Gallivanting God
Chapter 9
Naruto quickly let Karin down to the ground and pulled Sasuke out the bushes to check on him. His breath was shallow whilst the Uchiha's faced twitched involuntarily every now and then. Naruto then turned Sasuke on his side, thinking that the position would allow for easier breathing, which would help somewhat. The blonde couldn't see anything wrong with Sasuke whatsoever.
"Karin-chan, are you sure? If there is anything going on I can't see it?" The blonde turned to his left to look at his clanmate.
"Yes! I can still feel it going on!" She affirmed vehemently. Naruto then fixed his sight back on Sasuke. If it wasn't anything obvious then he had to inspect thoroughly. Swiftly manhandling the Sharingan-User and taking off his T-Shirt, Naruto heard Karin "eep" and the shuffling of her feet. The blonde paid it no mind, as immediately after removing Sasuke's shirt, he saw what the high collar had been hiding. A sealing array had implanted itself onto Sasuke's neck. Using "Analyse" Naruto could only find its name. "The Cursed Seal of Heaven" was the name of this Seal.
"You're lucky to have me Sasuke. I'll get this thing off in a flash!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin on his face. The blonde could see the layered sealing arrays making up the "Tomoe" appearance of it. During his two months, Naruto had finished all the books that had been left to him by the Uzumaki ancestor. The blonde had practiced every note that he read in that book and by the end, at the age of 13, Naruto was a full-fledged Seal Master. There was no need for another to check the seals he made, for his ancestor had fully prepared and taught him. That same Uzumaki Ancestor had also left Naruto a message, that there was no such thing as an impenetrable sealing array. Naruto carefully analysed the components of the Cursed Seal, although to Karin it just looked like he was looking at Sasuke's neck.
"Hmm, so first of all, there's a Chakra Storage and Converter Seal in the first part, that's the main Array, underneath consists of rudimentary Torture Seals. Then there's Chakra Sensors applied into them to activate the torture seals when the victim uses their own Chakra." The blonde looked over the components of the Array carefully, deducing all that he could see.
"Next, in the second Array. A Seal with an application similar to my Prisoner Seal. But instead of forcefully and instantly erasing the conscious and will of a person like mine does, this erodes them as they use the Chakra in the Storage Seal from the first part. Then, a Loyalty Seal to make the target of this a servant to the caster." Naruto then moved his vision to the last Tomoe.
"And in this one. Hmm? A Chakra Storage and Converter Array again, but the symbols used are not for Physical and Spiritual Energy? Instead, it uses the characters for "Nature" and "Environment". What the hell is that supposed to do…? Although, Chakra is in everything… so I suppose it's not too far fetched to assume you could take that from nature. But the human body is incredibly different than the atmosphere and even trees and plants. Taking Chakra that is unsuited for that kind of vessel, could be fatal. And this Sub-Array, it's a glorified fail-safe comprised of hundreds of tinier Seals. If anyone other than the caster of this Seal tries to break it, the victims' Chakra coils will be flooded with Chakra until they explode. Whilst the one trying to break the Seal will have their body pumped full of the Chakra in the seal, killing them too."
The blonde was about to stand up and prepare to make a key for it, until he noticed something else.
"A chained sub-array! It connects to all three of the subsidiaries of the Cursed Seal. This one seems to "Corrupt" the users Chakra with the Casters'. Was this what Karin was talking about when she said Sasuke's Chakra was getting "darker"? Either way, I'm glad I spotted it, because this one also has a failsafe built into it, to crush the mind of the victim…!" Naruto rolled his right sleeve up. In his mind, Naruto quickly went over the aspects of the Cursed Seal and began to knead the Chakra into his hand. His thumb, index and middle finger began to glow with yellow Chakra as the Kanji, for "Shatter", "Purify" and "Liberation" appeared on each digit respectively. A multitude of Kanji and Formula began to spawn from the blondes fingers all the down to his elbow and up to the shoulder.
