Along Came a Symbiote
Author's Note: Alright before I begin I just want to touch up on a few things. Last chapter I got a few compliants about the chapter, though I told people in my A/N that the chapter was going to suck. Never lied, didn't say the chapter was going to be amazing but did inform you that for various reasons the chapter would feel rushed or incomplete. And as someone pointed out "it felt like you didn't want to write the chapter". Well I didn't and not because I've grown bored with this story but because I didn't want to write out the Sasuke retrieval arc. I really just wanted to skip the segment and move onto Shippuden but if I did that than even more people would have been pissed. So i wrote the chapter choosing to tick off fewer readers.
Moving on. This chapter will be far better than last. Not because I actually enjoyed writing it but because There were more relevant events that went along with this chapter. Last chapter was just about Sasuke's defection and much like the fight against Zabuza, most of us have read the damn event over, and over, and over again to the point that we have it memorized word for word no matter who wrote it. This chapter is about Naruto's return, what all he learned during the three or so years, and the changes that have been made in Naruto himself.
So with that out of the way, please enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter 9: Back Home and Stronger
Konoha/Hokage's office
It had been roughly over three and a half years since Naruto and Jiraiya went on their training trip and a little more than that since she had taken the mantle of Hokage.
Tsunade still disliked the position and wished that there was a way out of it. Unfortunately if she hadn't taken the position then Danzo would have become Hokage and then would have been able to run the village as he saw fit. Before having run into Jiraiya and Naruto in Tanzaku town, she wouldn't have cared what had happened to Konoha, but somehow Konoha's spider nin had infected her with his feverish loyalty. (1)
Now that she thought about them, she remembered that it was taking longer than she thought for them to return. She had been expecting them back two weeks ago, but they hadn't arrived yet nor were there a letter sent explaining where they were. Just then a hand opened the window behind her.
"You know I was just thinking about you." she said to Jiraiya as he finished entering via the window. Seeing the lecherous grin on his face let her know that she needed to add more to her previous statement. "Not like that you pervert!"
The smile on Jiraiya's face fell. "Jeez princess there's no reason to dash my hopes away."
"With you I do." was her response. "So how did the training trip go?" she asked while looking over some of the documents on her desk.
She didn't see the large frown on his face but was definitely able to notice Jiraiya's annoyed grunt.
"Hn, disastrous!"
Tsunade gave him her full attention. "Really, I would have thought that Naruto would have soaked up all the knowledge he could from you. Where is he anyway?"
"Naruto said he was going to stop by his house first. As far as soaking up knowledge, he learned but not much from myself." he said dejectedly.
"Explain." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow.
Jiraiya let out a deep sigh before answering. "All throughout the trip I tried to teach Naruto how to control the nine tails fox's chakra. But he refused rather harsh, even to the point of getting violent about it when I persisted for long periods of time. I tried to refuse teaching him anything but he simply countered by training his body and mind on his own."
He took a moment to get his thoughts together before continuing. "I didn't like what I saw when I took a look at some of the books he was reading so I began trying to bargain with him. He agreed at first by having me teach him a few earth ninjutsu. Only after I taught him, he went back on our deal and back to his own training regimen. After that I found myself simply trying to advise him in his training."
Tsunade decided to halt his explanation. "Are you telling me that despite having three years to train that he is unable to defend himself from Akatsuki?"
The fact that Jiraiya was hesitant didn't bode well to her. "Actually, he has already beaten two of them."
Her eyes widened but she wasn't given a chance to speak as he continued talking.
"About two years into the trip we ran into two of them. I had Naruto take on the weaker of the two while I handled the strongest. Naruto won that day while mine made a quick retreat. Then some time last week, Naruto and Gaara of the sand killed another member while in Suna."
"What was Naruto doing in Suna a week ago when you were both supposed to be here?" she asked sternly.
Once again Jiraiya let out a sigh. "Because some time during our trip… he." he gritted his teeth. "Ran. Away."
Silence filled the office as Tsunade could only stare at Jiraiya. When she finally found her voice it was nothing short of a scream.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE RAN AWAY?"
"I meant just that. He ran away while I wasn't watching him. I eventually tracked him down to Suna nearly half a year later. Unfortunately once I did find him, he refused to leave Suna. Practically declaring it as his training ground for the remaining part of the trip. I would have dragged his ass out of there but he had befriended the Kazekage and his family. They threatened with war against Konoha if Naruto was forcibly taken from their home."
Tsunade began fervently rubbing her temples. She began to remind herself what was important at the moment and not to allow this new development to stress her so much.
'He's back in the village, he's back in the village and strong enough to fight Akatsuki members with or without help…. Wait…' It was then that another question entered her mind. 'If Naruto's able to protect himself, then why is Jiraiya complaining about the training?'
She decided to give her thoughts a voice. "If Naruto is capable of defending himself from Akatsuki, then why do you act like the trip was a waste?"
"Because I wanted to teach Naruto his father's techniques and even pass on his beliefs, not the path he's gone down."
Tsunade shook her head. "Jiraiya." she said with sympathy. "I understand that you wanted Naruto to be like Minato. But you can't force Naruto to become someone he doesn't want to become."
"I understand that Tsunade, and I probably wouldn't mind if Naruto didn't start to remind me of Orochimaru."
"What do you mean?" she asked surprised.
Jiraiya pulled out a thick book from his kimono and handed it to her. Tsunade stared at the book, clearly confused.
"This is a book about human anatomy and ways to cure injuries that I published during the second ninja world war."
Jiraiya nodded. "Yes and that's just one of the books that Naruto studied."
"I don't see what's so bad about him reading one of my books." she stated with amusement lacing her voice.
"Take a look inside." he said.
She simply shrugged her shoulders and did as she was told, opening to a random page. Several parts were highlighted and side notes were made. There were even dividers placed in for easy access to certain pages. At first she didn't notice anything unusual, but then she took a closer look at the highlighted area and side notes. She began following the directions of the various notes and turned to the page they directed to confirm her suspicion.
