Yo guys, thanks for all of your reviews.
To 'Dav Dinero': let's see how this goes. However, I do see potential in your idea. Thanks for the review.
Thank you Ezeakel for your idea with this chapter. You might not see it until you read in a bit but it's there for sure.
This chapter goes a little deeper into how Naruto governs Wave, it is boring but there are some things you need to be made aware of. I made the Hoshi people unique, that is I gave them a sort of specified ability. Read to find out what.
CHAPTER 16
If Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Bloody Mist, could give a massive kiss to Naruto he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
He had come to Kirigakure and met with the rebel leader, Mei Terumi, who immediately recognized him. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was fully dressed in standard Wave jounin uniform, Haku as well was in Wave ninja attire.
He told her that he worked full-time for Wave Country.
Then he set up a formal dialogue between Mei and Daku, who represented Naruto in the mission.
The woman was desperate enough to get help from anyone, irrespective of their physical intimidation.
Mei had agreed to sign a trading and military alliance with Wave and the rest of the village alliance if and only if Wave played an active role in liberating Mist. Daku had underlined the fact that he and his comrades, Zabuza and Haku, were well equipped to take out the three tails jinchuriki. Ever curious, Mei inquired as to why he was so confident in his strength; Daku had responded that his master was a seal master far above Jiraiya of the Sannin in expertise.
That had convinced her. Though Daku had said that he was merely here to look over the fight between Zabuza and Yagura if anything was going to go wrong.
That same day the A rank Wave swordsman had thrown a controlled exploding tag into Mist. The tag had latched onto the building and blew up the upper half, where the Mizukage's office resided.
Needless to say, he had gotten his point across straight away.
The Kage was less than happy for being interrupted from his morning ritual of stretching. The fight that went down wasn't what Zabuza would have hoped for; the Mizukage had shown him exactly why he was a whole rank higher than him in skill by beating him into a bloody pulp, not without making a great deal of effort though. Zabuza was proud of the bruises and cuts he had given his opponent.
Then, as Yagura was about to bring down his hook staff to crush his head, he set his backup plan in motion. That plan included one seal.
The chakra high seal.
He mustered up all the strength he had left in his body and rolled away from the earth-shattering blow. He flipped away and pushed chakra into the seal on his neck as he put his head cleaver into its sheath on his back. A map of his tenketsu formed on his body for all to see, starting from his neck and spider webbed to his fingers and toes. He put his palms together into a monkey hand seal, a hand seal Naruto had observed allowed better control of the denser chakra his seal formed, and the water that surrounded him from all the water jutsu the two fighters had been using rose high above, three times his height and turned blood red, the water around Yagura also dyed red, leaching out from Zabuza's feet. The water behind him spun together into a small water cyclone and two sharp arms exploded out of the sides, all the while Zabuza kept his expression blank.
The red cyclone monster was a construct made out of a mixture of nature chakra and Zabuza's chakra; a technique he had been practising for months after solo missions outside of Wave primarily toward Water Country or Swamp Country. It wasn't particularly easy to hold up but it got the job done.
The swordsman flipped through a set of hand seals and pushed his right palm forward in a ram hand seal. "Water Release: Drilling Water Dragons."
The red cyclone raised both of its arms to the sky and red spinning dragons of death shot out of the water and zoomed to the surprised Mizukage.
On the sidelines Mei looked on with wide eyes, shocked at how Zabuza was still standing despite all the chakra he had expended. Haku remained relatively calm, looking on at the fight and long since resolved that Zabuza fought the Mizukage alone.
"How is he still fighting?" the Terumi murmured, watching as the Demon of the Bloody Mist remained in place as red mini-cyclones burst from the ground, the swarm of drilling dragons still shooting at Yagura, and went after the Mizukage. Zabuza didn't even look the slightest bit winded by all the chakra he was using. The smaller cyclones worked as one to throw the Mist leader off balance with their deadly drilling blows and the way each knew exactly where the other was even without looking.
"Zabuza has trained himself extensively for this day, including with the Chakra high seal."
"Any chance I can get my hands on one?"
"Master Naruto only gives the seal to his most trusted confidantes. No one else."
"Well, that's a shame," the woman pouted, until a glint came to her eyes and she shuffled closer to the dark shadow. "Or…you can put a good word in for us—"
"No."
She huffed in frustration when he didn't even spare her a glance. Haku chuckled at her pouting. "Master Naruto is very careful with the company he keeps. Maybe if you prove your good intentions to him and Wave country, he can consider giving you a chakra high seal."
"He can't resist my feminine charm," she said airily, whipping her hair to the side. Ao, who stood guard behind her with Chojuro, rolled his eye in exasperation.
"Most times Master Naruto is like a rock. Nothing can get to him; dare I say even you, Mei." After a year and a half of working for Naruto, Haku knew this fact very well.
Yagura was doing his humanly best to avoid contact with the ever-incoming dragon drills and the red water cyclones, smashing his hook staff on the cyclones only worked for a minute until they were reformed and doubled. You can see how this was frustrating to the same person who had been winning; Yagura spun in a circle, destroying the cyclones around him and commanded beast chakra to flow through his body.