"The number of Seals I have to counteract here makes this super long. But it's all good, with this Sasuke is saved!" Naruto then placed the solution onto the Cursed Seal of Heaven, and activated it by turning his fingers anti-clockwise. Naruto watched as the Cursed Seal flared, then dulled as the Uzumaki's script poured over his hands, and into the Cursed Seal itself, slowly unravelling it. Suddenly, Naruto felt the Cursed Seal trying to pour it's chakra into his coils. Knowing this would happen, another component that was left on Naruto's hand activated, quelling the invading chakra instantly. Within thirty seconds, the Cursed Seal was gone from Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto stood up and wiped the sweat on his brow. Looking over to Karin who was looking at him with wide eyes he grinned and flashed a thumbs up. Karin let out an "uwah" sound, a sign of her awe. The blonde created two more Shadow Clones and had them pick up his downed teammates. With another 3km's left, and Naruto's new Jonin level speed it would only take him another two minutes to reach the central tower. Going back over to Karin, Naruto swept her off the ground, making the redhead squeak again.
"Alright, Karin-chan, let's finish this part of the exam!" Karin nodded as she put her arms around his neck, something the redhead found necessary as the blonde moved at such an intense pace. Immediately, Naruto dashed off towards the tower. Arroving soon after, the blonde blew a sigh of relief as he reached his objective. Finally, no more interruptions. Letting his clanmate down, Karin stood back from him. Her hands cupped together behind her back; the redhead smiled at him.
"Thank you, so much Naruto! I don't think I would have been alive right now if it weren't for you!"
"Yeah, I just got lucky is all." The blonde scratched the back of his head, before displaying a serious face. Placing his hand on Karin's shoulder, the blonde spoke. "I'm gonna do everything I can to get you into Konoha, Karin. I promise, ya know." The blonde was hugged again by his clanmate, which this time he returned it instantly. After talking more for a little bit, Naruto erased the Prisoner Seals on her teammates, causing them to succumb to the pain they had been feeling this whole time, knocking them unconscious.
Naruto let Karin go in the tower first. Telling his clones to sit Sasuke and Sakura down, they did so and then dispelled. The blonde then took out a bottle of water from a storage seal on his bicep, this was where he kept Emergency Rations. Naruto threw the water over his teammates' faces. Sasuke woke up instantly and saw Naruto in front of him. Sakura stirred, but did not wake up instantly like the Uchiha did.
"Yo, Sleeping Beauty, enjoy your nap?" Naruto grinned at the Last Uchiha, who immediately clutched at his neck, feeling a phantom pain. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that, I got rid of it." Sasuke's eyes widen before staring at Naruto in clear surprise.
"You got rid of it? I didn't even know what it was? All I remember was fighting that… thing… I think the name they gave me was-"
"Orochimaru." Naruto finished with steel in his voice. It was a very serious thing that the Snake of the Legendary Three had infiltrated Konoha.
"Yeah, that was his name! How did you know?" Sasuke looked at the blonde entirely, noticing blood had spilled on his Kimono along with something else he couldn't identify. "Did you fight him!?" Naruto looked towards Sasuke and shook his head whilst chuckling.
"Nah, just some guys from the Sound Village…" Naruto left the statement to hang in the air as he saw Sakura's eyes flutter open. The pinkettes body ached all over, she felt the cold touch of something on her back. Gingerly sitting herself up, Sakura rubbed the crust out of her eye, allowing for a proper cone of vision. The first thing she saw was both her teammates looking at her, Naruto grinning and Sasuke smiling lightly.
"Hey Sakura, welcome back. Nice fight by the way." Naruto gave her a thumbs up, causing Sakura to remember that feeling of asphyxiation. She had lost, to her Rival. Tears welled up in the corners of her lashes. The kunoichi quickly wiped them away.
"Man, it stings losing…" Sakura spoke in a low voice, to which Sasuke smirked at her. Not a cocky or haughty one, rather, that of a senior disciple finally seeing their junior understand the love for their practice. Naruto smiled at her too.
