AN: this definitely took far longer than it should have. 80% of it was because I am lazy. sloth and I are very good friends, often to my detriment. then mid august I got a job for the first time in 11 months so that took A LOT of my free time away, so there went the other 20% but hey its here now, I'm just sorry it took so long.
but enough about me, onwards to the story!
"Minato-chan?" Fukusaku asks, tilting his head in confusion at the young man in front of him. At first glance he appeared an almost exact copy of the young man, his brilliant blue eyes and spiky gold locks were just like Minato's. But then his cheek and chin bones weren't as sharp as Minato, more rounded, reminding him oddly of Kushina except for a trio of whisker-like marks on each cheek.
As he looked closer at the young man he could see the gauntness in his cheeks implying that he hasn't eaten in some time and the dark bags under his eyes told him that he hasn't slept for same amount of time either. The boy was wearing a relieved smile when he summoned him but when his question escaped his lips the boy's face fell into a look of soul crushing despair.
"You don't recognize me?" he asked, his eyes widening and his voice becoming strained from near panic. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and you-you trained me on Mt. Myoboku in the sage arts." Fukusaku was surprised and alarmed for several different reasons. He knew of the Uzumaki clan, or what's left of it, but as he understood it Kushina was the only surviving member of that clan and she never mentioned that she ever had a brother.
But for the boy to both know the name of the haven of the toads and claim to be trained by his hand in the sage arts was, well, impossible. But then, he did summon him without ever having signed the summoning contract. There was an answer here somewhere.
"Nope," was his all too casual reply. He didn't want to phrase it like that but he needed to see if the boy was honest. Said young man didn't disappoint. The young man was still for a single moment before he limply fell over onto the ground, rolling onto his back and covered his eyes in his hands. He was silent for a moment longer before he began to chuckle, that chuckle quickly began to grow in to a full on belly laugh and Fukusaku did not like it. It was an unhealthy laugh; a laugh full of fear and despair and crushed hopes. The longer he went on, the more Fukusaku's concern grew until he finally had to ask.
"What…is the problem, boy?" he asks, none too sure how to begin. Naruto takes several deep breaths, attempting to control his insane laughter long enough to answer the toad sage.
"Oh nothing, just my world being taken and turned inside out and upside down," he answered, which made no sense to Fukusaku who decided a more direct line of questioning might get him better results.
"How did you summon me?" he asked, "Only those that have ever signed the summoning contract for the Toads can summon a sage such as me." Naruto paused again, holding his hands up, counting down something on his fingers.
"I did sign the summoning contract, just in fifteen to sixteen years," he said. Naturally Fukusaku's face read as 'Um, what?' Naruto barked out his insane laugh again and sat up to look at the toad more clearly.
"I know right?" he exclaimed, thrusting a hand out in a vague gesture of exasperation. "Three days ago I am storming a fortress trying to rescue a friend only to have to fight another friend, this one my best friend, who pulls this weird jutsu from his ass that pulls me in and sucks me dry of almost all chakra and lands me, somehow, twenty years in the past!" By the end he is panting and Fukusaku takes a precautionary step back from the boy.
Taking even more consideration into his next question Fukusaku thought about that answer. Twenty years into his past? Fukusaku would have tossed it out and left the boy in a mental institute if not for his utterly uncanny resemblance to both Kushina and Minato. Thinking it through, what and how gave him no discernable answer to help the boy with so he needed to go to the root of the problem, and just work his way up.
"Why did you summon me?" he asked. This question got the biggest reaction out of Naruto, even if it was the quietest. Fukusaku was surprised when the boy seemed to deflate right before him. Naruto's eyes were downcast, his shoulders slumped, and a tight grimace fell over his face.
"I don't know what to do," he whispered, his eyes shining in unshed tears as if he were confessing his darkest, most depressing secret. With raising eyebrows Fukusaku realized that that was the problem. This boy, this Naruto, had lost his confidence. But it went further than just his confidence in himself for it seemed that not only was he confidant in himself but also in where he must go and it was the sudden loss of what he was doing and what he must do that led to his desperation. Fukusaku then placed himself in Naruto's feet, and considered that if he had been somehow sent back into the past twenty years (no matter how impossible or improbable) and that he couldn't go to anyone that could help because they were either, as of yet, nonexistent or simply wouldn't recognize him like he did he too would be in an extremely desperate state.
