Hello world! Hopefully I can get this chapter out quick, I want to start getting this story rolling so that people will actually read it.
If you did make it this far, thank you! I know I'm not a great writer, but hopefully my story idea intrigues you enough…
So a loyal follower of this three-chapter-long fic pointed out that, well, my idea for team changing sucked… And they are correct. But, for purposes of plot, I need to find a way to get Nao onto Team 7, without making it a four man team and without changing everything around too much… Help in the reviews/pms would be appreciated!
Also, you guys will notice that, throughout my writing of this story, I will ask for help a lot. I have a basic idea of how I want the story to work, but beyond that I'm pretty much screwed. The way I write, I just kind of flow. I don't think it out, I just type and type and type until I feel like I'm at a good stopping point. Half the time I don't even reread what I wrote. So, if I mess anything up, please forgive/help me out!
On with the chapter!
There's a lot of dialogue in the second half of the chapter, be prepared for hella explaining.
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Chapter 3: Friends, Enemies, and Something Inbetween
"So, Nao, how was your first week in the Academy?"
Naomasa was in the Hokage's office with Cat and Hound, giving a followup report on his time in the Academy.
"Well, the non-ninja classes are boring and easy. The fighting classes are fun, but I'm really bad at throwing weapons," he said with a laugh, "other than that though, it's going well. People keep telling me that I'm 'almost as good as Sasuke', even though I beat him in spars every night."
"Oh? You train with Sasuke-kun?" the old man asked, exhaling smoke from his pipe as he talked.
"Yeah! After school I go over Naruto's and help him with his clone jutsu, and then I go to Sasuke's compound for Taijutsu training! He might even beat me soon, the guy learns quick!"
"And… as a person, what's he like?"
"Boring, moody, and hates losing. Every time I win he gets worse and worse. I'm afraid he's going to snap. He doesn't even seem to see how much better he's been getting… by the end of the week, I'm pretty sure he'll be able to beat me almost every time."
Hiruzen hummed to himself, and turned to look out the window.
"Hound. I believe that your time in Anbu will not be cut as short as I thought… Cat will be taking your place, and you will be handing your Captain's robes to agent Crane. You have two months of leave, and then I expect you back here for your orders."
Hound left in his usual fashion, leaves going everywhere, and the Hokage's head shook in annoyance.
"If he weren't so damn good at his job, I'd punish him for always leaving these damn leaves in my office."
Everyone laughed, and Hiruzen held up his hand in a half-sign before all the leaves were engulfed in a tiny tornado.
"See, Nao, the way of the ninja is not always about being the strongest or the smartest. It isn't even about being the best. Doing your best is what's most important. Hound puts his all into missions, and makes sure that his team always makes it back home. It's because of his determination to do his best, that he is the best."
"He's the best, Hokage-sama?"
The hokage chuckled, "Between the three of us, I think he's got the potential to be the Hokage one day. If he were a bit more sociable, and focused more on training and less on reading that damn book, he'd be a clear cut candidate.
Now, Nao, I ask you to leave us. I need to speak to Cat for one moment…"
The boy left, leaving the Anbu and the Hokage alone.
"Even though there are still a few months remaining in class, I already have the genin teams picked out from this class. Before Nao's inclusion, I had a team set for Kakashi right here," he said, handing Cat a folder, "I feel that Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura would have made a good team with strong balance. However, now that Nao has been thrown into the mix, I've got a new idea. There is another boy in this village who I want to put into the genin pool…"
Three weeks later…
"Okay, everyone, this concludes the first month of your final semester in this Academy! Today, we have another new student. I'd like for you all to meet Sai!" Iruka-sensei announced.
A pale boy wearing black cutoff pants, a black sweatshirt, and ninja sandals.
"Uh… Hello everyone. I am Sai. I like to paint."
The boy wore a creepy smile, obviously forced, but most of the kids didn't notice it. Shikamaru did, but he didn't really care. Sasuke did, with the same response as Shikamaru. Nao noticed it, and began wondering what the kids deal was if he had to fake a smile on the first day of class.
Naruto however recognized it, it was the same smile he'd been wearing for the majority of his life. False happiness, acting like everything was fine when it really wasn't.
"There's a seat in the back next to Naruto, the blonde boy right there. Please take your seat and we'll get started!"
"Hello Naruto, My name is Sai. It's very nice to meet you!"
"Uh, yeah. Same here. Tell me, what's up with the smile?"
The boy frowned, before quickly putting the smile back on, "What do you mean? I'm happy to be here with people my own age."
"Uh huh, sure. The smile's fake, something's wrong and you don't want anyone to know so you're hiding it. Believe me, I know what it's like."
