Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.
AN: The first part of this will be a scene set in the past. The next part of it will be scenes linked with the next two chapter.
The events in this chapter and the next two will not be in strict chronological order. They will be in general chronological order, but will have some overlaps in time. I wrote out the general time of day for your benefit, but it's probably not going to make everything clear until you see all three chapters. The strange ordering for the scenes in these chapters was done strictly for story-telling purposes. I tried to figure out another way, but I couldn't.
See the Q&A section below.
Kabuto's base, Oto – December 21, AK 21 (Note: This is in the past)
Over the years, Kabuto had gone through Orochimaru's research on Sage Rikudo and his two sons. It was a poorly kept secret that both the Uchiha and the Hyuuga clans were descended from the older son. While Orochimaru had been far more interested in the copying ability of the Sharingan, he did wonder why the Byakugan was so underpowered compared to the Sharingan, which had multiple levels of evolution.
Kabuto kept researching and finally found his answer: the Byakugan too had multiple levels.
That meant that Kabuto had to get his hands on a Main House Hyuuga. He already had cell cultures of Uzumaki cells and Senju cells in his body and had great strength and vitality as a result. Unfortunately, the powers of the older son of Sage Rikudo didn't manifest by simple gene splicing. He needed the actual eyes themselves.
Sasuke was too powerful and had completely disappeared from the Elemental Nations. So the Sharingan was out. One of his subordinates had a dojutsu of sorts but testing showed that those were unrelated to Sage Rikudo's powers. So that bloodline was out.
That only left the Byakugan. And the cherry on top of the cake was that even the relatively weaker Byakugan now had an advanced level like the Mangekyou Sharingan.
Unfortunately, the only problem was that it was almost as hard to get a hold of the Byakugan as the Sharingan. There were many more Byakugan eyes than the three Sharingan eyes out there in the world, but thanks to the Cage Bird Seal that sealed up the abilities if the person died or if the eyes were removed from the body, the number of eyes that Kabuto could use was drastically decreased.
And there was the problem with activation of this new advanced level that he discovered.
In Kabuto's opinion, the advanced level of the Byakugan was harder to activate than the Mangekyou Sharingan. An Uchiha had a rather straightforward method: kill his or her best friend. The pain of the loss of a loved one increased the levels of chakra in an Uchiha's eyes and brain. On the other hand, a Hyuuga had to experience complete despair and hopelessness.
But what defined complete despair was different for different people. Was it homelessness? Or was it imprisonment? Or perhaps, like the Uchiha, loss of loved ones? If Kabuto stole the Byakugan, just what did he have to do to activate those eyes?
It had been a puzzle that he had been working on for some months.
He was currently working on a project that would splice Uchiha genes into a Hyuuga's body in hopes to change the requirement for activation to killing of a best friend. He certainly didn't have a best friend, but he could certainly try killing everyone near him to see if the eyes evolved.
"Lord Kabuto."
He turned around in frustration. Who dared to bother him while he was working?
"What is it?" he said silkily, leaking a bit of killing intent to show that he was not pleased.
"Ah…there is a man who wants to see you…"
Kabuto raised his eyebrow. How did whoever it was manage to find his hideout? While this person made no efforts to sneak in and instead called out for Kabuto's subordinates, it was still unsettling that the man was able to locate where his base was.
Kabuto went out to his throne room where the visitor was waiting.
"Yes?" Kabuto asked curtly, making sure not to drop his guard. What piqued his interest was that the messenger was a Branch House Hyuuga.
The Hyuuga clan wanted audience with him? There was something strange going on here.
"I am a messenger from Lord Sakuma Hyuuga. He wishes to speak with you."
Kabuto raised one eyebrow. Sakuma Hyuuga? One of the elders in the Hyuuga clan?
"Why isn't your master here then?"
The messenger didn't respond but unrolled a scroll in front of him. "Activate!"
He watched in fascination as a projection of Sakuma came up. "Ah, Kabuto, you left my messenger alive. You're much more reasonable that Orochimaru. I heard that he would kill anyone and then ask questions."
Kabuto just stared impassively at that for a few seconds. This fool was underestimating him because he didn't carry a title like the Legendary Three. Kabuto was tempted to roll his eyes. The Hyuuga clan put too much stock into meaningless titles. In the end, what mattered was the possession of power, not respect or acknowledgment.
Well then, it was time to see what he could get and how he could manipulate this situation to his advantage.
"Greetings, Lord Hyuuga." Kabuto said with a tilt of his head.
"You're probably wondering how I managed to find you," Sakuma said calmly. Kabuto gave no response as the man went on. "My Byakugan has evolved." Kabuto rarely showed his surprise, but at that, his eyes widened. Impossible! It had been what he was aiming to obtain for months! "My Byakugan has evolved and I can see your base from where I am now."
"I see…"
Kabuto's excitement at being so close to one of his goals dropped a bit when he realized that Sakuma had not come in person on purpose. Sakuma was a cautious one. The man knew of Orochimaru's obsession with the Sharingan and had wisely taken precautions in case Kabuto was interested in a similar dojutsu.
"But that isn't the point," Sakuma said firmly. "I am here to make a deal with you."
"Oh? A deal? What can someone like me have anything to offer to you, Lord Hyuuga? I am but the head of a humble research base."
"Don't waste my time with that drivel," Sakuma scoffed. "I'm here to offer you the Byakugan."
That sounded too good to be true.
"And the price?"
"Invade Konoha. I will arrange for you to collect the princesses."
Kabuto laughed at that as a plan began to form in his head.
If Sakuma wanted both heiresses removed, then he was making a move to become the head of the Hyuuga clan.
Greed. Those new eyes of his must have gotten to his head.
Kabuto could deal with that.
"Lord Sakuma, you must take me for a fool. Attacking Konoha when Naruto Uzumaki is guarding it would be sheer insanity. I would not make it out alive."
The Hyuuga elder didn't look too happy.
"I merely want you to cause enough confusion so that the village calls out the Hyuuga clan to investigate. The Hyuuga clan security will then be low, leaving you free to kidnap the two Hyuuga heiresses. Surely, you would not give up the chance to obtain the most powerful bloodline in the world."
Kabuto shook his head. "I am just running a research lab here, Lord Sakuma. I have neither the inclination nor the ability to carry out such a task. In fact, I just want to isolate myself from the world and carry out my experiments. It would be a shame that I won't be able to study the Byakugan, but I value my life more than even my research."
"I can reveal your presence here," Sakuma threatened. "I can see evidence of human experimentation. Konoha will come running at you like a rabid dog."
Kabuto smirked. That wasn't a problem at all. After all, Kabuto had plenty of other bases in the country. Sakuma just happened to chance by one of them. "Then please do so. I believe, however, that you'll have to answer many questions about how you manage to obtain that information, Lord Sakuma. You will have to reveal your secret that you have an advanced form of the Byakugan. I am not entirely in the dark about what it would have taken to activate those eyes of yours. Was your form of despair that you would never get your hands on the power that you so deeply believe is yours?"
