Hinata was doing nothing special that morning: she was just taking care of another patient when Kiba and his un-separable Amakaru had barged in, giving her the news. Since it was an hospital, the loud Chuunin and his equally Chuunin pet had been immediately thrown out by the big muscled female nurse with Harley Davidson tattoos they usuallykeep around to handle nutcases. Or simply be there for the comic relief.
"Did he really come back?" Hinata felt her hands tremble.
"Did he really come back after all these years...?"
"Yare yare..."
Naruto yawned loudly as he walked slowly down through the village's square, tired from a very long journey. In front of him, Chuunins and Jounins alike were spreading out, giving him way to the Hokage's office. But even for those whom had known him well in their younger years, he was barely recognizable: even his old friends didn't dare to leap at him and kept a respectful distance. It's not that he looked particularly menacing right now: true, his torn off sleeves showed off a multitude of scars on his arms, but that wasn't unusual for a ninja who had lived through much combat. Either that or he had just been slashing himself to look cooler, but it was unlikely. Or he had just been incautious, cutting oranges with a kunai while watching TV: I can actually relate to this one. Who knew? Another thing that was noticeable was that his eyes were glowing of a strange, almost bestial yellow color, but no one really recalled his original eye color neither. But that familiar nonchalant attitude was there, now wasn't it? He wasn't dangerous, he wasn't a threat to anyone, and it was Uzumaki Naruto. He had to be.
But something about him other than his neglected appearance had changed terribly: it wasn't even a newfound aura of power surrounding him, but more the actual lack of any detectable chakra emanating from his being. That wasn't normal: someone without chakra simply couldn't possibly be alive, and even the best Jounins were incapable of concealing their presence to this extent. In fact, Naruto seemed to lack everything, as Kiba and Neiji noted, from a particular smell to even a regular human being's chakra signature. And just to mention him, Shikamaru was at his home, sleeping and completely oblivious to Naruto's return: see? There's no character favoritism in this fanfic! Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah. More than a man, Naruto seemed like a shadow, a phantom, undetectable by any other means than direct contact and vision: but by seeing how Naruto was now openly scratching the back of his head and yawning, it's not like he was making any real effort to conceal his presence either. He couldn't be any more conspicuous even if he tried. Well, maybe if he was singing a Teletubbies song and scratching his ass instead. Fine, scrap that last statement. Well, he wasn't a walking dead, at least that much the villagers had concluded: even in his state, his steps were unmistakably strong and resolute. The more experienced Anbus even noticed he showed no openings nor weaknesses from any angle as he tranquilly walked by, a heavy bag slung over his shoulder and his dented Konoha protector laying ever loyally on his forehead. In some strange fashion, he commanded respect and power.
He was Naruto, and yet he wasn't Naruto. That much was enough for people to keep their distance.
"Hokage-sama will know what to do."
The first person she saw as she was coming out from the hospital was her cousin. Many years ago, Hinata would have probably hesitated asking him for help, for directions or even the time of the day for that matter, fearing the incredible bitterness of the Branch house of the Hyuuga. But after his fight with Naruto on that fateful day, Neiji had come to terms with many of his own issues. He had now accepted his own position of servitude in the hierarchy, because curse seal or not, he would always remain a proud member of the Hyuuga family. That was only a temporary situation for him, though: as far as he was concerned, once he would be done taking over the Main house, he'd lock all those that gave him a hard time in the attic with a Spice Girls CD playing at full blast. FOREVER.
"Neiji-kun!" The young woman ran to her cousin.
"Hinata-sama..." he responded.
Usually, when he saw her, he would be wondering if she was one of those girlies who would actually LIKE to listen to a Spice Girls CD: that question would always throw him into a deep reflection. Today however, it seemed as if he was in a state of puzzlement. That wasn't an expression one saw everyday in a user of the Byakugan, who could after all see through anything and everything! Well, not through walls. One of the general complaints the Hyuuga often had about their ability was that it couldn't be used to peek into the ladies' dressing room. That sucked.
