Chapter 8 - The academy
Naruto was sitting in his dark room alone. A frown was plastered on his face as he was in deep thought about something that concerned him greatly. The last few years he got this weird feeling something sinister was growing inside of him. He could not really put his finger on this feeling. He had known about this most of his life, but it was not until recent years that it actually bothered him. He knew the shinobi world was a cruel one. He also understood his mother and fathers ideals and their effort to imprint them on him. He did everything he could to respect his mothers ways and wishes. His family and friends were the only important thing in his life after all. But it infuriated him that he could not make himself care, not like they all wanted at least. He saw the world differently than most. Killing was easy for him. He even found joy in it sometimes, he had to admit to himself. He could never tell that to his family or friends though.
But this feeling that was growing inside of him made him worried. It's almost like something infecting his mind somehow. It was not really the feeling that really bothered him. It was more his loss of control over its continuous growth. He hated not being in control of himself. It came ever closer towards him, like a thunderstorm you could feel but not yet see. He sometimes even got the feeling he was being watched. Not from the outside but rather from the inside. 'Are you playing tricks with me kyuubi?' he thought. But pushed that thought away. That could not be it. This feeling started before he sealed the kyuubi. And he was confident in his own seal. There is no way kyuubi would be able to influence his mind in this way he thought.
He racked his brain day and night trying to figure out where this feeling came from. Even if it was a longshot he thought 'i have to talk to the damn fox, and rule out any possibility'. He took a deep breath and made a hand sign as he concentrated on the seal.
Suddenly he stood in a sewer. He looked around and took in the depressing sight.'So this is how my mind looks?' he thought with a confused look. He shrugged as he did not really care either way, he had a task in mind. He started to walk towards the familiar feeling of kyuubi's chakra. After a while he stood in front of a big gate made from his mokuton. He took a step to get a closer look inside the cage. It was dark and he could see nothing in there, just overwhelming darkness.
Suddenly he could hear a booming laugh coming from inside the cage. Naruto stood there, not really faced as he knew the fox could do nothing against him. He saw movement inside the cage and suddenly a big paw with massive claws crashed against the gates and made a thunderous sound. The shockwave made his red hair flutter wildly. Still Naruto did not move, he stood there calmly studying the great fox.
"So my jailor finally decides to greet me" The kyuubi snarled out as he lowered his head down to Naruto's level and stared at him with hatred.
Naruto stood there quietly for a while just watching the kyuubi. This seems to make the fox even more angry.
"I'm here to ask you something" Naruto said flatly
"You presume you can ask me something? The great kyuubi? What insolence!" The kyuubi roared and smashed the gate yet again with great fury.
"What are you doing to my mind? And how did you get around the security of the seal?" he asked the raging demon. He rather not spend much time here, so he just straight out asked.
"I will not answer to an insolent meatbag" he said in a low, dangerous voice.
This annoyed the small redhead "Answer me!" he said in a cold threatening manner.
"Bahaha!" Kyuubi laughed. "You ignorant child. You will get your answers soon enough" he said in a much calmer voice now. That made Naruto raise an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked, now he was curious.
"Your time is up, now get out!" Kyuubi growled.
Naruto felt something powerful push him out from his mindscape with force. When he was back in the real world he flew back and crashed hard towards the wall in his room.
'What was that? That should not be possible! I need to check the seal more closely, I may have made a mistake.' he was now frowning as this confused the hell out of him. 'What was that pushing me out? I could not feel Kyuubi's chakra at play' he wondered. Then his train of thoughts were interrupted.
"Naruto-kun! What happened? Are you all right?" Kushina shouted as she heard the crash and rushed towards Naruto's room.
"I'm fine mom, just trying out a new jutsu" he lied.
"Do be more careful in the future will ya?" She smiled at her son. Sometimes he could be so reckless, she was almost used to it now. And he did not look hurt.
"You did not forget did you?" Kushina asked, and he raised an eyebrow in question towards his mother.
