Thanks for all of your reviews. They are all awesome!

This chapter is going to have some deep themes. Enjoy…

CHAPTER 13

Interrogating all of those people took a long time; Naruto had to stretch his Uzumaki stamina so that he would stay awake through each of them.

Not all of the Star shinobi liked the idea of being interrogated and some had even killed themselves personally.

Naruto couldn't bring himself to care that much for the fools who chose honour over their lives. His business concerned all those who wanted to stay alive and those who wanted to protect their family.

He had given the interrogation seal to over ten of each allied shinobi to interrogate the remaining Star shinobi. He then created shadow clones to look over the proceedings that happened in residential buildings, the ninja were forced to walk in single files and wait their turn. This would have been downgrading to most if not the fact that they would do anything to stay alive.

Yes, their job was to protect their home but they had failed; they couldn't kill themselves like the samurai did because ninjas did not see every failing as a scar on their honour, merely a scar on their conscience.

The surviving Star ninjas had already concluded that they would be pawned off as slaves but were all surprised to hear that they were having a chance to redeem themselves, after hearing that their dead leader, Akahoshi, had been secretly training young genin under the Star's radiation and that the council had fully approved of this.

Knowing that they had been protecting a home that wasn't protecting their children was a tough pill to take.

The ninjas were given the option to choose between the six villages that had invaded Star; the boy and the two adult leaders had given them a full day to think about their decision either on their own or with their families, and those that had tried to run away during this time were summarily killed.

In the end, it all came down to those who were smart; most chose to move to Wave because it was even more conducive than their village, with all the free land to farm, the open water, and all the natural resources caked in the ground. The next highest location Star families chose to relocate to Waterfall, then to Fang, then Marsh, then Smoke, and finally to Chill, and the last was only for the adrenaline junkies.

It had been explained to them that if they ever wanted to return to active shinobi service they were to be put under constant surveillance and seals would be put on them to keep them in line, although the last part wasn't told to them. They had agreed to the leader's stipulations and what would be called the Great Star Migration in the history books happened. More ninjas from each village alliance came to assist in protecting the moving families and to ensure they all stayed in line, Yumi had also arrived and had playfully told the other three leaders that she didn't expect that many people to want to move to Chill. Through the underground tunnels they moved out and after clearing out all the contents of knowledge and of monetary value, sharing them as well, Star was left as empty as a ghost town.

Most would classify forcing families that had spent generations in Hidden Star to move as evil, and Naruto wouldn't mind being called that, but then it was always the retaliation that was noticed and not the initial attack that caused the retaliation. He would defend his actions by saying that he had shown he wouldn't be soft-handed to those who threatened his home, Wave.

The relocated Star families were given newly built accommodations, either in hostels or in modern-sized apartments that were situated outside the wall but still very much inside the protective barrier.

Wave, despite still going under intense rehabilitation, still had acres and acres of free land to make use of, even after creating up to fifty training grounds out of the free land. Wave country was incredibly vast; he had discovered an underground water source that was different from the sea a few months after he had freed Wave and had immediately made the water source the main place clean water could be distributed to the houses; he had discovered that if he placed absorbing seals on steel roofs then it would immediately turn to solar power absorbing seals that could powerhouses if the electricity grid ever failed.

He was proud of all he had done for Wave as well as the people who had helped him get Wave to where it was. He had personally shown the relocated Star families to their apartments, and if they chose to stay in a hostel he gladly obliged.

There was a wall that separated Wave from the vast farmland. He called the place within Inner Wave or Wave Central; it was known mainly for industrial and business reasons, while there was a smaller wall outside, protected by seals cast from the walls around Inner Wave, that was mainly populated by those who wanted to farm or fish or those that preferred the fresh air.

There were sentries placed around both inner and outer Wave. For the families that had academy students that stayed in outer Wave. Outer Wave was more populated than Inner Wave, by choice, as the native people were more used to staying near the sea; though their traders had to make the regular journey to Inner Wave to open their stores, stalls, shops, and other businesses.

