the case!" Naruto grinned as Shikamaru and Choji looked towards him, "We'll clear Itachi's name and bring Danzo to justice!" Naruto continued on as Shikamaru shook his head in disbelief.
"We'll need some proof first, a known criminal's word isn't going to mean much you two." Shikamaru countered as Naruto smirked.
"Well, remember what we're doing with the Academy records and trying to find the traitor. If there's records of those, and those weird mask wearers that were in the sewers..." Naruto said, as Shikamaru blinked in understanding.
"Oh I see, you think that there might be some records about Itachi, and that those mask wearers are connected to it?" Shikamaru said as Naruto grinned with a nod.
"Yup!" Naruto said as Choji looked a bit against the idea.
"Didn't Kakashi-san and the others say they would handle it?" Choji asked as Naruto sighed.
"Yeah...I don't know if I can get that much info out of them..." Naruto said as Sasuke slowly got up, getting out of Naruto's hands all the while.
"I won't forgive him...I have to save Itachi..." Sasuke spoke lowly, scaring Naruto slightly at the intensity of it as Shikamaru scoffed once more.
"There's nothing you can do at the moment Sasuke." Shikamaru said as Sasuke looked up towards him with a light glare in his eyes, Shikamaru sighed with a mutter of 'troublesome' before continuing on, "We're not even Genin, and Danzo is powerful enough that even Chunnin would lose against him. We need to get more powerful, and have more information and proof before we can do anything against him." Shikamaru explained as they all got up, noting a bit more of the Fox Squad seeing them and walking towards them. "Let's let the others know, and then once we become Chunnin, we'll head over to Hiruzen and tell him about everything we know. Understood?" Shikamaru asked as Naruto and Choji readily nodded with smiles, while Sasuke nodded reluctantly.
"Itachi-nii-san..." Sasuke muttered lowly as they walked onward.
Three Months Later
"I think we should save Ino." Sakura had spoken up at the gathered squad in front of her. Sasuke and Shino shied away from the group proper, but the members all stared at her. "One, our mission is to save all those under the Genjutsu, but more than that, she's our friend, so we can't leave her trapped under something beyond her control!" Sakura explained as Sasuke hmph'd. He had regressed into wearing a scowl upon his face, and just the mere mention of the incident would drive him to close himself off from the world, to which only Naruto and Sakura had been able to bring him out of it.
"But Sakura! She went and called you that mean word! She full on insulted you in front of everyone! She doesn't deserve it!" Naruto whined back somewhat half heartily. If he was honest, he knew that that wasn't why he didn't want to release them. It was more that he didn't want to be sure that Ino only did that under the Genjutsu or not. What if she had full-heartily meant the words from back then? Naruto was more scared for Sakura than angry at Ino and everyone except Sakura herself knew it.
"How could you say that!?" Sakura lashed back in blinded anger. Naruto flinched back onto the chair he had sat down. The Fox Squad had been in the Hokage's office for going on an hour now. While the Hokage didn't mind it, Sakura didn't want to take advantage of the hospitality of the decision. "She's a potential teammate, just like any of us in the class. So why would you turn your back on her like that!?" Sakura continued, not noticing in her moment of rage the hurt expression that appeared on her friend's face.
"I know that..." Naruto sighed out in what was little more than a hurt whisper. Sakura didn't hear it.
"We have to help her, and that's that!" Sakura ended her 'point' with a hmph, looking away from him towards Sasuke, "After all, Sasuke still has to deal with Ino trying to always go after him, remember that after we freed them from the Genjutsu, most of the other classmates didn't really go after Sasuke, saying something about 'He doesn't like me and actively avoids me, why should I go after him?' or something." Sakura waved it off with closed eyes, which led her to missing Sasuke's flinch at that. Shikamaru snickered at that.
"Sakura, do you even know how to free the two of them?" Sasuke asked calmly, but still with the scowl upon his face. He had taken to silence in the months past, and no matter what they did, he was no better than Shino. (Shino wasn't entirely sure if they registered his existence, but a quick smirk from Sasuke, Shikamaru and a smile from Naruto in his direction proved otherwise. He shared a smile back at them.) Sakura nervous laughter caused Sasuke to just roll his eyes at how he nailed it on the head.
"If we free her father, most likely he'll free Ino if you really want to do that. Sakura, aren't you afraid of if Ino meant it even without the Genjutsu applied to her?" Naruto said, even as Kurama tried to stop him. Naruto didn't understand why until he saw Sakura. "Oh Fu-" Naruto nearly cursed before having pain shoot up the left side of his face, being punched into the nearby wall, which hilariously enough was the Hokage's desk, where he sat there rubbing his face in deep pain, "Ow..." He groaned.
Sakura Hmph'ed once more, "Any more bright ideas!?" Sakura demanded of the group, who were magically silent from the display. Even Sasuke did everything he could to avoid her eyesight. The only one that dared speak was Shino of all people.
"I believe that Naruto did have a point there. Why? Well, her father would be someone with understanding of the Genjutsu, and it seems those two had the most direct exposure to the Genjutsu alongside you, so he might be better suited to freeing her." Shino said, having gotten into a habit of explaining his words ever since he entered the Academy's first year in his second year. (None of them were happy of having to add a year every time they say what Academy year they were in.) Sakura thought about it, not minding the blood that had stained her fist as she did so.
During the silence, even Shino couldn't hide the nervousness he had, Sakura had been almost bloodthirsty ever since the Incident as they were now referring to the Uchiha Massacre. After they all started researching in order to help Sasuke get revenge, they had found the man he had referred to as Danzo. A man by the name of Danzo Shimura that was on the Citizen's Council. They were planning on taking their info to Hiruzen soon, but Naruto brought up a point that Shino would have thought would have come from Shikamaru, who was also surprised by it.
'Wouldn't the Old Man have known about this to begin with? Sasuke said that if Itachi didn't do it, then Danzo would have also killed Sasuke himself, who's to say he doesn't already know and reluctantly agreed in order to prevent a civil war?' Naruto had said...so here they were. That had only been about a week ago now, since most of the Squad couldn't find time to meet up before. All of this info flashed through Shino's mind as he saw Sakura stare at him, fresh blood still dripping off her fist. Struggling to hide his newfound anxiety, Shino kept the shudders as small as he could...which just happened to be near buckling down in fear. Sakura's sigh shook him to his core as she looked sad.
"You guys don't need to be afraid of me..." Sakura said sorrowfully as Choji's mouth opened right before Shikamaru slammed into him to stop the words he knew they were all thinking. 'OF COURSE WE DO! WE'RE AFRAID OF YOU TRYING TO PUNCH US AS BAD AS YOU DO NARUTO!' The thought screamed in their heads. Sakura sought out comfort from Sasuke, who couldn't hide the minute flinch that came when she hugged him. Sakura didn't mind though and continued hugging him, relaxing when his hand awkwardly hugged back. "Let's get going, we need to find Ino and her father to free them!" Sakura said with newfound confidence, leading the terrified Fox Squad away...without Naruto.
Hiruzen didn't know how to feel when he saw his desk in shambles and an unconscious Naruto in the center of the shreds. It looked like he was first punched in the cheek before another one came to his gut. Sweat dripping from his cheek did nothing to hide Hiruzen's fear. Oh god is there another Tsunade in our village? His mind couldn't help thinking. Instead of thinking anything more, Hiruzen instead went to his desk and pulled out a, thankfully, intact bottle of wine. Downing it slowly, Hiruzen ignored the Naruto-sized splinters in his desk.
The Fox Squad seemed to split a bit on the way to the Nara compound. Shino said that he was going to scout around the village and see if his beetles were old enough to try scouting for Ino and her father's Chakras. Hinata said she wanted to practice her Byakugan to help find the two. Everyone was silently wondering when she walked into the room. Turns out she had just been sleeping before they left. Her father had been working her to the bone lately and she couldn't help but start sleeping at random times in order to rest her wounds. They hoped she grew out of that as time went on cause it made it hard to know if she was there or not. Sasuke said he had wanted to find Naruto and that they would meet up after getting some lunch, which led to Sakura's stomach loudly growling in reply and, while laughing nervously, asked to join along. All in all, it was only Shikamaru and Choji that had went over to the house.
Sighing, the two walked inside the door to the Nara home. Shikaku opened the door with a grumble as he shooed the two inside. Bemused, the two walked in and sat on down. "What is it Shikamaru?" Shikaku asked, both curious and wanting to fall back asleep by his favorite tree.
Shikamaru, long used to his father's default expression of tired, merely rolled his eyes at his father's tone, "We're trying to find Ino's house, we figured since you were teammates with her father, that you would know where it is." Shikamaru asked, with Shikaku being patient and letting him finish.
"Oh, okay then. You'll find them here, was wondering when you would ask kid." Shikaku shrugged, writing the address down on a sticky note and passing it to Shikamaru. "Been a while since I was able to talk to the guy, he was acting weird last time, to the point of me accusing him of being drunk. Hope you break the Genjutsu on him kid." Shikaku waved the two off after saying to come home around seven since Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother, would be cooking something. After agreeing, the two went back up to meet up at Ichiraku Ramen with the others.
Sasuke wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting when Sakura asked to join him. She hadn't been nearly as big of a pain as when she was under the Genjutsu, respecting his personal space and the like, but...Sasuke didn't know the word to place it under. It didn't matter, shaking his head slightly, he started to drift back towards where he had last seen Naruto, in the Hokage's office of all things. They were just heading down the main street, seeing the tower get closer as Sasuke noticed Sakura slow down. Looking back with a look of curiosity, he saw her eyes widen in what looked to be fear, following her eyesight, he found Ino.
She had a packet of flowers in her hand and was looking around the street, yet from the crowd walking around the two, she never found Sasuke and Sakura. Grabbing Sakura's hand somewhat forcibly to snap her out of it, Sasuke led her down a side street, noting that Ino's fee started walking away during which.
