Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Thanks for all the reviews. I really appreciate it. Sorry for the long wait and I will try and be quicker in the future.
Without further talk. Here is the next installment of Leaf Warriors.
Hope you all like it.
'Normal Thoughts/Flashback'
'KYUUBI THOUGHTS'
'summons thoughts/Inner Sakura'
"KYUUBI SPEAKS"
"Normal People Speak"
C-Rank….Finally!!
A week had passed since Naruto was discharged from the hospital. It was never easy to see the triumphant looks of the hospital staff as he walked out the door. Triumph over the fact that they were not forced to treat a demon anymore. But he didn't care about that anymore, because the whole village would come to see him in a different light soon enough.
During his talk with the Hokage, he had realized that he was Shikamaru's cousin and he was absolutely brimming with excitement at meeting them now. The Hokage had calmed him down and told him that it would be unwise to tell people other than his closest friends, because the people would figure everything out, thereby leading to lots of assassination attempts.
It was because of that conversation with the Hokage that he was currently sitting on top of the Yondaime's head on the Hokage mountain. It was his own space away from the world where he could think. Watching clouds with Shikamaru around the Nara deer was cool, but this was the place that held the most solace for him.
He definitely had a lot to think about.
'Where do I start?' Naruto questioned. 'Over the past few weeks, I have learnt about Kyuubi, my family, and my bloodline limit. I have met my mothers family and made more friends.' Naruto thought while a small smile appeared on his face.
Hanging out with different members of the rookie 9 and Konohamaru corps had given Naruto a lot to protect. Add that to his first week with the Nara family made Naruto realize that his list of people to protect was growing rapidly. Thinking about the happy week he had spent with the Nara family made him grudgingly acknowledge the being that caused these developments.
Kyuubi!
'So, the Kyuubi was right. As much as I can come up with battle plans and learn jutsu, I am still weak. Why? Jiji, basically re-enforced everything Kyuubi said and I can not help but feel they are both right' Naruto thought.
Flashback.
"Nara Naiya? So does this mean I am related to Shikamaru?" Naruto asked with barely contained joy.
"Hai, Naruto-kun" Sandaime said without missing a beat.
"Hahaha, people will finally start to respect me now that they will know I have a family, and one such as the Nara clan just makes me that much greater." Naruto said with joy.
The Sandaime smiled sadly before replying "No Naruto-kun. You can only tell your closest friends and new family about this. It is for your own good."
Anger flashed in Naruto's eyes. Anger at Kyuubi's words, anger at the Hokage for withholding this from him for so long, anger at himself for his own lack of insight.
Through gritted teeth, Naruto asked "Why?"
The Hokage put on a serious face as he looked at his subordinate "Because people will figure out who your father was, and you would be the target of many assassination attempts."
"Ha, you are a few years too late to be worrying about that old man." Naruto said.
'So he still remembers that.' Saddened by Naruto's words and his own lack of authority and control over his people, Sarutobi replied "I am truly sorry for what happened in the past Naruto-kun, but we have to look to the future now…..You deserve acknowledgment more than anyone in this village. But you have to realize that there is no guarantee that they will accept you, and you risk losing the few people that already acknowledge you. Because the assassination attempts will not only be for you, but for your family and friends as well."
"Tch, like you have a better idea jiji….Why don't you just order me not to talk to the Nara's…..Hell, why don't you just sentence me to death right now, since my happiness means so little to you." Naruto said while looking the Hokage straight in the eye with a deathly glare.
Closing his aged eyes, the Sandaime let out a grim chuckle which made Naruto realize just how old he was.
'Is that….is that a tear?' Naruto thought in shock, as his mood took a 180 degree turn. "Gomen Hokage-sama. I didn't mean to…."
"No Naruto-kun, I am sorry…for not being there for you in your time of trouble. I may be an old man, but I am still Hokage and need to watch over everyone in this whole village equally." Sarutobi said. "I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
"Hai, I forgive you Hokage-sama." Naruto said with trepidation.
Nodding his head and looking at Naruto, the Hokage spoke again " A word of advice. You are one of the most gifted children this village has ever produced and you have been through a lot of struggles in your life. But do not waste your potential by becoming arrogant, proud, and believing that the village owes you something. Forget the past and live for the future, Naruto-kun." the Hokage said with a small smile as he started walking out the door.
Naruto was currently sorting out what the Hokage said in his mind, but shoved everthing backwards to ask the Hokage one last question.
"Jiji…" Seeing that the Hokage had stopped and turned to look at him, Naruto continued "Do you think they are proud of me?"
The Hokage looked at him in surprise at the question, before regaining his composure.
"No Naruto-kun, I do not think they are proud of you" The hokage said while turning around again…a small smile tugging at his lips as Naruto's head fell "I know they are proud of you."
"….." Naruto looked up with wide eyes, in time to see the Hokage's retreating back and swaying robes which held a symbol in kanji. Awed by the kanji and the power it represented, Naruto gathered his thoughts. 'Fire, huh? Arigatou jiji. I will definitely protect this village, and become greater than all the Hokages.'
Turning his eyes towards the window, Naruto looked at the night sky that was riddled with stars.
'A shooting star. Beautiful….'
Getting up from the bed, Naruto made a hand sign that was becoming second nature for him.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu." he whispered.
Two clones soundlessly popped beside him. Already knowing their orders, they wordlessly nodded to Naruto and started performing their duties. The first one walked to the door and watched for any hospital personnel who wanted to check on Naruto. The second stood before Naruto and watched as a seal was drawn over his heart. After a few minutes, the seal was done and Naruto applied chakra to the seal.
Standing back and admiring his handiwork, Naruto nodded to himself because he could see no noticeable changes in the bunshin. The scrolls Kakashi had gotten him on seals were bringing in their rewards. Cautiously, Naruto and the seal clone started switching roles. All the needles and life support machines were carefully transferred from one person to another. After that was completed, the real Naruto gathered all his stuff and hopped unto the window. Looking back into the room, Naruto nodded to the two bunshins and disappeared into the night.
He had a lot of training and thinking to do.
The next morning, Several ANBU squads reported that they saw several thousand blond, black and orange blurs at different places around the village at different times. Unfortunately, no one could manage to catch this elusive blur.
And the only person who wore those kind of clothes and could pull off such techniques without dieing of exhaustion, was sleeping in the hospital the whole time.
Flashback ends.
Smiling at the fact that he had fooled so many high level shinobi in one day, Naruto decided to stick to the better memories of the week.
The next day, he had been discharged from the hospital and walked to the Nara compound with the Sandaime. Naruto had been almost awestruck at the fact that everyone there had been cordial and friendly with him as he walked by, even the deer had seemed accepting of him. When he had questioned the Sandaime, he had received a curt answer.
"They are naturally very understanding people, and do not judge without proper knowledge. I have never spoken to them before about you, so you can rest assured that this was not planned."
They had eventually arrived at Shikamaru's house and the Hokage had called a meeting consisting of all the Nara's. It was quite a shock seeing so many shinobi and deer gathered around him, and no killing intent whatsoever in the air. He was even more astonished at how far the Nara's could open their eyes when they were shocked. It was comical to see wide human eyes and wide deer eyes next to each other.
'It seems kaa-chan was loved very much in our family and the village.' Naruto thought reminiscing at how all the women had looked him up and down and basically made him eat healthier food. When he had questioned them, they had all chorused.
"Because you have been eating ramen all your life and are seriously malnourished" which made Naruto start considering Shikamaru's 'all women are troublesome' phrase.
The men just gave respectful bows and small smiles which were returned. Shikaku had walked up to him and ruffled his hair. It was a touching moment altogether.
During the week, Naruto had been made to do all sorts of things that were common in the Nara family. Take care of the deer, play Shougi and learn enough clan jutsu to help you out in your missions. All these activities were undertaken by regular Naruto clones and the occasional seal-clone for tougher tasks.
The real Naruto himself usually went to his teams training ground and sparred with his team who knew next to nothing about what was going on in other parts of the village, except Sasuke. After assimilating all the information the Naruto bunshins had gathered during the day, Naruto would tell Sasuke the important information relevant to both of them. Therefore, they always knew what was going on around the village and the latest rumors. It also helped their information gathering skills.
Speaking of which….Naruto who was walking down a busy street, just halted his walk back to the Nara clan house.
'Seems like the bunshin I sent to gather information since I heard about our C-rank mission has dispelled itself.' Naruto thought while sorting through the memories. 'Interesting…Sasuke and Sakura may want to hear about this.'
Naruto changed course and started running towards the Uchiha mansion as fast as his legs could carry him. It would seem that their mission to investigate the disappearance of several people from the grass country border with Water and fire country was going to be very interesting.
They would probably have to pack big for this one, because the mission had a high possibility of going very wrong. Upper A to lower S-class wrong.
A simple C-class mission was all her team had asked for. Not some mission made in hell and assigned to genin level shinobi and their rookie jounin sensei.
They had the chance to back out of the mission after they had encountered the Demon brothers. Her better judgment had told her to forfeit the mission, but Tazuna's story had compelled her to ask that the mission continue. She also continued because she had something to prove to her father and Naruto. Prove that she was strong enough to lead her clan now. Strong enough to shoulder Naruto's burden alongside him. Quickly shoving those thoughts to the back of her mind because of the situation her team were in, Hinata focused on the battle. After all, she was probably their greatest chance at survival.