It was a shot in the dark, but Kabuto knew he struck gold when the man grit his teeth.
Too easy. The man was a simpleton if something like that put despair into his heart.
What a fool.
"Very well, Kabuto. Our business here is done. I have better use of my time than to speak with ungrateful trash who refuse to accept gifts that could change their lives. You lost your chance to get your filthy hands on the greatest bloodline in the history of the Elemental Nations."
Kabuto snorted as the projection disappeared. The Hyuuga was both delusion and narcissistic. The Sharingan was the greatest bloodline, not the Byakugan.
He looked at the messenger who was rolling up the scroll and beginning to leave.
Kabuto smirked. "Well, messenger for Sakuma, where do you think you're going?"
The messenger slowly backed away when he realized that Kabuto wasn't going to let him go. "It's pointless for you to keep me here. My master will activate the Cage Bird Seal if I am late by even ten minutes. I am useless to you."
"Useless? Oh I think not. But don't worry," Kabuto chuckled as he flashed through some hand signs and summoned a snake, "you'll make it back on time. I promise."
With that, Kabuto walked away.
Behind him, Hyuuga messenger screamed as the snake entered his mouth and took control of his body.
Konoha's East Gate, Konoha – April 30, AK 22 (morning) - (Note: back to the present)
Hanabi sat calmly in the palanquin next to her husband, looking every bit like a queen. She had her hair shaped in the same way as Mito Uzumaki and was wearing the traditional white and turquoise-blue robe of the Uzumaki nobles, with a thin gold crown on her head and long golden earrings depicting her status as the highest woman in the Uzumaki clan.
For the last month, she had gotten to know and understand Naruto on a level she never could have imagined. More and more, she realized that her early assumptions of him had been spot on. He was hiding a tremendous amount from everyone. Naruto had never noticed, but Hanabi had kept an eye on him at almost all times. She found that every spare bit of time he had, he was either reading historical books or writing down his thoughts. If not studying or meditating, he was practicing little techniques, using wind to cut down a pineapple or to manipulate the shape of a volume of water suspended above his hand. Each of those times, he had passed it off as a joke or something cool he wanted to do to impress her, but she wasn't fooled; he was practicing, planning, thinking.
Every second of his life was dedicated to improving himself in some way.
She glanced at him. Even now, as he sat with her, dressed in his brilliant black and gold kimono, she could feel him manipulating the wind to keep them from becoming too hot, a manual form of air conditioning. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed it—such was his skill with the wind—but most people also did not have the Byakugan to watch him at all times.
"My Lord. My Lady."
Hanabi opened the sliding window on the palanquin and looked at her orange-haired attendant. "Yes? What is it Sasame?"
"We've arrived. The gatekeepers are asking for identification."
"Very well. Naruto and I will step out."
She and Naruto stepped out and faced the gatekeepers. She was tempted to snort when she saw that it was still Izumo and Kotetsu. Despite their near jounin-level strength, the two of them had no ambition to advance in their careers and were more than willing to laze around at the gate.
"Holy crap! Naruto?! Hanabi?! Is that you?!" Izumo shouted in surprise.
"The two of you look like royalty!" Kotetsu chirped.
She gave them a sharp look. Did they forget that she was a princess of the Hyuuga clan before marrying Naruto?
Izumo held his hands up as he got a sheepish look on his face. "Oh right. I forgot. Hanabi, you already were like royalty for your entire life."
Naruto gave a small pout at that. "What? No apology to me? I'm supposed to be the clan head here!"
Kotetsu thumped Naruto on the back while checking their paper identifications. "Oh come on, Naruto. We've been buddies for such a long time. It's a little too difficult to see you as someone like…well…Lord Hyuuga. No offense, Hanabi."
"None taken," she said simply. It was true. Naruto was bright, casual, and loud. He was the antithesis of her father in appearance and personality.
Naruto laughed heartily at the comment. "I understand. I like acting like a regular person anyway. In any case, just to provide absolute proof that I'm Naruto and make your jobs easier, here. Rasengan," Naruto said as he held up a ball of chakra. Hanabi turned on her Byakugan, more to see what Naruto was doing rather than as her method of proof.
He's practicing again. The multiple chakra streams in that Rasengan are spinning at three times the speed than usual.
She turned her eyes off and addressed the two chuunin. "These are our servants, we…um…hired them before we left, but picked them up after we left Konoha."
They nodded in understanding. Slaves typically had no identification. The only thing that was necessary was the proof of purchase from the owners and the mark on their arms. Each village had a chakra detector that would confirm the presence of the chakra in the slave marks in their arms. The use of slave marks was disgusting, Hanabi acknowledged, but that was just the way of the world. At the very least, they weren't under the constant threat of death like the Hyuuga Branch House members were from the Caged Bird Seals.
Naruto made a clone and turned to all their servants.
"Everyone, follow my clone to the Uzumaki compound! My clone will direct you on what to do once you get there and help you get set up. There's a lot of space in my mansion so don't be shy about taking a particularly large room or something. If you finish unpacking your stuff, take the entire day off! I should be free tonight so I'll treat you all to dinner!"
There were smiles and words of gratitude at that. Hanabi herself had a smile on her face. Naruto treated all of them as if they were members of his family rather than servants. She…she really got lucky with who she ended up marrying. It was almost unfair to all the other girls out there.
Almost.
The real Naruto turned to her. "Hanabi, you ready to go see the masked bastard and announce to the village that the most kickass couple ever in the history of Konoha is back?"
Judging by his excitement, he was in one of his moods today. The mood to annoy someone to the point of insanity.
She just rolled her eyes as him and yelped when he picked her up and flashed away.
Mission Assignment Center, Konoha – April 30, AK 22 (morning)
"But my lord, Naruto won't be here for another three days! He is still on his honeymoon!"
Kakashi groaned. He hated dealing with civilian royalties. At least ninja clan nobles had some semblance of common sense even if they were more arrogant.
The Fire Daimyo had made a last minute visit with his wife to "borrow" Naruto for a week or so. Apparently the Daimyo's granddaughter had turned sixteen and had demanded that her birthday present be a week with the Golden Sun of Konoha.
"But I heard that ninjas can do amazing things like teleport hundreds of kilometers in one second!" Madame Shijimi wailed. "Oh honey, the Hokage is refusing our request! What do we tell our little Megumi?"
"Your Majesty, it is clear that Konoha is trying to use this situation to their advantage so they can obtain more funding! Our lord must teach them respect!" One of the four advisors who had come with the Daimyo said in a dramatic voice.
"Teach them respect, sire!" The other three chanted together.
Another advisor spoke up. "Lord! Our lord has given Konoha his unconditional support for all these years and they spit in our lord's face. Punish them, sire!"
"Punish them, sire!" The other three said in unison while bowing their heads down.
Kakashi started twitching in annoyance at the sheer idiocy of the situation and the dramatic tone that the advisors were using. And he could never figure out how they spoke in unison without any secret signals.