"You okay?" Sasuke whispered when the coast looked clear. Sakura's brow still reeked of sweat, noting that the strands were still falling down the fact, but still she nodded just a tad too fast. Sasuke sighed. "Then let's get going, we still gotta find Naruto." Sasuke said, looking towards the end of the side street they found themselves on. He wasn't entirely sure why he had beads of sweat falling down his face, but he was relieved to see no one there as they exited off of main street.
"...And that's how I totally took down Kakashi-Sensei!" Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's voice. He did snicker when he remembered that while Naruto had 'beaten' Kakashi-Sensei, it was only when Kakashi-Sensei was taking a rest after a long night out finding clues over whatever was happening in the Academy and Naruto had decided to prank him by putting his hand in water.
"Wow, so cool!" Sasuke and Sakura heard a new voice join the conversation, and decided to reveal themselves. They found Naruto enthusiastically talking to a small kid with a giant scarf around his neck. Naruto had a large shit-eating grin of arrogance on his face as Kurama felt Sasuke and Sakura's presence, but spitefully didn't tell Naruto. Let him deal with his own messes.
"You tell him about what happen after that?" Sasuke smirked after Naruto failed to notice him.
"What do you me-" Naruto started before seeing Sasuke. His grin instantly turned nervous, "O-O-Oh...hey Sasuke!" He laughed nervously as well. The little kid looked towards Sasuke with confusion written on his face.
"What happened afterwards?" The kid asked.
"N-N-NOTHING AT ALL!" Naruto yelled with stutter intact, begging Sasuke with his eyes not to tell. Sasuke's smirk grew evermore.
"Oh just merely that Kakashi used a tech-" Sasuke started explaining before Naruto jumped him and covered his mouth.
"Sasuke's hungry, well Konohamaru, I'll see you Monday!" Naruto said, quickly shooing the kid away, who just looked confused at the act. After Konohamaru was readily gone. Naruto glared at Sasuke, getting off of him in the process. "Why did you have to go and do that!?" Naruto whined towards his friend. Sasuke chuckled in response.
"Nice to see you too Naruto, we were just looking for you." Sasuke replied without a single answer, annoying Naruto just a tad more. "Want some ramen?" Sasuke sweat-dropped by the instant 180 Naruto's attitude took when he heard ramen.
"RAMEN!? YEAH LET'S GO!" He yelled happily.
"Sakura, you okay?" Sasuke asked as Naruto rapidly headed in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen, (No one truly understood, but no matter where Naruto was, even if he never seen the place before, he could always route the route to Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura sighed lightly, still easily torn up by seeing Ino earlier. A light frown overtook Sasuke's face, having noticed that with all Sakura's bravo earlier, she always froze if she even saw Ino.
"Yeah..." Sakura said in what nearly amounted to a whisper. Sasuke, while not at all convinced, dropped it for her sake.
"Okay then, let's get going in that case." Sasuke said, starting to head off to follow Naruto a bit before turning and seeing Sakura had yet to move.
"What...what if he was right? Who's to say that Ino didn't mean what she had said even if she was out of that Genjutsu? Should I release her from it?" Sakura said, head down to try and mask the tears that Sasuke could see falling to the ground, "Did I lose my best friend for good?" She whispered in a voice that Sasuke had to strain in order to hear. Sighing, Sasuke merely patted her head somewhat awkwardly. Sakura flinched slightly, looking up with puffy cheeks from her tears.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure that it was based on the Genjutsu, so if you release her from it, you'll be able to talk it out with her." Sasuke said softly with a smile upon his face, "Even if you do lose Ino," Sasuke noted the flinch and flinched slightly himself, "As much as I believe it won't happen. You would still have us, the rest of the Fox Squad as the dobe there calls it. We won't leave you and we both know that what you said back then was right. Ino is a future teammate of ours, and could easily be a part of one of the genin teams when it comes to it. It's in all of our interests to save her from the Genjutsu, and to do that, we have to save her father from it. On top of that, it's our mission from the Hokage. You weren't wrong, I think it's simply Naruto being scared for you, rather than him believing that Ino hates you for real." Sasuke explained, still in the same tone of voice, and still with a smile on his face. Sakura looked up with a smile of her own.
"Thanks Sasu-" She started to say as Naruto interrupted impatiently.
"What's taking you two so long! I've been waiting at Ichiraku for about ten minutes now before I decided to come get you two!" Naruto said before noticing the slight hug the two found themselves in. He blanked, "Oh god are you two-" Naruto said tactlessly before Sasuke noticed Sakura's anger popping up. Sending a slight flash of fear to Naruto (Sasuke would always deny it, no matter what Naruto said.) and quickly letting go of Sakura, Sasuke moved back and watched her slowly get up. "W-w-w-wait Sakura!" Naruto, afraid for his life, stuttered mercilessly.
"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled, showing flaming eyes that spelled 'Naruto must die!' to Naruto. Everyone but Sasuke thought he was exaggerating the situation. Sasuke would shake his head, with a tad of fear still noticeable in his eyes. Deciding to ignore the two, (Naruto called it leaving him behind, Sasuke didn't bother denying it.) Sasuke instead made his way to Yakiniku Q with a slight hunger for some pork chops. Not entirely knowing why, he shrugged and went in anyways. Naruto would be fine, right?
They never did get the ramen that day.
Shikamaru didn't know what to think when he saw an angry Sakura pounding a helpless Naruto to the ground, but with one look to Choji, walked towards Yakiniku Q as well.
"SHIKAMARU! CHOJI! HELP!" They ignored Naruto's screams of desperate help for the sake of their sanity. No one wanted to cross an angry Sakura.
It took a few hours, but eventually, the Fox Squad in its entirety (Shino sadly drew the short straw and had to carry a sleeping Hinata on his back. Sasuke was carrying Naruto respectfully, who had past out from the beating Sakura gave him.) gathered in front of the address Shikamaru had gotten from his father.
"Well...here we are." Shikamaru said, knocking on the door. It wasn't Ino that opened up the door, but neither was it her father. No, instead, a woman with brown hair neatly tied into a bun answered the door.
"May I help you?" She asked, confused by the group standing in front of her door. She looked and her eyes locked on to Shikamaru and Choji, before landing on Naruto.
"Hi, we wish to speak to Ino and her father please. My father says hello and that Mom will be cooking scrambled eggs and toast if you wish to join us, Ms. Yamanaka." Shikamaru said, bowing slightly in respect as he indirectly introduced her to the rest of the group. Choji also shared some sense of realization.
"Oh I'll love to, her meals are simply the best with their simplicity! Ino and her father are currently training, so I would drop by later." Ms. Yamanaka said, motioning to shut the door before Shikamaru blocked it from closing.
"We'll wait inside if it's alright with you. It's very important I assure you." Shikamaru said with just a tad of his more mature attitude showing through. Ms. Yamanaka sighed.
"Fine, but you're to stay in the living room. They'll be with you when they're done with training." Ms. Yamanaka sternly told them, pointedly looking at Naruto and Choji. Shikamaru and the group, even including a begrudging Choji, nodded their heads in understanding, before being led to the living room.
After politely placing Naruto and Hinata down next to each other on the couch, Sasuke refused to acknowledge it as dumping as he did so, and each sharing smirks or smiles at the sight of the two who institutionally grabbed onto each other in their respective sleep, the group went to work. After each deploying a clone and using a minor masking jutsu on it, they went and used them to search the house, looking high and low for any trace of the flowers that spawned the jutsu, or any sign of Ino and or Inochi. To their lack of surprise, they found no sign of either target, instead what they found was Ms. Yamanaka sighing in her room, looking towards a framed photograph longingly.
"How long are you going to stand there? At least have the decency to leave a widow to her peace." Ms. Yamanaka looked towards the invisible Shino clone, who quickly dispelled. Sighing, Ms. Yamanaka put the photo down, happy it was but a mere Bushin, and not a Kage Bushin or else they might know where she was. Getting up and wearing a smile upon her face, she figured that whatever was happening with her husband and daughter, maybe they were here to find out? They were kids anyways, and she had run out of options. Loneliness was getting to her and she didn't even meet them for five minutes and they were already looking around...might as well see why. Shaking her head out of her desperation, she walked back to the living room to meet what amounted to the kids each with about 2-3 clones each around them, telling them of what they had seen. Just because a Bushin didn't grant memories back to the user, didn't mean they didn't have a slight will of their own. They were nowhere near as effective, but they had their uses.
"Been busy haven't you?" She decided to enter and nearly burst out laughing at the terrified expressions that spread upon them. She didn't approve much of the prankster in their midsts, but he was asleep so he wasn't too bad at the moment. "So...I've been thinking, and you all seem to be looking for my husband and daughter. And seeing as five minutes didn't go by and you were already searching my house...I assume you noticed already." She continued with a stern gaze upon them, who flinched back.
"Neither of them are here, nor are they 'training', aren't they?" Shikamaru asked with a stern gaze of his own back. Sighing, Ms. Yamanaka nodded.
"Indeed. It happened a few years ago, where they seemed to..." She began, knowing the story, Shikamaru interrupted.
"Change and leave?" Shikamaru offered, to which she nodded, "They're underneath a Genjutsu, a really powerful one that had struck all of the Academy Kunoichi from our class. I believe that what caused the Genjutsu happened to be your flower shop, which would explain why Inochi is the only adult struck by it, but we can't be sure as of yet." Shikamaru explained as Ms. Yamanaka looked towards Sakura, who shyly continued.
"I...I happened to also be under the Genjutsu, but I managed to escape because S-Sasuke reminded me of who I was and why I was at the Academy to begin with. We managed to break the rest of the classmates, but Ino and her father always manages to avoid us..." Sakura sighed, flinching slightly as she remembered what happens every time she sees Ino. Sasuke put a hand on her shoulder as a sign of awareness and an act of being there for her.
"So you were hoping to visit and catch them at home?" Ms. Yamanaka asked, realization dawning at Sakura's nod, a ghost of a smile appearing on her face, "I see...I might have an idea on how to help you all." She continued before listing out the plan.
"You all in position?" Sakura spoke clearly into the transmitter next to a tired Naruto. After hearing affirmatives, Sakura looked towards the street. "You okay Naruto?" Sakura asked, looking towards her partner for the mission. Naruto grunted groggily.