Hinata started searching in the mist for the shinobi nicknamed the 'demon of the bloody mist'. Her abilities were crucial at this point because she was the only one who could see within the mist. It seemed the shinobi in front of them naturally smelled like water which nullified Kiba's senses, and Shino's bugs were pretty much useless in the mist. Kurenai sensei was not a tracker type and was barely above par in that field.
Her team and clients were essentially sitting ducks for this shinobi if she was not here. In fact, her sensei was still standing with only a few bruises here and there because she had prior warning to the attacks. Pushing back the elation that rose within her at the opportunity to be useful, Hinata steeled her resolve to protect her friends.
"Kurenai-sensei…behind you, and he is coming with an upward slice" Hinata spoke as quickly as she could. "Kiba…perform a tsuuga to the east of Shino's position.
The respective people nodded slightly and acted accordingly. Kurenai spun on her heel and ducked before throwing a kunai straight at the mizu bunshin that had tried to sneak up on her. The kunai was blocked by Kubikiri Houcho, but the clone was dispelled by a swift upward kick to the head courtesy of Kurenai. Taking a second to regain her bearings, Kurenai tried to find a strategy to defeat this man without casualties on her side.
"Its amazing that you have survived so long against my bunshins within this mist. It seems that your charges are actually pulling their weight." Zabuza's voice echoed from everywhere. "Unfortunately, I have tired of our petty games. This is the end."
"Stay together and watch out for each other." Kurenai shouted to her team.
"Kukukuku, 8 choices…..Liver, lungs, spine, clavical vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys and the heart." Zabuza's voice said, coming from all directions. "Which should I go for?"
'He is underestimating me, I will have to finish this quick. An area genjutsu will have to do. I just hope my team realize they are in a genjutsu before it causes them serious damage.' Kurenai thought while going through some seals. She noticed her students freezing from the overwhelming killing intent that Zabuza was focusing in their direction. Even the usually stoic Shino was visibly shaking. "Don't worry guys. I will protect all of you, no matter what!"
"Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu" she whispered under her breath.
Noticing the changes in the environment immediately, Zabuza decided to comment before breaking the illusion.
"I see you are getting desperate kunoichi-san. Desperation and badly set up genjutsu will get you no where in this world." Zabuza said with a laugh. Gathering some chakra and doing a single hand seal, Zabuza released the built up chakra "KAI."
Noticing the genjutsu distort momentarily and not wanting to give Kurenai an advantage, Zabuza carefully took note of all their positions.
'Might as well go get the old man now.'
"All of you should stop playing ninja and go back to living sheltered lives. You do not know what it means to be shinobi." Zabuza intoned with a smirk .
Moving forward with tremendous speed, Zabuza got between the small leaf-nin. The previously distorted genjutsu finally returned to cover the leaf nin, but it didn't matter anymore…because they were already dead. Swinging his sword in a wide arc, Zabuza cut through all the puny leaf gennin and the old man.
'He fell for it.' Kurenai thought in triumph as she started the seals for another jutsu "Magen: Jubaku Satsu."
After a second, Zabuza noticed that there were no muffled cries or piercing screams coming from the three children and old man, and Kurenai had not dropped her hold on the genjutsu.
"Kuso, it was a trap and I fell for it completely. I underestimated her too much" Zabuza said while trying to jump to safety.
Finding out that it was impossible to move, he ran his palm over his zanbatou and cut himself. After doing this, he found himself bound by a tree and looking into a fierce set of red eyes. Between him and the red-eyed kunoichi , he saw the gennin girl with lavender eyes. She was in an attack stance that spelled trouble for him.
"Byakugan." whispered the timid girl. Veins bulged around her eyes soon after.
'Hmm, she looks fierce with her eyes like that. Che, she has no weapons out, and doesn't have the body physique to do much damage to me.' Zabuza summarized as he prepared himself for the inevitable.
'To prove my strength and my will to get stronger, I have to do this. To protect my friends and teammates, I have to do this. To one day stand at Naruto-kun's side as an equal, I have to do this' Hinata thought to herself as she built her determination with each reason.
With quick precise movements, Hinata placed a gentle palm over various parts of Zabuza's body. Problem for Zabuza was that immediately she touched a part of his skin, that area became numb and he lost control of that area.
'This girl….So this is the infamous gentle fist of the Hyuuga. She looked like she was going to pass out from fear when she first saw me. But now, she looks like she would actually take my life. Who would have thought she had so much skill.' Zabuza thought. 'I was too careless. This team are nowhere close to me in terms of skill and raw power. What's keeping them? Anytime now boys…..I am starting to feel a bit woozy and out of energy.'
Turning his eyes to the right, he saw two needles coming toward his general direction.
Hinata saw the needles coming as well and jumped backwards into Kurenai, thereby knocking both of them over and releasing the jutsu on Zabuza. Two newcomers landed in the clearing and helped Zabuza stand up after he was released from his temporary holding.
"What took you guys so long?" Zabuza asked with a snarl.
"Gomen Zabuza-san. Tetsu-san believed it would be better to interrupt only after we had seen and analysed that girls technique. We didn't realize it would cause such widespread damage" a boy wearing an ANBU mask replied.
"Hai…right now, the only person we have not seen is the boy with the sunglasses. Konoha is definitely not as good as we were told in the reports if this is all they have to offer." said the boy named Tetsu who also had an ANBU mask on. "We can finish them of now Zabuza-sensei. They do not stand a chance against us, right Haku."
Both masked boys turned their heads towards Zabuza only to see the bandages that covered his mouth were bloody, and his eyes were draining of blood rapidly. He looked lifeless already. Tetsu turned to Hinata and was ready to kill her immediately.
"You bit….." Tetsu started. He was stopped by the horrified expression on the girls face. Quickly realizing what had happened, he decided to leave with a demoralizing barb at her skills. "Tch. Pitiful. Telling from your eyes, it was not your intention to do this to Zabuza-sensei. You must be very useless to have made such a mistake."
"Luck is on your side kunoichi-san. It seems we will not be finishing you off right now." Haku said "No matter, Zabuza-san will not underestimate you next time. Add to that fact that we will be fighting also. You stand no chance. Live well for a while, because your life is forfeit."
Two puffs of smoke signified the departure of the kiri missing-nin.
"Shino, did you place the female bug on one of them?" Kurenai asked while cradling her injury "because, I will need to know exactly when they start making their move."
"Hai, Kurenai-sensei. I was able to place it on Zabuza. Shouldn't we follow them right now and try and finish them off?" Shino said.
"No, those two boys are beyond everyone on this team at the moment. We would be walking into their trap. Leave them be. We have a lot of training to do and I have to call for back-up. Tazuna-san, please take us to your home."
"Hai…Kurenai-san" Tazuna said snapping out of his awe for the woman and her team. He then started walking towards his home. 'She actually managed to save us from that guy. She is truly a capable shinobi. And the shy girl, she was amazing.'
As they started walking toward Tazuna's house, they never noticed the tear fall from Hinata's eye.
'I really am useless. I finally managed to activate my Byakugan without seals, but it is not developed enough to properly disable an immobile opponent.'
It had been a week and a half since Hinata's team had left for their mission, and Naruto was starting to get the feeling that something was going horribly wrong. He had no way to confirm it, but the sun had not shone since they had left the village and his cup had cracked when they had stopped for some tea earlier in the day.
At least he had taken precautions. Using up almost half of his chakra and patience, he had created almost 100 seal enhanced clones and sent them to search for Hinata's team in wave country. It was not an easy job for the clones, but the determination on their faces told him they would search with every ounce of chakra that he had given them.
The clones also had a massive amount of chakra, and would train and gather information when they were not searching. If Naruto tested his seal clones, he would have realized that they could last about 2 weeks if they used the chakra equivalent of 30 normal clones everyday.
Now, the only thing on his mind was the mission at hand. They had finally reached their location, which was a small town on the outskirts of fire country. They were currently observing from the roof of an abandoned house. At first glance, nothing looked to be wrong with the village, and it looked like the villagers were going about their daily business as usual. But upon closer inspection, the shinobi realized that the villagers were on edge, and their eyes danced from side to side as inconspicuously as possible. It was as if they were waiting for someone.
"Well, I suggest you guys Henge into other people and try as gather as much information as possible. I will go and talk with the village leader who ordered this mission. We are to meet back here in 3 hours. Keep your radios on the usual frequency. Do not use except you are under attack from enemy shinobi." Kakashi said as he put his book away. "Move out."
Three hours had come and gone and the team was in front of Kakashi again.
"Ok gather your thoughts and tell us about all the information you collected" Kakashi said
"Sasuke, you go first."
"Hn, I went towards the west of the town where the bars are located and I found a man who was willing to tell me about the goings on in the village. It seems that every now and then, a few men and women who wear white coats come into the town. The man didn't have any idea if they were shinobi or not, but he said that they were stronger than normal humans. They came to collect humans and animals from this village, for what the mysterious people described as 'curse seal experimentation'. The man didn't know what they meant and everyone else that I talked to seemed to be clueless about it. That's about it." Sasuke said.
"Interesting…..Sakura" Kakashi said as he motioned to Sakura.
