"Speaking"
'Thought'
"Demon Speaking"
'Demon Thought'
"Nature Creature Speak"
'Nature Creature Thought'
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. 'bastards.'
A.N. – Sorry it took a bit to finish this but I knew you would mob me if I didn't so to appease the blood thirsty mob here is, the next chapter to Harbinger of Balance.
Chapter 6:
The Beginning of the Training and Another Uzumaki
"Order up! Table Three: Two orders of Sand Salad, one order of Roasted Sidewinder, and an order of our famous Suna Dango!" rang out the chef as he placed the food on the counter. A cheer went out at the name of the famous desert meal. A young blond male walked up to the counter and tool the tray of food was on and grabbed a stick of dango. He picked off a dumpling and chewed ate it. A couple of people looked expectantly at him as if waiting on his opinion. His face lit up and a smile split his face in half as he plopped another dango into his mouth.
"This is great! It's better than what I usually eat!" He pronounced. He ran over to his table with the tray, dipping and weaving through the throng of people walking around the open restaurant and market without shifting the plates. People started to watch as he started doing tricks as he made his way over to the table. He jumped over a kid who had bent down to pick something up, then slid under a stand while tossing up the tray and catching it on the other side. People were cheating when he finally got to the table and that was when he saw two astonished faces and one expectant one that was just waiting for his food.
"Did you enjoy that attention Naruto?" The expectant man said as he tore into his salad. Naruto just nodded and smiled. The only woman in the group looked at the other man with an incredulous expression.
"How can you not be amazed? That sort of maneuvering takes quite a bit of skill to pull off and he did it like it was nothing!" She said to the calmly eating man. Bosh just looked up and shrugged. The last member of the group snapped out f his astonishment and decided to speak up.
"Sarra dear, I think that he knows that he, and we as well, should get used to Naruto doing things that normal people wouldn't he able to so easily. We should be grateful that he was able to get something useful from such a shitty life." He told her. Sarra's head whipped around at him with a scowl on her face.
"Ladon! How could you say something so heartless! No one should have to go through what he has for any reason what-so-ever! I don't care if you are my husband and I love you, I'll beat you down if you say something so cruel again!" She yelled at him. He frowned and was about to tell her that she had misunderstood what he had said when they heard a sniffling sound. They all looked at the crying face of Naruto with concern while he looked at Sarra with an unidentifiable emotion in his eyes.
"Do you mean that?" he asked her. She smiled sadly at the sight.
"Yes, I did Naruto. I believe no one should have done to them what was done to you." He leapt up and hugged her, crying into her stomach. Everyone who was watching looked away in embarrassment. Sarra was hugging and whispering that is was alright and none of it would happen now that she was to protect him. Naruto started to calm down and realized he had made a scene in the middle of the market with his little outburst and began to scratch the back of his head in shame. "Go ahead and eat your dango before it gets cold." At this some people burst out into laughter. She caught onto why and blushed. How could something get cold in the desert?
"Sarra that was silliest thing I've heard you say so far." Naruto told her, hiding his smile behind his hand. She gave the boy an evil grin.
"So, I'm silly am I? I'll so you silly." She lunged at him with her fingers going for his sides. He started laughing and squirming around under her inescapable hands.
"I give! I give! Stop!" He called out loudly between laughs. Sarra stopped and picked him up, placing him back in his seat.
"We better hurry up and eat if we want to get to our hotel and our beds. I'd love to sleep in a bed again." She exclaimed to which her companions agreed, both vocally or otherwise. They dumped their foam trays in the trashcan and walked away, unaware of the eyes that followed the blond boy as he walked off.
"Hey sis, what are you looking at?" asked the boy sitting next to her.
"Nothing, but I may have found our brother a friend." She said with a smile.
((((Boooo! A Small Timeskip!))))
"Alright we've got our rooms. Naruto! Sarra! Ladon! Listen up. Today will be a free-day and we won't be having many of these so enjoy this because tomorrow I'll we'll be starting Naruto's training and will also be the start of his new life and the technical end of your days as human." He said, then disappeared. The others were glad for a day off and to themselves, but two were cautious and concerned about what the man said before vanishing. Sarra decided to leave it for later and deal with an important problem.
