Next chapter up,
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 12
Konoha
Two days later
"Go slow, ok?"
"How slow, Master?"
"As slow as you can go." The blonde boy, wearing a simple white T-shirt, blue shorts and black forearm and shin protectors scratched his cheek. "How slow can you go, Daku?"
The dark shadow paused and looked down, thinking how slowly he could do something physically. "Academy graduate slow?"
"Any way you can go slower?"
"New academy student slow?"
Naruto shrugged. "That's fine. Let's start."
Daku walked back a few feet from Naruto and faced him, Naruto doing so as well. Then, as slow as he could go, Daku bent down into the basic Armadillo fist taijutsu stance; his right hand was stretched forward and his left hand bent in a perfect ninety degrees and grabbed his elbow, his left leg was fully drawn and his right was bent forward as if he was about to pounce.
Naruto mirrored this well enough, his black forearm glistening in the early rays of the sun that was barely up in the sky.
The boy imitated his dark shadow as he swung his drawn leg forward, holding the shin protectors up to block an invisible opponent, and with a flick his leg was pulled back. Both slowly went through the arm movements of grabbing their opponents, sticking their fingers through their invisible chests, and smashing their knees straight into their stomachs. Naruto spun around, with Daku, and thrust his forearm out, catching an invisible shuriken, and with a spinning kick, he sent it back.
The next stance was of both using their forearms to block an overhead strike and holding the stance for a full thirty minutes, getting Naruto used to waiting.
Daku led the Armadillo-style kata with small finger jabs to where the neck of the opponent was and sidestepped methodically, moving away from a strike and using his forearms to catch a fist. The last move was to shuffle away and move forward with a shin guard to the face.
"Did you get all that Master Naruto?"
"Perfectly. Watch me for any problems."
"Yes, Master Naruto." Daku stayed where he was and crossed his arms, watching as his master went through the fighting forms he had memorised the other day. After two hours straight, and after a few corrections to his stances.
"Do you think I'm ready to go faster?" Naruto asked and wiped the sweat on his forehead off with a towel that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and disappeared almost as fast,
"Yes, Master Naruto; your first basic stances are strong. All you need is to go a bit faster. As fast as the scroll says."
"And how fast is that?"
"Mid chunin; it's a very steady, deliberate fighting style, prioritising decisive and strong attacks in the place of quick, rapid strikes," Daku said, relaying what he and Naruto both read from the Armadillo fist scroll. "I personally think you can get to the required speed with enough practice."
"Fine by me. Watch me."
This time the blocks and some strikes were faster; about low genin speed.
This lasted for another two hours until Naruto slumped near a tree and waved away Daku's concerns. "I'm fine. This style is more demanding than I thought." He unsealed a bottle of water and gulped down the whole bottle, tossing the empty bottle to Daku to hold onto. "Hold onto that for me, please. I might forget to fill it back up later." Daku bowed and sealed it into his wrist. "How many more basic stances are there?"
"Three more; the first, which you've been doing, is for combat with the guards," Daku said as he indicated the forearm and shin guards Naruto wore. "The second is combat with your 'claws'" he gestured to Naruto's fingers, the supposed claws of the fighting style. The scroll explicitly detailed that the fingers could be trained to strike with the precision of sharp blades, able to cut down at the molecular level with enough practise and dedication, though that intensity of training was still a little bit further down the road for now. "And the last is a combat 'in motion'." When Naruto cocked his head in confusion, the shadow continued, "The style requires several sharp finger pokes, sometimes outright punches, and you are expected to be able to roll in a ball and use that form to fight." Naruto had skimmed through the scroll but it was Daku that went through it for any hidden details. "It's not as hard as you think, Master Naruto."
"Says the guy that can run faster than sound." Naruto rolled his eyes and looked up at the clouds, idly noticing that it wasn't yet noon but it was closing in quickly. Daku bashfully scratched the back of his head. "Tell me the truth, Daku, can I really master this style?"
The reality was the Armadillo fighting style had four forms; the basic form that allowed the user to become used to the careful and calculated movements the fighting style demanded, and three proper forms that Daku had previously explained.
Naruto was a defensive fighter, and he was proud of it.
Naruto was also patient and he was progressively persistent; the perfect traits students of the Armadillo fighting style needed.
"The style is perfectly suited for you, Master Naruto, and with your work ethic I'll say you reach a high chunin level in this style in about ten months, at most." Naruto nodded and got up, stretching his whole body. "You wish to go through the basic form again?"
"Yeah, I'm going to master it today." Daku bowed under the fire in his master's eyes and watched again for two more hours as Naruto sped through the kata again, and again, and again until high noon.
Naruto looked like he would drop any second; his whole body was dripping with sweat, and small splotches of grass were on his white shirt showing that he had fallen during the kata, and he was panting. He wobbled on his feet and powered through the basic kata again, and again, ignoring the sun blazing above him.
"You need to rest, Master Naruto."
"One more time." Naruto jabbed his fists forward quickly, the last slowing down a bit before he spun on his right foot and smashed his foot against an imaginary opponent.
"Master—"
"One…more time." He blocked with a raised shin and forearm combo and rolled backwards. "One more…time." Two jabs to the neck and a knee chick to the chest. Then, to his horror, his whole body locked up and he fell forward like a tree. Daku caught him easily. "What…happened?" he tried to move his arms but they remained unresponsive.
"This is what happens if a beginner practises this taijutsu style for six hours straight." He laid Naruto down under a tree. "I did say you needed rest." The blonde boy could almost taste Daku's smugness.
"Don't rub it in." he strained his neck and refrained from yelling in frustration. "This is annoying." He sighed and closed his eyes before they snapped open. "Someone's past the alarm seals." He focused and sighed. "It's Yakumo. You can stay."
