Chapter 10
Sorry for the late post, the net has been glitch for me due to a messed up modem and also I was a bit stumped as to how to introduce this new character
Disclaimers: I don't own the anime/manga Naruto in any way, shape, or form
Naruto walked to Mikoto, who had fallen asleep again and flared his chakra to get the attention of the Anbu, Neko, that Tsunade had assigned to watch over him and Mikoto. Neko Shunshined into the room and spoke in a monotone voice, 'What is it Naruto-san?' Naruto looked at the Anbu and sighed, 'Ok, first, just call me Naruto, I hate formalities.' 'Yes Naruto-san.' The Anbu was secretly amused that she could mess with him like this, especially since he knew her identity but didn't realize it. Yugao Uzuki had always helped Naruto both as Anbu operative Neko and as herself off duty as Yugao Uzuki. She saw him as a little brother since she knew that he only held the Kyuubi, he wasn't the beast within. Naruto stood up sighing and she smirked beneath her Neko mask as Naruto continued, 'Second, Mikoto woke up a few moments ago.' 'When that Haruno girl was hear screeching?' Neko asked as Naruto nodded in confirmation.
'So you want me to inform Lady Hokage, am I correct?' Naruto nodded again and Neko nodded and Shunshined out of the house. Naruto then kneeled by Mikoto's bed as she rested and began to think of what Sakura told him. So Sasuke wanted to fight? Well Naruto would give him a fight he would always remember, even if he didn't want to remember it. Naruto narrowed his eyes waited. A few minutes later Tsunade, Shizune, and a group of trusted medic-nin came and started to work on healing her while Naruto stood nearby and watched with a worried expression. Tsunade saw the worried expression on his face and saw that Shizune noticed too and wanted to let him know that Mikoto would be alright so Tsunade spoke up, 'Ok Shizune, I'll take over here, you take a little break.' Shizune looked at Tsunade who nodded in the direction of Naruto and then Shizune understood and smiled gratefully and went over to Naruto.
Naruto smiled when Shizune walked over and then looked back at Mikoto as Shizune said, 'Don't worry Naruto, besides a good meal, she just needs some muscular therapy and rehabilitation and she will be back to her usual self.' Shizune looked at Naruto and smiled as Naruto smiled as well and said, 'Thanks Shizune.' Shizune smiled even brighter, 'It's my job to try to make sure everyone's happy.' Naruto nodded, the smile on his face his true smile that he saved for people close to him. Shizune saw the smile and saw it was one of his rare true smiles she had heard about from Kushina, Darian, and Lexi and she knew that he had opened up to her completely since he usually had a flamboyant personality to cover his true calm persona that he developed on the three year trip. She smiled even brighter and placed a hand on his shoulder as Naruto looked up at her with the same smile causing her to blush a bit and she walked over to see if the medic-nin needed her help.
A few hours later…
Naruto watched as they had hundreds of acupuncture needles in Mikoto's body to stimulate muscle growth and when those were removed a few minutes later they began feeding her some various types of soups and medicines so her body could be able to take in the vitamins and protein her body needed for healing. They told Naruto to keep watch on her and to make sure to feed her only the soup they gave her until they say she was ready for real food again. Naruto nodded and sat down beside the medic-nin who was giving Mikoto the soup since her muscles needed rest and couldn't get the soup herself. Mikoto smiled at Naruto and Naruto smiled back, causing her to blush a bit as the Medic-nin fed her again.
The next day…
Naruto woke up and while eating his breakfast, remembered his fight with Sasuke and groaned, he really needed to take care of Mikoto. Naruto sighed, knowing that if he didn't come, Sasuke would come to him. Naruto made a Blood clone and ordered it to watch over Mikoto, feeding her when needed and helping her with anything she needed. The clone saluted him and said, 'Roger!' Naruto sweat dropped as he didn't know why all of his clones said that when ordered to do something, especially since 'Alright!' or 'Understood!' or something like that would sound way better than 'Roger!'. The clone walked to the cabinet where the soup was stored and began to cook it. Naruto considered it a blessing that Ayame and Teuchi had taught him how to cook, especially now since he had to cook for himself and Mikoto. The real Naruto left the clone to its duties and got dressed. When he was dressed he started stretching and walked out the door and headed for the Chunin exam stadium.
