Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

"Speech"

Thought

Jutsu

Naruto and the Tornado of Konoha

By: Sealed-Dragon

Naruto woke up, five minutes before his alarm went off. He looked over at it with a sigh. He'd hardly slept. Most of it was from getting ready to go onto a C ranked mission, the other, was from the new information he'd just learned.

Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, was one of his sensei's teammates. It was a little bit hard to take in, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that there were subtle things that he'd been missing. A light, but hardened walk, eyes that revealed a scarred mind, light little twitches when he felt something was wrong.

And he'd done what he'd always done, he'd blown it all of, either not noticing it, or not recognizing it. But when he got one new detail, it revealed so many others. He quickly promised himself that he would do better by being more observant, and trying to catch the subtleties of anyone and everyone.

He quickly rolled out of bed. He'd made it a habit to sleep in his clothes, so he didn't have to change into anything. Anything he needed was already packed, so he had nothing to do for four hours. Four, long hours all by himself.

A small grin crossed his face. He knew just what he'd do...super intense training! He rushed out the door, heading for the training grounds at high speed.

xX At the training ground Xx

"Yosh! Let's go Lee!"

"Yes Gai-sensei!"

Two green spandex wearing men were kicking at a pair of logs. They were also yelling at the top of their lungs about the fires of youth…it was surprising that no one was waking up and yelling at them.

This was what Naruto found as he approached the training ground. He had no idea that anyone else would be willing to do intense training at this hour of the day. His first thought was to find a different training ground, but then, his curiosity got the better of him, and he approached the pair.

"Um, hello?" Naruto said, trying to make sure that he was heard.

"Yosh!" Gai turned around to see someone standing behind him, looking very confused by what was going on. "Lee! There is someone here who shares our fires of youth to wake up at this time of the day!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

(Insert the sudden sunrise behind the hugging pair).

"Um, hello I'm still here." Naruto was starting to get a little uncomfortable of what they were doing.

"Yosh! Hello, I am Gai, the Blue Beast of Konoha!" he struck a pose and had his teeth shine.

"And I am his prized student, Rock Lee, the Green Beast of Konoha!" he quickly imitated.

"Ok, well I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He shrugged, he really didn't want to continue with this weirdness.

"Hello Naruto-san, what are you doing so early in the morning?" Lee asked, falling out of his pose.

"Training."

For a moment, there was complete silence. Then both Lee and Gai burst into anime tears babbling about how the fires of youth burnt brightly in him. He felt very disturbed.

"Hey, Gai-sensei, could he try our training regiment?" Lee asked turning to his sensei.

"Lee, your fires burn brightly before me!" Gai turned to Lee, and looked like they were going to do their weird, say each others names thing.

Naruto quickly waved his hands. "Hey guys, um, could you tell me what your regiment is?" he was glad when instead of ignoring him and continuing with their weird posing, they turned back to him.

"Our training is simple Naruto-san. First, we run 100 laps around Konoha, then we do 500 push-ups, then we do 1000 double-skips, then we kick and punch these logs 250 times. But these are just warm-ups. After them, we go on and do our real exercises." Gai looked at Naruto, expecting him to look horrified by what they did at this time of the day.

So he was shocked to find that Naruto was grinning like a maniac. He looked at the sky. "Well then, the sun's not up yet, let's go!"

"Wait Naruto-san!" Lee said, making sure that he didn't run off at that moment. "Do you already do this sort of training?"

Naruto looked at him with some confusion. "Well, normally I do 90 laps around Konoha, while at the same time, dodging kunai being thrown by my sensei. Then I do 500 push-ups, 250 upside-down sit-ups, and kick a log 300 times, so the only thing new seems to be the double-skips, and those sound like fun."

Both Lee and Gai's mouths were hanging down. This boy was doing almost as much as they did! Gai was the first to recover. "Yosh! Then we shouldn't have to worry about you keeping up! And we can add something new to both our training methods!"

