Chapter 23: Finals Training
"Jiraiya-sama?!" Naruto shouted out of surprise. "What are- You're back?!"
Jiraiya smirked as he ruffled the little blonde's hair. "Yup! In the flesh!"
Naruto gently smiled as he had missed the sannin. To Naruto, Jiraiya was someone who he looked up to as he had saved him from the hell that he had been in what now seemed forever ago. Naruto's eyes widened as the thought he just had processed in his brain.
'Wow. A lot has changed in such a short amount of time.' He thought as he idly held his hand over his newly replaced eye which Jiraiya easily noticed.
"Something wrong with your eye kid?" Jiraiya crouched down, grabbed his wrist to move his hand, and saw that his eyes were different. "What happened?" He asked as he furrowed his brows.
"Uhhh, well about that-"
"Actually, you'll tell me when we get to sensei's office. Come on, let's not keep the old monkey waiting."
"Yes sir."
The Hokage was arguing with Danzo until they heard loud boisterous laughing echoing down the hall. They both quieted down and stared at the door in anticipation of the two entering. Once the door opened, the sannin and blonde genin walked in and immediately halted the conversation they were having as the two old men were staring at them with curiosity.
"Sensei? What's with the other old geezer? I thought you wanted a private meeting?"
Hiruzen let out a deep sigh before he answered his most loyal student. "Indeed I did Jiraiya, however, Danzo was always supposed to be part of the discussion as well."
"What do you mean?" Jiraiya asked as he saw Naruto's eyes widen right before he began to fidget in place. "You alright brat?"
Instead of getting an answer, all Jiraiya earned from Naruto was a nod which only resulted in Jiraiya's curiosity rising. His eyes narrowed and when he was about to question the blonde when Hiruzen butted in.
"Jiraiya." After the white-haired sannin turned to face him, the Hokage continued. "Sit down, we need to discuss something. You too Naruto."
The two nodded and took a seat as Danzo stood up and locked the door. After he sat back down, he took charge of the meeting and spoke up. "Hiruzen has gathered us all here because he wants to discuss what we should do about Naruto Uzumaki."
"About me?"
"Yes, about you," Hiruzen answered. "Naruto, how long did you think you can hide your cooperation with ROOT from me?"
"What?!" Jiraiya bellowed in rage. He glared daggers at the head of ROOT but the Hokage's voice of authority as he told him to calm down made him back off.
"Jiraiya, calm down. I want to hear Naruto's answer."
The blonde shuffled uncomfortably for a few seconds before he looked toward Danzo for help.
"Don't look toward him for help Naruto. You accepted his invitation to work for him all by yourself. So you should be able to answer the question all by yourself."
"Jeez sensei, aren't you being too cold toward the boy?"
"Jiraiya, you and I both know Naruto is more than mature enough to know that actions have consequences. So I want to hear his answer. I want to know the reasons why he made the idiotic choice to do something so dangerous and unnecessary."
"Unnecessary? Do you honestly believe the actions I take, the sacrifices I make, and the shinobi I send out that put their lives on the line, are unnecessary?" Danzo asked in an icy tone.
Hiruzen answered back by sending an icy glare toward his long-time friend/rival. "I do. I do because while you're sending your shinobi out to do those idiotic assassination missions, don't you ever stop to think that it might go horribly wrong? What if your actions could be back-traced to Konoha? It'll spark an all-out war! And not to mention that if your undercover operation were found out, the Daiymo is well within his rights to cut all funding from the Hidden Leaf Village!"
Danzo furrowed his brows in anger and opened his mouth to retort, but he was beaten to the punch. "Uh, actually Danzo-sama already has precautions for everything Jiji- err I mean Hokage-sama." Naruto chimed in with a little hesitation that turned into a whisper close to the end.
Hiruzen's look of anger turned into a blank face as he tried to calm his anger. "Is that so? What precautions does he have placed?"
"Uhhm, well, when I went out on my first assassination-" Danzo let a wince come across his face as he knew that Naruto shouldn't have opened up with that.
"You had him do what?!" Jiraiya bellowed out at the bandaged man.
"I knew I should have had you incarcerated ages ago, but now I want to have you executed Shimaru!"
"I wanted to go on one!" Naruto shouted for the two the hear him. Once the two quieted down, Naruto continued. "I asked to go on a solo assassination mission to see what improvements I needed to make to my training-"
"That's what sparring against your teammates is for!" Jiraiya bellowed out once again.
"One cannot unlock their true potential by only sparring against their teammates Jiraiya. True that it's an excellent way to train, but keep in mind that tough obstacles and strong opponents create strong shinobi. Jiraiya, surely you can attest to that statement." Danzo chimed in.
Jiraiya grumbled out a few words, but he could not disagree with the old mummy. He knew very well what hardships do to shinobis. They either strengthen the shinobi, or they can be the end of the shinobi. "While that is a good way to build up stronger shinobis, those are wartime ways of thinking. And last time I checked, we're not at war."
"Who's to say ones not coming soon?"
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at Danzo in suspicion. He knew the Shimaru long enough to know that there was something the Third Hokage was unaware of. "What is it that you know?"
"It was brought to my attention by Naruto noticing some odd behavior from one of the Suna shinobi sent here to take the chunin exams. He reported to me his findings and I had one of my agents shadow him. After the three genin gathered up in the room they were staying at, my agent overheard the jonin of the squad talk about some operation."
"And you came to the conclusion that they were planning something other than winning the chunin exams." Hiruzen finished for him.
"Yes. I believe that they might cause harm to Konoha somehow."
Hiruzen let out a sigh as he sat back down in his chair before he massaged his forehead. "As one of the Hidden Leaf's allies, jumping to conclusions and assuming that Suna is plotting to harm the village would bring shame to Konoha and her shinobi."
"But-" Naruto started only to be stopped by Danzo holding his hand up.
The Third Hokage placed his hands on his desk and stared into Danzo's sole eye. "Konoha shinobi," Hiruzen put emphasis on those two words as he stared at Naruto before he looked back at his old friend. "Cannot and will not investigate any Suna shinobi's behavior as it will raise suspicion. So you'll use your 'non-existent' ROOT shinobi to spy on any suspicious characters. Leave them alive until we get all the information we need and then we'll decide what to do afterward."
"Very well, it shall be taken care of Lord Third." Danzo said with a faint smirk on his lips.
"Good. Now that the side issue is taken care of, let's get back to the main topic at hand. Naruto, explain your reasoning for wanting to join ROOT."
Naruto shuffled his feet a few times before he let out a sigh. "I wanted to protect those closest to me by taking missions that could prevent wars."
"Any mission can cause a war, even the ones you completed in hopes of preventing a war. Next reason?"
"I-"
"Have no reason because anything you can think of, you could do in Konoha's shinobi system. You can take on dangerous missions to prevent a war that your teammates will eventually participate in, you can be sent on missions to assassinate evil or corrupted village leaders, hell you can even-"
"But will you send me out on those kinds of missions, Hokage-sama?" Naruto shot back.
Hiruzen closed his mouth as Naruto cut him off mid-sentence and stared at the young boy for a couple of seconds before he broke the silence. "No."
"That's why I joined."
The Third Hokage took in a slow but deep breath and exhaled just as slowly. "Very well then. You're a shinobi now, you obviously know what's best for you so I will no longer try to impede your growth. You are dismissed Naruto."