"Neiji-kun, I heard that Naruto-kun finally came back to the village. Is it true? Did you see him?"
There was a short silence. Was he hesitating, she asked herself? Neiji was known for being a pretty blunt guy. Speaking of which, why is it that some blunt guys fare better than others in the ladies department? I mean, look at Sasuke! WHYYYY?
"Well...Yes and no. It's hard to explain. It's best if you saw for yourself, I guess. He should be with Tsunade-sama right now. I'll walk you, Hinata-sama."
"Thank you, Neiji-kun."
And to herself, she wished one day he would stop calling her that. She never liked the idea of her own cousin being her personal bodyguard. And after all, she wasn't a member from the Main house anymore, since her father kicked her out that day she was permanently placed into Kurenai-sensei's custody. You know, that Genjutsu Jounin who got her ass handed to her by the Akatsuki. Badly. I mean come on! Even that nobody Asuma managed to land one of those tiny little scratches that almost tickle!
"Naruto...is that...you?" She asked the blond young man now standing in her office.
By use of advanced medical seals, Tsunade looked as young as ever, even though she was now entering her sixties. She was a genius medical-nin, you see: her research even allowed her to complete the infamous breasts enlargement seal. Now if THAT isn't the discovery of the century, I don't know what is. Has anyone else ever noticed that's the only form of gratuitous fan-service there is in the Naruto universe?
"Eheh! Who else would I be, Tsunade-obasan?" Naruto winked and dropped his bag down with a thud.
"Well, that's a load off!" He said and stretched out his shoulders.
Tsunade could only but keep silent for a moment to compose her voice.
"I can't believe you're finally back..."
She was now feeling very emotional or else she would have already slapped the runt's brains out for reminding her of her age: but, after all, she had always felt that Naruto was somewhat a reincarnation of her kid brother, whom had died a long time ago. A random guy who looked so alike to Naruto in fact it seemed his only purpose of existence was to create a sort of vague connection between Naruto and Tsunade. And then of course Kishimoto Masashi just gratuitously blew the useless little punk's brains out. Whoopee-doo. Back to the story.
"But I don't see Jiraiya with you. Did that old pervert finally kick the bucket or something?"
Naruto's facial expression suddenly darkened at the mention of Jiraiya's name.
"Actually, he did. He got killed."
There was a sudden silence. Tsunade had actually said that as a joke, but had never expected her old teammate would ever really die. Well, considering his lifestyle, maybe of liver cancer or AIDS, but not the more violent death. No, not with his power.
"Oh...What...happened?" She felt her voice falter.
Naruto again scratched the back of his head. Let's just say he did that whenever he felt uncomfortable, okay? A bit like how some of you scratch your own ass when you...Why the heck does it always come back to this? Anyway, Naruto had had plenty of time to cope with his mentor's death since it happened quite a while ago, but he still felt uncomfortable remembering it. And he also somewhat felt guilty for it.
"The Akatsuki got him. Well actually, Uchiha Itachi got him. That guy, he's such a damn monster, I'm lucky to have survived at all...I only fought him for a moment, but...I had never been so scared in my life! He's not even a big man, but he moved so fast...And...And he wore this really gay cloak! That was SO disturbing! I couldn't even LOOK at...!"
"You were with Jiraiya and you two together couldn't even defeat Itachi?.!"
"No, no! We were ambushed! We were somewhere on our way between Hidden Flame and Hidden Sand countries when Itachi suddenly jumped on us with two other guys! ...Well actually, Old Senin found out we were being followed, so we used the element of surprise and got the jump on them instead! But since they were 3 Akatsuki members, they reacted in time and it didn't worked! So Jiraiya said we had to retreat! But then one of the bad guys placed some sort of Genjutsu on us and we were trapped! Then Itachi tried to use some weird mind-breaking thingie with his Mange Sharingan to finish us off, but we both bit our tongues and broke out of the Genjutsu! I then repelled back Itachi with one of my own original jutsus so he couldn't finish his move! Then Old Senin immediately used his Kuchiyose no Jutsu and Gama-Bunta appeared, kicking one of the bad guy's ass! But then the other nameless bad guy took revenge and kicked Jiraiya's ass! But then I used the momentum to sneak behind him and Rasengan-ned his ass! But then Itachi got annoyed and kicked everyone's ass! But then...!"
