an:/ ahh the joys of getting reviews. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pleading for reviews or anything, but having to respond to all these reviews kinda make me feel, what's the word, connected(?) to my readers? It's like having a conversation. Anyways, due to popular demand, I know what Sasuke needs to learn...As for responses to your reviews...I don't want to reveal anything just yet...I wouldn't want to unintentionally give out spoilers. :| bleh. Some of your reviews are hilarious (Killijimaru and your random review: lol whut?)(Fan Fan 92555: cold as usual, I see, lol) I'll give shout outs to reviews at random moments I guess and I'm glad you guys like that kinda thing (You're welcome, Showtime09 ;D). Normally I'd just give pm or something, but hey, isn't it cooler to have your pen name on a chapter? I think it is. Well, I guess the other reviews are just poll answers and what not.
SilentBunshin: thank you for your support. I kinda get the whole flame vs CC...i think. I just don't think I'll respond to reviews that I find borderline :P Ha, me and my weird solutions to everything. I don't know if this response made sense TT-TT
Doomslayer10000: Arigato gozaimasu! It's great to see people like my story w
THE 7TH DEMON OF RAZGRIZ: Thanky!
Darth Renada: Haha, you had me laughing on the floor at "annoying button masher". Ah yes, Sasuke and his overuse of Chidori. Hell, It seems based on the reviews that a lot of people kinda want him to be one. The rivalry isn't quite there I guess. I never really took time to develop it and considering how far in we are, the level Naruto is at compared to sasuke, the tamed version of Sasuke, is the rivalry really necessary? Hmm perhaps. teehee.
Roselie0601: I agree with you...RasenganChidori XD Two against one!
Alright, enough responses. Typing up all your names are complicated enough (gotta keep looking back and forth at reviews to check spelling of your names .). To the story! (Kinda short chapter)
Naruto knelt behind Sasuke with a paintbrush at hand and a plate of ink in the other. Sasuke was seated in the middle of an intricate sealing circle. His back was covered in markings, all centered towards the cursed seal on Sasuke's shoulder. Naruto dabbed the paintbrush a few times before leaning back to inspect his work.
"Well sasuke, I looked into this lovely piece of shit, and I have to say, this Sannin has put some real ingenuity into this seal. Too bad, the ingenuity doesn't belong to him."
"What do you mean?"
"He put sage chakra into it. And sage chakra, while it's a bit new to the fuuinjutsu world, was not created by him, rather by Jiraiya, his ex-teammate."
"So what does that mean for me?"
"Well, I have something to counter the sage chakra, even if I'm not really a sage." The fox's chakra will have to do, Naruto thought.
"What- what are you going to do?"
"I'm not going to get real detailed and whatnot, but basically, I'm going to neutralize this seal with my own. It's going to hurt like crazy, even worse than the neutralizing one before the preliminaries."
"Am I going to start foaming at the mouth?"
"Well...maybe, depends on how resistant you are."
"Resistant to what, exactly?"
"His power."
Sakura shot a few glances at the clone next to her. It was slightly unnerving, watching her sensei practically ignore her. Well, I haven't really asked any questions...but shouldn't guys start the conversation?Sakura flinched when she heard Naruto's voice.
"What?" The clone drawled, still looking forward.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been staring..."
Sakura flushed and looked back front.
"N-No I wasn't..."
"Whatever you say, Sakura. Here's the next shop."
Naruto pulled at her arm and veered off to the right, into a medical shop. If Sakura could turn any more red, she would have done so as she looked at the hand that grasped her arm.
Minato took a few glances to the right and left, sprinting off the branches. He was in Hi no Kuni but that didn't mean he wasn't on guard. A Hokage out of his own village was a bit dangerous and he only had two ANBU guards. He caught a noise and abruptly stopped. He held his hands out and the ANBU stopped beside him, blades ready.
"Hokage-sama, what-"
Minato motioned a silence and shifted out of stance when two ANBU walked in front of them. One advanced forward and stretched his hand out to Minato.
"Yondaime Hokage-sama, we are here to escort you back-"
"Attack!" Minato ordered. The two ANBU behind him pounced forward and struck the first ANBU down. The second ANBU operative stepped back, only to be captured by the two real ANBU from behind.
"Wha-how did you-"
"ANBU kneel before the Hokage when addressing him. And ANBU only address me as Hokage-sama. You're blatant lack of respect and discipline show you're not really ANBU. Impersonation of an ANBU is treason and is dealt with immediate death regardless of origin. Now, who hired you."
