Hey guys, next chapter, got really bored of studying an introduction to telecommunications so I thought I'd write this up, it's a long one so if there are any mistakes or anything I'd appreciate you letting me know :)
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The Champion of Clan Namikaze
Chapter 13: A Wild Sannin Appears
Tsunade's eyes narrowed as she continued towards her appointment with a poker table, "Hmmm,"
"What is it Tsunade-sama?" her pseudo-niece and assistant Shizune asked as she carried Tonton, a small pig, along beside her.
The older woman shook her head, "It must have been nothing, but I swear I could feel someone watching us, someone I know. Let's go, I've got some money to win!" She walked toward one of the casinos she miraculously didn't owe any money to yet.
xXx
"So where did she go?" Sasuke said with his hands in his pockets as the group stood in the middle of the street. He would have been reading but Jiraiya had suggested not to bring the book, he wasn't sure why.
He'd mentioned something about facing the wrath of the devil while in the presence of two angels. Man that pervert was weird.
"How do you lose breasts like that brat! I thought I'd taught you better!"
Taught? Sakura didn't like the sound of that, but before she could assault either of them she noticed who else was missing.
"Hey, did anyone see where Naruto or Karin went?"
Both of them looked around blankly, having not realized the two were gone and shrugged.
"Great, so we come to find someone and we lose two people; oh well I guess we better get looking," Sakura sighed; she would punish the perverts later. For now they needed to find Tsunade, Naruto and Karin.
xXx
"Come on Naruto-kun," Karin said as she pulled her boyfriend through the crowded streets with one hand and adjusted her glasses with the other.
"What? Where are we going, and why did we leave the others?" Naruto was confused.
"Oh lighten up, I haven't been able to leave the village in a month, let alone the house, and I want to do something fun with you! Without everyone else," She added, "How about we go and gamble some of our money!"
"You mean my money,"
"Yeah that," She said with a smile.
"What about Tsunade? What if she leaves?"
"She won't. I can find her with my Minds Eye of Kagura. Now lets have some fun!" she pulled him even harder towards the nearest casino.
"Your what?"
"I'll explain later," Karin said, trying to get her boyfriend to relax. Sure he had a group of S-rank ninja after him, he'd explained that much to her, but it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy time with her.
The roulette table in front of them seemed like a good enough game.
"Here Naruto," She stopped and slammed the 10000 ryo she'd nabbed from his coat pocket on black.
xXx
(30 Minutes Later)
"HEY! YOU CAN'T KICK US OUT!" Karin was furious that they'd do something like this.
The bouncer, a tall man with black hair wearing a suit, just looked down at her, "You were suspected of cheating, and have been asked to leave the premises you annoying little girl,"
Karin got a dark look in her eyes and a twisted smile played on her lips, a look Naruto knew to be afraid of by now, but she was knocked over by an older woman storming down the street before she could make the bouncer rue the day he messed with her. A woman who happened to have huge breasts.
"Hey! Watch where you're going lady!" she yelled from the ground as Naruto helped her up.
"We are terribly sorry," A woman with black hair said from beside her. Strangely she was carrying a pig.
"I'm not sorry, the little runt was in my way," Tsunade said sourly.
"Who are you calling a little runt Baa-chan!" Naruto said from his position next to his girlfriend.
Karin's heart would have fluttered at her boyfriend's defense of her if she wasn't angry at the woman in front of her.
Shizune paled, Tsunade fumed. She'd just lost a ton of money, and now this little blonde brat was calling her old!
"DO I LOOK OLD TO YOU BRAT?" She pulled her fist back.
"No! But I know how old you are Tsunade Baa-chan! You're the same age as Ero-sennin" It hadn't been hard for Naruto to recognize the woman again. Not with assets like that.
She hesitated slightly in her punishment of the boy. Konoha ninja? ero-sennin? Jiraiya. what does he want now?
"Hey! Tsunade!" The booming voice of Jiraiya said as he moved down the street toward them. He was accompanied by two young ninja with Konoha headbands,
"Where the hell have you two been," he said to the genin before taking note of the situation, "Errr what's going?"
"This little brat called me old," Jiraiya paled, "So I thought I'd teach him a lesson."
"Like you could teach me a lesson!" Naruto said, both angry with the woman, and confident in his abilities.
Jiraiya could only laugh, causing the medic nin to glare at him.
Tsunade turned back to the kid and not a moment later a fist slammed into the street right where Naruto had been standing.
"Where did you go you little shit,"
"I'm right here baa-chan!" Naruto said from his new position next to Sasuke. She was about to charge the little boy down again before Shizune asked a question that she was actually interested in.
"It's good to see you again Jiraiya-sama, but why are you even here? What do you want with Tsunade?" She was as polite as ever.
"Whatever it is the village wants it's not getting it from me," Tsunade said.
"Actually, it's my apprentice here that wanted your healing services."
Tsunade had somewhat put a halt to her rage and Jiraiya capitalized on the lack of killing intent, "Let's go get a drink and we can discuss it, the brat can pay."
"HEY!"
"Well if I'm not paying…," Tsunade wasn't about to turn down free drinks, not with what her day was going like so far.
Shizune could only sigh, it wasn't even lunchtime. But it had never stopped Tsunade before.
Sakura and Sasuke had pretty much had enough of Jiraiya in the thirty minutes they'd spent with him in the town. He'd hit on every single half decent woman they'd seen and with a little urging from Sakura the two of them left to go find something more entertaining to do.
The rest of the group found a small bar that wasn't going to kick them out on sight and sat down.