At the Chunin Exam Stadium…
Sasuke had arrived a few minutes ago and he was waiting for Naruto to show up. After a few minutes of waiting, he smirked to himself, 'Heh, the loser must've realized that he is no match for an elite like me and chickened out, too bad for him that I will fight him to prove I'm stronger than he is.' His thoughts were interrupted by Naruto arriving in the stadium with a katana at his waist, 'Sorry I'm late, I stopped by the store to pick up a katana since I don't have one.' Naruto chuckled while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, making Sasuke get annoyed, 'C'mon loser, get serious, I called you here to fight.' Naruto dropped his hand and had an emotionless expression and he took a stance as Sasuke did the same and Naruto rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, 'Just a heads up Sasuke, you want me to fight seriously, so I won't hold back, if you want to survive you'd best not hold back either.' Sasuke sneered at the blonde across from him, 'Please, I don't need to go all out to beat you, I'll beat you easily just to show you the difference in our power and how I'm superior to you in every way.' Naruto sighed and shook his head, 'It's your own life you foolish bastard.'
They stood facing each other and a leaf drifted between them and drifted slowly towards the ground. As soon as it landed they charged at each other and entered a Taijutsu fight. Naruto was matched blow for blow by Sasuke and the same with Sasuke. Sasuke jumped back and did a few hand signs before shouting, 'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!' Sasuke breathed out and released a large fireball that traveled towards Naruto who jumped over it and clapped his hands together and shouted, 'Earth Style: Earth Spear!' Naruto's skin turned dark brown and he cocked back his fist and threw a punch aided by gravity at Sasuke. Before the attack could hit, Sasuke dodged and Naruto's fist crashed into the ground causing a huge crater to appear. Sasuke was surprised by Naruto's strength and he activated his Sharingan, which Naruto noticed and he decided to mess with Sasuke by using techniques that he couldn't copy. So he bit his thumb, drawing blood and went through several hand signs before slamming his hand onto the ground shouting, 'Summoning Jutsu!'
A large explosion of smoke appeared, surrounding Naruto and suddenly a large fox the size of a horse with grey fur and a white on its stomach appeared. What caught Sasuke's eyes though was that this fox had three tails and it had a mask with the kanji for wind in the center of the forehead of the mask. The fox summon turned looked at Naruto and bowed, 'Greetings Naruto-sama, what is it you need?' Naruto smiled, 'Hey Kaikaze, I just needed your wind chakra for a collaboration jutsu.' The fox nodded and sat down and channeled its chakra to its mouth as Naruto made hand signs and pressed one hand on the fox's back. He channeled chakra into it and mixed some water chakra into the fox. The fox released a burst of icy wind at Sasuke. Sasuke tried copying the technique but when he realized he couldn't he cursed and dodged. However, he wasn't able to completely dodge as the burst got his left foot and covered it in a thin sheet of ice. He quickly broke off the ice when he had gotten clear of the jutsu and Naruto went through another set of hand signs. Before he finished they heard someone shout, 'What's going on here?'
Naruto turned around while Sasuke looked up and they saw several shinobi along with Jiraiya, Kushina, Tsunade, Shizune, Darian, and Lexi, and Naruto's Sensei as well as the sensei's for Teams Eight, Nine, and Ten. They were looking confused as they wondered what the two shinobi were doing then Sasuke shouted, 'Fire style: Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!' Naruto did some different hand signs as everyone looked shocked and said, 'Water Style: Water Encampment Wall.' Suddenly water rose from a nearby puddle from when it rained the previous night and made a barrier between him and the fire ball at the last second, ironically the fireball was keeping him out of Sasuke's view so he couldn't copy the jutsu. The fire ball hit the water wall and was extinguished, but caused lots of steam to surround him. Everyone gasped except Sasuke who smirked and stood up, 'This proves that I'm superior to you, loser.'
