Minato Namikaze frowned to himself as he sat alone in his office. Papers were scattered everywhere on his desk as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. It's been four days since he had dropped his son Natsu off at Mount Myoboku and once he returned things were starting to look grim. "Damn! Why are the Akastuki starting to make their move? Of all times? Jiraiya-sensei said it would take them three more years!" he thought to himself as he clamped his hands together, thinking about the terrorist group who calls themselves the Akatsuki. A group of notorious missing nin from all the major shinobi villages, grouping together under one unnamed leader. While their goal has remained unknown for the past few years, Jiraiya with his spy network had confirmed that their primary target was the capture of the jinchuuriki in order to extract their Bijuu forcefully from their bodies. Their methods in doing so still were a mystery to the world, and what their goal was after obtaining all nine Bijuu. A bunch of scenarios had gone through his head on ways to stop the criminal organization, and each answer ended with strengthening up his children, in order to control the Kyuunbi's chakra in order to fend themselves against the S-class group.
Minato sighed as he sat straighter in his seat, looking at the mess of papers in front of him again. His eyes blinking in thought as he leaned forward, resting his arm on his desk. With his free hand he pushed some of the papers away and picked up one that had caught his eye. One that had drawn him in since he first received it. It was a letter from Yukigakure, the Land of Snow concerning several agreements to a trading truce between the two villages. The thing that had struck Minato as odd was that the village itself was still rather small and separated, it had one major town that held most of the population and several smaller towns all stagnant around the snow covered land. He hummed in thought as he thought back to his visit to Yukigakure just a few months ago, how separated the major town was from the rest. He was broken out of his thoughts as his secretary walked through the door.
"Hokage-sama, Narumi-sama and Team 11 have both returned from their missions."
Minato nodded frantically as he felt happiness and guilt invade him simultaneously. "That's great, can you send them all in?"
"Yes Hokage-sama."
Minato watched her leave as his thoughts started to wander again, why was his daughter with team 11? Naruto's team, frankly Mianto had forgotten that he sent Naruto out on a C-rank mission all together. The door creaked open again as all four shinobi walked in, bowing to him respectfully. He offered a big smile to Narumi and the rest of the team 11, his smile falling slightly limp as his eyes moved over to Naruto.
"Reporting back tou-san from my B rank mission,"
"Reporting back Hokage-sama from team 11's C-Rank mission, along with assisting Narumi here with her B-rank mission."
Mianto resisted the urge to widen his eyes as he looked between both Narumi and Naruto, they were standing as far away from each other as possible. He shifted his eyes to Narumi, motioning her to explain her mission. She did so with practiced ease as she relayed the information back perfectly to Minato, ending on team 11's appearance and the attacking of the Blue Flames. Minato without a doubt was shocked to hear that both their missions had escalated rather drastically, he looked back over to Anko, his eyes going serious.
"Anko why did you and your team stay behind? This was easily an upper B-class mission, endangering the lives of three newly appointed genin team was irrational." he scolded, Anko hesitantly nodded as she bowed to the Yondaime, not out of respect but to hide the scowl that morphed on her lips.
"With all due respect Hokage-sama I was more than confident in my teams abilities to handle this mission. Like stated before in the team assessment meeting, my team has been nothing but stellar. Sai used to be an anbu under the teaching of the village elder Danzo, Shizuka here is only a genin in title, her strength is far beyond a genin her age and those two worked together to take out more than 30 shinobi on this mission." she said stopping Minato dead in his tracks, she took a quick look at Naruto before she continued. "Naruto here was able to trap more than five shinobi in a genjutsu easily and even managed to kill Sokka Shin, the leader of the Blue Flames single handedly."
Minato had to stop himself from opening his eyes any wider at the info. He snapped his head over to Naruto in shock asking for confirmation. Naruto gave a curt nod as he looked away from Minato seemingly more interested in the paintings on the wall than the conversation. Minato tried to compose himself as he coughed into his fist, clearing his throat as he looked between the four shinobi, more specifically his two kids. Getting over his initial shock he nodded, "Well then I trust your judgment Anko, they are your students afterall you know them best." he said, wincing from his own words. Anko, pleased to hear Mianto say that, bowed again and stepped back next to her team.
"Naruto-nii, I think it's time you explain to all of us here how you managed to kill Sokka."
All eyes turned to Narumi as she spoke, her blue eyes never leaving her brother. The air got several times ticker as both Namikaze kids looked at one another. Anko was about to speak up in defense for Naruto until the blonde spoke himself.
"I just got lucky. I managed to catch him in a genjutsu before one of his fireballs disintegrated me. When he was distracted I just walked up behind him and stabbed him in the back." It was a partial truth, while those two things did happen he didn't explain how they happened, making sure to keep his sharingan and blood jutsu a secret until he really needed to. He was more lilent in letting that particular jutsu known, but he had no idea who the extent was and would reveal it in due time. Narumi narrowed her eyes again, clearly not happy in his explanation. Before she could retort, Minato spoke up, "Wow Naruto I'm impressed! Amazing work, he was a jounin level shinobi!" Minato said happily, ignorant to the room's growing atmosphere. Naruto nodded his head awkwardly, not sure how to feel at the praise.