"So, not like it matters, but what does the little shit want me for?" Tsunade was refusing to acknowledge the blonde that referred to her as Baa-chan.
"I need you to help my friend, the medics in Konoha can't do anything to heal him, and he'll never become a ninja again if you can't help him," Naruto spoke up rather than have Jiraiya explain the situation.
"Why should I help him become something that he failed at in the first place? He should give up. Being a ninja is a foolish dream."
"I don't like your attitude Baa-chan!"
"And I don't like you at all brat, who do you think you are?" She thought back to when he'd seemingly disappeared and reappeared. This kid was strange.
"I'm Naruto Namikaze, and I'm going to be Hokage! And if you don't like my dream I don't care, because it's gonna be a reality, dattebayo!"
It still felt weird introducing himself with his father's surname. Originally, after he'd found out, he'd wanted to keep it a secret. Obviously the less people that knew the better, his father had enemies after all. But after the Chunin Exam word was going to spread anyway, people had put two and two together.
He was proud to be his father's son and felt no need to hide it from the world any longer. To be frank he didn't care what enemies his father had, if they had a problem with him they could take it up with his fist.
Tsunade almost coughed up her drink when she realized who this kid was and what he'd done outside. So the rumors were true. The Yellow Flash of Konoha was back.
"Right, well it doesn't change the fact that you probably won't even make it to the age where you'll be considered for Hokage," she said bitterly, "And what do you have that would make me want to return to Konoha? So far all you've given me is that I'll be helping some kid's dream. A dream that I don't even agree wit-,"
"Money," Naruto said before she could finish, "If you won't return to your home village because it needs you in someway then I'll just have to pay you,"
"What? With pocket money? How could a kid like you afford the services of a ninja like me," She had an arrogant look on her face until Karin pulled a wad of cash out of her pocket and dropped it on the table.
"That is quite a lot of money," Shizune said simply as she stared wide-eyed at the cash on the table. Tonton oinked seemingly in agreement.
"Three hundred thousand ryo," the red haired girl said, confirming that it was indeed a fair sum of cash for a child to be carrying around.
Jiraiya and Tsunade could only stare dumbfounded at how much money Naruto and Karin had on them.
"What? We went to the casino earlier," Naruto said casually when they started giving him weird looks.
"Wait?" Jiraiya said, trying to clarify, "You won all of that today? In half an hour?"
"Yeah we got kicked out because they thought we were cheating eventually, even though we so weren't! How can you cheat at roulette! But that was the stuff we'd won before they booted us," Naruto explained, Karin nodding for confirmation.
HOLY CRAP THAT KID HAS SOME LUCK. And that's a lot of cash for a healing job, maybe if I help this kid out his luck will rub off on me. Tsunade, as much as she disliked the brat couldn't help but accept the offer now.
"Okay, I'll come back to heal this kid. But don't expect me to hang around," Tsunade said to Jiraiya. Shizune was glad that she was going back to Konoha too, even if it was only for a little while.
"I'm assuming with that jutsu of yours we can be back in Konoha almost straight away?" she asked Naruto.
"Yeah, do you want to go check on him now?"
"The sooner we can get this over with the better," Tsunade stood, and Naruto reluctantly paid as they left the bar.
xXx
(Later that Night – Namikaze House)
Naruto had taken Tsunade straight to Tenten through the use of the Hiraishin no Jutsu and the brown haired girl had nearly fainted from excitement. Once she recovered, the girl had taken Tsunade and Shizune to the hospital to visit Lee.
The diagnosis at the moment was that his chance of recovery was small and that the procedure would take a while to prepare and complete so they'd start it in the morning. Which meant in the meantime that Tsunade needed a place to stay.
Jiraiya, being the gentleman (read: pervert) that he was, offered Tsunade a place to stay at Naruto's and Tsunade, being the polite (read: cheap) person that she was, gratefully accepted.
Needless to say while Naruto was glad that she'd accepted to help Lee at all he wasn't happy with this woman staying the night. But there wasn't much he could do about that now.
Sasuke and Sakura had called for pick up later in the afternoon but wouldn't elaborate on exactly what it was they'd been doing in the gambling town.
After they were all back they'd introduced themselves properly and the female Sannin had been surprised to learn that Karin was an Uzumaki.
Now Sasuke was sitting on the couch downstairs reading, and Sakura had gone home. Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto and Karin were around the dinner table eating while Shizune and Tonton were already asleep.
"So brat, what does this kid mean to you for you to pay me such a large amount of money to fix him?"
"He's just a friend, why does it matter to you, you're still getting paid," frankly Naruto was still annoyed at this woman's attitude, even if she was helping, she was being paid to. It wasn't out of the goodness of her heart for the village that she'd grown up in.
"Just a friend? And you'd blow that cash on him?"
"More if I had to," her eyebrow raised, "But we've already agreed on a price," Naruto said, causing Tsunade to look slightly disappointed.
"Why though?"
"Why should it matter?" Karin spoke up from the table, "A medic-nin is supposed to try and help anyone that needs help, whether or not you like them, you should know that,"
"Fancy yourself a little medic then?" Tsunade said to the red headed girl, getting a stern nod, "Well doing that isn't going to help me pay my bills," she added before Naruto continued, drawing her attention.
"I'm doing it because he's my friend and he has a dream that he won't fulfill if you don't help him. He spends so much time cooped up inside and if you knew him you'd know how hard that is for him. I know how I'd feel if I couldn't fulfill my dream,"
"What? To become Hokage? Give it up kid, before you die trying," the look on Tsunade's face confused Naruto, like she had mixed feelings on the matter.