"...Kurama's being mean..." Naruto mumbled, but Sakura wasn't sure what it was to mean. Before she could ask, Naruto had waved it off with a yawn. She shrugged before looking back to her position.
"Anything on your end?" Sakura asked, Naruto nodded.
"Found Ino, she's heading towards us." Naruto whispered as the two slowly walked to the side street to where they had set the trap for the two. They had to at least get Ino in order to get Inochi. After confirming Ino was indeed following them like a hawk (It helped having Naruto Henged into Sasuke) Sakura called it in.
It was pretty easy trapping her, but getting the Genjutsu off was a completely different issue. She fought against the Genjutsu removal that Sakura had created, and even when she had used it, it only made Ino angrier. What it was was a slight Genjutsu that showed them with Sasuke and him telling them to just be themselves.
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT SASUKE ANYMORE!" She yelled, shocking them all. "I just...I just want my best friend back." She whispered, and as Sasuke felt the Genjutsu that had been on her fade, he, as well as the rest of the squad, stared at Sakura.
"INO!" Sakura sobbed openly, letting her out of the trap to hug her. The two stood their mid hug, but it wasn't until her father came that the Mistress of Genjutsu herself popped out of the wall, Kurenai quickly trapped Inochi in the earth before getting to work with her own string of Genjutsu. But, none of it helped. Sakura smiled as she walked up to Kurenai. "Work to his wants, not his fears for this." She smiled, surprising Kurenai, who had not thought of that somehow (Sasuke wondered about why, but figured that Genjutsu messed with the mind and left it at that.) Inochi blinked slightly before feeling a familiar presence. Both he and Ino froze from the pure rage that overcame it.
"Ah they'll be fine." Sakura laughed nervously as she and the rest of the Fox Squad fled for their lives.
Twin screams marked the Genjutsu fully breaking.
It took a few years past the Uchiha Massacre, but eventually Choza under his alias of Konochi and his two partners of Jiraiya and Yamato under Yamamato were asked for a meeting with the new lords of the village Amegakure, or Hidden in the Rain. Over the year going, they had heard rumors of the two that now ruled being 'Lord Pein' or 'Lord Pain' depending on who they had asked and 'The Angel' but never had they been able to meet them. The year had been slow going, full of messages to and from the Hokage, including one to Jiraiya near the beginning asking for Chakra Suppression notes, which he sent a sealed supply back over with a question of why he needed them. When he had learned that his godson had taken an interest in the art of Fuinjutsu, but didn't have the writing skills needed for it, he laughed in appreciation and promised to teach him when the mission was over. He never knew an Academy student would ever take look at his Fuinjutsu book that he had sneaked in to the section years ago.
Choza's nerves seemed to be getting to him now and then as Jiraiya had noticed him on multiple nights taking a peak at a picture of Choji before falling asleep with light tears rolling down his face. He hated how he was keeping him from his son, but sadly Choza was their only real link into the place and it seemed to have worked. The group of three walked on over to the center of the village, noting how the pair of leaders lived in the tallest of the huge spiral towers in the village, before the three felt like they weighed nothing, being dragged up by gravity itself. Panicking, the three watched helplessly as they were forced to the top of the spiral, before being placed down in what looked to be a cut-out roomed within the tower itself, noting that the roof hovered with no respect to the gravity that should have been bringing it down, as well as the rain rushing around the room itself. Two people stood in front of them, one with his left hand extended towards them, while the other, a lady, stood behind him.
The man had spiky orange hair, eyes that spiraled alongside itself, and three rows of a black substance breaking up his nose. Weirdly enough, it seemed to be the same that the giant towers of Amegakure had plastered within the village. He wore a cape of colors black and red, and so did the lady with him. The lady on the other hand, seemed light on her feet, as if made of paper, parts of her fluttered here and there, breaking up what was practically pristine skin. All of this wasn't the end of the weirdness in Choza's view...no, instead.
Jiraiya's face paled like snow and stood like stone as he too registered the beings before him. Words barely choked out to a audible volume, "N-No...it can't b-be." Choza heard Jiraiya whisper out. The two bowed to him of all things in what Choza registered as respect.
"Hello Jiraiya-Sensei." The man who Choza belatedly registered as the so-called Lord Pain told Jiraiya with a smile upon his face, "Choza, Tenzo." He continued on, not even hiding the fact he knew who they were. The three paled at this as the man put them into the office, back in normal gravity as well. "I hope that your trip was well." The man said calmly, as if he didn't just defy the laws of gravity just seconds before.
"Y-Yahiko?" Jiraiya choked out, looking as if he was struggling not to shed tears before them. The man shook his head.
"Sadly, Yahiko is dead Sensei." The man seemed sorrowful as he said that.
"Nagato?" Jiraiya's words seemed to come back in what was evidently concerned confusion. Choza struggled to remember where he had heard the names before, but somehow the meaning of the names escaped him. Frustrated, Choza continued to be on guard, noting that Tenzo was doing the same. The man, nodded.
"I'm now the leader of Amegakure, and decided with you all helping my villagers, that I should extend my hand in greetings. I shall be at the next meeting of the Kage, as well as I am offering to host one of the upcoming Chunnin Exams." Nagato explained calmly, but Jiraiya seemed struggling to hide his increasing anger.
"WHERE WERE YOU THREE!?" Jiraiya burst out, struggling to contain the tears from his own guilt if the expression on his face was anything to note. "I...I searched for any sign of you all! You three seemed to disappear on me, and then I hear signs of the Paper Angel and Lord Pain? What happened to you two!? What happened to Yahiko to the point you're wearing his body as a shell of some sort!?" Jiraiya continued, not even minding the tears rushing down at this. Both the lady and Nagato paced in nervousness and guilt of their own.
"I'm sorry Sensei...we were tasked with the leadership of the village after we killed Hanzo. We couldn't get in touch with anyone because of how poor the village had been." The lady began to speak in a light voice laced in regrets.
"Y-You guys killed Hanzo? He had died only a few months ago...at the hands of the Akatsuki..." Jiraiya had said, eyes lit in recognizance. "Konan, Nagato...did you join the Akatsuki?" Jiraiya asked as Choza's eyes lit up.
"You were his old team!" Choza spoke up in sudden inspiration as the two chuckled.
"We started the organization." Nagato spoke simply. "Yahiko wanted to bring peace to the world and died in a sudden betrayal by the hands of Hanzo, who was once our ally. We wanted to focus on the village for some time until we noticed you three running around helping out with meals. Jiraiya-Sensei, I want to honor Yahiko's last words in the way I can. I'm not a leader like he was, but I can lead this village with the help of Konan." Nagato explained as Tenzo pulled Choza to the side. In a simple sign, Choza's eyes widened.
'Return' The sign hit Choza before he knew it, and with the help of Pa-Nagato, he was lowered to the ground politely. "We mean no harm, please, tell Konoha we wish to settle an...agreement. Tenzo, you may head out as well, I wish to speak to Jiraiya-Sensei alone if you do not mind." Nagato said with a smile, and soon Tenzo landed right next to Choza before the two could argue. Turning back towards the rain-filled sky, they barely saw Jiraiya's book up in the sky, and soon enough, a small flare lit into the kanji of 'Go' and as if strings on them fell, the two Konoha operatives ran with a staggering speed towards their home, alert and terrified of what would happen to their comrades. Konoha had to know of what happened, but Jiraiya would be fine.
At least, that's what the two repeatably told themselves as they rushed away urgently, knowing that the information they carried were too important to wait. On the way, they past an Anbu agent heading the opposite way. Choza knew it was one Itachi Uchiha, but the weirdest part was that he carried a small smile on his face, even as he coughed violently in his hand with redness in his eyes. There wasn't any time to lose, and the two continued onward with reckless regard as Itachi looked back towards them, before walking forward to where he was heading to. Who knew what awaited them back at the village at this point?
It took a few months, but soon the village returned to a standard regard. It was nearing graduation for the Academy students. Neji had graduated the previous year with a smirk towards Naruto, who was nearly completely bored of the Academy as a whole. He had a near mastery of the Shadow Step style he held, but no matter how he tried, the Clone Jutsu, one of the so-called 'Academy Three' always escaped him. He wasn't the best at the written tests, but his writing skill, which had once looked like chicken scratch, now looked almost passable. It wasn't enough to practice Fuinjutsu, but it was getting there. He had mastered the two Jutsus they had grabbed at the Academy Library those five years ago, being the Futon: Air bullet Jutsu and the Futon: Air Pocket Jutsu, but the Bushin always escaped him. Kurama explained multiple times that it was because he had way too much Chakra in order to control enough to even begin making a decent Bushin, but he had no alternatives.
It happened on the Monday of the Graduation week, when Naruto had dragged himself to class thinking of falling asleep once more. "Naruto, be sure that you and the rest of the Fox Squad head over to the Hokage's office after this class." Iruka-Sensei told them off-offhandedly. Shrugging, Naruto barely acknowledged the request before Iruka continued on with more stuff that he had down, but not one thing about the problem he was currently having. The Bushin was absolutely required due to some twisted law that even Iruka couldn't overcome, and no matter how much Naruto practiced, he just couldn't do it.
"Still bored?" Kurama asked tiredly. Naruto had noticed him talking less and less as time went on, but figured that he just didn't like talking all that much, Kurama scoffed, "It's more that there's just not much to say. This seal drains a lot of my energy in order to keep me contained, and I don't think either of us like seeing the sewer all the time. If I rest and stop talking, I can try and change that sewer into something a bit more comfortable for us both, as well as have more energy in case something happens." Kurama explained, which Naruto couldn't really disagree with.
"It's not even really boredom, it's more. I already know this stuff, and no matter how much he explains the Bushin, I just can't do that. The Academy Three are worth more than every other section combined, and they can't change it due to some stupid law that the Citizen Council made without realizing it! I'm just wondering what I can do about it when everything's out of my control!" Naruto ranted with a defeatist whine. Kurama rolled his eyes with the beginning of a glare.
