Chapter 5 - Political Fights and a Rising Storm
The Council of Konoha was a political body that was used to having what they wanted with little or no resistance from the tired old kage they were supposed to be helping and advising. This left most of them with over inflated egos and a lack of common sense and subtleness.
This was proven true on one particular night when they were woken up by an Anbu who told them to convene at the Council Chambers for an emergency meeting immediately and if they did not turn up then they would lose their council seat. This infuriated some of the more pompous members of the civilian council and they planned to remind The Hokage of his place when they saw him again. A few threats to Uzumaki should do nicely to restrain him as it usually did.
With that thought in mind the council waited for the arrival of the Hokage all ready to voice their numerous complaints about being woken up at such a time and the lack of respect they were being given.
The doors to the chambers slammed open and the Hokage marched in and quickly took his seat, nodding curtly to the room as a whole he started to speak but was but off by the self elected head of the civilian council who started to speak in an oily slick tone that made people want to wash their ears out when they heard it.
"Lord Hokage I must protest at the time you have called us here as well as the threats to our positions made to get us here. You must have forgotten that we control all civilian matters and making an enemy of us could make things very difficult for certain parties that already find it difficult to buy necessities like food and drink. Why I would say that if our positions were put in jeopardy shop keepers that want revenge on certain parties might not be able to be restrained by us anymore. I'm sure you understand my meaning" he smirked arrogantly at the Hokage certain he would back down immediately.
"I think your meaning was quite clear" The tone of the normally kind spoken Hokage sent shivers of fear down the civilians spines and shivers of anticipation down the spines of the shinobi that had served under this Hokage during the last shinobi war. The self elected head of the civilian council gulped as the Hokage's hard eyes bored into his own with open disgust.
"I wonder" The Hokage said out loud "What is the current punishment for threatening someone under the Hokage's protection in front of numerous witnesses. Can anybody answer that?"
Shikaku Nara coughed slightly before answering "I believe it is treason which can carry the penalty of death if the Hokage thinks that the perpetrator is working against Konoha."
"Really" The Hokage said in mock surprise "Now I think that if certain shopkeepers make things difficult for certain parties I might just arrest them for treason and direct their customers towards the shops run by shinobi saying that they are more trustworthy."
"You can't do that" the civilian demanded angrily "You'll destroy our reputation and our businesses which will hurt Konoha. And you would do all this just to protect the Kyuubi brat and the bitch that has you scared as a URGH"
The civilian coughed out a clot of blood and stared in disbelief at the sword that was protruding from his stomach and the dog masked Anbu that was holding it.
"You were attacked by the demon's bitch why would you stand up for them" he stammered before he fell to the ground blood pouring from his wound.
The dog masked Anbu looked down at the corrupt man before in one fluid motion he wrenched his blade from the man's stomach allowing the blood to leave his body cleanly.
"It's called loyalty" he said disdainfully to the dying man "I am loyal to the Hokage and Konoha as all Anbu are, any vendetta's one might hold are forgotten when one don's one of these masks. Besides what you all try to do that child is disgusting and I hold no ill will to the woman who stood up for what was right and defended him no matter who was attacking. She could have easily killed all the Anbu that attacked her yesterday including me but instead she let us live. This shows me that she has morals and loyalty, two things that all Anbu hold in high esteem. The second you spat on these beliefs and opposed the Hokage you became a dangerous traitor and this is how we deal with traitors."
His piece said the Anbu melted back into the shadows taking the civilians dead body with him. The clan heads watched with stoic faces while the civilians looked on in terror at the casual killing of their leader.
"Yo YOU CAN'T DO THIS" a particularly loud council member with pink hair shrieked at the top of her lungs "You can't just kill a council member for no reason."
"Ah but I do have a reason" Sarutobi said "It is still an S class offence to talk about the events surrounding the Kyuubi's sealing and I think I'm going to start coming down harder on those that break or try to find the boundaries of that particular law."
"That only applies to those that didn't already know though Sir" Hiashi Hyuuga said respectfully in order not to draw the Hokage's ire anymore than he was already going to "All of us here know about the events that occurred that night."
The Hokage smiled innocently "Ah but it just so happens that I have a new Anbu on my guard that was too young to know the events that occurred that night. Due to the events that have happened in the last few hours I hadn't had the chance to inform him yet. That means that our friend here did break the law didn't he?"
A powerful glare infused with no small amount of killing intent was all that was needed to squash the even the pink haired harpies objections. The civilian council mentally decided unanimously to sit down and shut up for the remainder of the meeting. They were at a loss for how to deal with this new and stronger Hokage.
Seeing that the civilians had been silenced the clan heads looked at each other and all signalled for one of the others to speak up first. Finally with a sigh and a slight roll of his half shut eyes Shikaku Nara spoke up.
"Lord Hokage you implied earlier that the Uzumaki child was under the Hokage's protection. I was not aware that you had taken such actions and I must ask under what reason did you enact that law?"
The Hokage looked at the lazy clan leader sceptically "Do I really need to explain this to you of all people Shikaku. You the greatest tactical mind that Konoha has ever seen can't see why I would give the boy the Hokage's protection."
"Troublesome" Shikaku muttered "You have probably realised that the boy could be one of our villages strongest ninja's especially if he can control Kyuubi's power like other jinchuuriki's can. But if he keeps getting ostracized and attacked by the villagers and lower ranked shinobi then he will grow up hating Konoha and probably turn into a self fulfilling prophecy by becoming one of our most deadly and strongest enemies."
"Quite" The Hokage nodded "Letting the boy continue to grow up in that kind of environment would only tempt fate with our own destruction."
