A/N Hullo, back with another one! So, the original chapter just got too big, twice my usual 7000+ word size. Therefore, I split it up. This is the first chapter of a double post. Next part is probably going to be up a couple of days after this one.
Two reviews expressed some doubt/worry about Naruto's serious personality. To that, I'm just going to say that, well, he's a bit more of a serious person. My Naruto is not constantly soaring cloud 9. That said, he was a bit on edge last chapter. He calms down noticeably in this one.
It's not like my Naruto can't relax or laugh at his problems either, he simply hasn't been around anyone his age for the latter half of his life. He's a very mature person for his age. But these are things that I'll make clearer as time goes on. And please remember, Naruto's personality is not set in stone. I intend to have him go through some significant growth and change, although I admit we're still far away from that point.
Other than that, Kosuke was also brought up in one review. Specifically, why did I make him so bland and boring? I actually put some thought into Kosuke, before I finally decided that in the end, he was an unimportant OC only there out of necessity for the plot. He was fill in for Naruto in team 7. I do have an idea with him in mind, and he features in this chapter, but he's not an integral piece of the plot. I made him seem generic to tell you guys: "look, he's gotta be here, but you don't have to take note of him, he will only be apart of the story in a very minor capacity."
Anyways, with all of the critique and questions out of the way, let's get into this! On a final note, thank you guys for supporting me with your very nice and helpful reviews!
On with the show!
Legacy Ascending
Meet The Neighbors
~ Noon – Konoha Hokage tower ~
Naruto left the Hokage tower somewhat content with the resluts. It remained to be seen exactly what the Hokage wanted from him. Having him participate in the Chunin exam was in all likelihood just the first move on Hiruzen's part. The Sandaime probably had a specific reason for including him in the exams, it could be he wanted some of the competition eliminated. It wasn't too much of a stretch of the imagination, but Naruto hoped that was not the case.
First things first, he had to locate his new rooms. Hiroko, the receptionist from that morning had stopped Naruto on his way out to hand him a pair of identical keys to his new condo. Which, apparently, was somewhere on the outskirts of the residential district. The privileged big five got to share a large apartment complex, while the less recognized villages had to rent their own places.
Naruto was hardly familiar with Konoha, but he was used to finding his way around. His thoughts still lingered on the things he and the Sandaime had discussed as he wandered down the cobbled streets of Konoha. People passed him on all sides, some urgently, others without a care in the world. Naruto was aware of their proximity, but at the same time, he hardly took note of them. No one recognized him, not yet. Engrossed as he was in his own thoughts, it was a testament to his awareness that he noticed it.
A miniscule chakra flex, it vanished as quickly as it came. Naruto had barely felt it.
But he had felt it.
That was odd, considering Naruto was not a particularly good sensor. In fact, he was awful. He knew the theory behind the skill well enough, but he simply didn't have the chakra system to be any good at the art. After experimenting with his teacher, Naruto had drawn a few conclusions. Firstly, he could only ever sense Jiraiya use moderately powerful techniques, anything below B-ranked was neigh on impossible for him to detect unless it had an unusually large chakra drain.
Secondly, his chakra sensing capabilities had a very limited range. If Jiraiya stood a good stone throw away, Naruto could only get a feel of Jiraiya if he used the most zapping techniques in his arsenal.
With that taken into consideration, Naruto was equal parts wary and curios to realize someone was channeling rather large amounts of chakra in the vicinity. His head swiveled around only to stare straight into one of the many wooden buildings that dotted Konoha. The source was either somewhere inside, or on the other side of the building.
Naruto's curiosity won out.
He walked up to the house and through some agile climbing; he was able to reach the rooftop without any chakra usage. Although good sensors were exceedingly rare, Naruto figured he had nothing to lose in being careful. He didn't want this mystery person to get the bead on him before he did, so he refrained from using any chakra. He didn't expect a fight of course, but this was how he'd been trained to operate in unknown areas and situations, and this qualified.
Naruto decided to cloak his chakra presence before moving up ahead. Eliminating his presence was one of the few things that had taken a long time for Naruto to get a good grasp of, and it still made him uncomfortable when he used the trick. It even became painful if he kept using it over a long period of time. Shrinking your chakra presence was something Naruto likened to squeezing down on a foam ball with as much force as possible in order to make it smaller. His foam ball just happened to be ridiculously large, and it really didn't like staying small.
