Disclaimer: do not own Naruto, the character or the anime/manga, Feneris however is my own Character.
True Power
Chapter 19: Allies, Friends, Enemies
"I fight to protect those precious to me."
Naruto Uzimaki
As soon as Naruto heard the footsteps of Jiraiya disappear, he turned to his team mates and suggested, "Well we already know how to summon, so why not see Hinata. She could show us how the Hyuuga fight, after all."
"You're right, after all," Gaara agreed. "I don't know if she's out of the hospital yet though. Neji beat her up pretty bad."
When Team 7 arrived at the hospital, they had Haku approach the front desk. "Excuse me," the receptionist looked up from her paperwork to see Haku. "I'm looking for Hinata Hyuuga."
"Room 105," the nurse informed, pointing down the hall.
"Thank you," Haku said, as he turned back to his team.
When they arrived, they heard the last of what sounded like a rant, "…defeated by a Branch House member. That is unacceptable for the heir to the Hyuuga Clan. If you continue to remain weak, your sister, Hanabi, will take your place in the clan."
A man, who carried an air of importance, pushed the hospital room door open and rapidly walked away. He bore the white pupliless eyes of the Hyuuga. Team 7 then walked into the room to find Hinata lying in a hospital bed.
"Who was that?" Naruto asked.
"M-my father," Hinata answered.
"Not very friendly is he?" Haku remarked, glancing out the door. "But that's beside the point. We were wondering would you like to train with us when you get out of the hospital."
"O-okay," Hinata answered. "The doctor says I should be out in a few days."
"Okay, get well soon Hinata!" Naruto said cheerfully, "We'll be at Training Ground 7!"
Later that night Gaara woke up. Having spent his first six years without sleep, he sometimes still woke up in the middle of the night. He then heard muttering from the kitchen. "Naruto must be working on modifying the Chidori," he thought, as he got out of bed and opened the door to the kitchen.
Naruto was sitting at the table, a scroll unrolled in front of him, and a cup of instant ramen sitting to the side.
"How's it going?" Gaara asked.
"Good!" Naruto answered, sounding tired. "If you consider the millions of elven hand seals, the ways you can modify a jutsu is endless. I've cut the seals needed in half, and I've already got a new variation made; I call it the Thunder Cloud Chidori."
"Geeze Naruto, you better get some sleep," Gaara said. "If you work on that all night, it will affect your thinking and performance in the morning."
"Good idea, Gaara," Naruto yawned, "see you in the morning."
Naruto walked out of the kitchen and curled up on his futon on the floor. Gaara followed him doing the same.
Before he drifted off the sleep, Gaara thought, "Naruto, when you set your mind on something you never stop until you've done it."
Meanwhile, the Jonins of the Leaf were gathered at the Hokage's Tower. "We have a serious situation," the Hokage said. "The Gennin team from The Sound was killed in their hotel rooms earlier today. We have already handed their bodies over to The Sound, so no further investigation was started. This brings me to the other piece of news; two members of Yoiri's Gennin team were also found dead. We confirmed that they died from ingesting an unknown poison. The only living member of that team, Yakushi Kabuto, was found stuffed in a duffle bag in the academy broom closet this afternoon. He was nearly dead when he was found; he was bound with a rope that ate away his chakra." The Hokage surveyed the assembled Jonins. "That means we must be on our guard for any threat, be it from an enemy village or an allied village."
Hinata was out of the Hospital in few days. True to her word she joined Team 7 in training for the finals.
"Okay, the Kaiten involves expelling chakra from all points of your body and spinning like a top?" Naruto asked Hinata, while Gaara and Haku were each getting a beating from the training golems.
"Y-yes," Hinata stammered, giving Warufuzake a scratch behind the ears. "I-I noticed you didn't have Warufuzake with you in the prelims."
"Yeah, he's good for scouting, spying, and surveillance," Naruto said. "But, in a one-on-one fight, the most he can do is allow me to flank an opponent; so, I'm not going to bring him into the finals either. By the way, what do you think of this?" he showed Hinata the scroll he had been writing in.
"Anti-Pervert Jutsu #13: Attacking Bush Jutsu," Hinata read out loud.