"I don't understand how a little bit of hate could cause this villages destruction Lord Hokage?" Tsume Inuzuka asked curiously.
"Well imagine this, you are Naruto Uzumaki, you have grown up in an orphanage where the people in charge have called you names. Treated you unfairly and even beaten you sometimes. Then before you are even 5 years old they throw you out into the streets to die. You have no idea why they treat you this way but you think that surely other people will like you. So you walk around town with a smile on your face saying hello to people as they pass. These people look at you with horror and disgust some of them spitting at you or simply punching you in the face and then kicking you on the ground. The people find that these beatings make them feel better so they get more and more regular and more and more brutal until most of the time the boy nearly always dies."
Here the Hokage looked around sharply quickly remembering all those that looked smug about these occurrences. He coughed once and smiled disarmingly before continuing.
"The Yondaime's seal only allows large amounts of Kyuubi's chakra to leak into the boy's body when he is in great need of healing because the Yondaime didn't want the child dead. He thought that it wouldn't hurt because the Kyuubi couldn't gain any control over Naruto's mind with a quick burst of healing. Unfortunately because Naruto was in need of healing nearly three times a week Kyuubi's chakra was starting to become an almost permanent part of Naruto's own chakra system. With such an amount of its own chakra saturating the boy's body the Kyuubi gained enough purchase to contact the boy. It told him how sad it was about how the villagers were treating him and how it had been the one healing him when he had been hurt. Naruto was naturally delighted to find someone who apparently liked him and didn't hate him, this being had actually helped him by healing his wounds so it couldn't be bad could it."
Every council member was white as a sheet and some were close to hyperventilating "Are you serious Sarutobi?" Inoichi asked faintly "How could he fall for such a trick?"
"Because he wasn't expecting it" the Hokage replied "He unlike us doesn't know about the Kyuubi, all he knew was that somebody had healed him all his life and was kind to him. You must have heard about this kind of devotion before, when a person has no family or friends they often latch onto the first person to show them kindness and would do anything not to lose that friend. Kyuubi said that it couldn't show itself to Naruto and help him more because it was trapped behind an evil barrier. All Naruto had to do was remove the tiny piece of paper with the word SEAL on it and Kyuubi could be his friend forever. Luckily Naruto was stabilized enough to be woken up and when he told me about his new friend I managed to convince him that he was being tricked and that he shouldn't trust the voice. He didn't want to believe me and eventually broke down in tears and ran off. When he finally resurfaced he told me that he wouldn't listen to the voice anymore and never spoke of it again. Now I recently found out that Suijin had found him and befriended him convincing him that the Kyuubi was an evil thing that couldn't be trusted. So in a way Suijin saved the village from Kyuubi's second coming that was almost brought about by the villager's unreasonable hatred."
He looked at the blond head of the Yamanaka clan "Does that answer your question Inoichi."
"Yes Lord Hokage" The clan leader said still looking shocked at how close they had all come to death because the villagers had helped the Kyuubi circumvent the Yondaime's seal.
The Hokage stood and addressed the entire council "We have actually covered more than I first intended to tonight so we will continue this tomorrow. For now I only wish to make one more point very clear.
Sarutobi released the full power of his killing intent and his chakra making him seem like a powerful god looming over the mere mortals before him.
"I have decided that I will no longer stand by and watch as this village which my sensei's created in the ideals of equality and fairness takes out its collective hatred on a young innocent child. If the Hokage's that have passed on could see what this village was doing they would be so disappointed especially the Yondaime who's last wish was for Naruto to be seen as a hero for his sacrifice."
Everybody was sufficiently subdued that no one made a comment about Naruto's unfortunate burden for fear of gracing the blade of one of the hidden Anbu that stood in the room's shadows.
"From now on anybody who attacks Naruto Uzumaki will find their lives forfeit in accordance with the law set down by the Shodaime Hokage that any ninja that attacks a civilian can be tried by the Hokage and the Shinobi Clan heads and can be executed if found guilty. I have just placed Naruto in the ninja academy so that means that any civilian that attacks him will be killed for attacking a shinobi of the leaf even if that shinobi is in training and is still technically a civilian. Do you all understand that from now on I will kill anyone who raises a hand against the boy?"
"Yes we understand Sarutobi" one of the Hokage's old teammate Homura said quietly "But may I ask a question?"
"Of course"
"Why have you become so loyal to that child that you would turn against the village that you swore to protect with your life?" Homura spat losing his composure for a second. His anger drained away as the God of Shinobi's flinty eyes bore into his own.
"You would never understand Homura" Sarutobi said sadly before turning his back "But no matter what you think about me personally I am the Hokage and you will follow my orders." He turned his back on the council.
"The meeting is over we will reconvene tomorrow at 9:00am sharp to discuss certain changes that will be happening concerning the amount of paperwork I am getting on my desk which has nothing to do with military matters. If I have no power over civilian matters like you have told me then I don't think I should be spending all of my time doing the civilian councils paperwork should I?"
Every member of the civilian council went white as well as Homura and Koharu while small smiles appeared on the clan heads.
"You are all dismissed" the Hokage said with a nod of his head watching as they filed out of the room. It was a good start but he knew that things were going to get worse before they got better.
He made his way back to his office and sat down in his chair pulling out his crystal ball and focusing his chakra into it. The image of Naruto lying in bed appeared in its surface and then quickly zoomed out to show Naruto's house and every person that was close to that house. He relaxed slightly when he saw that there was currently nobody moving towards the house. He set an alert on the crystal ball to warn him if anybody entered Naruto's house during the night and then hesitated as he moved to put the ball away.
