Chapter 5
Heading To The Land of Water
Land Of Fire
Eastern Coastal Village
Naruto's eyes shot open as he heard the wood creak outside his door and of course the whispers as well.
"The boy still asleep?" One voice a woman asked.
"Yes, I just checked before." A man whispered back.
"I can't believe he slept through so much of the morning I thought Ninja's rose with the sun." She whispered shocked.
Ninja's were trained to wake up instantly from any noise or change in environment so Naruto was awake and alert and very alarmed by the conversation now.
"So he's definitely a Ninja?" A third voice asked and Naruto was already up and halfway to the window, he threw the sleep clothes off right away and changed as quickly and quietly as he could.
"Yeah I saw his tools, the kid was dead tired and didn't even notice I took one." The first voice said.
"So we gonna hand him over to the Senju?" The man said.
"Of course, this town is under their control, we have to so they don't burn the village down for harbouring an enemy." The women got a bit louder but Naruto was already at the window.
"He's just a kid probably only around my son's age." The Third voice said hesitantly.
"Kid or not he's a Ninja and that makes him a threat." The woman said but Naruto had already left.
Naruto landed on the roof opposite his window and took off sprinting, they would be very disappointed to see him gone but he couldn't feel sorry for them at all.
'How feared are the Senju Clan, I mean I know they're one of the strongest Clans in the Land of Fire but trying to hand me over while I'm sleeping is something else.' He thought as he came to a stop as his stomach rumbled.
"I'll grab some breakfast first well breakfast for me, then a ship." Naruto said to himself as he looked over at the sun in the sky they were right he had slept far longer than he should off but after yesterday he needed the rest.
Naruto walked around for a bit before detecting the smell of his favourite food.
"Ramen." He said with a heavy longing and began to follow his nose.
Eventually, he found the source of the heavenly smell, it was a small Ramen stand it didn't have a name just a white cloth emblazoned with Ramen in red.
Naruto pushed the curtain aside and found it was rather empty there were only two other people in there along with the server who was chopping away at vegetables.
"Hey! Can I get a Miso Ramen!" Naruto asked bubbly as he sat at one of the stools.
"Sure! Coming Right Up, One Miso Ramen!" He the server replied just as cheerfully.
Naruto waited patiently as his meal was prepared and had a look around at the other patrons who were just ignoring him and eating their own meal, he also kept an eye on the chef to make sure nothing was slipped into his Ramen.
The bowl was finished quickly and placed in front of him by the chef with a bright smile.
"Please Enjoy!" He said cheerfully.
Nothing suspicious was put into his Ramen after a quick test Naruto dug in with gusto and finished it in record time.
"Wow! You must really love Ramen." The Chef commented, he seemed very pleased at Naruto's voracious appetite.
"Thanks." Naruto told the Chef leaving money to pay for the meal plus a tip further depleting his funds.
Naruto walked out feeling a lot better and with a full stomach as well, he was feeling better now than he had the past few days since leaving his Clan.
"Now a boat." He muttered to himself and had a leisurely walk to the docks.
Docks
Naruto found the docks easily he just had to follow the smell of fish and salt, most of the village was made of wood, however, the docks were made of stone it was clear where the money was made in this village.
Ships huge and small were at the various jetties and even more, were leaving and entering the docks themselves.
"Woah." Naruto let out an impressed noise, even his own land didn't have ships like these.
He continued walking around the docks for a little while longer specifically looking for a ferry-type service and he was eventually rewarded with a small wooden shack that promised to deliver 'anything, anywhere for the right price' which sounded like just what he needed.
"Hello." Naruto called as he entered the shack.
"A brat! Coming to mock me again!" An old voice shouted back.
The shack was not in the best shape there was a lot of paper scattered about along with bottles, it was also cast in shadow as all the windows were shut, which was worrying to Naruto he really did not want to deal with a drunken sailor.
"I'm here to try and book passage to the Land of Water." He called into the darkness.
