Number four is here, I would just like to take a moment and thank all the people who read this story, all the people who subscribed to it and everybody who left a review, you guys are awesome, and pretty much inspired me to write this story, or at least go on with it.
There will be an in-depth note at the end so stay tuned.
Hey, is Naruto up for sale or something, cause I sure as hell don't own it.
And now, the story.
Zabuza had escaped, somehow and Kakashi was cursing himself for it, as he lay in bed recovering. The Sharingan had taken a lot out of him, and sometimes made him wish he didn't have it on him in the first place.
The other problem was the boy that had fought alongside Zabuza during that battle, his name was Haku apparently, and also Naruto had managed defeating him, only to get knocked out immediately after that. Sasuke, who had also fainted and came to about an hour later had managed bringing both of them back home, much to his relief.
Kakashi shuddered as he wondered what would have happened if Naruto had died, he would have failed his sensei, and he couldn't have that, he promised to himself to be more watchful.
But the most important thing was that the kids needed training, he had laid in a strong base for teamwork and now he needed them to have enough skill to pull of C Rank missions, something that would become common place once they were Chunins.
They definetly had it in them to become Chunins, no doubt about it.
Naruto and Sasuke had shown a lot of maturity for Genins, and even Sakura, who Kakashi had doubted would make a good ninja had shown at least some competence when it came to protecting the bridge builder.
He began worrying about what was going to happen next, they had been attacked by Zabuza Momochi, and barely escaped, and the Swordsman was really powerful, to have managed escaping with a wound.
He then thought back to what had been responsible for the wound, that would be Naruto. His burst of wind chakra, he was surprised that he hadn't killed himself attempting that, and he would have too, if it hadn't been for the Nine Tails inside of him.
Sasuke had talked about sensing a demonic aura about him when he had carried Naruto back home, had Naruto borrowed his power from the fox, it was a possibility.
Kakashi realised that is was too risky to have Naruto rely on the fox, if he had done it in the first place. He decided to train them, enough to be competent. Even though he wasn't at full strength, he could easily teach them tree walking and other activities that would help control Chakra.
He suspected that Naruto would excel at this, as he was able to masterfully produce some Wind Chakra, maybe he wouldn't struggle as much, but tree climbing could still help his Chakra reserves, maybe he could boost it up to a point where Naruto wouldn't need the help of the Fox.
He kept wondering about Naruto and training as he fell asleep.
-x-
It was an extremely rainy day in Wave Country, Tazuna had suggested that it rains for most days in Rain Country, but Naruto hadn't expected it to rain this heavily. Maybe it was one of the off days, he thought to himself.
He had been training, but today he was on the bridge that Tazuna and all his workers were focused on completing, to him, this would mean the end of one country's suffering and the success of his mission, two birds with one stone, what could be any better than that.
Apparently Zabuza had escaped, and Naruto had no idea as to what had happened to Haku, he had come to almost a full day after Zabuza had escaped, and even Sasuke, who had brought him home couldn't remember what had happened to him.
The last thing he actually remembered was asking the Fox for some Chakra, something he had promised to himself he would never do again, the villagers already considered him a demon, he did not need to become one too, even if it gave him exceptional powers, that was something an Uchiha would do, not an Uzumaki, or Namikaze.
He continued watching Tazuna as he and his men worked, and he had to admit, while the man was a drunk and arrogant, rude person, he was really good at what he did and that was building a bridge, suddenly Naruto realised that they weren't protecting an old drunk, they were protecting someone who was possibly the push that this suffering country needed, it had given him a sense of importance, and pride to realise that he was assigned to the protection of someone so important, even if it was under false pretenses.
He almost wanted to help Tazuna, but he was saving up his Chakra for the evening, when his clones would practice a complicated sealing Jutsu, that could absorb tiny particulates thrown at it, something that would be useful against Haku, he also wondered if he could seal away the ice mirrors that Haku supposedly used.
"Hey old man" he called out. "How much longer?"
He thought he heard Tazuna groan.
"You have asked me this for the eleventh time" he responded. "I don't know, we work till we get tired"
Naruto groaned, that was true, he had asked Tazuna that question a lot of times. His patience was running out, he had an itch to get back and try out the Jutsu pervy sage had left him.
His thoughts then moved on to the pervy sage, he wondered where the man was right now. He had told Naruto he was running an extensive spy network for Konaha and the Hokage, but otherwise the man felt absolutely no allegiance towards the village, which he found odd.
The tale of the Legendary Three Sages was something of a myth, even though it was a hundred percent true, he couldn't believe it had actually happened, but Pervy Sage wouldn't lie to him. Would he?
His chain of thoughts was broken by a large crash.
He looked about, stunned.
"What happened?" he asked Tazuna.
