Chapter 5

For the first year Naruto's training focused almost solely on tai-jutsu or as she called it 'marital-arts' along with other ninja basics like shuriken and kunai throwing to bring him up to at least clan head levels if not near his siblings. Naruto also stopped pulling pranks and purposely getting half marks, he still kept his grades down but more so as a way to avoid unnecessary attention. He also made his first friend in the form of one Rock Lee. Saving the upperclassman from bullies he brought the kid to practice one. Rock Lee had a talent for working hard and always went the extra mile. Akira figured out quickly that he had no chakra nature and thusly could not mold chakra outside his body. She decided altered his body to use mana the same as Naruto as a substitute and he has been devoted to the two ever since. Akira trained rock lee to be mostly a tai-jutsu fighter but with a few spells in his back pocket. He also could coat his hands and feet in elemental energy to increase the effectiveness of his punches. They found him trustworthy enough to introduce him to the yokai. Because of his mostly martial-arts fighting style he didn't have a good teacher from the others to choose from, and chose to free Umi instead.

To cover for the the influx of new comers to the leaf Akira claimed to be part of the Biniru clan, when speaking with Minato, to officially become apart of the leaf. She claimed it was a long defeated clan scattered across the nations, which was a partial truth. She fabricated sending letters to other 'survivors' giving cover to the Yokai coming to the leaf. After being tested Akira was introduced to the leaf as a special jonin but was not put on missions outside the village for a wait period to prove her loyalties. She didn't mind this, using the time to train Naruto and his friends, and investigate the 'shinigami's curse' as it was called. She didn't tell her students about the investigations because she didn't want to give Naruto false hope or just have him accept the mistreatment of his family because 'it wasn't their fault it was the curse.'

In Naruto's second year of training he had a bigger focus on magic and mana with his Tai-jutsu now at acceptable levels. Magic was different then ninjutsu in that there were no types of magic locked behind bloodlines. This meant Naruto and rock lee had to be careful as they didn't want to accidentally use a 'bloodline limit' such as ice or crystal and start having annoying and dangerous questions pop up. Also Naruto found a new junior class mate in the form of a 5 year old Konohamaru Sarutobi who only learnt Tai-jutsu from Akira. She didn't trust him to not blab about their secrets at his age, maybe when he's older. Also his presence brought along Ebisu who's arrogant attitude annoyed everyone when he came to take away the Third's grandson, and be seen as the better teacher. He never could.

Akira had started going on missions outside the village by this point and had to wright out self study scrolls for the three students. One day while meeting with Rock Lee to deliver a scroll he found Might Guy watching them train, She brought the two tai-jutsu specialists together but bluntly criticized his fashion sense. He offered her a green jumpsuit in return. She threatened if he ever offered her or her students one again she would shave his head. She and Umi were a frequent sight at the library researching curses and the Shinigami. When she brought this up with the other yokai, they all agreed with her but wanted to be sure so they had the two free ones look into the topics first. By the end of the year she was satisfied with her research and steadfast in her conclusion, this was not a 'Shinigami's curse.'

Naruto's third year of training was had an had started his training in sealing. Since he had studied seal composition since he was a child he had an easy time learning mana seals since they were almost the same. Rock Lee had been coming less often due to his training with Might Guy but that had a solid friendship both inside and outside of school. Konohamaru still was only taught tai-jutsu but he also brought his friends along now. Naruto called the hour they came by 'After School Daycare' much to the threes annoyance. Naruto furthered his magic training translating all the jutsu he knew into spells. He was also charged with finding a tai-jutsu style suited for himself. After a conversation or two with Lee and Guy and a little bit of research with Iruka he decided on learning the fox fist, a style based on wearing out and tricking you opponent with faints. When Menma saw the kata scrolls in Naruto's hands he laughed at the irony. "whats so funny?"
"nothing brother that style suits you." When Menma told the rest of the family they had a small laugh as well. The only child without the fox, is now using a fox based martial art style. Minato thought about approaching Naruto for training but his headache forced him not to. 'I need to focus on the two's Kyubi training anyway. He'll understand when he finds out.'

Now that Akria had finally finished her research she decided on proving her theory. She had seen the curse in action with Kushina when she was invited to the Namikaze house for dinner once. Neither her or Naruto could sense anything when her Headaches happened so she assumed it had a cloaking component. She figured it was easier to look for the culprit, rather than molest a Hokage and his wife looking for a seal hidden god know where on them. She had become good friends with Dog otherwise known as Kakashi asking him about village politics and their factions led her to 3 main suspects, the Uchiha clan and Hyuga clans their views on their own superiority made them easy suspects, the Hyuga clan more so with the caged bird seal. And finally Danzo the power hungry man with a by any means view on running the village.