Hence the pain if he kept the technique going for more than a few minutes at a time. He would manage this just fine though, no sweat.
The curious boy took a few silent steps towards the edge of the roof and hunched down to take a good look.
Huh, interesting.
~ A few minutes earlier – Nearby ~
"Kosuke, what are you doing here?" Haruno Sakura asked, slightly surprised to find her teammate standing in front of three kids who looked like they still belonged in the academy. Upon hearing his team's only female member, Kosuke turned around.
"Oh, hi Sakura. It's uh . . . These kids won't leave me alone, this small fry in particular." Kosuke nodded at the tallest of the three. A boy with dark hair clothed in a silly cape and hat. "He says . . . Well, he says he has to defeat me in order to become strong enough for the Hokage title."
"That's right! I have to defeat lots of people in order to get strong!" Yelled the young boy. "And since you refuse to, I'll make you fight me!"
With that, the caped boy jumped at Kosuke, who was so surprised that he forgot to put up a guard. As a result, Kosuke got a hand smacked in his face. A set of small fingers snatched at his forehead protector, and actually managed to yank it of off him.
The kid jumped away hurriedly, before posing with the headband waving around. The small boy grinned victoriously at Kosuke before saying: "My name is Konohamaru, and I'll be Hokage someday you know!"
Staring at the boy incredulously, Kosuke became annoyed.
"Did you just take my forehead protector?"
"Ha, if you want it back, then you have to fight me for it!" Konohamaru grinned again, as if he'd already won their supposed fight. Then he turned on the spot and ran down an alleyway, his two friend's right at his heels.
"Wait up, Konohamaru-kun!" Moegi shouted.
"Yeah, wait up!" Udon added in.
Looking back at Sakura, Kosuke asked silently if that just happened. The pink haired girl had a hard time hiding her smile.
"Let's go after them, we can't have you get into trouble for losing your forehead protector so close to the exam." Sakura said, trying to act mature. Grateful, Kosuke followed her when she jogged after the three academy students. Luckily, they only had to cut a single corner to find them. Unluckily, the situation the two of them stepped into was not a good one.
"Let me go you big brute!" Yelled Konohamaru, still clinging tightly to the forehead protector even as he was dangling by the fabric of his cape. The offender was a boy over twice Konohamaru's size. Konohamaru's two friends stood at the side, looking on in fright.
"Brute? Says the pipsqueak rudely running into me." Said the large teen. For all Sakura and Kosuke could tell, he really was big and brutish. He wore black slacks, with a dark hooded cowl. To go with this imposing look, he had painted dark purple lines across his cheeks and beneath his eyes. Additionally, he had a large bandaged object strapped to his back as a backpack.
"Leave the kid be, Kankuro, we're not here to mess with snotty brats." Said a haughty blonde haired girl who had been standing off to the side. She was pretty, Kosuke thought, with her hair done up in four buns at the back of her head. Although she had told her friend off, she was nonetheless eyeing Konohamaru with clear distaste.
Then the big guy, Kankuro, noticed the two Konoha Genin coming to a stop in front of them.
"Oi, don't you teach your kids any civility around here?" He questioned them in a gruff voice, now completely ignoring the struggling Konohamaru.
"We don't manhandle children when we think they did something wrong." Sakura said in a surprisingly quiet and level voice. Looking at her, Kankuro frowned.
"How else would you discipline them?" He asked condescendingly, but also with an undertone of genuine curiosity.
"You're here for the exam, right?" Kosuke asked. He had been scared to voice any immediate objection, but Sakura's clear stance had given him some courage. Looking at Kankuro's forehead protector, he realized it had the symbol of Suna engraved on it.
"I don't know how you do it out in the desert, but in Konoha, hurting a child is unacceptable."
As it turned out, that was the wrong thing to say. Kankuro's face suddenly darkened. Konohamaru quickly stopped all of his attempts to squirm out of the older boy's grip.
"The fuck are you on about? I'm holding him by his silly cape! How is this violence? If I wanted to be violent, he'd be far worse off." Slightly intimidated, both Kosuke and Sakura became quiet.
"Is this really how you raise them here? I thought Konoha was supposed to be one of the stronger villages out there, this is disappointing."
"Just let him down, and we'll all go our separate ways." Kosuke tried to reason. He didn't want to admit it, but the big Suna boy scared him. Surprisingly, the blonde Kunoichi supported him, although in a very roundabout manner.
