A/N - So now that I'm back to writing Naruto this whole fanfiction thing really feels so much better, that and the fact that I have a clear laid out plan again is always helpful too but that's besides the point. Things can always be better but I've found out they can never be great simply because Kishimoto hasn't coughed up the rights to Naruto yet; now don't get me wrong, I do not own Naruto but with his enthusiasm having obviously faded...pass them my way buddy. Trust me I could totally write a great story without shitting over your existing characters. Call me ;)
Chapter Eleven - Two Sides of the Same Coin
Naruto arrived at the large double doors in front of the council chambers not one minute early to find a tiger-masked Anbu standing guard, "Uzumaki-san, the council is inside waiting your arrival. Hokage-sama said to take as long as you need in order to prepare for their questions."
Naruto just quirked his eyebrows at the obviously female Anbu, even with the mask distorting her voice it was a given, "As long as you want you say, well I'll just turn around an head on back home then?"
The Anbu remained emotionless, "I'm afraid that isn't an option Uzumaki-san, however if you like I can convey your message of disapproval to the council and this meeting can be adjourned to a later, more suitable time."
"Fucking Anbu," Naruto muttered in disappointment well aware that she could hear, "I'll make one of you laugh someday." He waved her off and with renewed vigour gave her a dig on the shoulder, "No need for preparation, I do my best when I'm on the spot anyways, besides once I get this cluster fuck over with I can go home and play that shitty sonic game," He again reverted to a mutter, "So many damn glitches..."
As the Anbu member moved aside and allowed Naruto entrance to the chamber he failed to hear her snort, something she no doubt was trying to avoid, 'Damn kid'll make me lose my job.'
As he entered the large Hexagonal room he noticed the conversation drop off and most of the faces fall on him, their reactions exactly like how he'd expect. Unrestrained glares from the civilian side of the council desperately tried to frighten him and he could see how they expected it to work. Coming to a stop in the middle of the floor Naruto took in the full view of the room and it was huge; it was also setup so that he couldn't keep an eye on everyone at once, they circled him with the Civilian side of the council taking one half of the circle and the Shinobi side taking the other.
As he stood, they sat from a higher level looking down on him by at least ten foot. Above that again and directly in front of where he entered sat the Hokage and his advisors, consisting of Danzo, Homura and of course, his 'ray of sunshine,' Koharu.
'I swear to Kami, she better not even think about trying to screw me over.' He had saved her life and as he looked at her, she just looked back indifferently, as did the other advisors.
It was definitely a good strategy for questioning and ordering people, he would give them that. Packing a large room full of important people and having their sole attention on a single Shinobi was meant to me nerve-racking.
Naruto yawned garnering a few more glares.
Moving his attention elsewhere he could see that the clan heads were looking at him too and he could read their expressions in the short time it took for the room to settle. The Akimichi, Yamanaka and Nara clan heads didn't try to hide anything, both the Akimichi and Nara giving him small nods of acknowledgement as their eyes met no doubt thanks to their sons but what surprised him was the Yamanaka clan head. Ino's dad.
It couldn't be called a glare but he certainly wasn't filled with happiness to see him either and sure enough, when their eyes met the older man just looked away. He would make sure to ask Ino about that.
The Inuzuka matriarch was smirking at him with clear mirth evident on her face, something that he readily returned.
As for the Aburame and Hyuga clan heads he didn't even know where to begin. It was always the same with a Hyuga, those damn eyes gave them the perfect poker face and now that he thought about it they all looked pretty similar, 'All Hyuga's look similar.' The same could be pretty much said for the Aburame, although they didn't have the infamous Byakugan they countered that pretty well with every single one of them wearing sunglasses of some sort.
Any and all whispered talk in the room stopped when the Third Hokage rose to his feet, removing his ever-present pipe from his mouth he cleared his throat to speak, "Genin Naruto Uzumaki, you have been summoned here on behest of Konohagakure no Sato's village council for the details of your latest mission regarding your usage of the Kyubi's chakra." Looking around the room and with clear displeasure on his face he continued, "Those of you who have questions on what happened, you may have the floor."
'Hmm so that's what this is about.' He guessed as much. Although the Hokage had questioned him personally that obviously wasn't enough for the council who also wanted to be informed. More than anything though he guessed this was a political move, however were it would take him had yet to be seen.
