A Samurai Girls and Naruto Fanfiction Only. Other franchises will be included.
Sasuke sat down with Karin inside the compartment of the train, they were both shocked to see only Hinata there, but for some reason, Naruto was not present at all. Hinata almost looked worried seeing that Naruto was not present at all, he was constantly worried about what would they do, and how a potential Soldier and their general not arrive together at the Imperial Academy. It was simply too scandalous for her to take in, and this caused her to worry.
Sasuke merely pointed at the roof of the compartment, "Hinata, you know how much of a thrill seeker your boyfriend is, so relax, Naruto is here, he is just sitting on the roof of the train, I imagine seeing the speed and beauty of the countryside is something that fills him with utter excitement. Personally, I don't see why, we will be seeing much of it when we do missions. Honestly, I did not expect that I would go from being a grunt to being a general, and Karin must be shocked how she ended up being a Soldier."
That was it Sasuke opened the window and walked up the outside of the train up to where Naruto was sitting, "Look you want to appreciate the beauty of the scenery do it from inside the cabin, Hinata is having an existential crisis. She is worried sick about you, so get off the roof and come along back to the cabin." Naruto did not waste a second to say the last thing he needed was to see Sasuke and his cousin make out, to which Sasuke just grabbed him, "Nobody is kissing anyone, Hinata is sitting in the same cabin, and she is currently waiting for you, while suffering from anxiety and possibly a panic attack. so stop doing this and at least be there for the girl that he apparently is in a relationship with.
He looked at Sasuke and could see where he was coming from, "Fine, the last thing I want is for Hinata to be angry or suffer, but the damn cabin is far too stuffy for my liking is all I am saying." As he finished saying that they both walked down the outside wall of the cabin, and walked back into the cabin through the window, and much to Hinata's relief, she immediately grabbed him in a tight hug and kissed him, it was clear the anxiety was much worse than Karin thought it was.
Sasuke could not help but smile when Naruto mentioned the possible PDA being one reason why he was sitting on top of the train. "So any clue how long till we reach the imperial capital?" Karin used her chakra to check their current location she smiled telling Sasuke it would be at most another thirty minutes. The train apparently is using the tracks with a lot more caution for some reason, either they expect bandit attacks or the train itself is having some mechanical problems.
Sasuke mentioned that she did not mention the possibility of animal attacks or dead animals on the tracks. It was not out of the realm of possibility after all.
At a different compartment in the train, two people had no clue who was on the train. These two women were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. These two received their acceptance scroll to attend the imperial academy and were sent to be future soldiers. Sakura was wearing a respectful set of clothes traditionally worn by traveling mercenaries. Ino was also wearing a particular set of clothes that looked a little more cute than what Sakura was but she was wondering about something.
The two began to talk about the fact that the heiress of the Hyuga Clan, Sakura heard that she did not receive an acceptance scroll like the others in their class. "Yeah, I heard that she was supposed to be in an arranged marriage to the heir of a major business owner. So Essentially Hinata is going to be the wife of the future president and owner of that company. I also didn't see Naruto receive this scroll with the rest of us, so he is probably going to end up getting to work for the village as an ordinary civilian."
Sakura told her friend that she should not talk about him like that, he might not be a general candidate, but his work could in fact still prove to be vital to the land of fire. "Wouldn't it be funny that the person who Hinata is engaged to marry is Naruto, I mean the Uzumaki have been business investors and owners of their own seal printing company. They could be in fact the company that pretty much the Land of Fire depends on, since the Land of Fire uses seals for a countless number of reasons, from storage to enhancements. So Naruto could be the heir of that major company."
Sakura did not want to admit it, but she knew that Ino could be right, except that Naruto never dressed in clothes that made him look like he was any better off than the local commoner population, they were rather modest and not that expensive throughout every year they knew him back in their village academy. It would be pretty shocking for the others in their class, who used to make fun of Naruto basically wearing hand-me-down because they thought he was that poor, but in reality, he was the son of a rich family, and he dressed like that because, unlike most snobs, he did not want to brag about his family's wealth. Sakura began to think about it some more, and she came up with a reason now that she had time to think about it. "Maybe they don't brag because they do it to keep a low profile if their company is that rich, someone might want to try and kidnap Naruto like they almost kidnapped Hinata, so maybe his family is just doing this to keep him and his sister Naruko safe. I know for a fact that Naruko received her acceptance scroll for the Imperial Academy."