"Dammit Naruto, today is your sister's first day at the academy" She told her son, she was a bit annoyed at him forgetting something so important.
"I did not forget mom. Sorry. Just got lost there for a second, this new jutsu is very puzzling" He said to his mother.
She gave her son a pointed look "Okay then. Let's just hurry up. We are leaving in twenty minutes to the academy" she told him. "And breakfast is downstairs, clean up and then get your ass in gear!" She told him with her arms crossed.
"I'll hurry mom, be down in a sec" Naruto gave his mother a smile. She nodded towards him and once again reminded him to hurry as she looked towards the clock in his room then back at Naruto. Then she left to go and help prepare his sisters for their special day.
'If it's not kyuubi, then what could it possibly be?" He shook his head to clear his head of these thoughts for now. Today was a special day indeed. His sisters are starting their journey to become shinobis of Konoha. He smiled as he thought of his siblings and went downstairs.
As they walked towards the academy together, Naruto smiled down at his sisters. Mito was jumping in excitement the whole way there. Yelling and making proclamations about kicking ass and taking names. Naori just decided to hold her brother's hand instead and walk calmly beside him and Kushina.
He was so proud of his sisters. During the last two years Naruto tried to find as much time as he could to help his sisters become competent shinobi. ANBU duties took up most of his time, but whenever he got time he chose to spend it training his sisters, or just being with his family. They even started to train together with Itachi's little brother Sasuke, who made good friends with the twins. Sasuke had a small crush on Naori, they both had similar personalities. So it was no strange thing he would develop a small crush. Mito on the other hand, was headstrong and loud. She knew how to push Sasuke's buttons, and she did. You could see they all cared about each other immensely, but Mito somehow always started a shouting match with any of the two. He had to stop them several times not to pummel each other. He had to suppress a chuckle at the thought. All three of them were strong for their age. Naori outshines them both by a small margin though. She was so similar to his late father Naruto though. Mito on the other hand was stronger in some areas then the other two, but she liked to take action first, then think. That made her an easy target for the others most of the time. 'I really need to push that bad habit away from her' he thought as he mused on how he could possibly do that. As his sister was just as stubborn as his mother.
Soon they arrived at the entrance of the academy. There they could see Itachi standing waiting for them with Sasuke.
"Sasuke! Sasuke! Today we start our journey towards asskickery!, are you as excited as me?" Mito yelled as she ran towards him.
"Hi Mito" he said as he covered his ears from her yelling. She is way too excited he thought.
"Hello there Mito" Itachi greeted the small redhead with a smile. He liked her energy, it was like a ray of sunshine in their usual dark world. Mito just waved back as she was occupied with looking around at everything and everyone in excitement.
"Hi Sasuke. Itachi-san" Naori said as she caught up with her sister. "You know Mito, 'asskickery' is not even a word" she told her sister who just huffed in response. Itachi just looked at Naori and smiled and gave her a polite nod in greeting.
Soon Kushina and Naruto caught up with the others.
"Hi there little Sasuke" Kushina said as she ruffled up his hair, this made Sasuke look a bit annoyed. And he turned back to the six year old he really is. Kushina chuckled at the cute annoyed look he gave her. Sasuke tried hard to look just as cool as his big brother. Kushina knew this and loved to tease the little uchiha.
"Hello to you as well Itachi-san" She greeted him with more respect
Itachi nodded towards her and Naruto "Kushina-sama, Naruto-san" and Naruto gave a nod back towards his friend.
"I see Mito is excited as ever," Itachi said to no one in particular.
"I can't recall anything she's not excited about," Naruto said in response.
They were a bit early, as Mito practically dragged them out of the house. So they made smalltalk to each other to pass the time. As Itachi, Naruto and Kushina talked, the kids ran off to greet their friends before the academy started. Sasuke and the twins had made a few friends during the years.
Naruto was watching them interact with a few people he recognized. They had made good friends with other clan kids like Nara, Hyuga, Aburame and Yamanaka. There were a few others he did not recognize. He saw one pretty well built kid and thought 'that must be Choza's son'. He knew all these kids' parents as he worked closely with some of them on a few occasions.
