Chapter Twenty - Issues Within Paradise
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Naruto's eyes snapped open when he realized that his door was being knocked on aggressively. Isane also sat up next to him, hugging the covers to hide her body.
"Uzumaki-sama!"
Naruto got out of bed when he heard Sui-Feng's voice from behind the door. He slipped on his discarded pants before opening the door. "What's wrong, Sui-Feng-san?"
"Bodies of our shinobi were found on the shores of the island. Aizen-san thinks it's your escorts and has them on house arrest. He sent Gin to contain the Kiri rebels."
Naruto widened his eyes at this and nodded his head. "Wait for me at the door, I'll get dressed and we will leave to handle this."
The woman nodded and turned to walk away as the blonde shut the door and walked over to his wardrobe closet.
"I'll get dressed too," Isane said as she started getting dressed in her Enforcer uniform.
Naruto smiled and got dressed in a red kimono shirt with loose black hakama pants. A simple black swirl representing the Uzumaki is on the back of the shirt but he covers it with a long black haori with sleeves reaching to his elbow. He grabbed the scroll containing his clan's collection of ancient weapons.
He turned to see Isane sliding her katana into the uniform's sash. He walked over and gave a kiss to her cheek. "Ready?"
She nodded.
He opened the door and led the way downstairs and to his front door, finding Sui-Feng with Yoruichi and two Onmitsukido officers. "Okay, first let's go to Aizen and get my escort. I doubt they would do something so stupid, and if Kyoraku-san has Third Division Visored watching them since arriving then they could not have had the time to do this."
Naruto did not want to pick anyone over any of his Captains but he also did not want something to happen that would put himself in a precarious spot with Hiruzen. And the death of his team and Asuma's would look very bad. He was regretting not leaving a clone to cover his departure but they don't stay alive forever and he wanted to enjoy his time in his home.
The housing given to his escorts was not far from his compound and when he arrived he found a few dozen Fourth Division Visored and a bit less of the Third Division forces surrounding the area. Sōsuke stood out in front with a calm but annoyed expression on his face, but that turned into utter reverence when he saw him approaching.
With a bow, the brunette man greeted his Prince. "I'm sorry you had to be awoken so late at night, Uzumaki-sama."
"It is the duty of the Prince to handle every matter that threatens his people," Naruto said with a hand raise to indicate the man to stand properly. "I heard you think it is my escorts that committed the murders?"
"I cannot say that I believe it only them, so I had sent Ichimaru-san to watch over the other foreigners," Aizen nodded his head.
"They have been under the watchful gaze of the Third Division," Yoruichi told the man as Naruto just looked around. "Do you really think they could get past unnoticed? And why go to the shore just to kill a few of our shinobi?"
"Whether they did or did not is not the problem, but if they did and we left them loose, I am not risking our Prince's safety on ifs," Aizen told the woman sharply. "If they did not do it then this will blow over, but-!"
"Aizen," Naruto interrupted calmly and his eyes caught the gaze of the Captain. "I appreciate your concern, but I trust in the capabilities of the Visored to know if my escorts left to do this. Let them out, we will inspect the bodies together to determine the type of attack before we ruin any relations to our only possible ally."
Aizen is silent as he stared at his leader before he scowled and turned to the closest Visored. "Let them out."
"Thank you, Aizen-san," Naruto smiled at the man but he just got a curt, unsure nod.
"Naruto!"
He turned to look at his approaching team with Asuma and his students lagging behind.
"What is going on," Kakashi asked as he looked at the large force surrounding them.
"Why were we locked in our building without explanation," Asuma asked much more aggressively.
"Watch your tone," Aizen warned the smoking man.
"Enough," Naruto bit out before he sighed and pinched his nose. "You are found under suspicion because a patrol group had been found murder at the shore of our island. Because this has happened the very day I arrive with all of you, my Captain is being safer than sorry."
"We have been watched the entire day and I'm sure since we got settled for the night!" Asuma threw his hands up at the Visored with the kanji for Third Division. "How the hell could we have done that?"