Turning his attention to the elders who traditionally opened the floor he was pleased to see that Koharu made no move, thus Homura chose to go first, "Uzumaki-san, if you would be so kind as to give us a report of your mission from the moment the attack started."
Naruto nodded and with a deep breath he begun, "When I had made it to the palace it was already a battlefield and considering at the time I didn't know what we were dealing with I made a couple hundred shadow clones to do a number of jobs, firstly to gather information so I knew what I was dealing with, to find my teammates and also help hold back the opposition."
He heard the looks that opening sentence garnered as well as the mutters that arose around the chambers. Ignoring it he continued, "With the information my clones gathered I was able to quickly figure out the meaning behind the attack; it was only a distraction and their real objective was to get to the Daimyo."
"This information had already been revealed to us by your Jonin commander's report following the mission. You may proceed." Homura finished with a barely viable smirk; Naruto knew what he was doing.
'Then why the hell did you ask me you illiterate shit?' Managing to ignore the inner Naruto in his head he did as asked, "When I found the Daimyo he was already being attacked by what I can now identify as the Sound Four, made up of Jirobo of the South, Tayuya of the North, Kidomaru of the East and Sakon of the West, the latter appearing to be their squad leader."
A civilian council member stood up with a clear air of superiority surrounding her, "You can't expect us to believe you beat these four members all on your own? We've did some research on them, they're all highly regarded members of the Village Hidden in the Sound, all of which have Jonin ranks."
Naruto didn't know what it was about the whole action that annoyed him. The fact that she said it in a said so voice or the way she sat down with her head held high wanting to see what her fellow council members thought of her 'knowledge' in Ninja affairs.
He was quick to correct her, "Ahh my condolences, I didn't know you were so ill informed in the matter. You see, as most people know," He made sure to put extra emphasis in the word most, "The rankings of Ninja, Genin, Chunin, Jonin and finally Kage only apply to that of the five great Ninja Villages. Ourselves, Kumo, Kiri, Suna and Iwa. Although lesser villages may use this same system they are not in actuality up to the standard of our Jonin. So yes, while you are correct that they are Jonin, they were closer to Chunin in skill."
The reaction to his explanation was comical. The civilian side of the council looked utterly appalled that they'd been shut down so easily and by the looks of it they were afraid of it happening again. At least he didn't have to worry about them anymore.
Shikaku Nara failed to keep back a chuckle as he looked down at the blonde Genin; he was playing the councilman's game and he was winning and if what he'd seen so far indicated anything, he played it like his father. Tactically moving and aggravating his opposition and countering their mistakes, leaving them looking like fools, 'Very well done boy, well done indeed.'
Naruto motioned to the Hokage who nodded, "Now, as the civilian council so kindly noted; how could I beat those four member all on my own? Well the answer is I couldn't. Despite the fact that they aren't Jonin and had already been well roughed up my advisor Koharu, I knew it was going to be a battle of attrition, not one that I could win. As I waited for my teammates I managed to split them up with Kotetsu and Izumo taking on Jirobo and Kidomaru while I took on the other two. After that it was just a matter of getting the Daimyo to safety which my clones sorted out and the rest is history."
Homura nodded his head in acceptance but it was all too clear this was only the beginning of his questions, "From multiple reports the area your fighting took place in was said to be complete destruction with that part of the building having to be demolished due to the internal damage. No normal techniques could do that sort of damage."
That was a statement not a question meaning he didn't have to answer it. Naruto knew how to play this game and it didn't take long for the council to realise that, "There were also small traces of the Kyubi's chakra detected within the vicinity. Can you tell us anything about this?"
Naruto knew there was no need to lie at this point, "Yes, I was the one who did it."
As soon as the words left his mouth the council burst forth with questions, Shinobi and civilian side alike. The knowledge of Naruto Uzumaki knowing he tenanted a Bijuu was stressful enough but the fact he was already using its chakra caused problems that they weren't equipped to deal with.
Like always he didn't react but instead waited for the council the settle, "Although it wasn't something that I necessarily wanted to do, nor was I confident in doing so, it was necessary to keep up with my opposition. I'll be the first to admit that they were faster, stronger and more experienced than me and as such measures had to be taken to counter this."
This time it was Hiashi Hyuga to challenge him and keeping the clan image strong he was as stern and strict as ever, "You said you weren't confident in your ability. What do you mean by that? You haven't known of your status as a Jinchuriki for long, that much is clear. What if you lost control?"
