I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
Five days have passed since the start of the second part for the chunin exams and all the remaining teams have made it to the tower. All of the genin that Konoha entered into the chunin exams made it to the tower with the remaining members of team 7 barely making it before the deadline, the team from Suna made it, a sound village team made it and Kabuto's team made it. While everyone was waiting for the next part to be announced, Naruto noticed Natsumi looking a bit off as she was looking between Menma and Sasuke. Before he could ask her what happened, Anko spoke up.
"Congratulations on finishing the second exam." Anko said
"There were 80 ninjas who took that exam. To think 26 passed. I know that less than half would make it, but I really thought that the number would be in the single digits." Anko thought
"There's a lot of people left. This is such a drag." Shikamaru said
"Sasuke and his team have passed too." Ino said looking at Sasuke who wasn't in the best shape
"Well of course they did. After all the trouble we went through to keep them safe, they better have passed." Shikamaru said
"I see your team didn't do too bad Kakashi. They must've gotten real lucky. Of course with my team still around, your team is doomed. After all, what matters in the next test is abilities and we've got you far out classed. Well, I guess growing up is learning to deal with heartbreak. Eh, Kakashi." Might Guy said and Kakashi wasn't paying attention to him
"Huh? Did you say something?" Kakashi asked and guy had an entire meltdown
"As expected, all the best are here." Neji thought as he looked at Naruto
"What are you looking at, Neji?" TenTen asked
"Naruto Uzumaki, huh?" Neji thought
"I can't believe it. Only 8 teams out of 27 are left." Temari thought
"Naruto passed too. Thank goodness." Hinata thought staring at him
"Look. All of the leaf village rookies made it." Sakura said
"They're all clan heirs. It wouldn't look good if they didn't make it." Naruto said
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked
"Think about it. If none of the clan heirs made it to this part of the exams, it would reflect badly on their clan and possibly bring shame to them." Shizuka said
"Yeah. They basically had no choice but to make it this far and possibly to the finals." Naruto said
"I can't believe there are so many left after the second test. So many of them are rookies. I guess that's why the jonin decided to recommend them." Minato thought
"Alright! Pay attention! Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you. So you better listen carefully, maggots. Lord hokage, they're all yours." Anko said
"Thank you, Anko. First before I tell you what the third exam entails. I want to explain something about the test itself. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams. Why do you think our allied countries hold these exams?" Minato asked
"Because you all want to talk about friendship and peace, but the moment the exams are over you'll go back to fighting one another over something stupid." Naruto said
"Uh, sure. Now I'll be telling you exactly what you'll be doing on the third exam." Minato said and a ninja appeared in front of him
"Lord hokage, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed as proctor of the third exam to explain the rules to them." Hayate said
"Very well." Minato said
"It's nice to meet you all. There's something I'd like all of you...to do before the third exam. We have to have a preliminary before we can move onto the real one." Hayate said
"Why do we need a preliminary?" Sakura asked
"The first and second exams might've been too easy. The fact is we never expected so many of you to survive and still be here. According to the rules of the chunin exam, a preliminary round could be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining." Hayate said
"Is that even fair?" Sakura asked
"It's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit. As lord hokage was trying to explain, there will be a lot of important guests watching and we can't afford to waste their time. They'll come to see only the best so if there are any of you who feel like you are not in top physical condition...now is your chance to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately." Hayate said and started to cough again
"He might want to get that cough checked out. It sounds contagious." Shizuka thought
"You mean right now?!" Kiba asked
"But we just finished barely surviving through the second exam. Don't we get a break." Ino said
"This is such a drag." Shikamaru said
"When do we eat?!" Choji asked
"If you wanted a break then you should have finished the forest earlier. Naruto, Sakura and Shizuka finished the forest in less than an hour." Anko said
"WHAT?" Ino yelled and everyone looked at them
"Sheesh. Way to paint a target on our back." Shizuka thought
"Honestly, without Naruto's knowledge of the forest, we'd probably get here at the same time as the others." Sakura thought
"So, how are we going to do this preliminary round?" Naruto asked
"Oh, the winners will be determined by one on one combat sudden death. So like I said, if there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it, now is the time to raise your hand." Hayate said
"What do we do after our fight?" Shizuka asked
"You'll wait until the rest of the matches are over for further instructions. Now, before we begin, is there anybody who would like to forfeit?" Hayate asked and Kabuto raised his hand
"Okay. You got me. I'm out." Kabuto said and Hayate looked through his list
"Kabuto Yakushi of the leaf village, right? Okay. You can go on and step back" Hayate said
"Gotcha." Kabuto said and walked back
"Why are you quitting, Kabuto?" Narumi asked
"I'm sorry, Narumi, but my body is just too beat up. I can't hack it. I had a dust up with a team from the sound village in the forest and I haven't had any hearing in my left ear. Now they expect me to fight again without a break and no medical attention, I can't do it." Kabuto said and walked to the back
"Something isn't right. When Kabuto met up with us in the forest he had perfect hearing, but now he can't hear out of his left ear? Maybe Naruto was right about him." Narumi thought
"Lord hokage, what are we going to do?" Anko whispered
"We can't let him out of our sight." Ibiki whispered
"Don't worry. I have a team of anbu stationed at all of the exits and they have orders to capture him. Once that is complete, he'll be waiting for the both of you at the T&I building." Minato whispered
"Great." Anko said
"Alright then. We'll now begin the preliminary round. Each round will consist of 1 on 1 individual combat except for one match. That one match will have to be a three way battle. We will have a total of 11 matches and the winners will go on to the finals. There are no rules. You will fight until one dies or one is rendered physically incapable of continuing the contest. Now, it is time to figure out which fate has been chosen for you." Hayate said
"Open the panel." Anko said into her headset and a giant screen was revealed on the wall
"The names of each pair of opponents will be randomly selected. Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. As there's nothing more to say, let's begin. In a moment the names of the first competitors will appear." Hayate said and the board went through random names until it finally stopped
"Dammit! I wanted to go first!" Menma thought
"To think I'd be fighting so soon." Sasuke thought
"Looks like Sasuke gets to fight another one of those mysterious leaf genin on Kabuto's team." Naruto thought
"Hey, now that I got a good look at them, you were right, Naruto. I've never seen Kabuto or any of his teammates in the village." Shizuka whispered
"I know. It's being handled as we speak." Naruto said
"Yoroi Akado vs. Sasuke Uchiha. Everyone else please go up to the balcony and wait your turn." Hayate said
The match was fun to some people who didn't understand what was going on. All Sasuke's opponent was doing was taking away his chakra and Sasuke was seemingly more tired than he should be. Before the end of the match, Naruto noticed some strange markings had begun spreading on Sasuke's face, but they went away. His opponent underestimated Sasuke and Sasuke defeated his opponent with his new move he called lions barrage. Kakashi came and took Sasuke away as soon as he was declared the winner.
