Chapter-5
In Konoha
-At Naruto's Grave
"Hey Naruto, it's been a year since the village announced you as dead. I don't believe them; I don't believe them at all." Ino said on the verge of tears. "I went to Ichiraku for the first time since you disappeared, Teuchi and Ayame miss you a lot, you know. A lot of people miss you, but I miss you the most. You still haven't completed your promise to take me on that date after the Chunin exams, but don't worry I know you will complete your promise" She forced out a sad laugh."After all you never go back on your word, right? Team 7 recently got two new members. I have gotten better at the Yamanaka family jutsus and taijutsu; I also found out that I am an earth style user, so I am focusing on learning some new earth style jutsus. I can still picture how your face always used to light up whenever you got to learn a new jutsu. The flower shop is also good but the flowers are not as bright as they used to be when you were around. You know whenever you were around, the whole village became brighter. The villagers may say that you are a demon, but to me you will always be my whiskers, you are the kindest and the most selfless person I know, and no one can convince me otherwise" She tried to hold back here tears but sadly couldn't. "Just one more thing Whiskers, one more miracle, please don't be dead, for me. Please." She left him flowers from her shop. And she went home.
-Three days from Jiraiya's letter to Naruto, in the Land of Waves (wave country)
The two had just reached the wave country. They ran into trouble on their way, but nothing that they couldn't handle. Naruto was wearing a black jumpsuit with some orange flames on it and the Uzumaki symbol on his back. Though Orange was still his favorite colour, it made him easy to spot. Sasuke was wearing a similar outfit but it was white with blue flames and the Uchiha symbol on the back. The two had a Katana on their back and a Wakizashi at their waist. They had their kunai pouches at their waist and wore a mask. The two had learnt more in this one year compared to the training in Konoha. Sasuke had long ago awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan when he was defeated by Itachi, but still did not know how to use it properly as he did not have any scrolls on it.
"Dobe, where do we have to meet Jiraya-sama? The wave is a big village"
"Knowing Pervy Sage, he would be peeking in some bathhouses, but he'll find us. Anyway, after our 'death', do you think that team 7 got new members? "
"Why are all of your senseis perverts? Dobe, a team consists of a jonin and three genin, and knowing that banshee, she wouldn't have made it to Chunin, so there will be new members."
"I never thought about it but almost all the ninjas I know are perverts like Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Closet-pervert Ebisu, Pervy sage. Hell, Kakashi-sensei used to read Icha-Icha series in front of us, when we were 12. Do you think our replacements will be better than us?"
"Tch. Must be some weaklings, I could easily take them down without even using my Sharingan."
"Wait is that Pervy sage?"Naruto looked at a man with white hair peeping in a hot-spring and writing stuff down. "PERVY SAGE!"
Jiraiya's head looked at the masked blonde so fast that he probably got whiplash. "Keep it down, gaki!" Jiraiya whisper-shouted.
"I thought that you wanted to meet us but you are peeping shamelessly at women, I didn't come here to see you do your 'research', ya know!" Naruto shouted back, oh how he missed getting the white-haired Sannin in trouble.
"Damn you Kitsune, now they are going inside. Fine I finished enough research for today; let's go to a more private place."
"Hn" The two gave him a nod and followed him. He took the two into a clearing inside the forest, and placed a high level barrier so that no one could see or hear them.
"You can remove your masks now. Naruto. Sasuke. So what have you two been up to?"
"Ah the usual training and doing some missions for the Mist, the Cloud and the Hot Water Village." Naruto said with a small smile. "We already signed peace treaties with the hot water village for ten years and with the mist for seven years, now we just need to do something to make them permanent."
"Hn" Sasuke gave a small nod and went back to petting his cat.
"I want to see how far you have come in training."
"Get ready to be beaten, Old man! But first tell me about how things are going on in the village and the information on the Akatsuki and Orochimaru"
"Well when you two were declared dead, Tsunade revealed your heritage"
"Bet the villagers would be shocked, the 'demon' child was the child of their Hokage"
"Yeah, you should've seen their faces. I didn't stay long but I did hear that your team got two new members, last month when I was in the village."
"Really? Who are they?"
"I don't know much but I do their names, Hiroto and Sai, Sai is a level three seal master and uses a super beast scroll to make his drawings come to life. He is also an earth-style user. He is one of Danzo's prized anbu. Hiroto is a fire style user and he is also good in taijutsu. And Sakura is training under Tsunade in Medical Ninjutsu. Now about the Akatsuki, they know that you are alive. They know that the Nine tails is alive and has not been released, so be careful. About Orochimaru, I found out the locations of two of his hideouts and searched them but found nothing except that he is working with Danzo."
"Tch. What a bunch of weaklings. I completed level four fuinjutsu and know most of the level five seals. And a super beast scroll is just useless against my Wakizashi. And it is impossible to defeat an Uchiha in Fire Style. They are disrespecting us by replacing us with such weaklings"
"And also the sand has a new Kazekage." Jiraya smirked "Gaara"
"WHAT!"Naruto's eyes looked like they were going to fall out.
"Gaara is the new Kazekage."
"Wait, this just makes our work easy! We can get a peace treaty with the sand, now that they finally have a Kage."
Sasuke gave a small nod, showing that he is paying attention.