"Think of this as your excuse of how the Uchiha were treated," Naruto told the man with a glare. "We are being safe than sorry since we don't know for sure. That was your reasoning, right?"
The man just stared in shock at the blonde using that reasoning against him.
"You are Jonin, experienced ones at that," Naruto explained shortly as a more thought out explanation to the group. "While I may stand up for you, do not think that I do not know your capabilities. For that I will side with the caution of my Captain and we will go to my murdered people to find out what truly happened. If you resist, then I will allow Aizen-san to have you detained."
The group is silent in shock.
"Naruto, you wouldn't do that to your comrades," Ino tried to reason.
"Currently, I am not a Genin of Konohagakure but the Prince of Uzushiogakure and Clan Head of the Uzumaki. I will place the safety of my island and my people first…even if it means going against you."
The entire group stared back with shock and mortification of how different the blonde is acting ever since they arrived in Uzushio. To Asuma and Ino, it seemed like the power of being the leader of a dead and, in their opinion, barely rebuilt nation is going to his head. But for Kakashi, he saw how conflicted his student is even as he put up a calm and serious front.
Sakura just nervously looked between her teammate and sensei, hoping the situation could be defused before anything bad happens. It didn't help that all of the armed guards were watching them carefully, some already morphing their bodies into more skeletal appearances. It would have scared her if it was not already seen by their watchers earlier after their questions with the Captains.
It didn't help that even she, with her little power sensing abilities, could feel the increase in power. The feeling felt like death, as if the cold hand of the Shinigami was reaching out to take her soul. It was unpleasant and even knowing the feeling of KI, this was unlike it and she felt that this is what dying felt like.
Sasuke, unlike everyone, is the most unsurprised as he had been paying attention to the blonde the most since arriving on the island. His rival is handling his position as leader perfectly, and while they are used to him acting as a shinobi of Konoha this is not that type of situation. He cannot appear as siding with them or else his men will lose respect and confidence in him, demoralizing any authority.
It's funny, really, how a bubble of confidence is working it's way into his chest but the Uchiha just pushed it down aggressively. He will confront his teammate eventually on this.
"Let's go," Naruto told them and turned to motion for Sui-Feng to lead the way.
Meanwhile
Mei heard the commotion all the way from the officers community apartment that was set aside by the Uzushio Captains. She had dressed and left immediately, her two closest bodyguards Chojuro and Ao following after her when they woke up to the noise.
As they got closer to the origin of the commotion, they found a growing amount of comrades filling the entrance of their temporary district. They are about two miles outside the actual village proper, but even from here they could see the walls of the village. However, that is not what is getting everyone's attention.
As Mei got closer, her eyes narrowed as she noticed that familiar mischievous smirk on a young man with white hair. He wore the Uzushio Enforcers Officer uniform with a haori that says 'Fourth Division Lieutenant". She recognized him as Gin Ichimura, the right hand man of Captain Aizen. The same man that wanted to arrest her on some baseless accusation of her heritage.
Seeing the Enforcers blocking off the entrance to their district made something in her snap and she began shoving her way forward to confront the Lieutenant personally. "What is the meaning of this!"
"Mei-chan," Zabuza greeted seriously when he turned to address her. Haku stood to his right and seemed to be thinking about something.
"Zabuza, what is going on?"
"You are being put on lockdown," Gin answered smoothly with the same smirk on his face. "There has been an incident and until Prince-sama has investigated the issue we have decided that for everyone's safety they are to stay in their houses."
"You have no power over us," Mei hissed at the man but it seems her anger only made Gin more amused.
"You agreed to follow our rules while here. Do not forget that it is because of the mercy of Prince-sama that you have a place to rest without fear of being found by your Mizukage." Gin let the statement hang in the air for a while. "If you proceed to try to go against us, we will have no choice but to detain you and place you in your homes forcefully."
Zabuza put a hand on Mei's shoulder and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "We are not in Kiri anymore. We must follow a different set of laws if it means having a place for our people to relax. Do not forget that Naruto is here to talk to us personally. Wait until then."