Stands
"Mom, you saw that, right?" Naruto whispered and she nodded
"Yeah." Kushina said
"What was that?" Naruto asked
"It was a curse mark. It's the mark given by Orochimaru who was Konoha's number one traitor before Itachi." Kushina said
"I know who Orochimaru is. Anko told me about him. I'm guessing Kakashi went to seal it away or remove it then." Naruto said
"He went to seal it away. There's no way to remove that curse mark." Kushina said and Narumi walked up to them
"Mom. Something bad happened in the forest of death." Narumi said
"What happened?" Kushina asked
"That guy Orochimaru happened. Sasuke isn't the only one who has that mark." Narumi said
"He gave you one?" Naruto asked
"No. Menma has one." Narumi said
"What?" Kushina asked and looked at Menma who was perfectly fine as if the mark wasn't bothering him
"He didn't get bit or anything, but when I was nearly unconscious from my fight with Orochimaru, I saw Menma talking to him as if he knew him. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but when I woke up when Menma was sleeping, I checked him as well. Orochimaru also put a seal on me and I can't mold my chakra properly." Narumi said and lifted her shirt showing them her seal
"It's the five pronged seal." Naruto said, as he did the five pronged seal release which removed the seal and knocked the win out of Narumi
"A little warning next time." Narumi said, as she was gasping for air
"Narumi, what else happened in the forest?" Kushina asked
"Sasuke and Menma got into a fight with some sound village team. They almost killed them had I not interfered. Kabuto was lying about his reason for pulling out of the tournament since he teamed up with us and he was perfectly fine before we left the forest." Narumi said
"We're already aware of Kabuto's actions and it's being handled. As for Menma, are you 100 percent sure you saw him talking to Orochimaru?" Kushina asked and she nodded
"Yes. I'll even go through a mind walk to prove I'm right." Narumi said and Kushina sighed
"Mom." Naruto said and gave her a look
"I know. I know. Just give me a bit more time." Kushina said
"That was the final straw. He's out of chances." Naruto said and Kushina looked at Minato who was staring at Menma
The next two matches were also boring. Shino defeated somebody from the sound village and Kankuro defeated the other person that was with Kabuto. The names rolled around on screen before they finally stopped on two names. Naruto looked at the screen and just smirked at the names that appeared on the board.
"Well this is going to be over quicker than most people think." Naruto thought with a smirk
Everyone in the stands from Konoha were shocked at the two people chosen to fight next. All the jonin looked at the two competitors and knew this would be a nasty fight filled with insults and a lot of hard hits.
"Let's see how much she's actually grown." Minato thought
Match 4
"I never thought I'd fight you. Or at least I didn't think it would happen this soon. Don't expect me to go easy on you." Ino said
"Ino was a standout among the rookie kunoichi. She has a chance to win, but if what they say about her opponent is true, then she doesn't have much of a chance." Asuma thought
"Of all the people Ino could've fought, it just had to be this one." Shikamaru said
"I know. I hope Ino will be okay." Choji said
"I think I should be the one who takes it easy on you. Don't worry though. I'll end it quickly." Sakura said
She tied her headband on her forehead and unknown to everyone but Naruto, she was already channeling chakra for her first attack. This was something she did a few times during some of her training sessions with Kushina that he watched.
"Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka. Begin!" Hayate said
Sakura rushed Ino, forcing her into a taijutsu fight and it was clear who took their training more seriously. Sakura went in with a body shot that caught Ino off guard and then kicked her in the head. Ino recovered and quickly threw a punch into Sakura's that was blocked and Kushina kicked her away.
Ino ran at Sakura and to her surprise she went right through Sakura and was kicked from behind. Sakura used a simple clone jutsu earlier in the fight and switched places with it. Sakura then threw a flash tag down that blinded Ino and went through a few hand signs before sinking underground. As soon as Ino was able to see again, Sakura pulled her underground leaving only her head visible thanks to the earth style: double suicide decapitation jutsu.
"Looks like I win, Ino." Sakura said
"LET ME OUT OF HERE." Ino yelled
"Winner. Sakura Haruno." Hayate announced
"WOO-HOO." Kushina cheered
Sakura smiled at Kushina and helped Ino out of the ground before shaking hands with her before she left to get medical attention. Sakura made it up the stairs and once she saw Naruto she smiled.
"Good job." Naruto said
"Yeah. You totally kicked her ass and made it to the finals. I honestly thought you'd be the one to lose and not make it." Shizuka said
"Have you not seen the training I've been doing for the past six month? There's no way I was going to lose." Sakura said
"If you fought anybody on this team you would have lost." Shizuka said
"Wait until the next round. We have a high chance at facing somebody from our own team and I hope we fight. That way I'll kick your ass and prove that you can't beat me." Sakura said
"You wanna bet?" Shizuka asked
"Yeah. I do." Sakura said
"Will you two be quiet? This isn't the time to argue." Kushina said and Naruto just sighed
"Can one of you wake me up when it's my turn?" Naruto asked and went to sleep
"He's really lazy." Sakura said
"Tell me about it. At least he isn't as lazy as a Nara clan member." Shizuka said
2 hours later
"Naruto! Wake up!" Shizuka said
"Huh? It's my turn already?" Naruto asked
"No. You didn't have a match. Since Kabuto left, we had an odd number of fighters and you were the odd man out. There's enough fighters for the finals to have an even number of matches. Everyone has to pick a number now. I took the liberty of picking for you." Kushina said
"Then what was the point of waking me up?" Naruto asked
"So you can see who you're fighting in the finals." Kushina said
"Alright! Listen up! The matches are as follows!" Anko said
Shizuka vs Menma Uzumaki-Namikaze
Sakura Haruno vs Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze
Shikamaru Nara vs Temari
Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara
Neji Hyuga vs Naruto Uzumaki
Kankuro vs Shino
"These matches aren't in order and you'll find out when the finals begin." Anko said
"When will the finals begin?" Shizuka asked
"You have one month to get prepared for the finals. That is when all of the stuck up and snobby important people will show up." Anko said
"Anko." Minato said
"Right. In one month all of the judges will be here as well as some members of royal families. So, you all better give it your best and if you don't then I'll be seeing you at the T&I building since I'm the host of this year's finals. Good luck, I guess." Anko said and Minato sighed
"The winner of this as you know will become a chunin and as an extra reward this year, the winner will also get one undeniable favor from their Kage." Minato said
"What's the point of the chunin exams if just one person will make chunin?" Shikamaru asked
"Just because somebody doesn't win the chunin exams, that doesn't mean they can't become a chunin. If the judges feel you have shown them enough to be granted the rank of chunin then you can also get promoted." Minato said
"Well, I plan on winning the whole damn thing!" Menma said
"I'm looking forward to all your progress within the next month. Congratulations to everyone who made it to the finals." Minato said and left
Village
"So, what are you three going to do for your training?" Sakura asked, as she was walking with Naruto, Narumi and Shizuka
"I was thinking about asking the crazy lady to help me." Shizuka said
"Anko?" Sakura asked
"Yeah. She's not that bad compared to what people say about her." Shizuka said
"If you're going to have her train you, then you might want to take this." Naruto said and gave her a scroll
"What is it?" Shizuka asked
"Just give it to her if she tries to decline." Naruto said
"Okay." Shizuka said
"What about you, Narumi?" Sakura asked
"I don't know. I was thinking about having my mom train me." Narumi said
"I thought you wanted to train with lady Tsunade." Shizuka said
"I do, but her chakra enhanced punches aren't something I look forward to." Narumi said
"Well, if you don't train with her, maybe you can ask if she'll train me. I can use some help with my medical ninjutsu." Sakura said
"Narumi!" A voice said and they turned to see Shizune running up to them
"Shizune? What are you doing here?" Narumi asked
"Me and lady Tsunade are waiting for you to start training. We saw your match during the preliminaries." Shizune said
"Actually, I was going to have my mom train me this time. I need some help with my wind ninjutsu and neither you nor granny Tsunade have a wind chakra nature." Narumi said