"Let's just go, Kankuro, we have to get to the apartments at any rate."
Looking over at his teammate, Kankuro considered her words, he didn't want to anger his sister.
"But this could be good practice, Temari. Some insight into our competition woudn't hurt." At this, Kankuro directed a rather savage smile at Kosuke and Sakura. Then a sharp and sudden pain sprung up in his wrist, he dropped Konohamaru and automatically clutched his arm. Konohamaru rolled and hobbled over to his two friends.
Both sides of the gathered crowd was surprised when a figure suddenly landed in-between them with trained poise. Uchiha Sasuke glared at the two foreign shinobi in front of him, he flipped a stone in the air and caught it smoothly.
"You know, if you want a fight, you should try goading someone actually worth fighting."
"Thanks, Sasuke . . ." No one picked up Kosuke's dry comment.
"Hah," Kankuro laughed. "I hope you can do more than throw stones."
"You'll find out in a minute." Replied a confident Sasuke, who was already amped for a fight.
"Ugh, all this testosterone is making me nauseous." Said a disgruntled Temari, Sakura silently agreed.
"Indeed, sister. Our idiot sibling has a habit of diving into trouble head first." A quiet and coarse voice proclaimed. Sakura and Kosuke stared wide-eyed as a red haired boy appeared between his two teammates in a small whirlwind of sand. This new addition to the steadily growing crowd had a pair of dark ringed eyes that readily told you he would kill a puppy if it so much as looked at him wrong.
"Kankuro, cease with your nonsense, or die."
"Ah, yes, of course." The rapid turnaround in behavior left some of the Konoha residents slack-jawed. However, it was not just Kankuro. Temari had become pale, and was looking away from her red haired teammate determinedly. Somehow, Kosuke didn't think the Suna kid was making idle threats.
"Hmph, I'll get a chance to fight you during the exam, I suppose." Sasuke said, disappointed to see his opponent so meek all of a sudden.
"And you are?" Asked the newest arrival, his voice void of any emotion.
"Uchiha Sasuke. Who are you?"
"Sabakuu no Gaara. I will enjoy killing you, I think."
Taken aback, Sasuke considered his would-be-killer more closely. He didn't look very athletic or impressive, actually, the only concrete thing this Gaara had going for him was a sinister aura of sorts. The gourd on his back probably had some purpose, but Sasuke couldn't see how it could be of any use in a fight. He wagered he could take out this guy in a few moves or so.
Gaara snorted, but it was not out of amusement. "Whenever I threaten, it's always the same with you confident types. First, you get confused or angry, then you begin thinking, you start to consider whether I'm capable or not, eventually, you come to the inane conclusion that I'm bluffing, or that I'm simply overconfident. That pattern never fails. Please, indulge me. Mother is hungry."
It occurred to Sakura then, that this boy was actually not wholly sane. Suddenly afraid again, Sakura unconsciously positioned herself in front of Konohamaru and his two friends. Gaara gave her a cold look, "that's also a very frequent reaction." He noted disdainfully.
"I don't really buy it." Sasuke stated. "Give me your best attack, and we'll see if you have some actual prowess to back up all that talk."
A sudden quiet enveloped the assembled group. Sakura looked at Sasuke in worry even as she was cheering him on in her head, Kosuke for his part was annoyed that his teammate couldn't walk away from anything remotely resembling a fight. Both Kankuro and Temari quickly lost their initial shock at the bold declaration, they now looked at Sasuke as if he was already dead.
"Prowess? Does that even matter? What matters is that I have power, more so than you do, Uchiha Sasuke. Your idiotic challenge is accepted. You have only yourself to blame for your death, as you were the one to challenge me. Removing your existence will be gratifying."
"Tch, like I said, give me your worst." Despite the contemptuous reply, Sasuke was staring at Gaara with an unusual intensity. He was excited, Sakura realized with a slight exasperation. Why do boys only think about fighting! Shannaro!
Gaara raised his right arm and both siblings immediately moved several feet away from him.
"You guys back up a bit too." That was Sasuke. Sakura complied hurriedly and ushered the three academy students back down the cobbled street, Kosuke walked with them without taking his eyes of the two figures facing each other down. A small halo of sand was now swirling around Gaara and Sasuke stood ready to jump into action.