On seeing this Zabuza smirked slightly and the cyclone monster latched a water tentacle to his back, taking Naruto's jinchuriki containment seal, the chakra creation stretched his drill arms toward Yagura and just as he was almost in his three tails form it impacted his chest. Wrought iron chains erupted out of the centre of the seal and wrapped around the man, forcefully sucking out his chakra and using that same chakra to thicken and tighten the chains around him. The Mizukage released hold of his staff in his shock and fell backwards, still fully human and weakening at an alarming rate. The jinchuriki containment seal was fully capable of holding Naruto down in his five-tailed form so he was fairly confident it could keep the three tails contained.
From that point order returned to the fighting area, besides the noisy swishing of the red spinning cyclone behind Zabuza, it was smooth sailing. The Wave jounin commanded the drill-like arms on the original red cyclone to drill through Yagura, bypassing the containment seal. It was one thing to be a jinchuriki and it was another to be a weakened jinchuriki.
Yagura succumbed to his wounds and died, bringing an end to the era of the Bloody Mist.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 'Why me? Why now?'
It didn't help that Kyuubi was sniggering inside him.
He opened his eyes and looked at the small Sand delegation that sat in the Hokage's office; Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. Their three guards stood outside the office. Tsunade smirked in amusement at the look on Naruto's face after the Sand siblings had said their purpose of coming. "I'm sorry, Gaara, but I will have to decline."
"Might I ask why?" The Gaara asked. The Kazekage raised an eyebrow at the Wave leader and then looked at his sister from the corner of his eyes; Temari was fairly desirable. Dubbed the sand flower for her beauty and her grace, any man would have been more than eager to court her.
Except for Naruto, it seemed.
The girl wasn't taking his reply as happily as her siblings would have thought. She kept her face emotionless but she harshly squeezed the hand grip of her chair, staring at Naruto who wasn't even looking at her in the first place.
"I have too much on my plate at the moment to focus on courting anyone. I'd rather focus my energy on…tangible things," he said, pausing a moment to piece together the right words. He gauged Temari's silent stare, the tightness of her pursed lips, and her hard grip on the armrest of her chair. Out of respect to her, and Gaara, he told her the hard truth. "Those sort of relationships aren't in my ten-year plan, not foreseeably."
Gaara opened his mouth to respond but Temari beat him to it. "So you're saying I'm not worth the effort?"
Kankuro, the puppet master, shuffled deeper into his chair and muttered, "Uh oh." He silently motioned for his brother to hold up, knowing the boy wasn't aware of the little signs that Temari was mad, and if Temari was mad Temari should never be interrupted.
Never.
Sadly, Naruto didn't notice the warnings.
"I have my priorities set; Wave comes before anything, and that includes marriage,"
Tsunade sighed silently and her head lowered a bit after hearing this, she muttered, "Now you've done it…"
'Wave leader be damned,' Temari snarled in her mind and she stood up and walked up to Naruto's chair, glaring down with all the hate she could muster in her body. "Are you telling me that you won't even try to fit me and my needs in your oh so busy schedule. You won't even try?"
"I'm sorry, but no." He smiled apologetically, breaking some of the fights in Temari's heart but she remained strong. "You're a nice girl and I can imagine you will make a great wife, but I need to focus on making my village stronger."
Her shoulders sagged in disappointment, she nodded dejectedly and went back to her seat. "I understand."
Everyone else in the room sighed in relief that Temari had not caused a war by lashing out at Naruto.
Truthfully, Temari could understand Naruto's position.
Wave was a cesspool before he had liberated it and now it was a growing economy and ninja village that was very well connected. The marriage contract will have to be ripped up. This was the time Naruto had noticed the full impact of what he had said to her; she had been resolving with herself that she was getting married off to a person and she had already given up hope of backing out herself, so she had to drill the idea into her mind that she was going to be a wife no matter what. She might even grow to truly love him. But now she was being rejected by the first person she could see herself with, it wasn't a nice feeling.
"Let us set up a mutual benefit alliance, Gaara." the formerly disappointed Kazekage perked up at this and nodded. The stipulations they gave were similar to that of Konoha's but the Sand had a little bit more walking room in Wave so their ninja would be able to acquire a long-stay guest tattoo if they wished. Konoha ninjas were only permitted to stay a maximum of one month before they would have to leave or if their stay was vital, they would have to meet the administrators in charge of giving the visitors tattoos. This addition ignited a small fire in Temari; she clenched her fists on her lap with determination in her eyes.
'I'll have the chance to make him like me back,' only Naruto caught this but he mentally waved it off as her happy trade had been opened up with Wave. Just like with the Konoha alliance, he stored it in a scroll so he could reach Wave and send it to the village leaders he was fully allied to, and the alliance was to be held by Yumi of Hidden Chill for safekeeping since most villages were hesitant to attack people located so far into the snow and who were also fully capable of fighting there. He had already completed what he called his communication seal and had distributed it to the other five villages.
One week later: 6 am
Naruto had always known that his metabolism worked more than any other human he knew; making sure that even if he ate a grown cow's weight in food, he would burn off the calories accumulated within half a day.
It had almost been too late for his body to regain its vital vitamins and minerals but at least he could thank his mysterious godmother, Mikoto Uchiha, for giving him groceries from when he was four through to when he turned nine. His bones and his muscles strengthened more and more every day so he would have to stretch thoroughly before he could leave his apartment or the movement would tax him more than it should, this meant that he was growing taller faster than any of his peers.
His students had already reconciled with themselves that they would have to now look up to their teacher, literally and figuratively, if they were to receive instruction from him.
Naruto smiled slightly at his Konoha students, who were lined up in front of him in straight postures. His critical eyes looked over each and acknowledged their physical as well as mental growth.