"No, I won't give up on my dream no matter what,"
"Yeah whatever, keep telling yourself that when you're bleeding out,"
Jiraiya wasn't going to interrupt, but he wasn't happy with what was being said by his old teammate. While he wouldn't speak up though, Karin would.
"You don't know what you're talking about Baa-chan, Naruto-kun is the greatest ninja I know, he saved me from Orochimaru,"
At this Tsunade was surprised.
"He fought Orochimaru?" She looked to Jiraiya for confirmation.
"Yeah the little brat is pretty crazy when it comes to fighting, thanks to the Hiraishin no Jutsu and the other tricks he has," Jiraiya had finally spoken up from his position on the table, "He might not have been able to win, but he's twelve. No twelve year old would be expected to even survive 10 seconds against Orochimaru. He managed to save Karin here from a rather untimely demise from the way she tells the story,"
"Look I don't want to be having this conversation," Naruto said, "Baa-chan here obviously hates anyone with a dream to become a ninja, I'm not going to give it up, so I'm going to bed," He really wasn't in the mood to deal with her attitude. After getting up and saying goodnight to Karin with a quick kiss he Hiraishined away.
"Why have you got such a problem with him wanting to be Hokage?" Sasuke said from his position on the couch. He'd been reading, but it didn't stop him listening in.
Now Tsunade was the one to look a little uncomfortable, "Because it's a foolish dream. I bet he just wants to be Hokage for the glory,"
"Not really," Sasuke said, not bothering to look up from his book, "He wants the recognition of being a great ninja yes, but more importantly he wants to be Hokage so he can protect the village and the people close to him. I don't think that's a foolish dream. He can do it to. If anyone else were to say that to me I wouldn't believe them. But Naruto's different."
"Yeah yeah whatever brat," Tsunade tried to play down the fact that what he'd said affected her and she got the perfect opportunity to change the subject when she saw exactly what it was Sasuke was reading.
Turning toward Jiraiya, "Jiraiya, why is a twelve year old reading your smut," she said with a threatening voice and a fake smile.
"Uhhh yeahhh," before he could come up with a good enough excuse she'd clobbered him over the head.
"Stop corrupting the next generation!"
Sasuke and Karin could only laugh at what had just unfolded between the two teammates, until Tsunade turned to Sasuke and cracked her knuckles, "You're next,"
Now it was only Karin laughing, until Sasuke started to say something about her reading Icha Icha as well.
"Right, like any woman would read smut like that," Tsunade said, turning to the redhead to see what she thought of Sasuke's "excuse" only to find the girl's seat empty.
"Okay well if she's not here I guess you'll do," she turned back to Sasuke. Maybe if she got him young she could beat the perversion out of him before it was too late.
Now Sasuke knew why Jiraiya hadn't wanted him to bring the book.
xXx
"Hey Karin," Naruto said when she'd climbed into bed with him after her tactical retreat from a rampaging Tsunade, "What did you mean earlier when you said you could find Tsunade with your Minds Eye of Kagura?"
"Oh, I guess I never really explained how I could feel Orochimaru when he was at the tournament. I have a sensor technique that in short allows me to detect and locate people over pretty large distances."
"How far are we talking?"
"At the moment eight kilometers is about my max."
"What! That's incredible. Hmmph no wonder you can always find me when we train," Naruto just kept being more and more surprised by the girl who had just been dropped into his life about a month ago.
"What are you going to do with Samehada?"
"Use it of course,"
"How? You can't even swing it properly at the moment,"
"It likes me, and I like it, and I need to get stronger. It can help me with that, and you can too. I'm just going to need someone to help me learn how to use it."
"I could train you?"
"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but using a tanto is a little different to using a sword that is bigger than you are. Train me in everything else. But I need to find someone to train in kenjutsu if I'm ever going to be strong enough to protect you from these Akatsuki guys,"
"Yeah like I'll let you-,"
She placed a finger on his lips to shut him up.
"I don't have a say in the matter do I?"
"Nope, now go to sleep."
xXx
The next day while Naruto and Karin trained, and Sasuke and Sakura once again disappeared. Tsunade and Shizune spent most of the day operating on Lee. By the time the operation was finished they were successful, but exhausted.
That night when Jiraiya and Tsunade were out getting drinks, the woman turned to him, "I think I'm going to stay a little while longer,"
"Hahaha, the brats getting to you?"
She huffed, not wanting to admit it, "Shizune likes it here, that's all," She said, trying to hide the truth.
Jiraiya could only laugh at the badly executed lie.
"I'll talk to Naruto, I'm sure he'll let you stay longer when I let him know you're an Uzumaki."
"Why would he car-, oh yeah, his mother was an Uzumaki wasn't she?" Tsunade said, thinking back to what she actually knew of the girl. She'd never known her in person, but she'd remember seeing her running around the town with that striking Uzumaki hair and she'd heard stories from the Jounin.
That and Jiraiya was always filling her in on his star student. She'd been surprised when she heard that Minato was married.
"Her name was Kushina, and yes she was. You, and the two kids are probably the last Uzumakis alive. I figure it's only poetic you all live together," Jiraiya said with a badly hidden grin.
"You don't think it's poetic. You just think it'll be funny!" Tsunade threw her glass at him, before getting another and pouring herself a new drink, "Still it'll save me money. I'll just have to put up with him and that redhead."
"Good it's settled, I'll talk to sensei about getting you a top position in the hospital as well,"
The woman only nodded. As much as she hated to admit, it was kind of nice being back home.
xXx
Naruto wasn't exactly happy about giving out another of his guest rooms to 'Tsunade Baa-chan' for another night, but she seemed a little easier to get along with when she came back with Jiraiya.
