I don't own Naruto or YuYu Hakusho.
"Talk"
'Think'
"Talk"
'Think'
A ringing sound blared in Naruto's ear, it was the most evil thing, second to paperwork.
It was the alarm clock.
Groaning tiredly Naruto lifted his right arm, and brought it down on the evil thing. Naruto Uzumaki hated, despised, and absolutely abhorred alarm clocks. One day he would hold a grand alarm clock bonfire. It would be the greatest day in the history of Konoha, that everyone would enjoy.
Yawning the black-streaked bond threw off his covers and sat himself upright in his bed. That's when he started feeling a headache coming he looked at his katana, fully knowing that it sent someone who died to the afterlife.
This recently departed soul was that of an old man, apparently he died of natural causes at the age of seventy-nine. He worked hard to provide for his family as a carpenter until he retired, and while he did a few bad things in life he automatically felt that he was in heaven now. While the sword was cool and totally badass, he was a little annoyed that he had to know the information about them. He mentally noted to ask Shinigami about it later.
Bringing his feet over his bed he nearly stumbled, after all how could you blame him? He was too used to being short, and for two weeks he slept on the ground. Sleeping in a bed was a whole new experience for him with his new found height, it would take some getting used to, but like every situation that he encountered he would overcome it.
After regaining his balance he stood up and looked around. That's where he laid his eyes on the sleeping forms of Ichigo and Benihime curled up at the foot of his bed. He let out a true smile seeing the brother and sister duo sleeping peacefully, but Ichigo looked to be ready to wake up any second. Blame the Bleach manga he read during his academy days, but that was why he gave Ichigo his name, he protected his little sister even when he knew he couldn't win. As for Benihime, well she was a crimson princess to him, even if her fur didn't show it.
After staring for another minute Naruto went into his small as hell bathroom, and stepped into the shower. Performing the various acts that one performs in the shower, not minding the icy coldness of the water because is damn landlord kept his water cold. Over the years he found it soothing and toughened him up, that was probably the only thing he liked about his apartment.
Stepping out of the shower, he quickly dried himself off, and then positioned himself in front of the sink to brush his teeth. Now fully awake thanks to his shower he stared at his reflection. It wasn't pretty, while he thought he looked like a grizzled, feral badass, he missed his old face. He honestly wished it didn't come to this, but sacrifices had to be made to keep up his charade.
Last night he wrote out his report on his "experience" in Stone Country, and in the report was that he was subjected to brutal physical exercises, tortured to endure pain, and injected with something that inadvertently fucked up his healing process. Which of course made Kyuubi pump his chakra into him to make sure he didn't die. He made sure to make it as vivid as possible though to keep up his act. Or in Shinigami's words he just put the biggest load of bullshit on paper.
Shrugging the sight off he brushed his teeth and went to put his clothes on. When he opened his closet a second later he smacked the side of his head in stupidity.
Orange greeted his vision. He loved the color orange, he really, really did. But these just wouldn't cut it in his career anymore.
"These have got to go." Naruto muttered to himself, he quickly gathered the monstrosities into his arms and tossed them out the window. Sighing he looked back to his closet to see he only had a few black t-shirts left, along with ten pairs of orange boxers-there was no way in hell he was going let go of all his obsession for that color. "Looks like I have some shopping to do." he sighed out, honestly hating the mere thought of clothes shopping.
After getting dressed in Ishikawa's extra clothing he found in his scroll, looked over to the two fox kits, and created two shadow clones to keep guard. Before leaving he strapped Handanryoku to his waist, stuffed his "report" in one of his back pouches, and placed him Hannya mask over his face before leaving.
Once outside Naruto headed towards the Hokage Tower first. It was around seven in the morning, and there were few people out, but those few were giving him new looks. For once the looks he was getting were completely different. They were ones of awe, curiosity, and his new favorite one.
Fear.
Oh that was a sweet emotion that he secretly wanted to see for a very long time. Any further thoughts on it were interrupted by two people shouting. It wasn't shouting like in angry shouting but...he couldn't describe it, it was so fast and contained the words "youth" he couldn't make them out.
He turned around to see who the hell was screaming.
And immediately wished he didn't.
Running towards him were two figures. The first was a man who looked to be in his late twenties. He had black hair that was in a bowl shape hair style, black eyes, and MASSIVE black eyebrows, he wore a dark green spandex suit, the standard forest green Jounin flak-vest, orange leg warmers, blue shinobi-style sandals, and wore his Leaf hitai-ate as a belt. The second was a teenager at least a year older than him, but was the carbon copy of what Naruto believed was his Jounin sensei.