Suddenly, the lid on Gaara's gourd popped open and thick streams of sand slithered out with an alarming speed. Concerned, Sasuke jumped backwards when he saw the sand speed after his legs. This was not just some kind of earth manipulation, but something else entirely. Does he have some kind of kekkei genkai?
Then, the sand blurred past Sasuke with a ridiculous speed before mauling him in the back with enough strength to propel him towards Gaara – and right into a large fist of sand who promptly closed itself around the young boy in a killer squeeze. The horrified spectators heard several groaning pops. Frowning slightly, Gaara released the death grip and was unsurprised to see the splintered remains of a thick log fall to the ground.
Sasuke appeared several meters away from Gaara and his deadly sand-made appendages, but not wholly unscathed – he had a clear limp and a grimace in place. Despite that, Sasuke seemed more focused on his enemy than his own wellbeing.
"You can freely manipulate sand?"
"Yes. Please die now." Was Gaara's cold response. The swirling sands began to coalesce into a hand twice as large as Sasuke, who quickly realized he had to dodge, and find some way to distract Gaara long enough to close their distance. He was confident he could end the cocky red head if he got in close.
Sasuke jumped away hurriedly, funneling chakra to his legs in order to amp his speed. He intentionally jumped early in order to dodge with a good margin, so Sasuke was astounded when he felt the air at his side buffet before the sand construct slammed into the spot he had just been standing in. Sakura gasped loudly at the near hit, while Kosuke paled as the seriousness of the duel in front of them really hit home.
"Hey, you." Kosuke poked Konohamaru, but not sharply. When he got the young boy's attention he told him in a very serious tone: "Take your friends and find someone, like a Jonin or a Chunin, anyone who can stop them."
Konohamaru, surprisingly, did not need any convincing and quickly took his friends by the neck before bolting away.
Meanwhile, Sasuke had been able to deduce two things.
One, the sand under the redhead's control was definitely a whole lot faster than he was.
Two, the bastard was really trying to kill him.
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke decided to go all out as well. A deep red color overtook his normally dark eyes, and a single black tomoe swirled into life in each eye. Acting quickly, Sasuke dashed to the side and dodged two sneaky tendrils of sand in the course of the action. When a wave of sand approached him from the direction he had been running in, Sasuke made a split-second decision to jump away.
Indecision got you killed. That was one of the few things he'd learned from sparring with Kakashi. It was important to make a move, and then commit to it. Any hesitance in the field would get you killed, eventually.
This time unfortunately, Sasuke's attempt to stay a step ahead of his opponent backfired. Gaara immediately struck with all of his appendages against the now airborne Uchiha. The raven-haired boy didn't have time to regret his earlier move, instead he spun around in the air and kicked down with his leg against the closest of the intercepting sand creations. Sasuke had hoped to use the kick as a way to launch himself away from the imminent danger; instead, his foot was absorbed into the sand. Effectively stuck.
Recognizing the danger he was in, Sasuke adeptly put his hands together in order to use another kawarimi. However, just as he was about to finish the last sign, a vein of sand grabbed his wrist away – which ended the Jutsu prematurely. Sasuke hit the ground roughly, before another two appendages enveloped his last free limbs. Slowly, they began to pull him down the cobbled street. Sasuke struggled violently with a panicky need to get free. It proved futile, and a very real fright began to well up in him, as Gaara dragged him towards an impending death.
"W-wait!" A shaken Sakura shouted out, and she took several shaking steps forward. "You won! What are you doing to him?!"
Sabakuu no Gaara looked up from his squirming prey, the gaze he gave Sakura was enough to make her stumble.
"Why do you care?" He asked in his gravelly voice.
"W-why? Why wouldn't we! He's our teammate! Our friend!" Sakura cried, she was very close to actual tears at this point. Kosuke quickly moved up to her side and nodded fervently to her words, too scared to voice his own thoughts. Both Kankuro and Temari stood several meters away and watched the proceedings stoically from the shadows of a tall brick wall.
Gaara's hard gaze did not soften as Sakura spoke. Instead, it intensified.
"How inane. Friendship? Are you willing to die for your friend, then? He challenged me, and as the victor, taking his life is not only my choice, but my right."
Dread welled up in Sakura as the cold words from the foreign boy hit her. "But why would you . . ." Sakura's next words died in her mouth when she saw sand swirl and coalesce into a sharp lance above Gaara.
The tip was aimed straight at Sasuke, who immediately paused his struggling to look up at the cone-shaped spear of sand with wide eyes. His single tomoe Sharingan saw no escape from this.
