11.
In a way, Jaraiya was terrified of his newest disciple. It was painful enough looking at the kid, seeing how much the boy resembled his first, deceased protégé. He wasn't smarter than anyone else, he really wasn't faster or stronger, didn't know any more jutsu (except the Shadow Clone, that was impressive) or practice better taijutsu.
But even though Uzumaki Naruto was just an ordinary (if any Jinchuriki could be considered 'ordinary') kid who believed – who truly, honestly believed he could become the Hokage - there was the overwhelming potential: the potential to become more, more any anything or anyone that ever came before. And it terrified the Toad Sage.
Jaraiya wasn't sure if he could handle it, or if it would kill him first.
12.
"Hey Gramps, what makes you so special, huh?"
The Third Hokage's gaze lingered after the Jounin he just dismissed from a status report, then refocused on the sweet, innocent four-year-old Naruto looking up at him from a plastic stool that somehow made it into his office. Taking the pipe from his mouth he tapped in against his chin in a playfully thoughtful manner.
"Well," he began, "It is because I am Hokage."
Beautiful, familiar blue eyes widened and the child's voice carried eagerly: "How do you get to be Hokage? Is there a secret?"
The old man laughed mirthfully and ruffled the boy's hair.
"Why, yes. I'll even tell you," he leaned forwards and whispered conspiratorially in the young ear.
"You have to be the strongest."
After a beat, Naruto smirked and turned in his seat. The Hokage could only stare at the back of the blond's head in rapt fascination as the childish voice, saturated in conviction, drawled:
"The strongest? I can do that."
13.
Hoshigake Kisame's instincts, honed by many years of being one of the Seven Mist Swordsmen and an S-rank criminal, screamed at him to take out their target as he manifested a tangible, invisible aura. Without conscious thought Samehada was in his hand and rapidly consuming the air between its edge and the boy. At the last second the Jinchuriki moved a hairsbreadth away and the blue-skinned man was relieved because neither Leader nor Itachi would take the death of the boy lightly (and that unnerving feeling disappeared with the boy's chakra).
After gorging on Naruto's spirit, Samehada convulsed once before falling dormant again for the battle.
Later Kisame would unwrap his beloved 'blade' for the usual maintenance and notice a whole section of scales angry red and warped, sharply contrasting the previous healthy sapphire. In the future, he would be wary of Uzumaki Naruto and opt to fight him only as a last resort.
14.
It was only because a small, cowardly piece of Sasuke still cared for his brother and did not want to see him die (except by his own hand) that he found the breath to stop his fellow genin from avenging his wound.
So he told himself.
Heaving off the wall he shouted through the blood in his mouth. "Stop, Naruto! He's mine!"
And the image of that monstrous red maw bearing down on Itachi – full of so many teeth, row upon row upon row, and a gaping throat with no tongue threatening to devour him soul and all – slowly disappeared from the Sharingan's view.
Relief crashed through Sasuke's body as his terrified muscles (this time it had nothing to do with Itachi) slowly relaxed.
15.
The third time Naruto came to him for help regarding the rubber ball popping exercise, Jaraiya finally relented and gives him something else to work on. He held a stone in his hands and called up his chakra. Soon spiral patterns began to wind their way across the surface, wearing it down as they overlapped again and again until it was half the original size.
"All you have to do is apply the concept of pressure to the rotation. Adding power means adding pressure, and the rock will wear down faster. It'll help you with compressing your chakra too, which will make the final technique much more destructive. I'll check back with you at the end of the day when I come back from town. Until then, try this."
Thus the master chucked the stone at his apprentice and meandered into town, looking for a good bar to pick up... information.
In the evening he returned to find an exhausted Naruto unconscious on the ground. Jaraiya was disappointed when he saw no indication of his student's success – no weathered rocks proving the exercise helpful.
There was a fist-sized stone in the boy's hand, though. The white haired sage bent down and sighed when he found no mark on the surface. He reached out to remove it from the lax grasp but as soon as his fingers brushed it, it caved in and turned to dust. The next day they would run into Tsunade and all questions about the mysterious phenomenon would be forgotten.
One week later it would dawn on him that Naruto accidentally created the Rasengan within the stone, destroying it from within while maintaining the outward appearance.
16.
The last thing Naruto saw before entering a world of pain and oblivion was Senju Tsunade's finger flicking out towards his face. When it connected his nerves exploded and his senses snapped into perfect clarity. He could feel the bone shattering, various pieces of flesh being severed, and tons of blood leaving his body via his head. He couldn't scream, he could only bear it in silent agony.
When he opened his eyes, he saw himself staring back. He knew without a doubt those rich red eyes were his, even though he could also see his reflection in them. All of the sudden they blinked and the him they were connected to barked out laughter.
"What power! This is great!" He laughed and clapped his hands. "But let's get fixed up first."
He never tells Jaraiya, not even when prompted, that he distinctly remembers using his fingers to dig out bone shards from his cranium and shove his eye back into place, and the feeling of his skull re-growing or re-knitting with flesh and skin growing back over it.