He channelled more chakra into the orb and started slightly as it showed the image of his own office from outside the rear window looking in at his back. He chuckled slightly and put the orb away turning around as he did so.
"Would you like to come and sit down rather than standing out there in the cold my lady" he said courteously to the empty air outside of his window. The window then opened and Suijin shimmered into view looking a little put out.
"I was hoping it wouldn't be able to detect me" she admitted when the Hokage gave her a questioning look which quickly turned into an amused one when she gave her reason.
"I wasn't sure it would be able to find you either" he said "Though I must admit that a part of me is not upset about that fact."
"I wouldn't expect anything less from the God of Shinobi" Suijin replied with a mock salute "Though perhaps I should rename you the God of Bullshit with all that crap you were spilling in there especially that ridiculous story about the Kyuubi nearly escaping because Naruto got depressed. If that were true then the fox would have been out and about years ago and you would all be dead."
The Hokage laughed "So you were there for that were you? It was just a little white lie to make people think a bit more before they try and attack Naruto again I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not" she laughed "But you should get some sleep instead of worrying over Naruto, I will watch over him from now on."
With that she vanished from the Hokage's office in a quick blur of movement, Sarutobi looked out of his open window at the village that lay below him and closed it in one quick movement. He released the privacy seals that he had put up around his office and flashed back to his own compound with a quick shushin.
When he arrived he found himself slightly out of breath and groaned at how far he had let himself fall out of shape.
"Tomorrow" he promised himself "I will start training properly again, a decent Hokage can't get tired after one shushin no matter how far it was."
Suijin watched as the Hokage left and made sure that he was truly at home asleep before she returned to his office like a creeping shadow. The genial smile that she had been wearing was gone replaced by a cold smirk as she took out the crystal ball that she had seen the Sandaime put away and waving her hand over it. A wisp of blue reiatsu left the ball and settled in her palm where it vanished assimilating itself into her core.
"Thought I didn't notice did you take a sample did you" she whispered towards the Sandaimes portrait "Goes to show that I was right in not trusting you, I'll play along for now and let you get the council of my back but only until he's strong enough to take care of himself outside these walls. Then we'll leave and the next time you see us will be when Konoha is falling around you by our hand."
She made her way over to the portrait of the Yondaime and lifted it slightly chanting softly under her breath before touching the wall behind the portrait leaving a softly glowing blue mark there. Smiling she replaced the portrait and left leaving no trace that she had ever been there.
The Sandaime slept unaware that his actions had been caught and that the person he had been spying on would now be spying on him from the one place that he would never think to check as surely nobody would dare desecrate the portrait of the legendary hero of the leaf village.
Meanwhile Naruto was lying in his apartment seemingly asleep, in reality he was inside his mindscape with Suijin who was instructing him in the art of kidou which Suijin told him was the most flexible ability a Shinigami had.
"With kidou you can stop entire armies in their tracks" she told him sternly when he said that he would rather learn how to control her powers first.
"But I would be able to stop loads of people with your powers to" Naruto complained "What you did to those Anbu was really cool. How you stopped their attacks with water and then dropped all that water on top of them."
Suijin smiled "Ah but I didn't do that with my abilities, that was a kidou spell known as Arrosez Miroiter and it can be learnt by anybody.
Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he remembered how powerful that one spell had been.
"Fine" he sighed "Teach me kidou then, but once I know a decent number of spells I want you to teach me how to use your abilities."
"Sure thing" Suijin agreed cheerfully "Let's get started then" she motioned for Naruto to make himself comfortable and cleared her throat.
"Kidou can be split into four areas Hadou arts which are primarily Attacking/Destructive spells, Bakudou arts which are primarily binding spells, Bougyoudo arts which are Support/Miscellaneous spells and Chiyudo which are primarily Healing and Defensive spells."
She turned around and pointed her finger at a nearby tree which was nearly 2 metres wide and 2 metres thick.
"Hadou #4 Byakurai" she intoned letting reiatsu build up at the tip of her finger before releasing it in a burst of white lightning which drilled a hole straight through the tree like a hot knife through butter.
"There are 99 spells in each category going from weakest to strongest number 1 being the weakest and 99 being the strongest. What you just saw was the power of the fourth weakest spell in existence and I think you will agree that it is impressive all by itself."
"Yes it is" Naruto agreed "But shouldn't I be learning spells that would help me run away if I get attacked by someone much stronger than I am. This spell is very useful but it doesn't help me if my opponent is faster than I am."
Suijin looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding her head slightly "You're right of course, I wanted to teach you the weaker spells first so you could work your way up to the stronger ones but it might be better if you just jumped in to the stronger spells immediately at least until the haters eventual outrage has died down."
She went on to go over the basics of Shunpo that they had started on earlier and taught him all the tricks she knew about the technique. This continued late into the night until Suijin insisted that he got some proper sleep in order to let his brain get some rest. When he awoke the next morning he slipped away early before he could get caught by anybody and entered an abandoned training field that was far enough away from the everyday goings on of the village that he wouldn't be discovered. He trained there all day until he became exhausted, then he returned to his apartment where he fell asleep immediately and Suijin would carefully watch over him in case of any attacks.
Meanwhile the Hokage had given the civilian council a firm dressing down and had hired trustworthy secretaries that dealt with the mass of paperwork that the civilian council sent over to him. Already there had been numerous discrepancies in various businesses and funds that dealt with large amounts of money brought to light and a lot of the more corrupt council members had already been caught and jailed for crimes against Konoha.
