Rippling Future

Chapter 6: Full Bloom


Itachi had never thought to one day set foot in this village again after the massacre. There was a certain difference in it once he saw it in a different light.

For someone of his reputation, he had expected that his views had changed. What that change was, he was never sure. But the only thing keeping him from casting this village away was nowhere in sight.

Good.

He had a pretty good idea that their target was not in the village any longer based on what he could hear from the villagers. Sticking around was not possible but he had to know where their target was. Kisame was itching for battle and his partner could tell that he would cause widespread death the moment he got wind of their target actually giving them the slip. But he had a mission to carry out, and that mission was to capture the Kyuubi. But in a sense that he made contact first and keep him away from the hands of Akatsuki as subtle as he possibly can. But if that failed, he would have no choice but to kill him.

After all, what's one more sacrifice to maintain peace?

Both of them sat inside a nearby snack shop eating contentedly with some dango and a fresh serving of oolong tea. To Itachi, this was the most peace he'd had in his entire career as a shinobi.

"Have you recently heard? Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin just disappeared one day from the village, just when the council was considering him to be one of the candidates to be Hokage."

Itachi immediately focused his attention on two nearby diners.

"Are you serious? Then who's going to be eligible for the position?"

"Hatake Kakashi's suitable enough. But he still has a long way to go. People have been clamoring that he's the second coming of the Sandaime Hokage and I tend to agree but I don't know, he still has a lot to cover."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. From what I've been hearing from the grapevine, Kakashi already has a genin team to learn from. Not to mention he was a former captain of an ANBU squad. I hear that they're considering two of his students for chuunin rank. Not a bad resume if you ask me."

"What, you mean the last of the Uchiha? If his fight wasn't interrupted, maybe, I'm not an expert when it comes to judging matches but I think Kakashi's other student is more eligible for the rank."

Itachi had raised an eyebrow at this.

"Oh, that brat, huh? Yeah, maybe. The Jounin had been clamoring that he's the dark horse of the whole tournament. Maybe I should have bet on the Kyuubi brat."

"Shhh! Not so loud! And I thought we were already past that after what happened!"

"Sorry, old habits die hard. Naruto came a long way to get where he is now, huh?"

"What I don't understand is how he's been missing for two days too. I'm guessing that Jiraiya-sama has taken him. I see them talking down the road from time to time. It's really puzzling."

"Well, if you live in a world with fire-breathing ninjas and gigantic summons, I wouldn't at least call that weird."

The two men laughed as they got up and paid their bill before leaving the shop.

"My, my, quite a discovery, wouldn't you say so, Itachi-san?" Kisame whispered as both of them finished their tea.

"An inconvenience that we had never even thought about, it is as if Konoha is on to us." Quickly finishing his tea, Kisame already knew what would come next.

"Let us go, Kisame. We have no further business here."

When they got out, a voice had suddenly interrupted Itachi's train of thought.

"It is surprising for you to visit after everything that you've done…" The voice paused until the smaller of the two looked back at him with those sharingan eyes of his. Itachi observed Hatake Kakashi looking at him with his hands in his pockets. Itachi then noted the two people that Kakashi had behind him. One was Sarutobi Asuma and the other was Yuuhi Kurenai, a formidable jounin from Kakashi's class.

"Uchiha Itachi."

The two behind Kakashi looked surprised as Itachi looked at them with a frown.

"Let's take this somewhere more… private." Itachi suggested

And with that, the five of them vanished in a plume of smoke.


Naruto and Jiraiya:

Naruto was looking irate when he had the water balloon in his hands while Jiraiya was supervising his training or when he (had run) out of information to collect in one place. Jiraiya had done some advising but the grey haired ninja had insisted that he figure out the technique on his own.

He had decided that Jiraiya was much harsher than Iruka then and there. Iruka would spoon-feed him if Naruto wanted it but Jiraiya would not dare hold his hand metaphorically. To Naruto, Jiraiya carried a lot of expectations to someone he was training. His method of learning was harsh and indifferent, almost uncaring even. That is, if one were to take it as it is. Kakashi had told him to look underneath the underneath. Looking beyond the deception was key; Naruto knew he had to be observant of what Jiraiya did moments earlier when he popped the balloon.

He had been rotating the chakra as Jiraiya would have wanted (him) to and (Naruto had) followed his advice, yet for the life of him, he couldn't exactly figure out how he did it and what made the ball so lumpy to begin with.

Whenever he was looking at Jiraiya, the old man would notice and grin while pointing an index finger to the side of head, gesturing for Naruto to think. That actually frustrated the blond. He wasn't exactly the sharpest kunai in the set. Jiraiya had already pointed that out, but from what Jiraiya was gesturing at, it was as if he had complete faith in Naruto's intellect!

Growling, he turned his attention back on to the water balloon and shook it furiously in frustration. The delicate balance of the skin actually destabilized the natural state of the object as the water inside shook violently, popping it and surprising the ever living crap out of Naruto.

"What the fuck?"

Indeed. The things were delicate alright, being a prankster, he noted that the quality of the balloons weren't up to his standards. But that didn't bother him so much as he had realized what happened. Suddenly, an idea appeared in his head.

Jiraiya had gone off somewhere again to gather more information. Naruto inhaled this time, remembering what Jiraiya had taught him before going for another water balloon and looking determined at it.

This time, he would do it right!


Konoha:

Maito Gai was as weird as they come. He had a peculiar way of dealing with life's problems and had an even stranger way in coping with them. He was loud and often times spoke without thinking ahead. He was a firm believer and serious advocate of the Power of Youth and spoke as if it was his religion all the way. Bizarre by anyone else's standards, to many that actually knew Gai, he was a rather observant fellow. He could tell how a person behaves through simple body language alone. Probably a result of his harsh training in taijutsu thus excluding a medic, he had the most knowledge considering how the body works.

That is how good Gai was compared to many other jounin in the village. Gai had a strange view to look at the world, but that view was something that had sustained him throughout most of his shinobi career.

