A New Hope
disclaimer; I don't own naruto
The month was nearly over and soon the last part of the chunin exams would begin. Minato and Naruto have been training with Jiraiya the whole time, well mostly Naruto, Minato was catching up with his old sensei and practicing things he knew from his past life. Sasuke has been training vigorously with Kakashi in order to be able to take on Gaara. He never complained and was always giving his best, Kakashi never said it, but he was proud of how far Sasuke came, in both training and socially. Sakura has been training as well and much to everyone's surprise, her teacher is none other than Hiruzen Sarutobi.
When Sakura had heard that Naruto and Minato would be training with the Toad Sage and Sasuke would be training with Kakashi, she was distraught and unsure who to turn to. Minato, noticed this and told her she should go to the Hokage and see if he had a jounin or high rank ninja available that could teach her, to which she was grateful for the advise. When she got there and asked for a sensei, Sarutobi paused for a few moments and then told her he would be willing to teach her. Sakura was floored. The Hokage was willing to teach her? When she asked why, he responded with,
" I've read your file and know your areas of expertise, as well as your weaknesses, given your potential I would like to offer assistance. I am also curious on how you were able to perform a technique, that only my previous student knew how to execute."
So, after getting the needed supplies for training, weights, new weapons, and chakra infinity paper, the following day she began learning, while Naruto, Minato, and Sasuke went off to some remote area to train. There's only two days left and the closer the day comes, the more anxious the competitors are. But, some are for completely different reasons.
" Minato." called Jiraiya. Naruto was working on his ninjutsu and Minato had just finished practicing his own moves. Minato turned towards his sensei." What's got you so distracted?"
" Orochimaru. I know the snake is planning something, with all the foreigners that's gonna be at the finals, it would be a great opportunity to sneak in."
" I see your point. When we get back in tomorrow, why don't you talk to sensei, I'm sure the two of you can think of something."
" Ah." Minato replied, but still not satisfied. He hated the thought of someone trying to destroy the village, his village. Not only that, the one who wants to destroy the village wants Sasuke and until Minato got in contact with Itachi, it stands that Sasuke is the last Uchiha Konoha has. If Orochimaru is able to get his hands on him and corrupt him, Itachi might possibly die in the future, further killing off the clan.
Plus, there's still the masked man, from 12 years ago. When Minato brought it up to Sarutobi, the man said no evidence was found about another person being there. The elders blamed the Uchihas, causing them to plan a coup, and ended in Itachi massacring the clan. Whoever the masked man was, was an Uchiha and not only that he had to have known Minato's abilities pretty well to counter nearly every attack.
" NII-SAN!" screamed Naruto, only a few feet from Minato.
Startled, Minato flinched." Yes, Naruto?"
" I was wondering if you could help me with my taijutsu."
" What about your ninjutsu?"
" Ero sennin, said to take a break for now, so that my reserves will not be completely depleted, seeing as I have been practicing all day. But with the finals two days away, I didn't want to slack off, so..." he trailed off looking hopeful.
Minato smiled and ruffled his hair. 'Naruto really has come a long way. All of Team 7 has and I'm glad I was able to be there for them.' Minato's face then changed to a determined one.' I will protect these kids with my life and will not make the same mistakes I did with my team.' he swore to himself." Let's get practicing, before day light's out."
" Alright!" cheered Naruto.
" Again, Sasuke!" commanded Kakashi. he watched as Sasuke got up and got in a battle ready position. It was Sasuke versus three of his shadow clones. Kakashi's clones have been teasing and ridiculing Sasuke the whole time he's been sparing them, which only proceeds to make him angry and cause him to attack them with hate.
" You need to get better control on your hate and rage. If you allow your opponent's words to get to you, your fighting get's sloppy and your moves predictable. You need to ignore the insults and focus on your opponents moves."
" I know!" Sasuke hissed. The words the clones were using, "foolish", "weak", and "pathetic", are the same words used by him, on that night. When Sasuke is reminded of him, his blood boils, fist clench, and teeth grind at the memories. No at the nightmares he experienced, thanks to that man. He wants the nightmares to stop, he wants the pain to go away, he wants the one responsible for all of this dead, and he wants to be the one to do it. He will avenge his clan and to do that, he needs to get stronger. Stronger than anyone, who would try to stand in his way and stronger than his target.
