Was watching Hyakka Hyoran's newest episode (season 2 started recently) and I imagined a similar situation happening in Naruto! Like in Hyakka Hyoran where there are certain samurai who are capable of becoming Master Samurai through various means, so can certain shinobi. Naruto is one of these shinobi. I have not yet created his origins. Whether he's a time-traveler or is simply not the Naruto that was born to Minato and Kushina.
Konohagakure no Sato. The Village Hidden in the Leaves. It was also known as the "greatest" of the Great Five Villages.
A figure standing ten yards from the village's main gates snorted at these thoughts. During the shinobi wars, before the forming of the villages, the warriors who graced the battlegrounds with their mere presence could be considered god-like compared to the softened "shinobi" of today.
This was his thirteenth stop, and he had to wonder if that was a stroke of good luck for him or bad. He was also well aware that Konoha was probably already aware of his reputation.
The redheaded man, who had gone to nearly each and every shinobi village in the Elemental Nations and had challenged their leaders and strongest warriors to a fight. He had defeated everyone that had been put before him.
He had started small, with villages like Kusagakure and Takigakure. Not finding any true challenges there he had gone to Sunagakure, Konoha's main ally, and challenged the Sandaime Kazekage.
Even with his Magnet Release, the Sandaime was defeated practically effortlessly. Afterwards, his son (who was primed to become the Yondaime Kazekage in the near future) was defeated as well, faster than his father had been.
It had surprised the village when Akasuna no Sasori, a notorious puppet-master with questionable goals for his self-proclaimed "art" had given the stranger quite the challenge and had in fact lasted longer than the Kazekage and his son put together.
The stranger had then congratulated Sasori, after defeating him, and had praised his fellow redhead's skills.
His next stop had been in Kirigakure where the stranger gained wide-spread renown when he defeated the Mizukage, Yagura, who was a publicly known jinchuuriki. Even after unleashing his bijuu's yokai against the stranger, Yagura had found himself face-first in the ground while he felt the Yonbi's power leaving him thanks to the seal that was now stamped into the back of his head.
The stranger had then left the village without a word, leaving a –now- clearheaded Mizukage in his wake.
Kumogakure had welcomed the stranger as soon as he arrived at their gates. The Sandaime Raikage had initiated their talks with offers for the redhead to join Kumo, suggesting that the man would be able to have more than one wife (to spread his supposed bloodline), a spot on the council as a clan head, instant Elite-status and more.
The stranger flat-out refused and requested the Sandaime present himself and his strongest to fight him.
Before the eyes of nearly the entire Kumo populace, the Sandaime was felled as his lightning armor was punctured through as if it was naught but paper. Immediately after, A and Killer Bee, an infamous shinobi team, had attacked the redhead in earnest and, though no official statement had been made on the fight, were defeated just as well. Though it's said they pushed the redhead to his limits, forcing him to reveal more of his arsenal.
In Iwa, it was much the same, though the Tsuchikage did not fight.
It was in Amegakure that the redhead's renown was once again increased when he defeated and slew Hanzo. The official story was that the impressive warrior had arrived upon the scene of Hanzo ordering his troops to murder a group of civilians, most of which were women and children. The young warrior appeared between the two groups and challenged Hanzo for the lives of the civilians.
In short order, in reaching Hanzo, the warrior had decimated Hanzo's men with a wide-spread wind technique that had them falling in pieces. He had then proceeded to beat Hanzo into submissions and ended the man's tyranny via decapitation.
Hanzo's head was currently displayed for all to see atop the largest building in Ame.
Now, the redhead stood before Konoha.
"Well, no time like the present. It's time to cut the arrogance of this village in half." With those cryptic words, the redhead released his hold on his chakra and allowed it to flare outwards over the village.
In short order, the teen found himself face-to-face with the Legendary God of Shinobi himself, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
At his sides were the man's teammates from their genin days.
Behind them stood the Sannin, and behind them stood nearly every shinobi of note that Konoha had to offer.
The teen shook his head in disappointment even as his chakra flared to the sides rendering the hidden ANBU teams unconscious, their bodies falling for all to see out of the trees.
