Hey-o! Back for the fifth (fifth?) chapter! I'm sorry it took so long but I hope this makes up for it!
Chapter Five: To Wave!
Naruto opened his eyes to see his ceiling and tried to get up but felt a sting of pain shoot down his spine. 'What the hell have you done this time?'
'Nothing.' Menma replied groggily. 'Just get to the Hokage Tower.'
Naruto nodded and got dressed quickly before running out his door in the direction of the Hokage Tower. He dodged pass villagers so as to not knock them down. Once he reached the tower he saw his team waiting for him and their sensei.
Naruto didn't bother to say hello. Ever since everyone in the village found out about the Sharingan he was despised. They wanted to say that he somehow stole them but that wasn't believable since the Uchiha have been dead for years. His teammates were also sour to him since then because he wouldn't explain how he has it.
"Hey, guys." Kakashi said with a wave as he appeared in a cloud of smoke.
"You're late!" Sakura yelled.
Everyday it was like this. Kakashi would be late, and Sakura would yell at him before they went to get another mission. Naruto just stood silent and waited until they headed into the building.
"Come on, let's just go get our next mission." Sasuke told them as he went inside.
Naruto walked with Kakashi behind Sakura and Sasuke. They walked to the room where they would get a mission and listened to hear Ino's voice. "Why do we have to get another D rank mission?"
"Because you are not yet ready." Asuma replied.
Kakashi's team walked into the room and Asuma's team and Hiruzen turned to them. Hiruzen smiled. "Fine if you want a C-rank you'll have to do it with Kakashi's team."
"Good enough, I guess." Shikamaru said.
Choji nodded and Ino just jumped onto Sasuke. "Anything works as long as it's with Sasuke-kun."
"Hands off Ino-pig! He's mine!" Sakura pulled on Sasuke's arm to get him away from Ino.
Naruto just stared at what was going on and felt sympathetic for Sasuke. He looked at Hiruzen when he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Okay, since you seem to all agree, Asuma will lead this mission. As for the objectives, you are to protect a bridge builder while he…uh, builds his bridge. The most of what you'll encounter are some bandits."
"And where is our client?" Kakashi asked just before a door opened. In came a drunk man carrying a sake bottle with sweaty clothes. "I had to ask."
"This is better than I expected." Tazuna muttered with a slur.
"Mister Tazuna here is the client and is being protected all the way to Nami. As I said before, he will build his bridge to the mainland and you will make sure nothing harmful comes to him. Dismissed." Hiruzen waved the group off.
Naruto left casually out the window with a jump, much to Hiruzen's dismay. He already had one student that did it constantly, he didn't want any other becoming that. But Naruto didn't pay any heed to the old man and continued his way to his house, with Menma telling his list of necessities that he was to pack into storage scrolls.
'You would need about twenty kunai and another ten shuriken, wire, the ashiko, the longbow and twenty-five arrows, the fukiya and some darts, kaginawa, and the shuko. You already know to bring the ninja-to.' Menma spoke as he named off the many things a successful ninja would use. 'I want you to also bring the scrolls based on Kyujutsu, Jinei, Kenjutsu, and one of each elemental jutsu.'
'Alright.' Naruto nodded as he landed on the ground from his house's rooftop. He quickly entered his house before slamming the door behind him. His house, which used to have but barren rooms. His living room, which used to have a broken-down couch and a table - which had one limp leg - that rocked constantly, was now with a mahogany table and the couch was new-er with less holes. Both were littered with scrolls that had seals of many kinds and different uses but all were of high levels.
Naruto had been working with them for many days. It all started when he wished to unseal the Kyuubi so she wouldn't be trapped for his whole life. And yes, he did mean she. It was as shocking to him as it is to you.
Naruto shook any diverting thoughts away and walked away to his room. It, too, changed from a plain room with a few dressers, a bed, and clothes everywhere into a clean and organized room with mahogany dressers, handcrafted designs on it, and a more comfortable bed. One dresser would be filled with clothes that are no longer - thankfully - orange or any other fluorescent color. The other would have all six drawers filled with scrolls of every elemental jutsu and ninja skill or intelligence.