After Tsunade confirmed that she was right, she closed the book. "He has highlighted the locations of the arteries and the name of the bones. He has also left directions to pages that contain information on weak points in a human's skeletal structure and the pain a person experiences when a certain bones are broken."
Jiraiya nodded with a solemn look on his face. "Don't forget that isn't the only book he studied. He has read several books revolving around poisons and even one on psychology. He hasn't been training himself to become a better ninja; he's been training himself to be a better killer."
Tsunade took a few minutes to think and Jiraiya stayed silent as he understood that this was a lot to take in.
"Given Naruto's already known…. quirks, I can understand your concern. Though I doubt there is anything to worry about I will schedule for Naruto to have a session with Inoichi Yamanaka. I simply think that Naruto has embraced the harsh truth to what ninja are at a younger age than most, but if Inoichi finds him mentally unstable I'll have him suspended until he's considered stable again."
"Good, there are some other things you might need to know as well." Jiraiya added.
Naruto's Apartment
Sakura had just finished dusting the last bit of Naruto's living room. She had been surprised when he asked her to clean his home while he was away, but was grateful that he trusted her enough to lend her a key to his apartment.
She looked over the dresser he had positioned in the living room and looked over the memento's he had lying on it. Sakura was a little disappointed that the picture of team seven wasn't one of the items displayed, but in its place were other items of importance to Naruto.
A picture of Naruto with his arm slung around the neck of a very uncomfortable Shino and another one of Naruto holding a ramen bowl standing in front of the Ichiraku's which had the words "100th ramen bowel" scribbled on it, said ramen bowel located right next to it complete with chopsticks. There were a few other trinkets on the dresser that Sakura noticed such as the picture of Naruto and the third Hokage, and another object that she didn't quite understand.
The object in question was a white oval container that was covered with cracks and scorch marks. The only indication of what importance it held to Naruto was a date and the words "The day we became one" badly scribbled on it. (2)The words slightly disturbed her, but the fact that the date followed back to when Naruto was just five made her believe that it was just the act of a lonely child. The last item had not been placed on the dresser but had been hung above. Naruto's custom Chunin vest, hanging for all to see.
Moving on from the living room to where Naruto's bedroom was suppose to be, Sakura made a bee line for one of the many weight lifting machines that filled the room. Ever since she had been apprenticed to Tsunade, Sakura had decided to use the machines to get a warm up before her training.
She double checked how much weight was set for it before she sat down on the cushioned chair and gripped the two bars in for of her. A sense of pride emanated from her as she performed the quick work out. Her pride was replaced by frustration when it felt like the machine got jammed…. again.
She attempted to push the bar a few more times before getting up and turning to fix the problem herself. Only she froze in place when she found that the reason behind the machines malfunction was because of the black clad man who had his left foot pressed down on the weights.
She was ready to attack the intruder but stopped as she recognized the all too familiar dress style of black leather and the golden blonde hair on top of his head.
"Naruto?" she asked.
"Who else Sakura? Of course it's us." he said with playful mirth.
Sakura didn't respond as she took in the changes to his appearance. His clothes were still the same except he no longer wore a mask on his face and his head band had been grafted on his belt much like Lee. Another thing she quickly noticed was that his trade mark spider was not visible on his chest or anywhere else on his clothing. His physique had changed much over the years to the point that it was similar to Asuma's except a little smaller. Then there was his hair. Before leaving it had been short and spiky, now it had grown out to meduim length and framed his face down to his chin.
"Sakura. Sakura!"
She snapped out of her observation when Naruto began snapping his fingers in front of her face.
"You paying attention now?"
She nodded. "Sorry about that, it's just that you've changed a lot. It surprised me is all."
Naruto chuckled. "We've been gone over three years. We were bound to change some. Anyway thanks for keeping the place dust free."
"No problem. So how did your training go?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I was able to get a lot down and have improved by leaps and bounds immensely. But from what I can see I'm not the only one to have improved over the years. By the way how are the others doing?" Naruto asked as he walked out of the room.
Sakura followed as she answered. "Everyone's doing ok, more or less. Team nine still show signs that they haven't completely gotten over Neji's death… Though on a brighter note, we've all become Chunin."
"That's good to hear. Though it's to be expected that those close to Neji would still be a little sad." He said as he made his way to the fridge.
Opening it up revealed that someone had emptied out the old products and restocked it for his arrival. "Hey Sakura did you touch our fridge?"
She gave him a confused look. "No, I only dusted."
Naruto shrugged his shoulders and grabbed a bottle of water.
While Naruto enjoyed his bottle of water, Sakura noticed his duffel bag placed next to his dresser and the odd weapon leaning against the wall.
"You took up learning kenjutsu?" she asked curiously.
Naruto took another gulp of water before following Sakura's eyes. Once his eyes fell onto the triple bladed scythe his lips formed into a malicious smile. "No, that is just something we took as a trophy after defeating someone after our life."
Sakura shuddered from the smile and chose not to stay on the subject. "Well it's good to see that you're back Naruto but I've got a few things that I need to get done and I'm sure you want to meet up with some of the others as well."
Naruto nodded before allowing her out. Before making his own exit, he looked back to his dresser and smiled as he spotted his second trophy. It wasn't much of one, but the weird ocular eye patch was the only significant thing that he could find on the Akatsuki bomber nin.
After he had visited Ichiraku's, Naruto had planned to see how Anko was doing. At least that was his plan until two Anbu materialized in his path and informed him that he was to report to the Hokage…. immediately.
He figured that was somewhere he would have to visit; Naruto just figured that he could prolong it till later in the day.
Walking into the office he wasn't surprised by Jiraiya's presence and gave a brief word of acknowledgement before sitting down in the chair located in front of the large desk.
"Pervert."
Tsunade chuckled at Jiraiya's disgruntled face. "Hello Naruto. How was your trip?" she asked.
Naruto gave a wide smile. "Eventful."
"Jiraiya has filled me in on what happened throughout it. I'm surprised that you didn't take advantage of Jiraiya's vast knowledge." Naruto laughed at this.