"Look at the rest of your pack Kit." Kurama instructed, moving Naruto's gaze to each one of them, "Each one of them have been more than trying to help you in their own ways. The bookworm has been trying to read up on everything she knows on Chakra Control in order to help you get that down, knowing that you have so much Chakra that it's practically impossible. Hinata has been trying to help you with directing your Chakra Flow in order to get you to stop wasting said Chakra. The dog brat has been trying to exhaust you in order for you to more reliably practice the Bushin, knowing that the less Chakra you have the better the control. The Nara and Akimichi brats have been trying to ask their fathers for advice in order to try and get you some upper level Clone Jutsu you could try using, the Uchiha brat has been reading up on techniques that might be able to let you pass, as well as reading up on the Academy rules alongside the Nara brat in order to see if there's any loopholes you could exploit. They've been giving it their all, and here you are. Complaining that 'oh woe is me, I can't do a thing!', is that really how you want to be remembered, Kit?" Kurama explained, seeing each other give their own smile or smirk in response to Kurama's gaze. Naruto fell silent at this. Kurama didn't bother talking, but only sighed, leaving his kit to his own thoughts.
The rest of the class past by slowly for Naruto, who only quietly thought about his own motivation of it all. Soon enough, class was over and the squad headed up for the Hokage's office. "Come in." The man said softly, inviting the Squad in to find...Danzo. Everyone was already on alert, getting into a form that would quickly lead to attack if needed. Danzo looked amused, if angry. "Calm yourself Danzo. I have news to speak to for these young students of ours." The Hokage told him firmly, to which Danzo simply hmph'ed before walking off, not before sharing a hateful glare with Sasuke. A smirk grew upon his face as he realized something that Sasuke couldn't understand. Danzo left the room as Naruto looked at Sasuke with a weird face.
"Were your eyes always red Sasuke?" Naruto asked out of confusion, and after the Hokage brought a mirror out, sure enough, the first tomoe of both Sharingan were rotating fiercely in his eyes, burning slightly before Sasuke shut the Chakra flow to his eyes. The Hokage smiled.
"I hope my present was appreciated, because I have a favor to ask you all." Hiruzen asked simply, with an air of a light smirk upon his face while Naruto and Sasuke glared towards him at the harsh reminder of what happened to Sasuke. Naruto looked confused as he looked at the tomoe that rotated around Sasuke's eye, but couldn't place his finger on why. Hiruzen continued without even acknowledging the glares, "You all know that there's something happening in the Academy, but what you don't know is that Kakashi had been researching about it. We managed to narrow it down to two people. One is Iruka Umino, and the other is Mizuki Isumo. Both are proctors of yours, and the only two with the position needed to bring about this change. My favor to you all is to find a way to bring out the one doing it into the light, and use whatever you need to do in order to bring them to justice. This will end that A rank mission you all have, I believe in you." Hiruzen explained, bringing pictures of the two. Each began explaining their thoughts.
"I believe it might be Mizuki-Sensei. Whenever we had Taijutsu practice, he never really taught us much. Even when we brought our own forms to self practice, he would correct the things that were right into wrong versions of the form, and never touch obvious flaws in the form itself." Shikamaru started, with Kiba agreeing from his position. (If you're wondering why Kiba wasn't talking much, it was more a bet he had with Naruto, if he made it through the mission without talking, Naruto had to meet his mom and sister, if he didn't, he had to take all of them out to Yakiniku Q and pay for everything. He couldn't afford to lose...quite literally.)
"I think it's also Mizuki-Sensei. Iruka-Sensei has always stopped to catch a student up with their lessons, to the point where he has, on multiple occasions, helped Naruto with his Chakra Control training. He also looked genuinely sorry when he told us about the Bushin situation." Sakura said next, with Sasuke agreeing with her being too angry and lost in thought to do more than grunt his approval. The Hokage looked surprised at this and motioned her to explain, "Well, Naruto simply has way too much Chakra to do the Bushin. No matter how much we try to help him with Chakra Control, he simply has too much for a simple Clone Jutsu. However, it's required that he knows the Bushin itself to graduate." Sakura explained, leading to an understanding sound and a puff of smoke to sound from the pipe.
"I see...Naruto." Hiruzen motioned for the boy, who looked towards him in confusion. Hiruzen motioned him to follow him and brought out a small scroll. "I hope this helps your cause." He said simply, handing the scroll to the boy.
Naruto opened the scroll and read it aloud for the rest to hear. "Hello Naruto, I assume if you're reading this...I happen to be dead. I guess Hiruzen finally got off his butt to hand you this, and I hope you're doing well." Naruto read the first line, watching as most of the Squad burst out into whispers about who it was writing to Naruto, "I guess you don't know me, nor who you are for that matter. I'm your father, well, I guess if you're reading this I WAS your father, but details, details. My name is Nami-" Naruto's eyes widened, words catching on his throat. "No way..." He said, tears within his eyes. He looked to Hiruzen in shock, who only motioned him to continue on for everyone to hear. "N-Namikazi...Minato." Naruto stuttered on it, unbelieving that the Yondaime himself, the one who had put Kurama within him, was his father. Uproar shouted from the rest of the Squad.
"Wait, THE YONDAIME'S YOUR FATHER!?" Kiba shouted first in absolute disbelief. He had suspected ties, but to actually hear them confirmed was another thing, "Wow man, that's awesome." He continued, watching as Naruto and the rest smirked towards him. "Can we not count this due to insane news?" Kiba asked, to which they shrugged in agreement.
"I mean it was pretty insane, least we know who your father is now Naruto." Shikamaru said, smiling towards Naruto.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted simply, agreeing with Shikamaru. Naruto mentally groaned when Kurama cackled.
"I see you gotta learn the famous Uchiha speak now!" Kurama cackled within his mind, "But now we know one of your parents, I can tell you a bit about him. He was the one that managed to break me out of that powerful Genjutsu placed upon me, and gated up my hatred for you to slowly let out and conform around me. He was a good man Minato, worthy of a name remembering." Kurama smiled in memory, noting a now yellow light hovering slightly outside Naruto's vision, watching over him with yet another presence.
"First thing I'm doing is smacking him with a dictionary before he regresses into that, JUST YOU WAIT KURAMA!" Naruto yelled back mentally, not at all pleased with that situation, but still listening readily to the information Kurama had about his father, the fourth Hokage no less. Naruto could hardly even wrap his mind around that truth, but no matter how much he looked towards Hiruzen, he merely kept that smirking smile of his.
"Are you going to finish reading it?" Shino asked, snapping Naruto out of his rambling thoughts, before explaining himself, "Why? Because I'm sure we're all curious on what your father wished to say to you." The Fox Squad nodded their approval with the statement as Naruto wiped his tears and continued reading it.
"Now that you're over the massive shock of hearing that the great and hono- okay I'll stop the bragging there, but you might be wondering why I'm writing to you about this. Well, it's because I've left a gift for you within this scroll. You might have found your strength within Fuinjutsu, and I would be insanely proud of you if you did. Well, I left a small seal within this scroll for you, that contains a map. Where does it go? Well when you're a Genin, I'm sure Hiruzen will let you place your own mission out to find out." Naruto said in absolute awe, placing the scroll down and bringing out the small seal from the middle, opening the seal revealed a pristine, as if drawn mere moments prior, map. Naruto looked at Hiruzen in nearly bursting excitement. Hiruzen rolled his eyes and motioned him to continue reading, "But that's not all I have to say here. My actual body, since this is only a Shadow clone writing this while the real body deals with the Nine Tails, wishes me to include one thing. Know that we will always love you, your mom, me, and my actual self, will always love you dearly. I wish that I could tell you this in person, face to face, without ever needing this note, but I'm afraid it's probably not to be. I wish you the best, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. I grant your Namikaze, and your mother, who the Nine Tails will know as Kushina Uzumaki, grants your Uzumaki. I hope you find your Ninja way, and may this help you on your travels." Naruto finished before his eyes immediately went white, which Hiruzen knew meant he was talking to Kurama.
"My mom?" Naruto thought slightly impatiently, not mad by any means, but wanting some answers. Kurama shrugged.
"Sorry Kit, my memories had a seal until their names were read." Kurama hastily apologized before Naruto went after him with questions that he couldn't answer. "What little I do remember was that Kushina was a lot like you, overactive, had really big dreams, and was absolutely trash at written exams." Kurama explained, snickering a lot at the last one.
"Not my fault that written exams are boring!" Naruto countered, which made Kurama start cackling once more.
"What do you think she said!" Kurama laughed at the fact that Kushina had said the same thing when she had been a kid herself. "But now that I think about it, you seem to be taking a bit more from your father lately. You're not constantly screaming your goals to the world and the like. You been listening to people and the like. You're a weird mix of your parents...I kinda like this more than when we first met if I had to be honest." Kurama said, surprised from his own words. Naruto merely shrugged.
"I know that I want to be Hokage. I want everyone to be friends, to be able to share this world with them without the constant violence and the like. Honoke-tousan taught me that screaming my words drives people away, and can make that dream harder to accomplish. I kinda like it too if I had to be honest, since I can understand people better, even if I don't necessarily agree all the time. Sasuke wants to bring Itachi back and bring Danzo to justice for what happened when he was a kid, but knows that none of us have the power for that right now to stop him when no one can find him. While Sakura wants to eventually tell Sasuke how she feels and help him on his quest to bring Itachi home, but doesn't have the strength to stand beside him. Shino wants to eventually bring people to understand his bugs, and have people notice his existence and the like, even with his beetles constantly eating his Chakra and by extension, his presence. Shikamaru just wants to be able to rest, but secretly wants to make sure all his friends and people he calls family are safe and sound. Choji wants to see his father again, as well as eventually open his own Yakaniku restaurant, or be able to own Yakiniku Q. We all have our hopes and dreams, even you Kurama. You wish to eventually be free from here and treated like everyone else, to be able to walk besides us as brothers, instead of trapped in me or anyone else, since you don't want anyone to get hurt by your fault. You know?" Naruto smiled with a knowledge beyond him, yellow and red hovered around him like a illusion as images of those mentioned walked by, until they all stood in front of Kurama.
