Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.
Forests near Training Ground Twenty-Two, Konoha – March 4, AK 22
Naruto hopped from tree to tree, not with his feet, but with his space-time ninjutsu, if it could be called that. In actuality, it was an application of a special power that Naruto was recently working with.
Naruto had hit the limits of chakra training. He found that his chakra levels stopped growing after a while and that he could not force any more power into his ninjutsu attacks. Initially, that had been fine; he simply decided to work on taijutsu. Eventually, he had hit a limit there. He then focused on genjutsu, weaponry, and even fuinjutsu. Again, each time, he hit a limit. Naruto supposed that most humans wouldn't hit those limits. But Naruto had the benefit of training five hundred times faster than anyone else. One year would be five hundred years. Two would be one thousand years. He had broken the limits of what was practically possible for humans and had hit the theoretical limits of human ability.
As a result, he had even decided to pick up on medical ninjutsu and dabbled in trying to master different styles of fighting to increase his versatility, rather than power, but at that point, it was diminishing returns.
If he wanted to become stronger, he would need to seek out a new power.
And he did. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. Instead of using chakra, he would use spiritual (yin) energy and physical (yang) energy, the two components of chakra. Unlike chakra, which had a form, neither spiritual energy nor physical energy had a form. Thus, there would be no limit to what the body could hold. The only constraints would be what his mind was able to come up with.
This teleportation technique was based on that theory. Naruto would rip a hole in space-time first with the imaginary powers of spiritual energy and then keep the hole open with the life-giving properties of physical energy. It had been extremely difficult to learn how to use spiritual and physical energies independently, but the rewards had been worth it. Naruto could feel himself growing stronger once again.
He called it the shadow step.
The only problem was that he had to have a yin-yang seal that opened up a hole in space-time at his destination. He had recently covered many different spots in Konoha with seals that forcibly separated chakra into spiritual energy and physical energy, but the seals took incredibly long to create. Seals generally operated with chakra so he would have to spend hours to create one of the complex seals. He preferred manually opening a hole in the distance, but that required visualization of the area he was teleporting to.
So he was practicing his technique while his own students were training with his shadow clone. He be damned if he let his training slow down because he had students. A good teacher had to set a good example for his or her students anyway.
Suddenly, he was filled with memories of his students. That was his cue to go.
He quickly leaped towards where his students were training, taking care not to reveal that he knew a teleportation technique.
"Well, it looks like all three of you are gaining the hang of it after a couple days," Naruto remarked as he arrived.
All three of his students were hanging upside down from different tree branches.
"Naruto-sensei! Look at me! I can hop from tree to tree like Tailmon now!" Hikari jumped from trunk to trunk of different trees.
Takeru was doing the same thing except he was chasing Patamon who was definitely flying with those strange ears of his.
"Hah!" Daisuke shouted. The boy was standing upside down, clearly proud that he had succeeded at the task. "I'm awesome!"
Naruto rolled his eyes at their excitement. Kids these days got too excited over the smallest things. "Maybe, but you do know what the next step of the training is, right?"
Daisuke gulped at his tone and Naruto smiled evilly. "Umm…nope?"
Naruto formed three other shadow clones. All three of them sported the same evil grin as they each went through hand signs. "You have to be able to stay sideways or upside down while my clones fire at you."
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave!" they each shouted out.
Naruto's clones made sure to reduce the power to prevent them from getting hurt, but all three of them were now drenched and on the ground.
"Hey! No fair!" Hikari shouted. "You didn't say start!"
Naruto smiled at the sweet girl. The girl was sweet, happy, and bright, but was way too innocent. "Hikari, do you think your enemy is going to say start before they kill you?"
The girl froze and then shook her head seriously. "No, Sensei. I'm sorry that I complained."
Naruto nodded. "I'm glad you understand. You three have to be able to do this exercise without even thinking about it. Just be glad that I'm not throwing kunai and shuriken at you. There's a teacher named Anko who used to do that with her students."
The three of them shivered at that. "Okay, Naruto-sensei. We'll try our best." Takeru said.
Naruto took out a huge pile of snacks from a storage scroll. "Here, I bought some goodies for anyone who can dodge for at least ten minutes without falling to the ground. I don't even care if you get hit. Just make sure to stay above the ground. But," he motioned to Patamon and Tailmon, "they get to eat while you do this exercise. So if you take too long, you won't get any snacks."