"You do realize she'll come after you for making her come to Konoha for no reason, right?" Shizune asked
"It's not for no reason. She can train Sakura, who is the medic of our team. Great chakra control, uses chakra in her taijutsu style and she knows a few things about being a medic." Narumi said
"Are you okay with that, Sakura?" Shizune askes
"Yes." Sakura said
"Then come along. She doesn't like to be kept waiting." Shizune said and walked away
"I guess I'll see you guys in a month." Sakura said and caught up with Shizune
"Naruto, what about your training?" Narumi asked
"Secret." Naruto said
"Come on. Tell us." Shizuka said
"No." Naruto said and an anbu member appeared behind him
"Naruto Uzumaki, lord hokage has requested your presence in his office." The anbu said and vanished
"See ya." Naruto said and vanished
"Want to grab some ramen?" Narumi asked and Shizuka shrugged
"Sure." Shizuka said
Minato's office
"Yo." Naruto said, as he appeared in the office
"Glad you could make it." Minato said
"I guess. So, what's up?" Naruto asked and Minato sighed
"You have the mission to take out Menma." Minato said
"What did mom say when you told her?" Naruto asked
"I haven't told her yet. We've gained the footage from the forest of death and one of the cameras caught Menma talking to Orochimaru before handing him a file." Minato said
"So, Narumi was telling the truth." Naruto said
"She knows?" Minato asked
"Sort of. All she knows is that Kabuto was lying about being injured and she saw Menma talking to Orochimaru when they thought she was unconscious. She hasn't completely put it together yet that Menma is a traitor, but I think she will soon." Naruto said
"This is the hardest mission I've ever had to give out. Do you accept it?" Minato asked
"I want something in return." Naruto said
"What?" Minato asked
"I want to leave in 6 months for 2 and a half years." Naruto said
"Why?" Minato asked
"To train. I realized that I'll never reach my full potential if I stay in this village and I figured the best way for me to get better is to travel the world a bit. Gain more experience against stronger opponents." Naruto said
"Where do you plan on going?" Minato asked
"I'll probably head far west and see what's over there." Naruto said
"That's where the empire is. We've been getting a lot of refugees from around there and recently a mission from a group called the Night raid. I could give you that as a mission to cover up your absence. They don't use chakra over there so it'll help you with battling against people who can hide their chakra from you." Minato said
"I guess I'll take it, but I want to go alone. I don't want anybody to come with me." Naruto said
"We'll see. In the meantime when you aren't training, see if you can find anything on what Menma gave Orochimaru." Minato said
"Sure." Naruto said and Kushina appeared in the office
"Minato, I can't take missions for this entire month." Kushina said
"Why not?" Minato asked
"I'm training Narumi for the finals." Kushina said and he nodded
"That's fine." Minato said
"You can come out now, pervert. You're not that good at hiding." Naruto said and Jiraiya came into the office
"YOU." Kushina said
She immediately started swinging on Jiraiya who was trying his hardest to get away, but Kushina was out for blood and everything he tried to leave, she would use her chakra chains to pull him back. The beating lasted for over an hour until he was within an inch of his life and by that time Tsunade showed up into the room.
"Oh look. It's the local pervert." Tsunade said and healed him
"Thank you, Tsunade." Jiraiya said
"Don't thank me yet." Tsunade said and then she started to beat him worse than Kushina did which barely left him alive
"Can you please just stabilize him?" Minato asked
"Fine." Tsunade said and only healed him enough so he wouldn't die
"You've got some explaining to do." Minato said
"About what?" Jiraiya asked
"Introducing Menma to Danzo, purposely holding information from me when Naruto was nearly dead and the fact that you want him dead to the point where you'll kill him yourself for some dumbass prophecy!" Kushina said
"I introduced Menma to Danzo to help train! All of you left me with no other option!" Jiraiya said
"There's this thing called actually teaching him something! Because of you, Menma is a damn traitor to this village!" Kushina said and pointed her sword at his neck
"This is your fault! All you had to do was focus on Menma and Narumi's training! Yet you chose to ignore them for the child nobody even cared about!" Jiraiya said
"I CARED ABOUT HIM. HE WAS MY FIRST BORN." Kushina yelled
"First born or not, I was right! He didn't need any of your affection! The only two that matter right now are Menma and Narumi! They're the saviors of the world!" Jiraiya said
"Let's talk about you sneaking into the women's bath and their houses to take pictures of them while they're naked! Do you not understand how sick and twisted that is?!" Tsunade said and punched him in the face
"It was for inspiration!" Jiraiya said
"IT'S ILLEGAL." Tsunade yelled and kicked him into the wall
"You're doing a lot of accusing with no evidence!" Jiraiya said and Minato put the evidence on his desk
"This was found in your home, Jiraiya." Minato said
"H-How did you get into my house?" Jiraiya asked
"Please. Those seals could fool anybody except for an Uzumaki." Kushina said
"Explain yourself, Jiraiya." Minato said
"Everything I did was for the betterment of the world. So what if one child had to get left behind or killed. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or in this case the needs of one little kid." Jiraiya said and Kushina put her sword back to his neck
"What's the decision, Minato? I gave you more than a week and if you can't say anything he's dead right here." Kushina said and started to draw blood
"Lower your weapon, Kushina." Minato said and Jiraiya sighed
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? YOU'RE CHOOSING THIS SON OF BITCH OVER YOUR FAMILY." Kushina yelled
"Thank you, Minato. I'm glad you can see the reasoning behind my actions." Jiraiya said and Kushina started to draw more blood
"KUSHINA." Minato yelled and Kushina just stood there for a few seconds glaring at Jiraiya before being pulled away
"Sheesh. You had me scared there for a minute, Minato." Jiraiya said
"Get out." Minato said
"What?" Jiraiya asked
"Take off your headband, hand over your ninja license and your original Konoha headband. Leave the village and never come back." Minato said
"You're kicking me out?! You can't do that!" Jiraiya said
"I just did and you should be lucky that's the only thing I'm doing. I won't put you in the bingo book, but you're to never step foot in the land of fire again." Minato said and Jiraiya just stood there before doing as told
"You're going to wish you never did this. When the world fails because you didn't listen to me, I'll be the first person in line to tell you I told you so." Jiraiya said
"Yeah whatever. Get out of the village. Your sensei would be really disappointed in you and he's probably rolling around in his grave." Naruto said
"What did you say?!" Jiraiya asked
"I don't think I stuttered. I have stuff to do that's more important than arguing with an old man that no longer has a home." Naruto said and vanished
Underground base
"Did you complete your mission?" A voice asked from the shadows
"Yes. Nobody suspects a thing." Menma said
"Were you followed?" The voice asked
"No. I acted like a fool to get people off of my trail. The anbu that were assigned to me have been taken care of." Menma said and the person walked out of the shadows
"Good. In one month this village will fall and as promised, you will get your wish to have Naruto Uzumaki's head." Danzo said
"Excellent. Oh. Orochimaru said he has something special planned other than having Gaara release the tailed beast in the village." Menma said
"Good. Remember, you're in charge of squad delta." Danzo said
"Of course. However, I would like to request something." Menma said
"What is it?" Danzo asked
"Allow me to stay in the chunin exams until my match is over. I am facing Shizuka and I want to mentally break Naruto before I kill him. I want to make him suffer as I slowly kill her." Menma said
"Permission granted. However, things may change over time this month so be ready." Danzo said
"Of course." Menma said
"Dismissed." Danzo said and Menma nodded before leaving
"In one month you're dead, Naruto." Menma thought, as black markings spread across his face and he gained an evil grin on his face
1 month later
The month for the chunin exam finals came around and everyone was well prepared. While Naruto did his training, he was still searching around for any clues on what Kabuto wanted and he didn't find anything. Kakashi had a run in with Kabuto and Orochimaru so he figured they were after Sasuke. Naruto trained as much as he could and even reached out to his summons, but they told him his body isn't ready for their kind of training yet.
