A/N: Back once more with another helping of Naruto goodness. Now, before I really begin this chapter, I gotta say sorry for the mistakes I had past chapter. I reread it, not as a writer but as a reader, and there were mistakes that annoyed me to no end, like forgetting a word here, not putting a comma there, you know. Not sure how many of you really noticed it, but I did, and it's annoying as all hell. Well, onto the actual chapter, which I will try to NOT fuck up. So far, I haven't had to hit the backspace button yet, so I'm going pretty well.
Kage Bunshin - Jutsu (I think I'll start using this for dramatic effect, if only a bit.)
I will destroy you and everything you hold dear. - Extreme anger or demonic speech/thought.
Do angels go back to heaven when they die? - Thought/Flashback stuff.
OH MY FUCKING GOD - Emphasized speech or shouting.
Anything in apostrophes, 'blah blah', occurs within the mind, be it mental communication (which is present) or just plain thoughts.
And any combination from here on out is up to you guys to decipher.
It'd been a few days since Kakashi got his ass beaten by a genin, though it'd happened before. He'd rested up before actually beginning to teach them, as fighting with Naruto always tired him out, being forced to use his Sharingan and the two strongest versions he had of his original creation, the raikiri. One could find team 7 in their training area, each waiting for Kakashi in their own way. Sai was drawing, Surashi was standing upside down on a branch, trying to get as accustomed to it as possible, Hinata was going through some katas for the jyuuken, Yakumo was painting, and Naruto was meditating, though none of them even knew he was there, as he was sitting on top of a tree. Naruto had felt Kakashi ARRIVE in the area a while back, but the man was content to observe his students before teaching them for the first time, and Naruto was fine with letting him.
After another half hour of this, Surashi broke. Yakumo broke. "WHERE ARE THEY!?" Surashi nodded, ready to go on a manhunt for him, coming back with Kakashi's head on a stake and Naruto hogtied. Naruto jumped down from his tree at that point, not wanting things to get out of hand. "I've been here the whole time. I've just been waiting for Kakashi." It was a little lie on his part, as he'd come in an hour later than the original time of 6 am.
At that moment, Kakashi came in as well. "I didn't know you were here, Naruto. I was waiting for you to arrive." They looked at each other before shrugging, completely fine with using the other as an excuse. Kakashi then looked at his other students, contemplating how to start this off. "You'll have to forgive me; I'm accustomed to working with ANBU, who already know how to train themselves for the most part, so I'm not the best ass teaching newbies." He looked to Naruto for a bit of help but got a shrug. "I started off with ANBU training, so don't look at me. I can probably teach just as well as you. Nah, I'm probably better, 'cause your old." Naruto brushed off the look he got from his teammates when he mentioned that he STARTED at ANBU training.
Kakashi's eye twitched at that. "I'm only 26, Naruto." He nodded. "That's DOUBLE my age." Since that couldn't really be disputed, Kakashi sighed. "Screw it. We'll focus on building each of you up physically until you're fast enough to match a chunin. I want to see what I'm working with here, so I want each of you to take a sprinting lap around... uh, Naruto? If you would?" Naruto rolled his eyes before waving his hands, causing a series of pairs of stone poles to rise from the ground. A large pond/ small lake then formed in the middle to prevent anyone from cutting corners; only Hinata actually knew the water walking technique. In total, the course was about 1/10 of a mile, something a SHINOBI should easily be able to sprint. "That outlines that track."
Kakashi nodded in thanks to the boy before turning back to his students. "Okay, I want you to sprint a lap around this course, which I will time. No chakra." At each of their nods, Kakashi produced a stopwatch from his pouch, having thought to bring supplies like that with him. Hinata went first, racing around the track. She managed to finish in 18 seconds, not bad for a 13 year old kunoichi. Surashi did the same, coming in at 18 seconds, Sai did it in about 20 seconds, and Yakumo did so in 22, making her come in last.
Looking to Naruto, Kakashi asked, "Do you wanna show them how fast a taijutsu specializing jonin could run it? Or should I?" They both employed the use of training seals, though Naruto had a lot more than Kakashi, so both could match a normal, jonin level taijutsu specialist in speed and strength. Naruto shrugged and got on the track. He didn't take a starting position or anything, just stood there, waiting for Kakashi to say go. When he got his cue, he released two levels of his seals, just so it would be easier, and blurred around the track.
When he reappeared, Kakashi hit his stop watch and said, "7 seconds." Turning to his student, he eye-smiled at their shocked looks. "I don't expect any of you to be at this level, as that's a goal more fitted to an aspiring chunin, but you get the gist, yeah? You need to become faster if you wanna survive in this world. No point in being excessively strong if you can't land a hit." Naruto nodded, cementing his words. Kakashi then told them to hold out their arms and close their eyes.
He glanced at Naruto once they did so, making him roll his eyes, already figuring that Kakashi would start like this. Naruto snapped his fingers and said, "Brace yourselves." Extremely dense metal bracelets appeared around each of their wrists, and even their ankles, immobilizing them, and, in Yakumo's case, almost knocking her to the floor. Kakashi resumed as they tried to stand straight once more. "Your first goal will be to run 5 laps with those weights on. By the end of today, you'll finish a lap in under 30 seconds or you'll get more the next time we do this. We'll be doing this until noon, and whether you get it or not, we'll be stopping then for a lunch break. Get to it."
With that, they ran, well, shuffled onto the track. Naruto made clones, which then made stop watches, to watch each of them for Kakashi. Kakashi looked at Naruto in a bit of surprise. "Thanks. How much did you give each of them?" Naruto smirked as he watched them struggle around the track. "Hinata got 15 pounds on each limb, Surashi got 20 per limb, as did Sai, and Yakumo got 10 for each. I know each of them well enough to say that it'll be challenging but doable for each of them." Kakashi nodded, looking at the sun for a moment before turning back to Naruto. "You can go train for a bit. He have another 3-4 hours until noon. I'll come get you when it's time; just don't go too far."
