Dystopia Unleashed

By WhoIsThisDamnAuthor

That was mighty fast, after the nine month gap, don't you agree?

Chapter 4: Infatuation

Early afternoon had set in. The heat was simmering inside the closed chambers, and the barely-moving ceiling fan wasn't much help. Minato scratched his nose with a slightly damp finger. The staring match had gone from scary to okay to boring now. Neither was relenting. So, of course, being the meddlesome idiot that he was, he decided to break the ice.

"What did you call us in for, Sandaime-sama?"

Bad question. He knew he would regret that till he died. Sarutobi-sensei's glare swivelled over to him, outrage and anger and admonishment all bound together in one blood-curdling glance that could have ended the Second Great Shinobi War all on it's own.

A moment of silence followed, before the inevitable explosion.

"You have the AUDACITY to ask me this question? You go gallivanting to who knows where during pre-war time, and I'm supposed to be okay with that? You are one of the most useless Jonins ever! Also, what was the rubbish you pulled off in that last mission?"

Minato tuned out the screaming. Hiruzen had a tendency to digress wildly in his lectures. How many times had a simple scolding aver a mission gone slightly wrong ended up being a sentimental rant over the uselessness of today's youth? He kept concentrating on the actual words, searching for the actual topic of the conversation.

"… And you bring in this random boy from the forest, and don't even come and report to me? How utterly irresponsible! I'm ashamed that you are my student!" There we go, back on topic.

"I WAS HUNGRY!" Goku's shout drowned the last few words. Both master and student turned to look at him, argument suspended.

"Minato was kind enough to treat me to ramen, and it's not his fault I was hungry! It's mine. He was probably going to take me to you as soon as I was done eating. It's also not his fault that we had to run from Ichiraku's without paying…"

Minato froze. Crap. The Hokage now had the you-will-pay-back-the-money-with-interest look in his eye. You shouldn't have said that…

"It's my fault. So don't scold Minato!" he ended.

Silence. Goku opened his eyes and looked around. The old man had calmed down. "Despite all your failings, I am going to give you another chance."

Minato's ears pricked up at the sound of that. Another chance? Finally, the days of espionage are upon me! Oh, oh, I want to go to the Hidden Village of the Mist! I've always wanted to test out the Rasengan in wet conditions. Oh, lucky, lucky me…

"The current round of Genin tests has just finished. We have need of capable Jonin team leaders for what appears to be our finest batch in the last few years. I have assigned you to one particularly strong group…"

Astonishment drowned out the rest. He thinks I'm capable enough to lead a Genin team? Then what the HELL was that just now about irresponsibility? You old fart!

"Since they are very capable on their own, it wouldn't be a problem letting them perform missions under your useless thumb. They won't need to learn anything from you anyway…"

There. Now was that so hard? Fingers clenched, he just waded his way through the next few minutes of insults and lecturing, trying very hard not to burst out in anger.

"Also," Fuck man, isn't he finished by now? Expletives were uncommon in his usual conversation, but this was a trying situation. "This kid will be accompanying you on missions, training activities, and team meetings."

Huh. That's weird; he doesn't even know who he is. Don't tell me. I was being observed with Goku since I entered the village. Minato was angry now.

Fine. Give me your best. In the trial, I'll make sure I fail all three of your recruits. They will have to wait until next year to become even slightly used to the experience of me raping their asses. They'll never even set foot out of the Academy training grounds for at least six months after I hand them each a resounding FAILED on their Genin qualification cards. They won't even have the nerve to ask me why.

"What is your name, child?" The man had suddenly changed to a kinder, more amicable voice. Goku gave a start. Apparently Minato's scolding had come to a close.

"Son Goku, sir!" He replied stiffly, standing at attention. This wasn't someone to be trifled with, not in their first encounter, at least.

"Where have you come from?" That was the question Goku had been dreading. He couldn't say anything here without sounding suspicious to the old man.