The first one he already knew, he was Gai Maito; The Green Beast of Kohona. But the second one seemed familiar, but it eluded him him for the moment. The two weren't a threat he knew but his instincts to him to run, and that's what he did. But that clearly turned out to be a mistake because the two spandex freaks sped up to him, until he was sandwiched between them.
"Gai-sensei looks like we have a new participant in our morning runs!" the Gai lookalike screamed out.
"Yes Lee let us shower him with our Flames of Youth!" Gai shouted at the teen named Lee.
That caused Naruto to stumble and hit the ground with a thud, causing the two to stop and look at him funny. He looked up to see the two spandex-clad shinobi with disbelieving eyes. "Lee? As in Rock Lee?" Naruto asked the younger of the two.
"Yes my creepy masked friend who are you?" Lee asked the black-streaked blond.
"It's me Naruto."
If possible Lee's already bug-like eyes widened even further as he stared at his friend from their academy days. "Naruto is that really you?" he asked as he extended his right bandaged hand.
Accepting the hand Naruto lifted himself up onto his feet, and dusted himself off, "In the flesh my friend."
"What happened to you? You're all different." Lee asked after seeing all the changes in his friend.
"I could say the same to you." Naruto responded looking at his spandex form.
"Haha touche."
"Lee you know Naruto?" Gai asked after listening to their conversation.
"Yes, he and I trained together during our academy days." Lee replied Gai's question.
Gai only grinned and gave them the nice-guy pose, "Well then, a friend of Lee's is a friend of mine!" he hollered out and ended it with a smile, that shined brighter than anything Naruto ever saw in his life.
The mask-wearing blond couldn't recall what happened after that. All he remembered was a bright shining light, and the next minute he was on the ground exhausted as hell, with Lee beside him, and Gai standing above them congratulating them for lasting as long as they did.
'Kyuubi what the hell just happened?' Naruto asked his tenant.
"Apparently you went under some sort of trance due to the ugly ningens teeth. Ran with them around the village five more times, thankfully you didn't shout whatever the hell these flames of youth are. And then you sparred with Lee for an hour, and then Gai invited the two of you to fight him in a two-on-one fight. I must admit you both displayed amazing teamwork, but in the end you got your sorry asses handed to you." Kyuubi responded impressed, but pretty displeased that Naruto participated with the two freaky humans.
'Note to self: Watch out for Gai.' Naruto mentally noted to himself.
Grunting in pain the black-streaked blond lifted himself to his feet. He looked at Gai through the holes on his mask and saw, while the man was slightly dirty and bruised, he didn't have any cuts on him. That relieved him, knowing he didn't use his sword on an ally...wait where was is sword?
He looked to his waist to see it wasn't there, nearly panicking he looked around to see it was on the sidelines. In the hands of a girl a year older than him, her right hand just about ready to unsheathe it.
"Stop!" he screamed out stopping her in her tracks.
The girl in question only looked at him funny, when she first go to her teams training field she noticed two green figures sparring with each other. That wasn't unusual because Gai and Lee always sparred with each other. She however did not notice the person with the mask with them, because her eyes were drawn to the sword on the ground. Now while she kept herself busy training she was a secret weapon otaku, after all her dad owned a weapons shop. Picking up the sword she nearly hyperventilated at its design, while the scabbard was ordinary and unappealing, the guard however was unusual because the tsuba while it looked regular with its normal rectangular shape, it had small sharp edges on each corner that looked like it could cut someone, and looked like it was split in half with one side being black and the other white The white side showing an angel, and the black side showing a devil. The hilt was ordinary like many she saw in the shop, but the skull on the end of it disturbed her very much, especially when it felt like bone to the touch. The crimson tassel wrapped around the bottom of the jaw with a small hourglass with black sand inside the glass on the end of it, intrigued her a little bit, but not by much, because it looked like a noose around a persons neck.
But the feel this sword gave off peaked her curiosity. It felt evil and yet good at the same time, and giving into her curiosity she was about to unsheathe it to see what it looked like, and how it handled. But she heard someone scream at her completely stopping her in her tracks. Looking up she saw a mask-wearing black-streaked bond running at her.