"Haha, wouldn't you like to know. I'll tell ya what, though, he's gonna kill you in the most gruesome way possible...in front of everyone. Hehahaha-The Daimyos, the kages, the village, your subordinates, your friends, your famil-"
The man was cut short when the first ANBU slit his throat in a swift motion, her long red hair swayed a bit with the motion. She let the body drop and she cleaned her blade.
"Hokage-sama, he smelt of snakes." The second one reported, his spiked silver hair was ruffled a bit by the breeze.
"I know..." Minato hissed.
(NEXT DAY possibly the shortest time skip you'll see in this story...ahahahaha)
Naruto stretched his arms as he made his way to the Hokage's tower. His stretch was cut short when he noticed how busy the tower was. People were running about, stacks of paper entering and reentering the Hokage's office. His father's orders were heard clearly from down the hall.
"I need every information on this incident! Most of it should be in the Archives. I also want the budget plan for the academy education. No, not that one, the other one. I also want the head medic to report the situation in the hospital. Get me the head of the academy! These numbers are all wrong!-"
Naruto sweatdropped as the string of orders continued to grow. He tentatively stepped towards the room and reached for the knob to open the door. A secretary bursted through the door, startling the blonde teen. He peered inside to see three clones of Minato working everywhere, papers strewn across the floor, maps and other information stuck to the wall.
"T-Tou-san? You alright?"
"Hmm-what?" The Minato at the Hokage's desk glanced up a bit before looking back at his papers.
"What is it, Naruto?" His tone was sort of fatherly yet demanding. He's in Hokage mode.
"I didn't know you came back. Do you need help?"
"Yeah, came back an hour ago. You're mom too. Actually, I could use some help- get me Rin over here. I need her to fill me in on something. Also, go to the hotspring to see if the Sensei is there. After that, drop by the Academy to check up on this new orphan that enrolled recently. Drop by later, I need to check that seal out on your stomach. How's the seal with Sasuke, by the way?"
"It's good. I just had to-"
"That's great, I'll maybe look at it a bit later. For now, I'm busy. Come by later if you need anything else." Minato continued to sift through paper, stamping the Hokage's seal every so often.
Naruto laughed nervously before shunshining out of the office, not wanting to disrupt the papers with a hiraishin.
Naruto trudged forward, back hunched, sweat rolling down his forehead. The list of things his father wanted him to do was finally finished. He felt a familiar chakra signature approach so he straighten up and looked to his right just in time to see Kakashi shunshin next to him.
"So you're back, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Hmm, yeah. I heard you needed me?"
"Ah yes, could you teach Sasuke?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"No."
"Thanks for including my opinion, but sure."
"Teach him mainly about the Sharingan but it would help if you taught him a raiton jutsu. The kaminari suzume won't do anything against the Hyuuga's defense jutsu."
"Yeah, will do. Have you seen your father lately?-"
"Yeah, the whole Hokage-mode. You know why?"
"Yeah, we sort of got Ambushed by two ANBU impersonators. They were from Orochimaru, so Minato-sensei is trying to get some work done so he could start preparing for Orochimaru. He's up to something and Minato does not like it. By the way, Jiraiya is coming back later tonight."
"Thanks for telling me now, after I waited two hours at the hot springs for a white haired pervert."
"No problem. See ya tomorrow!" Kakashi poofed away, leaving Naruto in the middle of the streets again. He trudged along the dirt road towards the training grounds.
"I regret waking up so early" Naruto grumbled as he made his way to training ground 7. He saw a figure up ahead that started to yell.
"NARU-SHIT! YOU'RE LATE BY TWO HOURS!"
Naruto growled as he flashed over.
"Shut it, Saru. I had to run some errands for my dad. He's in full blown Hokage mode. There's no stopping him..." Naruto barely hid his shiver. Konohamaru felt his vein pop.
"I could care less what your father does! I'm already two hours late into training! I bet Sasuke has already learned some cool technique!"
Naruto sighed, letting his tense muscles relax a bit.
"I see you've taken the training weight seriously?"
"It hurts like hell! It better have some use, kore!" (an:/ adding his tick?)
"It will, though not much against me, increase your speed and agility. Now go climb some trees with those weights on, after 50 repetitions, start on water and just do some backflips."