Now this whole previous paragraph sounded reaaaally annoying, right? And to think we see a lot of this nowadays. Let this be a lesson to fanfic writers out there who are even worse than I am: normal human beings have to BREATHE sometimes. And too much information in a condensed paragraph like this also sounds very bad. And when I say bad, it's ba-a-aaad. Like Kurenai...on a caffeine overdose.
Resuming the story, this earned our favorite hyperactive ninja a good slap from our favorite big-breasted Hokage. And I mean BIG-breasted. I mean, just look at her: she could make those infamous kunoichis from the Dead or Alive fighting game envious.
"Naruto, I didn't understand a single thing of what you just said. Take a big breath. Talk slowly. And tell me how Jiraiya died."
Naruto took a big breath and tried to recollect himself. Still, this wasn't exactly his favorite subject of conversation.
"...Old Jiraiya...I'm not too sure what he did. But Itachi...that guy...even Gama-Bunta was defeated in a matter of minutes, it was awful...We were really desperate, so Jiraiya decided to pull out this very strange technique he never taught me. I..I saw the whole thing, but even now I'm still completely in the dark about what happened. You see, he first did this very long combination of handseals and waited for an opening... When he spotted one , he made a mad dash for Itachi and grabbed him! At the time, I thought he had went crazy! Itachi immediately punched him in retaliation, but I guess he had been weakened by fighting off our big Toad friend, so Jiraiya didn't let go... But then..."
Naruto started violently shaking his head. Tsunade feared the worse.
"But then...! Then, they both froze for no reason! I don't understand! Amidst the action, I lost sight of them for a while after that, but when I finally got back to them after dealing with the two other Akatsukis, they were both laying on the ground. I...checked twice, no, thrice! But I couldn't detect any pulse on neither Jiraiya nor Itachi. And their bodies...well...they both had this strange mark on their stomachs, as if something went... THROUGH them...Actually, it looked a bit similar to my own mark..."
"Jiraiya did what?.? Then why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you stop him, you ungrateful brat!"
Tsunade slammed unto her desk. She was fuming. More furious than a woman finding out another woman wore the same dress at a cocktail party. But seemingly, she wasn't pointing her hatred at Naruto: she didn't seem to look at Naruto as much as she was THROUGH him. What made her so angry was Jiraiya's own decision to go kamikaze on Itachi. And he didn't even have to use a suicide jet fighter to do so.
She recognized that jutsu simply from the description. Well, at the most, she had vaguely heard about it. What was it called? Fuuin Jutsu Shiki Fuujin? That was one of the most forbidden techniques the Fourth Hokage had created, wasn't it? She had never really seen it herself, but from what Jiraiya told her, the soul-eating demon the jutsu conjured would absorb any surrounding life forms it was placed in close contact with, including, ultimately, the summoner's. And as she knew Jiraiya, the old idiot probably loved life too much to even think of using it unless he had a damn good reason. Was protecting Naruto worth his life?
Naruto? As she came out from her train of thought, she realized she was now holding Naruto by the collar, and he wasn't even offering resistance. He just kept on sadly shaking his head, blaming himself and overall feeling miserable. Little did he knew he couldn't have done anything. Because he just simply didn't know.
"I didn't know what was happening, Tsunade-obasan...I swear I didn't know...I'm so sorry..."
Tsunade's traits softened, as well as her grip on Naruto's collar..