"N-no! No, don't do this!" Sakura screamed hysterically. She tried to run and position herself between Sasuke and Gaara, but Kosuke grabbed hold of her from behind to restrain her. She couldn't get out of his grip, much as she tried. Angry and desperate, Sakura gave the two Suna Genin in the background a harsh glare.
"And what are you two doing! Are you just going to stand there and watch him do this?!" Sakura shouted at them, all the while trying to kick and scratch her way out of Kosuke's grip. Sakura was surprised when the girl with the odd pig tail hairstyle took a hesitant step forth.
"O-oi, Gaara, don't you think you've made your point now? You won, you always do. You don't have to kill anyone. He's just a kid, he didn't know any better." Despite her own insecurity, Temari was doing her best to hold up a brave front.
"Be quiet, nee-san, or I'll kill you too." The sentence was said in the same cold and uncaring manner. Temari gasped inaudibly, and her eyes widened a fraction in surprise and fear. She took a step backwards and looked away. Kankuro put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.
Sakura was shocked at Gaara's casual threat to his teammate - and, apparently, his own sister. He's evil. She concluded, and surprisingly, that knowledge calmed her somewhat. At least she understood Gaara's bloodlust now. There's no reason for this, we didn't fault him somehow. He's just insane.
"Well then, it's time you died, Uchiha Sasuke. She's getting impatient."
"No! Wait!" Sasuke shouted from his incapacitated position. "I have to do something, you can't kill me yet! There is something that I have to accomplish!"
Gaara ignored him. A slight wave of his pointer finger had the hovering lance of sand launch forward in a burst of speed. Sakura screamed, and Sasuke watched the spear approach with an odd feeling of detachment.
Really? Is this it? Was his exact thoughts right then.
It happened in the span of a second. A figure appeared in the projectile's path and struck out with an open palm. Everyone became dumbstruck when a loud shockwave of air ripped the spear's composition apart. Tiny grains of sand scattered around by the resulting gusts of wind. Everyone stared unabashedly at the unknown figure.
He was blonde, and stood across of Gaara, whom he was considering with a pair of clear blue eyes. His attire was pretty casual. A white long sleeved shirt with some obscure patterns, dark blue pants and a pair of black laced shoes. His hair was a spiky mess that somehow fit him very well, but the bangs that fell just short off his eyes hinted to some vanity.
Sabakuu no Temari frowned and sharpened her gaze at the powerful display of wind manipulation. That was no jutsu . . . he somehow created that much pressure through only raw nature manipulation? Back in Suna, the pig-tailed girl experienced a certain level of fame due to her unusually good grasp of the wind-release. Many considered her a prodigy at the art, which was why she was known by the title of 'wind mistress' in Suna.
Because of those talents, she could analyze and appreciate the blonde boy's skills far more thoroughly than anyone else present. What stumped her was the way he had done it. With no hand signs, with no specified Jutsu in mind at all, just raw wind chakra expelled with great force. She was impressed of course, she could only do minor things with her wind chakra unless she used signs or her battle fan – like putting out a candlelight. But the question in her remained, how?
The boy's method was very cumbersome in the way that it was so chakra intensive, and ridiculously difficult. She had no idea how much training he had gone through in order to reach such a high wind affinity. He wasn't even all that old, he looked to be just a year or two shy of her own age.
Despite the impossibility of it, Temari really wanted to learn how to do it. To have the wind beckoning at your fingertips seemed so wonderfully useful and liberating. She was brought out of her own mind when her violent sibling came to himself.
"Just what," Gaara spoke up menacingly. "Do you think you are doing?"
"I don't know, was I doing anything?." Was the quick and level reply.
Gaara stared at the blonde, now completely flummoxed.
"One moment, I'm just gonna cut this guy loose."
Huh? Gaara stared, as his opponent turned around and bent down in front of the held down Sasuke.
Wait, his opponent . . . turned his back to him?
What?
Naruto molded some wind-natured chakra and cut away Gaara's sand-made limbs from Sasuke's form. Kosuke openly gaped at the sheer indifference the blonde-haired person displayed, and Sakura was not far from emulating him. Both Kankuro and Temari simply stared unblinkingly at the blonde, baffled at the complete lack of wariness.