In a nutshell, Gai maybe a weird nut, but he was as good as they get. He'd practically been dubbed the best Taijutsu specialist that Konoha had to offer. That was how good he was and it was foolish to write him out of any danger that he posed especially when he started to get serious and actually start thinking.

When he saw Kakashi following two people in black cloaks with red cloud designs all over them, just as he was meeting with his team, he had to cancel it immediately and told his genin to go towards the city. He followed his rival as they reached a portion of the bank of the Nakano River. He stopped when the five people did. From what he could tell from where he was standing, he could see Kurenai and Asuma flanking Kakashi's back while the two relatively unknown shinobi were at their front.

At first, Gai thought about performing an ambush but decided against it. He did not survive this long just to storm his way through so recklessly. So, like any shinobi, he would at first watch. It was then that the shorter of the suspicious duo decided to remove the hat that finally surprised Gai.

It was one of their top-priority missing nin, Uchiha Itachi.

Suddenly, he felt his spine tingling from just how much danger Itachi seemed to give off.

This wasn't good.


Kakashi:

When he had locked in on the duo, he knew he was probably in for a fight. Jiraiya had told him about an organization made up of the most dangerous criminals in the current world. One of them happened to cause a massacre of one of the founding clans of Konoha. Standing before him with not even a hint of worry etched on his face, Uchiha Itachi unbuttoned the neck area of his cloak and let a hand dangle to where the current opening of the robe was which was in front of his chest.

"I have no intention of fighting with you. I have no qualms in this village. I merely wish to collect our objective in Konoha."

"Sasuke isn't here." Kakashi had cut him off. He had sent the younger of the two brothers on his request mission to obtain one of his clan's summoning scrolls.

Itachi did not even flinch seemingly when he heard the name of his younger brother. The elder of the two merely replied, "A logical guess but a wrong one. We are after something else, the Fourth Hokage's legacy to be exact."

Kakashi pushed his forehead protector up, revealing his Sharingan as he continued, "Naruto then. By that statement, that means you must work for Akatsuki."

Now that got Itachi and his partner's attention judging from what Kakashi had deduced. Nobody was supposed to know in Fire Country who or what Akatsuki is. At least, that's what entered Kakashi's head.

"Itachi-san, I guess we can't leave them as they are, can we?" The taller partner of Itachi removed his straw hat and hoisted the gigantic sword over his shoulder.

"We can't have Konoha learning of our existence." The blue skinned man said with a menacing grin. Kurenai was scowling.

"You're the monster of Kirigakure, Hoshigaki Kisame, wanted on accounts of genocide and multiple atrocities in Kirigakure no Sato. It seems Itachi has some powerful allies as well."

Kisame chuckled and bowed as if he was proud of his work, "I'm honoured to have my name spread out even to Konoha."

"Kakashi, what the heck is going on here?" Asuma asked as he drew forth his trench knives and held them in a reverse grip.

"A question that should be mostly left unanswered today." The Uchiha then spoke to Kisame, "We are taking Kakashi-san with us, Kisame."

"An unfortunate decision then, it looks like Samehada won't be able to go all out." If he were disappointed, he was certainly wasn't showing it. In fact, he was grinning beneath that huge collar of his.

The former ANBU member turned missing nin then turned to Kakashi and pointed his finger at the man.

"Eliminate the rest."

And just like that, all hell broke loose.


Naruto:

When Jiraiya had walked in on Naruto's training, the toad sage had never expected the blonde to pop the water balloon so quickly with one hand. A grin escaped his apprentice's lips and he whooped in joy, all the while smirking at Jiraiya who looked surprised at the sudden turn of events.

'Holy hell in a hand basket! Since when?'

"So what's next?" Any more questions in his head were immediately purged when he went back inside the inn while he told Naruto to wait.

A few minutes later, Jiraiya was back hauling a sack of rubber balls with him. Naruto looked on in displeasure. It was another damn exercise!

"Alright, step two: make this rubber ball explode by adding more power."

Jiraiya demonstrated with one hand as the ball burst in his hand. Naruto's look of disappointment was replaced with intrigue as he stared at the older man's hand.

"So I'm going to flood that thing with more chakra until it explodes? It doesn't seem that difficult compared to the first one, if you ask me." Naruto commented before grabbing a rubber ball from the sack while Jiraiya chuckled.

'Oh, you have no idea…'

"What?" The blonde asked, Jiraiya merely gave a small lie and said, "Nothing, just something that I recalled when I was in town fishing for information."

Again, Jiraiya wanted Naruto to solve things on his own for this one. If Naruto did have that potential to surpass the Fourth Hokage, then this would be the jutsu to actually prove it. So far, his expectations had been met with Naruto's ingenuity.

When he saw Naruto began performing the second part of the training with little to no effect, he raised an eyebrow. Naruto, instead of looking impatient, took a deep breath and stared at the rubber ball once more.

"There's got to be something I'm doing wrong." He heard the blonde mumble and Jiraiya grinned. It looks like his student didn't need that many hints after all.


Konoha:

As soon as Itachi finished those words, he had suddenly turned into a flock of crows that scattered all about. Kakashi looked around, his Sharingan casting off the genjutsu as Kurenai and Asuma dispelled theirs. He was not prepared when Itachi had suddenly appeared behind him with a kunai posed to strike Asuma down.

'Shit!' Kakashi immediately spun and just as quickly lightning crackled with his hand. He was about to complete the Raikiri when he suddenly stopped as his Sharingan dispelled another genjutsu.

'How on earth is he doing this? This is a double layered genjutsu!' Kakashi cancelled his attack as he caught Itachi by the torso. The vision that was Itachi turned out to be Kurenai while Asuma turned out to be the Uchiha Prodigy.

"What on earth?" Kurenai asked in bewilderment as Kakashi lunged forward and headed straight to the river.

"It's a trap." Kakashi muttered when Itachi suddenly glowed and exploded with a single handseal.

BOOM!

The earth beneath the clone shattered from the impact on the ground, sending smouldering boulders and debris flying everywhere with some crashing into the waters of the river below.