Yakumo had more meat on her bones, the right amount for a ten-year-old girl. Her appalling muscle strength had increased so that she was at least able to hold her own against a regular academy strength student if the fact that her fists and her sandal-covered feet were tightly wrapped in white bandages to cover the bruises she sustained from punching and kicking the training dummies as well as sparring against Hinata and Sasuke. She was clad in a calf-length white battle kimono with an orange sash wrapped around her waist, there was a slit opening from her right hip to show her ninja-grade black pants. Her brown hair was cut. He had been working with her on her genjutsu drawing speed, her taijutsu if her opponent ever got close to her and some fuinjutsu, even though she was more concentrated on compensating her weak strength with raw ninjutsu from chakra gotten from her inner beast. She had told him that she would be graduating the academy a year early and he fully supported her, especially when she had said that she wanted to specialise in espionage and infiltration.
Hinata still wore her purple jacket but it was now almost constantly unzipped to show her light blue half-shirt and her bandage-wrapped torso, her jacket sleeves covered her bandage-wrapped arms but not her wrapped fingers. The wraps went up until they touched the top of her neck. She wore a mid-thigh length black skirt and light blue ninja-grade tights that stopped above her ankle. Naruto had been training her the longest so he wasn't surprised that she had come the furthest; from a weak, confident, depraved girl to a strong-willed teenager. He had been training her to utilise her newfound muscle strength with her altered gentle fist taijutsu style so that she would move easier and faster on her feet while she struck with the strength of a train. She wasn't too good with her fuinjutsu so he had been teaching her to separate her chakra without seals so she would be able to perform combination ninjutsu by herself; she was coming along well enough. Her father had not been particularly happy that she had been receiving external instruction besides that of her team sensei but he couldn't bring himself to care, Kurenai had not stopped their training sessions so there was no problem. Though he had advised Hinata to find a way to patch up a relationship with her little sister; she would need a good friend in the main house if she was to lead the clan. He could say that Hinata would probably be able to beat a high chunin in taijutsu only. Kurenai Yuhi had told him that her team would be going for the chunin exams hosted in Suna next year.
Sasuke Uchiha worked like a boy possessed to catch up with Naruto's other students. He had only been training under Naruto for a week but he was already 100 pounds in the weight seals. Naruto had taken this boy's strength—his ninjutsu—and had expanded on it by having him have perfect control over his fire affinity. Sasuke had then been told to jog around Konoha, Naruto following after him in a steady jog, while he set fire to leaves Naruto would randomly throw at him with only his fire chakra. Naruto would then leave him with his team sensei but always with parting thoughts to the boy. Kakashi appreciated the help; it allowed him to focus more on Sakura and Sai, the latter whom Tsunade had spared from death after he had been interrogated. The Uchiha still had on his usual clothes except he had on black ninja pants, not shorts.
Despite all of this Naruto had kept up his taijutsu training; he had even gone far enough to be on the third form, which was faster than Daku had anticipated. The dark shadow had cut his initial prediction in half and had said Naruto would master the style in two months. Naruto was already in low jounin speed if he was ever to rely on his hand-to-hand; his work ethic proved to be a great blessing.
Overall, he was proud of his students and himself. He had taken in two severely confident lacking girls and had turned them into exemplary students and ninjas.
Sasuke was now much more mellow than he had started; he had set his sights on Rock Lee and had said that he would want to surpass him first before he would move up to Iruka Umino, an academy teacher.
The blonde boy's students were arranged before him in front of the gate, part of his parting delegation that was escorting him to Wave country, as well as Kakashi, Might Gai and Temari. Mole was also present standing protectively behind Naruto the whole time, wearing a mole mask with the Wave symbol on the forehead. She had been hanging around Naruto like a silent phantom since after ROOT's destruction, only speaking when Naruto asked her for or about something. Tattooed on her exposed arm, since her other arm was in a long sleeve, were intricately drawn four red waves inside a circle. The tattoo was to show that she was the deputy DARK commander, directly under Daku in rank. Daku was currently in Wave getting things ready for him to stay in more permanently.
The other genin team were present as well to say goodbye to the Wave leader. Naruto had chosen to wear his combat uniform underneath the ceremonial Wave leader cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. The fact that he was a jounin with high S rank skills in seals and ninjutsu alone intimidated them slightly but the fact that they knew him, more or less, reassured them that he wasn't necessarily a bad person. The blonde waved politely before he spun on his heels and ran out of the gate, with his escort team, toward Wave. The main reason he was being escorted by Konoha ninja in the first place was that it was a sort of formality just in case he was ambushed on his way to his country.
This precaution was what prevented an ambush in the first place.
Kisame snarled quietly as he watched the well-protected escort team rush off to Wave; the problem lay in the fact that there were two high A rank ninjas, possibly even S rank, with a B rank kunoichi and three unranked teenagers with him, plus the imminent danger of Naruto summoning Daku out of nowhere Rai alone would be in a fight for her life against two well-known speedsters. The three genin didn't even look like they were incapable of defending Naruto as well as the NEW mysterious ninja that flanked Naruto. It was with a heavy conscience that Itachi commanded him and Rai to postpone the ambush; they were seriously outnumbered and outgunned. They would have to wait a little longer.
The welcoming party was very large. All the occupants of Wave who wanted to get a peek at their leader as well as the Hoshi people (now called Hoshi clan) who wanted to get themselves into good light with the leader were present.