"One of the beam poles fell off, nothing much, go back to sleep"
"Okay"
Wait a second, did Tazuna just tell him to go back to sleep.
"Hey old man, I am NOT sleeping" he said, almost shouting.
"Just pulling your leg Naruto" Tazuna said, trying not to laugh.
Naruto growled, and went back to his thoughts, but decided to keep his guard up, just in case.
-x-
IT had been almost three days since the fight against Zabuza, and Kakashi sensei still hadn't recovered. Something thar worried Sakura to no end. Somehow Naruto and Sasuke had managed to hold their own against the Jounin and the other boy, who was apparently his apprentice.
They were getting stronger by the day, while all she had done was moan and run away on Sasuke's command. Naruto was right, she deserved as much respect as a fangirl should get. That was not how she wanted to be seen, she needed to be good for her team, she needed to train.
She had been diligently reading the book on Genhutsu Naruto had given her, and up until now, she had thoroughly enjoyed it, it would be extremely useful on protection missions to place the opponent in a genjutsu while making your getaway.
She decided she would train for that, but just then her stomach grumbled, she was hungry. She smiled as she remembered how Naruto's stomach had groaned, just yesterday after he had returned from watching the bridge builder at work, today would be Sasuke's turn, maybe she could take some tips from Naruto as to how she would master Genjutsu.
Naruto had told her he sucked, so she could rule him out, she had to train on her own, after all she was the smartest Kunoichi in her class, she had to be able to learn some Genjutsu.
The person that bothered her the most was Sasuke, ever since that day he hadn't quite been the same, he had always been detached but now he seemed downright haunted. It was as if he had seen some ghosts or something like that.
Sakura laughed, Sasuke was too cool to get scared of ghosts, unlike Naruto, who she was sure would definitely get scared by the prospect of one. She smiled as she continued reading the book, her team fast becoming one of the best things she had going on for her
-x-
Why was Itachi crying?
In all honesty Sasuke did not know, but something about the way Itachi had behaved was bothering him. He was never the kind of person that would cry, that too at a kill, even if they were his own family. Was that what Itachi felt. Remorse?
Sasuke shrugged it off, he had to continue Shuriken training, he hadn't come to waste his time over nonsense like that. He had to get stronger, like Naruto.
That was another thing all together, Naruto was stronger, something that he would have laughed off two months ago had come true right in front of his very eyes, and he did not know how. He knew that Naruto was going to be taken under the tutelage of Lord Jiraya, one of the Three Legendary Sages, but he wondered what Naruto had done to deserve it. As far as he knew, Naruto did not belong to any of the prestigious clans of Konaha. An Uzumaki clan had existed somewhere in Whirlpool ages ago, but it was more than likely that Naruto was not related to them, he had just been named by the Hokage to restart a clan or something.
Or was there more to it. As far as he knew, Lord Jiraya had trained the Fourth Hokage, and if the stories were true, one of his cousins Obito and Kakashi had trained directly under the Fourth Hokage. And Kakashi and The Fourth Hokage were feared throughout the ninja world, he wondered what they thought of Jiraya.
Who cares. He had to train, it did not matter how, but he had to get as strong as Naruto in the week, for all he knew, Zabuza was probably alive and Gatou would not be happy at the failure of the mission, he would have intensified his attack but that had not happened. Why? Was he scared, Zabuza had held him off? What was happening?
What about Tazuna, the man had lied and gotten them all into huge trouble, but still, he felt a strong sense of duty, and the added incentive was he wouldn't become the demon his brother had become. That was good news, he had to protect the bridge builder as well as he had yesterday. Although he had to say that the bridge builder preferred Naruto to him, and Sasuke couldn't blame the man, Sasuke's presence tended to do that to people sometimes, just as Naruto had the ability to make people like him.
Sasuke had to admit he was warming up to Naruto as a teammate and confidant, it was like they knew each other completely. They had displayed team work and through understanding of what each other was doing multiple times, and they hated each other, he wondered how strong they would be if they were bosom buddies.
Sasuke was horrified. Buddies with Naruto, the guy who's scared of ghosts, no way.
But was it really that bad of a deal, he didn't have time to figure it out as he immersed himself in training.
-x-
"So you want him to sign the contract?"
Fukasaku was surprised, he knew that Minato had a child, but he did not know that Jiraya would make him sign the contract so soon.
"Yes Fukasaku, I think its time we advance his training, he has shown a lot of potential, even more than Minato might I add"
Fukasaku looked surprised, was this child really that good.
They were at Mount Myoboku, where Jiraya was visiting the toads.
"Yes" Jiraya said, smiling. "He has enough to summon Gamabunta and still put up a strong fight"
The toad looked stunned. Was this kid that talented.
"Where is he now?"
"He is on a mission with his teammates, his sensei is Kakashi, of the Sharingan. Minato's student, you remember him?"