"Basically everything that Sasuke said, and a woman at the hot springs told me that they take them into the northern hills. I assume they have a hideout there." Sakura added.
Nodding his head, Kakashi finally motioned for Naruto who had a serious expression on his face "I figured that we all had the same info when I got here, so I left some Kage bunshin to continue gathering Intel and one of them just cancelled itself. It met a boy who has been separated from his family. He said that he saw a headband on one of the mysterious people. It had a musical note on it." Naruto finished while looking at his team mates.
Getting over his original shock of not knowing about a hidden village with a musical note, Kakashi nodded towards Naruto. "It seems we have a lot of unknowns on our hands. Even without those unknowns, this mission has automatically been bumped up to an A-class mission. Do you all wish to continue." Kakashi asked.
Two extremely eager nods met his crinkling eye. Turning his head to look at Sakura, Kakashi noticed the two boys also turned to look at her. She rolled her eyes before giving a defeated nod.
"Well, that settles it. We will be investigating and searching the hills tomorrow. The village leader said they would pay double if we can bring back the members of the village dead or alive." Kakashi said while getting questioning looks from his team. "The families of the dead would also like to bury them……. Naruto, send out some clones to map out the hillside and check for traps while we set up camp."
The whole team faltered at Kakashi 'bury the dead' statement, before their anger at the mysterious ninja became evident. One hand seal, later and five blondes were scattering across rooftops and towards the hillside. Once the clones were gone, the rest of the team jumped into the trees to find a safe place to set up camp.
It was just past 4 a.m. and team 7 had just made it to a safe area close to the mysterious ninja base. Kakashi's plan was to let the gennin do all the work. It was a stealth mission and could be completed without his assistance. The boys had already taken the initiative and worn all black today. More amusing was the fact that they had gotten Sakura a pair of black clothes as well. Naruto had also covered his hair and forced Sakura to do the same. She had put up a good fight in that department.
'Something about the bandana reducing her 'kunoichi femininity'. She still spends too much time on her hair.' Kakashi mused to himself silently as he watched Naruto detail his plan to the other two members of the team. 'There are too many unknowns still. Naruto and Sasuke are very capable, and Sakura is only going to play a small role…but I may need to step in, so I should be on the alert. This plan seems effective, but it already sounds risky.'
"…..then you are to lead them out of there Sakura. Sasuke, once Sakura gives you the sign that everyone is out, activate all the explosive notes. Then we will take them back to the village." Naruto said
"Hn, you didn't leave room for your own escape dobe." Sasuke said in a level tone while glaring at Naruto. "I will not let you go in there thinking you are going to play tragic hero."
"Hahaha, don't worry Sasuke. I have a means of escape. Don't worry about me. Just get your jobs done and I will do mine. This should not take more than 2 hours. We should be done before dawn." Naruto said before handing them scrolls. "Those are the scrolls I sealed your weapons into. The weapons reflect light so we should try and do everything without using them, but if it calls for it…..please use them. I would rather not lose a teammate here."
"Well said Naruto. I will be watching you all very closely. I doubt any of you are ready to kill yet, so try to disable at all costs. If it is impossible to disable, then I will step in. If the shinobi you are fighting is above you level, I will step in. You all know enough about the human body to disable quickly and effectively. Do not underestimate or waste time. Information and important documents will be useful." Kakashi thought while thinking of more warnings. "I guess that is all. You may go to your positions."
'A plan that ensures that they do not murder anyone, whether good or evil directly. They will not have to see the faces of the mysterious ninja when the explosive tags go off. Ingenious Naruto, but I wonder what jutsu you are talking about. It had better bring you out of there alive….or I will personally create a jutsu to torture you in the afterlife.' Kakashi thought as he created 2 clones and sent them to follow Sasuke and Sakura. After all, Naruto had the hardest job of all.
The strategy had been going off without a hitch. In an hour, they had been able to get a rough understanding of the layout of the area both inside and out. Naruto and Sasuke had gone around under the Meisaigakure no Jutsu, and mapped out the positions of the guards and the important rooms containing prisoners and information. After this initial scout and recon mission which had gone off without a hitch, they had started taking out the guards. Sasuke and Sakura were to go together. Sasuke to take out the guards with Ninpou: Neiri no jutsu in combination with Meisaigakure no Jutsu. This enabled him to walk up to them silently and take them out before they even knew what was going on. Sakura just stayed out of sight and suppressed her chakra as this went on, because although she was proficient in the jutsu, she could not maintain it for the necessary amount of time.
After Sasuke had removed all guard threats stationed in front of the guard rooms, he proceeded to take out the guards outside. It seemed that the people outside were more skillful than those inside. Not anywhere close to Kakashi's level, because kakashi had fooled all of them easily during their first entry. But probably skillful enought to take on himself and Naruto. He took precautions by performing all his jutsu a few yards away from the guards, because they were a lot better at sensing someone gathering chakra. After disabling all guards and hiding their bodies, Sasuke proceeded to plant explosive notes made by Naruto. Some of these explosive notes had stronger seals for a bigger explosion, and some of them had fire techniques to increase the heat produced.
'Tch, too easy.' Sasuke thought as he planted the last note at the bottom of the wall next to the experimentation room.
'Wow, I can't believe this plan has gone off without a hitch. These people have been amazingly cooperative as well. I guess they are just very eager to go back to their families. Unfortunately, very few of them can suppress their chakra, so anyone who is extremely attuned to chakra sensing would wake up immediately' Sakura thought 'I have to get them out of here fast.'
Walking past a room with huge doors and several locks, Sakura felt herself shiver from the amount of chakra coming from behind it. It made her feel insignificant and weak.
'How can someone have so much chakra? And it feels unnatural and natural at the same time. Maybe it's the product of these ninja's experiments, that went wrong? The person is still an innocent though and it is my duty to save everyone.' Sakura thought as she took a purposeful stride towards the door, but was stopped by two hands.
Looking in the direction of her assailants, Sakura saw the wide-eyed expression on all the prisoner's faces. Giving them a confused look, she was given a solemn nod in the negative from the man who held her. Not wanting to cause a commotion, she resolved to come back and get this person when she had taken them all to safety.
'Probably just want to get out so much, that they do not care about their fellow townsmen.' Sakura thought while leading the group out. Her time was nearly up anyway. The stronger, more skilled shinobi would probably be getting up for their day shift and torture sessions with the prisoners.
'This is too easy. If the leader of these ninja knew they were so lackadaisical, they would be punished for sure. Probably applies to leaf ninja as well, if you count how many times I have pulled a prank and not been caught. I may have to see the Hokage about that when we get back' Naruto thought 'Whew, I have sealed so many scrolls that the Hokage will be angry at me for nearly tripling his paperwork. Poor guy….at least he took my suggestion to let Kage bunshin help him.'
Mechanically sealing the last scrolls into a larger one and strapping it to the side of his belt, Naruto started making his way around the complex to make sure everything was ok and all the people were out. After all, the sooner they got everyone out, the sooner they would be able to blow up stuff. For an A-class mission, it was too quiet for his liking.
Performing the necessary seals, Naruto created about 30 clones who all held the bunch of keys that unlocked all the non-hostage doors in the building. A few seals later, and all the clones were invisible to the naked eye. Grinning while invisible, they all dashed off in different directions.
Five minutes after he had sent the clones out, Naruto smiled. That was a prank well done, and would test the skills of most of the ninja who were still sleeping. He had locked them all in their rooms.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM.
'Ah, so it begins and I finally get to test this jutsu out. Probably one of the greatest jutsu I will ever master. Who would have thought that Shikaku-ojisan would give Shikamaru and I the key to the scroll vault when he was drunk. And all Shikamaru could say was he wanted to live an average life, so he was only going to learn an average technique.' Naruto thought with glee at knowing this technique and disappointment at Shikamaru's lackluster behavior. Quickly running through 24 hand seals and stepping into the shadow created by the wall, Naruto whispered the name of his jutsu.
"Ninpou: Kage ho no jutsu."
With that, he melded with the wall and disappeared.
"Where is that Dobe?" Sasuke said in frustration as he watched the main entrance which was already in flames "Does he have a death wish or something?"
Kakashi just eye-smiled at his student and looked deeper into the woods 'Amazing, he already knows a jutsu like that. I don't even have one. It would be a useful addition to my already vast collection. With it, I would probably be lower Kage level in terms of power and skill….but it is his choice, I will not copy it….and if I do copy it by mistake, I will use it only when the lives of my comrades is in danger.'
"Calm down Sasuke, he is already out" Kakashi said, a moment before Naruto came running into the clearing with an exhausted but happy smile on his face.
"Ohayo." Naruto said.
Swirling around on his heel to face Naruto, Sasuke was shocked to see him so far away from the impact zone. 'He didn't come out threw a door, and I know that because I have been watching all the exits. It couldn't have been shunshin no jutsu because you would need to know where the seals are located. The reason we can even do the jutsu within Konoha's walls is because Naruto found that chuunin level scroll that belonged to the Yondaime. Naruto may have drawn the seals somewhere deeper in the forest, so that he could appear outside easily….but it would need at least a weeks preparation and he would have told us about it so we could use it for a quick escape. How exactly did he do it?' Sasuke pondered as he looked at Naruto and activated his Sharingan unconsciously "Show me!"