The guinea pig and the cat started eagerly going through the gigantic pile of snacks. Over the last few days, Naruto had learned that the two were bottomless pits whenever they saw something they liked to eat. And sweets were definitely on that list.
"Aww, no fair!" Hikari whined but nodded as she walked up a tree. "Tailmon," she looked towards the small cat, "Please save some for me."
Naruto raised an eyebrow as the cat smiled at the girl and nodded. He initially figured that Tailmon understood Hikari from being with her for so long, but it appeared as if the cat was a bit more than just a simple cat. Naruto wondered if Tailmon would become to Hikari what Akamaru was to Kiba. It would certainly help Hikari's fighting abilities if she had a ninja cat watching her back all the time. Patamon was the same way as well and fully understood whatever each of them said.
"Just watch! I'll get this done in the first ten minutes." Daisuke shouted confidently. "Try your best, Naruto-sensei."
Naruto turned to look at the confident boy as he filed his thoughts about Tailmon and Patamon in the back of his mind. Naruto smirked and nodded at his clones. "Oh don't worry, Daisuke, I will."
Naruto started laughing as Daisuke immediately got knocked off his tree.
Forests near Training Ground Twenty-Five, Konoha – March 4, AK 22
It was her week off and Hanabi was currently training with Konohamaru, a fellow A-rank ninja. He was of also the heir of a noble clan and was the honorable grandson of the Third. He was a capable sparring partner.
It was often too hard to gain the necessary experience to move up higher in level the higher she got. There were fewer people she could train with and even fewer she could learn from. That was why her night with Uzumaki had been so helpful to her.
But she still needed a regular training partner around her level.
After being placed in a squad together for a mission three years ago, she and the older teen had often trained together. They were about even; she was much more skilled than he was at close-range and he was more versatile with options at close, middle, and long ranges. She had the benefit of the Byakugan while he had greater speed, strength, and endurance.
"Damn it, I hate it when I can't use my best technique on an opponent," Konohamaru said in a frustrated tone. "Can't you just stay still for once?"
"And get hit with the Rasengan?" she inquired in a somewhat amused tone. "Why would I do that?"
Hanabi sidestepped another shadow clone that had tried to thrust yet another Rasengan at her and using her momentum from the turn, swung her arm out in a Gentle Fist strike.
Poof!
"Ugh! I know," he said, "It's just frustrating. I'm best at close-range but you're so much better."
She smirked. "Well, I am a Hyuuga, after all. Our entire fighting style is built for defense against all ranges and extreme offense at close-range." She then added, "Try fighting exclusively from mid-range or further out. It'll help you expand your developing mid-range skills and I get to practice defending against them."
Konohamaru nodded before jumped back.
"Fire Release: Great Flame!"
"Kaiten!" Hanabi used her rotation to blow away the fireball. "Water Release: Burst Whip!"
She struck at where Konohamaru was hiding—she could see him with her Byakugan—but he quickly dodged.
"Wow! I didn't know you knew a new technique!"
"Don't tell anyone. I don't want my family to find out."
There was a risk that her family would find out, but she needed to practice it on an opponent and after what happened with Uzumaki, she no longer had a training partner. If she got caught, she would just pass off the technique as something she kept using to keep up her nature manipulation skills, which was a requirement for all jounin.
She flung the whip again and came close to ensnaring the boy. "Damn it, Hanabi. That thing looks painful! Big Brother Naruto would probably be cracking a joke about how I'm completely whipped by a girl."
She nearly tripped at that and groaned as a mental image of Uzumaki sporting a wide grin popped into her mind. Even when she wasn't seeing him, he found a way to drive her insane. For the last few days she barely could keep the Sage out of her mind. Her mind would simply replay the scene where he was holding her close to dry her off. And then, there was the incident where he easily swatted away her blow. She had gotten a glimpse of his incredible power then and it was difficult to forget.
Hanabi shook her head as she saw Konohamaru duck and swerve a few times before going even further back. He was now out of her extended range.
There was only one thing to do then.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Hanabi had to wince after she saw her technique fly towards the boy. It was fast, but given the distance, Konohamaru might as well have an infinite amount of time to prepare. The Gentle Fist was incredibly limited in the range and the few long-range techniques only wasted chakra. Uzumaki had been right.