" Sasuke." Kakashi's voice cut in." Take a moment to count back from 10, take deep breaths, and then we will go again."
Sasuke nodded. He will not rest, till he has had his revenge.
Sakura had just finished her training, with Sarutobi and was now meditating. She found that it was a great cool off, it help with her developing sensory abilities, and she regained chakra faster, than by just sleeping or walking around. She also practice chakra manipulation more often, ever since she was able to concentrate it into her fist and release it. On the night of the preliminaries, Sakura had asked her Inner, how she was able to do that and he Inner responded by saying,
OooO
' Since were able to concentrate it in our feet to stick to objects and for a burst of speed, I figured we could try it for a burst of strength. Although, I would not use the technique, until we're more properly trained.'
'Why?'
' Because the only reason you didn't suffer from chakra burns and hurt you hands, was because I took most of the damage. However, your fist still ached when you went back up to the railing didn't it?'
' Yeah, I sent a bit of healing chakra to sooth some of the pain, but I didn't have enough. Even now, they kinda ache.' she replied shaking her hands a bit before crawling into bed.' Do you think we should try learning it?'
' Hell yeah! But, you need to build up your own strength first and gain more chakra, otherwise you could collapse after using the technique several times and trying to heal yourself. However that will be a side project, we still need to find a teacher and further develop the skills we have. And hopefully learn some new ninjutsu, we learned Kakashi-sensei's head hunter jutsu, so we might be affiliated with earth, but we need to test it out soon.'
' Yeah, I'll talk to someone about it in the morning, right now I'm tired.' Sakura responded yawning.
' Night, Outer.'
' Night.'
OooO
She had discovered her elements were water and earth as a secondary, Sarutobi began teaching her few jutsus, that she was capable of learning in the short month. Sakura, continued meditating for another hour. Transferring her chakra from one arm to the other, from one leg to the other, and trying to split it in two, to move both at different ends. She has been practicing this for a month and is getting better at it, but still falters here and there. This exercise helps her manipulation and deepens her reserves, if she does it long enough and often enough.
" Well pinky, you look like you've been training hard." a gruff voice spoke a few meters behind her.
Sakura's eyes flew open and she spun around, with a kunai in hand, while in a fighting stance.
" Your reaction time has improved, Sakura-san." commented a soft voice.
" Who are you two?" they seemed a bit off. A tall brown-haired man, who looked to be in his 30s, wearing grey pants, a white long sleeve shirt, and grey sandals. Next to him was a short, long-haired, blonde boy, who had to be about 14, he was wearing brown pants, a light blue t-shirt, and blue standard sandals. Something about these two seemed familiar.
" Are you going to stand there and stare at us all day, cause if so, I'm going back to the hotel." the older man spoke.
Sakura narrowed her eyes." You never answered my question."
The teenager looked around, before nodding to the brown-haired man. They both did a release sign and hen they did, in the strangers place was Zabuza and Haku, still in the same clothes.
" What are you two doing here?" asked a surprised Sakura.
" Heh, we got permission from your Kage, after he received a report about our great behavior these past few months. ANBU are watching us, but as long as we stay hidden, we are free to watch the finals. So, who made it?" questioned Zabuza.
Sakura smiled." We all did."
" Congratulations, Sakura-san." spoke Haku.
" Thank you and please just call me Sakura."
" As long as you do the same for me. Sorry, if we interrupted your training."
" No need to be, I already finished and was just meditating."
" We'll be looking forward to seeing how you brats do. Speaking of which, where are the other three?" asked Zabuza.
" They're all off training in remote areas, but should be back tomorrow. What have you two been up to?"
" We've been helping out around the Land of Waves and after coming here, we plan on going to Kiri, to see the new Mizukage. Hopefully, the next time you see us, we will be Mist shinobi, instead of rogue ones." said Haku.