Naruto let out a sigh before he turned around to leave. Just as he opened his door, Naruto recalled something important. "Oh, Jiraiya-sama! I forgot to ask earlier but, do you think you can perform the Five-Pronged Seal Release over the one Orochimaru placed on me?"
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow before he chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Just the Five-Pronged Seal Release? Sure thing. Go get some rest and I'll find you tomorrow."
Naruto nodded before leaving the room without saying anything to the two older men. Once the blonde left the room, Jiraiya's face developed a scowl. "Ok sensei, what the hell was that?"
"Jiraiya, you and I both know that-"
"Yeah, he made a mistake. Doesn't mean you have to be so harsh to him."
"You expect me to coddle him?"
"No."
"Then?"
"I expected- you know what, never mind. Danzo," Jiraiya turned to face the bandaged man, knowingly facing his back towards his old sensei. " I'm going to begin training Naruto tomorrow. We can talk about a training schedule later so he can train with you if he wants to. Give me this week with him and then we can settle out the schedule."
"Very well. We'll have a meeting next week. Drop by when you're ready."
"Yeah. Later." He waved his hands in a lazy manner before he closed the door on his way out.
Naruto walked out of the building and was met with bright sunlight coming from the now-setting sun. He took a second to marvel at the beauty of it all before he began walking toward Ichiraku's. Mid-walk, he heard familiar laughter coming from one of the restaurants that he had never visited before. Curiosity got the better of him so he went to go see if he could find the source. When he got closer, he was able to pinpoint where and who the laughter was coming from.
'Kiba? Maybe I should just leave him alone. We haven't been on the best of terms so I don't want to start anything right now.' Just as he was about to turn around, he heard Sasuke respond to something someone had said. 'Sasuke's there too…? Ok maybe one peek wouldn't hurt.'
He got closer to the building but quickly noticed there were hardly any windows. Instead of being deterred, Naruto tried to make a tiny shadow clone in the palm of his hand but instead created a toddler-sized one. 'I really need to get this Five-Pronged Seal released.'
The clone had to shrink itself with the transformation jutsu before Naruto could pick it up. He made his way closer to the store before he dropped off his mini clone while the original walked away. After a couple of minutes of walking later, a sudden bombardment of memories assaulted the young blonde's mind.
"...do this every time?" Kiba asked with a boisterous laugh.
"Hmm, I don't know. Having to constantly deal with your loud mouth would be a pain." Sasuke replied smugly.
"Boy, you said it. It'd be too troublesome." The Nara responded.
The clone climbed to the top of the window via chakra walking and spotted everyone gathered around a table. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Lee, Neji, Reo, Sasuke, and Hinata. The eight were chatting and just having a great time. A feeling of melancholy washed over him, but it was more of serene melancholy. A sardonic smile crossed the clone's face before it cut off the chakra from its feet. A couple of seconds later, the clone decided to dispel itself, not wanting to intrude on his friends' conversation anymore.
Naruto shook his head to clear the fogginess that came with the memories. His face took on a blank look just as he reached Ichiraku's. However, he no longer had an appetite as it had suddenly disappeared so he chose to instead take a walk.
After lunch was finished, Hinata, Sasuke, Reo, and Shikamaru all went walking toward the hospital to check up on their friends. Reo led the others to check up on her teammates first, then Shikamaru led them to his, and finally, Sasuke was leading them to find Naruto.
He went to the front desk and asked the receptionist what room Naruto Uzumaki was staying in. After a quick scan of the papers on her clipboard, the nurse told them that Naruto Uzumaki was to be staying in room 102. The gathered group thanked her and went off to find the stated room. When they were close, the genin heard loud familiar yelling.
"What do you mean he left already!?"
"…"
"Of course, the idiot said he's fine! The idiot doesn't know exactly what it means to have a curse mark! Ok… alright I'll just go looking for him tomorrow. Thanks."
They rounded the corner and saw the purple-haired proctor they had for the second exam. Confusion struck each of the genin as they approached the room. Sasuke took a peek inside and realized that they were indeed talking about Naruto.
"Looking for the brat?" After Sasuke gave a nod to her question, Anko clicked her tongue in irritation. "Yeah well, the brats decided to be stupid and walked out of here."
"I'm sorry, but why did you want to see him?" Hinata asked out of curiosity.
Anko briefly looked over the gathered genin and scrutinized each of them for several seconds before she let out a sigh. "Come in the room and I'll explain."
Shikamaru, Reo, Sasuke, and Hinata all stepped into the room as Anko plopped down on the bed. They all sat in silence for a few moments before Anko let out a sigh as she scratched the back of her head.
"Alright kiddies. Do any of you know what a Curse Mark is?" She received collective no's from the genin. "Well, it's something that a snake bastard created." She reached up to her coat's collar and hesitated for a moment before she pulled it down and showed the gathered genin. "This is the curse mark, and your friend has one just like this."
Shikamaru stared at the mark inquisitively, trying to deduce something. "What does it do?"
"It can multiply a person's strength tenfold," The gathered genins' eyes widened when they heard that statement, but the following statement would strike horror within them. "But the cost would be the bearer's body and mind. The more the mark is used, the more the person loses both."
"And how do we get rid of it?"
"If it could be removed, don't you think I would've had it removed long ago?"
"So you're saying that Naruto-kun is going to permanently have the mind-altering mark on him?" Reo asked as she clenched the hem of her shirt.
"Unless someone discovers a way to remove it, I'm afraid so," Anko replied in a soft and sad tone. She understood what the boy was about to go through and what he may be feeling.
"So the purple chakra Naruto used-"
"Was Naruto using the curse mark."
Hinata thought back to when she saw Naruto encased in the purple chakra. She recalled the flame-like markings that were covering Naruto and how they looked familiar. Her eyes widened as she recalled seeing her teammate in that state right before she passed out from the sound team.
"He used the mark before the preliminaries."
"What?" Anko quickly asked as she spun around to face Hinata.
"Back in the second exam, we were attacked by the sound team that entered the exams. They were aiming to kill Sasuke-san." Shikamaru sent Sasuke a look, silently asking what he had done to piss them off so much but only earned a shrug of Sasuke's shoulders. "We almost managed to beat them, but the Iwa team from the preliminaries managed to interfere with the goal of killing Naruto-san. Sasuke-san and I were forced to split up and fight against the two teams and we were bested shortly after. Right before I passed out, I saw the Iwa team take off towards Naruto, only to be thrown back by a, I assume great burst of chakra, and Naruto came out with those flame-like markings covering his body."
"Shit. When Kakashi spoke to him, he seemed fine, but that could all be an act. Dammit, why the hell did Orochimaru give him the mark? What's his end goal?"
"Orochimaru didn't give him the mark on purpose." Anko spun to face Sasuke and saw that his eyes were wide open in realization.
"What do you mean?"
"I think Orochimaru might've been after me. He had knocked out Hinata and left Naruto laying on the ground barely even conscious. And then he was telling me something about giving me a present." He closed his eyes in an attempt to remember what the traitorous sannin had said and since he was using his Sharingan at the time, it would forever be burned into his memory. "He said he was there to give me a taste of the power he could give me, and all he asked for in return, was for me to follow him."
"And then what happened?"
