Naruto: Return From Darkness
"Kyuubi Speaking"
Thoughts
"Speaking"
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/4 Months Later/
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The Raikage stood in front of the main gates of Kumogakure, looking rather unhappy. Next to him was one of the two bodyguards he had assigned to travel with him to Konoha for the Chuunin exams, Takeshi Hiroka.
"Why is he always late!" The Raikage barked angrily, flustered at the gall of the man, who he was paying to be here, and how he could find it acceptable to show up late.
"He's always late but his combat skills are unmatched." Takeshi spoke honestly, his eternal happiness not bothered by the lateness of the man.
The Raikage nodded in agreement, though his anger was still evident on his face, "That's why I picked him for this mission." The Raikage said, tapping his foot impatiently.
Before anyone could get another word in, Hiro appeared in front of them, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Hehe, Sorry I'm late, Raikage-sama…" Hiro spoke with embarrassment and a hint of humor.
The Raikage sighed, "Well now that you're here, we can get going." He spoke dismissively.
The three leaped ahead, as Hiro's mind weighed heavy with thoughts of returning to his home village.
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Takeshi turned to look at Hiro while they leapt from tree branch to tree branch "So, Hiro, who were those Konoha ninjas that stayed at you home, a few months back?" He asked happily, just trying to make some conversation.
Hiro continued to face forwards, "Just some people I ran into and decided to help." He responded quickly, "I hadn't met them before, they were nice."
Takeshi laughed, "That doesn't sound like the antisocial Hiro that I know, but it's a nice change of pace I must admit." Takeshi said, happily surprised by Hiro's response, before turning to the Raikage.
"Where are our Genin?" Takeshi asked, genuinely curious.
"They already went ahead with their Jounin senseis." The Raikage responded, looking at Takeshi thoughtfully, "They should be there by now, we need to hurry up." The Raikage began to pick up his pace.
Their conversation ended, the other two men increased their pace, excited to reach Konoha.
/
As the group neared the large village, the Raikage slowed down, and the other two ninja followed suit, following him on each side.
The Raikage glanced at each of the two men, "When we walk into the village, we need to display our strength, so I need you two to behave, and look as tough as you can." He instructed his two bodyguards.
"Understood." The two said, looking at each other and nodding in approving understanding.
The Raikage smiled, "Let's go!" He ordered stepping with confidence as they came within sight of the walls of Konoha.
As the three neared the gates, the two gate guards whispered to each other, "That's the Raikage! And look! He's traveling with… Hiro Tatsumi!" The one on the left whispered to the other, a hint of excitement, amazement, and fear all combined in his voice.
"Man, he looks tough! Just like the stories say" The one on the right spoke quietly, while the one on the left nodded. Prompted by this, Hiro gave them a long purposeful stare, causing them to jump in fear.
Takeshi chuckled, and looked out at the great village before him, excited to have been able to come on the journey and see what kinds of things Konoha had to offer.
"I'm going to meet with the other Kages, you two can go explore the village." The Raikage said conclusively to the two men, "Make sure you don't get into any trouble, you're here representing Kumogakure and I won't have the village name dragged through the mud." He said before disappearing in a swirl of smoke.
"Where do you want to go Hiro?" Takeshi asked excitedly, his eyes darting from store to store and restaurant to restaurant without a specific target in mind.
"I'm going to go see the Genin this village has to offer, I'll meet up with you for dinner though, right?" Hiro told more than asked.
This didn't seem to bother Takeshi, though nothing really did, "Alright see ya then!" He said running off somewhere, happy to get to explore the new village.
Hiro smirked and vanished, leaving only his footprints in the street. Mere seconds later Hiro appeared on the branches of a tree overlooking one of the many training fields Konoha had to offer.
Below him there were a group of Genin, talking excitedly amongst themselves.
"You guys are signed up right?" A boy wearing a hoodie and dog on his head asked the whole group.
"Yeah, all of the rookie twelve are participating." A boy with glasses and a jacket covering his mouth said punctually.
"I heard this year the competition's really tough!" A pink haired girl said nervously, before looking at the dark-haired boy standing next to her, "Though I don't think we'll have anything to worry about."
"Heh, you got that right…" A voice said, seeming to emanate from all around them.
All of the genin jumped in a combination of surprise and fear, "W-who's there?" A girl with a bun hairstyle asked nervously.
"Just a curious spectator." Hiro said, suddenly appearing in the middle of them.
All the Genin jumped, and many shrieked and fell on the ground. When they all had regained their composure, they noticed that the man before them was laughing, hard.
"Who-who are you?" A girl with white eyes asked shaking, clearly not very confident.
"Hiro!" Ino exclaimed, pushing her way to the front of the crowd.
"Oy, Ino, how are you?" Hiro asked, smiling at the girl in front of him.