"No, Naruto...It wasn't your fault...You couldn't have done anything, that jutsu Jiraiya used...well, you'll understand someday...But it wasn't your fault, Naruto. It was Jiraiya's own decision to protect you."
She leaned in to hug him. But then suddenly realizing Naruto's current hormone-charged age, as well as most...physical implications of a hug, she decided against it. It was a sad day for Naruto.
"You're right, you know...When the Akatsuki attacked us, it was more like old Senin was defending me, not the other way around...haha, Jiraiya was actually a pretty great man like he said, even if I just didn't believe him at first when we met...but that old guy, he was also such a crazy fellow, dragging me through all that booze and all those women over the years...wait...no wait, you didn't hear that! Jiraiya was a great man -forget the previous sentence- a great man I say! Even though he knew he couldn't win, he pulled Itachi, the strongest of the trio, apart from the 2 others and that's what gave me a fighting chance. Even though Jiraiya was outmatched and took hit after hit as he stalled Itachi, that bought me enough time to bring down both my opponents...well, it was still too late, though...I swear I tried my best, Tsunade-obasan! But I really had my hands full fighting 2 Akatsuki members at once, and...!"
Tsunade wanted to grab Naruto again by the collar: not to yell at just how incompetent he was for not being capable of protecting his own mentor, but more because his self-pity was getting really annoying. I mean, he's in the middle of his twenties, for God's sake! And still whining like a wimpy little...
Then she suddenly realized what Naruto had implied: the Akatsuki was composed uniquely of A-Class and S-Class criminals. Fighting off two members of the Akatsuki at the same time , that's at least 2 A-Class ninjas at once. And even living to tell about it, that was probably the scary part. It kicked TOO MUCH ass.
"Naruto... just how strong are you?"
That question was pretty blunt, and it was so out of place that it took Naruto by surprise. Well, it's not like he often got the chance to brag about the mad mad ninja skillz he acquired over the years, but he still decided to give a reserved answer.
"I'm pretty strong, I guess. Why do you ask?"
"Naruto, most members of the Akatsuki can easily handle 2 or 3 average Jounins each. And you're telling me you've actually knocked out 2 of them by yourself?"
"...Well, uh...actually, I've ended up killing them. It's not exactly in my nindo to kill people, but they were really giving me a hard time, so I couldn't hold back. Look, it's not that I'm a cruel son of a..."
"Naruto, you're evading the point. Or no, you're simply being whiny. Be quiet for a second."
Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but decided against it. He only remembered too well just how strong Tsunade was, even at her age. It's not like he wasn't confident about his own skills either, but it was in his nindo not to hit back women. Or eat broccoli. Or getting tricked into running around Konoha village with his own heart-printed boxers on his head. That's one fucked up nindo, if you ask me. It didn't however hinder the fact that it only took Tsunade about 6.427 seconds to decide that Naruto in his current state would be a nice addition to the Leaf's Jounin team. A superb addition.
You see, the Jounin level had really went down recently, since many of the good Jounins had been killed in the latest Orochimaru raid. Well, our favorite Jounins were fine, since they rocked way too hard to die now. During the attack, Gai had opened all of his inner gates and quickly disposed of his opponents at full power, but unfortunately got knocked out in his pursuit of Orochimaru, whom violently slammed a metal gatedoor in his face. He had to attend several sessions of reconstructive nose surgery by Tsunade after that: it was very ironic, but overall he was relatively unharmed. Asuma did fine during the fighting too, inflicting annoying little scratches on his opponents and then running away, giggling like a schoolgirl: he managed to break a leg by tripping on a rock AFTER the fighting ended, but other than that he was all good and kicking (one leg only). Kakashi, the best of them, didn't even get a single scratch through the whole ordeal, but that was because he was 3 hours late showing up to the fight. And even though she sucked, Kurenai had survived too: but by the sole reasons of sheer dumb luck and providential constipation. The thing is that during the raid, she had been straining on the toilet and reading her monthly edition of Kunoichi Today, completely oblivious to the fighting outside the whole time it lasted: just imagine her face when she finally came out of the bathroom and saw all the dead people laying around. And the sad thing in all of this is that considering her skill level, she probably would have ended up on the body count list if she hadn't been taking a shit instead of bravely fending off the village attackers like any self-respecting Jounin should have. The world is an unfair place.
