Chapter Five

The council meeting though important was tedious and stressful, as usual Hiruzen, his former teammates and Danzo were at odds. The topic at hand concerned Jiraiya's latest reveal that a terrorist group was targeting the tailed beasts.

What had possessed him to inform them was beyond him, they merely disagreed with everything put forward, yet had no solutions of their own. He really couldn't wait for it to be over so he could kick them out.

Only then would he have time to himself…

"Hiruzen! Are you listening to us?" Koharu Utatane inquired of him indignantly.

"Of course I am, you've been saying the same thing for the past hour or so." He remarked indifferently.

Ignoring his words Homura Mitokado reasserted the importance of what was being discussed.

"This is of grave concern Hiruzen. If there are people capable of capturing the tailed beasts and by extension their jinchuriki; we must take every precaution to secure young Naruto from them. It would be neglectful of us to simply leave the boy an easy target for such considering Lord Fourth sealed the beast in him to protect us. I can't imagine they want those beasts for anything good."

"Yes I agree, but we've been going in circles. Do you have any tangible suggestions for what steps should be taken, yes or no?"

"Well perhaps we could have him watched by a few ANBU for the time being." Koharu suggested hesitantly. "It is after all a good thing he's stationary in the village."

"Or you could give him to me for training. I'm quite capable of succeeding where the academy failed."

Hiruzen merely looked at him as though he'd lost his mind. Surely he doesn't think I've become that senile. Yet. He thought to himself.

"That would not be necessary, as I'm sure you're quite aware Jiraiya is back in the village." To Danzo's credit he didn't refute the obvious slight against him or his training methods.

"If there is no further additions to this topic we're adjourned. Dismissed." At this command from Hiruzen both Koharu and Homura left, Danzo however, remained seated.

"Tell me Hiruzen, is this why you failed to intervene on the boy's behalf after failing the graduation exam the last time?"

"Don't be foolish Danzo, I knew nothing of this at that point in time. Rather I had hoped the boy would have sought me out to see what other avenues he might have taken to reach his goal. All is irrelevant now that he is being trained."

"It should have never come to this. That boy is a weapon to be used in defense of this village and should have been honed from an early age to not only be competent, but to tap into the power of the Nine Tails. He has been wasted because of your sentimental foolishness. If he falls into the hands of the enemy, you will have no one to blame, but yourself." Having aired his grievance at Hiruzen's mishandling of the village's asset, Danzo rose and made his way to the door. Just before existing he fired one last parting shot. "If you are not willing to make the decisions necessary to protect this village, I would recommend you appoint someone to do so and return to your long sought after retirement. Goodbye Hiruzen."

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The slapping sound of flesh hitting flesh could be heard throughout the training ground. Sounds of ragged breaths tells of exerted physical efforts being put forward by the individuals. The whoosh of a kick that missed its mark, 'ump' expressing pain felt from a connected strike and 'urgh' of frustration.

Iroha watched on as Hinata sparred with a branch member, neither giving an inch. His thoughts of their efficiency with the gentle fist varied because only against another practitioner of this style could one truly measure level of competence. However, out in the ninja world that is never the case, the gentle fist is pitted against varying styles that will either counter it or succumb.

"Don't overreach, you'll put yourself in a vulnerable position. Try to use his long reach against him instead." Iroha advised her.

"Okay." She shuffled her feet bring herself closer to him, but more left of her opponent.

"Good. Now try to get through his defense." Iroha encouraged her, but her fellow clan member mocked her efforts to do as told.

"Come on Hinata, stop trying to hit me and hit me." He jeered. As they continued the intricate movements of the gentle fist. Just then she ducked under his strike and delivered a strike of her own to his abdomen and another to his chest.

"That's it Hinata, you have the advantage keep pressing him. Now go for it."

"Eight trigrams sixty-four palms! Two palms, four palms, eight palms", and so on and so forth. She struck his chakra points in a flurry of quick hand moments ending with sixty four.

"Well done Hinata and thank you Isamu for your assistance."

"You're welcome and good luck in the chunins Lady Hinata." Isamu responded before leaving the training grounds.

"Thank you Isamu"

So how do you feel?

Good, these training sessions have helped me tremendously. I can't thank you enough for agreeing to train me.