On cue, the girl burst through the bushes in front of him and face-planted straight into the ground, tripping over her feet.
"Sensei!" she scrambled to her feet and sprinted to the blonde, paralysed boy. "What happened?" She glared icily at the red-eyed, turban-clad shadow and hurried to bring out the single kunai she hid in a sheath at her heel, dropping it the first time and gripping it between her hands, trying to be intimidating. "State your business!" she cursed mentally at the sweat that was building in her palms and she gritted her teeth to look intimidating. "Talk!"
Naruto raised an amused eyebrow. "Yakumo—"
The girl didn't hear him; her teacher, the person that she considered the strongest she had ever seen, was lying ramrod under the gaze of a person she had never seen before. You can see how this may seem compromising in a bad way. The girl's arms shook as she held the kunai up. "I said talk!"
Naruto chuckled. "Calm down, Yakumo." The girl's eyes snapped down to her teacher, whom she was crouched protectively beside, then back to the stranger standing silently in front of her. "I appreciate your worry, but I'm fine…I think."
Her stance slowly lowered but didn't go down completely. "Who-who is he, sensei?"
"He's my dark half," he said so coolly Yakumo would have thought he was commenting on the weather. "Why aren't you in the academy?" Naruto had asked for a favour from Tsunade to allow her into the academy, after being thoroughly grilled on how deep the control of her demon was and on her current level. She had been put into the second class of the academy, something the young girl was very grateful for.
"Iruka-sensei called in sick." She knelt beside her teacher and furrowed her eyebrows. "What's wrong with you?"
"I went a little too hard on my training. Nothing serious." He avoided her eyes, not seeing the stars in her eyes, probably after hearing him training himself into full body paralysis. Naruto didn't feel impressed, though. "Can you give me a massage, Daku?"
"I fear I would break you if I tried," was Daku's prompt answer.
"Ah, yes. Fair point…" Naruto would have face-palmed if he could move.
"Sensei?" Yakumo piped up tentatively. Her teacher hummed and looked at her. "I…can try and give you a massage." Before he could answer she reached for his right arm and began rubbing smooth circles. "So strong…" she murmured to herself as she used the opportunity of touching the blonde boy's arm to feel it up, marvelling at how muscled they were even though it didn't bulge, she concluded that the boy also did daily exercises; not only training her and Hinata. She flexed his arm slowly, marvelling again when he didn't wince, not knowing that the motion didn't hurt at all. The young girl was merely going by instinct on where to rub soothingly.
This was the scene Hinata walked into.
She also got into a gentle fist stance when she saw Daku.
Naruto, who was sitting up so Yakumo could reach his shoulders, rolled his eyes and introduced her to his loyal shadow.
"Dark half?" she knelt beside her teacher and looked at him curiously.
"It's a long story—"
"We've got time," the Hyuuga heiress interrupted him.
"I used seals to try and give Kyuubi a smaller, external, physical form but I channelled my chakra instead of his own. Thus, Daku." Both girls 'oh'd' in understanding and silence reigned in the clearing.
"Sensei?" Hinata piped up thirty minutes later; Naruto was on his feet and stretching, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck, working out the kinks in his body. The boy looked at her and raised his eyebrows just as he was taking a swig of water. "The girls and I have set up a team picnic and I was wondering if you could come as well." She gripped the edges of her skirt in her hands nervously. "As a guest. Yakumo can come as well. It's this weekend at three in the afternoon."
Naruto smiled slightly at them. "It'd be nice to meet your friends, Hinata." He turned around and took off his forearm and shin guards, looking down at each curiously before he sealed them into wrists. "But I'll be a little late; I've got some issues to sort out first."
"Great! I'll…uh…I'll tell Ino, Ten and Sakura that you're coming." She got to her feet and smoothed her black skirt down, reaching into her purple coat and pulling out her forehead protector, tying it to her forehead and adjusting it. "Do we have training this evening, Naruto-sensei?"
"Not anymore; I'm sorry but I'll be busy until this weekend." Naruto nodded for Daku to leave and began walking out of the clearing.
"What will you be doing?" Yakumo asked as she and Hinata caught up to him. She furrowed her eyebrows when Naruto pursed his lips; knowing that this was a sign that he was either thinking deeply or contemplating something. "Sensei?" she snapped him out of his thoughts.
Naruto looked at both of his students and kept walking. "What do you know about Wave Country Hinata?"
"Sakura said it used to be a wasteland and there was this tyrant controlling it until he just…died. That's what Kakashi-sensei said to her anyway," Hinata said and looked at her teacher. Naruto stayed silent and about half a minute later both girls' eyes widened. "Wait, it was—"
"Daku, but it was indirectly me, of course."
"I could report this to Lord Hokage."
"Will you?" He looked at the girl from the corner of his eyes as he unsealed a light blue baggy hoodie and wore it; to protect his identity since he didn't want the civilians to stare at him as he walked past Ichiraku for a ramen lunch. The hoodie covered his eyes and his hair, leaving only his whiskered mouth in sight; he stuffed his hands into his pockets and kept on walking. Even though all the fuss about him being the jinchuriki, something the civilians knew of before him, had sort of calmed down he still preferred walking around incognito.
"I-I don't know…" Hinata unconsciously copied her teacher by zipping up her purple coat. Yakumo was clad in a simple red and white kimono so she didn't have any coat to put on, though she did put her hands behind her back. "I want to but…I don't want to…"
"Make up your mind; are you reporting me or not?" Naruto whispered to his Hyuuga student, he had a hidden smirk plastered on his face, perfectly shielded by the sides of his hood; he idly waved to Ino with Hinata, who was standing boredly in front of her flower shop sucking on a lollipop boredly. The girl looked over with her teal green eyes and beamed at them before she waved back, though she did waver when she waved at Naruto, who looked as mysterious as he had hoped. The girl, using some sort of secret look, flashed a smile at Hinata and used her eyes to motion at Naruto. Hinata responded by smirking slyly and nodding. All this happened within ten seconds.