A cough grabbed the attention in the room as Anko stepped forward once again, begrudgingly she motions Narumi to follow suit. Minato waited patiently as they handed him a folder. Minato raised an eyebrow in confusion, quickly stacking the loose papers on his desk neatly away before opening the folder.
Picking one up he read through it carefully, it was several pages documenting all sales that the Blue Flames have made in the past four years. Garnering anywhere from low amounts to high amounts and to who exactly they were sold too. He silently registered to memory all the items that Iwagakure and Kumogakure had purchased from the group.
"We had found these files in the base that the Blue Flames were using at the time, they range from the past four years but that isn't the interesting part."
"It's the sealing array here isn't it?" Mianto said, tracing his hand over the small array gently. He scrunched his nose in thought as Anko nodded. She patted Sai on the shoulder making the boy shift uncomfortably "Sai here managed to find those sealing arrays hidden on all four pages. Narumi-san said that the seal all follows a certain rule that must be followed in order to activate it." she finished making Narumi nod in agreement.
Minato flipped the page to the side as he examined the seal again, mumbling to himself quietly. After a few moments he looked back up to the group. "It seems my daughter was right, each page has a specific rule that must be followed. From what I can tell," he said pointing at one of the small inscriptions on the note, holding two in each hand. Shaking the pages in his right hand first "These two can only be activated with a male with black eyes and black hair. And the ones in my left can only be opened with a girl with green eyes and black hair" he finished making the room fall silent again. All eyes turned to Sai and Shizuka.
Both genin blinked in surprise as they got handed their respected pages. Shizuka clutched the pages tightly as she looked at the seal. Sai did the same as he raised a dark eyebrow in confusion. Minato noticed the boy's hesitation and nodded his head supportively, "Don't worry about it nothing bad will happen if you open it, there isn't any sign of danger."
"No that isn't it Hokage-sama" Sai shook his head as he reached into his pouch and pulled out another folder. "We also wanted to show you this, a note we found after infiltrating their base."
Minato grabbed the note from the boy's hand and read through it carefully, his eyes narrowing in suspicion the more times he took to read it. He glanced upwards, noticing the unnerved faces of the shinobi in front of him. He asked what this was as he turned the note around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Anko spoke this time,
"It seems to be a fortune that was given to one of the group members, and it has...scarily accurate predictions." Anko said, walking over to Minato as he placed the note on his desk and read aloud.
"A battle of blue and red commences. Scorching earth with a magnificent blue hue. Where a soundless room will stand, awaiting visitors and secret information. Once the hue has been smothered, a boy is his killer, allowing for an outstanding debut.
To meet on the next full moon, in a land made of frozen colorless white."
"I take it the battle they are referring too is about Naruto and Sokka." Minato said
Sai spoke this time, "That's the assumption we came up with as well, and as Anko-sensei previously mentioned the cabin we were in apparently had a soundproof seal placed inside of it somewhere, making it impossible to hear anything outside, or inside."
"I had no idea you guys found something like this, why didn't you tell me?"
Naruto said reading the note over as he stepped closer to Anko, the purple haired jounin grinned as she slapped him over the head, "Well you said we had to wait to hear how you beat Sokka, so I decided to make you wait on this." she said playfully and Naruto only glared at her, crossing his arms with a huff.
"But Naruto we wanted to ask you, we assumed the battle between blue and red was you and Sokka, but we couldn't identify what the red could mean for Sokka, did anything stand out to you?" Shizuka said and Naruto felt his body tense up.
"Shit! Could the red actually be referring to my sharingan? It could even mean that blood jutsu I had used against him." he thought frantically as all eyes turned to him, all expecting an answer. Ignoring Narumi's suspicious glance over to him he racked his brain trying to see anything he could pin onto Sokka. Putting more distance between him and his team he scratched the back of his head, his head started to rumble as his new tenant begane speaking to him, telling Naruto to repeat after him.
"Well you see Sokka never used his blue fire against me, said I wasn't worth it." Naruto lied, thanking the Bijuu once again and the group merely nodded at his explanation. He was the only one who fought him after all so they would have to take his word.
"To meet on the next full moon, in a land made of frozen colorless white." Minato said, rubbing his chin in thought, his eyes glanced to his stack of paperwork and widened his eyes. Snapping his fingers, "A land of colorless white, that would have to be Yuikgakure." he said, making the group look at him in realization.
"I see, then if we wanna get to the bottom of this we would have to travel to Yukigakure in time for the next full moon." Sai said and Minato nodded. He was certain that the meeting place in question had to be Yukigakure, strangely the village has been on his mind for the past few days, while it puzzled him why he kept going back to the letter he had received, he didn't feel it was important. Until now.