To resume the whole anecdote, it all first started when Orochimaru hatched an elaborate and clever plan which involved disguising himself and his lackeys as Santa Clauses to unconspicuously infiltrate Konoha village in the middle of a bright summer day: but as I'm sure that doesn't interest anyone, that said, let's move on with our story. The Jounin situation in Konoha was now so bad that you only needed to be able to count up to 10 to get into the Jounins. And even then, most people couldn't get it right since that wasn't taught at the Academy. Eh, this is becoming a really long paragraph...All right, let's just say that right now, Konoha needed someone strong like Naruto.
Tsunade gasped in sudden realization: but knowing Naruto's level of intellect, he might very well fail the current sorry excuse of a Jounin exam too! And there were no grade curves!
"I've decided, Naruto. I'm gonna give you a special permission to join the Leaf Jounins."
That brightened Naruto's mood considerably.
"A J...A Jounin! Me? Wow! But...uh, obasan, I'm not even a Chuunin yet. Well, it's not that I really mind, but I like earning what I get, so I thought I'd better first take..."
"Naruto, I'm sure you're waaaaaay beyond that level right now. It's okay, I can bend some rules for you."
Eh, after all, she was the Hokage: she was the village's pillar. More importantly, the village's WILL. She could finger-flick in the forehead anyone who didn't offer support to her ideas and send them flying to the moon. And no one could say anything about it: being the Hokage was the good life. Naruto thought about it for a while.
"Bah, Tsunade-obasan...I don't know. I thought that if you didn't mind, I'd just stay in Konoha for a while. But after dealing with my nostalgia, I'd just hit the road again. I never intended to stay very long."
Crap. That, Tsunade didn't count on. But an elder woman always got what she wanted with her secret weapon: making people feel guilty.
"You want to leave that badly? You know a ninja's duty is to protect his own village, don't you? Has your travels weakened your own link with Konoha Village that much?"
Naruto scratched his head. Yes, again. What do you people want? We could make him pick his nose too for variation, but that would be plain rude.
"It's not that...I just...Well, if the Akatsuki came after me again, even if they lost Itachi, they're still pretty dangerous. I don't want to endanger anyone else, so it's always better if I don't stay at one place too long. Well, and to tell the truth, I've also taken taste to traveling. You get to see a lot of different places and cultures."
He smiled. Tsunade was looking in disbelief: that expression on the young man's face was simply too familiar. He might just as well have said something like 'you wouldn't believe how all the brothels are like out there. '
"Why is it that my woman's intuition tells me Jiraiya had had some form of...nasty influence on you?"
"Of course not. He just taught me to be broad-minded." Naruto shrugged.
And probably the Touton no Jutsu, Tsunade added mentally to his words. She sighed: no use discussing this any further, if Naruto had become as evasive as Jiraiya was. Fine, it was time for her OTHER secret weapon: making Naruto feel like an ungrateful jackass. Basically, it's the same thing as making him feel guilty, but on another level of self ass-loathing.
"You really think Jiraiya would have wanted you wandering the world for the rest of your life? You think that's why he gave his life for you?"
Naruto grimaced. Ouch.
"I think he would have loved seeing you settling down, if that was ever possible. And personally, I'm very interested..." She smiled sadly "...In seeing the limits of what Jiraiya's last pupil can do."
There was a silence. Then it earned her the corniest thumbs up and the foxiest grin to date.
"Eheh...But of course!"
Jackpot. As long as it didn't involve gambling, Tsunade always got what she wanted.
"Okay, Naruto. You're dismissed for now. Come back here tomorrow morning."