I mean she'd be out of his hair soon enough, she was just staying for the night and then leaving the next morning. Or so he thought until Jiraiya pulled him aside when they got back.
"Okay kid, here's the deal, Tsunade has decided that she wants to stay in the village a little longer. She doesn't have anywhere to stay really so I offered her a place here indefinitely."
"You can't just go around offering rooms! Give me one good reason why I should let her stay here."
"I'll give you two brat. One, she's an Uzumaki," Naruto's expression softened a little, "and two, because she is one of the greatest ninja I have ever met and she could likely teach you a thing or two," the last reason humbled the little blonde a little and Naruto knew Jiraiya was right.
He still had so much to learn. Maybe if they could get off to a fresh start then things would be okay between the Sannin and the blonde. He couldn't guarantee what Karin would say though.
"Okay, but you do realize you are going to pay for this right?" Jiraiya just laughed as the boy looked at him threateningly; until he released the repertoire of skills Naruto had at his disposal, blanching a little, "Exactly ero-sennin, exactly," Naruto said when he was sure Jiraiya knew who he was messing with.
Walking up to the chest heavy medic-nin he paused, "Tsunade Baa-chan, I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot and I still think that your opinion on my dream is stupid, but if you want to stay here then that's okay with me,"
Jiraiya was shocked at Naruto being polite, and then he facepalmed at the fact that he'd still managed to call her Baa-chan and disregard her opinion.
"Yeah okay kid, you still gonna call me Baa-chan?"
"Yep,"
She couldn't help but sigh, a smile playing across her face before she launched him across the room. "Still calling you Baa-chan," He shouted over his shoulder as he hurried up to the library, pulling out a scroll on sealing and poring over it.
He still had so much to learn. Everything else he'd learnt so far he could practically brute force his body into learning through the use of shadow clones. This he had to understand. Sure a few shadow clones might help, but he still needed to learn the forms and the art of fuuinjutsu before he brute forced any training for it.
He wanted to try and invent his own seals after all, and clones wouldn't help there.
"Can you show me how to do that?" Karin said from the door.
The blonde smiled as he turned around and beckoned her over, "Sure."
He spent the next few hours teaching the girl closest to him as much as he could, glad she was a fast learner, before a thought crossed his mind.
"Karin-chan?"
"Yes?"
"How much chakra do you think you have? I was thinking earlier about your Mind's Eye of Kagura, and a technique with a range like that would take massive amounts of chakra or extreme chakra control, probably both. Don't you ever get tired from using it?"
"I'm an Uzumaki, so I guess I have a lot. I've never really thought about how much I have Naruto-kun, but I don't ever get tired," she winked at him when she said this but the insinuation flew straight over his head. She really needed to get him to read Icha Icha or get him up to speed somehow. She could definitely think of more interesting ways than him reading Icha Icha.
"Well how about I teach you the first real technique I learnt and see how well you can use it?" He proceeded to show her the steps to the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and it wasn't long before she looked like she'd be able to do it.
"Okay," he said, looking around, making sure that if a bunch of Karins burst into existence they wouldn't break anything.
"Try it with a medium amount of chakra."
The girl went through the necessary motions for the technique and twenty Karin clones burst into existence, cramped in the tiny room before dispelling again.
"Wow, twenty clones is pretty good, I don't think you should try putting more power into it until we go outside," to Naruto it made sense; she was an Uzumaki. The reason he had even more massive reserves was simply due to having the Kyuubi inside of him since birth.
Karin just nodded, her mind swimming with the possibilities of what she could do to Naruto if there were even just two of her. And then she realized he could do the same thing.
She managed to hide the slight nosebleed on her face quite well from the boy sitting beside her.
xXx
The next day everyone was standing in the grounds of the Namikaze household waving farewell to the perverted man that was practically their guardian, as pathetic a guardian as he was.
"Make sure you get good material for the next one," Sasuke said from his position in the lineup, a lineup that included three now angry looking women in the form of Tsunade, Sakura and Shizune. Sakura was the closest, and therefore the first to smack him over the head.
She couldn't help but think that maybe she was going about it the wrong way. Hitting him wasn't producing any results; he was still as perverted as usual. She'd have to come up with another way to prevent him from turning into Jiraiya.
After the rest of the group had said their goodbyes, Tsunade gave him a hug, using it as a way to get close enough to clobber the man again for turning Sasuke into the boy that he was.
"Stop. Setting. Bad. Examples!" each word emphasized by a hit.
"Hey, he's better than he used to be, right teme?" Naruto said from his position next to the sage.
"Tch, no," Sasuke wasn't going to acknowledge to anyone how much of a buzz kill he knew he'd been. He wondered how he ever expected to get strong enough to fight Itachi without the help of his team.
"Anyway," Jiraiya said, rubbing the new welt on his head, "I better get going. Naruto, drop me as close as you can to Kumogakure," after getting a nod from the boy, they disappeared.
"Hey kid," the sage said once they were alone, "Keep out of trouble, I've got some neat tricks I want to teach you when I get back from all this, so you being alive would help."
"Yeah yeah whatever, you be careful you pervert, and don't worry, these Akatsuki guys have got nothing on me," Naruto said with his signature false bravado.
Jiraiya could only chuckle as the boy disappeared and the man began the rest of his journey on foot.
xXx
"If that is all then you are dismissed," Pein said to the two holographic projections in front of him in the dark cavern.
"Hai," Itachi said to the leader of the Akatsuki as the projections of Kisame and himself faded to nothing.