"His head shot straight toward me too fast for me to react, but then I felt a tug and I was no longer there. In my place, Naruto stood and was crying out in pain from getting bit on the neck. Orochimaru got mad over something and kicked Naruto through several trees. He then apologized to me and then left."
"Tch. Great. Naruto went and got more power than he can control." Shikamaru mumbled to himself, but Anko heard it all the same.
"What did you say, brat?"
Shikamaru stared Anko in the eyes for a few seconds before he looked away. "Naruto already has one source of power that makes him lose control, and he goes and gets another one. At this point, he's becoming more dangerous to his own-"
Shikamaru was interrupted as he was punched and sent to the floor by Sasuke. "Shut up, Nara."
Hinata quickly stood up and placed herself between the two boys with her arms outstretched. She faced Sasuke and furrowed her brows."Sasuke-san, that was no way to handle the situation, especially in the hospital."
"Tch. And let him talk bad about Naruto?"
"I didn't say that. I simply meant that violence was not the way to handle the situation." She turned and held her hand out to help Shikamaru up. "Nara-san, you don't know the full details of what Naruto has been through. So I ask that you please don't jump to your own conclusions. After all, is that anyway, the Nara heir should act? Or the son of the jonin commander?"
"So I should let him do as he pleases just because I don't know the whole story?"
"No. If Naruto-san does something careless or disgraceful, then we can rightfully judge him."
"But until then, you want me to act cordially around him?" Hinata gave Shikamaru a nod with a slight smile on her face. "Fine. I was mainly mad at him for hurting Ino back then, but I guess I was retaining my anger back. I'll have a talk with my team and try to get them on the same page."
"Thank you Nara-san."
Reo was sitting in a chair by the window in the room and watched as the conversation unfolded. After it ended, the girl was left with many thoughts bouncing around her head as she tried to make sense of the confusing conversation. 'Man, I need to get Naruto to tell me his secret so I can understand all of this.'
Anko observed the genin in the room before she looked at the clock in the room. "Shit! Alright kids it was nice talking to you but I gotta get going before I'm late again." She quickly stood upright and ran down the hall. 'Oh man, I'm not owing Ibiki money for that stupid bet.'
Sasuke looked out the window and saw that the sun had set a while ago, leaving the sky painted He let out an aggravated sigh before he stood up and walked towards the door. "I'll go looking for Naruto tomorrow, right now I'm going to go train."
"Sasuke-san, I don't recommend-"
"I'm still going to train."
Hinata stared into Sasuke's black eyes and saw the stubbornness and anger they held, but she knew no matter what'd she say would not stop him. "Very well. Get proper rest when you finish."
"Yeah, I'll try."
"Yeah, I have to get going too before my mom gets mad."
"Very well, goodnight Nara-san." She took a look outside of the window before she let out a sigh. "Reo-san, are you going to head home as well?"
"Me? Oh, no not yet. My mom's still working and said she won't be back until late at night."
"Does your father not work?"
"Oh well," Reo rubbed the back of her nape in an awkward attempt to avoid the question but Hinata's steady gaze forced her to answer. "My dad isn't around since he kinda abandoned me and my mom."
"Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that, my condolences." Hinata quickly blurted out. She had been unaware of Reo's circumstances as they weren't close back in the academy, but she was going to try to get closer now. "Would you like to pass the time with me?"
"Uhm… sure why not?"
"Reo-san, I do not bite so please answer honestly."
"No I want to go, it's just, do you really want to go with me? We never really were close back in the academy."
"I'm aware of that fact. Truthfully, the younger me believed that I had no time to waste on making friends in the academy. My life's goal is to become my clan's head to change how the clan operates. I always saw friends and anyone else that wasn't part of the Hyuga clan as not worth my time because it would slow me down from reaching my goals, but I now see differently."
"How?"
"Certain individuals made me change. Sakura and Ino were the first ones to try and open me up, but my teammates were the ones who really opened my eyes."
"Really?"
"Yes." Hinata's face took on a small and gentle smile as her gaze turned to look outside. "In fact, it was mostly Naruto-san who broke my shell. He showed me that frightful things had the potential to be friendly or even beautiful."
The Hyuga closed her eyes and thought back to the Wave mission when Kurama had taken control of Naruto's body. Her mind then switched to a memory that still managed to fill her stomach with butterflies. The memory of her and Naruto atop the Hokage's heads as they gazed down on the village.
"So I try to no longer see things and others just from my point of view but I try to think beyond what I initially see."
Reo was quiet as she observed Hinata's reaction to her own words. Her gaze dropped to the floor as she had this feeling of emptiness wash before her mouth moved faster than her mind.
"You want to know something? I like Naruto."
Hinata turned to face Reo with a curious look on her face. "Yes, I like Naruto-san too. He's a great friend, I'd be surprised if someone didn't."
Reo couldn't help but giggle at Hinata's cluelessness. "I mean I have a crush on him."
"…What?"
The black-haired looked up in confusion to see the other girl's cheeks beginning to take on a pink hue. Reo smirked slightly before she got closer to Hinata. "Yeah, I have a crush on Naruto. Meaning I want to hug him, cuddle with him, and kiss him."
By this point, Hinata's pink-tinted cheeks were taking on a red hue. Reo giggled before she recalled the memory of Naruto calling Hinata cute. A sardonic smile quickly made its way to her face as she came to terms with reality. 'At least the girl Naruto-kun likes, likes him back. I'm happy about that.'
"Well, I used to like him, that is."
Hinata's full attention was on the other girl again as she raised an eyebrow. "Used to?"
"Yeah. I just realized that there might be another boy I'm beginning to crush on."
"Really? Who?"
Reo giggled before she grabbed Hinata's arm and began to lead her outside. "C'mon, let's walk around and I'll tell you about him."
During the rest of the night, the two girls felt themselves growing closer to one another, all the while Hinata was trying to bury the pit in her stomach that appeared when Reo announced her crush on Naruto.
Grunting could be heard coming from a training ground that was built in the nearly vacant Uchiha compound. Sasuke Uchiha was hitting a training log with as much force as he could until he felt his body was ready to collapse. His knees gave out and he fell to the floor with his arms propping him up. He let out haggard breaths as his parched mouth silently screamed for water. With heavy eyes and a beyond-tired body, Sasuke slowly struggled to get back up. He needed to get stronger. He needed to be able to stand beside Naruto if he wanted to be his equal and friend. He needed to be strong enough to help him when he needed it… and Naruto needed help right now.
He put his remaining strength into one final punch and as he put all of his weight behind the last punch, he ended up missing.
He unceremoniously fell to the floor with his eyes tinted red from holding back tears. He scrunched up his face in a futile attempt to prevent the tears from escaping. He mentally berated himself for being weak enough to cry again.
"That stupid, stubborn idiot. He'll end up getting himself killed if he continues to act like this. All reckless and sacrificing himself all the time to save others."
He lay there silently staring into the night sky as crickets and cicadas could be heard from all around him. His eyelids felt heavy as he tried to stave off sleep but the more he did, the harder it was to fight off. He groggily turned to his side and slowly got to one knee. His strained muscles were already feeling light yet heavy, pleasantly numb yet painfully sore.
