"Ok, I guess. We are staying here after all. We might as well earn our keep." Chrono muttered as he saw Naruto in his fox form.
"What do we need to buy?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, some vegatables and fish." Tsunami replied.
"Hai. We'll get them." Hinata said kindly as the trio left the house with Naruto following them.
Halfway there, Chrono had his first view of the village.
"Was it always this run down?" Chrono muttered to himself as he lifted Naruto by wind magic and placed him in Hinata's arms.
Hinata held the fox form of Naruto closely as she looked around.
"I'm not sure if it was always run down." Sakura replied as they entered a supermarket.
Everyone was nearly dumbfounded as the shelfs that usually held vegatables was bare except for a few small pieces.
"Where's the produce?" Chrono muttered as he walked in.
"There is no produce ever since Gato took control of the water routes." The shopkeeper replied.
"But, not even enough food to survive. How could he..." Hinata whispered.
"Who is Gato?" Chrono asked.
"He's a shady businessman that controls the ship routes. Since we depend on those routes for our lively hoods, he is charging us three times the normal rates just to export food and he barely leave enough food for us." the shopkeeper replied.
Just then, two hands felt up Sakura and Hinata's backside. Sakura turned her fist in the general direction and clocked the pervert in the face as Hinata got out of Sakura's way.
"Pervert!" Sakura exclaimed.
Another hand tugged on Sakura's skirt. Said girl raised her fist to attack the person when she saw a kid no older then five holding both hands up as if asking for food. Chrono smiled bitterly as he pulled out his gold bag that he had from his time under Eliwood and Lyn and gave the kid five gold coin. Sakura added to that by giving the kid some candy. The kid smiled and left promptly.
"We have to stop Gato." Hinata said.
"Yeah." Sakura muttered.
"The question is now how to stop him. Either ways, let's get the food and head back." Chrono replied as he pulled out his healing staff and started healing the random injured that passed by him.
Eventually, the trio reached the house they were staying at. It was already getting darker as they entered the house. One of the occupants, a boy named Inari, stared at them before snorting and walking past them. They ignored this and proceded to the kitchen where everyone was gathered.
"Looks like Gato is a leech to this area and we need to get rid of him." Chrono muttered.
"Yeah. But remember that our orginal mission is to protect Tazuna until the bridge is complete and with Zabuza and his friend out there recovering, we might not know when they could attack again." Kakashi replied.
"But we have more people." Kiba pointed out as Akamaru barked.
"Number is not everything." Kurenai replied.
"In these kind of situation, we should be careful of what they could do next." Shino muttered as Sasuke looked around the kitchen.
"Why not just crush them?" Naruto asked.
"And risk losing over 6 genins? Not likely." Emerald replied as she looked over to Chrono, who was thinking.
"We also have to think about Zuuma. We had a hard enough time fighting him." Jaffar pointed out.
"That is true." Sakura muttered quietly as the kitchen became quiet.
A half an hour passed as dinner was served. Everyone had a front row seat to Sasuke and Naruto's eat til you hurl war. Afterward, Hinata and Naruto looked over to Chrono as they expected him to teach them something new.
"Not tonight you two. I have something I want to experiment with. Nino, Emerald, Jaffar." Chrono said as the said people got up and left the house.
The leaf nins followed Chrono's group and soon enough reached the training grounds where they saw Emerald, Nino, and Jaffar in a triangle surrounding Chrono.
"What do you think they could be doing?" Kurenai asked.
"I don't know. We don't even know thier past enough. This could be a great opportunity to learn more about them." Kakashi replied as the leaf genins kept quiet watching the four.
Out on the field, Chrono finished outlining his idea.
"This is highly potent magic that I am attempting here. Nino, I want you to prepare to reroute any magic up into the air. Jaffar and Emerald, take my stuff. If this goes right, I won't need the swords or staff." Chrono muttered.
The three nodded as Jaffar and Emerald took Chrono's stuff.
"Be careful." Emerald whispered as she kissed Chrono on the lips.
The trio backed up a bit as they gave Chrono some space. It was then that Chrono started chanting in a different language that neither his group nor the Leaf nins ever heard before. A wave of power washed over them as Chrono continued chanting.