The toad nodded. The kid who was always wearing a mask.
"Who do you think will become his favorite summon?" He asked Jiraya.
"Probably Bunta's sons, Gamakichi or Gamatatsu"
Fukasaku nodded. This kid seemed to be really talented.
"If you say he is good Jiraya, I will take your word for it. But lets see if he is worthy of the honor that has been bestowed upon him"
Jiraya nodded, then bowed.
"I'm afraid I have to leave, if my spy network is correct, Orachimaru might be on the move"
Fukasaku looked on gravely.
"Better not let Bunta find out, he does not like that Snake"
Jiraya smiled, Fukasaku was referring to Manda, the king of snakes.
"I'll keep that in mind."
-x-
Naruto was in a word tired, he was feeling more tired than he had ever felt before. He had been training non stop for the last few hours with his Shadow Clones, practicing Taijutsu forms, and having the clones learn how to send out pulses of wind chakra, however it had taken him a lot of effort. Finally he had managed to perfect the Wind Chakra Pulse technique, he had tested it on some trees, and was pleased to see that they were severed in half.
This could be very useful.
Kakashi Sensei had told them that Zabuza was likely to be alive,as was Haku, who had managed escaping with Zabuza, who would be nursed back to health, something that Kakashi was certain of, there was only one minor problem, he had wanted to train them so that they could become stronger, and had them start on tree climbing.
Naruto already knew tree climbing and he already knew water walking, there was only one thing that he did not know yet, and that was some wind style Jutsus that would help in battle.
Kakashi had decided to teach him Wind Release: Great Breakthrough but it had taken him only around an hour to have that Jutsu down, so Kakashi had told him to perfect his WInd Chakra Pulse, come to think about it, Naruto had to name it, Wind Chakra pulse did not sound so cool after all.
"Yo, Naruto" Kakashi's voice snapped Naruto out of the pseudo trance that he had found himself in. "I see you have managed to perfect that Chakra Pulse thing huh? That's good, can you still train?"
Kakashi had asked him this question because he knew that Naruto had the stamina of the Uzumaki clan plus Chakra reserves that were bolstered by the Nine Tailed Fox, there was no way he could be winded up so quickly.
"As a matter of fact, I am Kakashi sensei, that Wind Thingy really messed me up"
Kakashi frowned. "Alright, I will teach you a new wind style technique, tomorrow"
Naruto smiled, he was always up for training.
-x-
Sasuke was really tired. He was almost exhausted, while Sakura was guarding Tazuna on the bridge today, he and Naruto had been trained, he had only just mastered tree climbing, while apparently Naruto had picked up a new Jutsu. This was not good. He had to train faster if he had to ever measure up to Itachi.
The new memories that had suddenly rushed up to him were confusing him, why had Itachi asked for his forgiveness, why was he crying, what did all this mean?
"Sasuke" Kakashi Sensei's voice carried over, snapping him out of it.
"Hn"
"Good job with the tree climbing, get ready tomorrow though, I will teach you a new fire style Jutsu, you'll find it quite useful"
Sasuke smiled.
Yes, this was all he needed to get stronger.
He would show Itachi, forgiveness or not, he had to beat Itachi.
-x-
Zabuza's eyes opened, Haku had managed nursing him back to good health, but what he saw was not Haku, he saw a blue skinned man, someone who looked and smelt like a shark.
"Zabuza" the man said. "Your apprentice told me what happened. Got bested by a kid? Have all the swordsmen gone so rusty?"
Zabuza shivered, it was not like him to do so. But he had to.
After all, the man in front of him was also a swordsman, someone much stronger that him or any other swordsman.
"Kisame Hoshigaki"
-x-
Well, I would like to apologize for not updating soon enough, but I have just been so busy of late, that combined with my laziness has made me go a but crazy. Our semester ends are approaching and a lot of assignments to be submitted, and all that crap has essentially had me going balls to the wall, I haven't even been getting any sleep whatsoever.
So I'm sorry about the delay, but I will update this, irregularly for the next month, but regularly after that. You can count on it.
As usual tell me what you think about the reveal at the end, tell me where you think this is going, I know this was mostly a short transition chapter, I plan on making things longer once I get back to my original schedule, which included sleep, but I think this chapter (which I have written in a sleep deprived state) is just a float over for things to come.
I decided that I would change the whole arc and shake things up a bit, since this is a stronger Naruto, the enemies need to be stronger too, and I plan on doing just that, that's right throw in the Akatsuki.
Orochimaru will arrive soon enough, and Tsunade, like it or not will be in this story sooner than she should be.
Send in some Omake ideas, this time round though there won't be any, I will be writing a Minato's Legacy Omake Collection kinda thing soon, so send in some ideas.
Thank you, keep reading. DOn't forget reviewing.