Chapter 4
Action & Reaction
Land of Whirlpools
Uzumaki Clan Village
"So he has abandoned his Clan and left," Shingen said after hearing Karin's testimony, the girl had run back into the village in a panic and after being calmed down, she had explained just what Naruto had said and done.
She had been frantic and when the news had reached Shingen's ears he had called her personally, a defection was no laughing matter and had to be treated with the utmost seriousness and security, as such he the head of the Clan, Nagato his chosen successor along with Naruto's Arashi and the third-ranking Ninja Uzumaki Keisuke was present in the office.
Nagato stood at his Leader's side silent though his eyes were distant.
"The height of folly." Arashi added with a sigh, despite his attitude towards the boy he had liked Naruto.
"Is he going to be marked for death?" Keisuke asked.
Keisuke was a 30-year-old man with the same Uzumaki look, short cut red hair and calculating purple eyes and he was in a practical uniform that was plain undecorated and a darker navy colour his most distinguishing feature was a horrific burn on the left side of his face which looked fresh despite being over 10 years old.
"He wasn't a full Ninja, he never graduated to taking missions or even had access to the higher levels of our library." Arashi rightly pointed out, Naruto was still counted as a trainee.
"But he left the Clan for his own ambitions." Keisuke argued back.
Shingen watched as the two men bickered lightly over the semantics of Naruto's status but he turned his head to Nagato. "What do you think Nagato?" He asked his successor.
Nagato who had been silent and thoughtful the entire time finally looked up his grey Rinnegan flashing in the morning sun.
"This was inevitable." He finally spoke.
"What?" Arashi asked confused as did Keisuke who stood waiting for elaboration.
"Ever since Kushina-San died he has lived with us, together with but separate. You cannot deny that he has been treated differently from any other member of the Clan due to his parentage and looks." Nagato explained.
"Perhaps he sees himself as not a part of the Uzumaki Clan, and Naruto does not know any of our Jutsu or secrets I mean our Ninja are not even taught the Uzumaki Jutsu until after their first mission. Chitose is only his Aunt not his Mother and we have all seen how the other children treated Naruto for his Father is it any wonder that he would dissociate from us and want to leave." Nagato told them his honest opinion.
"You are merely covering for the boy because of your feelings towards his Mother." Keisuke accused him.
That was the wrong thing to say, Nagato looked at him sharply and his Rinnegan seemed to glow which made the air feel charged like there was a storm coming, everyone's hairs stood on edge as Nagato stared.
"Don't bring up things that are none of your business." Nagato's warning was worded mildly but the anger behind their words was clear.
"Nagato." Shingen said with a pat on the arm.
Nagato was a cool-headed person most of the time and he calmed down rather quickly and returned to his previous demeanour but looked out of the nearby window over the Clan village.
"I have made my decision, Henceforth Uzumaki Naruto is no longer a member of the Uzumaki Clan he shall from this day forth be disowned and exiled forevermore from our Land of Whirlpools, if he returns it will be on pain of death." Shingen decided a fair punishment all things considered.
Nagato's shoulders slumped ever so slightly but the look on his face was one of the acceptance actions have consequences and Naruto knew that despite him being a little slow when it came to academics.
"I have to protest Shingen-Sama, he should be treated like any other and be marked for death." Keisuke said.
"Why? We only mark defectors for death when they know our Ninjutsu, Fuinjutsu or secrets just what has Naruto learned to warrant the Mark?" Arashi questioned.
"Very well, I see I am outnumbered on this occasion however if this comes back on the Clan you will have to atone properly." Keisuke said testily, He was someone who truly loved the Uzumaki Clan and only wished for it to prosper and any threat to be destroyed.
"Where do you think he'll go? The Uchiha or maybe that rabble in the Land of Lightning?" Arashi said sarcastically.
"Probably his Father." Nagato answered still staring out of the window.
"The Yellow Flash? Why after all this time, Namikaze Minato never came to the village to see his child even when he has the skill to do so." Shingen seemed confused by that line of logic.
"He's a child who has lost his mother and has never met his father, not even mentioning how the Clan treated him. No, he will find his Father either for answers or assistance." Arashi reasoned out easily.
"Let us hope that the Yellow Flash will not come back here for revenge in that case." Keisuke said.
"Don't be ridiculous even with how strong he is, Namikaze is a single man and we have defences that have never truly been breeched, contingency plans that no one but us knows about." Shingen replied while crossing his arms.
"If he wishes for revenge let him come and die if not then it is no longer our problem." Shingen concluded.
The conversation was finished now and the verdict had been handed down there was nothing more to say and the men left leaving Shingen and a contemplative Nagato alone.
Land Of Fire
Forest
Naruto woke with the sun and continued his blind travel through the forest he was in, it seemed that the Hagoromo Clan didn't bother sending anyone after him which was lucky but he was also lost in a forest which was very unlucky.
