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Chapter 04: Intelligence
Naruto was on the highest branch in one of the trees in the S-Class sector of the Forest of Death. He was awed at the sight in front of him; never in his wildest dreams would such a place exist in a dangerous forest.
Below him was a large clearing, larger than his hidden training ground outside Konoha. Instead of the dense undergrowth that marred the forest floor, the clearing was filled with wild flowers in full bloom. Surrounding it were large trees that acted as a canopy to shield the forest floor and its denizens from the wrath of nature. The clearing in itself was a wonder of nature – a small waterfall decorated one corner with a small river leading out of the clearing to parts unknown. Various human-sized boulders dotted the place which looked like a Zen garden from above.
Overall, Naruto liked what he saw and definitely had the potential to become his home away from home.
He jumped down from his perch and used a bit of his Reiryoku to slow down his fall. Unlike the spiritual platforms he loved to use to compliment his speed technique, this method acted as a buffer, lowering him to the ground slowly against the pull of gravity. No matter how high he jumped from, he would always float down like a feather. He touched down on the flowered ground and started to walk towards the waterfall whose beauty captivated him.
Considering that he was in the S-Class sector of the forest, he sent out a pulse of Reiryoku which travelled a few hundred meters around him to determine other presences aside from his own. The pulse returned a negative making him happy that he didn't have to keep his guard up in such a beautiful place.
He jumped on top of one of the biggest boulders and observed the place. Naruto realized that it was similar to Kenshin's forest clearing in his soul. Except for the waterfall and the man-size boulders, everything was the same. He pondered a bit on why it was similar, which was one in a million chance of reflecting reality, but decided to push it away from his mind.
He didn't care if it was similar to the place that depicted his soul. The important part was that it was. He didn't need any other answers aside from that.
It was an hour of enjoying the tranquility of the place that he decided to push through with his plans. If he wanted to make a home here then he would need supplies. Wood was in abundance considering that he was in a forest. He made a note to cut some trees for lumber away from the clearing so not to mar the beauty of the place. Also, he needed construction supplies as well if he wanted to begin. He made a mental accounting of the status of his allowance he received monthly from the Hokage. It wasn't enough and he barely had enough for his food consumption. If he wanted to make a home here then he needed money.
"Why don't you go rob a few bandits if you really need the money? I doubt it if you can find a place in the village that you could get a decent work for it considering your status as my container." Suggested Kurama, a bit excited at the prospect of Naruto setting up shop in such a wonderful place.
"Bandits?" asked Naruto in confusion.
"I seem to remember a particular conversation of the Hokage with some Jounin when you were hanging out in his office during your early years. You have probably forgotten it but I didn't since I had nothing better to do than immerse myself in your memories. Bandits tend to camp around near the highway of Konoha to other countries to rob merchants of their hard-earned money. If you can find a bandit camp then I'm sure that your monetary problems are solved."
"I could do that." Naruto mused as he rolled the idea in his mind before a grin made its way onto his face. "Besides, I think it is my civic duty as a citizen of Konoha to help out with its bandit problem, right?"
"Correct." Kurama immediately agreed in a sage-like voice. "Besides, it is only right that you help your surrogate grandfather deal with the bandits since you owe him so much for helping you out in the past eight years."
"I definitely agree, Kurama. After all, the fewer bandits we have around Konoha, the less paperwork the old man would have." Said Naruto before lapsing into a laughing fit echoed by the bijuu in his mindscape. He was able to control himself a minute later and disappeared from the clearing without a trace."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was currently enjoying a relaxing day in the Hokage Office since he was finished with his current batch of paperwork. He was brought out of his musings when a knock came from the door.
"Come in." said the Hokage as he settled himself behind his desk and put on his game face, so to speak. His secretary, Akiko, peeked in and informed him that there were three Jounin's looking for him. "Let them in please, Akiko-san."
Three Jounin's filed in with their respective Genin teams before standing in attention in front of his desk.
"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama." Greeted the three Jounins with a bow followed closely by their Genin charges.
"At ease. Weren't you three supposed to be on a mission from this morning?" Sarutobi asked, confused. These three Jounins took their respective missions of exterminating three different bandit camps that surrounded Konoha. In fact, this was a monthly mission considering that bandits tend to crop up to create problems with the local business community. After all, it was bad for business to let bandits roam the countryside unopposed and the village had a budget for it just in case the situation came up.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. My Genins and I encountered a bit of problem when we arrived at the bandit camp that we were supposed to exterminate." said the Jounin who immediately saw his comrades stiffen at hearing his report. "From the looks of it, the rest of you had the same problem as well." This got a nod from the two other Jounins.