He placed the fortune down and asked Sai and Shizuka to channel their chakra into their respective pages he handed them earlier. Both genin did so without hesitation, after a moment of concentration four quiet poofs were heard, and gone were the sales logs, now Sai and Shizuka both held 2 folded post it notes. The group held their breath as the two genin opened the notes slowly.
Sai was the first one to speak, raising an eyebrow in confusion, "This says there will be a meeting taking place in Wave Country, regarding a man named Gato who's trying to overthrow that whole country."
"Mine says in Yukigakure there has been a surprising case of people disappearing in a town called Roka. Specifically young kids."
Anko stepped forward and straightened herself as she watched her two genin read off the notes. She focused her deep brown eyes on the notes specifically in order to take a closer look. She felt Naruto and Narumi shift a little closer to her to get a better advantage point. While she was very skeptical about the legitimacy of this so-called fortune they had found, she couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by its accuracy. Especially since the only two people who could have opened the pages needed very specific rules they had to follow, and what are the odds that their team had both of the requirements? It didn't seem like a big coincidence anymore to the purple haired jounin, it seemed real. She looked back up to the Yondaime, they shared a nod as they communicated silently. Minato stood up from his desk gathering the attention back onto him. Picking up the evidence they have acquired he started to speak,
"I will take these and see if I can find anything else that could be useful, I will also try and find out when the next full moon will be. With a lead like this we can't just ignore this." he said gathering smirks from the group. With a smirk of his own he continued "I will call each of you back in here once I find out when the full moon would be, for now you are all dismissed."
"Yes Hokage-sama"
"Yes tou-san."
One by one they had started to leave as Minato vanished in a flash of yellow .
Once outside the Hokage building Naruto turned to his team, smiling slightly as he stretched his arm, "Do you guys wanna get some extra training in since we were back home?" he asked and frowned when he saw all three of them shake their heads. Shizuka gave him a small smile as an apology, but shook her head again, "Sorry Naruto but i'm beat, probably gonna take a nap." she said and Naruto nodded, his shoulders slumping forward slightly. He turned to Sai, "My apologies Blondie-kun but Danzo-sama had asked me to report to him after our mission," he said, his eyes flashing apologetically for a moment.
"Yeah and I'm gonna see if Kakashi is free, could use some man time you know?" she said, making Shizuka blush slightly at her implications, making Anko laugh again. She patted Naruto on the head as she grinned mischievously, "You know Blondie, I could see what Ku-chan is doing, maybe she could spare some of her free time for you?" she said and Naruto felt his face flush. He scoffed as he slapped her arm away in embarrassment. She only laughed harder as she shunshined away, Sai nodded before walking in the opposite direction. Shizuka turned back to Naruto and gave a smile.
"I'll see you later Naruto!" she said before she started on her way home leaving Naruto alone in front of the Hokage tower.
Well not completely alone.
Just as he was about to walk away he felt a hand grip tightly onto his shoulder. Naruto felt himself scowl as he tilted his head, narrowing his blue eyes. He stayed silent as he waited for her to speak, her lips were pursed as her blue orbs remained unmoving as she stared at him. Naruto felt like her eyes were dissecting him, trying to get to know who her brother was. She focused on his eyes, blue eyes that she used to recognize as her younger brother, the perfect shade of azule that now had an aura of mystery and deceit. But they also held a large amount of warmth that betrayed his piercing expression, but Narumi couldn't remember when he had looked at her, or his family with that amount of warmth.
The air grew thicker as the two Namikaze's stayed silent, the immense pressure that had started to build had attracted many of the passersby, several stopping to see what the two Namikaze children would do. The chattering in the street seemed to quiet down significantly. Narumi took a confident step forward, closing the distance between the two of them as she looked down on him. She wasn't much taller than him, only by a few inches but it was enough to make our blonde hero look up at her, his face indifferent.
"I know tou-san bought your whole 'I got lucky' shtick, but I won't. I know you're hiding something from me nii-chan. And I intend on finding out what it is." she said smoothly, her tone sharp as her words cut his skin. Narumi tightened her grip on his shoulder, she just couldn't believe that her brother had managed to kill a jounin level shinobi all alone, he barely had any training to begin with. She believed Naruto had to be hiding something, a power or jutsu that made him stronger, she couldn't chalk it up to 'just getting lucky'.
Naruto scoffed at Narumi forcefully pushing her hand off his shoulder as he glared harshly at his sister. He blinked, finally breaking eye contact. He tried to get his annoyance under control as he regained his bearings.
"You can believe whatever it is you want to believe in. It doesn't make a difference to me whatsoever." Naruto said, breaking the silence that had reformed, making Narumi scowl. The redhead watched as her brother took several steps away from her. She couldn't stop the next words out of her mouth even if she had wanted too.
"Since when has it been okay for you to keep things away from your family, that you would even lie straight to our faces?" she asked, making Naruto stop dead on his tracks. She wasn't prepared for the dark look Naruto had sent her way. She would have swore she watched one of his eyes flash gold for a second.