Kakashi and Kurenai landed on the water as Itachi jumped on the surface of Nakano River as well. He looked at his two opponents while his partner was fighting Asuma.

'That was dangerous! Itachi had suddenly laid a trap and used those two genjutsu to distract us and break our formation! Asuma was pushed back by Kisame and Itachi placed a (Kage Bunshin) there while we were under the illusion and subsequently fooled us both.'

"Did you honestly think that my eyes are the only ways that I can cast genjutsu?" Itachi asked as he walked towards the both of them. Kakashi and Kurenai readied themselves but Itachi remained impassive.

"I knew of that obvious weakness years ago even before I became a missing nin. So to compensate, I developed my genjutsu ability and trained with it so with even a tip of my finger, I can place you into an illusion easily and from there, cast more as needed."

Kakashi and Kurenai flinched at that indication, from what they could tell from Itachi's words, it meant that he would be able to cast a genjutsu onto even the most prepared shinobi and then layer them as much as he needed or wanted.

It became quite clear then and there, Uchiha Itachi was now standing at the level of a Kage.

A hand had suddenly popped from Itachi's right sleeve and with them several Shuriken were there. Kurenai was about to draw her weapon when Kakashi began performing a set of handseals before slamming his hands on the water beneath him.

"Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release: Water Wall Encampment Formation)!"

The water soon rose up and protected them when four deadly water drills slammed into the new obstacle.

"Impressive, Kakashi-san. That Sharingan of yours must have come from a very talented member of the Uchiha clan. It is unfortunate that you can never access its true power since you are not of Uchiha descent."

'He's not even trying…' Kakashi thought, behind him, Kurenai had disappeared and the water fell down once more to the river.

Behind Itachi, Kurenai had resurfaced and let loose a pair of kunai towards Itachi's back.

Hearing the splash of the water, (Itachi) turned his sights to where he heard it from and saw two kunai heading straight at him. Leaning back slightly, the two weapons went past him with no trouble at all as Kakashi now performed his signature technique, the Raikiri (Lightning Blade).

He then heard a whistle and looked back, he saw Kurenai swirling and vanishing from his sight.

'Magen: Jubakusatsu (Demonic illusion: Tree Binding Death)'

Itachi's Sharingan eyes spun madly as they deciphered the genjutsu in mere seconds.

Kakashi suddenly froze up when he felt himself bound and restrained. The grey haired jounin looked surprised when he saw a tree binding him close. His Sharingan instantly dispelled the technique with not much fuss. When he dispelled the illusion, he was met with (Itachi's) foot hitting his face,

Itachi then let go of the shuriken that he had in his hand and sent them straight Kurenai who dodged by jumping to the side but not before being met with an Itachi who had raised her by the collar and kicked her abdomen, sending her flying.

"A futile effort, Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san, with these eyes, I am nigh invincible. My (Sharingan) has evolved into a much higher form compared to yours."

Up on the riverside, Asuma was having as much trouble as with Kisame as Kakashi and Kurenai were with Itachi on the river below. Not only did Kisame have a longer reach, but he also had that monstrous strength of his, increasing the potency and killing potential of his blade, Samehada. He had an unfortunate lesson in learning of Samehada's properties when Kisame had grazed his shoulder. The most terrifying thing was, Kisame looked like he was merely playing with him.

Fortunately for him, he managed to nick Kisame on the cheek earlier, making him sure that he could take on a former member of the seven shinobi swordsmen.

"Suiton: Suikodan no jutsu (Water release: Water Shark Bullet technique)!"

A surge of water shaped like a white shark headed towards Asuma who had jumped from his spot and rolled on the ground. Upon climbing to his feet, Asuma was suddenly surprised when Kisame was beside him with his humongous blade already in mid-swing.

"Konoha Goriki Senpu (Leaf Strong Whirlwind)!" A strong back kick smashed into Kisame's chest (and( sent him careening towards the river. Kisame bounced on the water surface three more times like a small pebble before landing on the far side of the river as the water rose up. The concrete wall on the other side caved in from the force of Kisame's velocity.

"Gai, you sure took your sweet time getting here." Asuma said to his comrade at his front who answered, "I've had to make arrangements, forgive me for running this late."

When the water receded, they saw Kisame with his left hand on the now cratered wall and looked as if he was perfectly fine from Gai's attack.

The worst part of it all was that Kisame looked completely fine and was looking as if he was enjoying the fight way too much.

"Konoha Shinobi aren't incompetent after all. Now I'm getting excited."

"I would surrender if I were you, right now, there are reinforcements preparing and advancing to this area as we speak. Any minute now, the village will be in complete lockdown. No one can enter or get out of this village until the threat is eliminated."

"Bluffing already? Something underhanded as that doesn't suit a dodo bird like you." Kisame replied with a sneer, his razor sharp teeth showed as his grin widened from the man's posture.

A story he recalled from his former master, the previous older of Samehada, Fuguki Suikazan. There was once a mere genin from Konoha who could only fight battles with taijutsu only. He was a man bold enough to face the previous generation of the Seven Swordsmen. Of course, the brave man died from that encounter. He was put to the swords of the vicious swordsmen of the mist that day, but not before killing more than half of their members. His master lived to tell the tale, but the wielders of Kubikirihocho (Executioner's Blade), Kiba (Fangs), Hiramekarei, and Shibuki (Splash) were killed by the man's vicious attack.

The tale was passed on to the many people all around Kiri and many of them couldn't help but respect the man for what he had done and accomplished that day even if it had cost them shinobi with illustrious positions. The seven swordsmen were forever changed that day. The criterion just turned harsher after that, with his master recalling that many prospective members were killed during the selection process that were conducted by the three of them, Akebino Jinin, Kuriarare Kushimaru and his former master, Fuguki Suikazan.

And now, seeing for himself, Kisame couldn't help but feel excited about the prospect of fighting this fearsome style. The jounin before him struck an uncanny resemblance to the one his master had described.

'Ah, he must be the man's son then.' Kisame thought with a grin as he placed Samehada on his back once more and grinned wickedly as he began performing handseal after handseal.

