Crimson and Golden Leaves

by Paridise

Years of suffering has led a young blond down the path of pain. Uzumaki Naruto, a citizen of Konoha, sadness and hate follows his every footstep. This changes however. A lost family member, Uzumaki Kotaro, cousin to Naruto comes and unites with him. Becoming brothers and enduring each other's hardships together, they will furfill their destinies and become Legends. AU/CD Story.

3. Chapter 3 - Dual Mission

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto the anime or manga. This story is based off the world of Naruto. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 3 - Dual Mission

"So, you're leaving tomorrow," Naruto said at the kitchen table, helping his older brother clear off the dinner.

"Yeah, Hokage-Jiji wants me at his office at nine o'clock. He's pairing me up with a seasoned Jōnin and we're forming a two-man cell. I know it won't be that bad but to be honest I'm a bit nervous!" Kotaro said with his focus on cleaning the dishes in the sink.

"I have no idea why you're nervous, you're one of the strongest ninja in the village already dattebayo. And look at me now! I'm so much better than I was a couple weeks ago and that's because of your training!" Naruto said.

Naruto was right. In the four and bit weeks that Kotaro has been teaching Naruto, Naruto's skills have improved massively. Naruto would admit that Kotaro's training regime was brutal and extremely painful, but the results were spectacular.

Naruto's already had impressive strength and speed for a boy his age who only ate ramen, but since adding doing lots of strenuous exercises, his strength and speed grew. His body started building a bit more muscle and his skin was glowing because of the more nutrient dense diet Kotaro has been shovling down his throat.

He also has been practicing his shurikenjutsu every day. A few months ago, he would struggle to hit the target even once and now he can hit the targets every time. He still needed work as out of every ten or so shots, he would get only one bullseye.

Naruto's chakra control however was not progressing as well, both the Uzumaki brothers thought he wouldn't have this much difficulty with the leaf exercise. Naruto has gotten every leaf to stick on his fingers and one on his forehead. He also managed to progress far enough to start spinning the leaves in a clockwise motion. The speed was painfully slow compared to Kotaro's.

Naruto tried spinning them counter-clockwise but it wouldn't work for him. Naruto got very down-spirited from this but this didn't last long. Kotaro said that for all the skills he acquired, he spent countless hours, weeks, months and years to acquire them and Naruto was being too impatient and he was comparing himself too much to Kotaro and his other classmates.

As to Naruto's earlier statement for not knowing hand seals, Kotaro put it upon himself to drill everything he knew about hand seals and how they manipulated chakra to perform different jutsu into Naruto's brain. He showed Naruto every basic hand seal and made him perform them one after the other. He relentlessly corrected Naruto's hands form to make the seals as perfect as possible.

Kotaro started testing Naruto by asking for different hand seals one after the other and to do it as quickly as possible. This however resulted in a lot of sore fingers for Naruto as he kept messing up. He improved steadily and surely, but as with everything else, it needed work.

Kotaro saw Naruto's taijutsu style that he learnt from himself and the academy, he nearly vomited from the horrible form and the lack of flow and grace. It was very sloppy, almost as if Naruto was trying to be a underground street brawler. He had so many openings in his stance it was making Kotaro cringe. He had to fix it, so he started teaching Naruto the Whirling Fist fighting style. It was easy for Naruto to transition from his dismal academy style to his clan's taijutsu style. There was nothing holding Naruto back.

Kotaro, once again was brutal to Naruto when doing taijutsu training. Whenever the were sparred, he would hit Naruto hard when he was making mistakes, but these hits were beneficial, Kotaro's punches, kicks and hands were guiding Naruto's body to make the stances. Kotaro couldn't make full use of Uzuken as the dangerous style would snap Naruto like a twig if he could fight with nothing to hold him back.

In the academy, Naruto was much quieter in class, taking in all the lessons. He was still a very loud person, probably the loudest in the whole village. But ever since his big brother has come into his life, he has become much calmer and he now knows when to shut the hell up. This was only noticed by Shikamaru, Chōji, Hinata and Iruka. The two boys noticed it because the three have become very good friends. Hinata was noticing Naruto's changes as she often stared at him for unnecessarily long periods of time. Iruka couldn't help but not notice the sudden change, and he was wondering what the cause of it was.

However, he couldn't care less anyway, Naruto was quickly becoming one of his most favourite students to teach and this growth of maturity was a great thing for the teacher-student pair. The other students still see him as the loud-mouthed, orange wearing, ramen eating dead-last. Strangely enough, Naruto didn't care, he was keeping his improvements and new skills hidden and he only cared for the opinions of his two friends, the Hokage and his big brother.

Naruto wasn't the only one to improve himself over the month probation. Kotaro had asked the Hokage if he could do any medical related work. The Hokage was overjoyed when he heard the offer as the hospital has complained for years of being understaffed. He was immediately put to work. He had to do a six hour shift every day, from nine to three o'clock. While Naruto was in the academy learning and Kotaro would be healing.

When Kotaro arrived at the hospital for his first day, the Hokage was right in that there they were understaffed. To solve this problem Kotaro made three shadow clones, one for each floor of the hospital.

He was pleased he took the job for another reason however. The volume of food Naruto and himself ate was quite large and expensive. He still had plenty of money that he earned over his travels but it was getting too small for his liking and the job helped pay out for their pigging. Especially for Naruto's ramen addiction.

"Thanks Naruto. Coming from you, it means a lot!" Kotaro said with a heartfelt smile.

"I would be lying if I said anything else Nii-chan!" Naruto replied.

"Hm, if you say so. Say how's your calligraphy coming? Your handwriting has improved so much from the scribbles you used to do though that still wasn't perfect," Kotaro asked.

"It's hard Nii-chan. I don't if I can do it ttebayo!" Naruto said with a crestfallen face.

Kotaro just sighed and put his hand to his forehead. "If it was easy Naruto then everybody would be a seal-master. It's all about practice, practice and more practice. And then after blood, sweat and tears you master it! That's how all skills are required so stop being a bitch about it and just work on it. Nothing comes to you on a silver platter," he said with a small smile.

"I know! I just want to get stronger!" Naruto cried out, acting like a small child.

"I hope it's not for selfish reasons! I'll stop helping you if power is all you desire," Kotaro said seriously.

Naruto knew he hit a nerve and he quickly put his hands up in a surrender position. "NO! I want to get stronger so I can become Hokage, to do our clan proud and to protect my friends and you ttebayo!" he shouted.

A smile crept on Kotaro's face. 'That's the answer I was looking for!' he thought.

"Good! But Naruto, as your Nii-chan it's my job to protect you. Anyway, in a few years you'll be strong enough so we can mind each other's backs," Kotaro told him before going back to cleaning.

Naruto was relieved that Kotaro calmed down. He noticed through the month that whenever he mentioned how Sasuke was better than him, Kotaro growled out and muttered something under his breath. He never questioned it at the times as he didn't want Kotaro to add more exercises to the already brutal training regime but since he was leaving tomorrow and he won't be back for a few days, he thought now would be better than never. "Kotaro-nii?" Naruto said.

"Yeah, what is it Naruto?" he replied with a raised eyebrow looking at Naruto, he was currently drying off the plates.

"I noticed in the past you get real mad whenever I mentioned Sasuke or his skills. I'm wondering why?" Naruto asked with curiosity.

Kotaro put the plate away and put both his hands on the sink counter. Sighing deeply, he twirled around to face Naruto.

"I get annoyed because Jiji told me of his past. All he can think is of revenge now. It's depressing and it pisses me off. I won't lie and say I wouldn't get pissed off too, but I hate the fact he's so cold to everyone around him. He's pushing everyone and anyone who's trying to be his friend away. It's like he wants to be alone for the rest of his life," he said with a deadly tone. He then stared directly into Naruto's eyes, as if he was piercing his soul. "If you ever think like that. I will beat it out of YOU!" Kotaro said coldly.

'But he did lose all his family... Maybe I shouldn't have such a harsh opinion on him, Naruto and I are similiar to Sasuke in that respect,' Kotaro thought after his rant.

Naruto paled to a deathly white. He didn't need to be told twice that the threat was real. He gulped, "Don't worry. I don't think I'll be able to think like that dattebayo," he said with a shaky smile. The two Uzumaki stared for a few seconds, but for Naruto it felt like an eternity.

Kotaro's deadly gaze vanished and his lips formed into a sweet smile. "Good! Now Naruto go upstairs and work on your calligraphy before going to bed. Go before I make you do a midnight workout," Kotaro warned, as he went back to cleaning.

Naruto ran like hell and climbed the stairs, as if his life depended on it. He entered his room and went over to his desk. Pulling out the scroll he's been working on his handwriting for, he continued his work, doing exercises that were in the book. An hour went by, and a knock on his door came. Naruto walked to the door and opened it. "Nii-chan what is it? I'm working like you said ttebayo," Naruto said with a tired expression.

Kotaro walked in and sat on Naruto's desk chair. "I have a few exercises I want you to be doing while I'm gone. You'll be taking a break from the training we've been doing. I only want you to really work on chakra control. Chakra control is the key to everything," Kotaro said while putting a scroll on the desk.

Receiving a nod from Naruto, he got up and leaving the room. Stopping at the door, he looked at Naruto once more, "I'm going to bed now, I have a busy day tomorrow I have to prepare for," Kotaro told his little brother.

Naruto mockingly saluted his brother with a huge grin as Kotaro was leaving the room. When the door closed, Naruto went to get his night clothes, he changed into them after a quick shower. He then hopped into bed and went out like a light.

---

The Next Morning

"Do you know what you're learning today Naruto?" Kotaro asked. He was walking slowly beside Naruto with his hands in his pockets.

"Ehh, yesterday we went over the second great ninja war. I think we're going to do the same thing dattebayo," Naruto answered.

"Hmm, they don't teach you enough in terms of skills but they can dish out history lessons as if they were sale. How do they expect you to survive outside the walls if they're teaching you only history?" Kotaro asked rhetorically.

"I know ttebayo!" Naruto agreed fully.

"Huh, looks like we arrived," Kotaro said in a bored tone. The two Uzumaki brothers were at the entrance to the academy complex. They saw the approaching crowd staring at them. Kotaro then looked at Naruto. "Alright little man. I'm going to the mission office now. Don't mess up the house while I'm gone. You can bring Shikamaru and Chōji over if you get bored," Kotaro told his little brother.

"Thanks Kotaro-nii!" Naruto said, then he jumped into his big brother's arms and squeezed the life out of him. "Good luck on your mission!" he said as he went back to the ground.

"Thanks Naruto! I'll see you in a few days," Kotaro said as he ruffled Naruto's hair and went off to the Hokage's office.

Naruto fixed his ruffled hair and went inside the academy. He walked through the corridors until he saw his classroom. He entered in and saw his two friends sitting in the front. As by routine he descended the stairs and took his usual seat by Shikamaru.

"Oi Naruto! We were wondering when you would finally come," Shikamaru said with a small smile. Chōji was as per usual munching on food.

Naruto yawned and wiped his eyes. "Sorry guys. Kotaro-nii was going off for a mission and I wanted to say bye."