As Naruto removed the last restraint, he gave Sasuke a look that clearly said 'get up'. The Uzumaki then rose up to face Gaara again, who had been too dumbstruck to even consider attacking while Naruto had exposed his back.
"Are either of you going to insist on fighting anymore?" Naruto asked the two boys.
Sasuke, who had just gotten back on his feet, eyed Gaara with tight-set eyes. "He tried to kill me just now, I can't let that slide."
"Remove yourself." Gaara glared at Naruto. "I will kill you afterwards."
Sakura was about to interject several words of her own, but she swallowed them when Naruto spoke up.
"Uchiha Sasuke, Konoha's last living member of the famed Sharingan wielding clan. Sabakuu no Gaara, son of the Yondaime Kazekage. Are either of you aware of the consequences this little spat of yours could have?"
Both boys stilled slightly, and they turned to look at him.
"Why should I care?" Gaara asked uncaringly. Naruto didn't miss a beat at the cold and unconcerned voice.
"Well, in the event that you kill Sasuke, how do you think the Kazekage will try to appease Konoha? In the most likely scenario, the Kazekage will just hand you over to the top brass here in order to stave off war. I hear he's not exactly very fond of his youngest son."
Gaara showed no outward sign to Naruto's words, save for a slight crease that appeared between his eyes.
"Even so, why do you care? This is none of your business."
A slight pause. Naruto's next words, while not cold, were considerably chiller in comparison to his earlier tone.
"It sure is, I'm a meddlesome person, you see." Once the Chunin exam begins, there's going to be a whole lot of bodies piling up unless I find a way to stop Gaara. Naruto realized.
Gaara continued to stare at the weird boy with bloodshot eyes. Gaara couldn't understand him, all his life, people had always been fearful of him. This one wasn't, and it was making him . . . anxious.
And if he wasn't . . . So be it, Mother's hunger was getting unmanageable. This boy would fear him soon enough.
"You two can finnish this in the arena, there's no point in making a mess here."
Sasuke looked reluctant to back down, which was pure idiocy of course, but Naruto kept himself from thumping him. "Don't you owe me a debt now, Uchiha-san? At least back down when I tell you to." Naruto pointed out when the dark haired boy continued to stare at Gaara with intense eyes.
The Uchiha did as he was told when that unpleasant fact was made apparent to him. Ugh, as long as he doesn't demand anything too ridiculous, I guess I can manage. He did save my life, after all.
Meanwhile, Gaara prepared to lash out at Naruto's distracted form, but it was not to be.
"What's happening here?" A pair of Chunin appeared some way down the street. "We've got a witness report saying a fight was taking place here, a life and death scenario."
Naruto stepped forward with a practiced walk and gave the two non-descript shinobi a confused smile. "Life and death? Really? Well, no harm done here. Just a bit of pre-exam nerves getting out."
The two stopped and shared a suspicious look. "Is that so?"
"It is. What did you hear anyways? Wait, don't tell me it was the three academy students? They did seem a bit scared by some of the jutsu we practiced." Naruto's question devolved into a series of mutterings, which the two Chunin caught easily.
Their eyes scoured the street and the face of every person there thoroughly, before both left with a last parting comment to practice elsewhere.
Naruto received a few looks again.
"What?" He asked, slightly affronted. "A shinobi has to be able to lie convincingly, that's one of the first things we're taught, right?"
A small scoff came from Sasuke, who was eyeing Naruto with both gratitude and annoyance at the same time. "Find me when you want your favor cashed in." He said simply, before he turned around to leave.
"I suggest you two follow him." Naruto told the two Konoha Genin. They followed his advice quickly. The pink haired girl even thanked him for saving her teammate, which was an appreciated gesture. Pink girl +1.
With that out of the way, He turned towards the Suna Genin, whom were already receding away. Naruto quickly walked up to them.
"Well, let's get going. I for one want to leave this street." He spoke up from behind the three.
"You're not coming with us. . ?" Temari had initially spoken up to deny him. However, once Naruto swiveled his cerulean blue eyes at her, the statement turned into something more along the lines of a question.
"Yes, I am." Naruto proclaimed confidently. "And Gaara, if you're planning to kill me. Quit it."
Gaara looked at Naruto in surprise, while his siblings glanced betwixt the two of them warily. He felt my bloodlust earlier. Gaara guessed.
"I will wait until the exam." The read head lied effortlessly. He was also a good liar, mostly because he had no moral dilemma in doing so whatsoever.