But that didn't change the fact that there was no way they could get the news to Naruto in time. Even by the fastest carrier pigeon, it would take a day or two to get news to the Land of the Moon. Days they did not have. The Daimyo was demanding it be done in the next hour.
After an hour of "discussion," the Daimyo was clearly tired of being told no as well. With a stern voice, he said, "We understand that Our appearance may have been an…" there was a dangerous pause, "inconvenience for you, Sixth. Do this favor for Us and Konoha shall be rewarded." Another pause; "However, deny Us this request and you shall find Our wrath fall upon your village. As a sign of grace, We shall extend the time you have to fulfill Our request until sundown. We believe it is a fair compromise."
With that the Daimyo, his yes-men, and his wife turned and left.
Shizune stepped towards him from the side of the room where she had been watching. "What are we going to do, Kakashi? There's no way we can get in contact with Naruto."
Kakashi didn't respond. He was too busy banging his head on the desk. "Why did I ever decide to become the Hokage?" He glared at the now giggling assistant and lover. "This is all your master's fault. She always did hate me for reading Icha Icha. This must be her way of getting me back."
"If it's any consolation, Lady Tsunade didn't like dealing with them either."
"I'm not consoled by that at all," he groaned. "What are we going to—"
Slam! Swoosh!
"Naruto!" he heard. "Do not carry me like that."
Thud!
"And that didn't mean you were supposed to drop me!"
"Women!" the blonde wailed dramatically while on his knees. "You just can't win with them. Give them what they don't want and they complain but then give them what they want and they complain even more."
Kakashi just stared at the bickering couple as a sweat drop formed on his head. He turned to Shizune. "I haven't gone crazy, right?" He pointed at the formally dressed couple. "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? This isn't some kind of mirage, right?"
Shizune nodded dumbly.
Kakashi didn't know whether to break down and cry in relief or jump up and shout for joy. His prayer was answered!
"Naruto!" he said in a serious tone. "What happened? How are you back so early?"
The couple stopped fighting and looked at him. Hanabi must have realized where she was because she met his gaze and then flushed as she put her face down in a respectful manner. It was then that he really noticed how the two looked. The two looked the part of nobles. Both were dressed in the traditional clothes of the Uzumaki clan. Hanabi looked especially nice, with a crown on her head and her hair set up in buns like the First Hokage's wife.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked in a confused voice. "We're back from our honeymoon."
"A few days early?" Kakashi asked with a raised eye. "Not that I'm complaining since I have a mission—"
"Listen here, you masked pervert!" Naruto yelled indignantly with a finger pointed at him. Kakashi was suddenly reminded of Naruto's younger days when he would call for everyone's attention and shout to the world that he would become Hokage. "You promised me that I had until next week with no missions. Don't try to cheat me out of my hard-earned vacation days! I even compromised and took only a little over a month off. Now you're trying to renege on our deal!"
Kakashi groaned, not even bothering to wonder how and when Naruto learned the word "renege." Naruto chose the worst time to be stubborn. "Naruto, this is an emergency. The Daimyo wants you to be his present to his granddaughter. You need to go satisfy her now."
There was a pause before Kakashi thought about how he phrased his words. It was really poorly worded. He hoped that Naruto didn't misunderst—
There was a huge burst of killing intent that filled the room. Kakashi wasn't too bothered by it, as he had felt worse throughout his life…
…except the killing intent wasn't coming from his blond student.
Kakashi turned to look at a furious Hanabi. Ah I see…someone became a rather possessive wife…He internally smirked. It must have been quite a nice honeymoon if their relationship has progressed this far.
His mood immediately plummeted, however, when he was reminded of the potential conspiracy going on with the Hyuuga clan. Everywhere he turned he was reminded of just how much he hated the job of being Hokage.
"Eh?" The boy was patting his wife on the head in a failing attempt to calm her down. "Didn't you tell him that I'm on my honeymoon?"
Kakashi nodded before he remembered something else. Naruto had arrived into the room with something that appeared remarkably like the Hiraishin. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Before we get to that, I have something else to ask you. Since when did you know the Hiraishin?"
"Huh?" Naruto thought for a second. "Um…since…um…never really used it…why? Why do you ask?"
Kakashi rolled his eyes although they would only see one of them rolling. "How did you get into my office just now?"
Hanabi chimed in. "I never got to ask you the specifics on how you traveled so fast at times. All I know is that you put a seal somewhere and then teleport yourself there through a hole in space-time."
"That's the Hiraishin," Kakashi deadpanned. Well, it wasn't, but the theory was the same. Instead of a hole in space-time, the Hiraishin used reverse-summoning instead. But it didn't look like Naruto was in the mood to explain. Kakashi threw a look at Shizune asking for her help, but mentally scowled when he noticed that she was still in a daze from seeing Naruto arrive three days early. It didn't help that the two looked like royalty themselves. Naruto, in particular, didn't look like his usual self. It was all very surreal. Naruto and noble-like were just about as opposites as Naruto and intelligent.
Not that being less than intelligent was a bad thing, Kakashi had to remind himself. Madara, Orochimaru, Sasuke…they were all intelligent but lacked what made a person truly good.
But speaking of intelligence…A sweat drop formed on his face when he saw Naruto making wide gestures while going through some strange and most likely idiotic explanation about his Hiraishin-like technique.
It wasn't helping that Hanabi was encouraging Naruto to be more difficult than usual. Was Hanabi purposely trying to cover for Naruto?
Kakashi shook his head. No, he was probably becoming too paranoid from all the stress.
"Ah!" Naruto was saying. Kakashi was getting frustrated that Naruto was ignoring him. He started to breathe deeply in order to calm down. Otherwise, he might have decided to kill Naruto right there. Kakashi noted dryly that he was considering shoving his Raikiri through his student's heart more often in the last few months. Perhaps it was time to retire and get a therapist. "The seal I placed on your head is emotionally triggered. The seal is linked with the chakra that flows in your midbrain and limbic system, the general area of your brain that is involved with base emotions. Once your fear of death passes a certain threshold, it lets me summon myself to your location. That's one of the functions at least. There are plenty more, some of quite pleasurable, which I can show you tonight when we—"
"As interesting as this conversation is," Kakashi decided to butt in before Naruto got into too much detail. Kakashi didn't need to hear details of Naruto's sex life at this time. It would only remind Kakashi that he didn't really have time to read Icha Icha all that much. They weren't quite as great or addictive as the original ones by Lord Jiraiya, but they were still a better form of entertainment than his stupid job. Today was supposed to be his day off to go do just that but he was stuck with this issue with the Fire Daimyo. "I'm going to have to ask again how you got into my office."
Naruto rolled his eyes before becoming serious. "I told you the truth. I didn't use the Hiraishin. That was just pure speed. Didn't you hear the door slam open?"
On second thought, Kakashi did hear the door slam open. Was Naruto just that fast? That was a level of speed faster than what Naruto achieved with the Kyuubi Cloak on back in the last war. Kakashi was always assigning Naruto to missions so he never really got to see how far along Naruto was in his training.
