Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.
Hello everybody. I come again with the next chapter of Naruto the true ninja. I hope you will like the end of the fight between Naruto and Kankuro. So I am waiting for your comments.
Also thank you all for the comments you left after readin my story. And I don't know if I already said this, but the reason this story isn't in the crossover category is that there won't be any characters from Kekkaishi. Not yet anyway. And when this happens (if this happens), it wil be in a sequel. So please, stop asking me to put it in the crossover category.
But I am rambling right now. I will just let you enjoy this chapter.
Edited: 05/12/2013
Chapter 5: A wake up call
Silence. That is all there was to it. The whole room was silent as they observed the fighters in the arena. No one uttered a word, not even a whisper. The tension was simply too high. It felt like an atrocious event would happen if someone were to break this crushing silence.
Currently in the arena, among the fighters, only one of them was 'conscious'. The other was in a state akin to unconsciousness but they couldn't say. They were too far away to really know after all. The unconscious one, Naruto, was kneeling on the ground with his eyes hidden behind his hairs.
Meanwhile, Kankuro was quickly rummaging through his pocket looking for something. The way his hands were shaking showed that he was still shocked by whatever he had witnessed. This in turn stirred the curiosity of the spectators, as they couldn't imagine what could make him act like that.
A moment later, he finally found the scroll he was looking for. It was a blank one with nothing on it. The scroll was of medium size and looked deceptively common. But no one questioned the strangeness of Kankuro's behaviour.
He laid the scroll on the ground and kneeled before it. Then he moved through handseals at a sedated pace, careful not to mess up the jutsu. Before long, he finished and placed his left hand on his forehead, while he put the right hand on the blank scroll and muttered.
"Ninpo : Chishiki no iten"
No one heard him pronounce the name of the jutsu fortunately as they would immediately understand what the jutsu did. Unlike the Konoha contingent, the sand team knew of the jutsu as they recognized the handseals used. The jutsu was one that existed in every shinobi village, but in different forms, thus the reason the Konoha ninjas didn't recognize it.
This jutsu was used as an information gathering technique as it allowed the user to convert his knowledge in words and transfer it on a support. The support here being a blank scroll. This meant that Kankuro was currently transferring whatever information he gained, on the scroll. The sand team now knew that they had to retrieve that scroll at all costs once Kankuro was done.
The problem though was that the jutsu while not demanding except in chakra control and mental visualization was long to perform. They could only hope that whatever state Naruto was in would last long enough.
Tension was high for the members of the sand team. Temari was tightly gripping the railing to calm herself. The others were the same as they were trying to steel their nerves. Only two minutes had passed since Kankuro started using his jutsu but for them, it felt like a whole month had passed. Sweat was rolling down from their faces as they looked at Kankuro intently. Every second that passed was a torture for them.
'Common Kankuro, hurry up.' Temari thought in frustration.
Baki was praying whatever deity existed out there, for Kankuro to finish before his opponent was up.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as a few meters away from the kneeling Kankuro, Naruto's gasped for air as if he had been under water for a very long time.
On the other part of the arena, Naruto slowly breathed in and out, trying to calm himself. He was still shocked by the effects of the jutsu. Even in his wildest dreams, he wouldn't have thought that it would work like that. Yes… maybe getting a glimpse of the target's memories but not his whole life, not at all. That was just too much information all at once.
Even right now he hadn't assimilated everything he saw. And he wasn't sure that he wanted to. After all, he didn't want to mess with his own memories. So he resolved himself to remove those memories from his mind, once this tournament was over. Right now though, he had more important matters to deal with. Like the fact that his opponent had also made use of the link to retrieve some information from his mind. He didn't know what exactly but if his understanding on how the jutsu worked was good, then it was just a few glimpse of his memories, not his whole life.
'I should have know not to trust a jutsu created by someone else. They didn't see the flaws in it because it was used on puppet only. If not, they would have seen that the link wasn't unidirectional, but bidirectional as in allowing the user and the target to send or retrieve thoughts pattern to one another.'
He berated himself for getting carried away like that. But what is done is done. He said to himself.
Finally he slowly raised his head, showing again his eyes to the world. The first person he looked at was Kankuro. The latter was in a strange position with one of his hands on a scroll that was glowing with chakra. Gathering chakra, he moved it behind his eyes to activate his dojutsu to understand what was going on.
'Let's see, chakra is going through his mind, precisely in the prefrontal cortex, were the memories are stored. The chakra then navigates through Kankuro's body until it reaches his right hand. Then it's transformed in words, before being stored in the scroll. That means… fuck! He is transferring his memories to that scroll.'
This alarmed him immediately as he knew that Kankuro was surely trying to pass on the knowledge to someone. He couldn't have that. He narrowed his eyes at Kankuro who finally broke his concentration and looked at him in the eyes.
If Kankuro wasn't forced to stay still, he'd have taken a backward step because of the glare that Naruto was sending him.