"Hey don't worry about. Do you know what type of mission it is?" Shikamaru asked, having an active interest in the Uzumaki brothers.

"No, he's only receiving the details today. All I know is what he told me yesterday. He's a member of a two man-cell team and his partner will be a seasoned Jōnin."

"Oh? That's interesting. From what I remember, Oyaji said he beat two Jōnin, one of them being an elite, this must be a high ranked mission," Shikamaru said only loud enough for his two friends to hear.

"Two Jōnin!? Damn Naruto your brother is strong, like really strong," Chōji gasped quietly.

Naruto just started to sway his head, "Believe me Chōji, I know how strong Kotaro-nii is. I feel it every day!" Naruto said as he started rubbing his bruised ribs. "I never see him at full power though. He has to hold back so much when he's training me. I wouldn't be surprised if he could beat me into a bloody pulp in less than a second!" Naruto quietly cried out

The two others paled at this. "What is training like with Kotaro Naruto?" Chōji asked, curious to know more about the redhead.

"He's ruthless, brutal and damn right scary. He did warn me a month ago that this will not be easy. That was a HUGE understatement! He punishes me when I do half-form exercises and is always criticizing my actions when I do it wrong! When we spar, he beats me into our proper fighting stance. The whole training is painful. But I wouldn't have it any other way dattebayo!" Naruto said with a gleeful smile.

"You basically said he beats you up for making a mistake and you sound like you enjoy it! What the hell is wrong with you?" Shikamaru had to ask, forcing his voice down not to shout because of the surprise. For him, the whole training thing seemed too troublesome. Chōji was in the same line of thought, he was so concentrated on his thoughts that he was ignoring his potato crisps.

"I don't enjoy the pain dattebayo! But with this training, I've improved so much already and it's only been a month. I'm stronger, faster, more accurate, my taijutsu is improving. My chakra control is still bad but it was non-existent before ttebayo. Yeah so what if it's painful, it works for me and I'm improving," Naruto exclaimed.

"So, are you going to try go for rookie of the year?" Chōji asked, resuming to his munching.

"Nah, I'll leave that to duck-butt up there. Kotaro-nii said deception is one of the greatest tools a ninja could have. I'm aiming for just the middle or even lower than that" Naruto replied. "Ah, we have fifteen minutes before class starts. I need to strain the dragon. See ya," Naruto said. He then walked up the stairs, leaving his two friends who wore disgusted faces.

As Naruto was walking up the stairs, Ino and Sakura speeded their way to try and sit beside Sasuke. Ino stopped suddenly and Sakura crashed into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto held his ground and Sakura recoiled off him. Naruto then continued his path towards the bathroom. Sakura got real mad and rushed towards Naruto. "Watch where you're going Naruto-baka!" she threw a punch at the back of Naruto's head.

Without needing to look behind, Naruto simply moved his head to the left and let Sakura's punch go through air. She fell from lack of balance and hit the floor. "It's not very nice to try and hit people when they aren't looking Sakura," Naruto said as he kept walking to the bathroom to do his business.

The students in the class were shocked to say the least of how Naruto handled the situation. Shikamaru turned his head to Chōji and a big grin appeared. "You know, I've waited for something like that to happen for a long time. And I'm glad that Naruto was the one to do it!" he said before laughing softly with Chōji.

Naruto was taking his leak, thinking over what just happened. 'She bumped into me and she says for me to watch out. How rude! Looks like we're going to have sushi when Kotaro-nii comes back. Mystic bastard, how did he know without even meeting her!' Naruto mused. He flushed the urinal, washed his hands and headed back to the classroom. The angry scowl from Sakura was not unnoticed by Naruto as he retook his place.

"Hey guys, Kotaro-nii said I can invite you guys over to our house after school. You want to come?" Naruto asked his two friends.

"Sorry Naruto, I can't. My dad wants me to help him today," Chōji said rather glumly.

"I'll come over, Oyaji doesn't need the deer herded today so I have loads of free time," Shikamaru said with his usual bored expression.

At that moment Iruka and Mizuki entered the classroom. "Good morning class!" they both said to their class.

"Good morning, Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei," the class spoke in mixed voices.

Naruto got comfortable in his seat. 'Today is going to be a long day!' he thought as the lesson began.

---

Hokage Tower

Kotaro walked into the mission administrations room. It was an open room with a long desk at the end, there was a balcony with a wooden rail. There was a Chūnin assistant helping the Hokage distribute missions and some papers. Kotaro made himself known. "Good morning Hokage-sama!" he said out loud.

Hiruzen lifted his head up, when he saw his favourite redhead, he smiled and motioned Kotaro to come closer. "Great to see you Kotaro! The mission I have for you is in my office. I'll be there in five minutes. Go on ahead and wait for me," the old man said in his grandfatherly voice. Kotaro nodded and left for his office. It was a very short walk to reach the office doors.

When he arrived, he saw a man in a standard Jōnin outfit with a sash on his waist with the kanji of 'Fire' on it. The man had a cigarette hanging off his lip. He had a thick beard with no moustache and his black hair was long on top. The man in front of him reminded him of the Hokage. 'I bet it's his son,' he thought.

"Excuse me but are you Sarutobi Asuma?" Kotaro asked politely.

The man focused his gaze on Kotaro. When he saw Kotaro's red hair, his face softened. "Yeah I am. You must be Uzumaki Kotaro. I heard from Kakashi that you beat him," Asuma said as he put his hand out for it to be shaken. "Don't think your rematch will go the same way."

Kotaro smiled at his correct assumption and shakes Asuma's hand. "Ha! I don't. I'm glad he isn't sore about the loss. I heard from your dad that you're an extremely skilled ninja, and a fellow wind-user!" Kotaro gleefully said.

Asuma was surprised from what Kotaro said. A wind user was rare, even in Suna and the wind country, even rarer outside. But the compliment from his father was the biggest shock. The father and son pair haven't seen eye to eye as of late. To hear that his father, the Hokage, thought he was an extremely skilled ninja was nice to hear. Even with their arguments, they were still family.

"A wind user? Tou-san didn't say you were one," Asuma said, holding back the surprise in his voice.

"I haven't learnt any jutsu because my Kaa-chan was a water elemental user and I didn't have any jutsu scrolls to learn from. I can channel chakra to my weapons and that's as much I can do!" Kotaro told Asuma.

"Still, Kotaro that's a high level skill. You have to be talented to do it so young and have no-one to teach it to you," Asuma pointed out.

"You can say I'm talented but I would disagree, I put a ton of work into manipulating elemental chakra. It was just time and practice, that's all," Kotaro explained while putting his hands behind his head.

Asuma's opinion of the redhead was growing and growing. He was obviously smart and strong, but he was humble and confident in his skills. 'Tou-san was right, I am going to like him!' Asuma thought.

They chatted for another two minutes until the Hokage arrived. He entered his office and the two ninja followed him in. The Hokage sat in his office chair and took out two scrolls. "This will be a double B-ranked mission for the both of you. The first mission includes the delivery of Konoha's finance reports and other money related issues to the capital. The economy is slowing down and we could hit a small recession. If the other villages find out, it will be detrimental to all of Konoha, so that's why it's a B-rank.

The second B-ranked mission is to clear out a small bandit camp that has caused disturbances southwest of the capital. Usually this would be a high C-rank mission but the apparent leaders are missing nin from Iwa. They are brothers that specialize in earth ninjutsu and are very dangerous. Both are B-ranked by themselves but together they are an A-level threat! I have my trust in you two that these will be successful missions," Hiruzen said. He was very serious of the circumstances.

"Of course Hokage-sama," both said in unison. Asuma turned to Kotaro and asked "You have everything you need?" he asked.

Kotaro patted his dark grey Chūnin flak-jacket and felt for his swords. His hands glided down to feel pouches. He looked in into the right pouch, took out a scroll with a green top on it. It was his medical supply scroll. He packed it back in and looked at Asuma "I have everything," Kotaro answered with a nod.

Asuma smiled. "Well let's get going then!" Asuma said as he went over to his dad to get the Konoha finance report. "Thanks, Tou-san, see ya later," he said with a happy face, in his mind he decided to mend the strained relationship between him and his father.

Hiruzen was a bit spooked by this, he wasn't called Tou-san since Asuma left to become a ninja guardian. He smiled, "Good luck Asuma!" he said.

Asuma and Kotaro walked out of the office and went to the gates. They both signed out and began their journey to the fire country's capital. Kotaro has only been there twice and both times he felt like he was suffocating. There were many people living there, many merchants and buyers doing their trade and gangs roaming the different sections of the city. It was not the nicest place according to Kotaro's experience.

"Asuma?" Kotaro said once they were just outside the Village gates and walls.

"Hm, something wrong?" Asuma asked, he didn't know why they stopped just before they were going to begin their long sprint North.

"Well, it's just that scroll is really important, I was thinking we can seal it and use a blood seal so it would only react to our chakra," Kotaro said looking at the Jōnin.

Asuma took a second to think about it. He then tossed the scroll to Kotaro and nodded. "Tou-san said you were a seal-master. I would like to watch you work!" he said.

"Alright but it'll just look like a bunch of scribbles to you," Kotaro chuckled out.

"What is a seal-master Kotaro?" Asuma asked, he really didn't know what the title stood for.

Kotaro looked at Asuma for two seconds before answering,"It's a hard question to answer. There's no test or anything to show you are one. I think the term came from just seasoned sealers that taught people how to seal. You know, some students refer to their teachers as master, so that's where I think it came from. If I had to really say what a seal-master is, I would have to say that the sealer has to be experienced and skilled enough in the basic three basic types of seals. Offensive, defensive and supplementary seals.

Offensive of course has to do with attacking seals such as exploding tags and element canon tags. Element canon tags are very diffucult to create, but they are very handy. A big fat fireball could launch out of one and burn your enemies. There are other types of offensive seals, but that would get us into the nitty gritty.

Defensive seals all have to do with barriers or shields and so on and so forth. Supplementry seals is the term used for non-combative seals or seals used to make life easier essentially. This could range from lock seals which are used to lock houses. Security seals to protect walls and windows. Fountain seals to release stored up water for your garden. The storage seal is the parent seal to the fountain seal, but the fountain seal can release a certain amount of water at a set time.

There are other types of seals, but I don't want to bore you. I would say you can call yourself a seal-master if you are proficient in those three areas of sealing and you have the basics down to perfection," Kotaro explained with some hand gestures.

Asuma was stunned from the information dump and just nodded. He needed to process the vast amount of information given to him.

Kotaro took out a small scroll, an ink brush and a jar of black ink. Kotaro then crouched to the ground. He poured some of the ink in a saucer that was beside the jar and he then sliced his finger and let some of the blood drop into the ink. He quickly healed his finger with the Mystic Palm technique, the cut stitched itself back together and disappeared, as if nothing has happened to it at all.

"Asuma, I'll need some of your blood to mix into the ink," Kotaro said while looking up to the bearded Sarutobi. Asuma without hesitation made a cut on his index finger and let the blood drops go into the saucer. Kotaro shifted to the bleeding hand, quickly wiped the blood off with one hand and healed the cut with the other. Asuma was very impressed.

