Hello to you all!
Your reviews are fantastic; it makes me fell all good and stuff. My day just got a little brighter. At least I know that my story is readable. Thanks to all the awesome guys that followed and favourite, I honestly don't know how long I would be able to keep this up until I get bored and start another story.
Moving on!
To 'LordofTerror': It's a sort of bad habit of mine; I rush things when I get excited, writing that chapter, and even this entire story. Plus I have a word limit for each of the stories I write, I almost exceeded mine last chapter but everything mentioned there was partially important to the story so I couldn't leave them out. Hope you believe my excuse ^^
That's about it, I guess.
I hope you enjoy this chapter,
CHAPTER 3
One year later
Somewhere in the forests at the edge of Lightning country
Bushes rustled and burst apart as a panting Waterfall jounin ran through; the man wore a short sleeved white shirt under his blue jounin flak jacket and black pants, there was also a distinct slash across the Waterfall symbol on his hitaite. The hysterical man looked around suspiciously but didn't slow down; he had been on the run for two whole weeks now from a Konoha ninja team that had been after his bounty. He licked his dry lips and pushed aside some shrubs, cursing himself for attempting to even steal from Hidden Leaf, Kumogakure may provide the sanctuary he direly needed. He blindly threw the last of his shuriken at the people that were chasing him, but as he looked back he caught two extra thin, silver glinting ninja wire spooled through two senbon jammed into trees at his right and left. He quickly passed the trees but two feet smashed into the back of his head before he could go too far.
The attacker had used the elastic wire as a catapult and as the Waterfall shinobi sailed through the air he shot two more senbon with wires at him to wrap around him and pull him back. Just before the missing ninja could touch the ground his attacker leaped on his airborne body and speed wrapped him in elastic but iron strong ninja wire, eerily like a spider. When the man hit the ground heavily, with the added weight, the person, wearing a pair of black goggles that the edges shone a faint red breathed green smoke into his face. He was out faster than he thought.
Another person leaped down beside the first attacker, this person was as pale as the moon with purple hair and wearing standard jounin uniform. There was also a lethally sharp katana sheathed on her back, the first attacker stood up and looked down at the man he had captured, his blood red eyes blank behind his goggles from any sort of care.
"Confirm target,"
"Target already confirmed, Yugao-senpai," Naruto said as he ripped the man's left sleeves, showing off three fang tattoos, "Zen Yoruko, member of the three fangs cult," Naruto's uniform and features were not that different from how he began; except he now wore a jounin flak jacket and his black gloves were now ruby red. His skin had gotten paler, as pale as Yugao, and he had four dots over his eyebrows, two over each, that were hidden by his overhanging blonde bangs and two dots on the bridge of his nose under his eyes. His blonde hair was styled so that it covered his forehead but didn't hinder his sight.
Yugao smiled gently at the thirteen year old special jounin and refrained from patting his shoulder, knowing that the boy still hated being touched without his permission, "good job, Naruto-kun,"
The boy effortlessly hefted the bigger man on his shoulder, "let's head back to Konoha, the chunin exams starts in a week and I don't want to miss anything, if we run fast enough we can make it," Yugao nodded and they ran full tilt back to Konoha. The ANBU captain had temporarily dropped her post as ANBU operative so she could be a regular jounin again, the post was always open for her but she had said she wouldn't return until Naruto was a full jounin,
Naruto had been given his tokubetsu jounin rank when he had returned to Konoha. The Sandaime wasn't happy about him succeeding without any help but he had pulled back and handed the boy his jounin flak jacket, with the knowledge that Naruto would still have a supervisor he would have to answer to and would have to take at least one mission every month with. Yugao Uzuki was his supervisor just like Kureanai Yuuhi was Mitarashi Anko's supervisor. The Sandaime though had read reports of Naruto using poison bombs and being able to breathe out toxic poisons, this led the man to investigate Naruto further on how he was able to do this. Naruto had to allow some ninja into his home to see a makeshift lab set where he mixed chemicals for his poison bombs. This temporarily assuaged the old Kage's curiosity and allowed Naruto to perform his missions without any hindrance. Sadly though he also had to make the Hokage and his supervisor aware of his spider clan summoning when they found it suspicious he had taken a month long mission but returned three months later, also saying that he used the time to train with Kyuubi's chakra. During that time he had hidden in his laboratory and injected himself with Queen Spider's blood. He was proven right when he said it would hurt, pain killers didn't work but a full day of pain later was replaced by otherworldly clarity, strength, speed and flexibility. He was also now able to control any species of spiders with a mental command, he could stick to surfaces without chakra, he could run faster than most jounin and these were the only things he wanted to reveal…
Naruto was now acclaimed among his jounin peers as a master of infiltration, espionage, poison, trapping, capture and retrieval. So far there was no mission that centred on these aspects that Naruto couldn't complete; his only known rival in a few of these aspects was the toad sage, Jiriaya. The man had declared an unofficial war against the thirteen year old boy on who was the best spy but since Jiriaya had an earlier start than Naruto he was winning, the boy didn't care though.
When they got back to Konoha and dropped off the missing ninja in T&I they parted ways. There were more foreign ninja in the village now and the young tokubetsu jounin walked around, making sure to wear his hoodie but with it fully unzipped so all could see his jounin flak jacket, and waved to the shinobi and civilians' he passed. Months of seeing Naruto dressed like that had made them more accustomed to him; his reputation looked good so far. The hair on his neck stood on end and his head turned to an alleyway where he sensed the problem, he walked over and sighed tiredly when he saw what was happening.
"Please, just leave him alone!" Sakura yelled to Kankuro, who had the Sandaime's grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru, off his feet and was about to punch his face,
"The little shit should apologise first," Kankuro growled,
"You're gonna get us in trouble, Kankuro, just leave the kid alone," Temari said with an idle flick of her blonde hair,
"I already said I was sorry!" Konohamaru yelled but Kankuro shook the boy violently,
"Say it like you mean it," Kankuro growled, he fist now twitching to give the boy a blow,
"I think that's enough, Suna shinobi," Naruto called from the entrance of the alley, he walked forward slowly with his hands in his pockets, "drop the kid and keep moving,"
"N-Naruto-san?" Sakura said quietly and sent a shaky smile when Naruto smiled at her, the taller boy ruffled her pink hair silently and kept walking to the two Suna ninjas,
"And who do you think you are?" Kankuro said,
Naruto stopped in front of the boy and replied, "A foreign shinobi attacking a civilian, especially a child, in his own village is considered a crime, punishable by indefinite expulsion from the shinobi system in your hidden village, and this is considering the fact that Suna is allied to Konoha. Are you aware of this?" Kankuro blubbered, "I thought so,"
The sand puppet master hastily dropped Konohamaru and the boy hid behind the tall blonde boy, he stuck out his tongue at Kankuro while his two friends rushed and also took their places behind Naruto.