'He must have used his dojutsu to understand what I'm doing. Shit!'
Shit indeed, as Naruto slowly rose from the ground having regained complete control of his emotions and body. He knew that he had to stop Kankuro from giving up the fight. As that would allow his opponent to get enough time to finish copying the information.
'I wonder why he didn't give up immediately after he regained consciousness. But that was his mistake.'
He moved through handseals and he looked in front of him, invisible to everyone but he, as seals of some kind were taking shape. Using his dojutsu he was able to interpret the shape and read words like 'wind', 'increase', 'density', 'block', 'sound vibration'. When he stopped the handseals, the chakra had taken a form that Naruto could read not unlike a sentence. He parted his hands before looking at Kankuro who was about to speak.
"PROCTOR, I…"
He never finished as Naruto slammed the palm of his hands together, in a prayer position. A shockwave was generated by the action. But other than that, nothing seemed to have happened.
Hayate was looking intently at Kankuro, as the latter was about to say something to him. He had an idea of what said genin wanted to say but couldn't step in. After all, he could be wrong. There was no reason to risk the integrity of this fight because he had a hunch after all. But like the other ninjas in the room, he was surprised when Kankuro seemed to be yelling at him in particular, but no sound was coming from his mouth. He didn't know why but he had an inkling that it was the result of whatever jutsu Namikaze used earlier.
In the arena, Naruto looked at Kankuro as the latter was yelling himself horse, trying to get the proctor to stop the fight, but nothing seemed to happen. Seeing his dismay, Naruto took pity on him and decided to explain just what was going on.
"Don't bother." Immediately, Kankuro stopped and looked at Naruto. "The jutsu I used earlier create something like a dome around us, that block any sound from going through."
Kankuro widened his eyes at that. 'Why didn't I think of giving up earlier? Granted it wouldn't have stopped him from seeking me out to kill me, but it'd have given me enough time to pass on this information.'
He took a deep breath and looked again at his teammates and his teacher, before making another coded signal to get them to begin the operation. 'He may have stopped any sounds from going through but there are other ways of communication.' He thought smugly, thinking he wasn't the only one between the two to have made a mistake.
But the smug expression on his face vanished as quickly as it appeared as he turned around and saw Naruto looking at him with glowing blue eyes.
Time seemed to slow down around Naruto as he looked around and focused. He hadn't wanted to show this to anyone just yet, but like they said, desperate times call for desperate measures. It wasn't that he was somehow controlling time or whatever nonsense. It was just one of the abilities that allowed his father to use so effectively his speed.
By using chakra to control the neurons network of the body, one could increase his reaction speed so much that for him, time seemed to slow down, while in fact, his mind was just working so fast that he perceived everything extremely quickly. Of course using something like that was dangerous for the body. One could increase his overall reaction so much that he would become trapped in a world where everything was still and his body and mind were unsynchronized to the point of being unable to control his body. Also to even attempt something like this, you needed a good understanding of the human body. Precisely the neurons network. Also a very high chakra control.
Naruto looked in front of himself. His target was in a direct line and was motionless. He analyzed his surrounding. His mind cataloguing every action those in the rooms could take, taking into account what abilities he knew they possessed and even the ones he guessed. He finally simulated several possible scenarios in his mind before coming with the best way to handle this. Then, he inclined himself in a ready position.
In everyone's eyes, he propelled himself toward Kankuro at high speed. A speed that rivaled the one used earlier by Lee when he used the chakra gates. But unlike Lee, no sound was heard. No shockwave was formed.
Everything was perfectly controlled.
While moving toward his target, Naruto saw a glimpse of Kankuro's sensei moving at high speed to intercept him. He focused on the chakra that came out of Baki's feet. 'He is using wind natured chakra to propel himself faster than what should be normal. But there is too much flaws in it.'
Baki quickly intercepted Naruto and grinned, as he knew that at the speed Naruto was moving, he wouldn't be able to stop himself in time. So he readied his right hand, preparing himself to punch Naruto so hard that the genin would think that nighttime came earlier with the amount of stars he would be seeing.
But that was without counting on Naruto's surreal deceleration.
Indeed, Naruto's speed went from high level to motionless almost instantly. Then he changed direction, before going back to high level. This had for effect, of creating what seemed like several ghosts of Naruto. These ghosts confused Baki greatly but having no choice, he still punched one of them, hoping that it was a real one.
His hand went through Naruto showing that it was a ghost.
Before he could do anything else, the real Naruto appeared again in front of him, his back facing Baki. Naruto took hold of the outstretched arm then used his right foot to sweep Baki's feet from the ground. With Baki having lost his balance, he used Baki's arm to throw him above his shoulder in an ippon move.
Before Baki could touch the ground, Naruto let go of the arm and delivered a straight kick in his chest area. The kick was hard enough to propel Baki toward the wall behind Naruto as the latter once again vanished toward Kankuro.
