D1: another chapter hot of the presses. Ladies and Gentlemen DJ-Rage studios proudly presents…
Chapter 3 – Team 7 reunited
Sasuke stared at Naruto, dark eyes devoid of all emotion. Sakura hovered in the background, with Hinata and Ino looking over her shoulder, they were ready to duck back into the office if needs be. Kakashi and Iruka looked like they were ready to intervene if things went sour.
"Hi…Sasuke, I…uh…er…" Naruto stammered, sounding like Hinata.
Sasuke shook his head and walked past Naruto.
"Idiot," he muttered as he passed.
Naruto relaxed as Sasuke continued up the corridor. Iruka closed the distance between himself and Naruto.
"Iruka-sensei," Naruto smiled.
Iruka cuffed Naruto over the head but not a hard as Tsunade had done.
"You could have let us know you were alright," Iruka scolded, but his heart wasn't in it.
Naruto leaned past Iruka to look at the masked Jonin behind him.
"Hi Kakashi-sensei. Still have trouble arriving on time I see."
"It's clear that even four years of banishment cant change Konoha's number one knucklehead ninja."
Naruto's smile vanished, being replaced with a scowl. He swept past Kakashi without another word. Iruka and Kakashi looked from Naruto's back to each other.
"What did I say?" Kakashi asked Iruka.
--
Naruto left the mansion and rocketed up the nearest wall, he looked across the rooftops before leaping forwards. Bounding across the same roofs as he had when he was still a part of Konoha was a strange experience for Naruto, the absence of the people in the village gave made him feel uneasy. Flying past all the places he knew from his Genin days, memories he'd locked away long ago burst free and clouded his mind. He dropped down to street level and started walking, passing Ichiraku and the Hyuuga and Uchiha compounds. Naruto's feet seemed to be taking him along the familiar streets without any control from him. He passed the academy, normally full of noise from the pre-Genin students was eerily quiet. Naruto continued walking through the village, lost in his thoughts. He realised he was in the forest surrounding the training grounds. Naruto emerged from the trees to see the three posts and the hero memorial exactly as he remembered it. He flickered and landed on the top of the middle post and sat. Naruto absentmindedly looked down and found himself laughing at the memory of Kakashi tying him to the post and saying that he, Sakura and Sasuke would never be Shinobi.
"Looks like I proved you wrong Kakashi-sensei," he grinned.
He shook himself.
I will not let sentimentality mess with my head. He thought. They banished me; they disserve everything that's happening.
Naruto closed his eyes and focused, drifting into a semi-asleep state. To the outside world, he could have been meditating, but inside his head, he was putting the final changes to an idea. A bird's call jerked him back to reality. He hopped off the post and put his idea into practice. Forcing his wind based chakra into his hands. He started sprinting. Rushing back into the trees, he shaped the chakra into sharp blades, one in each hand. He slashed at the trees as he passed, leaving sharp cut in the trunks. He kicked upwards and bounced off the trees, heading into the canopy. Naruto burst through the sea of leaves and kept soaring upwards, carried by his momentum. He seemed to hover in the air as he looked at the village spread out around him. After an eternity looking down at his former home, he dropped again. He landed on a branch and used it as a springboard to take off again. He continued to spring through the trees, getting lower with each jump. Coming back down to ground level, he turned and headed back the way he'd come. Naruto skidded back into the training ground; he swung his arm in a great arc, sending a chakra enforced shockwave towards the target tree. There was a brief second where nothing happened, then a hairline cut appeared in the trunk and the whole tree slid to the left. It hit the ground with an ear-splitting crash.
"Impressive power and speed," a familiar voice said once the noise had died away, making Naruto turn. Kakashi was standing a little way off, Sakura and Sasuke next to him. Naruto shut off the chakra flow to the blades in his hands as he turned to face his friends.
"Not quite the Naruto you remember?" Naruto asked.
Kakashi nodded, smiling under his mask.
"Tell you what Naruto, how about you show me how much you've changed."
"Only you Kakashi-sensei? That wouldn't be much fun." Naruto sounded almost bored as he looked up into the sky.
"Well what about me and Sasuke?"
"Alright," Naruto agreed, "Taijutsu only and I'll allow you to use your Sharingan."
Sakura backed away as the three Shinobi took up a fighting stance. Sasuke's eyes brightened to the blood red of the Sharingan as Kakashi raised his headband.
"You sure about this?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto nodded and did exactly what Sasuke and Kakashi expected him to do, and created half a dozen clones. Each of the clones smirked and flickered away in a swirl of sand. Kakashi and Sasuke stared as each of the clones rocketed around them, leaving sand in their wake. Even with their Sharingan, they couldn't keep up with Naruto's sheer speed. Sasuke was knocked forward as Naruto's fist connected with the back of his head. Sasuke whipped around and slammed his fist into Naruto, only to have him disappear in a puff of smoke.