"Naruto, I know he said we have the day off but we really need to get something for dinner; do you think you could go to the Bazaar with me while I make Ladon go get some training equipment for you?" She shot her husband a smile that he knew quite well, one that told him of a hot night in the desert or a cold night without her for him. Ladon sighed and then had a sudden flash of inspiration.
"Well, I guess I could. I was thinking of buying you something nice but if you want me to get him his equipment, I guess that I could do that instead." He said out loud. He had her hook, line, and sinker. She knew how tight-fisted he was when it came to money and the last time he had bought her something was before the 'Meadow Incident,' where it was stolen.
"Naruto here's the list. You're an independent boy and I know you're able to protect yourself. Now go play and don't forget to get some supplies before you get back." She told him before dragging off Ladon. Naruto smiled at them until they disappeared. He didn't hold it against them for ditching him, he just wished that one day he could have something even the smallest bit similar to what they had. He was snapped out of his musing as his danger sense kicked in. He spun around while ducking, when he looked at what was thrown at him he saw that it was a harmless ball. He heard scuffling behind him and quickly spun again to ward off any attacks and saw a boy about his age searching for something, probably the ball up and walked over to the boy.
"Is this yours?" When the other boy heard him speak whipped around and started to back away.
"No, that's not mine. You can keep it, just don't hurt me." The boy mumbled. They boy kept his eyes trained onto the ground but Naruto caught a glimpse and knew that the redhead boy knew pain like he did.
"Look at me." commanded Naruto. The other boy flinched but looked up. He gasped at the all too familiar eyes that the blond held. It was greater than his, but the source was the same. A source of loneliness and of being hated and feared. Then he saw understanding in those mirrored eyes. He wasn't hated or feared by the knowledge that he wasn't alone anymore finally set in. He fell to his knees and covered his face. Naruto knelt and hugged the young redhead while scowling at the people that looked on in disgust at the sight of the crying boy. Naruto turned his head at the sound of running feet and when he saw the cause of the sound came to see a furious-looking blond girl with pig tails.
"What did you do to my Otouto?" she screamed at him. He stared at her until a look of fury flashed upon his face. He stood up and turned fully towards the girl.
"If you're his Nee-san then why does he have the look of loneliness in his eyes!" He screamed back. The girl flinched back as if struck and let her head hang in shame.
"It is because she is afraid." came the quiet answer from behind him. Naruto turned around to look at the boy. "She is afraid of me like everyone else and I don't know why." The girl down at her brother in sadness.
"I'm scared because of what you can do; something no one should be able to do. But regardless, he's my Otouto and I want him to have friends and smile and be happy." She explained with a sad smile towards her little brother. "That's why I threw the ball at you." Garra stood up and walked towards his sister and she flinched back imperceptibly but forced herself to relax when her brother hugged her and began to sob.
"I love you, Temari-nee-chan." He sobbed into her.
"I love you to Garra-otouto." She told him as she held him as he cried wept into her shoulder. Many of the passer-bys smiled softly at the scene with a tear in their eye. Naruto also smiled, at the new relationship now growing between the two siblings and the fact that now less people want to harm his new-found friend. After a few minutes of the sibling love fest they broke apart and people began to go about their business again when Garra and Temari turned to the blonde.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you before. I just saw you standing over him while he was crying and had thought you had done something to him. I got mad at both you and myself, because I was the one that threw his ball at you and it was my fault that he had gotten hurt again. I really am sorry." She profusely apologized while bowing at the waist. Naruto merely smiled at her.
"You were just trying to look out for your Otouto, regardless of the fact that you are afraid of him. As long as you don't abandon him then consider it forgotten." He told her. Garra picked up his ball and looked up at the two with a happy face and ran off.
"Let's go play!" He yelled back at them over his shoulder and kept running. They reached a nearby playground and started to act like children should, running around aimlessly, forgetting all their problems and worries as they played, uncaring and seemingly ignorant to the pains of the world, but as the world is wont to do it crashed back down on their fun time with a vengeance in the form of a broken glass bottle.
"You monster, how dare you come near my children!" Shrieked an angry woman who was holding her kids close, as if protecting them from harm, when the bottle collided with a wall of sand. Everyone froze; the children who were running around were looking at it in awe, while the adults showed fear. They scooped up their kids and took off hoping to get home quickly. Garra looked at Naruto who stared back with a blank face.