Somehow most of the children from clans or other ninja families looked at him with a small amount of waryness. Naruto did not mind or care that much. He did not know or even cared that most people that worked with him, found his methods a bit off putting. They were all ninja and saw Naruto's extreme effectiveness. Shinobi are supposed to be cold blooded killers. This is their profession. Naruto just took that a bit more to the extreme for their liking, at least when it came to their kids and his possible influence on them.
The bells rang, signaling the start of this year's first batch of potential new shinobi. All the kids shouted and ran in through the big doors to the academy.
The adults all just stood there looking as their kids disappeared into the big building. 'That was fast, not even a goodbye' Kushina thought. She looked towards Naruto and Itachi who just shrugged their shoulders to her.
Just as they were about to leave. One of Hiruzen's personal ANBU appeared in front of them. "Itachi Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki. The hokage summons you both" the ANBU said flatly.
They just nodded towards the operative. The ANBU acknowledged their response and left in a swirl of leaves.
"Duty calls mom," Naruto said to his mother. And both Itachi and him disappeared without any more words.
"And here I thought we were going to spend the day together, so rude" Kushina signed as she talked out loud to no one. Bored out of her mind she went looking for something to do. 'Just a few more years and i can become an active shinobi again' she thought with a smile. Oh how she missed the good old fighting days. 'The training grounds it is then' and she left to pummel some poor training dummy to the ground.
Naruto and Itachi shortly arrived at the hokage's office. They saw both Shisui and Kakashi already there. As Well as the hokages advisors. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this 'what are those old mummies doing here' he thought. He did not like these people at all.
"Hello Naruto and Itachi. Welcome" Hiruzen greeted them with a smile, then just as quickly the smile was gone and he had a very serious look on his face. 'Wonder what this is about' Naruto thought curiously. The hokage usually wasn't this serious.
"Shisui and Itachi, you are well aware of the happenings inside your clan. But this is mostly news for Naruto-san, so let me explain the details" Hiruzen said in a serious tone.
He turned towards Naruto "There has been talks about a coup d'etat inside the uchiha clan" he said. At this both Shisui and Itachi looked a bit ashamed. Naruto just raised an eyebrow as he looked towards his friends in question.
"There is a small faction inside the clan that is hard set to make their position stronger in the village, by any means necessary. And it's spreading. They get more support from the clan each week as this goes by" he said and then paused to let the news sink in.
"So what's the problem really?" Naruto asked not really seeing this as a noteworthy problem. "Just crush those who wish to rebell" he turned towards his friends "no offense to you" he added.
The hokage just signed at Naruto's brashness. Danzo on the other hand had a big smirk on his face, he liked Naruto-san and his way of thinking way more than the old fool Sarutobi.
"It's not that simple Naruto" He said as he looked at him. "They are upwards to over a hundred supporters as of this moment. Just killing them outright may start a civil war that could destroy this village". He leaned back and waited for any sort of response. "And Fugaku is their ringleader in all of this, you know how strong he is". Naruto shot Itachi a look and he just nodded in confirmation.
"Most of their followers are jounin ranked shinobi. So it's not such a simple matter." Hiruzen informed Naruto. "Both Itachi and Shisui here have been working as double agents this last year, and shed a lot of light as to the seriousness of the situation" he continued to explain.
Naruto was mildly shocked about his friend's involvement in this 'how could i have not seen this?'. "Is that right?" He turned towards Shisui with a smirk.
"This is serious Naruto!" Shisui said to his friend.
"I agree with Naruto-sama in this" Danzo now had all their attention. "We should just crush this rebellion quickly and be done with it" he stated.
"We are still trying to find a peaceful resolution in this Danzo!" Hiruzen said with frustration at his old rival.
Naruto ignored the hokage and turned to his friends. "Are your families involved in this?"
Both shook their heads no "Only my father" Itachi said. He was ashamed by his clan's behavior, especially his father.