The only problem the members of the Hoshi clan encountered was when fish traders refused to sell their fish to members of their clan, and if they did sell it was at fraudulent prices; this had raised a small riot in the fishmonger's section of Outer Wave between Hoshi clan and the fishers.
Daku had resolved this problem by speaking with both parties, noting that the dead merchants were mainly fish traders with families among the fishers in Wave. He had outlined that unless they wanted Wave to delve back into the chaos it was in under Gato, they should learn to understand that the main culprits for killing their loved ones were not alive anymore.
That they should not lay blame on the child for what the parent had done.
Daku had in turn told the Star clan that they should not take matters into their own hands if they ever encountered trouble; there were organisations and people they could report to. Though the air was still tense between the clan and the fishers there had not been any reported problems.
Naruto waved with a small smile on his face and formally announced that he was the leader.
The mass of people that followed Naruto around the village as he visited the buildings he had commissioned and the ones he had rehabilitated could be considered ridiculous.
Mole and Daku had to work full-time to cover Naruto's back and prevent some fangirls from outrightly leaping onto their boss.
He visited the library, spoke with the head librarian there and was given a tour of the place. The library was a monumental structure that had been built with four stories classified by importance; the bookshelves almost reached to the roof and were organised in concentric circles with reading areas being around the edges and at the centre, there were even ladders set in place for any book higher than they could grasp. The library contained all the Uzumaki knowledge on the top level, which was locked off from public use, the Namikaze clan scrolls, Hoshi scrolls that weren't clan-centric and by that he meant anything above A rank, his studies in fuinjutsu in the locked-up S rank section and the scrolls Daku had copied from Konoha's library. The head librarian was an old graduate from the civilian teacher's academy who had only headed the place for a month.
The seal master then visited the markets, both in outer and inner Wave markets; opening up the newly constructed mall for service.
He visited the elderly homes and the orphanages, making sure to keep a genuine smile on his face at all the wide-eyed orphans who looked at him, ruffling their heads and walking around with the Wave-born head matron. The rotund woman had expressed her appreciation for the nursery he had added to the building as well as the increase in funds, citing the fact that the children under her care weren't complaining about torn clothes or bland food anymore.
The hordes of Wave citizens then followed him to the Hoshi clan compound in outer Wave, stopping at the gate when the Hoshi gatekeepers had insisted they stay outside.
Naruto didn't mind but he had said that he would enter with his guards, the gatekeepers didn't mind. The Wave leader met with the Hoshi clan head and the elders and had discussed how the clan was coping in a new place. The clan head had told him that quite frankly Wave was much more fertile than their home village but had made it expressly known that they would keep the peace in Wave as long as the civilians did their part as well.
Naruto had then made it aware to him that he planned on destroying the pink meteorite because it brought more harm than it should, but the elders had implored that he shouldn't destroy it but rather harness the energy somehow.
The Uzumaki had outlined the fact that Wave already had an electrical grid and that there were solar power seals on each building in case the grid ever failed. The two parties had reached an impasse on where they agreed to store the star in the leader's tower under Naruto's blood seal.
The Hoshi clan still didn't like Naruto all that much for making them move out of their ancestral home but they did grudgingly give him credit for what he had done for Wave; the conditions they stayed in were a bit better than in Hidden Star. Naruto was made aware of the fact that the Hoshi clan specialised in wind release and fighting with the bow staff, this was with so much expertise that he could even go as far as classifying the ability as a clan-based trait.
He then took a trip to the civilian academy, read quickly through student's general reports and commented on a few.
Then he went to the ninja academy to meet up with Rat and discuss the students' development; the reformed ROOT ninja turned chunin ninja headmaster had taken him on a tour through the structure, with the Wave citizens again made to stay outside so they wouldn't congest the halls.
Both civilian and ninja academies were designed identically except the ninja academy had training grounds at the back and the civilian academy had more rooms for art and science. Rat had explained to him in detail that the ninja academy wasn't in dire need of anything but a well-trained fuinjutsu teacher since the Fang and Chill shinobi teachers weren't too versed in the subtle art. Naruto had told him that he could set Daku to teach a class of willing students up to level one of mastery and if they wished to expand on that knowledge after a year they would be taught up to level three; if they wanted to go further than that after they graduate they could have access to the B rank fuinjutsu section of the library.
He looked through the year-and-a-half report of the students and raised his eyebrows at how they were doing; they were all relatively average, only a few ones that piqued his interest, but there was one student who was particularly horrible in his studies. He had to store that name for later.
The last place he went to was the leader's tower, where he told all of the gathered Wave citizens that they could go back to their daily lives. He was led around by the Head of Staff, a woman named Tsunami. Even though he was the one who drew the blueprint for altering the former Wave daimyos palace he didn't know the place too well so he made sure to store everything in his head, from the servant's quarters in the west side to the bar on the east side.
Needless to say, it was past midnight when he went to his room in the tower for a well-deserved rest.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Three months later
We now find Naruto sitting behind his desk, sifting through the mission report his assistant, Frog, had gone through. The Hoshi clan members were still behaving aloof and not obeying orders immediately but it wasn't as bad as it was three months ago, but still, the missions were successful. Add in all the documents he had to go through, approve and disapprove of that concerned helping Kiri rebuild whatever they had lost in their war. He stamped his approval for some funds to be sent over to the major hidden village.
