Special Disclaimer: UPS and cool-aid are owned by whoever owns them. Not me.
It was not a good morning to be a tree. Naruto had now been in wave country a total of 15 days. After met Akira, his days were busy. He would get up, train in the forest with Kubikiri and his new jutsus, break for lunch, go to work, arrive home just in time for supper, and it now being at least 7:00, he had a couple hours of free time (which he usually spent training anyway) before he had to get to bed.
This had gone well until 2 days before when Naruto realized he needed to send his message to Konoha soon or they would come and look for him. The problem was that he needed to send it in a way that it couldn't be traced back to wave country, he knew that if enough effort was spent, someone would remember him and his story would be blown.
He needed the Konoha records to show that he had killed himself due to emotional trauma somewhere far away from wave, so he had come up with what he thought was a very clever plan. He had mailed his letter the day before and had been going insane with worry for the last 24 hours, he knew there were a million things that could go wrong.
Unfortunately for the forest, the only way Naruto had found to vent his anxiety was to train with even more intensity, and the trees were covered in large slash marks. On the positive side, he had improved greatly and could now handle Kubikiri one-handed without looking like an idiot.
Naruto practiced for another 15 more minutes before collapsing into the grass and staring at the sky, breathing heavily and letting his mind wander.
It was amazing how so little time could change ones perspective so much. Naruto had always lived by hating those who killed without reason, and devoting his life to fighting against them, without ever realizing he was being manipulated.
What had he thought the ANBU had been doing his whole life?
Orochimaru had tried to destroy the leaf and assassinated Sandaime Hokage, but how many innocents had been killed in wars and skirmishes Konoha had started? How many assassinations were performed by Leaf shinobi in a month? A week? A day?
Uchiha Itachi had killed his whole clan just to measure and improve himself. But the Hyuuga had been regularly enslaving and killing each other for as long as village history recorded, and they were among the most respected of the Leaf clans.
If he added himself, he had the group of people that Konoha despised above all others, and there was only one thing that they had in common. It wasn't their viciousness, their cruelty, or even whom they killed. It was because they had left the village.
Nukenins were hunted because once someone escaped the grasp of loyalty their village had, they realized that all shinobi were the same. That their beloved village did the same things they were told made their enemies evil.
Naruto glanced at the sun and realized with a start that he would be late for work. He leaped to his feat, his profound thoughts momentarily forgotten as he ran back towards the city.
(Later that day in the Village of the Hidden Sand)
Kankuro very slowly and very carefully examined the house he shared with his siblings. Temari had a date; he knew this meant she wouldn't be home until at least midnight, more likely one or two. Gaara was of doing whatever it was that Gaara did, no one had ever bothered to figure out what that was, but he was never around.
Kankuro giggled with delight, it was rare for him to have the house all to himself. He was just building up to full fledged maniacal laughter when the doorbell rang. Kankuro froze, he hadn't even known they'd had a doorbell, if Temari forgot her key and couldn't get in she just broke the door down, and Gaara teleported with his sand.
Kankuro opened the door to be confronted by a rather nervous looking man in brown wearing a UPS hat. He opened the door a bit further; a worker of the United Postal Service meant a letter had been addressed to someone in his house. It was an unprecedented event.
Kankuro opened the door all the way and looked at the man expectantly.
"I..I..I ha..hav..have a ," the man grew more confident as he continued, "p..package for a 'Mr. Gaara of the Desert', is he here?" the man asked, obviously hoping he wasn't.
Kankuro, for one of the few times in his life, was speechless. It took him a moment to realize the man wanted a reply. Gaara was upstairs, but this man didn't need to know that, Kankuro didn't want urine on the front stairs.
"No, but I'll make sure he gets it," Kankuro said with a fake smile. The man ran away from the house and Kankuro closed the door…what had he been doing again? A grin lit up his face, now he remembered.
He tossed Gaara's letter on the table and ran to his room, again checking that the coast was clear, he withdrew a DVD case from under his mattress and grinned stupidly over the title:
'Icha Icha Paradise: The Motion Picture'
It was one of his favourite movies; he knew it was dumb, but loved it at the same time. But he rarely dared watch it with Temari always waiting for an excuse to beat him senseless.
He skipped down the stairs and tossed some popcorn into the microwave, waited impatiently while it cooked and dashed to the living room and dove onto the couch.
The movie had only been on a couple of minutes when Kankuro felt a presence behind him. He felt every muscle in his body tighten as Gaara calmly walked into his field of vision, over to the Recliner next to the couch and, setting his gourd on the floor, sat down.
Not entirely understanding what was going on but not willing to waste his Temari-free time, he started the movie again. Kankuro was normally fond of commenting on the stupidity of various characters, but felt insecure with Gaara there. This feeling was quickly alleviated however.
"Don't drink the purple liquid just because it's sitting there, have your brains leaked out of your head, or are you just a stupid pathetic waste of life!" Gaara yelled.