"Why didn't you tell me you could do something like that?" He asked Garra started to sweat, freaking out about what his new friend would think. He hoped it didn't end like last time.
((((First Flashback! BOOOM!))))
Garra walked down the street, humming to himself. He walked into the playground looked around for someone to play with then he saw another boy sitting alone on a set of swings and thought that he looked lonely and needed someone to play with. He walked over to him and saw that the other boy's arm seemed kind of funny, like a dried rasin.
"Hey! Do you wanna play with me?" He asked the boy. The boy other boy looked up, confused at the offer.
"You really want to play with me?" He asked uncertainly. No one else had wanted to play with him because of his arm. They all just called him a freak and made fun of him.
"Sure! Why wouldn't I?" The other boy seemed to brighten up at these words and a smile lit up his face. He and Garra played together and they both thought that they had finally made their first friend when a piece of stone came loose from the building that they were playing near and fell toward the other boy. Garra saw this and, wanting to save his new friend, pushed him out of the way. What neither expected to happen was a wall of sand shooting up and deflecting the piece of stone. Garra was shocked but the other boy was looking at Garra in fear. Garra got up to see if his new friend was OK, but as he got near the other boy just tried to crawl away.
"Stay away from me!" He cried out. He picked up a few handfuls of sand and pebbles and threw them at Garra, which the sand deflected. Garra was heartbroken as the last words that he heard from his 'first friend' were, "You freak!" Little did Garra know that that was when all his troubles would begin.
(((( End Flashback! WHABAM!))))
"I've always been able to do it. This is why everyone hates me." He told him with a little hope that his 'Brother in Pain' wouldn't reject him.
"That… is… awesome!" He exclaimed allaying the fears of his new red headed friend and shocking his sister. "It's like an instant shield. Hey maybe you can make it to where it stays on your skin so you won't have to worry about anything if something gets past your shield." He offered. This, again, shocked the two siblings. He had just some up with a great defense off the top of his head and didn't even seem fazed by the towering wall of sand. Hell, even the sand looked surprised, if that were possible.
"Y-you don't think I'm weird of a freak?" Garra asked haltingly.
"Weird? Freak? Hell man, I envy you. If I could do something like that then I wouldn't have likely got as many beatings as I did back where I come from. I'd kill to have something like that." The two were once again blown away by the statement, though the word 'beatings' were stuck in Temari's head, Garra's was stuck on 'envy.' He took in the praise and cast a new light upon what he could do and he realized that the beatings and trouble that he got would have been worse if he hadn't had the sand wall to protect him. He snapped out of his musings when he was that it was getting dark and that his new friend was leaving. Naruto turned around to say good-bye and when asked his name.
"I'm Naruto!" He yelled and ran off to get the supplies and dinner before go to the hotel.
"Fishpaste?" The two siblings asked to one another before shrugging and heading home themselves.
(((( At the Oasis Hotel ))))
Naruto practically skipped into the hotel room swinging the food around. While they all were happy the young boy was in such a good mood they were worried that their food would go flying out of his hand. Naruto quickly placed the food on the able and ran up to Sarra. "Hey Sarra, guess what." He commanded, bouncing from foot to foot, causing her to giggle at how cute the boy looked.
"What is it Naruto?" she asked, deciding to humor the bouncing boy.
"I made two new friends today. A girl named Temari and her Otouto, Garra." He exclaimed. Every eyebrow shot up.
"Isn't that the names of the eldest and youngest of the Kazekage's children?" Ladon asked with astonishment.
"I don't know about that, but Garra can do this cool thing with sand. If something is coming at him then, like, a wall of sand shoots up, like whoosh, and stops it." He told them moving his arms around for affect, which caused Sarra to giggle again. When Bosh heard what he said about the sand, he put down his food and gained a pensive look upon his face.