Konohamaru didn't appear to be satisfied with standing outside of her range, however. He drew a chakra blade and immediately formed a fire blade that coated the metal blade. Hanabi reactivated her water whip as she dodged the fireballs that he launched by swing his blade as he rushed in into her range.
Not having any success ensnaring the older teen with only one water whip, she created another one and immediately grabbed his blade, expanded the water to cover his entire arm and pulled as she raced forward.
Konohamaru managed to free himself with a large burst of earth chakra from his trapped arm, absorbing the water, but Hanabi was already in range.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
She panted after her technique was done only to see Konohamaru disappear in a puff of smoke. She jumped up, knowing that Konohamaru had to be underground but found her legs suddenly trapped by mud and dirt that had risen from the ground and hardened.
Konohamaru placed his fire blade on her neck. "And that's checkmate."
"Good match," Hanabi sighed. They were about even in skill and her intelligence covered her relative lack of power, but she lost to him more often than not to the older boy because of his greater experience. Still, it was always somewhat of a disappointment whenever she lost.
"Yeah. But what was that ribbon thing?" Konohamaru asked.
"Well, you know as well as I do that I can't fight at a distance very well. I…" Hanabi did not let her mind go to Uzumaki again lest she blush brightly at the memory, "learned of a way where I could extend my reach and grab my opponents to bring the battle into my range. That way, I can set the tone instead of trying to match theirs."
"Yeah, I bet," he said. "The way you wave that thing makes it incredibly unpredictable. And since it looks like you're attacking with it, opponents are less likely to think that you're just using it to grab them and pull them in."
"It's still a work in progress. Ideally, it would be nice if I could channel my Gentle Fist attacks through the water, but I want to concentrate on grabbing first."
"Well, if that's a work in progress, I don't want to see the final product. That technique will end up being deadly," Konohamaru laughed before looking at his watch. "Well, it looks like I'm almost late for my lunch date, so I'll be heading back now."
Hanabi nodded as the boy disappeared in a body flicker.
She started to practice by herself again with her water whip when she heard a huge swoosh.
SWOOSH! BOOM!
Hanabi turned on her Byakugan and saw a huge vortex of water off in the distance. She wondered if it was several ANBU squads participating in war games. That would be worth watching.
She didn't have anything else to do so she headed off towards the vortex of water.
Forests near Training Ground Twenty-Five, Konoha – March 4, AK 22
"What were you saying again, Daisuke?" Naruto glared at one of his students. "Something about me being old and not being able to keep up with you young ones?"
Naruto realized that he probably didn't look like a responsible jounin-sensei with all the fallen tree trunks everywhere. But he didn't care. He would teach his way.
"Lord Uzumaki."
Naruto turned and saw Hanabi. He wasn't embarrassed, but what had happened several nights ago made the situation between them awkward.
He could tell that the girl was hesitant to approach him. Naruto mentally sighed. There was just no way getting around this. He'd have to do it the usual way. Head-on.
"Yo! What's up, little firecracker?"
The girl's face flushed. Naruto had to smile at that. The girl was proper and had a good handle on her emotions, but she wasn't nearly the stoic prick that her father was. The girl actually had a heart.
The girl finally decided to sigh and ignore his comment and the awkwardness. "It seems like we're always running into each other in the training grounds after you throw around incredibly destructive ninjutsu."
"Oh, that? That was just my Water Release: Hydro Vortex at a tenth of the original power," Naruto said casually.
"A tenth?" the girl blanched.
Naruto whistled innocently at that. Truthfully, it had been even weaker than that, but he wasn't going to tell that to anyone. It was best if people kept underestimating him, even if they did acknowledge him as a strong fighter. It was why he kept letting people think that he was still an idiot.
Naruto had to mentally scoff at that. Did people really think that anyone who could spam shadow clones and gain knowledge five hundred times faster than anyone else could be an idiot? Arrogant fools…
Naruto shook his head. It wasn't the time to get angry at the villagers.
"Well something like that," Naruto said with a grin, "My kids thought they were getting a little too smug about their success in avoiding my shadow clones squirting them with extremely slow streams of water."
"Naruto-sensei," Takeru groaned. "That was not just 'squirting' us. Those water attacks were strong enough to break large tree branches off of the trees."