The real Daku sat to his right, going through some of the mission reports as well, lending a helping hand to his master; the frog did so as well from Naruto's left. Even though the DARK black ops ninja had his desk in the room before the leader's office Naruto had said he should stick around a bit longer in case he wanted his opinion on something concerning the citizens.
Frog then stood and lightly dropped a thick file filled with ninja academy graduates. The blonde boy sighed and rubbed his eyes; paperwork never got any easier. The shinobi council had already put the students in teams that complemented each other but it was up to Naruto to vet the selections before the students were told as well as give them team sensei that would have to test each team. Naruto carefully scanned each student, their strengths, weaknesses and development speed; each one in teams of three, then he looked through the list of Chill, Smoke, Fang, Waterfall and Marsh shinobi he had under him. He gave each three-man team sensei but paused when he encountered a familiar name.
"Daku," he called and the dark shadow looked up at him from his bent position. "What do you know about Inari?"
"I have observed that he is too eager to impress; he once performed a high kick in a spar but he was far from ready to execute it. He lost."
"How is his relationship with his classmates?"
"Rat has called him a class clown. That he is very outgoing and loud."
Naruto pursed his lips and stared at the widely grinning brown-haired boy in the picture; he set the boy's file aside and looked at who he had been teamed with. He smirked fractionally and set the whole team aside.
More Wave-born and Hoshi clan members were graduating from civilian schools and were being inducted more into everyday life. There were more indigenous workers in the electrical grid and the water board, this meant that the number of Smoke and Marsh shinobi that worked there respectively drastically dropped until there was only one in each establishment that was only there to supervise day-to-day proceedings. Hoshi members now made up most of Wave's developing police force but the Wave people were extremely hesitant to welcome them.
Gradually Wave was becoming more and more self-reliant. This didn't mean that the shinobi that had helped out were kicked back to their villages; they were as much allowed to stay for as long as they wished, and they could also work wherever they wished to work, though they weren't the predominant ones there anymore.
Naruto rolled his neck and read the weekly report from the electrical grid; the electrical malfunction that had happened a while ago was due to an increase in moisture in the air, the fishermen had said that that meant the sea level was rising. He was really glad he had the solar power backup energy seals put on the roof of the houses or there might have been pandemonium throughout.
Naruto signed for the walls to be fortified so that water wouldn't leak in where water wasn't needed, especially in Wave Central where shops and establishments water would be destroyed; he had taken the initiative to make the houses and farms in outer Wave more resilient to water than those in Wave central. Besides most of the crops Wave grew relied on irrigation. He had given the head of the electrical grid a seal to put in the sentry station there for a largely invisible dome to cover the whole institution if there was ever a rise in humidity, as measured periodically from the hygrometers. The seals were to protect the electrical equipment inside.
The Wave leader sighed as he read a border patrol report from Haku.
Haku had written that there was an influx of Kumo ninjas that were scouting out Wave's borders. This was to be expected since it had been made public about his position, he just hoped that Kumo wouldn't do something they would regret, and by that, he meant attack Wave. His country was allied with three major hidden villages and five minor hidden villages; if Hidden Lightning decided to launch an attack, even if they were allied with Hidden Rock, they would be crushed. Naruto didn't particularly like violence unless it could be avoided so he wrote a letter to the Raikage, A, and politely told him that if he was intrigued about his village all he had to do was send a delegation to look around, and if an alliance came after this, because Kumo textiles were a valued commodity, then he would gladly sign. He set the letter aside for Daku to personally give the Kage his letter.
Naruto worked well into the night until he took a well-deserved break and made a midnight food run to a ramen stand in the mall. It didn't help that he was still being swarmed by citizens who also worked at night; he could agree that after all he had done, he was a sort of celebrity but he was always used to staying away from the spotlight. Though he did appreciate the company.
Naruto smiled at a flustered woman that had served him a bowl of ramen; it wasn't the first time he had come to her restaurant but she was always pushed to work quickly with the influx of customers that came with him.
He briefly noted to himself that he would have to use a Henge to return next time.
The small break he had allowed himself allowed him to think; he was almost brushing into level ten in his fuinjutsu, he had learnt more ninjutsu and he was now high jounin in his taijutsu, though he was sure that with his seals and his ninjutsu, hand-to-hand would be a last resort. He was a low chunin with a blade but he didn't mind, with the kind of swords he used he didn't need too much experience.
After a spar with Mole, he was confident he could take down mid-S rank ninja, even if he didn't trap them with a seal. He swirled his chopsticks in the broth idly and thought; no new buildings were being constructed that he should be made aware of but he still felt like there was one last very important building he needed commissioned.
It was as he was roof hopping back to the leader's tower that it dawned on him.
He stopped on the hospital roof and used the high vantage point to look over the walls that separated outer Wave from Wave central to look at the Hoshi clan members being trained by Mole before they could be inducted into DARK.
He could roughly guess that they were in training ground thirty-seven performing physically tiring exercises that Mole was yelling for them to do. They had been tested for two months and Mole had said that they would be ready in another month if things went smoothly; so far there were only five casualties from the training.
The medic had said that it was muscle tears and chakra exhaustion and that they would be back in action in a week. If the five casualties ever wanted to return to the training, they would have to go through a more intense training to catch up, the ninja had declined saying that they preferred being regular jounin. He shook his head and focused on his first thought; the last major structure to be constructed.