The steam cleared and everyone saw Naruto standing there with a bored expression, 'Come on, surely you can do better than that, that was the weakest version of my Water Encampment Wall Jutsu.' Everyone but Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, Kushina, Darian, and Lexi was surprised that he managed to stop the famous technique of the Uchiha clan with what he said was a weak water jutsu. Sasuke was surprised and pissed off as he ran through hand signs but Naruto made a half Ram sign and said, 'Release! Level four!' Naruto then cracked his knuckles and disappeared, shocking everyone, even Kushina, as she recognized the level of speed and couldn't believe he had surpassed the seventh level of resistance and was working on passing the eighth level of resistance. Naruto appeared behind Sasuke and several clones appeared beside him, too fast for Sasuke to copy, much to his annoyance. Three of the 5 clones then slid below Sasuke's guard and kicked him up saying then the real Naruto with the other two clones came down in a triple dropkick into Sasuke's stomach all of them shouting, 'Na-ru-to Uzumaki Barrage!' Sasuke felt enormous pain all over as he flew towards the ground.
However before he hit the ground, Naruto dropped down and caught him. Sasuke looked at Naruto thinking he was humiliating him, but suddenly, Naruto dropped Sasuke and put his foot on Sasuke's chest, firmly enough to keep him down, but not so hard as to give him trouble breathing. Naruto looked at Sasuke and said, 'I win.' Sasuke seethed and growled at Naruto. He tried getting up but he was pushed down again and again. Tsunade came up and Kaikaze, who was sitting there watching the scene with interest dispelled. Shizune looked and wondered when Naruto got the fox summoning contract. Tsunade looked at Sasuke and Naruto and nodded for Naruto to let go of Sasuke. Naruto nodded and picked his foot up. Sasuke darted out and, landing beside Tsunade, attempted to attack Naruto again but Tsunade grabbed him by the wrist and narrowed her eyes at him. He looked back and glared at her, causing her to tighten her grip nearly breaking his wrist as she was annoyed by that glare.
Sasuke winced at the pain which added to all the other pain he was feeling from Naruto beating him. Sasuke was very pissed because of this, even though he had trained every single day, the loser was still stronger than him, an elite, an Uchiha. As these thoughts ran through Sasuke's head, Naruto was watching Tsunade as she turned back to him, 'What's going on here Naruto?' Naruto shrugged, 'Sakura came by three days ago saying Sasuke wanted to spar today.' Tsunade looked at Sasuke who looked away, 'What? It's true, I wanted to spare with the loser.' Naruto rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and shook his head thinking, 'How pathetic can he get?' Tsunade was thinking the exact same thing as Naruto and she sighed let go of Sasuke's arm, 'Next time you two want to spar, try to hold back some more.' Naruto looked at her, 'But I was holding back!' Sasuke looked at Naruto, then at the crater he made, in shock. He was holding back?
Naruto rolled up his sleeves, showing the resistance seals Kushina put on him the previous year. It had the Kanji for 'Four' in its center, showing its level but that changed to the Kanji for 'Eight' and Kushina spoke up in surprise, 'Level Eight resistance? I thought you were still on Level Five!' Naruto looked at her and rubbed the back of his head, smiling embarrassed, 'No, I passed that a little while back, I'm trying to master Level Eight now.' Kushina smiled, 'I think you'll surpass your father, he only mastered nine levels but maybe you can master all ten.' Naruto smiled as Sasuke looked at the Resistance Seals. He noticed his Sharingan couldn't copy it and figured it wasn't a ninjutsu but a Fuinjutsu, a Sealing Technique, which was the most difficult branch of Jutsu to master since it required perfect handwriting and precision, even greater than the Sharingan can provide. Sasuke was surprised that Naruto even knew about Fuinjutsu, let alone was mastering one of the many seals.
Sasuke was beyond angry now, the loser kept surpassing him at everything: Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, even having a Doujutsu so rare it wasn't even documented, and now Fuinjutsu. 'Damn it! The only thing that loser can't do is use Genjutsu, but wait… my Sharingan can! So I'll get him with the ultimate Genjutsu, Tsukiyomi! But I need someone to kill in order to get it, but who? I don't have any need for friends so how do I get the last level of Sharingan? How do I get the Mangekyo Sharingan? How do I get it, damn it, I just can't figure it out?' Naruto looked at Sasuke and saw that he was thinking had about something but what he was thinking about, Naruto didn't know. Tsunade let Sasuke go and he stood there thinking and fuming at his loss to the blonde. Naruto sighed and looked at Tsunade, 'Anyways, I'm sure what the bastard here wanted was to beat me to prove that he is the "superior shinobi" to everyone here.' Kushina narrowed her eyes at Sasuke and he met her gaze with a glare just as fierce, but then Kushina's glare turned so cold that Sasuke flinched and looked away with a 'Hmph.' Kushina sweat dropped on her mind and shook her head.