Ino began to do maintenance on her bow, as Sakura was talking, so she looked at her friend and nodded her head, "Yeah, she told several girls in our class about it, I think she even showed the scroll to them. I gather that her parents are going to be particularly proud that their daughter became a soldier much like her mother, but I do think her parents would be simply overjoyed if their son became a General like their father, the yellow flash of Konoha, Minato. You know the Fourth Hokage. I still can't believe that the Third Hokage ended up being chosen to be the Shogun of the Land of Fire, that man always treated Minato as a sort of surrogate son, so if Naruto got a scroll can you imagine how Hiruzen Sarutobi would be if he showed up with the rest of us when we meet him?"
Sakura decided to mention that the reason she does not know why the Sarutobi Clan Leader, became the shogun of their land was simple, she was far too focused on a boy in their class, to pay attention during history lessons. "Hey no fair Sakura, you were paying attention to Naruto, as much as I was back then, hell Hinata always looked at him with this blush on her face, which made me think she was just a few words away from asking Naruto to be her boyfriend. I know that is true because Naruko used to tease her brother relentlessly about it. Let's face it during the first years of the academy, she would sing a song like Naruto and Hinata sitting under a tree, that must have been pretty embarrassing for Hinata and Naruto if that was actually what would eventually happen anyway."
Sakura was not making sure her polearm was well taken care of as her friend said this, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, since they didn't get an acceptance scroll, we will never even know. Such an important investment and trading company would not keep the information about their family and relations secret, for obvious security reasons." It was pretty obvious to Ino that Sakura wanted this particular topic of conversation to be over, she did not like to talk about the poor guy whom she secretly had a crush on for years.
The fact is that most girls in the academy had no clue, that the boy who people often mocked for being poor, or not having a respectable or prestigious family, in secret was a member of the premier family there. The Uzumaki were an economic juggernaut, they invested in shops and companies all over the Land of Fire, and even outside of it, throughout most of the Elemental Nations. Their wisdom and knowledge of seals made them indispensable. Everything from birth to the grave, the seals developed by the Uzumaki had a major influence on the lives of every person in the Elemental Nations, whether they knew it or not.
They once had a village of their own, and those in that village stood up against an invasion by three nations, simultaniously, they sent a force of close to third thousand soldiers, officers, and generals. In the end, the village was destroyed, the remaining Uzumaki went to live in an ally nation, Such as Konoha in the Land of Fire, but the thing is, out of that massive army that invaded, only five people survived, and they were crippled in ways that are best not mentioned. That is how mighty the Uzumaki's sealing technique and knowledge are.
His father Minato, was a strategic genius, as a general in the Seventh World War, he led his troops to many victories, with the least number of casualties, and he was called an army killer. His power and techniques killed over two thousand enemies in a single battle, in less than five minutes. He had a technique that made him look like he could teleport from one spot to the next, one enemy after another, it was called the Flight of the Thunder God, and Minato when used looked like he turned into a yellow beam of light, which is why he is called the yellow flash of Konoha.
These two are the parents of Naruto Uzumaki, so it never made any sense for Sakura, Ino, and even Tenten, why people mocked and ridiculed Naruto. Now during this trip, Ino had to bring up the possibility that the Hyuga heiress would eventually marry the only son of the Kushina and Minato, it was upsetting to even think about it, but she had to admit, the possibility was there. So she often wondered, however, with a lineage of power and skill as his, why was he not present when they gave the acceptance scrolls for the Imperial Academy.
"Look Ino, I don't like the way you are talking about Naruto, and this is from the girl who used to be asked constantly by the same Naruto out on dates, I have to admit, in my academy days I was stupid, I should have never listened to those rumors, and now I am quite possibly paying the price for my arrogance. So for the love of the sage of the six paths, please change the topic, I already feel bad enough, without the need for you to beat me over the head about it." Ino had to admit she too had many of the same regrets and she too accepted that during her academy years, she may have made the same mistakes.
"Ok, Fine, I will drop the topic, but what do we have to talk about fashion, cosmetics, I think not, that will only cause us to argue and nobody wants that. We have a long trip to the Capital, never mind that it was built inside an extinct volcano of all things. I thought a little self-assessment and evaluation of ourselves, to prepare for what may cause us problems in the Imperial Academy, which is why I brought up the topic to begin with." Sakura had to admit that she did have a few problem areas, and her foolishness in taking rumors at face value was one of them. She would never let rumors influence her again, she would only believe that which she had verified herself.