Very soon his village would reach a higher global recognition and the students would have to increase their rank to chunin. He turned with a swish of his leader's robes and continued roof-hopping to his office, his mind was a buzz with building plans. He had no problem sending qualified genin to other villages for the chunin exams but he would like to host one himself. He leapt through the window and immediately scheduled a meeting with architects, stone masons and carpenters to design Wave's very own chunin exam arena.
The blonde now thirteen-year-old boy was too excited to sleep anymore.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"…Lastly, team seventeen: Akihiko Taru, Jiro Kaori and Kenji Kaori. Your sensei will be Chika Billy. You are all to wait here until your sensei comes to retrieve you; if you did not hear your name wait behind," the class sensei for the graduating class finished.
The class broke out in low murmurs and the students shuffled to whoever they were team with. Some squealed in joy when they had discovered they had been teamed with each other and some glared daggers at each other. The class slowly began to empty with each respective sensei coming in to retrieve their genin until three genin remained seated. Some genin that passed them even sent sympathetic looks as they exited the room. Strange enough there wasn't a team three.
Inari screwed his lips to the side as he pondered on why he and the other two were being singled out; he was fairly sure that even though he just barely passed the academy he was still eligible as a ninja. Inari was sitting at the far front to the right wearing his forehead protector proudly on his forehead; he had on a plain dark blue shirt and black shorts with the standard kunai and shuriken on his thighs.
The boy drummed his fingers on his desk impatiently and stared at his too-calm sensei. The man winked at him and continued reading through whatever was on his desk.
Another genin that had been singled out frowned as her mind ran through everything she had done and wondered if there was a problem with her result; she had gotten top marks in every test she had been given since she entered the academy six months ago. The twelve-year-old silver-haired girl's forehead crinkled. She had on a deep red shirt and pants that stopped mid-calf, and her silver shoulder-length hair was styled in a short ponytail. She sat at the far back of the class.
The last left out genin was a nervous boy with smooth black hair, sweat poured down his face as he too wondered why he was left out. He also hadn't failed any test he had been given, even as far back as a year and a half ago. He was just a mark under the girl behind him anyway, why wasn't he put in a team? He idly rubbed his side bag that he had propped up on his lap.
The class sensei, a chubby Smoke ninja, stood up and read from a clipboard, "Inari Kaiza," the boy perked up at his name, "Manzo Noriko," the sweating black-haired boy jumped a bit when he heard his name, "Hoshi Reizo Kamlyn," the silver-haired Hoshi genin nodded; the door opened and in walked a tall man with a chubby face but a very slimy built body. There was a green splotchy birthmark that covered his right eye and the top corner of the right side of his lips. He was clad in a standard chunin uniform. The man looked at the three genin silently and rubbed his nose.
"These them?" he asked the teacher.
"Yup."
"Follow me," he briefly told the waiting genin and Inari was to leap over his desk and follow the village leader's assistant, Noriko went after taking deep calming breaths and finally Kamlyn trailed behind.
They walked out of Wave Central's gates to training ground nineteen. The training ground was more heavily populated by trees with a gently flowing river passing through. Noriko gasped in surprise at who he saw sitting on a stump in the middle of the training ground sketching a bird nest that was far in front of him on a tree.
"Leader!" he and Inari yelled together.
Naruto merely told them to keep their voices down and for them to sit down on the ground. "Thank you Frog, you can leave now." The black ops member nodded and body flickered away, marvelling at the three genin.
Inari snorted. "Frog? What kind of name is that?" he snickered until Kamlyn bashed him on the head with her fist. "Hey!"
"Thank you, Reizo."
"Please call me Kamlyn, Leader, sir."
The Wave leader hadn't even raised his head from his work, making her wonder how he knew she had hit Inari. "Kamlyn."
Inari rubbed his sore head and glared at the Hoshi genin, waiting for the village leader to finish what he was doing. Naruto began speaking, "If you ever sit down and look around, really look around, you would notice that there are little pockets of peace, even in a war-torn place. Of all the places I could have lived in, I chose Wave. Do you want to know why?" the three genin nodded. "Because I saw raw potential in the very earth, I saw potential in the air, I saw potential in the people here. I saw peace in conflict even when Gato controlled here and I chose this place to reside in because I could do something to expand that peace to cover the country and everything we touch. The village I lived in before was not too welcoming about my status as jinchuriki." The information had been made known to the people. "And they strived to take away what peace I had. Wave was a sinking nation when I came but I restored it, not fully, but I did my best, because all I ever wanted was a place, I could find peace and strive to protect. Wave became my family and I would readily protect it with my life." The students were enthralled, even though Naruto wasn't looking at them as he said it. "Make no mistake, I have friends and acquaintances in my old village but I only really want this place to thrive."
He slipped his sketchpad and pencil into his right sleeve and it disappeared right before their eyes.
Naruto looked down at the genin with his sky-blue eyes, smiling his signature light smile at them. He looked into each person's eyes and immediately felt incredibly old; he was not more than two years older than the boys and girls sitting before him and he had already had three students, not including the genin sitting before him. He only wore his combat uniform.
He pointed at Inari. "Introduce yourself,"
"Uh…I…Uh."
Naruto raised an amused eyebrow and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll go first. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like studying fuinjutsu, training, drawing, and some other things that'll bore you. I dislike disorganisation and loud noises. My hobbies are perfecting my seal work, eating ramen, and some other stuff. My goals are to be the best seal master in history and to make Wave move forward. Now you,"
"My name is Inari Kaiza, Genin of Wave country. I like fish, training and my grandpa. I hate spoiled sports, bullies and goats." He shivered from memory and continued, "My hobbies are fishing with my grandpa, cooking and practising my shurikenjutsu. My goal…my goal is to become a jounin!" he pumped his fist in the air proudly. Naruto nodded for the next person to begin.