He took in a deep breath before he jumped up to both feet. The quick motion caused his already fatigued mind to begin spinning, nearly making him fall back on the ground but his stubbornness prevailed. He righted himself up and took a few seconds for his body to get used to it. After a few moments, Sasuke began his long journey to his bed where he planned to fall asleep for over eighteen hours. When Sasuke opened the door, he was greeted by a guest whom he was expecting to see soon, but not this soon.
"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" He yawned as the fatigue was coming back.
The silver-haired jonin closed his book softly before he turned to face his student. "Why I'm here to discuss our training schedule to prepare you for the finals."
"Can't this wait till tomorrow?"
"Nope!" He answered in a chipper tone while giving Sasuke an eye smile. "We're going to discuss it tonight so that we can begin the training tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow morning? I need at least eight hours of sleep and it's already 2 in the morning."
"Well, I didn't tell you to go out and train like you're trying to break your own body now did I?"
Sasuke tried to stare at Kakashi to show how annoyed he was, it was all he could really do to possibly change his mind, but his body was telling him he needed to go to sleep now.
"Alright, fine." He took a look at the sheet and yawned as he began to speak. "I'll try to wake up at six thirty. Goodnight Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi gave Sasuke the peace sign before he dispelled into a cloud of smoke. "Bastard couldn't even be awake to tell me himself."
The genin walked down his hall which had constantly had his anger grow as his mind was forced to replay the tragedies that took place there when he was still in the academy, but now all he feels is sadness. Sadness for his fellow clansmen that had their whole life ahead of them, but were cut short due to Itachi.
He plopped on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind so he could fall asleep faster. Once Sasuke fell asleep, he was greeted with a pair of sharingan eyes looming over him in the sky before a bright yellow color overtook it and Naruto followed not long after. Memories of when they were children playing in his dream evoked a sense of calm before the dream changed and had Naruto now covered in the purple aura and flame-like markings. It no longer evoked a sense of calmness and instead evoked a sense of worry and dread.
Little did he know, this was just the beginning of their story.
Naruto groggily walked up to his apartment complex, drained from everything that had happened today.
'God do I need some sleep after all the training I did.' The blonde looked up at the night sky, quickly seeing that the moon's position was slowly moving away from the peak. 'Guess it's past midnight. I'm not surprised with all the clones I fought, those bastards sure gave me a good ass kicking.'
Once he reached the top of the stairs, he quickly noticed that there was a note taped to his door. When he read it, he had a sneer develop on his face. 'Dear Uzumaki, we have increased the price of rent due to inflation- fuck this shit.' He crumbled up the paper in his hand as he leaned back to look at the other resident's doors and noticed that none of them had a note taped to their doors. 'Ok, either their home already and saw the notes, or this asshole targeted me because of Kurama. Like hell, I'm going to pay more, fuck this. I'll have to look for a new place… maybe I could move into a house in Sasuke's compound. First things first, however, gotta close up the underground base I made. Fucking fantastic.'
Naruto opened the door and went straight towards his room, taking a moment to make a shadow clone to go fill in his base while he went to bed. 'Tch. After all that time I put into carving out that base with rasengan's, I'm now forced to undo all of that effort. Great. Whatever, it's fine.' He threw himself on his bed and stared at his ceiling before he closed his eyes and waited before sleep would come and take him. It didn't take long before dreamless sleep would once again take him.
When morning came, Naruto got out of bed quickly, ate a quick breakfast and left towards Sasuke's clan compound. Naruto walked through the gates and closed his eyes to sense where Sasuke was and found him in one of the training grounds. He quickly made his way to ask him his question but then he sensed a familiar presence that left him feeling a bit uneasy.
'Kakashi-sensei's training him? I guess that's obvious since Sasuke made it to the finals. I wonder if he's training Hinata too, or is her clan training her for the finals? Well regardless, I don't know if I want to see Kakashi-sensei, he's probably still pisssed about me not telling him about ROOT… y'know what? Fuck it. I'll tell him and Sasuke, and eventually Hinata when I see her, that I'm in ROOT and that's how I learned all these new skills. I'm not going to lose my team because of my side job, I'll just tell them not to tell anyone.'
With newfound determination, Naruto marched right over to Sasuke's training ground.
Kakashi watched Sasuke perform the hand signs and lower his hand toward the ground before a low blue light and soft chirping could be heard coming out of the jutsu Sasuke just performed.
"Good try but you still need more chakra. Keep in mind that this jutsu is supposed to be chakra extensive, even for me. I can only safely perform this jutsu four times a day. Be sure to put as much chakra as you can until you feel the jutsu becoming unstable. That's how this jutsu should initially feel."
"Put a lot more chakra into it? Got it." Sasuke grunted as he poured half his chakra into the jutsu. The sudden increase in the chirping caught him by surprise as he didn't think it would be this loud, but the bright light and the stray lightning coming from the jutsu made him wince. "Okay, I got the unstable part down!" He yelled just as stray lightning came close to hitting his face.
"Don't worry Sasuke, the stray lightning coming off of the Chidori is harmless unless you put more chakra into it. Now with your sharingan on, I want you to attack the training dummy here."
Sasuke activated his eyes as stated and charged toward the wooden dummy before he pulled his arm back and pierced it clean through the object. When the jutsu faded, Sasuke pulled his hand out and admired his handy work. "Wow, you weren't lying when you said this was an assassination jutsu. But does it have to make that much noise? What if the target heard it and ran away?"
Kakashi gave a deadpan look to Sasuke before he explained. "Sasuke, if a person, especially a target, heard you using this jutsu, chances are they're probably not going to make it out alive." Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders to show he agreed with what his sensei had said. "Ok now I want you to-"
"Hey Sasuke! Kakashi-sensei!"
The pair turned to see Naruto walking towards them with his hands in his pocket. "Yo, I need to talk to both of you."
"About?" Kakashi asked in a hard tone that Naruto caught.
"It's about how I know," He body flickered to a roof before reappearing in front of them. "That. Also another secret too."
"I'm listening."
Naruto let out a sigh due to Kakashi's attitude. "I'm in ROOT-"
Naruto wasn't able to finish because Kakashi appeared right in front of him and smacked him across the face. "You idiot. You can't trust Danzo. I know because I joined under him before."
"You did?" Naruto asked after getting over the shock of getting slapped by Kakashi.
"Yes. I left after he tried to get some of his other agents to kill me for my sharingan eye. And I made sure that I brought a good person that I found there out."
Naruto was confused as he tried to digest all of this. 'Danzo didn't seem like that at all. Well, that guy does look like a bastard but maybe he changed?' "Danzo's kind of strict and looks like a bastard but as far as I know, he's not like that."
"Because he's not showing you that side of him-"
"Pretty sure Jiji agreed to it, reluctantly though."
Kakashi took on a deadpan look on his face. "I see."
"What kind of missions did you go on?" Sasuke asked out of curiosity and a bit out of concern.
"Haven't gone on many actually, but one of the ones I went on was an assassination mission." This earned Naruto a bit of Sasuke's jealousy and Kakashi's worry. Naruto was still so young, he shouldn't have to go through the horrors he had to when he was their age. He wanted his genin to cherish their childhood while they could. "Yeah, I body flickered the target to a building before I pushed him."
"A bit harsh wasn't it?" Sasuke questioned his friend. Naruto's eyes glossed over as he explained the mission he went on which earned him a shit-eating grin from Sasuke. "Stallion Pen?"