"I won't report you, but-but if I see any trouble…" Hinata whispered 'threateningly' to Naruto just as they ducked into the ramen stand. Naruto wasn't buying it; he couldn't find her threatening even if he tried.
"Then I won't be giving any trouble, hopefully." he looked at Yakumo and asked, "How about you, Yakumo?"
"I won't, Naruto-sensei."
Naruto slid onto a stool and held up a single finger and Ayame, who knew who had come; she smiled and went to get his order ready. Yakumo ordered the same thing. Hinata didn't sit down though, so Naruto asked, "Do you have a mission?".
"As a matter of fact, I do." She unzipped her coat again, unaware of her unconscious action. "The picnic is on training ground 13. Saturday, 3 pm. Later sensei." Then she exited Ichiraku ramen. Naruto pursed his lips and thought of whether or not to tell Daku to keep track of Hinata until his youngest student nudged his arm,
"She won't squeal."
The blonde boy snorted, looking at his youngest student with laughing eyes. "Squeal? You watch way too many mafia crime shows."
The brown-haired girl blushed heavily and ducked her head, "I said the first thing on my mind, ok." She punched his shoulder when he had to cover his mouth with his hands to muffle his laugh. "Jerk."
The boy stopped laughing and ruffled her hair. "Oh, relax kid."
The girl shook his hand off her head and crossed her arms stubbornly. Naruto smiled at Ayame when she dropped his bowl of ramen and whispered for her to keep coming.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
That Night
Naruto knew that what he was about to do could be classified as evil and could be interpreted as wrong but he just needed to do it, mainly for a selfish reason but the other reason was to provide more shinobi for the minor village alliance.
He had already spoken with the other village leaders and they had given their blessing, though the blonde boy had said that they didn't need too many shinobi to provide support.
Illuminated by the moon and standing outside his apartment. The young seal master flipped through a small chain of hand seals and at the end he slapped his palms together.
A small wooden plank slipped out of his wrist, like magic, and he whispered, "Expand."
The wooden plank shivered and widened till it looked like a skateboard but without the wheels. He grabbed the seal-powered piece of art out of the air and looked over it with a critical eye to make sure everything was still in place. The board was coloured in with black paint with orange, red and blue fire licking the sides and the bottom. His eyes easily caught the seals he had dotted on them.
There was a large chakra affinity seal on the bottom, with trap seals he could whip out at a moment's notice. There was also something fuinjutsu masters called Blood Lock, which was a complex seal that only allowed the original user to use as well as gave the creation sentient ability to track him and him. This meant that he could control the board remotely.
He had been practising how to use his seal-board for a while now, as he had realised, he needed a way of transporting himself faster than his wheelchair was capable of; he could go at high speeds and fight with limited capabilities on it.
This was one of Naruto's many hidden backup plans.
He ran his finger over the edges and wherever his finger passed over turned into metal, making only the edges and the bottom turn into metal. He didn't turn his head to acknowledge Daku, who had flickered beside him.
His dark shadow fell onto his knee and lowered his head. "Master."
"At ease, Daku." He sighed and screwed his face to the side a bit, putting on a pair of flight goggles and throwing on his Wave Leader ceremonial robes.
"You don't have to do this, Master. I can do it fine on my own."
"I need the added experience, Daku. I want to know how much stronger I am after Tsunade's retrieval mission."
"…I have your back, master." the dark shadow stood up smoothly as his master turned to him.
"I trust you too, Daku," Naruto replied with a wane smile.
He then took off in a sprint, running full tilt towards the east gate of Konoha. He threw his seal-board ahead of him and jumped onto it, pumping his chakra through it and commanding it to use on his wind affinity. He flew through the air silently and began to lift more into the air, going much higher than the tall trees in Konoha. The boy pumped more chakra in until he was miles above Konoha, just a speck in the midnight sky that would be passed off as an owl.
He tucked his arms behind him and ducked his head so that the wind thrashing around him wouldn't slow him down, streamlining his form to prevent wind drag. His goggle-protected eyes looked forward and made sure he was far away from Konoha before he commanded his board to mix his wind affinity with his fire affinity, creating a scorching hot blast of blue fire that propelled him faster through the air. He kept a steady stream of chakra into his seal-board.
Naruto could feel Daku speeding on the ground far under him, running at blazing speeds to keep up with his airborne master.
The seal-board was Naruto's proud creation because, if it was in stable conditions, it could be able to effectively rival Daku's speed. Theoretically.
Naruto planned on invading Hidden Star.
The Star village had tried to invade Wave a day ago, but his country's protections stood strong, forcing the village to retreat and lick their wounds.
The invasion had been unprovoked but he could only assume that that village had gotten wind of Wave's advancements and wanted to capitalise on it by stealing it for themselves. Naruto was not the sort of person who encouraged senseless violence, but if what he considered dear was threatened in any way he would go through hell for revenge.
Star had managed to hold a few Wave merchants hostage before they tried to infiltrate, violently interrogating them on how to gain entry into the village.
There were a total of thirty merchants that were intercepted in the route and only three survived but with major traumatic memories of what had been done to them. It was only through Haku's regular patrol around Wave's perimeter did he got wind of what was happening.
Haku knew he couldn't face up to the legions of Star ninjas and save the merchants so he was forced to report it to Daku, who was in the Leader's Tower doing a routine staff inspection with the Head of Staff, Tsunami.
When they had arrived, it was much too late; only three remained and were left for dead as the Star shinobi began their march to Wave. Daku had prioritised the merchants' rescue over keeping the invaders away, so he commanded the demon brothers and Haku to go and retrieve them, sending a Marsh medic ninja with them to keep them alive for a while longer until they returned to the country's main hospital.