Naruto nodded and headed off into the woods, making sure he was far enough away that no one would see him. "Okay, time to train." He willed his upper body clothes to dissipate into chakra before getting down into a push up position. "1..." At that, he went down before making a rock appear on his back. "2..." The rock got a bit bigger at that point. "3..." Then it got bigger. Things went on like this for the next 2 and a half hours, Naruto doing a push up before increasing it's size.
By the time Kakashi came to get him, his students in tow, he was doing push ups with a boulder that easily dwarfed his size on his back. He'd released many of his physical seals by this point, but he still had a few more he could go past. Kakashi cleared his throat to get the boy's attention, not perturbed by it in the slightest as he'd trained with Gai. His students, on the other hand, had their jaws on the floor, already exhausted from their previous exertions and unable to really comprehend how he could lift that. Even Sai showed his complete and utter shock, and normally his surprise never went past a widened eye. Surashi and Hinata activated their dojutsu while Sai and Yakumo tried to cancel the genjutsu they thought were in, but Sai and Yakumo found nothing while Surashi and Hinata found something that they shared with the group, further increasing what they were feeling.
"H-he's not using chakra..." Yakumo almost passed out right there. They all knew Naruto had a massive amount of chakra, so it was plausible he could lift that with his enormous reserves of chakra, but WITHOUT chakra was something somewhat incomprehensible, even in a world where people threw fireballs and ran on water.
Getting up, and throwing the boulder off his back, Naruto asked, "Time?" At Kakashi's nod, he sighed. "I didn't get to finish, but fine." He punched the boulder, causing it to crumble under his advanced strength, before walking over to them, water flowing over him to wash off he thin layer of sweat before he channeled some katon chakra to his skin, evaporating the water. He left some in his hair, enjoying the feeling.
As he evaporated the water, he began walking towards his teammates, giving them a free look at his chiseled chest and abdominal regions. Everything looked so compact, yet they moved with grace and power that made Hinata feel a little hot, and it wasn't from the katon chakra. Naruto noticed as Hinata looked away, calming herself in her normal manner. Kurama cackled in his head. 'It's always the quiet ones! Ha! You better get with that at LEAST once, ningen! No clue what she'd be into, though.' Kurama's thoughts on the matter were echo'ed by Kogo, who added her own comment. 'Who knows? She might be into some crazy shit, Naruto-kun.'
He rolled his eyes before responding. 'She's thirteen.' Kurama gave him a look that said he didn't care, but then remembered that Naruto couldn't see him. 'Do those tits LOOK like they belong on a thirteen year old?' Naruto just responded with a 'Touché' before making a shirt appear on him, saving Hinata the embarrassment.
His clones filled him in at that point by dispelling from their positions.(A/N: He wasn't paying attention with his radar technique so he only had a vague idea of what had happened.) Kakashi then told him of his plan, letting him take over after they got lunch.
An hour later, Naruto was standing in front of them, arms crossed over his chest as he really focused on identifying the key components in their chakra. 'Okay, so both Sai has a strong water with a minor wind affinity and potency above the level of the average chunin, probably due to his time in root. Yakumo also has a water and wind, but hers are about balanced. Her chakra potency is rather high, maybe even jonin level, but I'll attribute that to her Ido demon that I forced the assimilation of. Hinata has a strong... water affinity. THE FUCK!'
He sighed out loud, making them think something was wrong. Holding up a hand to stem the incoming questions, he left them in their tense silence for a while longer while he finished analyzing their specific chakra. 'Not sure how 75% of these guys get water, but oh well. Where was I... ah, her potency seems to be pretty strong, decent chunin level. Probably due to practicing the jyuuken. Now, Surashi has lightning AND fire, but the fire feels like it was developed. Odd. Her potency is almost jonin level, but that's probably from the fact that she trained hard enough to develop a flipping affinity. Jeez.'
Nodding to himself, his analysis of them complete, he opened his eyes. "Well, since Kakashi seems to wanna focus on your physical state, I'l be taking over your training in the use of chakra. Remember what they taught you about chakra in the academy?" They nodded. "Well, don't be surprised if I teach you things that break the "rules" of chakra. But I have my own rules for teaching you." He put up a finger and began to circle them like a predator. "Rule number 1: while I'm teaching, I am NOT you're teammate; you will refer to me as Naruto-sensei, or just sensei, if you wish." He put up another finger here. "Rule number 2: You follow my orders to the letter. If I say jump, you don't even ask how high, you just jump as high as you fucking can." He stopped in front of them, holding up three fingers and releasing some of his chakra to intimidate them. It worked. "Rule number 3: anyone who breaks either of the previous rules has to spar with me, 1 v 1." They each shivered, both at the feeling of his ocean of chakra and the memory of how easily he shattered the boulder earlier. At their hasty nods, he nodded as well. "Good. We'll begin the first lesson with a bit of chakra theory. Something they didn't teach us in the academy was the concept of chakra potency..."
3 Weeks Later
Team 7 had fallen into a ritual of training and missions after that. They'd do a mission or two before Kakashi tormented them physically, then, on the next day, they'd do some missions before Naruto almost burned out their chakra coils. As stressful as it was, they grew in leaps and bounds, learning things that most jonin didn't even think existed. They could use a metaphorical drop of chakra on something that would take a normal genin a good chunk of their reserves. They could each at least keep up with a chunin, almost a jonin in Surashi's case, though she NEEDED her Sharingan.
Another thing was Surashi's Sharingan: It was fully matured. Having trained with someone like Naruto, who didn't enjoy pulling punches, she finished developing it REAL quick, if only to save herself a few bruises. Hinata increased her byakugan range to a kilometer at that point, which was extraordinary for someone so young. Yakumo could actually keep Naruto locked in her genjutsu long enough to attack him with it, though it drained her to even come close to affecting his chakra. And Sai, well, he may as well have been creating life with his techniques.