"Now enough talking Naruto, I didn't just come here to chat. I want to see how strong you two have gotten." Jiraya took a toad taijutsu stance opposite Naruto and Sasuke. "You two against me. Now"
"Get ready old man. I have improved a lot you know." Naruto said while getting in the Uzumaki stance that he had improved. Sasuke got into the Uchiha taijutsu stance as that suited his Sharingan better. The Sharingan in his eyes flared while the cat went up on the nearby tree.
"Don't hold back!" Jiraya said while aiming a punch at Sasuke, Sasuke quickly dodged and went for a kick, till then Jiraiya had already disappeared and was in a fierce taijutsu battle with Naruto, he landed a hit in Naruto's stomach and was going for a kick to his side, but at the last minute, Naruto poofed away and Sasuke yelled "Fire style: Fire dragon flame bullet!" Three fire dragons attacked from each side, he simply substituted himself. 'That was a B ranked jutsu and Sasuke did it in under a minute, impressive!' Jiraiya thought to himself. Naruto and Sasuke were standing side by side. Suddenly Jiraya shouted "Fire style: Toad Flame Bullet." "Earth style: Mud wall" Naruto defended but his back was open and saw Jiraiya coming at him but blocked his blow 'To have erected such a strong wall and blocked my punch. Such speed. He has become much more powerful than the last time we sparred. My attack did not even leave a mark on his mud wall. You never cease to surprise me, Naruto'. Sasuke ran to Naruto's side and nodded to him. Naruto knew what this meant, they would not last if they fought alone they had to fight together with combined attacks. The two continued on engaging Jiraiya in taijutsu but only managed to land a few hits compared to Jiraiya's. The two jumped back and began the hand seals of their latest offensive combination jutsu, The Great Intense Fire Dragon. Sasuke shot off a very powerful fire dragon and Naruto intensified it up to three times with his blast of wind. Jiraiya had not expected the two to have learnt such a powerful combination. Never the less he survived but, barely. If he had even wasted a second, he would have taken damage. 'The two have improved at a very fast rate. Normal shinobi would have taken years to come this far. These two are easily jonin level shinobi. I need to end this quickly.' With that Jiraiya yelled "Ninja Art: Toad Mouth Trap" and trapped the two by their feet inside the esophagus.
"Well you two have improved a lot, your teamwork is flawless and your speed is amazing. But Sasuke, you have the Sharingan still you need to work on your genjutsu, in the whole fight, you didn't use genjutsu on me even once and Naruto you need to keep your guard up at all times, whenever you launch a big jutsu, you let down your guard a little bit. You two are easily jonin level shinobi." Jiraya said with a proud smile. He visited them every time he was near and helped them with some jutsus. He also gave Naruto the idea to add a chakra nature to his Rasengan.
"By the way Pervy sage, we were holding back al little. I recently finished the Rasenshuriken." Naruto said while he summoned a shadow clone and made a Rasenshuriken. He then shot it off towards his previous mud wall and it crumbled to dust. "How is it?"
"That is jutsu is really powerful, to think you achieved this at suck a young age. This was something Minato always tried to do but he couldn't complete it. Sasuke, what about you?"
"Jiraiya-sama, Naruto step back at least three meters from me." The two jumped five meters from Sasuke. "Chidori Stream!" The air within the three meter radius of Sasuke became highly electrified. "This jutsu temporarily paralyzes shinobi in a three meter radius." After the jutsu was over, he unsheathed his Wakizashi. He preferred his Wakizashi because unlike his katana, he could wield it with one hand. And made a deep cut on his palm. After that his other hand glowed a shade of green and started healing his palm. "I also decided to learn medical Ninjutsu because Naruto and I frequently got injured and the bandages take too much time to heal. My chakra control is really good so it did not take me long to learn it"
"That is very impressive Sasuke. If you continue to train like this, you and Naruto might become one of the most feared and strongest shinobi of your time."
"I agree with Jiraiya -sama." The cat spoke.
"WHATTT" Naruto was surprised. Shock was evident on the Uchiha's face but he was more composed as compared to Naruto. Jiraiya was not surprised at all, in fact he knew that the cat was a summon.
"Allow me to explain Sasuke-sama. I am Kara. I was sent to see if you were worthy of signing the summoning contract with the cats. We have been summons for the Uchiha for a long time. After watching your fight, I have decided that you are worthy of signing the contract with us. If you accept, we will even train you in using your Sharingan. But for that you will have to come to Sora-ku and train with us for seven months. Don't worry; the leaf will not know anything about this. Do you accept?"
"Now that I think about it, I need to teach Naruto how to control the nine-tails, so while you're with the cats, I will take Naruto on a training trip."
"I accept your offer Kara. Naruto, don't hurt yourself too much while I am gone. After all I will not be there to heal you."
"Don't worry about me; just train your pink eyes to their maximum potential."
Sasuke's eyebrows slightly twitched but knowing the stubborn blonde, he decided not to waste his energy "Fine."
"See you seven months later teme! Don't miss me too much"
"Don't worry I won't miss you at all, see you later dobe!" Sasuke said with a smirk.
A/N
So, how was it? Please review!
Okay now I have to decide on a pairing for Sasuke. Let me know who you want me to pair him up with. I won't pair him up with Sakura so that's out of the question. This was also my first time writing a battle scene, so let me know if it was any good.
Peace!