Naruto expected Iwa to attempt sooner than Star.
The difference between what Konoha had tried to do and what Star had done was that the Leaf village didn't murder civilians to get information; if Star hadn't killed them, Naruto wouldn't be flying full speed to Hidden Star to wage a silent war.
At that very moment, he expected at most fifty shinobi from each minor village to be present far from the Star village's border.
He manoeuvred his board expertly and exploded through a cloud before he dived down, looking like a comet plummeting to the ground.
Star Village wasn't that far from Konoha or Waterfall so it only took him four hours of flying to get there. His eyes spied the camps of ninjas looking up to the sky at him and preparing for what they thought was an attack. Naruto squinted his eyebrows and spun in a small circle so his descent wouldn't be too hard. Dust exploded under his board and the ground caked into glass. He stood upright and looked around at the gathered shinobi. He unsealed the Leader's wide hat and set it on his head silently, making sure to set his goggles around his neck.
Slowly all the shinobi around him silently fell onto their knees. He spared a small smile at them and hovered slowly through them to where he could only assume the leaders' tent was. He was proven right when Samsato and Rinsuki, Leaders of Fang and Marsh respectively, walked out to greet him.
Both leaders smirked at seeing him hovering over them and whipped off their wide-brimmed hats. Naruto did the same. The boy was only a head shorter than them but with his robe on he didn't look any less the leader he was. Naruto stepped off his board and commanded it into his left hand as he stretched his right forward to shake the leaders in front of him.
"Naruto," Rinsuki said as he shook her hand. He nodded back his respect and shook Samsato's as firmly. He winced only a little at the strength of the handshake. He was led into the tent, making sure to look over his shoulder to Daku to stay back for a while to socialise with the forces there; he waved to Zabuza and Haku, who was sitting amid a few Chill shinobi.
The tent only had a large-scale map of Hidden Star that they had gotten from some shinobi posing as merchants who had entered the village. He placed his leader's hat on the edge of the map and shrugged off his light blue robe. Samsato started the discussion, "Pleasant night for an invasion."
Rinsuki chuckled and shook her head in exasperation. "That's Naruto's call; it could be an invasion or scorched earth."
"No pressure…" Naruto frowned and thought deeply about what he wanted to say. "I want the Star leader dead, that's for sure, and I also want those directly responsible for the merchant kidnapping executed." He scratched his chin. "Anyone below jounin rank should also die, maybe, but that is only if they do not want to willingly flee to Wave."
"How would you know if they don't want to destroy the Wave from within?" the Fang leader grunted as he fingered his jounin flak jacket.
"I'm good with seals," was the simple answer but he decided to elaborate when they looked at him curiously. "I broke apart the loyalty seal and discovered that if I layer it with four more loyalty seals, it would turn into a truth seal. If I put it on their foreheads, they would be forced to tell the truth." Rat had learnt this the hard way after another interrogation, but on the plus side, he was now trusted more with information. The decision on what to do with Star was purely Naruto's decision because it was the Wave that had been attacked.
"How are those merchants, by the way," Rinsuki asked as she stood opposite Naruto at the table.
"Rehabilitating well, from the reports from your medics, Lady Rinsuki." He had made sure that he had fully compensated the family of the dead shinobi from his cash account as well as assured them that they would get retribution. Daku had personally guaranteed them that the Wave Leader was strengthening the barriers around the country, even though they weren't necessarily defective in the first place.
"That's good to hear. When do you want to launch the attack?" Samsato asked.
"I just need to know how big Star is."
Rinsuki hummed in thought and gave a rough estimate. "Why would you want to do that?"
"I want to place seals on the edges of Hidden Star to make sure no one flees." He stuck his hands into his pockets and pulled out a dozen small cardboard cards with a simple barrier seal on them. "What do you propose the ninja outside should do?"
Samsato spoke up before Rinsuki. "The Smoke should take the side with the Chill since their jutsu complements each other." Tu nodded in agreement, seeing as her guard had always chosen to fight with Kitsuen's guard in any joint mission they had, their combination jutsu was a thing to behold and in all honesty, so were all the other Smoke and Chill shinobi. Both village ninjas worked very well together.
"My ninjas should attack from their north gate while Zabuza, Haku and Daku should sneak in and start the attack on the ninja. We can take on the leader ourselves," Rinsuki added. "Zabuza and the other two's main function is to draw attention inwards while the Fang and Waterfall sneak in from behind. The Smoke and Chill are just to make sure no Star Ninja escapes."
Naruto said, "Sounds like a solid plan, but I want to infiltrate Zabuza and those two. I think Lord Samsato should lead the shinobi attacking the south gate and Lady Rinsuki should lead from the north gate. I apologise if I sound rude, but I want to kill Akahoshi, personally."
"That's all good and fine, but we still need a way to get past the gases around Star," Samsato said and crossed his arms. "That thing is ridiculously potent, y'know. Wind jutsu can't affect it."
"We can try going underground. Marsh shinobi should know a few tunnelling jutsu," Rinsuki nodded to confirm what Naruto had said. "We start from this camp. I can go in with Zabuza and Haku from the sky with my iron bubble; I'm sure it would hold up against the gas; Daku doesn't need air to breathe and he can regenerate if he loses something." Rinsuki nodded again and walked out to begin directing the shinobi on the plan, but not before Naruto handed her the barrier cards and where to place them around Star. Samsato looked at Naruto and shrugged.
"Do you know about the Star in Hidden Star," he smirked a little at what he had said.
"Yes. That it provides the person training under it with immense abilities and strength."
"Is it worth stealing?"
"There is no one noteworthy that has been known to use enhanced abilities from Star. I don't trust it."
"We should observe it then." Naruto nodded in agreement and walked out with the Fang leader to see how the ninjas were preparing.