Naruto looked at Sasuke thoughtfully before frowning "Sorry Sasuke, but this is a jutsu that I am not even supposed to have yet. It's a Nara family jutsu and specifically details a medic-nin to check out how much chakra the ninja performing the jutsu has. I used about a fifth of my chakra for it, and it was not a very long distance. It would probably kill you if you attempted it."
Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Sasuke turned of his sharingan and turned to face the building were numerous cries were now erupting and orders were being given.
"Ano Naruto." Sakura spoke in a hurried voice as something clicked in her mind. "I almost forgot…there is a big door that has several locks. I sensed a presence behind it, but the villagers wanted to get out so bad that they didn't allow me free whoever was in there. With your jutsu, you could probably save that person." Sakura said as she threw Naruto the keys. "I sensed a darker chakra coming from him. I think this person was involved in a big experiment that went bad."
Catching the keys and frowning, Naruto started the seals for his jutsu while turning around and walking towards the shadow of the closest tree. He didn't notice three sharingan eyes close in disappointment for not getting to see the complete hand seals.
Standing in front of the door, Naruto sensed the restlessness of the person within the door. Avoiding all the flames, Naruto started unlocking the door but stopped to unseal and unsheathe his weapons because of the malicious intent he felt coming from the room. Finally, Naruto opened the door and was met with a grinning face that was partially deformed. Opun closer inspection, Naruto noted that the whole left side of his body was deformed and strangely black. Ducking under a swing of the deformed man's huge left arm, Naruto took the time to survey the damage. The section of the wall that was in front of him had a hole to indicate where the huge hand had gone through.
'Such strength, he could have gotten out of here by himself…..easily.' Naruto thought in awe. He was snapped out of his daze by the subtle movement of the man in front of him.
Twisting his fist slightly, Naruto's opponent was about to squash Naruto in an unorthodox maneuver. Had it been anybody else, Naruto would have probably laughed and waited for the bonk on the head….but here, he was basically in a fight for his life. Sidestepping to the man's right side, Naruto made up his mind that someone this strong would definitely be able to survive this ordeal. Therefore his presence in this rescue mission was unnecessary. Beginning the seals for the Kage ho, Naruto moved towards the nearest shadow as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, it seemed that luck was not on his side as the fire danced around and kept illuminating different shadows in the room at inopportune times. He also had a maniac chasing him around and trying to kill him. Finally noticing a distinct pattern that left enough shadow in the room for his jutsu, Naruto rushed forward. As he was about to perform the last seal, something stopped him in his tracks.
'What's this? Memories?…..No, not now. Couldn't you have picked a better time to dispel yourself?' Naruto thought as a wave of dizziness caught up with him. To add to his problems, he was punched right through the wall he was leaning against. "Kuso" Naruto said as he landed face down on the ground.
"Hehe, so one of the people who attacked us is still around. Maybe we should lock him up and give him to Orochimaru-sama…..Unfortunate, he pissed off the wrong people, he would have had such a bright future as one of our test subjects. He will learn not to mess with us sound-nin ever again" Someone said right before the wall Naruto had just come through exploded again. "I..I-its J-Juugo."
All the ninja in the room darted out while shouting something that vaguely sounded like "call Kimimaro-sama. Quickly. Juugo is on a rampage again."
Naruto, feeling too disoriented to get up quickly grabbed his hitaite and put it in his pouch. It wouldn't do for the leaf to go to war unnecessarily. Juugo came up to him and put his big foot over Naruto's back and started squashing him into the floor.
Screaming in pain, Naruto tried to get up, to no avail.
"Sneaky children like you should never go out on shinobi missions. You flee from battle too much, so you do not have what it takes to be truly strong. Like me." Said the crazed voice of Juugo. He never noticed Naruto making 48 one handed seals.
"Seize this foolishness Juugo….Or I will kill you" a calm voice said from the door.
Naruto almost sang his appreciation to his unknown savior as the pressure on his back let up.
"So you have come, Kimimaro the copy. Do you really think you control me" Juugo said as more of his skin turned darker, and he started taking a step forward to engage Kimimaro in combat.
Naruto who was watching from his position on the ground watched as Juugo's hulking form loomed over him, unmoving. Suddenly, it hit him…..an unreal killer intent that froze Juugo in his tracks. Looking past Juugo, Naruto saw Kimimaro with dark markings all over his body and his eyes focused on Juugo's. In his hand, he held a sword made of bone to Juugo's neck.
A small trickle of blood seeped out of the bare skin on Juugu's neck. "We need that boy as a prisoner, to learn more about why and how he attacked us. I need to know whether someone is trying to disrupt Orochimaru-sama's plans...We may be on friendly terms Juugo, but I will kill you before you get a chance to kill that boy." Kimimaro said.
Noting that Juugo's curse seal had fully receded, Kimimaru decided to release his curse seal as well. Lowering his sword and clearing his throat to address his prisoner, Kimimaro was shocked to see the floor bare with only a few blood stains.
"Kimimaro-sama, we need to get out of here before the building comes down on our heads. We have gathered all the medicine you will need for the journey" Someone said from the door of the room.
"Hai, Juugo-san and I will be out soon" Kimimaro said while still looking at the floor where Naruto once lay 'Interesting, a boy of that age already knows time/space ninjutsu. I hope we meet in the future….blonde-san.'
With that, Kimimaro and Juugo walked away.
It had been three days since the team had gotten back to the village with an unconscious blonde shinobi. They had found Naruto in the forest, severely depleted of chakra and suffering from fractured ribs and a punctured lung. It seemed like the smoke from the building had also clogged up the other lung, thereby making it harder for him to recover. Sakura had gone into a depressing rut because she had sent Naruto back, and he had obviously met a superior shinobi in terms of skill. She was also depressed because she had not reached the level of healing internal injuries. She couldn't even help with the fractured rib.
Sasuke had been silent all through, and offered no words of consolation to Sakura….but he also never blamed her. Kakashi just watched over Naruto and read his little orange book, while giving Sasuke training pointers every now and then. He also told Sakura that it was not her fault and she did not know what was in there and who had attacked Naruto.
Naruto was currently sleeping on a fuuton in a room provided by the village leader. The kidnapped people had been returned to their families, but Kakashi was wondering what he was going to do about the strange marks on their necks.
'Those are definitely curse seals, but I cannot seal all of them because I will risk chakra exhaustion……With exhaustion, I put this whole village at risk of attack. Also, Naruto has a greater understanding of seals than I do, and he may have a more effective seal than the Fūja Hōin. Its unusual that he has been asleep so long even with his injuries, and his chakra has been fluctuating every few hours….Not to mention the fact that he said something that has been troubling me since we got him here. Naruto what exactly happened to you?' Kakashi thought even though his eyes never left the book in front of him.
Flashback.
"Kuso.." Naruto said in a whisper, as he stumbled on his feet. "Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura…we have to help Hinata-chan and her team."
His team was just in the clearing in front of him, but the pain he was feeling was just excessive and it seemed like the Kyuubi was refraining from healing him. He could feel his consciousness slipping away from him, so he made one last lunge for the clearing. Landing roughly, face down on the ground, Naruto heard several shouts of his name and several quick footsteps approaching him. Closing his eyes, he used his last remaining energy to say what was on his mind.
"We have to help her te…."
Dink, dink, dink…
'Kuso, not here again. Especially not now. Hinata-chan may be in trouble. If what my seal Kage bunshin heard Kurenai-sensei tell that man is true, they will definitely need backup. It also seems like all of her messenger birds to the leaf village have been intercepted. I should get this meeting with Kyuubi over with as soon as possible' Naruto said while ignoring the pain he was feeling and running towards the Kyuubi's cage.
Upon reaching the Kyuubi's cage, Naruto realized something was off. The Kyuubi had this feral grin on its face as it looked down at him. It was also releasing a paralyzing amount of killing intent towards Naruto. It was so much that it made the amount Kimimaro released earlier seem insignificant.
"ENTERTAIN ME" said the Kyuubi's booming voice. This seemed to snap Naruto out of his trance as he looked up and eyed the Kyuubi.
"Like I would listen to you, furball" Naruto said with a smirk on his face.
"TCH…..YOU MISUNDERSTAND FLESHBAG... I WAS NOT ASKING" Kyuubi said, as something attacked Naruto from behind. Naruto deftly dodged to the side and turned to view his attacker. A look of absolute shock and bewilderment was plastered on Naruto's face "CONSIDER THIS A TEST….THE SOONER YOU DEFEAT HIM, THE SOONER YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SAVE YOUR MATE."
Standing right there in front of him, in a red aura…..was himself.
Before Naruto could even react, he was knocked into the air by a strong kick to the chin.
'Kuso, he hits hard.' Naruto thought. Looking down to estimate his opponents position, Naruto was shocked to see the kyuubified Naruto disappear. Immidiately sensing a presence behind him, Naruto tried to turn and block whatever the clone was planning. He was shocked to realize that he couldn't move, and a second later red chakra wrapped around his torso. The clone then changed their momentum at the peak and changed the upward hit to a downward spinning dive. Naruto was at a loss to what to do and took the effects of the damage head on.
