Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I own none of it.
Summary: A wife's plea answered, Their son would not be raised alone. Raised by the Toads Naruto is bound to become a fearsome Toad Warrior
Chapter 4 - Disaster Days
Author's Note: Lots going on in this chapter. I'm keeping fights pretty simple 'cause who can actually visualise detailed text fights right?
It's been four years since Naruto started the academy. Four years spent learning the most absolute basics of life, reading, writing, arithmetic. Four years learning the foundations of kata and the beginnings of taijutsu. Four years building friendships, and establishing the social pecking order.
But in those four years the village changed in a big way. The Uchiha clan were massacred by one of their own, Itachi Uchiha. Leaving the only surviving member to be Naruto's classmate Sasuke. WHile Sasuke did certainly return to the academy after some time, he was changed. Previously eager to live up to his clan name, it was now his obsession. Previously somewhat shy, he was now reclusive and cold. His love for his older brother was replaced by burning hatred, and his love for his clan replaced by a pit of untouchable grief.
While he always stood towards the top of the class, in all things. He was now unassailable in all fields. Untouchable. Unless of course your name was, Naruto Uzumaki. Between training with his friends, and with the toads they were all but tied in the physical aspects of young shinobi life. Sasuke's interceptor style struggling to overcome the defensive and hard to predict toad kata. Sasuke was quicker all in all, but Naruto just dodged or blocked most of his hits, waiting for Sasuke to overextend or overcommit to spring into single explosive hits. Naruto's hits nearly always had the full strength of his legs driving them harder than any hit Sasuke could manage.
So it was no surprise that they were evenly matched during their end of day spar. Being that they were now in the back half of their time at the academy, their days would be split evenly between book learning in the morning, ranging now from history to tactics to jutsu theory. To their afternoons learning ninjutsu, taijutsu, weapons, stealth and survival.
In the match at hand Naruto coolly deflected an overdone haymaker to the left of his head, Holding onto the opposing wrist in an unusual movement he pivoted pulling Sasuke forward while simultaneously kicking himself into a front flip axe kick he used to drive Sasuke into the ground.
"Point! Naruto!" Iruka called as they reset, Sasuke fuming at the loss of a point to the toad loser. The playful smirk on Naruto's face drives him further to rage.
They met in the centre of the sparring circle, Naruto having launched himself high in one of the toad kata's explosive openings, only Sasuke had seen this move before.
He dropped to his knees as he leaned back just half inch ahead of Naruto's jumping uppercut, leaving him in position to grab onto Naruto's foot. Twisting the foot and himself he manoeuvred Naruto into an ankle lock that pinned him to the ground.
"Point! Sasuke!" Iruka shouted as they once more came to the centre.
"Nice move, Sasuke. Good point." Naruto gave the brooding boy a good natured thumbs up.
Sasuke just "Hn'd" as they took position again, eyes narrowing as he tried to predict his opponents next move. Both boys shot forward, Naruto seemingly going for the same opening move as last round. Only as he approached he almost seemed to trip, rolling past Sasuke to the sound of laughter from the crowd.
Only Naruto hadn't tripped. He'd rolled on purpose, disarming Sasuke and getting behind his at the same time. Somehow from a kip up position, he generated enough force from his arms to drive a donkey kick into Sasuke's back, knocking the boy to the ground.
"Match! Naruto!" Kiba cheered from the side even as Shino and Hinata applauded along. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly as Naruto's last move but otherwise he said nothing. Ino and Sakura of course booed loudly. Choji continued eating his chips, unimpeded by the match.
Naruto made to shake Sasuke's hand after they both stood back up. But Sasuke batted it away. "Whatever, I'll win next time toadie" Naruto's grin faltered for a second as Sasuke walked off and Iruka called an end to the class. But his downcast mood didn't last long as he started hearing murmuring from the crowd.
Looking around to see what the disturbance was he was overjoyed to see one of his favourite Uncles. "Uncle-Raiya! What are you doing here!?" He ran up to the large older man joyfully.
Jiraiya's great mane of white hair billowed as he laughed. "What, I need an excuse to see my favourite little toad?" He playfully boxed Naruto in the ribs before tickling him to the ground.
"Um, Naruto. Who's this man touching you?" A concerned Hinata asked her and the rest of Naruto's friends making their way over. Kiba was chuckling but Shino also looked quite concerned.
"What?!" The toad sage exclaimed in mock hurt. "Little Naruto-chan hasn't told all his friends about his mighty Uncle?" He struck a pose as he began a silly dance. "I am the man who has no enemies!" He danced from side to side, flicking his hair. "From the east to the west, to the heavens above, by the ladies I am much beloved!" With a poof of smoke he was suddenly on top of a toad dancing with him. "I am the man who has no enemies, for the will of the great sage directs me! Ever gallant, and forever fighting for right, I am the Sannin Jiraiya!" He hopped off the toad and ruffled Hinata and Kiba's hair, much to their dismay. "And you kiddies must be Naruto's friends. Naruto, so rude of you to not introduce us!"