The Hokage frowned at this. What problem could crop up from a simple extermination mission?
"What seems to be the problem?" the Sandaime asked the trio.
"When we reached the bandit camp, my Genin cell and I were prepared to take them out. However, when he scouted the camp, we found all the bandits unconscious and all their possessions stolen. I was able to wake one of them up but he couldn't tell me anything aside from the fact that someone knocked him unconscious without knowing who it was. From the other bandits, all they felt was a gust of wind and a sharp pain from the back of their necks before darkness claimed them." Reported the first Jounin.
"I also have the same problem, Hokage-sama." Said the second Jounin.
"Same here." The last quipped with amusement earning him a glare from the two.
"Hmmm." Was the reply of the Sandaime as he rubbed his goatee. "So let me get this straight, three bandit camps that you three were supposed to exterminate were all down for the count when you got there with all their loot gone?" He got a nod from all three. "Any idea what happened?"
The second Jounin coughed before speaking, making everyone's attention shift to him causing him to blush slightly.
"After making sure that they were secured to avoid runaways, I decided to check for signs of attacks. I found out that all of the bandits were hit behind the neck by a blunt object though the marks were clearly that of a sword, knocking them out. In fact, all of them were hit in the same place."
"I found the same thing, Hokage-sama." The third Jounin added his two cents in the report. "From the looks of it, all three bandit camps were hit by the same person. I know a bit of kenjutsu and I could safely say that whoever this person is, he or she knew what they were doing. They were hit strong enough to knock them out but not enough to kill them."
The Hokage nodded while processing the information he received.
"So we have a kenjutsu user somewhere around Konoha hitting bandit camps. From what you three said, it seemed that the aim of this…person…was to steal from them. How ironic…bandits getting robbed." said the Hokage in amusement.
"Are we going to do something about this, Hokage-sama?" asked the second Jounin, itching to find out who robbed them of a mission.
"Not at the moment. From your report, it seemed that this…person...only robbed bandits and no one else. Such is the case; it would be stupid of us to do something about it since that person is technically not causing any problems. In fact, that person is doing us a favor. However, if we receive similar reports of merchants being attacked then we are going to take action." declared the Hokage since a bandit robbing bandits wasn't really their concern. It was simple power play after all so it was nothing to worry about.
"Umm…does this mean that we won't get paid?" said the third Jounin causing the other two to look at him. "What? We did go to this mission after all and we rounded up the bandits even though we didn't do a thing aside from picking them up. Besides, I'm almost out of money and I need to pay this month's rent." He said defensively. This caused everyone to sweat drop at the admission.
"Fine." Said the Hokage, handing all three of them their respective envelopes containing the pay for the mission. They technically finished the mission after all even if all they did was to round them up. "Here is your payment for the mission. You're free to get another mission since all of you technically finished yours but if you're not then you have the rest of the day off. Dismissed."
The three Jounin's and their respective Genin teams left the office leaving a perplexed Hokage to ponder the event.
Naruto's self-imposed mission of earning money went without a hitch.
In the first night, he was lucky to hit three bandit camps and looted every valuable item he could find after knocking the occupants unconscious with a well-placed hit on the back of their necks. The items he liberated varied from bolts of cloth, jewelries, food stock, to money chests.
Fortunately for him, he had the foresight to 'acquire' a storage scroll from one of the shinobi stores in the village to help carry the items he liberated from the camps. If Naruto was honest with himself, the loot wasn't plenty but he would make do. Beggars can't be choosers after all.
He was thankful that Kurama taught him the Reiryoku Pulse to scout the forested areas along the highway of Fire Country until he found the bandit camps that he planned to raid.
Considering that he didn't get enough money from the bandits, he decided to spend the rest of the week looking for others until he had enough money for his 'home' in the Forest of Death. The pickings were small but with all the bandit camps he raided, he had almost a million ryo to tide him over, as well as some jewels and items he might find useful in the future.
Using the Henge he learned from one of the scrolls he pilfered from the Konoha Academy, he disguised himself as a middle-aged man and purchased the necessary supplies for his construction project. He didn't do it all in one day since it would look conspicuous so he spread the purchases out, like nails and hammer for the first day, tiles for the roof on the next, and so on. Every items he purchased he deposited in one corner of 'his' clearing in the Forest of Death before delving into the chore of harvesting much-needed lumber from a sturdy tree he picked out a few hundred meters away from his clearing. He considered it physical training to cut through the tree using Kenshin's bladed edge earning him a few grumbling comments from the spirit.