The next day, Naruto called around all the Star genin, chunin and jounin that wanted to remain ninja and put them to sleep, applying seals on their body similar to Rat's that made sure the proper authorities were notified if they were doing things out of bound.

They were given temporary tattoos that they had to renew every three months if they didn't want to be locked out of the island country. The civilians were also given these temporary tattoos with the same stipulations; he fully expected to catch at least a dozen people who wanted to betray his country, and he would make sure to use them as examples for the rest.

The ninja would be inducted back into the shinobi system but this time into the island country's system and were given missions in about a month, after intense observation; a regular three-man squad was led by a Daku clone Henge'd to look like a normal person. Naruto looked through his country's accounts and predicted that there would be a great rise in profit in about four months or so if the Star shinobi stayed smart.

He didn't expect any retaliatory strike from Bear country's daimyo, as he had sent a brief letter on what had happened and what he was going to do to Star. So, if any came, he would go back with more allied shinobi to destroy Bear country.

Naruto, though he could be classified as the youngest village leader in the history of the elemental nations, wasn't foolish or naïve enough to believe that the Star people would be welcomed with open arms by the people of Wave, so he had sent out a letter three days before the weekend by Daku and had received replies from the village leaders on how to reduce segregation and marginalisation to the barest minimum.

Shibuki had proposed that Star should be given a particular district where they can call their own, as well as security against attack from others.

The leaders agreed to this.

Kitsuen then proposed what the leaders referred to as The Act of Goodwill.

Even though Star had launched the first attack on Wave, the alliance village leaders couldn't blame all the people for it. They wanted the people of Star to know that even though they were not in their birth homes they would not be treated any differently as long as they did what was right.

The first thing the Act outlined spoke about the district, saying that it should be called the Star district, and that any Wave person caught vandalising property would be severely penalised, irrespective of age or class.

There would be a curfew there that no Wave-born person would break unless he had been given express permission by Naruto, Daku or a Star elder.

The next thing was that all the Star people would be given jobs according to their specialisations. This would be done equally and without bias. If there was a problem the person was free to bring it to the Wave leader or Frog, and it would be resolved.

Another proposal in the Act of Goodwill was that the young Star children who wanted to attend school would do so whenever they wanted, like any other Wave person. Since the teachers there were primarily from Chill and Fang, there would be no division.

The Star people were to be made aware of the Act and that they too had to show that they didn't mean any harm, that if they truly wanted to stay in peace then they would have to respect the law.

There were more things outlined but the last major ones were that Star was to have at least two council members in Naruto's council and that Star people would be given chances to go and visit their ancestral home in the deserted Hidden Star village, probably staying there for a limited time, and this was only if things ran as smooth as possible.

The Wave Council consisted of civilians for Civilian Affairs while the shinobi consisted of Naruto, the Head of the Council, Daku, his Chief Advisor, Frog and Rat. The Star people were to collectively choose two people to represent their civilians and their shinobi in the Wave Council.

Naruto intended to bring Wave and Star together little by little until all was under Wave. This could take decades to fully incorporate but the young leader was ready for the journey.

Just before he left his country, he signed three contracts for new buildings to be made in inner and outer Wave; two in inner and one in outer.

The one in inner was to expand and extend the village library, as there were now more books and scrolls to put in there after all the missions taken and all the Star scrolls he had appropriated. Plus, most academy students, after hearing that the real leader was a young fuinjutsu master, had wanted to take a hand in the subtle art of sealing and learn it as well; Naruto predicted that he would soon take up a genin team and train them in about four months.

The other contract was for two more ships to be built, adding to the nine present. Those three functioned as ships that would transport natural resources to the other allied villages. There was only one ship that was performing that function, so Naruto could see the wisdom of building two more to help with the workload.

The ships would take the resources to Waterfall, where they would take what they needed, and would voyage to Marsh, where they would stop at the very edge so they wouldn't get stuck in the sludge. The resources in the ship would be moved to the newly constructed trains after Marsh had taken their share, and the train would move to Fang, then to Smoke and would finally pass through underground train tunnels to Chill.