The Shinobi council and the Hokage's new political representatives were delighted at this and pounced on the corrupt businessmen's partners temporary weakness and quickly managed to revoke many of the biased laws that they had managed to pass while the Hokage was overwhelmed with the paperwork they had bombarded him with. It looked as if Konoha was starting the slow process of purging the corruption that had crept into its foundation.
While his staff was working on neutralising the more extreme members of Konoha's society the Sandaime found himself with hours and hours of free time. He used this free time to train and spend more time talking to the villagers and the shinobi under his command. While talking to these people he made many small comments about why he supported Naruto as well as the things that the corrupt politicians that they supported had done. Very very slowly the Sandaime was turning the neutral parties away from siding with the extreme haters that would never change their mind about Naruto.
It was six weeks before the newly found peace Naruto was enjoying was disturbed by another attack upon his person.
During the trip to his new training ground Naruto passed by a large forest that was surrounded on all sides by a tall wire fence that had warning signs attached to it at regular intervals. Suijin had taken a quick look inside of it when he had first seen it and had told him that it was filled with dangerous animals that were all at least ten times larger than their ordinary counterparts. She had told him firmly that under no circumstances was he to enter the forest until he had at least learned 10 spells from each kidou category and had mastered shunpo so he could escape if need be.
On this particular day while he was walking past the forest Naruto was practising the kidou spell that Suijin had taught him the previous day. It was called Beniikazuchi or Crimson Thunder and was the 2nd weakest Hadou spell in existence, it blasts out a beam of deep red lightning from the users finger that strikes the enemy and causes minimum amounts of damage. Its speciality is creating a loud noise when it is released that destroys the enemy's orientation and balance for a short time.
"Hadou #2 Beniikazuchi" the blond shouted pointing his finger at a nearby tree. A strong beam of red lightning shot from his outstretched finger and struck the tree blowing a chunk out of it and releasing a high pitched shockwave that made Naruto's ears ring from the impact.
"Good" Suijin said from within his mindscape "The power is impressive and the speed is good, the only thing you still need to work on is the strength of the sound wave that the spell creates. The current level of the noise would distract an enemy but wouldn't incapacitate them, to fix that you need to focus more reiatsu into the tip of the attack and the release it in a single burst when the spell hits."
"Sure thing" Naruto replied out loud "I'll try it at the training ground later when you are once again trying to kill me by training me to exhaustion."
Suijin chuckled before stopping and then suddenly appearing next to Naruto just in time to block a kunai that was aimed at his head. Naruto fell to the floor just in time to dodge a second projectile that turned out to be a fully opened Demon Wind Shuriken.
"Get out of here" Suijin told him through their mental connection "There are at least 30 of them surrounding us on 3 sides, I can't be sure that I can protect you if they all attack at once."
"The only way out is the forest" Naruto thought back "You told me not to go in there no matter what because it was too dangerous."
"It's safer than trying to protect you against the attack of 30 skilled enemies" Suijin practically shouted back "Now go!"
Kunai flew out of the bushes on all sides and multiplied over and over again until they blocked out the sky. Suijin pushed Naruto back onto the floor and stood over him quickly running through another incantation.
"Poseidon's rage, leviathan's anger, lay waste to all that stands before me and wash away all sin until nothingness is reflected in your clear waters. Hadou #78 Torrential Wrath!"
Water quickly gathered in the air forming into 4 large clumps that circled the pair of them like watchdogs. As the kunai came within 2 metres of Suijin the clumps exploded into 4 giant tornado whirlpools that quickly absorbed all the kunai and shredded them in seconds. They then collapsed in on themselves and fell to the floor leaving nothing left of them but massive puddles of water that soaked into the ground.
"GO!" Suijin shouted as ninja appeared from every tree and bush with swords and kunai drawn, they all wore similar clothing and blank white masks with the kanji for root on them. Naruto didn't hesitate any longer and ran for the forest vanishing in the swish of Shunpo just as a blade erupted from the earth where he had been standing just a second ago.
Suijin appeared above the blade and drove her sword into the ground next to the blade with a furious look on her normally calm face. The earth shifted and revealed the dead body of another masked ninja who had Suijin's blade stuck through his skull.
Most of the ninja surrounded Suijin while a few tried to follow Naruto into the forest but they were prevented by hundreds of thin water tentacles that flew from the puddles of water that were left from Suijin's earlier spell. They whipped around the ninja's necks and snapped them like twigs before releasing them and allowing their dead bodies to drop to the floor.
Suijin let her sword vanish and spread her arms out wide making the tentacles mimic her movements. Her eyes had lost all the warmth and humour that they usually held and had been replaced by the eyes of the living weapon that she partly was.
"I advise you to keep your attention on me" she warned "Or else you'll die all the sooner."
The root Anbu seemed to take her threat seriously as they stopped looking at the forest and focused all of their attention on Suijin.
Naruto raced through the forest alternating between jumping from branch to branch to short bursts of shunpo in order to throw off anybody who may be following him.
He had been running for over 30 minutes when he felt something come at him quickly from his right, he used shunpo to quickly move out of the way of the attack. As he reappeared he just had time to curse at the sight of the root Anbu that attacked him before another root Anbu struck him on the back of the head and he fell to the ground unconscious.
The second team of root Anbu picked up the body and one of them tried to place a tag on the back of the blond boy's neck when a blast of wind ripped the tag from his hands and knocked him off his feet.
The winds then gathered around Naruto and created a spinning barrier between Naruto and the Anbu. One cautiously threw a kunai at the barrier to test its strength and had to duck as the kunai was thrown back at him with incredible force.