Naruto finally got around to opening the scroll he took from Mikoto's body at the massacre and it was two swords made out of steel he's never even heard of. He practiced with them and when he added chakra to them, they extended out like a chain. He kept them sealed away since he didn't want anybody to see them yet and question him about them. He was late for the chunin exams because he decided to spend some time at Mikoto's grave and he was there for about two hours. He knew he wasn't needed right away since Shikamaru was the first match and he was towards the end. His eyes were just staring at Mikoto's grave until he felt multiple foreign chakra signatures in the Konoha forest.
"Oh shit." Naruto said and vanished
Chunin exams
"Sakura Haruno and Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze please come to the fighting area!" Genma announced and they both came down.
"I'm surprised we actually have to fight each other. I hope you didn't slack off in your training." Narumi said
"I had no chance to slack off. I hope you're ready to lose." Sakura said, as she put her headband on and took her fighting stance
"We'll see about that." Narumi said and got into her stance
"Alright! Same rules as the last round. Begin!" Genma said
As soon as Genma was out of the way, Sakura and Narumi ran at each other and began to trade punches and kicks. Narumi still used her taijutsu style from Tsunade, but this time she added shadow clones to help. Sakura channeled chakra through her body to keep up with the onslaught from Narumi and her shadow clones. They weren't really even, but you could see how far Sakura has come in 7 months of being a ninja and it was enough to impress the judges. Sakura was trying her best to keep up with the amount of attacks she was dealing with, but she couldn't block them all and one of the clones kicked Sakura in the gut before the real Narumi kicked her away. Narumi went through hand signs and did her jutsu.
Wind style: Great breakthrough
After gathering chakra into her stomach, narumi expelled it as a gust of wind. She put more than enough chakra in the jutsu to send Sakura into the wall. That would've been the case if Sakura didn't counter. She went through her own hand signs and did her jutsu.
Earth style: mud wall
Sakura rose up a wall of earth from the ground to protect her. Behind the wall, Sakura sank into the ground and after her wall went away, Narumi was shocked to see that she wasn't there. Narumi was then pulled into the ground up to her neck.
Sakura rose out of the ground and smirked at her jutsu, but her victory was short-lived when Narumi went up in smoke. Narumi used this time to attack Sakura from behind, but to her shock her kick went right through Sakura. Narumi was now stunned and it cost her as Sakura punched her from behind and since she added chakra to her attack, Narumi was sent flying into the wall creating cracks.
Stands
"Impressive. Both of them so far are showing signs of being worthy of a chunin promotion." Anko said
"I know. I'm impressed with Sakura's growth in less than a year." Kurenai said
"Thank you. It was tough at first, but she's learning. She still has her moments when it comes to Sasuke, but they're lowering by the numbers everyday." Kushina said
"Her fighting style though. It seems familiar. She fights like Lady Tsunade." Anko said
"Well, she sort of took her under her wing for this month and taught her a few things. Sakura is the medic on team 7 so it's a good thing Tsunade did train her." Kushina said
"Oh. Wait until you see my little protégé in action. She's going to make me so proud." Anko said
"You have a protégé?" Kurenai asked
"Yup. The new girl asked me to train her and showed up with three months of dango with some red bean soup. I couldn't say no to that." Anko said
"But she's the complete opposite from you. Why would she want to train under you?" Kurenai asked
"I don't know, but it was fun." Anko said and Naruto appeared
"You're late!" Kushina said and went to punch him on the head, but he moved
"I know, but we have bigger problems and I mean big." Naruto said
"What is it?" Kushina asked and he did a few anbu hand signs that they recognized
"Are you sure?" Anko asked
"Yeah. I was at Mikoto's grave and I felt them. Some of them are here in the stadium as well. You need to tell Minato. I'm not allowed up there." Naruto said and Anko vanished
"This is bad. How many did you sense?" Kushina asked
"It's an entire army waiting." Naruto said and looked up at Minato who gave a few discreet hand signals
"I wonder what we're going to do. There's too many civilians here." Kurenai said and Naruto stabbed his sword into the wall revealing a root anbu
"What the? Why is root here?" Kushina asked
"Danzo must be making a move to take over Konoha with somebody else's help." Naruto said
"Yeah, but who?" Kurenai asked
"Orochimaru is here." Naruto said
"Shit. This just got a lot more complicated." Kushina said and Anko returned
"Okay. Here's the plan. Minato is going to signal to the anbu in the crowd to start looking for anybody wearing a henge that shouldn't be here." Anko said
"No. There's root anbu here as well and they could pick up the signal. We don't want to start a panic letting them know we're onto the plan." Kushina said
"We need to do something." Naruto said
"I know. Just watch the match and I'll have something figured out." Kushina said
Fighting area
"Lucky shot." Narumi said, as she came out of the wall
Sakura threw a kunai at Narumi and went through hand signs. The one kunai turned into twenty and people were shocked that she was able to use the kunai shadow clone jutsu. Narumi jumped out of the way, but was still nicked and cut by some of the kunai. Narumi landed and went through her own hand signs.
Water style: ripping torrent
Narumi created a spiral of water in the palm of her hand which fired at a high speed towards Sakura. Sakura once again used her mud wall jutsu and stopped the attack. Behind the wall Sakura went through hand signs and activated her next jutsu.