Walking up to Minato, Kakashi looked at his students. "Hm. Do you think they're ready for a C-Rank mission, Minato-sensei?" Minato looked at his student with an expression that said "Really!?" before responding. "You were capable of it from nearly the beginning Kakashi. I don't know why you waited so long." He shrugged. "I wanted them to get used to the smaller parts of shinobi life first." Minato had no real reason why he shouldn't have done that, so he just moved on.
"Well, I have-" He was cut off by Naruto, who said something that shocked them all. "I wish to not participate in this mission, Hokage-sama." Minato, being the Hokage, recovered first and asked why. "I'm a target, Minato. If I'm spotted with them, bounty hunters will think that they have a chance if they kidnap one of them, or something. Sure, I could handle it, but there is at least one S-Rank bounty hunter I know of that would be interested in me, and a couple others that just want me. I'll only go if they NEED back up. I'm more suited to a solo mission anyway. They've trained with each other AGAINST me, mainly, while I've only taught them. The team dynamics would be upset if I just jumped in." Having said his piece, he fell silent, waiting for Minato to respond.
"W-well, don't you want to be a part of your team's first C-Rank mission?" He scoffed, slightly hurting Yakumo and Hinata's feelings. "I've completed tasks that would qualify as an A-Rank mission on my own. Besides, they'll do just fine; I did train them after all." Kakashi's "Ahem!" was ignored, making him sulk slightly.
Minato couldn't find much reason to force him to go when he was a possible danger to his team, so he just relented to Naruto's will. "Fine. But you WILL be going on some missions with your team." Naruto nodded, finding the deal fair.(Team 7 minus Naruto then got the Nami no Kuni mission, but he leered at Hinata, which made Surashi almost burn him to a crisp.)
5 minutes later, Naruto stood in front of Minato's desk, staring him down. "I think you know what I actually want, Minato-sama." He sighed, having an inkling as to his wants but wishing to confirm. "You want your own mission, right?"
Naruto nodded, glad the village's kage wasn't dumb. "B-rank at least. You know I'm not dealing with this C-rank bull. Nothing but a waste of my fucking time." He grumbled the last bit to himself, but Minato heard him clearly.
Sighing, Minato looked through some scrolls for a mission that he was comfortable sending his "son" on. There weren't really any that he liked, but he found one that caught his eye. It only brought Naruto a few hours away from the village and let him do what he wished, perfect, as far as Minato was concerned.
Tossing him the scroll, he gave Naruto a bit of info as Naruto began to read the scroll. "Your mission is to-" Naruto cut him off. "I already finished the scroll. While this is barely a B-Rank mission, I must thank you for this mission in particular; I have a score to settle with the "Kurosuki" family." With that dark look on his face, he turned around slowly, going to the door with one thought on his mind. 'I swear, if that Raiga bastard hurt her...' Kurenai and her team came in at that point, Kurenai requesting something called a hunt. Minato looked at her students with a bit of pity before going through the missions.
A thought struck him, making him call Naruto, who'd only exited the room recently, back with a shout. "You'll be sharing that mission with Team Kurenai, Naruto. It is only a B-Rank mission for the chance of some of them having shinobi training, but you and Kurenai can take care of them. They are going on a "hunt", Naruto." Naruto shook his head, not wanting to share his mission and quickly thinking up reasons to deter Minato from the path. "This isn't just a B-Rank mission. I want to go on it because I know these people; they're ruthless. I recently got some information on them as well, and their current leader is the Kirigakure no Raijin(Thunder of the Hidden Mist), Raiga Kurosuki, who just renamed them to this because of his vanity. Also, he currently wields the Kiba blades and was a former full-fledged member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu(Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist), wielding my friends blades, so this is personal. Give them another mission."
When Minato was about to argue it, Naruto cut him off with even more reasoning. "He's probably trained a few of his followers in some ninja arts as well, so this isn't the place for these guys-" At this, he gestured to Kurenai's team, making them sigh slightly in relief. "-to get their feet wet. Give them a normal bandit hunting mission." Minato shook his head. "That makes it worse. I'm sending someone else in with you, along with these guys. They can handle the bandits, but I'm not leaving you to face multiple enemies with shinobi training alone." Naruto opened his mouth, but this time, MInato was the one to cut him off. "I have read it, Naruto. I won't send you in like that if I don't need to. Kushina will probably want to go, so wait for a bit." Naruto didn't want to commit treason and just go, like he wanted, so he bit his tongue while Minato went off to get his wife.
There was a slightly awkward silence between Team Kurenai and Naruto at that point, even though they knew each other. Naruto looked at them, a bit peeved at how things turned out, but eventually sighed, knowing it wasn't their fault. He had been leaking a bit of killing intent, putting the genin on edge and making Kurenai a bit worried, but when he stopped, they relaxed somewhat. Addressing them, Naruto closed his eyes. "Sorry about that; I know you aren't to blame. Well, consider that a taste of what a shinobi who is good at their main function can instill in weaker beings with just their presence. It's called killer intent. The faster you get over this, the better you'll do in real shinobi combat. Bandits probably won't have much of that, though, so stay calm and it'll be fine."
With his part said, he waited for Minato to get Kushina and return, Sakura squirming in place, wanting to ask him a question but losing her nerve whenever she looked at him. Kiba conversed with Akamaru quietly, by his standards, Shino stood patiently, and Kurenai observed Naruto carefully. Kurenai looked at Naruto with something akin to caution, but she didn't fear him.
Having had enough of being stared at, something he REALLY didn't like, if he could help it, he asked Kurenai what she wanted, not even bothering to open his eyes and resolving to go after Sakura after. "Well, I don't know how you fight. What do you specialize in, what can you do, anything!" He chuckled at that, opening his eyes to show them being purple and slit. "You don't need to know this, but I'll enlighten you, if it makes you feel better. My specialties are stealth and... killing. Anyway you can think of ending someone's life, I've probably done it at least once, and then some." The genin shivered, even Shino visibly disturbed by his response, if only a little.