"You have great healing skills!" Asuma complimented

"Thanks, but I still have lots to learn!" Kotaro replied with a smile.

Kotaro then mixed the ink and blood into one mixture. It was a very dull red. Kotaro then begin to draw the intricate seal arrays to would make a storage blood seal. He finished the seal in a flash and left it to dry. After five seconds, he placed the finance report scroll on the seal and pulsed some of his chakra to it. The finance report scroll was sealed, so he closed the storage scroll and handed it to Asuma.

Asuma's expression was of shock. Kotaro was so clean and quick when making the seal. His father had some knowledge of fuinjutsu and he was told blood seals were harder to create and make than regular seals. Getting over his shock, he thanked Kotaro and the two ninja flew off into the forest.

Their plan was to run all the way to the capital, have a good night's rest. Visit the Fire Daimyō in their scheduled meeting the next morning. Gather information on where the bandit camp is located from the city dwellers, find the camp and finally destroy the camp and neutralise the targets. Then return to Konoha and report for mission success.

Asuma and Kotaro only chatted briefly from time to time, mainly to check if the other was doing alright. They traversed most of the fire country, running and jumping through most of the forests and grassy plains that are found there. They didn't take one break and finally after six hours of high speed travel, they made it to the outskirts of the Capital. They avoided the infamous forest that claimed many lives, the forest known as the Jagged Wild Forest.

Asuma and Kotaro slowed down and then walked. After half an hour of going through the growing crowds, the duo made it to the centre of the Western District. They both looked up at the clock tower and saw it was only half three in the afternoon.

"So, what do we do now? We don't need to see the Daimyō until tomorrow morning," Kotaro asked Asuma, as Asuma was the leader of the mission.

Asuma took his eyes off the clock and then patted Kotaro's shoulder. "We'll book a room for ourselves and then we'll go to a bar for a meal. It'll be my treat!" he offered with a smile.

"Ah Asuma, you don't have to," Kotaro quickly replied.

Asuma frowned at this, "It's not an option, consider it captain's orders! And if you still feel guilty, you can tell how you kicked Kakashi's ass as payment. Fair?" Asuma said as he pulled on Kotaro's shoulder, motioning him to follow. Kotaro sighed deeply and followed Asuma after he went off.

The two went to a hotel that was situated close to the palace where the fire Daimyō resided. It was in the Western District of the Capital. One of four equally sized districts that make up the mighty city.

They booked a simple room with separate beds. The room was lacking in the luxury department, but the price was outrageous.

'Another reason why I hate the capital, everything is so damn expensive! What do you expect when it's the richest of the four Districts though,' Kotaro thought as he and Asuma went up the stairs to their room.

They entered their hotel room and they weren't surprised from the lack of furniture. Two single beds, one beside their own wall. There was a small wooden nightstand beside each bed with a lamp on them.

A small window just to let some sunlight in. There were no chairs or tables as the room was quite small, some would say snug.

After Asuma left his bag in the room, the duo went off to find a bar.

They didn't need to look far, five minutes into their search, they find a lively bar, brimmed with people. Asuma and Kotaro went inside. Kotaro goes in search for a booth for the two. Luckily, he finds one in the nick of time, he quickly claims it to ward off potential booth snatchers. Asuma comes back with a bottle of Sake and two saucers.

"I ordered some barbequed meat for us to eat. Hope you don't mind," Asuma said as his sat down across Kotaro. He poured the alcohol into the saucers and gives the first one to Kotaro. Receiving a nod of thanks from Kotaro, he then pours his own saucer.

Kotaro scoops up his saucer and downs the sake in one shot. "Ahhhhh, I love that feeling when it goes down your throat. Nothing like it! That's good stuff, where's it from? The land of Rice?" Kotaro asked as he proceeded to pour another saucer.

"No, it's a vintage bottle from the Land of Honey, it was going for half-price here, so I had to buy it!" Asuma replied as he put down his empty saucer.

"Really, wow!" Kotaro quietly said, knowing a bit too much about the acholic beverage and knowing it wasn't the Land of Honey's speciality.

"Now, I believe that you owe me the story of how you beat Kakashi," Asuma asked with curiosity dripping off his voice. Kakashi was one of the strongest in the village. Asuma knew that Kotaro wasn't lucky in his fight, Kakashi was too good to be beaten just by being lucky.

"Well, I was with your dad and we were talking about the first great ninja war and other stuff and Kakashi was two hours late. Which didn't surprise your dad in the least so I didn't complain about it," Kotaro said while moving his hands around with his talking.

"Yeah typical Kakashi, you should expect that in the future if you ever get for him for a mission!" Asuma laughed out.

Kotaro raised his left eyebrow at this. "Anyway, the fight began and it was intense from the get go, and then…"

---

Konoha

"Your house is huge!" Shikamaru gasped as he saw the front of the house.

"I know, I'm so grateful I'm living here rather than my old apartment. The main bathroom is like the same size as my old place. Probably bigger," Naruto told Shikamaru as both approached the front door.

Naruto pulsed his chakra through a strange-looking door handle. It was a silver handle with a wave ripple effect. A 'CLICK' was heard and Naruto opened the door. Naruto walked inside and noticed that his friend wasn't with him. He turned around and saw Shikamaru inspecting the door handle.

"Shika, what's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, what did you do?" Shikamaru asked, he never took his eyes off the handle.

"Ah yeah, I never told you. Kotaro-nii put seals on the door. It only works with some of our chakra flowed into it to unlock the door. It's to stop people robbing us," Naruto answered.

"Aren't you worried? What if some random person somehow used your or his chakra," Shikamaru asked.

"Don't worry, Kotaro-nii put an active-awareness seal or something on it. It'll know if it's us or not. So, come on get inside," Naruto cried out.

Shikamaru complied and closed the door, entering the house. He saw the joint living-dining area and the kitchen in the back. 'This place is massive,' was all Shikamaru thought as he followed Naruto to the kitchen.

Naruto started the kettle and took out the tea set. Over the course of the month, Kotaro made Naruto black tea every day, Naruto has taken a liken to the dark bitter liquid so he was going to make himself some. "Shika, you want some tea?" he asked.

"Yeah that'd be nice. Do you guys have a shogi board, it'll be good to play with you Naruto," Shikamaru asked his blonde friend, he only played his dad and he always lost. He wanted to introduce Naruto to it so he could at least win some of the games he played.

As Naruto finished making the tea, he went over to the coffee table and set the tray down. "I think Nii-chan said he had one in his study. Let's go up and see if we can find it," Naruto said excitedly, not really knowing what shogi really was but he was bored and he wanted to play the game with his friend.

The boys walked up the stairs and stopped on the second door on the left, Kotaro's study. This was beside his bedroom, at the end of the corridor. Naruto opened the door and entered inside, Shikamaru trailing behind him.

What Shikamaru saw was a lot of books and scrolls, a whole damn library filled with them. There were shelves packed with books on all sorts of material. The nature of chakra, history of clans and the shinobi world, weapons theory and medical ninjutsu and much more. He looked to his left and saw a large wooden desk, ink brushes and many jars were on it beside a large open scroll with many strange markings and notes written in beautiful handwriting. He looked above the desk and saw a huge map of the Elemental nations, the minor countries and their main cities and towns. Even though this room was filled with stuff, it was very organised and neat.

Shikamaru looked at the scroll on the desk again, not understanding one bit of it. "Naruto, what's this?" he asked while pointing at the scroll. Naruto turned around with a large wooden box in his hands and walked over to Shikamaru.

"Oh, that's Kotaro-nii's project, he's making a seal to do something with medical chakra. I don't get it at all ttebayo!" he said, not arrogant to not admit he doesn't know much about it.

Shikamaru was in the same boat as Naruto, he had no idea what any of it meant. "I'll ask Oyaji about seals and medical chakra when I get home. It seems interesting," Shikamaru said as he was looking at more of Kotaro's work.

"This it Shikamaru?" Naruto asked holding the lovely wooden box.

Shikamaru just glanced at it and immediately knew it was a shogi box. "Yeah come on, I'll teach you some before we play a game," he said with a small grin.

The two boys went downstairs and set up the board. Shikamaru taught Naruto the rules quickly, not getting into advanced strategies. They drank their slightly cooled tea and played the game. Shikamaru had to play very casually as Naruto was a beginner and had yet to grasp all there is to Shogi. It was an hour until Shikamaru had enough. Shikamaru moved one piece, "checkmate," he said with a sly grin.

Naruto looked at the board, staring intensely for any possible. He huffed and puffed, "Ah! I was so bad dattebayo!" he yelled out as he ran off to the kitchen to get an anger snack. Shikamaru just laughed at his blonde friend and walked over with the two tea mugs and tray.

"You'll get better, when my Oyaji finds out Kotaro has a shogi board, he's going to force him and you to come to my house so they can play. It's all too troublesome," Shikamaru droned out in his usual bored tone.

"You think so?" Naruto asked, he was never invited to anyone's house. He was wondering if they wouldn't invite him or Kotaro because of the village's hatred for him.

"Definitely. He's going to find your brother as soon he comes back from his mission, I'm sure of it. Any way I should go home. Kaa-san will kill me, I'm already late!" he said with a hint of fright in his voice.

Naruto and Shikamaru went to the door and Naruto sent him off, saying they'll see each other at the academy. Shikamaru walked all the way home. 'Crap, it's already night. I'm going to get murdered,' he thought. He finally saw the Nara compound, walked to the front door.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door. "I'm home," Shikamaru said, hoping he won't get pounded by a wooden spoon.

"Why are you home so late Shika?" Shikaku said gruffly, he was sitting on the floor behind a table.

"Naruto invited me to his house and I introduced him to Shogi," Shikamaru said as he sat across from his father.

A small grin appeared on the elder Nara's face. "Oh? And, how was he?" he asked.

"He was absolutely awful, but he never played before so it was his first time. It was fun though," Shikamaru answered.

"Did Naruto say Kotaro played?" Shikaku asked with some vigour in his voice.

'I knew it. Now he wants to play Naruto's brother. Jeez this is annoying,' Shikamaru thought.

"He didn't say he did. But with the board in his house, I'd say he knows how to play. And I wouldn't underestimate him. He was working on this medical chakra seal thing and it looked crazy weird," Shikamaru yawned out, he was tired of his fun day with Naruto.

Shikaku's eyebrows raised and his little grin grew a little bigger. "Hm, I want to play him now. Was he there?" he further asked.

"No, Naruto said he went on a mission and he won't be back for a few days supposedly," Shikamaru yawned out.

Shikaku pouted at this. He was the best shogi player in the village and the only real competition was his own son. He wanted a new shogi partner, to talk more about the village and other countries politics and share some of his sake with.

"I guess I have to wait then," he said sadly as he left the room, just when his wife entered the room and began to beat his son to a bloody pulp with a wooden spoon for being late. 'Thank God I'm not him,' he chuckled to himself.

---

The Capital of The Land of Fire, Western District

"So, he lied about training harder then. Huh, I was sure he had eyes of a determined man," Kotaro said eating another piece of barbequed pork. "Shit I mean eye! I forgot about his mask."