Earth style: mud wave
Sakura slammed her palm onto the ground and it started to move like waves knocking Narumi off balance. Sakura took advantage of that and easily ran across the wave-like ground and started to go at Narumi with some fierce taijutsu that actually made Narumi worried that she'd lose. Narumi had no choice but to tap into the nine tails chakra to win. She used a small amount, but it was enough for her to vanish from Sakura's eyesight.
Narumi appeared behind her and kicked her into the wall. Sakura bounced off the wall and when she turned around, Narumi already had her fist buried in her stomach and Sakura felt some of her ribs crack. Sakura coughed up some blood and Narumi ended her assault with a kick to the back of her neck. Narumi stopped channeling the nine tails chakra and was breathing heavily.
"I give up." Sakura said
"Winner! Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze!" Genma said
"Hopefully I did enough to become a chunin." Sakura thought
She slowly stood up and briskly walked over to the stands. Narumi was there waiting for her and she shook hands with Sakura. Narumi held Sakura's hand up and the crowd gave them a standing ovation for putting on one hell of a fight. Sakura looked up and Kushina gave them both a wide grin and two thumbs up.
Stands
"Good fight you two." Kushina said
"Yeah. You no doubt impressed the judges." Naruto said
"So, pinky. I've got to admit that I'm impressed with how you've grown since the academy. I had you dying on your first mission out of the village." Anko said
"Gee. Thanks." Sakura said
"Who's up next?" Naruto asked
"WILL GAARA OF THE SAND AND SASUKE UCHIHA PLEASE COME DOWN." Genma yelled and both competitors went to the fighting area
"Shit. I thought we would have more time." Kushina said
"More time for what?" Narumi asked
"It's too much to explain. Naruto, I know you wanted to keep it a secret, but I could really use a wide range genjutsu over the crowd right now." Kushina said
"I can make one so nobody sees you or what's going on." Naruto said and activated his sharingan
"HOW?!" Sakura asked
"I'll explain later. Go on mom." Naruto said and she vanished
"What's going on?" Narumi asked
"Just be ready to follow orders." Naruto said
Gaara vs Sasuke
"Alright. You both know the rules. Begin!" Genma said and jumped away as Gaara's sand came to life
"So that's the sand Kakashi talked about." Sasuke thought and then Gaara grabbed his head
"Please, I beg you. Don't get mad at me, mother!" Gaara said and then had a crazy look on his face
"What the hell is he talking about?" Sasuke thought
"I know I made you taste some awful blood, but we have somebody even better we can fight and I'll give you his blood instead." Gaara said and calmed down
Sasuke didn't waste any time and threw some shuriken at Gaara that was blocked by his sand that turned itself into a sand clone. Sasuke ran at Gaara and then had to jump out of the way from Gaara's sand that tried to attack him. While Sasuke was falling towards Gaara, the sand clone threw the shuriken back at Sasuke who countered with his own.
Sasuke kicked the sand clone then spun on his hands and hit the sand clone in the neck with a backwards fist, but the sand swallowed his hand, keeping him stuck. Sasuke then hit the sand clone with a strong open palm strike and destroyed it, freeing his arm. Sasuke went for a straight punch and Gaara's sand went to block it and Sasuke smirked. He vanished and Rock Lee realized Sasuke was using his moves against Gaara. Before Gaara's sand could react, Sasuke managed to punch him in the face and crack his sand armor.
"So, that's your sand armor, huh? Come on. If you won't, then I will!" Sasuke said
"You're starting to annoy me." Gaara said
"I'm going to tear off all your armor." Sasuke said
He ran at Gaara and ran around in circles to confuse Gaara's sand. Sasuke was as fast as Lee without his weights on at this point and it helped him get in close to Gaara. He managed to kick Gaara in the chin and then grab him by his shirt to knee him in the gut. After his little onslaught, Sasuke jumped back and smirked while he was breathing heavily.
"What's the matter, Gaara? Don't tell me that's all you've got." Sasuke said
"I'm going to kill you." Gaara said and then surrounded himself with twenty sand clones
Sasuke just smirked and ran at the sand clones to get them out of his way, but to his surprise, all of them started to fire shuriken at him. While he was able to dodge some of them, he was cut up quite a bit and Gaara grinned at the sight of Sasuke's blood. After ten minutes of running around and fighting the clones, Sasuke managed to get down to the last one, but he went for Gaara instead. Just before Sasuke could reach Gaara, the sand clone appeared in front of him and then Gaara was surrounded by a sphere of sand.
Sasuke, thinking he could just punch through the sand, was in for a rude awakening when a giant sand fist came from the circle and grabbed him. The fist started to slam Sasuke on the ground for a few moments before he was thrown away into the wall and coughed up blood. Sasuke grit his teeth and then his curse mark activated once again as he jumped up to the highest point on the wall. He went through some hand signs and then lightning appeared around his hand after a few seconds followed by a screeching noise.
Competitors booth
"Woah. That's one hell of a jutsu. I remember Kakashi-sensei using that jutsu before. What's it called?" Narumi asked
"It's called the Chidori. It's an A-rank jutsu that only me and Kakashi knew until just now." Naruto said
"Awesome. I want to learn it." Narumi said with stars in her eyes
"You can't." Naruto said
"Why the hell not?" Narumi asked
"Because you don't have the sharingan since it creates tunnel vision and you don't have a lightning chakra nature." Naruto said
"That sucks. How come you get all the cool jutsus? It's not fair." Narumi said
"Just learn the rasengan." Naruto said
"The rasengan isn't cool like that though." Narumi said
"The rasengan is the reason why the Chidori was even created. Besides, the rasengan is an incomplete jutsu anyway." Naruto said
"What do you mean?" Narumi asked
"I remember seeing dad try something with it when I was younger and when I asked mom what he was doing, she explained that he was trying to complete the rasengan. Hell, Kakashi made the Chidori because he failed to add his chakra nature to the rasengan." Naruto said
"I'm so learning that jutsu." Narumi said and Naruto noticed something
"Hey, where's Shizuka?" Naruto asked
"I don't know. I thought she was here already." Sakura said
"I could've sworn I saw her earlier." Narumi said
"Something's wrong. Where's Menma?" Naruto asked
"I don't know. He never showed up." Narumi said and Naruto went through hand signs to summon a wolf the same color as Fenrir
"Naruto? What is it?" The wolf asked
"Midnight, I need you to track this person down and come back to me when you find her." Naruto said and pulled out a cloth that had Shizuka's scent on it
"I'm on it." Midnight said and quickly ran away
"You can summon wolves?" Narumi asked
"Yes." Naruto said and turned back to the fight
Gaara vs Sasuke
Sasuke took off running down the wall with his curse mark pulsing and Chidori blazing. As he was running, the wall was destroyed a lot and he created a dust cloud when he hit the ground. Everyone was looking on in interest, but very few of them saw that the Chidori was unstable and he had little to no control over it. As he got closer, Gaara prepared the sand to defend him and that's when Sasuke went to stab him with the Chidori. Sasuke dodged sand tendrils Gaara sent at him and the Chidori pierced through the sand. At first silence was all around and then Gaara started to scream.
