There was many things you could say about Sasuke Uchiha, not many of them were nice, and even fewer of them were true. However, there was one fact that absolutely no one could dispute and that was that he refused to believe that anyone could be a better master than he. And so it should have came as no surprise when Naruto woke up the first morning of the trials with an official challenge to a Master's Duel being issued for later that afternoon.
Naruto sent back a reply with his terms mere seconds later, having had them prepared the night after Kakashi had mentioned the challenging of Sasuke. A release of all Sasuke's slaves and any clan contracts he might have, against him gaining Naruto's slaves, the Hyuuga clan's holdings, and Naruto himself. There was little to no chance that Sasuke would refuse, and hopefully he would have the official scheduled match time.
Slipping out of his warm, comfortable bed, he padded his way sleepily over to his office to begin the day. Accepting the cup of ramen from the slave stationed there, he sat down to begin reading over the forms, only to realize two things. One, until today not a single slave had gotten up before he had.
Two, he had told the slaves to stay out of his office until further notice. Setting down the untouched cup of ambrosia, he slowly turned his head so he could look at the slave that had given him the delicious smelling noodle and broth combination.
The purple haired girl stared back at him with her brownish eyes, carefully schooled into an impassible face that made it difficult to read her emotions. The glasses were a cute touch, but what really caught Naruto's attention was the fact that she was wearing a black jacket with some sort of blue collar and a matching skirt. It was a very nice outfit to be sure, but it seemed like it would fit better at a school.
It was about this time that his sleep besieged brain finally made the connection to the scroll he'd read a while back. His new office slave's name came slowly to his mind, and even slower to his mouth. "Yuki Nagato?"
"Yes Master Naruto Uzumaki? How may this one assist you?" Nagato asked in a precise, if not just a bit unemotional voice. This triggered another of those slow memory fires, in which he remembered what exactly the poor girl had gone through to get her to this point. Kidnapped from on her way home from some school, watching several of her classmates raped and killed in front of her, and then tormented in more cruel and insidious ways until she was freed when Naruto and crew took out Gato.
It seemed that the only time she'd shown emotions was a small little smile she had when she heard the news of Gato's capture, and the immediate asking to be placed in Naruto's slave list.
"I'm just a bit surprised that you're here already..." Naruto started while rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and realizing that for the first time since he moved in there was no paperwork for him to sift through on his desk.
"Supreme Master Hiruzen Sarutobi suggested that I should come here right away when I arrived earlier this morning," Yuki answered as though announcing the weather for the day. "This one sent out your reply to Master Sasuke Uchiha, and is currently awaiting the announcement from the Judgenatrix Guild in regards to the time of the duel. This one would advise you to remain guarded until after you have faced Master Sasuke Uchiha in combat, as his attitude and history show a slight suggestion that he would not submit to the Judgenatrix Guild's ruling without being forced to do so."
"Further, you have received a letter of submission from the Aburame Clan, due to your gaining of the Hyuuga Clan's seats and votes. They would also like to inquire as to whether you would like for one of their younger members, one Shino Aburame, to serve as an advisor on how best to utilize their intelligence gathering skills. This one would advise to consider this offer, as the Aburame clan values honesty and their hive structure requires a member at the top serving the Queen function as it were," Yuki continued, causing Naruto to wonder just how little she needed to breathe. Another thing that ran through his sleep befuddled mind was that she didn't blink, and it was causing his own eyes to dry out in sympathy.
"Finally, the Akimichi clan sent up a gift basket of their finest products for your sampling, with Chouji Akimichi asking for you to meet him in a ramen eating contest sometime in the next few weeks. It would seem that they are confident in your victory over Master Sasuke Uchiha, as they are talking about making proposals of a mutually beneficial nature while this one was still within hearing distance. This one took the liberty to research into that clan's history, and discovered that they had lost their holdings within the Stone Monolith of Konohagakure in a bad business deal that had gone afoul due to suspicious reasons. While Master Sasuke Uchiha owns the title of the Ninth Floor, Supreme Master Hiruzen Sarutobi is withholding his assumption of ownership until such time as he attains the rank of Lord Master or better. Unofficially this one believes that Supreme Master Hiruzen Sarutobi is withholding the ownership due to the improper business proceedings, and will only cede control to one that would follow the Akimichi clan's wishes for how it is to be utilized."