"Well, that's not completely true, I think he trained hard for a week and then quit when the next issue of Icha-Icha came out. He'll avoid anything just to read it," Asuma said with a laugh.

"Oh don't even talk to me about that! I know those books quite well. I don't like that smut, but my late Kaa-chan was such a pervert. It was so embarrassing!" Kotaro cried out quietly with his hands covering his face.

When Asuma heard this, he laughed so hard that he was slipping from his seat. He calmed down and poured another saucer of sake for the two of them and ate another piece of meat. Kotaro took the saucer and downed it quickly. Sighing a breath of relief, he looked at the meal in front of him and ate more of the delicious meat.

"How long have we've been here?" Kotaro asked, having lost track of time.

Asuma looked for a clock around the bar, it was hidden well. Then he saw it near the bar stand. "Eh, we came here at five, now it's eight. So, three hours," he said in a dazed stare, the alcohol was finally taking in effect.

"Cool, just wanted to know!" Kotaro said in his normal form. Asuma was confused on what was happening, Kotaro drank more than him and he wasn't drunk yet, and they drank quite a bit.

"Kotaro, how're you not drunk yet?" Asuma asked.

"Asuma, don't worry! I'm tipsy right now. We Uzumaki need a lot of strong alcohol to get drunk. Sometimes I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse," Kotaro said with a cheeky smile. "But I better cool it. Last time I drank, it didn't end well at all. Got sick everywhere."

Asuma laughed. He then suddenly quieted down. "Really? Anyway, I would call it a blessing in our line of work... There's some woman who keeps staring at your hair," Asuma said with squinted eyes.

Kotaro turned his head around to see a woman with long white hair sitting on one of the bar stools. She gave him a wink and a smile before leaving.

"What a strange woman," Kotaro said. "Is she a friend of yours Asuma?" Kotaro asked.

Asuma shook his head. "No, never met her in a day in my life. Those eyes reminded me of your little brother's. Blue, but hers were darker. Hm... It's always the strange ones that are beautiful, isn't it? At least they make life interesting," he said.

Kotaro laughed lightly. "I'd have to agree. Kaa-chan was beautiful, but if you knew what she was like, you would think she was crazy in the head. Ah, but that just makes me love her more though."

They both kept drinking and eating, chatting about everything and anything. They were acting as if they knew each other for years and both were having a great time. It was midnight and both men knew it was time for sleep. They quickly paid for their meal and helped each other back to their hotel room. They didn't bother taking off their shinobi gear as they both fell on their separate beds and blacked out. It was a good night. A very good night.

---

The Next Morning

"Oi Asuma, wake the fuck up, we have that meeting in an hour!" said an irritated Kotaro. Asuma cracked open an eye to see a small scowl on Kotaro, he knew he wasn't going to get a nice rest in the morning.

"What the fuck Kotaro? Let me sleep," he hissed out, Asuma was now a very grumpy Sarutobi.

"Nah sorry can't do that mate. You need to scrub up for the Daimyō. No way in hell I'm going in there carrying your drunk ass!" Kotaro yelled out. Kotaro rubbed his temples as his headache that Asuma was giving him was making him cranky. "The shower is free, you smell awful. And here, take this pill, it should help with your hangover you pansy!" Kotaro said as he handed over a pill and a glass of water. He then went out of the room leaving Asuma to clean himself up.

He went down to the hotel to get breakfast for him and Asuma, he ordered two hotel special breakfasts. After five minutes, Asuma came down looking fresher than the state he was in before and sat across Kotaro. A few seconds later, their meals arrived and they dug in. Their breakfast wasn't anything amazing, it was a simple rice bowl, a small soup, some grilled fish and a bowl of fruit. Nothing special at all.

The two left and went over to the Daimyō's Palace. As they walked through the filled crowds, they noticed a lot of commotion going on in one of the streets. They both rushed over to see a crowd of men.

"Let's leave them, the city guards will handle them. We can't miss the meeting!" Asuma said, he saw Kotaro was a bit hesitant to go so he patted him on the shoulder.

Kotaro was a bit spooked by the shoulder grab, he was concentrating on the brawl and was just wondering what was going on. He nodded his head and the ninja pair headed towards the palace.

"I'm not a fan of the winter months. This place should be blooming with flowers," Kotaro said with a hint of sadness. "The flowers and plants are probably one of my favourite things in the Capital."

Asuma chuckled. "It's November, what do you expect? There's no way any of the gardens would have those colourul summer flowers growing. Kotaro, let's focus on the mission on hand," he said.

They arrived at the large palace complex that was owned by the Fire country's leader. Two royal samurai who were on guard duty noticed the ninja. "We've been expecting you guys. The meeting will be starting soon so please get to the council chambers," The guards hastily said.

The Konoha duo didn't need to be told twice and they entered the palace with haste. Another guard came and lead them to the chamber doors. He then left Asuma and Kotaro to do their own business.

"I don't think I need to tell you but be on your best behaviour, this guy is a big part of our economy and we don't need anything screwing it up!" Asuma said sternly.

Kotaro just nodded and decided that Asuma would do the talking. The doors suddenly opened and some nobles left the room in a hurry, looking rather steamed. 'Wonder what that was about?' both Asuma and Kotaro thought. They then entered the room and saw the Daimyō and his officials behind their desks. Some of them, especially the Daimyō looked cross.

When the Daimyō saw the ninja enter, his face softened. Asuma used to be one of his ninja guardians so they knew each other well. And he came with a strong looking ninja with red hair. "Asuma-kun, it's great to see you again. I'm glad you're delivering the package today. And who's your partner here?" the Daimyō said formally and politely.

Asuma did a bow and stepped forward. "It's a pleasure as always Daimyō-sama. This is Chūnin Uzumaki Kotaro, he's our up and coming ninja, I wouldn't be surprised if he became Jōnin the next time you two meet," Asuma said in his most formal tone, no cigarette to mess up his voice.

The Daimyō smiled at this and looked at Kotaro. "It's nice to meet you, I see you must be skilled in swordsmanship with the two blades you have on your back!" he said with glee.

Kotaro then stepped forward and did his own bow. "It's a true pleasure to make your acquittance Daimyō-sama. I thank you for your kind words, but I still have much to improve on in my kenjutsu," He told him.

The Daimyō was enjoying the conversation, the ninja of Konoha always gave his day a breath of fresh air. Then he remembered they were here for a special reason. "I take it you have Konoha's extensive finance report," he said in a neutral tone.

Asuma gave Kotaro the storage scroll, and Kotaro proceeded to bite his finger and spread blood across the seal. The finance report appeared in a puff of smoke and Asuma promptly grabbed it and gave it to the Daimyō's assistant.

The Konoha duo were about to say their departures, but the Daimyō raise his hand to stop them The leader of the country had other ideas. "Kotaro-kun, I have a favour to ask of you," The Daimyō said.

"What is it you need Daimyō-sama?" Kotaro asked, feeling his heartbeat increase slightly.

"Well, I am quite bored right now and I would love for you to have a spar with on of my top samurai, would you please accept this old man's request?" he asked in a sweet voice.

Kotaro was shocked when he heard this, but didn't let it show. He really, really didn't want to have a spar now. "That decision will be up to my commanding officer, Asuma. You'll have to ask him Daimyō-sama," Kotaro said. 'Please save me Asuma!' he was thinking repeatedly in his mind.

"Kotaro have the spar, it's no problem," Asuma said with an evil smile.

'Goddamnit Asuma! I'm going to get you someday,' Kotaro angrily yelled internally. "I'll be happy to oblige," he said with a shaky smile.

The Daimyō and his guards, Kotaro and Asuma left the chambers and then entered the courtyard. Everyone apart from Kotaro stood on the pavement while Kotaro continued onto the dirt. A samurai in red armour appeared from the crowd and took his place across from Kotaro. He then unsheathed his sword and took his stance. "It will be a pleasure to spar with you Uzumaki-san," the Samurai said.

Kotaro unsheathed Rubí and took his clan's styles stance. "You as well Samurai-san, let's make this a good fight," Kotaro said loudly as he stared down the armoured man.

Kotaro rushed into the samurai's defence with blinding speed and swung his sword to slash the Samurai's arm. This was blocked easily by the red-armoured swordsman. 'It isn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be!' he thought.

The Samurai then swung his sword to take Kotaro's head off. Thanks to Kotaro's speed, he ducked his head, and rolled to the right. As he was rising back up from the ground. He twirled on his left foot and slashed his sword towards the Samurai in a long arc. The Samurai had to block quickly or he would have a fatal wound. He stepped back and parried the incoming blade. Kotaro was impressed with the reaction time, now he wanted to see how fast this Samurai really was. He retook his stance after he stepped a few metres from the Samurai and waited for the swordsman to make his move. His amethyst eyes staring intently at his opponent.

The Samurai grew impatient and initiated the attack. He swung his sword in a diagonal slash, Kotaro easily dodged it and waited for his next attack, his sword ready if he can't dodge the incoming strikes. The Samurai swung his sword again, Kotaro dodged the swing. The Samurai began to get irritated and he started to swing his sword faster and faster, making a bunch of silver blurs coming out of front of him. And even though he kept increasing his speed and the amount of sword swings he would make, he couldn't land one hit on Kotaro.

Kotaro was enjoying his morning workout a little too much and now he wanted to nib it in the bud. He and Asuma still had a mission to do. He suddenly blocked the Samurai's incoming swing with his sword and then proceeded to kick the samurai in the chest, making the samurai skid back a couple of metres. He then unsheathed Safaia, and closed the distance between him and the Samurai in a flash. He then sliced and diced the Samurai and ended up on the other side, across from the Samurai's back. He then immediately sheathed his swords and walked over to the crowd.

The Samurai's armour was completely taken apart and his clothes were ripping, small cuts appearing all over his body. He then collapsed onto the ground. Servants then took him on a stretcher and brought the poor unconscious man to the medical room. The other samurai guards and the Daimyō were shocked to the core, completely in awe of the skills of the redhead. Asuma was just like the rest. His Jōnin eyes allowed him to see the speed Kotaro travelled at when he did his finishing move, even then all he was just a blur.

'Tou-san said he was fast but this guy is like a red flash, he could compete with Gai with speed!' Asuma thought.

The Samurai captain stood beside the Daimyō, his own eyes were widened. "How could a shinobi beat a samurai in a swordfight?" he murmured under his breath. "So, it's true. The Uzumaki were true swordsmen, ones to be feared across the world.

"Amazing skills Kotaro-kun. I see that Asuma-kun wasn't exaggerating one bit!" the Daimyō said happily, he liked seeing skill and flair and this kid got it in buckets.

"Thank you Daimyō-sama, and don't worry about your samurai, the cuts aren't fatal and he should be back to normal after a night's rest, I hope!" Kotaro said.

"Thank you for not maiming or killing him. I can see that if you wanted to, you could of easily. Now I believe you two have a second mission that I asked for to be taken care of. Please solve those pesky bandits, their causing disturbances to the city. And to help you out, one of my scouts told me they were close to Yakoi River. I would search there if I was you," The Daimyō said in his regal voice.