"A far-away village, Your Honor," Goku hesitantly replied, changing the honorific.

The man narrowed his eyes for a while, and then smiled. It was a nice smile; sincere and welcoming. "Fine. I will not enquire further, until you wish to tell me more. You will call me the Hokage from now on, understood?"

"Y-Yes, Your Excellency…" Goku stuttered. He was giving him the 'innocent until proven guilty' treatment. For that, he was grateful. Very well. As soon as I am able to think about it without going completely insane, you will be the first person I'll talk to.

"Very well. Minato! The first interaction with you team starts in a week! Use that time to prepare yourself. This will not be as easy as you might think. Being a Jonin team leader means providing an unbreakable brick wall of support to your juniors, leading by example to make these three the best ninjas in the village. Teaching them will also play an important role as they will be giving the Chuunin exams in much tougher, pre-war times."

"Yes, sandaime-sama." Minato was the very face of meekness. If they pass the test first…Those sons of bitches will not know what hit them.

The Hokage turned his back to look out of his large panoramic window. The village seemed to be full of life today, noise and bustle passing through the closed panes , reaching the ears of those present inside as a low rumble. "You are dismissed. Go."

"Yes, sandaime-sama." Turning, Minato motioned for Goku to follow him.

The two silently exited the room, without a further word.

The Hokage didn't see them leave. He was lost in his own thoughts. He will be a fine successor someday, I hope. He just needs to learn the price of responsibility. Perhaps this team and the new kid will help him reach the maturity he needs to accept the position that I am going to offer him.

I hope he doesn't take too long to figure it out. I'm passing it on as soon as he's ready. He is a much better fit for it than I ever was.

Minato was steaming on his way out of the building, stamping his feet like a wilful child. It was Goku doing the consoling. "Don't rage so, Minato. I'm sure His Radiance meant well."

"I know!" Spinning suddenly, he punched the corridor wall. "Why does he have to say stuff like that? He could have just told me properly, like one adult says to another...and drop the honorific, for fu- for lands sake."

"He's just trying to get you fired up about the team you are going to handle or whatever it is…" Goku knew nothing about the hierarchy here; he was just gleaning from the context.

"The team, huh?" Minato had the same ominous expression on his face as before. Goku cringed, fearing for the lives of the three Gen-whatchemacallits who had incurred his wrath.

"Fine." Again, the demon-like face was gone, replaced by smiling calm. How does he manage that? "I'll just have to train you to their level within a week. Then my job will be easier. Come."

Goku silently followed, grinning like a child on five shots of morphine. Training! Training! Training! His mental cartwheels now had an added turn, and he was juggling three transsexual potatoes in his rotating hands as well.

Events were occurring perfectly. He was going to join these shinobis and help them in their cause, if he could. They seemed like a good bunch. And the word war had popped up in the Hokage's room, so he assumed that these fighters were an organized bunch, saving the common people in their village, acting all cool with their green flak jackets and forehead bands…

Minato suddenly scaled a wall, running up it to the roof. "Let's start with some parkour for warm-up," he said from the top. "Race you to the training ground! It's in this direction, straight ahead. You'll know when you reach. So, see ya!" With that, he disappeared in a sudden burst of chakra.

Goku just stood there. Counting backwards in his head. Forty nine, forty eight…

That much of a handicap will be enough of a challenge, I guess…

Minato leaped from the slanting tile roof of a residential building to the flat concrete of the commercial centre. The sign on the door swung below him, as he passed by. He placed his palms on the parapet, swung his legs over in a smooth motion. He hit the roof running, momentum intact. Using chakra from his feet to add that extra push, he sprinted and took a direct jump onto the next parapet. Without slowing, he jumped off the parapet, soaring above the bustling Market Street to the next building.