Sai chose that moment to ignore Naruto, turning his attention to the front board.
"Alright, not like I cared anyway, 'ttebayo."
"Okay guys, we're going to work on the henge today! Everyone will step up here and show off your best henge, but I want you to henge into the person you admire most!"
As they went down, the ninja-in-training all emulated their idols. Many, like the children of the InoShikaCho trio, turned into their parents. Some, like Naruto, turned into the Hokage. A few of the fangirls turned into Sasuke, and even one boy.
Sasuke turned into a tall man with a long ponytail, and lines etched into his face. He only changed for a moment, before transforming into an even taller man wearing a Konoha jounin uniform.
Nao turned into a cat-masked Anbu black ops, which got a nod from Iruka.
Sai turned into another boy around the same age as him, with silver hair and a similar outfit to Sai.
Hinata's transformation was so quick that only three students, Nao Sasuke and Sai, even caught it. She transformed into Naruto, before turning into a woman who looked exactly like herself but older.
Iruka chuckled and thought, "Ahh, young love. If only Naruto had seen that."
The bell rang for lunch, and the kids all ran out of the room.
Over the first month of class, Nao had managed to get his two friends to train together. Eventually, he even convinced them to eat lunch together. Naruto, Sasuke, and Nao were an odd trio, but they stuck together anyway.
"Hey, do you guys think we should invite Sai to eat with us? He seems okay."
Nao and Sasuke shrugged, and Naruto ran off to grab the boy.
"You saw his smile too right? It's the same as Naruto's, hell it might even be more forced."
"Hn."
"You could at least pretend to care sometimes…"
Naruto returned, dragging Sai by the arm.
"I don't want to intrude, you don't have to do this! I'm fine by myself!"
"No one should have to eat alone, dattebayo!"
Sai gave in, and sat down near the other boys.
"Hello…"
"Hey, Sai. How's it goin?"
"Good. School is so much fun!" he said with that same, fake smile.
"Tch. This place is for losers, I should be out of here already."
"Everyone bow down to king Uchiha over there, he's sooo great!"
"I assume you are the first in our class then, Sasuke-san?"
"Hn," he nodded.
"He doesn't like to talk. He's too cooool for that."
"So, if you are first in your class, would you like to spar? I'd like to see where I measure up!"
That same creepy smile accompanied the request, and Sasuke was eager to wipe it off his face.
"Let's go."
The two squared off, with Sai standing straight up and down with one hand raised. Sasuke was in his usual stance, low to the ground and prepared to counter any attack.
"Sasuke vs Sai begins now. FIGHT!" Naruto yelled, purely for dramatic effect.
Sai stepped forward and threw one punch. Sasuke moved to block it perfectly, but in one second he was on the ground.
"I win, I suppose…"
"Wh… What the hell just happened?"
"That guy's so strong! He took out Sasuke-kun in one punch!"
"There's no way an academy student could do that! Maybe he's already a ninja!"
Sasuke just stared in disbelief. Sai held out a hand to help him up, but Sasuke didn't move.
"I saw you. I saw your punch, it was coming straight at me. I should have blocked it perfectly, how did you do that?"
He didn't even notice the tiny splotch of ink on his shirt…
"Naruto, you are never allowed to bring new friends to lunch."
"Ehh? He seemed alright to me, teme! You're just mad that you lost!"
"Wrong. He cheated, and I want to find out how."
"Sasuke's right, Uzu. The kid's fist never connected. I don't know what he used to hit Sasuke, but it wasn't taijutsu."
The orange-clad blonde laughed, "Yeah, and pigs can fly. Maybe he was just too fast for you to follow!"
The two sensible boys looked at each other and nodded, both understanding what they needed to do.
"Hey, I've got some report I have to go do, Iruka-sensei said it was something from before I joined the Academy, and it's required for graduation."
"Yeah, I've got to… go… clothes shopping…"
Nao sighed, "For being such an emotionless, boring guy, you sure suck at lying Sasuke. Even Naruto could never buy that stu-"
"Damn, sounds boring man! I'll see you two tomorrow I guess!"
The boy trotted away in his usual fashion, hands behind his head and a goofy grin on his face.
"Okay, so how are we going to do this? Do we just follow him home or should we try to like predict where he's going to go and cut him off or what?"
"Wow, that's the most you've ever talked. You're going too far dude, too quick. Follow me."
The two boys went to Nao's apartment and, after an impressive feat of stacking garbage cans on top of each other, climbed onto the roof.
"Stay low, your eyes should be the only thing over the lip of the roof. Look at that apartment building across the street."