This apparently gave Sakura the courage she needed to ask whatever it was she had wanted to. "U-um, Naruto-san, w-what's it like? You know, to k-kill someone." Naruto didn't even try to humor her. "I am the wrong person to ask this question, but I can tell you this much; if you feel no remorse, or even like it, you're probably less human than those around you. But don't worry, that's not a bad thing, in my opinion. See how good I am at this job?" Sakura's eyes widened at his insinuation, as did everyone else's, but Minato came in at that moment, stopping any questions.
He noticed the shocked looks of everyone present, but let it slide, not wanting to intrude too much. Kushina, looked around and shrugged. She was dressed in a blue t-shirt and a Konoha flak-jacket. Her hair was up in a pony tail, two bangs in front framing her face. She had blue shinobi pants on with bandages wrapped around her right leg, her shuirken and kunai pouch attached to that.
Sitting back at his desk, Minato explained the mission parameters to everyone, having only given the scroll previously, entering serious mode, aka Hokage mode, as he did so. "This mission entails the liberation of a town under the Kurosuki family..." Naruto tuned him out, thinking of the best way to get to Raiga at that point without anyone on the mission to find out of his... past relations. Kurama had an idea, one that he liked but knew he couldn't just do but would love to. 'Why don't you just leave them when you get there?' He'd been lazing around in his head up until that point, so his voice was drowsy and sleep filled. 'Go back to sleep, Kurama. I already thought of that, but they'd tell Minato that I abandoned them in the middle of the mission.'
Shaking his head, he heard that Minato was getting to the end of the mission briefing. "So, you needn't kill everyone involved, only end the subjugation of the village's people. Dismissed." They all nodded with a "Hai, Hokage-sama" before turning towards the door to leave.
As they left the room, Naruto turned to them all, ignoring the smile he got from Kushina, making her sulk a bit, something Kurenai noticed but didn't choose to pry on. "Okay, so I know where they are, and I can get to their leader, Raiga, from the get go. You can free the villagers ahead of time, maybe deal with some of the bandits as well, but this mission will be over within the day. Give me 15 minutes to deal with Raiga, at most. I have an idea as to how to deal with the left over bandits as well, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there." Kiba piped up at that. "And who the hell put you in charge, huh!?" Kushina was about to beat his head in, but a shake of the head from Naruto made her hand stop mid swing. Naruto looked at him for a moment before putting out enough chakra to make it hard for all but Kushina to breathe.
Letting up, he turned away from Kiba, walking out the village gates, as they'd been making their way their the whole time. He let the two jonin take point, falling to the back of the group as they began to run towards the village at Sakura's full speed, which, not all too high, was enough that they'd arrive in a few hours, with breaks in between.
2 Hours Later
Arriving at the village outskirts, they were confronted by some members of the gang. "And who might you be?" Naruto wasted no time with them, sending out chakra strings in a heartbeat, slicing them to bits. All but one of them, who'd hung back. Looking over to the boy, he told him something. "Tell your boss something for me. Tell him that one of Ringo's friends are here for a visit. Oh, and don't leave your home for the rest of the day afterwards. I'll kill you on sight if you do." The boy ran away like the devil himself was after him, out pacing the ninja, even if they were going at a leisurely pace.
Kushina and Kurenai then proceeded to admonish him for his actions, Kiba, Shino, and Sakura to disturbed by the sight of the dismembered bodies to say a thing. First, Kurenai tried the diplomatic approach. "Don't you think that was a bit rash, Naruto-san?" When he ignored her and kept walking, Kushina hit him on his head, going with her method. "Baka! Why'd you-" Naruto cut her off. "I know what I'm doing. They were completely expendable and I plan on... conversing with Raiga before I remove his head. It matters not if he knows I'm coming. As for the boy, well, I don't kill EVERY expendable." With his part said, he began to fill them in on his plan.
"Now, I can just appear at Raiga's position like..." his voice began to come from behind them at that point, making their eyes widen. "this, so I can go end this. Like I said," here, he reappeared in front of them, causing their head to whip forward so fast one might've heard a crack. "you should focus on the bandits who are watching those who enslaved. Some likely have training, so watch your genin, Kurenai, and watch Kurenai's back, Kushina." Kushina stopped him there. "Wait, why aren't I going with you!?" He shook his head. "I'm going int 1," he said matter-of-factly. "They," he said, gesturing to the somewhat nervous genin and their sensei, "are going into a group of opponents with three green genin, and a genjutsu specialist jonin. She can't really babysit too effectively for all three of them, anyway." He ignored the indignant "Hey!"s from all those mention.
Looking at them, he waited for a moment, as the boy who he spoke of earlier came back into view. He turned to the boy, asking him if he already spoke to Raiga. Receiving a fearful nod in response, Naruto addressed the boy, his voice making him flinch. "Well, this curry shop had better be your home, because that's where I told you to go, boy." He got another fearful nod as a response as the boy rushed inside the shop.
Smirking at the entrance, he looked back at his team for the mission. "Okay, I'll be beginning right about now. The mine which the people are enslaved currently are in that direction." He pointed towards a mountainous area of the village in the distance. "It'd be side first, just saying. Good luck, but you really shouldn't need it." With that, he disappeared, leaving the two jonin to prepare the genin and plan for the battle.
As he appeared in a valley like area, he saw the graves all around him. 'That's new...' He saw Raiga in the middle of a funeral... and he could sense the man in the coffin still alive, his cries and banging easily audible. Raiga had a group of his gang members around him as well, so Naruto sent out a few chakra strings to encircle them as he walked up. "Hey, Raiga. How've you been? It's been forever." Raiga looked up at him, surprised that he was snuck up on so easily. That is, until he got a good look at the one who did it. "Naruto...!?" Ranmaru, concealed behind him, whispered to Raiga, "Please don't fight him, Raiga."
Shaking his head, Raiga regained his composure. "Hello, Naruto. Lovely day for a funeral, isn't it?" Naruto nodded at that as it began to rain. "Yes, very fitting. But there's one thing mission here; a DEAD body. I can hear the guy in there, Raiga." Raiga's companions tensed, ready to jump at who they thought was only a boy.