"I..." Kurama was at a lost of words from how well Naruto read him, but even with that, Naruto's grin didn't fade. The dark sewer started brightening until even Kurama had to block his eyes, revealing a lush forest in its place, with a bright midday sun in the darkness's place, as well as the seal retreating to Kurama's stomach instead of being on a sealed gate.
"It's fine Kurama, we're friends, right? You know my dreams, and I know yours!" Naruto chuckled happily while Kurama checked his new surroundings, the yellow and red presence fading.
"Thank you Kit...thank you." Kurama thanked with a smile, an honest one devoid of mischief and full of gratitude.
"No problem!" Naruto gave Kurama a thumbs up before fading back out with a grin still on his face, eyes shining a brilliant purple for mere seconds before fading once more to that sapphire crimson of his, much to Hiruzen's surprise. After the moment of surprise, he merely smiled.
"I don't think either one of them are the traitor. Kurama personally suspects Mizuki, but he's always been nice to me and encouraging me throughout the school years." Naruto told Hiruzen, after putting the scroll away. Hiruzen nodded as he got the rest of the scores.
Not one of the students suspected Iruka, with Shikamaru in the end saying, "If he's indeed the traitor, I must admit that he played us like a fiddle." Hiruzen sighed, looking at the picture of Mizuki.
"Naruto, I have a plan, but you are probably going to disagree. Let me explain before you yell at me, understood?" Hiruzen asked in his Hokage voice. Naruto nodded. "I want you to do everything you can to bring out the traitor of the Academy, even if it involves failing the Academy exam." Hiruzen said simply. As predicted, Naruto's eye twitched.
"I won't fail you." Naruto gritted his teeth as he said, not at all showing his disdain for the order. Hiruzen, as well as the rest of the Squad, were proud of his self control, "But I will do everything I can to protect my friends and make sure we all pass." Naruto continued, hints of that purple appearing once more.
"Understood. Dismissed." Hiruzen said, proud as he watched them all vanish out the window. That pride fell as he noticed a gift Naruto left. It was a scroll, but Hiruzen didn't even bother reading it. He called in Mizuki and asked him to open the scroll.
Neither of them could escape the stink that the stink bomb caused as the letter read "Doesn't mean you get to get away with that!" -Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze!
Hiruzen cried as he remembered that he failed to take Naruto out for ramen the day before just a tad too late.
The next two days went by without much issue, even as the Fox Squad took note to try everything in their power to bait out the Academy Traitor. Naruto, on the other hand, just simply behaved as himself, Sakura having told him that he would still be the key in the end. Bored out of his mind, Naruto watched as Iruka continued his review.
"Remember that after this, you will no longer be my students, instead, you will be Genin, assigned to missions for the good of the village. Now, what's the main purpose of a Ninja?" Iruka-sensei asked them, and to most of their surprise, Naruto's hand shot up just as fast as Sakura's did. Much to even Naruto's surprise and Sakura's slight annoyance, Iruka called on Naruto. Naruto smiled as he stood up, happy to be called on with the answer, and put his thumb on his chest.
"A Ninja can be one of two things. The Ninja himself is meant to be a tool for a nation, to strike without hesitation and follow the mission details to the finest drop of ink, however, it can also be a Human, someone that knows when the mission details will only hurt more than help and be able to tell when it's best to go off the details of the mission in order to keep their comrades, nation, and families alive and well. To be a proper Ninja, you must be able to balance both Good and Evil from atop of your blade, and balance life and death from atop your skills." Naruto said with a grin on his face.
Silence spread throughout the classroom as almost everyone (Sasuke refused to admit that he also stared in shock, while Shino was ignored and honestly knew Naruto would have the answer Iruka was looking for. Why? Because Naruto really wanted to be a Ninja with all his heart and paid attention. Knowing this, Iruka was the third and final person that was not in shock) fell into deep shock, staring at Naruto as if he was claiming it was high noon.
Snickering, Kurama broke the silence mentally, "I can guess what you're going as for Halloween huh?" Kurama snickered out.
Naruto, amused and wanting to ignore the shocked stares, merely raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah? What then?" Naruto asked.
"Cyborg Ninja." Kurama cackled alongside Naruto.
"Well, as Naruto explained, which he hit right on the nail if I had to be honest, a Ninja is being able to know when it's best to follow the mission's instructions, or to stray away from the mission in order to do what your heart thinks is right. A good Shinobi is able to know which to use in what situation, and knows when following one's heart would only lay in death. Never forget your heart, how you feel now. Fight not just for yourself, not just for strength, fight for those you love, and for others to feel that love. You can't prevent every death, but you can always make sure those deaths will never be left in vain. With that all said, I wish you the best of luck on the exams tomorrow. It's time for your last Taijustu class of the Academy if all goes well. Make the best use of it, and I'll see you tomorrow to give you your final exam." Iruka-sensei smiled lovingly, hopeful of everyone passing as the students left. The Fox Squad, unsurprisingly, surrounded Naruto.
"Where did you pull that from!?" Kiba immediately asked, absolutely shocked and honestly impressed by his friend. Naruto nervously laughed with a shaky grin upon his face.
"W-Well..." Naruto said as Hinata rolled her eyes with a playful smirk on her face.
"We were reading some novels recently. He got the I-" Naruto immediately closed her mouth with a hug to make her pass out from the blush. Sakura punched him for it and left him bleeding on the ground.
"You deserved it." Kurama added dryly, not even attempting to heal the wounds caused out of spite. Naruto stuck his mental tongue out at him, past out from the pain.
"Oh, so he was reading that Shimada manga? That explains a lot honestly, seeing as the direct quote is 'I balance life and death atop my blade.'" Kiba said, realization kicking in. Sasuke and Shino sighed as they picked up Naruto and Hinata respectfully, long used to this happening. (Shino swore the sticks were rigged, he just couldn't tell why. (Years later, he would find out that he had always drew the longest of the sticks, but his beetles would eat it through it, he was not pleased by this.))
They eventually made it to the Taijutsu class, waking the two up in the process with twin Chakra pulses (Shikamaru was highly proud of it, his dad told him that any Ninja worth their salt could do it, but he was still proud.) to the forehead. Groaning, Naruto woke up face to face to Hinata. Sharing a twin blush with Hinata from the situation they had found themselves in, both rapidly broke it apart and avoided each other's gaze for quite some time.
Nothing really happened the rest of the day, they trained a bit and soon split to their homes. Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto himself were heading back to the Nara Compound...
"Hey Dad." Shikamaru said blandly, instead trying to see who he was talking to. Naruto wasn't entirely sure, but Choji instinctively sniffed the air as if catching whiff of food. Naruto flinched back, having learned that painful lesson when he tried hiding his lunch once from his surrogate brother, as Choji rushed forward towards the two men without any hint of self preservation.
"DAD!" Choji screamed with joy as Naruto's eyes widened from shock for not the first time that day.
"Hey you two, I figured you were heading over here. My, how you two grown. You two too old for my cooking yet?" Choza grinned teasingly, secretly depressed that he missed them grow. Naruto had once stood at about four feet five inches, but now was around the five feet mark, just a few inches shorter. His once mark-less face had grown three pairs of whiskers around his 7th birthday, and now they looked to have grown slightly longer, and thicker now that Choza looked at it, since Choza had left. On top of that, the biggest difference had to have been the eyes. Before it had looked to be both souls fighting for the role of the eye, now they seemed to swirl around one another, not quite in perfect sync, but much closer to that sync. Choza shook his head, and couldn't help being proud. Choji didn't look as fat as he should have, which would be a problem with the Akimichi fighting style, but he actually looked quite happy. His belly was just in the beginning grounds of popping out in a display of robustness, while Naruto seemed to have trimmed down significantly to a well toned body. Choza's eye twitched as he noticed the clothing.
"Oh we are taking you to Tetsu's shop tomorrow, I refuse to let you stay in THAT!" Choza angrily thought towards the young boy as he looked at Naruto's blinding orange jumpsuit, which, while holding the Uzumaki's clan symbol on its back, still looked absolutely painful to the eyes. He wasn't even sure that he had brought Naruto to Testumari's shop, and secretly was excited to bring them both to get them stocked up on official Shinobi gear.
"So...are we going to have to walk all the way back to the Akimichi compound?" Naruto whined slightly, having noticed it already being dark, and him already having finished his sparing practice with Neji, who had taken over training him after Naruto entered the Academy proper, much to his annoyance and Neji's respectfully. Neji was much more brutal with his punches than Hiashi, but also much easier to read as a result. It took a few months, but Naruto have been able to land a clean punch across Neji's cheek before following it up with a kick. Neji was especially brutal every day after that, even managing to put him in the hospital at one point, thankfully Kurama was there to help patch him up. It took all Naruto's strength to even match his strength and go toe to toe with him, and exhausted him greatly.
Choza looked upon the pleading children he called his own, and shrugged. The two, thanking him profusely, quickly ran past him to head to bed. "Cute little rascals huh?" Choza smiled towards his teammate, who shook his head with a smile of his own.
"To think they might be Genin starting tomorrow..." Shikaku said in response, before the two settled for the night themselves.
It's good being back... Choza thought peacefully to himself before falling asleep.
As if seeing the end of a long long series of events back to back, the sun rose once more upon our Squad of the Fox. It wasn't that much to the group, but Naruto and Choji woke with grins upon their face. As if summoned, Choza appeared and placed bowls of the food in front of the five people there. Shikaku wore a blank stare, secretly screaming in agony of the fact that Choza had taken it upon himself to raid their kitchen. Shikamaru held a similar stare, but was impressed of the showing and hoped it was better than his father's mediocre cooking. Shikamaru's mother was away on a mission and sadly missed the affair, but Naruto and Choji looked like they were tempted to jump and eat the bowls whole.
Shikamaru feared Choji might actually do that with the glint within his eyes.