"Then that just means you've got to get stronger for the next time, right Sakura?" Sasuke asked her, causing Sakura to look at him wide eyed before nodding her head and smiling.
"Alright, enough chit-chat! Let's clear this test!" Naruto showed them the scrolls he had kept on them. Both Sasuke and Sakura stood up and walked to the double door to their right. A tag of paper was in the middle of them, but Naruto didn't bother reading it and pushed on ahead. Inside the room was nothing, just a few pillars supporting walkways above. At the back of the room on the wall, was a message written in ink. Team 7 all walked towards it, each reading the message to themselves.
If "Heaven" does not exist, enrich your knowledge and prepare for the chance. If "Earth" does not exist, run the fields in search of an advantage. Open the series of Heaven and Earth and the perilous way shall be redressed. This is namely the secret of the one that guides _
All three members of the squad noticed the missing letter. They decided to confer.
"Aside from the message up there, what do you guys think we should be doing here?" Sasuke started the discussion.
"Maybe we should open the scrolls? I mean, the message does refer to both the characters on the scrolls." Sakura offered her solution to the problem, referencing the "Heaven" and "Earth" Kanji.
"Yeah, I'm with Sakura on this one. That Psycho Lady did say not to open the scrolls until we were here." Naruto backed Sakura's suggestion. The three members of the team all nodded. Naruto handed the "Earth" scroll to Sakura whilst he opened the "Heaven" scroll. Unfurling them, Sakura noticed the Kanji for "Person" written inside of it, whilst Naruto had already thrown his down on the floor.
"Might wanna put that on the ground by the way, it's a Summoning Scroll." Naruto calmly told Sakura who in turn panicked comically, dropping it on top of the other scroll. Smoke then poured out, shrouding what was inside it. Soon enough the gas cleared revealing a familiar figure to Team 7.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in recognition, which made the Chunin smile. Iruka then stepped forward. He was quite surprised, it had been a little under four hours since the exam had started, and Naruto's team was now the third to pass.
"It's nice to see you all again, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Nice job on clearing the second part this fast, to be honest, it's quite unexpected." Iruka took out the pocket watch from his flak and looked at the time. "3 hours and 30 minutes, that's really impressive guys!" Iruka grinned at the three of them, triggering the same reaction from Team 7. Iruka looked over at Naruto, it was his first time seeing the blonde in this new outfit. It was certainly different and far tamer in comparison to his last wardrobe selection.
"Hey, Iruka-sensei, what's the message up there mean?" The blonde pointed to the inked message behind the Chunin.
"Ah, that's actually one of my duties to explain that to you! In the opening of it, "If Heaven does not exist enrich your knowledge" , basically, if you lack intelligence, train your mind on different logics for your mission parameters. Similarly, in the second part, "If Earth does not exist, run the fields in search of an advantage", if you lack the strength, train your body every day. To put it all together-"
"Oh! I get it! Basically, if you lack either "Heaven" or "Earth", you run the risk of failure, but if you have both, you can be better prepared to handle anything, right?" Sakura spoke up, which Iruka nodded in affirmation of her conclusion.
"That's right Sakura! Once again, I'd like to congratulate you all on passing the second exam of the Chunin Selection Exams!" Iruka had expected Sakura and Sasuke to have a reserved showing of victory and was not surprised by that coming true. What surprised him was Naruto also having that same kind of reaction. Thinking of the blonde again, Iruka couldn't help but be worried.
"Listen you guys, I think it's fantastic that you guys all passed… but be careful in the Third Exam. It could be rea-"
"Iruka-sensei, we stopped being Academy Students the moment we put these headbands on." Sasuke interrupted the scarred teacher, pointing his thumb to his Hitai-ate.
"You don't have to worry about us, Sensei." Sakura continued, grinning.
"After all, Iruka-sensei. You're the one who gave me this, right?" Naruto pointed at the headband on his left bicep. "Ever since that day, we've all been real Shinobi!" Team 7 grinned with determination at Iruka, who was stunned.