He fixed his gaze back onto Naruto, considering his options once more while gauging the young man. Naruto was watching him, probably wondering whether the toad would dismiss and leave him for his outrageous story or if he would aid him in some way. Fukusaku would not have simply left the boy to his own devices if he didn't believe him but this young man, who looked so much like his apprentice's apprentice, had summoned him and seemed to trust him almost implicitly. And he would not betray that trust. And then there was the prophecy that the honorable geezer had told him about, that he would be summoned by someone that he had never seen before. Either way it would seem that he would need to take the boy to Mt. Myoboku but he needed to be sure that that was what the boy wanted.
"What would you have me do?" he asked, spreading his arms in question. An almost painful relief spread over Naruto and he almost leapt for joy. He would help! For a brief moment he opened his mouth, but then he closed it thinking. He had summoned Fukusaku to help him but how could the little toad sage help him? It would be foolish and ignorant to think that he would simply whisk him away back to his time. The toad was powerful but not that powerful.
So his options were limited to what the toad could do and what he needed. He needed proper rest and food, for one thing, and he needed to be sure that where he was, when he was, was all real. And finally he needed guidance. Even if this was real what could he do? He needed to think on this and to speak with a person who could at least point him in the right direction. He needed to see the old geezer toad.
"I need to see the Elder Sage, Fukusaku," Naruto answered and for the first time since meeting him, Naruto's eyes were firm and full of purpose.
Smiling, Fukusaku reached over and grabbed Naruto's coat and said, "Very well." In a puff of white smoke both summoner and summons had disappeared from the small cave. In a loud pop and wisps of white smoke Naruto and Fukusaku both appeared on the lower step of the Elder Sage's dais, where Fukusaku was when Naruto had summoned him. Naruto looks around and sees Shima staring at him in confusion and caution and Naruto tries to smile at her reassuringly. Once it was clear that she wouldn't react Naruto looked up and saw that the Elder Sage was glaring down at him, something that he had never seen from the ancient toad before.
Taking a step forward Naruto begins to introduce himself, "Hey Old geezer, my name is Naruto-" He didn't even get to finish his name. The Elder Sage's arm blurred and all Naruto could see were the pretty-pretty stars that danced just out of his reach. Once his vision cleared he sat up groggily (when had he lain down to begin with?).
"Wh-why did you do that?" he asked, his voice coming out like a drunken slur. "I wasn't channeling anything." Shima turned her head sharply to Fukusaku with an inquiring look. Fukusaku could only shrug his shoulders, neither confirming nor denying the boy's statement. The boy's question only seemed to deepen the Elder Sage's angry grimace.
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" The Elder Sage asked his voice barely lower than a roar. Naruto, however concussed, was never one to back down at the sight of someone's righteous anger.
"No I don't!" he challenged, which caught all three sages off guard but Naruto continued. "How do I know that this isn't some sort of elaborate illusion Madara made especially for me to fuck with my mind?"
"Illusion?" Shima asks, concerned. Even Fukusaku was surprised by that.
"Madara?" The elder asked his concern slightly more palpable than his younger compatriots.
"Yeah, Madara is still alive in this illusionary time travel torture thingy," Naruto answers, nodding as if this were to be common knowledge.
"Explain," commanded the Elder Sage. He knew that there can be a few, very powerful, individuals that can live to such an extent. The Rikuddo Sennin was one such example. If Uchiha Madara was one of those individuals, and nobody knew about it, then things could be very, very bad indeed. Naruto sat up more straightly, the stars from his concussion no longer swimming across his vision.
"Well, to start, I guess we have to go back to before Konoha was founded…" Naruto began. And he told them everything he knew, of the originations of the Uchiha and Senju clans, how they were really the descendants of the children of the Rikuddo Sennin. He spoke of the true foundation of Konoha and how the Uchiha betrayed Madara, causing his century long path of vengeance. He told them that as he was being born Madara interfered and released the Kyuubi from his mother while the seal was weakened, and how his parents used the last of their chakra to reseal the Kyuubi within their new born child.
