The Eye of the Beholder
This chapter carries a little insight on one thing that has caused quite a few problems in Naruto. January 21, 2010
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Flashbacks
Demons and Higher Beings
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, so don't try to sue
Chapter 5: The Return
Everything ended up going like clockwork without Gatou to interfere, Tazuna and his workers finished the bridge in a few days and Kaitou gave Tazuna a contract.
Everyone was standing at the completed bridge.
"How many?" Tazuna asked.
"Ten to fifteen should be a good starting number," Kaitou told him. "My standards are a great deal higher than normal shinobi so you'll be seeing a serious difference in ability."
Tazuna only nodded.
A carriage pulled up and a bunch of children, Inari included, climbed in. Kaitou climbed into the front seat and told the man, "I can take it from here."
"I take it they're going to the village for training?" Kakashi asked.
"Exactly," Kaitou replied. He looked into the carriage and asked, "Are you all comfortable back there?"
"Hai," they all replied.
"Well, let's get moving," Kaitou said as he snapped the reigns. "HIYA."
As the carriage cleared the bridge one of the villagers asked, "So what are we gonna name the bridge?"
"Good question," Kaiza commented.
"I've got it," Tazuna said. "We'll name it after the man that kept this country safe for the most part, improved our economy, taught everyone methods for independent sustenance and improved our work force. Gatou had no way to compare with this guy. And he did all of this without even distributing one weapon to the town."
"He told me that he did this in the memory of his late brother, Naruto's father," Kaiza mentioned. "Perhaps we should take those two into account when naming."
"What do you mean?" Tsunami asked.
"No one else had noticed because they didn't spend nearly as much time with him, but Kaitou always had this forced smile, like he was in constant pain, so much so that it almost hurt to look at for those who would take notice. Probably the only others who noticed were his students. But when Naruto came around, it was like a burden was lifted off of his shoulders," Kaiza answered.
"Now that you mention it, Kaitou did have a bit more spring in his step," Tazuna thought aloud. "He also talked more, when he first came here, he usually kept to himself until he saw something he knew wasn't right, and so he not only corrected it he made sure that the person who made the mistake knew every detail to ensure that the mistake wouldn't be repeated. His attitude improved when you two met, but it was nowhere near as good as it was now."
Tazuna then said, "Then it's settled, from now on, this will be known as the 'Great Namikaze Bridge'."
Everyon cheered.
With the carriage...
"Oi, Kaitou-ji," Naruto said, climbing beside him.
"What is it, Naruto?" Kaitou asked, not taking his eyes off the road.
"What happened to Gatou?"
The children all tensed at the name.
"A group of that jounin I called for came and picked him up about a day ago," Kakashi answered, walking alongside the carriage. "He'll be imprisoned until he goes on trial in the next few weeks. He's on his way to the Daimyo's palace as we speak."
"Good to hear," Naruto responded.
It took them nearly a full day to get back to Konoha, rest stops, lunch breaks and all.
As they reached the gate the two on guard held their hands up.
"We need to see the paperwork allowing you to enter," one said, this one had a bored look with his bandanna like hitae-ate backwards and a sendon in his mouth.
Kaitou started searching through his coat, trying to figure out wear he left the document. He pulled out scroll after scroll from his pockets. The pile he made was taller than Naruto as he emptied them all. When Kaitou finally had all of his pockets emptied of scroll he thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers. He pulled out his hitae-ate, bit his thumb and swiped a bit of blood onto the seal on the back of it. In a poof a few documents came into existance.
The children watched in awe while everyone else just sweat dropped.
Kaitou responded with a shrug, "What? I haven't had these documents out in nearly eight years." He handed said paperwork to the gate guards. He then proceeded to refill his pockets with their previous contents, now scattered on the ground.
As he looked over the papers and the signature, he said, "I can't confirm if this signature is legitimate."
"Genma, you really should have studied up a bit more," Kakashi said as he looked at the signature. "I'll vouch for him, this is the signature of the Yondaime Hokage. As his student I had to be able to identify his signature."
Genma nodded and allowed them to pass.
"First order of business, to the Hokage's office," Kaitou said as he directed the horses to the Hokage Tower.
They stopped the cart and the children climbed out.
Kaitou unhooked the horses and tied them to a post. He put a bag of feed on their mouths. He then took out a scroll, opened it, bit his thumb again and swiped the blood on the open scroll and the cart was sealed into the scroll.
"I wasn't aware you could seal something that big," Sasuke said in surprise.
"Neither was I," Kakashi admitted.
When they entered the office the Hokage was swamped with papers around him.
'Oh the nightmares of the Hokage,' Kaitou thought as he stepped in, the hood of his cloak was up so his features were hidden.
Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, looked at the group with Iruka at his side.
"Team 7 and Team 8 reporting a complete success of the mission," Kakashi stated as he stood at attention.
"Very good, Kakashi, Kurenai," Hiruzen stated, he looked at the seven cloaked figures. "Now who exactly are your guests."
Zabuza, who was wearing a cloak along with Haku lowered the hood of his and took one knee, "Momochi Zabuza, Kiri no Oni, requesting sanctuary in Konohagakure no Sato."
Haku followed suit in kneeling, "Momochi Haku, adopted son and apprentice to Momochi Zabuza requesting the same."
"I'll have to talk to the council, but I don't see any problem with allowing your request," Hiruzen told them. "Until further notice, you two are under temporary protection of the Hokage whilst in this village and will stay within the walls of the village."
The two nodded, rose and stepped out of the way.
"Now why are all these children here?" Hiruzen asked.
"It's my turn, Hiruzen," Kaitou said as he lowered his hood.
"I wasn't expecting you," Hiruzen admitted with a straight face.