It took Naruto a full minute to process the deluge of information that had sprang forth from Yuki's mouth, and by then he noticed that she was watching him as though awaiting some order to continue or another task to do. "Thank you Yuki... have a seat somewhere comfortable and we'll talk about your duties here."
Now Naruto had prided himself on a few things growing up. One of which was that he could hear, smell, and almost feel the location of people around him with great ease. It was one of the things that had made growing up without a family a little easier, since the people chasing after him could never tell how he avoided them. And in the simple act of her striding past in front of his desk, the pride Naruto had in his sense of hearing took a heavy blow. He couldn't hear a single thing as she moved, even as he strained his hardest.
While Naruto was working with Yuki about her integration into the staff of the dungeons, a pair of Hyuuga girls, a weapon fetishist, and a former Justicar were waking up to find their favorite breakfast foods waiting for them beside their beds. It would seem that Yuki was rather swift about her duties, and considered the lack of kitchen staff an oversight for herself to correct. How she figured out what everyone liked was a bit of a mystery, but they weren't about to start complaining.
Down in his true offices, Hiruzen Sarutobi sipped some tea from the pot that Yuki had prepared before he'd awoken to find her waiting like a statue in his office. There were several things that he'd learned in those first few minutes. One of them wasn't how he'd not heard her come in, the heart attack she'd caused in doing so however was.
With her had arrived a stack of documents from the Guild that caused any lingering thoughts of returning to the land of dreams to fly out the windows. It seemed that the resistance movement that Kakashi and Naruto had unearthed in Wave ran a bit deeper than many others had considered. The current 'supreme master' of Water was in league with them, and sheltering them from both the Guild and the other forces that could claim jurisdiction over them. This meant that all their activities were basically justified, and no outside force could pursue them without causing another war.
With how the peace treaties and pacts were currently designed, the best they could hope for was a complete lock up of all trade and business. The worst was a war that would most likely wipe out every nation, and cause the anti-guild factions more than enough leverage to win.
Even worse, the lock-up would still occur during the war, causing the worst kind of thing to happen. The resulting embargo would tie up the Land of Water in a pretty little bow for the highest bidder to swoop in and take. Pulling out his pipe, he took a deep pull before letting the smoke drift towards the ceiling in a lazy circle.
With the Master Trials occurring in Konoha this year, he couldn't afford to do much planning outside of the Trials, thanks to the sheer amount of rules and regulations he had to ensure were being followed.
The last time someone forgot a small regulation during the Trials, it caused a ten-year war that caused the Guild to seize four countries for nearly a year. He didn't want a repeat of that fiasco, as Konoha had barely escaped being taken by the Guild due to being a major supporter and revealing a sub-plot against the Guild by another nation.
Hoping against his own instincts, he prayed that the rumors of ROOT continuing to be around were as false as he'd been promising. The fact that they had been dissolved had gone a long way to prevent them from being co-opted by the Guild.
There wasn't much wrong with being under the Guild's control, save that they were thousands of times more severe in their enforcement of the laws and tenants than most of the Supreme Masters could be. There were rumors they openly sold people who ignored their laws, and that was one of the nicer rumors.
As he looked over the reports he'd been given this morning, he knew that they'd have to act, and decisively at that to prevent Water from being an even bigger headache in the long run. The Aburame clan had sent representatives to work with the Guild on their infiltration and observation plans, and had unveiled at least two curious facts.
The 'supreme master' of Water was little more of a puppet of his former self, seeming to let the three-tailed demon inside of him run the show. This was important to him since Naruto was another demon container, and would likely be brought up several times during the political meetings that ran the war, for there was no avoidance of such actions. He could only pray that the boy was ready for the tasks that would be asked of him.
The second was that the leader of the pro-guild rebellion was in fact a former pupil of the demon container. This could be vital to making the war short and tactically clean, but he could only hope that Konohagakure wouldn't be the host to several more 'refugee slaves' since Wave's were already straining their resources. And sometimes 'refugee slave' was another word for 'Reassigned leadership', but the worst was when it equaled 'Broken'.