"Since when have we been a family Narumi? Don't try and make me feel guilty for something you all have done to me. I won't take your shit anymore, I don't owe you anything." he said, his voice dropping several octaves as Narumi clenched her fists. Matching her brothers glare perfectly. She barely registered what Naruto had said, irritation bleeding through into her expression. She was starting to get fed up with Naruto's stubbornness on returning to his family, he kept pulling further and further away from them and she was tired of it. Before she could respond further Naruto was gone from her line of sight, lost in the crowd of people, and she couldn't even sense his chakra signature. She growled as she slid her tongue over her canines, she stormed off back to her house. Annoyance building in her with each step.
"One day Naruto-nii, one day I will learn what you're hiding."
Six Hours Later
"Remember, try and feel the chakra inside, let the blood flow grab your attention and try and make it your own."
Naruto nodded slowly as he sat with his legs crossed on the floor. He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes in concentration. After his spat with Narumi he needed to blow off some steam so he decided to go to his new favorite training area in the village, the small clearing that was close to training ground 99, the very place he had met Kurenai for the first time. He has only come here once after he met her five years ago, he usually went to ground 99 but he wanted to take extra precaution with working on his blood jutsu. While he knew next to nothing about what this style of jutsu was capable of, he was glad that he had Isobu to help teach him.
So after about two hours of intense cardio and genjutsu training, the last four hours he dedicated himself to try and figure out how the inner workings of the mysterious style of jutsu.
The small gnawing sound echoes in the clearing as Naruto formed a singular hand sign, channeling his chakra as he opened his eyes. Making eye contact with the pinned down squirrel on the floor. Naruto finally breathed out as the squirrel only tilted his head to the side, looking at Naruto in confusion. Naruto groaned as he lowered his hands and rubbed his arm, so far the only thing he knew he could do with the blood jutsu was basically the same thing he could do with water, basic manipulation much like the spiral blade he had formed to kill Sokka.
But that only left him with more questions than answers. So he tried to practice on manipulating the blood inside the squirrel he had captured to see if he could possibly control the animal or kill it from the inside.
Results showed that it was impossible to physically manipulate the blood in another body, but if it was outside of the body then it was a free game for the blonde. He made several small cuts on the squirrel letting the blood slowly leak from the tail.
While it was a little difficult to manipulate the blood once it was freed from the body, it was around the same basics for water chakra, it just consumed twice the normal amount of chakra to actually use a jutsu. Well that's the way Isobu explained it to Naruto, since blood was more dense and a thicker substance it required more and more chakra in order to change its shape. It was why Naruto suffered from chakra exhaustion after only using one blood style jutsu.
He tried to use his sharingan on the squirrel along with the blood style to see if the doujutsu would have an effect in controlling the blood in one's body. Sadly the sharingan did no such thing, it held no positive or negative impact for blood style. Naruto sighed as he let the squirrel free, watching as the critter ran away from him and jumping back into the forest happily. He deactivated his sharingan as he sat in thought.
"So we figured out that it's most likely impossible to control the blood in another living creature. But once the blood is spilled I can manipulate it, but it takes a far more amount of chakra to do so."
He internally mused as he grabbed a kunai from his pouch and placed the blade on his arm. He took a deep breath before he sliced the blade across his skin, wincing from the pain as the smell of copper flowed up into his nose. He placed the kunai onto the grass and hovered his palm over the cut, watching as his blood slowly leaked down his arm. He started to channel his chakra again, after a moment the blood from his wound had started to float upwards. The blood started to take shape into a small sized ball, almost looking like a red water balloon as he concentrated to keep the shape. He flipped his hand upwards allowing the ball to float perfectly upright above his palm.
Before Naruto had any time to celebrate the ball then popped, splashing him with his own blood as he coughed in surprise. He cursed as he wiped his face clean,
"Well that was a good start, it takes less chakra to form something with my blood."
He thought as he looked down to his previously injured arm, tracing his fingers over the cut he had placed on his tanned skin. The cut was already completely sealed itself shut, not a blemish in sight.
After consulting Isobu the Bijuu explained that his blood, if he chose to, Naruto could begin to heal any injuries on his body. All he had to do was channel the chakra into a specific part in his bloodstream allowing his white blood cells to act fast and start healing his injuries at a rapid rate.
Naruto was elated to find that out, while he wasn't sure if he could save his life from anything to life threatening, it definitely would help in the midst of battle. A sudden idea popped into his head as he picked up the kunai once more and brought it over to his unbleshimed arm. He was about to slice as a loud scared voice reached his ears.
"N-naruto-kun what are you doing!"
Kurenai Yuhi had to resist the urge to sigh as she walked side by side with her date for the evening, Asuma Sarutobi. Yesterday evening he had asked her to dinner as a way of catching up after weeks of team training. She was certainly surprised when he had asked her out, she had thought he had no interest in her since he has been so stand-offish for the past couple of weeks. But that wasn't why she had to fight back a sigh, in fact they actually had a pleasant dinner date. He would ask her about her genjutsu and how she was improving, how her team was doing and they would swap stories from the past. All in all it was a great time and Asuma acted like a complete gentleman.