'To think that I could face someone using that style here in Konoha... It just makes my blood boil!'

Kisame was about to perform another jutsu when Itachi appeared) beside him with an arm holding the taller of the two back.

"As necessary as this was, we cannot have an entire village be after us due to a small leak, we are not here to start a war. A tactical retreat is the most prudent solution that we have right now."

Kakashi was about to charge up with another Raikiri until Itachi spoke once more, "It is useless for you to fight me, Kakashi-san. You should know, after all. I have not just the power of the Sharingan, but also its higher more evolved form, the Mangekyou Sharingan (Kaleidoscope Pinwheel Eye). So save your chakra, you can never hope to take me down with such a jutsu."

Kisame clicked his tongue as he placed Samehada on his back, "Just when things were about to get fun."

"With this new set of information, it is safe to say that they placed the jinchuuriki somewhere out of reach, possibly with a high ranking shinobi making up his guard. The leader should be notified." Itachi mentioned this and both vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Kakashi lowered his guard down for a second as the four jounin remained silent while they all stared at each other rather solemnly.

"Kakashi, you seem to know about the freak show that Itachi is hanging with right now, why are they after Naruto?"

Kakashi simply nodded and noticed that his left fl

ank ached severely after what happened.

"Hospital first, this story is going to last a while. Jiraiya-sama filled me in a little earlier."


Unknown Location:

To Uchiha Sasuke, the remnants of one of his clan's hideouts reminded him of memories he would rather not recall. The tall, hollow and almost dull walls of this particular hideout reminded him of his father once taking him and Itachi through these very halls. Just the mere thought of it made Sasuke shake with fury and he almost punched a hole through the wall on his right. Inwardly, he vowed to never think of such things with familiarity. Itachi had done a grave sin to him, to the clan and to his ancestors. A transgression that can only be rewarded with death, Sasuke swore he would make Itachi pay.

"Sasuke-chan? I never thought I'd see you visit your family's warehouses so soon."

His dark thoughts were interrupted by the voice that he had recognized.

Sasuke looked at the old woman sitting on top of a concrete block and comforted with a pillow beneath her. All around her, cats were either standing up or resting on her lap. She was the keeper of their warehouses, the one he would go to if he were to need something really important.

"Neko-baa, I'm here for a summoning scroll." He said, without as much as an opening. He wouldn't waste time for small talk. That wasn't what he had in mind when he visited this particular warehouse.

His statement raised an eyebrow from the old woman who was wondering why Sasuke would want a summoning scroll this early in his career. Then again, for being left deprived of family at an early age and having his brother being responsible for the mess, she could not blame the boy.

"Do you have an animal in mind then?" She asked

Sasuke answered, "Something that can do massive area damage in a matter of seconds, something agile, fast enough and can manoeuvre well against other summoned animals. I'm asking for something like the toad summons, I guess."

Neko-baa thought about this for several long seconds until she clapped her hands at the idea.

"I may have something that can manoeuvre well against other summons. I don't know about your first and third choices though, but it can give you an advantage that very few have in the shinobi world."

The old woman then called for her granddaughter, Tamaki, to enter the room. She told her to obtain a scroll from one of the shelves filed under a specific corridor and then turned her attention back to Sasuke. Tamaki came back with a few scrolls in hand and a bigger scroll underneath them.

"The hawk summons will serve you well. It suits you, Sasuke-chan."

The youngest Uchiha took the scrolls from Tamaki's hands and nodded in appreciation towards his clan's keeper for many years. Wordlessly, he turned his back from the two and left with a solemn promise of returning when the time came.

Outside the hideout, his escort was waiting for him. It was an ANBU member wearing the standard uniform and with only a distinguishing mask that was in the form of a tiger. Sasuke noted that the man moved almost mechanically in their journey to this place. His voice was muffled by the mask, but Sasuke could tell that it was flat and in monotone. His movements were ingrained with years of training and noted that Itachi had acted pretty much the same after he became a member in a short while.

His interest in the organization piqued right then and there. Maybe he could apply for a membership one of these days and train under their command. He was sure as hell that he could get stronger under such harsh training conditions.

"Have you found what you have been searching for?" The masked operative asked, Sasuke responding with a quiet nod.

A messenger bird flew over them and circled before heading back in the general direction of the village.

"Perfect timing too, we are being recalled to the village immediately. An emergency has come up."

With that, the ANBU member leaped from his position and made way towards the village, with Sasuke following suit.


Konoha:

Haruno Sakura was quite disappointed to find out that her teammates had left the village. Sasuke had requested an expedition to one of his clan's warehouses and had been missing since this morning while Naruto disappeared two days earlier on a mission without telling them first. At least, that's what Kakashi had told her when he suddenly dismissed her and told her to meet some of her fellow genin at a certain place for another cleanup mission.

She found it odd, however. Because the village was in total disarray and Konoha didn't have an elected leader as of now, there was no way would they be allowed to take missions outside of the village while they were still on somewhat a lockdown. That meant no missions from third parties entirely. The missions requested by the office to the outside world itself were even more unlikely, those things required that the shinobi who was to take that mission should be of Jounin skill level. They were often dangerous and involved national or village security and since Naruto was unlikely to have that kind of mission, it brought more questions into her head.

She now understood why Shikamaru was distrustful to many of the adults around the village as of late. She found the idea unnerving to say the least.

"I'm glad that you finally arrived to join us, Sakura. What have you been doing for the last ten minutes? Making sure your hair was silky smooth?" A voice asked, mockingly. Sakura's train of thought was suddenly disrupted when she looked vexed at that jab at her.

Turning to her right, she saw Kiba sitting down on a stoop while petting Akamaru who was grinning at her. She turned her head up and saw her upperclassman, Tenten, sitting on the roof twirling a kunai with her index finger and Shikamaru leaning on the wall not too far from Kiba.

"I'm surprised that you could do sarcasm, Kiba. I always thought it would be too much for someone like you." She replied to Kiba's remark causing the feral boy to growl while Tenten giggled on the roof as she said to Kiba, "Touché, Kiba."