It is my pleasure, after all we are family and who better to help you with our techniques.

You are too kind Iroha sensei. I will do my best in the chunins to make you proud.

"Nonsense Hinata, I'm already proud of you. You've work diligently at everything we've trained in. The only thing I ask is that you be careful in the exams and try your best."

"I will sensei."

"Alright off you go, it's almost super time."

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"Lord Danzo, I have your usual update." Called a masked ninja who knelt before him.

"What do you have to report this time?" He inquired setting aside the scroll he was reading.

"Lord Jiraiya has been joined by Guy Might to train the jinchuriki. There's also talks about getting others involved as well."

"Did you manage to get the names?"

"No, Lord Danzo, just that they wanted him to be able to recognize and dispel genjutsu and learning his wind element."

'I see. So the boy has a wind affinity. Well I did give him a few jutsu on that scroll, hopefully he will utilize them. What of summoning, has Jiraiya taught him that as yet?"

"Lord Jiraiya attempted to, but the jinchuriki is extremely stubborn. He apparently wants Lord Jiraiya to explain the benefits of have toads as his partners, that and he thinks his work as an artisan is being infringed on. He has quite the temper as well."

"Yes, that is to be expected considering who his mother was. We will trust Jiraiya to get the job done. Failure is not an option. Dismissed."

"Hiruzen you really were a fool, leaving that boy unattended for so many years under the guise of a normal childhood. Such utter rubbish. There is no such thing as a normal childhood in a ninja village or for a jinchuriki orphan. The heights that boy could have reached had you just pulled your head out the clouds and either given me the boy or assigned him a tutor. How funny it is that your grandson has a tutor and he's not an orphan or a jinchuriki."

He turned his attention gain his reading his scroll.

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Hinata was getting nervous the closer it got to the chunin exams. Sure she'd trained hard, but one could never tell in these unknown situations. She could only hope she'd done enough preparations and that she'd give a good enough demonstration in the exams to not embarrass herself or her clan.

It's a week before the exams and she was back training with Naruto.

"Hey Hinata!" As usual exited to see his friend. "How's gentle fist training going?"

"Oh it's okay. My training partner is on a mission so I've decided to train with the bow this week. How's training with Kurenai sensei?"

"It's going well, being able to recognize and dispel genjutsu is really cool." He said with a smile. "I still don't know why she's helping me though."

"I could be wrong but I think she's doing, it for me?" She answered in an uncertain manner. "After I told her how much you've helped me with my training, she was very surprised. So that could be why."

"Okay." He said shrugging his shoulders. "I've made some more arrows for you. Wanna go out back and try them?"

"Sure, let's go." She grabbed her bows and made her way out. Naruto nodded to himself and collected the arrows he had made in the past week.

Once there Naruto explained to her the special features of the arrows.

"Listen closely Hinata." He began. "These set of arrows have mild poisons, some have lightning runes carved into them and other will open as grapple hooks. So you got to choose wisely before firing one at an opponent."

She took the poisoned arrow, loaded and took aim at a tree off in the distance the fired. She struck. Once she was satisfied with her aim they moved onto the jutsu she created to work with the bow. This will be quite the surprise for her opponents in the exams as it is unheard for a Hyuga to use anything, but their clan's techniques.

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Waking up to his alarm clock piercing his ear drums was never fun. Reaching, searching, then finding and finally slamming his hand down brought much needed relief. Yes damn it, quiet. Turning to the other side he pulled the covers over his head. Definitely too early to be awake. Minutes later he turned to look at the clock. 4:30 am is what it said. The house still quiet, Muso must still be asleep or already outside.

The silence was not unwelcomed. He loved the peaceful calm of living away from the hustle and bustle of village.

Peering out the window, the outside was pitch black. Not unusual for this time of the year. Spring after all. However, thinking of the day ahead, he reminded himself of the large orders to be filled for ANBU and other shinobi. With that on his mind he extracted himself from bed, sauntered off to the bathroom for morning routine then to the kitchen to start breakfast.

Speaking of food, it still amazed him the changes in his diet since living with his master. Remembering the enormous amounts of ramen he would consume on a daily basis seemed now, but a distant memory. His diet while it may still consist of ramen, but it's balanced with vegetables, something he hated with a passion, fruits, grains and nuts. On a whole just a more balanced diet overall. Something he's attributed as the reason for his recent growth spurt.