After reapplying their genjutsu, Sakura, Haku, and Zabuza went to Ichiraku's to continue their conversation.
Today was the day. Thought Minato, as Naruto and he finished getting ready. After a tense 48 hours, it is now time for the Chunin Exam finals. He had spoken with the Hokage and there was a report of a break in at the vaults, however with tighter security nothing was stolen, but the person responsible was not caught. Minato made the Sandiame hold on to one of his kunai and instructed Jiraiya to stay close and on guard. Minato himself, would be watching the competitors and looking after Leaf genin competing.
" Nii-san, let's go! Sakura-chan will kill us, if were late!" called Naruto, as he finished eating his breakfast.
" Coming!" replied Minato. He double checked everything and made sure he had his special kunai,, before he left to meet his 'brother.'
OooO
"Sakura-chan." called Kizashi. Sakura turned to look at her father." I just wanted to give you something." he pulled off his cherry blossom necklace and placed it around her neck.
" But Dad, this is your special necklace."
" Indeed it is, however I am giving it to you, because I am proud of you. When you first became a ninja, I was worried you were going to quite after seeing how much work it was or thought you wouldn't take it seriously. But, you proved me wrong, everyday you would go out and practice whatever you learned at the academy that day. You stuck to it and now your training is finally paying off, I could not be prouder of my little girl." he smiled.
Sakura had tears in her eyes, as she rushed to her father and hugged him tight." Thanks, Dad. I'm so happy to hear this and glad I can make you proud."
" Hey, he's not the only one that's proud. I knew you would make it, after all you are a Haruno." grinned Mebuki, as Sakura rushed to hug her as well.
" Now, you go to the arena, Sakura-chan. Your mother and I have some thing we still need to do, but we will be there in time for your match."
" Alright, I'll see you soon, wish me luck." said Sakura as she put on her sandals and bounded for the door.
" Good luck!" wished her parents.
OooO
" Minato, Naruto!" said boys turned and saw Sakura entering the arena.
" Hey Sakura-chan! You excited for the finals to start?" asked Naruto, once Sakura reached them.
" Yeah, but I'm also nervous." she replied, entwining her fingers in front of her.
" Don't be Sakura. From what we heard, you've been training hard and we know you will do great." assured Minato.
" Thanks. By the way, have you guys seen Sasuke? He never came back yesterday and I didn't see him on my way here."
Minato shook his head, while Naruto spoke up.
" I haven't seen him or Kakashi-sensei either. "
" Hopefully he will be here before his match." said Minato, to which Sakura and Naruto nodded. There was a poof and a man in a jounin uniform and bandanna appeared, before the contestants.
" Alright guys, I'm your proctor Shiranui Genma. The matches will start when I say so and will end, when one is not able to fight or if I step in, I want the fighting clean, with no kills. We're going in order, so I want Hyuuga and Uzumaki N. to stay, while the rest of you go up to the competitors box." he instructed.
Minato and Sakura wished Naruto luck, before they left.
" How do you think he'll do?" questioned Sakura as the match began.
" Naruto will win." was all Minato said.
Naruto stared at Neji, who activated his byakugan, for a moment. Then he launched several shuriken and kunai, to which Neji dodged. They began a series of taijutsu, where Naruto barely dodged Neji's attacks, but he was able to slash up Neji's forearm, with a kunai when he created shadow clones.
' His speed increased.' thought Sakura.
However when Naruto created more clones and tricked Neji, he was still unable to hit him, because Neji performed the 8 trigrams palm rotation. But, before he could go in and attack, Naruto performed the Vacuum Wave technique to repel him. It also sliced and caused Neji's headband and bandages. At seeing the mark, Neji begins to explain about his father and destiny, however Naruto refuses to believe him.
Neji, fed up with Naruto's attitude, quickly charges and is able to block Naruto's chakra points. But instead of collapsing, Naruto begins to harness the kyuubi's chakra, surprising everyone.