"I'll just be on my way now," Naruto said with a smile as he turned around, ushering the three academy students out of the alley until he felt a small burst of chakra in the air and a sand shunshin spin behind him, he still kept his back to the sand siblings, "go home, kids," he said to the three and they thanked him as they ran away, "and get down from there Sasuke," he said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. The Uchiha leaped down from the branch he was standing on with a distasteful scowl on his face,
"You, the one with the goggles," a red haired boy said after the sand shunshin had settled,
"My name is Naruto," the blonde said over his shoulder,
"My name is Sabaku no Gaara and I want to know if you will be in the chunin exams,"
"Nope, I'm a tokubetsu jounin," Naruto said as he turned to the sand siblings, pointing at his flak jacket hidden under his hoodie, "but good luck any way,"
"It's a pity, I would have wanted to crush you with my sand," Gaara said blankly,
Naruto just barely suppressed the feral grin that wanted to spread on his face, "uh huh, sure," he turned around an began walking away, "I advise you three to stay out of trouble, that was the Sandaime's grandson you were about to punch, puppet master,"
"How did he know I use puppets…?" Kankuro muttered,
Temari furrowed her eyebrows at the blonde boy that was walking away before she looked at her younger red haired brother, who was glaring harsh death at Naruto. She was too late to say anything before Gaara sent a wave of sand at Naruto; Sasuke and Sakura leaped aside and stuck to the walls,
"Naruto-san!" Sakura yelled,
The hairs on Naruto's neck stood up again and he ran up the wall to his right, flipped off and as he was in the air he removed four white marbles from his shuriken pouch and threw it at the wave of sand. The tremendous wave of sand ate the marbles and soon after spider webs of ice cracked on its surface and overwhelmed it, freezing the sand over with thick ice. Naruto landed on the surface and ran at high jounin speed at Gaara, who was frantically trying to regain control of his sand until Naruto sent a jaw shattering elbow strike to his face. The sand on the boys jaw held strong until Naruto whipped out a purple goo oozing senbon and slashed it across Gaara's stomach, much to quickly for the other boy to anticipate before a brutal knee met the same place. Air blasted out of the red haired boy's mouth after this and he crumbled to his knees, Naruto used this chance to bring down his heel in an axe kick to the back of Gaara's head. The downed boy made an attempt to move but Naruto had already speed wrapped him in tough ninja wire. This happened in a whirlwind of activity much too fast for the genin to keep track of.
Naruto tutted and shook his head, ignoring Temari, who was ready with her battle fan, "to think I actually thought you were cool," he grabbed the back of the ninja wire binding Gaara and hefted the dazed boy to his feet, "you're lucky I'm in a good mood today or else I would have reported you to the Hokage," he pulled a single wire from the millions that wrapped Gaara and it immediately came undone and was sucked into Naruto's senbon launchers, "and stand down, girl," he ordered and Temari hesitantly dropped her guard, "good, now listen here, Sabaku no Gaara," he said and he glared at the red haired boy, who flinched slightly and avoided looking back, "I am leaving now, if you attack me again, Kazekage's son or not, I will end you," he turned around and smashed his fist on the ice holding Gaara's sand in place, and it shattered on contact; the sand fell down limply on the ground and slithered back into Gaara's gourd, "same goes for both of you," with that he turned around,
Sakura leaped down beside him and ducked her head when he looked at her, "thank you for helping, Naruto-san," the boy gave her a friendly smile,
"It was nothing, where's the other member of your team?" he asked, walking with Sakura and Sasuke slinking behind them cautiously,
"You mean Sai? I don't know what he does in his free time," Sakura shrugged,
"Either way, good luck in the exams, you too Sasuke-san,"
The Uchiha grunted, "Whatever,"
The jounin was about to say something else but Sakura spoke up first, "Naruto-san…you're a jounin right…?"
Naruto quirked up an eyebrow at her question and said, "A tokubetsu jounin but a jounin nonetheless, why do you ask?"
"Do-do you think we're ready for the chunin exams?"
"You should ask yourself that question; do you think you're ready for the exams?"
The pink haired girl shrugged tiredly, "I don't know," Naruto motioned for her to go on, they were now slowly walking passed small shops in the merchants district, "Kakashi-sensei says we're ready, but I don't think so; we almost got our hands handed to us if sensei wasn't there in our first A rank mission,"
"That's the reason he was there in the first place, to show you the ropes so you'll be more prepared when you start going on missions on your own,"
It was a humbling experience to team seven after their first A rank; they had been exposed to a small dose of fear in the form of the demon of the mist, Momochi Zabuza, and the member of the seven swordsman of the mist had schooled them on what it meant to be shinobi. Sakura would admit without shame that she was the least prepared among her team mates since she had spent most of her time prepping her makeup instead of running inventory on her weapons, and after the mission the first thing she had requested was extra training from Kakashi. The man had helped her find her passion in medical ninjutsu from there, saying that her small chakra capacity allowed her to have a great amount of control over it. Sasuke too focused on not being surprised again, using his sharingan whenever he was training.
Sakura rubbed her arms with her hands and her eyes drooped, "you know how I was in the academy…I was a good student but I'm a horrible ninja,"
Naruto was silent for a moment, "what are you good at?"
"I…I know a little on medical ninjutsu and-and I can use genjutsu, mostly C rank,"
"Then that's good, what I know about the chunin exams is that they evaluate the genin on planning, cunning and skills. You don't need to win to be promoted,"
"You don't think we can win?" Sasuke interrupted,
Naruto shook his head, "I didn't say that, I mean that you put in a good showing for the crowd and for the Hokage, that's what matters,"
The argument died on Sasuke's tongue and he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "yeah, ok,"
"Win or lose you guys and the other teams will do great, I'm sure of it,"
Sakura gave Naruto a small, shaky smile and Sasuke rolled his eyes, "thank you, Naruto-san,"
He waved it away and gave them thumbs up, "I need to go now, there's a jounin meeting in the Hokage's office in five minutes. I'll see you guys later," he waved over his shoulder but thin arms wrapped around his stomach and a head settled between his shoulder blades; his hands clenched unconsciously and his lips twitched downwards but he quickly covered it with a smile, only Sasuke caught his hands and the Uchiha raised a curious eyebrow, watching as Naruto painfully unclenched his fists but they were now more like claws,
"I mean it Naruto, thank you,"
Naruto turned around in the girls arms and patted her back before he gently pushed her off, making sure not to seem rude, "no problem, now I really need to get to the Hokage's office," he turned around and put his hands into his pockets, his hood was already up so a shadow was cast to his nose. The two genin watched the tokubetsu jounin walk off through the crowd of merchants to the Kage's tower until Sasuke stood beside Sakura and asked,
"What was that about?"
A small smile played on the pink haired girls lips as she answered, "nothing you should worry about, see you tomorrow!" she waved and sped off towards her house, making Sasuke wonder what had gotten into her; she hadn't asked him for a date.
At the Hokage's office Naruto politely knocked on the door and poked his head inside, seeing that all the other active Konoha jounin and special jounin were already there,
"Glad to see you could join us, Naruto," Hiruzen said as he blew out some smoke from the corner of his lips,
"I was held up somewhere," the boy said as he shuffled in, the other jounin weren't that much taller than him but he was still the youngest in the room. Yugao, not in her ANBU mask, called him over to her side of the room, the window, and he sat down on the edge,
"Alright, I just want to tell you all what you'll be doing in the exams," the Sandaime said and he handed small files to the jounin, making sure to call their names, "I've already organized the chunin on what they will be doing. Kakashi, Gai, Kureanai and Asuma, you four will be sealed into the earth and heaven scrolls, until you are properly unsealed. Don't worry about air, food or water; Jiriaya personally designed these seals, he had all those things accounted for,"
"Hai, Hokage-sama," the four jounin said,
"When you are unsealed you will stay with your teams in the competitors stand, make sure to cheer them on," the old man said with a twinkle in his eyes, the four jounin nodded, "Anko and Naruto, you two will be in charge of the security in the forest of death, any external interruption should be contained and reported, understood?"