"The Land of Water!? Why'd you wanna go that Land of Blood!" The voice shouted back and there was clattering and swearing up until a door which Naruto had not noticed due to the amount of trash in the room, opened up and an old hunched man with grey hair and an eyepatch on hobbled out.
"A kid? No, a Ninja." He said spitting on the ground the moment he saw Naruto.
"How does everyone know that." Naruto's frustration slipped out.
"Heh, kid some advice, when you look like that and act like you do even a kid could tell you're a Ninja." He said with a dry hacking chuckle.
"Seriously!?" Naruto questioned him.
He hobbled over to a stool and sat down at what Naruto presumed was a desk that was covered in trash. "Ever since the war we have got to be able to spot a Ninja so we can run in case a fight breaks out."
"Was it really that bad?" Naruto asked.
"I imagine you were too young to fight back then, but it was the worst thing to happen in all of history. A war started by pride and stupidity that lead to more death than anyone could have ever predicted." The Old Man said bitterly.
Naruto went into silence after that and spent the next few moments in contemplation.
"So! The Land of Water eh?" He questioned the young blonde.
"Erh! Yeah, I need to get there." Naruto answered taken off guard.
"That's a dangerous journey if you think the Land of Fire is bad then you won't survive in the Land of Water it's easily 100 times worse." He said with a smile revealing his teeth of which more than a few were missing.
"I know but I need to go." Naruto told him.
"Well, that's gonna cost ya." Naruto felt like he was being threatened here.
"How much?" He asked.
"At the least 10,000." The answer was a ridiculous amount.
"That's too much." Naruto pointed out the obvious.
"Well, that's what you get for coming to an old man with a suicide mission." He huffed out.
Naruto began to think and he knew he had to think fast. "What about just off the shore then?"
"What?" He confused the Old Man which was a good thing.
"What about instead of taking me all the way to an island you take me to just off the shore instead that way you won't be docking in that Land of 'Blood'," Naruto explained.
The Old Man stared at Naruto like he just grew a second head and then he burst into dry hacking laughter.
"Hahahahaha. What a ridiculous request!" He continued laughing right up until he started coughing.
"Well, well I suppose that isn't as dangerous." He finally said after the coughing fit finished.
"So?" Naruto asked him again.
"I suppose I could do that less dangerous journey." He mused.
"For less." Naruto more or less demanded.
"You're asking a lot of an old man." He said warningly.
"No, I'm asking an old man for a quick boat trip." Naruto shot back.
"A boat trip." He repeated back to Naruto who nodded.
"Give me 1,600 Ryo and you can have your 'boat trip' I'll be taking you just off the closest island to the Land of Fire's coast." He finally gave in.
"Thanks." Naruto said with a nod, though that was another chunk out of his savings, soon he'd have to turn to bounty hunting or theft for money.
"You wanting to go now?" The old man asked standing up with a grunt.
"I'd prefer it." Naruto answered.
"Fine, follow me the names Tetsu." He said and introduced himself.
"I'm Naruto." Naruto returned the favour.
"Naruto huh, well hurry up I want this job over with." Tetsu groused.
Sea
Somewhere between the Land of Fire and Land of Water
Naruto looked at the sea in awe, the day was still very bright and the sun reflected off the blue waves beautifully.
Tetsu's boat was old and small but Naruto could tell that it was well looked after and even with the man grumbling and complaining the entire way Naruto found the entire trip to be pleasant.
"We're getting close now, the island is probably covered by the mist though," Tetsu said to him.
"That's fine." Naruto commented.
"Probably be crawling with your kind as well, not many non-Ninja left in the Land of Water especially after the war." Tetsu said with a sneer.
"Those monsters with those inhuman abilities rule the country and when they went to war with each other things got a lot worse." Tetsu continued.
"Inhuman abilities? You mean Kekkei Genkai?" Naruto asked slightly confused.
"If that's what you call them, yes, the worst of them are those monsters that can grow bones." Tetsu answered looking afraid at the thought.