Lo and behold, Sai stepped out of the last apartment in the line about twenty minutes later. He had a large bag strapped to his back, and was moving quickly in the direction of the Hokage monument.
"Let's go, before he get's out of sight."
The two boys slid down the roof and onto the ground. They began tailing Sai from a distance, stopping at a food stand along the way when Sai turned back and stared at them.
"Do you think he saw us?"
"Probably, but if we just grab the food and stay here for a while, we won't look suspicious."
The two ordered themselves a stick of dango each.
"Is he still there? Do you think we're good?"
"Is who still where?" a voice said from behind the two stalkers.
"Oh! Uh… hey Sai! We're just uh, kind of avoiding Naruto for the day."
"Yeah, he's being really uh, really annoying!"
"So annoying!"
"The annoyingest!"
"Oh… because it seemed as though you were both following me, and only stopped when I turned and saw you. I also saw you on the roof across the street when I exited my apartment. Coincidence?"
"Well, we had just climbed out the window and hopped on to the roof because Naruto was at my front door knocking. We had to escape!"
"Ah… well, what are you going to do now?"
"He's over at my family's compound training I think, so really we can do anything. What are you doing today?"
"Nice! That's perfect!"
"I was on my way to the Hokage Monument. I like to go up there and paint the sunset."
"Oh! That sounds cool, mind if we come? After the last time that he painted the monument pink, Uzu isn't allowed up there so it's the perfect place to hide."
"You may come if you please. I have a question about you though?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"Are you two gay for each other?"
The two looked at each other, and looked at Sai, then back at eachother.
"Dude, gross."
"I've got nothing against guys dating, but I'm not into that…"
"Oh. Okay." Sai said as he turned to walk away.
"So, what do you paint?"
"Anything, but I like nature. It's very calming, and helps my art."
"What do you mean it 'helps your art,' isn't painting your art?"
Sai chuckled and gave Nao another one of those creepy smiles, "I suppose you could say that, yes."
Sai kept walking, leaving the two boys confused and staring at his back.
"He's weird. A little creepy. I don't like it."
"Hn," Sasuke said, too shaken for words.
They looked up and realized Sai had disappeared, and took off after him.
They got to the top of the mountain and saw Sai crouched behind a large tree.
"Hey, wha-hmph" Nao started, before a black snake wrapped itself around his mouth.
"I need you both to be very, very quiet. Something bad is happening. Take cover."
The snakes released the two boys, and they ran behind a large hedge.
Peering over the top of the hedge, the two saw Sai standing in a clearing across from a man with his head wrapped in bandages and holding a cane.
"Sai, you've betrayed me. Did you really think I would let you get away with it?"
"You forced me to fight my own brother to the death, Danzo-sama. How could I let you get away with killing Shin?"
"Ah, but I didn't. You killed him."
Sai mumbled something under his breath, and multiple black animals dove from the trees and attacked Danzo.
The old man disappeared in smoke, and three men in blank white masks attacked Sai. They weren't traditional anbu masks, they weren't shaped like animals and they didn't have any paint on them like normal.
The three men struck Sai, and he disappeared in a splash of black liquid.
"Ink. That's what he hit me with, he can animate ink!"
"Come on, we've got to run. They're after me, and they're sure to have already killed the ninja patrolling this area." Sai said from behind them, pulling on their shirts.
The three boys took off down the road, with Sai making ink clone after ink clone to try and slow the larger ninja down.
"If you make it out and I don't, tell the Hokage that it was Root who killed me, and that Danzo used a shadow clone to provoke me. The three agents names were Yamamoto, Toka, and Rinji."
Nao nodded, and they upped their pace. They were halfway down the mountain when the first ninja caught up to them. The other two had been caught up by the ink clones, and were temporarily immobilized, but the third and largest was standing in their path.
A ninjato appeared in Sai's hands, as well as the enemy ninja's.
"Go. I'll distract him."
"Nope. You need our help."
"Yeah, we aren't leaving you now!"
Sai slid into his stance, "Fine. Long range cover only. Do not engage in close range."
He shot forward, swinging his sword in an upward motion, intending on slicing the attacker in half. The enemy anbu deflected Sai's sword with the flat of his blade, and struck Sai's head with the sword.
Sai stumbled, and to cover him Nao started throwing the few shuriken he had on him. Not expecting the boy to be armed, the anbu was struck by two before dodging the rest. However, Sasuke predicted the dodge and a small fireball met the dark Anbu agent, covering him in smoke and flame.
Sai recovered, and quickly pulled out a small scroll and a paintbrush. Two seconds later, and a fully grown tiger flew from the paper and struck the anbu in the chest just as he emerged from the smoke.
