A/N: This is my first try as an author so bear with me. English isn't my first language so don't hesitate to pm me with any fault you find, I am always eager to learn.
I don't really know what changed but since the beginning of the week, my story got the double amount of hits and visitors each day. Usually getting like 3k hits a day, now it ranges from 5k to 6k which is a great accomplishment for me.
Reactions to the way the invasion played out were great too, I feared people wanted to see Sasuke fighting or getting his ass kicked but it seems his eviction was fine too.
This chapter marks the beginning of a new arc, some of you already guessed the content of Naruto's next mission.
A special mention to 'ItaNaru yaoi fangirl' who was the first to note that most of the techniques I came up with for Naruto were inspired from another manga I also enjoy, Prince of Tennis ;)
Welcome to the next chapter of Kaze No Kami.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other manga for that matter.
Chapter 15: The Price of Glory
Hokage Office
Sarutobi sat in his office, in front of him were standing Naruto with his new chunin vest and Jiraya.
"Naruto-kun, sit down please we need to talk. Now the last events from two weeks ago taught me one thing, do you know what I learned ?" Asked the old man.
"That you shouldn't let masked men sit near you during official meetings ?" Replied the blond with a smirk, making the two other people in the room chuckle at his reply.
"No Naruto-kun, I learned that I'm getting old, too old in fact to continue to keep this hat." Said Sarutobi as he took off his Hokage hat.
Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, "Y-You're finally giving me the Hat Jiji ?" asked an astonished Naruto.
After a few seconds where both Sarutobi and Jiraya had serious faces, almost too serious in fact, all of a sudden all hell broke loose, "Hahahahaha … That's not nice to laugh Jiraya ! Hahahaha ..." started Sarutobi.
"But … but did you see his face, hahahaha, this is too much Naruto you are the best !" Continued the pervert.
The poor Naruto was red in anger and embarrassment, he could also hear the hidden Anbu behind the walls laughing their hearts out as well.
After a few moments, the older people in the room and in the walls finally calmed down.
"No Naruto, as much as I would like for you to become my successor, you are not quite ready for that yet. Don't let it get to you, this may not be your time yet but I know that time will come and I'm sure Jiraya feels the same about this." Said Sarutobi getting a nod from the hermit.
Naruto then gave them a bright smile and then let Sarutobi continue.
"I called you both here today for an important mission Naruto, A rank at least." Naruto's eyes widened at this, his first A rank mission as an official chunin.
"Your mission is to go find my old student and teammate of Jiraya, her name is Senju Tsunade and she is the one chosen to replace me." Finished the Kage.
"Okay if she's Ero-sennin's old teammate then I guess she's strong enough to have the Hat and to protect Konoha. When do we leave ?" Said Naruto making the two men smile.
"The mission will start in two hours, now there's something else we must discuss ..." Started Sarutobi as he made hand signs to seal the room from any spying activity.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, what could be more secret than the identity of the next hokage ?
"Naruto, you have to promise me to stay calm and let me finish talking before you say anything." asked Sarutobi with the most serious tone Naruto ever heard from him.
"Good, now I know Natsuki already explained you who your mother was ..." He got a nod from the blond.
"Well this is about your other parent, Naruto this is about your father ..." At this point Naruto jumped up from his seat with his eyes wide opened, looking at the Hokage, a million thoughts crossing his mind.
Seeing this Jiraya came up to him and put a hand on his apprentice's shoulder before saying "I know you were always told that no one knew who your father was, that your mother never told anyone, but that was a lie." Said Jiraya as he felt Naruto's body starting to shake under his hand.
"Naruto, your father was Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and my student." Finally said Jiraya looking into the blond's eyes.
"B-But … Then … How … Why ?" Were the only words coming out of Naruto's mouth.
"I'm so sorry my boy, I know you always wanted to know about you father. Learning that your father, the man who you consider as your idol, the one who sealed Natsuki in you and condemn you to a life of misery are one and the same person must hurt you terribly but you have to understand the reasons." Pleaded the old man.
"Minato was a man loved by all inside the Leaf but he was also a man feared by all throughout the world. He was the only shinobi with a 'Flee on sight' recommendation on his bingo book profile in every village that was considered hostile to Konoha." Added Jiraya.
"If any of those villages had learned about you being his son, regardless of the means we would have taken to protect you, they would have sent countless assassination missions to take you out before you could even say your first word. That is also the reason why we couldn't let Jiraya, your father's sensei, take you with him as everyone would have been able to understand the link between you and your father." Said Sarutobi.
