Chapter 12: Downtime

A month has passed by after Team 7 had returned from the Wave escort mission. They have been doing constant training and D-rank missions. Ever since they came back from the Wave mission, Kakashi had tripled their training. He had been worried sick over Naruto's well being ever since he had been taken. Naruto had only been fine because of the Kyuubi, and the fact that Zabuza and Haku had no intentions of harming him. If they had been, he had little doubt that Naruto would be here. So by giving his three students better, and harsher training, hopefully they'll come out tougher and stronger. Hopefully enough to either take out said kidnappers, or last long enough till backup arrived.

He had increased their training, especially Naruto's, since they returned from the first C-rank turned A-rank mission. Of course he had received complaints from the genin, especially Naruto since Kakashi singled him out and was taking extreme measures to make sure that his little brother had learned not to repeat his last stunt in Wave. He was impressed, sure, but he was more angry that Naruto had gone and done everything himself. It seems he had to further drill the concept of teamwork into Naruto's head.

"S-Sensei… c-can I please… stop now?" Naruto panted out.

Kakashi turned and saw Naruto on the ground panting from exhaustion. "Did you finish your exercises, Chibi?"

"Yes sensei." Naruto panted out, tired as hell.

"Alright, you can stop."

"Yes!"

"And move onto your chores."

"Noooo! Come onnnn Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto pleaded. He was too tired to do his normal punishments. Ever since Team 7's return from the Land of Waves, Hiruzen and Kakashi had punished Naruto for his actions.

~Flashback~

Team 7 entered the Hokage's office to give their mission report. Sasuke, Hinata, Naruto, and Kakashi all stood before Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. Each team member was giving parts of what occurred during the mission.

"And a thick mist came over us." Hinata finished. Kakashi nodded, indicating that he'll take up explaining the rest of the occurrence.

"The mist was the Hidden Mist Jutsu that was performed by one Zabuza Momochi. His goal was to take out the bridge builder, Tazuna. As I was about to step forward to initiate a fight with the Missing Nin, Naruto decided that he would let the..." Kakashi left the words hanging hoping the Sandaime would pick up what he meant. Seeing Hiruzen nod, he continued the debrief. "Anyways, he handed control over to him, and he went and fought Zabuza. He was taken out fairly quickly which I believe was due to shock and disbelief of Naruto being his carrier. After Zabuza was beaten, he was making his way over to finish the job. However before he could, a pair of senbon flew and embedded themselves into the side of Naruto's neck, rendering him unconscious. The perpetrator then landed in between Naruto and Zabuza, grabbed them and body flickered away."

The Sandaime Hokage nodded and turned to face Naruto, who paled before taking a look of defiance on his face and looked away from him. "Is everything alright Naruto-kun?"

"No… but we'll talk about that later." He let out a heavy sigh. "After I was taken, I woke up to see myself tied up with Zabuza and Haku, the name of the 'Hunter Nin'. I asked them what they wanted, they explained that they wanted me to kill Gato so they took me to his mansion. Once there I killed all the thugs that midget hired and replaced them with Shadow clones while we were marching towards Gato's room. After reaching it, I sent the clones out to explore and take out any remaining thugs that I might've missed. I opened his door, freed the women that were forced to be his playmates, and Zabuza dropped down and killed him. I guess he sealed up his head after chopping it off, because after we arrived in town he handed me a scroll and told me to unseal that once I got into town." Naruto intentionally left out the part of visiting the Land of Whirlpool's because as far as he was concerned, the Third didn't need to know. Now at least.

Sarutobi nodded and looked at Kakashi. "Anything else happened after that?"

Kakashi looked up and tried to recall if anything special happened after that. "Well not really. The rest of my team were resting in Tazuna's house when his grandson, Inari, asked about the noise coming from town. We feared that Zabuza or Gato was making their move so we went to see what the commotion was about. Low and behold that they were practically worshipping Chibi over here for killing Gato. When we found him he was covered in lipstick kiss marks from the girls that were surrounding him." Kakashi told Hiruzen, which made him chuckle.

"Quite the first mission, wouldn't you say Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked with a coy smile.

Naruto let out a deep sigh and faced his leader. "Are we done Hokage-sama? I'd like to have a word with you in private with Kakashi-sensei present." He asked in a bit of a cold tone.