"And they weren't extremely slow either, Sensei," Daisuke said. Naruto almost laughed when he saw that there were swirls in the boy's eyes. "Those jets of water were faster than kunai thrown at full strength."
"And then you fire off that monstrous water tornado or something. We could have been killed, Sensei," Hikari said. Tailmon merely meowed sadly next to the wet girl.
"Takeru, Hikari, that's why you have to learn to control what Daisuke says. When your teammate runs his mouth off, he might make an enemy upset and do what I just did. Generally, enemies hold back against you for a while as they try to gauge your strength. Unfortunately, if you anger them too much, they'll put everything they have in the next few attacks. It's a real-life lesson for you all."
The kids looked somber at that. Daisuke especially looked ashamed. Naruto figured the boy was probably feeling guilty for putting his "pretty Hikari" in danger.
"It looks like you're just making an excuse to drench your kids in water," Hanabi observed. Despite being annoyed at the girl for ruining his perfect excuse, Naruto was pleased that Hanabi had gotten over the awkwardness and stood next to him.
Naruto nodded happily. "Of course!" The kids groaned at that. "I take every opportunity to torture my cute little students."
"You're a meanie, Naruto-sensei," Hikari said while hugging Tailmon. "A really big, fat meanie."
"I may be a meanie, but you little brats are annoying," he returned in an even happier tone. It was much too fun to mess with children, even one as cute as Hikari. "So I consider us even." Naruto turned to Hanabi again. "So what are you doing here?"
"I was training when I saw your Hydro Vortex from a few training grounds away," Hanabi explained. "It was so powerful," the kids groaned again, "that I thought it was part of some kind of war games that ANBU might have been carrying out. I was curious so I dropped by."
"Even the pretty lady says that it was powerful, Sensei!" Daisuke shouted while waving a fist in the air. "You're being too harsh on us! We're still just kids!"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Whatever," Naruto then smirked, "But Daisuke, if you want to impress Hikari, you need to be a man," His smirk grew wider, "That means, you got to stop being such a little kid and you need to start facing my attacks head-on without complaining."
Naruto started chuckling when that shut the annoying little brat up. Daisuke had a good heart and even a good head on his shoulders, but he was way too focused on Hikari. For now that was okay and Naruto would allow it, but that habit needed to be broken fast. Such feelings became distractions on real missions.
"But what about us?" Takeru moaned as Patamon flew around him. "I want to be a kid for a little while longer." Takeru gave Naruto a pleading look. "Sensei, just be harsh on Daisuke!"
Naruto laughed before he pulled out another storage scroll and tossed it on the ground where it revealed a picnic towel with food on it. "Anyway, all three of you, eat. There aren't any snacks in this one, but I figured that you might be hungry after the training today. You'll have to deal with a sandwich or two for now, but I'll take you guys out to eat later. Consider it an apology for putting you through a mini-hurricane."
He ignored the cheers and walked a few paces away with Hanabi for some space and privacy. "Training?" he looked at Hanabi with a thoughtful expression. He wondered if she was practicing her newest addition to her style.
She nodded. "I tried to use my Burst Whip in battle against a training partner."
Naruto was surprised that she used it out in the open, but nodded. He figured that she needed a real training partner to use it on. He briefly wondered who her training partner was. From what he knew about the girl, her genin teammates had died on missions in the past and she didn't have too many close friends.
"And?"
"I still have issues with range, but I don't think that's ever going to change while I'm using the Gentle Fist style."
Naruto nodded again. "Ultimately, even long-range fighters have an extent to their range. Otherwise, long-range bombers could hit us here all the way from Iwa or Kumo. You just need to have a decent area where your techniques are effective. But I don't think that was your problem. Let me guess. You stood in one spot and tried to chase your partner with only your whip."
Naruto noticed the girl was slightly surprised at that. "Now that I think about it, I did."
"You're still used to fighting in the pure Gentle Fist style even if you've been making modifications to it over the last few years. I told you. The Gentle Fist is about making the least amount of movements to take out the enemy, so it's no surprise that you stood in one spot while following your enemy with your weapon. But you have to remember that even if they might not be physically fast as most close-combat fighters, most long-range fighters are extremely agile and are highly adept at dodging. You'll have to chase them down, not just stay in one place hoping that they'll get hit."