"A wall of sand you say? Naruto I think you had met the Jinchuriki of the Ichibi no Shukaku. This is most helpful that you two are already friends. That makes the fact that he will have to take orders from you later on when you all change and you can help him through the transition." He told him. Naruto showed his 'old eyes' and nodded to him. Sarra and Ladon looked back and forth between the two. Bosh saw their looks of confusion and decided to enlighten them. "Since you two don't know about what we are talking about I guess you will need to be told because of the nature of you new station. I am going to tell you a story that the amount of people who know it I can count on my hand. It is about the Rokudo Sennin and the birth of Chakra and the Bijuu." They each sat back in their own chairs, eating and waiting for him to start. "In the days before chakra and the Bijuu there lived a being so powerful, so evil, that Yami himself refused to accept it into his domain in fear of being over-thrown. It was a beast that took the strength of all the divine beings to subdue it. It was the creation of the Goddess of Nature to embody the forces of destruction so that new things could be created from what it had destroyed. It was called the Juubi. Centuries passed and the Juubi grew restless and disobedient, it began to destroy indiscriminately, wishing to obliterate all things and leave the world as ash. Seeing what it's intentions were the Gods decided to intervene. The Goddess of Nature chose to give a human male a gift that the Gods created to defeat the Juubi, it was chakra. This male was the Rokudo Sennin who, when imbued with chakra gained the Renningan and its godly powers. When he came of age he was taught to use his powers by an avatar of one of the Gods so that he could fulfill his destiny. When the day came, the Rokudo Sennin fought the Juubi but was quickly defeated. As what seemed to him would be his last moments left to live the ssage used an art that he has created himself that was powerful but used little chakra to no chakra and he sealed away the body of the great beast and used the two pure forms of chakra, Yin and Yang, to create the Izanagi jutsu, a Doujutsu ability that allows you to reshape reality for a moment and make it yours to control, to split the chakra of the Juubi into nine separate beings, which you now call the Bijuu. The Rokudo Sennin lived and went onto spread what he learned to others as well as the ways of peace. Today people use his teachings of peace to subjugate and murder their fellow man. It truly is a sad and sickening thing, the nature of man. I digress, the Gods took away the Bijuu and put them under lock and key until they knew that the beasts could be used safely to do the duty of the Juubi, but to stop an incident like the Juubi again they created an equal but opposite force and named the Rokudo Sennin the first Harbinger but we will talk about that another day. The Bijuu did their duties and for quite some time, though over time their true nature resurfaced and they became twisted and corrupt, becoming what you know them as now. They fell from grace because of the negative emotions that their presence caused which brought about the awakening of their latent instincts, similar to that of the Juubi. The Sennin had made a mistake when he had taught the people how he sealed the Juubi because when the Bijuu were released to do their duty, they were quickly sealed into assorted objects so that they wouldn't be able to be destroyed by the beasts. It didn't take long until someone sealed one into a person, which later brought about the first war and subsequently the use of weaponized chakra and jutsu. What is wrong with this is the Bijuu were never supposed to be sealed and the Jinchuriki were never supposed to have been created. If it were to continue for very much longer then the world will become unbalanced and then destroy itself. Thus it has been decided that the Jinchuriki would become the new Bijuu at the end of their lives or when they so wished, this would save us all from the possible return of the Juubi and make sure that the Bijuu would not be able to be sealed away again. Of course the Jinchuriki would have more freedom than the original Bijuu but would undoubtedly live a hard life after they ascend so in repentance they will be allowed a lot of liberties for their hard mortal life and an even harder eternal one, but those will be ironed out later." At this he was met with silence.
"Holy shit!" Came Ladon's intelligent reply and for once Sarra didn't hit him for swearing in front of a child, she just nodded in agreement. Naruto just whistled and sat there looking like he wanted the story to continue.
"As awesome as that story is, is that all? Gale and the others already told me that I was going to be the new Kyuubi but I don't think that they knew that I was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki." Sarra looked sad when she remembered what Bosh had said earlier that day.
"Bosh, what did you mean when you said that the path of the Harbinger will end his humanity?" she asked, worried about the young man that helped her so much.
"I did say 'technically', he would still be human but by the time he takes up the full mantle of Harbinger, then everyone short of Kage-level strength would call and think him a monster. He will be able to do things that humans cannot and will be on a level of strength that few in the world could boast." A silence fell over at the to-be-monster and sweat dropped at the scene. Naruto was slumped over, asleep, with food stains covering the front of his shirt and bits of food stuck near his mouth.