He spotted the wolf partners from Fang and the dog partners from Chill digging into the ground deep enough for a tunnelling jutsu to not be too loud when it would be used.
Zabuza bowed slightly as he walked up to him.
"Have you been informed of your role?"
"Yes, Lord Naruto. I'm with you and Daku." Naruto glanced at Haku, who was walking beside Zabuza and received a nod. "How are we going to get into the air? Jumping?"
To answer that Naruto whipped out his seal-board and dropped it on the ground. It hovered without any hesitation. He flipped through a small set of hand seals. "Expand."
The board shivered and widened before their eyes until it looked almost as big as an apple cart. "We're using this. And, don't worry; it will hold our weight."
Haku took a seat on the edge and began to idly spin an ice senbon in his hands; he had his hunter ninja mask on his head and was wearing a variation of the Wave chunin hunter ninja uniform.
Samsato waved goodbye to Naruto so he could also go and supervise the shinobi he was to command, leading them around Hoshi so they too could begin their underground tunnel.
Zabuza crossed his arms and looked over the ninjas that were scampering around the camp to clear it up as well as those who were pushing through the ground with earth jutsu. He looked at Naruto, who was plain-faced as he hovered his hand's detection seal over his body to make sure he had all his things on his body. The boy was much shorter than him and didn't seem all that intimidating if he had not seen all the boy had done in Wave, with all the loyal reformed ROOT shinobi under his command and all the breakthrough in fuinjutsu he alone had done. He had no intention of trying his strength against someone who had a semi-indestructible shield around him and a repertoire of seals he could only dream of. He coughed to get the young boy's attention; Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I have a small favour to ask, Master Naruto."
"Go on," the blonde boy answered as he tightened the bandages around his ankles and fixed on his forearm protectors; he didn't know how to fight well with the Armadillo fighting style but he wanted to have a contingency plan if someone managed to get into his iron bubble,
"I defected from Kirigakure because of my attempt on the Mizukage's life. My sources are saying that the war there is still going strong and that the rebels are losing."
"You want me to help the rebels," Naruto finished as he too sat on his hovering board, Zabuza nodded slowly. "Ok."
"Ok?"
"Ok. I won't go personally, but from what I've read the current Mizukage is a jinchuriki of the three-tailed turtle. I'll give you my best tailed beast negating seals and Daku as a backup if you need help. I just need you to agree with the rebel leader to ally with Wave in trade." The demon of the bloody mist stayed silent but still agreed to what Naruto had said, "Your loyalty to Wave can be terminated if you wish to return to Kiri."
"I'd like to stay," Haku murmured, his eyes still looking at the ninja digging through the ground with powerful tunnelling jutsu. "Wave is my home now, Zabuza."
"I'm staying with Haku then; I've grown quite fond of Wave."
Naruto chuckled and rolled his right wrist, where his chakra beam seal was tattooed. "The Mizukage is a clear S-rank ninja, so I'll give you my latest work, my Ultimate Chakra High seal. Use it only in dire situations; it enhances your chakra density and that would in turn enhance your stamina and your jutsu. It would only last for an hour so use it well." He motioned for the tall man to come and he stood up smoothly, he reached up and tapped Zabuza's neck with his index finger, and a seal matrix spiralled to life immediately after contact. "I'm giving you now in case you need it in the invasion."
The man rubbed the seal on his neck but didn't feel any change in himself. He would have to test-run the seal in the fight that was definitely to come. "Thank you, Master Naruto."
The boy just smiled lightly and waved flippantly, sitting back down on the hovering board. Naruto had come up with the idea for the seal after getting a small glimpse at the seal on Mitarashi Anko's neck.
He had found the woman speeding through the village for one reason he couldn't care to know but his eyes were drawn to her neck where the cursed seal lay. He followed her as silently as he could and got a better look at it from afar.
The seal was causing the woman pain, making him wonder why she still had it. He took the design and broke it down, as he did to any other seal.
There was a slave/master seal, a loyalty seal, a torture seal, a nature chakra beacon seal, an explosive seal and lastly a tracking seal in that one cursed seal. There was also a different seal on top of the cursed seal to nullify its effects, probably done by Jiraiya. He gave the man some credit; the seal would have taken him days to study and half a day of perfect chakra control to force off. The cursed seal was defective; the only fully functioning part was the explosive seal, the rest were deformed to the extent that if the containment seal was ever removed Anko would be put in mind-numbing pain, and she would probably succumb to the nature chakra being forced into her.
His seal kept only the nature chakra beacon and reversed the torture seal, making it so that only a drop of nature chakra into the system would be barely felt and the reverse torture seal put the person into perfect bliss, making any sort of pain feel much too pleasant. In a way if Zabuza was to be hit on the head with a war hammer, it would feel like he had been kissed by angels in the best way possible, that was if the person could even get close to him to hit him. The pleasure would transform into thick chemicals in his body that would prevent him from feeling the pain and heal him enough to retaliate. His chakra would then be mixed with nature chakra, making his chakra incredibly dense.
Just like any other seal he had created, he would first test it out on himself, extensively.
This was to make sure that he was to administer it to anyone else, he would have a clear mind leaving the person alone.
Naruto had found out that he needed to be in dire need of chakra before he could effectively use the seal after the first few hours and the only effect was the seal turning his movements into something reminiscent of a slug. He had theorised that if your chakra was at ninety-nine per cent and you added a thickening agent—the seal—, the chakra would be too heavy and dense to carry around. But if you were at about thirty percent and you made use of the seal it would thicken your chakra and you would still have some room to move in your chakra reserves.
A simple campfire jutsu would turn into a tremendous forest fire, or a simple lightning bug zapper ninjutsu would turn into a giant zapper jutsu. The possibility of making use of a jutsu like the Chidori with the seal could turn the Chidori into an assassination technique of legendary proportions.
