Daze Pt 2
Ch 24: Team 7 Reborn
A/N: Here we go again, as always, hope you enjoy!
X X
Naruto sat on his bed the glimmering moon's cool light gave the darkened room an ethereal sheen.
In his hand was a dusty frame with a photograph inside, three kids, and a masked man posed in front of a tree.
He smiled gently tracing his finger absently across the face of the annoyed-looking blonde.
"Was that really me?"
He reflected back on the day's event his busy mind keeping him from rest.
A knock on the door turned the head's of the rooms residents.
Tsunade smiled subtly through her red painted lips.
"Come in."
The door cracked open and a muscular raven-haired boy stepped through his long wild quill-like hair was tied up in a ronin bun.
Stepping from behind him was a violet-haired girl a year or so younger than him who was short for her age and had a baby-face;
just-apposed was her amber eyes which were cold, calculating, and old beyond their years.
"Sasuke, Oltier welcome, it seems Kakashi will be last to arrive as usual."
Tsunade sighed.
"Feel free to take a seat."
The ninja nodded gratefully all taking seats on either of the twin leather couches that sat on either side of the office.
Naruto stared at Sasuke still in shock but couldn't open his mouth.
'That's Sasuke?!'
Naruto could see through the boy's long grey jacket, and brown cargo pants that his muscles were bulkier;
His build was on par with Lee and Gai and he had grown in height to compensate.
Sasuke looked back at him noticing his gaze.
"Did you need something?"
Sasuke looked the boy over, something about him was very familiar but he couldn't quite clear the fog in his mind.
The boy had long spiky blonde hair that fell on either side to frame his face and his skin was tanned bronze;
he was on the taller side for a teenager, and his muscles were lean and lithe, His clothes were an orange-brown that accentuated his hair and skin.
"Wait, have we met somewhere before?"
Naruto laughed awkwardly.
"Um-uh well ya know,"
Sakura looked both at them but couldn't bring herself to speak.
A second knock at the door interrupted the question.
"Come in."
The door opened and a grey-haired man stepped in lazily with a wave.
"Sorry I was late, I ran across this little lost puppy and,"
Kakashi's eye shot open as his gaze ran across the room's right side.
"M-Minato-sensei?!"
He was taken aback for a second as his confused brain process what he was seeing.
"N-no that can't be, but… could it be?"
Sasuke suddenly stood up, shock in his eyes as his brain pieced things together.
"Naruto?!"
Sasuke stared at the boy intensely.
Naruto nodded unable to vocalize a response.
"Looks like the whole gang is together, huh."
Naruto chuckled.
Sakura smiled really widely wiping a single tear from her emerald eye.
Kakashi pulled Naruto into a loose hug in an uncharacteristic show of emotion.
"All this time I thought we'd lost you, but you're really here aren't you, I can't believe it."
Sasuke's relief was replaced by annoyance as he shoved Kakashi out of the way grabbing Naruto by the shirt collar.
Sasuke's Sharingan flared to life as he looked at Naruto with an intense gaze.
"You disappeared for two years, never tried to escape and contact the leaf, and then you have the nerve to show up before me with his eyes,"
Sasuke lifted Naruto into the air by his shirt collar ignoring Kakashi and Sakura's hands on his arms.
"I want answers Dobe what did Itachi keep from me, what was he to you?!"
Naruto coughed lightly grabbing Sasuke's hands roughly to loosen his grip he gave him a strong gaze of intent his own Sharingan spinning to life.
"Let… me... go."
Sasuke recoiled slightly at Naruto's powerful chakra presence his grip waning.
Naruto resumed a passive attitude staring at Sasuke neutrally.
"I'll tell you what I can... but not here."
Tsunade slammed her fist down on her desk.
"Sasuke Uchiha put him down this instant or I'll have you charged with assaulting a fellow leaf shinobi."
Sasuke turned to face the Hokage who faced him with a stern gaze, he growled with displeasure but dropped the boy to his feet.
"Fine it doesn't have to be now, but I expect answers."
Tsunade sighed placing her cheek into her palm.
"I thought after everything you two would be beyond this point, but you are still children, after all."
Kakashi bowed apologetically.
"I take full responsibility for any trouble my students cause."
Tsunade took a sip of sake looking at Sakura.
"I expect you to help Kakashi keep those two in line."
Sakura nodded cordially.
"Of course m'lady."
"Oltier thank you for coming, I'm afraid things will have to be a little unconventional now that Naruto has returned to us."
The girl looked impassive to the chaos around her but nodded.