"Thank you Daimyō-sama," Asuma and Kotaro said in unison.

The two ninjas then left the Daimyō's palace in companionable silence. Asuma then broke the silence as he had to talk about the fight. "You were so fast there, you were like a blur. How'd you get like that?" Asuma asked.

"Chakra weights and sprinting everywhere, now I'm using resistance weight seals," Kotaro answered with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Why am I not surprised you're using seals to train. That's a genius idea!" Asuma said.

"The weights were getting impractical as if I went any heavier on them, I would sink into the ground so the seals make my body work harder, making it stronger and not affect the environment," Kotaro explained.

"How heavy did you go before using seals?" Asuma asked.

"Honestly can't remember, it was impossible to do anything because I would have to constantly use chakra to react to the force I was exerting to the ground, and it wasn't even a good chakra control exercise there so I just sealed up the weights and started using seals," Kotaro answered while looking at the Jōnin.

"Say after the mission, would you give me a lend the weights for training, just looking at you makes me want to improve!" Asuma asked.

"I don't know. Maybe!" Kotaro said with a cheeky grin.

"Why do you think I can't handle it?" Asuma questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"No! Of course not. Asuma those old chakra weights I used won't make you any faster or stronger," Kotaro explained. "We would need to get a new set to do that."

"Fair enough," Asuma said as he puffed out some smoke from his newly lit cigerette.

The two made it back to the hotel. They went to heir room to pick up Asuma's stuff that he dropped off last night. Kotaro waited by the door, waiting for Asuma to finish checking over his supplies. He was satisfied that he had everything he needed. He strapped the bag to himself and walked out of the room. Kotaro followed until Asuma suddenly stopped when they left the Hotel. Asuma turned around to Kotaro and looked at him. "All the information we have on our two targets is that they were sighted by Yakoi river. Do you have any ideas on where to find them?" Asuma asked Kotaro.

Kotaro thought for a second before snapping his fingers. "We'll just go into the forest, follow the river, find any clues if they're nearby and I'll using my sensing abilities to try and find them. The two brothers should have larger chakra pools than the other bandits and their signatures will have a similar feel to each other. What do you think?" Kotaro asked his superior.

Asuma just nodded, "Doesn't matter, that's the best plan for now. We can always adapt to the situation when shit hits the fan. Now let's move out!" Asuma ordered out. The Konoha duo went out of the city, through the south exit, they entered the forest heading south west. They travelled for a good hour until they saw a large river flow by. "This must be the river the Daimyō was talking about. Let's look for any clues," Asuma said as he slowed down to a stop, just before the bank of the river.

They split up and looked all around them. Kotaro jumped to the branches to get a better vantage point, he could always investigate better when looking in a near bird-eyes view. He saw nothing that would suggest that there was a group of bandits going through the area. A mile down the bank from where he split up from Asuma, he saw something shine on the other side of the river. Jumping off the tree, he landed silently on the grass and looked at the shine from the far side. The shine was coming off water droplets that were reflecting the sun. He looked into the clear waters of the slow meander river and saw divots of footprints in the residue and soil.

'Must be from the bandits, they can't water walk,' Kotaro deduced from what he saw in from of him.

Kotaro jumped across the river to look at the other side of the bank, to get a closer look at the water droplets. He landed and walked over to the patch of wet grass. He crouched and peered at the ground. 'Considering the water is still visible and hasn't evaporated yet, and the divots in the river, they should be close, probably an hours walk,' he thought.

Kotaro stood up and went back to where he split from Asuma. He didn't need to travel far as Asuma was waiting for him. "I think I found them," Kotaro said as he landed beside Asuma.

"Really, we should go and investigate it. There was nothing on my end of any human activity or anything around these parts, just animals," Asuma exclaimed.

Kotaro nodded and lead Asuma to the patch of grass where he saw the divots and water droplets. "We should move in this line," Kotaro moved his arm to the path straight through the wet grass, "and we should see them in less than half an hour. The water droplets are bunched together, so that suggests that they were walking," Kotaro said, showing off his detective skills to Asuma.

"Good work Kotaro. This is most likely going to turn into a messy battle. Are you prepared?" Asuma asked his young friend.

"I'm ready, don't you worry. But actually, I have a plan that will make both our lives much easier. All I need you to do is to support me when I call for you. Can you promise me that?" Kotaro asked.

Asuma would normally say 'Hell no!' to something like that but since he watched Kotaro's fight with the samurai that morning, he now knows first-hand the capabilities of the young ninja. He was going to take a bet. "Fine, but if something fucks up I'm jumping in whether you like it or not!" Asuma said with some steel in his voice.

Kotaro nodded at this and led the two-man team. They didn't have to travel far as Kotaro picked up chakra signatures of fifteen men. Two of them being Jōnin level. "I've found them" he said quietly while putting his hand up to stop Asuma's movement. "Asuma, there are fifteen of them. Two have chakra pools of what a Jōnin would have, I assume they are the Iwa brothers. I sense their chakras are further away than from the rest of the bandit camp. This will make it easier for me," Kotaro stated out quietly.

Asuma just nodded his head and asked, "What do you want me to do?" knowing he has some part to play in Kotaro's plan.

Kotaro stood there silently, thinking over the steps needed to do the job as efficiently as possible, "I'm going into the treetops, you'll follow me until you see the camp. I need you to set these tags (Kotaro handed Asuma strange looking exploding tags) around the camp. These are tags that'll explode with substances that distort eyesight and send poisonous fumes in the air. They'll die in thirty minutes if they don't get an antidote. It will also blow away their camp. Once you have them set up, you will head towards me. I'll wait until I can sense your chakra and then I'll just need you to support me when I signal you with your name!" Kotaro said as he laid out his plans in words.

Asuma just nodded, agreeing with the plan. Kotaro then jumped into the treetops and headed off to the two rouge Iwa nin. He made a shadow clone far enough from them just in case they sensed the spike in chakra. He was moving stealthy and silently, getting closer and closer to his targets. He was thankful the bandit camp was situated in a deep forest, it provided great cover for him. Finally, he saw the two brothers relaxing, sitting on a large boulder talking about prostitutes and getting some drugs for a "fun night!"

Kotaro was waiting for his partner in crime. He looked over the surroundings and couldn't believe the two Iwa nin were just relaxing here, 'They must of set traps nearby and are confident in their skills. And staying further away from the camp either means that they needed to discuss something important or they think that are better than the non-ninja bandits!' Kotaro thought.

He sensed Asuma's chakra signature approaching. Kotaro then silently moved his position so he was above the two brothers. They still haven't noticed the redhead above them. He had his shadow clone ready with some kunai away from him, in case he needs a distraction to escape.

Kotaro jumped toward the brother sitting on the boulder to the left, using chakra to enhance his speed for his descent. The rouge nin didn't react fast enough as Kotaro used his hidden blade and stabbed it through his targets neck and throat. He quickly pulls it out and ejects the blade from its mechanism by pulling a pin holding the blade to his wrist bracer. With his ejected hidden blade in hand, he swiftly flicked it towards the other brother with wind chakra flowing through it, making it fly faster through the air. The blade flew the short distance and pierced the man's throat, the blade flew through the muscle tissue, cutting up his veins and arteries as if they were wet tissue paper. The blade didn't stop until it hit the ground, leaving a large mark.

Kotaro quickly retrieved his blade and cleaned it off by making his chakra turn into water and letting it flow onto the blade, taking the blood with it. He dried it off his Chūnin jacket and looked at the corpses behind. Kotaro sees Asuma inspecting the bodies and his kills.

"Sorry I took all the fun, I swear to God I thought the second guy would dodge and you would come in and finish him off," Kotaro said out quietly, only letting Asuma hear his words.

"It was very an anti-climactic fight, but they were good kills I have to admit. The information in the bingo books say that they were ninjutsu users. They must have let their other skills become rusty if you only needed a second to kill them off," Asuma said in a bored tone, not happy he didn't get any action.

Kotaro only nodded, it was the only conclusion of why these two B-ranked nin were so easy to kill. 'If they were clones waiting for an ambush, then I would understand why they were so easy to eliminate. But the large chakra signatures are gone and elemental clones dissipate if they're a long distance from the creator! These guys were either idiots with no sense of their surroundings or I'm good at this sort of thing!' Kotaro thought with a small grin.

"Are we going to seal the bodies as whole or we just going to get the heads?" Kotaro asked Asuma, having never done this before.

"We aren't hunter-nin so we just need to bag-and-tag them. You can do the job, you're clearly much better at it," Asuma said as he took out a new cigarette and started smoking it.

Kotaro set up two body storage seals in a new scroll and placed their bodies on the seals. He then formed the Ram hand seal and pulsed his chakra. The bodies disappeared into the seals with small puffs of smoke coming out.

Kotaro then wrapped up the seal and tossed it to Asuma. "What did the bandit camp look like?" Kotaro asked, the camp was the last objective of their double B-rank mission.

"It's organised, there are thirteen men there, like you sensed, at the main tent where the brothers slept, there wasn't much money, treasure, jutsu scrolls or anything. I'd say these guys made their name from attacking weak towns with their ninjutsu and didn't take much from the towns they attacked," Asuma concluded, while scratching his beard.

Kotaro then scratched his chin, "So we can just blow it up?" he proposed, he wanted to finish the job.

Asuma stood there, staring at Kotaro, then a small shine coursed through his eyes he smiled evilly, "Yeah let's do it and get out of here!" he excitedly said.

Kotaro nodded his head with vigour and formed the ram hand seal, "Kai!" Kotaro said out loud. An instant later, explosions were heard south of their position where the camp was residing. Screams and chokes were heard, some small trees collapsed because of the weakened and cracked ground.

Waiting a minute for the poison to dissipate into the air, Asuma and Kotaro walked towards the camp, to make sure no stragglers survived. They reached the camp after walking for a minute and saw it was completely destroyed. The bodies of some of the bandits lost limbs and blood was squirting out of the arteries, mini blood fountains. The men who had none of their limbs blown off were coughing hoarsely and their skin colour was paling quickly, turning into a deathly white. There was one man who had his half corpse blown off, leaving the charred mush that was once his body in the centre of the destroyed camp.

Asuma and Kotaro gave the men that survived the unexpected attack mercy by ending their lives so the poison would stop hurting them, the poison was eradicating their central nervous system. They then piled their bodies together into the centre of the camp.

Asuma flashed through the hand seals Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger. 'Fire release: Fireball,' he thought as a large fire ball came out of Asuma's mouth and enveloped the corpses of the fallen bandits. Asuma and Kotaro waited until the fires died down, so only the ashes remained. Kotaro then blasted some of his wind chakra from his hand, the ash pile was moved into the air where it mixed with the cinders of the burnt bodies. The area was stained in blood and reeked of crisped up remains. "Let's get out of here, there's nothing left for us," Asuma ordered.

He and Kotaro began their run back to Konoha. The day was still young, Kotaro knew they'd be home before midnight. 'Only two days to do two B-rank missions. I hope it's like this for all my missions!' Kotaro jovially thought as he and Asuma took to the trees for their long run home.