"I still don't believe it to be right! To let Rookie's like that take these exams, Anko-san could you not pull them out of the Exam?" Iruka pleaded to the proctor of the second exam as she sat behind her desk, a disgruntled and bored expression replacing her usually impassive face.
"I think you're worrying way too much, Iruka. They're already Shinobi. You don't need to baby them anymore."
"They are not your students anymore, Chunin. They are my soldiers." Kakashi levelled Iruka with the most serious gaze he could muster at that moment, further cementing the situation between them.
"Y-yeah, you're right. You're already proud Shinobi of Konohagakure aren't you?" Iruka smiled at them. His mind was now settled and had come to terms with the fact he couldn't coddle Naruto any longer. "If you need medical attention, just go through the door there and follow the signs." Iruka gestured to the door on his left, which Sasuke and Sakura both went towards, whilst Naruto remained with Iruka.
"Iruka-sensei?" The blonde stepped closer towards his old teacher.
"What is it, Naruto?" Iruka saw the serious expression on Naruto's face and could only wonder what the blonde wanted to say.
"I need you to take me to the old man. I know he's in here, I can sense his Chakra right now." That threw Iruka for a spin, Naruto was a Sensor Ninja?
"Why do you need to see Sandaime-sama Naruto?" Naruto's expression became gravely serious.
"It's a matter of National Security, Sensei."
Iruka had escorted Naruto to the top of the tower, where the Hokage was at the moment. Along the way, Naruto had also gotten Iruka to bring along the other Jonin from the Leaf who were present in the tower. The blonde did not say a word to anyone, only giving brief nods as a greeting. Now, Naruto, Iruka and the Jonin teachers of the Rookie Nine - and Gai - were in the room.
"What is it, Iruka? Why have you brought everyone here, including Naruto-kun?" The Third queried the Chunin.
"Yes, Sandaime-sama. The reason I have gathered everyone here is actually at Narutos' behest. Naruto said he had something important to tell you." The Third looked over the blonde, seeing the expression on his face, the old Kage couldn't help seeing the ghost of Namikaze Minato overlap with Naruto.
"And of what level of importance did Naruto say it was?"
"Of National importance, Sir!" That statement got everyone to tense up, Hiruzen shifted his focus to Naruto and nodded to him, giving him the go ahead to speak.
"Gramps, the Security of the Village has been compromised." Naruto started concisely as he stepped forward. The Third sent the blonde a questioning look.
"Explain yourself, Naruto. What do you mean, compromised?"
"Orochimaru, of The Legendary Three has infiltrated Konoha and the Chunin Selection Exams." Naruto could hear the shocked gasps of the people behind him. Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, a wistful expression washing over his wrinkled visage. The conversation behind Naruto, between Asuma and Kurenai picked up, trying to deduce what the Snake-User was in the village for, but Hiruzen's stare made them stop.
"Do you have any information regarding his motives? Are there any of his suboordinates who have infiltrated as well?"
"Yeah, Orochimaru came for the Sharingan." Everyone knew, that meant he was after Sasuke. "And he succeeded, when I found Sasuke again, after having been blown away by one of Orochimaru's Jutsu, there was a strange seal on his neck."
"The Cursed Seal of Heaven, my goodness. And what of Sasuke-kun? Did he show any side effects from the Curse Mark?" This was grave news, to have the Last Uchiha be marked by Orochimaru would be horrible, for multiple reasons. Hiruzen felt cold sweat drip down his head.
"Oh, nah. I removed it after I saw it." Naruto stated simply, boggling everyone with his words. Hiruzen looked over Naruto with a stern glare.
"This is not the time for jokes, Naruto! Being marked by that Curse Seal is a cruel fate! Not even our foremost Seal Master could remove it from previous victims!"
"Then you must have some second-rate Seal Master then, what's their name?" Hiruzen was baffled by the blonde's attitude. The boy spoke like he knew of the Sealing Arts in and out.