Sarutobi looked shocked and a little hurt. Naruto never called him by his official title. He would always call him 'Old Man', or 'Jiji'. Hearing Naruto call him that, and in such a cold tone too, it made the Old Monkey frown. He nodded and faced Sasuke and Hinata, handed them their mission pay and spoke. "Here's your pay for your recent mission. Since it was bumped up to an A-rank, your pay was as well. You two are free to go." After they hesitantly left the room along with the ANBU that were hiding in his office, Hiruzen activated his privacy seals. "Ok Naruto-kun, what would you like to discuss?"

"I'd like to discuss about how my Jinchuriki status is supposedly an S-RANKED SECRET AND YET EVERY VILLAGER KNOWS IT!" He shouted in rage. His anger and sadness was now unleashed. "HOW COME EVERYONE BUT ME KNEW ABOUT IT!" Tears threatened to fall down his face and soon did. "AND WHAT ABOUT MY FAMILY! I KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS NOW! WHEN WERE YOU PLANNING ON TELLING ME!? OR WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME AT ALL!?"

Hiruzen was shocked and terribly hurt that he had unintentionally caused Naruto all this pain for so long. When Naruto said he knew who his father was, Hiruzen turned and glared at Kakashi. The masked nin just put up his hands in an act of innocence. "Kakashi, did you tell Naruto!?"

"No Hokage-sama!"

"He didn't tell me!" Naruto yelled out in anger.

Hiruzen looked at Naruto confused. "If he didn't then who did?"

"My father." The Hokage looked at Naruto as if he was crazy. Naruto took a moment to think of a half-lie. "He placed some of his chakra in the seal so he would manifest if I contacted Kurama for too long. He said that it was in case he was trying to corrupt me. Me and Kurama explained the situation though so he eased up. I asked him why he was there and he told me the truth. All of it."

Hiruzen let out a deep sigh before he looked up to Naruto with eyes that held nothing but regret and sadness. "I'm truly sorry Naruto-kun. I wished I could've told you about your lineage sooner, I truly do, however at the time you were loud-mouthed and sought attention in the wrong aspects. I was afraid if I were to tell you, you'd go around the village yelling it out from the top of your lungs from excitement and joy of knowing who your parents were."

Naruto looked away, still mad, and huffed. "You could've told me to keep it a secret. I can keep those y'know."

Hiruzen smiled sadly and nodded his head. "Yes you might be able to now, but when you were still in the academy you couldn't hold yourself from spreading the news. If that were to happen, once your father's enemies caught wind of this, they'd stop at nothing until you were dead."

After a sigh of defeat, Naruto turned and faced the Hokage once again. "Alright Old Man," Hiruzen perked up at hearing Naruto's affectionate nickname for him. "I understand your logic behind why you did it… but I can't help but feel betrayed. I'll eventually forgive you, but just not now. It'll take some time."

Hiruzen was sad to hear that, but nodded his head. "Alright, I understand Naruto-kun. What exactly did your father tell you?"

"We talked about my early childhood and he wasn't too happy about hearing his son live through that." Naruto shot Hiruzen a look, which made the old man frown sadly. "But after his chakra... essence? Whatever. After his time was almost up, he left me with this." He rolled up his sleeve to show a Flying Thunder God seal on his forearm, surprising Kakashi and Sarutobi. "Guess he wanted me to learn how to use it."

Hiruzen nodded his head and chuckled. "Yes I suppose so. But if you do manage to learn how to wield it, be cautious about where and when you use it. If any Iwa shinobi caught sight of you using Flying Thunder God, they'll immediately connect the dots since you do look almost exactly like him. And not long after that, they'll start-"

"Yeah yeah, they'll start to send assassination attempt after assassination attempt. I know." Naruto looked at Hiruzen with a hard look in his eyes. "I know that already. My dad told me the same thing. I won't go blabbing about who my father is."

Hiruzen nodded and smiled. "Glad to see you've matured Naruto. Oh, did your father tell you about your mother?"

Naruto thought for a second before shaking his head. "Guess my old man forgot to talk about her." 'I would too with all that happened.'

The Hokage smiled at Naruto. "Would you like me to tell you about your mother?"

Naruto was shocked to hear Hiruzen say that. But then again he already knew about his father, so why not learn about his mother? "Sure Old Man."