Tsunade sighed at looked at Sasuke with some annoyance and then imagined the hell she would go through when the Civilian council heard about this fight with Sasuke loosing. She imagined that if the situation was different that Naruto attacked their beloved Uchiha for no reason, but since it was Sasuke who had challenged him they had no right to say that Naruto attacked him unprovoked. Tsunade imagined that they still would raise hell but she smirked knowing they couldn't prosecute Naruto or anything like that. Naruto noticed her smirk and knew she had a way to avoid him getting chewed out by the Civilian council, or as Naruto called them secretly, the Idiot Council. He had been told by Jiraiya that the Civilian council had tried to have him arrested, executed, banished, and who knows what else. Naruto sighed when no one was paying attention and looked at the other shinobi and back at Tsunade, 'So when did everyone notice our little "sparring match"?' Tsunade pointed at the crater Naruto made and Naruto sweat dropped, 'I really had to ask? It should've been so damn obvious.' Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head embarrassed, 'Oh yea, then…' Everyone sweat dropped and Tsunade flicked Naruto on top of his head, making him crash into the ground and said, 'What an idiot.' Kushina giggled at that and nodded in agreement, 'Yea, he can be sometimes.'
A few days later…
Naruto was walking out of the village with Kakashi, Sakura, and their new member, Sai, an emotionless and possibly gay boy who freaked the hell out of Naruto, especially with his weird smile. Of course that didn't stop Naruto from being pissed off at Sakura due to what happened yesterday.
Flashback no Jutsu!
Naruto walked up and saw Sakura talking to Sasuke. Naruto figured it wasn't anything unusual so he started to walk away until he heard Sakura mention his name and froze. He turned around and saw her expression, it wasn't the usual 'lusting for Sasuke' expression but rather a dead serious expression and he suddenly had a grave feeling in his stomach. He hid close by and watched carefully. He couldn't hear very clearly but he read Sakura's lips just fine. He was pissed now, she was about to break Tsunade's orders and tell Sasuke that Mikoto was still alive. Naruto Shunshined out and landed a few feet away and grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back making her shout in pain, 'What do you think you are doing Haruno?' Sakura was shocked to find Naruto right there and instantly had a look of fear in her eyes as Sasuke wondered what the hell was going on.
Sakura looked at Sasuke and tried to mouth out the secret when Naruto turned her around and took off his sunglasses, giving her a glare so cold that Kurenai's coldest glare would be considered warm, 'Sakura, you know that is an S-ranked secret, you weren't even supposed to know it!' Sasuke was very confused and was wondering what he was talking about and decided to make his presence known, 'What S-ranked secret? Tell me you loser.' Naruto looked at Sasuke, 'This coming from the guy whose ass was kicked by this "Loser".' Sasuke seethed and walked up to Naruto, 'TELL ME NOW!' Naruto ignored him and turned back to Sakura. 'If you so much as try to tell someone that secret, I'll report you to the Hokage and she'll have you arrested for treason, and even your stupid mother on the Civilian council won't be able to save your pathetic ass.' Sakura's eyes widened at the thought of being arrested for treason, it was a capital offence usually ending with a sentence resulting in death. Then she was furious for calling her pathetic and her mother stupid. Naruto dropped her and walked off.
Flashback no Jutsu: Kai!
Naruto and the squad were running through a forest when they heard a low rumble. They looked in the direction and Naruto jumped to investigate, Sakura and Sai following not so closely behind, while Kakashi stayed behind. He saw a woman with bright orange hair being surrounded by several Iwa shinobi in a clearing in the forest, but these shinobi had slashes through their headbands, marking them as rogue ninja. The leader of the group, it was obvious he was the leader because he was the tallest and had on an Iwa Jonin jacket, smiled and advanced on the woman and she backed up only to notice they were behind her as well and she shouted out, 'HELP!' Suddenly thirteen Naruto clones dropped down and stood in various stances around the woman who gasped at his sudden appearance. The Iwa ninja's eyes went wide as they took in his features, but what really caught their eyes was his blonde spiky hair.