"I see no problem then. Let me and my team handle this, we will have this rebellion crushed within a few hours. We could even pose as an external threat and none would be the wiser. Stopping all notions of a civil war" He looked towards his two friends "I know they are your kin, but you know as well as I do that treason cannot be accepted under any circumstances". They both just stood there looking conflicted but gave him nods.
Hiruzen just signed. It bothered him that Naruto always turned so quickly to bloodshed. There must be other ways he thought. "I will give Itachi and Shisui a few more weeks to seek a peaceful resolution. If there can't be any, we will have to stop this as Naruto-san points out. We can't let this spread and infect the rest of the village". The hokage said. 'I hate to admit it, but Naruto is most likely right in this. There won't be a peaceful resolution' and he signed again. That was becoming common these days, he thought.
They talked a bit about how they would go about trying to make peace with the rebellious faction of the uchiha clan.
During all this, Naruto, Danzo and Kakashi were all quiet. They all understood peace talks would not work. There was only one way to end this. And Kakashi agreed with Naruto on this.
"Now I think we have gone over everything. Lets meet up here in two months time again, if nothing has changed we are forced to take action" He gave a sympathetic look towards the both uchiha's in the room.
Both Shisui and Itachi knew well enough the seriousness of the situation, but hated the whole thing. But they also knew the damage such a rebellion would cause. Itachi found it easier to accept than Shisui. The older uchiha knew it was a longshot but he would be damned if he did not do everything in his power to see a peaceful resolution to this. He understood Naruto's position as well and could not blame him. He just wished his friend would be more diplomatic in situations like these.
"Dismissed," Hiruzen said with authority. And everyone left his office. He did not miss the look Naruto gave him just before he disappeared.
'He thinks I made the wrong decision?' the look he got from Naruto reminded him of someone pitying a dying animal 'does he think of me as weak?'. This worried him. Naruto always respected his opinions in all sorts of matters. He thought back on numerous reports during the last years of Naruto's missions. Naruto's rise in power seems to come at a price, it was almost as his personality started to change little by little. 'What's happening to you Naruto-kun? Why won't you speak to me?'. He was worried something was changing in Naruto and he did not know what. Naruto had a big place in the old hokages heart. And he was at a loss, feeling his connection to Naruto slipping away. He signed 'maybe i'm just imagining things' he thought as he shifted his focus towards the documents in front of him.
"Hello class," the teacher said as he greeted his new students. "Welcome to your first year at the academy. My name is Iruka Umino. You can all call me Iruka-sensei or just sensei" he looked out over his class and was pleased at how quiet and attentive they were. Then his eyes landed on a redhead bouncing up and down in her seat with her right hand in the air. He smiled in recognition of her 'the uzumaki whirlwind eh?' he thought amused.
"Yes Mito-san, you want to say something?" He called out to her.
"When do we start to learn awesome shinobi skills? Like kicking faces and throwing kunai's at unsuspecting enemies?" she beamed with excitement and the whole class just sweatdropped.
Her sister leaned over to her to whisper in Mito's ear "you already know those things Mito. Chill out will you?". Naori was embarrassed by her sister's loud ways. Mito just ignored her.
"Iruka-san, hello? Can you hear me?" She kept pestering the poor chunin as he was a bit shocked at her over the top excitement.
"Uhm..sorry about that, just spaced out for a bit" He smiled and calmed down the raving girl.
"As for your question. The first two years will focus more on academia, then we will introduce more and more of the shinobi arts as the time goes. As you know, you have six years here in the academy. So you will have plenty of time to learn as you put it 'to kick faces'." he answered her.
This seemed to make her mood sour quickly. So he was quick with adding "Of course you will be doing plenty of physical exercises during these two first years as well. Even some sparring and taijutsu training" He smiled as he saw little Mito shine up again.
"Now let's introduce ourselves" he pointed towards a kid close to him in the first row. "Why don't you start miss?"