'Bones?' Naruto thought trying to go back to when Hiruko was telling him about the most famous Clans with Kekkei Genkai.
'Kaguya Clan.' His mind finally came up with the answer.
The Kaguya Clan were a brutal band of thugs than an actual Ninja Clan the only thing that kept them from descending into such was the fact that the Clan Head was the strongest and held all the power and kept the rest in line through fear.
Their Kekkei Genkai the Shikotsumyaku was well feared with good reason, the ability to control one's own skeletal structure was extremely useful and dangerous after all they could create an armour of bone under their skin or even turn their bones into weapons to use. Hiruko had a great interest in that one and it was also very high on Naruto's list of Kekkei Genkai to take.
While Naruto was mentally going over everything he knew about the Land of Water and the Clans which called it home, a gentle mist started to roll in around them and Tetsu started getting antsy.
"Kid! This is as far as I'm going, the island is dead ahead and I'm turning the fuck around." Tetsu shouted.
"Eh! That's not what we agreed." Naruto shouted back.
"No contract kid and I'm not getting killed for a pittance." Tetsu shouted at him and Naruto felt the boat move as it began to turn.
Naruto did the only thing he could do at that moment and jumped off the side of the boat after taking a huge deep breath.
"Maybe I should have told him that this is Clan territory, ah well." Tetsu said dismissively after watching Naruto dive into the water.
He hit the water and wanted to gasp but held it back, the water was far colder than it looked and then he began to swim straight ahead as fast as he could.
Minutes later Naruto felt Chakra signatures incoming on his position so he went into what he called 'Fish Mode' where he suppressed his Chakra and dove deep into the water but kept going.
The group of Ninja landed above where he was and seemed to patrol the area long enough for Naruto's lungs to begin protesting the lack of oxygen but he stayed the course and eventually the Chakra signatures above him disappeared and Naruto began to rise.
But in the end, it didn't matter as he felt the water becoming slightly warmer and began to get shallower as he got closer to the coast of the island ahead of him.
He ended up on a not quite beach since it had only a little sand but more mud and earth than what he was used to.
"That was close." Naruto gasped as he stood up.
He took stock of his surroundings and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the edge of a forest and there wasn't any Ninja around to cut his throat.
He decided to take a small break under the shade of a tree before moving deeper into the island.
'First thing is getting a map of the area, then finding out the territory of each Clan and last but most important getting out of here alive with a Kekkei Genkai.' Naruto thought as he tore a chunk out of a ration bar he had stuffed away.
"Time to get moving Naruto." He told himself and stood up.
He jumped up into the trees and began to hope from tree to tree, traversing the forest easily and skipping the difficult terrain below him.
Naruto thought things were going well right up until a Senbon hit him in the arm out of nowhere.
"Shit." He said and pulled it out only for 3 more to hit him.
He did not feel any Chakra and he hadn't even heard or smelt anyone, he was fighting against true masters of stealth which meant he was probably done for.
"Come on!" He complained when he felt numbness beginning to set in where he was hit. The Senbon seemed to be covered in some sort of paralytic.
He lost control of his legs soon afterwards and crashed into the forest floor, the mud was wet, sticky and disgusting. Naruto's vision went dark and even his hearing went funny like there was cotton in his ears.
"Recognise his clothes?" A voice said above Naruto as he lay gasping in the mud.
"No, he's no Kaguya or Hoshigaki." Another answered, Naruto could barely hear them it sounded like distant whispers.
"A foreigner then?" At this point, Naruto couldn't tell if there was a third person or if it was the same people talking.
"We'll take him and see what he knows, this might be a distraction fro..." Naruto passed out and didn't hear the end of the sentence.
Later
?
Naruto woke up quickly and panicked, he had a gag in his mouth, he was blindfolded and his arms were tied behind his back while his legs were underneath him, he could tell that he was sitting up.
"He's awake Clan Head." A male voice said off to his left.
"I can see that." An old male voice replied wryly, it reminded Naruto of Shingen.
"Take the gag out please." The older voice requested.