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto, but before he could continue, Kakashi reminded the Hokage about something important. "Hokage-sama, before you do that, remember about Naruto's punishment?"

"Ahh yes, I remember now. Thank you Kakashi."

"What!? What punishment!?"

"Why the punishment of abandoning your team, and assisting a missing nin that at the time was against us of course." Kakashi said with a cheerful tone.

"Wha-"

"He's right, Naruto-kun. You might've done it for a good reason, but at the time it was considered a treacherous act, but only a minor one. Hence your punishment will be light."

Naruto stood in place fuming but conceded nonetheless. He didn't want his punishment to get worse so he wisely kept quiet and just nodded his head. "Hai Hokage-sama."

"Well, what should his punishment be, Kakashi?"

Kakashi hummed in thought before he snapped his fingers and faced the aged leader. "Why not make him work at the academy after training? We could have him clean the bathrooms and classrooms in the academy."

Naruto paled at the thought of cleaning the bathrooms in the academy. When he was attending the academy, even he didn't want to enter the bathrooms due to the state they were mostly in. Since he had only been out of the academy for a month, he concluded that the bathrooms wouldn't have changed much.

He was correct.

"Hmmm, that sounds like a wonderful idea Kakashi. We do need to fix up the state of the bathrooms. I've been meaning to assign that mission to a genin team, but none would take it."

'I wonder why.' Naruto thought sarcastically. "Uhh Hokage-sama, Can I get a less severe punishment?"

Hiruzen shook his head in disagreement. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but with this punishment you'll be sure to think twice before you make such a hasty decision next time, won't you?"

Naruto let out a sigh. "Yes Hokage-sama."

"Good now you'll be doing it for about a month." Naruto nodded his head. "Now I believe you want to hear about your mother?" The Hokage asked with a smile.

"Yes please Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi nodded his head, and tilted his head up as if reminiscing about something. "Your mother was an amazing and yet a terrifying kunoichi while on the battlefield, and a loving and caring wife at home." He pulled out a picture from his desk and gave it to Naruto.(*1)

Naruto took a look at the picture of his mother and smiled while gently touching her face. "She's so pretty." He said with a strained voice. He was trying hard not to cry, and yet was failing at covering it up.

Kakashi placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Yes. Yes she was Chibi. She was one of the kindest people I knew when she wasn't mad. Your mother and father practically adopted me after my father passed away."

"So we're really like siblings huh?" Naruto said rhetorically, still with a strained voice.

"Yes. Both of your parents accepted me with open arms. And I absolutely know, without a single shred of doubt, that your parents loved you with all their hearts."

Naruto could only nod his head, not wanting to show too much emotion. Hiruzen saw and continued talking about his mother. "She was one of Konoha's best seal masters. The Uzumaki Clan was feared for their talents in Fuinjutsu, their large chakra reserves, long lifespan, and some had the ability to create Adamantine Sealing Chains."

"Wait wait wait." Naruto interrupted, he was shocked about hearing that his mother had the ability and skill to create the Adamantine Sealing Chains. It was one of the techniques that was enlisted in the first forbidden scroll from Uzushiogakure. However Naruto had to fake the shock of finding out he had a clan. "I have a clan?! My mother had this ability to create chains?! And long lifespan? How long did my clan members live?" Naruto was excited about trying the technique. 'I wonder if I can make them too.'

"Yes. The chains were made out of her own chakra. The chains are extremely durable, and the chains are said to bind targets' chakra as well. A barrier could also be erected between sealing chains. Kushina did this to not only prevent the Nine-Tails from escaping, but also to prevent me, and anyone else, from entering it. The Uzumaki Clan's life expectancy usually was around 160 years. However most died younger due to their thrill for battle and Fuinjutsu projects gone terribly wrong."

"Wow." Naruto no longer had to fake his shock because he was extremely shocked about hearing about all the abilities the chains had, and how long his life expectancy was. 'I should've read the scroll more thoroughly instead of just skimming it through. Guess I'll do that after I leave here.'

"Thanks for the information, Old Man. I'll try my best to honor my parents' legacy." Naruto turned and walked out of the Hokage's office. He was more than eager to try and master the jutsus in Uzushio's forbidden scroll.