The constant tone in how he was spoken to was starting to get on his nerves and so when Naruto gave the best 'are you fucking serious' look to his questioner people were slightly taken back.
As far as he was concerned he only answered to one man in this room and so he asked the question, "Hokage-sama, permission to speak freely."
The Hokage gladly nodded, he enjoyed seeing his council be occasionally whipped into place, especially when they deserved it.
Naruto wasted no time, "Too try to pretend you understand what it's like to control something like this is literally stupidity in a full frontal, naked and afraid form. I'm by no means experienced, hell I know virtually nothing about what I'm doing but I know a hell of a lot more than most of you. I was in a two versus one situation and I'm getting beat. What do you want me to do, roll over and die?"
The Hyuga clan head's response was too simply look away in contempt, 'So you don't even know when you're at fault.' It sickened the blonde Jinchuriki.
Naruto just looked at the rest of the council coldly, "I had a fair idea why I was called here today but if you're going to say that I shouldn't have used the very curse you put on me then we have problems." His voice rose only slightly but every word was laced with a jagged edge of vice, "For a long time I've used logic to try and figure out my life. When everything pointed to my status as a Jinchuriki the one hope, the one thing which said it wasn't me was I'd never been told." His rant wasn't just aimed at those in the council, now it was at the Hokage too, "You realise that every other person like me is told and trained to use it, they're not thrown in at the deep end with a chance that everything could go wrong."
The troubled boy let his words sink in, a seemingly permanent scowl on his face and a glare that could freeze fire boring into his opposition. It was one Genin fighting his cause against Konoha's best.
Silence followed his words and as he stood defiant it appeared as if nobody was willing to respond, that's when the third advisor stood up and unlike with Homura, the whispers in the chamber stopped similarly to when the Hokage spoke. This man endued a sense of reputation like his counterpart, or was it fear?
With a cane to steady himself it made him look weak however Naruto knew better, he could feel his chakra and it was strong, "I've been saying it for years and none of you listened and now that the brat says it you're reduced to silence. It has taken a national incident to waken some of you up to the fact that a Jinchuriki should not only know of his Bijuu but have the ability to control it; as far as I'm concerned this meeting has been a waste of time."
Inoichi Yamanaka was quick to catch on and respond to the war hawks manoeuvre, "The reason for this is that you'd have him resorted to nothing more than a weapon. I won't allow Konoha to lower itself to the likes of Iwa."
"You mistake me Yamanaka," Danzo's only action was to lock his lone eye onto the clan head, "All I'm saying is that we've made mistakes and it's important we fix them; Uzumaki-san needs tutelage and the only one that can provide that is Jiraiya, we all know that."
Looking up to the Hokage Naruto interrupted the two before anything more could be said, "May I be dismissed Hokage-sama? I've already spoken my peace, anything from this point forward doesn't need my part in it." He didn't know if he was fond of having somebody teach him to use the Kyuubi because, to be brutally honest, he wasn't sure if he wanted to learn. It's like he had said many times over, he was a Ninja first and a Jinchuriki second. That being said, he wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to meet a legendary Sannin.
The Hokage pondered the idea only slightly before again giving a nod, "Thank you for your time, Genin Naruto Uzumaki. You're concerns have been noted and you may be dismissed."
Or in a non-political term: sorry for this, I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again, you may go.
Naruto understood and with a small smile directed at the old man he excited like he arrived, via Shunshin.
Naruto could only give a small sigh of relief as he jumped along the rooftops towards his apartment, just as he left he had heard the uproar begin yet again and they were probably still at it, "At least I have the Hokage to back me up and avoid any political bullshit." There were others in the council like the Nara and Akimichi, maybe even the Inuzuka matriarch that he'd consider somewhat friendly but he doubted it'd be enough to save him.
He shook his head free of the thoughts as he arrived at his apartment, "I've been thinking too much recently, it's about time I start kicking some serious ass again." Speaking of which he really needed to get some training in, but first he needed sleep, he was too damn tired.
"YOSH NARUTO-KUN, MY ETERNAL RIVAL! Come outside so we can embrace the springtime of youth! Firstly we shall run across the village to see who is the fastest, and from there we'll do three thousand jumping jacks and a spar."
"Fuck." The word summed his situation up pretty well as he came to a stop overlooking his apartment, "Well I'm not getting any sleep now, and I do need to train." He could only scratch his head as a little streak of laziness kicked in. Since his meeting with Tenten at her store he'd had a few run-ins with Lee, needless to say they weren't fun, the training was a killer and when he sparred the boy hit like a semi-truck.