17.
As soon as the loudmouth brat that looked way too much like her former teammate's first apprentice shouted, "What would a hag like you know about Hokage anyway?" Tsunade is violently reminded of Nawaki and Dan. Her finger came up and smashed against his forehead and in the split second during contact Tsunade realized she didn't hold back against him.
A storm of blood erupted on the spot and Naruto's body was flung backwards nearly three hundred meters down the street, led by what used to be his head but now had most of the top missing. Through her horror she could barely hear Shizune shrieking incoherently, nor could she see Jaraiya so appalled he just gaped like a fish. All she knew was the impossible amount of blood coating the ground and her person, and the wretched conclusion that she had just murdered a child.
She sunk down to her knees, but before she could heave her first sob a blond bullet wearing orange punched her across the face, breaking her out of shock. Her hazel eyes slowly focused on a smiling Naruto, mercifully whole, yet still coated in the hated red fluid. He brought his hands up and just before he covered his eyes she saw that they were a bright vermillion, until he wiped them away to reveal steely blue and she convinced herself it was the blood that interfered with her vision.
"We've got unfinished business, granny."
And with that, when Tsunade made her bet against Naruto mastering the Rasengan in a week, she believed a little that Hokage might not be so far off.
18.
Moving quickly across the rooftops to where Tsunade was fighting the Kabuto boy while Orochimaru looked on, Shizune tried to ignore the way Naruto was acting. It was definitely strange for her, who knew exactly how the human body reacted to battle stress, to see it on such an extreme level. The boy had abandoned his orange jacket in favor of speed; his maturing fourteen-year-old muscles were writhing underneath his blue shirt and tan skin as they coiled and released during their jumping.
His pupils were dilated so much they almost consumed his irises – the little color that was left seemed to change from blue to brilliant purple (or was that a trick of the light?).
His facial markings had become more opaque, stretching across his cheeks like deep scars made by a savage animal.
He mouth was open and his teeth gleamed in the midday sun. What unnerved the young medic most was the way his longer-than-normal canines were lubricated with saliva and the way he was smiling as if in great anticipation.
Stopping her discreet observations, Shizune refocused on their destination. Reaching the edge of the last building she took a mighty leap, calculating how far away she would land from her master and how she could provide support from that distance.
She stifled a yell as Kabuto punched a petrified Tsunade across the face, but it exited in a terrified gasp as a feral snarl erupted from behind her. Suddenly Naruto was rocketing past, going further that she could have jumped on her best day. The blond landed once on all fours before tackling Kabuto to the ground.
19.
It was like being hit with a chakra-powered wrecking ball, Kabuto surmised, as he felt Naruto slam into him just as he was about to deal with the Slug Princess Tsunade once and for all. The breath exited his body so fast he felt as though he was going to cough up with lungs. Quickly the spy directed his chakra to the area, healing the damage before it truly set in. Suitably annoyed, Kabuto turned and began to condescendingly lecture Naruto before the kid went after him again, this time with a fist that seemed to blur the air before it.
'Oh well, the time for playing around has passed,' He thought, and tapped Naruto's forearm, severing the muscles and tendons to the bone.
When Naruto swung around and tried to plant a foot in the other boy's sternum, Kabuto dodged easily and severed the Achilles tendon.
When Naruto hopped up on his remaining good foot to deliver a spinning axe kick, Kabuto bent at an unnatural angle and punched the other boy. He frowned when he knuckled groaned in protest, as if he hit a brick wall.
It felt like being smashed by a brick wall when the genin ('How does a genin have this much strength!') blasted him with the hand that should have been useless. His glasses cracked and he felt his jaw break as he skidded backwards. After a few minutes he managed to speak through clenched teeth.
"I'm finishing this!" He removed a barbed kunai from a pouch and rushed. Seeing Naruto hesitate slightly he plunged forward with all his speed and the blade entered his opponent's stomach. Naruto didn't so much as grunt, though, and Kabuto could only manage faint bemusement as the younger smiled predatorily and growled.
"Got you now."
The arm holding the blade suddenly burst open into white-hot pain and Kabuto knew no more.
20.
Still trembling, Tsunade saw Kabuto's kunai enter Naruto. Time stood still as Jaraiya and Orochimaru even slowed down to watch the ending of their respective followers' match. The brief silence deafening until they heard Kabuto's unearthly screams of pain as his arm shredded. With a grunt, Naruto dislodged himself from the other and flung him away. A cursing Orochimaru executed a seal less Body Flicker and grabbed Kabuto before performing another, vanishing from the battlefield.
Glancing around, Tsunade drew into herself and shook harder as she took in the blood everywhere. But when she finally regarded Naruto, standing bathed in the blood of his opponent, regal victorious in battle, she could help but feel like it was the most beautiful and natural thing she'd ever seen.
She didn't notice that she stopped shaking.