Naruto grabbed a storage scroll before beginning to fill it. He filled it with the kunai, shuriken, wire, and the fukiya. he then grabbed a backpack where he put an extra change of clothes - a black and brownish-red shozoku and matching tabi boots - and the ashiko. He then attached the kaginawa to the backpack so it was at an easier disposal. Lastly, he strapped the shuko to his belt, but hidden from the untrained eye.
Naruto finished with grabbing one scroll per element jutsu and put that in his bag. He put the straps of a backpack on his arms as comfortably as he could before walking out of his house, making sure to apply the level 4 Security Seal on the doorknob. He jumped across the buildings on top of the rooftops - making it to the south gate in a minute.
When he got there Kakashi and Asuma were the only ones there. When he walked up to them he asked, "Where's Tazuna?"
"Don't know." Asuma answered while Kakashi just read his orange book. "He took off and hasn't appeared since. I just hope he hasn't gotten 'distracted' with other things."
Naruto sighed before sitting down to the side of the gate next to Kakashi and entered into a meditative state. Slowly, his surroundings blurred into that of the grassy plain that was his mindscape. When he opened his eyes, he saw Menma and Kyuubi in her human form.
"So, what happened this morning?" Naruto asked Menma, looking at him with a bit of suspicion in his eyes.
Menma sighed and spoke sheepishly, "I got caught reading the Hokage's personal library. The Anbu there gave me a pretty good beating."
"What were you doing there?" Naruto tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows as he asked the question.
Menma thought for a second and crossed his arms. "The Hokage library is...large. It was to have everything from the past Hokage, and what they deemed dangerous for the public. I was able to sift through a few of the books of kinjutsu, fuuinjutsu, and others. But what was most interesting are the notes and scrolls I found in Hiruzen's desk."
"What are they?" Naruto asked, his attention and interest piqued.
Menma stopped, and gained a blank stare. His mouth was opened slightly as if he wanted to say something. He closed it before shaking his head, crossing his arms tighter over his chest and shut his eyes. "Nothing. I'll tell you some other time, maybe."
Naruto was about to persist but his world shook.
"Seems that you're being woken up, Kit." Kyuubi spoke as she stayed unmoving through the quake. "We'll all talk later, alright?"
Naruto nodded before waking himself, ignoring the sick feeling he got from the world swirling away turning into that of Konoha. He saw that Kakashi was poking the side of his head with a stick while still reading his orange book. Asuma and his team were staring at him while Sasuke paid no attention and Sakura stared at her crush.
"Alright, you can stop already!" Naruto yelled as he swatted at the stick, smacking it out of Kakashi's hands.
Kakashi chuckled with his trademark eye-smile. "Good, I was getting worried that you weren't with us anymore."
"In a way, I wasn't." Naruto muttered before standing to his feet. He looked around and couldn't spot Tazuna among them. "Where's the drunkard?"
"I'm not a drunk, gaki, I just enjoy a nice alcoholic drink." Came a voice with a gurgling burp. Naruto turned to see the man. "Anyway, I left to get my canteen refilled but got caught in a conversation with a nice fellow in the bar."
Naruto groaned and rubbed his eyes in irritation. "Whatever. Are we ready?"
With no objections, Asuma told everyone where to walk. Naruto was teamed with Shikamaru in the front, Choji was with Sasuke on the left and Sakura and Ino were on the right. Asuma and Kakashi stayed in the back so that if anything happened in any of the groups, they'd be able to step in.
XXX Later - nearing Nami XXX
Naruto groaned in boredom as he walked at a steady pace alongside Shikamaru. He glanced back to see Choji talking to Tazuna while eating a bag of chips. Sakura and Ino were exchanging snide comments of each other or ignored the other. Asuma and Kakashi seemed to be the only quiet ones not brooding like the Uchiha.
Naruto looked forward when Shikamaru tapped him on the hand. The other boy slightly nodded his head at the puddle they were walking to. "Isn't it wierd?"
"What?" Naruto whispered, seeing the other do it.
"That there is a puddle when it has rained here in a long enough while." Shikamaru said.
Naruto realized the comments truth and nodded. Once he and Shikamaru made it to the puddle, he glanced at the other getting a small shake of the head. Naruto sighed and kept walking. 'Can't ignore a genius' plan.'
The puddles shook and shimmered before a hand slithered out of it. Two appeared from the puddles and, once fully emerged, threw the chain attached between them at Asuma and Kakashi. Once it was wrapped around the two, they pulled and it shredded the two Jounin.