The moment the jounins saw Baki move to intercept Naruto, they also moved to stop whatever the sand jounin was trying to do. But a sudden unnatural pressure fell on them, completely stopping their movements. Having felt the pressure several times already, they turned to look at the spot occupied by their hokage and showed their surprise when the latter made a move of the hand, prompting them to stand down for now. They didn't know why Sarutobi did that, but he was their hokage so they listened to him and held their position, waiting for the right time to intervene.
They were shocked though when they saw how quickly Naruto dispatched the jounin and the unnatural speed he showed. This further established the legend that was slowly being created around him.
Naruto, still moving toward Kankuro, looked ahead of himself and saw a wall of sand that had formed, blocking his path toward his target. But that didn't surprise him as he had predicted such thing. So without even stopping, he held his right hand in the ram sign.
"Ketsu."
A bluish cube materialized around the sand. He looked at the balcony where the sand team was positioned and did the same gesture, before another cube quickly surrounded Gaara. The latter widened his eyes in shock, not having expected such move. But before Gaara could do anything, Naruto made another gesture with his right hand. "Metsu."
The two cubes violently imploded, shocking the onlookers.
Not having stopped, Naruto passed through what was left of the sand shield. Indeed the sand was reduced to a state of dust that slowly fell on the ground. During all of this, Naruto hadn't stopped moving even once.
Kankuro finally rose from the ground having finally finished transferring the knowledge into the scroll. He knew what was going on. Even though he hadn't been looking at the fight, he had been able to get glimpse of Baki being sent to the far wall, and Gaara being surrounded by that damnable Kekkai of his opponent. He sincerely hoped that his little brother was fine, but knew that he didn't have time to worry. Thanks to the distraction, Naruto had stopped sustaining whatever jutsu he had used to stop sound from getting out of the arena. So he looked at Temari.
"Temari, catch!"
He immediately threw the scroll in Temari's direction and saw how the latter jumped from her position, toward the scroll. After all the longer the scroll was in mid air, the less secure it was.
But it was without counting on Naruto's resourcefulness.
Once Naruto saw Kankuro throw the scroll, he knew that he had to act. He didn't know what Temari would do with the scroll once she got it. Maybe she had a jutsu that would send it directly to her superior or something else. In the ninja world, you had to expect the unexpected. That was one lesson he had learned years ago.
With that in mind, he suddenly stopped himself. He looked at the flying scroll and quickly using a jutsu he was becoming fond of.
"Ketsu."
A cube surrounded the flying scroll. Instead of the normal cube, this one stretched toward the ground. That is why the scroll was falling toward the ground now.
Temari seeing this channelled as much wind natured chakra as she could on her fan and slammed it on the barrier. The result was immediate as the barrier was broken. She smirked in triumph and reached with her hand toward the scroll.
But the victory was short lived.
A thin thread of energy was fastened around the scroll before it was pulled back toward Naruto. She looked at Naruto and saw that the thread was coming from his palm. She couldn't help the cry that came from her mouth.
"FUCK YOU NAMIKAZE!"
The concerned didn't even bat an eyelash as he was concentrating on the scroll that was coming toward him. It was then that he fell or rather saw something with his dojutsu activated, the chakra that suddenly surrounded the scroll. The chakra was transformed in a magnetic field. He looked around and saw the same field on an object close to the area where the hokage and his advisors stood.
'Kawarimi…' He thought in surprise, as he knew that the field that appeared around the scroll was the first part of that jutsu. Few people knew how that simple jutsu really worked, but those that did could do amazing stuff with the jutsu. But it wasn't time to think about it as he reacted accordingly and created another Kekkai around the scroll.
The Kekkai creating a dimension of its own inside the cube was able to cut the connection between the two objects and thus stop the jutsu. But not taking any chances, he made the cube explode, completely destroying the scroll and stopping anyone from ever learning what was inside it. With that completed he looked again at Kankuro who was on the ground breathing heavily and looking back at Naruto in fright.
Again, one of the reasons the Chishiki no iten wasn't used so lightly was the fact that the chakra consumption depended heavily on the amount of knowledge being transformed, and was stressful for the mind. Knowing this, it wasn't surprising for Kankuro to be on the ground, as he didn't have an enormous pool of chakra to begin with.
Not wasting anytime, he again vanished toward Kankuro to get rid of the last source of information that someone could use. A few meters away from Kankuro, Baki again intercepted Naruto. He managed to get his bearing back and was now out for blood.
Preferably Naruto's blood.
He was using one of the hidden jutsu Suna was famous for, the wind step. It allowed those that had mastered their wind affinity, to propel themselves from one direction to another, even in mid air.
Using this, Baki moved in zigzag pattern in mid air, before appearing in front of Naruto and kicking him. Like earlier, the only thing Baki kicked was a ghost, as Naruto appeared under Baki not unlike Lee and delivered a straight upward kick, propelling Baki toward the ceiling. Instead of letting him go he crouched down before propelling himself toward the airborne Baki and appeared underneath him.