"My name is Ino Yamanaka," the daughter of the famous Inoichi introduced herself. Next to her sat Sakura Hanoro who introduced herself next to the class as she waved happily at everyone. And this went on until everyone had the chance to introduce themself.
When it came to Mito's turn to introduce herself she stood up and struck a pose, possibly learned by the great toad sage himself. Even before she started to talk, her sister and Sasuke just groaned and tried to hide their embarrassment. Mito proudly proclaimed "I'm the one and only Mito Uzumaki! Future hokage and badass asskicking machine!" She looked at the class and they were all stunned in silence. "And this is my sister Naori Uzumaki and my friend Sasuke Uchiha" she smiled as she knew this made them both uncomfortable. She gave herself a nod as she was proud of her own introduction and then sat herself down again.
"Uhmm..thank you for that colorful introduction Mito-san. And for your sister and friend as well" he knew he would have his work cut out for him with this one.
The class was still stunned. And her sister and Sasuke just glared at her smirking face. This was not a fight they were willing to take, as they could not win against her hyperactive attitude. And Mito was well aware of this, she really loved pushing her sister's and Sasuke's buttons.
Soon the introductions continued and everything seemed to go back to normal. At Least for now Iruka thought.
Four weeks later, Naruto was at his team's usual training ground. He could not find Shisui anywhere. He knew Itachi was out of the village on clan business and Kakashi was assigned as protection detail for an important client visiting the village. But Shisui should be here, he thought. He went to ask his friends' parents if they knew where he could be, they said he left in the morning. They thought he would be with Naruto. He even tried locating Shisui's chakra signature but he felt no trace of it. 'Is he out of the village? But why?' he thought with a frown.
Suddenly he felt a spike of his friend's chakra a short distance outside of the village 'Gotcha' he thought with a smirk and teleported away in a red flash.
He consciously teleported a couple of meters away from his friend's signature as he wanted to surprise him and possibly scare him a bit. Good thing he marked all his friends and family with the hiraishin seal he thought.
The scene he was met with screamed danger to him and made him alert. Not for himself but for his friend. He saw Shisui down by his knees, looking beat up. Two masked people stood next to him and a cloaked figure stood in front of Shisui, making it hard for Naruto to make out their identities. He recognized the cloaked figure's signature directly 'Danzo' he thought with a snarl as he felt anger rise up inside of him. 'So the others must be Danzo's lapdogs'.
The three people that stood by Shisui noticed Naruto's presence as the young shinobi did nothing to hide himself, they could all feel a tremendous killing intent weighing them down. And they turned their attention towards the newcomer.
"Step away from Shisui. I won't give you a second warning" Naruto told them in a cold voice promesing death if they did not follow his command.
"Orders sir?" one of the masked shinobi asked their master.
"Wrong answer," Naruto said in a threatening manner as he made a small motion with his right hand. As soon as he did that, spikes made of ice and wood shot out from the ground, piercing both shinobis, killing them instantly in a gruesome death. Splattering blood all over their master's cloak and Shisui's face.
Danzo was now worried. He knew he had no chance against Naruto, not alone. He had to think of something fast. He opened his mouth to say something to Naruto. But he had no time as suddenly he felt a strong grip almost crushing his windpipe. Naruto was not stupid and he knew Danzo was a competent shinobi and had alot of tricks up his sleeve, so the first thing he did was to put a really strong chakra suppression seal on Danzo's throat.
He looked towards Shisui and saw he was bleeding "Are you alright Shisui?" he asked his friend, not having a single care about the struggling man in his grip. Shisui just nodded as he was in shock. If Naruto did not show up when he did, he most certainly would be dead right now. He was really grateful towards his friend for having impeccable timing.
"Good timing huh?" he smiled down at Shisui.
Then he turned his attention back to Danzo who was almost out of air at this point. He narrowed his eyes at the old warhawk and asked with venom in his voice "What's the meaning of this Danzo?"
Naruto heard the old mummy trying to say something so he loosened his grip and let Danzo fall to the ground. There he laid there trying to get his breath back while coughing. Naruto knew killing Danzo would make more problems than it solved, but he really wanted to hurt this man right now.