"Quickly now, Nao and Sasuke, we must run!"
The three tore down the mountain like bats shot out from hell. The tiger was playing keepaway with the enemy, dodging just out of reach and keeping him distracted.
Near the bottom of the hill, the boys saw Naruto standing there with an angry look on his face.
"You guys ditched me to hang out with the new guy, huh! You told me you didn't like him, it was just a lie!"
"Not now Uzu, we have to get into the town!"
Naruto looked at him in anger before glancing behind his friends. His eyes widened, and he jumped forward.
"DUCK!"
Sasuke grabbed Nao, pulling him to the ground. Both boys turned their heads to see their friend get struck with at least a dozen small needles.
"Idiot! Why would you do that!"
Naruto chuckled, falling to his knees, "I guess my body just moved on its own…"
He fell to the ground, and a different anbu stepped out from the trees.
"A traitor, an orphan, a demon, and a boy who should have died with his family. Seems that I get to kill multiple piece of shit kids today…"
It was obviously a girl, the shape of the body and voice gave it away. The woman held four metal needles, senbon, in each hand.
"Toka, these three have done nothing to you! They know nothing! Leave them be."
Sai stepped protectively in front of the three academy students, his sword still drawn. Nao was down on one knee, tears streaming down his face as he stared at the dead body of his first friend. Sasuke… Sasuke was also staring at Naruto's body, but with a different expression.
His head slowly began to raise, leveling itself at Toka, his blood red eyes filled with a fury that none other than the Uchiha could ever match.
"You're dead."
The boy sprang forward, grabbing Sai's sword straight out of his hands as he moved. Toka tried to stop his advance with a wave of senbon, but Sasuke nimbly dodged every single one before reaching the woman.
The sword swung out sloppily and, while the woman knew she should have been able to dodge, the blade bit flesh. Everyone but Sasuke gasped in surprise. An untrained academy student should have never been able to land a hit on an anbu, especially not in his first swing.
"What? Your dodge was so easy to predict, I could have done it with my eyes closed. Now… die."
To her credit, the woman's reflexes kept her alive for a few moments. Every dodge she made was somehow read, every movement she made was met with the sharp edge of Sai's blade.
The last blow came when Toka tried to jump back and flee. She fainted a dodge to the left, and pushed back. The very tip of the blade nicked the woman's neck, severing her jugular and causing her to bleed out in seconds.
"...that's for Naruto you bitch."
He dropped the sword and ran over to his friends fallen body. Sai was already removing the senbon and checking the boy's vitals.
"I don't think he's dead. None of these senbon hit any vital areas. I believe Toka put him in a death-like state to make you think he was dead. I assume she planned to take him to Danzo-sama.
We'll just have to take him to the hospital and hope they can help him.
I'll carry him, we must move quickly, there are still two more ninja out there."
Luckily, they were able to make it back to town without any more confrontation. Even luckier, they ran into Kakashi while trying to carry Naruto to the hospital.
"What happened to you four?"
"Kakashi-san, there are two Root Anbu in the woods leading up to the top of the monument. The third was killed by Sasuke, but the others are still loose. Naruto was struck by one, and I believe he was put into a near-death state. He needs medical attention, immediately."
Kakashi made one shadow clone, which disappeared instantly. No leaves followed it, meaning Kakashi was distracted.
"Give the boy to me, and get to the Hokage's office. I'll take care of Naruto."
The three boys nodded, running toward the office.
"I know a shortcut, but it's risky. If those two followed us, an alleyway is the perfect place to ambush us."
"Doesn't matter, we need to get there quickly, before the enemy removes all proof of them being in the woods. Worth the risk, lead the way."
Nao led them on a weird path, sprinting through dark alleyways and climbing over fences. Eventually, they came to a long alley, filled with piles of garbage.
"If they're waiting for us, it'll be here."
"Sasuke… I'll need my sword back now."
The Uchiha went to hand Sai the sword, but dropped it halfway and collapsed.
"What the hell happened?"
"It's his sharingan. He kept them active the whole time, whether he didn't know how to turn them off or chose not to I don't know…"
"I'll carry him, he's light. I'll go first, you cover me from behind."
Nao picked his friend up and slung him over his shoulder.
"Ready?" Nao nodded, "Then let's move."
The two took off, the alleyway seemed to grow longer with every step they took.
Halfway through, Sai grabbed Nao and threw him to the ground. A volley of Kunai flew over the boys' heads, and would have impaled them had Sai not acted.
Both of the enemy Anbu were standing at the end of the alley, blocking the way that Sai and Nao needed to go.
"You're not making it through, traitor. And you, creepy-eyes, you're coming with us."