---

Towards Konoha

"Are all missions like that Asuma?" Kotaro asked, as he was healing Asuma's twisted ankle after he stepped on it wrong.

"They vary, D-rank missions are easy missions, more like chores. They are always inside the village. C-rank missions are more difficult, they consist of escort missions of people looking for protection from bandits or delivering documents to towns, cities or hidden villages. They can also include clearing out small bandit camps," Asuma said while he takes a drag out of his cigarette and puffs out the smoke. "Let's walk to Konoha for now, we're close!" he then said after Kotaro fixed up his ankle.

"Now, where was I? Oh yeah! Now B-rank missions are like the one we just did, and they include more intense missions, and usually we would get this sort of job from allied countries. Then there are A-rank missions, these ones are dangerous and are only taken by Jōnin or veteran Chūnin. You would expect these missions to conflict with the interests of other Elemental nations or the client would be a rich noble or businessman. These missions really affect Konoha's image as a strong hidden village so the Hokage only picks the experienced for this. Although I wouldn't be surprised if your next mission is an A-rank Kotaro," Asuma said.

"Oh? Why is that?" Kotaro asked.

"Well Tou-san already trusts you a lot, I do too. And after the report we give, he'll be tempted to put you in a squad doing an A-rank mission. I'm not lying, you're one of the best ninja I know, and this is your first mission outing. I'm not trying to give you a big head but you're fast, calm, skilled and you had a great plan for those Iwa brothers and their camp. You made my life much easier. I can't think of many ninja who could've done as good as job as you," Asuma complimented his redhaired friend.

Kotaro kept his face blank and nodded along to Asuma's words, but internally he was blushing madly. 'It feels great getting complimented by one of the elites in Konoha!' he cried happily internally. "Thank you Asuma, those kind words mean a lot," Kotaro admitted.

"No problem. Once you become a Jōnin, and I don't think you'll have to wait long, Tou-san will probably put you through S-rank missions!" Asuma said with a smirk.

"S-rank!? What are they like? What the hell does the S stand for, Special?" Kotaro asked, clueless to the fact.

"Suicide!" Asuma chuckled out.

Kotaro paled at this, that sounded awful. "Does Hokage-sama want to get me killed? I thought the bastard liked me!" Kotaro sombrely said, his head was gloomily hanging down off his neck.

Asuma laughed and slapped the back of Kotaro. "Lighten up, it just means he trusts you and believes you have the skill set to accomplish these missions. Although there is a high risk of death, only the elite are even allowed to do them. You would be considered the top of the food chain if you did them!" Asuma said, trying to cheer Kotaro up.

Kotaro put his head up high and looked straight ahead, "I don't want to be the best just because of rank or fame or even money. I want to improve myself so that I can protect my little brotherand my friends," Kotaro said, certainty running through his voice.

Asuma raised an eyebrow, "Little brother? You mean Naruto?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's my little ball of sunshine," Kotaro said with a happy smile. "After my Kaa-chan's death, I was torn apart emotionally but I steeled myself to go to Konoha and try find family. Even though I was happy seeing him at the start. I was still heart broken and depressed, I broke down real bad one day and he saved me. Then he broke down with me and we spent the day crying and comforting each other. We both really needed it!" Kotaro said wiping a small tear from his left eye.

Asuma smiled at this, he knew that Naruto had no family for nearly all his life and the feeling of losing a family member was one of the worst pains to have, having lost his mother and brother, he knows it all too well. "I'm glad you found each other. Like you said, you both need it. I also heard from Ibiki-san that you had a drunken episode before you came here. Don't worry, only a bare handful know that. If it happens again, I'll help you out. But let's talk about something else... I've seen Naruto's academy reports, they're awful. Are you helping him train?" Asuma asked, he was interested what the prankster king would become in the future.

Kotaro sighed and rubbed his face. He didn't like the fact that now more than three people know of his drunk actions at the town of Gero Onsen. He had to put it behind him now.

"Well I'll tell you now, before I came he was awful, now after a month, in skills I would say he would be one of the best in his class. The academy's way of teaching didn't suit Naruto. My training to him was brutal but he improved steadily. But sure, it was easy for him to catch up to the others. They're only ten, some are eleven. However, I told him to keep his skills hidden and be tight-lipped about it!" Kotaro said to the smoker.

Asuma was puzzled by this. "Why would you make him do that? Wouldn't you want him to be rookie of the year?" he asked.

"No! Never, it's just a title. It won't mean shit when Naruto becomes the first Chūnin in his class. Him becoming Rookie of the year will gather unnecessary attention to him, and he doesn't need anymore. Also, when he's fighting his enemies, they'll underestimate him. I've noticed it recently, everyone talks too much. Ninjas are supposed to be spies and killers not chat-up artists!" Kotaro ranted, moving his arms around in a frustrated gesture.

Asuma could only keep his mouth shut as everything that was said was true. The duo kept walking and they chatted about other things, getting to know each other's likes, dislikes, hobbies and other things. At some points during the conversation, Asuma would headlock Kotaro and give him a nuggie. Kotaro would then shove Asuma off and try to tickle him. This lead to a slapping match and other stupid games and antics. They were quickly becoming great friends.

This stopped when they saw the gates and walls of Konoha, they walked as professionals from there on out. They then walked over to the guard shelter, both sighing a breath of relief when they entered the shade. They saw Izumo and Kotestu playing cards. "Reporting return for Jōnin Sarutobi Asuma and Chūnin Uzumaki Kotaro from dual B-rank mission," Asuma announced to the two guards.

"Oi it's Asuma and Kotaro! What's up man?" Izumo asked with a fist stretched out for Kotaro to bump it.

"All good Izumo, hope you're beating Kotestu-chan!" Kotaro said in a cheeky smile as he bumped fists with Izumo.

Kotestu frowned at this, "Oi! Not cool man, I thought we were friends!" he said in a fake sad tone, pouting with his act.

"Calm your tits Kotestu! I am your friend," Kotaro laughed as he poked Kotestu's shoulder.

Asuma signed his name and then forced Kotaro to sign his name by grabbing his shoulder and putting him on the sign-up sheet. "Jeez Asuma, I didn't know you liked it rough," Kotaro said with a grin as Asuma's face turned bright red. The two guards barked out laughing and were holding their stomachs. Asuma couldn't take it anymore and started pulling on Kotaro's ear and bringing him towards the Hokage tower to report.

"Ah Asuma, seriously knock it off!" Kotaro all but yelled at Asuma.

Asuma tugged a little harder before letting go, "There! That's your punishment for joking about your superior officer. Next time I won't be so nice!" Asuma said in a pseudo-threatening manner.

Kotaro kept silent but in his head, he was laughing his ass off, 'Sex related jokes gets this man so embarrassed, can't wait to do it in front of the other Jōnin!' Kotaro giggled internally. They kept walking through the village and finally reached the Hokage office. They entered inside and gave a quick wave to the secretary, they climbed the stairs to the top floor and walked down the long corridor. They saw the Hokage office door. Asuma gave it two hard knocks. "Enter," was all the two heard.

Asuma opened the door to see his father doing the paperwork. "Reporting for mission's success, Tou-san," Asuma said in his professional tone, while smoking a new cigarette. Kotaro walked in and gave a nod to the old man.

Hiruzen looked up from his desk and saw his son and his favourite redhead. "Asuma, Kotaro, hope the Daimyō and the bandit problem wasn't too bad," he said with a smile.

Kotaro shook his head. "Nope!" he said out loud.

Asuma and Hiruzen chuckled. "So, will you two give me a mission report. I need a break and I want to know about your mission debut Kotaro," Hiruzen asked excitedly.

Asuma sighed and got himself comfortable on a chair, while Kotaro walked over to a wall to lean on.

Asuma got the ball rolling. "After we left Konoha, Kotaro sealed the finance report into a storage seal that would only react to our blood and chakra. Then we left towards the capital and avoided all potential dangers. We arrived early and booked ourselves a hotel. The next day we had our meeting with the Daimyō and he was happy to see us as some rather pissed off nobles or something left before we entered. The Daimyō seemed to take an interest in Kotaro because of his swords and asked if he could spar with one of his top samurai," Asuma reported, his hand gestures added to the act.

Hiruzen was taking it all in, liking the point about the seal, it seemed that his point of it being a very important mission got through his newest Chūnin. "What did you say Kotaro?" he asked.

Kotaro scoffed and looked away from the two. "I said that it was Asuma's decision as he was my superior officer," he said with a bit of a hiss.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow and then looked at his son, who had a huge smile planted on his face. "What happened?" he asked, no threat hidden in his voice, just curiosity.

"I told him it was alright to fight him. I didn't want to upset the Daimyō and I wanted to see him fight with his swords. I heard from Hayate that he was insanely good so I had to see it for myself," Asuma replied honestly.

"So how did that fight go?" the Hokage asked, while taking out his pipe and stuffing it with his favourite cinnamon tobacco. He used fire chakra from a click of his fingers to light it. He looked back at Asuma, waiting for the story.

"The samurai and Kotaro started and the samurai was impressive, he was blocking Kotaro's strikes from the start of the fight, but then Kotaro did this one attack and the samurai blocked him again with greater speed he showed in the spar before. Then Kotaro moved back and went on the defensive. The samurai then just attacked relentlessly, going faster and faster until he couldn't go any quicker. Kotaro was dodging and blocking them all and then Kotaro pulled out his other sword and then in a blur, he appeared on the other side of the samurai and put away his swords and walked towards me and the Daimyō. The samurai's armour just fell apart and his clothes were cut all over the place. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while!" Asuma explained the fight excitingly.

Hiruzen was just as engrossed. "It sounds similar to your fight with Hayate, doesn't it Kotaro?" he said with a small grin.

Kotaro just nodded, "It's just a finishing move, I just wanted to tire him out and analyse his fighting pattern. Really the samurai made my life easier by being too predictable," he said while crossing his arms looking at his leader.

"What matters is that you won! Now tell me about those Iwa ninja causing trouble," Hiruzen said.

"Well, I'm not going to lie, they were easier than what they were made out to be," Asuma said.

The Hokage was surprised by this "They were supposed to be an A-level threat. What happened out there to say they were easier than you thought they would be?" he asked, his interest in this mission increased.

Asuma chuckled before looking and pointing his finger at Kotaro, "He did!" was all he said.

Hiruzen then stared at Kotaro, waiting for the answer. "Fine I'll talk!" Kotaro said while moving closer to the Hokage's desk, pulling a chair and sitting down similar to Asuma. He then unsealed a water bottle and began drinking it. Once he quenched his thirst, he looked at the Hokage.

"The Daimyō gave us information from his scout that the bandits were sighted near Yakoi river. We went to investigate. We then split up and I found water droplets on the other bank and divots in the river. I went back to grab Asuma and we went on to find the camp. I used my sensing and we found our targets along with thirteen non-ninja bandits. I devised a plan for us to follow. I gave Asuma special poisonous explosive tags that I prototyped and let him set them up around the camp while I go to where the two brothers were. They split themselves up from the camp and were talking in private about what they were going to do with the money they steal. I waited for Asuma to come back to initiate the next part of the plan.