"Well what exactly do you think we can expect when we get there, that would be a good topic. I have heard very little about the Capital itself, considering I never left or traveled outside of Konoha. This is the first trip on a train I've ever taken." Ino had to admit she didn't travel much either, but thanks to her father and mother, she knew quite a bit about the Capital, the city, and the surrounding area, since their business had many clients in the Capital, everything from nobles that wish to do some landscaping, to businesses that wish to buy flowers for any number of occasions, for decorations or gift to potential clients. She had to admit that thanks to storage seals and seals on packages, her family could send large amounts of flowers, to vastly far places, and those flowers would arrive as fresh as the day they were shipped.
She didn't even know that the reason her family flower shop could sell so many flowers in such large quantities was because her mother had been a childhood friend of Kushina Uzumaki, and she placed seals all over the greenhouse where they grow their flowers. From the outside, it looked like the size of a small storage room. On the inside however those seals cause the inside to be vastly larger than one would expect, and every seal was placed in a way that it actually promotes plant growth and vitality. The greenhouse grew tons of flowers per year. She honestly did not know that Naruto was Kushina's son. Had she known she would have been a lot nicer and friendlier to him during the days in the academy, since her family owes so much of their success thanks to the help of Kushina.
"I honestly think I could have been happy to date Naruto, had I not been so foolish to listen to such baseless rumors. I don't know the cause of such horrible rumors, whether they are from envy, ill intent, or plain stupidity, they were all wrong. Now you put the notion that Hinata could be the one to end up getting married to him, which I have to say does not make me happy in the least." Ino spent some time thinking about it and just thought that since his father was technically the lord of the village and surrounding lands, Naruto could be considered a member of the nobility. It was not abnormal that a successful noble could in fact marry multiple women, harems in those cases were made to ensure there would be heirs to maintain and continue the noble's family line. Ino sighed as she decided to say something, "If Naruto became a General like his father, and proved to be powerful enough, the number of families who would wish to arrange a marriage between him and their daughters would be quite high. They don't even have to be romantic, it could be political, for prestige, or simply to be able to ask him for help. So in a sense the fact that he is not on this train, and does not have an acceptance scroll, means that you might have a chance to have a relationship with him, that is something I wish as well."
The two of them finally saw that they were getting closer and closer to the destination as the train seemed to go higher and higher over a large elevation in the land, the train also as they were getting their luggage began to slow down, which told everyone that the train was arriving at their destination, the Imperial Capital. They did not expect the city to be so lively, or beautifully decorated, let's face it, it is built in the caldera of a long-dead volcano, the thing for all they know is just taking a particularly long and peaceful nap, and could in fact come back to life without as much of a notice, and if there was an eruption everything and everyone who live in the Capital would die.
When one of the conductors of the train heard her, they only had a comment that it was borderline paranoia, "The capital is always under rigorous tests, and the geological activity of the Land of Fire is checked regularly. If this old thing was just asleep, like you two said, then it would have shown signs by now. Saying if the old volcano was just asleep, their equipment and test would have detected the slightest equivalent to a snore." The man only said this to make sure that the two young women would relax, and see how unfounded their fears were, this is a fact, that everyone has similar fears when they first come to live in the Capital, but eventually people get used to the city and those fears just disappear like they were not ever there to begin with.
Ino asked one of the men where should they report since they were new soldier candidates, sent to attend the Imperial Academy, they were told that first, they needed to meet the Shogun at the Palace, the Shogun always wants to meet new students the Imperial Academy, since he does that people began to give him the nickname of the Professor. As they walked towards their destination, they saw men all wearing white armbands, causing trouble in a clear sign of public protests. Sakura knew exactly who these people were, people who were denied acceptance into the Imperial Academy, not bitter thinking that the ones that did get accepted were due to noble privilege, or using noble family connections.
"Every fucking day, we work our assess off, to earn enough to provide for ourselves and barely make ends meet, some of these guys saw sisters and brothers go hungry, and when we try to better our lives by trying to become soldiers, the Imperial Academy prioritizes the kids of noble or rich families, over that of commoners regardless how much better qualified those commoners are. What kind of fucking deal did those blue bloods make with the fucking people running the academy? How can we improve our standard of living and provide for our families, with no avenue for social advancement." One of the men saw Sakura and immediately tried to pick up her coin purse, thinking she must be loaded because of how good her clothes looked.
That was the real purpose of the protest, it was an attempt to distract people, so people who hid among the crowd could steal and pickpocket the people who were listening to their supposed grievances. In essence was nothing more than a simple attempt to fleece the noble, and get as much money as possible. The sad thing is, it would have worked too had it not been for a certain blonde person, grabbing the guy who was trying to steal her coin purse, and instead punching his lights out, and apparently three other people did the same to three other men who were trying to do exactly the same thing.