But he went on this time however he was not running away from potential enemies but instead looking for some civilisation so he could get some food he didn't cook and didn't taste of cooked meat.
'How the hell am I going to get to the Land of Water as well, it's basically opposite of the where I landed on the coast that's a long way.' Naruto thought, geography wasn't his strong point but he knew the basics about where every major country was.
He spent quite a bit of time travelling after that but eventually, he saw smoke in the distance which meant fire which meant one of two things; a fight or a village.
Naruto sped up and arrived at the remains of a village it was utterly annihilated by the smoke coming from the smouldering wrecks of wooden buildings and from what his sharp eyes could see people were wandering around trying to pick up what was left of their lives.
"Fuck, so this is what Hiruko meant." Naruto said looking at the carnage.
'Hiruko said that the weak were trampled on but this is.' Naruto thought back to Hiruko's words.
"So power is the only thing that matters out here." He muttered convinced now more than ever that he needed to get 5 Kekkei Genkai and finish the Chimera Jutsu.
Naruto made his way to the village and attempted to be inconspicuous but he was noticed by the villagers and they seemed to know by instinct that he was a Ninja as most of them stayed away from him and didn't even look at him like he wasn't there.
Naruto just took in the death and destruction with horrified eyes, the dead were just left in the street to be claimed by family and to Naruto's trained eyes it looked like these people were just collateral damage from the actual fighting.
"Hey! Ninja Get the Hell outta here!" A Kid shouted at him and even threw a rock which he dodged easily.
"Tatsu! Don't do that!" A girl grabbed his arm as he went to throw another, she looked like his older sister.
"What happened here?" He asked aware that everyone's eyes were on him now, no doubt they expected him to kill the kid and his sister judging from the terror in their eyes.
"Ninjas Fighting! They've destroyed our village again!" The boy-Tatsu shouted at him.
"The Senju and the Uesugi Clan fought because the Uesugi claimed the village and the Senju disagreed." The sister spoke up shakily.
'So this carnage happened because the Senju didn't want the Uesugi Clan ruling this village? What the hell.' Naruto fought with disgust.
"How do I get to the Land of Water from here?" He asked, Naruto could tell that he was wearing out his welcome very quickly, so despite wanting a warm meal and a bed to sleep in he decided to ask the question he needed answering and bail.
"Land of Water?" Tatsu was thrown off by his sudden question.
"Follow the road north until you come to a crossroad then go east until you come to a coastal village, then either take a boat from there or follow the coast north until you come to the Hachiman Port." The Sister answered his question succinctly.
"Thank you." Naruto remembered his manners and then took off in a sprint, following the directions given.
"Nee-San why'd you lie, if he goes north then the Senju are gonna get him." Tatsu asked his sister.
"He's a foreign Ninja maybe if we send him the Senju will leave us alone, we have to do whatever we can to survive now that Mom and Dad are dead." She explained gently though her eyes burned like fire.
"Nee-San you're scaring me." He whimpered.
"We have to do whatever we have to in order to survive." She repeated.
Naruto was blissfully unaware of this as he ran down the road which was essentially a death trap to him.
As he made his way up the road Naruto began to notice the early warning signs that Arashi and Hiruko taught him about, there was a distinct lack of foot traffic which wasn't a surprise considering the destroyed village but there was also a lack of animal life and Naruto could see the telltale signs of traps being set.
'Shit!' Naruto thought and he dove of the road and into the underbrush at the side of it hiding under the green leaves while suppressing his Chakra as much as he humanly could.
He was just in time as two armoured figures landed where he just was both heavily armed and ready.
"Do you sense anyone?" One of them a male asked the other a female.
"No, but someone was running up the road at the speed of a Ninja." She said looking around carefully while Naruto tried his hardest not to make noise or move.
"Do you think it was a survivor of the Uesugi from the village?" He asked as he paced from one side of the road to the other while checking around.
"No we were thorough and Nawaki-Sama ordered their complete annihilation." His partner replied while doing the same thing but she had a sword out and was randomly stabbing the ground and slashing in the underbrush on the sides of the road.
She almost got Naruto and he almost screamed when she stabbed into the bush he was hiding under and it came about two inches from hitting his hand.
"Anything?" She asked.
"Nothing whoever it was probably ran as soon as they sense us, no surprise there." He said with a smirk.
"Don't get too arrogant we still haven't recovered from the War yet." She warned him.
"Ah, come on with Nawaki-Sama and Tsunade-Sama leading us we're back on the path to glory." He said boastfully.
"You're an idiot even now we haven't recovered our numbers to what they were before the war, even the Uchiha with their new attitude towards Clanless Ninja hasn't replenished properly either." She scolded him even more and even released a slight pulse of Chakra which washed over him and Naruto who flinched and hoped they wouldn't notice the movement.
"We should report back." He said getting the message loud and clear.
"Yes, we should." She agreed and both of them disappeared in a puff of smoke from the widely known and used Shunshin Jutsu.