"NARUTO-KUN, OPEN UP! Guy-sensei said he'd consider giving you one of our awesome body suits if you were able to keep up in our 67 mile sprint."
Coming to the intellectual conclusion Naruto decided, "There's not a Uchiha's chance in Konoha I'm doing that shit." Even if he could take a training session with the two of them physically, mentally he was fucked, as for the suit... Naruto could only grimace.
Bolting off before Lee managed to sniff him out Naruto thought it best that he spent the time training, "I've been a lazy shit all week, and besides, I do need to check out that one place." He'd read up about it a while ago and had been considered crashing in to see if it lived up to its reputation. Something about man eating snakes and other beasts of the sort, y'know his type of thing.
"Hmm, the Forest of Death... seems like a nice place." Standing behind the large steel barriers that acted as a perimeter to the forest he could only presume they acted to keep things out rather than just stop people from getting in, although saying that, what sounded like a roar come from deep inside the forest so he couldn't imagine too many people tried to get in.
Thinking nothing of it he jumped the fence landing on one of the many huge trees, it was time to do a little exploring. Hand's in the familiar cross seal he shouted out the name of his favourite technique and about a hundred clones popped into existence around him, "Give this place a good run over, stay high in the foliage and for the love of God, if one of you get the idea to go find Ino and chat her up again I will remove you and all you're little clone buddies from existence. Got it."
His army responded with one loud group gulp, last time one of them messed up it had resulted in a massacre.
Naruto just clapped his hands happily, "Good."
Like that his clones took off scouting the area and filing off information as they went, he however had a feeling the middle of the forest was where it all would be happening. He didn't know much about this place, what he did know however was that even Jonin within the village didn't like coming in here and that it housed some of the biggest and most vicious animals in fire country, "Perfect for training."
Anko Mitorashi leapt through the tree limbs of the Forest of Death on one of her many adventures in the training ground. It was pretty safe to say she was the queen when it came to this place; the only one in the village that had the guts to use the forest for training and the only one that saw it as a place to blow off some steam.
Quite the eccentric personality she had the looks to back it up, natural purple spikey hair that was short and fanned in a ponytail backed up light brown, pupil-less eyes, needless to say she was a good looking chick and in her prime too. Twenty four years old and not afraid to flunk what she'd been given the Tokubetsu Jonin wore a sleeveless fishnet mesh shirt, fishnet armbands that reached down to her elbow, black shorts and black boots.
Anko had been having a good day so far. A trip to the dango store, getting to make fun of Kurenai and all her cute little Genin... then another trip to the dango store. Yup, it had been a wonderful day and now she would get some light training put in as the perfect finish for her day.
Heading to her favourite spot she soon figured that the forest wasn't in its usual state of tranquillity that it usually housed before her arrival; she had already been attacked twice by lone spiders which was strange in itself, usually they sat back in numbers and wouldn't attack unless provoked.
Stopping on a large branch Anko squinted and focused her chakra and what she found made her jaw drop, pushing her way towards the mass of chakra signatures she burst into an open clearing to a mass of what looked to be clones spamming Jutsu all over the place. There were countless numbers of them, mix this with the countless numbers of animals attacking and there was a small war going on.
It wasn't too often when something reduced her to a standstill, but seeing a spider the size of a small home getting piled on by upwards a hundred sun kissed clones just made you stop and stare.
Anko looked on wide eyed before the severity of the situation kicked in, "What the hell is this kid doing. This must be violating some sort of animal cruelty," Not that she'd ever taken that into consideration herself. That being said she usually took on a few of the forests beasts at once, not the whole damn forest like he was currently doing.
Taking off into the mass of clones she stopped in front of the first one she came across and in turn scared the hell out of it causing it to blow up in a puff of smoke, this caused the other Naruto replications to notice her all of which were glaring with eyes full of rage, "What the fuck lady, don't you know how scary that is." One of the clones started rather aggressively only for another to take over, "When you pop one of us we all get the memories, if boss isn't dead yet then he'll torture us to death because of the memories that were just sent."
Now she had seen some pretty messed up shit in her life, but this took the cake, "What are you all doing out here... aside from trying to remove all life forms from this forest."