The five ate, with Choji wolfing everything down as if he was Naruto at Ichiraku Ramen. In the end, he competed with his father over who ate more (It was a tie shockingly enough, but Shikamaru felt that Choza took it easy and could have easily ate more. The wink simply proved it.) while Naruto only ate a single bowl. After seeing the slight widening of Naruto's stomach, Shikamaru realized too late that he had eaten three bowls of it, and looked at his slightly plump stomach with a glare while Shikaku casually gave his son signs to a jutsu. After his stomach was back to normal, he ate more out of hunger that he never knew was there. Naruto simply rolled his eyes. Soon enough the breakfast was over and finished.
Choza pulled the three off to the side with the permission of Shikaku, who simply went back to sleep. "Now, in celebration of your graduation exam being today, I want to get you guys a gift!" Choza said with a grin on his face.
"Really!?" Naruto and Choji spoke in union, both surprise and excited for what the gift could be. Shikamaru rolled his eyes with a look of hesitant curiosity.
"Yup! We're going to be heading to a shop exclusively for up and coming ninja to get you all some new ninja attire as well as a weapon to practice kenjutsu with. It'll take a bit for it to come in, but it'll help you with battles." Choza nodded with a grin that instantly reminded Naruto of Guy, who he had only briefly met when training with Kakashi once. Naruto paled considerably.
"Oh dear Kami, is he turning into Guy-sensei?" Naruto thought to his equally terrified friend.
"WE DON'T NEED A THIRD ONE, NARUTO STOP THIS SOMEHOW PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL IN THIS WORLD!" Kurama begged miserably for reasons that escaped Naruto. Kurama shuddered at the memory of the sunset genjutsu he and his little clone had put on, thankfully having sheltered Naruto in time to be spared of that terrifying sight.
Choza struggled to keep the smile upon his face, mentally exhausted. He knew better than to get advice from Guy, and if his knowledge was right, the trembling look upon their faces were NOT what you were supposed to do as a parent. He groaned as he finally dropped the smile. "I'm sorry guys, I...I'm just out of practice with the parenting thing." Choza admitted, hand scratching his head nervously.
"It's fine Dad." Choji grinned, hugging his father lovingly.
"Yeah, Kurama said to, and I quote directly from him, 'NEVER DO THAT AGAIN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI WE ALREADY HAVE TWO OF THEM! WE DON'T NEED A THIRD!' No idea why he was so terrified, I was more afraid that you were taking lessons from Guy-sensei or something and we lost the Choza-ojisan we know and love." Naruto shrugged, yelling out the words Kurama had desperately screamed in his head.
Nervously laughing from the crimson gleam in Naruto's eyes, Choza wisely led them to the shop in silence. It didn't take too long, and was ironically right behind Ichiraku Ramen all along. (Choza had to drag Naruto away when he started subconsciously walking towards it with droll going down his face. He then had to drag Choji along for much of the same reason, Shikamaru had to drag all three away when Choza also started gravitating towards the restaurant with a grimace upon his face. If he hadn't known Naruto, he would have claimed him to actually be Choza's kid with their attitudes.) Naruto looked awe-struck as he looked at the Konoha symbol upon the oddly laid-back looking shop building.
"I present to you, Hashirama's Shinobi Supplies!" Choza said, pride evident in his tone as the four heard shouts coming from inside the building. The mood gone, each one shared stares of evident confusion before heading towards the door. Naruto went for opening the door before being violently squished against the wall of said building as the door slammed open.
"I TOLD YOU THEY WERE CUSTOMERS, DAD!" A girl's voice yelled at her father, but Naruto was still seeing a door frame that decided to clone itself and spin around.
The door opened as Naruto collapsed to the ground, groaning from the pain. Kurama snickered as Choza picked the kid up with a nervous laugh. "Hello, Tenten. I was just bringing these three to the store to get them some actual shinobi attire for the Graduation exam today. I also wanted to help them pick up a training weapon for kenjutsu today, but I don't want that to come in until at least tomorrow if that's alright with you both." Choza smiled and explained when Tenten beckoned the group inside, a grin that spoke of experience and a love of weapons upon her face.
The inside of the shop was decorated with weapons along the wall, clothes of all sorts of sizes and genders within the main hall, as well as a sign pointing a training field, and a set of three changing rooms in the back right nearby said training field. It ranged of all sorts of weapons, from bo staffs, swords, spears, and one that Choji's eyes glinted as he looked at. Choza blanked, noting the weapon his wife loved using was directly in Choji's line of sight.
"YES PLEASE!" Choji grinned as he lifted the kunai-filled whip. It looked impractical, it was almost completely impractical. But Choji had saw the devastation a whip like it caused in combination of the Akimichi body expansion jutsu, having been used to deliver a punch through a man's special spot that left kunai coming out of his eyes. Choza calmly grabbed the whip out of his son's trembling hands with an expression that was so pale he would make Hiashi look flush by comparison. Shikamaru looked around with less decisiveness as he picked up weapons and gave some mock hits to an invisible opponent. His mouth frowned from multiple of them, not really liking the fighting style of most of them. He grabbed what amounted to a small dagger, a curved Tanto, and swung it a few times. His mouth twitched out a smile as he thought of how he could use its dark design to send his shadow alongside, as well as possibly find a technique to use his shadow to swing the small blade. He looked towards Choza as he calmly put the blade in its sheath.
"So we have one looking for a training Tanto, one looking for...what the heck is that?" A man walked by, blinking as he looked at the abomination of a whip that Choza had put back. Choza nervously laughed.
"That's what my wife would call a 'Basuta do Katta' if my terminology is correct." Choza said, purposely using a somewhat butchered form of the word, hoping that Iruka hadn't taught them the Japanese encryption language. (Head Canon time! I think that based on how the Naruto world operates, it's some combination of English and Japanese. So it would make sense that those two base languages would be basic encryptions to teach young children while being able to learn other forms of encryption to put on top of them and other languages!) He sighed in relief as he saw the look of confusion upon their faces. He did notice Tetsumari flinch from the name though, sharing a look of sympathy with Choza during so.
"Hmm, well Akimichi's mostly use their body expansion jutsu, so you can make use of multiple small weapons in unison. I would suggest learning how to use Ninja wire instead of trying to go for kenjutsu overall if I had to be honest." The man Choza had called Tetsumari said. Unlike Tenten, who was a deep tanned white for the most part, Tetsumari had a light shade of dark skin upon him, a scar covering his left eye that went all the way to his finger, but even with that, he was still able to see with a discolored brown eye in place of what was once a dark blue. Grinning as he noticed Choji looking over him, Tetsu made no move to hide the vast amount of muscle he held. It was clear that Tetsumari had once been an active ninja himself, if the scars that lined his muscled body were anything to go by, but Choji could only stare in awe.
Naruto groaned lightly into Choza's shoulder, which led the man to putting the young orange-clad boy to the ground. Sharing a sympathetic smirk towards Tetsu, who he noticed flinched back at the absolutely hideous outfit Naruto had taken to wearing.
"And what is THAT!?" Tetsu spat out with the venom of a thousand snakes coursing through his words (He blamed Anko, who had made it a game at this point.) as he pointed to Naruto's jumpsuit. Naruto only blinked sleepily.
"Oh boy, do you want me to leave or are you waiting for the ninja to try and kill me?" Naruto yawned as he said the words casually. Choza flinched quite noticeably, noticing Choji do the same. It was easy for the two to forget how cruel the village had been to Naruto while living with him.
"And why would I do that?" Tetsumari asked stiffly, torn between being offended and wanting to hug the poor brat before him. He had noticed the constant banging of an anvil hammer on semi-molten steel stopping when Naruto had said his words so he knew he had to act fast before Tenten came in and hug Naruto herself.
"Because of that whole fox demon thing in me that everything thinks is me, even though he's a good friend and can't even remember what happened, but they're so stupid and dumb and can't understand the difference." Naruto rambled childishly, not bothering to sugarcoat his words from trying to get rid of the headache he had from the door. Tetsu's hand twitched as he fought the urge to hug the boy.
Choza didn't give him a choice and brought his hand around the boy lovingly. Naruto was confused at the motion, "Aren't shopkeepers supposed to just kick me out or charge me way higher than market price for stuff?" Naruto asked ignorantly, not even noticing the tears Tetsumari was shedding.
"You won't have to deal with that here, he-I'll even offer half price on anything you buy unless circumstances prevent it. All you have to do is promise to make this the only store you visit for your needs." Tetsumari said firmly, causing Naruto to tilt his head.
"What about food?" Naruto asked without a second thought, which led to a glare sent in Choza's direction who only nervously laughed once more. Oh, I've been with Jiraya too long, why does he always do this!? Choza thought miserably, noting his recent behavior as of late. It would take time to rid himself of the Sannin's influence, thank Kami he managed to dodge the Sannin's perverted tensions. Withholding a shudder, Choza continued his mental dialogue. At least the plan worked. Just...not entirely as intended...yesh I keep forgetting about his past because of how bright and lively he is. If anyone else was in that kind of situation, who knows what madness they would spiral down into... Choza's smile gradually fell as his thoughts took a depressing turn, imagining an Naruto that fell into depression and later...Choza stopped his thoughts, not able to hide the tear that dropped from the thought of Naruto doing such an act. Tetsu raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about it, while the children barring Shikamaru looked ignorant. Shikamaru looked as if he was going to ask later, which Choza could do nothing more about.
"Even food." Tetsumari promised, hoping that the Shinobi food supplies would be enough to encourage a healthy eating Naruto. Choza had started it most likely, so it was up to Tetsu to keep it up. "But first, we are getting you out of that. No ifs or buts, arms up." Tetsu firmly said with a hated glare to the jumpsuit.
"What's wrong with it?" Naruto whined, having grown to like the jumpsuit with its orange color scheme. Even though Choza had tried to get him out of it multiple times, Choza never bothered to look in the hidden drawer underneath Naruto's underwear drawer, but Naruto still wondered why all the magazines that looked suspiciously like his Sexy Henge Jutsu were down there. He past it off as Choza being a closet pervert, but had no idea that the room once belonged to Choza's brother Koza who was killed during the attack with an mind-controlled Kurama, who was a massive pervert during life. Tetsu's eye twitched.