"Hai, Hokage-sama," the two said; Naruto was idly twirling a six inch long senbon with his fingers and Anko was leaning on the wall beside him, sucking on a Dango stick, the snake summoner even sent a two fingered salute as she used her other hand to hold the mission specs file open,
"Yugao, Hayate and Genma, you two will be in charge of security before and after the second test, mostly at night. Naruto, since you are best at combat in the dark you will be joining them," the three jounin read through what they were supposed to focus on, "any suspicious behaviour from the foreign ninja or any unregistered person should be contained and reported. The ANBU will provide support if things go south. Use deadly force if it can't be helped," he blew out more smoke from his mouth, "dismissed,"
The jounin filed out of the office quietly. Naruto waved to his supervisor and her boyfriend, Genma, as they made their way home, as he walked to his own. His goggle protected eyes, that were in turn hidden under his hood, kept a careful watch on those that passed him, not want to be robbed of anything. On instinct his left hand reached out and gave a hidden low five to a spectacle wearing, silver haired man, and a small paper square that had been passed to him slipped into his sleeve. Just before the silver haired man could fully pass he stopped, leaned in and whispered,
"Mistress sends her love," the blonde boy nodded in acknowledgement and replied,
"Tell her I send mine too,"
A smile etched onto the man's face, "she will be very happy to hear that,"
Naruto smiled back slightly, "how is she?"
"She is well,"
"Good to hear," the low grumbling in the red light district muffled their voices, both parted ways.
It had been a long while since Naruto had heard from Orochimara of the Sannin, the last time being when the woman had sent him money when he had just graduated from the academy. When Naruto pushed open his front door and used his foot to close it he unsealed the letter in the small paper square, it was a short one,
I'll be in the forest of death running an errand, meet me there if you can.
Orochimara of the Sannin.
P.S if you can't make it I'll see you at your place.
Naruto screwed his lips to the side and put the letter into his pocket. He was sure that he loved his godmother, like family; she was the first one to look out for his well-being and she had set him on where he should go in life, he owed a lot to her and it would make his day to finally meet her in person. The problem lay on how he would be able to excuse himself from his post in the CCTV room while avoiding the cameras in the forest.
His answer came the next day when he was in the security camera room with Anko, whiling away the time my commanding a tiny spider summons to run over his hand. His eyes watched the tiny spider skitter on his hand in frenzy until the door burst open and a chunin ran in, panting like a race horse.
Anko sat up, formerly reading a magazine, and glared at the chunin, "what is it?"
"We have a problem…sector seven…"
"What problem?" Naruto said, his eyes still fixed on the spider he was controlling,
"I…can't explain…you need to come,"
"Let's go," Naruto said as he stood up, the chunin nodded and hurried out of the room, Anko followed after the young blonde.
The scene they walked in was horrifying to anyone that wasn't used to seeing even more horrific things. There was a corpse strewn across the ground and it looked like a female with her face ripped off. All the blood in her body had been drained and she didn't have any finger bones. Naruto knelt on one knee and used his pointer and middle finger to turn her head from left to right, it looked fresh; there weren't any worms in her and the bugs looked like they had made their nest recently. He furrowed his eyebrow and turned to Anko, but she was staring at the dead woman with wide eyes, "know who did this, Anko?"
"I can give a guess. You three," she pointed to the three chunin that had found the woman, "go tell the Hokage, we'll go into the forest and handle the person that did this," their subordinates' saluted and ran off to do what she had ordered, "it was Orochimara,"
"Are you certain?"
She got off her knees and began to run to the forest of death, "Yes," Naruto caught up with her and they both disappeared in the forest,
The boy could feel a small tingle spread in his stomach as he followed his nose to where the scent of snakes and blood was strongest. He walked in on the scene of an ink tiger being punched back into ink and Orochimara holding up an unconscious Sakura by her neck,
"Pathetic," the Sannin hissed and threw the girl across the clearing to a tree but Naruto shot a net from his left launcher and a senbon above her that caught her and hung her on a tree, "your disturbing my hunt," the pale Sannin hissed and turned around, barely keeping her eyes from widening on who she saw, "ah…Anko-chan and Naruto-kun…what a surprise,"
"I'm finally going to kill you sensei," Anko snarled,
"Oh you think so huh, then come at me," she made a 'come hither' motion with her right hand and just as Anko sped over the Sannin activated her cursed seal, sending the crazy snake lady into mind numbing pain before she finally passed out, "you were always too brash, Anko-chan, and too slow," Orochimara said as she shook her head, her small, black lipstick covered lips screwed to the side in irritation,
The Sannin though had to lean back when Naruto seemingly appeared out of nowhere and sent a punch to her face, when she dodged the blow she was again surprised that Naruto merely used the punch to hide a savage left heel kick that effectively met her face with a horrifying crack. The woman then melted into a mud puddle, Naruto looked around carefully. He raised his right leg and used the sole of his foot to deflect a thrown kunai. Kicking the weapon up and sending it back with a spinning kick. Orochimara ran out of the place the weapon had disappeared to with a sickening grin on her face and a faint purple bruise on her cheek where Naruto had kicked her. The taijutsu fight between them could be considered legendary; they both sent snap kicks that met and synchronized drilling blows that countered the other, Naruto slipped behind the woman and savagely hacked at her neck but she twisted away from him,
"Hidden shadow snakes," the woman hissed and out of her long sleeves multiple white snakes shot out at Naruto, the boy opened his palm and returned fire by saying,
"Hidden shadow spiders," pitch black spiders that were about as large as his fingers erupted out of his sleeves and countered the Sannin's attack perfectly. Orochimara abruptly cancelled her jutsu and spat out the Kusanagi at Naruto, easily cutting through the throngs of lethal spiders. The boy's eyes widened a little and he just barely leaned away from the legendary sword, feeling the breeze just waft past his nose, this allowed an opening for Orochimara to erupt out of the ground and bring down her fist on his head.
But the blow never connected.
The tall woman, probably as tall as Naruto, stood frozen with her fist hovering over his blonde head. She stared at him and he stared back, the two members of team seven that were conscious watched in fascination as the woman slowly dropped her hand and her shoulder sagged, she looked away and murmured, "I can't hit you…I just…can't," she said it so quietly that only Naruto could hear her, "you look like…him…so much," he could see the defeat in her eyes as she said this, the way her heart broke when she spared him a fleeting smile,
Naruto stayed in his brace-for-impact stance but his guard slowly dropped, "there are cameras everywhere," he whispered,
"Then do what you have to do, Naruto-kun," she shrugged, "I promise I won't mind,"
"I…I still want to talk to you, I want to know you, Orochimara-baa-chan," Naruto said, unconsciously calling her grandma,
The pale white woman chuckled under her breathe, sounding like a low menacing hiss, "You did not just call me grandma,"
"I-I-I'm sorry," Naruto said and his eyes lowered, "it's just that…you're the first to care about me…it'd be great if I got to know you and you got to know me, y'know," he was glad that the cameras didn't have audio but he was worried if the two genin hiding would hear him,
A large, sincere smile stretched on the snake Sannin's face, "your place tonight then, and…I'm sorry about this,"
"About wh-" the air rushed out of his mouth as the rogue Sannin impaled him with a kunai,
"I'm so sorry Naruto-kun," she muttered as she slowly lowered the boy to the ground, "I made sure none of your major organs were hit,"
A little blood gurgled out of his mouth but he still smiled at her, "I'll be fine…go," she nodded and was about to blur into the forest but she stopped for a moment, indecision on her face before she finally made her decision and kissed Naruto on his forehead, for once the boy didn't flinch at the contact, he just closed his eyes and savoured the short, loving contact,
"I'll see you later, ok?" he slowly nodded with his eyes still shut and he felt her presence leave the area. He put his right hand over the knife wound, making sure to gently pull out the knife before he did, he staggered to his feet and blinked when he saw the two male genin staring at him, then he remembered that the snake Sannin had on black makeup, which included black lipstick. He frantically rubbed the lipstick stain on his forehead and sat down heavily beside a tree,
"You guys don't need to hide anymore, she's gone," he grunted as he carefully used his left hand to reach into his kunai pouch and pulled out a small sachet. He shakily tore it open with his teeth and sprinkled a red powder over the wound; he sighed when the pain subsided the skin and began to knit back together,
"You almost had her, why did you stop?" Sai said as he stood in front of Naruto with his arms crossed,
"She's a Sannin; I don't think it's possible to 'almost have her'" Naruto snapped as he put his right hand over the knife wound, feeling the pain reduce to a dull throb, "set up camp for the night, I'll be out of your hair in thirty minutes," he grunted to his feet and hefted Anko up bridal style, gently laying her under the tree he formerly sat under, he whipped out a moist white hand kerchief and place it on the cursed seal, the heat that was emanating off the seal slowly reduced and ten minutes later the snake summoners eyes flickered open. Her pupil-less eyes saw Naruto sitting next to her reading a book on the human respiratory system, he didn't look at her before he spoke up,
"Can you walk?"