The girl looked thoughtful at that. "Thank you, Lord Uzumaki."
Naruto felt uncomfortable at the long silence that followed that. None of it really made any sense. It wasn't as if he liked her or she liked him. So why did the situation feel so strange?
"Hey, Naruto-sensei! Introduce us to your girlfriend!" Daisuke called out. "She's really pretty!" Naruto smirked at the outraged look on Hikari's face. "No, not as pretty as you, Hikari!"
Naruto laughed at that, but Hanabi looked ready to kill someone.
Naruto looked at her with a smile, inviting her to beat the kid down with a gesture. "I won't tell anyone if you won't tell."
Secret Meeting Place, Kumo – March 5, AK 22
Sakuma Hyuuga found himself in a small poorly lit room, talking to a large one-armed man. The room was much too cramped for a noble such as he, but he would suffer this humiliation for a while. Sacrifices did have to be made. After all, you had to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
Officially, he was in Kumo for a diplomatic mission, but his true purpose was to find support for his plan. His plan to take over the Hyuuga clan.
"We have no reason to trust your word. For all we know, this could be a trap designed by Konoha. In terms of numbers, Konoha is currently the strongest of great villages. How do we know that this is not some ploy to start a war?"
"Lord Raikage, I assure you that Konoha has nothing to do with this. As far a war, you yourself are rather famous for calling us peace-loving tree-huggers. Why would that change all of a sudden?"
"Copy Ninja Kakashi is nowhere near the pacifist that Sarutobi and Senju were and he is ten times the strategist they were. I would not put it past him to fabricate a scenario where he had to go to war. After all, his father was disgraced because of a mission gone wrong against Kumo."
Sakuma was getting annoyed at the inane arguments. "Lord Raikage," Sakuma tried to keep the sarcastic tone out of his voice, "I am sending you documents detailing the layout of my clan's entire compound. If this were a trap, it would be an incredibly stupid one as we are handing you sensitive information about Konoha's strongest clan." Sakuma paused before deciding to throw a veiled insult. "Surely, you have your own intelligence on Konoha and can confirm the truth of my words."
The Raikage didn't seem convinced. "Then, what of the Hyuuga clan? Why should we listen to the words of a Main House Hyuuga who fear the secrets of their Byakugan being discovered? There is no guarantee your documents represent reality."
Sakuma patiently listened to the barbarian ramble in an attempt to be intelligence. It was all a farce. Both of them knew that he spoke the truth and that the Raikage would accept his proposal.
"You know as well as I do that I seek to become the ruler of the Hyuuga clan by becoming either the clan head or the Grand Elder. That should be proof enough. You will never get anything more certain than that in this wretched world of ours."
The Raikage just muttered some profanities before nodding. "Very well then. Kumo shall hear what you have to say."
"We have a window of about a month to carry an attack out," Sakuma explained. "Hanabi Hyuuga will become of age in about three and half weeks. On that day, there will be a challenge match between her and the first princess Hinata. The winner of the match will immediately become appointed as the Crown Princess, which removes the possibility of a smooth take-over on my part. While my wish is to remove both heiresses permanently, it is too much of a difficult task to fully carry out. Instead, I want to use an indirect method."
"Such as?" grunted the man.
If the large oaf weren't a kage, Sakuma would have ended his miserable life right there. Ē didn't have a single bone of dignity in his body. Sakuma felt sick just being next to the despicable oaf. Sakuma cursed fate for forcing him to take power in such an undignified manner.
He should have been the one to be the clan head, not that damned fool Hiashi who had been weaker than his own Branch House brother. If Sakuma had been the clan head, then the Fourth Shinobi World War wouldn't have taken its toll on the Hyuuga clan. Instead of volunteering to send his own clansmen out to the frontlines, he would have held them back in reserve. The rest of Konoha had a duty to protect the nobles not the other way around. Hiashi's sense of duty to a village they owed nothing to was disgusting and unbecoming of a Hyuuga. Hiashi needed to be replaced by someone who would lead the Hyuuga to greatness, not run it into the ground.
"Ultimately, I just need to have the potential heirs out of the way. The first princess has a certain…fetish for undignified brutes," Sakuma spat out, "She is in love with a certain Naruto Uzumaki."