It seemed that the slaves from Wave, while most of them were able to be retrained or freed, a good chunk of them would be spending a lot of time in the mental health facilities. The Guild would eventually pay for their stays and care. Eventually.
For now however, he had to focus on the problems facing him about the Master Trial's currently going on. Already there where three Official Master Duels request submitted, and each one contained one Naruto Uzumaki. Two of which he would have to send for Naruto's verification on, but the third was set for later this day.
Sasuke Uchiha had apparently wasted no time in setting up his little duel, and a variety of reasons caused Hiruzen to assume the boy hadn't read the terms Naruto had returned with. The biggest was that he doubted Sasuke was willing to lose all of his properties like he'd signed off on. Well all of them save his clan's dungeons at the Stone Monolith.
Another puff of smoke from his pipe, and he felt the tension leaving him. There was one final report, and it was the most promising of the lot. The monthly reviews of all active Masters and Mistresses under him were in, and that meant he could see if his own estimates of potentials for promotion matched up with theirs.
Off the bat, he noted a minor discrepancies in the reviews. It would seem that the reports from his own people varied wildly about one Master Naruto Uzumaki. Some claimed that he was a hidden prodigy, the next would claim him a liar and fraud, before another would claim that he violated the rules of the guild, and yet one more would say that they needed more young Masters that worked within the rules like Naruto had.
A look at Danzo's notations showed that the one-eyed man wanted to take the boy under his wing as an apprentice, if he wasn't currently under someone else. And that caused a devious smirk to spread over the old Supreme Master's face. He knew exactly what Danzo had planned should he win over the boy, but he was officially listed as Hiruzen's apprentice under the highest levels of secrecy available.
What that meant was aside from himself, only Naruto and anyone Supreme Master or higher could learn about it. So really, there wasn't anyone in Konoha that could know. Even if they did, they would be captured for learning secrets beyond what they should and given over to either Hiruzen or kept in the Justicars' complex.
However, it also meant that he couldn't just lock out Danzo, since to do that he'd have to reveal his own role as Naruto's teacher. To do that would cause the council to raise hell at him playing favorites.
Being the theoretical dictator of a village was nice and all, however the council had taken steps to ensure that they would retain their marginal control they'd gained during the short gap between Minato's death, and Sarutobi's re-assumption of the mantel. They'd managed to passed many laws that moved them from being an advisory board to a nuisance to running things.
Maybe it was time to stop playing nice with them, and start throwing his weight as the Supreme Master around a bit more. They'd done so much to get in the way of the things he wanted to do to improve the village, and the rights of the submissives in the care of their masters that had been completely and utterly defeated by their petty infighting and squabbling.
The only thing that could unite them seemed to be putting a stop to his attempts to exert his authority over them. Why couldn't they just see that he was trying to make life better for everyone involved? Why were they all thinking that some man who declared war against the guild in all his actions would make life better so often?
Something wasn't right about it, but he couldn't do anything. Or could he? He couldn't touch the council officially, but... in an unofficial capacity... or through another...
Pulling out a scroll he smiled as he remembered that Danzo's request for Naruto to be his apprentice required being addressed. A simple no just wouldn't do for him right now, oh no, he demanded so much more to be done.
Instead of penning a message to Danzo, he wrote up a summons for the entire council. It was time to throw some weight around and really raise some hell with the council. They wanted to impress the guild during the trials, it is time to show them exactly how they would dance so that happened.
One more request to the Chief Judgenatrix later, he was starting to truly enjoy the shape of the plans that were forming. He found an odd urge to cackle manically after getting to this point, but no, he had to restrain it and prepare to act in the shadows. First he had to blindfold the council, and the perfect tool to do so was just about to occur later today. Sasuke's first master's duel was generating a lot of craze among his fanbase, of which the council could probably count as a huge portion of it.
Several hours later it was time for the duel, and it was a large production if ever there was one. The two masters stood at the opposite ends of a wooded plain, wearing only a pair of tight leather pants each, their scrolls and such were kept in series of storage seals sewn into the pants themselves.