Nao nudged Sai's leg, as he was still on the ground, and whispered "There are two more on the roof above us, and four hiding behind us. I think they're transformed as garbage cans…"
"Well… the only way out… is DOWN!"
Sai formed a dozen handsigns and then grabbed his friends.
"Dotun: Headhunter!"
The three boys sunk underground, and Sai pulled them ten feet to the left into a building.
They emerged from the ground in the basement, and Sai fell to his knees.
"Running… low on… chakra…"
"I must say Sai, that was clever. It's too bad that I'm the one who taught you that!"
Eight anbu emerged from the walls all around them, blocking all exits. Sai dropped a smoke pellet and began rapidly painting onto his scroll, releasing snake after snake from the paper. He got to a dozen before collapsing in exhaustion.
A gust of wind blew through the room, removing the smoke and revealing Nao standing alone between his two collapsed friends.
"Your friends are dead, and you're ours."
Nao thought back to his training with Yamato.
"Remember, chakra can do amazing things when you're in a pinch. It's often when you're in a serious pinch that your body can do amazing things. Chakra is no different. When there's no option left, trust in yourself and do your best. That's all you really can do."
Nao closed his eyes and let his body relax. He felt for his chakra, and focused it into his head.
"Come on Nao, you have to think of something! Your friends are going to die here! Think. Think. Think. THINK!"
A flash lit up the room, a white spark of light that originated just behind Nao. Many of the Anbu dissipated upon seeing the flash, with only one left standing. He was holding his eyes and screaming in pain.
"Hello Nao."
The boy whirled around and saw a tall man wearing a white mask, and holding a staff in his hand. The mask had three comma marks in a circle on the brow, and two eye holes. One had a red eye similar to the one he had seen in Sasuke's own eyes, and the other was a purple-blue and filled with rings.
"I am Obito, and I'm here to give you someth… oh, who's this?"
The Root Anbu recovered from the flashbang-like burst of light and began going through handsigns.
"Uh, no. Sorry, this is for Nao's ears only," he said as he raised his hand in the direction of the man, "Shinra Tensei."
The Anbu flew into the wall at devastating speeds, going straight through it and into the next room. The wall collapsed on top of him, leaving him either dead or severely incapacitated.
"Now, where was I… Ah yes. I am Obito, and I'm from another dimension!"
"Uh… what the hell are you talking about?"
Obito chuckled, and pulled off his mask, "Tell me, do you see how my eye has an odd pattern in it? The red one."
"Yeah, and?"
"Well, that eye enables me to become intangible by storing my body in another dimension. If I still had it, my other sharingan would have been able to absorb objects into this dimension and shoot them back out whenever I pleased."
"Cool. Now, why are you here and what do you want from me? I'm in a bit of a hurry…"
"Right, sorry, I'm easily distracted. I discovered one day that not only could I move myself between the real world and my personal pocket dimension, but I can also travel to another dimension that neighbors my own. By doing so, I came to this world and discovered that this dimension was currently going through events that happened a few years before in my own world. So, I decided to alter the events a bit in order to save some people I care about."
"Ohhhhkay… who are you trying to save then?"
"The boy at your feet, on the left, as well as the one who always wears orange. Naruto and Sasuke."
"Huh. I don't believe a word you're saying."
Obito laughed, "I didn't think you would, but I promise I'm telling the truth. See, in my world, I have just committed a very, very bad act. I killed many that I used to call comrades. I hurt people for no honest reason, and was absolutely insane.
A friend of yours, Naruto, convinced me to change sides and correct my misdeeds. We managed to win the day, but I still couldn't bring back those I had killed. I locked myself into my dimension, and began to ponder what I could do to redeem myself. It was during my meditation that I felt a foreign source of chakra deep in my dimension, so far away that I had never felt it before. It was this world, and I began to explore it. That brings me back to what I said earlier, and now you know the whole story."
Nao sighed, and gave in, "Alright… so what do you want me to do about this?"
"Well… I ruined Naruto's life. The same goes for Sasuke. I'd like to try and correct that, and so I have written a scroll for you…"
The man handed Nao a large scroll, with line after line of text.
"You will use this to help your friends. While you are doing this, I will be traveling this world searching for any differences from mine and I will periodically update you on what to do… Good luck!"
The man was enveloped in a swirl, and disappeared.
"Shit."
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That was a lot of dialogue. And a lot of explaining.
It's probably very confusing, and honestly I feel that this chapter was pretty dumb. If it was, let me know and I'll rewrite it.
IF you have any questions, send me a pm. I'll try to help you out.
Thanks for the read!
Hn.