Konohagakure was a warren of streets, as convoluted as a maze. The fastest way to get from point A to point B was parkour, specifically the aerial route. Down below on the streets, even terribly skilled shinobi would find it difficult to weave a path out of the mild chaos of people. Leaping down from the building, he hit the path, rolled and was sprinting off towards the training ground before anyone even got the time to look at the crazy shinobi.

He suddenly came across a large three-story house. He started climbing, frustrated. If only there was a way to reach there instantaneously… Using something to mark the place he was going to…

THERE! It hit him. A kunai, with a summoning scroll on it. Throwing it to some location, then activating it with chakra, using the scroll to summon himself to that point!

The rest of the wall climb was not even noticed. He was busy calculating the materials required, the shape of the kunai required, and the scroll contents. As the next rooftop came and the next, and the next, he was too busy formulating his new technique to see the small shadow of a very cocky child slip past him, and go ahead even after a fifty second handicap.

Goku was using his perfect timing sense to avoid vertical sections of the route, preferring to sprint on the ground in a slightly longer path than climb, which took far more time. Thus, the crow's flight path was the fastest only in flight. Quickly estimating time taken for the alternative routes, he carved a zig-zagging, jumpy path that got him to the lush lawns of the training ground a whole fifteen seconds before his sensei.

There we go. He sat down to wait for the slow-poke to arrive, mocking comments ready in his head. He counted down from fifteen in his head. Reached zero. No Minato.

He was a little surprised. Maybe he'd overestimated his sensei's abilities. He simply waited. As the seconds turned into minutes, Goku switched from confidence to irritation, then genuine concern. What happened? Has he gotten caught up in some trouble? I should probably go to help…

He rose, then froze. (Sorry 'bout the rhymes. They be droppin' like shoppin'...well fuck it.) What if this was Minato testing his patience? What if it was part of his training? He'd seen Master Roshi come for their sessions hours late, suppressing his and Krillin's discontent with some lecture about being patient. Goku had always felt that was a useless excuse the pervert made to gaze at his magazines a little while longer.

It didn't seem like the case with Minato. I don't think girls are the reason Minato's late. It can't be. He seems like a decent, nice, hard-working and sincere person. He must have forgotten something, or must be teaching me a lesson in learning to wait. He sat back down, cross-legged, and closed his eyes, losing himself in the symphonies of the natural world around him. The sounds were just the thing he needed. It calmed him down, and as the exhaustion from the fight set in, he didn't even realize when he had fallen gently into a deep sleep. In his dreams, he concerto continued, like Nature itself was performing solely for his pleasure.

Four large movements later, he felt a finger poke him in the face. He awoke, and saw Minato crouching in front of him, smiling embarrassedly. "I'm really, really sorry I took so long."

Goku merely closed his eyes and pretended not to care. "Really sorry, man…" Minato continued. "There's someone I want you to meet," He pointed to his left. A really cute girl was standing right there.

I shouldn't expect better from any of my teachers, should I? Face-palming mentally, he tiredly raised his eyes and saw her eye to eye.

"Hello! I'm Kushina!" She seemed lively enough. She'd better not be like that crazy woman Marron that Krillin was into… "I'm Minato's girlfriend," she said, looking at the yellow haired guy next to her with a mildly goofy expression before looking right back at the confused kid sitting on the lawn.

"I-I met her on the way," Minato pushed through, despite the heat on his face. "She wanted to meet you, so I brought her here. She'll stay and watch us train, and…"

Minato paused. Goku's eyes were sly slits, and he had a smug smirk on his face that just reeked of cheesiness. It shouted 'Minato-sensei has a gurl-fwend!' through its utter lack of sincerity. He blushed further, the colour on his cheeks deepening to a shade just short of vermilion.

The moment of embarrassment was over. Goku got up, brushed off his gi, and simply entered a fighting pose. It said I'm ready, come at me, through the tentativeness of the hands, the slight pre-meditative sway, the bend in the knees allowing free spontaneous movement in any direction.