"How did you become so fast?" Kakashi asked curiously.
"I did what Shizune said."
Kakashi looked at his assistant. "Huh? What did you tell him to do?"
Shizune had finally broken out of her daze. She shook her head. "I have no idea what he's talking about."
"Liar!" Naruto shouted indignantly. "You told me to eat my vegetables and not to eat ramen so much. You said it would make me stronger and faster in no time! You know how much I had to sacrifice by not eating my ramen? I only did it because the advice came from you! And now you're trying to deny it?!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes and groaned.
He knew what this was about now. Naruto was having one of those days. On random days, Naruto seemingly regressed to how he was when he was twelve…no how he was when he was eight.
Kakashi figured it was a coping mechanism or something. Kakashi had his Icha Icha. Gai had his philosophical beliefs of youth. Yamato got off on staring at himself in the mirror while making "scary" expressions. And well, Naruto just acted like…Naruto.
"Okay, Naruto, what happened that you decided that you had to become faster?" Kakashi rephrased the question. "You were already the fast person in the Elemental Nations."
"Why? You don't like me being fast?! Well, if you don't like it, Kakashi-sensei, you only have yourself to blame!"
"How is you becoming faster my fault? And why are you talking about being fast as if it were a bad thing?"
"Well, you were sending me on so many missions that required me to be all over the place. Unfortunately, I didn't have the youthfulness to do that," Naruto explained while shaking his fist with tears streaming down his face in some sort of tribute to Gai. Kakashi looked away. "The stupid thing was that you would stupidly give me these stupid missions one at a time and I would constantly have to come back to Konoha in a really stupid manner. Like if I had a stupid mission in the Land of Wind, I'd have to stupidly come all the way back to Konoha before I could stupidly go on my next stupid mission to the Land of Earth, which, incidentally, is right next to the Land of Wind. Normally, if I got a week or two of vacation before my next stupid mission, it would have been worth it despite all the stupidity," Naruto shot him a dirty look, "but half the time, I was stupidly redeployed immediately with maybe a day's worth of rest. To compensate for all the stupidity, I developed a special technique where I can place a seal at my destination and place a seal from where I start. I charge up an immensely high amount of chakra and use it for propulsion. It sends me flying at ridiculously fast speeds. Think of it as a slingshot with me as the projectile. The only problem with it when I was first stupidly testing it out, I kept stupidly running into those damn trees. You know how much that hurt?! So then I had to imprint the stupid layout of the stupid land in my head and learn how to unconsciously dodge anything in my path while traveling at full speed. No more running into stupid trees, falling into stupid ditches, or hitting stupid rocks!"
Kakashi blinked, while wondering how he even understood that inane explanation.
"Only you would develop such a ridiculously stupid technique," Kakashi finally muttered, not wanting to think about how painful it was to slam into trees at full speed. "And stop saying stupid so much. It makes my head hurt. Those missions are not stupid. They are S-ranked mission than only a handful of people can even dream of attempting."
"But isn't that why they're called S-ranked though?" Naruto asked with an innocent smile. "You know…S for stupid?"
"Then you and I both are S-ranked ninjas because we're stupid," Kakashi said sardonically. "Masters of stupidity rather than ninjutsu."
"Of course!" Naruto chirped with joy as Hanabi smacked him lightly at his admission that he was an idiot.
"You know…you're insulting me here, by calling me the wife of an idiot," Hanabi said in a flat tone. "That's not nice."
"Well, I'm S-ranked because other people think I'm stupid," Naruto amended. "It's not like I agreed to be stupid." Naruto continued. "But then again, Granny Tsunade always did say only stupid people ended up becoming Hokage, so maybe it's best if I acknowledge that I am stupid. Otherwise, how would I ever stupidly become Hokage?"
"Naruto," Kakashi's head was actually beginning to spin and his vision was beginning to swirl. Naruto was being a hundred times more annoying than usual. It was even worse because Naruto was doing it on purpose. "Please just tell me that you're going to go see the Fire Daimyo. Today is my first day off in months, and I want to go home and read my Icha Icha. I can't do that with you not agreeing to take this mission."
"Okay, okay," Naruto agreed. "I should do it for Pervy Sage's sake. He'd be in tears if I ended up being the reason that a loyal fan couldn't read his smut," Naruto said reflectively. "Even if it is smut that he didn't write himself." Naruto put his finger to his mouth as if to think about that. "Well, then I guess it wouldn't be his smut, thereby absolving me of any responsibility to help his loyal fan out." Naruto started pacing around. "Oh what to do…what to do…"
Kakashi was reaching his breaking point.
"Ugh, Naruto!" Kakashi growled out. "Just accept the damn mission!"
"But I didn't even get to unwind!" Naruto protested. "When I developed that speed technique, it gave me a few days of leeway. Since you didn't know I could travel so fast, I always got to pretend to be on my way back when I was actually doing some of the pleasurable things that Pervy Sage introduced me to. It was the only way I kept my sanity!" Naruto's mood appeared to deflate, "Well, I suppose it's not like I can do those things with other women anymore since I'm now marri—"
"WHAT?!" Kakashi jolted backwards, as did Shizune, at the shrill shriek of rage from Hanabi. "You slept with prostitutes? YOU TOLD ME I WAS YOUR FIRST! YOU JERK! DO YOU TELL EVERY GIRL YOU SLEEP WITH THAT SHE'S YOUR FIRST?!"
Kakashi didn't even blush at that statement because he was completely baffled by the entire situation. Naruto had been speaking incredibly quickly and Kakashi took a long time trying to process Naruto's words after having his brain completely fried by Naruto's long speech of stupidity. Then, Hanabi acted completely out of character and now he was stuck trying to wrap his mind around that.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, I'll meet up with the Daimyo later," Naruto quickly said while dodging several wild swings from his irate wife. Kakashi was speechless and just watched the entire spectacle without another word. "But I'm going to demand more vacation time later on. 'Kay? Bye!"
With that, Naruto tackled his wife and disappeared again with that same swoosh and slamming of the door.
Kakashi turned to Shizune, "What just happened? I wasn't just seeing things, right? That was Naruto, right? And was that really Hanabi? I always thought that she was a calm one. Just what happened on their honeymoon?"
"I have no idea," Shizune managed to sputter out.
Uzumaki Clan Compound, Konoha – April 30, AK 22 (morning)
"Ugh, that nosy bastard," Naruto grimaced as they appeared in their bed. He had been so happy to return home that he had forgotten that Kakashi didn't know he knew how to teleport. Fortunately, he had the foresight to teleport to just outside Kakashi's door and then rush in. Answering annoying questions about the Hiraishin and space-time ninjutsu were not on the top of his list of things to do. Fortunately, he distracted and confused his gray-haired teacher by acting even more like an idiot than usual. Kakashi would probably just try to forget everything he heard from that conversation to keep his sanity.