Sitting down to eat just as the back door opens to reveal Muso, Jiraiya and bushier brow sensei. 'Ah yes, I have taijutsu practice this morning, how could I forget.'

"Good morning my boy, good to see you're up and already eating." Muso stated upon seeing him at the table. "Hope there's enough for our regulars."

"Yeah, yeah, there's more than enough." He retorted. "You do remember we have orders to fill right, I'll need to split myself."

"Yes, but I also know you're almost finished with the special orders so quit whining."

"Whatever."

Rising from the table he placed his dish in the sink then headed to the back. Once there he was surprised to see Kurenai and Asuma.

"Hello Naruto." They greeted.

"Hello. I didn't know we had training this morning as well?"

Asuma gave a nervous chuckle then got serious. "We didn't, but we wanted to inform you we'll be busy with the upcoming chunin exams and won't be available for a while."

"Oh that's okay. I'll be at the chunins as well. We'll be doing repairs and selling basic ninja gear. I'm sure I'll see you there."

"Excellent! Excellent!" Guy's boisterous voice interrupted. "Let's have one last practice. Naruto against us, using all his skills. How does that sound?"

"Yatta! I have just the weapon I want to try out." Naruto retrieved a pair of beautifully crafted Tessen attached by a chain. Upon opening they depicted a stormy sea with a maelstrom. If one looked closely, there were seals and runes etched into each fan. "Like I told Jiraiya I'm an artisan."

"Wow! You made those?" Kurenai was in awe for a moment before coming to the realization. "Of course you did. Don't know why I'm surprised."

Rubbing the back of his head he smile at her sweetly. "Yeah, I read a book about them and thought it'd be great to fight with them. Not many use this jutsu so it will be an unknown."

"You can channel your wind chakra through those like I do my blades." Asuma said judging by the material the fans were made of.

"I already know that Asuma sensei, but don't worry I'm sure no one will think their cooler than your knives."

This caused laughter and Naruto having to duck under Asuma's lame swing while mumbling. "Smartass."

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Following his training session Naruto immersed himself in the stream to help ease his aching muscles. Once finished and inside he realized it was lunch time and was glad to see Muso and Jiraiya had made preparations.

"Thank you for the food!" he exclaimed delighted as he delved in like a man who hadn't eaten in weeks. This elicited chuckles from his companions.

"So Naruto, how about skipping the chunins and hitting the road with me?" To say Jiraiya's question was unexpected would be an understatement.

"You can't be serious?" Naruto retorted as he stared back at Jiraiya. He was at a complete loss as to what the man was thinking, asking him such a thing. He knew for certain Jiraiya was aware he wanted to be at the exams not just to work as an artisan, but more importantly to support Hinata.

"Hear me out before you start throwing a fit. I want to spend time with you like I should have before, you know going on trips outside the village, sharing an adventure if you will. It's just, I'd like for you to accompany me event just once to see what I do, if you don't mind."

"That sounds great, honestly it does, but now is not a good time."

"Yeah I know, but just thought I'd throw out and see what happens."

"Hahahaa"! Laughed Muso. "You two are idiots."

"Hey!" They both exclaimed, but Muso just continued.

"For people with all this ninja magic stuff you sure limit yourselves." He reminded them. "Naruto, why not just send one of your clones with him. Didn't you all say whatever they experience the original gets the memories?"

"That could work, but we'd have to take certain precautionary measures to avoid the clone accidentally popping."

"Are there any seals for durability, what about running out of chakra, is that even possible?"

"Maybe, but we'll figure it out by the time I'm ready to leave."

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A/N: I know this is fan fiction but I find it better to leave both Danzo and Sarutobi as they are in canon or close to it as possible. That said, I found Sarutobi to be very negligent in the Uchiha affair despite all the information he received from both Shisui and Itachi. I therefore, cannot see him operating differently toward the situation with Naruto. After all, he knew well enough that the boy wasn't doing well in the academy. It was why he appointed Iruka to the class in the first place which was probably a little too late. The fact that in canon, after Naruto failed he never even approached him while being at the academy says a lot.