As the rest of the kids stared in shock at the flamboyant man, Naruto got back to his feet. "Like you gave me a chance Uncle-Raiya!" He scoffed. "Anyways, guys this is my Toad Master Uncle Jiraiya, sage of Mt. Myoboku. Supposedly my name comes from his book or something. He's pretty cool, he used to visit me on Mt. Myoboku when I was a kid."
Now Jiraiya scoffed. "I'm more than pretty cool kid. Anyways, say goodbye to your little friends, it's a big day for you and we need a little privacy. Come on!" He started off as Naruto hastily followed after the older man, knowing he didn't really wait around for people.
Eventually they arrived at Naruto's spot in the woods where he normally trained with Fukasaku. "So Uncle-Raiya, what are you doing here? What's going on?"
"Slow down kid, slow down. I would have gotten to that." He gestured for them to sit down. "It's mostly as a formality, but I'm here to teach you to summon, with your own chakra. Your partner has taken toad form and is ready to meet you. And it's important to summon him with your own chakra to strengthen the bond. His name's Gamakichi, and he's one of Gamabunta's sons. A fire mountain toad it turns out, he'll grow to massive size as a battle toad given time, and will be able to swallow and capture almost anything." He smiled at Naruto's visible excitement. "So what are we waiting for! Here are the seals to summon without your tattoo, time to meet your new buddy!"
"Sure thing Uncle-Raiya! One toad buddy, coming up!" He bit his thumb and did the seals, pressing his palm to the ground as the matrix spread out and with a puff of smoke revealed… A tadpole."
Jiraiya all but fell back laughing as Naruto made a face at the little guy before it poofed away. "Ah Naruto-chan, I'm sorry but we all do that our first time. Your face was priceless." He wiped away tears. "The trick is to build up your chakra into your hand before releasing, and release it all at once to summon a bigger toad. Not the little trickle Pa has been teaching you to use for chakra control."
Naruto nodded and appeared to focus for a minute, a hazy blue aura appearing around him as he performed the hand signs once more, imposing the name Gamakichi on his mind, visualising the kanji having never seen the toad before.
A puff of smoke later, and sure enough a small… Very small toad appeared. Orange and blue in colouring, and around the size of a tennis ball the little guy gave Naruto a way. "Hey bud! Name's Gamakichi. Got any snacks?"
Naruto blinked a couple times before ruffling through his stuff to find a rice ball almost the size of the toad to give to him. "Hey 'Kichi! Nice to meet ya! I'm Naruto, and I'm looking forward to working with you! Your Dad's super cool so I'm sure you will be too."
"Pft" The little toad stuck out his tongue. "I already am cool." He took a bite of the rice ball before talking with his mouthful. "So what'cha do for fun Naruto?"
"Oh um," Naruto paused for a second. "Mostly I train or hang out with my friends, and play pranks of course!"
Kichi croaked in approval "Sounds like we'll get along just fine buddy. And hey if we ever get in trouble we can just summon my Dad to bail us out right?"
Everyone laughed at that before Jiraiya cut in. "Ah, that's funny but you know not to do that for real right? Right?"
They all laughed together for a while before eventually heading out for dinner. Jiraiya's treat of course.
They say there's no such thing as coincidence, but the next day when Naruto arrived at the academy with 'Kichi on his head, he ran into Kiba. Kiba had a puppy in his coat!
"Naruto!" THe Inuzuka called. "Check it out!" He pointed to the dog, clearly not seeing the toad on Naruto's head. "This is Akamaru yeah! He's gonna be my new super best friend." He elbowed Naruto in the ribs. "No offence."
Naruto just chuckled as he pointed at his head. "None taken dog-breath. This is Gamakichi, and he's gonna be a battle toad someday!" Both the boys smiled at each other even as they heard a girl squeal. turning , to their shock they saw Hinata all but flying at them. Somehow in a flying lunge she had grabbed both of their animal companions on her way by and was now on the ground with a toad under one arm and a dog under the other.
"They're so cute! Look at them! How come the Hyuuga don't have cute friends?" She nuzzled the two happy animals.
Only before anyone could answer, the worst happened.
As a bug flew by, 'Kichi's tongue stuck out and ate it.
A cold air settled over the group as Shino appeared, disappointment visible through his dark glasses. "Shino, I'm so sorry-" Naruto began as Shino seemingly quivered. "Kichi's new, we just met yesterday. We hadn't had the talk man!" He went from worked out to deflated and defeated in a moment. "Shino, I'm sorry."