So far, the trains only needed a week of maintenance every month, according to the train's main engineer.

The third inner Wave contract was proposed by a town elder Naruto had set in charge of civilian affairs. He brought to Naruto's attention that the orphanage, thought to be rebuilt, was still in dire need of renovations to the baby's nursery and the children's recreational area.

Naruto signed the contract and after consulting his Personal Assistant/Accountant, Frog, he added some more funds for better quality food for the village and Waterfall preschool teachers to teach the children who weren't old enough to enter the academy.

Naruto sighed as he looked over his country from on top of the leader's tower; all the citizens as well as the visitors knew his identity as the leader of Wave country but for some reason, Konoha still wasn't aware. He shrugged; it was only a matter of time. It wasn't that he was afraid of the leaf invading Wave; if his seals could keep Jiraiya out then they were mighty strong enough.

There was some good news though; the civilian academy now had indigenous Wave teachers there to teach the students. Daku clones were still supervised in the shadows, but so far nothing was going wrong. He would have to find out what would happen if the Star people were to bring their children to the civilian academy and how they were treated.

There was already a code of conduct being taught in the civilian teachers' school and this was also implemented in the civilian academy, especially to the teachers. It primarily talked about how any indecent behaviour towards the students will not be tolerated, there will be no mixing home with work in the school, no partiality will be tolerated, and offensive remarks to students and colleagues are punishable by unpaid suspension.

Thus far, the people weren't going against this.

The Star people had raised their thoughts on allowing their civilians to enter the academy and the teaching schools, and Naruto didn't reject the idea, just as long as they stayed within the stipulations he had set.

There was a first, second and third year in the ninja academy and a first, second, third and fourth year in the junior civilian academy; schooling continued until the twelfth class for the civilians.

The blonde leader of Wave looked to his right when Frog leapt down with a thick book. The operative saluted with one hand. "When will you return, Lord Naruto?"

"In about a month, but I'll still have control from Konoha. Daku can represent me here."

"Yes, Lord Naruto."

"Where is Daku anyway?"

Frog flipped through the book in his hands. "He is seeing Rat in the academy; he wants to look over the student's progress."

Naruto smiled a bit at how much initiative Daku was taking into developing Wave. It seemed that the dark shadow was truly becoming loyal to Wave, not only to Naruto. And since it was two in the morning, Daku was taking it very close to the extreme. Not that Naruto minds. "Tell me Frog, am I doing well? With Wave Country."

"The citizens certainly appreciate what you're doing." He was talking about the large gift basket he had found in his office the day he had returned. Naruto quickly found out that he had a really big sweet tooth.

The civilian elders had even assigned the day they had been freed as Naruto's Day, after finding out Naruto's name of course.

It was a new national holiday in Wave Country.

The seal master shook his head in exasperation. He simply said, "I like chocolate."

"I know now, Lord Naruto." Frog chuckled.

"I need to start heading back to Konoha now. But before I go, how's the mall progressing?"

"Construction would finish up in another month, Lord Naruto. Lord Daku and the workers have been working tirelessly."

"Good work." Naruto patted the man's shoulder. He summoned a small pill from his sleeve and after whispering, "Expand", it widened into his seal board. He stepped onto the floating board.

If he flew fast enough, he would be able to get back to Konoha before sunrise and before the weekend fully started.

Be bent down a bit into position and zoomed off into the night.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"I've found out who the Wave leader is," Zetsu said after he had slipped out of the ground beside Tobi. The man was speaking with Nagato and Konan alone in the throne room. The plant creation chuckled to himself, both sides of him did. "You'll never believe who it is."

"Do tell." The man murmured, idly noticing the interest that had sparked in Pain's rinnegan eyes; he should be interested.

Ever since Wave had been liberated, the few shinobi from Wave have been causing major problems for the Akatsuki, like the fact that Haku had gotten hold of the bounty of an A-rank ninja before Kakuzu, not for the first time either.