I was supposed to neutralise the first brother, distract the second, making him jump away and let Asuma get the jump on him. What actually happened, was that I did indeed neutralised the first brother, but when I threw my hidden blade at the second brother, he did nothing and the blade went through his throat, killing him instantly! I then sealed the bodies. Asuma informed me that there was nothing of value in the camp, so we blew it up, gathered the dead, cremated them and went on our way back home! That's the full verbal report," Kotaro said, taking another gulp of his water.

The Hokage interlaced his fingers and brought them to hide his grin. He leaned back into his chair and looked at Asuma. "Asuma, is all he said true?" he asked, he doubted Kotaro would lie or exaggerate but he needed a second opinion.

Asuma smirked and took another whiff of his cigarette. He blew out the smoke that was filling the room's air. "All of it! Kotaro was a total professional. Cool, calm-minded and efficient," Asuma said while patting Kotaro's back.

The Hokage was happy seeing that his son and Kotaro already had a strong bond. "Good work! I already told you two how important these missions were and you performed them better than expected! Your mission pay will be transferred to your bank accounts by this evening. I'm proud of you both, especially you Kotaro. I have to tell the truth that I was expecting you to have a rough time with missions and working with someone else but this old man shouldn't have worried at all," The Hokage explained.

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity Hokage-sama, I'll always be in your debt for your kindness!" Kotaro replied with true gratitude.

"Nonsense, I should be thanking you. The hospital has been praising me since you came! I actually got you a gift for your hard work there," the aged leader said.

Kotaro was surprised that the Hokage got him a gift. The Hokage took a huge crate filled with scrolls and gave it to Kotaro. It was bigger than his lap and the height of the crate reached his chest. "These are some of the notes and Jutsu that my sensei, Senju Tobirama, the Nidaime Hokage wrote and possessed. There hasn't been a good water element user since him and I believe he would want his legacy to be lived on. So, I'm trusting you with these and hope you have success. Maybe you'll be the second coming of sensei when it comes to water jutsu," the Hokage said in a grandfatherly tone.

Kotaro was truly in awe of what was in front of him. "T-t-thank you Hokage-sama, I'll do you and Tobirama-sama proud!" he stuttered out in determination in his voice.

The Hokage smiled and turned his head to his son, "Konohamaru-kun has been missing you Asuma, he wants me to ask you if we all could have dinner tomorrow night, can you come?" Hiruzen asked, he was hoping his improving relationship with his son will allow him to eat with his whole family once again.

In the past, Asuma would've declined and used the excuse of being too busy, but now he wanted to spend time with his family. "Yeah sure, I'll be there!" he said with a smile.

"If you don't mind Hokage-sama, Asuma. I want to check up on Naruto. I'm sure he's missed me, even though it's only been two days," Kotaro said with a bit of anxiousness in his voice. 'What if he burnt the house down while I was gone!' he internally screamed, and thinking of other similar scenarios.

"Of course, go Kotaro. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you!" the Hokage said happily

Asuma turned around, "See you later man!" he said with his hand stretched out.

Kotaro slapped his hand, "Yeah see ya later Asuma!" Kotaro said as he then left the room and went back home.

"I love that kid!" Asuma said with a smile on his face.

"Kid!? He's only seven years younger than you!" the Hokage laughed out.

"So what? He's still a kid, a great kid. Shit! Look at the time. See you later Tou-san, I need some food!" Asuma exclaimed as he left the room.

"Yeah I love that kid as well. Ah back to paperwork," the aged leader said sadly to himself as he got back to work.

---

West Sector of Konoha

Kotaro was walking home, his crate full of valuable water element ninjutsu in hand. 'How lucky am I! Senju Tobirama's notes on water element ninjutsu. I need to work on this as soon as I can!' Kotaro happily thought.

He was walking for ten minutes until he saw the lights that were coming out of his sun was setting when he and Asuma entered Konoha, now it is night time. The sky was black with bright stars shining. He walks up to his house door and puts the crate in one hand. He flowed his chakra onto the handle. 'CLICK' was heard and Kotaro opened the door to go inside. He walked into the living room and see Naruto and Shikamaru playing Shogi on the floor.

"Oh, Naruto. I didn't know you liked shogi?" Kotaro said with a smile, happy to see his little brother.

Both boys looked at the redhead, surprised to see him. "Nii-chan. When did you get back?" Naruto asked from his position.

"An hour ago, had to report to Hokage-Jiji. Now, let me put this in my study and I'll tell you my mission if you want!" he said gleefully as he went upstairs to his study. He entered his study and placed the crate beside his desk. Satisfied, he went back downstairs to see Naruto and Shikamaru sitting on the couch waiting for him. "What happened to the game?" he asked, he only left them for sixty seconds.

Naruto pouted, "Shika wanted to hear the story as well so he ended it in his turn," Naruto said glumly.

Kotaro chuckled at this, "You make it sound like he beats you every time!" he said.

"I do!" Shikamaru said, joining in the conservation for the first time.

Kotaro chuckled even more, and then sat in one of the bachelor chairs, running his hand through his red hair. "So, I think I'll start from the beginning! I met my partner Asuma at the Hokage tower and…" Kotaro continued the story with the Daimyō and the samurai, then the investigation to find the camp, eliminating his two targets and destroying the bandit camp. He described the events that happened in vivid detail. Throughout the story, Naruto and Shikamaru's eyes were glued to Kotaro, hearing the coolest story they've ever heard.

"Holy crap! You're awesome Nii-chan!" Naruto said energetically as he jumped off his seat and his fists started shaking.

"Thanks Naruto! And what did you think Shikamaru?" Kotaro asked.

"Much better than from what we hear from the academy," Shikamaru stated.

Kotaro just smiled at this. "Though now I'm starving, I'm just going to get a quick bite," he told them. He left the two boys to chat for themselves and went into the kitchen, he grabbed a scroll from the top shelf. He laid it on the out counter and three trays of sushi appeared. "Thank God I stored this food," he happily cheered out. He proceeded to stuff his face with the delicacy and in an instant, it was all gone.

"Oh, it's time I went home. Thanks for having me over Naruto!" Shikamaru said. Then he turned to Kotaro "Kotaro. Oyaji wanted to talk to you," he said louder.

Kotaro raised his eyebrow, "Really? Well I'll walk you home then and I can have a quick chat with him," Kotaro said. He walked to the door and unstrapped his swords and various pouches, forgetting to take them off after his mission, he placed them on the hall table.

The Nara heir and Kotaro left the front door and started walking to the Nara compound. Kotaro was asking questions about Nara life and Shikamaru's experience with the academy. He gathered that he and Naruto have similar opinions to one another when it comes to their fellow students, instead of calling them names like Naruto does, Shikamaru just says that they're "too troublesome".

Kotaro was laughing at Shikamaru's catchphrase. It was just like Naruto's "Dattebayo"!

They finally reached the Nara compound and Shikamaru went up to the front door and knocked on it. Kotaro was just standing right behind him. The door slid open with speed and an angry looking mother was in front of both. Shikamaru paled at seeing his angry mother, Kotaro grew a small smile, he knew he wasn't in trouble but his heartbeat rate did increase, being in this position before, 'Everyone's Mother is scary!' he thought.

"NARA SHIKAMARU! DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!?" the angry mother shouted out fiercely.

Shikamaru couldn't get one word out but then he was saved by a redhaired angel. "Please forgive Shikamaru for his tardiness, it was my fault that he was late. He was spending time with my little brother Naruto and I insisted he got some food into his system before he left!" Kotaro said in his polite voice.

The angry mother's face softened dramatically when she saw Kotaro and heard his words. Then a smile beamed on her face. "Ah don't worry about it Kotaro-kun. I heard all about you from Shika-chan and Shikaku. Thank you for caring for my son!" she said sweetly.

"Wait... you know who I am?" Kotaro asked. 'It seems like everyone in this damn village loves to gossip about me!' he thought.

"Of course handsome!" Shikamaru's mother said. She then leads her son and Kotaro into the main room and insisted for them to sit. "I didn't introduce myself, did I? Any way I'm Nara Yoshino!" she said with a happy smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Yoshino-san!" Kotaro said as he looked around the house.

"I'm going to get my husband. He wanted to talk to you since the council meeting about you," Yoshino said as she left the two in the room.

Kotaro and Shikamaru sat behind the table in the room. "Your mother is a lovely lady," Kotaro said in a neutral tone, not even looking at Shikamaru.

"Yeah I know, but she's the most troublesome woman I know," Shikamaru droned out as he rubbed his forehead.

"Who are the others?" Kotaro asked, already having an idea of who Shikamaru is referring to.

"Ino and Sakura. Ino more so since our clans are tight, we knew each other since we were toddlers. She's the loudest gossiper and the whole 'Sasuke-kun' thing is just... troublesome," Shikamaru said as he looked at Kotaro.

Kotaro looked at Shikamaru, "What about Sakura?" he asked, not liking the girl for the way she treats Naruto.

Shikamaru stayed silent for a second before replying, "Her rivalry with Ino for Sasuke's attention is annoying. She is very loud, but more screechy than loud if I must say. And I never liked the way she treats the boys in our class with her fists," Shikamaru answered.

"Troublesome," Kotaro said, getting a raised eyebrow and a small grin from the Nara Heir. Yoshino and Shikaku made their appearance and both sat down in front of Shikamaru and Kotaro.

Shikaku saw red hair and smiled, he finally gets to meet the mysterious Uzumaki. "Uzumaki Kotaro. I'm happy I get to meet you, and thank you for taking care of my son," Shikaku said with a grin.

"It's no bother Shikaku-san, any friend of Naruto is a friend of mine. When he's in my house, I'll make sure he's taken care of!" Kotaro said cheerfully.

The parents could only smile at this. Shikaku spoke up, "I heard from my son that you were on a mission, how was it?" he asked.

"Well to be honest, it went a lot smoother than I thought it would've went. I met the Daimyō and cleared two names in the bingo book in the same day so I can't complain," Kotaro said in a nonchalant tone.

Eyebrows were raised on both the Nara. "The Daimyō? I hope nothing bad happened for your sake!" Yoshino said with a hint of concern in her voice.

"No! Nothing bad happened, however he wanted me to spar with his top samurai. I didn't want to but ya can't refuse the Daimyō so, I sparred the man and beat him," Kotaro said as if he didn't care at all for the achievement.

"You must be very skilled in kenjutsu, just like Hokage-sama said in the meeting," Shikaku said.

"Yeah well, I have worked on it for over a decade so I would like to think I'm good. Now I need to improve my other areas. Can't be getting stale now can I hehe!" Kotaro chuckled out.

Shikaku couldn't hold it in anymore, "Kotaro-san, do you play shogi?" he asked with a small glint of shine in his eyes.

'Oh, here he goes!' both Shikamaru and Yoshino thought at the same time.

"I do play, but haven't in a few months so I would be rusty. Why, you looking for a game?" Kotaro asked, not knowing what he is getting himself into.