"What a fearsome sight. I may pee my pants I'm so scared." Ladon said sarcastically. She want over to the boy and picked him up and held him against her with his face resting on her shoulder. She walked to the bathroom and wet a cloth to wipe his face clean and changed him into his pajamas and put the brand-new dog sleeping cap that she bought him on his head. She put him on his bed and went to leave when she heard a small whimper. She turned around and saw Naruto thrashing around and crying out in his sleep. She walked over and began to hum a song that was sung to her as a child and pet his hair. He instantly calmed down and latched onto her, and she smiled down at him. She climbed into the bed, still humming and stocking his hair. Ladon stood in the doorway, watching his wife comfort the boy. "We could adopt him if he would want us. We did always want a child of our own, besides you would make a great mother for him." He suggested. She cast her eyes towards him and then back at Naruto.
"I want to hear what he thinks about parents before we ask him." She said. He just nodded his head and climbed into bed on the other side of Naruto and kissed Sarra on the forehead before saying goodnight.
((((Elsewhere))))
The pain wracked his body as he forced back his greatest foe. He clutched at the ground while trying to rid himself of the invading evil. That one being that the Gods feared return. "Shit, I can't let it win, else everything will die." He looked up toward the moon and spoke his love's name. "Miranda."
((((The Next Day. Hip, hip, hooray! ))))
The unforgiving sun burned down upon him as he waited for Bosh to start. Three hours passed until Naruto grew fed up with it and began to complain. "Hey Bosh, when are you going to teach me something? I thought that that was the whole point of this trip." Bosh smiled
""I was wondering when you'd lose patience, that was the reason I stood there for three freaking hours, to test you patience I wanted to know how patient you can be because the first fighting style that I am going to teach you is one where you will have to practice walking in a circle. It may not make much sense at the moment, but if I try to teach you any of the more complex techniques of this style then you would not be able to do them because of the necessity of circle walking. This Taijutsu happens to be the same one that the sylphs use, it's called Ba Gua Zhang, or Ba Gua for short, and it is also the origin of the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist Taijutsu. This is an ancient martial arts style, martial arts was the name of Taijutsu back when chakra didn't exist yet. Ba Gua has many forms, but each utilized circle walking prevalently as an integral part of training. Practitioners of this style walk around the edge of a circle in various low stances, facing the center, while periodically changing directions as they execute forms. You'll learn first, flexibility and proper body alignment through the more basic exercises, and then move onto the more complex of the forms and the internal power mechanics. While you can use weaponry with this style you will have you wait until you have the style down well enough before I'll let you use a weapon with it. Ba Gua is a style that contains an extremely wide variety of techniques that include various strikes, like with the palms, fists, elbows, fingers, etc., kicks, joint locks, throws, and distinctively evasive circular footwork, because of this it is considered neither a purely striking nor a purely grappling style. Its practitioners are known for their ability to 'flow' in and out of the way of objects, this is why the sylphs are masters of this style. They are peoples that prefer to live peacefully and without violence, so they use this style to mainly escape their foes and fight only when necessary. The movements in this style employ the use of the whole body with smooth coiling and uncoiling actions, utilizing and techniques dynamic footwork, and throws. The rapid-fire movements draw energy from the abdomen while the circular stepping pattern also builds up centripetal force, allowing the practitioner to maneuver quickly around an opponent. All of these things make this style one of the most powerful and effective in this world, and without learning the basic circle walking that a person needs before being able to properly use this style's more complex maneuvers, even if an Uchiha were to copy this Taijutsu they would not be able to use anything but the basics. This, as well as stealth and evasion, are the main things that I'm going to teach you until we leave Suna. Also Sarra and Ladon will be teaching you the things that you would normally learn in the Ninja Academy or normal school and assist in your chakra control training. But before we do anything I'll be telling you some of the duties of the Harbinger." After his long and impressive speech Naruto could only nor his head dumbly. "As you know, the Harbinger was first created to stop the Juubi, which be did. But after the time of the Rokudo Sennin passed and the Age of Shinobi came to, with the creation of the Five Great Nations and the Great Ninja Wars following soon after. Yet no one can truly tell what had started them. The answer to this is the