Before Kiba could make a witty comeback, Shikamaru took this chance to stop the bickering and not waste anymore of his time.

"Alright, that's enough. We're not here for stupid banter. As you know, the jounin force is maintaining some order in and around the village while the chuunin are patrolling the borders. The genin teams were assigned to help with the restoration of some of the infrastructure if you can't tell since the past week. The jounin decided for some of the genin to take the kids to one of the intelligence division's departments to help out. And thankfully, we didn't get the torture and interrogation department or else we'd get to see Anko and possibly Ibiki."

With that, all of the teenagers shuddered at the thought.

"So where are we getting assigned to?"

Shikamaru looked at the scroll he had been given and read the contents further, "It says here we're in the research and development department. They weren't hit pretty badly, but they have a lot of stuff worth getting rid of. Some of the equipment there seemed too damaged to be reused."

"Wait, wait, the R&D department? The place where they do research on weapons and seal applications!? Oh hell, sign me up!" Tenten interrupted as her eyes sparkled with glee. For Tenten, it was as if she was in candy land.

Kiba took a step back at the girl's sudden change of attitude while Sakura looked at Shikamaru and asked a suddenly important question.

"You know, based from what I'm seeing with Tenten-san, I think we should go for T&I, don't you think?" Sakura murmured to Shikamaru who shrugged at that.

"I'd rather die than be scarred for life." Shikamaru answered.

To this, Kiba shuddered involuntarily by just the mere thought of it. He had never met Ibiki or Anko outside the chuunin exam, but he had hoped that he wouldn't have to meet them outside of that. They seemed to be the kind of people with... weird interests.

And he had put it mildly of course. Considering that both of them were complete whack jobs, it was hard to ascertain what they were capable of doing if they felt like it.

When they finally made their way towards the Research and Development department, affectionately called the 'R&D', Tenten looked like she was shaking in her sandals not from pure anxiety, but in sheer excitement.

"Hey, Shikamaru? I think this would be a good time to hustle up and get things over with. Miss stab-you-silly is going to explode like a fuuda." Kiba pointed out their senior as Shikamaru typically sighed and went inside.

When Sakura saw the building outside, it was plain and looked like any other building out there in the village. It didn't even look like it was the R&D department. She thought it might have to do with how)many of their military installations had to be kept secret and hidden perfectly enough that no one would suspect. And what better way to do it than to disguise it as a commercial building complex in the middle of a populated village? But when they went down below, things got a bit more interesting.

By that she meant that it really was interesting, but with all the junk scattered around along with being piled left and right, she was sure that any person stupid enough not to be careful here could have their legs cut off from some random machine or weapon.

The place was littered with scrolls, and they weren't used for storage, when she picked up one of them, she noted that they were either statistical data or journal logs. All of it seemed to be written like some chicken was scratching on the paper, calculations that she knew were far too complicated, formulas that were drawn up and taught in higher places of learning, chemical combinations, chakra experiments, fuinjutsu research, schematic diagrams, all of it.

"Geez, the amount of crap in here is worse than the crap I have in my room." Kiba muttered, he jumped when he had accidentally kicked a short sword and almost impaled Shikamaru through doing so.

Kiba didn't scream like a little girl though, nope.

"For fuck's sake, Kiba, learn to watch your surroundings!" Sakura reprimanded as she accidentally stepped on something that made a crunching noise. All four of them paused in anxious silence. Nobody seemed to move for a few seconds as Sakura fought down a panic attack.

"D-Did I step on something important? I did, didn't I? Please tell me it's not going to rip my leg off!" She rambled. Shikamaru took a small step back as did Kiba and Tenten who were looking like they didn't want to be there right now.

"You guys aren't helping!" Sakura shouted and Tenten replied, "Hey, my life's at stake here, better you than me!"

"NO! That was my sister's favourite vase!" A voice had called out, Shikamaru looked behind him and saw a man struggling under an endless sea of scrolls and other junk as he appeared right before Sakura and looked down on the destroyed object that was crushed under Sakura's heel.

"My sister's porcelain vase... I was looking for that for days!"

The older man said as he leaned down on the floor as tears fell from his eyes.

"She's going to kill me!" He muttered, earning a sweatdrop from the four genin.

"Ryuugamine-sensei!"

Another voice called out, this time a girl wearing thick eyeglasses stepped out from a door as she noticed her superior looking as if his dog had just been killed.

The girl had white hair extending to her upper back and was as messy as her current workplace, her skin was almost the same colour as her hair but not by much, as pale as alabaster. She wore a white long coat above a standard black yukata underneath. If there was one thing to describe her, it was as if she hadn't been outside for too long.

Her superior, identified as Ryuugamine-sensei, appeared to be middle-aged. He had hair just as messy if not more as if he had put his finger in an electrical socket, he was as tall as Ino's father and wore the same uniform as the girl. He also looked like he hasn't shaved in days judging from what the genin could tell.

"Ah, Shiho, just when I found out that my sister's vase was here, it was suddenly destroyed! Now she's going to kill me after she finds out about this!"

Shikamaru took this time to finish up any more forms of distraction by clearing his throat.

"Excuse me, we're the team that the jounin commander sent to clean up the place." Shikamaru failed to mention that said jounin commander who requested to have all the departments some semblance of order was his father.

The two presumed members of the R&D department turned to the owner of the voice and looked at Shikamaru with a questioning look.

"But we didn't ask for any..." Ryuugamine replied with a confused tone and was subsequently cut off by Tenten.

"You didn't, the jounin commander just said that we couldn't have this place in disarray now that we need more stuff to come into play." She replied.

"Sorry about your vase, Ryuugamine-san." Sakura apologized, in her mind, her other self rambled.

'This wouldn't have happened if your place wasn't such a pigsty, cha!'

The adult of the bunch then sighed and dropped his head, "It's fine, although that vase costs more than my house right now, there's nothing to be done about it. Just don't use any of the prototypes or weapons I have lying around here."