"Damn just a clone," he growled.
"Keep on your toes," Kakashi warned, "we have no idea what new tricks he's learned."
Kakashi took a step backwards as two Narutos tried to kick his feet out from under him, but they ended up kicking each other in the head and vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Sasuke ducked another blow and hammered his fist into Naruto, he vanished. He soon became irritated by the shadow clones and yelled to the still moving mass of sand.
"Stop hiding idiot and fight me!"
Naruto responded by landing in front of Kakashi and Sasuke. He charged at Sasuke, ducking to the left at the last minute. He planted one foot firmly on Sasuke's ankle, and the other in Kakashi's back. Naruto kicked off Kakashi and made to slam his foot into Sasuke. Sasuke ducked and his fist whipped out, crashing into Naruto's face. Naruto was stunned for a second then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke looked wildly around, Sharingan still blazing.
"Where is he?" he demanded.
"I think he left at the start," Kakashi smiled as he pulled his headband back over his left eye, "he always was a trickster."
--
Naruto made his way back into the village, grinning at having given Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura the slip again. He wandered through the still strangely deserted Konoha streets.
Exactly as f I never left. He thought to himself.
His feet eventually led him to his old apartment. He hesitated for a minute as his hand touched the doorknob, and then headed inside. As he pushed open the door, he cast his eyes over the familiar furniture and layout; almost identical to the way it had been four years ago. Naruto whipped around as he heard someone behind him. Hinata stood in the doorway. Naruto wasn't surprised to see she was blushing.
"N…Naruto…" she stuttered.
"Hey Hinata, long time no see," Naruto smiled before turning back to his old home, "Hasn't changed much in four years," he sighed.
"I…I've been l…looking after it and…and keeping it tidy."
Naruto looked back to Hinata, puzzled.
"W…when you left, I…I…decided to look a…after you're a…apartment for when you…you came back."
"Why?" he asked innocently.
"B…because I…. N…Naruto…I….I…" Hinata's blush deepened.
Hinata was oblivious to the rumble of a distant explosion, but Naruto's attention was instantly focused on the source of the noise. He vanished in a swirl of sand.
"….I love you," Hinata finished. Her words floating around the now empty apartment.
--
Sound ninja were swarming through the hole in Konoha's city wall. Konoha and Suna ninja were moving to repel them and Naruto was watching from the top of the Hokage faces. His eyes picked out the familiar shapes of his friends from the massive crowd of Konoha and Suna ninja. The two armies met and started to battle, the swarm of ninja was scattered every so often by explosions and Jutsu. He saw a fireball that could only be Sasuke's doing engulf a large number of enemy's as a lightning bolt carved a path through sound's forces. Naruto suddenly became aware of the sound of the battle. The screams and cries of enemy and friend, he flinched as he heard a female voice shriek in pain. He continued to watch the battle but had to look away as the sheer number of enemies started force the Konoha and Suna forces back. Naruto turned his back on the cries and made to walk away, only to freeze as a piercing scream echoed through his head. He didn't know for sure but he was almost positive it was Hinata's scream.
"Screw it…" Naruto growled as he whipped around and sprinted to the edge of Hokage faces.
He launched himself into space. A grin spread over his face as he saw a sound Kunoichi unsuspectingly moved into his path of decent. The Kunoichi raised a katana to strike at a Konoha Chunin but she was slammed into the ground as both of Naruto's feet connected with her head. The second he was on the ground, Naruto vanished and joined the fray.
--
Gaara was finding it hard to keep up with the number of ninja pressing in on him. He swamped a number with his sand but they were almost instantly replaced by more. Karasu lunged into the enemy swarm and fired blades in every direction. Temari slammed her fan into an enemy then whipped it round in a fluid motion, opening it and sending a hurricane force wind into the sound army.
"Where are they coming from?" she yelled to Gaara.
"I have no idea," he replied, swatting another ninja out of the way.
Another wave of enemy ninja attacked from the other direction and Gaara couldn't swing his sand around fast enough to get all of them. The remaining sound ninja were scattered by a rush of sandy wind and Naruto appeared next to Gaara.
"Gaara, I think we need to change the field," Naruto smirked.
Gaara nodded as a sand cloud appeared over Konoha. The sound-nin didn't have time to react; they were up to their knees in sand before they knew what was happening. The Konoha forces immediately pounced on them.