The clones all looked at each other before one of them decided to take charge, "Umm... we don't really know. Boss just told us too scout out the area which was going fine until dipstick over there," He pointed to a rather embarrassed looking clone, "Thought it was a good idea to attack a spider. Before we knew it there was a war going on. No matter how many we kill more keep coming so boss headed in further to see if he could find where they were coming from. Although from the sound of it, I don't think it's going well...something about taking a hostage."
After that the clones just broke into a chaos of chatter, mostly circulating on how their boss would go full Ron Swanson on those spider's asses. Whatever that meant she didn't know, nor did she want to find out.
In one of her rare moments of seriousness Anko listened to what was being said, "So what, is this boss of yours deeper in the forest then?" She got a collective 'yep' from the clones before continuing, "And you're saying he's actively trying to provoke the wildlife for training, right?
Built with the same personalities as their original every clone sheepishly put his hand behind his head and scratched, slightly embarrassment at being called out.
Anko could only face-palm, "And I thought my generation was bad, say kid, what rank are you? I didn't hear of any kid's getting promoted up to Chunin for a while now."
"No, boss is just a fresh Genin," The clones said it with little importance.
Anko thought differently, "Your boss is a bloody idiot." Without wasting time and in admitted panic the Jonin pushed past the clones before bolting off towards the location of the blonde haired Genin, the centre of the forest and where a lot of the animals would tend to nest. "You better be still alive kid."
As Anko headed into the particularly deadly section of the forest it was easy to tell things weren't the usual. The forest was a darker shade of green and with very little sun being able to break through the canopy the forest floor was next pitch black dark. What let the Jonin know she was getting close was the faint sounds of inhuman screeching, inaudible and spine-tingling they were growing ever closer.
The tense wait was broken however, as she approached the source of the noises the very blonde little Genin she was looking for flew past her into a tree, but he wasn't alone; followed by the biggest spider she'd ever seen it was double the size of anything she had killed and had launched itself at the blonde.
Pulling himself free of the bark and having not noticed the woman Naruto groaned, "That's going to sting like a bitch tomorrow, fucking knew I shouldn't have attacked the queen."
Anko was just about to scream for the boy to move as the spider sailed through the air towards him however at the last second he sidestepped before driving a kunai right into the underside of the beast. Not stopping there, chakra coursed through the blade and because he didn't apply any direction or edge the spider ended up pooping like a balloon.
Retrieving his kunai and turning around to resume the fight Naruto finally noticed the woman who'd come to save him, but he didn't know that, "Uhh, hey are you lost."
Slacked jaw, wide eyes and a face that clearly said 'what the fuck' plastered all over her Anko finally snapped out of her trance, "Sweet Kami kid, what the hell are you doing in here?" It wasn't like her too shout, nor was it very Ninja like but dammit she had the right this time, "Don't you know where you're at, how dangerous this place is?"
Repeating the action that his clones did not ten minutes prior Naruto responded, "You say that like it's a bad thing. Sure there's a shit load of spiders in here but once I take down a couple dozen of them they'll realise it's a lost cause, right? Besides, it's pretty fun."
Anko felt like screaming, "Don't you release what danger you're in. Nobody knows exactly how many there are in here, they burrow deep into the ground and their nest is connected like an underground fortress running all through the forest. They won't let you leave this forest without a fight."
Naruto just scoffed while cleaning his blade on the spider he just killed, "I could have told you that but they started it, I just wanted to see what this place was like then they attacked me."
Anko was crazy but she wasn't the type of crazy that wanted to die young either. As they stood she could feel the chakra signatures of spiders all around them, there where hundreds if not thousands all lined up waiting too strike, "Idiot boy, what did you manage to do to get so many after you?" she hissed, "I've came in here to take out a few plenty of times but I've never pissed them off quite like you have.
Naruto gave her 'that look.'
It wasn't something describable nor was it something that happened often. It was a look he gave when he knew he'd messed up, when he knew he was in the wrong and when he actually admitted it. The three combined had most likely never happened before.
Despite all this Anko knew that, 'that look' meant something bad, "What did you do you baka?"
Covered in blood that wasn't his own Naruto rubbed his face gingerly, "Well I was trying to get away and accidently killed their..." He trailed off towards the end of the sentence.
"Oh my... cough it up you little shit. Just what did you do to get a full armada after us?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"Ikilledtheirqueen!" Naruto uncharacteristically squeaked. "I swear though it was an accident. I was holding her hostage to try and get away and then you scared my Kage Bunshin, the memory filtered in and it freaked me out and then the...queen sorta died. I poked my kunai in its eye by accident."
