A/N: Yo! Neptune here! I'm not adding the 'Ninjas clash in the land of snow' arc. Seriously, who does? This chapter or the next one will introduce the Chunin Exams along with the Sand siblings. Warning: Cliche moments. Without further ado, here's Chapter V of 'The Yondaime's Legacy'!
Naruto arrived at the Village Gates at 9:45 A.M with his classic outfit on, bandages wrapped around his head (Like Ashura) , and his hitai-ate tied to his waist.
A couple of minutes later, he sensed Satsuki, Sakura, and Tazuna coming to the vicinity, and after exchanging brief greetings, waited for Kakashi to arrive.
Not too long later Kakashi appeared with a leaf shunshin and after signing out of the village they left.
"Naruto," Sakura began, making Naruto raise an eyebrow at her. "Why don't you have a bag like the rest of us?" She asked.
Naruto took a scroll out of his pocket and dangled it. "I have all of my stuff put in this scroll. This way I don't have to bother carrying anything."
Sakura ah'ed at that, and they started walking in silence after that. Well, that's what some of them believed. Naruto was having an internal argument with a certain furball, if you paid close attention you could see his eyebrow twitching every couple of minutes.
"You brat! Why don't you listen to me! You have a perfect chance to kill the screecher and you won't take it!" Kurama shouted in exasperation.
"Because it's pointless and stupid. I'm trying to PROVE to everyone that I'm not a monster, so if I kill her what good would that do? I'm not going to kill Sakura you dumb furball! Now drop it!"
"But she's loud, screechy, the moment someone mentions that mutt-boy she drops all logic and believes he is kami on earth and she's a burden!"
"Then she'll train and get stronger so she won't be a burden!"
"... Could it be that you want to pursue the vixen?" And Naruto could practically feel Kurama's smug expression, but refused to explode.
"Ah! you should have just said so, kit! You know I can help you with that!" Kurama said with an evil grin. He loved pranking his host.
"Wait wh-" Naruto started but suddenly his hormones went haywire and his mind was overloaded with thoughts of Sakura in a skimpy bikini.
Naruto turned completely red in the face, whether from anger or from blushing will never be known.
"THAT'S IT YOU FURBALL, BACK TO THE CAGE FOR YOU!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, making everyone's head whip in his direction.
Naruto, not knowing he said it out loud just turned his mindscape which was previously a large forest into a tiny cage again, making Kurama whimper.
He smirked victoriously until he noticed everyone staring at him.
Naruto blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of his neck. "Hehe, did I say that out loud?" He said sheepishly.
Satsuki and Tazuna raised eyebrows at this, Sakura nodded and Kakashi narrowed his eyes, knowing what Naruto meant by furball, but before he could privately ask Naruto something, he sensed chakra a couple of hundred feet away.
He glanced at Naruto who looked back at him wearily and knew Naruto sensed it too, they both had one thought in mind.
Genjutsu.
Naruto suddenly smirked and Kakashi raised an eyebrow wondering what Naruto had in mind.
"Hey guys, gimme a second, gotta take a leak!" Naruto said. Kakashi gawked at him, wide-eyed. The others just nodded at him, oblivious to what Naruto was really planning.
Naruto skipped over to the "pond" and took his leak where the Demon Brothers were.
Right after he tied his pants back up, and washed his hands with a water bottle, The demon brothers materialized from the pond, and if Looks could kill Naruto would be dead thousands of times over.
"You brat! You peed on us on purpose didn't you?" snarled Gozu, making the others snort, and Naruto looks at him innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." Naruto said.
Meizu threw his chain at Naruto, who dodged it easily.
"Sakura! guard Tazuna, Naruto, Satsuki you two take Gozu, I'll take Meizu!" Kakashi ordered quickly. Everyone nodded and got in position.
Naruto and Satsuki ran at Gozu. Naruto knew this would be a good opportunity to test the Hiraishin, but he had to do it discreetly, and while Kakashi toyed with Meizu.
Gozu threw his chain at Satsuki who narrowly dodged it, and climbed up the chains to kick him in the jaw. Naruto glanced around. Sakura and Tazuna were watching Kakashi, and the three of them were faced backside to Naruto so they wouldn't see.
He henged his tri-pronged kunai into a regular-looking kunai, and saw Satsuki was on the ground, she was pushed back by one of Gozu's chains.
Naruto took this moment to throw two kunais. One was a regular kunai that he used, to pretend he kawarimi'd, and not hiraishin'd.
He narrowed his eyes, and in that split second, where no one was focusing on Naruto or Gozu, he threw one kunai an inch next to Gozu's head, and the other a little away.
In a yellow flash, he disappeared and reappeared behind Gozu, twisted his body, and knocked Gozu over at the side of the head, and substituted with the kunai that landed at the tree with a THUD.
Satsuki and Gozu were a little confused, being so close and it didn't really look like a substitution but passed it off as a really fast one.
