Chapter 37
Training
Water, calm and unmoving. The epitome of tranquility. Water never fights, yet today it did.
Two streams of water flew across the lake. They crossed each other again and again. If one looked close enough, they would be able to see a small glinting of steel whenever they met before diving back under the surface. The surface bubbled and churned, obscuring the vision of anyone who would look under, but if they could see past the foam and kicked up dirt, they would see that the battle was not only above the water, but under as well.
Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. The unknown son of Konoha's Red Hot Habanero and Yellow Flash. His sharingan eyes blended almost perfectly with the water and allowed him to almost predict his opponent's moves.
Almost.
A drill of water appeared almost instantaneously in front of him spinning and heading straight for his chest. Naruto's half liquid body moved just a second too late and the drill tore through his arm.
Naruto only showed a slight look of discomfort as his arm grew back from the surrounding water. He turned around to come face to face with his sensei.
Mangetsu Hozuki. Arguably the most talented member of the seven ninja swordsman and said to have mastered every one of the seven swords. He allowed his body to fully reform in the water and crossed his arms before smirking, showing his sharp pointed teeth. "Still too slow Naruto" his voice echoed though the water.
Said ninja merely bowed his head in defeat. "But you lasted much longer this time," Naruto's head snapped up "good work. Now let's head back. We'll take a small break then see if your sealing has progressed as well as your hydrofication technique."
Naruto beamed at the older ninja and let his body turn back to liquid. Within moments he was walking back onto shore where Mangetsu was waiting with lunch already laid out. Both were dry without a drop of water on them.
Xxxxx
In another section of the forest
If Naruto and Mangetsu's battle was to be described as water verses water, Haku and Hibiki's battle could be called ice verses iron. Everywhere they fought ice spikes could be seen protruding from tree branches, trunks, even each other. As long as there was a surface, Haku's ice could grow from it.
However, under Saito's blade, the ice was either sliced, diced, or straight out shattered. Saito came from a family where his mother was a former ninja and his father was a civilian (not unlike Haku) but unlike Haku, Saito's father knew about his wife being a bloodline user and they both died protecting him. His mother came from a clan that was very similar to the Higurashi but instead of being forgers and crafters, they took the crafted work and remolded it to suit their needs. Their bloodline used their chakra to change the properties of the metal so something as small and light as a dagger can instantly be changed to a katana or even a broadsword.
This leads us to where we are now.
Haku swung Kibikiribocho, a thing trail of vapor following it. The giant cleaver clashed against a kunai transformed broadsword and ice quickly traveled down towards Saito who quickly abandoned his weapon and jumped back.
With the sudden loss of resistance Kibikiribocho swung down and got embedded deep into the earth. For a second Haku lost his balance but as an experienced ninja that second was all that was needed. He dashed towards Haku and swept his feet from under him. Saito rested his club on Haku's chest "you're relying too much on the weight of Kibikiribocho to break through defenses. What made Zabuza a master of this sword was that he would use the weight to swing himself and increase the power of his hits. You do it too sometimes.
Haku's eyes widened and remembered what Zabuza said to Naruto when he had him learn about the sword. "Work with the blade, not against it" Haku raised his hand and let gravity take control and slap himself in the face. "and I was laughing at Naruto then too" he groaned. "he will never let me live this down if he hears about it"
Xxxx
In yet another section of the forest
Unlike the boy's fights where there was chaos everywhere, Fu and Suzuno's battlefield remained mostly intact. Two shadows dashed around where kunai flew in every direction, creating the illusion that there were more than two in battle. These were in fact traps.
Suzuno Kamazuki came from a civilian family where her father used to be a Suna puppeteer. He taught her how to manipulate puppets by connecting chakra strings to them and using the strings to act like nerves to make the puppet an extension of the body.
Suzuno couldn't help but smirk as she reached to fasten the last knot on her trap. Just then her honed instincts screamed at her to move and she quickly drew her hand back and abandoned the trap. Just in time to see Fu drop down with the Sword of the Thunder God impaled on the tree branch she stood moments ago.
Fu quickly stood up and made a handseal "going to take a page out of Naruto's book here" she said "water clone jutsu". She said and spat out a seven globs of water around Suzuno, each of the clones wielding a copy of the Raijin. The clones all jumped at Suzuno and swung their swords.
