Chapter 15

Nypism: Thank you for even more feedback. And yes for now Naruto will be the weakest of the three. But he has a higher potential than Tri does but Tri and Itachi will reach their's quicker. The dream's will pop up every now and then, becoming clearer over time. And I figured something out in regards to Naruto possessing Mokuton, he will have it but it'll be different from Hashirama's and Yamato's.

Overdue Words and Unforeseen Actions

Five days. That was how long Tsunade had kept Tri in what might have been the dullest room in existence. Although it wasn't as bad as Itachi who'd woken up a few hours after him and who had to spend an additional day stuck in that room.

And now another week later, the Konoha convoy was approaching the outskirts of the Village. But despite being discharged Tri and Itachi weren't permitted to return to active duties and were confined to taking it easy riding in one of the many wagons. That left Naruto alone with only his thoughts to keep him company since he was medically able to form part of the perimeter guard again.

And yet despite the time that had elapsed his mind still dragged him back to the events of the last week. Or more specifically the farewell between himself and Kurotsuchi.

*Flashback*

"I expect a rematch at some point," she stated firmly. "I'd be more than happy to oblige Kurotsuchi-san." He held his hand out in front of him, he only half expected her to accept so there was a slight element of surprise on his part as they shook hands.

And yet when it came time to let go, neither seemed all too inclined. They're joined hands lingered, it only lasted a moment but both noticed. Each snatching their hand back as if they were held over a flame.

*End Flashback*

'Who'd of thought something so simple could be so confusing,' he sighed. He quickly gave his head a shake realising he was supposed to be paying attention to his surroundings. But before long he was lost in his thoughts once more, this time it was on Tri's display of Shakuton.

Naruto had had his adoptive brother explain in detail how he'd created the chakra for it. Of course it would interest Naruto, they both had multiple chakra affinities and yet despite lacking a bloodline he was able to mould a Kekkai Genkai. And although his chakra control was greater than his own he couldn't help but wonder, 'Perhaps I can do the same.'

Thinking on his brother's explanations, Naruto brought his hands close together. He channelled Suiton chakra into his left hand and Doton into his right. Bringing his hands together, he manifested both chakras onto his palms and attempted to intermingle the two together.

He tried for a full minute but to no avail, whenever he tried to push his palms together, the two chakras just pushed them apart again as if they were two magnets of the same polarity. 'Hmm, that certainly isn't working. The chakra showing no signs of coming together at all. Tri mentioned he had a similar issue and he solved it by changing the chakra mixture. He changed the chakra balance by incorporated more Fūton to bring them together.'

He tried Doton first, increasing the amount of nature transformed chakra in his right hand and pushing his palms together once more.

Again, it had little to no effect. "Let's try decreasing the amount of Suiton chakra." He gave it a go, slowly withdrawing more and more of the chakra in his left hand and as he did his hands were pushed further apart.

"Well, that's definitely not working. Let's try the reverse," he muttered as he increased the flow to his left hand while withdrawing from the right. As the mixture returned to around 50/50 his hands closed on one another. And as the Suiton portion increased his hands drew still closer together.

Then he felt it. It lasted only a split second as he was still changing the chakra make-up. He immediately stopped and very slowly reversed the flow of Suiton. It took nearly a minute to find that sweet spot again but when he did he could feel the difference. It felt as if the Suiton and Doton chakras melded if only momentarily before destabilising with a barely audible pop.

Naruto allowed himself a small smile, 'Perhaps there is something to work with after all.' Over the next five minutes he tried to learn to quickly find that sweet spot but he managed it no quicker than thirty to forty seconds. "Seems I'll need to work on improving my chakra control if I'm going to get anywhere with this."

"It will have to wait until tomorrow, however," Naruto added. The great wall that surrounded Konoha was now in sight. The blonde let out another smile, 'It's good to be home.'

-The following morning – Hokage's Office-

"I'd like to formally congratulate our three finalists on their performances that saw all of them reach the final four and further congratulations to Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto for winning the Chūnin Exams."
"Arigatou, Hokage-sama," the three replied in unison. "I, the clan heads and village elders convened earlier this morning to put to vote whether any of you are ready to be Chūnin." The three mutely nodded in understanding.

The Hokage and three Genin were joined in the office by a collection of family members and several clan heads.

"Uchiha Itachi, step forward," Minato ordered to which he duly obliged. "Uchiha Itachi, the vote determined that you meet the required standard of a Konoha Chūnin. Thusly I as Hokage hereby promote you to the rank of Chūnin and all the responsibilities and privileges pertained." Minato withdrew a Flak Jacket from a storage scroll and handed it to Genma who in turn presented it to Itachi who accepted and stepped back with a bow.

"Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto, step forward." Naruto did as asked and Minato continued speaking. "Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto, the vote determined that you meet the required standard of a Konoha Chūnin. Thusly I as Hokage hereby promote you to the rank of Chūnin and all the responsibilities and privileges pertained." Naruto also received his Flak Jacket before too stepping back.

"Uzumaki Tri, Step forward." After he had done so, Minato repeated himself again. "Uzumaki Tri, the vote determined that you meet the required standard of a Konoha Chūnin. Thusly I as Hokage hereby promote you to the rank of Chūnin and all the responsibilities and privileges pertained." Just like his teammates he took ownership of a Flak Jacket. Unlike the other two, however, Tri immediately donned his after sealing his cloak away.

"Congratulations to the three of you. Now Tsunade-sama says you'll in need of a break. So you will begin your duties as Chūnin from the beginning of next week." The three bowed as the ceremony came to an end.

The two brothers found themselves near crushed in a bear hug courtesy of Kushina while Mikoto placed a gentle hand on Itachi's shoulder.

Minato meanwhile turned to Shizune, "Shizune-san, can you take Minusha-chan and Rezano-chan."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." With Minusha already in her arms, she began to lead Rezano out as Kushina stood again. "Thank you Shizune-san, I'll try to be back as soon as I can." She got a silent nod in reply as they left the room, Mikoto also left with Itachi closing the door behind them.

With them gone and everyone else having already left it left just the four remaining members of the Hokage family and Hiruzen. Minato sat in his chair with Kushina moving to his side while Hiruzen stood off to the side. Naruto and Tri remained in front of the Hokage's desk.

The blonde Hokage took a deep breath followed by a deep sigh. "Well we know why we're here so let's get straight to the point."
"Where would you like to start, Tou-san?" Naruto asked, his voice carrying a cold edge. Minato sighed again, "Let's go from the beginning, when did it start?"
"About six months after Tri's adoption. We know you both lead busy lives but you still made time when you could to help with our training even if it was only the odd hour here or there."

Naruto took a moment to compose himself, with each word, more and more of the bottled up emotion broke through. "But then Jiraiya returned for one of his occasional whatever they are, immediately after that visit, things changed. After that you stopped asking how we were getting on with our training and when we asked for help or advice you'd push us off onto others."

"For Taijutsu and physical conditioning we went to Gai-sensei or Tsunade-sama-sensei. For chakra control training we went to Shizune-chan. Hiruzen-sama-sensei for Ninjutsu. Admittedly you don't know enough about Medical Ninjutsu to teach it so no problem there."

Tri picked up where Naruto left off. "And while you started me on Fūinjutsu Tou-san, you taught or assisted me with nothing beyond Level 2. From then on it was either Hiruzen-sama-sensei or a Fūinjutsu book or scroll provided by the same person. The basic Fūinjutsu Naruto learnt was taught to him by me."

By now Minato's face wore a sombre look while one of Kushina's hands had curled up into a fist, tightly gripping her dress as the moisture built up in her eyes. "Naruto, do you mind if I step out for a minute, I have something in mind that'll better display what we're trying to explain," Tri asked. A nod from the blonde was followed by a Shunshin.

Looking to keep the talk going, Minato moved onto another question. "You said Hiruzen-sama taught you Ninjutsu, does that mean he taught you elemental Ninjutsu too?"
"Both yes and no. To begin with we taught ourselves elemental Ninjutsu, especially to begin with. After we'd learnt to mould nature transformed chakra we sought out our sensei to help guide us from then on."

"How old were you both when you learn nature manipulation?" Kushina asked in a quiet voice, a small part of her not wanting to know the answer. The shame and guilt building with each question answered. "Seven, shortly after we met Itachi for the first time. You really need better seals in your library Tou-san. You'd be amazed at how quickly Tri was able to bypass all the security seals protecting the important scrolls... Well except the one behind the hidden compartment in your desk. The contents of which I can likely guess."

Minato flinched for the briefest of moments before recovering. That compartment held the composition and design of the one Jutsu he and Konoha absolutely could not afford to fall into the hands of a foe. "This is how you learnt the Rasengan then?"
"Hai, I needed an ace card for the finals. Itachi had his eyes, I thought Tri's ace card would be his Fūinjutsu, which I guess it was in a sense but I had no idea he was working on combining chakra natures."

Naruto briefly thought back to his little discovery yesterday. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside as a question he wanted to ask came to mind.

"Tou-san, going back to the Rasengan scroll for a moment, you wrote that you'd been unable to apply a nature transformation to the technique." Minato nodded, "Yeah, as you'll have found out, the Rasengan is difficult to keep stable in its base form. Attempting to apply nature transformed chakra make it even more complicated."
"I presume you tried to apply Fūton to it?" Naruto inquired. Minato again nodded at his correct leap of logic.