He twisted his body again and kicked Gozu with a round-house kick to the chin, knocking Gozu out.
With Kakashi
Kakashi ran at Meizu at high-chunin speeds, He was too lazy to try, but he wanted to get this over with quickly. As funny as Naruto's little stunt was, he wanted to use that moment to determine whether they were going after Kakashi or Tazuna, now he'd have to interrogate these two the hard way.
He was toying with Meizu. Dodging his chains narrowly. He looked at Naruto for a second, since he didn't really need to pay attention to this B-Rank missing-nin.
He saw Naruto glanced around and raised an eyebrow, wondering why. He wanted to investigate a little further but had to dodge another one of those pesky chains.
Right before he knocked Meizu out, he could've SWORN he saw a tiny yellow flash out of the corner of his eye, and snapped his head in that direction so fast, while knocking Meizu out cold at the same time.
He saw Naruto give Gozu a round-house kick and cursed. He would pry Naruto until he told him what it was. Kakashi could've sworn he saw the Yellow Flash return, but he wouldn't question it now.
A couple of minutes later, Gozu's eyes fluttered open, and he immediately notices he can't move his body. He sees that his body and Meizu's are tied to a tree, with chakra binding rope and cursed inwardly.
"Ah, finally awake are we?" He hears a voice and looks at where it came from. He spots a man with a green flak jacket, a mask covering his face, silver hair, and a Konoha hitai-ate covering his left eye.
He also sees a blonde-haired boy, a raven and pink-haired girl standing next to his target, a 45-year old drunkard.
"Well, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Why did me and my students?" Kakashi asked, leaking a little killing intent.
Gozu started sweating but glared at Kakashi anyways. "Fuck off! I'm not telling you shit!" Gozu swore. Kakashi sighed. Why is this mission so troublesome? He thought, making two lazy Nara's sneeze.
'Demonic Illusion: Hell-viewing technique' Kakashi thought, making a view handsigns. Immediately, he starts screaming, and after a couple of awkward & uncomfortable seconds, the man spoke.
"OK! I'll talk! Make it stop! PLEASE!" Gozu screamed.
Kakashi eye-smiled. He dispelled the genjutsu and clasped his hands. "Excellent! How about you start now!" Kakashi cheerily spoke.
Gozu glared daggers at him but spoke nonetheless.
"A Man named Gato of Gato's magnate company hired us. He wants the bridge builder dead so Gato's monopoly isn't ruined. We were supposed to rendezvous with Zabuza Momochi and report back to Gato."
Kakashi eye-smiled. "Thanks for the information. It'll be useful. Now the ANBU should arrive in hour or two. Have fun!"
"Wait!" Gozu said, making them stop. "You! blondie. How'd you know that there was a genjutsu under the pond?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "A random pond on the ground, during a sunny day, where it hasn't rained in weeks. Very astute," Naruto snarked at Gozu, making Satsuki giggle slightly. She decided Naruto could be rather funny, as long as his sarcasm wasn't directed at you.
Naruto was drawn to Satsuki's melodious giggle for a second, before shaking his head, wondering where that came from.
They left afterwards, paying zero attention to Gozu's swearing and Meizu slowly waking up.
Timeskip- A couple hours. Tazuna explained his situation to Team 7. Right before Team 7 vs. Zabuza Momochi
Naruto heard some rustling from the bushes, and threw a kunai at where he heard, alerting everyone else, and he saw a rabbit stumble.
"NARUTO! HOW COULD YOU! IT'S JUST A POOR BUNNY!" Sakura screeched.
"Sakura, shut up. We're ninja. If you can't kill a bunny how do you expect to kill real people in the future?" He asked her, making Sakura pale, but Kakashi was focusing on something else.
'The rabbit's fur is brown, the only time that happens is winter-time, meaning the rabbit is domesticated.. That means its purpose is substitution!' And as if on cue, he heard whirling.
"EVERYONE DUCK!" Kakashi screamed, he ducked, pulling Tazuna down with him. Sakura ducked instantly, and Naruto pulled Satsuki down, making her blush slightly.
'Why is the dobe so warm? Wait, why am I even thinking of that?' She thought, unknowingly turning even redder.
THUD!
A Large cleaver, known as the kubikiribōchō landed, cleaved to one of the trees, and Zabuza walked to the tree and plucked his blade out.
The man stood over the area with his sword in hand, over his shoulder, in all his glory.
"Well, well, well... Kakashi of the Sharingan. No wonder the Demon Brothers lost so easily" Zabuza spoke in a gruff voice.
All 3 Genin had various reactions to that.
'Sharingan? What's that?' Sakura wondered.
'SHARINGAN? But how?! I'm the last Uchiha alive... Other than Him' Satsuki wondered, her thoughts turning dark at the end.
As for Naruto, his eyebrow just twitched in irritation, knowing that Kakashi was taking all of the credit, even though he took Gozu down with the Hiraishin.