Mei nodded curtly and, after a quick glare at Gin, she turned around to get her people's attention. "Listen, everyone! The Uzumaki have a serious situation that they are investigating and we must stay inside our homes! I am told it is for our and their safety as they look into the issue! Go to your homes and go to sleep!"
It took a bit but people started leaving back to their homes with a few grumbles or snide comments against the Enforcers. Mei was about to leave when she heard Gin's amused voice behind her.
"I appreciate your cooperation. If only you were like this when we wanted to draw blood tests."
Naruto landed next to the four bodies that lay mangled and bloodied. Five other Onmitsukido were guarding the area when they arrived and stepped aside for him to look over the bodies. The four bodies held the swirl mask of the Whirling Tide shinobi unit and just the fact that four were defeated meant that it was a group that did this or a few exceptionally strong individuals.
Two bodies seemed to have been shredded in many parts of their bodies. It wasn't a normal weapon that did this, certainly nothing Konoha has ever used, so that ruled out his escorts doing this. But the fact that a weapon was thick enough to create large gashes like this without sacrificing a sharp edge was what stumped him.
The other two bodies held the least amount of wounds. A single stab to the chest. No marks of struggle or fighting back. This meant that someone was trusted? No, then the need to beat the other two so severely would not have been necessary. A genjutsu, then.
"What do you think," Yoruichi asked as she stopped by his side.
"Definitely nothing a weapon from Konoha could accomplish," he answered softly while taking a breath of the area.
His nose caught a faint smell of lilies and one of fish, but it was faint by about a few hours. For a while the old fox has been modifying Naruto's senses so he can smell better and hear farther. It is something Kurama could do to his hosts since he was the form of an animal but it was long and exhausting so he has been asleep to recover.
"I smell two people," Naruto announced and turned to the large group. "It wasn't my escorts, and it doesn't seem to be any of the rebels. These two snuck onto the island and were caught. Shinobi, since one used genjutsu."
"Who would force their way into the island?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders at Kakashi's question. "Whoever they are, they know what they are looking for. They killed the four Whirling Tide and continued on, so they are professionals."
"The Gold and Silver brothers would come looking for some relics," Sui-Feng suggested, as those two are notorious for stealing Kumogakure's Sage relics after abandoning the village.
"These two had differing smells. One smells of lilies and the other of fish. One is a weapon user while the other used genjutsu to trap both before finishing them with a single attack."
Naruto sniffed the air more as Yoruichi, Aizen and Sui-Feng talked to each other. He could sense where the scent traveled and it headed for Uzushiogakure. That confused him, since they had just come from that direction and he or his commanders didn't catch anyone nearby.
"They're already in the village," Naruto told them with a small amount of surprise. "They'd been in the village since making it onto the island."
"Could it be hunter-nin from Kiri coming to kill the leaders of the rebels?" Naruto turned when he heard Yoruichi's question. "Maybe they learned of them being here?"
"Possibly, but they made their way straight to the village instead of the refugee camp outside," Naruto said softly. "Let's go back, I can track their scent."
"Interesting ability," Asuma commented under his breath but was ignored by the Uzushio group while Kakashi gave him a sideways glare. "What?"
"Stop provoking them," Kakashi warned his fellow Jonin.
Naruto jumped into the trees and began following the scent. He is lucky he has this particular ability because he could not see any sign that someone had come this way. They simply vanished after killing the four Whirling Tide and they would have had a hard time tracking them by sight alone.
As they neared the village, the scent veered to the left along the walls towards the clan districts - but the only one as far as the scent traveled was his compound. His eyes widened at that. Karin-chan!
Naruto now sped off faster than before, willing his body to go with all its might to get to his compound. He didn't look back to see if the group was still following him but he could feel Aizen hot on his heels. He could feel the small release of power that came with unsheathing a zanpakuto and he knew the man could feel his master's distress.