"Jiraiya of The Legendary Three. Would you care to subtract your earlier statement now, Naruto-kun? Your joke has gone on far too long." The Third's gaze had lost it's intensity from before, but not the authority. Naruto extracted an empty scroll from his pouch and placed it on the desk The Third was seated at. Quickly drawing a Square box on it, Naruto wrote seals into the square at such speed that Hiruzen was taken off guard. Finishing the square, Naruto channelled Chakra into the same three digits on his right hand again. The Third watched in great surprise as Sealing formula appeared on the blondes hand and down his arm. Then, Naruto transferred the key into the scroll.
"Believe me now? That's the Key to breaking the Cursed Seal of Heaven." The Jonin behind Naruto crowded around him to see it for themselves. Hiruzen couldn't stop the awe and shock fluttering into his eyes. "I called Jiraiya Second-Rate 'cuz there ain't no one better at seals than the Uzumaki, ya know!" Naruto declared with pride, making Hiruzen stare at the blonde. Collecting himself, Hiruzen moved everyone away from the table.
"Alright, Naruto-kun. For the moment I will believe you. When I see Sasuke-kun's condition and confirm the seal is not there, I will call you back up here. Was there anything else you'd like to report to me?" Hiruzen smiled at the boy in front of him. That Key had so much Sealing countermeasures in it, Hiruzen had lost count after the 70s.
"Yeah, you asked if anymore had infiltrated with him. There were two. One was a Chunin from The Hidden Sound village, the other was a Jonin." Everyone was now prepared to school their emotions, there was bound to be more shocking details in this report. "I found them disguised as Genin from The Hidden Grass. They were about to kill the other Genin Team from the Hidden Grass before I stepped in." The Hokage waited to admonish the blonde. He was lucky to escape alive from that encounter. Naruto looked over his shoulder to Kakashi and winked at him.
"I labelled the Jonin too much of a risk to interrogate, so I assassinated him using the Chidori." Naruto scratched his scalp. "Man, if I hadn't taken him by surprise I probably would have died!" Naruto laughed at the situation whilst the Jonin behind him look at the Jinchuriki in shock and then at Kakashi, who smiled at them. Despite the exceptional Shinobi Hiruzen had bore witness to in his life, the aging leader gaped, his pipe clattering on the desk below him. Uzumaki Naruto, a Genin three months out the academy, who graduated at the bottom of his class, successfully assassinated a Jonin. Slowly getting over his surprise, Hiruzen ran his hands down his face, deeply exhaling.
"Continue." Was the command of the Hokage.
"Oh yeah, uh, because I put Paralysing and Chakra Restraining Seals on the Jonin and Chunin before using the Chidori, it was really easy to capture the Chunin. I sent my Shadow Clones to interrogate him. Really all they did was use my Prisoner Seal to get information from him."
"Prisoner Seal?" Naruto heard the questioning tone from Asuma Sarutobi behind him.
"Yeah, I made it myself. It forcefully removes the "Prisoners" will and consciousness and makes them respond to any command I give them." The Jinchuriki couldn't hide the look of disappointment on his face when no one was surprised by that. "Anyway, after that I helped out the team they were trying to kill, and then tried to rendezvous with my team. When Orochimaru hit me with that Wind Jutsu he used, it separated me roughly 4km from my team. On the way back to that location, I encountered the real Genin Team from the Hidden Sound. I quickly dealt with them before interrogating them too. They were all ordered by Orochimaru, to kill Uchiha Sasuke."
"To kill him? Then why did Orochimaru mark him with the Cursed Seal?" Hiruzen questioned, he knew the Cursed Seal was highly likely to kill someone as it was being applied. But The Professor also knew his wayward student. There was no way he would try to kill one of the few remaining Uchiha like that.
"Dunno Gramps, that's everything I found out pertaining to Orochimaru. Oh wait, forgot to mention, he's the Leader of The Hidden Sound Village. That's everything." The blonde grinned to the Hokage. The aging leader smiled back at Naruto. Everyone in the room was already changing their opinion of Naruto. It was up to the opinion of the Chunin and Jonin in the village to judge the quality of Ninja in the Chunin Exams. Everyone, including Hiruzen, had thought Naruto had already displayed exceptional feats. They believed the teen was ready to be promoted already but would also have to see how he performed in the Third Exam.
