The Pathless Sage
A/R: Yay me. Over 200 reviews, though I never thought I would get that many, I do aim for higher than I have right now.
Poll for Zaraki still up, go vote if you haven't yet.
The Wave arc isn't done just yet, it will be finished off completely this chapter. This is mostly the bit where I patch up things in the Wave arc and the transition to the next arc, which will NOT be the Chunin exams. I am making up an arc, and I am afraid (literally) to say that I will be introducing another character from another anime, but not from bleach this time around.
On with the story!
Sakura cheered a bit when Naruto put it that way, but Tazuna was put off that he just had a human head thrown at him by a child not even half his age. Sasuke was still his emo self, but he was celebrating on the inside. Zaraki was still staring off into space, on a high from killing so many people at once.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, kids, but the mission isn't over just yet," Kakashi felt like a villain in a movie when he said that. All of his charges, including Naruto, looked at him like he had just taken their favourite puppy and crucified it.
"What do you mean, sensei?" Sakura asked in a small voice, sounding very hurt.
"The mission still isn't over. The mission was to guard Tazuna until he completed his bridge, not until Gato was killed. So yeah, we are still going to be stuck here for a few more days." Everyone sighed. They were about sick of the gloomy atmosphere of the country, and more than a bit homesick.
"Well you guys still got your mission to do, but me and Haku got somewhere else to be," Zabuza announced, turning around to head away from the bridge.
"Where are you heading now, Zabuza?" Naruto asked suddenly, stopping the older man in his tracks.
"..." Zabuza didn't reply, but shifted from foot to foot awkwardly.
Naruto sighed. He knew this was going to happen. "Face it Zabuza, you are a nuke-nin and have nowhere else to go now that you are out of a contract."
"SHUT UP BRAT! I don't need to hear that from you!" Zabuza replied sharply.
"Why don't you come back to Konoha with us?" Though Sakura's request was a naive one, it was the most plausible at the moment. It was extremely difficult for a missing-nin to survive in the wild, especially when they were on their own without any financial backing.
"We are missing-nin, we are traitors. No village in the world would take us in, no matter what kind of powers we brought to them." Zabuza replied bitterly.
"Eh, I think you would find that statement to be incorrect," Zabuza looked at Naruto like he had gone utterly insane and declared he was going to take over the world with a single shuriken. "Hokage-jiji is an understanding man. He would help you out, if you pledge your undying loyalty to him and actually stick to it. As for Haku, well let's just say Konoha worships Bloodline limits."
"They had better not put her in any stupid breeding programs," Zabuza's voice was low and threatening, promising extreme pain if he did not get the reply he wanted.
"Don't worry about that. The Council hates my guts inside and out, but even they won't be able to do anything against their own laws. So if I have my way with them, and I can talk to Old Man Hokage about it first, there won't be any problems." Naruto explained.
"Why would a simple Gennin like you have any ability to contact your Kage? I thought it was usually Chunin and Jounin that relayed messages to the Kage of their villages." Zabuza was suddenly suspicious. Something about this sounded fishy. Kage never reduced themselves to talking simple Gennin.
"You would find that we do many things differently in Konoha." Kakashi answered elusively. He had sensed Naruto's discomfort in talking about his situation, so he decided to bail the poor boy out.
"Alright, alright. Let's get back to my house first, then we can all talk properly over dinner. I don't feel like standing for any more time." Tazuna griped.
-TT-
Thick, tense silence lay over the dinner table as the occupants ate without a single sound. It was rare that two groups of people that fought for their lives against each other, and then suddenly started eating dinner together, thus the tense atmosphere.
"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" Tazuna screamed, holding his head.
"Yeah, this mood is rather tense for a dinner table," Naruto added his two cents.
"Well, what do you expect, brat? I won't be going around making casual conversation with my former enemy." Zabuza replied, somewhat wryly.
"Whatever. Zaraki, now that you are off your murder high, can you answer me some questions?" Kakashi asked, turning towards the student that he was addressing. He stopped eating and actually looked at the person he was talking to, for once, to show that he was serious about the situation.
"Eehhh, why the hell not? Go ahead," and all of Kakashi's seriousness just blew over Zaraki's head.
"Your Chakra, can you tell me why it felt so ... Demonic?" Kakashi asked, saying the last word as if it left a sour taste in his mouth. Which, truthfully, it did.
"I dunno for sure, but I got a theory," Zaraki stopped at this point to send a warning look towards their guests. "Are you guys sure you wanna hear this? This might be a little disturbing."
"I don't get what you mean, but we had more than our fair share of disturbing things in life. Go ahead and tell, we are curious too," Zabuza answered for himself and Haku, who was currently sitting next to Zabuza and looking very frail and pale.
"Alright. You guys know Chakra theory, right? How a person's Chakra Nature and potency is formed by what they eat and the kind of air they breath when they are really young?" Every ninja in the room nodded slowly. Kakashi thought he knew where this was going, but he didn't interrupt. "Well, my Chakra took on a Demonic tint because of what I ate when I was young. Apparently, since Demons get their tainted and potent Chakra from eating humans, I got the same kind of Chakra."