The woman whined under her breathe and struggled to sit up but it was to no avail, "No…everything hurts. What happened?"
"We got our asses handed to us is what happened," Naruto replied sharply, barely keeping his hands from squeezing the book her was reading,
"Fucking fantastic," Anko said under her breathe.
Sasuke and Sai observed the two special jounin over the fire; Sakura was still out cold lying under some blankets near the fire. It was past sunset and they were preparing some meat on the fire. Naruto had already fully healed and was humouring himself by reading a book while he waited for his fellow jounin to wake up. The woman realized with a start that the boy had covered her up with a red blanket, probably to conserve some moral decency he thought Anko had. She snorted and weakly tried to sit up but again she failed. The only sounds in the small clearing were the faint crackling of the fire and the soft chirps the crickets were making, the spider summoner licked his pointer finger and turned a page in his book. The silence was solemn until all of their eyes flickered to Sakura when she groaned, sitting up slowly as she finally woke up. Naruto went back to reading his book but this time he idly threw a pill into Anko's mouth that when she bit into it some of her energy returned to her, he tossed three more to the genin team and they gratefully bit into it,
"Chakra replenishing pills I cooked up in my lab," he mumbled and the woman nodded her head, knowledge of Naruto's lab was not secret anymore, "can you walk now?"
She got to her feet but her legs shook violently, forcing her to slump against a tree and slid to a sitting position, "fuck it all…" she groaned in frustration,
"We need to go and report what happened to the Sandaime," Naruto said to her as he snapped the book closed, he was all business as he stood up and looked down on the woman, "I'll carry you-"
"Like hell you will," she snarled,
"Right now I don't care what you think, it's either I carry you out of here or I leave you in the hands of these genin, helpless and barely able to stand,"
The woman glared up at him, a vain effort to intimidate him, until she sighed and nodded, "fine…but if you do anything stupid…" she left the threat hanging in the air and the boy shrugged as he summoned a clone to carry her bridal style,
The real Naruto gave the three genin a two fingered salute and said, "stay out of trouble," he was about to run out until he added as an afterthought, "there is a genin team that's been watching us for ten minutes now, maybe waiting for me and Anko to leave,"
"Why are you telling us, isn't it cheating?" Sasuke asked,
"It is, just like giving you those pills is cheating," Naruto answered frankly, "you sensed them before right…Sai?" he said after thinking up the boy's name,
"I'm not a sensor but I knew they were there,"
"Regardless, you guys are in for a fight," as he stepped into the forest team Dosu struck.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Naruto had already dropped Anko off in the hospital wing and was now sitting in front of the Hokage, a video playing on his fight with Orochimara on loop. Hiruzen was sitting on his desk in the office in the chunin exam stadium, watching Naruto's expression for anything akin to guilt. There was no audio for them to hear the conversation and Naruto had made sure to muffle his lips so that they wouldn't be read. The Hokage clicked the pause button when Orochimara had stabbed him in his stomach, using deadly speed to even get that close to him; Naruto's eyes bugged out and his cheeks puffed up with air as the Sannin winced at what she had done. Hiruzen silently dropped the remote on his desk and propped his elbows on the desk, his chin on his thumbs and his fingers just under his eyes that stared at Naruto fixedly,
"Are you ready to give me an explanation?"
The blonde boy raised an eyebrow and replied, "About what?"
"Why you held back,"
"She held back too,"
Hiruzen sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, "you had every chance to finish her off but you didn't take it, I know as a fact you have a high control over your spider summons, and you can easily regenerate from that stab wound. Why did you let her go?" Naruto stayed silent and the old man sighed again, "I've told you, Naruto…Orochimara is nothing but trouble, she will use you and dump you like scum,"
"…She was the first person to give two shits about me, Hokage-sama; she cared when no one did even though she couldn't visit me personally,"
"Is this what this is about? She gave you some goggles and a scroll on spiders-"
"She gave them to me when I was in desperate need of them, I was so young but I already thought that my life would not go anywhere, Orochimara proved me wrong. I'm not sorry for feeling some form of familial love for her," Naruto stood up abruptly, "I'll be leaving now, I have a night shift to prepare for," he left the office, ignoring when Yugao tried to call for him after hearing what he had said. Behind his back the Sandaime Hokage nodded for a small ANBU squad to tail him.
Losing the ANBU was child's play for Naruto; as he walked into the red light district he walked into a clothing shop, the one he uses to switch to his apartment, and switched to his apartment. As his feet touched down on the ground he was immediately assaulted with kisses to his face and a tight hug from the snake Sannin herself. His face reddened in embarrassment but he didn't push her away, his arms slowly, shakily reached around her waist and hugged her back.
She pulled her head back and looked at his face carefully, a happy grin played on her lips, "I've waited so long for this day," she bit her bottom lip and hugged him tightly again before she led him to the living room where he found Aoki-chan standing at attention with her right hand on her katana handle for a quick draw, staring at the silver haired man that had slipped him the note. The black haired samurai looked at him quickly with her eyes then back to the medic, who was sitting on a chair with an amused expression on his face,
"Stand down, Aoki-chan, he's with her,"
The girl bowed and removed her hand from the handle. Orochimara looked at her then back to Naruto, "she was here when I came in, you told her I was your godmother," she stated this,
"She's a very good friend of mine, she had to know," Naruto replied as he ushered the paper pale snake summoner to sit down on a chair, Aoki shuffled to Naruto quietly and Naruto leaned in and whispered, "anything to eat?"
"Hai, there's some pork and chicken flavoured rice in the fridge, I could warm it up if you want,"
"Please, if you don't mind. Oh and make some green tea for us, thank you," he said gratefully and she went to do what he had asked,
"She's very polite," Orochimara said as she crossed her legs, she patted the seat beside her for Naruto to sit down on and the boy did so, "now let's catch up, I want to hear what you've been up to all these years,"
"Same goes for you," Naruto said and he felt a small bubbling feeling in his gut that felt like when he was about to make a major breakthrough in his experiments,
The woman smiled gently and put her right hand on his own that were clenched on his knees, "I know, I owe you that and much, much more," Naruto's eyes flickered to Kabuto and the woman waved for him to give them some privacy.