He was about to continue his attack when Baki used his wind step to move several times in a static sound. He moved in a square pattern before appearing under Naruto and punched him in the face.
This time the attack touched Naruto.
But instead of stunning him, a ghost like image of Naruto formed and rotated on himself before delivering a brutal straight kick with his right leg. Then another image appeared and this time a left kick was shot at Baki who was too stunned to dodge it. Baki was propelled toward the ground at high speed and created a crater on the impacted area.
While still airborne, Naruto looked at Kankuro and moved through one-handed seals before stopping and pointing his index finger at Kankuro's head.
"Futon : Kussaku yubi."
A mini ringed shockwave exploded around Naruto's finger, as what seemed like a laser erupted from his finger and moved too fast for Kankuro to dodge. The result was stunning.
Kankuro's head was pierced with such force that it exploded.
Naruto had targeted the head because that was the part of the body that was used to retrieve information on dead ninja. He knew this because he was a medic.
Silence descended again in the room as what Naruto did shocked everyone. Not only had he killed someone, but he did so in cold blood. And when they assimilated what happened in the few seconds since he woke up, they came to the conclusion that it was his goal all along.
He hadn't killed Kankuro to win this fight. No! He did so to stop him from giving whatever was inside that scroll to his teammates. They could only wonder what had been inside it that could have been so important.
Suddenly, killer intent was felt around the room. Every gaze quickly converged on Baki who was looking at Naruto with murder in his eyes. Like before he disappeared with a static sound and appeared above Naruto just as the latter touched ground. He quickly formed a wind blade and swung it at Naruto who was too late to dodge.
Baki smirked maliciously as the blade touched Naruto, but his arm was suddenly stopped. He heard someone whisper in his ears.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The voice was strangely calm, deceptively so. It showed only one thing to Baki, that a great danger lurked behind the owner of that voice. He knew that whatever he did, he wouldn't be able to kill Naruto with the amount of Konoha jounins inside the room. So he chose to calm himself. He looked behind him to see Kakashi standing there, and stopping his arm from moving further.
'The legendary copy ninja Hatake Kakashi. He was able to move from the balcony to here in just a split second. And going by his arm strength, he is strong too. I see that his legend is well deserved.'
He thought frustrated to admit that against the ninja behind him, he stood no chance at all. He finally turned around to look at the Namikaze, hoping to see at least a deep gash on the bastard arm. But like everyone in the room, he was shocked to see Naruto disperse like a breeze. They looked around the room to find him, but to no avail.
It was only about 10 seconds later that they saw him sitting at the edge of the giant statue in the room, looking as calm as ever, as if he didn't just take the life of another human being. This behaviour frightened the onlookers a little. Even the Konoha contingent, as this behaviour reminded them of Uchiha Itachi and that didn't sit well with them.
Finally, Hayate spoke again.
"Seeing as one of the fighters is dead, I declare Namikaze Naruto the winner of this fight."
But no one was listening to him as they were looking at Kankuro's body. Temari was beside him, looking at the body with frozen eyes. Gaara was standing behind her, having recovered from Naruto's earlier attack. He was glaring fiercely at Naruto. Not really because of Kankuro's death, but because he did something no one had ever done before.
He destroyed the link he possessed with his sand.
Earlier, when Naruto had exploded the sand contained in the cube, it also destroyed the youkai energy contained in it. Thus making the special material nothing more than normal sand, if not more dust like. This alarmed him, as that mean Naruto would be able to cut the control he had with his sand. Something that was unacceptable. He was beginning to understand just why other Suna nins were bothered by the existence of a Namikaze heir. If that bloodline of his were what allowed him to do that, then he would forever curse the Namikaze for it.
He saw in the corner of his eye, Baki moving toward them. He then noticed that Temari was shaking more and more. As if he was diviner, he correctly guessed what was to come next.
Temari was looking at Kankuro unmoving body in shock. She didn't think that one of them could die in this mission. After all, they were always praised back home as the strongest team Suna had ever produced. They were strong. That was something she knew to be true. So her shock wasn't unfounded when she came across a genin that was so out of their league that he made them – her at least – feel inferior.
It was a new feeling to her. She had trained since an earlier age to be strong. Her father would accept nothing less. She had endured the harsh training. Everything that was throws at her. And she had succeeded. That was why she was arrogant like that. She couldn't think of another genin that had trained like her. But one person made all her beliefs crash down like a house of cards.
That person was Namikaze fucking Naruto.
The proof laid unmoving on the ground beside her. As she was looking at Kankuro, flash of all the moments they passed together appeared in front of her, the good and the bad ones. She finally accepted that her brother was gone forever.
Then came the feeling of hate. She looked around the room and only saw smirks in the face of the Konoha jounins. She knew that none of them liked her or her team. Especially with how much she taunted them during this exam. In retrospect, she may have gone a little too far in taunting them in their own home. But that thought was quickly squashed like a bug. Only to be replaced by hate.