"My name is Kamlyn Reiza of the Hoshi clan, Genin of Wave country. I like my family, I like my clan, and I like Wave. I dislike turnips. My hobbies are sparring with my cousin and learning new jutsus. My goal is to take over my clan as the clan head." Her last statement had made everyone aware that she was the sole clan heiress of the Hoshi clan; she raised her chin and looked at Naruto proudly. Naruto pointed at the last boy and he gave a deep gulp.
"My…" he cleared his throat. "My name is Noriko Manzo, Genin of Wave country. I love learning, silence and seals. I dislike noise. My hobbies are studying seals, learning new seals, training and cooking. My goal is to become the leader of Wave country."
Naruto had of course already known all about this team from their favourite colours to their shoe sizes, but this was all for formality's sake. He crossed his arms and pursed his lips; the team was made up of the dead last and two of the brightest students that had ever come out of Wave, but this didn't mean that they would work well together.
"I want to let you three in on something." They leaned in, interested in what their blonde sensei had to say. "You aren't yet genin."
"What?! But we took the exams and we passed! How aren't we genin!?" Inari yelled in outrage but shut up from the blank look Naruto was giving him, he shuffled into himself when he remembered that the person in front of him had all right to take his headband and ban him from becoming a shinobi, "Sorry…"
"Good. Now, I know you all passed the exams but that only qualifies you to become ninjas, not to become teammates and not even close to what a genin should be."
"What do we have to do to become genin, Lord Naruto?" the clan heiress piped up.
"The test I want to give you is quite simple." He stood up and towered over his students ominously; he reached into his left sleeve and ever so slowly he brought out something. A coupon. "I want you all to get my order of ramen from Blue Noodles Emporium to my office. You all know my office, right?" They nodded. "Good. You have four hours. Don't mess this up."
He gave the coupon to Inari and took a step back, disappearing in a seal-less body flicker, making the genin turn starry eyed at the display.
The first person to break the silence was Inari. "Easy! We'll get his order in twenty minutes tops." He raised the coupon above his head and began his march to Wave Central. He stopped when he noticed his other two teammates weren't following. "What are you two waiting for? We're burning daylight!"
"Do you even know where the Blue Noodle Emporium is?" Kam asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well…no. But we can ask around," Inari said.
"That will 'burn daylight' idiot. Why do you even think he gave us four hours to get an order to his office? Something's up."
"Leader said this was a test," Noriko, chimed in. "This must carry some sort of significance."
"One thing at a time. First, where is this blue noodle place?" Kam asked them.
"I know where it is; I work there part-time," the Noriko muttered.
"Why didn't you say something before?" Inari grumbled.
"Leader gave us four hours to get a ramen order to his office. I've done the math and it shouldn't even take us more than thirty minutes," Noriko replied right away. he looked around the empty training ground and shivered. "Something's not right."
"Lead the way. We can deal with the problem when it comes," Inari insisted.
The Noriko nodded and motioned for the other two to follow him.
Inari tucked the coupon into his kunai pouch and ran after his teammates. They phased through the invisible bubble at the Wave central gate; their seal tattoos allowing them passage, and kept up their steady sprint to the mall.
Kam kept a vigilant eye around her at the everyday proceedings of the Wave people, still wondering why the wave leader had given them four hours. It wasn't until they were halfway to the mall did something happened; she nudged Noriko out of the path of a loose melon cart, saving him from being crushed. Noriko looked with wide eyes at how close to death he had been. Inari though kept on running. The melon cart disappeared as soon as it appeared.
"Inari, wait!" but it was too late, a large balloon that had been thrown out of nowhere exploded on his back and threw him face-first into the ground. He scrambled to his feet and looked around hastily, seething.
"Who did that?!" the citizens merely looked at him in amusement.
Noriko rushed to him and prompted him to keep walking, making sure that he didn't touch the paint-covered boy. "This is why he gave us four hours. He set traps!"
"Is he even allowed to do that?" Kam asked, bewildered and alarmed. "We're in Wave Central, not the training ground."
"Lord Naruto isn't just anyone. He controls everything." Noriko looked around, more alarmed and more panicked. The implications ran rampant images in his imagination, petrifying him.
Inari pushed him to the side hastily to dodge another rampaging melon cart, the owner sped after it this time. "We need to hurry then." For the first time in a long time he had his serious face on.
"Yeah," both answered and kept on speeding down the street to the mall. As they burst through the revolving doors of the mall, bowling balls rattled behind them. They were covered in muck, soot, dirt and paint from all the traps they couldn't see on time.
Kam looked even worse; she had been doused with honey and somehow feathers had fallen all over her from where she could never guess. It seemed like the twitch in her left eye was permanent as she pushed both boys away from a goat that had fallen from the ceiling, squarely landing on her. If only looks could kill, the poor creature Frog had dropped from the ceiling would have died twice over.
Haku chuckled into his hand and froze over the nervously twitching Noriko's next step. The boy slid off his feet and into a lingerie store. The boy's screams of absolute terror sounded musical to Haku's ears. Inari had to run in, with his eyes tightly shut, and pulled the boy out.