"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist, A-Ranked Nuke-nin, wanted for attempting to murder the Yondaime Mizukage," Kakashi said with narrowed eyes.
"Looks like my reputation precedes me.." Zabuza said in a mock-surprise tone.
"Listen, I'm really not in the mood for this so how about you just hand over the old man and I'll let you and your brats live," Zabuza offered.
"Sorry, but we won't be abandoning our first real mission," Satsuki replied with a smirk.
"Hah! they're a bunch of rookies too. How pathetic." Zabuza taunted, making her seethe.
"Naruto, Satsuki, Sakura.. you three guard Tazuna- Zabuza is above your skill level. Naruto knew there was no use complaining so he, Satsuki & Sakura did a manji formation around Tazuna albeit reluctantly.
Kakashi lifted his headband revealing a three-tomoe Sharingan, making Satsuki widen her eyes.
Naruto cursed. He knew now there was no way he could risk using the hiraishin with Kakashi's Sharingan now active.
Suddenly, a large mist covered the entire area, killing intent plastered all over the place. Tazuna, Sakura, and Satsuki were shaking, hard. Kakashi & Naruto were fine, Naruto was used to killing intent from Kurama's Indimitation lessons' and Kakashi since... well, he's spent over 10 years in ANBU. This level of killing intent does nothing to someone of his caliber.
A ghost-chilling voice shook them to the core, however. "Eight Vital points: Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle, jugular vein, brain, kidneys and the heart. Any of these areas struck too deeply makes a one-hit kill. Which one shall I aim for?"
Satsuki started shaking, hard. 'I can't do this anymore!' Satsuki thought, slowly bringing a kunai to her throat. Naruto put his hand on top of hers. She snapped her neck to him and widened her eyes when she saw him flash her a smile.
"I won't let any of my teammates get hurt," Naruto said softly, making Satsuki blush.
Naruto didn't notice her blush but Kakashi did, and he eye-smiled. Naruto knew they were in a tight spot, whilst Zabuza taunted them some more and came up with a quick plan.
"Fuuton: Toppa" Naruto thought and immediately cleared out the mist, getting a scowl from Zabuza and an appreciative glance from Kakashi. Kakashi and Zabuza ran at each other, thus the battle began.
Kakashi and Zabuza traded blows, and eventually, Zabuza was getting tired of Kakashi's Sharingan keeping Zabuza on his toes.
Zabuza skidded back after getting by Kakashi and started weaving hand signs at high Jonin speeds.
The tomoes of Kakashi's Sharingan spun a little and glowed before stopping again. Kakashi's hands twitched for a second and he started pulling the same hand signs as Zabuza was.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The two of them yelled at the same time, and out of the river, two large water dragons sprouted, glowing yellow eyes glaring at each other and collided in a substantial explosion of water.
Using this as a distraction, Kakashi ran at Zabuza at his top-speed and slashed at Zabuza, before 'Zabuza' turned into a pool of water.
'Tsk, Mizu Bunshin' Kakashi thought out loud.
The real Zabuza smirked and shunshinned behind Kakashi, before slicing at Kakashi's head, making his smirk widen for a second, before turning into a snarl when he noticed 'Kakashi' collapse into water.
"Your pesky eye copied my jutsu didn't it?" Zabuza asked angrily, while Kakashi replied with an eye-smile.
Kakashi threw a kick at Zabuza who had no problem dodging it by ducking, hitting Kakashi with the blunt side of his blade at the same time making Kakashi rocket back.
"Too slow!" Zabuza mocked. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!" Zabuza shouted and had Kakashi trapped in a bubble of water.
"Pfft," Zabuza scoffed. "You three are pathetic. By the time I was your age I already had tons of blood on my hands. Until your faces are in my bingo book, you aren't real shinobi."
"W-what do you mean?" Sakura stuttered out.
"He's talking about how he became a shinobi. 15 years ago, A child who wasn't even in the academy yet killed an entire graduating glass single-handedly." Kakashi continued, horrifying Sakura and Satsuki.
"It sure was a fun day!" Zabuza said in a mock-cheer tone.
Naruto used this moment to rush Zabuza at chunin-speeds.
He punched Zabuza in the stomach, but it didn't do much. Zabuza turned around fast and attempted to cleave Naruto's head but Naruto jumped on top of Zabuza's blade and kicked him in the chin, making him stumble back.
"Don't attack Zabuza Naruto! Take the client and run!" Kakashi yelled frantically.
"No way! Wasn't it you who told us those who abandon their comrades are worse then trash?" Naruto retorted.
Kakashi had a flicker of pride in his eyes for a second, before sighing and relented.
Naruto did a half-ram seal and said "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" out loud. 3 Shadow Clones flickered into reality and ran at Zabuza.
"Suiton: Mizurappa!" Zabuza said, and a large gust of water flew out of Zabuza's mouth to rush the Blonde Genin.
Naruto substituted with a nearby rock and moved out of the way. He created 30 shadow clones to rush Zabuza and he shunshinned back to Satsuki to tell her his plan.