"You know," Hanabi said from under him. "Not that I mind, but why did you shadow step us straight into bed?"
"First place I thought of!" he chirped happily as he tried to stand up. Hanabi quickly swung her arms around him and held him there.
"You owe me," Hanabi demanded, "I played along back there to get you out of a difficult situation. I want something."
Naruto groaned as he struggled to pull away. "You always want something. I recall you wanting to buy the entire mall in the Land of the Moon just a few days ago," he argued. "And don't I give you everything you want anyway? As long it's in my power, I listen to all your demands. And lastly, you should be honored to have had the opportunity to cover for your husband."
Hanabi smiled. "Well, I'll admit that it was fun. I think I can see why you do that. The look on Lord Hokage's face was priceless. He looked like he was so lost."
"I know, huh?" Naruto smirked at his wife. "He'll recover by telling himself that I'm an idiot. Then he'll just continue to act as if I'm an idiot. It gives the whole hide-in-plain-sight saying a whole new meaning. Anything smart I do will instantly be disregarded. I can get pin stuff on other people if I do it in a smart way."
Unlike others who took his actions at face value, Hanabi really searched for the reasons behind his actions. She had immediately and rather easily concluded that he was faking his personality most of the time. For Naruto, it had been all too easy to continue convincing the villagers that he was an idiot because they wanted him to be a boisterous fool. Hanabi, however, kept trying to dig deeper into his soul. It was interesting how Hanabi probably understood him better than anyone else even though she had only started talking to him for a few months ago.
"That being said," his wife replied, "I don't want you to leave. I'm not going to last a week without you. You said you wanted to unwind. Do that with me now until you have to go."
"I don't think that would be 'unwinding.' It'd probably be more accurate to call that 'winding,' Hanabi."
"Oh shut up," Hanabi muttered "Just take your damn clothes off already! Wind, screw, pound, whatever you want to call it, I want it now!"
"You're freakin' insatiable, Hanabi." Naruto made one last effort to get off of Hanabi before let his weight fall on her in defeat. "Ugh. More missions on the day I get back. And Kakashi-sensei is asking too many questions. This is getting ridiculous. I just want a peaceful break and he can't even give me that!"
Naruto didn't even pay attention as Hanabi's hands slipped inside of his robes and started to rub lightly against his skin. For some weird reason, Kakashi-sensei sounded a bit too suspicious at certain points of the conversation. I'm pretty sure Ino told him that I knew that Sakura was alive but that alone shouldn't have given him any evidence to start suspecting me. Did he and Shikamaru figure out I'm Kokuten? My chakra clone put a seal on her two weeks ago, so she can't possibly be awake. That only leaves Ranmaru as the leak. If they found out my identity as a result of something he did in the last two weeks, I'll kill him for screwing up.
"Oh my!"
Naruto instantly jerked up and turned to see an orange-haired girl. Ah. It was Sasame. He looked down and saw that Hanabi's hand was still inside his robes. Still stroking.
"Um…hi…Sasame, why don't you knock next time?" Naruto groaned as Hanabi turned a brilliant red at being caught doing something…naughty.
"But your clone ordered us to drop of the stuff we brought back into the bedroom, Lord Naruto," Sasame said, as she held up a scroll containing all the merchandise that Hanabi had bought. He raised an eyebrow. The girl was looking at him with a rather strange expression on her face. It was almost as if the girl couldn't decide whether to smile or scowl. Was something wrong with Sasame? "I was only following orders, Master."
Naruto wanted to smack his head. His clone that he had put in charge wouldn't have known that he was in his bedroom with Hanabi. "Okay, I'm clearly using my bedroom right now, so clean it a bit later," he sighed. "And please don't tell the others that you walked in on us doing something…um…intimate."
The orange-haired girl nodded. "As you command, Lord Naruto." She turned to leave but stopped. Facing away from them, Sasame added, "I do want to inform you that walking in on our masters and their ladies is a rather common part of the job. In fact, many female servants are often asked to…um…join in. I…um…I will not…hold it against you if that is what you wish of me in the future. Good day to you, Lord Naruto."
Naruto watched with a wide-open jaw as the girl closed the door on her way out.
Did the girl just say that she wanted to be part of a threesome with him and Hanabi?
Naruto shook his head. That couldn't be right. She must have been teasing.
Sasame was just getting too cheeky for her own good.
Still, he figured it was a good thing that Sasame was becoming confident enough to talk like that. When he had found her, she had been a shell of her former bright self. She would only come to life when they were training together and then revert back to being soft-spoken but serious after they were done training. Naruto had constantly tried to get the girl to open up to no avail and it only made the girl withdraw more. It had been a shame that she wasn't bright and cheerful all the time as she once had been. But now, if that joke were anything to go by, he had nothing to worry about.
He was snapped out of his thought when he felt something in his robes. He looked down.
A blushing Hanabi was still trying to get her hand out of his robes.
"Are you even making a real effort to get your hand out?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. The girl was just yanking on his robe without even trying to untangle her hand.
Hanabi just yanked a few more times while remaining bright red.
Secret Place, Konoha – April 30, AK 22 (morning)
Sakuma Hyuuga once again found himself in the same small poorly lit room he had become quite familiar with over the last month or so, talking to a light blue projection of Darui.
"I heard Uzumaki returned today with Hiashi's second daughter. Your information was wrong. You're lucky that the operation is taking place so far away from Konoha. If this was anywhere near Konoha and Uzumaki had gotten wind of it, we would have risked suffering tremendous losses. Even with the operation in the Land of Frost, with his speed, he might be able to catch us before we are safely in Kumo."
Sakuma frowned, "You have my regrets. He kept us updated on his schedule regularly. Initially, he had been due to come back by the end of the month. Mid-way he extended it to May 3rd, but still ended up coming back today. If anything, we had expected him to delay his return even further. But fortunately, I had a contingency plan in place."
"Oh?"
"One of my subordinates is a genjutsu specialist. She's currently working in the Fire Daimyo's court and acting as the attendant for the Fire Daimyo's granddaughter. Once I had heard that Uzumaki was on his way back from my contacts on the border of the Land of Fire, I took advantage of a situation to get him out of Konoha again."
"What was the situation? Did you fake an emergency situation in the capital?"
"Ah no, nothing of the sort. It's much more subtle than that. It is the Fire Daimyo's granddaughter's birthday today. What better present to give her than a week with the Golden Sun of Konoha?"
Sakuma chuckled at his own brilliance.
"A dull tactic to use a child that like that, but still clever nonetheless, Sakuma Hyuuga," the man said impassively as ever. "Are there any other potential problems?"
"No. Proceed with the operation as planned. No one in Konoha suspects anything, and by the time Uzumaki finds out, he will be trapped in the capital city, babysitting a little girl. He would not dare to leave without the permission of the daimyo. I have instructed my servant to threaten and hold the Daimyo's granddaughter hostage if Uzumaki makes any movement to leave the palace grounds before his time is up."