Zabuza had gone up against Kisame when both had crossed paths, and both had to retreat when they couldn't beat each other, ending in a perfect stalemate. The demon brothers had even managed to drastically reduce the number of puppets Sasori had and severely poisoned Deidara when they attempted to get their bounties. The only reason the pair of S-rank missing ninjas were even still alive was that the Suna missing ninja had taken the initiative to bring out one of his trump cards, the Third Kazekage.

Wave didn't know it, but they were slowing down the Akatsuki.

"It's the Kyuubi jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki."

Here Pein sat up with fractionally wide eyes. "The same child that had managed to escape capture from Kisame and Itachi?"

"The one and only, Lord Pein."

"He is much more formidable than I thought." The rinnegan holder muttered and reclined back on his throne.

"Yeah. His experience in fuinjutsu is so deep, he was able to create a hyper-powered chakra restraint and draining seal by touching the ground. I think he has more secrets than any of us anticipated, Lord Pein."

"This would pose a problem if Kisame goes." Seeing as, if the man stepped on the boy's invisible trap, he would be summarily drained and likely killed. Add in the fact he had Zabuza under his command.

"That's not all; since I wasn't able to infiltrate Wave or any of the other allied villages, I can only assume that their protective seals somehow keep me out."

This was truer than words could express.

The seals around the allied villages detect even the faintest sliver of chakra—nature or otherwise—and repulse them if it doesn't detect the Wave tattoo.

Zetsu had learnt this the painful way since the seals also covered underground travel.

"He is incredibly strong for his age, maybe I underestimated him," Nagato mumbled.

Obito nodded. "Yes. What level seal master is he?"

"Level nine, from what I witnessed and from the whispering among the camps just before the Star invasion. Plus, he helped fight Orochimaru with Tsunade and Jiraiya, forcing him to retreat. He must be reasonably powerful."

"And this mysterious person Kisame was talking about, do you know who he is?"

"Naruto calls him Daku. His loyal shadow. I can only assume he is one of Naruto's seal creations."

"Which is understandable why he was able to best Kisame in taijutsu," Konan said quietly.

"Yes. So far, he has no human limit in strength or speed."

"…Rai should go with Itachi and Kisame to face off against him," Obito said.

Pein added, "And it should only be when he is away from Wave. Maybe as he is en route to Konoha."

"If all fails, I want you to go and retrieve him," Obito grunted as he turned back to the window and watched the rain idly pour down. "He may be able to beat three S-rank ninjas but he can only hope to beat a god and his angel."

Konan wasn't convinced.

"That is true." Pein leaned back into his throne.

"Zetsu, I want you to stay on Naruto and find out more about him. Anything we have on him is of great value," Obito continued, commanding.

"Yes, sir." Zetsu slipped into the ground and sped to Konoha,

The only reason Naruto found out was that Zetsu had been sending small notes to Akahoshi, telling him that Wave was getting too strong and that the strength belonged to Star.

The man was already mentally unstable, so it only took a few weeks for Zetsu's manipulations to sink in.

The Wave leader would have to retaliate if he wanted to show everyone else that his country and in connection his alliance was not to be trifled with, if not he would look like a weak leader.

The only problem lay in the fact that every other nation would find out about the invasion.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto squinted his eyes as he burst through a cloud a mile outside Konoha and began a speedy descent to the ground.

He flipped through some hand seals and slipped straight into the ground, switching the affinity going into the board from wind and fire to earth.

"Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish."

The ground only rippled once after entry and he held his breath as he surfed full speed to the gate and successfully got in; just as the sun was splashing golden-orange rays across the landscape.

He burst from the ground and the door to his apartment was thrown open by a very much-ready Daku clone disguised as Naruto.

The real Naruto hastily cancelled the chakra going into his seal-board and managed to dive onto a couch as his board bounced against the wall.

He took his time to get his breath back into him, with his forearm covering his eyes.

He silently waved his hand and his shadow clone scampered to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Naruto gulped it down gratefully.