Shino looked at the defeat on Naruto's face, and the horrific realisation on Kichi's.
"Never again Naruto. Never again."
Everyone bowed to him repeatedly, including Gamakichi. Sure they would never hurt the boy's feelings again.
They would.
In class that day, unbeknownst to most of the class. A fantastic prank was underway. With access to the normal summoning jutsu Naruto could now summon small toads, without the need for Kyuubi. Meaning he could do so more or less without detection.
Poor Iruka, he never noticed the small hallucinogenic toad nestled between the cushions. So while class continued, it began to get stranger and stranger.
"And the fourth Hokage. Man he was like… Just as strong as the first, but so much cooler. We don't tell you kids this but." He stared at nothing or a moment. "Sorry the unicorn was being loud. The fourth like, wasn't a gambler with shitty friends. He was totally his own thing, before the stupid Kyuubi incident or whatever." He looked at the door. "In fact, here he is now! I'm gonna go with him. You guys are lame."
With that Iuka got up and walked out of the classroom, to the shock of the class. Naruto and Kichi were of course restraining their laughter. Only for the lunch bell to ring!
After lunch a different sensei was in charge of the class. Mizuki, a silver haired Chunin in standard garb with a bandana headband, was sitting at Iruka's desk.
"Good afternoon class! My name is Mizuki and I'll be taking over Iruka's class as he's not feeling well today." Little did he know he was sitting on the same hallucinogenic toad as Iruka earlier. "The schedule for today says we're doing survival and pursuit training this afternoon so let's head out to the woods!"
With that they departed for the remote part of the woods Mizuki had chosen, a strange grin over his face. "Now everybody, what can you tell me about surviving in the woods?"
Kiba spoke up. "You can't leave tracks, and you can follow tracks to prey!" He pumped his fist as he spoke.
Mizuki nodded, "Very true. What else?"
Sakura spoke up. "Conifer trees make for excellent shelter, and hidey-holes as the needles dampen noise."
"Absolutely. What else?"
At this point Naruto spoke up. "If you need energy fast, protein rich bugs can be found just under bark or rocks!"
Mizuki nodded in agreement to this, while some of the group began to whisper. "I'd heard he eats bugs," "While he is a toad ninja." "He already knows where to find them." "Gross" The voices of many students rang out. Choiji even stopped eating his chips in horror,
Naruto felt the judgement of his peers and felt ashamed. But even then they were already being paired up. He had missed most of the pairings when he heard his name. "Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki. You'll be the final pair to be pursued. Once again all of you will have 15 minutes to find a meal, and then need to stay away from me for 15 minutes. Go!"
It didn't take Naruto and Sasuke long to acquire their meals, a robust collection of fruits and mushrooms from Naruto and a squirrel from Sasuke. They ate and prepared largely in silence, as Naruto began turning his orange clothing inside out to reveal grey's on the other side, to Sasuke's raised brow.
"What? Naruto asked. " I do tons of stealth pranks, no one ever wondered how? Don't see what you don't expect."
Sasuke "Hn'd" and nodded, actually respecting the boy's clever nature.
As they began their way through the forest, Naruto's toad helpfully informed them when they were leaving too many tracks. Inevitably they were found though, the chunin chasing them having too much experience to be outwitted by academy students.
Only much to their shock he opened with a giant shuriken aiming to take them both out at the knees. Gamakichi croaked in warning prompting Naruto to tackle Sasuke out of the way of the projectile even as the deranged sensei closed on them. His eyes wide with the toad venom Naruto had unwittingly doused him with. "It's perfect. The Kyuubi brat goes wild and chases away the last Uchiha. No one will be surprised Sasuke flees the monster and I'm free to pursue, taking him straight to Lord Orochimaru. No one the wiser."
His smirk was manic, and Naruto thought it was all his fault. "Sasuke! I accidentally drugged him with toad venom, he doesn't know what he's doing we gotta subdue him." And while it was certainly true the hallucinogenic toad venom had an effect, this was closer to the true Mizuki than anyone could expect.
Sasuke wrote the Kyuubi bit off as part of the venom. Beginning to engage the chunin with Naruto at his side. "Whatever toadie. We'll take him down."
So began the battle. Mizuki horribly out of practice due to his years off the mission roster, versus the two most talented shinobi in the academy. Sasuke fought on the front line, keeping Mizuki occupied. During brief moments when Sasuke would either force an opening, or when Mizuki would slip up Naruto would deliver explosive hits to the chunin.
Mizuki was being steadily worn down. He couldn't believe these brats would force him this far. Creating some distance he chugged a vial of mysterious substance. "This is the power of my Lord! I'll take you both down easily with this."