"Hostage? Your methods are dull as ever. Well, it can't be helped since it's a last resort maneuver, so we will do this your way for now. We have our own contingency plans to use in case we are caught. In any case, currently, my squad is in place, ready to strike at any given time. We will observe her and her teammates for the next few hours or so before striking. It will not hurt to be a bit cautious. No matter what your opinion of her is, Hinata Hyuuga is still a jounin."
This time Sakuma did snort. "And you call yourself an S-rank, Darui? Aren't S-ranks able to take out a full team of elites? Perhaps Kumo's standards are far lower than Konoha's if you are worried about a mere girl and her babysitters."
Sakuma was impressed that Darui did not respond to the insult. Darui was certainly more disciplined than his master. The brute of a Raikage would have roared with anger.
"You will have the rest of your payment upon our completion of this mission."
Sakuma smiled. He couldn't care less about the reward. Nor did he care about whatever Hyuuga branch the Kumo started using the pathetically weak heiress' genes. The Byakugan they were getting was not the true Byakugan that only he wielded. They would just be receiving a defective imitation that did not hold the incredible power of Sage Rikudo.
He let a small smile appear on his face as he activated his far more advanced Byakugan. He would rule the Hyuuga, then take over Konoha, and then conquer the world.
If there was one thing Hiashi's family line had done right, it was creating the Caged Bird Seal. It was quite useful for stamping out resistance. He would have to spread that across the world.
Sakuma cackled uncontrollably as the image of Darui flickered away into the darkness.
Hills, Land of Frost – April 30, AK 22 (mid-afternoon)
"I got nothing, Hinata," Konohamaru muttered. "My clan specializes in forest warfare, but this frost makes it hard to detect anything. And while, I'm pretty sure there's nothing around, there's something not right about this mission. That old man who greeted us didn't seem afraid at all."
Hinata nodded. Even without her Byakugan, she was trained to read people's emotions and thoughts by looking carefully at their facial expressions. Their client didn't seem to be afraid of being attacked by ninjas despite claiming to be so.
"I'm not so sure about that," Mimi Tajiri, her little sister's best friend, murmured. "This place does seem rather creepy."
"Well, that might be because everything is covered in frost," Yamato Takaishi replied as he pushed some frost covered leaves and branches away.
(AN: Yamato Takaishi is Takeru's brother. This is not the Naruto canon Yamato/Tenzo that all of you know. It's just someone with the same first name. For Digimon fans, I chose to give him the same last name that Takeru has instead of using Ishida as Yamato's last name.)
"Hinata, I think it's best if you do a full sweep of this area. You'll be able to see within a twenty kilometer radius," Konohamaru suggested.
Hinata nodded as they continued to walk. Her telescopic mode of the Byakugan was by far the most advanced in her family. The rest of her family sought to see the smallest details; she sought to increase her range. She might not be able to utilize some of family techniques that required extreme precision, but she could warn her friends of danger far better than anyone else. It was more important to protect than to destroy. That was what Naruto had taught her.
To protect those precious to her. It was how she would become truly strong.
"Byakugan!" Hinata prepared to do a visual sweep but gasped as soon as her eyes activated. "Everyone! Don't move!"
"What's wrong?" Konohamaru demanded.
"I can't see anything!"
That wasn't entirely accurate. She could see but she couldn't make out any details in a two-kilometer radius. The entire area was completely saturated in chakra. It was like looking at a bright light in all directions.
"What? Something's blocking your Byakugan?"
Hinata turned her eyes off. They wouldn't be of much help to her in this situation. "There are seals covering the ground, the trees, the frost itself, everything! None of the seals appear to be doing anything other than expelling a fair amount of chakra. I can't make out anything. It looks like I'm in a haze of chakra when I turn on my Byakugan. It's the same concept used in most anti-Byakugan seals, using dense of chakra flow to blind us as it is much harder to see through chakra. But to create something like this in air itself…"
"What does that mean?" Tajiri asked. "Why would anyone just blanket an area with pure chakra? It can't be an anti-Byakugan measure because there are no Hyuuga in the Land of Frost."
"It's a trap," Konohamaru hissed in a low tone. "The mission request promised to give us a bonus if a Hyuuga were on the mission. We agreed to bring Hinata with us because of the extra money, but it seems like whoever sent the request were counting on us to do so. Like Hinata said, a sea of chakra that doesn't do anything but just exist is definitely an anti-Byakugan measure. This was done precisely because they wanted to disable Hinata's ability to fight. The time it would take to set something like this up would be weeks, if not months."
That instantly made all of them wary. They jumped together in a defensive position with backs to each other.
"That's not all," Hinata said in a soft tone. "They must have chosen this particular place because of the snow of the operation because would make it harder for you to escape into the trees, Konohamaru. The frost would make it too slippery to grab or land on the branches properly. It limits your effectiveness in battle."
"This is not good," Takaishi said with a sweat rolling down the side of his head. "Both of our jounin are at a disadvantage here against an unknown enemy."
"No, you're wrong. I'm not too disadvantaged by this at all," Konohamaru said confidently. "It's true that I fight best in forested areas because of my clan techniques, but you're forgetting that my master is Naruto Uzumaki. He taught me how to be an all-around combat specialist. If the enemy thinks they'll catch me off-guard because of this, they're going to be in for a huge surprise."
Hinata didn't even cringe at the name of her crush. She didn't have the luxury to do so. Hinata didn't show it, but she was nervous and wary. Even from the very beginning, there was something really off about this mission. It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission to assess the threat level of an unknown enemy that was suspected to be weak. But now they had somehow walked into a trap that was designed against her Byakugan and Konohamaru's family's style of fighting. This wasn't good if the enemy had prepared to this extent.
Konohamaru seemed to have noticed her discomfort. "Hinata, if the enemy comes, split from us and get out of here."
She protested at that. "They might be after you as well. There are anti-Sarutobi measures here, too!"
Konohamaru shook his head. "I know. That's why I'm not telling you to run away. You said that your eyes aren't too useful in this chakra field, right?" She nodded. "Then lead them on a chase out of this area. Your entire style of fighting revolves around using your vision and you can't do that here."
"But what about you three?" she whispered back.
"No village would openly try to kidnap a Hyuuga or Sarutobi. They'll probably try to be as sneaky as possible and they'll have an alibi ready as well. If their kidnapping plans fail, they'll probably say that a rogue squad acted alone. That limits them to using a small number of people. So I'm guessing that we'll only be facing one four-man squad. We'll have to take them on one-on-one. The rest of us can fight here, but you can't. We'll try to delay the squad as much as possible to give you a head start, but it's likely that one person will be able to pull away immediately and give chase. Head towards the Land of Fire. It's about five hours away but it will make them think that you're actually trying to run instead of drawing them to an area where you can fight. Keep pulling the fight closer to the Land of Fire once you start fighting. We might be able to alert some scouts along the border."
"We got your back, Hyuuga," Takaishi said. "Captain Sarutobi's plan probably has the best chance of success. You can just come back to help us once you're done with your opponent."