"Uzumaki!" Ē pounded the desk and destroyed it. "I'm going to kill that idealistic brat one day. He talked of peace and prosperity for all. Yet ever since the last war, Kumo has been losing business to Konoha. This cannot stand!"
Sakuma mentally scoffed as he sidestepped the wooden pieces from the desk flying his way. How did such a narrow-minded fool ever become the Raikage? Sakuma had just mentioned of a name and the Raikage went out of control. Ē simply had no control over his emotions, just like that Uzumaki brat.
"I understand your anger and I can sympathize," Sakuma said silkily. "Uzumaki has an unusual influence in our village and his idealism has infected much of the populace. It is rather difficult to enact order when people are shouting about morals."
"Hmph. Well, what is your proposal and what does it have to do with Uzumaki?"
As a kage, you have considerable influence, even in other nations," Sakuma began carefully. It tore at his pride that he needed the help of an idiot like the Raikage, but it couldn't be helped. It would be yet another sacrifice that he had to make to rule the Hyuuga clan. "I request that you use that influence to try and force Uzumaki into an arranged marriage. Konoha has always been averse to conflict and will not be able to refuse."
"It certainly does help us but how does getting Uzumaki out of your village help you?" Ē asked suspiciously.
"Konoha will refuse to marry someone as…" Sakuma paused. It would be painful to compliment the boy, "…powerful as the boy away to someone in another country. Instead, they will force him to marry someone within Konoha to justify a refusal of a marriage alliance."
"I see," the Raikage muttered. "You would have your older Hyuuga princess marry Uzumaki. That would leave only one heiress for you to get rid of, which is where your plan would come in."
Sakuma was impressed. Given how the conversation had gone on so far, he didn't think the Raikage had the intelligence to put that together. "Uzumaki's personality is such that he would not want to be married to someone he does not know. He is…" another pause, "…idealistic as you say and believes in the power of love. My sources tell me that while any young woman in Konoha would love to be matched with Uzumaki, Uzumaki himself is only close to a handful of other girls in his generation. He had been involved with Sakura Haruno, but she is now dead. He also knows the Yamanaka heir and the Kurama heir, but coincidentally, neither of them have any interest in him. It is very likely that our first princess will be the one matched with him."
"What about contingency plans? Kumo does not operate on what is likely. We operate on truth. There is no guarantee that your heiress will be married to him. And if things don't go your way, you would have to withdraw from this operation and we would have just used our political capital in other countries for no reason."
"If Uzumaki choose another girl, I shall either bribe the family to withdraw their daughter as a potential marriage candidate or arrange for an accident to happen. Money goes quite a long way, Lord Raikage."
"Why this roundabout way? Wouldn't it have been easier to wait till one of the heirs becomes the clan head and then assassinate her? With the second heir sealed, that would leave the seat of the clan head open for the taking."
"Foreign powers have already attempted to steal the Byakugan before," Sakuma was careful not to mention that it was Kumo that had tried to do so, "so it would keep suspicion off of me if one of the princesses were kidnapped."
"I see," Ē grunted out again. "Killing an heiress would only invite unwanted suspicion and an investigation. If you can blame it on us, then there would be no investigation along your end. You want to do this before one of the princess becomes the Crown Princess or clan head so that security is somewhat lighter."
"Indeed. If Hinata is sent off in marriage, there will be a time frame where the Hyuuga will pay attention to the marriage and not on our own internal matters. The coronation of the Crown Princess will be set back, giving us more time to prepare and less security to deal with. On the other hand, if the challenge match took place, the coronation would happen immediately."
The Raikage nodded. "Very well, you have our cooperation. We shall sway the public opinion of several countries to push for arranged marriages with Uzumaki. The Land of Spring, the Land of Birds, and the Demon Country all have female rulers. I will notify my contacts in all three countries. As agreed, you will supply the means for us to kidnap the second princess. I believe you said her name is Hanabi Hyuuga, correct?"
Sakuma nodded. "Yes, I will provide an opening for whatever squad you might send as long as they cannot be traced back to me."
The Raikage stood up and left the small room. As Sakuma transformed to a man with green eyes and dark skin, as was typical of those living in Kumo, he smiled.
He was the smartest and the most powerful of the Hyuuga. It was only his misfortune that he was not born into the royal family of the Hyuuga.