After almost 15 minutes of silence within his mind, Naruto deemed it safe to look at his opponent again. What he saw was a wide, insane smile that usually fit on the Kyuubi's face. Then it spoke.
"DON'T TELL ME YOU HAVENT FIGURED IT OUT YET. I AM NO REGULAR CLONE AND I AM NOT LIMITED TO YOUR PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR TECHNIQUES. YOU WILL NEED TO DO A LOT MORE TO DEFEAT ME" Kyuubi Naruto said. It watched as Naruto looked towards the real Kyuubi only to see him smiling a toothy grin. Naruto gritted his teeth as he turned back to the clone. "REMEMBER THIS, KYUUBI-SAMA WILL NOT FULLY HEAL THE INJURIES YOU OBTAIN IN THIS WORLD….EVER. SO IT WOULD BE WISE OF YOU TO REFRAIN FROM GETTING ANY INJURIES."
Putting on a mask of indifference, Naruto stood up with his eyes closed. "Sorry about that, I don't know what came over me, and I am sure I will definitely feel this pain all over, when I wake up……but you will not lay another finger on me. I swear it." Naruto said as he opened his glowing blue eyes that were overflowing with the same conviction that they had all heard in his voice.
"DO NOT MOCK MY POWER BO…." the clone started before he was forced to dodge Naruto's fist. Ducking under the blow, the clone could only block the leg that came after him. Skidding backwards and trying to rub the numbness in his arms away, the clone looked towards Naruto only to see him running towards him with his swords drawn. "IT SEEMS YOU ARE INDEED GETTING SERIOUS. VERY WELL."
The clone seemed to concentrate for a second before throwing his arm out. Naruto had to jump to dodge the chakra appendage that came hurtling towards him. Seeing the maneuver Naruto performed to escape the chakra hand, the clone sent his other hand towards the still air-bourne Naruto.
'Hm, his moves are slower than when I first got here. I can see his movements clearly. Its not like what Sasuke described the Sharingan, were there are prior images of his opponents moves. What I am experiencing is different. When we first started this fight, he was moving so fast that I could not even see him. Now though, I can not only see him, but its like everything is moving slower than they previously were. Amazing' Naruto thought.
Focusing on the second appendage coming towards him, Naruto managed to twist his body out of the way before it slammed into him. Ignoring the burning pain, Naruto landed on the outstretched chakra appendage below him, and started running towards the clone. The clone seeing that he was close to death attempted to deactivate the chakra appendages and disorient Naruto, but it seemed Naruto read his mind because he threw the sword in his right hand at the clone. Ducking under the sword, the clone looked up to see Naruto in the air and bringing his sword down. The clone gave a final cry before dispersing into red chakra and vanishing into nothingness.
"KUKUKUKU, THERE MAY BE HOPE FOR YOU YET BRAT….BUT I ENJOYED MYSELF SO MUCH THAT I THINK I WILL MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU. WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING, COME HERE AND TRAIN. IF YOU CAN DEFEAT MY CLONES, I WILL GIVE YOU A TECHNIQUE SCROLL FOR EACH VICTORY. I AM CURRENTLY HEALING YOU LIKE I SAID I WOULD. WHY NOT GET SOME TECHNIQUES SCROLLS IN THE PROCESS" Kyuubi said with a wide grin. The Kyuubi's grin faltered a bit when Naruto picked up his sword and looked at the Kyuubi with a piercing glare.
"Why are you helping me?" Naruto said with malice clearly evident in his voice.
"FOOL, WHY QUESTION MY MOTIVES WHEN YOU STAND TO GAIN THE MOST? DON'T ANSWER THAT. I FIND YOU HUMANS TO BE INCREDIBLY STUPID. WELL, THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS SIMPLE. I LIKE DEATH. I LIKE WATCHING FIGHTS. THERE WAS A TIME THAT HUMAN TECHNIQUES INTRIGUED ME TREMENDOUSLY, SO I LEARNT THEM. WHAT USE DO I HAVE FOR TECHNIQUES I CANNOT USE. IT IS ONLY WISE TO GIVE THESE TECHNIQUES TO SOMEONE WHO CAN USE THEM, AND I CAN WATCH YOU USE THEM…EVEN IF IT IS TO PROTECT THOSE OTHER USELESS FLESHBAGS." Kyuubi said with disdain.
"You are not the type to do things out of the kindness of your heart, if you have a heart. Tell me the real reason.." Naruto said while not letting up on the glare he was sending Kyuubi.
"KUKUKUKUKU, THE NARA FAMILY INSIGHT IS TRULY AMAZING. YOU MAY TRULY BECOME WORTHY FLESHBAG. BUT YOU ARE RIGHT. I AM DOING THIS BECAUSE YOU STAND NO CHANCE AGAINST THE GREATER POWERS OF THIS WORLD. I HOLD THE EAGLE BACK FOR MY OWN REASONS, BUT IT WILL PAY OFF IN THE END. THOSE OTHER BRATS YOU SAW TODAY….KIMIMARO AND JUUGO WERE THEIR NAMES, THEY WOULD KILL YOU EASILY IN A FIGHT. I DO NOT INTEND TO LET MY CONTAINER BE CONSIDERED WEAK, AND WEAKNESS IS SOMETHING I WILL NOT CONDONE. SO WHAT DO YOU SAY BRAT….ENTERTAIN ME SOME MORE FOR THE GOKEN TAIJUTSU STYLE, LOTUS TECHNIQUES, SCROLLS ON THE HACHIMON, AND SOME SUITON TECHNIQUES. AFTER ALL, YOU WILL BE GOING TO WAVE COUNTRY ONCE YOU AWAKEN. THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF WATER AND TREES FOR YOU TO PERFECT YOUR TECHNIQUES THERE."
Wide grins appeared on Naruto and Kyuubi's faces. They may hardly agree on anything, but they both hated losing. The water around Naruto started bubbling. Looking down and into his reflection, he noticed his blue eyes were glowing a brighter blue.
'I look pretty cool' Naruto said before a clone burst out from the water with a punch aimed at his chin. Jumping backwards as the punch was about to hit him, Naruto managed to escape the attack. Landing in a crouch and looking up, Naruto saw twenty Kyuubified clones grinning at him. With a sigh, he stood up and pulled out his two katana. 'This may take a while….troublesome.'
Flashback ends
"Hmm. Nice to see you back in the land of the living Naruto" Kakashi said as he saw Naruto stir.
"Its good to be back Kakashi-sensei. I have a lot to tell you about what I heard while I went back to help the last supposed villager." Naruto said while stretching his muscles and cracking his stiff joints. "Sasuke and Sakura may also want to hear this."
Kakashi nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke while Naruto started dressing and wearing his equipment.
A few minutes later, Sasuke and Sakura walked into the room with Kakashi. Naruto started describing the details of his fight and what he had learned about the sound ninja and their obvious relation to Orochimaru of the Sannin. After he finished, Kakashi was the first to speak.
"It seems this mission was really tougher than expected. Maybe even S-class. This Juugo that you speak of, I have heard rumors about him. He was called Juugo of Tenpin and was known for murdering several people from various villages. The fact that you survived against him proves how much you all have grown. I didn't even have to interfere. I am proud of you, but the mission is not over. Naruto, I need you to come up with a suitable seal to disable the curse seal permanently. We cannot help team Kurenai until we are done here. We can use the Fūja Hōin, but as you already know, it is dependent upon the emotions of the curse seal holder. Are you up to creating a new seal?" Kakashi said
"Hai, I had time to think about it while I was asleep and its just a variation of the Fūja Hōin. We can get started immediately Kakashi-sensei and be done by tonight. You and Sasuke could help me out." Naruto said.
"Alright, lets get to work" Kakashi said.
It had been a whole day of sealing for Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura had acted as the medic because she was the only one suited to handle a job like that on her team. It seemed the mental stress the people had been put through made them pass out immediately their curse seal was sealed up. Sakura had skimmed through the medical notes that Naruto stole and had been able to act accordingly, and she even learned a new medical technique.
It had been a day since they had finished the sealing and they were all traveling through the trees, and towards team 8's location. Naruto seemed unusually fatigued, whereas he usually had even more stamina than Kakashi. Sasuke had questioned him about it, and Naruto had simply said that the Kyuubi had not allowed him sleep much. They had stopped all conversation when Sakura had decided to try and eavesdrop.
'I wonder when they are going to tell her. They cannot act as a true unit until they know all of their weaknesses and strengths. Kyuubi is Naruto's greatest weakness as well as his greatest strength. She needs to know the danger of being around him, but it is not my place to say. He will tell her when he is ready.' Kakashi mused to himself while jumping of another branch.
It was a thick forest and they were rather high in the tree canopy. Recklessness here could lead to one of his subordinates deaths. The all looked relatively fatigued but he was unwilling to take unnecessary chances. In fact, the only reason they hadn't stopped for a break yet, was because Naruto said that Zabuza and his subordinates would be back to attack team 8 any day now. It seemed like one thing after another would be going wrong today.