Shiho bowed her head to the department's guests, "I'm sorry for causing you some trouble, as you can see we barely manage to keep things in check here with all of the research Ryuugamine-sensei's team has been doing. I was sent here from the decryption department to help out since most of Ryuugamine-sensei's employees have been in the hospital these past few days."

Kiba raised an eyebrow at this and asked, "Because of the invasion, right?"

Ryuugamine looked partly ashamed at this as his current assistant answered, "Yes, partly. Though there were some accidents that involved a lot of things here in the building."

Ryuugamine laughed nervously at that, "Ahaha, I guess I shouldn't have some of my stuff lying around here, huh?"

All four of the genin glared at the man quite intensely.

Two hours later:

Kiba had to admit, Ryuugamine was a cool guy, in an odd sort of way. Although he was damn well sure that Ryuugamine was smart, he was laid back. He was often airheaded at times when doing his work and frequently left his notes and some stuff lying around his office which made a mess of things. To him and to Shikamaru, he was what they would call your average typical guy with a brilliant mind. As he arranged some of the scrolls back into a shelf or into a container with Shiho's help, he saw Sakura curiously looking at some of the equipment and gadgets the good professor had in his office.

Shiho was just as nice as her temporary superior. Kiba noted that Shiho had a cheerful personality despite her disheveled appearance. She was all smiles as she told stories of her career in the decryption department and how she felt right at home at her current job. She told him that she was one of the many failed genin of the exams handed to them by their assigned jounin captains and that she was a part of their batch. The difference though, was that Konoha offered some of the failed genin positions in the various different departments that awaited them should they fail. Shiho took the decryption department no questions asked and had never looked back since.

"Wow, and I thought being in R&D involved dissecting dead people or something." Kiba commented on Shiho's stories about the department that they were currently in.

"Oh no, we do that, though this specific division of R&D is more responsible for engineering weapons. The biochemistry department is responsible for researching poisons and antidotes, and the human dissection is more appropriate for the medical section. That's mostly handled at the hospital along with the forensics department." Shiho replied helpfully.

While Kiba and Shiho engaged in idle chatter as they helped in cleaning the place up, Tenten and Sakura were on their own little world as they looked around the building, carefully handling the more delicate apparatus and equipment around the room. That involved a lot of untested weapons and Tenten was drooling at the sight of a long sheathed Nodachi that was lying on the floor with mystified eyes.

In the meantime, Sakura was looking at an intricately designed pair of gauntlets that had four giant cogwheels divided by pairs and placed on the forearm part of the gauntlets that was interconnected by wires.

Through it all, Ryuugamine was directing them where to place the items and gave little quips to the two kunoichi that were handling them.

"Hey, Ryuugamine-san, I heard that you were researching on applying functional seals with metallurgy. Is this one of your experiments?" Tenten asked as she handed the Nodachi to Ryuugamine. The head of the engineering division scratched his head for a few seconds, trying to recall the work he had done on this weapon before replying.

"I think this is one of my earlier prototypes. This is KNT-01, codenamed 'Suigintou' (Mercurial Blade). It allows the user's chakra to be converted to Suiton chakra regardless of affinity by a noticeable series of sealing arrays by the handle going to the hilt and then performing a limited Suiton jutsu around the user, I'd say just about a meter and a half."

Sakura scratched her head at this. Prior to his death, Momochi Zabuza could perform Suiton jutsus much larger and further reaching than that. It seems like a complete waste of chakra for her.

"That doesn't sound so impressive..." Sakura commented but Ryuugamine begged to differ.

"On first sight it is, but due to the aspects that have been given to Suigintou and the mechanics of the Suiton jutsu used in it, it's surprisingly a very effective tool. The cost for making this bad boy, though, is pretty steep. So for now, I'm stuck with that until I have enough funds to create a new one from scratch."

"Why is it expensive?" Sakura asked.

Ryuugamine adjusted his glasses and replied, "The nodachi was made from different chakra conducting metals. I needed that so the complex sealing array wouldn't destabilize a single ore. Not to mention, I had to hire a professional blacksmith to create the sword; that took me two to three months before being able to create the sealing array that took me another two months."

An idea began forming in Tenten's head.

"Say, Ryuugamine-sensei, if I offered my services in creating more weapons like these, would that lessen the cost? I can help you with the metallurgy, I've had a chance to work at a weapons shop and create tons of blades. Not to mention I'm a kunoichi that gets to travel everywhere, I'm sure I can ease your problems with these."

Ryuugamine had a thoughtful look on his face and said to himself, "Well, that would cut the costs down considerably and I can try to create more. But are you sure? I mean, stuff like this isn't really easy."

"I'm perfectly fine with it as long as I can own something like Suigintou." Tenten replied.

Another few seconds came by as Ryuugamine hummed in thought. Finally, he agreed causing Tenten to whoop in joy. Sakura had her jaw drop from that easy bargaining from the chief of the engineering division of this sage forsaken building.

Enough of that though, it was time to feed HER own brand of curiosity.

"Hey, Ryuugamine-san what is this pair of gloves? They look really complicated and more mechanical."

"Ah, that, well, that's an invention of the team that wanted to involve themselves more in mechanical engineering. It's a product of a new invention serial code KMB-Alpha, codenamed Tetsu no Sogyo (Twin fish of Iron), I know, terrible name, but we're coming up with a better one as soon as we find another. Instead of that thing relying purely on chakra, we've decided to reduce the amount needed to produce enough kilograms of force to punch through a building four times over by using machinery enhancers..."

If it were anybody else, they would've regretted hearing Ryuugamine babbling on endlessly about math and science, but to Sakura, this fascinated her.

Maybe if she could get a deal the way like he did with Tenten although with a different bargain, she too could have a chance to check out these toys to play with. It never hurt to have something helping you, anyway.

"...With the only problem being that it isn't durable enough to withstand an impact to keep it intact." Ryuugamine finished, a hand on his chin as he hummed once more and looked at the pair of gauntlets.