Hate against the Konoha jounins and genins.
Hate against the proctor who didn't stop the fight in time.
Hate against the fucking hokage who looked at all this without batting an eyelash.
And finally hate against Naruto for killing her brother.
So it wasn't surprising that when she saw Naruto calmly walking toward his teacher, she lost it.
"Everything is because of you. Because of all of you, my brother is dead. I am gonna kill you all. You hear me? All of you. You will be first Namikaze."
She yelled while rushing toward Naruto who was still walking calmly toward his sensei, not even listening to Temari.
Fortunately for Naruto, if one could say that, Baki was able to catch up with Temari and knocked her out before she did something that would cause further problems for them. Considering that they could already charge him for trying to kill an heir of their most prestigious clan outside of a sanctioned battle.
After a few minutes, the calm returned in the room and the hokage took that opportunity to explain to the genins still in the competition that they had one month to prepare for their battle. But not before drawing the battles that would happen during the final part of the chuunins exam. The fights were like this.
Fight N°1: Inuzuka Kiba VS Akimichi Choji.
Fight N°2: Namikaze Naruto VS Aburame Shino.
Fight N°3: Sabaku no Gaara VS Uchiha Sasuke.
Fight N°4: Sabaku no Temari VS Nara Shikamaru.
With the preliminaries done, everyone went back to the village, hoping to rest from the earlier events.
KONOHA – NAMIKAZE COMPOUND – A DAY LATER –
Inside the Namikaze's compound, everything was calm, as calm as someone should expect, especially at such an hour. Indeed it was only seven in the morning. Who in their right mind was up and about at such an earlier hour?
Suddenly a sound of something being broken was heard from one of the room.
Okay, maybe there were some people that were up at this hour.
Anyway, Naruto was in the kitchen preparing a breakfast for him. He had taken all the night to rest from the exam he was taking. Certainly he didn't show how tired he really was during the preliminaries, but that was just to keep face. He didn't like to show any kind of weakness to anyone. That is why even when the battle between him and Kankuro was over, he didn't show just how tired he really was.
He may be strong, but even he had his limits. Especially when it came to chakra capacity. With the amount of jutsus he used and the intensity of the fight, he wouldn't have lasted much longer. He knew that it was one of his weaknesses, his chakra capacity. Because of his bloodline – the Namikaze one –, he would never have godly reserve of chakra. He would in time reach Kage level if he trained as much as he did right now, but that wasn't for a long time.
No Namikaze ever had an enormous pool of chakra, except his father. But there was a reason behind that, something that he didn't want to think about because of its ramifications. Because the Kekkai jutsu needed a completely different kind of energy, and was stored in his body, he couldn't have much chakra reserve. Or else he would be sacrificing the space needed to store the energy used for the Kekkai jutsu, which was something he would never do.
Right now, he just finished eating his breakfast, and moved toward one of the room in the compound. The compound was very beautiful. The house was made out of a strong wood. But it was so polished and decorated that you would never notice. There were several rooms inside. But the most beautiful thing about it was the surrounding area.
Because unlike what many would have thought, trees or even other houses didn't surround the compound. Instead a vast plain that stretched without end was surrounding the house. Looking at the landscape you would immediately conclude and rightly too, that the Namikaze's compound wasn't in anyway near Konoha. In fact it wasn't even anywhere on earth.
Simply because it was in another dimension.
But this was for another time. He just reached the bedroom he was after. He took a deep breath before opening the door and went inside it. Once inside, he looked at the center of the room where stood a wide bed surrounded by several devices that could only be found in a medical room. Surrounding the bed were several seals sketched on the ground. And finally on the bed itself laid a beautiful girl with long red hairs. Her visage was pale as if she had never been outside. The body looked frail but not enough to think that she suffered from lack of food. She also wore a white dress that could only be found in hospital.
Naruto looked at her with softened eyes. This was the only place he could let himself express any kind of emotions. He approached slowly, taking care of not disturbing anything and slowly caressed her face.
"Good morning little sister."
He removed some strand of hairs from her eyes so he could see her better.
"There is much I want to tell you today. I hope you don't mind that I didn't come to visit you for six days? But I am here now."
Naruto continued and slowly told her everything that happened during that time. Sometimes he would laugh at a joke or a comment he made. This was a ritual for him, as he always took time to come to her, and explain whatever is it that he did, hoping that she understood him, even though she couldn't react in the real world.
His sister had been like that ever since she was born, as she had been poisoned. She was in a deep slumber or rather a coma like state. Once he was proficient enough in seals, he had put them around her for several purposes. The first and most important one was to take care of her and feed her even when he wasn't there. The second purpose was to make her body grown as if she was alive. So if… not if, but when he finds a cure, she would be in a body in perfect health and not atrophied.
There were several others purposes but they were not as important as the above mentioned. It was an hour later that Naruto finally finished and went outside her room with tears glistening from his eyes, as he really wanted his sister to be healthy. But he would have to first neutralize the poison that was in her body.