Kurama found the spirit's mortification of being used as a construction tool amusing.
It was two weeks later that Naruto finally finished his new home in the S-Class sector of Training Ground 44. All-in-all, he liked what he results.
Considering that he wasn't that picky with the design, he modeled it after Kenshin's hut. It had two rooms and a kitchen, as well as living room. He had to take a trip to the Konoha Library for some books on construction and architecture to add mechanism of sorts that would allow water from the waterfall to enter a series of pipes to an indoor well by the kitchen. It had a system of pipes that would make sure that it won't overflow, letting the excess water flow out from another pipe to the river. Waste not, want not after all.
He used the leftover lumber to erect a fence around the clearing, high enough to discourage any of the denizens to stray into his beloved home. He wasn't worried about that since the time he spent in the clearing, none of the predators came. He was a bit puzzled about that but didn't investigate since it was of no use to find out the cause anyway.
To give himself some time-off from all the work, he decided to visit his precious people in the village.
First, he made his way to the Ichiraku's and enjoyed bowls after bowls of their delicious ramen. Even when he was training, he made a point to visit the quaint ramen stand and the company of Teuchi and Ayame who both he considered as family, aside from their delicious ramen of course.
It was two hours after lunch that he made his way to the Hokage Tower to visit his surrogate grandfather. It had been quite a while since he saw the Hokage and he missed the old man's company.
He entered the building after giving the Chuunins on guard a smile which they returned. Most of the shinobis in the village didn't hate him for what he carried in his gut. In fact, quite a few of them were sympathetic to his cause by chasing away the mobs that were after him, helping him buy food from the stores that refused him services, and so on.
He even made a few friends from the ANBU that guarded him while he was young, notably Dog, Cat, Bear, Snake, and Weasel, though the latter was nowhere to be found after his sixth birthday. This confused him a bit but assumed that he might had a long-term mission or something that took him away from the village.
Naruto entered the building and made his way to the top floor, totally ignoring the secretary who was glaring at him. Again, it seemed that the civilians were the only people in the village who hated him. He just shrugged it off since he didn't really care about them anymore. He knocked on the door to the Hokage's office and getting a grunt from the other side.
Amused, Naruto entered the office and closed the door behind him. He saw his surrogate grandfather busying himself with the piles of paperwork on his desk.
"Good afternoon, old man." greeted Naruto as he made his way to one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk.
The Hokage grunted before putting down the document he was reading to look at his surrogate grandson.
"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun. What brings you here? It's been quite a while since you visited and I was quite worried." said the Hokage while giving the whiskered blonde a smile.
"Just visiting, jiji. It's been a while since I've visited. I've been quite busy as of late." replied Naruto, returning the old man's smile. He looked at the piles of paperwork on the desk curiously. "I think you're paperwork grew, jiji."
"Tell me about it." said the Hokage while eyeing the innocent paper on his desk with disgust. "I don't know why I took this job when the Yondaime passed away. I forgot how annoying the paperwork was."
Naruto laughed at his surrogate grandfather's plight.
"What got you so annoyed anyway?" asked Naruto as he picked up one of the papers on the desk. He read it and discovered that it was an accounting report for the running of the village. He took another document and got the same thing. He turned to the Hokage who was giving him an amused look. "Budget huh?"
"Yes. It's the month for it. I swear the civilian council had it in for me. They were supposed to work on this since I am only supposed to work on the shinobi matters. If I didn't know any better, they're getting lazy."
"You could always give it back to them, I suppose. You're the Hokage for crying out loud. Konoha is a shinobi village so you should be the one in control. I say you get the council together, tell them the new rules or remind them of their responsibilities then leave them to stew about it." Said Naruto sagely, nodding at the idea since it was good. The aged leader looked at his grandson strangely before a happy grin stole its way into his wrinkled face.
"You know, Naruto-kun. That is a pretty good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that." The Hokage mused in thought while tapping his chin.
"I think it's because that you tend to think that you're responsible for everything in this village, jiji. I mean, sure, you're the leader but isn't that the reason why you have people working under you?" Naruto pointed out while raising one of his eyebrows.