"What is he doing?" Kiba whispered.
"It looks like he's praying." Hinata replied quietly.
"A person like him, praying?" Sasuke muttered as he watched Chrono with distaste.
"That's no prayer." Shino muttered.
"You don't know the language he is speaking now. What makes you so sure?" Naruto muttered.
"Because my Kikaichu bugs is refusing to tell me the source of the jutsu." Shino replied.
"We'll wait and see what Chrono does." Kakashi muttered.
Everyone watched as light started to spin around Chrono. The dirt around him bubbled as metal rose from the ground like liquid. Chrono then chanted even quicker as the metal morphed and bubbled until it formmed around his arms and sank into his arms. Chrono had to bite back a scream as he finished the last few lines of the chant and fell face first into the dirt. By instinct, Jaffar, Nino, and Emerald ran over to Chrono with Jaffar pulling out his two swords and looked around to see if anyone was spying on them.
"Chrono?" Nino muttered as she unleashed a healing spell on him.
His response was a groan as he got up.
"Did it work?" Emerald asked.
"I'm not sure until we test it out tommorrow. The infusion of metal manipulations is tricky at best and I could easily lose both my arms for it." Chrono replied as Jaffar grabbed one of Chrono's shoulder and placed it over his.
The leaf nins nodded to each other and left as Chrono's group left the field.
Back at the house, Sasuke looked out of the window mentally thinking to himself.
'How the hell does that sorry excuse of a warrior knows a jutsu as strong as that. I will beat it out of him if it's the last thing I do. I am an Avenger and I will use anything to kill him.' Sasuke thought as he slumped off to bed.
The next morning came as everyone was back at the training site. To Kakashi's expectation, almost everyone maganaged to climb a tree with just chakra. Except for Kiba, Naruto, and Sasuke. Kakashi looked over to Chrono and Emerald, who were huddled together. He decided to speak to them for a bit as he walked over to them while Kurenai supervised the rest of the group.
"Yo. Chrono, Emerald." Kakashi said.
"Yo. Ah." Chrono muttered as his arms gave off a sharp pain. Emerald looked over Chrono's arms and sighed.
"Anything wrong?" Kakashi asked.
"Nothing major at the moment. Chrono was testing an experimental idea out and it didn't go well. I think." Emerald replied as she saw Nino and Jaffar coming back with some food.
"We brought lunch." Nino exclaimed as she held up a picnic basket.
Everyone sat down for some lunch and quickly finished when Kiba spilled the beans.
"So Chrono, what did that spell do to your arms?" Kiba asked before realizing what he said and covered his mouth.
"You can't keep your mouth shut." Shino stated calmly.
"I think it's a dud and it might end up hurting me. But I won't know until I test it out against my group along with the genins in a weapon match." Chrono replied.
"You sure? It looks like that it's hurting you more then we realize." Kurenai muttered.
"I need to know if it worked." Chrono replied as he got up.
The genins, Jaffar, Nino, and Emerald followed Chrono to the field and everyone got into position around Chrono.
"We are not going to hold back. Are you sure you want to go through this?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah. I need to figure out how to control the spells." Chrono replied.
"What if we kill you?" Sakura asked nervously.
"Don't worry. I escaped death too many times to count." Chrono said with a smile.
"Prepare yourself." Jaffar muttered as he pulled out his two short swords.
The genins pulled out kunais as Emerald pulled out her bow and Nino started chanting for a fire spell.
'Now or never. Let's see if the spell actually worked.' Chrono thought.
Sakura started the match as she threw some kunais at Chrono as Jaffar rushed at him. Nino sent a fireball toward Chrono as Emerald launched an arrow at him.
'Shoot. Can't dodge. I need a shield.' Chrono thought as he dove to the side.
A flash of light was seen as a shield matearlized on his left arm. Chrono saw the shield and realized what the spell actually meant as he raised the shield and deflected the kunais and turned to block Jaffar's attack.
"Looks like the spell worked. Now bring it." Chrono replied as he redirected the fireball to strike the arrow first before hitting the shield.
Eventually, the battle ended as the group returned back to the house. It was after dinner when Inari had enough.