There was silence in his house after that as he opened his eyes and sat down in his hover wheelchair. He controlled the chair to his desk and rolled his neck before he got down to work, again; he never needed that much sleep anyway.

The boy had chosen to remain in his apartment since he wasn't too into the idea of staying in a large place like the Namikaze mansion, but he did go there occasionally to maintain it and to read through scrolls.

What he was working on was a way to seamlessly communicate with the other allied villages without the need for Daku clones to run around.

The idea was that he wanted each leader to have a special seal on their desk, if they set a letter on the seal and called out the place they wanted the letter to go to clearly the seal would take the letter to a connecting junction seal then to the village the person originally wanted it to go, or maybe directly to the village the letter was meant to go.

He had been brainstorming on how to do this ever since he had first signed the alliance agreement with the other villages. He had thought about using an altered Flying Thunder god seal to do this seeing as the Yondaime was famed for being able to teleport himself around with just a flick of his wrist or an idle thought.

The hiraishin seal sat in front of the boy on a tri-pronged kunai. Naruto flexed his fingers and bent down to get to work.

He separated the seal from the kunai carefully and examined the seal with his critical eyes, noting the intricacy his father had used to draw the seal.

The seals there were much more complex than he imagined; there was a level ten seal personally created by his father that he hadn't gotten around to studying, but he still furrowed his eyebrows and broke the seal up into its basic strokes.

There were a lot of layers on the seal Minato had to draw before he could brush against reality and teleport and Naruto had found out that each tri-prong was connected through a sort of super-advanced tracking seal. There was also an advanced chakra suppressor so that there wouldn't be too big of a burst of chakra if he performed the jutsu, making the flying thunder god seal a sort of assassination technique as well. Additionally, there was a blood seal on each seal that was tied to Minato or Kushina, or anyone else it was keyed to; it was similar to the seals he had around Wave. This meant that if Naruto wanted to use the attack, he would have to find a way to hack the seal and key his blood in or he would have to draw his hiraishin seal; hacking the seal would be a feat on its seeing as Minato was a better seal master than even Jiraiya, a level ten master.

He was learning more from all he was seeing.

Naruto wasn't an Uzumaki for nothing.

He picked up the separated seal and hovered over a wall in his living room that was directly opposite the door. He plastered the seal on the wall and ran his detection seal over the flying thunder god seal. The wall rippled like water and the seal melted in; half a second later the wall lit up a light blue and kanji for each component rippled to the surface. Naruto swiped around each complicated kanji after complicated kanji and separated each fuinjutsu chain. He organised them so that they would be end to end but not touching each other, making sure that exactly how the seal was layered was how they were originally organised. He then tapped the first seal on the far right and under the seal its translation was written down clearly. He then began the tedious job of crossing random seals together to see if they were able to function as well as adding his seals to the mix. If he kept up the work for long enough, he would finally make a breakthrough in about a week.

The fact he was using his advanced detection seal, the one he had put on the wall, was a testament to how hard it was to crack.

He worked so hard and for so long he wasn't even aware that he had fallen asleep nine hours later.

He woke up with a jolt and groaned tiredly as he looked at the alarm seal blinking on his wheelchair.

Naruto got to his feet and stretched his body, making sure to focus more on his 'dead' leg. He smacked his lips and walked to the bathroom so he could wash his face. He took off his shirt to do so and after that he stood idly in the bathroom, heavy bags under his eyes, scratching his belly—

His eyes widened in the realisation of why his alarm had woken him up. "The picnic."

He scrambled out of the bathroom and looked at the time; he was thirty minutes late. He rubbed out some sleep from his eyes and threw on a simple black and blue striped shirt, changing his baggy black pants for another pair of baggy black pants but this one had white stripes on the side. He pulled on his baggy blue hoodie and jogged out of his apartment.

The boy kept a vigil eye out for anyone who wanted to sneak attack him as he trotted to training ground thirteen. As he got there his elbow was summarily grabbed by Hinata.