"This does not concern you Naruto" Danzo spat out
"Oh? You think so?" He gave an evil smirk towards Danzo. "I think this concerns me very much" Naruto was about to make a move towards the man laying on the forest floor.
"Naruto-kun. Stop! You can't kill him" Shisui said and Naruto looked towards him. Shisui saw darkness inside of his friend's eyes, something he had never seen before. But he pushed that away as his own imagination in this stressful situation he found himself in. "Lets just report to the hokage and he will know how to deal with this". Danzo looked relieved, he knew the old fool Sarutobi would do nothing anything against him.
Naruto nodded towards his friend "I was never going to kill him. I'm just going to leave him with a souvenir of mine" as he said this he put his hand on Danzo's face and the old man howled in pain and anguish.
Naruto took his hand away from Danzo and it left a red, nasty and oozing looking mark on his face resembling a hand. It looked like he had boiled his skin.
Danzo lay there panting in pain. And Naruto just stood over him smiling at his handiwork. Shisui was in shock once more 'was that boil release?'.
"Here" Naruto said and reached out his hand towards Shisui "Grab on" he said. And they were gone in a flash. Leaving Danzo to his own misery.
They appeared a second later in the hokage's office. Fortunately Hiruzen was alone as he saw Naruto appear in a red flash with a hurt Shisui. Hiruzen stood up from his chair in shock.
"Wha…What happened?" He asked them, clearly worried. As he rushed forward to check on the injured Shisui. "You need a hospital as soon as possible, Shisui," he told the eighteen year old shinobi.
"Im fine hokage-sama, just some minor injuries" Shisui reassured the old man.
"What about your eye, it's bleeding!" Hiruzen said in shock, what could possibly make his eye bleed like that he wondered.
"It's nothing serious, I strained my sharingan a bit too much is all" he lied. He did not want to admit he tried to use his mangekyou and failed.
Hiruzen looked at Shisui for a while, he was really worried. Who could do this against one of his strongest shinobis, he thought.
Naruto noticed the lie his friend told and smirked. He knew why his eye bled 'so you had to use your mangekyou eh?. I need to hurry up with my seal then' he mused
"What happened?" Hiruzen asked as he looked between both of them. Naruto just stayed quiet as he thought this was Shisui's tale to tell. Naruto did not know much about it anyway, he just arrived towards the end.
Shisui took a gulp as the hokage's glare was kinda intimidation even though he saw worry for him in the old man's eyes. "Danzo and two of his root shinobi's attack me and tried to steal my eyes," he told the hokage.
The hokage was at a loss for words, 'this is a joke right?' He thought.
"What did you say? I'm not sure i heard you clearly boy" Hiruzen said as he did not believe what he was hearing.
"I'm afraid it's true sir. Danzo and his dogs attacked Shisui. What he said is true" Naruto said as he saw Shisui becoming uncomfortable.
"And what's your part in this Naruto?" The hokage asked sternly
"He came just in time to save me from certain death" Shisui interjected as he nodded towards his friend. Grateful for his timely intervention.
The hokage stayed quiet for some time then he made the biggest sign he ever did as he sat himself down in his chair. "So let me get this straight. You" pointing at Shisui "gets attacked by Danzo and two of his root shinobi's, and they try to steal your eyes. And then you" Looking towards Naruto "shows up and saves your friend" Naruto just nodded with a grin, he was glad he made it in time. "Did I get that right?"
"Yes, hokage-sama," Shisui answered him.
"So what happened to Danzo and his two friends?" Hiruzen asked, dreading the answer. If Naruto was involved they were probably dead already.
Naruto stayed quiet, so Shisui decided to answer "Naruto swiftly killed the two root shinobi, not without giving them a warning first i might add. He left Danzo alive, but gave him a..what to call it..a parting gift so to say" Shisui did not really know what to call it.