The leader growled, 'It can't be, The Yellow Flash of Konoha?' The real Naruto lifted an eyebrow, 'The Yondaime? He's dead you idiots, though I always wondered why I look like him, but who cares, why are you attacking this woman?' The leader ignored him and ran at one of the Naruto's and then the rest of the Iwa shinobi followed him, a few minutes into the fighting, one of the Iwa shinobi broke Naruto's sunglasses which pissed Naruto off and he basically killed that one with a Kunai through the heart and he pulled out a new set of sunglasses while the others were charging at him and he put them on and got right back into the fight. A few minutes after the fighting started, Naruto stood with none of his clones left and the Iwa shinobi either dead or unconscious. Naruto turned to the woman and saw that she was actually his age, maybe a year older than him.
Naruto held out his hand to help her up since she had fallen over while Naruto was protecting her and she blushed but accepted it. She had a few bruises on her arms and on her left cheek. Her grey shirt was torn a bit revealing her toned stomach, her black pants were worn and faded a bit. However, what really caught Naruto's eyes were her eyes, they were a beautiful chocolate brown in color and he noticed she was blushing a bit and he realized he was staring and looked down blushing as well but said, 'Are you alright?' The girl nodded and Naruto noticed her hair, its color was orange but it was covered in dirt and looked like it hadn't been washed in a while, he hair came down to her shoulders and one bang of hair went between her eyes and made her slightly pale skin stand out a bit more.(A/N: guess who this is and get a cookie :P) She took in his appearance and she blushed and looked away and nodded, 'Y-yes, I'm just fine, thank you for saving me.' Naruto smiled and she blushed more but smiled thinking, 'Why does he make me feel so at ease? He is very cute… Wait, why did I think that? It must be because he is so cool. He fought those Iwa shinobi and beat them with only Shadow Clones, which was really cool, I wonder… I wonder if I can stay with him a bit longer.'
Naruto saw her thinking nervously and he put a hand on her shoulder as Sakura and Sai dropped into the clearing and smiled, 'Do you live nearby?' She looked down sadly and shook her head and Naruto shook her a bit and grinned his foxy grin at her making her blush even more, 'well then, come with us, you can live in Konoha if you want.' The girl smiled and hugged Naruto making Sakura and Sai, who were looking at the bodies of the rogue Iwa ninjas in surprise, look confused. The woman let go and said, 'Thank you so much, I have been traveling so much because some rogue ninja, not those but other rogue ninja, destroyed my home village and killed half the people there, the rest, along with me, managed to escape.' Naruto nodded and made a blood clone and told her to go with it to Konoha and she looked at him and asked, 'What's your name?' Naruto smiled and said, 'I'm Naruto Uzumaki, what's your name?' The girl blushed and smiled at him, 'My name is Chikyu, and it's nice to meet you Naruto.' She walked up to the real Naruto and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, blushing, before leaving with the blood clone. Meanwhile, Sakura was bug-eyed at the fact that the girl, Chikyu, kissed Naruto's cheek, and Sai was just being Sai. Naruto blushed and touched his cheek where she kissed him and then he shook his head, clearing it and turned back to the team, 'ok, let's go back.' He stepped on the shards of his broken sunglasses and walked off to meet with Kakashi.
He explained what happened, leaving out the kiss of course, and Kakashi nodded and they headed out again to complete their mission. Naruto however, was planning on making a little side trip on the way back, the night before he had a dream and the Rikkudo Senin had visited him and told him to perform a certain task, to become an Outer Path and form the Six Paths. Naruto thought about what he must do and decided to have the Rikkudo Senin himself as his Deva path. The rest he would think about, but little did he know that he would become a force to be reckoned with. Naruto knew he would be strong but he didn't know how strong and that was what excited him the most, he could bring despair to his enemies and make them surrender. Naruto inwardly smirked and continued on with his team.
End of Ch. 10
I wonder who will be able to find out who this new character, Chikyu, is. I'll give this one hint: she is NOT an OC because she is in the anime