Minato left Kushina's side. Entering basic Taijutsu position, he met the challenge head-on. This time, it was Goku who rushed into the offensive. Taken aback by the shift from the heavily defensive starting pose, Minato was a fraction of a second too late to react.

Goku's spinning jump kick crashed into his raised forearm at the wrong point. Blocking is done by receiving the force of the opponent's attack through the muscular parts of your limbs, and matching his movement speed to further reduce its effect. By taking the momentum out of the hit, you reduce all the energy he spends in performing such an attack to shreds. This both psychologically and physically weakens your opponent. He then tries that much harder the next time. It doesn't matter, though; now you have earned the edge, you can block his future attacks with just as much ease, and it will deflate him in no time.

However, Minato was too late in raising his arm. His muscles weren't prepared for impact at that point. The force of the kick was unexpectedly huge. Minato felt his arm spin, giving way to the leg, and then felt the same leg connect with the side of his face, almost at the most dangerous part, the temple. A really hard impact there is usually enough to kill a man.

Softened by the blocking arm, it still drove into his face, a centimetre above the sweet spot. He felt himself being pushed down, impulse of the kick driving him to fall sideways. As his head caressed the blades of grass, he suddenly tightened his abdomen, and quickly moved under the kick's radius, and used his legs to propel himself into a tight roll around Goku's airborne torso.

Exiting the roll, he drove his fist upward, aiming at Goku's unguarded jaw. Suddenly, he ducked, and Minato's hand passed through the tips of his hair, uppercut rendered useless. Whipping his legs around extremely fast, Goku scissor-kicked his sensei in the chest, making him fly backwards as if he was in an explosion.

Sprinting, he caught up with the flying Jonin, and jumped up behind him. Moving arms in vertical circles, he slammed him right in the chest, crashing him into the hard, unyielding ground, a similar sequence to what had been done to him just hours ago.

Minato bounced once, then fell down onto his back, groaning in pain. Goku had perfectly planned the power of the driven punch. It was enough to hurt, yet not so much that he would be too hurt to teach him afterwards. As he lay there, groaning, the red-haired girl ran over to her boyfriend, without a word.

Goku was expecting the stereotypical "Minato-kun!" as she came up to him. What he definitely did not expect was the hard slap she dealt, right on his sensei's face. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You're losing to a mere kid? One you found in the woods just a little while ago?"

Goku stifled a laugh, watching the plaintive Minato trying to offer an apology with an explanation, but Kushina swept them away like so much dust. She soundly scolded him, like one does a little child, but with more condescension and sarcasm than normal. She reminds me so much of Chi-Chi… Goku felt a similarity grow between him and his yellow-haired master.

Minato was now trying to get off his beaten ass, but Kushina sternly pushed him back down onto the ground. "That's enough from you, you useless good-for-nothing Jonin… It's my turn now. Come, kiddo…"

Despite himself, Goku felt a little hurt at that last word. Kiddo? Come on; show at least a little respect. I've only recently re-acquired my youth. He shook his head, clearing away stray thoughts. You haven't told anyone here yet, so stop feeling sad like a teenage girl. FOCUS!

He returned to a casual, cocky pose. The swagger of it said you first better than any spoken statement. Kushina showed no emotion except a slight tightening around the corners of her mouth. She charged, with a clearly deceptive slowness.

Goku prepared for the explosive, rapid-fire series of attacks. A couple of punches right down the middle, followed by a sideways feint and a strong knee strike from the opposite direction. Probably ending in catching me by the throat and making me give up, or some crap like that.

However, she did nothing of the sort. Rapidly moving her hands in some weird pattern, she finished with the first two fingers of her left hand gripped by her right, showing the same straight two fingers. And all of a sudden, there were three of her. Only the slightest of shimmers told Goku which two bodies were fake.

The afterimage technique, huh? Goku snorted. Hmph. Try harder. Shifting stances, he lightly tapped the real advancing redhead on the nose, and then nimbly stepped back. Returning to the same aggravating pose, he smirked.