Naruto was having none of that, though, as he tightened the strings he'd kept invisible but surrounding their body through the greeting. Their bodies fell apart before they knew what happened to them, making Raiga pale. "W-what did you..." Naruto just continued of from where he left off. "How about you take his place." He wrapped Raiga up in strings before he could say a thing, using his ability to remove Ranmaru from his back and make strings come from midair, stringing him up above him. "After I prepare you, of course." He also shattered the coffin with the man in it, making him grovel at Naruto's feet before he was shooed off.
Ranmaru jumped out of the bag that concealed him, shouting, "No!" Looking at him with a bit of annoyance as he grabbed onto him, Naruto sighed. "I won't have to if he complies with me in a moment, child. Hold your horses." Pushing him off slightly, he walked up to Raiga, a blank look on his face. "Now, Raiga, I'll ask you a few questions and you'll answer them truthfully. Okay?" Raiga nodded as best he could, his Kiba blades having been pulled away as well, hand immobilized, and left completely defenseless. "Now, did you kill or hurt Ameyuri Ringo in any way to get those blades?" He shook his head in a negative answer, making Naruto "Hm" for a moment.
Turning the strings to steel with a bit of koton chakra, he pulled out a sealing tag. Wrapping it around one of the strings, he said, "Kumonosu no Shinjitsu(Web of Truth)." As he finished, the tag was absorbed into the string and all of them momentarily shone a bright white. "Now, respond once more. Did you hurt her?" He shook his head again. When nothing happened, he sighed in relief and Naruto nodded in acceptance.
Naruto then let his head go free, at least enough for him to speak. "So, Raiga, what DID happen?" As Raiga went to hastily answer, Naruto held up a finger to him. Taking out another sealing tag, he wrapped around one of the strings again, before speaking. "Kumonosu no Uso(Web of Lies). Now, depending on how many lies you tell, your body may be ripped apart. Them more you tell, the more likely it is. Now, you may tell me your story."
A few minutes later, Naruto was nodding in acceptance. When the web didn't even begin to dig into Raiga, he was happy to believe the man. Walking over to his Kiba blades, he picked them up. "Okay, then I'll be returning these to their owner at some point in the near future, if you don't mind." He released Raiga, who was then embraced by Ranmaru. As Raiga tried to convince him to let him keep he swords, Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll make a copy for you. They won't be as well in tune with natural lightning, but you can get your weapons."
Focusing on the blades in his hands, he held them in a reversed grip before stabbing them into the ground. Lightning struck him at that moment, likely called down by the blades he was currently flooding with his chakra. Slowly but surely, he brought his hands away from the blades, an ethereal copy of them within his hands. When he finally pulled them up, he had a bit of sweat on his brow, the mental strain of replicating something so complex taking a toll on him.
Tossing the blades to Raiga, he pulled the originals out of the ground as he began to walk away again. "As long as you leave this town alone, you can live in peace. Actually, I don't care if you enslave any other villages, but make sure you do it outside of Hi no Kuni, if only so I'm not sent to top you again." With that, he disappeared from the area, leaving Raiga being embraced by a worried but thankful Ranmaru.
He made the two swords disappear as he appeared at the location of his temporary team. He found them tying up the bandits who weren't killed, Kushina burning the bodies of those who were. Naruto walked over to Kurenai and stopped her. "You guys can take a break; I got this." He made a couple hundred clones to deal with everything, making Kiba's eyes almost pop out of his head, Sakura's jaw almost hit the ground, and Shino's... well, he stayed straight faced. Kurenai's eyebrows flew up to her forehead and Kushina had the proudest look on her face, having Naruto take after her in at least chakra capacity.
Walking down the path to Konoha, he asked, "Can we just return to Konoha? I... have something I need to sort out." Sakura and Kiba nodded hastily, seeing the dying eyes of the people they killed every time they looked at the mines. Shino agreed as well, feeling uneasy despite handling it much better. Kushina was neutral, not feeling tired in the slightest, due to her enhanced stamina. Kurenai, on the other hand, shook her head, not agreeing with the idea. "We should stay and help the village recover. Besides, my genin are tired." Though she said her genin, referring to all of them, it was only really Sakura who was tired, Kiba using his Gatsuga to deal with multiple in one shot and Shino sucking them dry with his insects. "I can take us back in an instant, if you wish. I'm tired of this place."
Kurenai thought for a while, looking over to the village to find that the clones were done with the bandits and were speaking with the previous village government on what to do with them. Sighing, she relented, not finding any real reason to stay if Naruto could take them there. "Fine."
He smirked before telling them to grab onto one another and hold on. They did so and Naruto grabbed Kushina's hand before concentrating on covering just them in a layer of thick chakra. They felt like they were being suffocated, but they didn't dare interrupt him, unsure of what would happen.
Feeling as though they were safe, he focused on Konoha, which was on the edge of his range. 'Oi, Kurama! Wake your lay ass up!' The snoring seemed to intensify, making his eye twitch before he calmed down. 'Fine then, natural energy it is.' Focusing on nature, he pulled as much of it as possible onto the shell of chakra he'd made, reinforcing it before using his own to increase his range, getting Konoha safely within it. Looking over to them, he spoke. "Hold on. I don't know if I'll bother coming back for you if you let go." With that, they disappeared.
For his passengers, it was like they blacked out, not having any real sense of time or knowledge of what was happening. All they knew was that when they came to, Konoha's gates were in front of them and they were dizzy as all hell. Sakura doubled over and threw up on the spot, barely managing to turn her head to the side to not get it on anyone. Kiba at least made it to a bush before letting it go. Shino just wobbled a bit, his bugs helping to stabilize him rather quickly so he was fine in a few moment. Kurenai was pretty well off, her training with genjutsu making her rather resistant to feelings of dizziness, something genjutsu can induce with decent effort. Kushina was used to Minato's Hiraishin, which had the same effect, so she just shrugged it off.