~Flashback End~

Naruto was pulled from his thoughts as he made it to the academy doors. When he entered, he was met with a smiling Iruka holding a bucket and a mop.

"How nice of you to come by Naruto. The bathroom won't clean themselves!"

'This is torture.'

Sasuke was aimlessly walking around Konoha's streets when something caught his attention. He faintly heard fighting coming from one of the nearby training grounds. With nothing better to do, he followed the sounds. 'Hmm, I wonder who could be training. Last I heard Team 10 went on a mission. From what I can tell, they packed enough for two or more weeks. Maybe a C-rank?'

After finally coming to the source of the sounds, he discovered it was Team 8 that was in Training Grounds 3. Sakura was currently sparring with Kiba and Shino against their jonin sensei Kurenai. He was highly impressed at what the teams skill level. More surprised at Kiba's and Sakura's skill level that they were portraying. He had always known that Shino was very talented and wise, but he didn't really like to show it off.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Sakura leap into the air after Kiba attempted to land a hit on Kurenai. After she parried Kiba and kicked Shino away before he could get a sneak attack on her, she turned to face Sakura and jumped out of the way of her punch. What surprised Sasuke however was the fact that Sakura managed to make a small crater from the force of her punch. Sasuke was left wide-eyed and a little bit paler at the thought of being on the receiving end of one of those.

"Nice job Sakura! If you manage to refine your chakra control enough, you'll theoretically be able to cause severe damage just like Lady Tsunade." Kurenai said, which made her blush from all the praise.

"Why thank you Kureani-sensei. I wouldn't have gotten this far without your help."

"Nonsense Sakura-chan." She waved off her compliments. "I've done nothing but point you in the right direction. Oh and by the way, how's your genjutsu creation coming along?"

"Oh right! Here let me show you how far I've gotten." Sakura said as she started to slowly weave through hand signs. After she was finished, she called out the name of the technique. "Demonic Illusions: Sakura Binding Blossoms."

The genjutsu that Kurenai was placed in, was like one of her most used genjutsus, the Demonic Illusions: Tree Binding Death. However, Sakura added her own twist to it. After having the illusion casted on her, Sakura thought of a way to change it and make it her own. Once the jutsu is cast, the victim starts to feel drowsy, which usually leads to them dropping their guard, and then afterwards are ensnared in vines with Sakura flowers blossoming from them.

After a couple seconds, the genjutsu was dropped and Kurenai could see the sweat on Sakura's forehead. 'Guess she needs to concentrate a lot to be able to use that technique. She needs to practice with it more for it to become easier to cast.' She smiled down at the pinkette. "Great job Sakura-chan! Although you need more practice with it. It shouldn't require this much strain on you."

Sakura merely nodded and threw out her opinion. "Yeah I know sensei. Honestly I've been working on that and I know that there is still more work that needs to be done. I also wanted to add some more to it but I don't know what."

Kurenai laid a hand down on her shoulders, which caused her to look up to her. "Hey, for your first original jutsu, it's a great start." She then turned to the rest of her team and started to congratulate them as well.

Sakura smiled and went to rest against a tree and to also get a drink. When she made it, she spotted Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face him before smiling softly and waving at him, and then turned back to her sensei.

"...your Taijutsu needs some improvements so we'll work on that tomorrow Shino. Kiba, your hot headedness will cost you if you don't get that under control soon. You understand?"

Kiba let out a heavy sigh before nodding his head repeatedly. "Yeah yeah sensei. I just can't help being the strongest though." He said with a shrug which caused Sasuke to roll his eyes. He felt like he saw enough and started to make his way back to his estate after he started to hear Kurenai chew him out.

'So, Sakura made her own jutsu huh?' Sasuke thought with respect and a bit of jealousy at not being the first to make his own technique out of all the rookie genin. 'Guess I'll have to start on making my own jutsu too. Of course it has to be fire natured… most fire jutsus are either in the forms of fireballs, or streams of fire. I want something unique… how about… a laser of fire."

He smirked to himself at the thought of his potential new jutsu's ability and strength. Sasuke broke into a sprint towards his clan estate to start working on his new jutsu's idea. He was too eager to get it started.

Hinata walked into Hyuga compound so she can shower and get some rest after today's training. As she was making her way towards her room to rest, a branch member intercepted her.

"Lady Hinata, Lord Hiashi and the elders summoned you in the clan's council room."