Kushina had stopped in her tracks, amazement clearly showing on all three of her faces. Yet, the afterimages remained in place. As she charged again, Goku felt disappointed. She thought that was a lucky shot? Well, it doesn't hurt to show her once again…

He launched himself forwards, into the path of the three girls heading towards him. Jabbing his finger at the real one's nose, he intended to do more than poke this time. Giving it a flick would irritate her to no end, I assume, he thought, already imagining her chagrined face.

His finger passed through her nose, flickering slightly. An afterimage? What? But how?

A foot crashed into his back, causing Goku to faceplant into the ground. So she added the shimmer on purpose…Nice, he admitted grudgingly. Although, I'm not giving up that easily…

Quickly pushing himself of the ground, he resumed his swagger. But Kushina was nowhere to be seen, just an abashed Minato sitting on the lush lawns. Goku concentrated, searching for the trace of Ki he'd sensed from Minato earlier. She must be using Ki for that afterimage technique…

He sensed none at all. Not even a slight trace from Minato, either. Goku couldn't understand it. Where was their Ki?

He saw a leg descending onto the back of his head, and ducked to dodge it, turning his entire torso as he lowered it. Now facing upwards, he saw Kushina's fist descending a fraction of a second too late to dodge. He had time to block, though, plenty of it. Cupping his palm, he caught the fist an inch above his face. He realized to his amazement that he'd grossly underestimated the power of the punch. Going by physique, Kushina wasn't much, but her insane life force combined with her large chakra reservoir packed quite the wallop.

His hand was pushed back into his face, like he was punching himself. Ow, that hurt… Goku mentally stated the obvious, resolving to take her more seriously. Tightening his grip on her fist, he used his free hand to grab her shoulder, and bent over backwards, crashing her head into the ground, German suplex style.

He held the position for a few more seconds than was necessary, ensuring she didn't have any tricks up her sleeve. Releasing her body, he slowly straightened. She collapsed in an unconscious heap, right where she was. Seeing her out of action, and Minato still sitting down, he relaxed his guard. Just a little bit.

Then he saw the shimmer.

Oh, crap.

The ground beneath him crumbled, and two hands caught his feet firmly. The earth shook, and the body connected to the arms freed itself from the soil, still maintaining the hold on Goku's feet. Rising up, Kushina pushed off her grip, adding more momentum. Flexing strong thigh muscles, she drove her head and forehead protector right into Goku's abdomen.

He doubled over in pain, and the Uzumaki jinchuuriki kneed him in the groin. No quarter was given in shinobi battles, and it was not going to be given here. Goku's eyes slid back into his head as he fell to the ground, clutching his privates like he was a teen again.

"You see how much you have to learn, you cocky little runt?" the redhead was standing in front, knee still not lowered, smiling like it amused her to hit guys in the nuts.

'It probably does, too, for this she-devil.'

Dystopia. A condition where life is a frightening prospect, undesirable, even. Death was preferable in certain situations in the life of a human being.

When life sways in a direction you don't want it to, you accept it. Life is, after all, a mixture of both success and failure. One would follow the other, and the human would learn to live with it.

There is, of course, a single anomaly, an exception, as there always was.

Dragonballs.

And so, puny, weak as they were, they would go after the piece of seven, hoping to tip the balance of life in their favor. For these individually pathetic spheres had a rather special ability. Collected together, they allowed the human to ask the eternal dragon his single heartfelt desire, and it would be granted. Surely.

No more conditions. It was as simple as that.

It has begun.

So?

Kushina being the short-tempered girl with a tendency towards violence, as always.

More training is going to follow. Also, no spoilers, but there is going to be a Naruto version of a DBZ technique in the next chapter.

Keep reading, people...

Thanks for all the great reviews, guys. I promise this entire story will be a doozy.

Cheers!