"I want to use this on Ero-Sannin next time I catch him spying on the baths," Naruto said, a diabolical expression crossing his face.
"Ero-Sannin?" Hinata questioned, secretly glad she used the baths at the Hyuuga Complex.
"The Toad Sannin Jiraiya," Naruto explained, changing a word on the scroll.
"Hey, Hinata," Haku said, ceasing the fight with his golem. "Care to practice Genjutsu with me?"
"Okay Haku," Hinata answered, putting Warufuzake down. He went back to sleep as soon as he hit the ground.
In a nearby tree, Itachi watched with interest, "So, it seems Hinata has made a few friends. That should give her self-confidence a good boost." Itachi then turned around and disappeared in a poof of smoke. "I better find my brother too; he has been vanishing for hours on end. I sure as hell hope he's not going insane," Itachi thought, as he reappeared in another training ground in front of Kai, who was using chakra strings to guide a windmill shurikin through several targets.
After several hours of fruitless searching, Itachi made his way to the Jounin-only bar, the Broken Kunai. The bar was unique. The door was on the 4th floor of the building, and there was no stairs; one either jumped or walked up the wall. Once inside, Itachi spotted Feneris sitting at a vacant table, a glass of dark red liquid in his hands.
"Have you seen Sasuke?" Itachi asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
"Nope, you're the only Uchiha I've seen all week," Feneris answered, taking a drink. "You're worried he's going insane aren't you?"
"Yep, it seems any Uchiha that gains the Sharingan goes insane eventually," Itachi agreed, ordering a drink himself.
"Well the Sharingan is part of the problem," Feneris explained. "When you copy a move your mind keeps all the information you see, and I mean all information, even the irreverent stuff. So eventually, your mind has more information then it can manage and your sanity starts to slip."
"It's a good thing I stopped keeping the Sharingan on all the time then. There is also another thing I wanted to talk to you about. It seems Hinata has been hanging around your former students."
"Your point is…" Feneris inquired, raising an eyebrow, and slipping something into Itachi's pack.
"I'm just informing you of this because it seems to be having a positive effect on Hinata's confidence. I am also curious about something."
"What?" Feneris replied draining his glass, and refilling it from a bottle he pulled from his pack.
"Naruto, he seems to have a knack for making jutsus, also I noticed that all three of your students use hand seals I have never even seen before." Itachi asked, taking a sip form his drink as well.
"Well, Naruto is a genius when it comes to the art of jutsu creation, he can even figure out a jutsu just by looking at it. Jutsu creation was, without a doubt, the best thing I ever taught him. As for the hand seals… well, where I come from we have millions of hand seals, so I taught my students the hand seals I was taught to use."
"Interesting, that answers a lot of questions," Itachi said, getting up from his seat and heading out of the bar.
When he was outside he pulled out the scroll Feneris had slipped into his pack while they were talking. "2000 Meditative Exercises to Ward off Insanity," he read. "Thank You Feneris," he said to the wind before heading off to the mostly abandoned Uchiha District.
On the road to the Leaf Village, there was a man with place blue skin, dark blue spiky hair, and gills under his eyes. He carried a large sword wrapped in bandages, and wore a black cloak with red clouds on it.
"Damn it, Derilk, what took you so long?" He growled at his partner.
Derilk wore the same black and red clock as his partner; the only difference was the collar was high enough to conceal all his face bellow the eyes. He also wore an oriental straw hat that was wide enough to hide the rest of his face and head.
"My apologies Kisame," He said insincerely, "I was merely locating the demons carriers, and undermining Orochimaru's planned attack on the leaf."
"Whatever," Kisame snorted, "are you sure it's wise to attack before the exams are finished? Shouldn't we let Orchimaru soften them up first?"
"This is merely to test the waters, so we know what to prepare for when we move to snatch the demon carriers."
"I still don't like your plan," Kisame said moving down the road.
"You're going to hate it even more, when you find out everything it entails," Derilk whispered to himself.
Authors Note: Yes, I am aware that the original hand seals are drawn from the Chinese Zodiac. The ones that aren't are elven hand seals. Just so you know.
Don't worry there will be more pervert bashing to come.