Pein wasn't happy with the full report from Kisame and Itachi. Kisame's effectiveness at capturing jinchuuriki would be seriously affected with his loss of Samehada, and the man himself was visibly disturbed without his companion.
He had a feeling this Naruto child was going to become a serious thorn in their side if he continued to progress in his training, and if Jiraiya really was his teacher then he was only going to improve.
How did a child even learn a technique like that? If they were going to subdue him they needed a way to neutralize the Hiraishin no Jutsu. He'd have to talk to Sasori and see what the puppet master could come up with.
xXx
Naruto returned and Tsunade and Shizune started to relax on the porch now that they had nothing to do while the four genin started training. It was the last day they had free before they went back on missions.
Karin started training with Samehada again, woefully wielding the sword due to its size and weight in comparison to her. As much as she liked to gloat about how she didn't get tired, the combination of throwing the massive thing around all day and it's consumption of her chakra was wearing her down more than usual.
Sasuke and Sakura were off working on their own techniques somewhere in the compound; they'd all have enough time to work on team training once they went back on missions. Naruto had a bunch of clones working on differing techniques while he worked on helping to train his girlfriend.
That was until an unexpected visit from the Hokage. It was unexpected in that they didn't know the reason of his visit; Karin had picked up his chakra signature as soon as her neared the compound.
"Hey Ojii-san!" Naruto waved at the old man from a distance. Tsunade and Shizune, who had been watching the two training, face faulted at hearing how the blonde addressed the God of Shinobi.
"Naruto," the elderly man said as he approached with a smile.
"What's up?"
"I came to talk with you about something."
"Yeah what is it?"
"With the recent breaches of security and the threat to your safety I will not be putting Team 7 back on active duty just yet."
"What? Awwww man," Naruto wanted to go back to doing missions, as much as he liked getting stronger training it was fun to go on missions with Kakashi-sensei and the rest of his team.
"It's too dangerous Naruto. I do however have something for you to do until I believe that it is okay for your team to leave the village and go on missions; for now we need to find out more and inform the other villages of the threat. But as I was saying there is something you can do in the meantime when you aren't training. After talking to Iruka and seeing how you yourself have progressed in such a short time I've decided that I will be starting up a new initiative and you and your team can be my guinea pigs."
Naruto was suspicious, he didn't like the sound of where this was going, "What do we have to do?"
"You will each be mentoring a student from the academy. We hope this will better improve the quality of the graduates once we can get more and more genin and chunin mentors. It's to let those who excel continue to excel without having the instructors spend too much time on them. But it's also for students who aren't doing so well and with a little bit of one on one attention should improve, I'm sure you understand?"
Naruto knew all to well what he meant.
"You and your teammates have shown marked improvement since graduation and you are responsible" the bodyguard next to him coughed; it almost sounded as if he'd said 'yeah right', "… enough. You and your team can test the program while you are off duty," Hiruzen figured he could kill two birds with one stone that way.
"Okay, so do I get to pick my student?"
"I guess seeing as how this is a trial you may, who would you like?" The Hokage asked, already with an idea of who it might be.
"Konohamaru,"
The old man could only smile, "If that's what you want I suppose my grandson could be your mentee. From what he tells me you were already helping him somewhat before the chunin exams,"
"Okay cool, well when do we start?"
"You can meet him after he gets out of class tomorrow,"
"Ummm, Hokage-sama, am I still going to be put on a team? Or am I going to mentor someone too?" Karin said from her position next to Naruto, the sword resting clumsily against her shoulder.
"I've decided that yo-," the Hokage turned, giving his full attention to Karin before realising exactly what weapon she was holding, his jaw dropping.
"You didn't tell me Kisame left Samehada!" this was a seriously powerful sword. The Hokage wondered how Karin was even wielding it; there were rumors about it being particularly picky.
"Oh yeah, we must have left that out. You aren't going to take it off her are you? They're kind of attached to each other now," Naruto said with a sheepish smile, embarrassed that he'd left that particular part out of the report.
"No, no, but it looks like you are having trouble using that," if Karin were to learn how to correctly use that sword she'd be a force to be reckoned with. But she needed someone to teach her. The Hokage wracked his brain for a second before he decided what he'd do with the girl.
"I was going to put you on a team, but now that I know you have an affinity with Samehada I think I've something better for you; Cat,"
Within seconds of uttering her ANBU alias a purple haired nin with a porcelain ANBU mask painted like a cat appeared in front of them. Strangely he noticed that Karin had followed her movement the entire way. How had she known she was even there?
The girl was still a mystery to him so he'd have to find out more; maybe his bodyguard could inform him of her skills while she trained the girl.
"I'd like you to train this girl in the art of kenjutsu, she's obviously struggling," he pointed to the way she was holding the weapon. With the number of threats to the village increasing they needed to improve the quality of their shinobi as best they could and he could find another bodyguard to replace her for whenever she was training the girl.
"Hai Hokage-sama,"
"Good, you can start tomorrow, I suppose Karin being trained by an ANBU here isn't an issue Naruto?"
"Are you kidding? It's great! I didn't know who we'd be able to go to for kenjutsu training, and damaging stuff isn't really an issue; we tear this place up every day. Nothing a few hundred clones can't fix every now and again,"
"Good, well its settled. Iruka and the trial mentees will meet you and your team tomorrow after academy classes while Karin will be trained here. Oh and Tsunade and Shizune, meet me in my office tomorrow and I'll get you setup to work in the hospital."
They both looked a little crestfallen at how short their vacation had been, but nodded in confirmation before the Hokage and the clearly visible bodyguard he had with him turned to leave.