Bijuu, and they were able to throw all the good that the first Harbinger had done and threw it in his face spectacularly by taking all his teachings and twisting them. They made everything he taught that was to be used for peace, to make everyone's lives easier, not just certain people, and made them as you know them today. They caused greed and lust for power , whispering poison in their ears. They snuck into bedrooms and assassinated people to frame others and poison the food and deinks of whole banquets and blame it on their dead's enemy, they didn't always relied on senseless destruction to accomplish their goals. The point is that the ultimate goal of the Harbinger is to bring about peace and undo the evils that the Bijuu have wrought, to end the wars and violence and hatred that has been sown deep within the hearts of man. I can tell you that if the sylphs don't know who is perpetuating all of it then the gnomes surely do and will give you the information that you will need to succeed when you take up the full mantle of Harbinger." He looked at him as if waiting for conformation in which Naruto quickly gave. Bosh smiled and started him in his circle walking, using a stone as the center to keep him orientated and showed him the stances that he was to practice. For three hours Bosh kept him circle walking and it was beginning to tick the boy off with how tedious it was, but when he complained to Bosh about how useless it seemed he had his butt handed to him with the style he had just started practicing in and decided to keep going for another three hours. "Alright Naruto sense you've been practicing so avidly, I guess I could give you an introduction to wind jutsu and only an introduction, not that I am going to teach you any." He said when he saw Naruto's brightening face, which after hearing that began to pout. "But we are going to be 'collecting' books and scrolls of and about different types of jutsu from all of the Five Great Nations for your own personal library, so that when this trip is over you can be as powerful and intelligent and knowledgeable as you should and should and could be. I'll personally copy/steal a copy of each jutsu they have. You'll have an eternity to learn them and you'll need them to hide your really strength so no need to get so impatient." He just smirked when he saw his pupil pass out from shock.
((((Five embarrassing minutes for Naruto later!))))
"Ugh. What the hell hit me?" He asked rhetorically. He opened his eyes and looked around and saw Bosh and the Gale talking to one another. "What are you doing here?" He asked in mild curiosity. The sylph girl whipped her head at him with a scowl on her face.
"You don't want me to be here? Fine I'll leave!" she humped and started to fly off when Naruto quickly reached up and caught her hand.
"Who said you had to leave? Stay, I want to talk with you." He told her,staring into her eyes. She calmed down immediately and went into what seemed to be a trance. Bosh looked on with a smile as the girl slowly sat down. Naruto turned to Bosh to ask about what they were talking about earlier and when his eyes disconnected with hers, she snapped back into reality with a confused expression. "Why would you collect so many jutsu when I could just fight with my Harbinger powers? Now I'm not complaining, I'm just curious is all." He explained. Bosh just nodded his head in acceptance and then replied.
"Well it would be fine but in this world it is best to only show or use your best hand, your greatest strength, as a last resort, so that people won't have a full grasp on what you can do and make a counter for it, even though it is unlikely and bordering on impossible. Besides wouldn't you want to know your chakra affinity?" He asked. Naruto looked curiously at the man.
"What is a chakra affinity?" He asked the man.
"You know what chakra is right?" Naruto just looked at him with a blank look that Bosh chuckled, embarrassed. "Well a chakra affinity is what a person's chakra is elementally inclined to. This means that jutsu that use a specific element will be easier to learn and another nigh impossible. In Suna, the populace is more inclined to the wind element, and are unlikely to have an affinity for lightening because that element is weak against wind. It is the same for other countries, for each seems to be named after the affinity that is predominant for that region with the exception of Hi no Kuni ( Land of Fire). Not only that, but an affinity can also be passed down to children, though only those with a great strength for it or through bloodlines yet the child would also have a secondary affinity which is their own and not their parent's. I'm me and I don't even know why that is." He said. Naruto looked constipated while he trying to assimilate what he was told and was laughed at by the sylph.
"Ahaaahaaahaa… You look so stupid with that face." She laughed. Naruto glared hut started to make funny faces at her, causing her to laugh harder. Bosh let this go on for a while because his young protégé hadn't been acting his age quite a while now and he will mostly be surrounded by adults for the next few years.
"Ok you two break it up. Gale what is the current situation?" He asked her. She instantly became quiet and serious.