"That knowledge must be selective because the first five months was nothing but nagging about learning to use the demons chakra. Even after that he tried to force us to learn only certain techniques."
Tsunade nodded. "Yes I know. But luckily both of your stubborn minds did not prevent you from training."
After her statement, she opened one of the drawers to her desk and pulled out Naruto's book. "Jiraiya showed me your training material and he has given me reasons to be concerned about your mental state."
She paused to see if Naruto would give some out burst. Oddly enough, he stayed quiet though she could see his facial features shift to one of slight annoyance.
"So I have called for Inoichi Yamanaka and asked him to give you a psychological evaluation. If there is evidence that you are not mentally ok, then I'll have to remove you from active duty."
At this Naruto frowned and turned to Jiraiya. "Is this your way to get back at us?"
Jiraiya wasn't able to get a word out as Tsunade decided to intervene. "No it isn't, you would have been required to get an evaluation upon your eventually promotion to either Special Jonin or Jonin. But I decided with the events of your trip that you were due for one now."
Naruto was still unhappy but nodded in understanding. Jonin were hand selected for the promotion and often worked alone or began training Genin. You didn't want to send someone outside of the village or have them around children that could possibly be insane or mentally ill.
"So when do we see Inoichi?" he asked.
"Now. He's waiting for you in room two seventy-five."
Naruto then got up and left the office, immediately heading to said room after closing the door behind him.
Inoichi ticked off the things that his Hokage had informed him of about Naruto Uzumaki while he waited in the cool white room. He thought about the questions that he would ask, the body language or facial twitch and expression to look out for, and the mind delve he would perform afterwards.
One would wonder why the questions would be necessary if he planned to delve into Naruto's mind using his clan's technique. And the answer for it was for two reasons. The first being that it would save time for his clan's technique if he knew what to look for specifically. And the second reason was that he wanted to give his daughter a better idea of what many in their clan did as a living.
The blonde haired, purple clad kunoichi sitting next to him kept fiddling with either a strand of her hair or a part of her skirt. He shook his head at her nervous ticks.
The door to the office opened and Naruto walked in. He gave the two sitting at the rectangular table a brief nod before taking his seat at the fold up tin chair a few feet away.
Inoichi was the first to speak. "Hello Naruto. It's been a while since our last session and I guess it was due time that we had another."
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "We guess though the last time we were alone." he said pointing to Ino.
"Sorry about that. I believe you met my daughter Ino before."
Naruto shook his head in affirmation. "Yes we have. It's been a long time Ino, you've developed very well over the years." he said in a tone that made Inoichi mentally groan.
'He's flirting with my daughter.'
"Well Naruto it seems like I'm not the only one who has improved. Your body has become even more… appealing." Ino said in a sly voice.
'Oh great, and she's flirting back!'
Naruto's smile grew and he opened his mouth but was interrupted by Inoichi.
"I've brought my daughter along in order to give her a hands on experience to our clan's secondary career. But if you're not comfortable with this I can have her leave." he said with a little hope evident in his voice.
"No, that won't be necessary. Besides we wouldn't mind if a beautiful flower such as her poked around in our mind"
The two Yamanaka were opposites of each other at the moment. Inoichi was annoyed and regretting his decision on bringing his daughter within range of a boy her age who would be full of raging hormones. Ino on the other hand kept her sly smile and was ready to return the flirt. But just like Naruto, she too was stopped thanks to Inoichi.
"Alright then we'll begin with some of the questions I have for you. The first question I have revolves around your reading materials. I'm curious as to why you choose to spend your time studying the various topics such as psychology, botany, and human anatomy. Also why did you only focus on specific parts when it came to botany and anatomy?"
Naruto answered without hesitation. "The first half of the trip was spent with Jiraiya nagging us about controlling… our additional power."
Inoichi choose here to cut him off. "It's alright Naruto; Ino was informed about your situation when she became Chunin, as were the others once they were promoted."
Naruto didn't question why they were informed and decided to continue where he left off. "When Jiraiya could not convince us to work on using the nine tails fox's power he attempted to halt all training together. So we decided to improve our knowledge on subjects that we believed would help us as a ninja. As far as focusing on specific parts you will have to elaborate as there were many specifics we focused on."
"Well for example the locations of tendons and arteries, or in the case of the botany studies, poisons." Inoichi added.
Naruto nodded his head. "Ah yes those parts. As we said before it was to improve ourselves as ninja. Being able to memorize the location of tendons and their functions allow us to know what part to sever in order to disable or hinder an enemy. Also being able to pinpoint arteries makes it easier to make an enemy bleed out. Then the knowledge in poison should be…obvious."
Inoichi took a second to scribble a few notes down before continuing. "I see, but that doesn't completely answer my question. Why didn't you also study the aspects of treating wounds and creating antidotes for poisons, I would believe these topics to be valuable knowledge as well."
"We did not study them due to the direction we plan to take in our ninja career. "
Inoichi showed interest as he continued to scribble notes. "Would you care to share your future goal with us?"
"We plan to become a hunter nin." he stated.
"Hmmm, that's a rather gruesome career. If you do succeed in becoming one then we will definitely be having more sessions together. What encouraged this decision?" Inoichi asked.
Naruto took a second to consider whether he wanted the man to know or not. Thanks to his symbiote he could hide or even alter certain memories, like he did in the past with his memories of discovering his symbiote and the reason behind his plural sense of self. But he had also known the head Yamanaka for many years and came to trust the mains intelligent and reason. "The invasion with Suna and Oto could have been avoided if someone had killed Orochimaru before then. We plan to insure nothing like that happens again."
Inoichi stopped his work. "Naruto I understand how you feel about that but we had hunter nin back then as well-"
"And they sucked at their job!" Naruto stated somewhat aggresively.
Inoichi paused for a brief moment. "Naruto you have to understand that Orochimaru is ninja that few can fight on even ground. Do you really believe that you can match up to someone of his abilities?"