Panting out of exhaustion Naruto stopped in front of her, after taking a few breathes he finally spoke to her. "Please whatever you do don't unsheathe my sword."
Blushing in slight embarrassment she handed his sword over to him, "I'm sorry I just-"
"Tenten it's so nice to see you!" Gai bellowed out revealing the girls name.
"Yosh! My teammate I see you meet our friend!" Lee followed in pursuit of his sensei.
The girl revealed as Tenten could only sigh at the two embarrassing her, causing Naruto to get a good look at her.
He noticed she had brown hair tied into two Chinese buns that made her look like a panda with two short bangs that came over her hitai-ate, and chocolate brown eyes. She was dressed in a sleeveless pink Chinese-style blouse that was trimmed in red around the neck and arms with dark green pants that came to about mid-calf and open-toed blue shinobi sandals. Her kunai holder was strapped to her right thigh while her shuriken pouch was on the back of her left hip. Still analyzing her he noticed she was only an inch shorter than him, and that her hands had many callouses that showed countless hours of weapons training.
From what he could analyze, he knew she took her career as a kunochi seriously, unlike many others that he didn't want to think of at the moment.
He was brought out his thoughts when she cleared her throat causing him to look at her.
"My eyes are up here buddy." she said almost waiting for him to stammer in apology, which gave her an excuse to beat him down like the pervert he was.
Now Naruto wasn't unfamiliar with the opposite sex, hell he created the now two S-rank forbidden Sexy Jutsu, and Harem Jutsu for God's sake. And he was glad the mask was one-sided, making him look out, but no one could look in. Because he was staring at her assets-if only for a few seconds, and would not doubt that would have brought down her feminine fury on him if she caught him. And unlike Kakashi the open pervert, and Ebisu the closet pervert, he knew the safe boundaries of pervertism and normalism.
"Your hands have callouses on them. I see that you take your job seriously." he replied totally surprising the three around him.
Gai and Lee because he was actually focusing on her in general, and not her womanly assets. And Tenten because he noted the results from her training, she didn't know why, but her respect for the masked black-streaked blond went up a notch. Leaving him at notch one.
"Oh, thank you. For a minute there I thought you were a-"
"A pervert?" Naruto finished her sentence.
"Yea sorry, I've dealt with enough to almost have a sixth sense." Tenten apologized for her mistake, "Anyways I'm sorry for handling your sword, it was just so...so." that was where the bun-haired girl for once in her life couldn't define a weapon.
"Divine?" the black-streaked blond summarized for her.
"Yes, Divine that's the word, where did you get it?" she asked, wondering where he could find something like it. Minus it looking spooky of course.
Naruto seriously didn't want to answer that, because frankly he didn't have an answer for it. So at the risk of looking like an asshole he quickly changed the subject, "Umm wait what time is it?" he asked randomly.
"It's twelve fifty-three." Lee answered, looking up at the position of the sun.
A horrified look crossed Naruto's masked features-how he did that no one would know. Realizing that he was late to turn in his report he panicked, "Shit! The Hokage is gonna kill me! Sorry guys I gotta run, lets do this again sometime, bye!" with that quickly formed sentence said, he sped off in the direction of the Hokage Tower.
"Who was that guy?" Tenten asked the two spandex-clad shinobi.
"That was none other than my good friend Naruto Uzumaki!" Lee bellowed out excitedly after hearing that the black-streaked blond would train with them again.
"Yosh! Naruto-kun's Flames of Youth shine brightly, I cannot wait for his next visit!" Gai screamed out after his student.
Then after that the two started screaming each others names, and went into their infamous, scary as hell hug. That somehow created their unbreakable genjutsu.
Thankfully their revelation about the stranger made Tenten's eyes widen in shock. That was Naruto? That tall black-clothed, mysterious, muscular-scarred, mask-wearing, sword-wielding, black-streaked blond. Was the hyperactive, orange-wearing blond that always shouted that he would be Hokage during their academy days?
What was going on here?
Meanwhile while this was happening the most unpredictable person in Konoha was running like his life depended on it. The old man told him to at his office at noon, and he was almost an hour late. Seeing that he wasn't getting near it anytime soon on the ground, he jumped onto the roof. Pumping some chakra into his legs, he leaped higher and faster than he ever thought possible.
It felt amazing, the wind blowing through his hair, the sense of freedom, and even the view. But unfortunately all good things had to come to an end. Naruto landed onto the top of the Hokage Tower and was about to get down and enter through the front door, but realized the secretary who always was a bitch to him would try and turn him away. Unknowingly doing a Jiraiya action he opened the window to the Sandaime's office.