The girl had been nervously squeezing the ends of her short skirt, looking around for any sign of her teacher and just as she activated her byakugan she saw him and launched off of the large picnic blanket that the other genin and Yakumo were sitting on. The teens looked at the girl curiously as she dragged the taller teen to where they were sitting. She beamed at them and chirped, "Guys, this is Naruto."

"Nice to meet you all." He politely nodded his greeting and pulled back the hood of his hoodie, making Ino and Sakura swoon.

"You didn't tell us he was handsome, Hina!"

Naruto stood a bit taller than the average twelve-year-old with dull blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes. His whiskered cheeks stretched as he smiled at them.

Hinata blushed and ushered for her teacher to take a seat on the blanket. Naruto smiled slightly at each genin, even to Neji and Kiba.

The dog boy spoke up. "You didn't tell us he was going to be here." He expertly hid his discomfort.

"Kiba…" Shino started but stopped when Naruto waved his hand nonchalantly.

"It's fine." He was seated next to Chouji and Tenten. "How's your back Kiba?"

"Good, no thanks to you," was the sharp retort.

Shikamaru looked at the boy curiously as he took a sip of his green tea. "Do I know you from somewhere…?"

"I'm afraid not," Hinata helped serve Naruto a bowl of spicy ramen, and the boy gratefully took the bowl from her. He proceeded to slurp it down, making sure not to outrightly pour it into his mouth.

"Hina says he was in the crowd at the chunin exams," Ino piped up as she took a huge bite out of a chicken leg.

"Oh yeah. I saw him in the Kage's ward area. My dad says he was Lord Third's special ward," Chouji said with his mouth filled with dumplings. Naruto was amazed he could still speak.

Neji had chosen to be fairly civil in the team gathering, maybe a glare at Hinata here and there, but civil enough. "He tied me up with that silver rope."

All the genin 'oh'd' in remembrance.

The training ground they were in wasn't exactly classified as a training ground; there was a calmly flowing river passing through and there were lush trees and grass all around, there was only a fairly large enough space for a spar.

The picnic blanket was filled with an assortment of different kinds of food: curry, rice, ramen, dumplings, sashimi and pretty much anything the girls could think up. The genin were all seated around and were digging in around the food spread out in the centre of the blanket.

"How were you able to do that?" Tenten asked with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"Seals," he simply said.

"You're into fuinjutsu?"

"Yup. Are you?"

"Yeah. What level are you? I'm on level four so far." She proudly puffed her chest at her profound achievement. Level four was nothing to sneeze at; they were just about entering advanced territory.

"Oh, you won't be interested in that. Please pass the sushi." Sakura passed him a plate of sushi with sweating palms, nervous that someone who looked so attractive wasn't behaving so aloof with her, or perving on her; she glared at Kiba before she returned her attention to the new guest.

"No, no. We'd like to know," Shikamaru said as he leaned back on his elbows to look at the clouds.

"…I'm a level nine seal master."

Their reactions were incredibly humorous and he savoured each of them; Tenten and Chouji choked on their chicken. Shino, Neji and Sakura spat out their drinks away from the food. Shikamaru choked on the air he was breathing. Kiba flipped backwards and landed on his stomach as if he had been punched in the stomach, and Sai just smiled creepily. Sasuke though looked at him with firm eyes before he snorted and sipped some soda.

"A level nine?!" Tenten exclaimed and shook his shoulders frantically. "That's half a level lower than Lord Fourth!"

Naruto chuckled and pried Tenten's fingers off his shoulders. "Yes. So?"

"Oh my gosh…I feel faint…"

"It's not that big of a deal…"

"What do you mean? It took years before Lord Fourth could get there. How did you get that good?" Shikamaru asked as he sat up sharply, looking at Naruto suspiciously.

"I've been studying fuinjutsu since I was four; I'm twelve and a half now."

"I don't believe you," Sasuke grunted and crossed his arms. There was almost a long falter in the conversation, given that Uchiha was breaking his stoic silence.