The first sign of the two invaders coming this way is the dead body of a First Division Visored but they had the wounds from the weapon user. Then another. More just kept passing as Naruto landed in the compound and followed the trail of death to where his targets will ultimately be. Both Yoruichi and Sui-Feng flared their chakra to alarm the others nearby to make their way over if possible.
Naruto barely registered the answering flares of chakra when he came upon the scene. Two people wearing black cloaks with red clouds stood with three dead bodies nearby and many others injured but in partial Visored transformation. They looked to be trying to hold the two aggressors back but why they were outmatched confused Naruto.
The Visored boosts were nothing to scoff at so these individuals had to be extremely dangerous.
"Prince-sama!" The Visored were relieved to see their Prince and commanders.
"Itachi!"
Naruto turned his head to stare at Sasuke, who was being held back by Kakashi so he didn't charge forward, and then turned back to see the woman with familiar Sharingan eyes. Never thought this would be how we meet again, all these years later.
Naruto had never believed the answer given of why Itachi killed her clan for a second. If she was testing her strength and succeeded, she had no reason to keep her brother alive beyond tormenting him. But from the look of her, no one would have assumed anything but apathy as she regarded her brother's shout. But Naruto's sixth sense granted by Kurama gave him feelings of shock and sadness. Not just sadness, but a great feeling of despair and regret.
"Hey, Itachi, I thought you killed your entire clan?" The fish man hefted the large, bandaged weapon over his shoulder with a predator grin. "It seems you missed one."
"It is no one but my weak brother," Itachi answered monotonously. "He was pathetic back then, and I expect nothing more from him now."
"While it is amusing to everyone the ongoing drama of a nearly extinct clan, coming from one to another," Naruto interrupted when Sasuke seemed to be ready to burst, "I believe you made the mistake of attacking my people. Submit yourself and we will show mercy."
"Hahahahah," the fish-man started laughing raucously. "The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki has some balls, doesn't it! Even after seeing what we did to these guys, it still thinks it could beat us!"
Naruto's right eye twitched. "I don't think, I know. I will not repeat myself. Stand. Down."
"Or what," he goaded.
Naruto sighed and tapped his foot on the ground, creating the familiar Grand Scheme Array that rapidly trapped everyone in the immediate area. Just as the two invaders were preparing to attack, he slipped his other foot to the left, channeling a new seal into the Array. This one, a very special seal developed by Uzumaki, and the screams from both Sasuke and Itachi let him know it worked.
"What did you do, idiot!"
"Sharingan Disruption Seal," Naruto answered his teammate. "You cannot use your Dojutsu while inside this area, and if you do it will cause a lot of pain to your eyes and head."
"You couldn't have warned him?!" Ino shouted as she fussed over her crush.
"He needed the element of surprise for Itachi," Kakashi said as he moved his hand that had moved to reveal his own Sharingan eye.
Naruto did not say anything else as he took the opportunity to add the subseal to the Array. "Grand Scheme: Fiendish Reflection."
The ground near Itachi and her partner seemed to bubble and a large black goo rose up and began fluidly taking shape, rippling like water when tossing a rock in. Slowly, the goo formed exact replicas of the two and even had their weapons - even mocking the large bandaged sword carried by Kisame. They now faced off against each other, unmoving as if calculating each other's power.
"Not only are you outnumbered and outmatched, you now have to face yourselves," Naruto told them before creating four clones. "And these aren't shades or illusions, the Array gives them active data on you and it learns from your actions. So, the longer you fight the better your Fiends know how to counter you."
Naruto then snapped his finger, and the Fiends launched forward to attack.
Kisame dodged an attack from his doppelgänger, swiping his sword to cleave the hood in half but he was blocked by the Fiend's own sword. Then he was shoved back from a strong shoulder into his chest and he had to use Samehada to block a thrust from replica Samehada. His head hurt with how annoying this Fuinjutsu is becoming and he gave a roar as he kicked his replica back.