With a heavy heart, he closed the door of the bedroom, before going outside of the house. Once there, he went through a few handseals before slamming his palms on the ground. Then in front of him, a door made of strangely moving water formed. He moved through it, and immediately appeared in front of the hokage tower. The moving water behind him quickly disappeared. Around him, civilians looked at him, but other than that they did nothing, as they were already familiar with the way Naruto went to his home, as it was the only way to enter the Namikaze's compound or dimension.
He moved then toward the building in the direction of Sarutobi's office as he had an appointment with the senior ninja. Before long he reached his secretary.
"Excuse me Midori – san, but I have an appointment with the Hokage. Would you kindly make him aware of my presence?"
The secretary blushed as she heard him talk and slowly nodded before going inside Sarutobi's office. Before long, she came back and smiled at him. "He will receive you now Namikaze – sama."
Naruto nodded curtly before moving inside the room.
Sarutobi's office wasn't luxurious or anything, but there was a kind of feel to it that told you that despite not having high costing artifacts or furniture, it still belonged to a refined person. You had to look for it though to notice it.
Once inside, Naruto stood at the ready in front of Sarutobi who was behind his desk. A stack of paperwork placed above his working table. Behind Sarutobi, stood proudly the picture of the precedents hokage, going from the shodaime to the yondaime.
Finally Sarutobi looked up from his work and genially smiled at Naruto.
"Ah Naruto, you finally made it. I hope everything is fine?"
"As well as it could be hokage – sama." Naruto replied.
"Good, good. I hope I didn't bother you from your schedule? I imagine you must have training to do today. What with the finals of the exam coming in a month."
Sarutobi continued while extending his hand toward a free sit in front of him, prompting Naruto to take place there.
"Not at all sir. I am still recuperating from the earlier events. So I won't begin training until much later."
"Can I be curious enough to ask you about the kind of training you will be doing?" Sarutobi asked with barely concealed curiosity. But he was answered in the negative as Naruto politely refused to answer, using as excuse, the need for secrecy. Sarutobi sighed at that but continued.
"You must be curious about why I would want to meet you so soon after the exams?" At Naruto's nod, he elaborated. "It concerns your fights with the late Sabaku no Kankuro." Naruto stayed impassable at that, disappointing Sarutobi who had hoped to see even a glimpse of emotion.
"You are aware that he was the son of the Kazekage. I am sure you know that the fact that you killed him won't be without repercussions."
This time Naruto frowned a little. But let the hokage speak.
"Don't worry, I am not blaming you or whatsoever. What I want to know though is the reason behind your show of brutality."
"If I remember correctly, the rules enunciated by the proctor didn't proscribe the use of lethal attacks."
"I know that my boy. But what I really need is a valuable reason to explain your actions, especially once Kankuro created that scroll of his. Talking about that, what was inside that scroll that would make you resort to such action?"
This time, Naruto looked sharply at Sarutobi, directly in the eyes and without flinching. This was a bold move from his part, as not many dared to look like that at their kage. After all, it was showing your lack of respect for your superior. Something that wasn't very good in the ninjas world.
"I fail to see the need to explain my actions when they were perfectly in accord with the rules of the exams. Concerning the scroll, I have no idea what was inside it, but I chose to dispose of it in case it was a disguised attack on my person." Naruto answered motionlessly, keeping his cold demeanor. Sarutobi of course frowned at the answer, having hoped for more.
"My boy, I was only trying to find a plausible excuse to provide the Kazekage once he comes here for the finals. And do you really don't trust me enough to fill me on what was inside that scroll?"
"Maybe I would be more inclined to trust you if you hadn't chosen to bind me to your will when I was vulnerable, Hokage – sama." The last words were said with such hate that Sarutobi shuddered. He dropped his head as if in shame.
"Does one mistake of an old man will really make you distrust me so much? Have I not tried to make amend for my past action?"
"You call that a mistake right now, because I found a way out. Would it have bothered you if I was still under the effect of that seal of yours?" Naruto looked at the silent Kage and nodded to himself. "I didn't think so. Like they said, it is only once they are caught that they try to make amend for their past actions. So you shouldn't be surprised that I would sooner trust your estranged student Orochimaru than you."
Sarutobi recoiled as if struck. He was shocked by the words coming from Naruto and by the fact that he would use such a low blow to hurt him. And hurt, it did. To be compared to Orochimaru was a huge blow to his self-esteem. Not wanting the conversation to deteriorate any further, he nodded at Naruto and dismissed him. The latter just nodded before going out of the room.
'Now I must seek out Tenten to begin her training.' He thought while moving out, leaving behind a contemplative Sandaime.
But he didn't go far before he was discreetly accosted by an unusual looking anbu. The anbu was walking with such grace that you would think that he took some dancing lessons. Knowing whom the ninja was, Naruto slowed just enough to hear the ninja whisper.
"Leader – sama want to meet you."