Ba-thump
Minato placed a hand on his stomach and chest. He felt a strong pulse from within, but he has no idea why. However he does know that whatever it is, it's responding to Naruto as he draws out more of the tailed beast chakra. He starts breathing heavy, as his body heats up. It was getting hotter and hotter and he felt like he was going to burst. It feels like a fire started deep within him and was clawing it's way to the surface. Minato's breaths were becoming shallow and got Sakura's attention.
" Minato." whispered Sakura." Are you alright?" she placed a hand on his face and sent a little probing chakra.
As she did this, Minato felt the heat begin to ebb away and he leaned into her touch.
' What was that?' wondered Minato' I'll have to talk to Sandaime-sama about this, it may be a complication with going through time and being put in a younger body.'
Minato was released from his thoughts, by an explosion.
Both he and Sakura turned to see a huge dust cloud disappearing, to reveal two giant craters. Neji was slowly getting up and stood, however Naruto was still down.
" I told you. Once a failure -" he was cut off by the ground cracking beneath him and a fist upper cutting him.
Naruto appeared and rendered Neji immobile.
" The winner is, Uzumaki Naruto." came Genma's voice.
The crowd cheered and Naruto was beaming.
" Way to go Naruto!" shouted Sakura.
OooO
Not long after, the next match was set to begin. However, Kankuro ended up forfeiting, much to the crowds displeasure and apparently Dosu never showed up either, making the crowd even more furious. So, the match between Shikamaru and Tenten began.
" I wonder what happened to Dosu." said Sakura.
" Ha! He probably got scared after realizing he would never be able to beat, Nii-san." spoke Naruto.
Minato, however was not paying them much attention, because he was too busy looking at Gaara. He noticed that Gaara smiled sadistically, when Dosu was mentioned.' Could he have done something to him?' It was probable, but there was no evidence, so Minato decided to let it go for now.
By the time he turned back to the match, it had already ended, with Shikamaru declared winner.
" That was amazing. Shikamaru used Tenten's own attack against him." spoke an astonished Sakura.
" Eh?" responded Minato.
" He waited for the sun to get to a certain point, then while Tenten was throwing multiple weapons at he, he began to connect to their shadows, to get to Tenten. After that he was soon able to get her to surrender." she clarified.
" Yeah, I was wondering how he'd do against all those weapons." added Naruto.
They all turned as Shikamaru and Tenten entered.
" Congrats Shikamaru and nice job Tenten." said Sakura.
" I didn't think you had it in you, Shikamaru." commented Naruto as he clapped said boy on the back.
" You both performed well." nodded Minato.
ooo
Sakura's match was about to be called, however Sasuke and Kakashi chose that moment to make an entrance. So, the long awaited match between Sasuke and Gaara, had finally begun, much to both competitors excitement. Sasuke shocked many with his speed and ability to dodge Gaara's sand, however when Gaara went into the sand cocoon, Sasuke's strikes prove to be pointless.
'This made be my only shot.' thought sasuke as he ran up the wall and prepared his chidori.' Two times, is my limit. But, this should be able to gt past his sand.' he concluded as he charged down the wall and straight towards Gaara. He's hand was able to bypass the sand and connect to Gaara, because moments later Gaara's ear splitting scream rang out.
Temari and Kakuro grew worried, because there was a possibility that Gaara was losing control and if he did their plans would be ruined.
Sasuke was busy trying to pull his arm out of the sand. He had seen Gaara's chakra change and knew that he would be in trouble, but the sand would not let go. After pulling on his arm relentlessly and using his chidori, he finally able to break free and narrowly avoided a monstrous sized claw, though his arm was damaged.
A roar resounded through the arena, soon followed by a smoke bomb going off near the kages seat. All at once, high rank jounin began to move towards the area, preform seals, and attack near by ninja. Temari and Kankuro jumped down and rushed to Gaara, who hand begun to lower his sand and collapse. Feathers began raining down and putting most to sleep, only Minato, Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Shino remained awake.
" Guys!" shouted Kakashi, as he poofed into the area." Sand and Sound are invading Konoha, I don't know the full situation outside of here, but I do know that panic is breaking out. Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru I want you to go after Sasuke,who just gave chase to the Sand siblings. There will most likely be enemy ninja up ahead."
" But what about Minato?" questioned Sakura.