He spoke of his early childhood, of no friends and cold glares and turned backs. And he never knew why, which hurt the most. He told them of his days as a genin, bonding with his first real friends, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. He told of his training with Jiraiya and of returning to Konoha after three years. Of all the battles with Akatsuki, how he either had to run and hide, which he hated, or to stand and fight them. And finally He spoke of the war; of the two years of hell that followed Madara's declaration at the Kage's summit in Tetsu no Kuni.
It is an hour later when Naruto finally finishes his tale, his mouth dry and Shima is nearly in tears. Fukusaku himself felt pity for the boy, for the tale that was told was just too elaborate for any type of illusion.
"Boy, we're, this is not an illusion," He tries to reason with Naruto, who predictably shook his head in the negative.
"So says the illusion," he says, almost petulantly. Naturally this earns him a slight tap on the head again from the Elder Sage.
"Think Naruto!" The elder says, "If we're an illusion meant to torture you, why did Fukusaku come when you summoned him? Why did he bring you here when you asked for help?" This did get Naruto thinking. Sure there were several convoluted things he could say, but they were just there to prolong the argument, to blind him from seeing any sort of hope. And he was seeing hope now, maybe he didn't know what to do yet, be he knew that he could do something now.
"Besides, isn't there an even worse way to torture you than simply throwing you backwards in time twenty years?" Shima asked, fueling that line of hope in his heart.
"Yeah, my childhood," Naruto says. It would be more in keeping with Madara's style to just erase his memories and toss back to when he was a kid, when everyone hated him for something that he never knew about.
"Whether or not Naruto believes this reality to be true is not the most pressing concern right now," the Elder Sage announced, drawing attention back to the matter at hand. "What is more concerning is what do we do from here for the fates of many have been rewritten by your very arrival, Naruto."
"What should I do?" Naruto asked. The Elder Sage leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, attempting to pierce the veil of the future. Probably. After a moments silence the Elder Sage grunts and sits forward once more.
"I cannot see," he says, "What you do from this point on is up to you, Naruto." Naruto nods in understanding. He bows his head in thought, trying to thin of something but he was so tired. The past three days of no sleep and little to eat had left him drained and a hungry Naruto was not a productive Naruto. As if in agreement Naruto's stomach lets out a surprisingly loud growl, catching him and the toads off guard. Smiling sheepishly, Naruto looks up at the Elder Sage and see that for the first time the ancient toad is smiling at him, giving him a grandfatherly smile like he remembered the toad used to do.
"You may, of course take your time, Naruto-kun," the Elder Sage says, "rest, eat, and think. You have some time to do these things." Naruto smiled in relief and bowed to the Elder Sage.
"Thank you for all your help!" Naruto says. The Elder Sage just chuckles and makes a shooing motion with his hand.
"C'mon, boy," Shima says and she begins to lead him back to where her and Fukusaku's dwelling was, which he knew the way to. They did take a roundabout way in order to avoid the other toads, younger toads. Shima and Fukusaku weren't summoned too often these days by either Jiraiya or Minato but many of the younger toads were and they loved to talk. After a hearty meal (where Fukusaku snuck Naruto human edible foods) Shima pulled out a human sized fuuton, explaining that this is where Jiraiya slept when he underwent his sage training. He didn't exactly relish the thought of sleeping in the same place where his former teacher slept but it appeared to have been cleaned since then so he just manned up and fell onto the fuuton.
He was out before his head hit the soft cloth.
The Next Day
KABOOM!
The sudden explosion rocked Shima and Fukusaku's dwelling, startling them awake while shaking everything of value down off of the walls. They run out into the predawn light in nothing but their sleep wear and come find an incredibly puzzling sight. There Naruto was charging head first into a literal horde of his himself, an odd circle of wind wrapped around his arms and hands as he systematically went about destroying his insta-army.
Naruto had just carved his way through one gang of kage bunshin and was considering how to go through the next wave when a beige blur caught his attention. He turned his head just in time to take a nature energy expulsion staff directly to his right temple. With the cracking sound wood can only give off when striking something obstinately hard, Naruto was given another basic introduction to Mother Earth. Naruto sat up wobbly, rubbing the sizable lump that was slowly growing on the side of his head.