"Two down," One with a gauntlet on their right hand spoke.
"Six more to go." The other with a gauntlet on their left hand finished.
The two ran at Tazuna with the chain getting ready to be thrown at him. Naruto dashed from where he was and side-stepped around the bridge builder so that he was in front of the chain. He grabbed onto his ninjato and used the blade to wrap the chain around.
Naruto then pierced the blade into the ground, ultimately the chain stuck there. He then jumped onto the handle and somersaulted over the chain before the missing-nin were able to use it against him. He threw a few kunai and expertly dug them into the links of the chains which decreased the mobility more.
The missing-nin with the left gauntlet detached the chain quicker than his assailant and made a dash at Naruto. He went to claw at Naruto's right arm, but the blonde side-stepped to the left and landed a few pressured jabs at the man's left arm. It was much more sluggish when it went for a second strike, making it easier for Naruto to move out of the way.
Both Shikamaru and Choji saw that Naruto was easily handling the missing-nin so teamed against the other. But then they saw Sasuke make a run at Naruto's opponent. They both thought, 'Idiot!'
Naruto ducked from a slash and sent another few jabs. He was going to kick the man back when he was caught in a halestorm of kunai that showered him and the missing-nin. He fell to his right knee, which had a kunai stuck in to the hilt.
'Let me take control.' Menma said.
'No, I'm good.' Naruto said as he took the kunai out of his leg.
'Actually, that kunai was from the Kiri missing-nin and is coated with poison.' Menma spoke, pointing out the purple-laced, scarlet-stained kunai.
'Oh.' Naruto said before jumping back and feeling his world swirl away. 'Go ahead. Don't kill my friends. That means Sasuke.'
'Yeah, yeah.' Menma said before gaining control, and his appearance changed.
XXX Nearby - in the trees XXX
Kakashi and Asuma's eyes widened upon the change of Naruto's appearance. It was Asuma who was able to find his once-lost voice. "Doesn't that look like Kamen no Otoko? But...how would that be Naruto?"
Kakashi narrowed his eye. "Unless it isn't. It...could probably be the Kyuubi, but even it doesn't do this kind of change to its container."
"Then, is it actually Naruto, but just in control and tapped into the Nine-Tails' chakra?" Asuma suggested, thinking on this new-found knowledge.
"No, I don't sense any malevolent chakra here. It's still...him. I'll search through his belongings later tonight and if I find a mask..."
Asuma nodded, knowing the punishment of a vigilante.
XXX back at the fight XXX
Menma cracked his neck as he ignored the shocked group and channeled chakra into his palm. It slowly took form of a twirling ball, but slightly unstable due to his lack of practice. He silently cursed not having had enough time to have practiced but that would have to wait. He looked to see that one of the missing-nin ran at him while the other was still caught in Shikamaru's shadow.
Menma ran at the Kiri-nin with the Rasengan outstretched behind him. Just before impaling the ball into the man's torso, Menma poured Kyuubi's yokai into it. When the Rasengan was about to meet its mark, the missing-nin replaced himself with a log.
Menma cursed himself before jumping back, five kunai landing where he was, and streaked across the ground with ease towards his target. He sent a punch at the man, missing when he ducked and sent a punch to the ravens' gut. Menma doubled-over in pain and loss of breath before falling back from a knee to the face.
'The poison.' Menma thought as he substituted with a log just before being torn by the missing-nin's gauntlet.
Menma sent a kick to the Kiri-nin's leg, making the man kneel, before sending a kick to his face. He was going to throw kunai as to finish the man off, but Sasuke got in the way. He growled before propelling himself forward, grabbing onto the scruff of Sasuke's collar, and launched him at a tree away from the fight.
Menma created a sloppy version of the Rasengan before plunging the dull sphere into his opponent's abdomen. He could tell by the look of it that it would be another forty minutes until the man eventually bled out. He used his knee as pressure on the man's chest to keep him down and used the chain from the gauntlets to restrain his arms. In this process, the missing-nin would be poisoned by his own weapon.
Menma sighed in relief as the poison was finally starting to take effect as his adrenaline plummeted. He was glad to have the furball sealed in him or he'd be in trouble without an antidote. "I'm glad that's over."
R&R