"Of course Hokage-sama I trust I will be reassigned to another team now?"
Tsunade shook her head.
"I'm afraid that's not an option, every other team formation has already been filled, it's a bit unconventional but not unprecedented,"
Tsunade dusted off a stack of papers on her desk flipping through the pages to find a sheet she wrote an additional kanji, stamping it with a seal.
"You'll be forming a four-man team, from today Team 7 is no more, Team Kakashi, you have an assignment."
Kakashi nodded turning to face the new addition he smiled at the girl.
She smiled back but it seemed artificial.
"What's our mission Tsunade-sama?"
"We've received word of a group of rogue mercenaries who have been going around raiding villages in Hi no Kuni."
Sakura looked at her curiously.
"Bandits m'lady isn't a team like this a bit much?"
Tsunade shook her head.
"These are no mere bandits we've received reports that each of them is a rogue ninja of chunin level or higher,"
Tsunade sighed.
"-Furthermore, we've learned that they are being led by a former Shugonin, Kazuma."
Kakashi looked surprised.
"But I thought Kazuma died in the coup twelve years ago?"
"He somehow managed to survive and is targeting his wrath against the Daimyo he feels betrayed him."
Kakashi adjusted his mask.
"Shouldn't Asuma be assigned to this task, after all, he's a former Shugonin, and he was the one who faced Kazuma all those years ago."
Tsunade shook her head.
"I already sent Asuma's team to face the rogues last month, Asuma was critically injured, and they were forced to flee,"
Tsunade stared at an unfurled scroll on her desk.
"-if it hadn't been for Shikamaru's quick thinking they may have died, but he managed to return with intel on the abilities and motives of the rogues."
Tsunade rolled the scroll up handing it to Kakashi.
"Make sure your team studies this in advance, you leave in two days at dawn."
Kakashi nodded with understanding sliding the scroll into his flak jacket and turning to address his team.
"Sakura just returned from a mission and Naruto has clearly been through the wringer, so I'll give you all leave for rest today,"
"-tomorrow we meet at the training field first thing for training exercises, don't be late."
With an eye smile and a wave, he vanished in a poof of smoke.
Everyone in the room sweatdropped.
Sasuke facepalmed.
"Kakashi telling us not to be late that's rich."
Sakura chuckled.
"You know sensei."
Naruto smirked.
"Glad to see some things don't change."
Naruto turned to face his new team.
"Nice to meet you Oltier, was it?"
She nodded robotically.
"I'm Oltier Shimura, I'm a Genin from the class one year your junior, I hope we can be fast friends."
She spoke with an overly formal tone that dipped in and out of expressing emotion.
Sakura turned to Naruto.
"She and I are already acquainted, I guess you could call us friends so she should fit well into the team."
Sasuke gave Naruto a side glance and stepped past him whispering into his ear subtly as he passed him.
"Dobe meet me at the Uchiha district after dark, come alone."
Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Naruto do you want to go on that date you always wanted, my treat?"
Sakura smiled at him.
Naruto nodded but to her surprise didn't blush at all.
"Of course Sakura-chan it'll be great to catch up after all these years."
He smiled brightly.
Oltier bowed and excused herself quietly.
"Naruto Jiraiya had taken it upon himself to maintain your apartment in the event you returned,"
Tsunade reached into a desk next to her and pulled out a sealing scroll.
"-take this Ryo and go buy yourself some clothes and groceries, then I order you to take a shower and get rid of those clothes."
Naruto nodded, excusing himself.
Sakura went to follow him but Tsunade gestured for her to stay.
"Yes, m'lady?"
"It's about your mission,"
Sakura's eyes flickered with understanding.
"You mean Oltier?"
Tsunade nodded.
"Danzo, the leader of Root organization wasn't known to have any living relatives, until eight years ago, he enrolled his niece into the academy,"
Tsunade held her eyes steady to Sakura's own.
"-The girl was a prodigy of Fuinjutsu yet remained the perfect average in every other subject, still she managed to graduate ahead of her class,"
Tsunade pulled out a piece of paper handing it to Sakura who looked it over curiously.
"-within a year Danzo made a formal request for me to transfer her to Team 7, I denied initially but,"
Tsunade continued to stare at a series of scrolls with a calculating gaze.
"-within a week the girl's entire team was murdered while on a mission I suspected foul play, but I could find no evidence of an ambush,"
Tsunade read from a scroll parceling her thoughts into words.
"-it's as if the team jumped into attacks they could have easily avoided, the kids I might be able to excuse, but her sensei was a trusted Jonin."