It was when this blonde young man attempted to return her coin purse, that she got a good look at his face, and immediately recognized him when he called her Sakura-chan. She immediately knew this was Naruto, and was more shocked to see Sasuke, Karin, and Hinata present, she knew Sasuke and Karin would come since they received the acceptance scroll the same day she and Ino did, but neither Naruto nor Hinata was present when they gave them the scrolls, so why were Naruto and Hinata with Sasuke and Karin, did they decide to accompany them to the Capital as a trip?
"Naruto, why are you here? You and Hinata did not graduate as the rest of our class did, and you don't have an acceptance scroll for the Imperial Academy, so why come all the way here, Naruto what is the deal between you and Hinata, don't tell me you to eloped to the Capital, after hearing that her family wanted to have her marry the son of a so-called rich business owner." Naruto told her that, in fact, he and Hinata did get the acceptance scroll like the one they had, they just had to receive them later, because apparently there were more graduates than they had planned for, and they ran out of scrolls. They received them when they were hand-delivered to their homes later that day.
Naruto did not want to mention the fact that this was an excuse, the real reason was something much different, those who enroll in the Imperial Academy are candidates to become Generals and Soldiers, however, that was not the case for Hinata and Naruto, Naruto knew Sasuke and Karin got their acceptance scrolls with the rest of the class. Naruto on the other hand due to what happened after he prevented her attempted kidnapping, Naruto awakened as a General and Hinata as his soldier, which is why they were not allowed to take the final exams, with their awakened powers, the test would never be fair to the other people taking the test.
There was a reason why their local academy did not allow romantic relationships between students, it seems that all it takes is for a potential General and a potential Soldier to share Chakra with each other, to activate their inherited skills and talents, awakening them to be either a general that general's soldier. Control over this information was a matter of national security, and thus why they did not allow students to date. This is a secret that every nation jealousy guards. After they heard from the Hokage what happened, Naruto and Hinata had only one option they were willing to consider, becoming official Generals and Soldiers, but because this happened away from the Imperial Academy, it meant they would still technically need to attend the Imperial Academy to learn everything they need to know and what their duties would be to the Shogun and the Nation.
Another reason that nobody knew of this is simple, the Shogun wishes only people who are loyal to his rule, to ever become General or Soldier, this prevents rebel factions from attempting to awaken their own Generals and Soldiers in mass, to potentially launch a coup and attempt to take over the government. The fact is that Both Naruto and Sasuke knew of at least one man who would absolutely kill to gain this secret because he would abuse that to monumental proportions. The man in the opinion of the two cousins, could only be described as an absolute scumbag, less trustworthy than a demon, and less loyal than a starving rat. The fact that Hiruzen, his childhood friend and rival became Shogun, is another reason why he would try to take over the rule over the Land of Fire.
This man had done some of the most atrocious and cruel things, all to either maintain or increase his political and military power. Going as far as to have orphanages, he was in charge of, turning those children into obedient, mindless drones, that were part of a cult that basically worships him, by breaking their minds, and basically eliminating their ability to either protest or feel emotions. They were called the Root ANBU, and the man who would do this was Danzo Shimura.
Unlike other people Naruto had his memories along with all his inherited and other skills, he also suspected that Sasuke would do too. Since he and Sasuke had memories of something so fantastic and unbelievable, they would try never to tell anyone, and thanks to those memories, he knew that in other versions of their reality, Danzo had plotted and killed hundreds of people, he was also in that reality the one to break an S Class secret, by spreading the rumor that Naruto was the reincarnation of the nine tails tailed beast, that once attacked their village. In that reality, Danzo was the cause of all the pain and misery either Naruto or Sasuke ever endured. He used his Root ANBU drones to do that, and once the task was done, he would activate a seal placed inside their mouth, to cause the person's body to burst into flames.
This had two purposes, one to eliminate a Root ANBU to prevent others from knowing what he had that person do, the other if the Root ANBU somehow regained consciousness, and would ever attempt to tell the Hokage anything Danzo had done or planned to do, the seal would activate, simply because the information shared was not something Danzo himself told the person he could share. Life in the Land of Fire is harsh, either due to poverty, or bandit attacks, there was always a high orphan population. Naruto once thought that Danzo actively sought out potential "recruits" only to murder their parents, just so that they were sent to one of his orphanages.
AN: The reason that these people act out of character is, that these are the descendants of the original characters. They awaken their inherited skills and abilities when they become Generals or Soldiers. I will need to stop writing for a few weeks due to personal issues regarding my home.