Lee brightened at this, and Naruto looked suddenly mischievous. "All right then, how about the last person to complete their run must do an extra 50 laps."

Both Lee and Gai were crying, he understood the self made rule! Naruto just grinned. "All right, on your mark, get set, go!"

Half an hour later, Lee was running the extra 50 laps while Naruto began to continue with the other training. Gai looked him over. Something about him and the race didn't seem right. It was just a gut feeling, but it just wouldn't go away.

"Naruto-kun, how did you beat my prized pupil?"

Naruto looked up from his push-ups. He was wondering when he would ask that. He turned back to his push-ups. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because if you can beat Lee in a race, you must have great speed, or cheated. And cheating is most unyouthful."

Naruto laughed. "Yes, but even then, I really would've been hurting myself if I tried to use chakra to enhance my speed."

Gai looked curious. "Naruto-kun, what do you mean?"

Naruto finished the last of his push-ups and then sat on the ground. He reached down and pulled his leg warmer down to reveal his weights. Gai was somewhat shocked, but still confused. "But Naruto-kun, even if you're wearing weights, you can still…"

"No, I can't. My sensei wanted me to be able to conserve my chakra to other matters, so if I channel my chakra into my speed, it will add more to my weights and in effect, hurt me. Plus there's the fact that if I add more weight to them, I can't remove them." He moved his fingers over the different seals, genuinely happy that he was doing things by his own strength.

Gai was perplexed. He went over the list of Jonin who would think of doing different things like that. Anko was a kunai thrower, he himself wore weights, but the only person he could think of was Kakashi. And he knew that his eternal rival wouldn't put weights onto any of he students. So that left…

"Naruto-kun! Is your sensei Kurogane Kamikaze, the Black Tornado of Konoha?"

Naruto looked at him, pulling his leg warmer up. "Well, I'm not sure about the other title, but he, ya, Kurogane is my sensei."

Gai was in some shock. He was the one who told him to wear weights in the first place, over twelve years ago so that he could attempt to beat his eternal rival! To hear that he'd taken a genin team was, beyond him.

"Naruto, Kurogane is the man who first told me to wear weight in order to beat my eternal rival!" he jumped into another pose. Naruto brushed it off and looked at his Chunnin vest.

"So, do you wear weights in your vest to?" He asked, poking the vest. Gai sweat dropped.

"Why would you ask that?" Gai hadn't been told to, but he made a mental note to do so for Lee later.

Instead of answering his question, Naruto unzipped his vest and took it off. Rubbing his shoulder, he gave his vest a small toss. When it hit the ground it left a sizeable crater. Gai's eyes bugged out. How much weight was he wearing?

"All right, give me a second." He rubbed his shoulder and moved his arms in circles for a moment. Then he moved. Gai watched, hardly believing his eyes. He was just slower than Lee was without his weights on, and he still had the weights on his legs! After running around a little bit, he ran over to his vest and put it back on.

"How much weight is in that vest?" Gai asked. Naruto turned to him, and was about to tell him when Lee showed up in the field. "Lee! Your youth still burns greatly!"

"Thank you Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

Naruto shook his head. While he was glad he had someone to train with, he was wondering if it was really worth it.

xX 3 ½ hours later: at the Northern gate Xx

Ryuu had been, literally hanging around, for some time. Basically he was hanging upside down with his chakra for a quick warm up with his chakra. If this, Tazuna guy was worried about getting attacked by bandits, he might as well get a little warm up.

The man in question had walked up ten minutes early, obviously drunk, and looking very pissed off. "Stupid man, saying that he and his students would be here and their not. What does he take me for? Ninja are supposed to always be early."

Ryuu dropped behind Tazuna. "You think you know what the ninja do's and don'ts are?" Tazuna jumped. He hadn't expected for anyone to be there. He turned around. Damn, it's one of the kids from yesterday. He thought, realizing that the kid was glaring at him.