"Good, because, truth be told, I have an ulterior motive in wanting to go with you."
The three Suna shinobi straightened, intrigued as to what this mysterious and quirky Genin could have as a motive to go with them. They couldn't imagine his intensions.
"You see, I need to find these apartments everyone's talking about."
Two sets of blinking eyes and a dead stare was the response to that. Kankuro was the first to vocalize his surprise.
"You're joking, right?"
xXx
"Ah, so this is the place. Not too shabby." Naruto and the three Suna siblings stood in front of a three-story apartment complex. It was brand new, and it showed in the gleaming glass paneled walls.
Whereas most of Konoha's buildings were simple in nature and usually built with wood, the block almost looked a bit out of place with its metallic sheen and glass panels. The discrepancy wasn't too noticeable however, since the building was placed very remotely on the outskirts of the village.
"Mhm, how come no one told you about it? You have a team leader, right? He should have briefed you." Temari asked curiously. Her brothers walked at her side in silence.
"I'm a bit of a special case in that regard." Naruto responded carefully, fully aware of how unsatisfactory that answer was. He was pleased that the girl had taken to ask a few questions though. She and Kankuro had both acted very meek during the admittedly short walk to the apartments. Gaara seemed to have that effect on them. Honestly, the three of them were more dysfunctional than a drunk Jiraiya surrounded by pretty girls.
Well, maybe not that bad.
"Where's your room, then?" Naruto asked. He really did want to know where the three stayed, but he also wanted to divert some attention away from himself. Years of hiding in plain sight had made Naruto a closed off person. Secrecy was as much a habit as it was a precaution for Naruto.
"Up the stairs." Temari answered after having taken a quick peek at Gaara first. She then pointed towards a set of stairs that led to the second story of the building.
"It's the door farthest down the corridor."
The foursome ascended the stairs together, but Naruto stopped when he came to a door with a big 9 affixed to the wall. The others stopped when they noticed Naruto's sudden halt. Gaara frowned in annoyance at the delay while Temari and Kankuro looked at him in curiosity.
Naruto paid them no mind. He had a hunch. A nimble hand quickly dug up the key ring he had been given earlier that day. A set of identical keys hung from the chain, but also attached was a round, blank coin. He flipped it around and was pleased to see the number 9 on it.
Naruto couldn't help but to give a small snort, mildly amused.
The old man was probably having a laugh right about now.
Number nine? Really?
He turned to the others, who were looking at him in polite confusion. Save for Gaara, who was now standing outside number 7, two doors away. The Suna Jinchuriki was glaring at him.
"Found my flat." Naruto declared with a notably more forceful smile. "Looks like we'll be pretty close neighbors."
Gaara's oppressive stare did not lessen in the slightest.
That confirms it. My new and psychotic neighbor wants to murder me. Great.
He coughed slightly and opened his door. "So, I guess I'll be seeing you guys around then?" He asked in an attempt at politeness.
Kankuro gave him a stiff nod, and Temari forced a smile. Naruto walked into his apartment with a small wave at the three.
Ugh, awkward.
Naruto leaned into the door behind him, decidedly relieved to be away from Sabakuu no Gaara. The Ichibi Jinchuriki was even worse off than he'd already assumed. The fact irked a nerve in him; were there no decent Fuuinjutsu specialists in Suna?
Argh! In any case, I have to find a way to get a good look at his seal. It could be faulty or deteriorating for all I know. He would have to be quick about it too, something about the rings under Gaara's eyes told him the boy could literarily snap and lose it any passing day. The real question however, was why did Suna send a clearly unstable Jinchuriki to the exams? Konoha and Suna were allies. It made no sense.
Naruto shook his thoughts away and instead appraised his new quarters. The place was going to be his base of operations for the foreseeable future, it was only prudent to take a tour.
He took off his footwear in the small hallway and put them on a nearby footrest before he strolled into the living room. A nice three seater-couch was pushed into the farthermost corner, and an oak table was in front of it. A TV faced the seating arrangements, ready to be turned on by the controller on the table.
The kitchen was fully equipped to make a good set of meals, and the means to serve them. The four bedrooms – necessary to house an entire Genin squad and their team leader – were compact and cozy, with a view over the truly massive forest Konoha kept mostly untouched. Inside the bathroom laid the expected necessities, and not much more. What impressed Naruto was the study he found. The mahogany desk and the comfortable armchair were of a luxurious quality, and they would come in handy during long nights of studying and experimenting.