"We know we can. Already we have fought two rouge nins that are S rank and won."
Ino's eyes widened. "Wow that's rather a huge accomplishment."
"Hmmmm, now that you brought it up during one of your fights with an S rank nin you chose to….. incapacitate him in the most disturbing way. Why did you rip his head off of his still living, conscious body?"
"YOU DID WHAT?" Ino shouted.
Naruto began chuckling in a way that disturbed the two in the room. Inoichi was ready to ask what was so funny but Naruto choose to speak first.
"Funny how Jiraiya mentions that we ripped off a person's head, but doesn't mention that said person lacked the ability to die."
The confused expressions on Ino's and Inoichi's face caused Naruto to chuckle even more.
Finally Inoichi found his voice. "The inability to die. Do you mean he was immortal?"
"We're not sure. All we know is that we had attempted to kill him in several other fashions before, only to succeed in landing a killing blow but failing to kill him. Even ripping his head off didn't kill him, though it did succeed in completely disabling him from the neck down." Naruto answered.
Inoichi's face was full of disbelief. "There is a possibility that you were caught in a genjutsu."
"No. It wasn't a genjutsu. Trust us, we thought the same thing as well and made to break ourselves out of it only to find that we weren't in one. Just do the mind scan thing you do and you'll see that we are not lying." Naruto immediately stated.
Inoichi shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. When I perform my clan jutsu and view your memories, I can only see from your perspective and hear only your thoughts. I can't sense if there were a genjutsu cast on you that you couldn't detect." He would however watch the memory regardless and confirm with Jiraiya on the S rank nins possible immortality.
Having finished with all the questions and satisfied with the answers, Inoichi addressed Naruto once more. "Now that we've got the questions out of the way, me and my daughter will do a quick mind delve on you."
Both Yamanaka rose from their chair and brought themselves to Naruto's sides. "Alright Naruto, same as usual. Just relax and we'll be done before you know it."
Naruto took a deep breathe and stayed still as the two placed their hands on his head. A smirk quickly formed on his face when he felt Ino weave her fingers playfully through his hair.
Inside Naruto's mind, Inoichi and Ino stood at opposite ends of a brain that had several scrolls sticking out the side. Both had their hands on a scroll and quickly filtered through the memories as the unraveling of the scrolls attested to.
Inoichi couldn't help but snicker at how hesitant his daughter was about searching through Naruto's mind, contrary to her flirtatious attitude earlier. But luckily she relaxed shortly after beginning.
They were already reaching an hour into their work and Inoichi did not find anything that indicated that Naruto had lied or that he was mentally ill. He had found Naruto's fight with the supposed immortal and had to admit that as far as Naruto was aware, there wasn't any genjutsu cast.
"What the!"
His daughter's sudden exclamation caused Inoichi to stop. "Anything wrong dear?"
Ino didn't respond at first, but was obviously disturbed by something. "Dad you might want to come over here and have a look."
Inoichi did as his daughter said and gave her a curious glance before taking a look into the memory she was viewing.
His view quickly changed from the organic mind he was currently in to a dark hotel room. Though his head didn't move, his surroundings shifted to an open window that had moon light pouring in. Two hands appeared within his vision and slowly closed the window before his view changed to Jiraiya who was passed out on one of the beds.
One of Inoichi's eyebrow rose as Naruto began slowly moving towards Jiraiya. One of his hands began to hover of the toad sage's head before suddenly latching onto the man's head. A struggle quickly broke out and Naruto began to use his free hand to punch into Jiraiya's kidney.
"Stop struggling pervert!"
Jiraiya's body went limp and Inoichi's eyes widened as he witnessed the all too familiar sight of descending into another's mind. Soon enough, Naruto found himself in a room similar to the one Ino and Inoichi were currently in.
He took a step away from the scroll so that he could think. His daughter patiently waited for her father to speak, a little concerned that someone outside of her family had learned how to use one of their ninjutsu.
"I want you to continue where you left off. After I'm done looking through some of the other memories I'll look further into this." Inoichi stated.
"Alright daddy, I'll let you know if I find anything else unusual." Ino said turning back to viewing the memory she was previously on.
Twenty minutes later
Naruto opened his eyes to find the two Yamanaka's back to their original seats. Pushing off his chair, he lazily stood up.
"Are we done?"
Inoichi nodded but fixed him with a hard glare. "We're done, but before you go care to explain why you didn't tell us that you had discovered how to use one of my clan's techniques."
Having been headed towards the exit of the room, Naruto froze mid-step. A cold silence followed as Naruto slowly turned around.
"We… we forgot about it." he honestly answered. In truth Naruto rarely used the technique after his test run on Jiraiya. It was best used to extract information from an enemy's mind. Outside of a mission it was useless in his hands as far as he was concerned.
'Figures.' Inoichi thought to himself. After several years of examining Naruto, Inoichi felt he knew the young man well enough to know when he was lying.
"I see, then that's all for today. All that is left is to report to the Hokage and inform her of your sane mentality, dark as it may be." Inoichi said before making his way to the Hokage office, Naruto and Ino following close behind.
Once they reached the doors to the Hokage's office, Inoichi quickly addressed the two teens. "It won't take me long to talk with Lady Tsunade, I'm sure she will want to talk to you afterwards Naruto so stick around."
Before entering the office, the older Yamanaka sent a message to his daughter.
'Try to keep him distracted so he won't enter until I'm done.'
With that said, Inoichi closed the door behind him while Ino turned to Naruto.
"So…. have any plans today?"
Several minutes later
Tsunade listened carefully as Inoichi went over all the information he had found while sifting through Naruto's mind. She was intrigued by the things Naruto had learned behind Jiraiya's back and laughed at the mention of Naruto getting the drop on Jiraiya to test the Yamanaka technique. Said toad sage had already been dismissed considering this was information meant only for her, Naruto, and the two Yamanaka's who performed his evaluation.
"In the end Naruto isn't a danger to anyone else other than his enemies and luckily that isn't Konoha." Inoichi finished.