"Parting gift?" Hiruzen inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"I tested out a new trick on that old fossil" Naruto said and added "You will see it yourself when Danzo gets here crying, trying to make some bad excuse for his actions".
"This is no joking matter, Naruto," Hiruzen said sternly. "Tell me what you did"
"I gave him a permanent reminder to not cross me or my friends ever again" He said and glared at the hokage. "Nothing less of what he deserves" then Naruto added "He should be killed for what he did!" he told the hokage. Naruto was growing tired of Hiruzen's soft ways of handling matters.
"You are not wrong Naruto" The old hokage said as a sign. "But you know as well as I do that with Danzo, it complicates things" he looked almost embarrassed at this.
"I do" Naruto said reluctantly, he was not happy but he knew killing Danzo outright would cause a lot of problems.
"He went too far this time Hiruzen" Naruto eyed the hokage.
Hiruzen knew Naruto was right. Problem was that Danzo had a lot of connections inside and outside of the village. Killing him would put konoha in a state of chaos. He needed to be careful about how he handles this, he could not go unpunished this time. He attacked one of his most trusted shinobi, and even tried to kill him according to Naruto and Shisui. He had no reason to distrust these too.
"Let me handle this Naruto. And I'm ordering you to stay away from Danzo in the meantime. Both of you. You are not to tell anyone of what happened tonight, is that clear?" He said with the authority of a hokage.
"As you wish Hokage-sama" Naruto said flatly, still a bit annoyed. At Least he now knew Hiruzen would do something.
"Of course Hokage-sama," Shisui answers.
Hiruzen looked at both and nodded. He then reached for his pipe and took some puffs to calm his nerves. "Shisui, do you have any idea why he would want your sharingan?" He asked, as that seemed to be Danzo's objective in this mess.
"He may be after one of my eye's abilities. As you know i have the mangekyou and it grants me the most powerful genjutsu known to man. It's called kotoamatsukami, it allows me to manipulate anyones memories and thoughts without them ever knowing. Using it would instantly make one of my eyes blind, so there is that." He finished
"That is indeed one frightening ability. I can see why Danzo would want that ability. It would be extremely dangerous if he ever got hold of that." Hiruzen mused.
"I was actually thinking about using it on Fugaku to stop the rebellion, but it would have no effect on the rebellion as a whole. So I dropped that idea" Shisui said.
"Indeed, it sounds like that would only work if you could use it on more than one occasion," Hiruzen answered.
"I have two ideas that may solve Shisui's problem with the curse of blindness the mangekyou comes with." Naruto said. Both looked at him for an explanation.
Naruto signed "This is not a sure thing, it may take me years to finish with what i have in mind, but i'm working on it" he looked at them and he started his explanation. "First off, I'm working on a seal that in theory would protect a user of the mangekyou from the curse of blindness. There's a lot of kinks to work out still, and when I'm done I'm not even sure it will work. It's infused with the healing properties of my chakra and even nature chakra." They both looked at him in shock.
"Would something like that even be possible?" Shisui asked in a low voice.
"Everything is possible, Shisui. But it may take years still before I'm done with this seal. It's a very tricky thing to regenerate or heal something as complex as the mangekyou, at least with just a seal" He told his friend. He saw the desperation in Shisui's eyes. Going blind is a very scary thought.
"You said you had two ideas?" Hiruzen asked, now very curious. Naruto's mind is amazing when it comes to innovating things.
"The other idea is more plausible but very risky. We would have to remove one of Shisui's eyes and copy it to make a replica. That way when we transplant the new eye, his sharingan would evolve to the last state called eternal mangekyou sharingan"
Both were shocked at that. The eternal mangekyou sharingan, it's said to be immensely powerful. And takes away the curse of blindness. The only person they knew to achieve this state was the legendary Uchiha Madara.
Shisui was stunned at the prospect and could not get any words out. Hiruzen then decided to ask Naruto "How would anyone go about doing that?"
"I had talks years ago with Tsunade-sama about this idea, right after Shisui awakened his own mangekyou. No one wants to see their friends go blind right?" he smirked at a shocked Shisui.
