Chapter 16 Wind Sword

Jiraiya watched Naruto as he made his way home, not noticing he was being followed by some civilians who continued to glare at him. Naruto closed the door behind him, the men watched for a moment then walked off. Jiraiya watched and remained out of sight, completely undetected as a master of stealth. He knew in his gut that something was going on and would have to watch over this boy. He could tell the Hokage but he'd probably done more then enough slacking off when it came to his duty as Naruto's godfather. He'd noticed the curse mark on Naruto's neck and decided he needed to keep an eye on him. It seemed Orochimaru had taken an interest in the boy for some reason.

He waited for a few hours. Then come midnight there was movement. The same group of civilians came, though they were dressed in black with hoods up. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as he saw some ninja with masks on as well. Anbu-Black Ops?

"We ready to do this?" the lead civilian asked.

The middle Anbu nodded and brought a hand up to his sword. "Time to slay a demon!"

They charged at the door but before they could get to it, Jiraiya was in front of it.

"You're not gonna harm a little kid now are you?" the Sannin asked.

The civilians and ninja stopped at the sight of one of the most famous ninja in front of them. Behind his mask, the lead Anbu shivered.

Jiraiya of the Sanin! What's he doing here? Kabuto thought. This could ruin everything!

"Go home!" Jiraiya said. "The Hokage doesn't need to know about this and you can all go back to living your lives quietly!"

"And let that demon roam around our village as if nothing happened?" the lead civilian said in a tone that was violent beyond reason. "He needs to pay for what he did years ago! Many of us lost family that day!"

"What is not the boys fault," Jiraiya said. "He is the container for the demon not the demon itself."

The man shook his head, not seeing reason. "That monster has already hurt people and someone has to stop it!"

He charged at the door along with most of the others who hoped to overwhelm the Sannin. Two of the civilians fled. Kabuto, though knowing he was a capable ninja knew that he could only last so long. He had to get Naruto's attention and make him think that the villagers had tried to kill him. His mission had been to lead the angry civilians against Naruto and then save him at the last second to entice Naruto to further hate the village. He looked over at a nearby window into the main hall of the house. That would probably do. It wouldn't be perfect but as long as Naruto was attacked in some form it could work.

Taking a kunai knife with a paper bomb, Kabuto through it at the window. It exploded as it broke through the glass, doing damage to furniture or whatever else was in there. Jiraiya looked at the noise and Kabuto grinned under his stolen mask.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya called before knocking out the last man standing.

Kabuto performed a quick hand sign and vanished in a puff of smoke. Hopefully this would at least make Naruto angry, and they could feed that anger toward the Hidden Leaf. Kabuto was still believed to be a ninja of this village. He could use that to his advantage for the time being, befriend Naruto and manipulate him perhaps.

He reappeared in another area where he could be safe for the time being. Now he needed to report the operation to Lord Orochimaru. It had mostly been a failure but Kabuto had managed to do something at least.

…

Naruto heard an explosion nearby and woke with a start.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked.

He made his way out to his living room and saw the place in a mess as if a paper bomb had gone off.

"WHAT?!" he yelled. "Is someone trying to kill me?"

…

Jiraiya was gone before Naruto could notice him. He carried all the attackers to the Hokage House and made his way to the Third Hokage's room. The Anbu allowed him as they saw him.

"Sensei, wake up!" Jiraiya said.

He shook the old man slightly and Hiruzen Sarutobi awoke.

"Jiraiya? What are you doing here at this time of night?" the third Hokage said with a yawn before noticing Jiraiya's prisoners.

"These men all tried to assassinate Naruto tonight," Jiraiya told him.

Hiruzen frowned. "Guards!"

His Anbu guards entered.

"Take them to a cell. They will stand trial for attempted murder of a leaf shinobi."

"Yes Lord Third!" the Anbu said with a bow.

They apprehended the criminals and vanished.

…

"So your attempt to have Naruto nearly die went awry did it?" Orochimaru asked.

"Yes," Kabuto said.

"Hm. Well, seeing as it was Jiraiya I suppose there was no avoiding it. Still you have thought of a good back up plan. Get close to the boy. Give him a little push in the right direction when you can. Slowly but surely we will win him over and destroy his dream of becoming Hokage. Feed the hatred so that he will abandon this place and come to us instead."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto said.

He made his way out of the apartment they were using as a base.

…

Naruto never figured out what happened that night. He wasn't able to sleep knowing that someone had blown up his living room. Soon the Third Hokage came.

"Naruto, I heard what happened!" the old man said.

"Who did this?" Naruto asked.

"A group of civilians, we've already arrested most of them who were involved."

Naruto gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles. "Let me at em! I'll teach them to mess with me!"

"No Naruto! These acts were committed by those who hate you for being the vessel of the Nine Tailed Fox," The Third said. "If you attack them, you will only make the village more disdainful toward you."

Naruto growled. "I deserve some justice for this!"

"You will have it. They will all be put behind bars for arson and attempted murder. Ten years in prison if we can manage."

Naruto glared at him but looked down. "Fine. If that's what you think is best old man. I still wish I could give them a few punches."

Now I know how Sasuke feels, wanting revenge at least. Naruto thought. This damn village.