He would take by force what is his destiny. In his opinion, both of the princesses were weak because of a genetic flaw. A Byakugan from such weak girls couldn't compare with the Byakugan of the true Hyuuga. The Raikage could celebrate all he wanted, but he would only be getting a defective Byakugan. The Hyuuga clan had no need of such trash anyway.
Sakuma laughed.
In a month, he would be the new ruler of the Hyuuga clan. The new Hyuuga clan would be feared across the entire continent.
Secret Hospital Room, Konoha – March 5, AK 22
Ino pulled her back from Sakura's head and turned to face the other three in the room.
She shook her head to give them her answer.
"There's been no change in her status from a psychological point of view. Luckily, she still appears to be dreaming."
Ino couldn't keep the slight anger out of her tone. When she said "luckily," it had sounded slightly sarcastic. Even after two months her best friend was still incapacitated and showed no sign of waking up. What was worse was that they had no leads on who the culprit was.
"Medically, her muscles are showing some signs of atrophy. It's nothing serious, but even with the nutrients we are giving her through her IV, her muscles are beginning to breakdown from lack of use," Shizune added. "In fact, I'm surprised they lasted almost eight weeks without any atrophy."
"We still have no leads on who did this. I've sent squads of ANBU to Naruto's neighborhood to investigate and there's still nothing."
"Can't you keep checking?" Ino demanded. Her best friend was hurt and the attacker was still at large. She would not give up.
"At this point, we might have to just close the investigation for now," Shikamaru murmured softly. "This is getting us nowhere."
Ino was about to snap at him when the Hokage raised his hand to stop her.
"Ino, I know it's difficult to accept, but we need those ANBU out on the field. Naruto's already been running the gauntlet for the last few years, and he's showing signs of mental fatigue. I can't continue asking him to solo most of the consecutive S-rank missions that he gets. I've sent him on thirty-eight in the last two years alone and he usually gets less than a day in between them as a break."
"Thirty-eight? Solo?" Ino repeated incredulously. She had barely done two in the last six years. Many people didn't survive past three. And that was in squads. "That's one and half S-rank mission per month! Some S-rank missions take half a year!"
"That's why we had to send Naruto. He's incredibly fast at getting missions done. We really did not have a choice," the Hokage explained. "On a given year, we get close to twenty-five S-rank requests. After the war, we were down to fewer than four thousand ninjas including those on reserve. We couldn't afford to send out full squads on such missions with incredibly high mortality rates nor could we have people out on the field for that long on one mission. We would have been weakening ourselves further."
Ino was still flabbergasted at the number. One of her own S-rank missions had been to the Land of the Woods to eliminate the remnants of the vicious Prajna Group that had sworn vengeance on Konoha for an unknown reason. There were rumors that an ANBU division had independently attempted to wipe them out many years ago, but they were unconfirmed. That battle had been the second scariest in her life, after the battle with the juubi during the war. It had been the four Konoha ninjas against twenty-eight Prajna ninjas and she had been the only one to make it out alive. Naruto was doing those kinds of missions solo.
And thirty-eight of those consecutively without rest in the last two years.
Ino turned to look at Sakura. She was torn from wanting justice for her best friend and wanting to help her best friend's boyfriend who was also her childhood friend. Why did those two things have to be mutually exclusive? Didn't they have anywhere else they could cut back on?
"Ino, we've been really short-handed since the end of the last war," Shikamaru repeated the Sixth's words as she nodded. After all, her father had died in the war. She knew that there had been losses. "But the mission requests kept coming though and we did not have the capacity to accept all the requests without making some sacrifices."
"And you're saying that Naruto is just a sacrifice?" Ino hissed. Naruto wasn't one of her closest friends, but she knew how much of a difficult life he has had. Now he was being asked to do even more for the village. "Is that all you view him as?" she demanded. "I'm a psychologist and I know that even one of those kinds of mission can mentally scar even the hardiest of people. You're going to kill him at this rate! If not on the field, then indirectly because he'll take his own life to end the misery! I'm going to do a mental check-up on him the first chance I get!"
The Sixth shook his head. "The Kyuubi's chakra also buffers against mental fatigue so we can push him a little harder than most."
"A little?" Ino felt like screaming. "I still get nightmares from my own S-rank mission. You're having him do that day and night! Kyuubi chakra or not, that's going to take a toil on a human. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Of course…unless you're calling him a demon."