"Oh, where do I begin? The bright orange makes you a giant target on the battlefield, it's ripped and torn over the place, and it reeks like someone dunked you in the sewers and you never washed it since! If you wore that on the battlefield, you would either have the enemy running from the smell alone or you would be dead in a matter of seconds!" Tetsumari explained, noting how Choji and Choza had nose plugs in to dilute the smell. Naruto pouted as Tetsu ripped the jumpsuit off of him and threw it and used a Katon jutsu on it to burn it to ash. Naruto couldn't hide his anime tears at the action. Tetsu rolled his eyes as he tossed a set of Ninja clothes at him.
Naruto looked at the outfit with slight confusion before Choza lightly tossed him into the changing room. Heaving a heavy sigh of sadness, Naruto slowly put the new outfit on, noting how Tetsu began burning his old pants and even underwear as well. Kurama wisely said nothing as Naruto cried out in sorrow before he finished putting the new outfit on.
Instead of his normal yellow-clad outfit, Naruto was now in a somewhat similar look. Underneath his shirt laid a black mesh net shirt meant to last against heavy taijutsu. Over it was a dark orange, nearing black with its tone, shirt with easily roll-able sleeves in order to hide Fuinjutsu seals, as well as be able to adjust to whatever weather is thrown his way. The pants were about the same, black in tone with dark orange highlights. A smile overtook Naruto's face as he found the last part of his outfit, a jacket with the Uzumaki clan symbol on the back, and the Namikaze clan symbol interlaced with the right shoulder's Uzumaki symbol. At least, Naruto thought it was? He had never really seen the clan symbol of Namikaze but figured the three kunai-like symbols surrounding the Uzumaki symbol was it. The jacket had room on both sides for hiding kunai and shuriken, with the pants having many latches to place tools. His smile turned into a grin as Naruto put back on his googles, noting how they were now sprayed a light black around the rims, with details of yellow shining through. Naruto finally walked out of the changing room, getting a thumbs up of approval from the three.
"I'll give that for free, how many sets?" Tetsu told Choza, who said get him eight sets in total, including the ones he had on. Naruto tilted his head out of confusion.
"You always want one more than the days of the week, just in case something happens to one of the pairs on the way." Choza explained while giving Tetsu a good deal of money for the seven sets he paid for. Naruto's jaw dropped as Choza shrugged, "High quality, high price. Still worth it though. Let's get to stocking your gear before heading out." Choza said, noting how Choji already changed to his new ninja set, which was basically his canon set (First series), but with slightly darker of a color scheme to it.
It took a few hours as Naruto and Choji had multiple pockets full of kunai, shuriken, as well as medical tools used to heal bruises and the like. Choza stressed the importance on being over-prepared rather than under-prepared. Naruto and Choji shrugged about that, but still kept all the tools on hand. Then, it was time to pick a kenjutsu weapon for Naruto. Choji was okay with going for ninja wire, since Shikamaru could help him out with it, while Shikamaru worked with the Tanto. Naruto looked around with a slight frown on his face.
"I don't really know what I want to go for." Naruto said as Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"Think of your fighting style. You use a stealth based style that can be used for an all out assault when the time comes for it. It's lethal, but uses a lot of hit and run tactics. You have a Wind nature with a slight Fire nature as well. It's pretty obvious what you should go for." Shikamaru listed, leading Naruto in front of a certain weapon type.
Naruto grinned.
Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji narrowly made it into class as the bell rang with their wooden practice weapons stored inside scrolls on their person. Naruto grinned as they saw the stares thrown their way. Shikamaru's outfit hadn't changed, since he said that his father would want to pick his clothes out after he graduated, but everyone stared at Choji and Naruto in surprise. Their outfits both made them blend in and stand out so heavily. Where once a bright orange ninja stood a now slightly mature dark-orange ninja. Both gave the same ready grin however.
"y-Y-Y-y-y-y-You look g-great Naruto-kun!" Hinata stuttered fiercely, blush on her face. Naruto-kun cleans up so nicely! I'm happy for him, and I know he'll graduate with us! She thought happily.
"Good luck Naruto, Choji. Why? I believe you only narrowly beat Iruka-sensei into the class." Shino said calmly, but still nodded in acceptance to the new outfits the two wore.
Similar thoughts and comments spread across the class as Naruto nervously chuckled out of embarrassment before taking his seat.
Twin thoughts spread across the Fox Squad. How do we lure the traitor out? They thought in individual ways, staring at the door intently before Iruka walked in.
"Well Cla-" Iruka-sensei started before his eyes noticed Naruto's new outfit, "Wow Naruto, I'm impressed by the new look, really looking like a ninja!" Iruka-sensei grinned in appreciation, even giving a thumbs up to him. Naruto had to hide his head this time to prevent people from seeing the blush across his face, thankfully his new jacket had a collar, which Naruto pulled up to cover his face. Coughing, Iruka-sensei began once again, "Well class, it's been a long five years with you, but today is it. You eighteen people will each have a chance to become Genin, or if that's not the career you wish to be in, you will be able to train for other jobs as well. You all know there are multiple paths to helping this village, so don't be afraid to carve your own place in the will of fire, with all that said. From today on, I am no longer your sensei. Pass or fail, I wish you all the best." Iruka-sensei...no, Iruka, told the class with a smile on his face before passing the tests out. "You may begin!" He said after the tests were out.
Naruto's eye twitched as he looked over the questions, hoping to make it through alright. He refused to cheat, but he wasn't sure on some of the answers. He answered to the best of his ability on the other hand, and hoped it was just enough to pass. He sighed at the end of the test, knowing he would never really be good at written tests.
"Now, when I call your name, come get your test. I'll be splitting you all in four different categories based on your score for the next test, so listen closely." Iruka told them, as eventually Naruto grabbed his paper, he sighed in relief.
"Talk about cutting it close huh?" Kurama snickered as he saw the big 71 that populated the top right of the paper. Naruto was put into group Three, noting how it was set up from 100-89, 88-79, 78-69, and then everyone else. He heard Iruka telling the fourth group, those that didn't quite hit a score of 69, that four of the six students there would fail depending on how they performed in this section. Wincing slightly at the cruelty, Kurama snorted.
"It's not at all cruel Naruto. The worst thing for a Shinobi is someone that only pulls the team down. If someone gets kidnapped and the like, the whole mission or team could end up dead. If Iruka was cruel, he would pass everyone without even testing their skills." Kurama explained, surprising Naruto with the fact that he used Iruka's name. It seems even he had a sign of respect towards the man. Naruto kept quiet on his thoughts and said nothing more with Kurama not pushing the issue further.
The fighting eventually lead to Naruto taking the top of his group, Kiba taking the highest from the fourth group and being one of the only two that passed, the other being Shikamaru, who had simply fell asleep instead of filling out the test, much to Iruka's annoyance. The second group was still on going and had yet to be decided. Sasuke and Sakura fought for first in the first group, and while not an absolute joke of a match, Sakura was much weaker than Sasuke was, and had lost the fight overall. Naruto gave her a smile which she hesitantly returned.
Sharing a glint with Sasuke, the two swore to fight each other in the finals without a single uttered word, just twin smirks to each other. The second group was now Hinata vs Ino.
"GO HINATA!" Naruto yelled with a grin upon his face, before noticing that his shout actually distracted Hinata enough for Ino to get a good blow in, but instead of losing to it, Hinata simply gritted her teeth through it and punched back. The two both skidded back to which Iruka walked forward.
"Both of them lose, good job you two." Iruka smiled as Naruto grinned towards Hinata, who returned with a nod.
The match was first Sasuke vs Kiba, which ended even faster than Sasuke vs Sakura, which led Kiba growling when he saw the smirk Sakura gave him, and then...
then it was Naruto vs Sasuke.
The two smiled at each other as they made the sign to start the fight.
"HERE WE GO!" Naruto grinned as he started the fight proper with his air bullets, which seemed to hover in midair at random points while Naruto disappeared from Sasuke's sight. Several hard hitting attacks got him as Naruto attacked from out of sight. Sasuke growled as he landed a elbow strike against Naruto's chin before following it up with a nasty gut punch. Blood spilled from the force of the hit as Naruto spat it out, bringing out his new scroll. Opening up, he revealed a small katana called a wakizashi. Grinning, he revealed that it wasn't just one that he had, but two of them. The scroll disappeared as he brought out the two wooden training wakizashis, and raised them. Shikamaru groaned.
"What's wrong Shikamaru?" Sakura asked, confused.
"We just got those weapons not even an hour ago, there's no way Naruto knows how to use those things!" Shikamaru said, annoyed at his fellow comrade. Both looked back to the fight, watching Naruto sloppily swing the blades around with no care of flow or style. His taijutsu style might be based around the weapons, but without experience in the blades...Sasuke grabbed onto one of the blades, but Naruto merely grinned, using the angle to jump and land a blow to Sasuke's back with the other wakizashi, much to Sasuke's annoyance. The two jumped apart with Sasuke letting go of the wooden blade. Panting, the two looked at each other. Sasuke began making signs that made Iruka very nervous. Naruto tried, but couldn't with the wooden swords in hand. He quickly used the air bullets placed to jump away out of bounds as Sasuke released the technique he was building.
"KATON: GIANT FIREBALL!" He yelled as he jumped back out of bounds as well, releasing a giant fireball onto the field, which managed to hit the midair Naruto away into the trees. With a yell of agony, Naruto fell to the ground with some light burning, but oddly enough, his Wakizashis were completely fine. Sasuke panted as Iruka frowned slightly.
"The winner is Sasuke." Iruka said somewhat regrettably, for good reason, as he sent Naruto to the nurse's office. Even Sakura, who Sasuke figured would congratulate her, seemed somewhat disappointed.
"Good job Sasuke." Sakura said without much enthusiasm, much to Sasuke's confusion. Didn't he win?