"Wh-why did you do that?" Naruto asked, looking over at the toads. They were glaring at him, or only Fukusaku was glaring at him. Shima was boiling over in sleep deprived anger and looked like she wanted to kill him in the most brutal way she could possibly imagine. Neither answered but then a ray of sunlight hit Naruto in the eyes as the sun rose over the mountainous edges of Mt. Myoboku. That was when he remembered almost the exact same lesson when he had first begun his Sage training. Toads were cold blooded creatures and needed the sun to warm their bodies after a night of sleep. Meaning that toads like Fukusaku and Shima preferred to sleep until the sun was higher, getting more heat over a shorter period of time.
"Heheh, sorry," Naruto apologized, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Their looks each downgraded to a scowl from Fukusaku and an 'I'm gonna kill you later' expression from Shima. They both shuffled their way back into their home while Naruto turned around and went deeper in the Mountain, remembering the secluded spot where he always trained and why he needed it to stay alive.
From that point on, everyday was much the same as the first day Naruto woke up on Mt. Myoboku (without waking up two homicidal toads). Naruto would wake up early each day, head out to his spot, and eat whatever foodstuffs that he had hidden away there for breakfast before commencing his training. When he started to train Naruto had no idea what he wanted to do, he just needed to move around and get some of the kinks out of his system. As he battered his way past clone and mushroom stalk alike on that first day he considered the almost untenable position that he was suddenly thrust into.
There wasn't a whole lot that he could do right now but he did have some time before things began to snowball. Stopping the Kyuubi from being pulled out of his mother would be a relatively simple job to do. He knew the time, his birthday, and the place was somewhere around Konoha. He had some time on his side but he needed tools to help him succeed.
That thought made him look down at this gauntlets. Jutsu were tools right?
On the evening the fourth day, Naruto was doing what he usually did the past three days. He was training in his newest jutsu. Ever since he was forced to fight with the rest of the Joint Shinobi Army, Naruto had seen an almost countless number of jutsus and techniques used, and each one had brought with it a hundred different forms of inspiration. But Naruto never had the time to employ these inspirations in practice and only rarely could he find ways to use them in battle. But now he found himself with a surplus of time and what better way of using that time than to create masterpieces of destruction?
"Ready?" Naruto called across the clearing that he was standing in. He was answered by a roar of affirmation by the few hundred clones that he had created standing on the opposite side of the clearing. Nodding to himself, Naruto went through four hand seals in quick succession before calling out his newest technique.
"Fuuton: Kaze Kiwa!" Almost instantly a localized cyclone encircled his hand and forearm, coming to a rapidly spinning point just off the tip of his middle finger. Naruto observed it for several seconds, almost mesmerized in watching its flow, making sure that it wasn't fluctuating or dispersing. The shaking ground drew him away from his observations and as he looked up he saw his self made army charging finally. Smirking savagely he charged right at them, the Kaze Kiwa circling as fiercely.
Combining the chakra extension of the Hein no jutsu with the spinning of the rasengan, Naruto had created a technique that had surprised him in its destructive capabilities. To him the Hein no jutsu was a scalpel, a very precise instrument. On the other end of the spectrum was the rasengan, it did an extraordinary amount of damage in a large area thus it served as his sledgehammer. The Kaze Kiwa fit right in the middle of them. It was precise enough not to do any collateral damage but it was powerful enough to tear down an enemy's defenses with little to no work. It was a beautiful and simple technique, something that he enjoyed using.
Just as Naruto and the clone army clashed, Naruto swung the Kaze Kiwa in an arc in front of him, tearing through the first group of clones with ease. A second wave of clones came right after and each bunshin held a rasengan in hand that was thrust straight at Naruto. Ducking underneath the reaching arms Naruto lashed out with his arm again, this time swinging in a circle and taking out the legs of all the bunshin that was surrounding him.
A series of growing shadows had Naruto rolling to the right, just as three clones crashed into the ground, feet stretched out. As Naruto came back up he was met with a heel kick to his diaphragm, knocking the breath out of him and sending him stumbling backwards. Another clone seized upon his weakness and launched a kick into his kidneys, sending a spike of pain up his spine and pitching him forward. He was able to roughly turn it into a defensive roll, rolling past several bunshin and coming up with a second new technique.
"Fuuton: Kaze Wana!" he called out and almost instantly a hurricane force wind formed, sucking everything in towards Naruto's spinning figure. Drawing inspiration from his battle with Nagato and combining it with a minor wind technique that he picked up during the war Naruto created a technique very much like Nagato's Banshou Tenin.