This was probably the first time a living, breathing human being ever made him excited to talk to. He spoke with Orochimara about everything that had happened in his life and all he had discovered, even on his drug empire and his disguise as Kitsugami Gumo. This shocked Orochimara because she had been buying some drugs from the Kitsugami Drug Company for a long while, even going as far as showing Naruto a box of pain killer tablets with his logo at the top; a skeletal spider head with nine legs around it. He had confided in her that the Hokage had launched a top secret investigation on his corporation when the drugs in the hospital had started purchasing from him had mistakenly come up during an inventory check, they didn't have anything solid on Kitsugami yet but he suspected that they would soon infiltrate the criminal underworld. Naruto spoke with her on the genetically altered spider blood his system that had given him a higher control over the Kyuubi chakra; there was some nature chakra in his chakra network that equalized the Kyuubi's chakra and balanced out his own chakra, this nature chakra didn't negatively react to him because he was now technically part spider. They shared a cup of tea and some pork and chicken flavoured rice as Orochimara began regaling tales of her travels all over the elemental nations and of all the experiments she had conducted, telling him that she had created an entire Hidden Village called Hidden Sound (Otoagakure) where she stored her experiments. She told him that she had laboratories all over the continent that served as her hideout when she wanted. Orochimara had even told him of when she was in the Akatsuki, partnered with Kisame; making sure to warn him that it was probably Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi that would come after him.
The older woman had even confided in the young boy that she was Ashitori Roshimaru's experiment X-19.
The evil scientist had created her out of his own cells and combined it with that of a reptile; it was inevitable that she would have a strong connection with snakes. He treated her, in some twisted way, like his own child, making sure she went to bed on time, got up early and ate her vegetables. He had told her that she was his most successful experiment. But the tests he kept putting her through…
When the man's lab had been raided, she was six years old then, the ninja had thought that she was an orphan Ashitori had kidnapped and was experimenting on. They had placed her in the orphanage where she was treated like a freak, even by her caretakers. Her time in the academy was lonely and filled with hate for her fellow students as well as her time as a genin. When the Sandaime had picked her, Jiriaya and Tsunade to be his students it looked like her life would get better but it didn't. Jiriaya kept on making brash outbursts that hurt more than created any sense of camaraderie and Tsunade was a spoilt brat. That time she had already set up a secret laboratory in the forest of death where she studied and experimented on people she kidnapped. It was when she was a chunin at fourteen did something happen that changed her whole perception on humanity. Or better yet, someone.
She had found Minato violently shivering in the heavily pouring ice cold rain as he moved from house to house, asking the occupants for shelter. She had been late coming back to Konoha from a mission with her team mates and she wasn't aware that she had also been standing in the rain, watching the street urchin get the door slammed on his face by everyone he asked help from. She didn't know what compelled her that day to approach the boy and invite him to her house, maybe she thought that she would end up killing him and studying his dead body but despite giving Minato his own room to sleep in and food to eat she couldn't, for the first time in her life, muster up the bloodlust in her to kill the four year old boy. The torrential shower had done more harm than good for the young blonde boy and Orochimara still couldn't get her cold, ruthlessness back into her when she looked into his wide, blue eyes silently pleading for her to keep him for longer. The genius girl managed to get the boys health back up and was expecting him to be on his way but he stayed, Minato never demanded much, he never raised his voice or disagreed with anything Orochimara said to him; he just looked up at her with reflective blue orbs and did what she asked, which mostly consisted of things that were for his own good. Before she knew it Minato was eight and she had personally registered him for the academy under her name as his next of kin, she found out that he was the first person she could confide in, as stupid as that sounded, the only person that was able to ever sneak up on her and the first person to hug her when memories of her time with Ashitori returned in full force. The girl wasn't even aware of the fact that she had stopped experimenting on human beings after she had let him in. They had rubbed off of each other in more ways than one; Minato took interest in spiders and fuinjutsu and Orochimaru now had a craving for ramen every once in a while.
The snake Sannin was heartbroken when Minato had told her that her male team mate had noticed his skills in fuinjutsu, skills Orochimaru had already laid a foundation for, and was offering him an apprenticeship. He was already a shinobi by then, and a very promising one at that, so she couldn't bar him from doing what he wanted; the Namikaze always made sure to be back before sunset and had assured her that he wouldn't be moving out anytime soon, this was the only promise he broke. Then Minato had told her of his second crush, the first one being on Orochimara (boom, shocker. Can you sense my sarcasm?), on a former classmate. He began spending more time with the Uzumaki princess and before the snake Sannin knew it they were hitched and expecting their first child, the pale woman relapsed back into her cruel studies the first day Minato arrived at midnight after a date with Kushina, telling her that he had to move out. She grew detached from him and the rest of the world, feigned the fact that she didn't care anymore but he never lost faith in her, Minato never stopped caring. So the day one of Orochimara's labs was discovered and all of her vile experiments were brought to light, he blamed himself. Most would say that the Sandaime was the one that last saw Orochimara leave but it wasn't true, Minato had stubbornly chased after his surrogate sister and they had, for the first time, had a fight that was outside a friendly spar. The Sannin had beat him within an inch of his life without an ounce of remorse on her face, and when it was time to impale his heart with a kunai…
…She couldn't…
A single tear slipped out of her eyes as the rain poured down from the sky, eerily similar to the downpour she had first met and saved him from, and she apologised before she left him there on the ground. It was the last time he saw her, years of desperately searching for his long lost sister were all in vain, despite the numerous times jiriaya and Hiruzen told him that he was wasting his time, Orochimara was a lost cause and that it was best for both him and Kushina if she stayed away, but the stubborn blonde man never listened. He had finally made a breakthrough in his search for the snake Sannin but it clashed with the day his wife was giving birth to their first son. He pushed his mission back a few hours after Kushina had given birth to Naruto, he kept telling himself, but it never came. Kyuubi broke free and he died sealing the great monster into his son. He took the guilt of never finding his sister to the grave, the rogue snake Sannin had been a secret witness to his burial. Knowledge of how close the Yondaime Hokage was with the rogue snake summoner was wiped out of konoha's history books not even a week after the Kyuubi attack, and no one knew of the extents Minato Namikaze would take just so he could find Orochimara, no one, that is, besides Kushina Uzumaki, Jiriaya of the Sannin, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hatake Kakashi, Yugao Uzuki and Orochimara of the Sannin.
Naruto and Orochimara spoke to each other for so long and so freely that they weren't aware when they were facing each other with their knees touching and his right hand laced with her left. She was using her free hand to animatedly regale a tale of her epic escape from snow country after she had replicated a plan for their famed chakra armour; when it was midnight Naruto used his own free hand to summon a clone and sent him off to cover his night shift in the CCTV room in the forest of death. The godmother and godson connected so well; they had similar likes, dislikes, hobbies, and even ambitions. It wouldn't come as a shock to anyone who watched that they had created a new form of secret communication by just gestures. Naruto listened with wide eyes as she told him of one of the times she had experimented on nature chakra on a human being, creating a goliath man called Jugo. He had said that he had wanted to try the experiment on a human captive he had in his lab, Mizuki Touji, but hadn't found the time to do so.
"Nature chakra only works best with animals and animal summoners," Naruto piped in, and the woman nodded to what he said, "I haven't tested it out on someone besides myself but every book I read on it tells me the same thing,"
"You should know not to blindly trust what a book says," the Sannin tutted,
"I know, I know," he said, "so what else did you plan to do in Konoha?"
The woman looked around conspiratorially, making Naruto quirk up the sides of his lips in amusement, "I want to kill Sarutobi-sensei,"
"Can I ask why…?"