She quickly ruled out the Uchiha after a week, she noticed they were under too much surveillance to do anything, and that wouldn't happen if Minato was under their control. Also she and Umi snuck into their compound and looked at their seals, they didn't have any that could do anything like that. For a while she thought it might be a genjutsu but after trying her most powerful mind control dispelling spell on Kushina under the guise of practice, nothing changed so they were cleared. The Hyuga were a different story. They were harder to investigate. While prideful like the Uchiha they didnt all sneak underground for a super secret fuckfest, or whatever late at night so sneaking around their compound was going to be harder, impossible even with their stupid eyes. It took half a year alone to research them. Until finally she had an in one of the elders the clan head's fathers no less took a trip out of the village unattended, to meet with a business partner of a hyuga owned shop. On his way back Akira knocked him out by simply walking right up to him and punching him and brought him to the yokai temple to be interrogated. A few truth seals, a pissed set of pants and a memory altering spell later and the hyuga clan was cleared of that crime at least. The hokage was anonymously informed of multiple accounts of tax evasion and other white collar crimes committed by the clan though. Danzo was the hardest to figure though. Akira and Umi couldn't even find the bastard for a good three months. Only proof he embezzled money from the Konoha military funds to his own private -unnamed on paper- organization. Akira thought about tipping off Minato but decided against it, in case he burned everything and ran at the smell of an investigation into him. She got a lucky break when Danzo decided to approach Naruto himself out in the open after school one day. The fucking idiot. The Mummy asked Naruto a question a simulation of events, to which Naruto curtly responded "I don't deal in hypotheticals." Oh, must have ran into his brother or the Uchiha twins, Satsuki and her challenges always put him in a bad mood.
As Danzo walked away Akira had a clone follow him. She was thankful she was far enough away for the mummy or his emotionless pets to not notice her, or he would not have approached the boy. She tailed him to one of his bases and looked around then had the clone dispel she and Umi would have to plan. They were going to face an entire underground army or at least infiltrate it.

The fourth year of Naruto's training was defined by the words intrusive, stalking and investigation. The Uchiha twins had made it their life's goal to find out how and why he was so strong. Not join in on his training, no that was beneath the two, (or at least Satsuki, Sasuke seemed open to the idea when offered until she shut that down) just challenging him to fights and demanding he tell them how he got strong, using that stupid nickname he got since firmly planting his place in the middle of the class grade wise years ago. "What is that woman teaching you middling?" She would ask again and again."improv jazz." Naruto's amusement at the girls frustration only grew each time this exchange occurred. It was payback for his own annoyance caused by her. He much preferred their older brother. He even told Itachi about the Temple, but played it off as a old legend he heard. His siblings also had a similar mission but could only do so much when not training with his parents. So they badgered him during lunch before they got swarmed by their fanboys and girls. Naruto wouldnt mind so much if they attempted to at least acknowledge their home life but they refused to do that. Not so much as a 'hey, sorry Kaa-san and Tou-san ignored you completely during dinner last night, how are you?' So he's not touching that topic with them.

Then there's Hinata Hyuga. He can sense her following him everywhere. Training, shopping, even relaxing. He can sense her emotions so he knows its not malicious, she has this wistful longing and happiness like she wants him to succeed and be his friend. But then why wont she just talk to him then? He asked Akira she just made him ware a board with the word dense around his neck while he was at school the next day. 3 kids he didn't know, his siblings, Shikamaru and KIBA, of all people, just looked at him and said "Hinata."
The stalking did not get better with time soon he not only had Hinata watching him but also everyone else listed above. This impeded his training in multiple ways. First he could not practice magic when they watched him. Secondly, he had started to learn weapons. He didn't want to learn a sword just yet He promised Tanjiro that he would be the first to train him in that. So instead he picked up a bo staff after some nudging from Konohamaru. The watchful eyes of his stalkers even when they thought he didn't notice made him feel self conscious, especially since Rock Lee was a genin now and couldn't come to training as much even by last years standards. One day he had enough and threw shuriken at the bushes and trees where his stalkers were, drawing them out he yelled at his his siblings and the Uchiha twins for a good few minutes. Sasuke and his siblings had the decency to be embarrassed, but Satsuki acted as if she was in the right further angering Naruto. Hinata, who Naruto did not throw a shuriken at was scared at possibly being found out do to Naruto's reaction and upset with her self for hurting him.

The next day in school he asked her to train with him from now on at Akira's request. She fainted but Naruto could tell by her chakra she was happy so assumed it was a yes. Akira picked them up after school and did not let Hinata say no. her hyuga attendant came to pick her up but after seeing that she made more progress in one after school lesson with Akira then all of her training with her father, let her stay. When she reported that to Hiashi Hyuga he felt mixed emotions pride, she was finally achieving more, but also anger it was not from his methods. He let her continue training with them and even gave Hinata permission to do so. He honestly was more bothered by the leak in the Hyuga clan to care. Thus Naruto found a new training partner and Hinata got more confidence and got to be around her crush.