But the thing was, she didn't know the attraction she felt for him anymore.
Asuma was starting to open up to her a lot more now and he even began flirting regularly. Slipping in a sweet comment whenever he could. While she was flattered, it didn't make her heart skip a beat like it had used too. In fact it didn't do anything to her, but she couldn't deny the attraction she felt towards the Sarutobi.
She was confused.
So the two of them made small talk as he dropped her off on her doorstep, she turned around and gave Asuma a small smile. He returned it with one of his own, flashing his teeth as he stepped closer to Kurenai.
"I'm glad you went out with me tonight Kurenai, maybe we can do it again sometime?" his voice was deep. Trying to add every ounce of coolness into his words. Kurenai wasn't faced in the slightest as she gave a small nod. "Maybe we will." she said, making Asuma's smile grow wider. Kurenai forced herself to suck in a breath as she watched the taller man slightly close his eyes and leaned towards her. It was soft and sweet when his larger lips slightly pecked hers, she made no notion to fight the kiss, nor did she return it.
She felt nothing.
Asuma pulled away and wished Kurenai a goodnight, Kurenai returned the gesture as she watched Asuma walk away. A slight spring in his step as the people walking in the street looked at him in confusion. She felt herself frown, slightly regretting the idea of another date with the man. She stayed on her doorstep for a few minutes before walking down the steps, and making her way to her favorite training area. Her thoughts quickly flashed to Naruto for a moment, remembering how they first met. On her way to the training spot she couldn't help but have a quick spike of worry. It's been four days since he had left on his first C-rank mission, which was odd since his team was only doing a simple delivery. And from what she remembered from what Naruto told her it was to Tizuna town, a village right next to Konoha, it only took a few hours to get there.
Shaking her worries away her eyes lit up as she saw the forest clearing come into view. She could always rely on training to brighten up her mood, maybe she could even try and create a new genjutsu. She chuckled to herself at her thoughts before stepping into the wide open space,she waited for a moment for her eyes to adjust, since there wasn't too much light that shined into the clearing. Blinking, she focused her vision until she saw the very same blonde who had been just occupying her thoughts, her eyes widening as she witnessed him slowly put the kunai closer to his arm, ready to slice it open. The shock only lasted for a second before fear tore into her heart, she reacted quickly as she sprinted off towards him, a yell forcing its way out of her mouth.
"N-naruto-kun what are you doing!"
Naruto looked up in surprise as he didn't have to react as a sudden red and white blur tackled him to the ground. He yelped in surprise as he fell to the ground, he felt his arms get pinned above his head, the grip tight as ever as he tried to focus his vision on who was crazy enough to tackle him. Looking up he felt his face flush deeply, his eyes opening wide as soft black locks of hair had started to tickle his cheeks. Deep crimson eyes looked down on him with worry, unshed tears forming in them as her body hovered over Naruto. She was between his legs as the coconut scent from her shampoo had started to invade Naruto's senses, making the blonde's blush heat up rapidly. Words failed to escape his throat as he found himself lost within her eyes, ruby gemstones looking at him with concern that sent his heart soaring to the moon. "She's beautiful." he subconsciously thought, his body tensing as he felt her hot breath caress his skin.
"Naruto-kun what are you thinking! Y-you can't do this!" she said, pleading even as her eyes glanced to the kunai that fell limp next to him. Her eyes glowing wide as she saw the tip already red, stained with his blood. She tore her eyes away as she started to scan over the boy's arms, frantically looking for any signs of damage on the boy's flesh. Naruto blinked in confusion at Kurenai, a blush still prominent on his face as he tried to figure out what caused the sudden hysteria.
"Naruto-kun, why would you do something like this? We can get through this I promise you."
Kurenai said as she turned his arm over continuing her search. Naruto followed her line of sight, confusion bubbling into him, he glanced between her looking at his arm and the blood stained kunai next to him. The gears in his head started to quicken as his mind finally realized what it must have looked like he was doing. He offered the jounin above him an awkward smile after he gained her attention.
"Kurenai-san. Kurenai-san it's okay I promise you."
"B-but you were-"
"I can explain." she looked at him with a critical eye as he spoke. Not believing him in the slightest. He saw the woman's hesitation leak into her expression and he nodded. "I promise I will explain. B-but you would have to get off of me to do so." he stuttered out, looking away in embarrassment. Kurenai blinked as she looked down, her face going pink as she quickly apologized and hopped off of Naruto, taking an embarrassed seat next to the blonde. Naruto just nodded in response before he took the seat directly across the black haired beauty. He took a deep breath before looking up at her, the pink in her cheeks already gone as she waited for him to speak. Naruto reached up and scratched his head, making Kurenai smile softly.