"I didn't ask anyone to believe me." Naruto's brow knitted, confused as to why they thought he would care if they believed him. He would have sounded extremely cocky, if not for the confident, matter-of-fact tone of his voice. "Me being level nine is a fact of life, just like the sky being blue and water being wet." He idly stirred his spicy ramen, remarking with a slight smile, "I worked myself past the brink of exhaustion to get where I am, seal-wise."

This time, the silence that followed was long and thick.

The genin looked at Naruto, who was merrily eating his ramen and bobbing an impressed look at Hinata, complimenting her cooking with incoherent grunts as he went back to his food.

Hinata and Yakumo weren't as surprised as the other genin by Naruto's previous words.

Impressed? They were always impressed by Naruto, but not surprised; their teacher had trained long and hard, depriving himself of sleep, and regular nutrition, and freely relinquishing his childhood for the sake of advancing his knowledge and skill in fuinjutsu.

They also weren't surprised by how Naruto spoke about his skill with seals.

His confidence was founded in reality.

At level nine, and gaining ground towards level ten, there was scarcely anything Naruto didn't know, or couldn't know, about sealwork.

His confidence was jarring though.

"A demonstration," Tenten said frantically, grasping Naruto's blue hoodie with both of her hands. This snapped the others out of their shocked delirium. Foam poured out of her mouth and there was a manic glint in her eyes.

Again, Naruto pried her fingers off slowly and shrugged.

He took off his hoodie to reveal his long-sleeved black and blue striped shirt and rolled up his sleeve a little to his elbow to show the seal tattoos that spider-webbed up his forearms.

Tenten was hyperventilating; she didn't need any more convincing that the boy beside her was a level nine seal master, but Naruto still went ahead with his demonstration. With him still sitting down, Naruto pulled out his silver snake rope seemingly from thin air with one hand and his snake chain with the other. He flicked his wrist to Sasuke and tapped his forehead; the seal for sleep spiralled into view and the boy began to slump backwards, but Naruto caught him with his snake rope and pulled him back up, then he whipped his chain at him again and the boy sputtered awake.

Naruto released his hand from his snake rope and all watched in awe as the rope slithered around the food, and grabbed another serving of ramen, returned to Naruto and gave it to him. He mentally commanded the rope to slither to his hand and sealed them up without any chakra bursting.

"Taadaa~." He gave them dramatic jazz hands to show them that there was nothing up his sleeves and began to chow down on the ramen.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Was the first thing Ino muttered after the small display; it happened so fast they seriously doubted it happened but with how wide-mouthed Neji was it did happen.

"That's not all. Naruto once sealed up a whole lake and poured it on Hinata," Yakumo said, relishing in the small glare the Hyuuga heiress sent her.

"Years of study. That's all."

The lone Uchiha blinked in confusion and yawned. "What…what happened?"

Kiba then howled in laughter. "He just put you to sleep, boy!" He winced though when Sakura punched his side. "It's true!"

Shikamaru blinked. "So, you're telling the truth…"

"I didn't have any reason to lie."

"Then why aren't you a ninja?" Neji asked and leaned forward to hear what the boy had to say.

"A long time ago, I wanted to be a ninja, but Lord Third said I couldn't be one. Now, I don't want to be a Konoha ninja anymore."

"Why didn't he let you?" Sakura asked with her green eyes crinkled in worry.

"It's because you aren't able to walk well, am I correct Naruto," Sai interrupted. Naruto smirked and nodded. "You weren't supposed to be able to walk in the first place and when you found a way to walk, he put you down, didn't he?" Naruto nodded again but with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"How do you know?" Neji asked.

"It isn't exactly a secret he's a seal master in the first place," Sai answered with a hum. Naruto conceded that he wasn't exactly wrong; he wasn't hiding his proficiency with seals, only his affiliation with Wave Country.

"Then how come we didn't know about him?"

"You weren't even looking in the first place."

"How can we look for something we don't even know about?" Shikamaru fired off, irritated by Sai's cryptic words.

"A true paradox." Sai smiled.

Silence reigned in the picnic site but all the genin now looked at Naruto with a bit more respect. Chouji was the first to speak up after half an hour of silence, saying, "You can use only seals to fight?" Naruto nodded. "You don't know any taijutsu styles?"