Hinata nodded and bowed back. "Thank you Ko-san. Have they elaborated on the reasons for the summons?"

"Afraid not Hyuga-sama."

"Ko-san, I've told you many times that Hinata is fine when there's no one else around." Hinata lightly chastised.

Ko smiled and bowed once more before leaving. As he turned to leave, Hinata turned from her room and made her way to the clan's council chambers. When she was just outside of it, she heard the muffled sounds of the elders arguing about something. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for the future headache she would get from this meeting and knocked. The room quieted down and Hinata heard her father give her permission to enter. After she did, one of the elders turned to face her and started to elaborate.

"Hinata-sama, apologies for calling you just when you got home but we have to discuss some urgent matters."

"Urgent matters?" Hinata asked curiously, and cautiously. She didn't like where this was going and she could already feel a headache starting to manifest.

"Yes. It concerns your team placements-"

"This again?" She interrupted, causing some of the elders to glare at her. She ignored the glares and stood up. "I'm sorry if you don't like my team placements, but it's already been set in stone. I'm not joining another team. I'm quite fond of my current team and we get along." She made her way to the door and opened it despite the many protests and glares of the Hyuga elders. "If that's all then I'm heading to my chambers to rest and clean up."

As she closed the door behind her, she could hear the loud muffles of the elder's shouts. She felt a bit bad for her father, but not enough to enter again and apologize for her behavior. Especially after they keep attempting to change her team placement just because Naruto is one of her teammates.

'I need a long soak.' Hinata thought to herself as she made it to her room.

Only to be bothered yet again.

"Big sister!"

'Can't I rest for a minute!?' Hinata thought out of frustration. She took a deep breath before she turned to face Hanabi. "Hello Hanabi-chan. I'm sorry but I'm not in the mood for anything but taking a bath and resting." She said in a tired voice, hoping her sister will let her be.

"You can bathe and rest after you train me for a bit!" She replied happily before grabbing her hand and trying to pull her towards the compound's dojo.

Hinata internally sighed and sent chakra to the soles of her feet to prevent Hanabi from dragging her along. She almost giggled when she saw Hanabi fall because of her. "I'm sorry Hanabi-chan, but can we do this another time? I'm exhausted from the training and missions from today."

"You're no fun." Hanabi said with a pout. She then stood up and placed her hands on her hips and glared at Hinata. "You promise we'll train tomorrow?"

Hinata smiled and pinched one of Hanabi's cheeks causing her to yelp. "I never said when, little sister. But fine, tomorrow I'll help you train."

"Yayy!" Hanabi yelled in triumph. She then ran outside, presumably to train herself for now. Hinata shook her head and entered her room, and would finally prepare for the bath and rest she so desperately wanted right now.

Naruto made his way into his apartment complex and went his way to his door. After unlocking it, he entered and locked the door. He looked around, nodded to himself, and created three clones.

"Alright, you." He pointed to one of the clones. "Prepare some dinner for me while I take a shower. You," He pointed to a second clone while the first one was doing his task. "Go work on figuring out why we can't produce the Adamantine Sealing Chains. We need to figure that out soon. Having the ability to create the chains will be a really useful addition to our arsenal." The clone nodded and left to the bedroom to figure out the issue.

"What do you want me to do boss?" The last clone asked.

"I want you to go over the Forbidden Scrolls we got from Uzu again and organize the jutsus into different categories."

"What will the categories be boss?"

"Ones we can safely learn and use, ones that will be trump cards, and ones that will kill me."

"Got it!"

As the clone left to do his task, Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and went to go shower. After the shower, he went to go eat the meal his clone had prepared for him. After he ate, he created another six clones to help aid the other two with their tasks. He made his way towards the bedroom before he stopped and made another clone.

"I want you to finish reading the book on the beginner level of seals. If you start to run out of chakra, you know what to do." The clone nodded and went into the kitchen and picked up the book he needed. Naruto himself went to bed and laid down. As soon as he did, he immediately passed out.

Alright I'm back to working on this! Tell me what you guys think of this chapter and anything issues you find within it. I know that this story feels a bit rushed, and I'm working on it. Sorry for the delay in the chapters but I will hopefully be able to post either weekly again or every two weeks. Please leave a review if you want and until next time!

Next chapter: Training In Elements