"That was close." Naruto whispered and the tension left his body and he basically turned to jelly under the bush, he knew instinctively that those two were far more powerful than him and they probably would have beat the hell out of him before dragging him back to be 'interrogated' for information.
'I didn't know the Senju were still here.' Naruto thought with some terror, even though the Uzumaki and the Senju were allied in the past that was not the case anymore since The Great War those ties were severed and now the two Clans were just cold to each other after the Uzumaki declared neutrality while the Senju were one of the two main instigators.
"I need to get out of here now, that fork in the road must be ahead so I can take it and get on the coast." Naruto reasoned out to himself once some feeling returned to his body.
Naruto stood up on shaky legs and after a moment to regain composure he took off walking on the right-hand side of the road in the bushes so he could hide quickly, his fast pace had also completely dissipated as he moved slow and cautious like a wounded animal.
It took him quite a bit of time to finally reach the split in the road and what he found there dismayed him, a fully manned checkpoint.
It was relatively simple compared to the Uzumaki Clan's own checkpoints but it was still large, there was a large wooden fortress it had 3 entrances for each part of the road and high walls with Senju Clan members patrolling it looked to Naruto like there was a full platoon, he couldn't sense Chakra as well as Karin or even his Aunt but he could tell there was more inside probably resting in a barracks.
'I have to play this very Very carefully.' He thought watching the patrolling armoured Ninja.
Naruto sat crouched in a bush observing them for a while and to the Senju's credit there was no obvious hole in their patrols, 5 of them manned the walls and looked out over the area and 2 groups of 3 patrolled randomly in the surrounding area though they never seemed to go further than around 20 meters from the walls themselves.
'How am I gonna get through that at least back home I knew everything about the place and wasn't on a schedule.' He thought with mounting dread which got worse when he saw one of the patrol teams make their way to him not because he had been spotted but it seemed they were extending their patrols.
Naruto could only watch with growing horror as they got closer and closer to him, even if they didn't see him they would pick up on his Chakra once they got close enough since he couldn't completely suppress it, to begin with.
They got so close and Naruto knew he was screwed but luck smiled down on him and an explosion rocked the clearing and Naruto could see black smoke rising from the trees in the west.
"Attack in from the west!" A voice shouted and the team that was just about to get to him jumped high into the trees probably making a beeline towards the smoke.
Suddenly now Naruto only had the ones manning the walls to deal with as he felt the ones inside the fortress move out as well so Naruto, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth crawled around the outskirts of the fortress and then went east following the girl's directions once he felt he got far enough from the outpost he sprinted with Chakra enhanced legs.
Later That Day
Naruto panted as the sun fell, the sky had turned red from the sun falling beneath the horizon but Naruto trucked on and eventually, he saw more smoke, a sight he was getting sick of since most of the time it meant Ninja and death but this time it was a nice change as he saw chimneys puffing out white smoke and could even hear chatter and noise that wasn't fighting.
"Finally the coast." He said tiredly, his eyelids were getting very heavy now.
"Find a place to sleep first." Naruto muttered as he entered the village.
It was a rather lively place as the fisherman went back and forth through the streets not even mentioning all the different stalls and shops that were still open and selling stuff which was a truly refreshing change.
'Looks like not everywhere is living under terror.' Naruto thought smiling tiredly.
Eventually, he stumbled into an inn and bought a room for a night for more than he wanted to spend, he had taken all of his savings in Gama-Chan a present that his Mom got him years ago, the frog was stuffed to bursting however it was literally all he had so Naruto had to be very careful with his money.
The room he was given was okay, there was a Futon, one window and it was on the top floor for an easy escape, he double-checked the room as per his lessons with Arashi and then finally changed into the large kimono that was for someone a bit older than him.
"I'll think up a proper plan tomorrow, Need a boat and I should probably stock up on rations and other supplies." Naruto said to himself as he climbed under the covers of the Futon.
"I hope things will get better, I need to keep up my training and get a Kekkei Genkai." He continued to mutter to himself as he shut his eyes.
Arashi had trained him in most forms of Ninja combat and Hiruko had refined that knowledge but he was still weak even with his large Chakra reserves, but if he got into fights with people on a similar level to him then he would improve and of course having a Kekkei Genkai drastically improved one's chances of survival in battle at the cost of having a target painted on your back because of it.
"Tomorrow." Naruto still muttered and in his half-asleep state, he could have sworn he saw a flash of red hair and happy purple eyes.
"Kaa-Chan." He whispered tears in his eyes as sleep took him.
AN:
Here is the 4th Chapter of Naruto the Chimera, hope you all enjoyed it, still in the 'Introduction Arc' so to speak a bit slow but I am hoping to ramp up the next few chapters.
Look forward to the next one whenever I get it done. Though I have been on a writing kick recently, writing the Shining Star Remix has really reignited my passion for writing with how fun it is.