That honestly did surprise the Sandaime Hokage, so much that he fell out of his chair.
"Kami Naruto you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Sarutobi gasped out as he got to his feet.
"Looks like I'll have to try harder next time old man." Naruto jokenly replied, after he said that he reached into one of his back pouches, and pulled out his report.
The Sandaime narrowed his eyes seeing that he was late, while he let Naruto get away with a few things, being tardy was an issue for him. He only let Kakashi be tardy was because he was still carrying mental scars from the last great war, and even then it gritted his patience. "You're late." he simply stated.
Not used being on the receiving end that one, Naruto merely scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Yea, sorry about that, I was going to turn it in early. But I kinda ran into Gai and Lee."
Sarutobi merely sighed at the mention of those two. He honestly wasn't surprised Naruto was late now, those two were persuasive at times, especially Gai with that Shiny Hypo Teeth Jutsu of his. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again, now if that is all-"
"Actually, I was wondering if you could recommend a weapon and clothing store. As you can see I kinda need it." Naruto interrupted the old Kage, indicating his torn and now more dirty clothing.
"Oh of course." Sarutobi agreed with the former full blond. Once he wrote down the address he handed it to the person he thought as a grandson.
Weapons shop a few minutes later
As Naruto stood outside the shop he couldn't help but wonder if the Hokage was going senile. The shop while it wasn't extravagant, it wasn't run down either. It was average, sure there were a few shingles missing, and looked like it needed a new paint job, but other than that it was in pretty good shape. Taking a deep breath he stepped inside.
Pushing open the door, Naruto saw the store was nothing flashy. There were no 'sale' signs, or advertising gimmicks, just rows of shelves and racks that had mostly darker colored clothing. The lighting was kinda dim, probably something wrong with the circuits, but the dressing rooms had bright fluorescent lighting so that people could see just how they looked in their new attire.
But the weapon section was something completely different. Weapons of all shapes, sizes, and colors adorned the shelves of the store, and not only that, but they looked to be crafted tremendously well. If he didn't already have Handanryoku he knew he would have bought one from this store.
"Hello, is there anything I can help you find shinobi-san?" Naruto turned around to face a imposing man at the cash register. He looked to be in his late thirties to early forties with short spiky chestnut-brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. The man was around six foot four and muscular indicating his years of work at the forge, he wore a dirty white t-shirt, dirty brown blacksmith gloves, and a dirty brown blacksmith apron showing he was probably working on his latest masterpiece. But that was unfortunately all he could see since his lower half was obscured by the counter, but if he was to guess he was wearing sandals like everyone else along with dirty pants of some color.
However what unnerved Naruto was the scarring on him. Two deep scars went diagonally down his right cheek and into his beard, and there were also some deep to lighter scars on his exposed arms. This showed him his man was a shinobi who saw plenty of battles in his lifetime.
"I said can I help yo-" the man opened his eyes revealing them being dark brown, but they narrowed in hate at him. Growling in anger he leaped over the counter, revealing dirtied brown pants and sandals in the process, and attacked the black-streaked blond.
Naruto got on his guard and blocked a punch from the giant man. The punch numbed his left arm, if it wasn't for the bracer absorbing most of the punch, he wouldn't doubt that his arm would have been broken.
This man was dangerous, and he knew he had to be very careful.
Ducking another punch Naruto took aim, and hit him in the stomach. The man grunted a little bit, but showed no signs of being hurt in the slightest. In fact it was the opposite for our hero, because his hand felt like he hit a rock.
He felt trapped, he couldn't do any jutsu at this rage, his taijustu was mainly brawling, and he could not unsheathe his sword. Any thought he had on what to do was interrupted via kick to his stomach, that sent him through several racks, scattering the dark clothing all over the store, and knocking the wind out of him. Growling angrily the cashier walked over to him menacingly, and pounded on the wall. From what Naruto could see a part of the wall opened up, and the man casually pulled an axe from it.
He saw the man drape it over his shoulder, and saw the axe was sinister almost demonic looking. The axe itself was around three feet in length with a wickedly, yet beautifully obsidian serrated blade. The reverse of which was barbed, and spiked, made to shred and tear. He didn't have to know that this man killed many people with it.