"This is how much your father and his legacy were feared, the price of his glory." Finished Jiraya.
"Are you going to be okay Naruto-kun ?" Asked a worried Sarutobi, "We could always postpone the mission or assign it to someone else..."
Naruto took a deep breath before he spoke.
"I'm not fine right now Jiji, but I want to be. I want to be someone my father would be proud of when we finally meet again. He put his trust in me and he gave me what most consider a curse, but to me Natsuki is not, she is a blessing." He said those words with determination.
Natsuki who was listening to the whole thing had tears in her eyes, how she wished she could be out of the seal at this moment and take her mate in her arms,
"I love you so much Naruto-kun, I know we ended up together through odd events but I'm glad we did. Before I was sealed in you, I never experienced those emotions."
"It was only thanks to the seal your father created, that through our link I learned the feelings of Love and Compassion."
"I know that you will find a way for us to be together in the real world one day and I can't wait for that day to come."
Naruto heard Natsuki through their link and it only fueled his desire to become a better man.
"I understand the Price of Glory Hokage-sama, Jiraya-sensei, it took from me my family and my childhood. I will not let it take away my future !" Said Naruto with conviction in his voice as he bowed to the two men before him and left the office to prepare himself for his next mission.
The two veteran shinobi were so stunned by the wisdom displayed by the young chunin that they didn't even register that it was the first, and most likely the only time he would address them with a respectful honorific. It took them a moment before they could move from their spot.
"He will go far sensei, further than any of us and probably even further than his father." Said Jiraya with pride.
"I'm sure he will Jiraya, all we can do now is to look after him and help him achieve his dreams. I'm counting on you Jiraya, don't let anything happen to him, he may not be ready right now but he is the future of Konoha and most likely the future to change this terrible world too." Replied an equally proud Sarutobi.
"I will sensei, and don't worry I will also bring Tsunade back." Announced Jiraya as he also left the office.
Sarutobi's eyes suddenly widened, he forgot to tell them about the new bingo book and Naruto's heritage.
Konoha Main Gate – 2 hours later
As he made his way to the gate Naruto could not help himself, as he took a long look at the Hokage Mountain. The fourth face carved in it now held a whole new signification to him. He hold his fist in its direction, silently taking an oath.
"I'll make you proud Dad, I'll become a man you will be proud to call your son when the time for us to meet again comes."
"I'm sure he's already proud of you Naru-kun, watching over you from the afterlife." Added Natsuki.
He then arrived at the gate where Jiraya was already waiting for him and they immediately left.
Small village – 4 hours later
As Jiraya went in an "information gathering" mission, Naruto was left alone in a room they booked in a hotel to pass the night.
He was about to go to sleep when someone knocked at the door. This made him frown, the pervert had a spare set of keys and no one should have been up to date with their mission. He used chakra to strengthened his vocal cords and talked in a more masculine voice.
"Yes, what is it?" He asked first.
"Room service, I have a message for a man called Jiraya, can you open the door ?" Replied an unknown voice.
Naruto understood the situation immediately, they had made sure to use fake names for their check in, he was proud about the name they came up with, he went with Uke Emo while Jiraya went with Orochi Pedo. The names made the receptionist frown at them, not that they cared.
The man behind the door was obviously up to no good and Naruto understood he had to get the hell out of there.
"I think you have the wrong room sir." He said then made his way to the window of his room.
He was about to escape when the door violently opened, revealing two men dressed in strange black robes with red clouds on them. One of them looked like an overgrown Sasuke while the other looked like he was constipated or something with the look he had on his blue face.
"Naruto-kun, I need you to come with us." Said the Sasuke look alike.
"You have the wrong person my name is Uke Emo, though with how you just called me you may be a friend of my roommate who goes by the name Orochi Pedo." Replied a grinning blond.
That was enough of a taunt to make the raven haired stranger develop a twitch in his left eyebrow.
"You have become quite famous Naruto-kun, we came for you before you can get stronger or someone else tries to take you out for your bounty." Said the same man while his partner was still laughing at Naruto's earlier reply.
"What bounty ? What are you talking about ?" Asked a genuinely surprised Naruto.
"Looks like you don't know that Iwa offers 30,000,000 ryo for you, dead or alive." Finally said the second man.