After the brief run down of the rules, and how to unseal things from their pants, the two masters were given a few minutes to prepare themselves for the duel. Naruto decided to choose what tool he knew, rather than attempt to pull out some fancy trick. That meant a few chain nets, the bullwhip, smoke and stink bombs went into the seals. The only thing he was going to keep out was a pair of specially crafted bolas, which while he didn't expect to trip up the arrogant prick, would at least foil some of the things he saw the rich bastard packing away.
Nodding his readiness to the Judgenatrix, he stood on the spot she designated, getting coated in some sort of oil that was supposed to keep the sun from burning their skin during combat, and make them a bit slipperier.
While he was waiting for Sasuke to get ready, Naruto took the opportunity to look around at the 'stage' being set up for the entire ordeal. There was no better way to describe it as anything but a stage. First there were stands already filling with people, and then there were video cameras to catch all the action from multiple angles. Finally there was the fact that the entire area was ringed by enough Judgenatrixes and Justicars to make even the most fanatical of assaults pause.
It was a show of force, more than anything else. The proclaimed top of the graduating class, versus the lowest of the low, who had turned everything around with one fateful mission. The underdog versus the top dog, a classic grudge match if ever there was one, and to think that was before the wagers were made public.
Watching Sasuke finish his preparation, Naruto wondered how the black-haired jerk thought he would ever need all of those tools he was packing away. Naruto couldn't even think of a way to remember the location of everything. That would cause a lot of problems if he grabbed the wrong tool in a moment of need.
It took the Uchiha survivor another three full minutes before he was ready to be oiled up, and by then Naruto already had a battle plan in mind. Sasuke would go on the offensive, launching with his strongest attacks in an attempt to overwhelm him, and would end up tiring quickly, instead of feeling him out for a few minutes.
The Judgenatrix walked into the center of the dueling area, and raised her hand into the air, drawing silence from the entire area at once. "Ladies and gentlemen, we the Guild welcome you to this, the first match of the Masters Trials. We have a challenge match between Master Uzumaki and Master Uchiha," she spoke, causing Naruto to grin as Sasuke grit his teeth. Being listed first meant that Naruto was the higher ranking Master of the two of them, and that just had to rub salt into Sasuke's wounded pride.
"This match is officially sanctioned by the guild, and should any interfere, they will face the full reprisal that we can bear," the Judgenatrix with a red mask continued as she turned to looked the two masters in turn. "Master Uzumaki, are you ready?"
Naruto gave her a slight bow at the waist, with his right fist crossing his chest to rest against his left shoulder. It was the proper salute answer, marred only by his shining eyes and devil's own smirk. He was supposed to have his features completely schooled, but he'd never been too good at doing that. not that any but the greatest sticklers of the code would consider calling him on it.
"Master Uchiha, are you ready?" the woman asked, turning to regard the lower ranked master, getting a tense, teeth clenched bow in return from him. Ooo anger, that was never a good thing for a master to show, and the murmuring of the crowd seemed to echo that sentiment. "As both masters are prepared, let us begin this match!"
The cheers of the crowd was deafening as the two Masters faced each other across the distance, eyeing each other up silently as they readied for combat. A count of three ticked down, echoed by the crowd as they were eager to see the battle.
At zero, they all let out a scream to announce the start signal.
Just as expected, Sasuke charged in, pulling out a bo-staff for his first weapon. Just as he swung his staff in to attack, Naruto swing up one of the bolas to deflect it. Springing back, Naruto yanked the weapon out of Sasuke's hand, somehow sending him sprawling on the ground face-first.
Next, he fell back from the prone form of his opponent, clearing his bola from the staff that was currently tangled inside it. He didn't want to let this battle be over too quickly, and besides Sasuke was getting angrier with every passing moment. Angry people make mistakes.
Sasuke pulled out another tool, this time it was a catcher collar, the stick and rope loop would make things a little more interesting. It would give Sasuke a bit of reach, and still be able to ensnare him. Unlike the staff.
Fortunately for Naruto, the genius couldn't focus enough to use it properly. He instead slashed through the air at the blond blindly rather than grabbing at the extremities or head. Diving under one slash from Sasuke, he flicked out his defensive bola at the prick's knees getting him to hop back.