Walking forward without much concern for how they handled that, he gave a halfhearted, "Sorry." to his passengers. Kushina caught up with him as he was about to use the technique on himself again and asked, "What was that? I've seen you use it before but you've never told me what it was." Naruto decided to humor her before he left, continuing to walk towards Minato. "In actuality," he began, making her beam at the fact that he was actually having a conversation with her outside her home. "that technique was different from the one I use normally. It was my version of Minato's Hiraishin, but the one I used to get to Raiga was more advanced. It just has some inner workings and secrets I didn't wish to reveal." With his piece said, he disappeared from there, leaving a dumbfounded Kushina who shunshin-ed to Minato's office behind him, both of them forgetting about Kurenai and her team.
As Kushina appeared in Minato's office, she noticed that Naruto was already there. "Ah, there you are!" Minato said. He was beginning to worry about them when only Naruto appeared. "Where's team 8?" Naruto smirked slightly, so small they wouldn't have noticed if they weren't so used to his blank face. "They'll be here, but they may have to... wash up first." Minato shook his head at that, not even wanting to know. He sighed as he addressed Naruto. "Uh, I just received a request for backup from your team, Naruto. The client lied about mission difficulty, but they wish to continue anyway, so I'll be sending you in. You came back from your previous mission rather quickly, so I doubt this'll be too bad for you." A chill went up Naruto's spine at that, one that reverberated through him so thoroughly that both Kurama and Kogo were jolted awake. 'Huh? You need somethin'?'This came from Kogo, her voice laced with drowsiness as Kurama yawned in the background. 'No, but I think you should stay awake. I may be needing you soon; just a feeling.'
Minato told him that they stopped an hour away from Konoha, waiting for backup to arrive, but this was a little over an hour ago, as the message just arrived. Sighing, he nodded, but as Kushina offered to go with him, he declined. "I'll be enough, I think. No need to send out more shinobi than needed. Besides, this is my team." With that, he walked out of the office, leaving a disappointed Kushina and an only slightly worried Minato.
Disappearing just as Kurenai and her team came into view, he appeared where he felt the chakra of his own team, along with two he hadn't felt in a while. Appearing in front of Kakashi, he ignored everyone else's surprise at his sudden appearance and said, "Update." Kakashi nodded, figuring Naruto would be the backup. "We left Konoha two hours ago, not long before you did, according to Hinata, and we proceeded at a civilian pace for an hour. We encountered those two-" here he pointed at the Oni Kyodai(Demon Brothers) who were tied to a tree behind Naruto, though he already knew of them. "-and engaged in combat, which was swiftly ended by those Sai and Surashi, Hinata having jumped in front of our client and Yakumo having supported with genjutsu. Afterwards, I tied them up and interrogated the bridge builder, Tazuna, and found that he lied about the mission difficulty and this likely wasn't a random encounter.
"His village in Nami no Kuni is currently under the control of Gato-" Naruto held up a hand at that, not needing to hear any more. "I think I get it. Gato, the rich and famous one, I assume, is sucking them dry while taking control of the ports, so they couldn't actually afford to pay for the mission; that's why he lied, hoping to get a strong team for a cheap price. Well, as irresponsible as this was, I understand." He'd turned to address Tazuna now. "Know this, though: if any of my teammates fall, that's one of your limbs." Tazuna seemed to shrink in on himself as Naruto began to release killer intent, not enough to kill him from his mere presence like some could, but enough to let him know that he wasn't giving a threat, he was making a promise.
Naruto turned back to Kakashi as the genin grouped up around the two. "Did you interrogate the two?" He was referring to the Oni Kyodai behind him. Kakashi shook his head. " I figured I'd wait to see if our back up was better suited to the task than I am, and I figured it'd be you anyway. You spend too much time with Anko to NOT be good at interrogation." Naruto nodded, greeting his team a moment before appearing next the Oni Kyodai and taking them with him in the same way he transported Kushina and Kurenai's team, Kurenai included.
Appearing in a deeper part of the forest, he put up a barrier of pure chakra that was condensed enough that it would blind Hinata for a few seconds if she tried to look at or through it. Untying the two, he asked, "The FUCK are you guys doing!?" Neither Gozu or Meizu could meet his eyes at that point, even Meizu's temper being quelled by their fear of him getting angry. Gozu, being the more rational of the two, tried to talk his way out with surprising success. "Z-Zabuza-sama sent us to kill the bridge builder, see. We didn't know you knew those guys." He didn't out right say it, but his tone said, "Sorry about that"
Sighing, knowing they were correct, he let up with the killer intent he was leaking, sure someone in Konoha felt it. "That's not what I meant. I knew you guys would have to leave, but why have you been taking such dirty jobs. I mean, come one! You took one of GATO'S jobs. He doesn't like to pay nuke-nin; he prefers to cash in on their bounties when they've served their purpose. This is suicide!" They looked at each other for a moment before Meizu regained hi composure. "Well, how the fuck would we know that, huh!? All we knew is that he paid well!" Naruto and Meizu shared what could only be described as a glaring contest before they burst out laughing.
Gozu smiled under his rebreather, before speaking. "It's been a while, Naruto." Naruto smiled genuinely for the first time in a while before answering. "Yes, it has hasn't it? The last time was, what, 3 years ago?" Meizu slung an arm around his shoulder. "So, think you're stronger that Zabuza-sama yet?" It was a joke the three shared for a while, knowing that he was stronger for a while, just worse when it came to using a zanbatou like the Kubikiri.
Naruto laughed, elbowing Meizu in the gut. "Damn right, I am! Three years changes a lot." His smile left his face at that point, knowing he only had so much time before Kakashi came to check on him. But, in all seriousness, you guys have to tell Zabuza not to fight us. We both have a job, but tell him to walk away from this one, else we'll be fighting, and it won't be training this time." They both nodded gravely, Gozu being the one to respond. "We'll try, but..." Meizu took over here, showing just how in sync the twins were. "You know how he can be." The took their respective gauntlets and took a single claw, making circles next to their head in the universal sign for crazy. They laughed before disappearing in a shunshin, leaving Naruto to think of explanation as to why they were released.