Here she threw her free hand in the air and sighed dramatically, "nearly everything wrong is his fault; he took Minato away, he brainwashed him, he kicked me out of Konoha, he tried to brainwash you too. Plus, I have a thorn to pick with him, personal stuff," Naruto nodded in understanding, "will you be coming with me after…?"
He patted her hand, "when things settle down, I need some time to get my affairs in order here,"
"You're shutting down Kitsugami Drug Company?"
"Not exactly…Aoki-chan has been tailing a former contact of mine for a while here in Konoha; she says she suspects the man is feeding the Hokage info on Kitsugami Gumo. That'll explain why last week two warehouses in fire country went off the radar and my workers there are in the T&I now,"
"Do you think the man knows who you are?"
"Only two people know who I am and they are trusted members of the criminal underworld," this was the same with his workers, each and every one of them had been sworn to a 'never ask, never tell' sort of secrecy especially when it concerned their bosses identity, that way if they were caught they had the deniability card to pull without any problems, as rewards he would break them out of the T&I when he could. His former contact had broken this oath by becoming too inquisitive; he fired him and cut him off from the Kitsugami Drug Company before he could do any damage. Orochimara listened to him lay his problems out patiently, and that was when he really looked at her; she had black circles under her eyes and her shoulders sagged even more than normal, she had a tired air about her, even though she had on a lot of clothes on he still noticed that she was thinner than how the bingo books depicted her, her lips were thinner, the black lines going down the corner of her eyes were now prominent and well passed her nose and she had his custom made pain killers with her.
She noticed him slowdown in what he was saying and his eyes drooped behind his goggles just before he stopped, she observed him and when he couldn't meet her eyes it dawned on her,
"So you know huh,"
"How long do you have?" he asked,
"…three years," she said quietly and sighed, "it would have been longer but my fight with Itachi took a bigger toll on me than I thought," she gently squeezed his hand when they began to shake,
"What is it?" he knew that trying to convince her not to go ahead with her planned assassination attempt wouldn't work, if there was one thing in the bingo book that every other countries could relate with concerning her it was that she was deathly determined when she set her mind on something,
"It's a rare one, I haven't found a name for it yet but it's like a cancer of the heart…I found out ten years ago but I've had it since I was 'born'" he still wasn't looking at her, "there's no cure,"
"There has to be something…maybe I can-"
"No,"
"But-"
"No," she shook her head,
"I have to do something!" he yelled, he lifted his goggles up and used his forearm to rub the tears building up there; he placed them back on quickly, "I have to do something…"
"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, it's too late," he didn't say anything, rather he kept looking out of the window to the slowly rising sun, "killing the Sandaime is on my bucket list but…meeting you was the first thing on it," she gently raised her right hand and slowly placed his goggles on his forehead, revealing his wet crimson red vulpine eyes, she shuffled closer, if that's even possible, and looked at him with her yellow snake-like eyes, "teaching you everything I know is the last thing," she placed a small kiss on his forehead and hugged him. Another thing he had gained from the spider summons DNA in his body was that he had gotten four more additional 'eyes', the four dots on his forehead, that were able to 'see' the world in incredible detail even though his hair blocked them, those 'eyes' equalized the light that entered his real eyes by already giving him an image of how something was supposed to be, bright or dim lighting. The two dots on his nose served as his second 'noses'; they only served to amplify his sense of smell and perception of his environment if he was, by some crazy chance, blinded by an overload to his sight.
"Who else knows?" Naruto muttered into her chest, he clenched the clothes at her side in his fist and buried his head in even more,
"I think Kabuto-kun suspects something but you're the first and only person I'll tell,"
"I'll get my affairs in order and join you as fast as I can," he muffled out,
"Take your time," she said and kissed the top of his head, "I need to go now, things to do, people to see," he nodded in her chest and pulled away from her,
"Wait, how are you going to get close enough to the Hokage to kill him?"
"I'm posing as the Kazekage, and I have my Sound four create a barrier so no one disturbs," she said as she stood up, "when that day comes, if any of my shinobi or Sand shinobi come after your life kill them if you want, I don't really mind what happens to them," he nodded and she put her hand on the front door handle,
"How did you get in anyway? Even Jiriaya hasn't been able to do that,"
She smirked a little and replied, "When I stabbed you, I stashed some of your blood away,"
The boy chuckled and rolled his eyes, "of course you did," he waved and she opened the front door, not even letting the light fall on her completely before she melted into a pile of mud, he suspected her silver haired apprentice, Kabuto, was already outside.
He felt Aoki's presence behind him and ever so gently she took his right hand in both of hers, her katana was leaning on the wall leading to the kitchen, and squeezed it in some sort of way to comfort him. He took in a slow, deep breathe and let it out just as slow.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Aoki-chan's story
The day after Orochimara's visit
The black haired A rank swordswoman was standing in front of a see-through container that had a rare snow leopard caged in it. Her trusty katana was sheathed and held firmly in her red obi while she tapped the glass twice, once to wake up the animal and another to get it angry; as expected it lunged at her but it was pushed back when its claws hit the reinforced glass wall. It always surprised her how her current master was well connected, he had proven to her that if he wanted something he would most certainly get it through any means necessary. She didn't flinch when she felt her master step beside her, seemingly out of nowhere; that was another thing about him, ever since he had infused his Queen Spider's DNA into himself he had become even more stealthy, whether that was his initial intention or not. A year of working for him loyally had told her that he only harmed those he deemed too dangerous to associate with, the money he gave her on a monthly basis was mouth-watering and the freedom he allowed her was very well appreciated but it was the fact that if she ever attempted to assassinate him and failed…
She closed her eyes and sighed; she didn't want to think about it, even though every other assassination she had personally done was a success she had a niggling feeling that the Uzumaki spider summoner had somehow found a way to cheat death.
Naruto put his hands into his hoodie's pockets and spoke, "beautiful isn't she?"
Aoki nodded in agreement, her blonde master had always shown her that there could be beauty in everything; all it took was seeking it out, "Hai, she is,"
"I bought her off a Fang country merchant that wanted to use her as meat for his dogs, that was last time we went for the barons' meeting,"
"I don't remember seeing you buy her…"
"Oh, it was already pre-arranged, all I had to do was give him the money and he'll give me the leopard," her mouth opened in a small 'oh' and it dropped with the next things he said to her, "and…happy birthday,"
"You remembered…" she turned to him sharply with shock visible in her eyes,
Naruto only looked at her with the corner of his eyes before they returned to the animal, she knew this because his goggles were perched on his forehead, "I rarely ever forget," he pulled out his right hand from his pocket and presented a small box wrapped up neatly in white and yellow wrapping paper with a tag that read her name, "I got this for you," when she hesitated he turned to her and gently placed the package in her hands with a small smile on his face, "you have the day off," he patted her shoulder, he was much taller than her, and went off into the lab, probably to exit through the front door so he could train. Her hands shook as she looked at the hand-sized box in her hands, then she put her ear to it and shook it gently, it didn't rattle. She gingerly opened the box and found a small sealing scroll inside, she unsealed what was inside and her eyes widened in wonder as a magnificently crafted white wood and silver bow that had delicately drawn snow leopards on the silver edges, doubling up as cutting edges, dropped into her hands that had a letter attached to it. The letter was in Naruto's handwriting and it said:
The last one's you owned broke when you fought Nifune, I promise these are just as good. They were crafted by a Kiriagakure blacksmith and carpenter at my request. The wood is gotten from a Sun Beam tree at high noon, when it is its strongest, and the silver is chakra metal I got from Snow country. I have personally placed the durability and regeneration seals on it so it wouldn't break easily and if it does it would snap back together.