"Hey Ojii-san!"
"Yes Naruto?" The wizened old man said, turning back to face the young boy.
"What about promotions?"
"They will also be sorted out tomorrow, but I'm afraid you and Sasuke won't be getting promoted to Chunin this time around."
"WHAT?" Karin looked as surprised as Naruto. She knew the strength of the boy training her.
"Yes the council came to that decision because of the way you two didn't try and defuse the situation with Gaara when a possible invasion was on the way. An invasion you knew about. They all agree you are incredibly strong for your age, but you two showed a lack of proper judgment in their eyes."
Naruto was crestfallen; he'd been sure that he was going to get promoted. Guess he'd have to stop being cocky about how strong his techniques were.
"Don't worry Naruto, I'm sure you two will be promoted in the field in no time," the Hokage said with a gentle smile.
"Yeah I guess… wait, we aren't going back on active duty so we can't get promoted! That's so unfair," Naruto pouted, this was so crap, but he guessed the old man did have a point.
"Hmmm that is true, well your chance will come,"
"So who did get promoted?"
"I'm sure you'll find out tomorrow. Now I have things to attend to, good day Naruto,"
The old man and his bodyguard disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto and Karin went back to working on building her strength but it wasn't long before Tsunade spoke up.
"Kid how can you expect to hit anyone when you can't even swing that sword properly,"
"What do you think we're trying to do? If she trains with it, she'll build her strength to the point where she can use properly." Naruto retorted
"That's going to take too long," Tsunade said, "If you are training with an ANBU tomorrow it'll help if you can actually swing the sword with ease."
"What do you suggest?" Karin said, panting from the effort she was making; her muscles protesting with every movement.
"Chakra. I've seen some of the hits Naruto's made during training. So I guess you've all got down how to augment your attacks with chakra. But you can augment general strength with it as well. How much do you know about the human body? You're a medic right?" The girl nodded, "good, so you should have a basic understanding of anatomy."
"I was the medic for my squad back before the chunin exams, so I would say enough,"
"Okay it's pretty simple. Reinforce the muscles and bones you use in a particular motion with chakra, and burst the chakra in a particular muscle whenever you would contract that muscle. Until your chakra control is better, and until you learn more about the human body to have pinpoint control it will use a lot of chakra, but you're an Uzumaki, so I think you can handle it. At least you'll be able to swing that sword until you get old enough and strong enough to use it without the strength augmentation."
"Thankyou Tsunade-sama," Karin was grateful that the Sannin had taught her something and the Sannin was surprised that she hadn't called her baa-chan.
"And don't go picking something up over your head until you're positive you can maintain the technique," She added in warning when she saw Naruto running over to the nearest boulder he could find to lift over his head, "Also, the technique can be dangerous for your body if not executed properly, so practice a little at a time you two,"
When he realized why it could be dangerous doing what he'd planned he stopped and went to find something else to practice with. She had a feeling he wouldn't be getting the hang of the technique anytime soon. It required much more control than bursting chakra during a hit. If Karin was a basic medic-nin in her old squad she'd be picking up the technique much faster.
Tsunade made a note to herself to find out exactly what this girl knew about the healing arts; she might be able to help her along when she had free time. From everything Jiraiya told her, and the fact she was living here now, she didn't see the harm in improving the quality of the ninja in Konoha.
Karin didn't seem like the kind of pansy girl that would give up either. Not after what she'd seen today of the girl and her training with the sword. She looked like she could barely stand up, the sweat pouring from her face as she swung Samehada around.
Karin's thoughts were on something completely different though as she struggled to see through the sweat-fogged glasses she was wearing. She really needed contacts.
xXx
That afternoon as Naruto was getting undressed out of his training clothes he noticed a small piece of paper sticking out of one of his pockets.
I am sorry that you have to be informed this way, but I wanted to let you know that it wasn't your actions during the chunin exam that prevented your promotion.
The council and the elders of the village decided that in order to better keep tabs on you and Sasuke you wouldn't be promoted this time around.
They want to keep you a genin due to your status as the Jinchuuriki of the village. Sasuke is also being watched due to Orochimaru's interest in him.
They believe that the longer you two remain genin the longer they can control you and protect themselves from whatever danger might be present.
Frankly I think they are all blind fools. The intelligence and fighting ability you both displayed during the chunin exams was easily deserving of a promotion.
Don't worry though as they cannot contest a field promotion, just give me a good enough reason, and the two of you will get your flak jackets.
The letter was unsigned but it was clear who had written it. Naruto wasted no time in sharing the news with Karin and the rest of his team.
He didn't know when the old man had managed to slip him the letter, but then again, he was the God of Shinobi.
xXx
Jiraiya had just opened up the bottle of sake he'd brought with him as he sat against a tree. With the head start the kid had given him he wasn't in any sort of rush.
However after trying to take a drink he realized something was off. The bottle was completely empty.
That was when he heard the hissing noise. A hissing noise emanating from within the bottle. He threw it as fast as he could into the air before it exploded into hundreds of tiny shards.
He was going to kill that little shit when he got back. And he was going to take some of his Mt. Myoboku Sake as compensation.
xXx
For most of the morning Karin and the team trained. Karin just played around with trying to get the strength augmentation Tsunade had taught her down, while trying not to use so much chakra that she couldn't perform properly during her first training session.
Sakura and Sasuke had both been disappointed at hearing that they weren't going back on active duty and Sasuke had been seriously annoyed that he hadn't gotten a promotion. They had lunch at Ichiraku's and all decided to go split up and do their own thing until they met again at the academy, while Karin went back to the compound to get in a little final training before her kenjutsu session.