Sakura looked at her curiously.
"Most recently there was her odd behavior at the chunin exams, she made it through the forest untouched only to concede in the first round of battles."
Sakura's brain tried to piece things together to no avail.
"What do you think it all means?"
Tsunade set the scroll down looking at Sakura with deathly seriousness.
"I believe the girl must have somehow killed her team from within at the behest of Danzo, furthermore I think the girl is a Root plant."
Sakura looked at her in shock.
"Is that why you ordered me to watch her for suspicious behavior two years ago?"
Tsunade nodded.
"I was hoping by letting you ingratiate yourself to her over the course of years you may have been able to find some lead."
Sakura nodded.
"I'll show you what I've found."
Sakura pulled a scroll from her pocket looking over it, she handed it to Tsunade.
"What is this?"
"It's a picture I drew, my art skills aren't perfect but Oltier showed me a painting once of a boy she called her brother,"
Sakura looked at her black-gloved hands.
"-When I asked her if I could meet him she told me he'd left the village years ago."
Sakura sighed.
"-I did my best to capture his appearance, but she was very hesitant to let me look at it."
Tsunade looked over the drawing of a pale boy with short black hair and emotionless eyes.
"I've never seen this boy, but the identities of Root agents are hidden even from me, I'll have Shizune look over defection records to find a match."
Sakura nodded.
"Should I continue to monitor her?"
Tsunade nodded.
"Officially your mission has concluded but keep an eye on her hopefully if she grows close to you as teammates she'll let something slip."
Sakura bowed.
"Excuse me then."
Tsunade nodded.
"Good job Sakura."
Naruto ran some errands buying a new wardrobe of civilian and mission clothes as well as a few weeks' worths of groceries.
He still wasn't used to all the positive reception he received, the few strange glances he received for his damaged attire felt like a reprieve
Eager to take a shower and change he made his way back to his old residence.
He walked past an offshoot which forked into two different paths when he felt a sudden grab on his arm jerk him hard into the alley.
Before he could exclaim a pair of soft lips were on his and his eyes snapped wide.
He didn't have to see to know who it was though he could make out crimson locks in the moonlight.
"Tayuya-chan."
"Hey, Dickless-kun."
"Can you give a guy a warning."
Tayuya chuckled.
"Sorry I know I said we were even back on the island, but I just can't forgive you for stealing my first kiss so casually."
Tayuya sighed.
"Enough joking it's high time we had a talk."
Naruto paled.
"This doesn't bode well."
"Just shut up and listen Naruto."
He nodded knowing she was serious to address him with his name.
"Look, when we first met I thought you were an obnoxious brat,"
Naruto looked at her indignantly.
"-But when I got to know you I felt this strange energy, you have something that draws people to you, and that's the problem."
She sighed.
"I was an orphan, my parents died when I was small, all I ever had was my grandmother, she's the one who taught me to play the flute."
Tayuya looked down somberly.
"It was just me and her for the first half of my life, she died so suddenly and I didn't know where to go, that's when Orochimaru came,"
Tayuya clutched at her neck where her curse mark had once been.
"I was in a nightmare when she died, to cope with the solitude I tried to close off my heart, I would do anything to that end,"
"-I needed a purpose something to keep me going, and that's why I joined up with Orochimaru in the first place."
She sighed.
"Looking back at it he played me like a fiddle, he knew just what to say to get me to follow him."
She growled.
"I did so many terrible things for the snake, I was hoping if I turned myself into a monster I could escape myself, I was such an idiot,"
She raised her gaze to his staring into his receptive gaze.
"Then you came, so infuriating, you kept trying to tear down the barriers I'd so carefully constructed,"
"Part of me was afraid of what would happen if you managed to tear them down completely that's why I left Orochimaru."
She looked at her hands with frustration.
"But it was too late, you had already managed to get under my skin, I came back for you but you were gone."
He nodded remembering his time as a captive of Orochimaru's.
"Then I found you after that year of searching, I was hoping I could repay the debt by rescuing you and then free myself from attachment."
She looked at him annoyed.
"Then you kissed me and ran away, you ruined my plan and shook my barriers."
Naruto blushed embarrassedly and scratched at his head.
"That's why what you did on the boat pissed me off so much, you managed to get under my skin even when I didn't know it was you."
"And then like an idiot I kissed you on the island,"
"That's why when that bimbo pig flirted with you it got under my skin so much, and... now we're here."
Naruto stared at her.
"I, I don't know what to say."
Tayuya sighed.