Fu covered her eyes to protect herself from the blinding flash. When she removed her hand she was shocked to see all her clones impaling each other with Suzuno standing in the middle completely unharmed.
Suzuno wiggled her fingers "chakra strings" she smirked. "useful for many situations like…" she jerked her fingers and Fu flew towards Suzuno "my body is moving by itself" Fu gasped and tried to struggle. She landed on the ground next to the puppeteer who held a kunai to her throat "capturing people who don't know how to resist it." Suzuno finished.
Xxxxx
Haku walked out the food tent with Isaribi tailing behind him. His sharp eyes easily spotting the blond and mint green hair of his teammates and headed towards them.
"My arms are killing me" Haku moaned as he sat down next to them. "Sparring with someone who can literally change something as light as a kunai into a broadsword huuuurrtsss".
The other two members of team Zabuza laughed at his misfortune. It wasn't often they saw him so…. Childish.
Fu took a bite out of her bread "Suzuno-sensei isn't as much of a slave driver; she prefers to focus more on the planning aspects." Haku and Naruto nodded in agreement. Sometimes they even joke that Suzuno is there to help them rest their body after training with Mangetsu and Hibiki. "What about you Naruto?"
Naruto rubbed his arm, one of the many parts of his body that had gotten torn apart in the water sparring. "I slowly getting used to having my body torn apart" he joked.
Haku snorted "I've got to admit, I'm slightly jealous of you Naruto. With that hydrofication technique you have, it's going to be much harder to land a hit on you now, never mind winning a battle against you, not to mention you can pass yourself off as a water clone now."
Isaribi watched on the sidelines as the ninja talked about their training. Her, only having some basic shinobi training, having a hard time believing some of the things that they were talking about.
"It's like an ultimate defense" Fu piped up
"Ultimate defense… where have I heard that before…." Naruto mused, "oh yeah! You guys remember Gaara? The one from Suna with the automatic sand"
Fu swallowed "oh yeah the crazy Jinchuriki of the one tails. His teammate was going on and on about how no one has ever penetrated it."
"I remember him too. The look on their faces was priceless. Of course Gaara nearly turning into the one tails wasn't as funny."
Naruto nodded "he seemed calmer when we parted though"
The group sat in silence and finished their meals "he was a genin right?" Naruto asked. "I think so" Fu answered.
"Then he should be going to the chunin exams soon" Naruto continued
"He could have gotten a field promotion" Haku pointed out
"And even if he didn't you wouldn't be going" Mei said from behind them "the exams are held in the Leaf this time and we have nothing to do with them. Not to mention that we, as the rebels cannot afford to have our forces doing things like watching the chunin exams."
Naruto turned around and held up his hands "we weren't planning on going, just talking about a friend who might be"
"A friend from Suna? You must have some interesting travels" Mei mused and leaned against a tree.
"Oh you have no idea" Naruto laughed "like there was this time when Haku…" the five spent the rest of the night telling tales of their adventures. Team Zabuza telling about their time on the run, Isaribi about how it was being an ordinary civilian before she was kidnapped and Mei about her time in the academy. Each side learned a lot about the other, having living almost exactly what the other hadn't.
Xxxxx
A pair of pale yellow eyes, reminiscent to that of a snake, opened and glowed in the darkness. It looked down at the figure kneeling before him, its sharp eyesight noting every twitch and every bead of sweat running down his face. "Report." The voice was silky smooth with a sharp edge to it. The kneeling figure knew without a doubt that the man in front of him could kill him before he could even realize it.
"Amachi of the hideout in the Land of Sea has been killed. Along with him, the base and all research on creating the perfect sea warrior, the Kaima, has been destroyed."
"And who was it that offed Amachi?" the shadowed figure drawled with a slightly dangerous tone. He might not care for that particular brand of experimenting anymore but he still didn't like it when anyone raises a hand against him, directly or indirectly.