"Why are you here? Why are you risking your lives to help us out?! You guys are not from here! All you guys are doing is trying to become a hero! Heroes dies too fast and for nothing!" Inari screamed as he had tears in his eyes.
"You really piss me off with your crying. You don't know a hard life and you act like you had it worse. I don't care about your history. So quit your crying crybaby!" Naruto exclaimed as he unleashed a bit of Kyuubi's chakra, instantly making Inari shiver.
Naruto got up and ran out of the house. Once outside of the house, he morphed into his fox form and ran to the training field where he turned back to a human and started to train again.
Back at the house, Chrono sighed as Inari ran to his room. Everyone else looked stunned.
"Kurenai, Kakashi. Can you talk to Inari for me? I want to talk to Naruto myself and I have a good idea on his location." Chrono muttered as he left the house.
The house was quiet as Tsunami and Tanuza quietly muttered that they needed to get to bed as they left the room. Soon after that, the girls left for their rooms as the boys sat back at the table thinking hard about what has said.
Outside, Chrono managed to find Naruto punching a tree in anger.
"You ok Naruto?" Chrono asked.
Naruto stopped punching the tree as Chrono walked over to him.
"I was always alone. Ever since birth, no one has ever acknowledge me except for oji-san and Iruka-sensei. Everyone shunned me. It hasn't changed until you and your group came and here Inari is crying like some sad hero in a show." Naruto muttered as he turned to Chrono.
"I can only say that your past is your strength that allows you to change the present and possibly future. It's because of your past that you aspired to become the leader of your village and it's because of your past that you made friends." Chrono muttered as Naruto sighed.
"Can you teach me more of your fighting style?" Naruto asked.
Chrono nodded as the pair got up and started to train again.
Back at the house, the girls sat in their room as Hinata looked around.
"Why is Naruto-kun so sensitive to Inari's words?" Hinata asked.
"He's just an annoying boy that just wants attention." Sakura muttered.
"Maybe being annoying is somehow his cry for someone to acknowledge him." Nino replied.
"Maybe. I just wish we knew more about his past." Emerald muttered as she looked at the moon.
*Naruto's mind.*
Kyuubi was partly in tears as she remembered the attack on Kohona.
"If only I had the chance to redo that day, I would become a human to help watch over you. Now, I'll do anything to get out of my prison just to be with you truly and it is almost complete. I'll be with you shortly. Just wait my love. Just wait." Kyuubi mutered as she looked at the female Naruto body that Kyuubi has prepared as she fondly called it, 'Naruko'.
*Next Morning.*
A lady walked into the forest as she had basket in her hands. Her small smile faded as she entered the Leaf's training field and saw Naruto and Chrono asleep. Naruto was in a patch of herbs while Chrono was sleeping on the tree. She looked at Chrono and made sure that he was asleep before she went over to Naruto with the intend to kill. Her hand made it to his throat when Naruto moaned in his sleep.
"No. It's not my fault." Naruto moaned.
The lady pulled her hand away from Naruto's neck and patted him on the shoulder.
"You're gonna catch a cold if you slepp out here." the lady said.
Naruto moaned as he woke up.
"Morning... who are you?" Naruto asked.
The lady looked at the hatate on Naruto's head as she found a question to dodge his question.
"That Hatate, are you a ninja?" the lady asked.
"Yup. I'm gonna be a Hokage soon!" Naruto exclaimed witha smile.
"Hokage eh. When you do, are you going to protect those who are precious to you?" the lady asked.
"Of course. Iruka-sensei, Sakura-chan, Chrono, and his group." Naruto replied smiling.
"I hope you succeced." the lady replied as she finished picking herbs and stood up.
She started to leave when she stopped a bit.
"By the way, I'm Haku. I'm also a man." Haku said.
"WHAT?!?!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, waking Chrono up.
'How can a man be that beautyful.' Naruto frantically thought before Haku put his fears to rest.
"I'm kidding. I'm a lady." Haku replied as she left.
Haku walked for a bit until she reached Gato's hideout, she went in and found Zabuza's room. She entered and found Zabuza up.
"Zabuza-sama. You shouldn't be up right now." Haku said.
"Don't worry. In any case, let's prepare for the attack." Zabuza muttered.
"When is the attack?" Haku asked.
"Tommorrow."