"MY BLOOD. IT'S MY BLOOD. I'LL KILL YOU SASUKE UCHIHA." Gaara yelled and then there was an explosion up in the Kage booth
Stands
"What's going on?!" Narumi asked
"It's an invasion. Narumi, go after Gaara." Naruto said
"Why?" Narumi asked
"Because he's about to release his tailed beast and with mom busy at the moment, only you have the chakra chains to prevent that from happening. I could do it, but I have something else to do." Naruto said and gathered a lot of chakra to summon more wolves
"What is it, Naruto?" A white wolf asked
"It's an invasion. I need all of you to spread out in the village and guard the civilians. Protect them as they get to the bunker and take out anybody who doesn't have on the Konoha headband or if they have on a blank anbu mask." Naruto said and all of the wolves vanished
"Naruto!" Kushina said
"Yeah?" Naruto asked, as he kicked away a sound shinobi
"I need you to head into the village. Protect the civilians." Kushina said
"I just sent my wolf summons out to help." Naruto said
"Where's Menma?" Kushina asked
"I don't know, but he probably has Shizuka and I'm going after him." Naruto said and ran away
"Mom, is Naruto going to kill Menma?" Narumi asked
"Go after Gaara and stop him. Take Sakura, Shikamaru and Shino with you." Kushina said
"Mom, you didn't answer my question." Narumi said
"I don't know, Narumi. We gave Menma plenty of chances to change, but he refused and was too far gone. I don't know what Naruto is going to do. Just go after Gaara and we'll deal with it later." Kushina said
Leaf village
The leaf village was a war zone right now with Suna, Sound and Danzo's men fighting everyone that wasn't on their side. Naruto was running through the village killing anybody that wasn't on his side in the war and at the same time he was saving civilians alongside his wolves. His sword was covered in blood and he looked like a menace out there. Midnight caught up to him and told him Shizuka was being held at the top of the hokage monument surrounded by blank masked anbu members so that's where he went. He finally arrived to see Menma standing there with a root uniform on and Shizuka badly beaten on the ground.
"So nice of you to finally join us, Naruto. I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up. I hope you like the little gift I have for you here. A shame that she really thought she could take me on and get back to the stadium. For years I played the fool and for years I've had to hide my true abilities from the world. No more. After I kill you, I'm going after that bitch of a mother as well and Shizuka will become my play thing." Menma said, as marks spread across his body and Naruto just smirked
"You didn't hide anything for years. Me, mom and Minato already knew about your little secret. You're only alive still because they wanted to change you and make you realize the error of your ways. Now, I have a mission to kill you and unlike you, nobody knows how good I really am. You're not special anymore so killing you won't harm the village." Naruto said and Menma smirked
"You forget that I have half of the nine tails inside of me. You kill me and I'll just release the nine tails in the village." Menma said
"You really are stupid. The day I came over for dinner wasn't something out of the good of my heart. It was for me to help remove the nine tails from you. If you don't believe me, check for the seal on your stomach." Naruto said and Menma did, but nothing happened
"Where is it?!" Menma asked
"Away from you. Now, a month ago I believe I told you that if you kept messing with me you'd fuck around and find out how dangerous I am. I gave you multiple chances and attacking Shizuka was the final straw." Naruto said
"Aww. Is the big bad Naruto afraid I hurt his little girlfriend?" Menma asked and kicked her in the face, but she was unconscious so she couldn't feel anything
"You fucked around and now it's time to find out what I'm about." Naruto said
As soon as Naruto said that, he disappeared and every member of the root anbu that were near his fell to the ground before going up in flames. Naruto then appeared in front of Menma who was shocked at how fast Naruto was and he was hit multiple times, but never saw Naruto move his body. Naruto was using his time-skip ability from his Mangekyo sharingan right now and he was just easily pummeling Menma.
Menma eventually stood up and charged at Naruto, but Naruto knew all of his moves thanks to his time fighting riot anbu members. Everything Menma threw at Naruto was blocked, dodged or perfectly countered. Menma used the fireball jutsu on Naruto who countered with his own which easily took out Menma's jutsu. Naruto wouldn't use any more ninjutsu since he just wanted to use his bare hands and embarrass Menma. It was already made up in his mind that Menma was going to die, but since Menma touched Shizuka which is something you just don't do, he was going to make him suffer.
"How are you doing this?! JUST LET ME KILL YOU." Menma yelled
"Your moves don't surprise me. You were trained by Danzo and all of his shinobi have the same fighting style. I've fought and killed so many root anbu that I know how to counter everything they throw at me." Naruto said
Menma grit his teeth and ran at Naruto again only for him to have a knee break his nose courtesy of Naruto. While Naruto would have loved to use the kotoamatsukami genjutsu on Menma, he already used it from both of his eyes during his fights with root members and he had to wait another 4 or 5 years before he could use it. Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a familiar swirling sound coming from Menma and saw he had a rasengan in the palm of his hand with a shadow clone stabilizing it.
"I should really thank Jiraiya for showing me this as a secret weapon. This is over!" Menma said
Menma ran at Naruto ready to take him out with the rasengan and Naruto went through a few hand signs making the Chidori come to life in his hand. He took off towards Menma and easily pierced through his rasengan since he added more power to his Chidori knowing the rasengan was stronger out of the two. The collision caused an explosion that could be seen anywhere in the village and once the smoke cleared, Naruto had his hand through Menma's heart killing him instantly, but somebody stabbed him through the chest with a kunai.