Akira had her own stalkers this year in the form of ROOT, the name of Danzo's organization. This delayed her plans as she acted slowly fearing that leaf ninja might attack her or force her out of the village. That was until she learned that of ROOT's style of recruitment via Kakashi, how they erased the names and history of the members and they were not really part of the Leaf. Sickened by Danzo's abuse she gave the members tailing her a quick death, as they were experiencing worse in her mind. Hiding the bodies in the forrest. Of the five tailing her, the Yamanaka and the hyuga were the hardest to kill but still she killed both easily, crushing one's head and incinerating the other with his eyes removed by a caged bird seal. She took two masks and uniforms and interrogated one agent after removing the mark on his tongue.

She found Danzo, while having access to loyalty seals did not put them on his agents for two reasons, one they caused major headaches when used as the person unconsciously fought back and two he had faith in his brainwashing of his soldiers. Using the two uniforms she and Umi reported to Danzo posing as two surviving agents of their fight via shadow clones she made. Akira had to thank Naruto for teaching her this spell er jutsu … whatever. Using spells she copied the energy signature of his tongue curse mark for infiltration purposes. Danzo rescinded the watch orders on her and Umi knowing he lost two of his best potential agents and that couldn't go after them any with out exposing his illegal operation if they were fighting back now.

Minato had disbanded ROOT after Danzo had tried undermining him and after learning how cruel it truly was. This made things a lot easier for the two as they could wage war silently in between missions and training Naruto and friends. Not wanting to risk anything they decided upon using a special kind of clone spell, a modified spell that used a dead body as a base to infiltrate the organization, since it could last up to five years and the clone was essentially an automatous puppet with the mind of the creators. The clone would also destroy the body upon death, leaving no trace of its existence except a pile of ash. The downside was that the clones could not give information back to the originals and that the clones could not receive orders. This was mitigated with receiver seals disguised as the tongue seals for communication between clones and the originals. A bit morbid but it was their best option. Letting the clones do their work, the two lived normal lives going out into the public without a care.

While the clones did their jobs and reported back every other week the two followed up on their investigations into the two clans to see if It had any changes in their behavior. The Uchiha clan had no changes except better security on their seal vault, raccoon traps as no evidence of humans breaking in was found. But the Hyuga clan was a different story. The clan elders and Hiashi went on a tirade turning the branch house upside down looking for the 'rat' many a caged bird seal was triggered since then. Feeling responsible for the branch clans woes the two made and spread a roomer that was sure to get back to the main clan head: a drunk main branch member in a bar had in an attempt to get with a girl told her about all the illegal stuff the clan was doing trying to impress her, some guy who disliked their pompous attitude overheard and sent the anonymous tip to the hokage winning a spiteful victory.
From that day on no hyuga clan member was allowed in a bar again, and any male main branch members who was caught drunk at all was punished harshly with a sparring session with all the elite members of the clans fighting force.

Soon the infiltrating clones had wormed their way into the optimal position for espionage against ROOT, teaching and indoctrinating new recruits. The two clones were going to turn Danzo's very army against him and he made it easy for them. Since ROOT had its trainees kill their emotions cumulating in a test where they had to kill best friends, and Danzo foolishly never overlooked any part of their training, thinking his older members were completely loyal. they were ripe for turning against him. Teaching the students by day and searching for information by night the two had begun to build a case against Danzo's order.

The clones worked slow making sure not to reveal anything. Using a spell to copy and duplicate information reports from Danzo's data base. they worked from most recent to least. They copied anything they could find that looked suspect: plans he had written out, training procedures, mission reports and experiments he did, they even took the lunch menu. Since the final training - kill your best friend- could happen at any age or at any time the two clones used this to get the copied information back to the real Akira and Umi. They handed one student a scroll with the information sealed inside that student would be put in a near death trance a near death state where they would be extracted by the two twins and integrated into the leaf village. It took almost two years but they finally found it: Operation Overcast, a plan to use a powerful but costly seal, the Hidden Mind Override Seal on powerful political opponents and ninja that opposed his view that would otherwise be untouchable during a tragedy or natural disaster hopefully becoming a mental clone or puppet of the mummy. The biggest Targets: Minato and Kushina Namikaze Result: partial failure, seal implanted and remains undiscovered however, targets able to resist influences and complete control with willpower alone. Akira only wished she found this sooner because it could have saved Naruto a lot of heartbreak.

(a/n: so now danzos caught but a little too late. also danzo interaction with naruto this chapter is a parallel to Itachis meeting with danzo in the novel. we're halfway done with the first arc now. next time im doing an intermission to talk about mana vs chakra with out taking up too much space in the chapter itself and to respond to the reviews i got. please keep sending them i love reading all of them :) )