Kaitou handed the contract he had Tazuna sign. "This contract has been approved and signed by all of the legal guardians of these children from Nami no Kuni to be allowed enrolled into the Konoha Shinobi Academy. With this approval, Nami no Kuni will be able to create a shinobi village of their own and will carry a peace treaty with Konoha. This way trade routes will be much safer."
Hiruzen nodded and signed the contract, giving full acceptance to the children's enrollment. "My grandson is about to enter the academy, maybe he can make a few friends," he said as he placed the contract aside.
"Sasuke, do you mind taking them in at your house?" Kaitou asked.
"Not really, it might actually liven up the place a bit," Sasuke answered as he motioned for the children to follow him.
Naruto and Sakura followed to ensure that Sasuke didn't hurt any of them. Zabuza, Haku and Kakashi followed to ensure that none of the children hurt his team.
Now that Kaitou alone was standing in front of the Hiruzen the air in the room got serious. "Iruka, please leave the room."
"Hai, Hokage-sama," Iruka said as he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Kaitou walked to the door and did a few hand seals, he placed his hand on the door and his chakra flickered for a bit until a seal appeared on the door. He then pulled up a chair and sat down.
"How much did you tell Naruto?" Hiruzen asked.
"Nearly everything," Kaitou answered. "He knows of his heritage on his father's side, but almost nothing of his mother's, that's to say he only knows a little less about her than me."
"Fair enough," Hiruzen admitted.
"Sasuke knows the truth about Itachi," Kaitou told him. "Needless to say, I'm far from satisfied that you were prodded into that decision."
"I wasn't happy with the decision myself, but action needed to be taken," Hiruzen admitted.
Kaitou reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, "Itachi told me that this symbol was on Uchiha Shisui when he killed him." He handed it to Hiruzen.
Hiruzen took the paper and opened it. What he saw would have made him have a heart attack a few decades ago.
"My main guess as to the seal's creator is only ninety percent, care to remove my doubts?" Kaitou said to him.
"This is a cursed seal," Hiruzen told him. "Orochimaru created it to bring out the hidden potential of shinobi, unfortunately it brings out violent, even insane tendencies and gives the bearer a serious thirst for blood."
"I'll have to tell Itachi," Kaitou said to him. "Sasuke's a given. Although there is something strange about this seal."
"What do you mean?" Hiruzen asked.
"A seal cannot be evil on its own, if that were the case then the people could call a kunai evil if it had been used for such deeds, it's just a tool," Kaitou thought aloud.
"So you're saying that the seal in itself might not actually be a curse seal at all," Hiruzen concluded.
"It's only speculation, I'll need a blood sample of someone who carries the seal," Kaitou said.
"Consider it done," Hiruzen said with a sigh of relief. That relief was short lived as he felt a tremendous pressure on him. If Hiruzen thought Kaitou's attitude was serious, then he doesn't know what the pressure he felt was.
"I'll have an audience with your advisors A.S.A.P., and you'll be present," Kaitou told him.
Hiruzen didn't fail to catch the unspoken 'or else' in his voice and knew that it was not to be take lightly.
"And please make sure that Danzou arrives alone," Kaitou said as he opened the door and dispelled the barrier at the same time.
"Where's my pipe?" Hiruzen said as he felt that this is going to cause a lot of stress.
Kaitou walked out of the office and saw a shinobi against the wall, he snapped his fingers a few times, and checked his pulse. "I guess I used too much power." He took out his notepad, wrote something down folded it and put in the shinobi's hand.
He walked away as the shinobi was stirring awake.
When he walked out of the Hokage Tower he saw everyone but Kakashi waiting for him.
Kaitou turned toward Sasuke. "How about you show them where they'll be staying."
"Hai," Sasuke said as he directed everyone to the Uchiha district.
Kaitou stopped Naruto and Sakura at the entrance.
"We'll let Sasuke handle this," Kaitou told them.
The two nodded and headed home. Kaitou walked alongside Naruto.
"I'll be staying with you until we can get the compound out of moth balls and disrepair."
Naruto only nodded as he directed Kaitou to his apartment.
When they arrived Kaitou's first words were, "What a ramshackle apartment building, who the hell would allow anyone to live in this place."
"It was the only place I could stay," Naruto admitted. "Everyone else would either not allow me or make the rent too high."
Kaitou started moving his fingers in an odd motion.
'Oooooh, I'm going to have a field day with those assholes,' Kaitou thought to himself as he climbed the steps.
The Uchiha district...
"There're are plenty of areas for everyone to stay," Sasuke told them as they entered the area. "However, no one is to stay in the main house unless they have my direct permission."
"Hai," the children responded.
"That goes for you two as well," Sasuke said to Zabuza and Haku.
They nodded.
"Now, it shouldn't be that bad, all things considered," Sasuke told them. "You're going to have to clean up the rooms you're staying in. Think of this as a D-rank mission."
"You expect us to pretend this is a mission?" Inari asked.
"You wanna try me, I've had to walk dogs as a mission," Sasuke responded.
The children looked at Zabuza and Haku, and sadly they confirmed that Sasuke was speaking the truth.
"Unfortunately, during times of peace, different villages have genin doing remedial tasks that really have nothing to do with being a shinobi and list them as mission, that's why their considered D-rank. It isn't until you're eligible for C-rank missions that you have even a remote chance of being any form of fighting, they're only given to experienced genin and chuunin."
"Well, let's get everyone settled in," Sasuke told them.
The day ended uneventful, but everyone seemed to be thinking that something big is about to happen within the next few weeks.
End of Chapter...
No, I'm not going to make the Chuunin Exam immediate, I'll wait for a few chapters. Everyone needs more experience before I jump the gun. Kaitou will be speaking to Hiruzen's advisors; there will be hell to pay. Anyway Read and Review please.