"Unknown abilities being shown by the target" the head Anbu whispered into a throat mike "What are our orders?"
"Hold your position but do not attempt to attack the target" a gravelly voice came back through the mike. "If Suijin appears delay her by informing her about the information we have discovered about her connection with the boy, I will arrive momentarily."
"Understood" the Anbu chanted in unison stepping back from Naruto and standing rigidly at attention waiting for their leader too arrive.
A few seconds later Suijin arrived in the clearing looking pale and to the expert eye clearly tired. She hid the worst of her exhaustion from the Anbu and faced them fearlessly.
"Shall we get started then?" She asked starting to shift into a battle position.
"I think not" the same gravelly voice that had spoken to the root leader earlier came from the edge of the trees. An old man with bandages over one eye and one arm in a makeshift sling entered the clearing. "You have killed too many of my men already."
"I would apologise" Suijin said dryly "But I warned everyone what would happen if they attacked Naruto again."
"My men weren't going to attack the boy" The man said sharply "I just wanted to talk to you and the only way to do that is to approach the boy while looking menacing. Then you miraculously appear within seconds, very convenient huh."
Suijin's eyes narrowed at the hidden meaning behind the sarcasm in that last sentence.
"Well I arrived to find your men pointing weapons at Naruto and immediately had to block a hail of kunai. You have a strange way of try to talk to someone uhh."
"Danzo" the man supplied "Head of the Anbu root division and former war commander."
"I see" Suijin said slowly "And what do you want from me Danzo?"
Danzo smiled thinly "I want your support and allegiance in any endeavours that I think need your unique abilities. If you choose not to co-operate then I'm afraid that I will have to terminate you, a power such as yours is too dangerous to be left uncontrolled. If you do not serve Konoha then you might choose to one day aid Konoha's enemies, this is unacceptable."
"Just because I am not a part of Konoha does not automatically mean that I am a danger to it."
"I disagree; you have already killed over 40 members of Konoha including my men and have threatened many more including the leaders of Konoha themselves. I also believe that you told Sarutobi that you would turn Konoha into a barren wasteland if there were any more attacks against Uzumaki. If that does not make you a serious threat then I don't know what does."
Suijin grimaced it was looking unlikely that she would be able to talk her way out of this and the longer she spent trying too the less energy she would have to use when the fight eventually broke out. She had a quick glance at Naruto and noted that his spiritual energy was beginning to get rather worryingly low.
Danzo noticed her worried glance and laughed "Don't think about trying to fight your way out of this Suijin I know your weakness. Your energy levels are tied to the boy's the more energy you use the weaker both you and he become. Your very appearance seems to drain some of his energy making me believe that you are some kind of personal summon of the boy's. At the moment it doesn't matter, all that does matter is that you have been appearing regularly for weeks and using energy as well further weakening his reserves. Add the serious fight you just had with my Anbu and you must be feeling exhausted right now, the boy would be too if he were conscious."
"How could you possibly know about Naruto's energy levels?" Suijin asked choosing not to identify what the energy was and possibly give the already over informed man more information.
"It's quite easy with this" Danzo said peeling back the bandages that covered his left eye revealing a crimson eye with 3 tomoe surrounding the pupil.
"Sharingan!" Suijin hissed in shock "But I thought all the Uchiha were wiped out apart from one."
"That's true" Danzo said with a sinister smirk "But the dead Uchiha were generous enough to donate their eyes for me, for the good of Konoha of course."
"You twisted bastard" Suijin whispered appalled at the thought of plucking the eyes out of a corpse and placing them in your own head.
"The Sharingan can see chakra and while the energy you use isn't chakra it is similar enough that I can make out the levels that you and the boy have."
Suijin cursed and bit her lip looking worried, Danzo smirked as he saw how the ghostly blue energy that she used was drifting away from her into the air.
"You're loosing energy more rapidly than ever before" he said smugly "If I were you I would do the smart thing and surrender, if you try to fight us in your weakened condition then I think we both know what the outcome will be."
Suijin glanced at Naruto's prone body again and sighed heavily with one quick motion she threw her sword point first into the ground in front of Danzo.
"Fine you win" She said bitterly "Now what do you want from me?"
Danzo's smirk grew even larger "Oh nothing much the matter I was going to discuss with young Naruto here was the possibility of joining ROOT. After all it is well known that his goal and dream is to one day become Hokage of Konoha and joining an elite organisation like ROOT would certainly be the best way to go about achieving that dream."
"If you train all of the people in ROOT to act like those men there" Suijin said pointing towards the emotionless bodyguards "Then I can say with absolute certainty that Naruto will not stay with you."
"Oh but he doesn't have to" Danzo crowed victoriously signalling something to his Anbu "All I need is him to enter my fortress, once he does he will be completely helpless. I could kill him anytime I wanted to but I won't yet because I need him."
"Why?" Suijin asked with helpless curiosity "Why do you want him so badly?"
"It's not him that I want" the old man said "It's you, you have shown the power to defeat several of Konoha's best Anbu with ease. You were strong enough to frighten Sarutobi who is not known as the God of Shinobi for nothing. You have speed beyond anyone since the Yondaime and the abilities you demonstrated to Sarutobi when you threatened to turn this village into a desert were godlike. With you under my command Konoha will have no equal, even the other great nations will fall before Konoha's awesome power." He stopped ranting suddenly and took a deep calming breath before continuing in a much quieter but no less sinister tone of voice. "That's why I am risking so much by directly confronting you and the brat, he might make a decent ninja someday but you are the only reason I am doing this. As long as I have the boy in my power then you will obey every command I give you unless you want him to die."