"Did you guys try to reinforce it with chakra?" Sakura asked, while Tenten looked disbelievingly at Sakura who had just managed to keep up with Ryuugamine's particularly long and unnecessary jargon. By this time, the professor's shoulders had dropped before continuing.

"Sadly, the only thing that can keep this from falling apart after the impact is a body-enhancing Doton jutsu or something of the sort. I could communicate with one of the divisions, but that would be a long and difficult joint research project unless we could get a hold of a jutsu that is sufficient enough to make it durable."

Sakura sighed at that notable disadvantage. The weapon sounded so cool and practical too. Maybe Kakashi-sensei would have an idea in how to make this work.

Another item caught her interest, this time, it was a brown backpack with three straps, two vertical for the shoulders and one horizontal just for the waist. What made the bag unique though, were the two horn like protrusions on each side of the aforementioned bag and a giant kanji letter for sword was placed on the inside of the bag.

Sakura made a grab for it and asked the professor who was busy cleaning up his messy desk.

"What about this one?"

Ryuugamine had a raised eyebrow as he looked closer with his right hand holding his chin. He hummed once again before replying.

"Well, that's one of my latest creations. It's a storage power pack. It siphons chakra from the user with very miniscule amounts and stores them up on the backpack unit until it is full. The chakra is then used to either as spare energy for the owner or an additional weapon with those chakra sabres."

As if to demonstrate, Ryuugamine grabbed one of the horns on the left of the bag and pulled out a small blade base about the size of a large combat knife with a chakra coating that was glowing blue and was extending for over a meter and a half.

Sakura and Tenten looked in awe at the equipment before them until Ryuugamine planted the sword back into the backpack.

"Of course, the output needed for this is just about as precise as putting a thread at the hole of a needle. Not a lot, but certainly not so little. So far, very few have managed to have enough control in using this. I've tried re-modifying the seals but when I do, the sabres don't work."

Tenten groaned at this while she mumbled to Sakura, "I'm all for seals and forging but this is out of my field, so how the hell are you keeping up with his explanations about weapon specifications?"

Sakura simply gave a faulty grin and replied, "If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of a bookworm."

Tenten merely gave a shrug and walked away, with Suigintou in hand.


Naruto, five days later:

The early morning dew was met with a loud yawn coming from Naruto who had a tray in his hands as the cafeteria from the hotel they were staying in gave him food for breakfast.

It had been a baffling five days since he had started training with the second stage for is new jutsu. So far, he'd had no luck. Every time he tried to push chakra into the rubber ball, it would simply shake and pop in just one hole. He had a limit on pumping the chakra inside the ball. It was as if he had been pushing chakra but it just wouldn't be strong enough to pop the ball in his hand. Groaning in frustration, he turned his attention back to his breakfast which consisted of grilled aji (Horse Mackarel), white rice, various tsukemono (Japanese pickled dishes) such as umeboshi (ume plums) and takuan (pickled daikon radish), an un-cracked egg, miso soup and natto (fermented soybeans).

Looking at the Natto alone, Naruto's left eyelid was already twitching. To his front, he saw his supposed teacher downing the bowl of miso soup straight from the bowl to relieve some of the headache he was experiencing due to the drinking he had done last night. Jiraiya then grabbed a fruit of umeboshi from his plate with his chopsticks and gladly downed the indescribably sour dish in order to relieve him of his hangover.

"Damn soup would make my kidneys explode. How much miso did they put in that thing to make it so concentrated? That's saltier than dried fish!"

Naruto replied in a deadpan voice, "It's because you put it down the hatch faster than you could breathe it."

Jiraiya was in no mood for any sort of banter right now as he picked up the sealed carton of natto. When he did open it, Naruto had to cover his nose just from the stench alone.

"Oh god, they reek like sweaty gym socks left for over a week! How do you even eat that?"

"Like any normal person who doesn't have ramen for breakfast, lunch and dinner would do, put it in my mouth. Besides, it's not like I enjoy the smell too, I need to get the salty taste of the miso out of my mouth. Damn thing is so strong that it's like they made sure it was just for me." Jiraiya replied as he downed some of the natto by mixing it with the rice and a raw egg.

Suddenly, Naruto had a thought flash into his mind. When Jiraiya downed the miso, it was as strong as he had said. As if the staff had made a slight mistake in adding too much miso for the soup. Inspiration had struck him as he grinned. He thought that he had been doing things wrong and right he was.

Naruto cheerfully finished his breakfast and headed out of the cafeteria as he prepared himself for training. This time, he would get things right.

When he had arrived at his usual training ground, Naruto took a rubber ball in his hand once more and looked at it for a few seconds. Before he closed his eyes and began molding and kneading his chakra from within.

'It doesn't matter how much chakra I put in, if it isn't concentrated, if it isn't collected at a single point, then the strength of the jutsu would be useless.'

He imagined a white space, blank and completely devoid of anything, no distractions, no voices, nothing, just a blanket of white devoid of anything as far as he could see. His mind was cleared of any thoughts at this point as he reached forth into a zen-like state.

Nothing appeared in his mind for a few seconds and he only imagined a single point at the palm of his right hand. With that point being established, Naruto started pouring chakra into that single point slowly at first and then began adding chakra to it faster and faster. Eventually, he began pouring more and more chakra, faster and faster to the point that he would require his left hand continuously pouring down chakra inside the ball and stirring his chakra within it.

The ball began to shake and it rumbled but Naruto didn't stop, he kept pouring and pouring, and pouring so much that the ball destabilized its shape and the ground beneath his feet cratered by a few inches as it gave in just from the mere intensity and density of the chakra that Naruto kept on pushing and pushing inside until the ball couldn't handle anymore of the pressure...

BOOM!

And Naruto was thrown back from his position with so much force that he was careening away from the site like a bullet for at least several meters before skidding on the ground back-first with Jiraiya stopping the boy.

'Amazing... To think that this boy managed to perform the training non-stop and until his hands were burned from pushing so much chakra inside the ball, this brat really is persistent.'

"I'm done with step two, ero-sennin." He said with a pained smirk while Jiraiya gave him a half grin.