The man roared in fury like a a barbarian, and jumped the full distance. Intending on splitting his victims head open.
Naruto would not give him the satisfaction. Bringing his right hand to Handanryoku's hilt he unsheathed the magnificent blade, and blocked the menacing axe head. The two struggled for dominance, both in a deadlock, grunting in frustration the cashier spoke. "You're strong for your size berserker scum, but I'm gonna kill you!"
"I'm not a-" Naruto protested.
"Don't you dare lie to me! I'll-" he didn't get to finish because of a shattering sound, and then he fell on the floor completely unconscious.
"Dad you stupid idiot look what you've done!" a feminine voice screamed at him.
Groaning a little Naruto looked up from the cashier's unconscious body to see he familiar form of Tenten, with a broken vase in her hand.
"Tenten?" he asked, still trying to regain his breath.
"Naruto! Oh my Kami are you all right?" Tenten exclaimed reaching down, dropping what was left of the vase, and lifted him to his feet.
Coughing a few times the secret Kurashagan user regained his breath, "Yea I've endured worse, but what the hell was that about?"
Sighing the bun-haired girl answered, "My dad suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During the last war he was nearly killed by a berserker, he won, but was forced to retire because of his wounds. Since then he has sudden war flashbacks from time to time. You were unfortunately the target because of..."
Naruto knew what she was talking about, while the clothes were surprisingly comfy, they weren't exactly the best choice to wear in the village.
"TENTEN WHAT UNYOTHFULNESS HAS HAPPENED HERE?" Gai's familiar voice screamed out, causing the two conscious teens to groan.
"It's nothing Gai-sensei, dad just had a nasty flashback after seeing Naruto's outfit." Tenten replied.
"Which I'm gonna change out of." Naruto announced as he picked up a random set of clothing, and went into the changing room.
A few minutes later the black-streaked blond walked out, and immediately sweat-dropped when he saw Tenten ordering the three males to work. She had a whip in her hands, lashing it at her dad, sensei, and teammate. He could only stare in disbelief as the shop was spick and span a minute later. Right then and there he made a mental note to not piss Tenten off anytime in the future.
"Okay dear the store's cleaned up, and I locked Shukketsu (Bleeder) back up again. Now can you please put the scary whip away?" Tenten's dad begged as she kept making those accursed cracking sounds.
"I will once you apologize to Naruto!" she snapped back at him.
"There's no need, I'm the one who set him off." Naruto said, trying to diffuse the situation, which scared him dearly.
Never piss off a woman folks, it never ends well.
The three turned around and were stunned to see him in his new outfit.
His new outfit consisted of a pair black cargo pants with a black kunai holster strapped to his right thigh, and a black vest with several pouches for scrolls in the front of it, he was still wearing his black sandals, and ankle bands. Underneath the vest he wore steel fishnet chain mail armor that came around his biceps. Over his forearms he still wore the Shodaime Tsuchikage's-not that they knew who they once belonged to black lightweight guards, with his clawed hands that were now covered by fingerless gloves with steel plates on the back them and around each knuckle. Around his waist was a black belt that now held his hitai-ate as a belt buckle, and the two brown shuriken pouches attached to the back of his hips. Strapped to his left side was his beautifully made katana, however still on his face was that damned mask that still made Tenten's dad's blood boil.
"Hiroshi calm down." Gai said putting his hand on the mans shoulder.
The man only sighed and visibly calmed himself, "Kid I'm sorry I attacked you, but I must ask that you please take that mask off."
Naruto's eyes widened when he was asked that, mentally he was panicking wondering what he should do. Even with his improved mind he found no way to get out of this one.
"Go ahead take it off, and if they ask just bullshit them on your mission that sounds reasonable. And make sure to buy a half-mask once you show them." Shinigami ordered, in almost a yawning voice.
Now either the God of Death overslept, or was a lazy bastard in general, Naruto would figure out later, though he expected it to be both. He only sighed in response and responded, "Are you sure? It's not a pretty sight." he said to the four.
Hiroshi only gave him a scowl indicating, that it was his way or the highway.
Sighing he took off his mask drawing horrified gasps out of them. His face was chiseled, which would normally make a girl blush, but his left side completely ruined it. He had a deep cut going across half of his face, along with one going horizontally down his left eye that ended above his jaw, and five deep cuts on his left cheek obscuring his whisker marks. Then there was a light line going across his forehead indicating that his Jagan Eye was sleeping, thankfully in his opinion, that made it look like another scar. Along with his coldish blue eyes he looked like a seasoned warrior.