" He will stay here and fight, now go before it's too late!" he ordered.
They nodded and took off.
Minato met Kakashi's eyes and they nodded as well. Minato honed in on the kunai he gave to Sarutobi and felt the familiar pulling sensation. hen he opened his eyes, he stood behind Sarutobi and could just make out Orochimaru from within the smoke.
" Well, it looks like it's time for the games to begin, Sensei." Orochimaru spoke in a sadistic voice, as four people with Sound headbands appeared and preformed hand signs. A large purple rectangular barrier appeared around the three.
Hiruzen felt Minato's presence behind him and hoped that Orochimaru was none the wiser." Orochimaru, have you come for Sasuke?"
"Why yes I have, but I've also come for personal reasons. And those are to kill you and destroy the Leaf." After he said this, he preformed a few complex hand seals and two coffins appeared." I hope you don't mind I brought some company to keep you occupied." the coffins opened, to reveal the first and second Hokages, Hashirama and Tobirama, much to Hiruzen and Miinato's shock.
" When I created Edo tensin, I did not plan on it being used for this." grumbled the second.
" You should have known better than to mess with death, little brother." chided Hashirama.
" Orochimaru! How were you able to obtain sensei's jutsu?" growled Sarutobi.
" Oh it was slightly difficult when you increased security, but my underlings never fail me. Cause they know what would happen if they do."
Hiruzen quickly resolved to killing his predecessors first." Fire style; Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" he shouted, as he breathed fire that took on a dragon like appearance.
However, Tobirama was able to counter it." Water style; Water Formation Wall!" a huge amount of water appeared and blocked the attack.
Hiruzen knew this would be difficult, beating the both of them as well as Orochimaru, but luckily he had Minato here to help.
" Sasuke!" shouted Sakura as she quickly formed chakra strings to pull Sasuke's body out of the way of Gaara's attack. She had just barely managed and dropped to the ground with Sasuke in her arms.
' His arm is pretty banged up and he has scratches and bruises all over his body. Not to mention he might have a punctured organ. This is not good, he needs medical attention, but...' Sakura trailed off, as she looked at Gaara or part of him. Most of his body is covered in sand and his eyes are black with yellow pupils. When those eyes turned to her, she tensed.
" How dare you get in my way." Gaara snarled in a rough voice, he sounded like he was in pain.
" I'm not gonna just stand by and let you harm my teammate!" she responded, not sure where the courage had come from. ' Most likely from Inner.'
" You'll pay for that. I'll bathe in your blood, then I'll take care of the Uchiha."
Sakura knew she stood no chance against Gaara, especially with Sasuke needing help. So she preformed a few hand signs." Water style; Hiding in the Mist!" a medium sized mist began to form around Sasuke and herself, she then preformed the headhunter jutsu and dug deep and large enough for Sasuke and herself to be able to fit. She knew she didn't have long before the mist cleared and Gaara attacked, so she created an earth clone to fend off Gaara. She could only make one, because she needed to heal Sasuke. Hopefully she could at least stop the bleeding, before Gaara got them.
As the clone left the hole, Sakura heard a voice, causing relief to flow through her.
" Hey! Don't you dare harm my friends!"
Naruto.
I'm gonna stop here only because you know what happens to Naruto and Gaara. Also the thing with Orochimaru will go similar, but end differently.
The next chapter will be a summary of the last few things to happen in part 1, because you already know what happens, so no need to waste several chapters on recap. The chapter will be told via Minato and he will summarize it all through flashbacks mainly. I know some might not agree with this, but the events would not be much different than canon and I don't want you all to reread what you already know. The only real difference will be how things concluded, but Minato will tell you.
After next chapter, part 2 will come into play, however things are gonna get AU. This is where I would like suggestions on what you want to see happen, because I have an overall idea on how I want to play things out, but no real details. Don't give me suggestions now, because you don't know how part 2 will end, but think about it. If you think you know how it will end please keep it to yourself for now. I will try to get the next chapter out by Wednesday, cause I felt not a lot happened in this chapter.
Sorry for the long AN, thanks for reading, and please review.