She got some vindictive pleasure when the gray-haired Hokage jerked back as if he had been slapped in the face.
"Ino," Shikamaru said in a low tone. "You're being unreasonable here. That comment was uncalled for."
The Hokage recovered as she gave a scathing glare at the shadow user. She was only looking out for her friends. There was nothing unreasonable about that.
Lord Kakashi sighed. "With Naruto taking the bulk of the worst missions, we were able to keep everyone else alive and training. Now we're almost back to where we were before the war. It's not a great place to be; even those numbers were nothing like the numbers we had before Suna and Oto invaded. Even so, I understand that Naruto is carrying an immense load. I'm trying to give him a break by having him become a jounin-sensei. That's why it's imperative that we end this investigation quickly. We need those ANBU back out on the field."
"Tch." Ino crossed her arms, still not convinced. "I don't understand why all those missions are necessary to begin with. Sabotage, espionage, assassinations. Why do we do those things at all and still claim that we desire peace? No matter how you look at this, we're doing the same things that the other countries are by looking out for only our best interests."
"Ino," Shikamaru groaned. Ino threw him a look. They had had these discussions often and Shikamaru always had brushed her off as troublesome. "We're in front of the Hokage, okay? Just give it a rest. A lot of these missions aren't just for money or to expand our power. Most of Konoha's S-rank missions, as far as the ones that I know of, are counterespionage and protection from assassinations. The assassination orders that do go out are to kill people deemed incredibly dangerous to Konoha. These things need to be done." Ino stepped back when her teammates eyes grew cold, "Or I suppose you rather have the Fire Daimyo killed every other week?"
She sighed. She knew all that they did was necessary, but that didn't mean she had to like it. The last war was supposed to be the war to end all wars and yet, just one year after the war ended, the Grand Ninja Alliance fell apart and the villages were at each other's throats again. Ino suspected that even though most of the shinobi were tired of fighting, the royals and the nobles in the capitals of the countries were still too ambitious and greedy to actually want peace.
"But why Naruto?" she argued. "You're closer to him than I am! You should know just how much he's done for the village. By the end of his career, he'll be nothing but a shell of a human being."
"Ino," Lord Kakashi interrupted, "I'm his sensei. How do you think I feel about doing this to him? Do you think I like torturing him? But," he went on, "being his sensei, I know Naruto can take the punishment and come out stronger for it. And he has. I had and have faith in him. I suggest you have a little more faith in Naruto as well. He's the man who saved us all."
"B…but…" Ino stammered. That was true. It had slipped her mind that Lord Kakashi was probably hurting the most.
"And did you forget that Sakura is another of my precious students as well and the person that my student and future successor loves the most?" he asked in a strained voice. "I take no pleasure in doing this. None! But these things are necessary for the village."
Ino wanted to argue so she looked at Shizune, the one person who might be sympathetic to her cause. Ino found the older woman shaking her head. It appeared that Shizune wasn't too happy either but had either given up arguing or agreed with the Hokage's assessment. Ino sighed. She was glad that she wasn't the Hokage. These types of decisions were way too complicated for her.
"Ino," Shikamaru said in a kind voice. "It's not like Sakura's going to die any time soon. We've already started to uncover parts of the seal. Ibiki's going over those seals with the leading sealing elites and experts in our village every single day to try to break Sakura out of this. We can worry about finding the culprit then. Sakura will understand the sacrifice we have to make to keep her boyfriend…" he shifted around to find the right word, "…sane as you put it."
Ino gave up and just nodded. She looked back at her pink-haired friend. She was just another casualty of the world they lived in. Just how many people had to be sacrificed until the hate and the blood-thirst of the world would be satisfied?
AN: Naruto Chapter 631 pretty much confirms what I thought to be true the entire time. Naruto still likes Sakura. I get the whole let's-root-for-Hinata-because-she's-a-sweet-girl mentality, but come on, that's not going to change how Naruto feels about Sakura. Have you suddenly shifted your affections onto a person solely because you found out that that person loves you? That would be incredibly shallow. And besides, Naruto suddenly falling in love with Hinata doesn't make any sense given Naruto's nindo of never giving up. It would have to take something colossal for Naruto to stop loving Sakura.