Tsunade nodded her head. "Yes I figured as much. Thank you for your time and please let Naruto know I'd like to see him on your way out."
"Don't bother I'm right here." came a voice from the ceiling.
Both occupants in the room looked up to see one of the tiles moved to the side and for both Naruto and Ino to drop through. Ino gave her father a nervous smile that conveyed her apology.
Naruto on the other hand gave him a smug smile. "What? You thought that I wouldn't sneak in like before because you left your hot daughter behind."
Inoichi pinched the bridge of his nose in response began muttering. Tsunade quickly addressed Naruto, wanting the three out of her office as soon as possible. The entire ordeal had taken up much of the afternoon and she wanted it over with.
"You really want to be a hunter nin?"
Naruto merely nodded.
"I personally don't care what career you choose but I know the council will want you to be kept within the walls of Konoha." she held up her hand seeing his expression shift. "But then again they and Jiraiya decided that I should run things, it's only fair that I run it as I see fit. Do you remember where your old team's training ground is?"
"Yes."
"Show up there tomorrow at ten, I want to personally see what you're capable of. I'll call for Kakashi to test you. You are all dismissed." Tsunade said.
Naruto didn't think twice about exiting via the window, he wanted to be done with the meeting as much as Tsunade did and had someone he wanted to see before the day was over.
The sun was beginning to set and the streets lights were on. Right now Anko should have been at home or out drinking. At least this is what Naruto believed, hoping that her routine had not changed over the years as he swung through the village.
Dropping down mere feet away from the bar Anko frequented, he walked the rest of the way. Passing through the doors, Naruto instantly spotted the purple haired sadist and made to sit by her. Another patron in the bar made to sit next to Anko as well only to be immediately shoved aside by Naruto. The patron turned to confront the instigator but quickly backed away when he saw the leather covered man. With the nuisance out of the way, Naruto proceeded to sit down next to Anko.
Anko didn't turn to even acknowledge the new comer and instead simply narrowed her eyes into irritated slits. 'How many times do I have to tear someone apart before idiots get it through their heads?' she asked herself, unaware of who exactly was sitting next to her.
It wasn't hard to put two and two together for Naruto to realize that Anko didn't recognize him and chose to have a little fun instead of wasting the surprise.
"So babe… what brings you here?" he asked smugly.
He had to hold back a snicker as a growl emanated from Anko.
"Back off. This is the only warning you're going to get." she stated.
The smile that formed on Naruto's face only pushed Anko's growl to increase in volume.
"Heh nice warning but we're more interested in what you plan to do if we don't heed it."
Anko's right hand had instantly grabbed the front of Naruto's shirt while her other hand held a kunai threateningly towards his neck.
"Alright asshole go now or….." Having gotten a better look at him it, her brain froze as it began putting together the pieces of a puzzle. "Did… did you say we?"
Naruto laughed before responding. "Finally recognized us?"
"When did you finally get back?" Anko asked, obvious glee filling her voice.
"Just today. We've been busy what with being interrogated about the last three and a half years."
Anko nodded before asking a question that had been on her mind for the past few weeks. "Weren't you supposed to be arriving earlier?"
"Yeah but we stole the reigns from Jiraiya and took control of the ride."
"Huh?" Anko asked, clearly confused.
Naruto chuckled again. "We ran off while the perv wasn't looking."
Anko wouldn't admit it to Naruto's face but she had missed him. He was the only one who could make her genuinely laugh. The two continued to animatedly chat and make up for lost time. Naruto told Anko of all of the things that Inoichi and Tsunade had to interrogate out of him and more. He told her of the places he visited, the foods he tried, and the many ways he got back at Jiraiya for dragging him along. There were some things that he withheld from her, but these were things that he felt were not important such as his training or the things that pertained to his symbiote. Unfortunately for Anko there were some things Naruto couldn't and wouldn't tell her.
The conversation had gone smoothly till an annoyed voice interrupted. "Do you plan on buying anything?"
Naruto turned to the bartender only to throw a few bills. "Get us anything. We don't care."
The bartender snatched the cash off the counter and replaced it with one of the random bottles behind him. Naruto didn't even give the bottle a glance and resumed his conversation.
"As we were saying, we have to fight Kakashi tomorrow to…. evaluate our skill."
Anko gave a short whistle. "Setting you up against the copy nin of Konoha, think you can hold your own."
"Oh we plan to do more than hold our own, we plan to crush him!" Naruto finished with balled fist slamming onto the counter.
The resulting boom echoed through the bar, causing everyone's focus to shift towards Naruto.
Anko would have assumed Naruto was simply blowing smoke or talking big if it were not for the vicious yet confident smile on his face.
"You're serious!" she stated.
"Yes, we are. Tomorrow at around ten we're to fight him at training ground seven. Take it you'll be there?"
Anko hummed to herself, taking a thoughtful pose. "I don't know. I mean, there might just be missions that require my special touch." she said with self importance.
She held her pose until her eyes fell on Naruto's humor laced questioning face.
"Alright I'll be there. Heh, not like I'd miss a fight like this."
Unbeknownst to either, several patrons had yet to go back to their own conversation and continued to eavesdrop. Many holding interest in the new found event.
The Next Day/ Training Ground Seven
Tsunade allowed her eyes to circle the forest surrounding the training ground, growling as she spotted the many nins waiting for the arrival of the two fighters. She didn't know how word got around concerning the fight between Naruto and Kakashi, but she didn't like. This was supposed to be an evaluation concerning Naruto's skills, not a spectacle for others to watch. She considered ordering the lot to vacate but reconsidered when she spotted the betting pool. Her addiction to gambling didn't stop her sense of responsibility. The spectator's had thus been ordered to always stay outside of a set distance from either Kakashi or Naruto.
Many held complete confidence in Kakashi's reputation and experience, something she believed in as well when she placed her bet. Some felt that Naruto's youth gave him the edge, causing the betting pool to be successful as their needed to be winners and losers.