"How long did it take you to learn the first two steps, Naruto-kun?" a deeply interested Hiruzen asked. "The first step took nearly a week. I only completed it after experimented by swirling water around in a sink, before then it had never occurred to me to swirl the water or chakra in multiple directions."

He took a breath before continuing. "The second step I found really easy, my chakra control is good enough that applying power was rather simple. The third step, however, I'm stuck on. Applying the first two steps together really taxes on my concentration and even when using a clone to split the strain I'm still struggling."

Minato silently listened to Naruto detail his learning of his own personal technique. A technique up until now only he and Jiraiya knew. "I presume Tri-kun will be learning the Rasengan before long too?"
"I would imagine so Tou-san. There isn't much left in yours and Kaa-chan's library that he hasn't learnt."

There was silence for a brief moment before Hiruzen spoke again. "Naruto-kun. How talented would you say Tri-kun is?" The other three in the room were surprised by the question posed but nonetheless Naruto thought about it a few moments. "I believe you have seen the results of his chakra medical?" At the Sandaime's nod he continued. "And what was the assessment?"
"The assessment stated that he possessed the potential of an S-Rank shinobi. And I'm inclined to agree with the findings too and Tsunade-sama is rarely wrong in matters such as these."
"Then you have my answer, Hiruzen-sama-sensei."

Again the room was silent before this time Kushina broke the silence. "If Tri-chan has an S-Rank potential then what about you Naru-chan? I know he had said several times that you have the greater potential."
"Yes he has although I'm still unsure whether I agree with him."
"Why do you say that?" Minato asked.

It wasn't Naruto who answered but a returning Tri. "Because despite Naruto having the greater potential he's never been able to decisively beat me in a one on one spar. My strengths work two-fold against him, countering his strengths and accentuating his weaknesses. My speed counters his Taijutsu and Kinjutsu which are his strongest fields while my Ninjutsu is far more advanced than his. Because of this, he doubts himself."

Under his arm were what looked like two books but he continued speaking before anyone could draw attention to them. "Yet despite that and despite the steeper development curves I and Itachi have shown I still regard Naruto as having a higher developmental ceiling."

"Very well, I believe all that needed to be said has been Naruto-kun." Understanding his statement, Naruto inclined his head in a slight bow before shunshining away. The elder Sarutobi turned to Tri. "Tri-kun, how talented would you say Naruto-kun is?" Tri's answer came quicker than Naruto's. "Exceptionally so. You've seen his assessments from his chakra medical, I see nothing that suggests he won't met the S-Rank potential estimate that Tsunade-sama-sensei gave him."

With his piece said Tri stepped forward, retrieving the books from under his arms. With one in each hand he held them out to his parents. "I feel these better elaborate on what we have said today. But before you open them, know that Naruto and myself still love you both."

With that, he too shunshined out of the Hokage's office. "I'll depart too, this is something only the two of you should see. ANBU." Instantly the ANBU member that was always present in an unseen corner of the room appeared in front of him. "Hai, Sandaime-sama," spoke the Shinobi wearing a Lion mask.

"You're leaving with me too, Lion." The ANBU only nodded before vanishing again.

After Hiruzen had closed the door behind him Minato opened the book Tri had given him to find pictures of Naruto. Minato smiled as he looked through the pictures in Naruto's baby book. From a picture of a heavily pregnant Kushina to a new-born Naruto held in her arms to his first five birthdays, the days he learnt to walk and talk.

Then it ended. After his fifth birthday there was nothing. 'Why would a page be left blank?' But turning to the next page, it too was blank and the one after that. The smile Minato had worn while going through the pictures faded away, replaced by the same sombre look from earlier. That's when he heard Kushina next to him trying to hold back choking sobs.

Minato was immediately at her side. In her hands she also held a picture book. The only problem was it was empty. The only thing to see in the entire book was a few words on the very first page 'The day we adopted Tri'.

They had bought the book in preparation for Tri officially becoming a member of their family and for some reason, they'd never taken the picture. Minato couldn't prevent the tears that came to his eyes. 'Birthdays, joining and graduation from the academy, becoming Genin. So much has been missed but no more!' Minato thought defiantly.

He wrapped his arms around Kushina and held her close as her tears came unabated, comforting her as best he could. "W-we failed them, M-Minato," she managed to say. Minato didn't say anything, what could he say? He only held her closer.

They stayed like that for hours, the tears had long since run out. Now they were both leaning against Minato's desk staring out of the window as the sun began descending in the sky signalling the change from late afternoon to early evening.

"I suppose we'd best go home, Rezano-chan will be wondering where we are," Kushina said. "Ok, Kimi." His voice as well as hers was still melancholic. "We are never going to fail them li….."