The sudden winds would rip opponents from the ground, drawing them in towards the center, Naruto. The one draw back to the jutsu was that it had no power to put down an opponent aside from the momentum that they accrued in flying towards him, and against enemies such as the resurrected ninja and the legion of Zetsu such momentum was nowhere near enough. That's why he always followed it up with a second technique.
"Fuuton: Kaze Tate!" Naruto roared once a decent sized clump of Kage Bunshin circled over him and accentuated his roar by sweeping his hands over his head. A gust of wind with the strength to tear buildings apart followed in the wake of his hand sweep, flowing up and into the cloud of shadow clones. Such was the force of the wind shield that the first few clones that it contacted were dispelled instantly, the rest were jettisoned high in to the sky almost becoming indistinct dots in the sky.
"How'd you like that?" Naruto asked arrogantly, placing his fists on his hips and puffing his chest out. The remaining clones were not impressed and made a uniform gesture with their hands and suddenly Naruto finds himself in the middle of a steel storm of kunai and shuriken.
"What the hell?" Naruto screeches as he surges the Kyuubi's chakra through his system and flashes to above the clone army and all the pointy metal. "Time out!" he yells as he lands, catching himself with a few extra arms and walks over to where the remainder of the clones for the day's training stood. "What the hell guys! I said to make it realistic, not 'shove a kunai up my ass'," Naruto berated, though it had little effect on his own likenesses.
"What ever man," one bunshin said disdainfully, "Right now whatever enemies we make will want to kill us, not catch us and suck our demon out like Madara wants to." The clone did have a valid point but it wasn't what Naruto was concerned about right now.
"This was training," Naruto growled out, a tick mark pulsing on his forehead. "It's counterproductive to training if it kills me."
"So, you got out didn't you?" the disdainful clone argued. This time the tick mark pulsed on Naruto's hand and made it spasm, forcing him to slap the back talking clone upside the head and dispelling it. With a deep breath and a quick downward count Naruto turned to the rest of his clones and explained what they were doing again.
"I cannot openly use the Kyuubi's chakra from this point on. It would make me a target for not only Madara but everyone else as well," Naruto explained, "It would be really weird to have two people running around with the Kyuubi's chakra, and we don't want that." The clones all made sounds of affirmation and understanding which inexplicably him made him rub his temples in slow stress relieving circles. They were him weren't they? So why couldn't they understand that simple fact? Closing his eyes for a moment Naruto opened them to see the sun setting behind the mountains of Myoboku.
"All right, that's enough for today," Naruto said, dispelling the remaining clones with a thought. Walking home was a leisurely affair; the cooling breeze ran gently down Naruto's spine, sending a pleasant chill through him. The shadows lengthened and deepened until it was nearly pitch black when he got to Shima and Fukusaku's house, a small cottage like building that gave off a very homey sort feeling to Naruto. As he walked up he saw that Shima had the table already set with "dinner" and with a precursory gulp Naruto walked inside the home.
"Ah, Naruto-chan, right on time!" Shima exclaimed as she set down a platter of centipedes that were arranged in a flower like pattern. "How was your training today?" she asked, giving him a warm look.
"Ah, training was pretty good today, got a lot done," Naruto answered, giving her his own warm look in return. Once she was turned around Naruto gave a glance to Fukusaku who coolly looked at a blank wall space and then back to Naruto. Biting his cheek not to sigh in relief Naruto began "helping" himself to the food on the table. During dinner they made pleasant conversation, mainly Shima getting Naruto to give more accurate details on various parts of Naruto's past life while Fukusaku just sat back and listened. Once they were finished and cleared the table of all dishes Naruto leaned forward in his seat.
"I think I finally know what to do with myself," Naruto announced to which Fukusaku and Shima both looked at him with interest. Taking a deep breath Naruto went on to explain. "The one thing that I never understood was that the Joint Shinobi army consisted of Shinobi from only the five main ninja villages; Konoha, Kumo, Iwa, Suna, and Kiri. Not once did they ask for aid from the several dozen minor villages spread throughout the elemental nations, even when we were deathly low on man power."
"Would they have made a difference?" Fukusaku asked, lighting up a pipe to smoke from.