When Naruto and Sasuke arrived at the academy they were confronted with a sight that shouldn't have shocked them, but did anyway.
Sakura was standing waiting for the end of the academy classes, only this time she was wearing a flak jacket. They guessed in the few hours they were split up they'd handed out the promotions.
"Teme," Naruto said as they approached, "Are we ever going to live this down?"
"I highly doubt it dobe,"
"Hey guys!" Sakura said with an excited smile, "Isn't this jacket great, it's so comfy, and stylish, and it's full of pockets," she continued to show off her jacket, turning so that they could see it in all it's glory.
"Yeah yeah, we get it," Naruto said gruffly.
"Nah I don't think you do," Sakura continued with a cheeky grin, "It's like wearing body armor and basically means I get to boss you around!"
"Good way to show the maturity of being a chunin," Sasuke mumbled. Neither of the boys could deny that they weren't just a little bit jealous of the fact their teammate was a chunin. They didn't have long to dwell on it though when the doors opened and a bunch of children came rushing through the threshold.
When they'd all dispersed Iruka called the two genin and their chunin friend into one of the classrooms where three students sat.
One the students the three knew as Konohamaru, and the second was a small girl that looked vaguely familiar to Naruto. She had black hair and white pupiless eyes so she must have been a Hyuuga. There was however a noticeable age difference between her and the two boys sitting either side of her.
The final student was a slightly shorter than average boy that wore glasses and had short blonde hair and green eyes. None of team 7 could really pick exactly what clan he was from and assumed that he might have been a civilian like Sakura. He looked pretty nervous.
"Okay you three," Iruka addressed the three students, "These will be your mentors, you will each be assigned to one of them, and if you have any questions about the ninja arts or anything in general you can go to them for answers. They will also help you train if you so wish, but not all the time, as they themselves have to train."
"Hey Nii-chan!" Konohamaru said as soon as there was a break in Iruka's speech, getting a glare from his teacher and a wave from Naruto.
"Anyway it seems you are already familiar with Naruto Konohamaru and your grandfather said that Naruto requested you as a mentee, so you will be with him for the duration of the program,"
"About that," Sakura piped in, "How long can we expect to be mentoring?"
"We haven't decided how long, so for now, indefinitely. We just think it's a good idea if future graduates have connections with the older generations and learn from them,"
Sasuke understood, and nodded. He also noted the stern looking black haired girl was trying to bore a hole through him with her gaze.
"I'm assuming I get the midget in the middle?" Sasuke said, pointing to the girl.
"Yes, but her name is Hanabi Hyuuga, heir to the Hyuuga household. She was already accelerated through the academy program, so when her father heard about her name being offered up to the trial he specifically requested that you be her mentor. In the end it worked out that way,"
"Tch, I really don't care who she is, or what her father wanted, if she's my brat to take care of I'll take care of her, but she better listen to what I say and not do anything stupid. I've got to keep training or I'll never catch up to dobe here," then a thought popped into his head, "Actually dobe, how about we make this a competition,"
"What do ya mean teme?"
"We'll have both our mentees fight in a month. Whoever comes out on top obviously has the better teacher."
"Hmmm but yours has the byakugan," Naruto went on, talking to Sasuke as if the kids weren't even in the room. Iruka just facepalmed. This was not what the program was about, but in the end if it produced the proper results than he supposed it didn't matter, "But Konohamaru will still kick her ass when I'm through with him."
"Hear that Hanabi! Bring it on," Konohamaru was pumped. He wanted to show that know it all what was what.
"Right, as if you could defeat me, you're almost dead last in this class,"
"Not with Naruto training me properly I won't be!"
"ANYWAY," Iruka said forcefully, trying to continue the introductions so he could leave.
"This here is Hano Shiretti. His parents are civilians and we've decided to see how he improves when he's taught by a ninja outside of the academy. Obviously Sakura you'll be his mentor. Hano," Iruka said, addressing the boy, "you didn't see the chunin exam finals because of class, but from what I've heard Sakura was extremely impressive and even got promoted before Naruto and Sasuke here," dark rain clouds appeared over their heads as they looked at the ground, depressed.
"I'm sure she'll teach you many important things about being a shinobi."
"Yeah," Sakura said with a smile, "You got the best member of team 7 and I bet in a month you'll be able to floor those two rookies," she said, looking in the direction Hanabi and Konohamaru.
Iruka face palmed again before making his way to the exit, "Right, well my job here is done, I'll leave you all to get better acquainted."
xXx
(Meanwhile at the Namikaze compound)
Karin had to admit that without her mask on the ANBU was pretty. She had soft brown eyes and was wearing a reddish lipstick. She had her regular ANBU outfit on and her violet hair tied in a ponytail.
She was also holding a katana that looked deadly, with another strapped to her back that had a slightly wider blade.
"Karin, my name is Yuugao, and at the instruction of the Hokage I will be your kenjutsu teacher. How much kenjutsu do you currently know?"
"Ummm, none," Karin offered a meek grin, embarrassed at her lack of knowledge.
"It's okay, that's what I'm here for, now how about we start you off with a smaller weapon. One that you can handle,"
"I think I'd rather train with Samehada. The more time I spend using it the better I'll become."
"This is true, but how are you going to be able to effectively use it now?"
"I've got something I started working on yesterday, but at the moment, with Samehada absorbing my chakra, and using the technique I'm learning to wield it it I'm not sure how long I can last,"
"It's okay, just try to train for as long as you can," Yuugao had heard the rumors about Samehada. It was a legendary sword, one that had a mind of it's own. To think that it really consumed its user's chakra. This girl must have a lot for her age.