"What!"
"Hey, you're luck that I'm training you in the first place. I'm practically training you to be able to fight me! Does that sound right? No. So, shut it!"
Konohamaru grumbled and left for the trees. Naruto created a clone and left the clone to supervise Konohamaru while he left to another training ground.
"Yo, Namikaze!"
Naruto turned to the new voice to find a purple haired tokubetsu jounin.
"Ah, Mitarashi-san. Is there something you need?" He smiled oh-so-sweetly.
"Cut it out, brat..." she growled.
"Fine, fine. What do you want?"
"I just need to make sure you know about the rumors going on around the jounins and ANBU...ya know, about the snake?" She whispered.
Naruto's gaze hardened.
"They are true. I saw him, and fought him."
Anko bit her lip and clenched her fists.
"How dare he...how darehe show his face!" She hissed as her eyes narrowed
"Anko...We'll get him this time...don't worry about it..."
Anko clicked her tongue and turned heels.
"Whatever." She walked away.
Naruto made his way back to the training grounds he was going to and started on his jutsus.
"Minato...calm down..."
"I can't. There is so much to do in so little time. Think about it! That sannin is coming here, to lead an attack, during the chuunin exams! Where the Daimyos and Kages are all present! How can I be calm! Have I also mentioned, there's an S rankedcriminal organization after Naruto!? It's nerve wrecking!" Minato rubbed his temples.
Kushina looked at Minato and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Look, you have a month. You've been at this since the crack of dawn. If you keep at it for the next thirty days, you'll crack and Orochimaru will have a better chance at beating you."
"I- I know..." Minato looked away. "It's just that...I can't let them- the kyuubi- I just-"
"It's fine, 've completed a week's worth of paperwork in a matter of six hours. Talk about record time for the yellow flash -ttebane" Kushina smiled.
Minato couldn't help but return the gesture and got up.
"You're right, I shouldn't coop myself up in the office-"
He snagged his robe off the coat hanger and headed towards the door.
"-I should train!"
Kushina face palmed herself and grabbed the collar of Minato's coat, stopping him in his tracks abruptly.
"You're not going anywhere! That is clearly notwhat I meant!"
"Kushina~!" Minato whined. Kushina glared at Minato who shrunk back.
"Alright, alright. I'll go home..." Kushina smiled in success and let go of Minato's collar.
"...after I train." Minato smirked and flashed away. Kushina was gobsmacked and felt a boiling hot anger grow inside her.
"you...little...shit-" she growled, her frame shaking in anger
"-NAMIKAZE MINATO! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" rang through the entire village.
Minato smiled nervously, letting the sweat roll down his face as he jumped from the roofs of Konoha.
"Looks like I'm delegated to the couch tonight...again." Minato sighed as he made his way to the Nara forest to train.
Naruto walked over to where Konohamaru was training, only to see the boy fall from the tree, landing on the floor with a painful thud.
"Ow!" The boy howled.
Naruto resisted the urge to facepalm himself.
"I can see you're training isn't going so well...I came here the moment you whacked my clone out of existence. It was suppose to help you, ya know. You don't hit things out of frustration."
Konohamaru looked up to his sensei and gave a meek smile.
"Sorry, sensei. I couldn't resist..."
"Get up, I'll help you. Hopefully, this time, I can dodge your punch."
Konohamaru laughed weakly.
"How much time do I have again?"
"Three weeks or so. Don't worry. The whole training regimen is set in stone. We'll get you to the level you need to maintain some sort of fight with the son of the yellow flash."
"Naru-shit"
"Shut it, Monkey"
An:/ I know...very short training time. But I'd rather not indulge you too much on the training period...that's boring. :P Besides. I like me some nice surprises...don't you too? Har Har har... I would have updated sooner...if it wasn't for tumblr. Blame tumblr and it's vast amount of awesome pictures! Alright...Er...fights are predetermined. I know this is probably the shortest chapter or something but it's just a transition anyways. At least it's not some authors note saying I'm never gonna update this chapter ever again...not that I would do that to you guys...ever. Though this raises the question:
POLL-kinda...
Should I split this story into two? Have the time skip (where the real Narusaku begins) as a Sequel to this one? Because 27+ chapters is quite a lot to digest. And I don't want to take this up till the 70+...that's just frightening...so uh...what do you think? Split or no split?
Leave your answers in the reviews or PM me!
Matta ne!