Chapter 7

(Timeskip 2 years)

Konoha

The village was as peaceful as ever and people were going about their business as usual. In the past two years, our favorite redhead trained extensively in the hummingbird style which he almost mastered perfectly. At this point, he could go toe to toe with izumi when she matched his speed. His movements were very acrobatic and flexible and his counters and dances became unpredictable just as his father's scroll said. He practiced the basic jutsus henge and kawarimi until he could do them without handseals. He has now finished level 5 in his fuinjutsu and has mastered many new seals such as blood and chakra recognition seals, security seals and some barrier seals as well. He further increased control of his ever growing chakra reserves and mastered waterfall walking which took some time but the results speak for themselves.

He was just beginning to learn his father's restriction seals so that he could condition his body to use the hiraishin. He was also going to begin deciphering the technique itself and just knew that it would take a lot of work and time. He started his elemental manipulation training to master his previously learned jutsus completely. Izumi got him a slip of chakra paper and told him to channel chakra into it so that they could know his affinities. She demonstrated for him first.

Explaining that the paper reacts differently to each chakra nature, if the paper burns- fire affinity, if it gets soggy- water affinity, if it splits- wind affinity, if it turns to dust or crumbles- earth affinity, if it crinkles or shrivels up- lightning affinity. When izumi pushed chakra into the paper, half of it burned and the other half got soggy meaning she had a dual affinity to fire and water. Motioning for naruto to channel his chakra into the slip of paper, the results made her go wide eyed for a moment. The paper split into three pieces: the first one crinkled up severely, the second piece caught fire and the third piece became soggy. Getting out of her stupor, izumi explained that naruto had four affinities wind, lightning, fire and water.

Excited by this, naruto asked her how he would do elemental manipulation training. To this, she gave him a thick stick in his hands. Staring at her for a moment, she told him to make it hot and then make it ignite by channeling fire chakra into it. After this he took the stick daily to the academy to practice especially during the theoretical lectures which was boring. Upon completion, he asked of she knew of any others and she showed him the first step to water manipulation: making the water spin using only his chakra. She also showed him the second level to fire manipulation which was to superheat a rock until it destabilized and changed shape. This was something he found difficult and was not making any headway but he did not give up.

For the last two years, he was the dead last as he was always given different test papers and only managed to barely pass as he read some if his parent's library. He also hid most of his skills to not arouse any suspicion. His pranks evolved as well as they were now more elaborate and on a larger scale than before. The old man complained that he increased the strength of his greatest enemy to date- Paperwork. He also managed to make some friends in shikamaru, choji and kiba.

Izumi got an ANBU invitation letter a few weeks ago. Upon learning of this, he was ecstatic for his friend and took her to her favorite sushi place in celebration. When she asked him for his suggestion on what should she do, he told her to follow her heart and only join if she could handle the tension and extra pressure that she will no doubt face after joining. She was also asked out on a date by Shisui but she politely declined. She was also forced to join the leaf police force by her father to gain more power for the clan. His attitude caused her to constantly clash with him and have constant arguments. One such argument became heated when he mentioned that she should not be associating with naruto, she was about to respond but was called by her mother away. Before leaving, however, she told him that he shouldn't meddle in her affairs and that his narrow minded ways was suffocating the clan's potential shutting the door behind her and leaving a fuming Fugaku behind the door.

After that, the only interaction between them was strictly business and her father began to focus more on sasuke which served to increase his arrogance further. Also, after said argument she only came home to see her mother and spent much of her time on missions, training or hanging out with naruto. Naruto became like a support pillar for her as she began to trust him with her problems. He always listened and helped her out without asking anything to make her uncomfortable. His positive attitude was like a breath of fresh air for her and she even helped him in her pranks which, she had to admit, was a good stress reliever.

After joining the ANBU, naruto noticed that her tension was increasing and sometimes she showed frustration and irritation on her face before she hid it with her stoic face. He asked her if something was wrong and told her that she could always tell him about it. She just laughed and said everything was fine but he knew that it was not so. However, he decided not to pry since he doesn't want to force her into something she did not want. He just reiterated that she could talk to him about anything to which she smiled and nodded at him. Little did she know that her relief was not going to last that long.

Konoha

Uchiha Clan Compound

Naka Shrine

As soon as izumi entered her house, she was told to be at a meeting at the naka shrine. Entering the meeting place, she could see all the clan's major shinobi present and immediately got a bad feeling. They all became silent as Fugaku entered and stood in front the hall.

"Goodnight to my fellow clansmen. I have called this meeting for a serious purpose tonight. By now you are all aware that we have been looked at with suspicion by both the villagers and the village elders after the kyuubi attack all those years ago. This is due to some claims that the kyuubi's eyes had a sharingan pattern on them and it is widely known that a sharingan is capable of controlling the kyuubi. In recent times, our respect between the people and the council has decreased. Our clan helped found this village and they repay us by not only isolating us but now they are looking at us as if we were no better than the criminals they put us in charge of. I say that it is time for our clan to take it's rightful place among the leaders of this village and we show them that the uchiha is still the strongest out there," spoke fugaku and almost instantly applause erupted in the halls from his audience. Looking around, izumi saw that everyone except for shisui and herself had applauded and gave their support.

She was at a lost of how idiotic her father and clan was. Did they truly think that they could take on an we entire village and come out on top? The very thought was mind boggling to her and knew that it would eventually lead to civil war within the leaf and weaken the village and spark another war.

Then, along with shisui, she was asked to give informant regarding village security and defense procedures as they were both ANBU and reported directly to the hokage. Also that they would plan the coup de etat on the hokage and leaders and replace them with the uchihas who will rule the village.

Leaving, she and shisui went to a remote location. "We have to inform Hokage-sama," spoke shisui. Nodding to him she replied, "they are fools and their actions would lead to a civil war and eventually the next great war." Agreeing with her, shisui left towards his home with the thought of reporting to the hokage the next day.

Arriving at her home and immediately going to bed, she knew that this whole situation became a clusterfuck and now her stress levels were rising. She fell asleep with the hope of finding naruto and not train tomorrow at all.

Next day

Hokage Office

The hokage felt his age catching up to him. Hearing two of his ANBU kneel before him and give him a report, he had to say that the entire thing is pretty awful. His instincts screamed at him that this would become troublesome. Elsewhere a group of naras sneezed and muttered troublesome under their breaths.

In a commanding tone, he said " rise and remove your masks."

Both ninjas complied and stared at him with their onyx eyes as he sighed and rubbed his temples. He looked to them and said, "keep reporting to me personally and to no one else. I will try to find a peaceful solution to this." "Hai Hokage-sama" was the response in perfect harmony.

Nodding to them, they left the office. Getting up he moved to the window and gazed out into the village. He knew that the elders would make a fuss and demand the clan's execution for this, especially danzo who probably had some hidden agendas. He lit his pipe and puffed the smoke as a single thought entered his mind.

I'm getting too old for this shit.

To be continued