Naruto had a deep breath the moment the gag was removed and the thing that struck him was just how cold the air was in the room and just how cold he actually felt now that he was waking up.
"Who are you?" The old voice asked.
Now Ninjas were of course trained to resist interrogation and torture, Naruto was no different having to undergo such training with Arashi but this was a unique situation in which Naruto was actually a neutral third party rather than an enemy and usually in such cases it was recommended for a Ninja, to be honest about their loyalties and tell half-truths about why they were there.
"Naruto." He answered and there was a bit of shuffling from someone moving.
"Tell me Naruto, why are you here?" The old man asked again.
"To find my Father," Naruto said telling a half-truth, of course, he was here for a Kekkei Genkai but he was also on the lookout for the Father he never met.
"Oh? And just who is your Father?" He asked slightly taken aback by the answer.
Naruto remained silent because he had no idea if Namikaze Minato was an enemy of whoever he was captured by, Naruto knew his Father's reputation as a freelancer who has never joined a Clan even as a temporary ally and of course after he stole and improved the Hiraishin Jutsu from the Senju Clan he was regarded as one of the most infamous Ninjas in the entire world.
"Tell us!" The younger voice demanded and someone smacked him on the back of the head.
"Byakuya." The old voice warned revealing the name of one of his captors.
"Our Clan right now is very paranoid due to certain events, if you are the neutral party you a representing yourself as then tell us otherwise we shall have to resort to more barbaric methods." He warned gentle but firm like hidden steel.
"...Namikaze Minato." Naruto finally answered after a few moments of contemplative silence.
"The Yellow Flash!" Byakuya's voice squeaked out.
"Hoh, I was not expecting that answer though I can see why you would be reluctant to admit such a thing due to his reputation." The Old Man seemed pleased that he had gotten an answer out of Naruto without resorting to torture.
"That's gotta be a lie." Byakuya said taken aback.
"No, I can believe that. The Yellow Flash has many enemies that would love to target any family he has." He explained logically.
"So what do we do with him now?" Byakuya asked.
"Well, I think I have an idea about that." He replied mysteriously.
"Tell me young Naruto you are a freelancer are you not?" He asked Naruto.
"Yeah." Naruto answered hesitantly.
'I have a bad feeling about this.' He thought.
"I have a mission for you, one which requires the use of a third party and of course if you complete it then I can forgive your transgression into our land." He lay out the offer for Naruto.
"What's the mission?" Was the first thing out of Naruto's mouth.
"I will tell you the details if you swear here on pain of death that you will complete it." There was no give in his voice and the choice became clear.
Accept or Die.
"Fine." Naruto sighed accepting it was probably better to at least try and do this than just get killed.
"Good choice." the old man said jovially as if Naruto had a choice.
"Take the blindfold off Byakuya." And with that order, Naruto had his sight returned to him.
He was held inside an ice room, there were stacks of blocked ice and he was in the centre, the old man in front of him had long pure white hair and black eyes and he was dressed in a plain white and blue kimono and a katana at his waist almost looking like a Samurai.
Byakuya was young probably only a year or 2 older than him, he was dressed like a proper Ninja with dark blue-grey clothes, with pouches on either leg and a black bandana tied around his forehead the only identifying mark on him was a single white snowflake that was on his left shoulder.
"I am Yuki Byakko, Head of the Yuki Clan." He finally introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you." Naruto greeted back with a nervous smile.
Naruto knew this was going to suck no matter what he was asked to do, the Yuki Clan were among the top Clans in the Land of Water and their Hyoton Kekkei Genkai was well known since the usual tactic of underwater ambushes didn't work on people who would freeze the water solid.
"Now about that mission I have for you." Byakko said to Naruto with a razor-sharp smile.
'I'm gonna end up dying here.' Naruto thought with dread.
AN:
Chapter 5 is done and just in time because my work is getting very busy right now, So I think my writing time will be cut down for a bit.
Hope you all enjoyed it and look forward to chapter 6.