Naruto pushed those negative thoughts away. He'd show them all and become Hokage someday.

"Just try to get some sleep. I'll leave a pair of Anbu to guard you for the next few nights and cover the damage with the village funds."

That eased any concerns Naruto had from a financial aspect.

"Thanks old man," Naruto said with a yawn.

He went back to his bed but couldn't bring himself to sleep. Come morning he headed to meet Ebisu Sensei by the bridge going over the river running through the Leaf. With him was Asuma Sarutobi who had a cigar in his mouth.

"Well, Naruto!" Asuma greeted.

"Asuma Sensei?" Naruto asked.

The smoking ninja grinned. "I heard from Ebisu that you have an affinity for the rare Wind Nature chakra. It so happens I also have that affinity. So I'll be taking over your training!"

"What about your team though?" Naruto asked. "Shikamaru is in the final rounds right?"

"Yeah but he's too lazy to real do any real training," Asuma said. "Says its too much of a drag. So he's just doing things with his clan to perfect his Shadow Possession Jutsu. Ino and Chojii are both taking missions right now. Nothing to dangerous so that leave me free to help train you. Maybe if you beat Shikamaru he'll have to start taking things a bit more seriously."

Naruto grinned.

"Well later Naruto," Ebisu said before walking off.

"Bye Ebisu Sensei, thanks for the training!" Naruto called with a wave.

That left Naruto with Asuma.

"Alright. I suppose I should tell you a bit about how I used Wind Chakra myself," Asuma said pulling his weapons, a pair of curved blades, out. "I usually channel them through my blades here. They're chakra blades, so you can channel chakra through them."

Asuma handed him a chakra blade and kept one for himself. Naruto channeled some chakra through it and could see a faint blue energy along it.

"Uh, is there a point to adding chakra to something that can already cut?" he asked uncertainly.

"Lets do a brief demonstration. I'll channel chakra through my blade and you just throw yours as is. We'll target those two trees," Asuma pointed to a nearby pair of trees.

They did so, Naruto threw an unaugmented knife at the tree which stuck in. Asuma's however cut straight through the tree and then another in its path before landing firmly in the next one.

"Wow! It went THROUGH TWO TREES!" Naruto exclaimed.

"It would have gone even further if I had added more chakra. Even stone would been cut through," Asuma said.

"Whoa!" Naruto said. "I've got to get some blades like that!"

"There is a Smith not far from here where I got my blades," Asuma said. "It maybe a bit expensive but I'm sure he can make or sell you a weapon or set of weapons that should do."

He lead Naruto the Smith outside of the Leaf Village. Many blades of different types such as kunai, shuriken and swords all hung on the walls. Naruto looked at the swords with intrigue but-

"They're pretty expensive and I don't know how to use them," Naruto said.

"I'll cover it if you want one and you can pay me back over time," Asuma said. "It shouldn't be too hard to learn to wield a sword. Same basic strikes as the kunai to a degree."

"Wow thanks Asuma Sensei!" Naruto said.

He found a sword he felt suited him as it an orange cord and a dragon like guard. Asuma bought it and they headed off with Naruto carrying his new sword over his shoulder on a blue strap he'd gotten as well since his outfit was also part blue and this made a good combination. They began training once they reached an isolated part of the woods. Asuma taught him the order of sword strikes which he'd learned a long time ago even though his preferred weapons were the smaller knives.

It went on for a couple hours so they broke for lunch and then went back to it. By late afternoon Asuma was satisfied with Naruto's grasp of the basics and they moved onto adding chakra into the mix.

"Big blades like that can have a good long-range attack," Asuma said. "Try channeling your chakra through it then swinging it!"

Naruto drew the sword and swung. His katana glowed slightly with blue light but didn't create any ranged attack aside from a small breeze.

"You need to put in more chakra then that," Asuma said.

Naruto gritted his teeth and channeled as much chakra as he could causing the blade to vibrate violently in his grasp!

"That's too much!" Asuma yelled before Naruto could swing.

Naruto tried to lower the blade but that resulted a large burst of energy that narrowly missed Asuma and destroyed a small section of forest. Asuma sighed.

"We have a lot of work to do."

It lasted almost till sunset but in the end they managed the level of chakra to the right amount with Naruto sending a wave of energy off his sword that took on the shape of solid blades of wind.

"Good Naruto," Asuma said. "That's enough for today."

Naruto was panting and sweating heavily from the long hours of training with his new blade.

"Tomorrow we'll do one more technique and then I think that will be good enough for my share of the training," Asuma said.

Naruto nodded and headed home.

"Just you wait Nejii! I'm gonna beat you!" he declared.

Authors Notes: Well I wasn't planning to have Naruto pick up swordsmanship but I did like the idea. I believe one reviewer a while back wanted him to learn to use Zabuza's blade. I don't think that really suits him but I think I'd like a katana. The one I described was one I found on deviantart under the name Naruto's sword. It was based on another fanfic called the Jincuriki of Hogwarts by paradoxlxl, just to give credit to that author. I think that's good enough for this chapter and I will see you again in a couple of weeks. Hope you guys like the changes I made but I think once Asuma is done Jiraiya can take over.