"I expected you'd say that I'm asking you, what am I to you?"
Naruto closed his eyes thinking about her question he felt something in his chest.
"I-I'm not really good at this sort of thing Tayuya, If I'm being honest I'm kind of intimidated by you, I mean you're older, intense, and,"
Naruto blushed and looked away from the girl.
"-beautiful."
Tayuya blushed and looked at her feet.
"I-I see, so you also feel something..."
Naruto nodded.
"You're special Tayuya, I want to protect you and keep you close."
Tayuya sighed looking away from him.
"I hear you have a mission soon, we both need to rest after everything but... tomorrow I expect you, to… to take me…"
Tayuya looked at her hands struggling to make the words come out.
Naruto grabbed her hands with one of his earning a blush.
"I know what you're trying to say Tayuya-chan, I'd love to date you."
She nodded embarrassed turning away from him.
"Goodnight, baka-kun."
She ran away from him at full speed, leaving him dazed against a dumpster.
"Huh, that was weird."
Naruto smiled.
Naruto set the picture of Team 7 down standing up as the clock struck 10:00.
He adjusted the collar of his orange jacket and looked himself over in the mirror.
He had taken the jacket Itachi gave him to a tailor who had repaired it and cleaned it;
it had been stained orange permanently and they offered to make him a new one, but Naruto told them it was fine.
He wore purple-grey jonin-esque pants and black calf-length sandals.
Tsunade had an Anbu deliver him his new Leaf headband which he got with extra-long purple cloth.
He tied the hitai-ate around his forehead and let his hair fall framing the metal plate so that the leaf symbol was visible.
He slid his thumb across the base of his lip nodding at his reflection with satisfaction.
Leaving his apartment he locked the door behind him.
He stepped out onto the stairway balcony and saw a black-haired boy watching him from a nearby alley.
At first, he thought it was Sasuke but the boy was skinnier and ghostly pale.
Naruto blinked and he was gone.
Naruto was confused but shook it off he needed to meet with Sasuke and couldn't afford to investigate.
With that in mind, he leaped to a nearby roof and vanished.
A girl sat on a tatami mat staring at her reflection in a dimly lit mirror, she felt a presence approach behind her.
Spinning around with impressive speed she slapped a tag onto the wrist of a masked man.
He groaned and let out a gurgling sound grabbing his neck and falling to his stomach as purple lines spread across his chest and neck.
She stared at him as he crawled toward her with the kunai in his grip.
To her shock, a genjutsu dispelled and a sizzling explosive tag was revealed on the handle of the kunai.
It began to detonate having reached the end of its fuse with glowing light, her eyes turned a luminous silver-blue.
All sound began to slow down eventually reaching silence and the explosion stopped before the sound could even be heard.
She stood up and walked past the man to the spot he had lunged from a few moments earlier.
In a blur of warped reality, everything save the girl moved in reverse.
The man crawled backward and stood back up the lines on his skin receding.
The sound slowly resumed as the girl grabbed the kunai from the frozen man.
Disarming the tag she put the blade to line with his neck and held her arm steady.
Suddenly he snapped into mid-movement.
Unable to stop the lunge forward he had initially done it drove the kunai into his neck with force.
His head fell to the floor and the girl tossed the kunai down.
A cane on wood echoed through the halls of the house.
The girl turned to face the sounds of a slow clapping, a raspy-voiced older man appeared from the shadows and spoke.
"Well done child, you continue to impress."
She bowed.
"It is all thanks to your guidance Danzo-sama."
She suddenly stiffened blood pouring from her nostrils, her pupils dilated and she grabbed her head with both hands.
She fell to her knees and began to cough blood and bile into her hands.
The man looked at her with disappointment.
"So, you still haven't mastered it, such a shame."
He turned away from her.
"Continue with your current mission, I expect you won't fail me again."
The girl nodded trying to hide her shame.
"Yes, Danzo-sama."
The man sighed.
"Remember Tobiko, you are Konoha's trusted sword, as I am her shield, do not let petty things such as attachment weaken your resolve."
The girl looked at her feet.
"All I do is for the Leaf, my convictions haven't wavered."
The man chuckled grimly, leaving the room with regular strokes of a cane.
"If only I believed you."
Once he had disappeared into the darkness she crawled back to the tatami mat.
Popping the glass out of the mirror's frame she stared at a painting of a pale boy.
"Where are you Aniki…"
X END X
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
The next chapter won't be out until next week as I have to move all my stuff to my new place.
I plan to put out more regular chapters once I've finished the move.