Resting on a branch near the top of the tall trees, Anko waited patiently. She had already placed her bet on Naruto winning and chose her seat in order to view the fight without any obstruction. With nothing better to do, she listened to the rambling of those around her.
"Wonder if he can win."
"Against Kakashi. Don't make me laugh."
"Is it so hard to believe that a nin from the new generation could surpass one from the old?"
"He has a point."
"Tch, believe what you want. There's no way some young punk is beating Kakashi."
"It's an age old lesson. The young will surpass the old. It was true with the Third Hokage and the Sanin, and it was true with Jiraiya and his student."
"You are talking about living legends. The Sanin and the Fourth Hokage had been prodigies."
"Didn't you see the Chunin exams?"
"I saw a stupid kid become full of himself and get the shit beaten out of him for it."
"He won though."
"He got lucky!"
"Ninja don't get lucky."
Anko tuned out their voices with Naruto's entry. The seventeen year old looked around, obviously confused by the "audience" that filled the woods.
"OK. What the hell is this?" he asked aloud.
He question wasn't answered and instead Naruto chose to move over to Tsunade and confront her on the issue. "Alright we'll bite. What is with all these…. onlookers?"
Tsunade sent a glare towards Naruto and his inquiry. "I don't know? But considering that the only ones who knew about this were us in the office and Kakashi I'd have to say that one of us got a big mouth." she said hinting heavily on the fact that she blamed him.
Naruto wanted to exercise his middle finger but decided against it as he realized, though begrudged, that he really was responsible for the current situation. 'We could have been a little quieter in our conversation, but how were we to know that so many would have the free time to show up and watch. Dammit!'
The audience was not welcomed. Naruto had originally had his symbiote take on the form of his planned hunter nin uniform, but when he sensed the large gathering he changed it back to his previous attire from the other day. Then there were the skills and abilities he had acquired from the past years. Showing off his outfit and abilities to a select few such as Anko, Kakashi, and the Hokage (who would have seen his uniform regardless) was one thing. But with the profession he planned to take part in required secrecy, and he was not about to broadcast everything that was meant to be secret to all those that were potential candidates as his future targets.
So with his eager and excited attitude reduced to sour disappointment, Naruto waited with the Hokage for Kakashi to make his fashionably late entrance. To Naruto's surprise they didn't have to wait long.
'Guess the bitch has her upsides. Must have been laying into him about his tardiness.'
Without waiting for further prompting, Naruto approached his old squad leader. The word sensei didn't feel right to Naruto. Neither Kakashi nor Jiraiya ever could teach them anything and oddly enough, aside from Kakashi's laziness and Jiraiya's stubborn attitude on what Naruto should learn, it wasn't their fault that they couldn't teach him. Naruto merely needed to be pointed in the right direction, then he and his symbiote could solve whatever they needed.
It was what Naruto did when he asked Anko to teach him the hidden shadow snake hands jutsu and the earth release shadow clone(3). The only draw back that Naruto discovered back then was that he needed to sign the snake contract (4).
Kakashi lone eye did a quick sweep over Naruto, studying the changes and gauging him.
"Well you've definitely grown." he stated lazily.
Naruto merely dropped his stance to one that projected aggression.
Kakashi chuckled, recognizing the shift in stance as Naruto's start to the fight. "What? No quick chat with your old sensei. I mean it has only been three years." he finished sarcastically.
The small tickle in the back of his mind was the only warning Kakashi got for Naruto's oncoming hook.
After dodging the blow with a leap back Kakashi decided to give a smart ass comment. "Still impatient. I didn't-"
The feel of his teeth grinding together as Naruto's fist impacted against his jaw ended his quick witted remark. He had expected to hear gloating from Naruto as his head was thrown back only to find no such rest as Naruto continued his assault.
Punches, kicks, and even elbows were thrown at Kakashi to apply enough pressure that he would be too busy blocking the attacks to fight back. A small gap appeared in Naruto's onslaught and Kakashi jumped at the chance to put space between himself and Naruto. A quick kick to Naruto's ankle forced his body to lose its balance, allowing Kakashi to grab a part of his jacket and throw him over his shoulder.
Naruto's body rolled only twice before his hands slammed onto the ground, righting himself and pushing off to land on his feet. He made no move to continue his offense as the sight of Kakashi reaching for his head band, lifting it up to reveal his Sharingan seemed to advise against such action.
He had yet to fight someone with an active Sharingan aside from his brief encounter with Itachi when he and Jiraiya were looking for Tsunade (5). Naruto didn't know what to expect from the fabled Sharingan other than what he had over heard and read about. Its ability to copy his technique were not a problem as the ones he planned to display involved the use of his symbiote.
It's ability to see the future, no that had to be a rumor. If it truly could see the future than the Uchiha massacre would have never happened. No the rumor that it could predict human movement sounded more accurate. That could probably be a problem.
The only other prowess of the Sharingan that Naruto could think of was its adept nature in genjutsu and that had been proven to be ineffective against him.
Naruto slowly edged himself closer to Kakashi who had continued to remain stationary.
"Now that I have prepared myself. We can begin the first lesson, hand to hand combat."
With the end of the sentence, Naruto leapt towards Kakashi once more. Naruto's concern about the Sharingan turned true as Kakashi was not only able to dodge his attacks but was able to successfully counter some of them. This became more prominent as the fight dragged on until Naruto created a bit of distance between the two of them, taking careful flips back.
Kakashi made to erase the distance between them, hoping to use the blind spot created from Naruto's back flips to his advantage. He was merely a few feet shy of being within striking distance when Naruto's left foot touched the ground to land from his flip when the same foot propelled Naruto body forward.
With his right knee jutting forward, Naruto threw his entire body weight forward aiming his attack straight for Kakashi's solar plexus. If the attack landed it would not only cause Kakashi great pain but the blow would also cause the diaphragm to spasm, making it difficult to breathe.
His knee connected and in the same moment created an explosion of splinters as it came into contact with the log Kakashi replaced himself with. As soon as Naruto's foot touched the ground, he whipped his head to his right, looking straight at Kakashi who stood a several feet away.