"I think you forgetting something" Suijin said dryly "You don't have Naruto yet and now that I know exactly what you are planning I will be even more careful not to let you or your emotionless warriors within 100 ft of him."
Danzo frowned "I thought we already established that I had already won this game" he countered "Don't forget my eye can see your energy and I can see that you don't have much left, what little you do have is flooding out of you rapidly showing that you have lost control over your power."
Suijin smiled pityingly "You truly are a fool Danzo, I would have thought that a man who the Sandaime called his rival would have been smarter but you are blinded by pride and a false sense of patriotism. You think of yourself as important but all you are is a crippled old man who destroys and manipulates lives to increase your own power and standing because you can't do it yourself. You are weak, how you ever could have been the God of Shinobi's rival astonishes me, for you will always live in his shadow."
"ENOUGH" Danzo yelled face twisted with fury "I am more of a leader than that weak fool could ever be, his weakness will bring Konoha to its ruin as he allows other nations to walk all over us even though we are the strongest hidden village. We should be attacking Kirigakure while they are in the middle of their civil war instead we are sitting back and allowing all those bloodlines to be destroyed as well as letting them recover their strength."
"Now I can see why you were given the nickname war hawk" Suijin said with a sigh "You cause so much suffering and death to innocent and not so innocent people alike just so you can prove your superiority. What a wasted existence you lead, even I a weapon in human form have more humanity than you."
"You're wrong" Danzo disagreed "I'm doing this for the glory of Konoha."
"Lie" Suijin shot back "I can read you like an open book now Danzo, even if you achieved you goal and conquered the other nations making Konoha the ruling nation you wouldn't be satisfied. You would find another enemy another foe, anybody who would give you the fight that you need and crave."
Rage passed quickly over Danzo's face but it was quickly suppressed and he smiled.
"Very clever Suijin, as you know you can't beat me in combat you tried to make me angry enough to make a mistake or linger here too long. Neither will work on me, I have been mastering such manipulations for the last 30 years. You have quite the sharp tongue though, I think I shall add an extra feature to the seal I'm going to place on you one that prevents you from talking unless I command it." He gestured to his Anbu "Knock her out now and bring the boy along as well"
The Anbu started to move forwards some drawing swords others starting to make hand signs when suddenly more than half of them fell to the floor screaming as their arms literally exploded causing blood to fly everywhere. Suijin's arm was outstretched and she was breathing heavily however a smirk was on her face.
"Arrogance" she gloated "Arrogance became your downfall, the energy that you saw leaving my body was not a sign of me being weak but a technique that allows me to manipulate any water that is within my techniques range. This includes the water in the human body, I can literally kill you from the inside out."
She clenched her fist and a dozen more Anbu fell to the floor in agony clawing at their chests as Suijin attacked their internal organs.
Danzo leaped away quickly making hand signs and releasing the restraints on his right arm, just as Suijin turned her focus on him and destroyed the muscles within his limbs, a second after the attack hit he vanished and reappeared at the edge of the clearing completely unharmed.
Suijin did not understand what technique the man had used but she didn't bother sticking around to try and figure it out. Whatever escape technique that he had used had taken him out of range of her technique but had also taken him far enough away for her to escape with Naruto.
She flickered over to Naruto and picked him up, behind her she heard Danzo curse loudly as he realised that she was going to escape and he wasn't close enough to do anything to stop her.
As she took her gaze off Naruto to look at Danzo the roots of the tree that Naruto had been propped up against came to life and curled around her throwing her away from Naruto who was quickly bound by thick strips of wood while one thin strip curled around his neck.
Danzo's arm was knotted and wooden looking more like the trunk of a tree than that of a human being. He was pointing at the tree that had attacked Suijin with one hand while his wooden one was touching the ground.
"Enough" he said "Surrender or I'll snap his neck like a twig" to show he was serious he clenched his fist making the thick strips of wood constrict around Naruto who groaned in pain but still didn't awaken.
Suijin was out of options and she knew it "Fine" she sighed "I give up just let him go."
"I don't think so" Danzo sneered "You've proved that you're deadly at any range so I think I'll keep him like this until you're loyalty can be properly secured. And after that you won't even care what happens to him."
Suijin snarled "Try anything like that Danzo and not even the Shinigami himself will keep me from kiling you."
"Ah ah ah" Danzo said making the branches tighten again causing Naruto to moan in pain as a bone cracked. "You wouldn't want to do anything reckless now would you?"
Suijin calmed herself and stepped back "What do you want me to do?" She said defeated.
"For starters" Danzo said taking a tag out his pocket and throwing it at her "You will place this on the back of your neck."
Suijin slowly leaned down and picked up the tag studying it carefully before reaching slowly up to the back of her neck. Suddenly she stopped and an enormous grin flashed across her face before settling into a proud smile.
"I'm afraid Danzo I shall have to decline your so generous offer" she said sarcastically throwing the tag to the ground.
Danzo gaped lost for words "I'll kill the boy" he threatened clenching his fist tighter. However instead of the wood tightening around Naruto it expanded before exploding into pieces which showered down on the clearing.
Naruto staggered slightly as he stood up but apart from that he had never looked healthier, the few injuries he had picked up while the fighting had been going on had vanished and his eye's were glowing with pent up energy.
Another outline appeared in the dust which swirled around excitedly as of to announce the newcomers presence.
As soon as the outline appeared Suijin abandoned her position between Danzo and Naruto and flickered back to Naruto's side.