"Sure thing, sure thing..."
Naruto picked his bag and started walking out when he suddenly froze as if he remembered something important.
"Oh! I almost forgot, obasan. I have something for you."
Naruto bent down and opened up his bag, from which he retrieved a crooked but strangely familiar piece of metal. As he placed it on Tsunade's desk, she recognized it immediately.
"That's...Jiraiya's head protector."
"I thought of all people, you might want to keep it as a memento or something. That's all I could manage to bring with me after I buried him myself. Again, I'm very sorry, obasan, that I couldn't protect him. I'll take my leave now."
Naruto took a respectful bow and walked out, leaving Tsunade to her own emotions.
...Well to be perfectly honest, he just didn't have the heart to tell her the old man had also left him his trusty telescope and the last edition of Come Come Paradise he ever wrote. Which, by the way, featured a guest appearance of Tsunade herself in a thong. Naruto shuddered: if she ever happened to see that, she would probably undertake a trip to Jiraiya's grave herself to spit on it and desecrate it in any possible way. Nah, it wouldn't be right for the old man: Naruto owed him at least that much. The young blond man would be keeping that neat book to himself, and not to his greatest dismay either.
"Hokage-sama...ano...may I come in?" Hinata peeked sheepishly into Tsunade's office.
It was quite a sight, actually, seeing Tsunade slumped into her chair with a blank expression on her face. Realizing she had another guest, Tsunade quickly placed an arm over her eyes. Hinata for a moment felt as if she was intruding. Had Tsunade-sama been...crying?
"Hinata...I'm busy right now, could you pass by later?"
Tsunade at the moment seemed anything but busy. Hinata couldn't help but notice the female Hokage was holding a peculiar piece of metal in her hand. She decided however not to question the matter further.
"Ano, Hokage-sama...I was just wondering if...ah, I heard Naruto-kun was here, so..."
"Naruto just left 15 minutes ago."
"A...Arigatou." The shy girl bowed down deeply. But Tsunade-sama was acting so strangely...
"Are you feeling okay, Hokage-sama? You look...a bit pale."
"I'm fine, Hinata-chan." She forced a painfully obvious fake smile.
"I need some time to think right now."
Hinata bowed down again and took her leave.Silence filled the little office again. The old woman smiled a bit: that girl lacked confidence in her own abilities, but her kindness was unmistakable. That was a very good personality trait for a prospective medical-nin: not to mention that the Byakugan sure had its uses during emergency surgeries. Tsunade chuckled: Hinata might even end up doing better than herself as a medical-nin. But even Tsunade, the best of the best, had felt time and time again the limits of her knowledge. She cursed at her own feelings of helplessness. She really hoped she wouldn't have to feel this way again.
Never again.
"That old fool..." She clutched tightly at the forehead protector she had been holding unto, and she felt her own vision blur.
"Was he in there?" Neiji asked Hinata as she came out.
He had been waiting at the entrance faithfully as a good bodyguard should. Well, in truth, he was actually quite scared of the Hokage and just wanted to keep his distance unless contact was absolutely necessary. But then again, Tsunade was a woman to be feared, and no man who wasn't either demon fox child or gambler was terribly afraid of her. Neiji was neither, so don't blame the poor guy for wussing out. Hinata shook her head at Neiji's question.
"No...I was told he just left." She thought for a bit. "He probably headed for his old home."
"You think so?" Neiji raised an eyebrow. "I don't think there's much for him to return to at the old dump. Considering what kind of guy he is, my guess would be that he went out for ramen."
"No, I think he went home. Considering this is his first time back in the village in years, he probably feels very nostalgic, so he would want to see places that were important to him. Besides, it's also way past suppertime now. I'm pretty sure he headed home."
She began walking in said direction. Neiji just raised his shoulders.
"I don't know, I still think he went out for ramen..." He then followed after her.