I hope you like it,
Naruto.
She stashed the note into her short pants pocket and excitedly tested the bow, pulling it as far as it could go and marvelled on how tense but at the same time flexible it was, she bit her bottom lip to contain a giggle and she hurried outside to thank her new master. She found Naruto balanced on a long spike from the earth, holding two long senbon in both of his hands, two behind his knees and going through what she recognised as the kata for his six legged shadow spider taijutsu stance in his stealth uniform besides the jounin flak jacket and his launchers; the young boy noticed her and hopped off the spike. Aoki composed herself and bowed deeply to him,
"Thank you, Naruto-sama,"
"It was no problem," he replied with a fleeting smile, before he pointed out, "You still have the day off though, you deserve it,"
"I...have something to tell you,"
"Yes?" he retrieved the senbon at the back of his knees and slipped them into their pouch, and then he began to idly tinker with his nifty silver launchers,
"No one knows why I challenged Nifune to an honourable fight to the death…I want to tell you the reason," she easily slid the bow across her body and was squeezing the comfortable grip in her hands,
"You don't need to if you don't want to," he said,
"No…I want to tell you, I want to trust you, Naruto-sama," she quietly said and Naruto looked at her for a minute before he silently ushered her into the lab and then to the animal containment area, "but…only if you trust me, Naruto-sama,"
Naruto laughed silently, "the fact I allow you to hold a weapon, the 'Elemental blade' for that matter whenever you stand behind me is proof I trust you. Plus, I got you another weapon," he stood with his back leaning on the railing in front of a chimpanzee enclosure,
She nodded slowly and began her story from the very beginning.
Aoki's first memory was of seeing a black haired woman wearing a Kiriagakure forehead protector hastily dropping her in front of the Iron country orphanage, this was probably when she was two or three years old. The old matron had found her on the steps, crying to the sky with all her worth, with a wrapped package clenched strongly in her fists. The package specified that what it contained should not be directly touched or death would come swiftly. The woman, obligated to take in every orphan brought to her, took Aoki in and found a single note in. The little girl only wore a simple pair of white shorts and pink shirt, inside her pants pocket was a single note that read 'Aoki' which she assumed was her name. The orphans in the Iron country orphanage were all to be raised in the way of the samurai, irrespective of gender, and when a weekly inspection was conducted by the Iron country leader, Bifune, he walked in on a spar between Aoki and another orphan, both making use of boken to fight. The six year old child mercilessly hacked and slashed against her opponents wooden training sword, not giving the slightly older girl any time to create any coherent plan and with a short jab and a poke from behind her the girl was disarmed and lying on the ground, helpless. Aoki went through the motions of sheathing her wooden sword and bowed to her downed opponent, then to her class instructor, then to her matron and finally, after recovering from her shock, to the Iron country leader.
That single match raised the man's interest in her; so far the orphans in Iron country were not very motivated. The small child walked briskly to the edge of the sparring mat where the rest of her classmates were kneeling down and she too joined in, her head was tilted down and her right hand was clenched on her wooden sword, ready to draw at a moment's notice, but still keeping an eye on the new sparring opponents on the mat. She was fully clad in beginners samurai uniform; a pure white kimono that reached close to the ground and was tied at the waist by a white sash, her short black hair was tied together into a short pony tail but it still allowed two fang-like bangs to go down to her chin. After the usual training session she prepared to leave but she had been expressly told by her class instructor to stay back, she remained on her knees and her eyes stayed on the mat until she heard the specific sound of a bow being drawn.
Her head snapped up and her boken slashed upwards, catching an arrow and deflecting it to the ceiling. She spun on her feet and crossed the weapon across her chest as another arrow was sent at her, the arrow clanked against the wooden weapon. She gripped her wooden weapon tightly with both hands and lowered herself into the beginning stance of the samurai fighting style her class was being instructed in. Her coal black eyes looked around the empty room frantically, the dojo was quiet until she heard slow clapping coming from the door,
"At ease, child," Bifune called to her and she again went through the motions of smoothly sheathing her boken when she saw him, "rarely anyone is able to deflect arrows, even though they were not fully drawn," she quietly shrugged, "you, my child, are special. I wish to be your teacher,"
"It would be an honour, Lord Bifune," she said and bowed deeply,
He clapped his hand on her shoulder, his face ever stoic, and said, "go and get your things, you will be staying in my residence,"
She quickly blinked away the tears that filled her eyes and bowed again before she rushed to get the few clothes she had, and collected her package from the head matron.
Training under the Iron country leader alongside his older sons, who were already in their mid-twenties, was very hard. The expectations Bifune piled on her to be able to do things most wouldn't be able to do at her age weighed down on her small shoulders but she didn't complain, not even once, she took her training like a loyal Iron country samurai. Soon enough she was formally adopted into the royal family and witnessed the first time Bifune, the usually stoic man, gave her a small, almost invisible smile. Mifune, the second child to the leader welcomed his adopted sister with open arms and treated the girl with due respect but Nifune, the oldest child remained adamant that she was not welcomed.
When the old Iron country leader was on his death bed from lung infection Aoki was fifteen then the old leader had acclaimed her as the strongest of his children as well as the next leader of Iron country, a title most expected the old man to pass onto Nifune, the oldest child. Aoki took the shock in stride and accepted the mantle, in front of the elders but the ceremony would not be official until the next day. That night though Nifune snuck into her room, using an outlawed ninjutsu to do so (it's a ninja technique, of course it's outlawed), and attempted to rape the fifteen year old girl as revenge for 'stealing' what he believed was his birth right, and was very well close to sealing the deal. He had placed his hand over her mouth and used his free hand to tear off her light sleeping clothes but she had managed to bite his hand and run for dear life. When she had gotten her hand on her weapon, the all elemental katana, from her closet and turned around he was nowhere to be found, the only evidence of his presence was the smell of his thick cologne.
Aoki didn't even wait until sunrise before she raised hell through the royal family residence. Bifune had already passed on so it was Mifune, the second born and more compassionate brother that managed to calm the girl down. Aoki was too ashamed to tell her brother what had happened to her, her pride and honour as a samurai had been soiled, and she was out for blood. Nifune's blood in particular. Despite the known fact that Aoki trusted Mifune she didn't tell him what had happened to her, why she was running through the residence in her training clothes and her katana crackling with energy.
She used her position as next in line to be Leader to declare a death match between her and Nifune to be held immediately. It was after this declaration did Nifune finally rear out his head from his hiding place. At the crack of dawn citizens of Iron country that lived close to the capital assembled at the Grand Iron Arena to witness the fight, which was basically just a wide, open field. The rules were simple, the only survivor won but at the same time the winner would be branded with the title of rogue samurai, he or she was given a full day to flee from Iron country before he or she was placed into the bingo book with all of her money in the duellers bank accounts frozen.
Among Bifune's children Nifune, the oldest, was the weakest when it came to skill and strength, even his loyalty to Iron country was on shaky ground, Mifune was the second strongest in the way of the samurai and Aoki was the strongest in every aspect. Aoki had been dubbed by the people of Iron country as the Dark Angel of the Five Elements because of her black hair and eyes as well as because of her katana blade. The Omnyojin, or the Elemental blade, rumoured to have been forged deep in the mountains of Demon country by a lava release user using the heart of a demon wolf as the blade and its hide as its sheathe. The katana had been stored in Demon country, protected by the elders, until the person it deemed worthy claimed it, but it had been stolen by a cunning woman that wrapped it up in thick leather and vanished off the face of the earth as soon as the alarms rang throughout the demon mountain. How it had come into the possession of Aoki was a mystery but apparently it had already formed a bond with the girl, any other person that touched it would be sucked dry of his chakra and his very essence would leave his body and enter the sword, forever spiralling in the deep, dark silvery abyss that was in the sword, while Aoki would be able to draw strength from the unfortunate soul trapped in her sword. It was remarkable that she had been able to master the katana under the tutelage of Bifune.