Anko had no words for that.
Looking on blankly at the blood covered kid as he smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck with that, 'whoops, my bad' expression.
He was a lost cause, the fact that the kid took a spider queen hostage was alarming to say the least, but then he killed it by accident. "Well to hell with that, we need to find a way out of here if we don't want to become dinner and considering that you ended up killing the only leverage we had to do so then I guess it's going to be a fight."
Naruto brightened up at that, "From what I've gathered these eight-legged fucks hate fire. You could burn yourself a way out?"
"That might work, but I don't know very many fire Jutsu and it's not my affinity so I'll use up too much chakra," Anko explained, "If you can make us an exit with one of your Jutsu though, then I can stop anything from getting close while we run."
Naruto sweat dropped, "I don't know any fire Jutsu either." Now how was he supposed to explain this one, "I have a tendency to make faulty tags every now and then though, a couple of them basically turned into small napalm bombs and they did a lot of damage...besides, who said anything about us? I want to keep training."
Anko had heard so much shit out of this boy's mouth that she didn't even react to that, turning around she gave a glare that only a woman could, "I don't want to be eatin alive, I don't want to die and while a stupid little shit like you may have a death wish I'm not taking the heat when a Genin doesn't turn up for training with his sensei so you're coming with me, got it?"
Naruto just stared at her blankly for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders, if that's what the lady wanted who was he too argue, "Okay lady, just make sure you keep up cause I'm not the heroic type." Without warning two Naruto clones popped into existence beside him, already mid run they pulled out their sealing tags each squiggling random lines and dots on them and sure enough a fiery explosion followed, "There's are gap, go!"
Darting forward at speeds she didn't expect she had to actually put a little effort in too keep up, "You're fast kid. How long have you been training in here?"
Naruto sidestepped a spider as it attacked from the canopy above and continued pushing forward, "Today's been my first day. I was planning to stay longer but since you're here I'll have to cut this session short. I was going to keep training until well after dark to see how long I could last and then just make a mad dash outa here but you made be skip straight to the cluster fuck that was planned for later. I don't think you noticed but you brought all the ones my clones were fighting with you."
"I doubt it would have mattered, you made sure to have the entire forest after you when you killed their queen," Anko stated blankly as she watched him throw a kunai at another spider only for it to explode on impact, "Kami kid, how are you doing that, it's like your turning those spiders into bombs?"
Naruto's eyes just darted around the area, "I'm overloading it with chakra when I stab it into them, I'm pretty sure it messes with their chakra system and that's what causes them to pop like that."
She had been trying to narrow down just who the kid was until she heard that sentence, "Ahh that explains everything. I guess everything I've heard about little Naruto Uzumaki is true then; an over confident little shit, a big mouth but chakra power house. If I were too try do what you're doing then I'd be out of fuel in a matter of minutes." As the sentence left her mouth five spiders jumped out in front of them blocking their path, "But then again, I can always do this," Running through hand-seals she shouted the name of her technique, "Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!"
The Jutsu raced forward past Naruto and hit the group of spiders and instantly reduced them to ash much to the boy's awe, "Holy shit, when we get out of here you're so teaching me that!"
This continued for over half an hour, the random and constant spider attacks never letting up but they kept pushing forward until the large steel gates came into view, that being said, Naruto never seemed to get one thing without the other, so keeping tradition of good coming with the bad a large platoon of spiders had set up what only could be described as a blockade to stop their exit, "I knew we weren't seeing enough of those pricks back there. Of course that'd be like them to try and block us off."
Not slowing down in the slightest Naruto ran right towards the middle of them, rummaging through his Ninja pouch as he went he knew exactly what he needed to solve this problem, "No not that one, not that one either...got it." Pulling out one of his many sealing tags he gave a sick smile as the spiders piled up to stop him, "Lightning Style: Thunder bolt."
Just like the name indicated, a thunderbolt shot straight out of the tag directly into the group of spiders frying at least a dozen of them thanks to their close proximity, "That one's straight from Kakashi Hatake, I knew storing that would come in handy at some point."
Not stopping there he slid along the ground cleaving off the legs and limbs whenever he could before finishing them off efficiently, by this point the arachnids had figured out the danger of Naruto's kunai considering it had been his main tool of disposal for most of the day, that didn't stop him from resorting to throwing it whenever the spiders figured it wasn't a battle they could win, especially so far away from their main base.