"While I applaud your quick response and attempt to either capture or kill me without so much as a word, I can only shake my head for two reasons.' He started without preamble.
The shinobi had all tensed at how quickly and effortlessly nearly two dozen of the village's best were taken out of a fight that hadn't even begun yet.
'For one, nearly all of your best are here before me. What if I had others with me that were hoping for such a response and were not pilfering your village's top secrets as well as executing your top civilian heads as well as taking out as many clan members that were not strong enough to face the threat I possess?"
The Sandaime's eyes widened a bit as he realized this quick show of force had just been turned on its head; before he could issue any orders he was interrupted.
"Worry not, for there is only I. As you should know, I am here for one thing and one thing only."
The teen crossed his arms and waited for the Hokage's response. Seeing this, Hiruzen decided to get things underway, though he did have a few questions.
"Before we continue, I wish to know your name. Though I have heard that you have refused to do so in the other villages, I would like to know who it is that has been making such waves in the Elemental Nations and I can still only marvel at how young you are, or at least appear to be."
"You are well-spoken Hokage. I have no way to prove my age though how I appear is not a trick or an illusion; I am nineteen years old. As for my name, I have never given it because no one has ever truly asked for it. I am Uzumaki Naruto, son of the late Uzukage."
At this there were many gasps of surprise but none so loud as the one that came from Uzumaki Kushina who had quickly broken ranks and rushed forward until she was a step away from the male redhead.
"Truly? Are you truly an Uzumaki? And the son of Uzukage-sama?" She questioned frantically, ignoring the calls from her friends and allies to get away from the man before her. She didn't care for their words however, not even from her Hokage. Here, before her eyes, stood a potential kinsmen and she wanted…no, needed to know if his words were true.
"Yes. I have no reason to lie about my name or heritage though perhaps I should've kept my name to myself seeing as I now stand before this particular village."
Kushina blinked in confusion and leaned back.
"What do you mean by that? What's wrong with Konoha?" Behind her, a few eyes narrowed.
"I suppose nothing is 'wrong' with Konoha, though there is something wrong with their convictions to their allies. After all, where was Konoha when Uzu fell?" His question caused many eyes to widen, none moreso than Kushina who felt like something deep within her had broke.
"I'm not here for any of that. I am here to fight you, Sarutobi Hiruzen. If I had come here before going to Ame, then I would've also challenged your students but if I can beat Hanzo, then the Sannin are no match for me. I will also be challenging Namikaze Minato. A man who can decimate an entire army of enemy nin in less than a minute is someone I wish to pit myself against. None of your other shinobi are worth mentioning."
This declaration, of course, caused many to narrow their eyes in anger at the young man for publicly disparaging their worth as shinobi. The Sannin were amongst those to glare angrily at the young Uzumaki, Jiraiya had felt it was his place to put the brat in his place and had vanished and reappeared behind the boy, an arm cocked back and ready to strike the back of the Uzumaki's head.
Unfortunately for him, and to the shock of those watching, two chains made of chakra exploded around Naruto and struck at Jiraiya. The chains grabbed his readied arm, and one of his legs, before throwing him into, and through, a nearby tree.
Naruto blinked in slight surprise at how quickly Kushina had responded and he was only slightly unnerved at how she hadn't taken her eyes off him. Sighing and patting her gently on the head, he stepped around her to face the Hokage.
"Forgive her; I believe she is in a state of shock and no doubt her chains reacted by themselves. Now, if one of your Sannin cannot handle being attacked by one of your own, then it's even more apparent that they are no match for me. I, Uzumaki Naruto, hereby challenge Sarutobi Hiruzen and Namikaze Naruto each to a match. The winner is declared when his opponent forfeits or is no longer capable of fighting. Any other stipulations you wish to add?"
Hiruzen had been more than a little bit unsettled by the foreign Uzumaki's public declaration of Konoha's disregard of its ally which led to the destruction of Uzu, as well as the sudden, instinctive, actions of Kushina in protecting her kinsmen even if she wasn't yet cognizant of that fact. He stared at the young man for a few moments before nodding slightly.
"Yes, the matches will take place in two days time. I do not know whether or not you plan on staying here in Konoha afterwards, but I assume that young Kushina would like nothing better than to get to know you. I will also be assigning Minato as your guide within this village until our match."