"Ino, who is this?" The pink haired girl asked confused as to how Ino knew this strange and intimidating man as she looked him over with curiosity.
"That's right! I haven't introduced myself yet, my apologies. Well Shikamaru, Choji and Ino know me, so to the rest of you, my name is Hiro Tatsumi." Hiro spoke, staring all the Genin down.
"I'm a ninja from Kumo, here visiting with the Raikage for the Chuunin exams, hopefully you all will have some interesting to show me. Hopefully." He said confidently, intimidating the genin he was talking to.
As Hiro was looking at the ninja, he noticed someone that reminded him of another person.
"Oy you, Mr. sulk, what's your name?" Hiro asked, pointing at the Konoha ninja that had a face he just couldn't put his finger on, leaving him perplexed.
The boy scoffed, "My name… is Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke said smugly.
Hiro hit his fist into his palm, finally realizing who it was that Sasuke reminded him of, "Oh there it is, that's who you reminded me of. You look so much like your brother, it's a little uncanny actually." Hiro said nostalgically, smiling slightly.
Sasuke's eyes seemed to light up with anger, like fire, from Hiro's mention of Itachi.
Sasuke didn't hesitate, immediately pushing his way passed the other genin to get closer to Hiro, "How do you know that man?" Sasuke roared, shoving his way to the front of the crowd.
"We used to spar together, but after a few months I was stronger than him so it wasn't worth my time and we parted ways." Hiro spoke innocently yet confidently as he scratched his chin through his scarf.
Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Y-you're STRONGER than him?" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Who's Itachi, Sasuke-kun?" The pink girl asked, holding onto Sasuke's arm.
Shaking her off Sasuke said, "He's the one I swore to kill." His fingernails digging into his palm, drawing blood.
"Look, I don't want to get in the middle of any family business, so that's the last I will speak of it." Hiro said conclusively, "Plus, as you are now you wouldn't even be able to get close to him." Hiro half whispered this last part, though it seemed like Sasuke heard what he said.
Sasuke's eyes lit up with anger again, though this time he calmed down very quickly, seeming to trust Hiro's appraisal of his current abilities.
"Now, on much lighter note, I don't think the rest of you guys have introduced yourselves to me." Hiro said, looking at the kids before him.
"Oh, right I forgot!" Ino exclaimed, too busy focusing on Hiro to remember where she was.
"This is Sakura." Ino said pointing to the pink haired girl.
"There are the Hyuugas, Hinata and Neji." Ino said, moving over next to the two white-eyed ninja.
"This is Kiba and Shino." Ino spoke, gesturing to the dog boy and quiet one next to him.
"And last, here are Lee and Tenten." Ino finished waving her hand at the two.
"Ah, cool, cool… well, it's nice to meet you guys, and to let you in on some insider information, you guys were definitely right about the stiff competition." Hiro informed them.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, skepticism evident on her face.
"From Kumo alone, one three-man cell could take out just about all of you." Hiro said seriously.
"Hey, how do you know that?" Kiba asked, angrily.
"It's because I've trained with all of them, and from what I've seen of you, they're worlds better than you." Hiro said honestly.
"Why are you telling us this?" Tenten asked desperately.
Hiro smiled at them, "I don't want any of you guys to die, so I think it would be the best course of action for you to train not just as a team, but as individuals." Hiro said looking at the Genin with modest concern, "And I also think it personally it would be much more interesting if the competition was a little bit closer, but that's just me." He said laughing lightly, though the genin surrounding him didn't seem to share his sense of humor.
"What are we supposed to do in just two days?" Sakura asked nervously.
"I mastered six S-ranked jutsus in less than one day, I'm sure you can get much stronger too." Hiro said, optimistically looking at the kids in front of him.
"Yosh! This man before us has inspired me to work harder! Tenten! Neji! Let's go train twice as hard as we've been!" Lee shouted, tears streaming down his face.
"For once Lee, I agree with you." Neji said, looking very determined.
"Alright let's go…" Tenten said tiredly.
"Sakura, let's train as well." Sasuke said, giving Hiro one last glare, before turning away and leaving before even finishing his sentence.
"I'm coming Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled running after her crush.
"We might as well go train too…" Kiba grumbled, leading Hinata and Shino away.
"Now that I have inspired you whole graduating class, I'm going to take my leave, have fun you guys!" Hiro said, waving goodbye as he called over his shoulder.
"Wait! Hiro, do you want to have dinner with us?" Ino asked, hoping the man would take her suggestion.
"I'm already having dinner with a friend of mine, but I'm free tomorrow. See ya then!" Hiro spoke, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
"Come on Ino, we should train some too…" Shikamaru said lazily.
"Coming!" Ino shouted, catching up with her teammates.
Things around here are going to get pretty interesting with Hiro here…Ino thought happily to herself.
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Hiro's finally back in Konoha! Some exciting stuff in future chapters!
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