"A wonderful and splendid performance there brat, couldn't have done better if I do say so myself. And that thing you did with your left hand? That's pretty unique."

Naruto tried to stand but found himself failing to do so when he got to his feet. He fell down again and cursed his current predicament. With nothing else to do, Naruto flipped over and gazed upon the bluish skies he had ever seen since the past week. He could hear the wind gently caressing his body and face making his messy hair sway from the motion of it.

Jiraiya sat beside him under a tree's shade as he grinned.

"I'm surprised you're not doing the clone training I've designed for you. Why?"

Naruto kept staring at the sky before giving a reply, "I knew it would be the best but I want to try and grasp your stages before moving on with the Kage Bunshin training. That's because this type of training doesn't really help me much if I want to figure things out. I could make the mistakes over and over again, but I wouldn't put it past me to not get it right after trying the same thing over and over again."

Jiraiya laughed at that, true, the Rasengan wasn't something he had to come up by randomly doing samples since every stage required a trick to discover in order to progress. Multiplying the experience wouldn't do squat if he couldn't find the trick of what makes the Rasengan work.

Naruto needed more polishing on his jutsu, Jiraiya knew that much, but having broken the Rasengan down to a science? That was an amazing thing to do!

Jiraiya looked up from under the shade of a tree and said to himself, 'I guess I did the right thing even if it took me a decade to be back. The fact that I could keep the village that he lived in to be safe in my own way, the fact that I should've been there for him, and the fact that I've been living it up to my mistakes... Minato, your boy, he's going to be better than you.'

"Ero-sennin, any luck yet with your teammate?" The boy suddenly asked, Jiraiya had raised an eyebrow at this and looked to his student who was still staring at the sky.

"Why?"

"Well, I have a friend who might need her help. He's not really a teammate but he's a friend regardless. He got injured during the chuunin exams and we were told that his career as a shinobi might be over if it couldn't be healed."

Jiraiya nodded his head at that, if he remembered correctly, a kid a year older than Naruto had suffered what was considered to be irreparable damage to his arm and leg, effectively ending his career as a shinobi of the village.

"Can't say she would agree with you on that one, she's gotten... squeamish on her duties as of late, we'd have to find a way to make her help him without her knowing it." Jiraiya replied. Tsunade was as cranky as an old man and had the temper of a rabid animal. Along with having a horrible compulsion for gambling, approaching her with Naruto didn't seem like a good idea.

"Bah, you wouldn't know unless you try." Naruto waved him off as he got up. He flinched when he used his hands for support in getting up. Those chakra burns definitely hurt!

"Take a breather for the rest of the day, brat. Your hands need them. I can bring you up to speed on the third stage by tomorrow morning."


Konoha:

Commander of the Jounin Forces, Nara Shikaku, stood in the middle of the long table, along with the rest of Konoha's elite jounin. Standing beside him were Shiranui Genma and Yamashiro Aoba and extending to the far corners of this side of the table were the different clan heads that maintained order in their families in Konoha. To his front were the four jounin leaders of the most prolific teams in current upstarts as well as the rest of the jounin behind them. Shikaku took note that three of them had bandages wrapping around somewhere on their bodies and gauze on one side of their faces.

"As you may know, the village is currently on lockdown due to what happened five days ago. A mysterious group who call themselves the Akatsuki, managed to infiltrate a village that was under my direct command. The sole perpetrator who has done such a thing is the butcher of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Itachi. Their goals were never stated but Hatake Kakashi has kindly informed me of what they are. The team of Itachi and another shinobi known as Hoshigaki Kisame, is supposed to be what I had feared the most, they're after Naruto."

Everybody, including most of the clan heads frowned at this.

"Fortunately, Jiraiya-sama had the foresight to take Naruto along with him two days earlier thus he has a two day lead against these two. He will not likely be found if anything were to go by. So as we are now, we are going to formulate a plan to counter this new threat and present it before our new Hokage when he or she steps into office. Kakashi, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai, if you would step in front."

The four of them stepped forward and Shikaku nodded, "What I have in mind is a short to long term plan. Your genin teams will have to be trained harder. The clan heads can give you that little extra, but it is up to you four in developing them. There will be times that team mash-ups and mixes will happen, but I trust you four to nurture your genin teams and make them battle ready within two years. Train them as hard as you can."

The four of them nodded.

Shikaku turned back to the crowd of Konoha's finest.

This talk was going to be really long.

To be continued...


Now the chapter is finally done. As you can see, Sakura and Tenten are going to get new equipment! Of course, I wanted a more tactical approach when it came to Sakura so I am to give her the power pack and as for Tenten, I'm making her the Archer of the Narutoverse. Tenten's arsenal will still revolve around weapons but this time, I'm going to make her have weapons developed with special properties such as the one you read earlier about Suigintou.

Sasuke has the hawk summoning contract first! Of course, he'll probably be getting that other summoning contract much later, but only after having his moment to develop and shine which is... The chapter after the next one, probably... I don't like the idea of doing chapters and unnecessarily prolonging a story to anymore than I need to. I always want to get the point across as soon as possible without sacrificing content.

During my unannounced absence, I was sent to a backwater province with no internet so I couldn't comply right away. So sorry about that, I never expected that I'd be pulled from my duty to be immediately placed in another department, I guess one of the other groups must have quit. Bah, what can you do?

On a plus side though, I met one of my mentors in writing when I was in college. We had a talk after my rotation at the local health center one day and he continues to pester me that if I was going to write a book or at least co-author one, then at least put into consideration that you are not only doing it for entertainment, it has to have a certain level of purpose to it.

It was a nice change of pace for me. It was a great pleasure to see my mentor once more and have a chance to talk to him. He's probably the most patriotic guy I've ever known and wants to be a pioneer in something. Well, good luck to him, I hope he finds something worthwhile.

And finally, did someone ask that I'm going to bash the Sandaime? Rest assured, I'm not doing that. Bash fics are not something I'd like to do. It doesn't cross my mind.

I'd like to elaborate further but as always, I'm pressed for time.

Read and Review people.