Wait a minute, that's character favoritism! Uh, did I mention Shikamaru was still home sleeping?
"THAT WAS AN AWESOME BOWL OF RAMEN!" Naruto exclaimed after being done slurping down his soup. "GET ME ANOTHER ONE, IRUKA-SENSEI!"
"Naruto...even at that age, you're still broke?"
"Aw come on, Iruka-sensei! I've been wandering out there for years, enduring hunger and poverty!"
"Well...Didn't Jiraiya-sama get any form of income from...well, you know...selling his books?"
"The old pervert always made us blow everything on geishas the moment we even got the money!"
One of Iruka's eyebrow shot up.
"...Made...us?"
"Well yeah! We were screwed up financially anyway, so I just told myself what the heck, I might as well rake in my money's worth. Right? Right?"
There was a nothing but silence as a gust of wind blew by. And those cricket sounds that always come from nowhere to well rub it all in.
"Eh, stop looking at me like I was some big pervert, Iruka-Sensei! I'm 24 so it was all perfectly legal!"
The middle-aged Iruka sighed and bought Naruto his next bowl of ramen. Well, he was happy to see his little friend again, although there were obviously certain traits that had taken a plunge for the worse. To think Naruto used to be such a nice little kid, he thought. Other than that, everything was as it was in the old days, except that they were now both older and that Naruto's appetite had expanded tenfold.
As a bit of background on the ramen shop, it's probably important to mention it almost went bankrupt during the 8 years Naruto, their very best customer, wasn't around to get his daily ration. How about that, uh? Free information. And from that you can even pull an obvious conclusion: the guy LIVED on ramen.
Iruka's attention moved to Naruto's head protector, which the young man had placed aside on the bar before eating. That was the gift that he himself had given Naruto when the boy had first unexpectedly graduated. The large and deep dents it now bore however sent shivers down his spine: he didn't even want to imagine what Naruto had been through in those years of absence.
"Your forehead protector saved my life more than once, you know."
Iruka looked up to a grinning Naruto, who had caught his gaze. Iruka's eyesthen rose to Naruto's naked forehead, which was the other thing he had been aching to ask the young man about.
"You're looking at this, right?" Naruto said, passing his fingers over his forehead.
Iruka nodded and followed the movement: it seemed to him the strange symbol glowed softly for a moment after the brief contact with its bearer's touch.
But...There was just something very creepy about the foreign and roughly triangular seal that was now imprinted on Naruto's forehead. And as you can imagine, it probably wasn't very esthetic if the poor guy had to usually conceal it under a big metal plate. And no matter how many years have passed, chicks STILL didn't dig whiskers.
"It was an idea of old Jiraiya, as we started traveling. He figured that since all Akatsuki's members were very skilled at detecting chakra signatures, we should both seal off our own chakras in order to give ourselves a better chance of escaping them. As you probably noticed, I don't emanate any chakra right now: it's a bit creepy to other people, but believe me, it can be quite useful sometimes. Anyway, while we were at it, Jiraiya decided to create this experimental 3-part seal in order to also help me gain better chakra control."
Naruto placed a finger on his forehead, passing it through each part of the seal slowly as he kept on explaining its functions.
"I probably should skip the elaborate signification of each of the symbols, since I'm not sure to really understand myself. Well basically, from what the old man told me, this seal has three parts, or levels, which I can each liberate at will. The first level gives me access to my own chakra. It's grown a lot over the years, so most of the time, I only need to activate this basic level. In more dangerous battles however, I allow myself to activate the second level of the seal, which again seals off my natural chakra and dives into the Kyubi's reserve, which is at the same time more potent and malevolent. Well, basically, I only unseal this one when I need to actually kill my target, since old Nine-Tails doesn't like unfinished business. It was a sort of a contract I made with him, you might say: any time he lends me his full power, I am not allowed to seal him back before he actually kills something or someone."