"Well you see, me and my team had just returned from our first C-rank mission." he said, making her nod, that she could already tell. "And well we had run into Narumi, and she had asked for our help to take out a Blue Flames base that was talking about targeting Tizuna." Kurenai's eyes went wide at the mention of the notorious missing nin group, she looked at Naruto with concern, he responded with an eager shake of his hands. "Nothing bad happened, our combined effort was enough to take down the base. Well Anko-sensei, Sai, and Shizuka actually took out the base. I only fought Sokka-"
"Sokka? Sokka Shin?"
She said, leaning forward in shock, Naruto backed up slightly the blush returning to his face at the sudden close proximity. He nodded his head at her, Kurenai looked at him in awe. Of course she knew who Sokka Shin was, he was the highest rated B-rank missing nin in the bingo book, he was borderline A-class. She had never ran into Sokka personally, but she had taken out her fair share of Blue Flame bases in the past. She smiled fondly at those memories, it was the first time a shinobi had called her the Mistress of Genjutsu. Kurenai then placed her hand on her hip, which looked strange since she was sitting with her legs crossed on the floor.
"What do you mean only you fought Sokka Shin? You mean to tell me you were alone when you fought him? Naruto-kun he's a jounin level shinobi!" she said with worry, making Naruto smile, glad to hear the worry in her voice. Naruto nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, I was paired up with Narumi and we got separated and I had to fight Sokka alone. Which is why I was doing that." he said as he grabbed the kunai off the grass. Kurenai looked at him, nervousness building up into her. Naruto hesitated the closer he brought the kunai to his arm. He wondered how much he would tell Kurenai, he trusted her, trusted her more than anyone else in the village. She was one of the two special people he had in his childhood, and he cherished the moment he had spent with her all those years ago. She had helped him more than she would ever know with his family, she was truly special to him.
But how far could he tell her? Could he tell her how he caught Sokka in the genjutsu with his sharingan, all the while the Sanbi happened to be sealed in his gut this whole time as he finished Sokka off with a blood jutsu? He had already planned on telling Kurenai about this blood jutsu, frankly since he didn't have much of a choice anymore. But the guilt of hiding more from her hurt more than any stab wound. And he had this itching feeling, itching to tell someone.
"If you truly trust Kurenai, if you truly trust this woman with your life and she is indeed such a precious person to you, then I think it is wise."
Isobu's words echoed in his mind as he stopped the kunai a mere inch from his skin. Naruto faltered slightly, pausing his inner musing's to ponder what the beast had said. Naruto slowly looked back up to Kurenai, the woman sucked in a breath as she noticed the blonde's eyes take a serious expression. One she had never seen before.
"Kurenai-san, you have been one of the closest people in my life, ever since we met years ago." he started, making the woman smile. "But i've been hiding a lot...from you, and really everyone. These are secrets that I have never intended to tell anyone until I was forced too." he said looking away from Kurenai, his serious expression cracking as his grip tightened around his kunai. Kurenai watched in silence as she slowly scooted closer to Naruto, taking his free hand into hers.
"If you don't want to tell me then you don't have to Naruto-kun, I will understand so you don't have to worry. But if you choose too then I will support you, but I don't want you to feel pressured into doing so." she said softly. Gliding her thumb across his knuckles slowly. Naruto felt his serious expression fade away as he closed his eyes, he felt a small smile tug on his lips as he breathed in deeply. "The thing is Kurenai-san, because you are someone so special to me I want you to know, and I think it would make me feel better." he said before plunging the kuani into his arm, Kurenai gasped in shock. Yelling at Naruto to take it out before he could hurt himself anymore. Naruto's calm voice reached her ears, making her look back to his closed eyes.
"You see Kurenai-san, I actually managed to kill Sokka Shin, I caught him in a genjutsu before appearing behind him, and sending a jutsu through his chest." he said as he opened his eyes. He flinched when Kurenai gasped a second time, fear flooded his system as he dreaded what Kurenai would do. Would she think he was a freak? Or think that he stole it off a dead body during the massacre.
Kurenai couldn't believe her eyes as she watched Naruto look away from her, a three tomoe sharingan spinning in his left eye as he refused to make eye contact. Her brain went numb for a moment as she tried to figure out if what she was seeing was real or not. Her mind had already connected the dots to who the doujutsu had previously belonged to. The red-eyed beauty felt her eyes glisten as she stayed silent, effectively freaking Naruto out even more. Naruto was about to run away until he felt her soft hand slowly caress his cheek. He looked up in shock to Kurenai as her thumb glided over his scar tenderly, not wanting to hurt him. Naruto's mouth went dry as he let Kurenai do her thing, as a feeling of electricity cascaded down his spine as she got even closer to him.
"It must have been hard, carrying this burden all by yourself, with no one to talk to about it. No one to help you through it." she whispered as she rested her forehead against his. Naruto stayed silent as her words of silk flowed into his ears. He looked down letting her black hair obscure his vision.