Suddenly, Naruto's eyes lost focus and he missed his next step, and started descending towards the ground at a rapid rate. Knowing that his other two students wouldn't be fast enough to react even though they were closer to Naruto, Kakashi decided to save Naruto himself. Kakashi landed on a branch with one leg and glued himself onto the upperside of the branch with chakra. Crouching down and setting his second leg on the underside of the branch, Kakashi shifted his weight and momentum. Adding a burst of chakra to his legs and determining Naruto's trajectory, Kakashi shot like a bullet in Naruto's direction. Weaving in and out of tree branches and trunks, Kakashi caught Naruto and threw a kunai at a sturdy looking tree. Once the dull thud of the kunai sticking to the tree reached his ears, Kakashi wrapped the ninja wire connected to the kunai around his hand. With a few acrobatic moves and one handed swinging, Kakashi landed on a branch and was followed closely by Sasuke and Sakura.
"What happened Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked upon arriving and noticing her unconscious teammate in her sensei's hands.
"I don't know Sakura. Naruto has been pushing himself too hard and I guess it is starting to take its toll on him." Kakashi said
"But Naruto and Sasuke-kun do roughly the same training and are basically equal in terms of skill….why isn't anything happening to Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked while inner-Sakura said "Because in the end, Naruto-baka's willpower is not great enough, compared to Sasuke-kun. True love prevails again."
"Sasuke is a genius type in all shinobi lifestyles and learns things easily. He also works hard to attain the stuff that does not come as quickly. Naruto is a genius in some aspects of a shinobi's lifestyle and he works twice as hard as any shinobi I have ever met. He has also had a harder life than anybody I have ever met. There are different circumstances to his current condition, but I believe this is a case of mental fatigue from too much information." Kakashi said. Seeing the confused faces his students gave him, he elaborated "Mental fatigue from a mass of clones that was just dispelled. Normally, this should not affect a person too much, but these clones have been gathering information and training for days and weeks. I know Naruto knows of this fact, which actually worries me. Since he knows, he may have probably formed a way to dispell them without the side effects, but the fact that they all dispelled at around the same time means that someone is probably dispatching them."
"How do you know that?" Sasuke asked before Sakura could speak.
"Because Naruto's chakra fluctuates every time an enhanced clone is dispelled" Kakashi said with amusement as Sasuke and Sakura finally noticed Naruto's chakra changes. "This also means that the clones had to make a rash decision to buy us and Kurenai's team a little bit more time. We should use the time wisely." Kakashi said as he slung Naruto over his shoulder and started running towards the area Naruto had told him. Looking back, he saw Sasuke and Sakura with determination on their faces. They did not want to lose comrades anytime soon.
'Kuso, these are a lot of memories' Naruto thought as he sat cross legged in front of the Kyuubi's cage in a meditative stance. When Kyuubi had taught him to do this, he had thought it a stupid idea….but he realized that it not only helped to build his mental defense, it helped him assimilate memories faster and even search for older ones.
Finally getting to the clone that had taken it upon itself to get info on Hinata's fight, Naruto realized he needed to get to her as fast as he possibly could. With that thought in mind, Naruto started pulling the thoughts towards him unlike before, when they just came eventually.
Kyuubi watched in amusement as a blue chakra aura started surrounding Naruto. 'SO HE IS SO DESPERATE TO GET TO HER THAT HE IS SPEEDING UP THE PROCESS. I WAS GOING TO TEACH HIM HOW TO DO IT, BUT I GUESS THAT IS UNNEEDED NOW. HIS LIFE FORCE IS TRULY GETTING STRONGER. THIS BRAT MAY BE ABLE TO KILL THAT MAN AFTER ALL.'
Immediately Naruto finished with the memories, he stood up and started concentrating. This action actually shocked the Kyuubi, even though he didn't show it.
'USUALLY, HE ASKS ME TO SEND HIM BACK TO THE REAL WORLD…BUT HE IS ATTEMPTING IT BY HIMSELF. KUKUKU, DO NOT DISSAPOINT ME UZUMAKI NARUTO.'
In a flash of light, Naruto was gone.
"DO YOU WISH TO TRY AGAIN EAGLE-KUN." Kyuubi said as he turned back to face the bird that was sprawled in an undignified heap on the ground.
"I will never give up. You will not rest until I am joined with Naruto" Keigan said with conviction in his voice.
"KUKUKUKU, GOOD, BECAUSE I DON'T INTEND TO BE BORED AGAIN. YOUR FUTILE STRUGGLES SUSTAIN ME, AND MAYBE ONE DAY, WHEN YOU PUT UP A DECENT ENOUGH STRUGGLE…..I MAY LET YOU OUT." Kyuubi said as he watched the bird get up and fly towards him, talons outstretched.
With a huge grin, the Kyuubi charged as well.
Naruto came back to consciousness and felt like he was being carried over someone's shoulder. Noticing it was his sensei, he quickly gathered his thoughts and spoke.
"Ano sensei, I am fine now. Please could you put me down?"
"Hmm? Oh, Naruto good to see you are ok" Kakashi said while coming to a stop and setting Naruto onto the branch. The other two members of the team landed a second later.
"I am sure you guys figured it out already, but all my clones were dispatched by Zabuza and his men. I was able to dispatch some common thugs who were looking to take the clients family as leverage. We need to get there as soon as possible. I can take Sakura in my Kage ho, but she is the only person. This is because she has smaller chakra reserves compared to both of you. I can't take anyone else because we risk getting stuck in another dimension. Sensei, Sasuke…this is our only option if we want them to survive. It is barely a thirty minute full out run from here. Please let Sakura and I go and help, and stall for time." Naruto said with pleading eyes in Kakashi's direction.
"Ok, your orders are as follows. Sakura, immediately you get there, you are to hide and help with long range genjutsu if needed. Also try and heal any and all members of the other team that are injured. Do not engage until we get there. Naruto….protect them and stall for time. Carry this out anyway you see fit." Kakashi said before nodding in Sasuke's direction and taking off into the trees.
Sakura who had been trying to take in all the information was unprepared when Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her into the tree's shadow.
Things were not going to well for her team and she knew it. Normally, they usually had a man advantage over any other team, but this time seemed to be different. It was a one-on-one battle for everybody, including Akamaru. She was matched up against the demon Zabuza, her ever stoic subordinate against the boy named Haku, her boisterous subordinate and his faithful nin-ken compainion against the demon brothers and Hinata versus Tetsu.
'How can that boy Tetsu have so much bloodlust? Hinata has been unable to fight since they got here. Why does he seem to hold a grudge against her?' Kurenai thought from within the mist. She was not sure whether her team would make it out alive today and, she was scared that she had not prepared them well enough. A blood curling scream from Hinata brought her out of her thoughts. 'Grrr, I have to calm down and try and beat Zabuza…I cannot help her while he is around' Kurenai thought as a tear slipped down her cheek.
"The battleground is no place for the weak minded or weak hearted Kurenai-san. That tear that falls down your cheek will do nothing to save you from your demise." Zabuza's voice echoed throughout the mist right before Kurenai received another cut across her chest. "You weak leaf-nin depend too much on your numbers. Good thing my subordinates caught all the messenger birds you sent calling for re-enforcements. I am sure that was the reason you never gave up hope or left the old man to die. You thought your precious comrades would come and save you. Pathetic. Though, I must say….I don't know how you got a blonde haired gaki who can produce superior Kage bunshin. Is he mercenary or something?"
Gritting her teeth against the pain of her wounds and truth of his words and her confusion on the 'blond haired mercenary', Kurenai decided to focus and do everything to at least protect her students. She was almost out of chakra already, but her well being didn't matter when her students lives were on the line. Enhancing her hearing with chakra, she realized Kiba and Akamaru's battle was already over.
'Kiba is still too much of a hot-head. The demon brother's probably strive in this weather and their teamwork is better than Kiba and Akamaru's for the moment. At least Kiba and Akamaru are still alive.'
Shino was dodging Haku's needles as much as he could, but Kurenai could tell it was a losing battle for the bug user. He had used up too many bugs attacking and his chakra was also running low.
'He went up against a strong opponent. If there is anybody on this team who had a slim chance of winning, it probably would have been him.'
Finally focusing on the area that killing intent was radiating from, Kurenai's blood ran cold at what she heard.
"I am going to cut you up, piece by piece….then I am going to cut out those pretty eyes of yours and keep them as a trophy….then I am going to kill you, after you have endured all that pain." Tetsu said as he walked towards the frightened Hinata. His sword was drawn and dripping with blood.
Kurenai clenched and unclenched her fists, and tried to focus. She needed to get to Hinata as soon as possible. She started the seals for a large area genjutsu, but was stopped when Kubikiri Houcho came slicing through the air at her. Ducking instinctively, Kurenai was unprepared for the kick that sent her sailing.
"Leave the kiddies be. Your fight is with me." Zabuza said with finality "I am getting tired of your antics and may decide to end this sooner."
As Kurenai landed on the ground and got up, she felt she had failed her students and there was no hope. She could literally hear Tetsu's katana cutting through air on its way to Hinata. It brought her back to a conversation she had with her female student a few nights ago.
Flashback
Kurenai sat down on the roof beside her student who was looking at the stars. It had been a long day of training for all of them and she had been noticing subtle signs that something was bothering Hinata.
"Hinata-chan?" Kurenai spoke, while taking in Hinata's shock because she had not sensed her approach. "Something is bothering you, what is it?"