Kankuro looked at his little brother as if he had grown another head (which honestly, would have surprised Kankuro less). Gaara was yelling at the TV, at a porn movie, at HIS porn movie. The next time an appropriate scene cut in, Gaara was about to speak but Kankuro cut him off.
"Why would anyone with a FRACTION of a SHRED of a half dead MONKEY's brain hit the big red button that says DO NOT PUSH!"
The two looked at each other, both with a little respect in their eyes. This went on for about the next thirty minutes, when disaster struck.
The two heard the sound of the doorknob turning and barely had time to look before a slightly dirty and very pissed looking Temari stomped into the room. She was yelling something about stupid boys and strawberry cool-aid. She stormed over to the couch and sat down, shoving Kankuro over.
It wasn't until a few moments later, during a break in her cursing, that she noticed what was playing on the TV. A man and a woman were in the front seat of a car, entangled in a rather odd position while the man navigated the car through a sandstorm with his feet.
The room went dead silent, except for the squeaking and moaning coming from the TV.
Temari's eyes widened, "That position cannot be physically possible".
It was then that the sand siblings found the first thing they had in common, commenting on dumb movies. It was the best time they had ever spent together. There was a brief interlude where Kankuro paused the movie to, with the help of some life sized sand models courtesy of Gaara, prove that the earlier mentioned position was in fact possible, if extremely painful.
As the movie ended, the three realized that they had just enjoyed a whole 2 hours of ach others company, and were actually sad that the movie was over. That was until Gaara reached into his gourd and tossed another DVD to Kankuro. This one was 'Icha Icha Paradise 2: Revenge of the Squid'. Kankuro looked at his brother in wonder.
"This isn't supposed to come out for another month…why do you have this!" Kankuro demanded to know.
Gaara shrugged and gestured to the still rolling credits of the first movie:
Special Effects Team
Visual Effects: Kurosaki Ichigo
Creature Effects: Abarai Renji
Sandstorm and Weather Effects: Gaara of the Desert
The two elder siblings stared at their younger brother until he raised a nonexistent eyebrow at them and gestured towards the machine.
It was well past 1:00 when the second movie finished and they were all heading off to bed, on the way up, Gaara noticed a large envelope on the table, and was surprised to see it addressed to him. He took it upstairs and ripped it open to find a second envelope and a note:
Dear Gaara
This may seem a bit weird to you, but its really important that you follow the instructions in this letter, if I ever see you again, I'll tell you why.
Whatever day tomorrow is, I need you to use henge to transform into me. Then take the letter in the envelope I sent to the courier and have it sent straight to the office of the Hokage, then go into the desert, release the henge, and go back to whatever it is you do.
In a few weeks, people will come by asking about me. Tell them you only met me once, and that we talked about hate and the pain of life and other Angsty stuff. Tell them I then disappeared into the desert without a trace.
I owe you big time
Naruto
At the bottom of the letter was a scribbled drawing of a stick figure with fox whiskers.
Gaara woke up the next day and did what Naruto asked, he really didn't have anything better to do, and figured Naruto wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. It also gave him something to do for a few weeks; he needed to practice his angst.
(Now, back to Wave Country)
2 more days had past and Naruto was mostly done worrying about the letter, but in its stead got something else to worry about.
He had overlooked one thing in his disguise: his eyes. Contrasted to the rest of his dark outfit, his eyes were a piercing shade of blue, and very recognizable. The thing was, he thought knew of a way to change his eye color, but it would require a great deal of research, be very dangerous, and guarantee that he would never be allowed in Konoha again.
He did a double take and realized that he really didn't have a problem with any of those. He was really starting to like being a nukenin.
Now having spent 2½ weeks in Wave country, Naruto started to think about departure plans. Akira had offered to make the two gravestones free of charge and Naruto had set them in place the day before. He had been making money by the bucket load, and figured he wouldn't need to start taking missions for a while, which was good.
Naruto had been spending more and more time in the forest, he had gained enough control to make Kirigakure no Jutsu a powerful if not perfect skill and was improving his sword technique every day.
It was therein that the problem lay. The more Naruto trained, the more he realized that he had many things to work on:
His sword was in need of repair, his working with Akira had taught him a thing or two about metal, and the sword had been old when Zabuza had owned it. He would have to find a master sword smith if he wanted a good job done on a sword this unique, most smiths, even good ones, just dealt with the basic swords; katanas, ninja-tos, wakizashis, etc.
His second problem was that training his body wasn't enough. He feared the first time he fought it would become painfully obvious that 3 weeks of experimentation was no match for a 200 year old sword style. He needed to learn how to fight with his sword, not just swing it.
He figured the first one was more important, because he still had his old jutsus and could fight barehanded, but sword experience was useless if your sword was broken.
Now hoping to leave wave country in less than ten days, Naruto threw himself into his training even more, and added into his daily schedule an hour at the local library. It wasn't as extensive as Konoha's, but Naruto found enough books on seals to give him a pretty good idea of what he would have to do to change his eye color. It wouldn't be particularly complex, just insanely dangerous. Naruto made a note to test this particular jutsu somewhere far away from…well…anything.