"The slavers are still hold up in the Cavern, but I think that they'll be moving on fairly soon." Naruto's head shot up and looked quickly from Bosh to Gale in confusion.
"That's bad." He whispered.
"How could that be bad? If they leave then my people will be whole again."
"Because, whenever the Slave Market leaves an area then they destroy it and harvest anything that it can put to use and burns what's left. This is the longest that the Market has stayed in one place. I'm surprised that they are even leaving at all." Gale let out a gasp of horror.
"They can't do that! The Market Caverns have been around sense the end of the Times of Chaos. They have no right to do something like that. It's literally the only way that the sylphs are able to come together. Ohhh, this is all that damn Uzumaki's fault!" she exclaimed. Both Naruto's and Bosh's eyes popped out at this. 'Another Uzumaki? Maybe I can get them to teach Naruto about his clan.' Connived Bosh. 'Family. I… have family!' Naruto shouted in his head.
"How is it his fault? What did he do? How do you know it is an Uzumaki?" asked Bosh. Gale looked at his like was stupid.
"Bosh you know that all the elementals could recognize an Uzumaki on sight. After all that they had done it would be hard not to. As for what he did, he was snooping around trying to get inside when he was caught. He said he was trying to get in so that he could sabotage the trade and that there were more people coming. It was obvious he was lying but I guess that they didn't want to take a chance and spread the word that they would be leaving, and now you're telling me that they're going to destroy the Caverns. Everyone's going to be crushed."
"How could you not tell that I was an Uzumaki when we first met, and what was it that the Uzumaki did that was so great?" Naruto asked suddenly. She looked him up and down and peered strangely back at him.
"You're an Uzumaki? Where's your red hair? Your pale skin?" She asked confusedly. Naruto gave her a sour face that caused Bosh to chuckle.
"Naruto here is the first ever Uzumaki to not have the typical red hair and pale complexion, but is an Uzumaki in heart, soul, and personality, believe me." Gale merely stared at him like he grew a second head.
"Who in God's name were your parents?" she asked incredulously.
"My dad's name was Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, known as Konoha's Yellow Flash, and Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Death and Konoha's Red Hot Habanera!" he pronounced proudly in who his parents were. Gale fainted and Bosh sighed. Naruto glanced over at Bosh questioningly. "Hey, Bosh?" He looked at the boy with a raised eyebrow. "What did she mean that all the elementals could tell an Uzumaki at a glance?" Bosh sighed again.
"I will tell you a bit and if we can rescue the other Uzumaki then he can tell you more. The Uzumaki have always had a special connection with nature, and thus the elementals. Back when Uzushiogakure still existed and was an unofficial world power, it was common to see the elementals in them in the Village. They always got along and that was one of the reasons that the Uzumaki were so strong. With elementals as your friends and allies, what could you fear? You see unlike the major nations Uzu no Kuni didn't have and dominant element affinity, but anyone could be born with any of them, the Uzumaki in question would be blessed with the element that is strong against the weakness of their primary affinity. That way they would not be able to be overcome in terms of their affinities. Not only that but the elemental that was the one that blessed them would become the personal summons of that person, though they had decided to stop doing that because Hanzo the Salamander lost his way and became to powerful when he had lost his faith. When Iwa and Kumo destroyed Uzu all the elementals wept for their friends and their own loss and the Uzumaki were scattered into the four winds to await the time that they can come home, and with you as Harbinger you can do just that." He told him. 'It's against the rules to use your influence like that but I think you have a couple of free-bies due to you.' Naruto's eyes shown with tears, awe, and excitement. He was astounded at what his scattered family can, could, do and he knew that he had to bring his people back together again.
"Bosh." He listened intently, knowing that what decision was made would change the face of the world like no one but an Uzumaki could do. That what was said would cause the return of the Uzumaki and Uzushiogakure or the end of a great legacy. "When this trip is over could you find the best builders in every race and ask for their help in rebuilding Uzu?" He asked with passion seen only in the movers and shakers of this world. A groan directed their attention to the awakening Gale as she sat up and looked around.
"I've really got to stop drinking so much." She whispered softly to herself, though not softly enough. "What the hell happened?"