"You've been through so much Naruto-kun, more than most shinobi deal with in their life. And to carry such a heavy secret on your back all alone. Just know that you aren't alone anymore." she said, determination flooding through her voice, Naruto had to choke back a sob of happiness at her words. He mumbled a thanks into her hair. She only smiled in return as she brought her free hand up and circled it around Naruto, letting her fingers rest in his blonde locks. They stayed like that for a few minutes longer before Kurenai turned her head to still see the kunai embedded into Naruto's arm.
"Naruto-kun, now that you told me about your...little gift, can you please tell me why you stabbed yourself with a kunai?"
She asked as she (reluctantly) let go of Naruto, the blonde pouted as the warmth from her body vanished as he looked at the kunai in his arm.
"Fuck I forgot about this." he thought.
Naruto nodded before he pulled the kuani out, letting the blood leak out from his wound. Kurenai was about to work on patching the wound up when Naruto had stopped her.
"This is how I managed to kill Sokka, after I got him into a genjutsu, I got behind him and sent a jutsu blade through his chest." he said as he waved his free hand over his wound, forming the familiar hand sign Kurenai watched in astonishment as the blood from his cut had started to float upwards taking a shape of a small ball. The ball wavered in shape slightly before popping once again, this time Naruto was able to make it so the blood exploded onto the floor and not his face.
"Was that a...blood jutsu?" she asked, completely baffled. She had no idea that kind of jutsu even existed, she had never heard of it before. Naruto then explained how he was doing an experiment when she had barged in and tackled him to the ground, telling her that he was seeing that because of his jutsu he was able to heal wounds on his body. And much to Kurenai's amazement she watched as the wound was almost already completely healed, it had looked like his blood had taken the form of several small wires and had stitched it back up perfectly. Kurenai glanced back over to Naruto, his sharingan eye still activated as he smiled awkwardly. She brought her hands up and started to message her temple,
"This, this has been a lot of info for me today." she said, making Naruto frown,
"I know, I'm sorry I didn't-"
"Don't apologize, just cause it may have overloaded my brain doesn't mean i'm not happy you told me." she said with a giggle putting Naruto at ease. Looking into his sharingan eye, an eye she knew held so much weight for Naruto. Coupled with the new jutsu style she had never seen before, one that seemed incredibly powerful. Kurenai was flattered to know that he trusts her so much, ever since Shisui had died she always wished she could have dedicated more time to him when he was younger. But this has been the only year since she had become a jounin that she actually had more free time, jounin senseis really had a lot of leeway. And she couldn't help but be proud at how much Naruto has improved, his teachings with Shisui and Anko must have really paid off, and paired with his new doujutsu and blood jutsu. She shivered at that thought, wondering just how strong the boy in front of her would become. As she watched him get to his feet she let her vision linger on him for a few moments.
"That's right, he's just a boy." she thought to herself, a tinge of sadness etched in her thoughts.
The Next Day - 8 a.m
"Why didn't you tell her about me?"
"It just didn't seem right, she said it herself she was overloaded."
"And shit how could I tell her when I-we don't even know how this happened? It would just bring up questions that can't be answered."
"I suppose you are right, she did seem to take it well enough."
Naruto nodded to Isobu, walking down the streets of Konoha. He had spent the night at Shikamaru's place again since he didn't want to be bothered with facing Narumi at home. The lazy Nara and his family accepted him with open arms which he graciously appreciated. The Nara genius sat him down and they talked for hours as they played a few rounds of shogi. He told Shikamaru about his first C-rank mission and he wasn't shocked in the slightest at how far things had escalated. He only gave a half sigh he beat Naruto in another round,
"It's not surprising that you find yourself in these troublesome situations."
Naruto couldn't help but snicker as his words echoed in his mind. His best friend sure didn't seem to have a care in the world, he really envied him.
But sadly morning came all too soon for Naruto and the moment he stepped out of the Nara household an anbu was already outside waiting for him, informing the blonde that the Hokage needed to see him immediately. He was saddened to hear that his father needed to see him so early, it wasn't even 9 a.m yet and he was hoping he could see Kurenai again today, maybe even get in some extra genjutsu lessons. Thinking of the ruby eyes woman, a large smile tugged at his lips, he really was thankful for her, she helped him in a time where he thought all was lost.
"Hey Naruto!"
Naruto stopped his walk as he turned around at the call of his name. Looking back he saw Shizuka run up next to him, Naruto found himself curious as to why his teammate had such an excited look on her face. She had a spring in her step as she stopped and looked at him, her smile growing wider.
"Hey Shizuka, what's up?"
He asked as they both started walking again. Meanwhile Shizuka was eager to get to the Hokage tower, she knew a bit of surprise was in order and was slightly confused on why the boy next to her didn't seem to share her excitement.
"Do you not know? Sai said he was gonna come and tell you."
Naruto looked at her in confusion again, raising an eyebrow as she slowly shook his head.
"No, I haven't seen Sai all morning, did something happen?"
"Yeah! He said Hokage-sama figured out when the next full moon is, and he's assigning our squad to take care of it!"