"I'm learning one; the Armadillo fighting style."

"Tough one," Sai muttered but grinned widely at Naruto, Naruto smiled back hesitantly.

Ino leaned to Hinata and whispered, "Hot and smart. You've bagged yourself a good one, Hina." Naruto rolled his eyes at her assessment and drank some water to wash down all the ramen he had eaten.

"We're not dating, Ino," Hinata whispered back.

Sasuke though was staring at Naruto, not wavering even under the polite smile Naruto sent.

The blonde boy tapped his knees impatiently. "Is there a problem, Sasuke?"

"By any chance do you know how to get this off me?" he pulled down his collar to show Naruto his cursed seal mark. The containment seal covered it well enough, but Sasuke still had to put conscious effort into keeping it in place.

The seal master scratched his chin and threw a piece of paper with a single dot on top he had removed from his sleeve to the Uchiha. "Put that over the seal." The boy did as instructed, and the dot expanded until it was a perfect copy of the cursed seal on Sasuke's neck. A harmless warmth spread from the paper to his fingertips, and Sasuke looked at Naruto expectantly. The other boy nodded, and Sasuke removed the seal from his neck.

Sasuke looked at the piece of paper curiously but passed it back to Naruto when he asked for it. Tenten looked over his shoulder at the seal but went swirly-eyed at how complex it was, much higher than what she was used to.

"I'm into challenges and this, Sasuke, is a challenge. I'll get back to you in a week."

"Where can I meet up with you? I want to ask you something in private," Sasuke said with insistent eyes, almost leaning forward onto his knees as he stared at Naruto.

"…Hinata or Yakumo can show you where I normally train," Naruto slowly said, intrigued by Sasuke's prodding.

This was just another project that would keep him busy.

The Uchiha nodded and strained his face into a barely perceived smile.

Sasuke then grunted and looked to the sun, noticing it was about sunset. "It's getting late. I have to head home." Even though no one was waiting for him there.

Tenten's shoulder sagged when she too noticed how late it was getting. "Yeah. My dad must be worried." She leaned to Hinata and whispered, "I want to know where he trains too."

Hinata giggled. "Sure."

"I, as well, have a request," everyone could visibly see Neji swallow his pride as he said this. Naruto raised both eyebrows in surprise but still gave the Hyuuga branch member a thumbs up.

"Anyone else?" Hinata playfully asked but was pleasantly surprised when all of the genin nodded, even Sai.

Most would call what Naruto was doing manipulation but he would justify what he was doing by saying that if he created ties with the major clans in Konoha then they wouldn't stand in his way if he left. He wasn't averse to killing.

His eyes looked around as he got to his feet and put on his blue hoodie. "I also need to get back home. I have something to do." He waved over his shoulder to the gathered genin and left the training ground.

A short distance from the picnic, he heard a hushed call behind him.

"Naruto-sensei!"

He turned around but was barrelled into by Yakumo. His seal-shields didn't so much as flicker at her embrace.

The girl hugged him quickly and pulled away. "Thank you for coming."

Close behind her, Hinata stumbled to a halt and nodded her thanks to her teacher.

Naruto ruffled her hair playfully. "It was no problem." The girl hurriedly shoved his hand off and smoothed down her hair. "Training continues on Monday. Same time as usual," he whispered with a parting smile, leaving the training ground.

Sai wiped the grin off his face and pursed his lips slightly; he rolled on his back and got to his feet, silently waving over his shoulder as he left.

Authors note

This chapter wasn't really easy to write since this has to do with multiple characters speaking. Still, how was it? Good enough?

NOTE: Naruto isn't Konoha-oriented; he looks at the effect of things in the long run. If Hinata becomes Hokage and the clan heirs become clan heads he will have powerful allies. He is friendly enough with Tsunade; the problem lies with the three elders…

Y'all remember Gaara? He should be making an appearance in the next chapter.

Don't forget to drop a review.

See y'all later.

Foy.