"Not at first but near the end, yes," Naruto answered, "A minor village may barely come close to a third of a major village in terms of resources and man power but as there are almost two dozen such villages while there are only five major villages that can more than make up for it."
"But what does that have to do with what you are going to do?" Shima asked.
"I'm going to start my own ninja village!" Naruto said, an extremely large and happy smile spreading across his face.
"An ambitious goal, Naruto-chan," Fukusaku said, puffing on his smoke pipe. "Why?" Naruto shrugged at the question.
"I always wanted to be the Hokage," he said, looking distantly at the window on the far wall. "It would be rather unfair to, well, everyone if I sought the Hokage's hat so I will go for the next best thing and be the head of my own ninja village. Plus I can force the issue when things begin to hit the fan."
"What are you going to need to start this village of yours?" Fukusaku asked, deeply interested.
"Well, I'm going to need several things: a country with plenty of resources, a daimyo willing to finance the construction of such a village, a steady supply of missions, and finally a well established trade route."
Nodding in understanding Fukusaku asked, "Do you know of any countries with all of these things?" Naruto shook his head no. Fukusaku was silent for a moment before he turned to Shima, "Ma, why don't you go and get us a map while Naruto-chan and me discuss the finer points some more."
Nodding Shima hopped down from her seat and bounded out of the dining room. The second she was out of sight Fukusaku leapt from his seat and went straight to the blank wall space that he motioned to before, pushing his hand again a particular plank. The plank right next to his hand jumped open without a sound and quicker than a flash Fukusaku's hand darted into the hidden compartment.
Just as fast as his hand entered it exited, this time holding a small traveling sack that he lightly tossed over to Naruto. Deftly catching the bag Naruto stuffed it into his own, larger bag as Fukusaku closed the hidden compartment. They had just resumed their former positions as Shima entered the room, blissfully unaware of what had just transpired.
"So, where shall we start?" Fukusaku asked as they began scouring the map.
"How about Ta no Kuni?" Shima proposed but Naruto shook his.
"Not sure of the specific time but that's where Orochimaru sets up his own personal little village, Otogakure no Sato," Naruto answered. That was probably another thing to add to his list, dealing with the original Orochimaru and somehow stopping Kabuto from becoming Orochimaru 2.0. 'Baby steps, Naruto, baby steps,' he thought to himself.
"Well, why not just take it from him?" Shima asked. Again Naruto shook his head in the negative.
"A fight with one of the legendary Sannin would draw too much attention to me and as I am right now I don't think I can kill him without using the Kyuubi's chakra," Naruto answered her, giving her a sheepish smile, "Even then it would still be up in the air if I could kill him, he's one slippery bastard." Shima nodded her head at his reasoning, Fukusaku and she knew full well what Orochimaru was capable from what they had been told by Jiraiya.
"Then how about Tsume no Kuni?" Fukusaku asked and what followed was an interesting session of Naruto shooting down just about every country either Fukusaku or Shima suggested for one reason or another. It was just as Shima started to pound her head on the table in frustration after Naruto shot down her seventh suggestion, the Land of Noodles (seriously he loved ramen but he wasn't crazy enough about it to start a ninja village where its main export item were noodles.), that he took notice of Nami no Kuni and he remembered what it became after Tazuna built that damn bridge of his.
Smiling he looked up at the toad couple, "I think we have a winner," he said getting their attention almost instantly.
"Where?" Fukusaku asked and Naruto pointed directly to Nami no Kuni on the map, barely bigger than a large spot next to Hi no Kuni.
"It's rather small," Shima commented.
"And it's rather poor. Right now anyways," Naruto said, drawing questioning look from both toads.
"What do you mean?" Fukusaku asked.
"It just needs a bridge," Naruto answered, grinning cheekily.
"A bridge?" Shima asked, confused. Fukusaku also threw in his own questioning look, almost demanding Naruto to explain. Naruto was only too happy to oblige them.
"It all started with my first ever C-rank mission…" Naruto started, telling them of his time in Wave, about how he and his team protected Tazuna the bridge builder from the evil Gatou. Once they had succeeded and moved on Naruto had heard a few things about Wave in his travels with Jiraiya, how it became an economic powerhouse making Tazuna, the Daimyo and just about every other citizen of Wave all absurdly rich. It would be perfect.