With Naruto
"Satsuki, I used those clones as a distraction but I think I have a real plan to trick Zabuza.." Naruto said.
Satsuki snapped out of her stupor and for once acknowledging Naruto as the leader, she asked him what his plan was.
He unsealed a folded fuma shuriken from a scroll and handed it to her. She glared at him and he just looked at her firmly. She reluctantly took the Fuma Shuriken, but the second she felt it in her hands, she widened her eyes and smirked.
Naruto smirked back at her before shunshinning away.
With Zabuza
Zabuza had just finished the last handful of clones when he noticed the black haired brat running straight at him with a fuma-shuriken in hand.
Zabuza's danger senses screamed at him and he dodged a barrage of kunai at the last second, making him drop his hold on the water prison, freeing Kakashi.
He saw Satsuki do a chakra-enhanced jump and throw her fuma shuriken at him. He scoffed at her and grabbed the fuma shuriken with his hand, as if it was a boomerang.
Naruto smirked and threw a shuriken at Zabuza, who rolled his eyes. "Still not good enough to hurt me, brats."
Suddenly, Zabuza heard a 'poof' behind him and widened his eyes. He whipped back and saw Naruto grinning at him.
Naruto threw a barrage of shuriken at Zabuza who narrowly dodged them, but a couple hit him anyways.
Kakashi shunshinned in front of him & Satsuki.
"Excellent plan you two, distracting Zabuza long enough to trick him and make him cancel his technique," Kakashi complimented.
"Tsk, I lost concentration for a second and cancelled the jutsu." "- Don't get cocky, you were forced to let go of it," Kakashi glared.
"It's over for you, Zabuza." Kakashi spoke before weaving hand signs. "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" Kakashi spat out a literal water vortex, and it span to Zabuza at incredible speeds.
The vortex hit Zabuza head on, who had no time to dodge it and he was slammed into a tree and left, dazed.
"Can you see the future?" Zabuza asked wearily.
"Yes, and your future is death" Kakashi said, making them all sweatdrop with his corny lines.
He was about to finish off Zabuza with a kunai before a couple of senbon needles struck Zabuza in the neck making him pass out.
They instantly went on guard, when they noticed a hunter-nin jump out of the bushes.
"You were right, his future is death." The person said.
Kakashi walked forward, and checked for Zabuza's pulse, finding nothing.
"If that is all, I will take this body back to Kiri. The body holds many secrets native to the mist and we would like to decipher them before getting rid of his body." And with that he dissapeared in a water shunshin.
"Well, if that's all-" Kakashi started before falling unconcious.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled.
"Don't worry, it's probably because his body isn't used to the Sharingan. You can ask him about it later" Naruto said, when he noticed Satsuki narrow her eyes at the mention of Kakashi's sharingan, and she nodded.
"Tazuna, how far is your house from here?" Naruto questioned, while making 3 shadow clones to carry Kakashi.
"Not too far, it's about 15 minutes." Tazuna replied, alcohol long forgotten.
"Alright, you take the lead, we'll trail you" Naruto replied. Tazuna nodded, and they walked to Tazuna's house.
Timeskip, 30 minutes later
Kakashi's squad was sitting in Tazuna's house, after they introduced themselves to Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Kakashi was resting in a room, Sakura was watching over Kakashi. Satsuki was looking out the window. Tazuna was sitting in a corner drinking and Naruto, despite Tsunami's protests was helping her with dinner.
"I'm home!" a yell was heard, making everyone's head snap in the voices direction. A boy walked in through the door, making everyone look at him. The boy had spiky black hair. He was wearing a white bucket hat with blue stripes and green overalls over a white short-sleeved hoodie.
The boy looked like he was glaring at everything, but his eyes brightened when he saw his Grandfather.
"Jiji!" The boy exclaimed and hugged his grandfather. "Hello, Inari!" Tazuna chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair making Naruto crack a small smile at the heartwarming scene.
"Inari, greet these shinobi here. They protected your grandfather while he was on his way here," Tsunami said with a tender smile.
Inari just scoffed at the claim. "It doesn't matter Jiji, they're going to die anyways!" He continued, making Tsunami & Tazuna frown.
Naruto's jaw dropped. He wondered why he would say something so... depressing.
Satsuki didn't take it too well though. "You don't know that, you brat" Satsuki said with a little anger in her voice.
"Satsuki, don't argue with kids" Naruto admonished her, making her turn her head.
Dinner went quietly, Kakashi finally waking up and confirming everyone made it back to Tazuna's house safely. After being given a pair of cruches they had dinner quietly, except for Tsunami thanking Naruto for helping her with dinner making him nod at her.
Next Morning
The next morning nothing much happened, until during breakfast Kakashi spoke. "We need to start training to kill Zabuza again" He said seriously, making everyone's eyes widen, except for Naruto.
"I reached the same conclusion as you." Naruto said calmly. Making Kakashi eye-smile.