Itachi ducked under a punch sent by her Fiend, thrusting a kunai forward but it swiped her hand to the side and sent a sharp kick to her stomach. She staggered back but was able to dodge another attack before grabbing its arm and tossing it into the ground. She prepared to snap its arm but her legs was kicked from under her and she landed on her back with a grunt.
Naruto's clones moved towards the injured Visored and began healing their wounds with the iryojutsu that he knew. The Visored were thanking him, even saying that he should conserve his strength in case he needed to run, but just kept healing them and saying that it's the least he could do for those that were willing to risk their life for their village.
The original Naruto watched the fight that continued on before motioning to Yoruichi to come forward. "Take a few Visored and prepare the containment seal."
The woman nodded and moved to do as she was told.
Meanwhile
"Hey, sensei."
Hiruzen looked up as Jiraiya greeted him casually as he entered through the window. "Ah, Jiraiya-kun, what brings you back so early?"
"My raven wasn't crowing as usual," the Sannin answered cryptically.
Hiruzen understood the message, though, and activated the privacy quickly. "What happened?"
"I moved to the usual information drop location but there was nothing from Itachi," Jiraiya said as he sighed. "This isn't usual for her."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and sat back. "What was the last information drop about?"
"Just that they were still gathering funds through bounty hunting, and they had another meeting with their leader coming up. She did mention something about their leader keeping an eye on Biju locations."
Hiruzen's eyes widened this time and he burst forward in his chair. "What?! Why wasn't this part of your report last month!"
Jiraiya raised his hands in defense. "It wasn't anything concrete yet and it wasn't like Naruto wasn't in the village at the time."
"But he isn't now!"
Jiraiya balked at that and began panicking. "What do you mean he isn't now?! Where did he go!"
"He paid for a mission to his home island for a month! This is why you need to share everything with me, you idiot! Now his life is in danger!"
"Why would you send him there! It's not my fault!" Jiraiya moved for the window this time before turning back to his sensei. "I'm going there now, I'll bring him back."
Before Hiruzen could tell him to wait, the man left. Shit!
Back with Naruto
"Uzushio Containment Seal: Trap."
Kisame and Itachi froze in place, the former with Samehada raised over his head while the latter was ducking forward under an attack. Their eyes widened as they realized their body froze up from an unseen force constricting over them.
"Uzushio Containment Seal: Contain."
Two large pots with a seal cloth over the top are set before them, and their bodies begin to be sucked into the top. As their bodies finally disappeared, the kanji for "contain" was marked over the top of the cloth where they were sucked into.
Naruto sighed at the success of the containment Fuinjutsu and motioned for a group of Visored to grab the pots. "Lock them in the prison. Give a small meal, as well."
The group nodded and moved to do as told, while Naruto just turned to his left when he heard a tiny bit of movement. However, a large toad hopped out of a bush.
Croak!
Naruto narrowed his eyes when he saw the throat and stomach of the toad begin to expand before its mouth opened. First came an arm, then a head, and finally the rest of the body of a familiar man. He pinched his nose as the man crawled the rest of the way out of the road and got to his knees, all while everyone loyal to Uzushio pulled out their weapons and pointed them at the man.
"What are you doing here, Jiraiya."
"I'm here to take you back to Konoha," the man said as he tried to ignore the vicious swords pointed at him. "The Akatsuki sent a team here to kidnap you so I need to bring you back to the safety of the village."
Naruto blinked at the man owlishly before beginning to laugh, holding his stomach. "Hahaha! You're too late for that, pervert! We have already captured the two invaders and have them imprisoned currently."
Jiraiya blinked at that and looked around, finally noting the destruction of a recent battle. "The point still remains, I am here to bring you all back to the village. We don't know if they had or will send another team to complete the job."
Naruto sighed at the man. "Listen, I'm not going back until I'm done with what I want to do here. I paid for this mission, and even if I didn't I would come straight back here the moment I was out of sight. So do us a favor and go tell Hokage-jijisan that I am fine now."
"Naruto-!"
The blonde slammed his foot on the ground, creating a transportation seal without a destination. It would drop the man anywhere in the world, but if he was able to use a toad to get into his island he can use one to get back to Konoha. Now that he thought about it…
Naruto threw a kunai at the toad, piercing through its body and killing it instantly.