With his having roughly planned his departure date, time sped by even faster. Before he knew it, his fourth week in wave country was coming to and end. Today was Friday and Naruto planned to leave this Sunday. That meant today would be his last day working for Akira, and Naruto was surprised to find that he would miss the man.
As today was his last day, he felt there was a question to ask, but he wasn't quite sure how to do it. Naruto had been careful to never give any indication as to why he was here, and for all Akira knew, rasengan could be a beginning level jutsu.
Naruto approached what passed for his boss's office and fidgeted for a moment.
Akira glanced up, "is there something I can help you with, Naruto?" he asked.
"Yeah… I've already told you that I'm leaving Sunday, but before I go, I need you to promise never to repeat any of this and answer a question without asking why."
Akira gave him an odd look, but nodded.
"I want to know who the best sword smith on he continent is, and where I could probably find him." Naruto let out a breath. If Konoha hunter-nin were given the answer to this question and knew he had asked it, he would be thoroughly screwed.
Then, to Naruto's surprise, Akira laughed.
"THAT'S what you wanted to ask! I was afraid there for a second. It's really an easy question; Kiran is by far the best. No one knows his last name, but he was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom were forced to flee from the Hidden Mist when the oldest went rogue. Kiran himself made 4 of the seven legendary mist swords, and the middle brother, now dead, made the other 3. It's quite a well known tale in the metal-working community, Kiran is somewhat of an idol."
Akira took a breath and looked uncertain for a moment.
"Finding him may be more difficult, he was last known to have taken shelter in another village in the north. Some claim a place called the 'Village of the Hidden Sound', but I don't honestly believe such a place exists, so all I can tell you is go north."
It was at this point that Naruto stopped listening. The fates, he decided, had a very twisted sense of humour.
Naruto waved goodbye to the man who had been his boss and friend for the better part of a month and headed straight home. He hadn't told Tazuna of his plans to leave and didn't intend to. Naruto would be gone long before sunrise the next morning, and would leave an apologetic note, claiming that a top-secret mission required his presence immediately. A PS reminded the family not to admit to anyone that he had been there, not even his own teamates.
Naruto went to sleep that night with a sense of trepidation. Now having a solution (though a potentially unpleasant one) to the dilemma of how to repair Kubikiri Houcho, he had set his sights on how he might improve his proficiency with it.
A regular sword master could teach him some basic forms, but Zabuza had not needed a style, he had simply fought with the sword as an extension of his body, and for Naruto to have any less skill would be an insult to the sword and its previous master.
Naruto needed to learn from someone who knew and understood how fight with a weapon of this size. They would have to have no associations with any hidden village friendly to Konoha, and ideally, they would also know the various water jutsus that complemented the use of such huge weapons.
The longer Naruto thought about this, the more it disturbed him. The problem wasn't that he didn't know anyone who fit these criteria; the problem was that he did.
Bonus
Naruto's New Look: Stealthy and Stylish
Hair: Maroon
Vest: Navy
Pants: Black
Why these three colors you ask? All three are very distinctive in light; the hair looks red, the vest blue, and the pants black. But when night rolls around or visibility gets bad (say, in thick mist), all the colors just look dark.
Anyone describing Naruto to an authority or a hunter-nin would describe the cloths as dark or black. People tend to make a noticeable mistake in these situations, when told: "His cloths were dark", they tend to automatically assume the cloths were all the same color.
The next obvious question is: 'Why the vest with no shirt underneath?' to which the answer is also quite simple. Fighting with an 80-pound sword requires mobility, and if one isn't going to wear any armor, why bother with a shirt? The ninja vest is really a requirement, but anything else is just something to get in the way. (It should be noted that Zabuza never wore anything on his upper body, but he had Haku to carry all the emergency supplies) The open vest also allows his seal to show, which adds to his intimidation.
Authors Note:
I updated the summary today, and decided on an eventual Naruto/Temari pairing. Why? Because the story seems headed in that direction. Though don't expect anything for a couple chapters at least.
My questions of the day are: How have I been doing at balancing humor and drama/angst AND Do you think I should change my genre, add another, or change it and add a new one
As always, I appreciate your input.
I'm glad that I seem to be getting positive feedback so far, but I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint those who want Sakura bashing for a few chapters.
I honestly am pretty indifferent to Sakura as a character, but she regularly treats Naruto like crap, and therefore serves a certain purpose in this story as the main person who drove him away.
The random (and hopefully funny) interlude with the sand siblings wasn't really something I planned; I just found that I really enjoy writing them. The idea originally spawned from my ponderings over what Gaara did in his spare time.
Just as a final note with regards to Naruto's issue about his eyes, for the sake of argument, contacts don't exist.
Translation Notes
Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist Technique
Kubikiri Houcho - Head Chopping Cleaver
Nukenin – Missing-nin