"And besides," Tajiri added, "Captain Sarutobi is an elite. Even if it's a full squad of typical jounin-level ninjas, we'll still have the advantage."
Just then, as if on cue, four ninjas landed about five meters in front of her. Her teammates turned from their positions to face the new arrivals.
Hinata's eyes widened when she saw the symbol on their forehead protectors. It was Kumo! She started shivering uncontrollably. Even after over a decade, she still got nightmares about her first kidnapping. They…they were after her again!
"We don't wish to fight," a dark man said as he stepped forward. Hinata felt that the man looked familiar. "My name is Darui," Hinata's eyes widened. It was the former general of the First Division of the Allied Shinobi Forces. An S-rank ninja. "We wish to escort Princess Hinata Hyuuga to our home."
AN: The following portion was written in response to some "glowing" guest reviews and quite a few "supportive" PMs complaining about certain things in the story that they think they understand but don't. There are some spoilers below so you can read it if the rest of you are interested.
I created this Q&A list from all the private messages I got after the last two chapter. I got tired of replying to reviews and PMs that have more curse words than actual words because someone with the reading comprehension of a fifth grader thinks he's the shit. In the future, I'll just direct people to this page.
Q&A – The Price of Peace for Dummies
1. Boranbolt, you're a [insert a bunch of curse words]! Naruto x Hinata forever! Naruto x Hinata is canon!
Response: Naruto x Hinata is not canon. Otherwise, Naruto wouldn't have introduced Sakura as his "girlfriend" to the Fourth Hokage. Also, canon Naruto doesn't give up. That includes love. It doesn't matter how sweet Hinata is or how much she loves him.
It has been implied multiple times in the manga that Naruto loves Sakura. The theme of the manga is that Naruto never gives up. You do the math.
Yes, I know that Sakura doesn't love him. I never said that it'll end up as Naruto x Sakura. I honestly think it'll end up as Naruto x no girl. FYI, I'm not a Naruto x Sakura fan. What I want and what I think will happen are two different things. I think that if Naruto does get a girl in the manga, Sakura would be the one. Given the theme of Naruto never giving up, it's way more likely that Sakura will change her mind than Naruto giving up on her. Naruto may eventually convince her. Talk no Jutsu is the most powerful weapon in Narutoverse; don't underestimate it.
2. So why did you choose Naruto x Hanabi anyway?
Response: I wanted to do something challenging and rare. I put the names of the girls who rarely get any screen time in a hat and drew them out. Hanabi came out first, then Sasame. That's why you have Naruto x Hanabi and will get a mostly but not completely one-sided Naruto x Sasame. Yes, that dynamic was planned from the very beginning.
[Spoiler Alert] Yesterday I finished writing the last two chapters of the story already and Naruto's relationship with Hanabi and Sasame will be quite important to the ending. No, it will not be a harem ending. And no, the ending won't be happening any time soon. I just wrote it because I got bored of writing all the stuff in the middle.
3. Your Naruto is [insert a bunch of curse words]! He betrayed Konoha & Sakura first! He's evil! He's one-dimensional! You're just another [insert a bunch of curse words] author who has Naruto blow up the world!
Response: Fuck you. Learn to make proper inferences from what you read.
To the people who are genuinely confused and want an explanation, however…
Perhaps I haven't made this clear enough. In this story, Konoha is run by selfish and narcissistic clan heads and wealthy representatives who do nothing abuse the law. Naruto brings up his past as an example of how those people in high places manipulated the public to satisfy their own feelings of hate.
In case you missed it from Memory Lane II Double Betrayal, when Naruto explains his motivation to Sakura, I'll repeat it here and give you an example. You can consider it as part of the story if you want.
In the past, Sakuma Hyuuga lost his wife in the Kyuubi attack. He was one of many who did, but he believed that he, as a great Hyuuga, should have been exempt from suffering. He was angry, but he wasn't going to risk everything he had and openly attack an orphaned baby protected by the Third Hokage. Instead, he bribed—in a way that couldn't be traced back to him—a bunch of desperate people in order to get back at Naruto. In short, Sakuma exploited vulnerable people.
That was the purpose of this line:"The only ones who [hurt me] were the ones who had everything going for them: food, shelter, jobs, living families, and in many cases, governmental power. Kurama's attack on the village may have hurt them. They may have lost loved ones. But, their own lives were still blessed and prosperous compared to many others. A widow doesn't have the money to get drunk and attack children, Sakura. An orphan doesn't deny me promotions and bribe small-businesses to throw me out just because I was once the container of the most powerful bijuu in existence."
Naruto forgave the people who directly mistreated him after learning about their situations and after they apologized to him. He did not, however, forgive the people in charge, the very same people who lead Konoha. But it's not because they mistreated him. It's because they are continuing to mistreat others.
See the following lines:
"No, it's not about revenge. I only brought it up to show you examples of how the system was broken. I'm going to fix it. The ones making my life miserable were the ones who thought they were above the Third's laws. His advisors. The village councilors. The richest merchants who bribe officials for favors. The damn system gave them that power. The power they still use today to trample on the weak. I've forgiven people for how they treated me, but I will not stand and watch as they extort and threaten those they consider beneath them."
"…For the last six years, I failed. Much of the money I poured into the orphanages went towards lobbying instead of the children. The safety net I created is more likely to be used as an emergency fund during war than something that helps those who need it in times of peace…I'm going to make sure that the haves can no longer abuse the have-nots. I've given up trying to do that through Konoha's system."
If you want a solid example, imagine something like this. Sakuma goes to the head of the orphanages and tells them that he'll cut village funding for the orphanages if they don't pay him money. Since it's better to lose something like 10 percent instead of everything, the head of the orphanage pays him off. The ones who lose out are the orphans.
And that system pisses Naruto off.
Naruto is going to topple the village system to get rid of corruption, not to get revenge.
4. So what exactly is Naruto going to do?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] He's creating his own village right now. It's going to be a haven for people who want out of their village or people who need a home. He is not going to start a war. He will not be razing Konoha to the ground. In fact, from this point out, I don't think Naruto will even kill a single person.
So stop with the stupid accusations that I'm just getting my jollies from having Naruto stomp on everyone.
5. Why is Naruto godly?
Response: Ah, finally, a legitimate question that can't be answered from the material in the story so far.
First, this story was going to be Naruto x Hanabi. That was non-negotiable. For that to happen, enough time had to have passed for Hanabi to grow up. I chose the minimum possible. Six years to get Hanabi up to age 17-18. But six years is also a lot of time for Naruto to get even more powerful than he already was.
Second, I'm tired of canon Naruto's idiocy. So my Naruto wasn't going to be an idiot. He wasn't going to be omniscient or whatever, but he was going to be deadly for more than just his power. Also, he was going to have better way of defeating people than accidentally farting in their faces and using Talk no Jutsu.