Kakashi stared back with a raised eyebrow. Interest taking over his concern for the fight. 'How did he immediately know I was here? I could have grabbed that log from anywhere yet he knew to look in this direction. Mere coincidence… maybe.'
As he prepared to reengage in the fight, his thoughts returning more to the fight itself. 'I forgot that his fighting style was based more on acrobatics and brute strength than tight, defensive form. He must have been using that other style to merely test my eye. Can't rely on substitution all the time. I'll need an advantage, something that will make him think twice before striking.' he thought before reaching into his pouch and drawing out one of his kunai.
Taking up a fighting stance, he brandished his dagger size kunai threateningly. Naruto paid the kunai little attention. He had trained himself so that his hands and feet were life threatening. Kakashi could stab and lacerate his body yet Naruto could do just as much damage with the knowledge he had and the strength of his body.
Both knew that this was merely a friendly spar, but with the presence of Konoha's best medical nin, both felt that they could take the fight a little further without worry.
The spectators couldn't tell who truly moved first, but in the next instant both nins darted towards each other and began fighting again. Just as Kakashi had thought, Naruto had dropped the previous fighting style. Before, his attacks were basic and straight forward. Now his attacks had come from different angles, twisting, bending, and flipping himself in odd angles to dodge and strike back.
The fight had started off slow. It had seemed more like a mere practice spar between two low ranking nin and had steadily grown to the fast pace and deadly fight between the ex-Anbu and the Chunin who was keeping his promise, holding his own against the man that was his superior in rank. If it were not for the distance between those fighting and the spectators, some would have a hard time keeping up with the fight. As it was it appeared as if the two were sliding across the ground with how fast they moved, their feet never staying in one place for longer than one or two seconds.
Finally the equilibrium broke as Naruto shot a web line of symbiote onto Kakashi's foot. Kakashi felt the tug on his foot and retaliated with a swipe of his kunai, cutting the line to his foot. But before Kakashi could act further another line of black webbing latched onto the out stretched kunai wielding hand. With his one foot already out of place and his arm carrying his body weight with it, it was a simple matter for Naruto to force him stumbling forward.
With the same hand that had pulled Kakashi forward, Naruto swung, twisting his body and exerting his body weight into the punch. With his one hand preoccupied and his balance gone Kakashi could do nothing to dodge the attack.
Using his free hand Kakashi attempted to grab Naruto's wrist. Only to miss and for the fist to connect cleanly with the lower portion of his chin.
The first punch Naruto had landed hurt as any punch should. But that same punch had been thrown from Naruto after leaping towards Kakashi. This punch however had been thrown from a firmly planted position, allowing Naruto to put all his strength into it.
The pain rattled Kakashi's frame and sent him soaring backwards. Though painful Kakashi quickly snapped back to his sense as he felt the faintest of pulls on his arm. Realizing that Naruto still had a web latched on, he twisted the arm so his kunai could reach and severed the second line.
He knew better than to believe that Naruto would give him any breathing room. Naruto had spent most of the match staying within striking distance and that wouldn't change now that Kakashi was vulnerable and still recovery from the previous blow.
Twisting his body midair, Kakashi tossed his kunai. Seeing the projectile, Naruto quickly flipped to the side as the kunai thrown was aimed for his right leg. The flip had only caused Naruto to halt his pursuit for a mere three seconds but it had been more than enough for Kakashi to land and begin the sequence for his hand signs.
Recognizing the hand signs, Naruto quickly performed his own in preparation of a defense. They finished and opened their mouth to spit the substance of their jutsu. Naruto spewed mud from his mouth as it gathered a few feet in front of him while fire was breathed from Kakashi.
A large sphere of fire flew towards Naruto and in the same instant the mud lying in front of Naruto sprung to life, forming a thick wall to protect him. After the two jutsu clashed the mud wall stood for a moment before crumbling to reveal that Naruto had disappeared.
Kakashi jumped from where he stood expecting the ground beneath him to burst open. When it didn't he narrowed his eyes and began sweeping the field around him, looking for any sign of Naruto. The spectators seemed to concentrate on Kakashi as if expecting him to suddenly strike Naruto from his place underground.
The sound of earth breaking behind him was the only noise Kakashi needed in order to know Naruto's location. He had predicted that Naruto would attack from his backside and had been prepared to attack. Spinning around, Kakashi swung his arm slamming it into Naruto's head.
Or so he thought as his eyes focused more onto Naruto and saw that his fist had slammed into Naruto pectoral instead. He froze and slowly followed his line of sight up to where Naruto's head was. The spectators shared in Kakashi's shock as they realized the changed in Naruto's stature.
It wasn't much of a change in size for an Akimichi jutsu. But when Kakashi considered that Naruto was only a couple of inches shorter than himself and was now a little short of a foot taller than him, then it was enough. Though if it had only been Naruto's height Kakashi would still not be worried. But that wasn't the case. Naruto's muscles had already been big for his age. But with the expansion jutsu they were more threatening than ever. (6)
The slightly bigger hand of Naruto grabbed the forearm of Kakashi's arm, who in his shock had yet to move his fist. The chuckle that reverberated from Naruto brought Kakashi from his shock.
"You know if we had hit someone with our best shot and they didn't budge….. we would have put at least a little distance between us and them."
Picking Kakashi up with ease, the now larger nin proceeded to slam him on the ground twice before throwing him into the wooded area. Kakashi used the trees to his advantage. The new development in the fight required him to think out his next course of action. Naruto had now taken the advantage in hand to hand fighting, but Kakashi was sure that he could use his vast skills in ninjutsu to turn the fight in his favor. He would just have to hide amongst the trees till he came up with a strategy to end the fight.