As fast as the words were said, the ninja disappeared, leaving Naruto to sigh. 'Why does he want to meet me so soon?' He thought before changing direction completely and entering a dark alley. Once there, he sank into the ground, disappearing from anyone sight.
TOWER IN FOREST OF DEATH – UNKNOW AREA –
A human shape was standing at the edge of a balcony, in a room dimly lighted. The person was looking contemplatively at the sea of trees that stretched beyond the tower. The only sound that could be heard was that of the occasional insects. That was until the person spoke out loud.
"How long are you going to look at me like that?"
The words weren't directed at a person in particular. At least that is what an observer would think. For the person though, he knew perfectly well to whom he was talking to.
A few moments later, another human shape got out of a shadowed corner of the room and slowly walked toward the one who spoke.
"As expected of you, Orochimaru – sama." He stopped just behind the newly named Orochimaru. "For how long?"
"What do you think, Kabuto – kun?"
Kabuto pushed his glass to reposition them. Before he answered.
"I would say ever since I was on this level of the tower."
Orochimaru turned around and looked at Kabuto in the eyes. The latter could see mirth in his master's eyes. And knew that he had guessed wrong. But he wasn't about to guess again. He already knew that Orochimaru would never truthfully answer him, as that was akin to telling another ninja your weakness. After all, by answering this question, Kabuto would then be able to correctly guess Orochimaru's range of detection. He was interrupted from his train of thoughts as Orochimaru spoke again.
"I was beginning to think that you had been caught." This amused Kabuto greatly.
"Do you really think so lowly of my skills?" Orochimaru turned back to look at the forest. "Do you make an effort to show me those skills of yours?" Was his answer.
Kabuto said nothing to that, as he knew that what was said was true. He had never openly displayed his full abilities to Orochimaru or anyone for that matter. That was just a survival reflex that he wasn't ready to part from. Deciding to change the subject, Kabuto asked a question that he was really curious about.
"So, how was your encounter with the Namikaze?"
A long silence was Orochimaru's response. Kabuto was about to speak again, when he was beaten to it.
"He was… interesting to say the least, kukuku." The laugh was full of hidden malice and that made Kabuto shudder a little.
Waiting for more details, Kabuto chose not to talk, until the sannin explained the encounter. He made the right choice as his question was finally answered after a moment.
"While I wasn't able to mark him as one of my followers, I definitively learned several things about him."
"Such as…"
"His personality first and foremost. He is always calm and collected. He never loses his calm even when knowing that he is outmatched. Instead he uses this opportunity to test himself and discover the powers and if possible the weaknesses of his opponent." He looked back at Kankuro. "I should know as he used it against me."
Kabuto gulped a little as he detected a trace of anger in Orochimaru's voice. 'I suppose their encounter didn't went as well as Orochimaru expected'. Kabuto thought while waiting for his master to continue.
Orochimaru looked back at the forest again, as he continued. "Like you said, he values stealth at least as much as I value Ninjutsu and that is saying something. During our fight, he did everything he could to hide his abilities. And he succeeded for the most part. But like several ninjas before him, he forgot that by showing me just how well he could hide his abilities, he also gave me valuable information about him."
Orochimaru smirked at that. At first he had thought that the brat had bested him, but after looking back at the encounter inside his mind, he was able to discover several abilities of Naruto. Knowing that Kabuto was waiting for him to continue, he spoke again.
"Naruto – kun is well versed in Genjutsu as he was able to trap me in one without my notice. Fortunately, those illusions of his aren't powerful enough to stop a jounin or even chuunin from dispelling them. He uses them during battle to make his target less aware of his surrounding."
"In Ninjutsu, he showed that he was well versed in wind and earth jutsu. And finally, he never fights directly. And that is the most important information you need to know. Always expect him to use clones to fight directly against you, while he hides himself somewhere."
Kabuto nodded and was mentally taking notes of this, in case he ever fought against Naruto.
"Interesting… I will be sure to update my ninjas cards with this new information you provided me. I suppose you already know of what transpired during the preliminary?" Kabuto asked.
"You mean the death of one of the Kazekage brat? Kukuku. I wonder how he will take this death. Only imagining the face he will make upon learning that one of his 'strong' children was defeated and killed by another genin is making my day. That will teach that arrogant Kage."
"If I may be bold, why didn't you dispose of him yet?"
"Simple Kabuto – kun, while he is arrogant, he is still he Kage for a reason. At first I wanted to kill him so that I could impersonate him and get close to Sarutobi but with the emergence of so many unknown variables, I prefer to use him as a cannon fodder for the invasion. He may think that he is still in control of the outcome of this invasion, but one way or another, neither the hokage nor the Kazekage will get out of Konoha alive."
Orochimaru laughed out loud. A laugh that sent chills down Kabuto's spine. 'Sometimes I wonder why I work for him. Am I a masochist?' Kabuto sweat dropped at his line of thoughts. He was asking himself if by hanging around nuts like Orochimaru, his sanity wasn't affected.