--
Sakura's fist hit the ground, sending a large team of enemy ninja into the air as Sasuke's lightning covered fist punched through the chest of another enemy. He tossed the body to one side as more enemies swarmed closer. Before either of them could react, a blonde sandstorm appeared and attacked. Naruto's chakra blade's made short work of the swarm; he planted both blades in a sound ninja's chest then flickered away to take on a different foe. A sound-nin that had survived Naruto's assault appeared next to Sakura; he made to ram a kunai into her chest but was slammed to the ground by Naruto. Sakura had the briefest glimpse of Naruto before he vanished again, leaving a scatter of sand in his wake. He bounded up a wall and over roofs, catching sight of a green blur that he recognised as Rock Lee and heading towards him.
Neji's palm impacted against a sound-nin's chest and he collapsed to the ground as Lee's foot sent another sound-nin through a wall. Neji cursed at the sheer number of enemies that were massing.
"There are too many of them," he grunted, readying himself.
The two Shinobi looked up in time to see what appeared to be a humanoid sandstorm rushing over them. Naruto, moving at a speed that matched Lee's, barrelled into the sound-nin sending them flying. A sound-nin threw a punch at Naruto only to have him vanish in a cloud of sand; he re-materialised behind the sound-nin and planted both feet in the small of his back. Neji and Lee watched, mesmerised, as Naruto dispatched the sound-nin. He landed in the centre of the street, crouched low as the bodies hit the ground around him. He looked up at Neji and Lee briefly then vanished.
"Was that Naruto?" Lee asked.
"I'm not sure," Neji replied.
Naruto continued his rush through the battle, picking off sound ninja right and left. He found a lone enemy and smiled cruelly, summoning four clones.
"Let's see if I can still do this," he muttered to himself as his clones surrounded the sound-nin.
"Na-Ru-To!" The clones yelled as they skidded low and kicked the sound-nin into the air. Naruto launched himself into the air and brought his heel down hard into the sound-nin's face.
"Uzumaki barrage!" Naruto finished, landing next to the pulverised enemy.
Naruto didn't stop to regain his breath, just launched himself back into battle. As he rushed past other enemies, he heard a cry and instinctively ducked out of the firing line.
"Summoning jutsu! Bring down the house!"
A massive toad crashed down into the enemies, scattering and crushing a large number. Naruto's eyes searched for the summoner and found the toad Sanin on a nearby roof.
"Hey there pervy-sage!" he yelled over the battle, kicking a sound ninja off the roof.
"Naruto, Heard you were back in town," Jiraiya called as he saw the blonde.
Naruto looked back to the fight as the enemy regrouped and advanced again.
"Pervy-sage, you and the others may want to get to a safe distance," Naruto growled, eyes flashing red. Jiraiya nodded and fought his way through the crowd. Naruto punched another sound ninja into the ground as Jiraiya helped the ally ninja retreat. Kakashi landed on the roof being used as a rally point and turned to Jiraiya.
"Any idea what's going on?"
"Naruto's probable going to do something dangerous and stupid again."
Gaara placed a wounded sand ninja on the rooftop as he landed alongside part of the Konoha force. Naruto glared at the enemy as he saw the last of the Konoha forces fall back, out of his way. Kakashi and Sakura picked out the sand coloured jacket from a safe distance as Naruto grinned evilly. He aimed his palms towards the ground as the sound-nin advanced. Sand swirled around Naruto as the others watched; Kakashi's Sharingan picked out Naruto's wind based chakra in the sand.
"You are about to see the other reason why Naruto gained the name sandstorm," Gaara said.
Jiraiya saw the Rasengan appearing in his hands before the swirling sand almost hid him from view.
"Sunaarashi Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as he launched himself forwards, a sandy trail in his wake.
The chakra ball impacted against the lead ninja and exploded in a whirlwind of sand, swallowing the entire squad. Kakashi could have sworn it was the Rasenshuriken from the dome shaped sandstorm. Naruto reappeared as the chakra fuelled sandstorm faded.
--
Orochimaru paused, looking over the city from the top of Konoha's city wall, to where a distinct chakra signature could be felt.
"So the Fox has returned," he said to himself.
Six ninja, faces hidden by the spreading night, appeared behind Orochimaru.
"Lord Orochimaru, our forces are being driven back," one of them replied, circular glasses reflecting the last of the sinking sun.
Orochimaru made no movement as he spoke.
"Recall the troops. We'll attack again at first light."
The six ninja bowed and vanished again.
--
D1: first real battle scene completed. Hope you like it. This is now officially the largest story I've ever written and not abandoned or lost interest in. Like always please R&R. It's official, I'm addicted to reviews. I get such a buzz when I read new reviews. The next chapter may not be ready for a while as I have exams (help) soon and I will have to revise (save me). By the way, I still haven't found my muse yet.