"What are you two babbling about? Zabuza died 2 days ago, remember?" Satsuki said with a light glare, Sakura nodding frantically.
"Actually, Zabuza probably isn't dead. The weapons that the hunter-nin were Senbon needles. Those are used in acupuncture to put people in near-death like states, which is why I felt no pulse coming from Zabuza." Kakashi remarked.
"Plus, Kiri Hunter-nin are supposed to cut off the head and burn the body immediately." Naruto commented.
"Good observations, Naruto. With these facts we can conclude that Zabuza is very much alive." Kakashi spoke, and Satsuki & Sakura had to agree with them, it made sense.
"Isn't it possible your over-thinking it a little?" Tazuna questioned nervously. He did not want to face that man again.
"No. When a ninja senses something wrong he must act on it." Kakashi said firmly.
"But what are we going to do, sensei? Now that Zabuza knows our skills it'll be easier for him to beat us. Not to mention that fake hunter-nin is probably Zabuza's accomplice." Naruto asked wearily.
"What do you think?" Kakashi said, clasping his hands together. "I'll train you three, of course." Kakashi declared with an eye-smile. "Besides, Zabuza will need around 1 week to fully 'come back to life.' By then, I'll be completely healed and we can fight those three. Sakura, you'll be guarding Tazuna. Naruto & Satsuki will take on the fake hunter-nin and I'll fight Zabuza."
An hour later, Training Fields
Kakashi stood with his crutches in the plain field. Standing opposite of Kakashi were his 3 students; Satsuki, Sakura & Naruto.
"What are we learning, sensei?" Naruto asked with a flat tone and an extremely bored look on his face that made Kakashi's eyebrow twitch.
"Well, my cute little genin,-" Kakashi started and moved directly behind a tree. "-You three are going to be learning how to climb a tree."
Naruto rolled his eyes, Sakura and Satsuki stared at him in confusion. "But sensei, we already know how to climb trees?" Sakura questioned. "-He means with no hands." Naruto interjected before Kakashi could reply.
Seeing the questioning glances Sakura and Satsuki sent him he sighed, and walked... up the tree, with no hands.
Satsuki and Sakura widened there eyes, and Kakashi half-expected this. Wind Manipulation requires precise chakra control.
"Honestly" Naruto huffed, "-You can launch fireballs, turn the ground into mud, make literal duplicates of yourself with chakra. Why wouldn't you be able to walk on trees?" Naruto sarcastically questioned, making the three of them sweat-drop.
Kakashi faced Sakura and Satsuki. "You need to concentrate & direct chakra to your feet. If you use too much chakra the bark will blast. If you use too little you'll slip right off the tree." Kakashi said, and threw 2 kunai at Satsuki and Sakura's feet.
"Use those kunai to mark your progress. A running start helps. Naruto, come with me" Kakashi said with an eye-smile.
Kakashi and Naruto left the other two, walking over to a more secluded area in the forest. "Before you ask, I already know water-walking too." Naruto said quickly, making Kakashi mentally curse.
"Then I guess we can start with the more advanced stuff, hm?" Kakashi questioned. He handed Naruto a piece of paper. "This is-" "-Chakra paper, I channel chakra to it and it either burns, splits, zaps, or dampens, yadda yadda yadda. My affinities are Lightning and Wind" Naruto said, and sure enough, after channeling his chakra to the paper, the paper split in two, both halves crinkling making Kakashi's eye twitch.
Naruto made a forward motion, and Kakashi leaned in. "Between me and you, I'm working on my own Lightning Jutsu.." Naruto whispered, making Kakashi widen his eyes. (A/N: Yes, in my story, Naruto will invent the Kirin. Those who oppose, suck it. My stories, my rules,)
Naruto put a finger to his lips. "Keep it hush hush though. It's a secret I'm saving for the Chunin Exams. Maybe I'll use it earlier, but only around our squad" Naruto continued with a wink, making Kakashi shake his head. "Care for a... demonstration?" Kakashi asked with a little hope in his voice. Despite not as eager as the 4th Hokage, Kakashi still loved testing/experimenting with new Jutsu.
Naruto smirked before shaking his head. "Sorry, it takes too long to get ready. I draw in the natural lightning from the sky, plus the jutsu isn't exactly finished yet. I'm still molding the lightning into a dragon head." Naruto replied.
Kakashi could only shake his head at that. He could already tell it would be a mass destructive Jutsu.
"Well, what are you going to do now then?" Kakashi questioned Naruto.
Naruto grinned at him, and crossed his fingers. Instantly, around 300 shadow clones flickered into existence. Kakashi's eye popped nearly popped out of it's skull.
Naruto looked at Kakashi before speaking to him once more. "Don't tell this to ANYBODY, The hokage already knows, alright?" Naruto said, noticing Kakashi tense when he mentioned secrecy.