Shikamaru noticed the confusion on his face, "Sasuke. Winning isn't everything you know. You used a technique that could have killed Naruto if he wasn't able to dodge in time. On top of that, you do know that Iruka only had you win cause you knocked Naruto out before you landed out of bounds, right?" Shikamaru explained, which caused Sasuke to flinch lightly, before running towards Naruto. "Kami, I'm surrounded by fight-loving idiots..." Shikamaru groaned much to Sakura's giggling. Rolling his eyes, they awaited the next test, the final one at that.
"Naruto!" Sasuke said with worry evident in his tone, noting how Naruto was already up and grinning as he moved around. His shirt had suffered minimal damage at that, a testament to Tetsu's quality assurance. Naruto turned to Sasuke.
"Oh hey Sasuke, good match out there!" Naruto said as if nothing happened. Sasuke shook his head.
"Are you okay? I...I could have killed you with that." Sasuke said, not wanting to hurt someone that was practically his family. He still had to help Itachi, but...he wanted to protect his friends as well. Naruto waved him off.
"It's fine, it's fine. Kurama said that even if I had gotten hit directly, it would have just been slightly annoying to heal, but fully okay in the end." Naruto said happily, "It was a good fight, and you won fair and square, you know? Either way...we have other matters, remember?" Naruto said, tone lowering from happiness for a bit into seriousness. Sasuke nodded.
"Yeah. Good to hear you're alright dobe." Sasuke said with a smirk, still confused on to who this 'Kurama' was that Naruto always talked about.
"Oh shush it teme! Just because you won one battle!" Naruto said with slight anger, but was also happy to see his friend happy.
After a little while, the students, now cut down to just fourteen from its original eighteen were back in the classroom with both Iruka and Mizuki, who had oddly been absent from the other tests, "Well, it's now time for the last exam. When we call you up, show us the Academy Three, and you'll pass." Iruka said with a smile, noticing sadly at Naruto's gulp of nervousness.
The tests went on and on, which led to another five students failing and leaving it at just a simple nine. The Fox Squad felt happy at the fact that they were the only ones that had seemed to pass, but in reality, the other students were just moved to other branches or a remedial year before they went on the force.
"Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka called the final name after Sasuke passed his as well. With a nervous smile, Iruka told him to begin. "Substitute with that chair there." Iruka said, which Naruto did quickly with a chair further back, before substituting back. Iruka snorted at the showoff nature, "Henge jutsu." Iruka said, to which Naruto grinned before Iruka covered his eyes with a panicked expression.
"Ir-uk-a...do I pass?" Naruto punctuated methodically within his Sexy Harem jutsu. Iruka told him to end it and wiped the nosebleed from his face, watching Mizuki do the same, Naruto grinned.
"Now...the Bunshin." Iruka groaned, mentally frowning from the flinch Naruto gave. Sure enough, the clone that came out looked barely alive, a bit more alive than usual, but nowhere near the quality expected of graduates. Iruka sighed. "I'm sorry Naruto, I really am, but you failed." Iruka said as Mizuki looked towards him.
"You saw how well he did the Substitute no jutsu and the Henge, right? Couldn't you pass him from that?" Mizuki asked as he looked at the depressed Naruto. Iruka sighed while shaking his head.
"Sadly I can't, the rules state the student must be able to perform all three Jutsu with perfect execution in order to pass. While Naruto has the substitute and Henge down, his Bunshin is simply pitiful and would do nothing in the heat of battle." Iruka explained as Naruto slowly walked out of the room with dejection, not even noting how Kurama growled at Mizuki's emotions as he left. The Fox Squad said nothing really, equally depressed at the situation.
Night fell as Naruto sighed, heading on a night walk in order to clear his head. Mizuki walked in front of him. "Hey Naruto, you know that we have a secondary graduation test, right?" Mizuki said somewhat casually with a smile. Naruto shook his head out of confusion. "Each year, there's at least one student that fails the test that the proctors believe should have passed, so we give them a secondary exam. The exam entails going to the Hokage's office and stealing the Scroll of Seals by the end of the night before morning comes up. Those that can do it become full Genin just like their friends!" Mizuki explained, and while Kurama warned him of it not sounding right, Naruto nodded with a grin upon his face. A chance to become a Genin? He'll take it! "Good, I hope you pass Naruto!" Mizuki said as Naruto ran in the route of the Hokage's office, missing Mizuki's smirk.
Much to popular belief, Naruto wasn't a complete moron. He listened to Kurama's advice, and Kurama was smart. He just really reallllly wanted to be a Genin. Which was why he was currently in the Hokage's office.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Hiruzen asked with a look of intrigue as he watched Naruto look towards him.
"It's Mizuki." Kurama said while Naruto pouted. Without a second thought, Hiruzen activated the security seals.
"Explain, now." Hiruzen said with his Hokage voice.
"He basically just came by, saying I would be able to be a Genin if I steal the Scroll of Seals and bring it to him." Naruto explained tiredly with a tinge of excitement.
Hiruzen rolled his eyes, "Okay, I got a plan then. Here, take this with you." Hiruzen said, making a clone of the scroll that contained only a single Jutsu within it. Naruto looked confused as he read about the Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu within it. "Use that to bait him near here, and then we'll come to arrest him when he exposes himself. I believe in you Naruto." Hiruzen said as Naruto nodded before disappearing with the scroll, wanting to learn that new technique.
It took a while for Mizuki to show, but when he did, he walked towards Naruto with a grin.
"Good job Naruto, now hand me the scroll and you'll be a Genin." Mizuki said coolly as Naruto made a show of handing it over before grinning himself and having the scroll disappear.
"Oops." Naruto snickered as Mizuki brought out a kunai.
"You little brat!" Mizuki said, dropping all pretenses to attack him. Naruto was actually somewhat disappointed at how fast he went for attacking him, but Mizuki threw the kunai through the air after him when Iruka jumped in and deflected the small kunai with his own. Mizuki seemed to laugh at the sight.
"Do you really believe Iruka here would protect you? We all know that he absolutely hates you. I mean...there's been a secret the village itself has been keeping from you for a long...long time." Mizuki grinned while Iruka's eyes widened in recognition.
"No wait! Mizuki you can't say that, it's forbidden!" Iruka said as Mizuki laughed.
"W-What is it?" Naruto asked, nervous from the tone.
"You Naruto, are the Nine Tails!" Mizuki said, leaving Naruto in silence as Mizuki laughed once more.
"I already knew that though? Kurama is a cool friend of mine and doesn't remember anything from back then." Naruto blankly answered back, waiting for his clone to bring Hinata and the others over to help out. Kurama snorted in appreciation of the sight, while both Iruka and Mizuki stared at Naruto with shock at the blank answer.
"Why thank you." Kurama said afterwards from the compliments.
"W-Well...there's one thing I'm sure you don't already know. Have you wondered...what happened to Honoke?" Mizuki grinned at the flinch in Naruto's eyes, knowing that he had finally made a dent in the cheerful kid.
"Wh...what?" Naruto breathed out, even Iruka had no words about it as they stared at the cackling Mizuki.
"Oh yes, Honoke! I'm sure you're both Dying to know what happened to that idiot!" Mizuki said as Naruto gritted his teeth, his marks flaring slightly along with the crimson glint in his eyes.
"STOP INSULTING HIM!" Naruto yelled out in anger, memories of who was practically a father to him playing through his mind, the birthday party, heading to Yakiniku Q, as well as smaller memories that wouldn't really be written in any story out there, where the two trained together, read stories together and shared ramen with each and Iruka. Naruto didn't notice how his eyes seemed to glow purple.
"Well then, I might as well tell you...you see. Honoke was helping You too much, and would have lead to too much trouble with our plans...so, we killed him." Mizuki shrugged with a satisfied smirk as Naruto stilled from shock, which was the opening Mizuki needed as he threw a demon wind shuriken at the boy. Iruka grabbed Naruto against the tree as the tip of the shuriken showed through his chunnin jacket.
"S-Sorry Naruto. I...I wanted you to have a happy life...without the whole fear of knowing what the Nine Tails had done. I didn't know you had already knew..." Iruka said, taking deep breaths of obvious pain as blood dropped onto a paralyzed Naruto.
"He...killed...Honoke?" Naruto...Kurama...Iruka couldn't even tell who was speaking the deep toned words at this point, they spoke aloud with rage dripping out of them. Mizuki laughed.
"You think I would lie? You're going to die here, but don't worry, I'll bury you next to him!" Mizuki said as Naruto got up, eyes glowing a deep purple as Mizuki froze from the sudden chill that surrounded him.
"You...killed...him." They breathed out as if trying to comprehend the fact through their brain. "YOU...KILLED...HIM!" They roared as Naruto rushed towards Mizuki with glowing eyes of rage. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" they roared, causing hundreds of Narutos to appear as they ripped into Mizuki. If it wasn't for Hiruzen and Iruka holding him back, there would have been nothing left of Mizuki from the rage that had consumed the two.
Mizuki was with his back to the tree, eyes staring at something beyond their sight, still under Hiruzen's genjutsu that kept him under a false sleep.
"Naruto..." Hiruzen was first to speak, but the words caught on his throat as he saw the pained tears from the boy in front of him.
"Why...why did he do it?" Naruto and Kurama asked, begged with tear-filled purple eyes.
"I...don't know." Hiruzen answered honestly as they somberly stood there. Iruka led Naruto away from Mizuki, noting how the boy seemed numb to it.
"Hey Naruto, I have a gift for you, okay?" Iruka calmly said as Naruto looked towards him blankly. Gulping from new-found nervousness, "Just close your eyes." Iruka said as Naruto closed his eyes.
Feeling Iruka take off his googles, he found a different weight taking its place. Confused, Naruto opened his eyes. Seeing Iruka's headband missing and his googles in Iruka's arm, Naruto felt his headband with a grin on his face.
"Congrats. You passed." Iruka grinned somberly, noting the irony of Mizuki's earlier claim. Naruto didn't return the grin for once.
The night fell soundlessly, but Iruka could have swore it was raining.