"Gale when we finish up the Slave Trade I want you to spread the word to your people. Uzushiogakure will rise again and the Uzumaki will wonder no more. I would like the sylph to go out and look for them and give them the news." She looked from one to the other in unbridled joy. She leapt onto Naruto as she cried into his shirt and when she was done pulled him into a searing kiss.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She shouted at him. He merely lay stunned on the ground by the kiss. Bosh was just laughing his ass off at his expression. Gale realized what she has done and shot back up. "Don't think that I did that on purpose, cause it happen again." She told him blushing. Naruto nodded dumbly.
"Now that we have all that out of the way let's not forget the current situation. The Slave Market has set up shop in the Sylph's Market Caverns and will be leaving in an short but undetermined amount of time and we will need to gather some Intel before we can make a proper plan to rid the desert of the Slavers and save the sylphs and the slaves without destroying the Cavern complex." The two nodded. "Gale and Naruto, we will be the one to do this. Naruto, because this is Harbinger business we won't be asking Sara and Ladon for help. Normal humans aren't allowed to interfere directly in Harbinger business, only give support."
"But Bosh, even if it has been a long time, I'm sure that –"
"No. This is Naruto's first operation, so to speak, as the Harbinger and he has to learn that even if you're strong then you need to have a plan and all the information before going in, you should never just charge in blind." He explained. Naruto looked back and forth between the two, guessing that he was missing something important. "Now because of our particular set of skills I've chosen each of our individual missions. Gale, I'll need you to head into Suna and find out who is and isn't in the Slavers' pockets. When you find out, track the routines and habits. See what could be used against them or what we could use to convince them to work with us. With the officials and Military Police that are clean you'll need to get them to trust you without revealing who you are or why you're informing them. When you're done head to the Suna Haven and we'll meet you there when we're done. Naruto, we'll be heading into the Market. We'll be sneaking in as a slave and his master looking for a new "pet." When we get in I'll let you go, but only leave my side when I give the word. I'll need you to use your latent stealth to locate the imprisoned slaves and other locations that seem to be of importance to the slavers and the most, and least, populated areas and make a map of the Market so we can make escape plans for getting out the slaves and for later planning. While you do that I'll head into the thick of things and look around for any would-be problems for us as well as buying any of the slaves that are or may be of importance or of use to our goals, that I will of course let free. I know you've never done something like this before and I'm basically teaching you how to swim by throwing you in a shark infested ocean but we don't have time for to take the low road on this, it's a trial by fire but we need to get this done and soon." Naruto nodded his head solemnly
"If that's all, I'll be going back home to sleep and to get ready for tomorrow." Gale said as she disappeared in a whirlwind. Bosh turned to Naruto and began to throw rocks at him. Naruto started to dip, weave, and dodge under, over, and around them, when it stopped he was panting and bent over with his hands on his knees.
"What (huff) the hell (pant) was that for?" he 'yelled' at the smirking man.
"That, my dear boy, was the beginning of you evasion training. We start of with rocks, then move to shuriken, after that are kunai, next are boulders, then blasts of pressurized water, then fireballs, after that is lightening and finally gusts of cutting wind. When you are able to dodge something you can't see then you can dodge anything that you can, or just about anything anyways. When you get hit then that will add on a day for that particular projectile on top of the original five days. It may seem hard but we have a year here and when we finish with the Slave Market then we'll have even more time, so take your time and don't become impatient with your progress. At the end of our trip then I'll 'review' you to see where you stand using the ninja ranking system before we head back to Konoha. When we start something new I'll teach you in a way would kill a person short of a Jinchuriki, for the physical aspects, but we can't do the same with the mental so we'll take our time and figure out all the problems and nip them in the bud." He told him. Naruto's eye's once again burned with determination. 'I wonder if that happens enough times they'll literally burst into flames?'
A.N. – Damn! It took me a long time to finish this cause I had written it down first and then typed it and it took me so frick'n long. But I'm glad I persevered and not let it beat me. This story will continue even with a fucking research paper getting me down. I love you all, especially the reviewers. PLEASE REVIEW! I'M BEGGING YOU I NEED THEM! I'LL EVEN TAKE THE FLAMES OF HATE TO FAN MY FLAMES OF YOUTH!