"You're right." agreed the Hokage before giving the blonde a speculative look. "That was a smart way of putting things into perspective, Naruto-kun."
"I do read, jijij, and I have a lot of spare time on my hands before I attend the Academy in two years so I spend most of it reading anything I could get my hands on. Considering that the shinobi section of the library is out of my reach until I become a Genin, I spend most of my time reading history and politics in my spare time." Naruto deadpanned making the Hokage give him a sheepish grin.
"You're right. You are a smart kid after all." said the Hokage before giving Naruto a speculative look. "Naruto-kun, why don't you accompany me to Suna next week?"
This caught Naruto off-guard. The Hokage never asked him to accompany him anywhere outside the village before and he was surprised at being asked to join an expedition to another village.
"Really, jiji?" He got a nod in reply. "Sure! I would love to go with you, old man. What are we going to do in Suna anyway?" Naruto asked curiously.
The Hokage didn't say anything but simply handed Naruto a piece of paper from his desk. Naruto didn't know it but the Hokage was testing him. Sarutobi was shrewd and he knew intelligence when he saw it and the boy in front of him had that intelligent look in his blue eyes that spoke of a prodigious mind.
Curiously, Naruto took it and read its content before whistling at the information it contained.
"To talk about the treaty huh?" The blonde jinchuuriki said with a raised eyebrow. "From the looks of it, the Kazekage wanted to modify the treaty to stop the missions coming from the Wind Daimyo given to Konoha. Now that's weird, why in the world would their Daimyo not give them missions but instead give it to Konoha. That doesn't make sense. I mean, Konoha gets a steady supply of missions from the Fire Daimyo so why is the Wind Daimyo giving expensive missions to us?" exclaimed Naruto as he handed the document back to the Hokage who took it with a nod.
"How much do you know about the history of Sunagakure, Naruto-kun." asked the Hokage, further testing the blonde in front of him. He wanted to know the extent of the blonde's intelligence. Considering who the boy's parents was, it was only normal for the boy to be of same caliber as well, or maybe even better.
Naruto pondered the question a bit, recalling the history books he read from the library.
"Let me see, nothing major aside from the accomplishments of their Kage, as well as some of the notable missing-nins that they had, like Sasori of the Red Sands for example. Other than that, the only notable history concerning Suna was how they lost during the Third Great Shinobi War before finally going into a treaty with Konoha in order to preserve whatever dignity they had, as well as making sure that they had allies to call in once the other Hidden Villages decided to wage war on them."
The Hokage nodded, pride clearly shining in his eyes.
"You're correct, Naruto-kun. Ever since they lost and aligned themselves with the losing side during the Third Great Shinobi War, the Wind Daimyo lost his trust with them. This resulted in the Wind Daimyo giving a bulk of their high-ranked missions to Konoha and leaving the lower-paid ones to Suna. What do you think that Kazekage would want in this meeting?" he asked the blonde, an eyebrow raised as if challenging the boy in front of him to voice out his mind.
Naruto saw the challenge and accepted it. He mulled over his answers before voicing it out.
"I think that the Kazekage would go into a debate with you concerning this matter. If Konoha informs that Wind Daimyo to give back the missions to Suna then it would only be probable for him to do so considering our reputation as the strongest in the Elemental Nations being the victor of the Third Great Shinobi War. However, I think the Kazekage would have to convince you first to do that considering that high-paid mission is a great boon to our economy. If that is the case then I think the ruler of Suna would put some bargaining chips on the table…something that would entice you to sway the Wind Daimyo to give the missions back to them. What do you think, jiji?"
The Hokage clapped his hands in approval and gave Naruto look filled with pride which made the boy beam in happiness.
"You're correct in that regard, Naruto-kun. But what do you think this bargaining chip would be?" asked the Hokage, enjoying the intelligent conversation he was having with his surrogate grandson. If he knew that Naruto was this smart years ago then he would have spent more time with him in this very office to help come up with good ideas or tackle some problems with his paperwork. After all, a healthy view of current events would always outweigh the old ones in his head. Tradition had that problem sometimes.
"Hmm…I'm not really sure, jiji. But are we really going to bargain with them on this? I mean, we also need the money from the missions, right?" Naruto asked before seeing the Hokage rummage through the piles of paperwork on his desk. The old man seemed to have found what he was looking for before handing it over to him. Naruto looked through it and whistled.