"Zip it."
Kakashi let out a hollow laugh because he couldn't decide whether that scenario was humorous or incredibly disturbing. "Naruto," After the blonde gave him his full attention, he noticed his sensei's pale face, making him concerned. "Next time use a clone for that."
"Gotcha sensei. Oh Sasuke, do you mind if I move into one of the empty houses in your compound?"
"Uhh, sure but are you sure you want to move into to a house where a family was murdered?"
Naruto gave him a shrug. "In a ninja world, the chance that a person previously died in the house someone lived or worked in was extremely high." Kakashi gave a nod to show he agreed with Naruto's point of view. "Ok, so that's a yes Sasuke?" After Sasuke gave a nod, Naruto turned to face Kakashi. "Everything is fine between us right?"
"Don't lie to me again and sure."
"What if it's an order?"
"Better be a good order."
"Ok. Well, see you guys later! I'm going to go find Jiraiya-sensei!"
"Naruto, wait."
"Huh? Yeah, Sasuke?"
"Come by with your stuff later, we need to talk. I'll invite Hinata over as well."
Naruto stared at Sasuke for a few minutes before he touched the back of his neck. "It's about the mark huh?" Sasuke nodded instead of answering, making Naruto let out a sigh. "Alright. Come find me when you want me to come over. Cya."
Jiraiya was hiding in the foliage where he had a clear vision of his target. He had to be very careful and picky about where to choose his vantage point so no one would be able to spot him. With the knowledge about Suna's possible betrayal during the chunin exams, Jiraiya tried to keep low a profile as he could to hopefully prevent Suna from knowing about his presence in Konoha.
Well, that's the excuse he would tell anyone if they found him in his current position.
"Oh ho ho ho~, lookie at what we have here! Three pretty women are playing down in the water!" He whispered excitably as he hastily wrote down in his notebook. "This new book is going to for sure be a hit! Konoha women are certainly one of the sexiest I've seen! Oh, this certain fact makes me homesick!"
"Jiraiya-sama?"
Jiraiya froze in horror as he had been spotted. He slowly and robotically turned around to come face to face with a blonde genin. "Oh, it's just you. Don't scare me like that kid! I thought someone else caught me."
"Caught you what?" Naruto asked as he moved closer to see what Jiraiya had been spying on. 'Has he already found someone to spy on to gather evidence?' Once he spotted the three girls splashing each other in the water down a few yards away, Naruto froze in place as his mind tried to process what he just discovered.
"Beautiful, ain't it kid? The women down there. The way the water clings to their skimpy outfits that only we were blessed to see. The way- Oh one of them lost their top! What a sight to behold! Nice and perky, truly the best type in my humble opinion. Those got to be at least 85 centimeters."
"Jiraiya-sama, why are you peeking on girls?"
"Why, I'm glad you asked!" He gave Naruto the notebook he was writing in for the boy to read through some of it. "I'm just doing some research for my upcoming book that I'm sure will sell out faster than the last one!"
Naruto read through a few pages Jiraiya wrote down before he gave it back. "This is how you write your books?"
"This is one of the ways I write them, yes."
"...ok. Let's just get down to training." Naruto let out a sigh as he quietly jumped down from the tree Jiraiya was hiding in.
Jiraiya chuckled as he gave one last look down at the pretty girls playing around in the water before he followed Naruto. Once they were both on the ground, Jiraiya cleared his throat to get Naruto's attention. "Ok, let me see it."
"See what?"
"What you wanted me to take off of course!"
"Oh! Why didn't you just say that then?" Naruto unzipped his jacket and took off his black t-shirt, while Jiraiya put his right hand behind his back with each fingertip lit in tiny blue flames. "Ok, what now-"
Jiraiya slammed his fingers into Naruto's stomach, at the exact same place where Orochimaru had struck Naruto before. The blonde boy coughed out in pain at the sudden and painful unsealing Jiraiya had performed but the pain was forgotten after a minute when he heard a voice he hadn't for a long time.
"Naruto?"
"Dad?"
"Minato? You're awake!"
"Kushina? What's going on?"
"The brat woke up her chakra essence during a mission where he fought Iwa nin."
"What?"
"Oh, I'll tell you about it later sweetie."
"Brat."
'Yeah, Kurama?"
"We need to talk later about what happened because you got a new resident in here that I can't evict."
'Yeah, I know. We'll talk tonight.'
"Kid!"
Naruto blinked a few times to clear away the haze that came with talking in his mindscape. "Yeah sensei?"
"Why did you suddenly say 'Dad'?"
"Oh, Ji- Hokage-sama didn't tell you?"
"No."
"Well, you know how I can communicate with the Kyuubi in my mindscape? I can talk to my parents in there too since I woke up their chakra essence that dad sealed in there during the sealing."
"...That genius blonde bastard. How long can they last?"
"Well since the Nine-tails is giving them chakra, forever I guess?"
"Jeez. Ok, that's some info that I need time to digest so in the meantime, we'll be training. First thing first, sign this contract." He summoned a toad that gently placed the summoning contract down before Jiraiya unfurled the scroll. "Sign in that spot next to your old man's name with your own." Naruto nodded and began to pull out his ink from his weapon pouch before he was stopped by Jiraiya. "I meant in your blood."
"Oh… Ok, my bad." Naruto bit his thumb and with blood steadily coming out of his finger, he signed the scroll. Once done, Jiraiya showed him the hand signs and let Naruto try for himself. "Okay. Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram, Summoning Jutsu!"
After a cloud of smoke appeared, Naruto moved back and waited for the smoke to dissipate before seeing a tadpole flopping around. "Really kid? That's disappointing."
A tic mark grew on Naruto's head before he sped through the hand signs and slammed his hand on the floor, and summoned another tadpole. "Oh c'mon! Jiraiya-sensei, show me how you do it."
"Me? Why?"
"I want to feel how much chakra you use when you use the jutsu."
"You're a sensor?"
"Somewhat, I'm not that good unless the person is aiming to kill me."
"How good is your chakra control?"
Naruto closed his squinted eyes as he faced Jiraiya. "It's alright I guess. Why?"
Jiraiya scrutinized Naruto for a few seconds before he nodded his head. "Send out a small pulse of chakra."
"How do I do that?"
"Make the ram hand sign and focus on building some chakra before throwing it outside of your body in a pulse." Naruto did as he was told and built up some chakra. Right before he let it out, Jiraiya blurted out something too late. "Make sure it's only a little bit."
Not even two seconds later, Jiraiya was sent skidding back after Naruto used a good bit of his chakra in the chakra pulse he sent out. Naruto's eyes widened when he felt Jiraiya's chakra. 'His chakra pool is huge! Jiraiya-sensei must really be strong!'
"Damn kid, learn how to hold back." Jiraiya joked as he idly rubbed his chest. The sudden pulse was stronger than he was anticipating and had thus actually affected him a bit. "Damn kid, you actually messed up my chakra's flow. That's a great way to dispel genjutsu if you're ever trapped in one. Try doing it again but this time with barely any chakra in it, you don't want everyone to know that you're there, especially on reconnaissance missions."
Naruto nodded and did the same thing but gathered less chakra than he could. When he released it, it was still more than Jiraiya wanted, but it didn't budge him at all. "Sorry sensei, that's the best I can do."