If anyone was surprised or nauseous, which more than a few were, they did well not to show it on their faces.
"Alright, that clears up one thing, I guess." Kakashi said. "Alright, next on the agenda is how you were able to kill so easily."
"Meh, killing never felt weird to me. I always killed to survive, so it became second nature to me. I even came to enjoy killing people." Zaraki replied.
"Did you ever hear that enjoying the kill is a sure sign of loss of sanity?" Kakashi asked, remembering his days in ANBU and how he had that same line drilled into his head. In a sense, it was true. No sane human enjoyed the death of another of his own species.
"Sanity? I never had any of that useless shit to start with."
"Okay." Kakashi drawled, trying to deal with the fact that one of his students was an emo and another was most likely insane. "So, next order of business, do you guys want to compete in the Chunin Exams?"
"Kakashi, don't be stupid. They are nowhere near the level required in the Chunin Exams," Naruto blurted out. Seriously, did the man want his team to get killed?
"Of course we are strong enough." Sasuke answered.
"Sure, if Sasuke-kun is here, we can do anything." Was Sakura's intelligent reply.
"Why the hell not? I'm up for anything as long as I get a good fight out of it." Zaraki answered characteristically. The guy really would do anything for an exciting fight. He didn't even have any regard for his own life when it came down to getting a good fight out of someone!
"I see, I will consider entering you guys and train you accordingly,"
"You really are trying to get your team killed, aren't you?" Naruto asked sarcastically, not expecting an answer.
"No, they won't be killed so easily." Kakashi said.
"Well, whatever. None of my business what you do with your squad. I'm done eating, so I will be seeing you later." Naruto walked away from the table and headed upstairs to his temporary room in the humble abode.
The first thing he saw when he entered the room was a scroll, lying harmlessly on his pillow. Moving towards it, he picked it up gingerly, ready to throw it if it was rigged in any way.
"To Naruto Uzumaki, From a Friend." It said on the front. Judging the scroll to be safe, Naruto opened it slowly but eagerly.
"The Rinnegan is a Dojutsu that is far superior to both the Byakugan and any form of the Sharingan, even the Eternal Mangekyo. It is the Dojutsu of the Rikudo Sennin and is only seen very, very rarely in the members of the Uzumaki family. The reasons, I know of, but deem you currently too young to know of or care about.
The Rinnegan has similar properties to the Byakugan and the Sharingan. Though the eyesight isn't as good as the Byakugan, the user has the ability to see what any Summoned creature or any Clone can see, so it has the potential to have a better range of view than the Byakugan.
Unlike the Sharingan, the Rinnegan does not have the ability to instantaneously copy any Ninjutsu, but it does make it easier for the user to learn any Jutsu, and it gives them the ability to manipulate any of the 5 major elements and maybe even combine them at a later point.
There are 6 unique capabilities of the Rinnegan, with a possible 7th. I will tell you of one of those abilities in this scroll, and will send you scrolls with abilities of the Rinnegan when I think you need to learn another Path.
The first, and easiest Path to master is the Deva Path. It will allow you to control attractive forces and repulsive forces. There are three Jutsu that you can use with this Path, but right now, I will only teach you two of these. The third is a little dangerous to be using with your Chakra levels."
The scroll went on and on for a long time, describing two Jutsu called Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in. It described how to use the Jutsu, how much Chakra it would take, the repercussions if he used it too much. It also said that Shinra Tensei could potentially destroy an entire village if used with enough Chakra, but it would take a long time for it to regenerate.
The only downside to these two Jutsu were that there was a buffer time that varied with the strength of the Jutsu, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The scroll was Naruto's first insight into just how inhumanely powerful his eyes were, exactly why they called the Rinnegan the eyes of God. If he could control gravity with just the first and easiest Path, who knew what he could do with the rest of them. For all he knew, he might even be given complete control over life and death!
While Naruto was reading the scroll and was in deep thought, Sasuke had come up behind him, having finished up his own dinner ahead of all the others bar Naruto. Seeing the other boy reading a scroll intently, a scroll that looked akin to mail, Sasuke grew curious.
"What's the scroll about, Dobe?" Sasuke asked in the friendliest voice he could managed, surprising himself with just how friendly he could sound if he wanted to.
"Still calling me a Dobe?" Naruto asked in return, not answering the question he was asked.
"It's more of a joke and a habit nowadays, you know full well I don't mean it. I actually have the urge to stop brooding for some reason, but I have an appearance to keep up!" Sasuke replied, somewhat heatedly. Honestly, he was speaking a lot more than he normally did, but being around the cheerful blond did that to people. Well, he managed to change most people, Kakashi was still lazy and Sakura was a total fangirl.
"Yeah, yeah. I don't know who this is from, but it's a scroll that explains more about my Bloodline. Since I am one of the very few people in the ninja history that has awoken this Bloodline, I honestly have no idea what I can do with it," Naruto answered honestly. "That reminds me, since when do you talk to Dobe's like me?"
Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was still the Dobe. "Itachi might have screwed with my head, but I am not stupid enough to overlook the obvious. Sure, I brooded in class back at the Academy, but that was more because I didn't really have any competition. As for why I am talking to you, I can see you really aren't an idiot, but a decent ninja that is probably stronger than me. And if what you said was true, then you had a much more screwed up life than I did, so I don't see any reason for me to doom and gloom while you are all cheerful."
To say Naruto was surprised would be the greatest understatement of the century, probably millennium. For a full minute, even with his new found intelligence, Naruto gaped at Sasuke like a fish, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. "What's wrong Dobe, cat got your tongue?"
"Damn, who knew all it took was a watered down story of my life and a show of strength to pull that massive stick out of your ass?" Naruto asked sarcastically, trying to get a rise out of Sasuke. Which, if he knew the other boy as well as he thought he did, Naruto was sure he was going to get.
"HEY! I did not have a stick up my ass! Wait, what did you mean watered down? I thought you were exaggerating when you were giving your life story?" Sasuke suddenly looked very scared. There was also an underlying tone of, was that pity in Sasuke's voice?
"Yeah, that was watered down. I had worse, but I can't be bothered to dig up all those old memories. The worst of them were mostly from when I was younger. And don't you dare pity me, teme, or I will kick your ass into next bloody year. Remember one thing and it will help you in life more than anything else. Well, it did wonders for me, anyway. Never wallow in your sorrows, remember that no matter how bad your life is, there is probably someone out there that has had a far worse life than you had." Naruto sounded much older than a boy of 11, something close to a Sage.
"Worse? Kami help any poor soul that had a life worse than you."
"Well, yeah. That's true. And another thing, I am pretty sure this is gonna get hammered out later when you meet your brother, anyway, but let go of all of your hatred-" before Naruto could go any further, Sasuke interrupted him, sounding almost like his old self.
"What do you mean let go of hatred? Hatred is what gives people power, I need power to kill Itachi!"
"Idiot, let me finish. Hatred isn't the only thing that gives you power, you moron. And while I support your will to get stronger, you don't need to kill Itachi-nii-" again, he was interrupted by Sasuke.
"Itachi-nii? I didn't hear you call him that last time." Sasuke sounded very much like his old, brooding self. His tone held that same anger that his avenger persona always did. For a minute, Naruto feared that all his efforts to pull Sasuke out of the darkness had failed.
"Dammit, Sasuke, if you let me finish, you would understand what the hell I am saying. I call him nii because he has been like a brother to me for these past year or so," Sasuke looked skeptical at that. "Anyway, don't worry about my relationship to Itachi-nii for now, that can be sorted later. We are getting off topic.
"Itachi-nii going mad and testing his skills out wasn't the reason that the Uchiha were killed, that was only a front. That's why you don't need to kill him. The rest of the story is for Itachi-nii to tell. As for hatred giving you power, that is actually a ruse. It isn't hatred that gives someone power, but strong emotions like hatred. It causes a person to become determined for their purpose, and gain power to fulfill that purpose. The strong emotion causes a massive rise in determination, which is the thing that makes people stronger, it's the will to fulfill that purpose. The strong determination causes people to go beyond their limits, to rise to their true limits.
"That's the philosophy behind the Will of Fire that Konoha is so famous for, or infamous, depending on you point of view. The will to protect what is precious to them is what makes the Hidden Leaf so strong and so damn fearsome in a war." Naruto finished his long lecture with a sigh.
"I guess that makes sense. So, how do I gain power of a strong emotion without hatred?" Sasuke asked, as if it was the most complicated thing he had ever come up against.
"It's simple idiot. Make friends, find people you care about. That way, when you come to care about them, you would even give up your life to protect them. That is what makes people strong." Naruto answered, then got a mischievous look on his face. If any victim of his pranks had seen that face at the time, they would surely have had a heart attack. However, Sasuke, being exempt from the list of prank victims, just looked at Naruto expectantly. "Tell you what, go get a girlfriend. That tends to make people want to protect."
Sasuke, being the somewhat innocent 11 year old he was, blushed madly. Seeing Sasuke go the exact shade of tomato red that Hinata's face went everytime Naruto got close to her, Naruto broke out in uncontrollable fits of laughter.
"Shut up, Dobe! Go get a girlfriend of your own! At least girls look my way when I walk past," without realising his mistake, Sasuke just opened himself up to the prankster often called the King of Chaos.
"Sure, I will get a girlfriend when I get a little older. I have a girl in mind, but not until later," seeing the window of opportunity, Naruto's prankster instincts kicked into high gear. "Girls turn your way when you walk past, eh? What kind of girls? They don't happen to be those loud, clingy fangirls of yours, do they?"
Sasuke went from cherry red to deathly pale faster than Minato moved with his Flying Thunder God Jutsu and promptly fell to the ground, the overload of memories of loud and clingy fangirls straining his damaged mind too much for him to stay awake. Seeing the prone figure of a pale Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto's raucous laughter got even louder as he fell to the floor clutching his sides.
A/R: Forget what I said about Wave Arc ending this chapter. Wave arc will end next chapter and the next arc WILL begin right away.
Anyhow guys, please review. It only takes 20 seconds to review with this new system and even an anonymous review saying Good Job helps raise my spirits.