"It was a group of Mist rebels, Orochimaru-sama. From what I could gather, one of them could use ice-style, one of them could use lava-style, one of them could turn his body into water an proficient in using clones and water-style ninjutsu, the last one…" the kneeling figure hesitated "my sources say she had an… unnatural chakra. It was as if it was alive and contained emotions of hate and anger"
"A Jinchuriki" Orochimaru muttered. A second later the kneeling figure toppled over with a kunai embedded in his skull. "The one that can turn his body into water is no doubt a Hozuki or a Hozuki descendent. There are only three of those that I know of and one of them is in this hideout. That leaves two of them. Judging by the lack of any mention of the seven swords I doubt it's Mangetsu. Kukukukuku" the snake Sanin chuckled "Naruto. You are becoming more and more interesting. Two Jinchuriki, one ice and one lava bloodline user. It's no surprise that Amachi lost."
Orochimaru snapped his fingers and a figure instantly appeared kneeling. Completely ignoring his dead predecessor next to him. "Dig up every piece of information you can on a lava bloodline user, ice bloodline user, female Jinchuriki and Naruto. They are all part of the rebel faction in the Mist civil war."
AN: to be honest I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. As you can probably notice many parts are slightly shaky and don't flow well. But atlas, I'm already a week late and I cannot keep my loyal amazing fans any longer!
Next chapter will be the start of the Raiga arc.
After that will be…? (vote)
1. Snow/Spring 3
2. Star 2
3. Shion 2
Some of you readers have been asking questions like "will they be joining the chunin exams" and "if they don't the leaf would be screwed with nobody stopping Gaara during the invasion"
In this chapter I have shown that
yes, they have met (and defeated) Gaara. This calmed him down so no, he will not be going Shukaku at being hurt.
No they will not be going to chunin exams (explanation in chapter)
Reviews:
Guest: thanks
Zeus501: *grabs cookie from midair and eats it* still not as good as the ones from the dark side.
Turn back to chapter 27 if you want to reference. Naruto is still the son of Minato and Kushina. He is Hozuki from his mother's side and he got his sharingan from *censored due to spoilers*
Tsukoblue: I know, but in canon Naruto and Sakura were in once place to work out and help support each other. I doubt it would be that easy if Fu was in waterfall, Mei in Mist, Naruto and Haku being on the run with Zabuza (even if they weren't there, with just Mei and Fu they can't really support each other because it's such a long distance and they won't be able to tell the other went to the alternate world with them. Not to mention a whole lot of other stuff that won't work solely because there will be too many changes.
Noahendless: thanks
Thor94: "mastered" is too strong, more like….unlocked? learned? And it isn't that "no Hozuki succeeded, just very few who have big enough reserves to survive.
I'm trying to incorporate it as much as I can without negating his other skills, but
1. Lets face it, the normal sharingan is basically just giving you better eyesight, photographic memory and (when Naruto unlocks the third tomoe) able to read chakra and know how to mold it instantly. Basically just some passive upgrades. The real show comes after the Mangekyo.
2. ….. I admit that I am drawing a blank for new water jutsu to make
: thanks for all those reviews
BlackDragonShinigami: ohhh. That part ^.^ll
Setokayba2n: no they won't be (as I've explained in the chapter)
Iou2003us: thanks. Your vote has been recorded
Jacklvmage12: the Hozuki is one of the parents of Kushina who's bloodline laid dormant inside her and reawakened in Naruto.
If he didn't die chances are he'll probably be killed by Orochimaru for "betraying him" or something
My reasoning is that for the hydrofication technique, since you are turning yourself into water, you become one with the water and your "essence" is spread out and diluted. To recall it back (or even control it) you have to expend more chakra because you are spreading out your chakra through more water particles and "collecting" pieces of yourself. (Think like a drop of food coloring inside a glass of water compared to say a bucket or a pool. The amount of chakra you have is how much food coloring you put in and when the food coloring disappears completely, you cease to exist because you do not have the chakra to recall your body parts back)
(didn't we completely skip that when we went to primordial gods?)
Well I just got a new house in like May so I doubt I would be changing again soon
You should have a pm by the time you read this.
Snikpnot1994: thanks. That's one of the reasons I'm taking it slow. It just ain't fun when you can effortlessly defeat jonin-level shinobi at age 14 or so.
Natsuphoenix: ?