"Alright, we'll just include this in your training. Now, this is going to be hell on you kid so get ready. We're going to train you to properly summon what toad you want at any given time, how to make the rasengan with only one hand, and this. Now, first up is summoning."
"You got it sensei!" Naruto put his fingers in a cross-hand sign and made hundreds of clones.
"So you learned the shadow clone jutsu while I was away? Jeez brat, you sure are something else."
*Huff…puff*
Sweat was dripping down Hinata's face as she was leaning forward with her hands on her knees, attempting to quickly get air in her lungs.
"Take a break Hinata. Your body needs one."
Hinata looked up at her father standing next to her with an approving look on his face. She knew that her father was pleased with her progression in improving the Kaiten's duration and startup time, as well as her striking speed with the gentle fist so she can eventually perform the Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms. She looked back towards the floor with a scowl on her face.
*Huff… huff* "No… I can… I can do more."
Hiashi let a frown cross his face as he attempted to find the reason for Hinata's sudden stubbornness. "Hinata, your body is tired and needs a break. If you attempt to push it further than we already have today, then you'll only be doing more harm than good to yourself. I'm not asking nor recommending, I'm ordering."
Hinata, ready to continue arguing her case with her father, suddenly felt her eyelids getting heavy. She reluctantly nodded her head and tiredly made her way toward the wooden walkway so she can take a seat. The heiress closed her eyes and slowly controlled her breathing. When she opened her eyes, Hiashi was holding out a glass of water for her.
"Drink this slowly. Don't gulp it down otherwise you might puke it up."
"Yes, thank you, father."
Her father gave her a small smile before he walked toward his office, silently letting Hinata know that her training for today was over. The girl developed a small smile as she lifted the glass of water to her lips. After a few moments, she began to hear footsteps coming to the left of her. When she turned to see who the people were, she was surprised to see that it was none other than her cousin and teammate. "Elder Brother Neji, Sasuke-san, what can I do for you?"
"Uchiha-san wanted to discuss something with you, so I lead him here. If you need me, I'll be down the hall to give you two some privacy."
"Don't worry about that Hyuga-san," Sasuke interrupted the boy's stride. "I just needed to tell Hinata something really quick. You can escort me out after that."
"Very well then, if you insist."
"Sasuke-san, what is it?"
"I want you to pass by the Uchiha compound later tonight. Naruto is going to be telling us everything that he's been hiding and what we want to know."
Hinata's eyes widened as she understood what her teammate was implying. "Even about," She reached the back of her neck and saw Sasuke nod. "Ok. What time?"
"I'll tell Naruto to send a clone when the time comes."
After that, Sasuke nodded toward Neji, who led him back outside of the compound. Hinata was left alone with her head going through any and all possibilities she could think of as to what the talk will entail. Mid thought, she realized that she was no longer tired, she was suddenly filled with energy and determination soon filled her.
Hinata walked back towards the outside training grounds and looked around for what she could work on. Her father had a point in her body needing a break, even she could feel that if she pushed herself to try, she would run out of energy quickly. She closed her eyes to try and think of something to train in when she suddenly remembered the dream she had where the older version of her was wielding a lightning bow and arrow.
'I'll work on recreating that. After all, if that dream was indeed a glimpse of the future, then I'll need all the experience I can get.'
"Ughhh, it's too bright." The brunette whined as a sun ray peeked behind his curtain and was directly hitting his closed eyelid. He rolled over and let out a content sigh as he was met with darkness once again. 'Ugh, I should really be getting up. I need to train.'
"..."
"I need to train for the chunin finals!" The sudden exclamation from the boy earned him a scared yelp from his best friend and companion. "Oh, sorry Akamaru, but come on! We got to get ready for training!"
After quickly putting on his usual outfit consisting of dark greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, over a fishnet undershirt, Kiba ran downstairs towards the kitchen in order to eat breakfast before he would go train.
"Hana! What's for breakfast?" He called out when he saw his elder sister in the kitchen.
She chuckled as she pointed at the clock that was hung above the entranceway. "At this time, it's more like lunch than breakfast."
Kiba rolled his eyes at his sister's joke. "Oh ha, ha. What's there to eat?"
"Mom made some green curry chicken with beef and shrimp."
"Ah yes! This breakfast is going to be great Akamaru! Let's dig in!"
Hana smirked before she roughly ruffled Kiba's hair. "Mom said to leave her some for lunch. She should be coming back soon."
Kiba's shoulder dropped briefly before he shrugged them a second later. "Oh well, I shouldn't eat that much right now anyways. I'm about to go train with Kurenai-sensei." After he placed half of the food on his plate, Kiba sat down and sharply turned to face his sister. "Do you finally have it, Hana?" The elder sister raised an eyebrow before she let out a loud groan of annoyance. "Pleaseeeeeee?"
Hana massaged her forehead before she finally caved in. "Alright fine! We'll go buy some after you finish eating. Hurry up because I have some other plans I had to do today."
"Yes! Let's hurry up Akamaru!"
"Kurenai-sensei! I'm here!" Kurenai turned around and spotted her most volatile genin running towards her. She squinted to see what Kiba held in his hand as he was shaking it. "I finally got my sister to buy me some chakra induction paper sensei."
"Ah, good job Kiba. Now come here and channel some chakra into the paper so we can see what affinity you have."
The genin nodded excitedly as he jogged up to Kurenai. He held the slip of paper between his fingers and sent chakra toward it. He was shocked to see it light on fire before it completely turned into ashes. "I guess I have fire then huh?"
"Yes, and that's good as it is really common within the village so there's plenty of ways to train and plenty of uses." She ran through a few hand signs and held out her hand. A second later a flame was lit above her palm. "You could use it for starting a small campfire, a light source in a dark setting, or to light an explosive tag from afar."
"Woah! Fire nature chakra is useful as hell! Why don't you use it like that sensei?"
Kurenai smiled at Kiba's curiousness. "Well, for one my chakra nature isn't fire so that means that it costs more chakra for me to just be producing a little flame like this than if you were to be doing it."
"Really sensei? What's your chakra nature?"
Kurenai smirked before she made three hand signs and pulled water from a nearby pond that made itself into an orb. "It's water."
"Really? How come you don't use water jutsus then?"
"Because although it takes less chakra for me to use, I find using genjutsu easier as I have a natural talent for that, and because I have a smaller chakra pool than say Asuma or Kakashi, and those two can throw around nature jutsus like nothing." She shook her head to clear it and remembered what the original point of their talk was. "We got sidetracked but let's just work on getting your fire nature combined with your clan's jutsu."
"Yes sensei!" He gave Kurenai a serious look as he nodded his head. 'Just you wait Naruto, Sasuke. By the end of this month, I'll come out stronger than both of you.'
Hinata walked towards the Uchiha compound after a shadow clone of Naruto visited the Hyuga compound. She had her head down in contemplation as she tried to figure out the purpose behind the meeting.
"Oh, Hinata-chan!" Hinata looked up to see a line of Naruto clones carrying some of what she supposed was his stuff into a spare building. "The boss and Sasuke should be in Sasuke's house. Here, I'll make a shadow clone to take you." After the new clone was created, it carried out its sole mission and led Hinata to where the boys currently were.