Naruto had yet to enter the forest. He knew Kakashi was still conscious and was hiding out in the thick foliage. Normally this would have been a nuisance as Kakashi was skilled in stealth and the time it would take to find him would have given the copy nin enough time to formulate a plan involving his numerous jutsu. But over the years, as Naruto's symbiote had become familiar with chakra it had soon learned to sense the power source as well and shared the ability with its host. The only drawback of the ability was that he could only sense the usage of chakra and not chakra as a whole. But that was the beauty of fighting Kakashi. As long as the copy nin was using his infamous Sharingan, then Naruto could sense him.
Sensing his opponent's chakra amongst the woods, Naruto quickly made his way to Kakashi. The thought of toying with his cornered foe crossed his mind but quickly dropped the idea. This was an ex-Anbu he was dealing with. Better to finish the fight now than to give Kakashi a chance to turn things around.
Kakashi had thought over several ways he could end the fight or turn the fight around. Unfortunately all of them involved ways to kill Naruto, not knock him out. Kakashi and Naruto may have not gotten along but that didn't mean that he wanted to kill him.
'I hope the feelings mutual.' he nervously thought.
After a few seconds passed Kakashi prepared himself to move when a thought hit him. 'Strange I would have thought that Naruto would have come looking for me. In fact I can't….. hear him!'
Kakashi jumped from the branch he was resting just in time to see it broken like a twig by Naruto's falling form. Anticipating another attack, the Sharingan user began forming the hand signs for a replacement jutsu. To his horror, his hands had been covered by a glob of the webbing that Naruto had been known to shoot from his fist. Unable to finish the hand seals necessary, and now unable to form any hands seals at all, Kakashi was left falling midair trying to rip his hands free from their sticky prison. (7)
Unable to free himself, Kakashi suddenly found himself plummeting to the ground faster than before thanks to Naruto downward kick. He knew that Naruto's increase in size would have made him stronger than before, but he had yet to grasp just how much stronger Naruto was in this larger form till he felt it first hand.
The attack itself had rewritten Kakashi's description of pain and the crash to the forest floor only added to the definition. The plummet to the ground soon proved to not be the end of his pain as Naruto landed onto of him, picking him up afterwards, laying him on his feet before beating into him again.
Several hours later
One of his eyes opened to reveal the white ceiling of what he could only guess to be a hospital.
"Wha-. What happened? Why can't I move?" Kakashi asked out loud.
"So you're finally awake." Tsunade said to his left side.
Kakashi looked at her lazily, though this time out of lack of strength.
"He beat you." she stated.
Kakashi's raised eyebrow clued her in that she needed to further explain. "Naruto beat you."
"Ah." he simply said.
"So do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Tsunade suddenly asked.
Kakashi gave her another lazy eye. "Bad news."
"Well apparently your subconscious doesn't know the meaning of 'I quit'. Five minutes after he knocked you out you kept getting back up. Could of avoided a lot of damage had you stayed down."
"And the good news?"
Tsunade drily chuckled. "Well you'll have a couple of days to read your book while you recover."
Anko's apartment
After grabbing her winnings, Anko had proceeded to drag Naruto back to her apartment and interrogate him on how he had learned the Akimichi expansion technique. She even proceeded to interrogate him even further on what all he had learned during his trip.
Naruto (who was happy for all the attention he was getting)had learned an odd fact about Anko. One of her favorite hobbies was tea ceremony, an odd hobby to have for one who didn't have many guests. Naruto sat on the living room couch, explaining the pros and cons to the Akimichi's famous jutsu while Anko sat adjacent to him.
"We can't truly use the Akimichi family technique due to our lack of girth but if we eat a large meal before hand we can use the calories to use a bastardized version. Though using this technique for prolonged time has negative side effects." Naruto explained.
"Yeah Yeah, but that's not what I asked. How did you learn to use it? I mean the ability to increase your size is something many would like to know but until now the only ones capable of doing so are the Akimichi." Anko said with clear eager.
Naruto took on a thoughtful look as he teased Anko with his mock hesitance. "Hmmm we don't know. It's not like you could use it."
"Hey come on tell me already! I don't care about using it, I just want to how you found out."
Having tired of Naruto's teasing, Anko tackled him. Ensuring that she had him pressed against her sofa Anko proceeded to persuade him. "Now now Naruto. Will you finally tell me or-"She purred using the pause to move her hands closer to his face. "Or do I have to use my snakes!" she yelled.
Naruto had pushed Anko off and mimicked her action. "You forget that we have snakes as well."
Both wrestled for control, neither taking notice of the odd position they were in while they were too caught up in their fun.
Author's Note: As some of you have noticed I put in a bunch of bold numbers. Basicly those are there to highlight certain areas so that I can explain something in this note.
1. Basicly someone had complained that I had left a major plot hole in my last chapter. Basicly Tsunade returning to Konoha despite the missing bond with Naruto. And here is my solution to that plot hole. Not big but it solves it.
2.The oval container is the prison that the symbiote was trapped in at the start of this fanfic. Just something I wanted to clarify just in case some people didn't catch that.
3. The Data books and the wiki sights refer to the earth clone technique as the earth release shadow clone. not mud clone or earth clone.
4. The reason Naruto needed to sign the snake summoning contract in order to use the hidden shadow snake hands jutsu is because the jutsu is derived from the parent jutsu Summoning: Snake. The Jutsu is a form of summoning and thus requires Naruto to sign the contract.
5. Yeah yeah I know that I didn't mention this last chapter. Just trying to correct some problems.
6. Just incase you are having a hard time imagining how big Naruto grew. He is similar in size to eddie brock before he got cancer and became anti-venom. For those of you who are not familiar with spiderman or venom you can google eddie brock and look at the images for a reference.
7. "Shouldn't Kakashi be capable of using some jutsu without hand signs." I don't think so. After looking through Naruto wiki and the data books at Booksamillion everything I have read have pointed out that it's not the ninja themselves that mold chakra to use the jutsu but the hands signs they perform that mold the chakra for them. ninja can manipulate the chakra such as elements but the actual molding is only possible through hand signs. So make someone incapible of performing hand signs, take away their jutsu. Like how the Third Hokage took away Orochimaru's ability to use jutsu.