"I'm the best in the village and I'm hoping that you would give me a challenge. Shikamaru here is the only competition I have and Yoshino-chan refuses to play with me," Shikaku gruffly said, with a small bit of sadness.

"Fine I'm game. But not tonight, I need to do some work and get some shut-eye!" Kotaro exclaimed to the Nara family.

"Of course, why don't you come down tomorrow. Shikamaru and Naruto can herd the deer together, we can play our game and Yoshino-chan can make us all dinner!" he said excitedly, to him it sounded like the perfect plan.

Yoshino's forehead got several tic marks, being forced to cook for five the next day, she will have to beat her husband later though, she didn't want to give a bad impression to her guest Kotaro.

"That sounds wonderful! I can't wait to taste your cooking Yoshino-san. If you don't mind, I think I overstayed my welcome. Thank you for having me over," He said with a head nod to the Nara family.

"Don't talk nonsense Kotaro! As far as I can see, you'll always be welcome here!" Yoshino declared with a caring but angry tone.

'I don't know if I should be scared or feel safe when I'm near her!' Kotaro thought worriedly, now understanding Shikamaru's burden. "Thank you Yoshino-san. We'll come around four o'clock if that suits. Naruto can't slack off his training!" Kotaro said with an evil smile.

Kotaro went for the front door and opened it, then he left the house, leaving promptly out of the Nara Compound. He took is time when walking through the village, still not used to staying at Konoha yet. He takes to the rooftops and starts to dash towards home. He finally made it and his tiredness caught up with him.

"Guess I can skip work tonight and just go straight to bed," he said sadly. Kotaro opened the door and went to find Naruto, to tell him about the dinner plans with the Nara's. "Naruto?" he shouted out.

"In my room!" Naruto shouted from upstairs. Kotaro heard and started to climb up the stairs he opened Naruto's bedroom door and just made his head known. "We have dinner with the Nara's tomorrow after training. I want you to wear the black and orange haori I got you. I'll be wearing my red one. We have to look handsome as hell tomorrow! That's all. Good night Naruto," Kotaro yawned out.

"Good night Nii-chan!" Naruto yawned himself, he himself was getting ready for bed.

---

The Next Day

"So, Naruto how was your training while I was gone?" Kotaro asked Naruto as they walked out to the training grounds behind their house.

"I got the leaves to go counter-clockwise finally!" Naruto proudly exclaimed.

"That's great, you'll have to show me and then we'll do the next chakra control exercise," Kotaro said with pride.

They got to the middle of the grounds and did their stretches. "Naruto put on your game-face now. We're going to go to level two of training!" Kotaro ordered.

"Level two! Alright, I'm ready for it," Naruto said with confidence.

"Good! That's what we want. Now you know the drill. Twenty laps around. Then 100 push-ups, squats, jumping jacks and sit-ups. Then twenty pull-ups and chin-ups. NOW GET TO IT!" Kotaro barked out his orders.

Naruto nodded and ran around the perimeter immediately. Then he went through his push-ups, squats and other exercises with good form. He was struggling as he slowed down a he further progressed into the exercises but he didn't stop, he just took his time. Finally, he finished the last of his chin-ups. He fell to the ground, Naruto was breathing heavy and sweat was dripping off his whole naked upper body.

Kotaro brought over an ice-cold water bottle and an energy protein bar. "You didn't fuck up once. Well done! Now, since we have dinner in… an hour and a bit. We can only introduce the chakra control exercise and do about forty-five minutes of it," Kotaro said as he started walking towards the small forest that was in their property.

"What're we doing out here?" Naruto asked.

"You going to climb the trees with only your feet!" Kotaro said with a smile.

"With only my feet!? How can I do that… Oh with chakra hehe," Naruto said while scratching the back of his head.

"It follows the same principle as the leaf exercise, you going to use your chakra to create a suction effect on your feet and you'll use that effect to climb the trees. Now, watch me!" Kotaro said.

Kotaro flowed chakra to his feet and then walked up to the tree, he put his foot onto the bark, and then his other, he began walking vertically. "We'll go do water walking after this exercise, once you are able to stay on the trees for two hours straight, and we have an upside-down spar on the trees. You may think it's insane to do that much work. But it'll help control your insane chakra reserves and give you an advantage while fighting enemies with lots of walls or trees around you. But for now, let's try and get you at least walking on the tree," Kotaro ordered.

Naruto breathed in and out deeply. He put his hands in the ram sign and flowed chakra to his feet. He took his first step on the tree, the bark then blasted off the tree, Naruto was surprised at what he just did. "I didn't mean to do that, I swear!" he cried out.

Kotaro just sighed, "Don't worry Naruto. It's just training. You used too much chakra there. Next time try use less. And maybe get a running start. That'll help you out," Kotaro gave his advice with a friendly pat on the back.

Naruto just nodded and got back up. He repeated with the ram sign and flowed chakra to his feet. He then ran to the tree and started to climb it about seven feet up its thirty and then his left foot slipped off because of lack of chakra. Naruto did a backflip and landed on his feet. "That was better!" he shouted with enthusiasm.

Kotaro nodded with a small grin. He then threw a kunai at Naruto's feet. "Use the kunai to mark your progress." He then threw one of kunai halfway up the tree. "If you get there before we go to the Nara's. I'll buy you five ramen bowls from Ichiraku. Now get back at it!" Kotaro ordered Naruto.

For the next forty minutes, Naruto was doing amazingly well for someone who had no control of his chakra a month ago. Just as time was up, Naruto's kunai was stuck at around fourteen feet. "That's not fair, I was so close!" Naruto mumbled. He then sat on his bum and brought his knees to his chest. "I worked so hard but I get no ramen. Life can be so cruel" Naruto murmured out.

"Naruto! Quit bitching about your ramen and get cleaned up. We have to go in half an hour," Kotaro said with an angry scowl on his face. Naruto saw his big brother and sprinted inside to have a shower and get dressed. When Naruto was gone, Kotaro puffed into smoke, revealing he was just a shadow clone. The real Kotaro was having a bath in his bedroom's bathroom. Learning of the memories, he smiled deeply, his little brother actually did well for less than an hour at the exercise. It seemed his advanced leaf exercise really helped out Naruto's chakra control.

After ten minutes, Kotaro got out of the bath and dried himself up. He then went over to his clothes he was going to wear for their meal. He put on his normal shinobi boots and pants. He then wears a black shirt and then puts his red and black haori on. He checks himself out in the mirror. 'Damn! So sexy!' he thought while doing silly poses and faces.

He then leaves the bathroom then his room. He sees Naruto exit his bedroom, wearing a similar outfit but instead of wearing his black jacket and white t-shirt, he wore a similar black shirt and an identical haori but instead of red, it was orange. "Looking good Naruto!" Kotaro admitted as he looked at the blonde's outfit.

"Wow, Nii-chan, you look good too dattebayo!" Naruto said in a gleeful smile. Kotaro then ruffled Naruto's hair. Naruto fumed at this and tried to fix it. After he fixed up his already messy hair, Naruto and his big brother went downstairs and left through the front door. Naruto walked a few steps ahead until he noticed Kotaro wasn't following him. He was staring off in the distance. "What's wrong Kotaro-nii?" Naruto asked.

Kotaro said nothing and walked over to Naruto, he then tightly grabbed Naruto's shoulder and then body flickered them until they reached the Nara compound. Naruto was amazed they covered such a distance in such a short time. "You have to teach me that ttebayo," Naruto demanded,

Kotaro just chuckled at his little brother love for ninjutsu and anything related to it. "I will soon, don't worry. We have to work on "you" before you learn new jutsu. Come on, we don't want Yoshino-san to bite our heads off!" Kotaro said while hastily walking to the Nara's front door.

Kotaro then lightly knocked on the door three times and then waited. The door opened and revealed Shikaku with a stupid looking smile on his face. "Welcome you two! Kotaro the board is set up. SHIKAMARU! COME HERE!" Shikaku shouted the last part.

Shikamaru came out his hiding place and moved to see the Uzumaki brothers. "Nice to see you two again. Oyaji, what is it?" he asked.

"You and Naruto are going to be herding the deer before dinner is ready. Now go show Naruto the reins!" he ordered at his son.

"Jeez, Oyaji you didn't have to shout! Come on Naruto, let's get of here already," Shikamaru said as he left the house and grabbed Naruto's arm and dragged him along.

Shikaku looked at Kotaro intently, "Now that the pests are away, I'd say we should start our game!" he gruffly said.

He led Kotaro through his house to a special room that had nothing apart from two mats and a shogi board. Beside the board was a battle of Sake and two saucers. 'I know where this is going Shikaku, and I like it!' Kotaro thought excitedly.

They both sat down across from each other and Shikaku filled up their saucers. "I'll go first to get it started," Shikaku said.

The game began, it started fast and both players were eliminating each other's pieces. Then it slowed down dramatically and both players were thinking of how the hell they were going to defeat one another. After two hours and forty-one turns, Shikaku got Kotaro into a situation that was impossible to escape. "Checkmate!" he said with a smug face.

"Yeah you got me good. It was fun playing with ya you smart bastard!" Kotaro chuckled out.

Both men laughed out, after a few seconds of laughing, Shikaku looks at Kotaro, "That was a good game! Still not enough to beat me but I guess you could give Shika a run for his money," the elder Nara admitted.

"I haven't played in a while, I didn't expect you to be so hard. God, you're relentless with the silver generals!" Kotaro said pouting.

"Yeah enough about the game though. We'll play again soon enough I hope. Shikamaru told me you were working on a medical seal?" Shikaku asked Kotaro, the idea was very interesting.

"Well yeah, I've only been working on it just before I moved to Konoha. It's very hard to make a seal that stores medical chakra and then spreads it evenly across the body. I don't know why but the medical chakra doesn't behave like normal chakra. Maybe because it's prominently Yang chakra, who knows? It's all so troublesome. But there are so many benefits if I can get it to work. Ah, it's only a project. I will get it finished but I wanted to create it because there isn't a seal its type," Kotaro said, admitting his shortcomings to Shikaku.

Shikaku nodded, "We supply deer antlers and ingredients from our forests to the hospital for their healing practices, so I know how amazing that kind of seal would be. You would probably be as famous as Tsunade-sama if you got it to work," Shikaku said.

"Hm, I would love to meet the woman. She's supposedly the strongest and most beautiful woman in the world. Too bad her location is damn near impossible to find. I tried finding her in the past for my sick mother, but I couldn't even sniff her trail," Kotaro said sadly.

Shikaku knew it was a time to change the topic, this was too sensitive to talk about after just becoming friends. Luckily, Shikamaru and Naruto returned from the deer herding. The boys entered the room where the men were residing drinking their sake. "How'd the game go?" Shikamaru asked.

"Your Oyaji won! I just hope I didn't disappoint him with my... rusty skills," Kotaro admitted.

"No, you were a good challenge. I like to play you again once you get a few more games under your belt!" Shikaku replied. "Come on, I think dinner is ready. Yoshino will kill me if we're late!" Shikaku paled after he said that. The boys all left the room and went over to the kitchen. Yoshino served them a huge feast and it was a night to remember between the Nara and Uzumaki.

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