They started going through kenjutsu katas and styles and while Karin was still clumsily wielding the blade she could definitely feel the improvement she had with just her rudimentary use of Tsunade's strength augmentation.
xXx
"So it's Hanabi right?" Sasuke said as he walked down the street with his mentee. He needed to go and find a place to test what she knew, maybe the old team training ground.
Speaking of team, he wondered what Kakashi was doing now. Probably relishing in all the free time he had to read Icha Icha. Sasuke knew that's what he'd be doing if he wasn't babysitting this clan brat.
"Yeah! And I don't like what you said about me in there,"
"I don't care. You think you're all that because you have a doujutsu and are from a clan. I was the same, and then I got shown up. If I could tell you one thing, it's to never refuse help from others. They might know more than you think," he said thinking back to the mission to wave.
It felt like just yesterday he'd started accepting the help of his friends. He was so much stronger now than he ever thought he'd be after such a short time.
"What if they are below me?"
"And you need to get rid of that attitude when you become a ninja," Sasuke said looking down at the little girl, "You might think they are below you. You do that and they'll plant a kunai in your neck, then you'll be below them, bleeding out on the ground dead," the little girl paled slightly at the mental image her mentor had just given her.
"Don't rest on your laurels, because there is always more to learn. Now follow me, I want to see what you're made of." Sasuke pulled out his book and picked up the pace a little, leading the girl to the training ground where Naruto had first shown his true power.
xXx
(Ichiraku's Ramen)
"So Nii-chan when are you gonna teach me some really cool moves?"
"Eventually," Naruto said as sagely as he could, gracefully accepting a bowl of ramen from Teuchi, "But first," he paused for dramatic effect, "YOU MUST LEARN TO APPRECIATE THE DELICIOUSNESS OF RAMEN," he shouted, his chopsticks pointed in the air, completely wrecking any image Konohamaru had of him being wizened and sage-like. He proceeded to hoe into the noodles.
Konohamaru had thought for a second Naruto was going to say something serious. When he heard what his awesome mentor had to say all he could do was smash his head on the counter as Teuchi chuckled at the young blonde.
"Nah but seriously," Naruto said through a mouthful of ramen, "We need to get you up to speed if we are competing with Sasuke and that Hanabi girl. What can you tell me about her?"
"She's pretty much top of the class in everything, it's so crap, it's because she gets trained at home" Konohamaru said, annoyed that he was being beaten in class by a girl. That being said he was kind of being beaten by almost everyone.
"What did she mean when she said you were almost dead last?"
"Ummm,"
"Really Konohamaru? I thought you were training more?"
"I am, kinda. I want you to teach me some cool moves,"
"Yeah yeah, but you have to work hard Konohamaru, when I'm not training you, you have to be training yourself. How do you think I got to where I'm at today? I didn't have anyone babysitting me, got it?"
Naruto finished his ramen and stood after paying Teuchi. He led the boy outside where they walked a little down the street.
"Yeah, I'll start training more at home, I'm gonna be Hokage after all,"
"Good, now lets go see how many laps of my compound you can run,"
"WHAT? I thought you said you were gonna teach me cool moves?"
"Nope, you didn't have any ramen, so you obviously don't appreciate it. I think after one hundred laps you'll have more of a hunger for the most delicious food on the planet," Naruto said with a smile before he grabbed his student and hirashinned away. Konohamaru could only wonder why the coolest genin he knew was also the craziest.
xXx
"So Hano, tell me more about yourself," Sakura said brightly as they walked down the street.
"Umm, my parents are merchants but I've always wanted to be a cool ninja like the ones I used to watch at the Chunin exams."
"What would you say you are good at when it comes to being a ninja,"
"Well," he paused, thinking hard about what would make him a good ninja, "I don't know," he looked a little embarrassed that he had no idea.
"Haha, that's okay, it took me a while to work out what I like, and I'm still learning, so that's okay. We'll just have to work out your strengths and weaknesses and work on them before you fight Konohamaru and Hanabi,"
"Oh, are you really going to make me fight them?" the kid didn't look confident in himself at all. It kind of reminded Sakura of how she used to feel about her strength before Naruto taught her.
"Don't worry, I'll turn you into a kick ass ninja, I just have one more question,"
"W-what is it?"
"Do you have any perverted tendencies?"
"Pardon Sakura-sensei?"
"Answer the question,"
"N-no?" to be honest the boy had no idea what she was talking about.
"Good!" she said with a wide smile before she took off, prompting him to follow her.
xXx
(One Week Later - Somewhere in Ta no Kuni – Land of Rice Fields)
"How far out from the village do you think we are?"
"Probably another week if we keep moving at this pace,"
"I can't believe we have to go and retrieve some brat. What does he have that we don't"
"The sharingan you idiot, now let's get moving, we don't want to keep Orochimaru-sama waiting,"
The four sound ninja took off into the woods, making their way to the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
So yeah, hope you enjoyed.
Something to note:
Some of you might have been wondering why Samehada chose Karin over Naruto. While it does like users with large amounts of Chakra it is also picky of the taste of the Chakra obviously it likes Karin's more than Naruto's and there is a reason for that. First person to guess why correctly I'll reveal a spoiler or piece of information to (within reason and if I've far enough ahead for the information you want). Also for the people saying that Karin has small amounts of chakra I hope I explained well enough in this chapter that she doesn't. Uzumaki's naturally have heaps of chakra and she's no exception.
Anyway until next time :)