"What? Really?!"
Naruto yelled back, shock entering his system as the beast inside of him hummed in delight. He didn't think the Hokage would find out when the next full moon would be, and he really didn't think he would assign team 11 to the mission. This was easily a B-rank mission or higher, maybe even borderline A-rank. His team was capable, he finally felt like he was finally progressing in training since they had returned, a large portion would have to be from killing Sokka and the Bijuu inside him. But it was rare for a genin team to take a B-rank mission, the only time any new genin were allowed the pleasure was during war when it was inevitable. Excitement pumped through him as he and Shizuka engaged in small talk before getting to the Hokage tower.
After entering the tower they were quickly granted access to the Yondaim's office. Naruto opened the door and was shocked to see that the rest of his team was already inside. They offered the two of them a small smile in greeting which they returned happily. Glancing over to his left his shock seemed to grow as he saw his sister standing next to the Hokage's desk. She offered him a hesitant nod in greeting, one where he didn't return. Standing next to Narumi was the face of a woman he had just seen last night. Blinking in surprise he smiled wide as he greeted her happily, one she returned. Neither noticing the confused expression Minato sent their way, the teasing smirk of Anko, or the tightening of Narumi's hands. Minato coughed to gather the group's attention, all shinobi snapped into place, Shizuka taking a stand next to Anko while Naruto took his next to Kurenai. The Yondaime produced two scrolls from his desk, one white and the other blue.
He handed the blue one to Anko and the white one to Kurenai.
"Thank you all for coming, I assure you this debriefing will not take long. This is concerning the strange fortune that team 11 had brought back from their latest mission. I had already explained everything to Kurenai here so you guys don't need to worry about confusing her." he said, making the group nod in understanding.
"After countless hours last night and into the early morning me and a special team managed to figure out that the next full moon will be precisely on September 28h."
"September 28th? That is over a month away, Hokage-sama." Anko said with confusion. He only nodded his head as he leaned back into his chair, eyes narrowing in thought.
"While it is a month away and we do have some leeway. My mind couldn't help but ponder the two interesting details in the notes that Shizuka-chan and Sai-kun had opened. About Wave country and Yukigakure." he said, waiting for all eyes to be on him before continuing. "About a man named Gato who's trying to overthrow Wave country, and the kids disappearing in Yukigakure. Which is why both jounin in the room have a scroll, those two scrolls hold your mission details. Anko-chan will head over to wave country with Shizuka-chan and Sai-kun to try and find any information about Gato, if he manages to successfully overthrow Wave then a large amount of our trading resources will be lost. And Kurenai-chan will head over to Yukigakure with Naruto-kun and Narumi-chan, to see what the disappearances in Roka are all about. I can't help but believe that the fortune you guys found has to be referring to Roka."
"Hokage-sama if I may." Anko said, taking a step forward. Minaot nodded as he turned to face her.
"If I may ask why are you separating team 11? We all work well together and know each other's strengths and weaknesses and can compensate for one another."
"I'll be honest with you all." he started, taking a deep breath. "The reason I have separated you wasn't because I don't trust you together, It was mainly due to the difference in mission. Anko-chan, while it's true that placing Naruto-kun on your team would be beneficial, he is most important in the Yukigakure mission. He and Kurenai-chan are both adept in genjutsu and can slip around more easily in unknown territory, accompanied with Narumi-chan who is a superb sensor will have no problems infiltrating the town." he said, making their eyes flash in realization.
"And your mission in Wave is less of an infiltration and more of a protection mission, you guys if need be, will have to take out Gato with interfering with our ally. No doubt Wave, once they catch wind of this would be happy to let us aid them in any way possible. And let's face it Anko, you are more of a fan of take-out missions than a regular infiltration." he said with a grin. The purple headed jounin couldn't help but return the grin, flashing her white teeth in understanding. She bowed before stepping back into place between Sai and Shizuka.
"You both leave today, and will spend the next month in the respective towns before returning home. Team Anko, I trust you three to take care of this rather effortlessly and If you guys manage to complete the mission before the full moon then I give you permission to head over to Yukigakure to assist Team Kurenai." he stated making Team Anko nod.
"And Team Kurenai, you are not to return until the full moon has passed, if you do need to inform me of anything, have Narumi use a toad summon to send me a letter. And I want you guys to do everything you can to help with the disappearances in Roka, if my hunch is correct then you will find the answer there. And if it isn't then we just look good in the eyes of Yukigakure." he finished making Team Kurenai nod. He turned his body to Kurenai, offering a small bow "And Kurenai do not worry about team 8, I had already informed their respective clans about your mission and they had agreed to take over their individual training until you return, and if they so choose then they could undergo D-rank missions together as well in your absence, your presence on this mission was most definitely needed."
Kurenai bowed gracefully, happy to hear that her team was already looked out after. She thanked him.
"Thank you Hokage-sama."
"Team Anko will leave from the East gate, and Team Kurenai will leave from the North gate in one hour, everyone dismissed."