When they arrived at Sasuke's place, they maneuvered inside until they were standing outside of what Hinata guessed was the room where Naruto and Sasuke were. Hinata was about to thank the clone for walking her to the boys, but the clone just opened the door and accidentally gave Hinata a view of Naruto taking off his shirt.
"W-what the hell?! Why'd you bring her to the bathroom?!"
Hinata sharply turned her head to face away from the original Naruto while the clone scratched his head. "Sorry boss, kinda got lost."
Naruto clicked his tongue in aggravation before he punched his clone, making it turn into a cloud of smoke in the process. He quickly put on his jacket and shook his head from the frustration of his clone's memories. It knew exactly where Naruto had been due to his clone sensing where he and Sasuke had been. The clone decided to lead Hinata into seeing him in the bathroom as a prank on the original. "C'mon Hinata, Sasuke's this way."
Hinata held her gaze to the floor so she missed Naruto pulling his jacket's collar up to hide his blushing cheeks.
Sasuke let out an annoyed huff as he looked at the clock in his living room. 'It's already past 8 pm. We should've done this earlier, but that blonde idiot was out training till thirty minutes ago, and even then he looked like he was about to drop dead at any moment until one of his clones gave him several chakra storage seals.'
Sasuke was broken from his thoughts as Naruto and Hinata entered the room. The Uchiha gave the Uzumaki a scrutinizing look before he asked the question he had. "Hey, I thought you said you were going to change out of your clothes since they were dirty."
Naruto scratched his cheek from embarrassment as his eyes wandered to the wall away from Sasuke. "Well, one of my clones pranked me so I couldn't."
"Tch. What does that say about yourself that even your own clones, that have your own subconscious in them, decide to prank you."
"Oi, shut up."
"Let's just talk about what we came here to talk about, okay?" Hinata butted in after she regathered herself.
"Okay and Hinata, sorry about what the clone did."
"It's alright."
"Ok well, guess first thing first… I joined root after some guy sent someone…"
"...and on one of my missions, there was this one where I was sent to take out some guy. After I was done with that mission, when I was on my way back I accidentally stumbled across this kid with a cool kekkei genkai."
"Kekkei genkai? What was it?" Sasuke asked, his curiosity peaked.
Naruto smirked as he ran outside and motioned for him to follow. When all three were outside, Naruto held his hand out toward Sasuke. "Go ahead and shoot a fireball at me." He saw Sasuke raise an eyebrow at him making Naruto chuckle. "Go ahead, I know what I'm doing."
Sasuke nodded his head in agreement to Naruto's request and ran through hand signs before his cheeks puffed up and he spat out a large Great Fireball Jutsu. The giant ball of flame was dwarfing Naruto before he smirked and channeled chakra into the palm of his hand. Two diamonds, one overlapping the other, appeared on the palm of his hand before a vacuum sprouted out of it.
The vacuum quickly enveloped the fireball before it began to be pulled toward Naruto's palm. The fireball was quickly completely absorbed by Naruto's fuinjutsu formula of Daisuke's Dark Release, causing Sasuke's and Hinata's eyes to widen.
"What the hell was that?!" Sasuke exclaimed out of surprise. He quickly ran over to Naruto and examined his palm with his sharingan, which easily let him see that it was a fuinjutsu formula. "So you can absorb an enemy's ninjutsu with this fuinjutsu formula? Let me guess, you made it to where it's added to your own chakra right?"
"Nope! That part was still too complex for me to do right now as I would need to make a seal that goes directly to my chakra pool, which is currently out of my expertise at the moment. But it does let me do this!"
Naruto pointed at a single training log that was set up to be a target for shuriken and kunai practice before he released Sasuke's absorbed fireball toward the log, obliterating it in the process.
"That's incredible Naruto-san." Hinata chimed in as she idly picked up Naruto's hand to see the formula for herself.
"Really? Heh, thanks Hinata!" Naruto responded in a pitch slightly higher than normal as she was running her finger over his palm in curiosity. He saw her activate her byakugan as she slightly bent down for a closer look and decided to keep quiet to see if she can see anything about the formula from her dojutsu. "Spotted anything?"
Hinata stared for a little bit longer before she shook her head and leaned back. Sasuke motioned for them to follow back inside as he questioned Naruto about its limitations and drawbacks. "Well, the guy I based it off of could make the jutsus he absorbed stronger if he added extra chakra into it. I can't do that just yet, but I'm constantly trying to improve it. I'm also constantly trying to find a way to add the absorbed chakra from the jutsus to my own chakra pool. A big limitation of the jutsu is that I can only hold one jutsu at a time, but if I added the chakra into my own, then that'd remove the chance of it being overloaded."
"Can you give me the formula too?" Sasuke asked with a mix of curiosity and eagerness.
"I can if you wanted me to, but the process is really long and painful. If you're still up for it then sure, but first I'm going to need to remake my cave."
"Why do you need a cave? You have extra space if needed in this compound Naruto-san."
"I plan to make some high explosive seals as well as trying to improve this one. I don't want to blow anything up otherwise Sasuke'll bitch me off."
"Shut up idiot."
"See?"
"Ok, that was a very interesting distraction, but I want to know about that damn curse mark Orochimaru gave you." Sasuke finally demanded after letting the topic slide for a while.
Naruto let out a sigh as he nodded his head. "Ok. Well, what do you want to know?"
"All that you know."
"Well, for one there's a-"
"Brat."
"Kurama?"
"Hold out a fist towards your teammates."
"Ok?" He did as he was instructed and held out his fist towards Sasuke and Hinata. "What now?"
"Have them bump your fist idiot."
Naruto rolled his eyes but motioned for his teammates to bump his fist. After they did, all three suddenly found themselves within Naruto's mindscape.
"Where are we?" Hinata asked as she looked around her surroundings. She took a step forward but stopped after she heard a splash. "Why is there water here?" She turned to face Naruto for some answers, but all she received was a hard look from Naruto before he shook his head and began walking.
Sasuke and Hinata turned to face each other before they both shrugged and followed Naruto. They followed Naruto around the maze that was the sewer they were in until Naruto turned into what seemed as an opening.
"Naruto just where are we? And how did we get here after we fist bumped?" Sasuke whispered out with a bit of trepidation creeping in his voice.
Naruto stopped walking before he turned to face him. He took in a deep breath before he gestured around him with his arms. "Well, this is my mindscape. I brought you guys here after we fist bumped."
"This is your mindcape Naruto-san? Why is it a sewer?"
"Is it really a wonder why? I wasn't exactly treated great in the village, so what did you think would happen to my own opinion about my self?" This statement from him caused Hinata to pause as she had never thought about it before. Her eyes widened a bit before she turned to face Sasuke who had a wince on his face. Naruto raised an eyebrow before he clicked his tongue out of irritation. "Oi, I'm fine now. I got you guys, and Kakashi-sensei."
A gust of wind suddenly picked up and slammed into them, almost blowing them off of their feet. Sasuke and Hinata turned from the direction the gust came from when suddenly something gigantic and orange stepped out of the darkness. A snarl echoed off of the walls as the looming figure of the Nine-Tails towered over them. The oranged furred bijuu lowered his head to stare at the gathered genin in front of him before he let out a burp in their faces.
"Hello brats."
