Chapter 6
RAGE! ROAR!
Naruto's day had started out just as the last eight months had. He got up,ate a big breakfast of meat and fruit. With toast. Brushing his teeth came next. He then checked his gear for the day,making sure he had everything a ninja might need at moments notice. Two sealing scrolls with kunai,shuriken and four spools of ninja wire totaling one hundred fifty feet. He then got his clothes ready, his mesh armor a must since Kakashi-sensei liked throwing near-undodgeble kunai or shuriken. A long sleeve black shirt with a dark orange collar and cuffs. His pants a dark blue,with many pockets,all the better to hide things in.
He made sure to strap his Ninjato on his back with a flexible sheathe and harness to be drawn from the back. He went through a rigorous stretching routine,
who knows what those two sla-Sensei's would think of next. After his morning routine had been completed he made his way to the door. An errant thought crossed his mind,eight months ago he'd thought of his apartment as a place to sleep and nothing more. He turned to look at said apartment. It had changed.
For one he'd spruced it up. Put a fresh coat of paint on all the walls, after doing the necessary prep-work of sanding,pacthing,sanding agian and finally priming then painting. His living room a light coffee color, his room a dark blue. The couch was still old and comfy,but he had replaced the chairs and tables. Nice solid mahogony,straight from Tetsu no Kuni. B-rank missions paid very well. He set his traps all four now lethal. His lock had been changed if someone want in they weren't some random drunk. They'd have to break in,and that was strictly outlawed for any reason. He then set off towards training ground thirty-five.
Meeting Sasuke and Sakura enroute. "Morning. What do ya'll think were .." Naruto yawned then contiued "Think were gonna be doing today?"
Sasuke scoffed lightly.. "You don't remeber what Kakashi-Sensei and Hiro-Sensei said yesterday do you? They have that meeting today... It's why we could sleep in." He looked at Naruto with a small grin. Naruto thought back to the day before,he vaugely rembered something about a Council meeting. He merely shrugged his shoulders. Sakura chuckled at his short attention span. Give Naruto techniques and training his mnd was a steel box. Tell him about politics and he almost willfully forgot. " We're going to be working on Team strategy,then to put it in to a more vicseral perspective we gonna spar with a couple Chunin Kakashi-Sensei and Hiro-Sensei picked out for us. They want us to work on collabaration Techniques. So we don't get caught off guard like with Tsukune in Kyusoku no sokutsu." Sakura finished filling Naruto in. She rembered that day. It was the day that earned their spots in the bingo book. She was almost tempted to look at it again. Who took those pictures? Where did they hide to do so? She'd asked Kakashi-Sensei and he had told her if she figured that out the Hokage would pay her a S-rank missions pay. One day she would, but not today. Sasuke, was thinking about today's line up of training. Fighting against higher level opponents. Check. Going through the exhausting process of trying not to stab the idiots at the barbecue place,They'd agreed on barbecue today as lunch,when they gave Naruto shit ,check. Working on a three way elemental technique that was surely to devastate a large portion of the training ground. Hell yeah, check. So in Sasuke's not so humble opinion today was going to be good. The fact that he had to deal with idiotic civiliains notwithstanding. They made it to the training ground with some time to spare. Good, it would give Sasuke the time to plan his actions in the upcoming spar. Well as best he could anyway,mostly idea's of things to do... Then he saw a piece of paper nailed to a tree a la kunai.
"Mendokse..." great now he sounded like a Nara. He approached the paper. It read: Team Seven, the spar was canceled due to the fact that Chunin Mizuki is a pussy and Chunin Danimaki is sick. Instead you will be furthering your elemental manipulation. That's right Sasuke! Now, in the scrolls in the seal at the bottom of this note are the exercise's to begin and master stage two nanipulation. Be Warned though the training is going to push your chakra to it's limit. Also you have to be outside of the village for this training. Why you might ask Sasuke? Because I say so. Now hop to it our cute little min... Genin. Ps. One of the scrolls has a map of the area we want you three to go to.
Naruto's eye was twitching violently as Sasuke read the note aloud. "How do they always know who's gonna read the fucking notes?" Naruto fumed comically.
He refused on principle to believe they could see the future. Sakura rolled her eyes at her teammates antics. "Did they say we have to go to the area or was that a suggestion?" She asked. Sasuke handed her the note. She read it three time's to be sure. Naruto was looking over her shoulder,when had he gotten taller than her? His eyes lit up. " I know a place a little further out. It's got everything we need for training our Elements." he stated happily. Sasuke and Sakura agreed to go to his spot.
They would look back on that choice as an unfortunate positive. The three took off.
Naruto's instints screamed at him to stop. He had been in front so he gave the 'halt' sign. His two teammates immediately noticed the shift in behavior. "What?" Sasuke whispered. Instead answering verbally Naruto started using Konoha's sign langauge. ' I sense unkown ninja's' then ' alot of them'.