Kakashi relaxed and promised Naruto his word on not telling anyone. Naruto stuck his right hand out, and gripped his wrist with his left hand. One of his shadow clones started birling it's hands on top of Naruto and a loud swishing noise slowly sounded out.
Kakashi widened his eyes and took a step back when he noticed a blue ball swirling into existence. Before he could so much as say a word, the ball blasted out of existence, and Naruto sported chakra burns on his hands. "...Naruto.. was that what I think it was?" Kakashi asked quietly.
"Yep, it was the Rasengan. I haven't mastered it yet. It keeps bursting whenever I compress it so I'm working on that right now." Naruto replied.
Kakashi was snapped out of his flashback and eye-smiled. "Sure, you work on that Naruto. I'll go and watch over the other two." Kakashi said.
Timeskip- 3 Hours
Naruto laid on the ground, panting. He hasn't perfected the rasengan yet, but he can sucessfully form a rasengan with the help of a shadow clone, but it still takes around 15 seconds, and he needs 4 pairs of hands to perform it. Tommorow he would practice shortening the time to 5 seconds, and from there he would try to form a rasengan with 2 hands, then one.
Back to the present, Naruto ended his gruesome training with a ton of his shadow clones. Needless to say, he came out the victor due to the fact that kage bunshin dispel with a single hit but still sported massive bruises everywhere.
In Naruto's mind, however, the real win didn't come from defeating the clones. The real win came because he managed to find holes in his Taijutsu stance, and fix them.
He could tell his taijutsu improved by leaps and bounds. After a couple more minutes, he decided to head back, but went to check on the other two first.
He walked over to the forest he remembered Sakura and Satsuki were, at a leisurely pace. He was mindlessly chatting with Kurama while walking, and soon enough he spotted Satsuki.
He raised an eyebrow when he realized Kakashi and Sakura were no where to be seen, and he walked over to her.
"Where are the others?" Naruto asked, making her snap her head in his direction, but she subconciously softened her gaze when she noticed it was Naruto. Naruto, the dense blockhead didn't realize it but Kurama did and mentally chuckled.
She glared at the tree again, trying to burn holes through it with her eyes. Naruto realized he liked Satsuki better with a smile on her face, rather then a frown, and- Wait. Where did those thoughts come from? He wondered and shook his head.
"Sakura already mastered the tree-walking. She's doing the water-walking right now." Satsuki spoke bitterly.
Ah.
So that's why she's upset. "Sakura has low chakra reserves so it's easier for her to master tree-walking. You, on the other hand, have chunin level reserves so it's obviously harder for you" Naruto lectured her.
Satsuki couldn't help but smile at him softly. He always finds a way to make her happy, no matter what.
Satsuki just shrugged and went back to her tree-walking. She kept tsking and huffing whenever she fell and eventually Naruto gave her advice.
"Don't get angry," Naruto started, making Satsuki raise an eyebrow. "Take deep breathes while attempting the exercise. Chakra is a mix of one's physical and spiritual energy so by keeping your heart rate steady, and emotions under control it'll keep your chakra flow steady as well and the tree-walking will be easier." Naruto spoke softly.
Satsuki decided to take his word for it, and after a couple deep breaths, she ran up the tree again, and this time she managed to get to the top and blinked at how easy it was.
"Come on, we should go back now, it's getting late and the others might be worried about us, he told her with a small smile. She smiled back at him, and the two of them walked back together.
Time skip - 3 days later, (2 days before the Battle at the Bridge)
Kakashi's squad and Tazuna's family were eating dinner at Tazuna's house. To say it was... eventful, would be to say the least.
"Well, the bridge is almost complete. But I have a question. Not that I'm not glad, but why would you stick around even after I lied about the mission?" Tazuna questioned.
Kakashi crossed his arms and replied. "Not doing the right thing when you know it's right is something a coward would do. A friend of mine once told me, Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon others for the sake of a mission are worse then scum."
"Besides," Satsuki started with a smirk. "Now we can brag to the other genins that we went on an A-Ranked mission" She commented, making Tazuna bark out a laugh.
Dinner went on with mindless chatter, everything was going fine, except for Inari, whose eyes were shadowed by his hair. He looked at Naruto, and saw he made another joke, making the others laugh again. He couldn't stand it, Naruto looked like he had no worries at all, completely carefree.
He had flashbacks of his father Kaiza playing with him, saving him, protecting him, and then Kaiza being publicly executed, which snapped him.
SLAM!
Everything whipped their heads in Inari's direction, he slammed his fist on the dinner table and was currently glaring at Naruto.
Naruto noticing this raised an eyebrow. "You alright, Inari?" He asked him. "Why do you try so hard?! You can't defeat Gato! The weak will always lose to the strong!"
"Your right." Naruto started. "The weak will lose to the strong. That's why Gato and his men will lose."
"Shut UP! I'm sick of you acting so carefree all the time! Your always fooling around all the time, you don't know a thing about suffering, or how hard life can be!" By the end of his rant, his eyes were watering.