"You killed an important member for our plans and I had to return the favor." A voice said
"That's what you think." Naruto said, as he and Menma faded away only to appear a few feet away from the person, but Menma was still dead
"Genjutsu." The person muttered
"So, Kabuto. You managed to sneak back into the village." Naruto said, as he removed his hand from Menma's chest
"The leaf village has horrible protection in the village. It doesn't take much to sneak in here." Kabuto said and a huge roar was heard in the distance
"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked, as he saw a giant mutated beast destroying the village
"That would be the reason why Konoha will lose. Ta-Ta." Kabuto said and went up in smoke
"Dammit." Naruto said, as he sealed Menma's body and grabbed Shizuka before leaving
Battlefield
"EVERYONE GET BACK NOW." Iruka yelled as he was helping civilians
"HURRY UP. COME ON." Ino yelled
"What the hell is that thing?!" Choji asked, as he was being treated by a medic
"We don't know. It was summoned here in the village and it's destroying everything." The medic said and Kushina arrived
"This thing is tough. At most I can wrap it up in my chains again, but it'll be hard for me to do that." Kushina said
"Can lord fourth come help us?" The medic asked
"No. He's busy with Orochimaru and dealing with the past hokages. Orochimaru reanimated them and he's using them against Minato." Kushina said
"Lady Kushina, I tried to use my mind transfer jutsu, but I was kicked out." Inoichi said
"What? How is that possible?" Kushina asked
"This thing isn't just some sick experiment gone wrong. It's an actual human whose DNA was mutated by Orochimaru on purpose. I saw some of its memories and that was one of them." Inoichi said and everyone jumped away as the beast went on a rampage
"We need to move this thing out of the village." Kushina said, as she dodged a swipe of the beasts arm
"Do we really want to risk that? All of the civilians aren't out of the way yet and this thing is just destroying everything in its path. Other than the forest, this is the best place to deal with this beast since it's close to the training grounds." Inoichi said
"Mom!" Narumi said, as she ran over to her
"Narumi, where's Gaara?" Kushina asked
"Temari and Kankuro took him back to Suna. I managed to stop him from releasing his tailed beast." Narumi said and jumped away from the beast
"Where are the others?" Kushina asked
"Sakura was told to go help out at the hospital, Sasuke is out cold and that's a completely different story. Shikamaru is with Asuma and Shino was poisoned, but his dad is helping him." Narumi said
"Okay. You, Ino and Choji help Iruka with getting the rest of the civilians to the bunker. We'll take this thing down." Kushina said and the beast roared as it started to just destroy everything in sight
"This thing is out of control." Narumi said and the beast just started to sound like it was laughing
"This thing is actually having fun destroying our village." Kushina said and then the beast was stabbed in the chest by what seemed to be a metal rope with a sword attached to it
"Mikoto?" Kushina thought
All of a sudden Naruto came out of the sky and the beast threw its arm at Naruto who expertly dodged it and sliced the beast's arm off in multiple spots with Mikoto's swords. Naruto landed on a tree and then extended another sword that attached itself into the bottom of the beast's neck. The beast turned around to smack Naruto out of the air, but Naruto once again moved and cut out the beast's eyes. Naruto fell to the ground, but quickly recovered and cut both of the beast's ankles and knees bringing it down to the ground flat on its stomach.
"Woah." Ino said
"I wonder what pissed him off." Narumi said, as she watched Naruto jump onto the beasts back
"You seemed to be having a lot of fun destroying my village! Here, let me help you have some fun!" Naruto said
The beast swung its other arm around and Naruto cut that one off as well. After that was over with, Naruto proceeded to cut the beast multiple times before its head finally fell off of its shoulders and everyone that witnessed what happened was truly amazed. Before anything could be said, a sound shinobi jumped out of the forest.
"DIE KONOHA SCUM." The shinobi yelled and Naruto just shoved his sword through his mouth instantly killing him
"Uh. Are you okay?" Kushina asked
"I'm fine." Naruto said
"No, you're not. Nobody that is perfectly fine would savagely kill that beast and shove his sword through somebody's mouth." Ino said
"Perhaps you'd like me to revive the damn thing and let it destroy the village some more. If you're against killing then you should stop being a ninja since it's a part of the job. If not then shut up." Naruto said
"Where's Menma?" Narumi asked and Naruto showed her a scroll
"He's dead." Naruto said
"What happened?" Narumi asked
"He fucked around and found out." Naruto said
"You did this?!" Narumi asked
"Yeah." Naruto said
"How could you?! He was our brother!" Narumi said
"No, he was your brother." Naruto said and looked at a purple barrier that was at the chunin exam stadium
"Minato is in there fighting Orochimaru and the past hokages. Orochimaru reanimated them and now Minato has to fight them." Kushina said
"So just break the barrier and help him." Naruto said
"There is nothing that can help us. It's the four flames formation barrier with an extra one keeping the others behind it safe." Inoichi said
"It's a B-rank barrier. Just use something more powerful to destroy it." Naruto said
"We need a powerful ninjutsu that can break it. None of us have that kind of jutsu in our arsenal." Inoichi said
"You mean to tell me that you've been a ninja for twenty years and you don't know anything stronger than a B-rank ninjutsu?" Naruto asked
"I do, but the normal rasengan won't go through both of the barriers and you die if you touch one." Kushina said
"Fine. I'll do it." Naruto said and vanished
"What's he going to do?" Ino asked
"No idea." Kushina said
"Come on Ino, Choji. Let's go help with the village." Inoichi said and they left
"You're being awfully quiet." Kushina said
"He killed Menma." Narumi said and Kushina sighed
"I know. I tried my best to save Menma, but I couldn't." Kushina said
"There is no way Naruto was able to defeat you!" Narumi said
"That's not what I mean. I'll explain everything once this is over with, but right now we need to help finish taking out all of these foreign and illegal ninjas." Kushina said
Chunin exam stadium
Naruto arrived at the chunin exam stadium and it was hectic. Multiple wounded civilians, dead shinobi and the worst part was that the nobles were unguarded. Naruto looked around and saw Neji fighting off some sound ninja with Hinata, Kiba, TenTen and Shikamaru. He went over to them and started to help out until things died down in their area.
"Naruto!" TenTen said and she kicked away a sound ninja
"New plan. I can sense the anbu are on the way. Neji and Kiba, you need to guard the nobles since they're by themselves." Naruto said
"What about the wounded civilians?" Shikamaru asked
"You, Hinata and TenTen will gather them in a safe space away from fighting. I have wolves helping out so don't be afraid if some of them come to help you." Naruto said
"Wolves?" Shikamaru asked
"Don't worry about it. Just go do that and take this." Naruto said, as he tossed Hinata a scroll
"What is it?" TenTen asked
"Some medical supplies to at least patch up the civilians. Shikamaru can hold off any attackers with his shadow paralysis jutsu and you can finish them off while Hinata is helping the wounded." Naruto said
"Let's go." Neji said and ran off with Kiba
"For what it's worth, sorry we didn't get along in school." Shikamaru said
"I don't care. Just do your job and we'll call it even." Naruto said and looked up at the purple barrier
"Lord fourth is in there and nobody can break the barriers." TenTen said
"I'll handle it. Move out." Naruto said and went to the purple barrier
"Naruto Uzumaki, why are you not helping in the village?" An anbu member asked
"I just came from the village and the rest of your anbu members are on their way to help. I'm here to take out these barriers." Naruto said
"It's impossible to touch them. We tried and some of our team was burned to death instantly." The anbu member said
"I can handle this. You might want to step back. This can get a bit destructive." Naruto said and the anbu nodded
"Good luck." The anbu member said and they all jumped away
"Alright. Let's get rid of that barrier." Naruto said and started gathering chakra
"Hey, fuckface! The fuck are you doing?!" A red-haired girl asked
"Hm? Oh I'm about to get rid of this barrier. Who are you anyway?" Naruto asked
"I'm not fucking telling you." She said
"Fine. I'll introduce myself first. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?" Naruto asked and the girl froze as she remembered what Kabuto told her
Flashback
"Do you all remember the plan?" Kabuto asked and four people nodded
"Yeah. We got it. Is there anything else we need to do other than hold the barrier?" The red haired girl asked
"We'll keep the strongest in the village busy. So you don't have to worry about them. Everyone else is no threat." Kabuto said
"Piece of fucking cake then." The red head said
"Tayuya, it's unladylike to swear." A big round person said
"Shut the fuck up." Tayuya said
"Actually, there is one person you need to watch out for and I'd advise you to run away if you ever saw him." Kabuto said
"Who?" Tayuya asked
"His name is Naruto Uzumaki and we have no information on his skills. However, based on how he carries himself you'd think he was weak due to his tendency to give sarcastic remarks, but I can easily tell that he could easily defeat all of you and potentially defeat Kimimaro." Kabuto said
Flashback end
"Shit. Just my luck." Tayuya mumbled
"Hm? I couldn't hear you." Naruto said, as he gathered chakra
"My name is Tayuya." Tayuya said
"Tell me, Tayuya. Why did you join somebody like Orochimaru?" Naruto asked
"It's not like I had a fucking choice." Tayuya said
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked
"Nothing. Fuck off." Tayuya said
"Sorry, but I need to get rid of those barriers." Naruto said and chakra started to leak from his body
"W-Wait!" Tayuya said, but it was too late
Lightning of absolution
Everyone saw a giant bluish-green bird made of chakra form in the air and they knew Naruto was about to do something destructive. The giant bird in the air started firing lightning down towards the purple barriers at a rapid pace and everyone around just watched as the purple barriers were struck multiple times until they both eventually were destroyed. The four people keeping the barriers up were sent flying back and you couldn't see anything, but smoke until it eventually went away.