Iruka felt the cold sweat trickling down his neck. He had never heard Naruto talk about killing before, and now that he did, Iruka wasn't sure to like the fact that the young man acted as if it was perfectly okay to do so. Even though he was a fairly competent Jounin now (being one of the only people in the village capable of counting to 10), Iruka was still first and foremost a peaceful ninja teacher. His main function remaining the education of future shinobis at the Academy, death was still something he didn't flirt with very much. Detecting his former teacher's uneasiness, Naruto decided to cut short his explanation.
"You can probably guess what the last level does, although Jiraiya has forbidden me to use it."
He concluded by putting back his forehead protector into place. Iruka digested the information while Naruto continued slurping his meal in a loud and disgusting manner. How he had talked and eaten at the same time remains a mystery. But we do know one thing: if anyone had made him laugh at the moment, the ramen would have probably shot out his nose. That's not a pretty picture.
"That's...brilliant..." Iruka finally said. "It gives you complete access and control over both your chakras, and finally you can call the Kyubi at will without having to become unstable emotionally first...That's just brilliant."
"It has its uses, I guess." Naruto laughed, not eating at the same time so it wouldn't shoot out his nose.
"I'd really like to see just how much you've improved, Naruto. Oh, I heard about the next Jounin exam! You're going to test, right?...Uh, and you DO know how to count to 10, right?"
"I don't even need to test! Tsunade-obasan gave me a special entry to the Jounins for some reason! It's a real shame, you know Iruka-sensei? I'm missing a golden opportunity to show off!"
Iruka smiled: well, at least at heart, the boy hadn't changed much. He was still very easy-going. But Iruka didn't doubt Naruto's current ability even for a second and he mentally agreed that Konoha village really needed Jounins like him right now.Apart from the Hokage, there was maybe only one other particularly outstanding shinobi right now in Konoha.
That's when it all came back to Iruka.
"By the way, Naruto: I thought you should know about this. During the time you were gone, Uchiha made it as captain of the Anbu squad and then quickly escalated to Jounin. Just a year ago, he was officially recognized as the #1 Jounin of Konoha Village. He also got the title of 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People Magazine, but you probably don't care about that. Oh, I heard he recently got married to Yamanaka..."
Wow. Well what did you know: surprise could also make you shoot out ramen by your nose. There's probably a deep message or morality in all of this.
"Oh...I see...So he's already...there, uh..." Naruto said, his mood darkening.
The fact that his face was full of broth and that he had ramen sticking out his nostrils probably took out some of the drama, though.
"But Naruto...You said something very disturbing to me on that night you left, 8 years ago...I can still remember. To tell the truth, it scared me a bit: I just couldn't imagine someone like you thinking like that. I can't stop you, so I really hoped that time could resolve your differences with Uchiha and that you would be able to get over it all one day...But...Naruto, do you still intend to...?"
Naruto was now getting up from his seat.
"Of course! That's my nindo! When I swear to do something, I'll do it without fail!"
Naruto gave his ex-sensei his trademark thumbs up and grin. But Iruka didn't miss the fact that this time his eyes glowed of a disturbingly violent yellow.
"I will KILL Uchiha Sasuke."
Author's note: For all the Kurenai fans out there, sorry about all the bashing. It's not like I really dislike her or anything, but it's just that for some reason she turned into a running gag. Well, kind of like Itachi, actually. These kinds of things just happen. I'm also sorry for some of the more perverted humor: I hope it's not all in bad taste.
(Note: and then later on of course, I realized there were almost NO Kurenai fans in the world, so it's all good!)
You might have noticed but I usually leave the title of a song at the end of the chapters. These AREN'T theme songs: rather, it's the kind of music I listened to while writing the corresponding chapter. They usually represent the mood that I was trying to capture on paper while writing. Is it useless? Why, absolutely! But seriously though, I saw some comics do this and thought it was a neat way to communicate an author's state of mind.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these songs nor do I encourage getting them illegally. Like I can talk, though...
SR71 - Goodbye