That leaves us with three facts: Naruto now knows the secret to shadow clones, has six years to abuse the hell out of it, and has enough brain cells to know that he can abuse the hell out of it.
Now for some math. Let's assume that Naruto has 500 shadow clones (which is double the number he used with version 1 of the Kyuubi's chakra) training a minimum of three months a year. That gives us 500 clones X 6 years X 3 months per year = 750 years of training.
Furthermore, he can afford to split his chakra even when he goes on missions, so the effective time he trains is even more than three months.
I don't care how untalented anyone is. Over a thousand years of training with peak body condition will make you a beast in every single field. That's the reason why Naruto is godly.
6. What is this whole physical energy & spiritual energy stuff? Why are you putting in the Gelel Stone into your story when Naruto and Temujin destroyed it in the movie?
Response: Because Naruto is so overpowered.
First – I put a finite limit to human strength. But with over a thousand years, Naruto would have reached the limit too quickly. So I forced him to improve his versatility rather than power. He knows genjutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, etc. He had time to read up on strategy and politics. However, that versatility also made him overpowered in a different way because now, now, he has no weakness besides overconfidence and tunnel vision.
Second – So I created this whole concept chakra nullification to lock away all of Naruto's strength. He still needed something to fight with so I introduced spiritual and physical energy & the Gelel Stones. Naruto's still powerful, but he's not quite godlike with just yin and yang.
Note: Naruto is unable to use shadow clones to accelerate his training in yin & yang and he's not going to be able to use chakra clones at the rate he needs to reach godlike level because he'd be cutting his lifespan.
7. What's the point of this whole Hyuuga conspiracy stuff?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] Threefold (1) To show that even Naruto makes mistakes (2) To provide Hanabi the chance to find out Naruto's true identity (3) To set the stage for the final battle of the story, which won't be happening for a long time.
8. Why did you spread apart these "memory lane" chapters?
Response: Initially, they weren't planned at all. I just wrote the first one as a bonus chapter. It was incredibly rushed and I didn't portray Sakura in the way I had initially intended. So the next day, I had ten PMs by the next day saying that this story should be a Naruto x Sakura, which as I already explained multiple times, won't be happening.
I couldn't post the second one immediately because I portrayed Sakura in too good of a light in the first one. I had to figure out a way to make absolutely sure that the betrayal/breakup was satisfactory. That took weeks of thinking and thinking. Meanwhile, I had a bunch of other chapters that I wanted to post. So there you have it.
Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of the third person, limited view to solve the problem. In Memory Lane: Naruto & Sakura, everything was in Sakura's POV and the reader could sympathize with her. In Memory Lane II Double Betrayal, I also wrote in Naruto's POV to show that there was some level of miscommunication going on.
This way, it didn't matter that Sakura was good as long as Naruto didn't know it. In case you were wondering, Sakura loved Naruto far more than Naruto thought.
But actually, I was just covering my ass from portraying her as too good from Memory Lane: Naruto & Sakura. Thank you, third person, limited POV. Haha.
9. Is Naruto stronger than Sasuke?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] Yes. I'll even put in a scene where he bitch slaps Sasuke. Haha. Just kidding. Maybe.
10. People know about Naruto's Sage Mode! They should know he's a sensor!
Response: From what I remember, in the manga, he only told Tsunade, Shikaku, and Inoichi about Sage Mode's sensory abilities. Let's just say that they kept their mouths shut out of respect.
11. Why can't Naruto just sense everyone using Sage Mode/Kyuubi Mode?
Response: I intentionally limited Sage Mode's effectiveness in this story. I made it so that Naruto has to sift through all the chakra signatures manually to find someone instead of just magically knowing where someone was.
As for Kyuubi Mode, it detects killing intent. Karin wasn't leaking killing intent towards Naruto every second of her life. Some of you might argue that Kyuubi Mode detects evil. That interpretation is fine, too, but good luck trying to sort through all the evil out there because the Land of the Moon had a lot of merchants planning on ripping off tourists. That's pretty evil too, you know.
Remember, I'm trying to weaken Naruto as much as possible instead of trying to power up everyone else a la DBZ.
12. What's the significance of Naruto's students? Why are you even putting them in the story?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] Their digimon don't use normal chakra. Konoha needs a way to fight Naruto. Hint. Hint.
13. Where are the bijuu?
Response: They disappeared after the Fourth Ninja World War. They are sealed in the moon and are sleeping there. No, they won't be an important part of the story.
14. Who are Naruto's closest followers?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] As of now, in the order of "rank," Sai, Sasame, Hokuto, Ranmaru, Akio, Yukimaru, Yuna. There will be additions in the future among people already introduced in the story. Hint. Hint.
Yuna is the only true OC. I introduced so many of the filler characters to replace people like Tsunade, Jiraiya, Itachi, and Neji who could have potentially been on Naruto's side.
15. What is Sasuke's goal?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] Naruto and Sasuke are trying to do the same thing. They're both trying to create a new world order. They both want to crush the great village system.
Naruto is doing that through economic means. He's planning on bankrupting the great villages by crippling their labor force (he's taking away the workers, the people the rich tend to exploit).
Sasuke, however, is taking a more military approach; Sasuke is trying to bring the great villages to their knees. Also, Sasuke has a personal vendetta against Kakashi and the Konoha clan heads for covering up the truth about the Uchiha massacre again.
If you find Naruto to be similar to Sasuke, Pein/Nagato, Madara, and Obito, that's because it was designed that way. In Memory Lane: Double Betrayal, Sakura said the following:
"...The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You're walking the same path as Madara, Orochimaru, Itachi, and Obito. They both thought their method of living was the only answer."
I'm trying to show that there's a fine line between good and evil. Naruto is not purely good (i.e. he's indirectly responsible for deaths that Kabuto caused with the Dispersion Seals) and Sasuke is not completely bad (i.e. he does value Karin now). I'm trying to make these things subtle instead of making things purely black and white. Given the hate mail I've been getting, people clearly don't appreciate or understand things that they have to use their brains for. Considering that most of the people complaining about this issue are the same ones who seem to believe that Naruto x Hinata is the only way for a story to be good, I'm going to stick with that belief.
No offense to any real thoughtful Naruto x Hinata fans.
16. Explain Kakashi's relationship with Naruto. Is Kakashi an idiot? How does he not know Naruto's skill set?
Response: [Spoiler Alert] Kakashi values Naruto; he truly does. Kakashi is proud that Naruto is strong and has the ability to inspire those around him. But at the same time, Kakashi looks down on Naruto. He thinks that Naruto just doesn't know any better most of the time. I'll be touching upon this in the story later on, but Kakashi can't help but compare Naruto to the Fourth Hokage. The Fourth Hokage was quiet, rational, and smooth, whereas Naruto is loud, reckless, and brash. Unconsciously, Kakashi resents Naruto for dishonoring the Fourth's image and memory by being who he is.
Once again, thanks to TheOneSage for beta reading this. I changed some stuff up after he did, so there might be minor errors here and there because I didn't want to proofread again.