"Tsunade is sure she could replicate the mangekyou with help from my own chakra and a seal I already made. It would not take much time, maybe a week at most. The unknown in all of this is we can't be sure it would even work until we try. We have to remove at least one of Shisui's eyes first to even begin. If it does not work, it may actually destroy Shisui's chances of ever using that eye again." Naruto finished his explanation.
"That is indeed very risky," Hiruzen said as he looked towards Shisui who looked to be in deep thought. 'He is actually considering this'. Shisui losing his sight would be devastating, not just for himself but for konoha as a whole.
Naruto looked towards his friend as well, but he had other thoughts. 'You wont get anywhere without taking some risks here and there Shisui' he thought as he had a smirk on his face. He was confident he could make this work if his friend chose to move forward with this.
"I'll do it!" Shisui blurted out with conviction, he had full confidence in Naruto and Tsunade's abilities. As a medic himself, he knew this may be possible under the right circumstances.
"Are you sure you are willing to risk it?" the hokage asked, worried. "It's your choice after all" he added.
"I have full confidence in Naruto and Tsunade's abilities. And as Naruto usually puts it, you wont get anywhere without taking some risks" He said as he smiled at Naruto, grateful for his friend and his abilities.
Hiruzen looked towards both of them "You are right about that Shisui, sometimes we have to take a risk to better ourselves." he then smiled at Naruto 'you really are a good friend Naruto-kun'. Naruto always went the extra mile for his friends and family, everyone at his good side would consider themself lucky.
"Before you think about it Hiruzen. Even with the eternal mangekyou sharingan, Shisui would not be able to use kotoamatsukami to stop the rebellion. As I understand it he would not be able to use that ability more than once a year, even with the evolved mangekyou." Naruto stated.
"Unfortunately this is true hokage-sama. It's the same with a few other abilities that eye grants. Eternal mangekyou also has it limits, as i have read"
"That's unfortunate," Hiruzen said. "Nothing to do about that then, we just have to see how everything works out in the set timeframe."
"I will summon Tsunade back to the village as soon as I can. She could probably be here within two weeks, give or take" Hiruzen told them both.
Shisui gave the hokage a thankful nod "Thank you hokage-sama". Naruto just gave Hiruzen a respectful nod.
"I will send word as soon as i know when Tsunade will arrive, and we will set everything up for the procedure" He looked at a hopeful Shisui and smiled "Let's end this on a good note then. You both are dismissed" He told them both as they nodded. Before they could leave he said "And make sure you get yourself checked up Shisui"
"Of course hokage-sama" he said and bowed in respect.
"Later then" Naruto said and disappeared with Shisui in a flash.
They never went to the hospital. Instead Naruto took Shisui home to his family. Naruto had everything needed to fix Shisui up. He started to channel some chakra into his friend and saw all the small cuts instantly close and heal up. Even his eye stopped bleeding.
"There you go, all fixed up" Naruto said as he smiled at Shisui
"Thank you Naruto for saving my life" Shisui was very grateful towards his friend.
"It's what friends are for right?" he gave him a smirk
"I better leave now. I have to get home before Kushina becomes crazy. I was actually meaning to meet with her before, then this happened."
"By the way Naruto, what you did to Danzo..was that boil release?" Shisui asked.
"Pretty cool right"? He answered and gave his friend a wink. Then he was gone in a red flash.
Shisui just started at the spot his friend just was a second ago.'cool is maybe not the word I would use,' he smirked.
End of chapter
*Author's note*
As always, thanks for reading!
And thanks for all the reviews, makes me a happy camper.
There are some questions about Naruto's strength and the strength or rather weakness of his comrades. I may have been a bit clumsy in my description. But rest assured I have some thought behind it all. It will make more sense as the story progresses.
I hope this chapter sheds some light on Naruto's mental troubles. Inoichi had a theory about it being something like a split personality. I can't really say what it is. This will be made clear much later in the story. I can't say too much about it, you just have to read to find out :)
Until next time!