Knowing they were fighting at the edge of their abilities already, Naruto knew he had no choice as he side eyed Sasuke. Biting his thumb he slid his shirt up as he shouted at Sasuke. "Don't freak out!" He slid his thumb across his summoning tattoo as Gamarza came forth. A wave of Kyuubi's chakra spreading out at the six food toad appeared on the field, stopping everyone in their tracks as Naruto gave his direction. "Rza! Hit him with the razor!"
To wit, Gama Rza shot forward in a vicious lariat, reopening the battle as Sasuke shook at his first feeling of Kyuubi chakra. Naruto ran to him as Sasuke collapsed and Gamarza took care of the traitor. "It's alright Sasuke, it's just me, it was just chakra. You're okay."
Gamarza was of course victorious, and bound the traitor in his tongue as he returned to his friend and summoner. Sasuke regained his feet at the same time. "Naruto-chan, I recommend Gamakichi hold the prisoner until his return, the stomach of a fire toad is inescapable."
Naruto just looked between Mizuki and Gamakichi. "Um, isn't he a little too big?"
"Nah" Kichi spoke up. "Toads are bigger on the inside. I got this." And with a whip out of his tongue Gamakichi seemingly consumed the rogue teacher. His job done, Gamarza returns to Mt. Myoboku.
Sasuke stares him dead in the eyes. "Summoning is one of the highest forms of ninjutsu, you owe me an explanation."
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Hehe, sorry Sasuke. We gotta go to the Hokage's office for that." He looks up at Kichi. "I mean I guess we have to anyway. But hey! We both have a really good transformation jutsu, let's go collect everyone and send them home before we go."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes but agreed. Making his way to the Hokage office when they were done.
In the Hokage's office about an hour later, there was a hesitant knock at the door as Hiruzen bussed the front desk to let them in. Revealing a dishevelled Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki.
"Ah." He puffed at this pipe. "What do I owe the pleasure today boys?" The venerable kage queried.
Naruto and Sasuke shared a look before Naruto continued. "Yeah so, I thought it would be funny to drug Iruka-sensei with a toad. But then the sensei that replaced him went crazy and tried to kill me and run off with Sasuke for some Orochimaru guy. So Sasuke felt me use it's chakra to summon a toad to fight him off. So Gamakichi has him in his stomach and I don't really know what to do now." Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head.
"Ah" Sarutobi began, gesturing for one of his Anbu to appear. "In that case if you could have Gamakichi go with my Anbu here to escort him to torture and interogation that would be a good start." The boy bowed as he gave Gamakichi to the Anbu, who promptly disappeared. Returning his gaze to Sasuke he continued. "Now, you've stumbled upon a village secret young Sasuke. You see, Naruto was entrusted to hold the Kyuubi at birth and given to the toad clan to raise. We keep this a secret to ensure other villages don't attempt to assassinate or kidnap Naruto before he learns to defend himself. You understand right?"
Sasuke took a moment to digest what the Hokage said. "So Naruto is strong because of Kyuubi? Not the Toads?"
"Not at all." Sarutobi corrects. "Naruto is strong because he is determined to be an excellent shinobi, just as you are. We all have our reasons why, our own will of fire." The old man smiled down at him.
"I think I understand." Sasuke nodded, even though he didn't fully understand. "I won't tell anyone."
Naruto sighed in relief as Sarutobi nodded.
Later that night Naruto and Kiba went for their usual Friday night dinner. Tonight going to a dango shop they'd never been to. An eccentric lady down at another table was drawing quite a bit of attention as the boys talked.
"You mean you fought off a chunin? You and Sasuke?" Kiba was dubious.
"I mean." Naruto scratched the back of his head as their miso soup was delivered. "The toads helped out. But yeah he was trying to kidnap Sasuke or something." He downplayed his own role.
"Dude you could have died!" Kiba exclaimed. "Chunin are serious business. My sister Hana has three ninken, and is super strong and she hasn't even made chunin yet! I can't believe I wasn't there to fight with you…" He looked dejected.
"Kiba…" Naruto started softly. "It's not a big deal, the toads got my back. They'd never let some punk like Mizuki take me out, dattebayo!" Even as he issued his exuberant catch phrase, his voice was soft as he reached over and took Kiba's hand.
Kiba, though, wouldn't make eye contact with him. "I just, I had a bad feeling about Mizuki and I didn't listen because he was a sensei. Inuzuka always has to listen to their feelings, especially when it's about pack. I failed you Naruto." The young man was downcast.
Naruto had never realised Kiba thought of him as a pack and blushed. "It's okay Kiba, one day we'll be on the same team and we'll always have each other's back! Dattebayo!" He lifted Kiba's hand into the air with his as he exclaimed.
Kiba smirked at the boy as he agreed softly. "Dattebayo"
AN: Datebayo! Friendships, rivalries, toads! Who could ask for more? Feel free to comment if you know what Gamarza is referencing.