After fully exploring the apartment, he decided to get a bit settled in. He pulled up his sleeves to unseal some of the equipment and belongings he always had on him when travelling. Naruto held up his tattooed right arm and smiled a bit as his Fuuinjutsu utensils appeared on the living room table in a small smoke cloud. Naruto had originally gotten the concept idea after Jiraiya had explained the theory behind how the eight trigrams seal worked. The seal that kept the Kyuubi locked away inside of him.
If you could seal a Biju into a person, shouldn't it be possible to seal things into them as well? Spurred on by the thought, Naruto had begun experimenting on his own. In principle, it had seemed like an easy conversion, although it struck him as odd that none of his books even mentioned the concept. Not even Jiraiya knew of a Fuuinjutsu scheme that could do what Naruto wanted. It turned out to be anything but easy. He spent months working on that project before he finally ended up in the right ballpark. As it turned out, Naruto had been wrong to assume that you could seal objects into people the same way you would seal a Biju.
The eight trigrams seal on his belly was a masterpiece, yet it had no physical anchor. In fact, his late father's seal only appeared whenever he used chakra. That was part of its purpose; its function was to keep an amalgamation of chakra sealed away, and the Uzumaki clan had realized that designing a physical seal was unnecessary.
Through their genius, they had made a seal that didn't rely on any physical limitations. If he smudged a line in one of his exploding tags, it quite simply wouldn't work. The eight trigrams seal didn't have any lines to smudge, heck even if he got stabbed in the gut it would still work. The seal operated purely on chakra, and Naruto had been foolish to use the same application in his attempts to seal physical objects into a person.
After coming to this realization, he began experimenting with refueled vigor. Eventually he came up with a prototype. The present day result was an outcome after many sleepless nights tinkering over the finer technicalities of the seal.
Put simply, Naruto could seal stuff into himself. Plural. One object per spiral, and he had six twisting spirals corkscrewing up his right arm. At least at the moment, fortunately he still had a bit of arm left to go. The choice to outline the seal the way he did had seemed natural to Naruto, simply because it conserved a lot of space. Jiraiya had praised him for the design; it was one of the few seals ever made to work on something else other than a completely flat surface. Jiraiya called it a "spherical design," and told Naruto that he had only seen something similar a handful of times before.
The final effect looked surprisingly good. Each of the symbols etched into his arm were tiny, but Jiraiya – once he had explained the theory and gotten the man on board – had drawn them masterfully. How the symbols sometimes seemed to dance across his arm fascinated Naruto. A trick of the light, of course, but it still caught his eye every time it happened.
The blonde sat down and channeled some more chakra into one of the seals, and a dark grey combat attire flopped onto the floor. The custom-made outfit had a small hip compartment with some basic Fuuinjutsu equipment, and the traditional shinobi pouch stored with projectiles was attached to the right pant leg. The cloth was lightweight and gave Naruto some flexibility, although it did little in the way of protecting him. The outfit also had numerous pockets, which Naruto had found to be very handy in the field.
He unsealed another spiral, and a tanto appeared in his hand. He held it up, and the small chakra conductive knife shone in the light with a menacing gleam. He vividly remembered his first and only kill. A single sweep of the tanto – its sharpness amplified several times with his wind chakra – had done the job. The kill had been instant.
Even so, it had felt off somehow. Not wrong, but not right either.
Despite having already become a competent shinobi in his own right, Naruto wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to killing. He felt no guilt or sadness when he thought about how the man had bled out in front of him. But there had been something to it, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Naruto hated the topic of killing, despite it being such a big part of his work. It was a necessary act from time to time, but he disliked to think about who got to decide when and where. Killing was a moral minefield, impossible to navigate, and Naruto probably hated that more than the actual killing.
There was never a clear answer, and that was what irked him about it.
Naruto sighed and looked at the time, it was late afternoon.
He had to be ready for whatever test the Sandaime had in mind. He unsealed another spiral and a custom made wakizashi sprung into his hand.
Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day.
A/N So what do you think? Next part is ready for release, and it will be up in a few day's time. Next one will finally give you guys a good idea of how capable Naruto is. Four new and varyingly important characters are also introduced in the next piece, so stick around!
Other than that, I wish you guys the best! Leave a review if you enjoyed this or if there was something you feel I could have done better!
The Epic Pen, signing off.