Aoki walked into the middle of the arena, decked out in full traditional samurai armour; white torso, thigh and helmet and yellow shoulder guards, shin guards and sandals. Her under clothe was black. Sheathed to her side was her Omnyojin and across her back was a plain wooden bow with a full quiver of arrows. Nifune too walked in from the other side of the arena in full traditional samurai armour that was gold in colour. The people watching at the side lines waited with bated breathe as both fighters stared down at each other, until the appointed future leader of the country rocketed forward and whipped her sword at her opponent, not wanting to give the older man any chance to speak.
Nifune, although the weakest of the three siblings, was also reputed for being the wielder of the Gold katana blade Bifune's father had passed onto Bifune, but the late leader had found the weapon hard to use so he gave it to his son, favouring the use of another mystical katana blade. Nifune was a tall man with bald hair and a brown goatee, usually choosing to wear gold and walk around pompously. He had mastered the use of the gold katana easily; he often called himself The Golden Sibling.
The man used his weapon to block the lethal strike as well as the subsequent hacks from the enraged girl, he slipped past a strike and shoulder checked the smaller girl to the ground, following this with a stomp from sandal clad foot. The girl rolled away and fired a barrage of arrows after she quickly sheathed her blade. The man easily sliced them out of the air and darted at her. Aoki slid away from his downward slice and ducked the head slash, then she used her bow to deflect a sword stroke successfully, using her foot to Spartan kick the big man away. The man quickly recovered and brought his leg up to block a smash from her bow, breaking the wooden weapon and forcing the girl to throw it away so she should dodge a slash from him.
She raised her sheathed katana to block his gold katana and the action pushed her back, breaking the ground apart. When she stopped she half unsheathed her blade and snapped it back in fully, "Earth pulse," the ground reverberated under her and a small tidal wave made up completely of earth washed towards the older man. Nifune smirked to himself and created a hole in the earth wave as it came at him, leaping through. Aoki met him before his feet hit the ground with an upward slash of her Omnyojin, forcing him to support his katana with both of his hands to block the attack, one behind the blade, another on the handle. She feinted a slice to his side, and he followed her motion but when he saw her correct her motion and go for his shoulder it was too late. White smoke flowed off her katana, channelling wind chakra, and she cut through his armour like butter, lopping off his arm. He slithered away but she stubbornly followed him, wisps of wind coming off her blade ominously as she jabbed it at his stomach, he clanged his sword against hers twice desperately, losing a lot of blood fast. The third jab she went for she commanded the wind wisps to elongate her weapon and this effectively allowed her to slice through his gold armour and into his heart. She harshly pulled out her weapon, making the older man drop his own in shock that she had managed to get to him, and she spun around so she could cut off his head smoothly. His head flew off and rolled on the ground, an eternally horrified expression on his face, while Aoki smoothly sheathed her own katana, her expression grim. She didn't look up at Mifune when he stepped in front of her, he brought out his own katana, the adamantium chakra blade, and smoothly cut a clean line through the Iron country symbol on her helmet, then to the two symbols on her shoulder guards, then he finally sheathed his sword and turned around. Every other member of the country that was present, from the most professional samurai to the lowliest of civilians stood up and turned their backs to her, all were silent.
Aoki swallowed thickly and left the arena so she could pack up her things and leave Iron country. Most speculated that it was the pressure of expectation that had broken her; others thought that the power had gone to her head. All the same no one found out what really pushed Aoki to do what she did.
Life as a missing ninja was hard and she had to kill her conscience so she would be able to get the money for the next meal. She had been contacted by a slavery ring and a heavy price for her services was presented to her, a price she couldn't refuse. The job had forced her to wear clothes she didn't want to wear and even speak in a way she herself detested but she desperately needed the money, though she drew the line on selling her body, any advances from the ninja that work for her former slave ring owner boss was met with violent repercussions. This went on for a year until Naruto came…
Naruto listened to her story without interruption and when she stopped, her black hair shadowing her face and sitting on the ground with her knees to her chest, he walked up to her and looked down, "how do you feel now that all that's off your chest?"
She looked up, surprised at what he said, and replied, "I feel…fine,"
"Even though I have been alone for most parts of my early life I have confided my pain into a medium, my journal, and I feel better afterwards. If you feel…burdened by anything don't hesitate to tell me,"
Aoki stood up and straightened her white long sleeved kimono, making sure to adjust her katana and her new bow as well, "thank you for listening, Naruto-sama," he just patted her shoulder and walked past her, "you can also confide in me too…if you want,"
Naruto paused mid-step and tilted his head to the side slightly, "who says I don't already do that?" and he walked out of the animal containment room.
Aoki was left in the room, surrounded by caged animals, and her mind was already made up; she wasn't going to be staying with Naruto Uzumaki just for the money, but also because he treated her like a person, not a weapon of mass destruction or even as a toy to ogle, but as a real, living, breathing person. With that in mind she marched to his office so she could switch into his apartment and take the day off he had insisted she had. Maybe she could spend some of her money buying some weapons; which was what most wouldn't have expected from a girl like her but buying clothes was pretty much a waste of money. Sagi the spider clan elder was able to craft any article of clothing with any known possible fabric in any design imaginable and was still at the best quality; the very clothes she was wearing was from the white spider, so when it came down to clothes there wasn't a dire need for them. She made sure to securely place a brown wig on her head and brown contact lenses on her eyes to safeguard her identity before she left the apartment, her katana and her bow sealed into her wrist.
Bio (not a bingo book entry)
Name: Aoki
Moniker(s): Aoki-chan, Dark Angel of the Five Elements, Broken child,
Hair colour: Black
Eye colour: Black
Occupation: Rogue samurai
Affiliation: Iron country (formerly), Fire country Slavery ring (formerly), Kitsugami Drug Company, Naruto Uzumaki,
Parent(s)/Guardian(s)/Relation(s): Bifune of Iron country (adopted father/deceased), Nifune of Iron country (adopted brother/deceased), Mifune of Iron country (adopted brother/alive), and Uzumaki Naruto (adopted brother/boss/alive)
Date of birth: February 23/16 years old (the day she was dropped off at the orphanage)
Weapon(s): Omnyojin, Silver snow leopard bow, tanto, crossbow…pretty much anything that has a sharp point and/or a blade,
Skills: master swordswoman, master hand-to-hand fighter, she is able to use any sharp object as a weapon,
Rank: A
Kekkai genkai: none,
Accomplishments: mastering the Omnyojin, impressing the hard to impress Bifune enough for him to take her under his tutelage, killing Nifune, an A rank samurai in his own right, having been in only one close to death situations (when Naruto poisoned her).
(She's a rouge samurai, which means most traditions she was brought up to believe in don't apply anymore, that includes her perspective of Ninja and ninja art)
Authors note
How was it? Aoki isn't just Naruto's bodyguard, but also his friend.
As a side note, my friend, Kilare T'Suna and I have come up with a lot of story ideas, and I mean a lot of ideas. This being said I will be publishing a few of them, which is the ones I already typed down. He is a creative genius when it comes to ideas; this story is testament to that, so I hope you all give it a chance. I might only have one chapter but hey…whatever…
Don't forget to drop a review please,
See you on the flip side,
Foy.