The ninjas digging the tunnels had to make sure that the tunnels were deep enough for the gas to not seep inside and, as a double measure, the Smoke ninja spewed thick smoke to the roof of the tunnels to push back any gas.
Naruto could feel Daku in a tunnel pushing hard against the rocks blocking him. It would be two hours later before the tunnels were ready, not yet through to the other side but with a well-timed punch they would be.
The youngest village leader stood up and got onto his seal-board. "On my cue," he said to some shinobi that had come out to tell him that they were ready, Zabuza got onto the board and it began to steadily rise into the sky. Daku blurred through the gases.
Zabuza and Haku kept a firm grasp on the seal-board and looked down with focused eyes; they were just above the gas around Hoshi that didn't cover the sky,
"Let's go," Naruto said as he grabbed both of their shoulders. His blue iron bubble covered them and the board dove down to the centre of the village. Fire blasted from under the board and he could see the Star ninjas scurrying around. Naruto grits his teeth as he feels the air around his bubble tighten and he smashes into the ground.
Dust exploded around and covered the ninja that had come out to investigate. They covered their mouths and noses as they cautiously walked to the impact zone of the comet. The crater was billowing a harsh red fire as they looked inside, only seeing the 'rock' from the fire. A male ninja was about to call out a water jutsu until he heard a single, quiet word from inside the crash-landed comet.
"Push."
And all hell broke loose.
The force of the iron blue bubble's ability threw all of the shinobi at the edge of the crater in all directions. Haku leapt out of the crater and disappeared into a crowd of Star ninjas. Zabuza went in a different direction.
Naruto flipped out of the hole in the ground and swung his silver snake rope forward, tying up three ninjas and channelling wind chakra through it, tearing the poor ninja to pieces. He whipped out his second silver snake rope and spun around in a tight circle, slashing anyone who attempted to get to him.
He looked up at a ninja that was about to dive-bomb him. He flicked his wrist and thrashed his snake ropes; his chakra pulsed from his palms and threaded into the snake rope, pushing pure lightning chakra out of the tip and slashing at the ninja.
Sparks of light and angry electrical crackling stunned those around.
The target seemed very adept at fighting; he spun in the air and a wind vortex surrounded him, protecting him from the lightning.
Naruto was surprised to see his counter negated so easily; he couldn't naturally separate his chakra into affinities, that was why he relied heavily on his seals, so being able to counter pure lightning chakra was a fair surprise.
He whipped his ropes and both latched onto the ground, grabbing the ground and throwing it into ninja around him.
The wind vortex cancelled and the ninja flashed through a few hand seals as he came down on Naruto. "Wind Release: Wind scythe!" He threw his attack and Naruto's bubble defended against the attacks perfectly. The Hoshi ninjas were crowding around him, making him struggle a little for space.
"Push" the unexpected defensive attack resulted in the ninjas around him flying away. He coiled the ropes in one motion and put them back into his pocket, removing his snake chain; it was a normal silver chain with a small hook at the tip, riddled with seals.
He spun it in his hand and flung it at the lone ninja that hadn't been thrown away. The ninja leapt away and darted to him. Naruto pulled his chain back and darted to the ninja as well, leading with his rectangular shield.
He slid under a right hook and commanded his snake chain to wrap around the ninja's ankle. He pulled back and smashed his shield against the unfortunate opponent. The person was blasted away, knocked asleep on contact with the shield and chain.
Naruto released a calming breath and looked to where he guessed the leader resided, beginning his walk there, having to whip his chain around to put the attacking ninja into a deep sleep.
He could see Daku and Zabuza carving a path of death through the ninja they were up against, making sure to only knock out chunin and genin, leaving only a select few jounin injured.
Then suddenly, a grave silence fell over the battleground.
The Hoshi shinobi stopped fighting and created a path to allow their village leader through.
Akahoshi frowned heavily at the too-cool child before him and clenched his fist.
"Wave shinobi?" he asked simply, the rage frothing under his skin.
"Yes. You attacked my country."
The man snorted out a smirk. "You're the leader of that place?"
"Yes," Naruto's curt answer silenced him.
"Really?"
"Really." Naruto cocked his head to the side. "We could have allied with Hidden Star if you simply asked."
"We take what we want."
"That's not good—"
"Tough. We're shinobi." The man smirked. "I won't let you run away, you know. You or your allies."
"I won't let you live," Naruto replied, his cerulean eyes darkening with murderous intent.
"You can try." Akahoshi began his slow, intimidating walk forward and Naruto too began to walk forward.
The fights abruptly resumed as the ground exploded.
Wave and other allied shinobi poured out and began engaging the Star ninjas.
Both village leaders met in the middle in an earth-splitting forearm clash; Naruto stuck onto his seal-board as it blasted fire and wind, and Akahoshi melded his feet to the earth to not be thrown away.
Naruto knew that he couldn't face the man in a straight-up fight, so he decided not to hold back. He flipped away on his board and silently summoned a whirlwind of fire explosive tags from his sleeves. Akahoshi's eyes widened and he flashed through some hand seals.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall." He slammed his palms on the ground and a wall of rock shot out of the ground and intercepted the firebombs. The technique didn't hold back the explosions for too long and broke through the rock wall, but the man wasn't there anymore.
Akahoshi flickered to sight behind Naruto. The boy's eyes were wide.
Akahoshi yelled a jutsu in Naruto still-turned back, "Wind Release: Wind Tunnel!"
The man seemed to have realised that he wasn't one to take lightly, Naruto surmised in his head as he watched the A-rank attack rampage toward him in that short distance, feeling like the world was slowing down before his very eyes.
Then, as quickly as it had been summoned, the sharp wind smashed into the side of Naruto's blue shield and pressed him in, squeezing him tightly in four directions. Another wind attack smashed from under and above him, and the boy strained from holding the wind attacks back.