Pressing the attack, Naruto kept the lower ranked master on the defensive, since he was already beginning to shows signs of being tired. His aim was off by inches, his swing was slowing down, and he seemed to be getting angrier with each miss. "What's the matter Sasuke? Didn't sleep well?" Naruto taunted as he batted the catcher loop away with one of the chains from the bolas.
"Shut up dobe, I will defeat you!" the Uchiha proclaimed with a lot of venom in his voice. He picked up the speed on his strikes, but only succeeded in increasing the number of times he missed.
How exactly had he been the best of the group? Oh right, the written exams were weighted to be worth more than the practicals. And half the time, Naruto found himself being given oddly more difficult exams, that he barely passed if at all, if he believed what Hinata had told him. Which he did, but he also knew that the guild would require him to provide the burden of proof.
There was just something wrong with how the Uchiha was performing today, since the dark-haired avenger should have at least landed a blow on him. Maybe it was time to piss him off a little more. "What's the matter, stayed up all night stroking off to your dreams of bringing your brother back as your slave? What was his name? Itachi?"
Oh that seemed to have pissed him off, as suddenly the boy's eyes shot into a blood red hue with a single black comma mark floating around the central pupil. "What's the matter Sasu-chan? Did I strike a nerve? Do you think he'll call you otouto-chan again?"
It was too easy sometimes to tease him, the rest of the times it was just simply easy instead. This was one of those first times. Baiting him into doing more idiotic and wasteful stunts like trying to do a diving capture of Naruto, which the blond just leaped over him. Naruto's landing could have been a bit more graceful, what with landing on Sasuke instead of the ground and all.
That cracking sound couldn't have been good, after all. Nor could that amount of swearing that Sasuke was screaming out. Naruto really hoped that it wasn't anything that would be important later on. Well, he'd not landed with his knee in between his legs...
The proctor he'd done that with once had sworn a blood feud against him almost for that, but the injury hadn't been serious, so the man had just been out of action for a couple of days. There were a few other circumstances at play here, but they weren't all that relevant right now. Getting off the cussing boy, Naruto gave him a few minutes to recover instead of capturing him as was his right.
Really it just wasn't right for him to do that, and... well the people wanted a show. "Good to go?" Naruto asked after a few minutes, getting bored with hearing the stream of cursing coming from the Uchiha. The Judgenatrixes seemed to agree with him, as they were watching the display with apparent boredom, at least that's what Naruto thought it was, it was hard to tell with the masks in place.
Instead of calling off the match, Sasuke pulled himself up and used the catcher to hold himself up. "I will not lose..." the boy growled hotly as he pulled another tool out of his seals. This one was a nine-lash leather flail, that Sasuke lashed out at Naruto. Instead of leaping back as expected, the blond dove under its reach lashing out with his bola at Sasuke's mid-section instead of the weakened legs.
He wasn't entirely sure why he didn't go for the easy win, but it just didn't seem his way. Instead he was working to wear Sasuke into the ground. Well, it was true that the survivor had pissed him off while he was in the academy, but ninety percent of the world did that.
Seeing the Judgenatrix that had seemed to enjoy a personal interest in his development signalling for him to hurry up, he decided to make his move. One quick activation of a seal later, and he had the slave storage scroll in hand. Seconds later, the scroll was unraveled and hitting the avenger in the chest.
Pulling himself up from the stance he'd taken to deploy the scroll he looked at it with a frown. Something just didn't add up in his head, why wasn't Sasuke more of a challenge?
"Winner Master Uzumaki!" the lead Judgenatrix proclaimed as she walked out into the dueling area. As she approached Naruto with her hand held out to accept the scroll. "I will ensure that he is taken to the hospital, where he will be released and treated."
"Thank you High Judgenatrix," Naruto answered, barely noticing the rank emblem on her left breast. Handing over the scroll, he watched as she tucked it away securely on her belt.
"You are most welcome Master Uzumaki, your winnings will be transferred over before the end of the day," the High Judgenatrix offered while looking over the gathered crowd, that seemed stunned into silence. "Go and take a rest. You've earned it."