"A-ano Ku-Kurenai-sen-sensei. Nothing is wr-wrong w-with me" Hinata said. Chancing a glance at Kurenai and seeing her disapproving gaze, Hinata decided to relent and speak about her problems. "It-Its about ou-our last fig-fight sensei. Th-the one aga-against Zabuza"
"Ah, I wanted to speak to you about that. Good work, because of what you did, we have some time to train and call for backup before they come back." Kurenai said with a genuine smile on her face.
Hinata was first shocked at the praise, then blushed and started twiddling her index fingers. Regaining some of the little confidence she had prior to the Tetsu encounter, Hinata said a faint thank you without stuttering.
Kurenai tapped her on the back and was about to speak, before she was cur off by Hinata. "But I am still too weak. I ca-can't help him shoulder his burden yet….I don't know why I am so weak Kurenai-sensei" Hinata said almost in tears.
"You are not weak Hinata-chan. You just have to believe in yourself more." Kurenai said. Puzzled about the mysterious person Hinata was talking about, she continued "Who are you talking about though?"
Blushing a bright crimson, Hinata stuttered a name out. Kurenai who had expected such a reaction paid close attention.
"Naruto Uzumaki? I heard about you liking him, but I didn't believe it. Tell me, what do you see in him?"
Hinata who had taken offence to her sensei's condescending talk about Naruto, launched into the story.
"It all started when I had just lost my mother" Hinata started, noting the sympathy in her teachers eyes. "It was a beautiful night with lots of stars. I was crying in the forest close to my house and Naruto must have heard me crying because he came to investigate. Upon reaching me, he asked me what was wrong and….and I told him, because I felt really comfortable in his presence. He then told me that 'someone wise once told him that the people you love never really leave you in death. They remain in your heart, and they watch over you from the sky…and the least you can do for them in return, is to make them proud and go on with your life.' As soon as he finished telling me the story, half of the branch house family landed in the clearing. They were sporting the most blinding colors I have ever seen in my life, from head-to-toe. They chased Naruto until the Hokage caught him the next day. I found out later, that I was the only person who was exempt from the infamous 'Hyuuga color festival'. After that day, I followed him so I could understand him better, but what I saw him go through made me admire him more and more. He lived a life no one should live, but he came out stronger and more confident than the rest of us who were treated well. I am sure you know of the injustices he suffers, because it seems everybody older than Neji-nissan knows. Knows how he suffers, and why he suffers."
Hinata looked up into Kurenai's face and was shocked to see Kurenai with a smile on her face.
"Hinata-chan….you didn't stutter once throughout your speech." Kurenai said with a giggle.
Blushing a shade yet to be invented, Hinata said a silent thank you and goodnight to her sensei before heading in to sleep. Kurenai sat on the roof a little longer. Before she went in, she offered a few parting words to the wind.
"Uzumaki Naruto, huh? You are certainly turning out to be an interesting person."
Walking in throught the open window, she never noticed the concealed presence that had a smile on its face disappear into the night.
Flashback ends.
Clank.
'Nani? That's the sound of metal against metal…not metal against flesh. What happened?' Kurenai thought while also realizing that Zabuza's attention was not on her as well. Adding chakra to her ears again, she heard a voice that she had never really expected to hear.
"If you touch Hinata-chan again, I will kill you." the mysterious newcomer said right before he let out a wave of chakra, thereby dispelling most of the mist.
Now that the mist was gone, everybody could see the newcomer. He was standing in front of Hinata with his right hand on his katana. The katana was still partially sheathed, but was enough to block Tetsu's katana….even though he was still backing him. Tetsu who finally recovered from his shock decided it would be safer to assess this new threat from a distance. Jumping back, Tetsu was surprised when his assailant let his sword fall back into his sheathe. He was further surprised when the boy formed a hand seal and 10 clones popped to life. The clones broke into groups: five for the demon brothers, and four for Haku. The last Naruto clone bent down and picked up Hinata. It then melded into the real Naruto's shadow after a few hand seals. Needless to say, all conscious people were shocked. Their shock was short lived as Naruto decided to speak.
"Are you alright Kurenai-sensei, Shino?" Naruto asked while looking at the respective parties. He received two nods in the affirmative. Looking to Shino, Naruto spoke again "Some of my bunshin from earlier managed to hide your client. Please go and protect him Shino, because I have no doubt that you know where he is."
"But...but what about the fight here?" Shino asked, shocking everybody. Not that many people had hear him say so much.
"I can hold them off until the rest of my team arrives. Besides, I could still create an army of clones to even the odds. Do not worry about me. I will be fine." Naruto said as he watched Shino nod and start moving in Tazuna's general direction. Haku tried to stop him, but Naruto's clones made sure that they cut off all routes away from the bridge. By the time Haku had dispatched all the clones, Shino had made it far enough to avoid detection. Tracking would be a waste of time, when there were re-enforcements on the way.
Sighing to himself, Haku turned towards the Demon brothers and Tetsu. A small agreement was made. Dispatch this guy before his teammates arrive, while conserving as much energy as possible. The most effective way to do that would be to gang up on him and leave no room for escape. Zabuza and Kurenai watched the scene with amusement and frustration respectively.
'Why does this baka think he can take on all these guys by himself. Where is Kakashi and his genius student, Sasuke. Even Sakura won't be too bad, but the worst student in the class was the one who came. Apparently, he also has a death wish.' Kurenai thought, but remembered one thing about Naruto, and that was, hardly anyone could ever catch him after he pulled a prank. It was also said, that his plans were pure genius. 'He probably has something up his sleeve. It had better be good.'
Naruto settled into a defensive fighting stance and eyed his opponents wearily. From all the info his clones had gathered, he had to be weary of Haku the most. The demon brothers were surprisingly the smallest threat. They had the best teamwork though, so he couldn't underestimate them. Deciding that it would be better to face Tetsu and Haku, because they were faster and more skillful. The demon brothers seemed to take this as an insult and charged. Naruto feigned surprise like a good actor and let himself get caught in the Demon brothers chain. The brothers then proceeded to rip him to shreds with a mighty tug. In the end, all they ended up with was a decimated log and several floating explosive tags.
"Kuso..a kawarimi" was the simultaneous swear from four different people.
Boom.
"Hn. It seems we have underestimated this boy, Haku" Tetsu said as he looked towards Naruto and the two Kage bunshin that now stood over the unconscious brothers.
"Hai, it seems we did underestimate him." Haku said with a small frown. "Shinobi-san, we hold no grudge against you. Leave now and you will live. Stay and you and your friends will die."
"Tch. The name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I have a personal grudge with at least one of you guys." Naruto said while leaking killer intent towards his two opponents. "You hurt my friends and one of you even had the intention of killing Hinata-chan. For that, I will never forgive you."
'This boy, he can't be the same Uzumaki Naruto everyone talks about in the village. He is strong and has his heart in the right place. Maybe Hinata was right. Maybe the village is wrong in its opinion of him. You are truly an interesting person.' Kurenai thought. She was brought out of her musings by Zabuza's demanding voice.
"Hurry up boys. I sense two rapidly approaching chakra signatures. I may need help for them, so finish this one quickly."
"Hai" was the unanimous reply.
Realizing that his plan to stall for his teammates would not work any longer, Naruto pulled out his two katana and flipped them before lodging them in the ground 'I guess it's plan B then. Might as well start out big.' Naruto thought. Running through some hand seals, Naruto whispered.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."
Unfortunately, his plan failed because instead of his opponents jumping, they countered with their own jutsu.
"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu"
The water was so much that it extinguished his fire technique and started moving towards him. Smirking slightly, Naruto decided to test out his new jutsu. Running through another set of hand seals, Naruto cried out.
"Suiton: Suijinheki"
After blocking their technique, Naruto suddenly noticed the temperature of the water around him getting lower. Thinking fast, Naruto dropped the Suijinheki and ducked to avoid a hail of ice needles.
'So it seems they are both starting to get really serious. Kuso, this will not end as easily as I thought.' Naruto thought as he saw Tetsu coming at him with his katana drawn. Naruto picked up his two katana and faced Tetsu head on. The dance between the two shinobi was one of the most amazing Kurenai had ever seen. Even Zabuza seemed intrigued.
Tetsu style was slightly barbaric and would have fit better with a sword as big as Zabuza's. It was probably his intention as well. To become the next wielder of Kubikiri Houcho.
Naruto style was more refined. It relied heavily on the opponents moves. You either want to be quicker, or you want to be more graceful. It seemed that Tetsu was extremely fast despite his wild strikes, so Naruto chose to be graceful. Spinning with every thrust so as to keep up the momentum and making use of the fact that their blades were roughly the same length even though Tetsu was using the style of a much longer katana. Before long, Naruto had given him a few cuts and was literally playing with him which only fueled Tetsu's anger. Anger can be a very bad thing against a shinobi who capitalizes on such mistakes. Unfortunately, Naruto was too enthralled in the battle to observe Tetsu's emotions.
In the end, Naruto came out on top and kicked Tetsu squarely in the ribs, and sent him flying. Naruto was just about to chase Tetsu when several ice mirrors popped up around him and left very little room for escape. Getting into a loose defensive stance, Naruto prepared for the unexpected.
"Makyō Hyō Shō"
"I see...It seems your ability is kind of a Kekkei genkai. Am I right?" Naruto asked with trepidation. 'Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke need to get here fast. I will not be able to hold off both of them for much longer while inside here.'