Naruto flipped through two hand seals. "Substitution jutsu!"
A poof of chakra smoke erupted around him and in his place was a log of wood that was summarily smashed to bits. The E rank jutsu could be considered useless in most circumstances but not in the situation Naruto was in, at that very moment, Naruto was very glad to have known the basics.
Akahoshi landed on the ground neatly and spun around in time for a pillar of hazy blue lightning to crash into his chest.
"Lightning Release: Chakra beam!"
The attack blasted the man through a residential building, long evacuated of its occupants. The man huffed and pushed himself back to his feet using a kitchen counter, cursing at the fist-sized hole that sizzled on his chest; it would have been life-threatening if he had not worn an extra thick jounin flak jacket, and even that didn't help much, as he could see his burnt skin from the hole.
Again, he anticipated another lightning attack but this time he didn't attempt to face it head-on; he ran up the side of the wall to dodge the attack and traced it to the source, finding Naruto standing in front of the hole in the wall. Naruto kept his right hand trained on Akahoshi as lightning arced around him and zapped at his opponent, he had to put his left hand on his right to keep his arm steady. His tree root seals on full blast to make sure he wasn't blown away by his attack.
Akahoshi wizened up when he realised that Naruto could keep up the thick stream of lightning without faltering from any sort of strain. He summoned five-rock clones and commanded them to scatter to confuse Naruto, allowing him to slip out and run to the leader's tower. Naruto cancelled his lightning chakra beam and whipped out both silver snake ropes, spinning around in a tight circle on his seal-board while channelling wind chakra to tear through three attacking clones.
Naruto commanded the ropes to dig sharply into the ground and grab hold of a rock clone, pulling him into the ground and cutting it up with more wind chakra. Naruto attempted to fly after Akahoshi but he could feel a weight on his bubble shield, he looked to where it was and frowned at the clone there. He flung his arm at the clone and shards of sharp paper bombs flew out to the clone much too quickly for him to dodge, the paper sliced through the clone and returned to Naruto's sleeves.
The attack that he had used made immense use of extra thin ninja wire to keep hold of the paper bombs and complicated hand gestures to make it seem like they were floating back into his sleeves.
Without hesitating Naruto blasted after the original Akahoshi and just barely got out of the building.
The man slipped a glowing pink rock into his tattered flak jacket pocket.
Naruto was forced to swerve away when hazy pink feathers flew at him. The attack cut through his blue iron bubble, but only halfway. Naruto winced when he realised that the attack could have gone through his ultimate defence.
He grunted when a massive weight smashed against the right side of his blue shield. He spied a pink boar dispersed and more boars stampeded to him, seemingly appearing from around Akahoshi.
The man was smirking cockily at the strain on Naruto's face.
A pink haze appeared around the man and a thick pink tail shot to Naruto but before it could reach, Naruto switched with a log of wood.
Naruto squashed his frustration as he darted to Akahoshi with his chakra beam emitting arcs of lightning around his right arm, forming a six-foot-long lightning bolt that could serve as a sword. He thrust his pure lightning weapon at his opponent and anticipated the pink boar that intercepted him; he shoved the creature away with his shield and spun away from a pink tail that descended to him, not wanting to test his shield against it.
He grasped his right wrist and sliced a few feathers that came at him, mentally sighing when he managed to keep them away. He then leapt over a pink tail and jumped again over a small stampede of massive boars, before he pointed his right hand at Akahoshi and shot another long beam of dangerous lightning at him.
Akahoshi raised a wall of pink star chakra from around him to block the fatal attack, allowing Naruto to charge up another chakra beam, but this time it was a perfect combination of all chakra affinities.
"Chakra beam!" Naruto yelled from far above Akahoshi and the blue chakra attack warped out of his seal, shooting down to the man. The pink shield couldn't hold out too much against the hammer-like strike; the man was blasted through the ground.
Naruto tucked his arms and legs to his chest and fell, fully cased in his iron bubble. It was like a ball of thick steel had just dropped on a man; the sound of bones cracking resonated around the empty fight zone. Akahoshi grit his teeth and pink star chakra flares around him, a pink elephant forms and slams his head against the hazy blue bubble around Naruto. The boy looked at the animal and shot it down with a short burst of pure blue chakra. He looked down and quietly cursed when he didn't find his opponent. He cancelled his blue bubble and looked to where the man now stood, albeit with slightly shaking feet and heavily supporting his ribs,
Naruto ran at him as he caught the man reaching into his jacket for the pink meteorite; he didn't want to know what would happen if the man directly used the star but he didn't want to find out. He whipped out a silver rope and threw it at Akahoshi; time seemed to move at a crawl, the man flung himself backwards, away from the rope, and pushed the star into the gaping hole in his flak jacket from Naruto's lightning attack.
Mid-chunin speed wasn't enough to prevent this.
Immediately after a pink stone merged with his chest a thick pink dragon exploded to life and barrelled to Naruto, and the boy could only use his right rectangular shield to block the dragon. He was blown away and embedded into a wall. The dragon dispersed but another formed and came after him. Naruto grunted and realised that he now knew how Tsunade felt when she was embedded in a wall; he scampered out of the hole and managed to dodge the dragon. Akahoshi seemed to have lost control of his own body; pink chakra shrouded around him but he couldn't use the chakra to attack on his own will. His eyes widened in the realisation of what that meant; the stone had a life of its own.
Naruto ran lengthwise away from the toxic pink fire the dragon was spewing out of its mouth. He leapt forward and in his former position was an explosive tag he had used his feet to draw into the ground. The fiery explosion that had turned the one tail into the glass only distracted the dragon and slowed it down; Naruto's eyes honed to his main opponent and a plan formed in his mind.