"I hate this!" Kam screamed and kicked away another goat that had been thrown at her from kami-knows-where, the goat stubbornly stayed in place but her foot hurt.
"Argh!" She had completely lost her composure. It was now Inari that was the calm and collected one. "This is two freaking hours already!" her hands trembled with her anger and she kicked the fat goat again but again it didn't budge, rather it looked at her with dull eyes.
"You need to calm down Kamlyn," Noriko implored but the girl swivelled to him with flames ignited in her eyes.
Inari stepped in before the feathery girl could lay waste to the other boy. "He's trying to mess with us. Don't let him get to you." He shook the girl's shoulders so she would look at him.
"Why would he do this?" she tore up. "It'll take days to get this out of my hair," Inari would have laughed if he wasn't almost worse off; he was pretty sure that all with all the paint and horse shit on his clothes, his mother would need burn it all. He nodded and shook her again when she was about to have another nervous breakdown. "I know, I know but we need to pass this test before we become ninjas. You want that don't you?" she sniffed and nodded. "Then get your shit together and let's keep going."
The girl gently pushed away from him and nodded resolutely.
They ran as fast as possible through the busy mall, a path carved for them with how bad the three smelt. Kam grabbed Inari's hand and pulled him to her as some horse shit dropped from the ceiling, when they turned around the excrement had already been wiped clean from the ground like it wasn't there in the first place.
Noriko flipped through a few hand seals. "Clone technique!"
Four identical, illusionary clones exploded into sight beside him and ran in different directions. Although the plan was good it couldn't fool veterans in the ninja world. Kam reached into her shuriken pouch and pulled out a two-foot-long metal rod, she spun it in her hands and it shot out to seven feet. She deflected a few bowling balls and Noriko hastily removed a scroll from his side pack, and threw it open, hoping to his stars that what he was about to do worked. The simple seal for storage flashed across the big scroll as he leapt ahead of his teammates, and the remaining bowling balls were immediately sealed inside on contact.
"Yes!" he rolled up the scroll and waved it over his head in celebration and Kam spared him a brief thumb-up before she had to hop out of the way from another fat goat.
"Damn goats." Inari grumbled and she nodded in wholehearted agreement.
They burst into the blue noodle, ordered the ramen and took off to the roof. They all took in the clean air that blasted into their noses and began roof-hopping to the leader's tower.
They heard a loud bleat from behind them and they looked over their shoulders in horror as another fat goat hurtled to them.
Inari yelled, "Scatter!" The boy tossed the ramen order that was in a leather bag, to Kam and when she slipped on some ice she tossed it to Noriko and the boy threw a blunt kunai at her as he caught the noodles in his left hand, and the girl caught the kunai and he summarily pulled her back with the thin ninja wire attached to it, saving her from dropping off the hospital roof. "Shit!"
Kam leapt off the hospital to the roof of a bakery directly next to the leader's tower with the kunai still in her hand so she could pull Noriko as he dangled off the side of the building. He tossed the order to Inari and hefted himself onto the building.
The filthy threesome burst through the door and pushed their way to Naruto's office. The blonde leader looked up at them in amusement, boredly reading a novel. "With five minutes to spare. I'm impressed."
Inari tiredly shuffled to the desk and dropped the order. He wanted to collapse, managing to stutter, "You're…you're order… Lord Leader."
Naruto poked the bag with a pen. "It smells like shit."
Kam's left eye twitched violently and she was tempted to yell. 'Wel,l what do you expect?!"
The blonde seal master pushed the ramen away, for the first time in his life, and propped his elbows on the desk. "Before I pass you, I have a simple question to ask. What have you learnt from this test?"
"That you're an ass?" surprising enough it was Noriko that muttered this. Mole giggled quietly from her hidden post.
Naruto heard this but chose to ignore it. "Yes?"
"That we need to be more aware of our surroundings?" Kam asked.
"A good lesson but not the answer I'm looking for."
"That we need to think with our heads before we move in," Inari said.
"Not what I'm looking for but also a good answer." When they couldn't answer he clued them in, saying, "Imagine all three of you did this test individually. Alone."
Their eyes widened in realisation, remembering all the times they pushed themselves away from harm or even put themselves in the way of harm so it wouldn't reach their teammates. Naruto smiled brightly when they seemed to get the message he was trying to pass.
"A team is only as strong as its members; this does not only talk about the skill or the strength of a person but the heart and the will. You each performed selflessly in this test and I couldn't be any prouder to say this," The genin instinctively straightened up as the blonde teen stood up from his chair, "You all passed…Team Three."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Orochimaru swirled the contexts of a phial in his right hand as he looked intently into it. He hummed and jotted something down on a notepad with his left hand; he gently dropped the phial in a rack with five other similar phials but of differing colours. The snake Sannin rubbed his hands and barely contained his excitement as he looked through a microscope at the multiplying DNA on a glass film. 'It's all coming along just nicely.'
The man turned around and looked at the operating table, running his hands delicately over the ivory-white skin of the dead shinobi he had on the table, a nameless Konoha ninja he had kidnapped after the invasion. All the experiments he had performed on the man had eventually killed him but he had been successful on one count.
"I've found an Uchiha,"
His evil chuckles rang through his laboratory and out through his corridors.
Authors note
I apologise if this chapter seemed rushed and boring, especially Zabuza's fight with Yagura.
Well, that's about it. What do you all think? Please drop a review,
See you all on the flip side,
Foy.