Sasuke felt the adrenaline hit his veins like a bolt of lightning. He activated his Sharingan. HOLY FUCK! That was a lot of unknown chakra signatures. He rapidly signed back ' We need to back up NOW' then 'Naruto make a clone to find and warn our Sensei.' Naruto did as instructed. Sakura's eyes went wide as she dodged a stab from a tanto. The person who tried to kill her died via Naruto cutting his arm off with his Ninjato then stabbing the man through his mouth, he'd opened to scream,and out the top of his skull. The fight was on. Team Seven knew fighting the many Ninja they sensed was tantamount to suicide so they retreated,
while fighting. "Naruto! W.O.H!" Sasuke barked out. Winds of Hell. A scorched earth technique. They'd developed it under the watchful eye of Kakashi. Naruto grinded his chakra against itself then pouring a signifigant portion of his reserves into the attack, after the nine hand-signs, muttered Fuuton:Fujin Gekido Hoko. A wall of slicing wind met Sasuke's Katon: HinoKami No fukushu, a concaved wave of flames. The two attack work in harmonious symphony. A directed blast killed no less then ten enemy ninja. Who Sakura identified as wearing Iwa headbands. Sakura weaved throught the repeated attempts to stab or slashes that a very large Iwa-nin had been making towards her. Every time she tried hand-signs he pressed his attack. Well she had just killed three of his comrades in short order so... She would have to use the one Genjutsu that needed only two. To do so she needed to get a step or two away then create,movement then sound with an application of near perfectly controlled chakra. She faked a hand-sign then threw the shuriken in her hand at the mans face. He predictably dogded,but that allowed her to create the necessary space for he technique.
Sakura snapped her fingers while shifting her feet. She flashed through the two signs and muttered Ninpo: Danamashi Saigo no Chosho. The man blitzed forward,not feeling the finely woven chakra, weave and twist through the air. Sakura though had made a grave miscaculation. She would in seconds see why. The man upon getting close enough stabbed with his katana which was dogded,but the intial attack was a feint. He slashed upwards and sliced through Sakura's throat, the girl foolishly screamed wasting her last breath,he grinned, turning to go towards one of the two boys.
He realized his vison was darkening and he looked down as a hand potruted through his chest from behind holding a eight inch long section of his spine. The girl re-appeared five meters away,unharmed, looking absolutley shocked. Then a demonic voice whispered in his ear "That was for Sakura, you piece of shit!"
Sakura saw how she messed up. Naruto had been in the scope of her Genjutsu. Since it was her chakra he had probably thought nothing of it, and then continued fighting. She had added the sound of her screaming to spruce it up, to fool the Iwa-nin. God damnit. Naruto heard her die. Well the fake her die. The Kyuubi's chakra exploded from him,a literal storm of chakra saturated the air. His killing intent washed over her, making her forget how to breathe and stand for a split second. She saw The Shroud form, one...two...three tails came with it. Naruto turned to where the enemies were coming from. He Roared. The tree's groaned under the force, the ground shook from the sound. He vanished. Sounds of fighting could be heard. Sasuke appeared at her side. "What the fuck?" was how he eloquently asked for a sitrep. She explained as best she could as fast as she could. "We have to help him,even with the Kyuubi he can't fight that many alone. A stray arm flew by without an owner flew by showering them both with blood droplets. "THIS IS FOR SAKURA, I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" A pit formed in Sakura's stomach. She was going to have to make this up to him somehow. Sasuke sighed, his teammates,while he was fond of them,were stupid as hell sometimes.
" How are we going to help? He has three tails Sasuke! Three!" Sakura asked while bringing up Doton: Doryuheki,making a four foot tall and one foot thick wall to block the fireball an Iwa-nin lauched at them. Sasuke flashed away, a wet gurgle then a crunch was heard and he was back.
Naruto was furious. At these Iwa asshole's and himself. He'd failed to protect a teammate. An enemy tried to crush him with an earth technique that Naruto blew apart. A swipe of Naruto's clawed hand removed the mans liver from his abdomen,a quick second later Naruto tore his head off with a single hand and with said hand threw the head at his foes. "THIS IS FOR SAKURA,I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" Then he Roared again. His rage pulling more of the Kyuubi's chakra out. A crimson shockwave came from the roar as a wall of force knocking some of the younger Iwa-nin to the ground. He charged tearing into the enemy ninja with abandon. A swipe of his claws was death for any that got too close. He punched through one's head like wet rice paper. Naruto felt someone approaching him from behind, he felt their chakra smoldering. 'Good. Sasuke's here. Now we can wreck these fuckers.' He was right it was Sasuke who flashed through the hand-seals for his attack. "Katon: Goukakyu!" Sasuke had poured a third of remaining chakra into the attack which was dodged by all enemies save for two. Naruto had left one of those two trying to put his guts back into the gaping hole in his belly. The other was just caught off guard. "Naruto! Sakura's alive! Let move back to the village!" Sasuke pleaded. Looking around he saw the havoc his friend had wrought amongst the enemy. Who had been caught flat footed not expecting Konoha's jinchuriki to be outside the village walls. Sasuke looked at his teammate. Sakura landed next to him. "Naruto let's go now please."