"Holy shit kid what happened to you?" Hiroshi questioned the scarred black-streaked blond, "It looks like you fought an entire army." he continued indicating the other scars on his body.
Naruto only scratched the back of his head, "Well I kinda did, you see during my last mission I met some misfortune with some Stone-nins. And well my former clothes, mask, and these scars are the result from it."
Gai and Hiroshi visibly frowned hearing that, they fully knew Naruto's status as a jinchuriki, and saw that any injuries that he suffered healed completely. But whatever happened to him must of been horrific to make him look like Ibiki. Gai would have to speak with the Hokage about it later, while Hiroshi could only ponder since he was retired, and really couldn't do anything about it.
Meanwhile Lee, and Tenten were horrified that a person only a year younger than them went through all that. They had a few close calls themselves, and experienced their first kill during a mission gone wrong, but what he went through was something they just couldn't comprehend.
"How many?" Tenten asked in a slightly scared voice.
"Fifteen, maybe twenty, possibly more it's all a blur really." Naruto answered her from what he wrote in his report.
A pregnant silence filled the air, no one spoke in what seemed like hours.
Clearing his throat Naruto broke the silence, "So how much?"
Slightly shaking out of his funk Hiroshi spoke up, "For five sets, plus a mask it comes up to nine-hundred and ninty-seven ryo and fifty ryo cents." he said, knowing that he would be needing one.
Ouch that was pricey, but Naruto knew picked out a black half-mask that covered his face from the nose down, four more pairs of clothing, and pulled out his trusty wallet Gama-chan. Before paying the man upfront he realized that he needed some new supplies.
"I also need some supplies." he said to Hiroshi, noticing he was limping a little.
Getting behind the counter Hiroshi brought up his walking stick, silently cursing at the long dead berserker who shattered his right leg, he looked up at the black-streaked blond, "What do you need?"
Not missing a beat he answered, "I need a set of kunai-knives, a dozen exploding and flash bang tags, two dozen makibishi, some soldier and blood pills, a sword cleaning kit, and a set of shuriken."
Nodding Hiroshi brought his hands under the counter and brought out his order. Naruto however furrowed his eyebrows seeing the shuriken, the four sided was ok, but the eight sided had more speed and sides to damage a person with.
Hiroshi saw that look and frowned, not liking that look at all, "Is something wrong?"
"Yes its the shurikens I was wondering..." he trailed off and reached into his right pouch behind him, and brought out one of the eight sided shuriken, placing it on the counter, "...if you could make this."
Tenten was absolutely stunned seeing a Stone weapon up close, and grimaced seeing the look on her fathers face. She knew anything involving Stone Country really got under his skin, weather it be their politics, shinobi, the war in general, and most importantly their weapons. She knew that he could attest to the damage they could inflict, after all it was because of a few well placed shuriken hits that her father had to walk with a limp now.
Gai and Lee stood on the sidelines preparing themselves to restrain the man if necessary.
"You want me to forge Stone tools?" Hiroshi growled out, his eyes narrowing at the weapon.
"I know you hate Iwagakure, I honestly can relate to you. But don't blame the weapon for your misfortune, a weapon is as deadly as the user. As a weapon smith you've forged hundreds if not thousands of weapons for the shinobi of the Leaf." he then looked at him, his slitted eyes boring into his soul, "You however seem to have forgotten it's not the weapon who kills, but the person who uses it." with that said he took five-hundred more ryo believing that was the asking price, and placed it on the counter, quickly bagged all his items, placed his half-mask over his face before his Hannya mask and left the store.
No one did anything for several minutes, no one dared to say anything, hell they were afraid to breathe.
Finally Hiroshi sighed and got to his feet, looking at the shuriken for a few seconds he picked it up, and went to the forge.
"Dad you're actually going to do it!" Tenten gasped out in surprise, how could you blame her? Never in her life did she think her dad would ever forge anything created in Stone, but Naruto somehow convinced him to do just that.
Letting out a defeated sigh Hiroshi turned to his daughter, "That young man had the balls to say something that was so plainly obvious. Yet I've been too damn stubborn to listen." he then grumbled about stupid idiots, and something about kicking his own ass, before disappearing into the forge.
Unknown to them this event would forever change this shop.
"Not bad Naruto, though I personally would have said something more memorable, but not bad." Shinigami commented his Avatar.