"Thank you for that information Naruto-kun. You can go back to your team now and rest until the Second Exam is over." Naruto looked at the Jonin behind him, then towards the Hokage, who took note of his actions.
"Actually Gramps… There's something I need to talk to you about, personally."
AN: Right, so really quickly. Saw some guys saying it was unreasonable for Naruto to take that long at Jonin speed. I knew that, but I felt like if I had made him do it shorter some people would find it hard to believe. I have ammended that statement in the previous chapter.
Moving on. To the Reviewer "Shortmike24". Are you a fucking idiot? Out of everything, you think Orochimaru, who was at the Top of the Narutoverse(In Part 1) couldn't send a 40kg kid flying with a powerful wind Jutsu? Jiraiya poked Naruto in the head, with no enhancements and sent him flying several dozens of metres. Naruto throws Shuriken in water, in the bell test right after graduation, and they are unpeturbed by the force of water and gravity weighing down on them and they fly in a clean arc towards Kakashi. Haku moves at the speed of Light between his mirrors, Sasuke blitzes Zaku, going over the speed of the sound after getting the Stage 1 Curse mark ( over 767.269MPH).And you think, Orochimaru, who was capable of fighting and besting Jiraiya without the use of his jutsu and arms, can't send a small teenager flying for 2 miles? I'm glad you didn't read the rest of the chapter, lord knows what kind of misconceptions you'd have about the scale and power of people in the Narutoverse.
And, I just figured this out. The reviewer "Ego Alter Ego". said this in his review for Chapter 7 "The only question I ask myself now is if the creation ability has been updating with the use of sealing techniques". I believe you're referring to the Create Dungeon ability right? If not then maybe creating seals, if not then I genuinely have no clue. As for creating seasls, there's no need for a separate skill for that, it's a subsidiary of Fuinjutsu. As for the Create Dungeon ability. In all honesty I forgot about that ability. I don't think it really has a place in a Naruto story, despite it being a The Gamer Naruto fic.But yeah, most of the time I genuinely have no idea what you're trying to say, you said something about using the Romanji for Lightning Style : Overdrive. Why would I? If someone reads Obaduraibu, they aren't going to read it like they're japanese pronouncing Katakana. If I use the Romanji for Jutsu I put the translation beside the first use of it. Overdrive does not need to be romanized as it is already an English Word.
That's me done adressing individual reviews. Man, you guys really hated the Sakura and Ino fight. I rewatched it in the anime and reread it in the manga. And despite the lack of flashiness of it, I thought it was a great fight. I can understand people's love for flashy Jutsu battles with stratagems in play and all kinds of double and triple bluffs. But not everyone is at that level, namely Sakura and Ino. I wasn't going to change their skillset from what it was in the Source Material. Someone had said in the manga they called it a boring fight. No they didn't. Asuma specifically said that Sakura's growth in that fight was surprising. Not a single Jonin, or Genin said it was a boring fight for Shinobi.
I'm surprised no one complained about Choji getting folded. Even though I said i wouldn't reply to individual reviewers anymore, I must break my vow! To; "moops" Karin's sensory Ability is called the Minds Eye of the Kagura. It is not actually explained how it fully works, but, Karin doesn't have to change her Chakra to a "Sensory Mode" like all others have to do. She just naturally feels and senses Chakra. It's like, if you could actually sense the oxygen and other particles around you, you would grow accustomed to feeling when the oxygen around you is thinner. In the Manga, everyone has their own Chakra colour and their own personal identifier in that Chakra. It's not all just blue.
Man, I botched that explanation. I think it's more like, to Karin, Chakra is just another aspect of people or something. That's my headcanon.
Thanks everyone for reading and hope you enjoyed.
Adios.