Kakashi flinched. Saying Naruto didn't much about suffering was the understatement of the century. His medical records were proof of that.
Naruto widened his eyes and immediately shut them. Before anyone could say another word, the temperature in the room went down, making it chilly.
When Naruto snapped his eyes open, they were red with slits, scaring everyone and putting Kakashi on guard.
"Look at you, bitching about your life," Naruto whispered yet everyone heard him perfectly. Tsunami and Tazuna were shocked that someone so kind-hearted held so much fury.
"Telling me I don't know how hard my life can be..." Naruto started, at this point Inari turned pale with fear.
Naruto stood up abruptly, and Sakura despite being scared shitless tried to stop him, "Naruto, that's uncalled-" and immediately shut up when Naruto directed his gaze and wrath at her.
"Shut up, Haruno." He repeated, making her nearly start shaking with fear.
"You sit here at your house, with a grandfather whose trying his best to bring hope back to your country and a mom that cooks for you, and cares about you.. I didn't even know who were my parents were until I turned six.. Were you kicked out of the orphanage the moment you learnt how to stand on your two feet? Were you beaten, and hated because people thought you were a demon in human skin? Were you attacked nearly everyday? There are people younger then you, who have it much worse then you EVER HAVE!" His voice taking a demonic edge at the end,
and he had a dark contenment in seeing everyone pale at him raising his voice, even Kakashi. Even though his tone was aggresive, his actions were anything but. He gently pushed his chair back, and walked out the door. He stopped but didn't turn around.
"I'm working some of my anger off. Don't follow me." Naruto said in a blank tone.
"Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura said after a moment. "Naruto was making that up, right? None of that really happened did it?"
"Your right Sakura, none of that happened" Kakashi said with an eye-smile, making everyone release a breath they didn't know they were holding.
"That was the sugar-coated version" He replied, keeping his eye-smile making the others widen their eyes in horror.
With Naruto
Naruto was seeing red, he couldn't believe the nerve of that kid! Telling him he had no idea about suffering.
Naruto created 400 shadow clones. "Mass Battle Royale, anything is allowed, keep the jutsu's below B-Rank though." Naruto said.
The clones all gulped. Not even Naruto himself wanted to face his own wrath.
He ran at the clones with the intent to cause mass havoc. He drove through the clones like butter.
Most of them stood no chance against Naruto, but a lot of them got lucky hits on him, like scratches on his cheek with kunai, or punches to the chest, but he never stopped running at them.
He launched a massive fireball into the sky, and the clones backed off before firing water bullets and lightning pillars at him.
The real Naruto drove threw him a little, and there were currently 250 left. The clones all started attacking Naruto with the intent to kill.
Naruto attacked the clones, before flaring his chakra pushing the clones back. The sky turned grey and clouds covered the sky.
Naruto went through a couple hand signs; Tiger → Rat → Horse → Monkey → Dog → Dragon → Ram
He lifted his left hand and suddenly it was coated in lightning. It started raining lightly, and Naruto pulled his arm back, making the clones take a step back, some in weariness and some in anticipation.
"Raiton: Kirin" Naruto said. And a large chimeric creature materialized from the lightning in the sky.
"Kirin: Scatter!" Naruto pushed his arm back and pointed at the clones, the qilin roared and dispelled, before materializing again and launching itself at the clones, all Naruto saw was a large blue flash, before instantly all 200+ clones dispelled.
The puffs of smoke coupled with all the debris & smoke in the air made it nearly impossible to see.
When the dust cleared out, Naruto gawked at a massive crater in the ground, He couldn't believe that this was his creation. Those were his last thoughts before he fainted, the darkness overtaking him for the night.
Next Morning
A girl, who looked to be in her mid-teens she had silky black hair that flowed to her chest. She wore a light pink qipao and carried a basket. She was walking to the forest so she could collect herbs for her master, humming a soft tune.
She stared wide-eyed, openly gawking at the massive crater in the ground. She noticed a boy in the middle, he looked sort of cute she deduced.
Then she recognized him as one of the shinobi that were fighting Zabuza. She could easily kill him right now, to prevent complications later, and she walked over to him. She walked over to him, reaching out slowly, her hand making it's way to his neck, before she blinked and he was gone.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" She heard from behind, before gasping and turning around sharply. She saw Naruto staring at her with a bored gaze, but it felt like he was staring into her soul.
Little did she know, he was having an internal conversation.
"Kit, I'm certain it's her. This is the Fake hunter from yesterday, I recognize her scent" Kurama said to Naruto with narrowed eyes.
'I reached the same conclusion you did. I can see from her posture that she's ready to flee in a moment's notice, even though she's pretending to be a civilian. I'll play along for now, though'
"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked in a blank tone. "I was collecting some herbs for a friend. He's sick you see" Haku told him softly.
"Ah, well, I kinda destroyed the forest in a fury yesterday" Naruto told her sheepishly, making her deadpan at him.