"Ok, but how could a single bridge raise an entire country from poverty like that?" Shima asked. Using his pointer and pinky fingers Naruto pointed out two different trade routes, one was a land route running down from Otafuku Gai and into the Tea Country. The second was a sea route that jumped all over the Eastern Sea area, hitting almost every island except for Wave.
"Once the bridge and a road that connects it to the Southern Trade Route is built merchants from all over the eastern area of Hi no Kuni will naturally migrate to a fresh new area that is now easily accessible," Naruto explained, motioning with his hands. He then pointed to the multitudes of Islands that rested in the eastern sea and the various trade routes that crisscrossed between them. Again these lines came close but did not touch Nami. "As soon as the news of the bridge spreads merchants from the eastern sea will also migrate there, not only for the fresh pastures but also because of the embargos that Hi no Kuni has placed on Mizu no Kuni and its satellite nations."
"Hn, the goods won't be able to get into Hi so there'll be a lot of buying and selling going between parties while in Nami," Fukusaku commented.
"Exactly! If the people of Nami can become the middlemen they'll be making money hand over fist!" he said, his excitement bubbling into his voice. Fukusaku and Shima both smiled, happy for the young man but one thing needed to be clear.
"Now, Naruto-kun, this effect this bridge has and will have on the rest of the world, is this something you figured out or is it something you remembered from your time?" Fukusaku asked. Naruto looked at him confusedly.
"Um, this is all stuff that I remembered…" Naruto said, trailing off, wondering where they were going with this.
"How much do you know about economics?" Shima asked in turn, her voice almost resigned.
"…" was Naruto's answer.
"Thought so," Shima said, this time her voice was resigned to the fact that she must now teach Naruto something very important.
"What does it matter?" Naruto asked. Shima just gave him a dry look.
"It's important because you have to know your village's resources," Fukusaku explained, his patience much higher than that of Shima's. "You have to know what you can do with what resources. You need to know how much food you can buy for your forces, and an Island nation like Nami will need to depend on other nations for food if it's going to suddenly start growing a sizable military force."
"And you need to know how much of that food needs to be sent to your village based on how many people are working in your village," Shima added before getting up and hopping back into the room where she got the world map. A minute later she hopped back in with a small stack of books. The top book had a picture of a line zigzagging horizontally across a grid of sorts and its title read Economics for Idiots. A sense of doom settled in Naruto's stomach that he hadn't felt since the last time Iruka tortured him with a pop quiz.
"You had best sit back and prepare yourself Naruto-chan," Shima said, smirking as if she could feel his dread. "If you're serious about this hidden village of your's then the least we can do is shove the basics into your head." She then slid Economics for Idiots across the table to him and his felling of dread multiplied a hundred fold.
"I-I have to study?" Naruto asked in a small voice. Shima and Fukusaku to a lesser extent smiled an evil smile that he had never seen from the toad matriarch.
"Yep. Get crackin' boy!" She said, pulling out her Nature Energy Repulsion Rod and slapped it down onto the slap making Naruto not jump in surprise but slam his head down onto the book in despair.
Over the next three days Naruto would go off and train during the day, making sure to keep away from the other toads by training the in most remote reaches of Myoboku. At night he would return the Shima and Fukusaku's dwelling to be tortured by them with math and economics.
It was the seventh day of his stay in Mt. Myoboku and for once Naruto wasn't in the process of destroying a grove of mushroom trees and a horde of his own Kage Bunshin. Instead he was sitting atop a flat board precariously balanced on a small point of stone a couple dozen feet off the ground. Naruto wasn't overly concerned with his position however as he was meditating, focusing deeper within himself to the point where he no longer smelled the humid evening air of Myoboku but the disgusting sewer stench that was seal in his mind.
Opening his eyes Naruto stood before the door that led to the Kyuubi's seal, barely a sound coming from the other side. It has been nearly ten days since their arrival and Naruto hadn't heard even one single contemptuous whisper from the biju, causing some slight concern for the angry fur ball from Naruto. Not that he would ever openly show it to the fox lord, the Kyuubi hated any and all forms of pity especially from its host.