Walking back to the group, he waited until they gathered in front of him to begin. "Okay, so I actually know those two and, where they are, Zabuza Momochi, the Kirigakure no Kijin(Demon of the Hidden Mist) is sure to follow. Kakashi may know this, but he's an A-Ranked nuke-nin from Kiri, one who attempted an assassination on the Mizukage, Yagura, unsuccessfully, but did better than you'd expect. He's a former member of the Kiri no Shinobi Gatana Shichinin Shu and has three followers at the moment, two of which you've met and the other a jonin level kekkei genkai bearer."
He paused a moment to let all of that sink in before Kakashi forced to him to say what he did to the two. "About that..." He sighed. "I let them go." As Kakashi was about to roast his ass, verbally, and Surashi was about to do the same, literally, he held up a hand to stem the tide of outraged reactions. "Hear me out. We have history, both the Oni Kyodai, who you fought, and Zabuza, so I gave them a chance to convince Zabuza to leave. If they fail, well, Zabuza would've come anyway. If they succeed, that eliminates a pretty big fish. I'll handle Zabuza if he pops up."
Kakashi shook his head. "He's out of your league, Naruto." Naruto looked at Kakashi with a look of "Oh REALLY now!?" before giving a response. "I know how to fight him and I've only gotten stronger since our last encounter. He's had to run from hunter-nin for three years. Do you really think he'll be stronger that me?" Kakashi looked a bit sheepish at that. "I thought so. But, you should handle the other member of his party. I don't know how strong he or she is, only that they're at least jonin level, so don't underestimate them. If my info is correct, whoever it is is the last known bearer of the hyoton, a rather powerful kekkei genkai, especially in an area like this with abundant water."
Kakashi nodded before sighing. Walking towards Tazuna, he mumbled, "When did I start taking orders from genin..." Tazuna looked so relieved at that moment that he could've passed for a man who just proposed(and she said yes!). "Don't be too happy, Tazuna-san; this mission isn't over yet. If this Gato is that rich, then there'll be more." Tazuna returned to being a bit scared, but steeled his resolve to continue, having caused too much trouble to just stop at this point.
Continuing on, they encountered a boatman who took them across the river, the fog thickening as they did so. Naruto, who chose to run next to the boat, jumped on and informed Kakashi of something. "Zabuza's here. This is his jutsu, not fog, so be ready when he pops up." Kakashi nodded, passing on the message to the others, sans Tazuna.
A few minutes later, they were on a path towards Tazuna's village, the fog getting thicker and thicker, to the point where even Tazuna realized it was no ordinary fog. At that moment, a large blade came at them, spinning like a buzz-saw. Kakashi shouted, "Get down!" as he grabbed Tazuna, hauling him to the ground. All of the genin, sans Naruto, did so, hitting the ground like gravity was multiplied tenfold.
Naruto on the other hand just made his own zanbatou in one hand, deflecting the blade and sending it into a tree, which it became stuck in. On the handle landed Zabuza. "I'm not a merciful man, but I'm feeling nice today." Here, Zabuza began to leak killer intent with such force that all the genin, sans Naruto, felt as though they were already being murdered. "Give me the bridge builder or die." Naruto scoffed at him. "You already know my answer... sensei."
His teammates looked at him in shock, not knowing of their relationship until now. Zabuza narrowed his eyes. "You won't back down, huh?" Naruto got rid of the previous zanbatou he had before pulling a new one from seemingly thin air. He brandished the zanbatou in one hand, retrieving another to dual wield them. They were both big as all hell, just as tall as him, but they were different. The first was rather shiny, but was made up of multiple different swords, a small one in the middle, a rather large, serrated one in the back with it's handle showing above the guard, a large one in the front(A/N: Google First Tsurugi for the image). The other seemed to be only two swords, but they fit together in a much cleaner fashion, smoothly creating a black zanbatou with a silver guard and bandages on the handle(A/N: Search Buster Sword Redux in google images for a good image. It's the first, but it has inverted colors for the blade and guard.)
Naruto blurred in front of him, releasing a good amount of his seals, and slashed with both swords. Zabuza, seeing this coming, hopped off the blade, landing behind it and grabbing the hilt. He pulled the blade out of the tree and pushed Naruto's away in one fluid motion, making it obvious that his physical strength was nothing to scoff at. The both smiled as Zabuza jumped backwards, holding his sword with both hands. "Gozu! Meizu! Haku! Deal with the others while I teach my student some manners." With that he rushed Naruto, who dodged the blade, bringing both of his at Zabuza's midsection in a spinning motion.
Zabuza jumped over the slice, sending a powerful leg at Naruto's head at the same time. Naruto, who kept spinning, brought one of the blades up, blocking the kick but giving Zabuza a foot hold. As Zabuza pushed off, backing up for a moment, he pulled the Kubikiri from the ground, as he'd buried it there with the strength in his original strike. They rushed one another, disappearing from view until the met, locking blades. Zabuza, with his height advantage, began to press down on Naruto. "Class is in session, runt!" Naruto channeled chakra to his limbs, making them even stronger instead of releasing seals. "Yeah, and it's about time I taught YOU a thing or two." He rolled to the side, pushing Zabuza's blade away, before jumping back. "Gatsuga!" A crescent of a deep purple chakra/youki mix came from each blade, forming an "X" as it flew.
Every part of the ground it passed was torn up, leaving to trenches on the ground as it traveled towards Zabuza. "Fuck." Zabuza ducked under the blades, narrowly avoiding getting beheaded by the intersection of the two blasts. They formed a path to the lake behind them, though, and Zabuza was glad to take advantage of the water that flowed through the trenches near him. He spun his blade in a circle, a trail of water coming from the tip of his blade, flowing from the trenches near him. Catching it a moment later, but keeping it moving, he swung it at Naruto. "Mizukiri(Water Beheading)!" A thin line of water flew from the blade's edge, one that Naruto chose to dodge rather than block out of caution. It was a good choice, for it cut clean through the trees behind him. And the trees behind those. And the trees behind those.