Kushina was interrupted as the door burst open and a pair of ANBU rushed into the room. "Hokage-sama, Kushina-sama. There's been an incident just outside the Nara compound. Your son Tri is in the hospital in serious condition."

The ANBU had barely finished speaking before he was greeted by a yellow flash that left only him and his fellow ANBU in the room.

-The Hospital-

Minato quickly pulled open the door leading him and Kushina into a room with two beds. On the end of one bed sat a sorrowful Itachi and in the other was Tri. He was linked up to blood bags and had a mask over his face to help him breathe, Tsunade was by his bedside. "Don't worry, he's out of immediate danger," she reassured them.

"What happened? Kushina desperately asked. Tsunade pointed towards Itachi, "It's best you ask Itachi-kun. I missed most of what occurred."

Seeing the sadness written all over his face Kushina sat down next to him and placed an arm around his shoulders. He had a number of scrapes and cuts across his arms and face. "Itachi-kun?" Minato asked softly.

The young boy looked up, "Uchiha Shisui is dead."

Minato and Kushina were stunned into silence. During the silence Minato noticed the vial in Itachi's hands. It looked like a transparent glass storage jar, it was filled to the brim with a slightly greenish liquid. There was only one thing inside the jar. "Itachi-kun, is that an eye?"
"H-hai Hokage-sama, it's Shisui's left eye."
"I extracted Shisui's remaining eye at his request," Tsunade said. "Remaining eye? What happened to the other one?" Kushina asked. "It was stolen from him, by the time I arrived his right eye was already missing so I don't know who took it."

"So Tri-kun was there before you? Does he know who took it?" questioned Minato. "Hai, he was already seriously wounded and Shisui-kun was mortally wounded by the time I'd arrived. I don't know whether he knows who took Shisui's other eye."
"Tsunade?" Minato inquired of the Sannin. "Shisui-san suffered multiple serious stab wounds to his chest and limbs. Tri-kun only suffered one injury, the artery in his left wrist was cut open. From what I can gather he fought on for several minutes while bleeding out before Itachi arrived."

"Were you able to see who attacked you, Itachi?"
"No, they wore masks so I couldn't see their faces. But the outfits looked like what an ANBU would wear." Minato furrowed his eyebrows. "Itachi-kun, were any of the bodies of your attackers get recovered?"
"No, when they died the bodies burst into flames leaving only ash," Itachi replied. The Yondaime closed his eyes and clenched his fist as he whispered in a voice laced with venom, "Danzo."

Tsunade chose then to butt in to stop Minato from flying off the handle. "I believe Tri-kun is now out of immediate danger." Much to the relief of the two parents present. "Already?" Kushina wondered aloud. "How can he no longer be in a serious condition already?"

"When I arrived Tri was on the brink of blacking out due to blood loss. Shisui saved him with his final act. He informed me of their compatible blood types and had me transfuse what blood he had left into Tri. After sealing the wound I performed the procedure. It was enough to keep Tri going until I could get him here," she explained.

As Tsunade finished talking the door opened again as Mikoto rushed in and a few steps behind her was a serious-faced Hiruzen. The previous Hokage moved to Minato's side while Mikoto hurried to her eldest sons. After allowing her to see her son was ok Hiruzen had Minato recount what had happened. Just before he did, however, he noticed Itachi had hidden the vial containing Shisui's eye.

The room was silent for several minutes as Minato finished bringing them up to speed. A silence only broken by the beeping of the heart rate monitor tied attached to Tri.

"Tsunade-sama, is Itachi-chan ok to go home?" Mikoto asked. "Yes, his injuries are only superficial." She stood them both up and bid them farewell as they departed.

They waited for almost a full minute after she'd left before Hiruzen turned to Minato. "You know what might happen with Shisui-kun now gone?" Minato nodded mournfully.

Shisui had in effect been his double agent inside the Uchiha clan for several years. He had informed him some time ago of the growing discontent from elements within the clan and had since been leveraging his influence to stop it spreading any further. But not that Shisui now gone…

"Might we have to enact the final sanction," Minato said to nobody in particular. "For the sake of the village, we may have to. But Shisui's death will be covered in a cloud of uncertainty. The rebellious elements within the Clan will have to move slowly. To move quickly now would risk them being seen as Shisui's killers. It gives us time, perhaps several years to find another way."

-A short time later-

Itachi sat unmoving on the edge of his bed, the events of the night replaying over and over in his mind. Rolling the glass jar in his hands, the three tomoe staring back at him. Itachi lifted his head to gaze into the mirror opposite him. This time it wasn't three tomoe that stared back at him but instead three spiralling curves around a red pupil.

End Chapter

Not much more than a filler chapter today. Tied up one or two story elements whilst beginning some more. There'll be one more filler chapter before the next time skip which'll take us to the beginning of canon.