'Meh it doesn't matter what I said, I got what I wanted.' Naruto replied before taking a breath, 'How the hell does Kakashi wear these things? They're almost impossible to breathe with them on.'
"Years of practice is my guess." Kyuubi shrugged, not really getting the one-eyed ningens fashion sense.
'Whatever.' the Kurashagan user replied.
After minutes of aimless walking Naruto pondered on what to do. His team had the week off, and he couldn't do any justu training without drawing attention. Maybe he could bond with Sasuke...naa it was too soon, he was still getting used to the fact he was a Uchiha. Sakura was definitely out of the question. Kakashi, while he respected the man, he couldn't really communicate with him on any level. Maybe hanging with the other teams was something he could do. He honestly missed Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba, maybe they could hang out sometime during the week.
Any other thoughts were literally slapped out of his head.
'What the hell was that for!' he shouted at the fox in his head.
"Instead of thinking about your social life, you need to concentrate on your training!" Kyuubi roared at his vessel.
'Listen just because-"
"You got your ass kicked by a cripple on an adrenaline rush! While I respect you for keeping your cool, and defending yourself you still need more practice. From what I could see there were a dozen potential strategies in that fight. Now what you need to do is study strategy, go to that fucking library, and learn a thing or two." Shinigami imputed his opinion.
'But-'
"I know your teammates mom own the library, but so does her sister, there's a fifty-fifty chance there. But for Pete's sake, you're a shinobi! Use that damn Transformation Jutsu to hide yourself if you have to. Use that fucking improved brain I gave you!"
Hearing that Naruto mentally palmed himself, of course! His chakra control was way better than it was before, so he could do that justu without any difficulty now. Smirking under his masks he created a shadow clone to take his stuff back, and to provide extra protection for his place. After his clone left he had to restrain himself from skipping to the library for two reasons.
One: It was unmanly to skip, and Kyuubi would mentally kick his ass if he did.
And two: His right leg stung a little. Thanks to Handanryoku's creators he couldn't sheathe it without drawing blood. He honestly tried to sheathe it, but it was being too damn stubborn. So he cut his right leg and had Kyuubi heal it while he was changing. Of course after he did that he wanted to beam himself with a blunt object. Because he could have simply used his thumb.
It was just as Ishikawa told him, look back to the past and learn from past mistakes. That was a lesson that would really come in handy in the future.
But now he was heading towards the library.
Not knowing this would change his views on his grandfather figure.
Armageddon: Now what did we learn?
Pvt. Liquor: Don't jump to conclusions.
Armageddon: Good boy, but now I have a complaint.
Pvt. VFSNAKE: What is it?
Armageddon: I'm a little unsatisfied with my reviews, I mean in my last one I got fifty reviews on my first chapter in my last story-
Lt. RasenganFin: That's because it was freaking awesome!
Armageddon: No it wasn't like that the first one was barely 1,000 words, I rewrote it for the first one. However no one realised it so they wouldn't know...which was a bad idea now that I think of it. I mean maybe I should have just left it alone and started this one asap.
Sgt. Shadowtrayster: Yea, not your brightest idea.
Armageddon: Yea I know, but I'm only human. So reviewers I want you to be honest, is this version not as good as the first one? I want you to be brutally honest, no need to hold back.
Pvt. Killjoy: Umm talking aside, everyone we all know what time it is!
Everyone: Question time!
Armageddon: That's right now Lt. Doom look up the questions.
Lt. Doom: *mutters: This is still asinine* Okay Dark Visard 447 is wondering who is gonna be in Naruto's harem.
Armageddon: Well I'm sticking with single digits. But it's defiantly Hinata, Haku, and Sasame. I'm probably going to add Isaribi, Yakumo, an OC, Tenten, and maybe Amaru. But that could change at any time so I'm still tinkering with various ideas, parings, and situations for said pairings.
Pvt. fox: Who's next?
Lt. Doom: An anonymous review asks how do I join your army and how do I gain rank?
Armageddon: You can join by submitting an awesome idea that I have no choice but to add into the story. And once I put it in a future chapter I'll add you on said chapter. As for gaining rank you do the same thing and you gain rank depending on said idea. Like say you give a bashing idea for a character I'll bump you up one rank, and that is only an example. If it's something big and I mean really big you can skip a rank or two.
Pvt. Superninja: It's that easy?
Armageddon: Yes see you all next time.