"I am so proud of you" she said warmly "I never would have imagined that you would be able to release her this soon after you released me but I am pleased that you were able to do so. Now we are finally complete."
"No problem" Naruto said with a grin which turned into a wince "Well actually it was kind of a problem, I had thought that your awakening challenge was tough. Realising that the swords were just decoys and your true power was in millions of pieces all around me. But her!" He gestured wildly at the dustcloud which now resembled a twister. "She's pure evil, her challenge was impossible and while I was trying to do it she kept on laughing at me." He stopped yelling and pouted while making puppy dog eyes making Suijin shudder slightly and quickly look away.
'So cute' she thought 'And I bet I know who taught him that little trick Kaz I am going to kill you when this is all over. How am I supposed to be the responsible adult and not indulge him when he does that!'
She managed to resist the puppy dog eyes and moved over to hug Naruto before collapsing to the ground. Before she hit the floor she was caught by Naruto who looked between her, the twister and the old cripple that had caused this entire mess. He made sure to give the man a glare promising a horrible death for what he had done to Suijin.
The twister changed direction heading straight for Danzo who was forced to substitute himself with a log to dodge the attack.
"Take Suijin away to a safe place and wait for me there" a muffled voice ordered over the howling winds and for a split second the figure inside the tornado was revealed as she met Naruto's worried eyes with equally worried ones of her own. Then the tornado closed and tore through the forest back towards Danzo blocking his view if the two. Naruto made sure he had a firm grip on Suijin's shoulders before using Shunpo to quickly reach the edge of the forest which was just far enough away from the newest battle zone. However even though they were miles away from the fight they were still buffeted by gale force winds that were coming off the twister that had now connected the land and the sky making a terrifying sight to those in Konoha who had probably never seen a natural force of this magnitude before.
"Surprised the Hokage hasn't shown up yet" Naruto muttered to himself glaring tiredly at the tornado "With the rate that she's going I'm likely to have the entire village out for my blood and even the old man can't stand against that much opposition."
"That's just her style" Suijin said raggedly from the floor all strength having left her as soon as her adrenaline high had ended when she knew Naruto was safe. "She flamboyant and could never stop showing off, bigger is always better in her book."
Naruto looked at her with relief "You're one to talk" he said with humour satisfied that although tired Suijin wasn't in any real danger "I believe that you showed off immensely when you first manifested. Quite a few threats were issued as well as quite unnecessary kido spells used to do a job that you could have done just as easily with your sword and shunpo. Let's not even get started on the tests that you guys gave me. You dumped me in an ocean and told me to find a sword that was quite literally all around me and she dumped me on a tiny ledge near the bottom of an enormous mountain before telling me to climb it. Don't tell me that she is the flamboyant one you're both as bad as each other."
Suijin chuckled weakly "So she made you climb the mountain huh" she said relieved that her voice was starting to become more normal "How did she con you into doing that?"
Naruto snorted "She didn't even bother trying to trick me, when I came to in my mindscape practically her first words were…"
Flashback
Naruto awoke feeling cold and with a sharp pain in his back he groaned and rolled over pushing himself to his feet. His mouth dropped and he staggered backwards crashing into a solid stone surface right behind him. He looked around at where he was standing and gulped, he was standing on a small cliff edge that was at least 500 yards over the sea below him where there were a number of jagged rocks that rose up out of the water below him as if desperate to claim his life.
"Where the hell am I?" He asked himself peering over the edge of his perch being very careful to keep the majority of his weight behind him so he wouldn't fall.
"You mean you don't recognise this place then?" A soft lilting voice said from above him nearly causing him to lose his balance and fall. "Not totally unexpected but still rather disappointing I must say. I would get used to heights as well or you'll be much more likely to die when you climb up this thing."
Naruto recovered enough balance to look up and what he saw made him gape in shock. A girl around seventeen years old was sitting above him smirking at him, she was almost as pretty as Suijin Naruto realised almost immediately looking at her bright blue eyes and short spiky green hair.
But her otherworldly looks weren't what had made him gape in surprise, what had really shocked him was the position the girl was sitting in. Cross legged meditation style in thin air! She was literally sitting directly above him with nothing supporting her except the sea breezes.
"What?" she asked in response to Naruto's amazed expression.
"How are you doing that?" he blurted out waving his hands above his head as if searching for some invisible platform or support that he couldn't see.
"What this?" she said motioning towards the air beneath her, Naruto nodded finally closing his open mouth "Anyone who can use reiatsu worth their salt can do this" she said dismissively "I just happen to be better at it than everyone else, surely Suijin demonstrated this technique to you."
"No" Naruto said frowning "Hey how do you know about Suijin and reiatsu."
"Not very quick on the update today are we" the girl teased "I would have thought it would be obvious who I am or at least what I am" she pointed out across the ocean that lay before them "Tell me what you sense when you look at the ocean."
Naruto rolled his eyes but did as she said stretching his senses out into the swirling tides, the answer hit him like Tsunade after she had been called old. "Suijin" he gasped "That's Suijin's ocean which would make you a Zanpakuto spirit."
"Yes" the girl said proudly "My name is …. and I am your second Zanpakuto."
"I couldn't hear your name." Naruto said regretfully.
"Of course you couldn't" the girl waved away his regret "Your not far enough up the mountain to hear my voice and we haven't got the bind that you and Suijin had yet when you first met her. However we'll have to fix that quickly."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked warily, the last time he had heard that type of talk from a Zanpakuto he had almost died and Suijin had been stabbed through the stomach.