Ryuu reached out and pulled him towards him. Before he could ask what he was doing, a yellow blur zoomed into focus, and came to a screeching halt right were Tazuna had just been. While Tazuna's jaw dropped, Ryuu reacted as calmly as ever. "Hello Naruto, nice of you to join us."

Naruto grinned. "Hey Ryuu, I'm actually early this time." He noticed that Ryuu was still holding Tazuna's shirt. "Ryuu, why are you holding our clients shirt?"

He quickly let go of the shirt. "Well, someone had to make sure that you didn't accidentally run him over." Naruto growled at him.

After another five minutes, Kurogane showed up. He was wearing a long traveling cloak. "Oh there you are Naruto, I was beginning to think you tried to leave without me." He made a small pout that sent Naruto to boil. Ryuu quickly grabbed him from behind and restrained him, while Naruto jumped at him, screaming all sorts of profanity at his sensei. It feel so good to do this.

Once they got settled down, Naruto looked up at the sky. "Hinata going to be late." This put the other two on edge. While Kurogane would've loved to make fun of him for noticing that the girl was missing, a part of his mind went on high alert.

After another couple of minutes, they could see her running down the road. They were about to greet her when they mentally stumbled. This Hinata looked, different. Way different.

Instead of wearing her normal parka, she was wearing a light, long-sleeved grey jacket, which had the Hyuuga symbol on the back. Everything else seemed to be the same, except for her forehead protector. Instead of wearing it around her neck like she always did, she was actually wearing it on her forehead.

For Kurogane, it was a very bad sign. She'd obviously been marked with her families cursed seal. He mentally reminded himself to talk with the head of the clan about this. And if that didn't go well, he could always tear the compound to shreds.

Ryuu was both confused and shocked. Confused by the new look, and shocked because…she looked good. He was fighting back a small nosebleed, trying not to let anyone there think that he was some sort of pervert.

Naruto noticed more than just the change in appearance. Since he'd promised that morning, he was looking over all of the subtle things with the larger picture. Her walk was no longer one of someone who seemed to be constantly intimidated, it was now a sure, and rebellious walk. Her eyes, normally averted and shy, were looking strait ahead with a determination, and a small hint of rebellion racing through them. Her finger, which would normally fidget, were swinging at her sides, in an almost dangerous way.

Naruto gulped. This Hinata was very different. And at the same time, he could tell that she'd always been trying to be like this, but there had been some barrier in her way. He couldn't tell what that barrier was, but it had let Hinata finally finish getting here. It was very scary.

Tazuna looked them over. The girl seemed to have really changed from the other day. She radiated with confidence, just like the boys did. But she also seemed more, rebellious, something he really didn't want to know about.

"Well, I'm here." Hinata said, drawing everyone back from their thoughts. They could all hear how her voice cracked, like she'd been crying all night. "Let's get going."

They all nodded. Inwardly, Ryuu decided to ask her in private what had happened. While he really wanted to ask about her new look, he wanted to know about the confidence change. If it was what he thought it was, heads were going to roll.

xX 2 hours later: On the road to Wave country Xx

Things had been going smoothly so far. They hadn't had any attacks yet, but they were still on guard. After a few moments, they passed a puddle on the road. Naruto could sense his sensei flinch, and quickly braced himself.

A moment later, the puddle turned into two mist ninja, the Demon Brothers. Moving quickly, they tossed their chains around the kids sensei and pulled, just to pull through his cloak. At the last minute, he'd jumped out of it, and escaped a horrible and painful death. They growled, moving onto their next target.

"Naruto, I've got this." Ryuu moved forward, pulling out a sheet of paper. The Demon Brothers laughed at him, what was he going to do with a piece of paper?

As they pulled their chains towards him, he put the sheet in front of him. just as their chain was about to hit the sheet, he let it go.

The result was fantastic. The chain was stopped by some sort of, force field, and pulled the Demon Brothers into the air. Because they weren't expecting it, they weren't able to release the chain in time, and so they kept on swinging until they slammed into each other.