"Let's go to another area, I'll help you collect herbs for him" Naruto told her, make her smile. 'I can get some insights on his skills' Haku thought.
"Are you a shinobi?" Haku questioned him. "What did it look like?" Naruto snarked at her making her roll her eyes at him.
"But isn't it dangerous? What if you get killed?" She questioned feigning concern. The boy nearly took down Zabuza. He wouldn't die easily.
"Well, if I get killed that means I was meant to die. There's no use trying to escape my death, besides the moment I put this headband on, I was ready to die." Naruto lectured her softly.
She looked at him with curious eyes. "Why do you fight? Do you fight for your precious people?" She asked him, and his thoughts immediately went to Satsuki, before going to Ayame & Teuchi, and the third hokage.
"That's right. I fight to protect those who I care about, and those that can't protect themselves" Naruto stated firmly, but more to himself then her.
She gazed at him with a look in her eyes akin to respect. "Then you will become strong. I believe that when one has somebody to protect, that's when they truly become strong" She told him, making him widen his eyes for a second, before he smiled at her.
At Tazuna's House
Everyone was eating breakfast, Naruto's stunt forgotten. "Has Naruto returned yet?" Satsuki asked Kakashi, who gazed at her. "No, not yet. I was going to get him after breakfast" Kakashi told her.
"It's fine, I'll get him now, the idiot's going to miss breakfast" She told him, walking out the door and everyone went back to eating."
Satsuki sensed for Naruto's signature and located it a couple hundred metres away and ran over to his direction.
She saw him talking to another girl, and making the black-haired girl giggle softly with one of his jokes.
This made her feel slightly angry and... jealous, for some reason?
She wondered why she had those feelings. She stalk- observed them interact for a little longer, and when the girl left, Satsuki walked up to Naruto, glaring at him.
"Who was that girl?" She demanded, making Naruto raise an eyebrow.
"Why do you care?" He asked her suspiciously, making her blush a little, but she huffed and crossed her arms. "I don't, but it might be an enemy, so I should know these things dobe." She told him angrily.
"Oh really? Cuz your acting like a possessive girlfriend right now" Naruto teased her with a smirk making her face turn red.
"I-it's nothing l-like that b-baka!" She sputtered. Naruto took pity on the girl so he stopped teasing her. "Her name was Haku and she told me she was collecting herbs for a friend of hers." Naruto spoke.
Satsuki narrowed her eyes for a second before she softened her gaze. "I was really worried about you yesterday, you know?" she spoke softly, making him widen his eyes a little.
"You shouldn't run off like that, what if she was an assassin or if Zabuza himself came here?" She admonished him half-heartedly but keeping her soft tone.
Naruto was surprised. There weren't many people who cared for him this way, other then the hokage, no one really paid attention to Naruto.
"Don't worry about me. If someone came at me with intentions to harm they'd get a nasty surprise" He said with a wink making her shake her head at him.
They walked back together, chatting mindlessly, before Satsuki walked over to a lake and practiced her water-walking and Naruto went with Tazuna to guard him while he was building the bridge.
The next morning, Naruto woke up to hear muffled screaming. He widened his eyes and grabbed a hiraishin kunai that was sealed in his arm while running down the stairs and he saw Tsunami being dragged away by two thugs while Inari was shouting at them to let her go.
Naruto threw a kunai right above Tsunami's head and in a yellow flash he knocked the two thugs out.
Inari stood there wide-eyed, and Tsunami was already unconcious. When Inari directed his gaze to Naruto, Naruto smiled at him and ruffled his hair.
"You stood up to those thugs even though they were stronger then you, that makes you a hero, Inari." He told him softly making Inari beam.
"Did the others already leave?" Naruto asked Inari and he nodded.
Naruto grabbed those two and shunshinned to the corner of the bridge. He slit their throats to spare them the pain and tossed them over the bridge.
He looked over and saw Kakashi fighting Zabuza, Sakura was guarding Tazuna and Satsuki was inside a cage of... ice?
Ice Release. Naruto thought.
He sent a couple clones to assist Sakura and Kakashi, while the real him shunshinned inside the mirrors.
He appeared in the nick of time too, to save Satsuki from being turned into a human pin cushion.
Satsuki whipped her head to him the moment she felt his signature and Naruto immediately noticed her eyes were red, one with a single tomoe and the other with 2, instead of onyx black.
"Congrats on awakening your sharingan," Naruto congratulated her with a gentle smile making her smirk back at him.
"Hello, Haku." Naruto said calmly, making Satsuki and Haku's eyes widen in shock, nonetheless she shook her head.
"Hello, Naruto-kun. Are you here to help Uchiha-san?" Haku asked him, though already knowing the answer (and dreading it)
"As a matter of fact I am" Naruto with a blank tone and an impassive gaze.
"How unfortunate" Haku replied in a similar tone.
"Well, let's get started shall we?" Naruto asked them, snapping Satsuki out of her stupor. She got in position along with Naruto and Haku got her senbon needles out.