He jumped to dodge a spiny pink tendril that came at him from Akahoshi; the attack dug into the ground and erupted beside Naruto, the boy leapt away from the attack that wormed through the ground after him. He held a single-hand seal and muttered, "Multiple shadow clone jutsu."
Fifty or so clones burst into life around him and fearlessly used themselves to confuse the tendril and the dragon, mixing around quickly so they would lose sight of the real Naruto. The real Naruto bent down and slammed his palm into the ground and a blue seal spiralled out of his palm, appearing on the ground; but the possessed Akahoshi didn't see this.
The man moved against his will and summoned hordes of animals to run through the swarm of shadow clones. He used his bare hands to tear through the clones until he finally got to the seal on the ground.
The real Naruto, who was hiding far behind his clones, smirked.
The seal lit up and the man froze abruptly; the veins on his neck and in his arms bulged violently, wheezing and heaving to pull himself from the seal trap.
Naruto held a ram hand seal. "Seal!"
Akahoshi yelled in pain as the pink chakra left his body forcefully and entered the seal. The chakra vacated, as much as his hands reached out to grab it.
Naruto refrained from sighing too loudly, relieved that his trap had worked, and he sped to the trapped man. He pulled his right arm back and his chakra beam seal encased his hand in whistling wind chakra. He thrust it forward and punched clean through Akahoshi's head, making blood splatter against the young boy's face, right arm and some parts of his body. His arm ran through the head and the wind chakra shredded the man's skull to pieces.
Naruto's tree root seals activated when his feet touched back on the ground, stopping him from careening forward from his momentum.
The place was silent as the man's yells were silenced abruptly and ever so slowly Akahoshi's headless corpse fell backwards.
Naruto sighed in relief and closed his eyes, allowing his heart to calm down. His sky-blue eyes looked around and he sent a half-hearted thumb up to Daku and the two village leaders that had witnessed the fight.
He knelt and unsealed a thick piece of paper. He tossed it onto the seal on the ground and watched as pink chakra began to slowly syphon into the paper.
Naruto split open Akahoshi's chest and cut through his sternum with a focused wind chakra coating his right hand, coming from his Chakra Beam seal, and squinted his eyes at how bright the star shone; he took out another thick piece of paper and sealed the pink meteorite inside, not wanting to touch it.
The boy looked at the pink chakra entering the paper and stood up as the leaders landed in front of him,
"What a fight, huh," Samsato said and clasped Naruto's shoulder. The boy chuckled tiredly and prodded the glowing pink seal with his foot. He sealed it in a different sealing scroll than the star, wanting to keep them separate. "I would have liked to get in on the action."
"It was a matter of pride," Naruto said and the man nodded in understanding. Rinsuki stared at the boy before she grinned and also clasped his shoulder familiarly.
"Hidden Star is under the village alliance's control," she said and led the boy to where all the ninjas of the village knelt in defeat under the watchful gaze of the remaining invading ninja, Naruto smiled slightly at the ninja and dusted down his shirt of the dirt. "The civilians are being informed on what has happened."
"They weren't too happy about it," Samsato finished.
"They'll get used to it," Naruto said as he passed a kneeling Star jounin, the man's shoulder sagged in defeat and he didn't even bother to look at the person who had passed him. "Any casualties?"
"Yes. Ten Chill, three Smoke, fifteen Marsh, twelve Waterfall and six Fang." She ticked off from memory. "Zabuza and Haku are fine, but the demon brothers are severely injured. They are receiving treatment at this very moment."
"That's good to hear. Now we have to find a way to administer this place. I propose we divide this place up and ship them to where they choose to go between us. The problem is that most of them won't like to move to Chill." He brought out the five-layered loyalty seal as he got to a raised platform where a Waterfall jounin was looking over the kneeling Star shinobi with critical, unnerving eyes. The man bowed to the leaders and shuffled off the platform. "Also, we don't separate families," he whispered to the other leaders and they too nodded, getting what he was saying.
The family was the most basic unit of society, and if a family was broken up then it would foster hate for whoever had broken them up, if hate grew then the village alliance would have a problem with a hole in their security if the person was to ever become a ninja.
Naruto raised his hand in silence and the ninja looked up at him. "This could go either way; you could willingly subject yourselves to interrogation or we will assume you want revenge and we'll just kill you on the spot. Who wants to go first?"
Authors note
Jutsu list
Wind Release: Wind Tunnel: this is an A-rank ninjutsu that requires immense control over wind chakra. It is similar to the 'Wind release: Dead Man's Telescope' and the 'Wind release: North Wind' in the sense that if used properly the user can have limited control over gravity, except this is the watered-down version of both of the jutsu counterparts combined. It squeezes the victim with harsh wind from four sides until the person pops under stress. This jutsu was created by the Sandaime Hokage after witnessing its counterparts being performed by the Sandaime Uzukage.
Done!
Let me get a few things straight; Naruto couldn't depend on his shield to defend against pink meteorite chakra because the pink chakra was stronger than his normal chakra, especially since he didn't use a drop of Kyuubi's chakra into his shield. Another thing is that Naruto is fully prepared to flee Konoha if they ever find out the truth about him and they try to take his possessions away; if news goes to Tsunade about Naruto's true identity as the leader of Wave country then it could go either way, she could go with the diplomatic approach or she could force him to stay (which we all know isn't possible).
NOTE: the strongest attack in Naruto's chakra beam is the combination beam of all affinities, not the separate chakra affinity chakra beam. Naruto's lightning chakra beam only has one-fifth of the power, while his combined chakra beam has all of the power. The lightning beam is still extremely powerful, just not as powerful as the combination beam.
How did you all like the fight?
This was a long one XD
Don't forget to drop a review please; I'd like to know what you all think about this chapter.
See you when I see you.
Foy.