"I see, from the looks of the budget report, the money coming in from the missions is huge and even if we do lose money by giving it back to Suna, we are still on the positive." This got a nod from the Hokage making Naruto think on the potential 'bargaining chip' that the Kazekage would be offering to Konoha to sway the Daimyo to their favor. "Considering that this is a shinobi village we are talking about, I don't think we are getting imports of supplies from them, right?"
The Hokage shook his head. "To be honest, Naruto-kun. We aren't really getting anything from Suna economically. Due to Konoha's location, everything we need is grown in Fire Country except for a few supplies coming from the minor villages within our borders. In fact, the only notable imports we have are healing herbs from Takigakure. That said, Konoha is self-sufficient unless there is need to import rare supplies from the outside." explained the Hokage, making Naruto nod.
"If that is the case then the Kazekage would offer shinobi techniques in payment for swaying the Daimyo's mind to their liking. What is Suna's specialty?" Naruto asked curiously. He was really enjoying learning a thing or two about politics from the old man. Learning it from the books during his night-time sojourn into the library was one thing, learning from the expert was simply better.
"Let me see, Suna is well-known for their Fuuton jutsus (Wind Techniques), poisons and antidotes, as well as their Kugutsu no Jutsu (Puppet Technique)." Informed the Hokage after some thought.
"If that is the case, I would say Fuuton jutsus then, or even some knowledge on their poisons and antidotes. I doubt they would be willing to part with the secret of their puppet techniques since it is unique to them." Naruto mused before setting down the documents he was holding on the desk. "Do we have any Fuuton users in Konoha?"
"A few but these shinobis only had minor affinities with it. The only person who had a strong affinity to Fuuton is my son, Asuma, who is currently part of the Fire Guardians."
Naruto whistled. Fire Guardians were the Daimyo's personal guards and considered to be powerful shinobis in their own specific field. If the old man's son was a part of it then he was definitely strong.
"Nice." Naruto said with a nod. "So when are we going to Suna?"
"I need to meet with my advisers, as well as the council to discuss this matter though I would tell them what you told me to get the ball running. If things go as planned, we would be leaving in four days, more or less." The Hokage informed him. Naruto nodded with a grin. His excitement was leaking out of him in waves.
"Well, if that's the case then I better get ready." said Naruto before standing up from his seat, grin still plastered on his face. "Just send one of your ANBU guards to find me if it's time for us to go."
The Hokage nodded before giving his surrogate grandson a smile.
"I will, Naruto-kun. Enjoy your day."
The blonde jinchuuriki left with a grin and a spring on his step. He couldn't wait to get out of Konoha and check out other places that he hadn't been to, even if his destination was Suna and nowhere else. Unlike his one-week trip outside Konoha walls to raid the bandit camps, this trip was purely for sightseeing purposes and he couldn't wait to get out of the village and immerse himself in the experience.
It took four days for the Sandaime to finalize everything with the council before they started their trip to Suna. Naruto, being the excitable boy that he was despite his now cold persona; packed everything into a storage scroll he purchased using his alter-ego. While he was packing the stuff, his attention inadvertently settled on the seal on the scroll and his interest was piqued. In his sudden interest to learn about Fuuinjutsu, he raided the shinobi section of the Konoha Library for any information he could find on the subject. Of course, he did this under the cover of darkness since he would be raiding the rarer scrolls in the shinobi section of the library. Thanks to his abilities, he pulled his heist without a hitch.
Naruto discovered that sealing was a very complicated and delicate art and very dangerous if not properly applied. After a day of study, he was able to properly recreate one of the storage seals that the Yondaime created that would allow him to directly create a storage seal on his skin through a tattoo. In truth, he was lucky to find the book in one of the dust-covered cabinets in the shinobi section devoted to this subject. From the amount of dust, not many shinobis were interested in the sealing arts so he took the book with him to add to his collection. He was quite sure that no one would miss it.
After practicing with the seal tattoo on paper until he perfected it, Naruto immediately applied it on the back of his left hand where he immediately stored Kenshin inside. Despite how much he loved the Hokage, it wouldn't do for unwanted questions to be asked that he wasn't ready to answer. Besides, it was a great surprise tactic just in case they were attacked though he doubted it since the Hokage was more than enough to handle any threats, not to mention the bodyguards tagging along for the trip.
Naruto didn't know it but the event that would take place would cement his role in the Elemental Nation, a role that would strike fear in the hearts of many and a legend that would surpass even that of his parents.
End of Chapter 4
Date Uploaded: July 5, 2012