"Simply put" the girl said seriously "Everything in this world represents a part of your powers, the sea represents Suijin, the mountain represents your own power independent of Suijn's or my own."
"So what represents you?" Naruto asked "The forest?"
A shadow came over the girls face but it passed almost immediately and her face was so happy and teasing that he wondered if he had just imagined the dark look she had worn just moments before.
"I'm not telling" she sang "That would give you a clue to my name and you would try to figure it out with logic which would be pointless, the name means nothing unless you hear me say it."
"So what do you want me to do?" Naruto asked looking around at his surroundings "Because I seem to be stuck in quite a difficult position. How did I get hear anyway?"
"I put you here" the girl admitted unabashedly "Because you have to climb this mountain before this part of the mountain erodes and collapses and you fall to your death so if I were you I would get climbing."
"This is my mind" Naruto said sceptically "Why would the mountain suddenly erode and even if I did fall and hit the rocks would I die inside my own head?"
"You don't have time to ponder things like that" the girl reminded him "This mountain is already being eroded by the sea and I assure you if you fall from here and hit the rocks you will die! Are you willing to risk not only your own life but Suijin's as well by not trusting me and climbing?"
Naruto glared at her but turned towards the cliff and started searching for handholds that he could use to pull himself up with. He managed to pull himself up using the shallow handholds he had managed to find and then started feeling around with his feet for footholds that he could use to take some of the weight off his arms.
"You're doing it wrong" the girls voice came from directly next to his ear.
He let out a startled yell and slipped falling back onto the ledge that he had started on and nearly slipped off that as well. He clambered back to safety and glared at the girl who was snickering.
"What the hell did you do that for?" he demanded angrily "You told me to climb and I did what more do you want?"
"You were climbing the wrong way" the girl responded completely unfazed by his anger "If you had kept climbing like that eventually when you got higher up you would have fallen off and probably died which would be bad for me."
"And what exactly is the right way to climb then?" Naruto asked through gritted teeth thoroughly annoyed by the irritating girl
"You'll have to figure tat out for yourself" she told him "This is the last piece of advice I can give you, I can't interfere again." She vanished and a gust of wind swirled around where she had been making Naruto shiver.
"At least it will be quieter" he muttered under his breath before turning back to the mountain face. He ran through every way he could think of that would allow him to climb the mountain but was different to simply trying to pull himself up. Finally he settled on what seemed to be the idea that would have the most chance of success. He would use kidou to try and blast larger and more stable handholds and footholds in the rock.
"Hadou #4 Byakurai" He said pointing his finger at the rock directly in front of him, a bright flash illuminated the mountain as a tightly controlled beam of white lightning tore a deep horizontal line in the mountain as a foothold. As soon as the blast finished the mountain rumbled and shook beneath him and some small rocks fell into the sea below.
Naruto gulped as he looked at the rocks falling and the mountain shaking around him.
"Looks like she was telling the truth about the mountain being a representation of my power and that it was eroding" he muttered nervously "looks like kidou is out, if I use any spiritual energy the mountain is going to collapse around me."
Using the new foothold he pushed himself up and started to climb again. After clearing the first bit that was very smooth with nothing much to hold onto he found the area above that much rockier with gaps holes and crevices that he could use to drag himself up. The going was exhausting and he thanked that gods a million times that he had trained himself from a young age to be a ninja and the latest training with Suijin had made him incredibly strong for someone his age especially with his already abnormal stamina.
He managed to climb over 50 ft before he reached a huge overhanging ledge that he couldn't climb over or around. It was a smooth ledge that protruded from the mountain at least a metre and tilted upwards so to have even a chance of grabbing onto the edge of the ledge he would have to jump backwards and up at the same time. Even if he did manage to grab onto the ledge there would be nothing below him that he could use put his weight on. He would have to pull himself up using only his arms which he wasn't sure he could do, especially with the rising winds that were constantly whirling around the mountain trying to pry him off. No jumping was out of the question.
However the only other option he had was to use kidou which was liable to cause even more instability in the mountain and perhaps cause an avalanche or even the whole thin got collapse which he was pretty sure would kill him and Suijin and the girl but that wasn't that much of a loss.
He clung to the flat face of the mountain praying for someone to tell him what to do, he took a deep breath and rested his head on the mountain face trying to calm down. The last thing he needed was to become nervous enough to sweat which would make his temporary handholds to slippery to hold on to.
When he rested the top of his head against the mountain and faced down he gasped in shock. The sea below him was stormy, stormier that it had been when he had been stabbed and dying. Waves larger than any he had seen before rose up and crashed into the base of the mountain eating away at the solid structure little by little. It was as if the water was trying to get somewhere quickly and the mountain was in the way, the answer struck him like Gamabunta falling on his head.
"Suijin's trying to use her full power" he murmured mesmerized by the pounding waves "But she can't because she can only use her power through me and my body and power can't take it yet that's why the mountain is eroding." Then something even more important came to him "Suijin would know that so the only reason that she would be doing it is if she had no other choice. The people who attacked us must be better than the average enemy and if she can't use her more powerful kidou without killing us both then she might actually lose."
When that thought crossed his mind an image appeared in his mind, one of Suijin lying broken and bloodied on the forest floor quickly slipping away from life.
'NO!' his mind rebelled along with his body, every part of his being rejected the image and what it represented. Without even thinking about it or considering the consequences of what he was about to do Naruto threw himself away from the mountain face desperately reaching for the ledge above his head. Only one thought was running through his mind as he jumped 'must reach the top to help Suijin'. For a split second he hung in mid air before gravity asserted itself and he started to fall.