"What was that?" Minato asked and he heard coughing
"Whew. I should have jumped away before I blew this up." Naruto said
"Naruto? What are you doing here?" Minato asked and Naruto stood next to him
"Oh y'know. Just taking out sound ninja, sand ninja, root anbu, killing Menma and killing some stupid ass beast that tried to destroy the village. Nothing major. Oh and Kabuto ran away from me I guess." Naruto said
"This brat killed Menma and Danzo has seemingly failed. Perhaps I can get him on my side instead. He clearly has more potential than anybody else I've come across." Orochimaru thought and licked his lips
"So, what's going on here?" Naruto asked
"Orochimaru reanimated the first and second hokages. They're tough to defeat and I can only think of one way to defeat them." Minato said
"Using your superior speed to take them out?" Naruto asked
"It's not that simple." Minato said
"Actually it is. Do you really think Orochimaru would bring both the first and second hokage back to full strength? He wants their strength, but not at full strength. If he did that then he'd be dead right now because they would simply be too powerful for him to control. When they were regenerating, I saw a kunai in their head with a tag that means Orochimaru must be controlling them. If you remove those then he loses control over them and I know for a fact that you can handle Orochimaru by yourself." Naruto said
"Easier said than done. Tobirama is still fast." Minato said
"True, but he can't catch what he can't see. Close your eyes." Naruto said
"Alright." Minato said and closed his eyes putting his trust in Naruto
"Please, child. Do not think you can take me on by yourself. The logical thing for you to do would be to join me. Think about it, all the power and everything you desire could be yours in an instant. Someone of your potential will never reach their full might if they stay in this pathetic village." Orochimaru said
"I already have everything I desire in this village and you can't offer me anything. I don't desire power unlike you and everyone else that joined you. I desire peace. A world where people like you no longer exist. I know I'll never reach my full potential if I stay in this village and the last thing I'll ever do is join somebody like you." Naruto said and then the area around them went dark
"What is this?!" Orochimaru asked
"It's a genjutsu." Naruto said and Orochimaru saw his sharingan active
"The sharingan?!" Orochimaru thought
"You have one option and that's to cancel the reanimation jutsu." Naruto said
"You fool! I know how the bringer of darkness genjutsu works! Now, hand over those eyes!" Orochimaru said and lunged at Naruto
"Idiot." Naruto said as Orochimaru grabbed his face
"The sharingan is now mine!" Orochimaru said and then Naruto just reappeared
"You have one option and that's to cancel the reanimation jutsu." Naruto said
"You fool! I know how the bringer of darkness genjutsu works! Now, hand me those eyes!" Orochimaru said and lunged at Naruto
"Idiot." Naruto said as Orochimaru grabbed his face
"The sharingan is now mine!" Orochimaru said and Naruto just reappeared
"You have one option and that's to cancel the reanimation jutsu." Naruto said
"What's going on?!" Orochimaru asked, as he kept seeing and doing the same thing over again
"You have one option and that's to cancel the reanimation jutsu." Naruto said
Real world
"What's going on? He's just standing there now." Minato thought
"Not that we're in a rush or anything, but it would be best if you removed the kunai from their heads before the bringer of darkness genjutsu wears off." Naruto said
"Oh right." Minato said and quickly defeated the reanimated hokages, but their heads just regenerated
"That takes care of that." Naruto said
"Just one more to go." Minato said and created a rasengan in his hand
"No. You need to keep him alive." Naruto said
"What? Why?" Minato asked
"Because he's the only person who can break the reanimation jutsu since he's the caster." Naruto said
"How are we going to get him to do that?" Minato asked
"We aren't. He's going to do it himself." Naruto said and covered his left eye with his headband
"What do you mean?" Minato asked
"I didn't just place him under the bringer of darkness genjutsu. I placed him in an infinite loop that will only stop when he realizes his mistake and ends it." Naruto said
"A technique doesn't exist like that." Minato said
"Yes it does and it comes at the price of the sharingan." Naruto said
"How?" Minato asked
"It's a genjutsu not known to many that traps the user in an infinite time loop." Naruto said
"So he's just going to stand there until he finally undoes the reanimation jutsu?" Minato asked
"Pretty much." Naruto said and Minato just looked at him
"You really lost one of your sharingan eyes?" Minato asked and Naruto lifted his headband to reveal his blind eye
"Yup. A small sacrifice given the grand scheme of things." Naruto said and Minato chuckled
"I suppose you're right." Minato said and the anbu landed next to him
"Lord Hokage, are you alright?" The anbu asked
"Yes. We've got things covered here." Minato said
"Sir, is he still alive?" The anbu asked
"Yes. We can't touch him until he releases the reanimation jutsu. How did our defense plan go?" Minato asked
"Other than a few civilian and ninja casualties, everything went as planned. None of the nobles were harmed and your genin made sure to protect the civilians as they were moved to the bunker. The enemy has retreated after losing nearly all of their forces." The anbu said
"Get with cat and begin the collection of the casualties." Minato said
"Yes sir." The anbu said and vanished
"You still have one more problem." Naruto said
"What's that?" Minato asked and Naruto just pointed to his right
"Danzo is escaping the village." Naruto said and Minato sighed
"I can't risk it right now. I'll place him in the bingo book once we're done." Minato said and Orochimaru's hands started to move
"I see he finally realized the error of his plan." Naruto said, as the bodies of Hashirama and Tobirama started to disintegrate
"Yeah." Minato said
"SOUND FOUR RETREAT." Orochimaru yelled and vanished with the sound four
"I forgot about them." Naruto said
"Let's go help with the clean up." Minato said
It took almost 12 hours to gather everyone who lost their life in the invasion and Minato held the funeral that very night. While the casualties didn't reach the number he envisioned, Minato would've liked it if there were no casualties at all. Despite the casualties, Konoha still remained standing and once again proved that the will of fire remains strong.