As you'd expect Anko was no slouch either, anything that got too close to her was slashed to pieces and with her evident efficiency with elemental Jutsu the spiders were falling fast. Seeing Naruto physically wrangle a large group into a corner the opportunity was too good to resist, "Time to see if fire is as good as you say, Fire Style: Dragon Wild Fire."
Just like the blonde had said the spiders lit up like torches and burnt up like dead vegetation would, any that managed to survive writhed and hissed in pain much to her pleasure. She hated those spiders and while an academy student could deal with them one versus one it was their numbers that made it so annoying and dangerous. Seeing a countless number of them burn up like that just activated her sadistic side.
Standing on top of a pile of spiders Naruto channelled chakra through his fist and punched a spider so that it was literally reduced to pieces, "I just don't think you pieces of shit get it, "Naruto formed two Kage Bunshin both of which charged forward into separate clumps of spiders before blowing up, "I'm not stuck in here with you, you're stuck in here with me."
Seeing the numbers dwindle if only for a second Anko saw it as an opportunity to escape, running in and grabbing her rage fuelled partner by his collar the older woman pushed as much chakra as she could to her feet before springing up and over the steel gate that separated the forest from the rest of the village.
One second he was boasting his strength on top of the corpses of his enemies the next he was planted into the earth head transfixed up into the starry night sky, wiping away a little blood Naruto let out a content giggle, "That was so bloody cool... hey you're alright?"
Already on her feet Anko just looked down at Naruto with disbelief, "Course I am, you crazy little asshole. Those things wouldn't have hesitated to kill you." Helping him up when he asked Anko continued, "You realise you're not allowed in there unless your Chunin rank or above, even then it's recommended that you go in as a group." It wasn't very often she was like this but she had to act like an adult at some point.
Naruto just waved her off, "It clearly said in the sign 'recommended Chunin level and above' and besides in there is so good for training."
Anko fought back her argument, "I don't think you're understanding me. Those things could have, no scratch that, they would have killed you unless I showed up."
This girl really wasn't just gonah let it go was she, dusting himself off he decided to explain, "Gimme a break, I went in there for a challenging fight and I got it. I'm not training to harm or disable my opponents, I'm training to kill them; I need to be used to ending lives whenever I need to because that's pretty much what the future of my job entails. Besides, nobody's gonah miss those things."
Well she could agree with that last bit, "Pfft whatever brat, you're a Genin, you should be worrying about learning a few new Jutsu and pleasing your sensei, not learning to kill things." Seeing her presence no longer needed she finished, "Don't go in their again, and I will know if you do."
"Oh no, no, no. Not a chance are you getting away that easy," Naruto was quick to pipe up, "You fired off at least three Jutsu back there that looked awesome, I need those in my arsenal before I head away for another mission or I'm literally fucked. You don't even wanna know what they sent me into last time and in terms of Naruto Uzumaki, a.k.a. world's punching bag, I'll be sent to war next time."
Anko sweat dropped at his pleading voice, "Konoha's not at war kid."
Naruto looked up at the stars with sceptical squinted eyes, "Oh they'll find a way."
Out of mere interest Anko asked, "Hmm, who's your sensei kid, I'm sure you can get something off him without bothering me."
Naruto just responded coolly, "Kakashi Hatake," When Anko looked back at him apologetically Naruto could only grimace, "Now you understand. The man's good at what he does but he'll do as little of that as possible."
"I can see with why that might be a problem, tell you what, If you promise to never go back into the forest then I'll show you how to do them."
He didn't know how, but somehow the shit eating grin didn't manage to make it onto his face, "Deal."
Good thing he was a great liar.
A/N - So that's another chapter over and done with and damn was that one a joy to write. Did it in like a day which is always good going for me. Now some of you may think it's a little bit of filler but it's not, I'm just trying to get some things sorted out for future chapters and I want to introduce Naruto to a few more people so I can have more interactions and the such, everyone needs interactions.
The pace will pick up again next chapter unless I have a complete reversal of plans which may happen yet, like I said, I'm taking my time now that Naruto's back in Konoha and I'm getting him about the place while I can; plus he's found his training place and got a few new Jutsu while doing so. A win-win situation indeed.
Ino and Sasuke should be appearing again next chap because to be quite frank, it's been too long since they've took a crack at each other.
Oh, and did you see England's performance at the Euro's like what even is that?