Naruto's eyes widened at the news, he was a marked man. People actually wanted him dead outside of the village, not even knowing about his father yet. He would have to think about it later, for now he knew none of his more powerful techniques were useful in a confined place like this hotel room and those two clowns seem to have some skill too.
He then remembered a new jutsu he developed just after the exams, thinking about an opponent who gave him troubles during the preliminary fights.
"Futon : Shishi Kokuou no Nakigoe !" He thought in his mind before taking a deep breath and charging chakra into his lungs.
As he expelled the mass of air and chakra from his lungs, he directed the blast in the direction of his two opponents who did not imagine that he could perform jutsu with no hand signs or calling them out loud.
Naruto managed to perform an attack that reproduced what the Oto shinobi Dosu had done to him, using air vibrations to attack his internal hearing system. The two mysterious men in front of him were obviously not expecting that kind of attack and did not protect their ears before it was already too late.
The wind attack broke their balance for a short time, allowing Naruto to run past them in the corridor to try to run away until he could get his hands on the damn pervert. Naruto had to smile at the success of his new jutsu, no matter how experienced a shinobi may be, there was no way to train or subconsciously protect one's internal hearing organs.
Unfortunately, he only made it halfway to reach the end of the corridor when the two men got out of the room. He understood that experienced shinobi could still recover quicker than others from that kind of attack.
He cursed that he didn't have the time to perfect the jutsu, he imagined that at full power he could eventually permanently destroy an opponent's internal hearing organs with his jutsu using the right chakra output.
"Well I'll admit that you're stronger than what your file says about you Naruto-kun." Said the first man before adding.
"Kisame, take him out we can't have someone of his level running freely."
The larger man turned to Naruto and began to charge at the young blond with his large sword.
Before he could reach Naruto,who had left his weapons and gears inside the room, a man-sized frog appeared before Naruto and shielded him from the sword slash.
Naruto turned his head and was relieved to finally see his sensei. Jiraya had an unconscious woman on his shoulder and seemed a little embarrassed. After putting her down against the wall, he addressed the two mysterious men.
"Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame, how pleasant meeting you there." He said.
"Jiraya of the Sennin, supposed to be as strong as he is a pervert." One of them replied.
"Ero-sennin ! How did they immediately find your weak point ?" asked Naruto.
A still embarrassed Jiraya scolded Naruto for the nickname but then turned immediately serious after that, took a fighting stance and called his technique.
" Kuchiyose - Gamaguchi Shibari !" Called the hermit as the walls of the corridor turned into a strange organic substance.
"Kisame, we're leaving." Calmly said Itachi as they started to run to the other side of the corridor.
As they were about to get trapped by Jiraya's jutsu, Itachi used a strange black fire jutsu to dig his way out. Jiraya sealed a portion of the strange black fire into a scroll to study it later then returned to his student.
As he dispelled his jutsu, Jiraya was suddenly attacked by a green blur. Naruto recognized the man as being Lee's sensei and asked what he was doing there.
"I'm so sorry Jiraya-sama, I came here on a mission from Hokage-sama to warn you that young Naruto here may have new enemies after him ...". Said Gai as he explained the new bingo book update to them.
"Okay Gai your mission is done, you can return to Konoha." Said Jiraya dismissing him.
"Hai jiraya-sama, I heard about your mission, please bring her back to heal my student too I beg of you." Said Gai as he bowed then left.
Jiraya and Naruto then returned to their room.
"Okay Naruto, I've got Tsunade's last known position. It's a town not far from here called Tanzaku Gai. It will take us two days to get there. I'm sorry I wasn't there immediately for you today but you did good against them alone." Said Jiraya.
"Thanks Ero-sennin !" Replied the blond.
"Time to up your training, while we travel we will work on improving your Rasengan." Said Jiraya as they called it a night.
A/N:
I wasn't sure if 'The price of Glory' had any meaning so tell me if it doesn't please.
What do you think about the revelation of Naruto's father and the way he handled it ? I would not have my Naruto go emo about it when he did take it like a man in canon.
Some minor fluff for the main pairing and some master-disciple bonding time for Naruto and Jiraya.
First Akatsuki meeting too, next time we finally meet the slug princess ;)
New Jutsu :
Futon : Shishi Kokuou no Nakigoe , Lion King's Roar, Naruto's version of Dosu's jutsu. Creates a blast of wind to target his opponent's hearing system to disrupt his balance.