"Naruto! Why did you do that to the toad!"
"So the pervert gets the point that I don't want him back on my island," Naruto told Ino with a glare. "Now that the excitement is done, I want all of you to go back to your home. We will have a ceremony for the dead then, but for now we all deserve sleep."
"Understood, Prince-sama," the Visored and commanders bowed respectfully.
"Thank you," Naruto told them with a kind and true smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've worked up quite a bit of energy in this excitement so I'm gonna go have some fun."
Naruto quickly grabbed Isane's hand and the two disappeared in a flash.
Sakura and Ino blushed as it dawned what he meant by fun, and Kakashi giggled like a lunatic as if he was reading his perverted books. Shikamaru and Sasuke, surprisingly, shared a similar thought of 'troublesome'. Asuma could care less, finding his time on this island tiring him beyond belief, and Choji snorted in amusement before eating more of his snacks.
Early merry Christmas to everyone celebrating, happy holidays to everyone else I hope y'all are enjoying your time with friends or family or your pets. I'm about... three chapters ahead after this so I just decided to post this chapter. I'm in a good mood for once so I hope everyone enjoyed :D
PraetorXyn: Since I planned on adding Scarlet I decided to add Irene as well. Other Fairy Tail characters exist in the world but they won't be focused on just yet.
777torn777: They're too comfortable with how Naruto was in Konoha, so it is quite the shock to see him taking a leadership position more seriously. Ish.
mshade656: Aizen! :D
NaruCrazy: He didn't share everything. Same as she gave a general overview of her mission, Assassination, he gave his overview, escort, but told him what he wanted to do which was kill Gato. Agreements to work together were made from there. This is a fanfic of my own amusement, I try to make things make sense but if I wanted to I could just do something without explanation because it would be what I want to happen. I can understand if it's not what you like.
ecoBlade: Hm? 5th fleet? I'm not part of the navy if that's what you're referencing, but I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter :D
HaywireEagle: so Haku has always been a girl to me, so fem!Haku is just to let others know that this won't have yaoi. Maybe, but I'm pretty sure Naruto won't be diving into bussy anytime soon. Build up smoother? I'm not going for that I'm going for momentum and a story that just tumbled out of my imagination. And nothing is thoughtlessly thrown in, if that was so this fanfic would be in even more shambles but I like to think it is comprehensible and thought out because I've added and removed plenty of ideas that I have an entire document of deleted scenes that I was not happy with. As for the declaration of love, I'm cringe and goofy and it was time-skipped by nearly a week or so. If I spend a week with someone everyday for countless hours then I'm likely to know if I like ya or not. I don't mark this as crossover because it is still just the Naruto world but with three or five universes added in. In the end, no matter what I explain or say it wont change how you feel but I appreciate you trying the story and not berating me like other people.
This is for the guest whose reviews I can't find anymore /
I can't find your review so I had to go back through the notifications to answer you. Biju may be more like homunculi than any type of supernatural demon/spirit because of the way they were created by the Sage and they were able to create/choose their gender identity and personality from there. But from creation they hold a fraction of the Juubi/Sage in them and that gives them their strengths/flaws. Other universes will be added in the future, but what you see is what will be loyal to Uzushio right now.
The farm had been burning for quite a while, and what I was going for in my head was that the father/husband had crawled into the house to find his family but they were gone. Gato's warehouse was a few miles away, so the average person can huff that especially if fit and trained. The mercenaries had a short temper, their actions explained in the sixth chapter.
Four extra years in the academy would do nothing to Sakura if there was nothing to change her. This just means she wasted four more years in this AU. She doesn't face the reality of canon, where Sasuke leaves the village and Naruto nearly dies trying to bring him back. Extra-curricular classes are offered but not forced in the academy.
As explained in the last two review sections, he told preferred natures not the natures he actually has. I might go back and leave a disclaimer at the end of the chapter.