Seeing them unconscious, Kurogane looked at Ryuu. He'd told him that he wanted to learn techniques that would help the team, but he hadn't expected him to be able to do something like that. Any sort of seal technique would be at least a C ranked technique, but this was closer to Jonin level.

Naruto quickly tied the brothers together. "So sensei, what should we do?"

Kurogane looked at Tazuna. "Well, while they were attacking Ryuu, they were trying to get past him, they were aiming for Tazuna." All eyes were instantly on him. Kurogane sighed. "You're still the liar you used to be, eh Tazuna?"

Tazuna looked confused. "What are you talking about, we've just met!"

Kurogane looked at him. "You're telling me you don't remember me? Me, the kid who was always yelling about how my dream was to shame the Hyuuga clan?" Tazuna flinched, clearly remembering who he was. He also remembered how he tried to blow off his dream, saying it was stupid for anyone to do. It had taken both of his teammates and his sensei to restrain him from killing him. He gulped. He was a lot stronger than before, and could probably kill him without a second glance. He decided that he would have to choose his words a little more carefully if he wanted to stay alive.

Hinata smiled. Her sensei had once had a dream like that? But then, she could tell that the Hyuuga's clearly saw themselves as the superiors of the village, kind of like the Uchiha did. She suddenly got an idea of how to tell her team and get around the rule of not being aloud to tell anyone about the seal, outside of the family. "Sensei, if you really wanted to shame the Hyuuga clan, you should've found a way to break, or at least alter their seal." She looked him dead in the eye, to make sure that he got her point.

Everyone, except Tazuna, got her point. She had been branded with the branch houses seal. Ryuu looked at everyone. "Well, if our sensei made sure he was remembered by his dream, why don't we tell our while we continue on?"

Tazuna was flabbergasted. "Wait, your not going to go back?"

Naruto turned to him. "No, you'll be able to pay us the extra after you get your bridge done. And because your business will begin to grow, we'll give you more than enough time to earn the extra. Does that sound fair to you?"

Tazuna was still in shock. He turned to Kurogane. "And what about you?"

Kurogane shrugged. "I didn't turn back last time, I don't see a reason to do so now. Besides, who really wants to break our tradition?"

Tazuna bowed to them. "Thank you. Me and the Wave country will be in dept to you for what you are doing."

They quickly started forward. For a while, nothing was said. Then Ryuu decided to break the silence.

"Can I go first at telling our dreams?" he glanced back. They all gave him shrugs. "I'm going to become the best seal maker ever. Better than even the Fourth. And I'll do what others thought to be impossible, I'll either break or alter, the idiotic branch seal of the Hyuuga's, simply because I can."

Kurogane perked up at this. Now was the best time to ask. "Hey Ryuu, what was that seal that you used on the ninja back there?"

Ryuu smirked. "That was a special seal I've made. I call it the Earth's Barrier Field. It creates a sort of shield that blocks all physical attacks. I'm working on one for jutsu's but it's a bit more complicated. But once I do, I'll try to put them together to make something I'll probably call, the Dragon's Burning Barrier."

"That sound's like a really cool technique." Naruto said, looking at Ryuu in shock. He'd created a really cool technique, and was working on another? He needed to catch up soon. "All right, my turn! I am going to become Hokage, so that everyone will have to respect me and look up to me. To be the strongest ninja in the village. Then, I can change whatever laws are around things I know to be stupid."

Hinata looked over at Naruto. Instead of feeling the normal, warm and fuzzy feelings, she just felt that he was aiming for a very good dream. "My turn. I no longer have much of a dream, so much as a promise to myself. Since I'm not a main branch member, I plan on helping my team achieve their dreams."

Ryuu looked over at her. She no longer wanted her father to recognize her? And her crush on Naruto seemed to have gone up in smoke. When she noticed him looking at her she gave him a small smile, silently thanking him for keeping his promise.

Behind them, Kurogane smirked. It was going to be a long trip, and he planned to make sure that everyone suffered greatly during it.

Author's Note:

Chapter 6 is now, completed!