He looked at the still laughing Orochimaru and chose to give him what he came here to do. He first wanted Orochimaru to give him a reason to completely betray Konoha but after speaking just a little with his master, he knew that he didn't have any choices at all. It was that or getting killed.
"Anyway, I finally got what you need for the invasion to go smoothly."
He handed Orochimaru a thick black book. The sannin held it with a smirk slowly forming upon his lips. After all, this book just raised the chance of success of the invasion by fifteen percent. And that was nothing to sneeze at. After all, inside the book was the list of Konoha's ninjas and their abilities. Except of course the anbu, as they didn't have any records. They were the only variable now in the village, as only the hokage knew who they were and what their abilities were.
HYUUGA COMPOUND – AT THE SAME TIME –
While Orochimaru and his subordinate were plotting the destruction of Konoha, another event that would have drastic repercussion was taking place in the Hyuuga households.
The Hyuuga clan is one of the most famous clan from Konoha. Actually they are considered right now as the strongest of the village, because of the massacre of the Uchiha clan who held that position before. Their notoriety mostly comes from their bloodline the Byakugan.
The Byakugan like the sharingan is a dojutsu that allows it user to be able to see very far, and in almost 360 degree around the user. It also allows the user to see through material and particularly to see the tenketsus of a person. The last ability allowed them to create and use their taijutsu style the Jyuken, widely known as one of the most powerful taijutsu style that existed out there.
Because of this, outsiders coveted strongly their bloodline. So to protect it, the Hyuuga put in place the caged bird seal. A seal applied on the branch side of the family to prevent thieves from gaining the bloodline. And also to keep the branch family servant of the main branch, as they could activate the seal and put those with the seal in a pain so terrible that some preferred to kill themselves rather than feeling that kind of pain again.
Hyuuga Hiashi, the current leader of the Hyuuga clan was looking in front of him pensively.
"You knew that this would happen one day." A voice said from behind him. Hiashi didn't turn around because he knew who was talking to him.
"So why are you acting like that?"
Hiashi sighed as he heard the question. "It isn't that I didn't see this coming. Just …" Just what? What could he said? That he knew that this would happen but had hoped that it wouldn't come to pass until much later? Of course he couldn't said that. That was like saying that his eyes were not all seeing. And he liked to think that it was the case, so no, he couldn't say that.
"Just that I am surprised that the elders waited for this long to pull something like that." He finally said, hoping to placate the one he was speaking to. It seemed to work as the latter didn't talk back or refute his claim. And that made him smirk inwardly, knowing that he hadn't lost his touch despite the year of working behind the desk so to say.
"Be that as it may, what are you going to do now then?"
This time, Hiashi turned around and looked at the one that spoke earlier. The one whom stood in front of him was none other than his personal guard and part time advisor. He wore jounin attire and a mask hiding his features. The only things visible were his eyes, through the eyeholes of the mask. It showed pupiless white eyes, the mark of a possessor of the Byakugan.
"I mean, even though you foreseen this, I assume that you didn't think it would happen this earlier."
The man continued, while Hiashi was calmly looking at him in the eye, not even bothered by the dangerous feeling this man projected.
"You assumed right. But that doesn't change any of my plans. Just accelerated them a little."
"So you will let this farce keep going? You will let the elders think they can do whatever they please without repercussion?"
But Hiashi stayed quiet, not answering the questions. Seeing this unnerved Hiashi's guard a little. He thought that at least a fleeting emotion would be visible on his master's face, but nothing was displayed. 'Such mastery over his emotions. No wonder he is that feared as a clan head.' He thought.
Indeed, even among clan members, ninjas were not immune to being backstabbed. Like they said, it's the most unassuming of people that are the most dangerous one. But despite Hiashi's emotionless gaze, he knew that what the elders did behind his master back wouldn't go unpunished.
After all, organizing a fight between the two daughters of the clan head to determine who would become the clan only heir, and without consulting said clan head, was nothing short of treasonous.
Still, the guard looked at his master one last time and was relieved by what he saw. Because, Hiashi was sporting a smirk that spelled doom for the one who dared to cross him.
WITH NARUTO – KONOHA – UNKNOWN AREA
Walking in what seemed like a cavernous castle, Naruto was contemplating his future plans. Most of them were already in progress. But the one he was most anxious about, was the tests he needed to do to perfect the special seal he had been working on, and finished earlier in the forest of death.
He was distracted from his thoughts when he finally entered a wide room that was more like a hall. In front of him, at the other end of the room, stood proudly a throne like chair, and around it, was several anbu standing in lines. On the chair, was sitting someone whom face was obscured by the darkness. Naruto moved toward the person, until he was standing just in front of him.
"Welcome back Naruto." The person said to Naruto.
"Danzo – san, it has been a long time."
Author's Notes:
I hope you liked this chapter. Next time, several plots will take shape. The story is advancing just like I wanted. See you soon everyone.