Naruto rembered what Garra-chan had told him. He needed to have an iron will to control the Kyuubi's chakra or it would control him. He gathered his wits and took a deep breath. The cloak beagn pulling in the tails until only one remained. He nodded and they tore away from the regrouping enemy force. On their arrival back to the main road,a wonderful sight greeted them. Kakashi along with Might Guy and numerous other Konoha-nin.
Kakashi was instructing the fifty ninja with him with his Genin broke through the foliage,running hard towards them. Now,usually he'd say a predetermined line to all of them to which they would each give a different but also predetermined answer. He saw Naruto in his one tailed Fox Shroud and saw this as unecessary. They must've missed the Hokage, Hiro and the two Anbu platoons heading towards the enemy. Naruto worked on further diffusing the Kyuubi's chakra. It took him a minute. That destroyed his previous record of three minutes eighteen seconds. "Genin Uchiha,Uzumaki and Haruno report" He barked out. Sasuke took one look at Kakashi,then his Sharingan spun. Kakashi found himself reliving or seeing the day from Sasuke's perspective.
On the outside it looked like Sasuke sighed then looked at his Sensei. Who for ten seconds would randomly tense or flinch. "Ah I see. Well, Guy I was right a full battalion. You three report to the Council chambers immediatley. We will have this sorted out in a short while. As Team Seven's Genin ran back to village they heard Kakashi say" Was a full battalion Naruto and Sasuke thinned the ranks nicely."
Two weeks later. Sasuke had been having horrible dreams of the events of the would-be invasion. The enemy had eventually retreated after the Hokage had killed their commander. A S-rank Iwa Jounin, Tenki Danamaku. Apparently the man could barely keep up with the old Hokage. But even with the knowledge that Konoha had literally stopped an invasion before a single enemy ninja made it inside the walls, wasn't enough for Sasuke's phsyce. He sighed exasperated. This would not do, not at all. Time to go see his friends. He did get a chuckle rembering how Sakura proved to Naruto she was real. A smooch on the lips followed by a smack upside the back of his head. Naruto's dumbfounded exspression would amuse him for a long time. He hated be put on "Administrative Leave" or as Naruto so eloquently put it " A bunch of Bullshit." Well the Hokage's orders are not to be ingored so... After putting on,ugh,civilian clothes he made is way towards Sakura's house. He took to the rooftops. The wind rushing through his hair,the small but important use of chakra and the feeling of exertion was some of the things that made being a ninja worthwhile. Well that amoungst a magnitude of other things. He landed in front of his kunoichi teammates house. He remebered the way from when he had to carry her home. Approaching the door he made a snap decision. He knocked four times. He heard someone shout " I got it Mebuki", ah Sakura's father Sakuno. An affable man. Knew numbers as well as ninja know killing. "Hello Sasuke! Come to call on Sakura?" Sakuno asked nicely, the man also talked with a strange lilt in his speech patterns. "Yes, may I speak with her?" Sasuke months ago would've been demanding. His Sensei's literally and figuratively beat it out of him. " Yes I'll send her down,would you like to come in?" The man replied. "No, thank you, but I have to be somewhere else shortly." Sasuke replied in the negative. " No problem she'll be here soon." Sakuno walked up the stairs to his daughters room. "Honey, one of your team is here to see you." He then left her to her own devices as she clearly scrambled to become presentable.
Sasuke did not wait long. Sakura came down the stairs,quickly. "Do we have a mission? I think I'm going crazy not doing anything." She said looking bored as could possibly be. " No. I have decided to take our team out to dinner. Meet us at the Gold Dragons Hearth at seven thirty." Sasuke stated calmly. Sakura's eye's went wide as dinner plate's. "Sasuke, I can't afford their appatizers." She muttered. "Did I say you would be paying? No, I said I would take you and the rest of our team out. Be there. Seven thirty. Or I'll Naruto to come get you."
He'd defiently follow through on that if she made him. He nodded and turned around. He then realized something. He knew where Naruto and Hiro-Sensei lived. Hiro-Sensei was training him and Naruto in fuinjutsu. He had no clue where Kakashi-Sensei lived. Making the "Lion" hand-sign he created three Kage Bushin. Two to go notify the Uzumaki's of his plan for the evening,one to tell the Hokage of afore mentioned plans then to somehow have his scare-crow looking Sensei notified. He felt the immense chakra drain. Damn How much Chakra did Naruto have? Sasuke had seen him create about eighty before. He didn't even have the decency to fake being tired after it. Dick. Tonight would be one to remeber.
Sasuke was right. It would be. For all the right reasons.