Naruto shrugged, wondering if he should've seen this coming or not. Konoha was more like Kumo than they would like to admit and he knew they would try to use Kushina to get him to stay. He wouldn't deny that he wanted to find out what type of person his kin had grown up to be outside of Uzu.
"I agree, though I will warn you. As has been the norm for practically every other village I have entered, I will not entertain any attempts to coerce me into joining this village. I will not bother to listen to any marriage proposals or even donor proposals. I, especially, will not suffer fools who attempt to attack me either overtly or from the shadows. I am not implying that I expect an attack but I am simply being preemptive in the event that such an incident may occur so no actions will be taken against me for defending myself."
Hiruzen blinked at the, to him, random warnings the teen had gave though he supposed he could understand. Warily he nodded but quickly added his own opinion to the matter.
"If you are attacked while staying within our walls, I will not attempt to punish you for defending yourself though I do ask that you spare the attacker's life and bring him to me. I am more than sure of your ability to accomplish both."
Naruto nodded hiss agreement before turning to look back at Kushina who was slowly coming back to her senses. Placing a hand on her shoulder, gaining her attention, he turned to face the Hokage and then Minato.
"I'm gonna go find some place to eat, most likely ramen." With that the two redheads vanished in a swirl of water. Minato who had been watching the foreign Uzumaki warily suddenly jumped into action when Naruto left along with Kushina. He wasn't exactly sure of his feelings yet but he did know he felt something for Kushina and he could easily see how someone who had believed she was the last of her clan would jump at the chance to bring Naruto into her life; whether as a romantic partner or as a close friend he wasn't sure, no one could ever be sure when it came to how Kushina's mind worked.
Remembering Naruto's words about potentially going to eat ramen, Minato activated one of his Hiraishin markers and left in a flash of yellow to where a certain stand he frequented was located.
The gathered shinobi all slowly began to disperse at a gesture from the Sandaime though Koharu, Homura and Danzo stayed behind. There was going to be many discussions over the next two days. Such a strong young man, the last male of his clan, and he was now here in Konoha. His obvious dislike for Konoha due to Uzu's fall was apparent but the past was the past, perhaps he could be convinced to "bury the hatchet" so-to-speak and join Konoha proper. After all, one of his clansmen was here and the fact that she was a female and single swam in the minds of the four old friends.
After exchanging looks with the other three, Hiruzen looked upon his village and spoke.
"This is a situation that must be handled very carefully or we could lose any chance at gaining him as well as losing Kushina. If there is one thing that I know, however, is that we have not even begun to see beyond the surface of Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto is an Uzumaki through and through, hence the red-hair. But that doesn't mean I couldn't change it to where he is from the future or an alternate universe or something else. He'll have some similar personality quirks from his canon self but nothing too much. It's kinda hard to pin down how an Uzumaki naturally acts when you have examples such as Nagato, Karin, Mito and Kushina. Karin and Kushina are loud and quick-to-anger. Mito was dignified and Nagato was bat-shit crazy.
I didn't hint at it here, but Naruto is this world's counter-part to Master Samurai. He doesn't have a lord though, he is capable of "changing" on his own. The one thing I didn't put in here is Naruto's disgust for what the shinobi world has fallen too. In only a century, the state of shinobi had fallen from being legendary and awe-inspiring like Hashirama, Tobirama, Madara, Mito and the rest of the shinobi populace to only having a hand-full of notable shinobi and they are mostly all spread out.
Now, I know it seems like Naruto is godly right now seeing as he just went around and beat everyone he fought, and easily too. This was intentional. The world is going to change soon because of his arrival. Other "Master Shinobi"(going with this name for now) are going to start popping up. Some might be allies to Naruto while others will be enemies and of course the handful of neutrals.
As for Naruto and Kushina, because I know someone is eventually going to ask. They aren't mother and son here, and if I decide that is going to be the case despite my words just now, then they wont be a pairing...most likely...probably...maybe...I don't know. Whatever.
I don't know if Kushina will also become a Master Shinobi, or maybe Minato. Not sure yet, just wrote this today after thinking about it for a few moments.