As Naruto thought about possible battle plans, Tetsu came running back into the mirrors with a look of pure anger on his face. Immediately, Naruto drove the blade of the katana in his right hand into the ground. Forming half seals with his right hand, Naruto's shadow raced towards Tetsu who was guided by a blind rage. Tetsu came to an abrupt stop, but his prior momentum was enough to make Naruto stumble slightly. Driving his other katana into the ground for balance, Naruto took a moment to savor his little victory.
"Kagemane no jutsu……success."
'He was careless and has given me a clear opening. I will knock him out so that Zabuza-sama's dreams can be realized.' Haku thought with a bit of awe at the shinobi who had single handedly saved his comrades and precious people. Timing it perfectly, Haku threw two dozen needles at the boy from different angles of the ice mirror prison.
Naruto heard Haku's movements and realized that he could not dodge or block the needles in time.
'Kuso, I have never been in such a bad situation before……I am going to have to try this and think of the consequences later.' Naruto thought while maintaining the shadow bind. Naruto then dug into his kunai pouch and dug out four shuriken. Spinning around and letting them go in different directions, Naruto started another set of seals with his left hand.
"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto roared.
All the needles were deflected and Haku even received a few cuts before getting to the safety of one of his mirrors. Naruto was on his left knee and panting at the exertion of performing one technique while holding another.
'Amazing. I didn't even think such a thing was possible.' were the thoughts of all people who witnessed the scene.
All people were broken out of their trances when Naruto and Tetsu both got up and pulled their respective katana out of the ground. They started running towards each other and Haku, Zabuza and Kurenai saw what Naruto's plan was. Just as Haku was about to try and intercept, a katana flew toward his direction. Naruto and thrown his right hand katana, thereby disarming Tetsu as well. Haku barely managed to get out of the mirror before the katana went hilt deep into it.
'An impressive throw, but he is in Haku's domain. He cannot hope to win.' Zabuza thought as he started turning back to Kurenai. Kurenai also gave Zabuza her attention. After all, she only needed to hold out for a few more minutes.
Haku who had realized that his friend was about to be beheaded, moved at a speed never before displayed. Throwing some more senbon needles at Naruto, he managed to hit vital spots in Naruto's left arm and right leg. These only seemed to be minor annoyances for Naruto as he continued limping towards his prey. Haku could literally see the fear in Tetsu's eyes now. Naruto was too close to be stopped now. Haku therefore did the most reckless thing he had ever done. He jumped between Tetsu and Naruto as they were about to assault themselves.
Haku, now joined with Naruto's shadow could do nothing, thereby leading to a comical scene.
Thud. Thud.
Naruto and Haku had head butted each other, and Tetsu had head butted the back of Haku's head.
Zabuza and Kurenai turned around to see Haku's ice mirrors cracking and Naruto's shadow receding. All three young shinobi fell to the ground in different directions. Kurenai and Zabuza waited with baited breath for the victor.
Unsurprisingly, Tetsu climbed to his feet first and staggered to his katana. Haku looked to be unconscious and bleeding from the back of his head where Tetsu had hit him. Naruto seemed to be looking at the sky in a sort of daze. His daze was short lived as Tetsu's voice rang out.
"Teme…I will kill you for this humiliation." Tetsu said as he staggered towards Naruto. He was just about to deal the killing blow to Naruto when he was kicked in the side of his head.
Tumbling a few feet away before hitting the side of the bridge, Tetsu hissed out a string of curses. 'Today is definately not going well for me.' he thought.
"Are you okay, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, as he brought his foot back to the ground.
"Hai, Sasuke. Arigatou, I think I may have used up too much chakra though."
Nodding his head, Sasuke faced Tetsu again and got into a ready stance.
"You leaf fools. You keep on popping up like cockroaches. I will crush you all." Tetsu said as he wiped the blood from the side of his mouth.
"Indeed. But this team of leaf-nin intrigue me. Just one gennin was able to take out two mid-level chuunin, and one mid-level jounin albeit in an unorthodox fashion." Zabuza commented. "It also seems like he has the ability to perform two moderately high techniques at the same time. He also knows a time/space ninjutsu...it makes me wonder, if a gennin student is that strong, how strong is his sensei?"
Kakashi eye-smiled as he lifted his hitaite. "Unbeatable….. Kurenai, I will take it from here. Sakura should probably have finished healing your students. Please help Naruto away from here. He needs to rest and get his injuries healed."
Kurenai nodded and appeared by Naruto's side in an instant. Pulling out the needles gently, Kurenai was about to carry Naruto to safety, but his hand stopped her.
"Arigatou Kurenai-sensei. I am fine, but please could you carry him." Naruto asked with downcast eyes.
"Why Naruto-san? He was going to kill you. Why do you wish to help him?"
"No, he was protecting his friend. I know because I could barely follow his movements normally. Yet he never tried to kill me, only disable. Even when I took a gamble and acted like I was going to kill his friend. If I was to leave him here, I would be doing him a great injustice. I don't want to be that kind of person, Kurenai-sensei." Naruto said as he started walking away.
Kurenai watched his retreating back for a minute and noticed that everyone else seemed shocked as well at his statements. 'Strength, tactical knowledge, and honor. Within a few days, you have changed my views on you Naruto-san.' Kurenai thought.
They were all brought out of their musings by a clapping sound.
"I don't have all day you know. Hurry up and kill yourselves so I can find the old man and kill him as well. You shinobi don't understand the meaning of 'time is money'." a stocky man wearing glasses commented. He was standing in front of a whole army of armed men.
"Gatou. What is the meaning of this? Why are you here and what are you talking about?"
"Kukuku. You didn't actually think that I would pay you all that money, Zabuza? Look at you, outnumbered and outmatched by a pair of children and their sensei. Demon? Don't make me laugh. You are nothing but a baby Demon. Hehehehe, but you on the other hand, you there, woman….you are very pretty, and I may have use for you yet. Kill that boy at your feet and I may even decide to make you one of my richer sex slaves." Gatou said while smiling smugly at his own genius.
Killing intent seemed to fill the air, mainly from Kurenai. Many of the mercenaries fought just to get air in their lungs. Then before their very eyes, the impossible happened.
Gatou fell back with a kunai in his head, courtesy of Kurenai. The mercenaries stared on in shock, which was quickly replaced by rage. They were all stopped in their tracks by large spikes in killing intent from Kakashi and Zabuza adding to Kurenai's already burning rage.
"I have no reason to fight you leaf-nin anymore. I apologize for the trouble we have caused" Zabuza said while forming seals rapidly. Unsurprisingly, Kakashi and Sasuke's sharingan eyes were swirling, but only Kakashi's hands were moving. At the same time, Zabuza and Kakashi called out the name of the technique.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu"
Water rushed up from the river below and formed a two headed dragon that washed all the mercenaries of the bridge. After this was done, Kakashi covered his sharingan and Zabuza placed his sword on his back. Then Sakura walked unto the bridge intent on helping her teammates and the injured. Behind her, Kiba with Akamaru in his arms, Hinata, Shino and Tazuna walked unto the bridge.
Everybody watched as Naruto walked up to Hinata who had already started blushing. "Hinata-chan, you are alright….I am glad….."
The touching re-union became comical as Naruto fainted at Hinata's feet.
"Naruto-kun" Hinata shouted she turned him unto his back.
Zabuza looked to Kakashi for an explanation.
"Chakra exhaustion and mental fatigue."
"Ah, I see. It had to happen sooner or later with all he went through today."
"Indeed" Kakashi said as he turned a hard eye on Zabuza "We also have a lot to talk about...Zabuza of the bloody mist."
Techniques.
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu- Water Release: Water Dragon Blast Technique
Type: B-rank, Offensive, All ranges
Suiton: Suijinheki- Water Release: Water Encampment Wall.
Type: B-rank, Defensive, Short range (0-5m).
Ninpou: Kage ho no jutsu- Ninja Arts: Shadow walk Technique.
Type: Supplementary/flying/dimensional, Long range
This technique belongs to Karrafear and his fan fiction Restoration of faith/ Faith in humanity.
In my fan fiction, Naruto and Shikaku are the only people who can use this technique because it is so chakra consuming. They are also able to carry people with shadow type chakra easily. If they are carrying anyone else, the individual has to have relatively small chakra reserves.
Makyō Hyō Shō- Demonic Ice mirrors.
Type: Kekkei Genkai.
Users: Haku.
Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu- Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique
Type: A-rank, Offensive, Mid to long range (5+m)
Fūja Hōin- Evil Sealing Method.
Type: A-rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m).
Ninpou: Neiri no jutsu- Ninja art: Sleep Technique
Type: C-rank, Supplementary, short range.
Magen: Jubaku Satsu- Demonic Illusion: Tree Bind Death
Type: B-rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m).
Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu- Demonic Illusion: Double False Surroundings Technique.
Type: Unknown.
Mizu bunshin no jutsu- Water Clone Technique.
Type: C-rank, Supplementary.
Well, there you go. The next installment. Sorry for the delay, and I hope the length makes up for it. As you all know, the holiday is coming to an end and school is starting again...sadly. I do not know how long it will take me to update, but I will update at least once a month during school times.
Please review.
Ja ne.
the 6th fire shadow.