Opening the door and walking through its threshold brought Naruto to the seal room where the Kyuubi was pinned to the floor by the red gate structures of the seal. The seal its self was much improved since their arrival. Where only one rickety gate barely stood holding the Kyuubi in place, signifying that the seal was barely holding on by a thread, now all of the gates stood firmly in place, restraining the great beast even as it snored blissfully unaware. The Kyuubi too looked much better, its mass returning to its original mountain destroying size, an upgrade from their arrival of skin and bones.
Naruto watched it for a moment, letting its hot breath push and pull him as it breathed. Naruto shook his head ruefully before taking a deep breath.
"OI! FURBALL!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. As his voice finished echoing around the immense cavern the Kyuubi twitched slightly, its brow tightening and loosening as it either tried to fight to keep its sleep or it tried to fight it off. Naruto was willing to bet on the former so he started whistling a jaunty tune, as loud and out of tune as he could possibly make it. It appeared to be working for after a moment of Naruto's incessant whistling the Kyuubi started to pitifully whine and growl like a little child begging its parents for more sleep.
"Would you like five more minutes dear?" his voice oozing with mock sweetness. The Kyuubi gave one last whine/growl before opening a single eyelid to glare at Naruto.
"What?" it growled.
"Just checking up on you, you've been asleep for ten days now," Naruto said sitting down just outside of bite range.
"You try being a being composed almost entirely of chakra and having it all sucked out of you by some failed technique. You'd sleep just as long if you were me," The Kyuubi retorted. "Dare I ask, do you have any idea of what has happened and where we are?" The Kyuubi asked, its tone, while duragatory, was underlined by its own curiosity. The relationship between the two was still rather cold, the Kyuubi being just as stubborn as Naruto did not help things but Naruto could tell that he was beginning to put some cracks in the beast's walls.
"Well, we are currently in Mt. Myoboku," Naruto said and was interrupted by a derisive snort by the Kyuubi. The fox lord held all creatures except its fellow biju in contempt and even then they were just at its tolerance level. The toads, it appears, were down near the bottom of its list. "As for what has happened, that's something of a toss up," Naruto continued, the Kyuubi raising an eyebrow in obvious curiosity but it didn't bother to interrupt. "Either I got taken out and you were extracted thus completing the Juubi and Madara's Moon Eye Plan and for some weird reason only he can explain Madara placed me in a genjutsu where I still have you and I somehow ended up twenty years in the past."
"Sounds plausible," The Kyuubi said, interrupting Naruto, "Except that that makes no sense at all."
"Agreed," Naruto said, nodding, "Which then leaves us with the other option that we are twenty yeas in the past." The Kyuubi just looked at Naruto for several silent seconds and then it abruptly began to laugh uproariously. It did so for several more minutes, Naruto having to step back several steps from the volume of the Kyuubi's laugh. Just as abruptly as it began the Kyuubi stopped and glared at Naruto.
"Impossible," it said, an unusual heat in its voice. "Don't even joke about such things fleshling."
"How come?" Naruto asked, ignoring the all too common insult.
"Because there are laws, laws that your puny brain cannot even begin to hope to grasp that say it is impossible," The Kyuubi answered, the heat from before was still there, cluing Naruto into something but he just couldn't pin it down.
"So then you admit to being a figment of my imagination created by an extremely powerful genjutsu?" Naruto asked. The Kyuubi's only response was to growl, like it wanted to refuse that statement but knew that it would only be leaping into a circular argument that it couldn't win. Smirking Naruto turned to go.
"Feel free to think it over, you'll end up like I did before I summoned the toads," Naruto shot out as he walked out through the door and back to the waking world. The Kyuubi stared after him for a few long minutes, a spark of something almost like fear passing through its heart.
"Impossible…"
and thats that, hope you enjoyed it :) now two things I want to discuss with you my readers:
1) some of you may notice several jutsu that Naruto used, the Kaze Kiwa, Kaze Tate, and the Kaze Wana. these are NOT my original jutsu but tellemucis sundance's original jutsu, but as he is my beta he gave me permission to use them. so there now you can't accuse me of stealing them, if you dont believe me ask tellemicus yourself.
2) I will forewarn you now the 5th chapter will be longer yet because I want to fully plot out the story for this fic. I am mainly going off what tellemicus had plotted out and even that wasnt completed. I am serious about completing this monster but in order to do so I need to know what to write. shouldnt be too long, probably about as long as it took this chapter to get out :P
well thats enough from me, until later folks.
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