Naruto rolled his eyes before he held out his hand, waiting briefly before Kurama placed his nose into it. "Hey Kurama, hope the five pronged seal didn't affect you badly."
"It just locked away my chakra from you, I was fine you overcaring pest."
"I love you too."
"Awww."
Kurama pulled away from Naruto with a growl before he lazily plopped onto the floor, causing a loud and echoing thud to reverberate around the mindscape. All three genin turned to face the direction the voice came from, but only Sasuke and Hinata were surprised by there sudden appearance.
"Hey Mom, Dad, these are my friends and teammates, Sasuke and Hinata. Sasuke, Hinata, these are my parents." Naruto introduced with a smile on his face that showed all the excitement and pride he was feeling.
"Naruto, these are your parents? Who are they?"
"The Fourth Hokage." Hinata stated in disbelief.
Kushina puffed her cheeks before she ran over to Naruto and engulfed him into a tight hug. "Do not do something so dangerous and stupid again!"
"Mom, I'm going to have to take the chunin exams again if I want to get promoted, and I do."
Kushina let out a huff of annoyance and reluctance before she nodded her head and let go of Naruto. "Just be careful or I'll be giving you an earful, kay?"
"Yes ma'am." Naruto chuckled out warmly.
"Now you two!" Kushina yelled out loud as she pointed toward Sasuke and Hinata, which caused them to jolt to attention. "You two are so adorable!"
Naruto watched with a smile as Kushina ran towards his teammates and engulfed to two of them in a tight hug. A hand was placed on his shoulder and Naruto knew the owner of that hand without having to look up.
"Kushina filled me in on what happened since I almost disappeared the first time. I'm so proud of how far you've come since then." Minato bent down to his knees before giving Naruto a hug. "I just want you to know that no matter what you do, me and Kushina will always love you."
The younger blonde felt his father embrace him tightly while he had his own arms hanging limply on his sides. He had always hoped and dreamt about this moment. Hoped and dreamt that his parents would hug him, be proud of him, would love him. He was unable to move his body as his mind was assaulted by the sudden whirpool of emotions he was feeling, but his mind didn't need to. His arms slowly made their way around Minato's frame as he gave a tight hug in return.
"Hey dad, glad to have you back."
Minato smiled before he nodded his head. "Glad to be back."
Sasuke managed to free himself from Kushina's grasp, unknowingly leaving Hinata at the mercy of the red haired woman. He made his way toward Naruto before he briefly eyed the taller blonde. "Naruto, what the hell is going on?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed before he frowned at Naruto. "You're not avoiding my earlier question again are you?"
"I brought you guys here so I can answer that question." Naruto turned to face the bijuu held within him before the behemoth pointed further back in the darkness. "Thanks Kurama."
"Kushina."
The woman turned her head to face her husband, who nodded his head toward his son's direction. When she saw where they were heading, Kushina tightened her embrace on Hinata before she let her go. "Go with them, after all, you and Sasuke came here for answers."
"Thank you…"
"Call me Kushina."
"Thank you Kushina-san, but how did you know that's why me and Sasuke-san came here?"
"We're connected to Naruto due to the seal, so we can see and hear what he does if he wants us to. Now go with them, I can explain more later if you want."
Hinata bowed in thanks before she made her way over toward her teammates. When she caught up to them, Naruto stopped dead in his tracks before he sneered into the darkness. Right as she was about to ask Naruto what was wrong, she felt a small pulse of Naruto's chakra before a new voice appeared.
"You need my power."
Naruto frowned as he watched Orochimaru's visage shutter into being after Naruto sent a tiny amount of chakra into the seal at his feet. "What did you say?"
"You need my power. If you ever want to be the strongest, you'll need power."
Naruto crossed his arms as he let a sneer cross his face. "I have Kurama's power. I do not need nor want your power, bastard."
"But what if you were to lose it? What then?"
Naruto frowned at Orochimaru's statement, confused as to if he was warning him of an impending future or not. "That's not possible. Kurama lets me use his power because we're friends. He won't just stop being my friend unless I do something bad to him."
"But what if he does? Or what if some outside force takes him from you?"
"Outside force? What outside force could take him out of me?"
"Not could, Naruto-kun, but would, and it's only a matter of time."
"What force?" Naruto growled. He was tired of Orochimaru's games and wanted to know what he was getting at.
Instead of responding however, the doppelgänger merely flashed a sinister grin. Naruto frowned as he saw Orochimaru close his eyes and began to ignore his presence.
'Asshole.'
Naruto turned to walk away, but was surprised when he saw Sasuke scowling. Hinata took a step forward, placed her hand on the back of his shoulder, and gave a reassuring squeeze, which, unknown to them, made Kushina internally squeal.
"So this is what it would've been like if Orochimaru gave me the curse mark?"
"Probably, yeah."
Sasuke scoffed as he turned around and began walking towards where Kushina and Minato were. Naruto began walking too, but with Hinata rooted in place, he stopped as she held his jacket and eyed her curiously. "Hina-"
"Naruto-san, please do not forget that we are your teammates. We'll be here if you need us and so please be here when we need you. Promise me that." Naruto smiled and laid his hand over hers and agreed to the promise.
"Naruto, let's go. I want to fight against you, no holding back." Sasuke interrupted the two.
After staring at him in contemplation for a few seconds, he agreed. "Okay. Mom, Dad, we gotta go."
"Okay, but I want you back after you two spar, okay? And I mean all three off you. I want to tell Sasuke some stories about Mikoto and I, as well as have a girl talk with Hinata." Kushina yelled back.
"Yeah, yeah. We'll be back."
Ok so... my bad for taking forever with this chapter. It was fighting against me when I tried to write this thing. I'll try to get back on track and hopefully get to Shippuden before March, that's the goal at least. I'm also going to start put review responses at the bottom.
mshade656: I don't know what to tell you besides that it's a major plot point. If Sasuke hadn't gotten the curse mark in canon, he would've stayed in Konoha. In my fic it's the same way but with a different outcome since Orochi gave it to Naruto.
jtason: My bad man, I'm trying to fix the story up but it'll help if you can point out some of the plot holes and confusing stuff so I can fix it.
Severus malfoy 2130: Same could go for Naruto using the curse mark just to win. Both are canonically stubborn and hate losing so I think using even one gate would be something Lee would do.
WalkersCrown: That's why I had Orochi use the Five-Pronged Seal before applying the curse mark, to block off Kurama's chakra.
AvatarUzumaki: Thanks for the praise! And the mystery behind the Uzumaki woman will be revealed later!
football78: That's why I had given the Iwa jonin a special kekkei genkai to increase his durability to give Naruto a challenge.
Crinightnight: Sorry for the late update, but it's here!
ShadowStalker3424: Yup! Not many characters in Naruto know what's going on all the time so they could only make educated guesses. And don't feel bad for Naruto, not yet anyway, he'll be fine. For now.
Darth Tenibris2: Woah woah, calm down there man. I stated multiple times that the curse mark isn't meant to be an amp to Naruto, but instead a hinderance. If you were paying attention to the story then maybe you'd pick that up, but no. You just wanted to complain about my A/U not following canon. I'd suggest just watching the series over again if you're just going to complain about Naruto's personality not being the same.
HAEVs Sha: Sorry to hear that, wouldn't blame you if you stopped reading though. I'm still getting used to writing fanfics so apologies.