Growling, he shouted, "You tryin' to kill me!?" Zabuza nodded, a bit ticked himself. "Yeah! Did you SEE the shit you just threw at me!?" Naruto smirked at that remark. "Touche, No-Brow-sensei!" At his growl, Naruto laughed, before blurring in front of him and kicking his previous teacher in the chest, sending him onto the lake.
Taking a glance behind him, he saw Kakashi combating a masked, hunter-nin-looking figure who he assumed was Haku, as he already knew Gozu and Meizu personally. He was doing pretty well, considering he managed to combat an enemy he knew absolutely nothing of, though the situation was the same for both combatants. The demon brothers were putting up more of a fight than they were previously, having gotten another gauntlet for their other hand and fending off any katon jutsu from Surashi with their suiton jutsu and destroying any beasts from Sai with a jab from their claws. They got each other out of Yakumo's genjutsu with a small puncture from their non poisoned claws, having come prepared this time. Hinata was the main defense for Tazuna, so she hung back for the most part, a scythe in her hands held at the ready, prepared to fend of either of the brothers if they made a dash for Tazuna.
His attention was brought back to Zabuza when he sensed two attacks coming at him, one at his head and another at his midsection. He brought a blade up to each side of him, blocking both clones of Zabuza that attacked him. The mizu bunshin no jutsu gave the clones a tenth of their creator's power, so he was able to easily bat them away, dispelling them. He turned to where Zabuza was, feeling a buildup of chakra and saw Zabuza going through hand signs at high speeds, his sword stuck to his back with chakra.
"Oh, fuck me." was all he could get out as Zabuza finished, calling out his technique as the water behind him began to rise. "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu(Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)!" It flew at Naruto with ferocity that made him think he was facing an actual dragon, an experience he didn't wish to repeat. Jumping, he charged up for another sword technique variation. As the dragon turned around and flew at him again, he took both blades and started spinning, turning his body parallel to the ground.
Using chakra to speed him up in midair, he used his Gatsuga technique, but didn't stop, creating a saw that the dragon collided with, destroying itself in its attempt to kill him. As he slowed down, he noticed Zabuza staring at him in what he assumed was shock. Smirking he decided to shock him again.
He formed chakra under him in midair, making a platform for him to stand on and giving himself the image of levitation. Putting both swords on his back and sticking them with a small flow of chakra, he decided to end this with a bang. Going through hand signs for the first time in a while, he back flipped, making his feet point towards the sky. Pushing off and speeding towards the water, he finished the hand signs and used another boost of chakra to go faster, making a small boom and drawing the attention of all the others.
Colliding with the water, he called out, "Baku-suiton: Daibakusuishoha(Explosive-Water Style: Great Exploding Water Shock-wave!)!" The waves that followed his impact with the water's surface were nothing compared to the explosions that traveled outwards on the waters surface, carried by his chakra and making the waves all the bigger, and stronger. Zabuza, being far too close to dodge, was swept up in an instant, sending him into the forest around them as a veritable tsunami followed him, battering him with explosions that Naruto timed as best he could to go off near him and tons of water that pounded him, much of it created by Naruto, as the lake didn't deplete all too much.
Haku cried out, "Zabuza-sama!" as he/she threw senbon at both Naruto and Kakashi, which they had to take the time to deflect, going after him. Gozu and Meizu followed, not wanting to stay behind with the super genin, Kakashi, AND Naruto. Kakashi went to intercept them, but Naruto held out a hand as he appeared in front of him. Ignoring the questioning look he got, he shouted something at the retreating team as they retrieved their battered leader and his weapon. "Tell Gato something for me. Handan is coming back, with a vengeance." With that, he turned away, making his swords disappear as his previous opponents retreated.
Walking back towards his team, he took in their looks of awe. Surashi had hearts in her eyes at that point. "You HAVE TO teach me that jutsu!" He shook his head at that, smirking at her disappointment. "It takes WAY too much chakra for you to pull that off. Besides, didn't you hear the name? I'd have to not only teach you suiton, but bakuton as well. I don't like the idea of such an undertaking right now."
He then looked at Kakashi, indicating for him to take over. Kakashi sighed, enjoying the ability to be lazy as someone else did his job. "Alright then, we'll proceed to Tazuna's home. Yakumo, Hinata, you two stick to him like glue. Sai, take point. Naruto and I will bring up the rear." With that, they continued on, all three possessors of dojutsu with their eyes combing their surroundings while Naruto was focusing on his chakra senses enough that he could already feel Tazuna's village.(A/N: Yes, Kakashi can keep it going. More on that later.)
Two more thoughts crossed Naruto's mind as he felt the monotony of the situation overtake him. 'Fucking hell, civilians are slow.' and 'Something big is gonna kick my ass. I can feel it.'
A/N: Cut! I think I've made enough progress for now, at least in this arc. If you couldn't tell, there are still many things going on in the background that I have left to be exposed in the future. A LOT of things are planned for this series, and a lot of ability explaining to do. So many words, so little space... oh wait, I can type just about infinitely. Hehehe. Let's just move onto the harem and forget that happened. Oh, and you CAN vote for girls who aren't on the list, you know. Ino, for example, would be fine, as long as you mention her. By the way, this is just the list of those I let you guys chose; may add in an oc or another girl I really like. Just saying.
(Bold=Confirmed, Italics=Probable, Normal=Possible)
Kogo(Fem Kyuubi)
Fem Haku
Fu
Hinata
Fem Sasuke
Fem Gaara
Fem Hidan
Yugito
Anko
Matatabi(Nibi)- Pulled ahead, so she's in.
Shizuka: 1
Tayuya: 1
Temari: 4
Tenten: 4
Shion: 4
Mei: 2
Ino: 1(I'll count what you said in your review as a vote, GinnyLover14; just say the girl to add her to the list.)
Fem Kakashi: 1
Okay, so I'm gonna make the cut off for the harem at some point in the near future. Past that, I have a plan for next chapter, oddly enough; I rarely plan for these chapters, the just happen. Well, have a great day, and thanks for taking the time to read my story. If you're confused, don't worry. All will come to light in due time.