Yo,
I'm back with the next chapter of Change in Winds. Hope you like the chapter and share your feedback with me.
"Normal speech" people talking.
'Normal thought' people thinking.
'Memories'
"Bijuu/Summons" Bijuu or Summons Speaking.
'Bijuu/Summons' Bijuu or Summons thinking.
"Jutsu" is being used.
Enjoy.
Change in Winds
Chapter12
Suna
North Gate
Team 7 managed to recover from their shock about the mission and managed to meet their Sensei at Northgate after 5 hours. Surprisingly, Kakashi was the first to arrive.
"Hello, team. You are on time. Hmm. Let's get started." Kakashi said, not worried that they are late.
Of all things that changed in the man, coming as per schedule is not one of them. He still comes 3-4 hours late and so the team follow the same.
As they were moving from the village, Sakura couldn't hold it and asked. "Sensei, where are we going?"
"We are going to Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind) to meet the Kazekage. We are submitting this scroll to the Kazekage." Kakashi explained, gesturing to the scroll in his pocket.
Listening to that, the blood clone sent the news to the original who came to replace the clone as he didn't want to miss seeing Land of Wind personally.
This makes his visit to the 3rd Great Nation of the 5. He always meets the Hokage, personally met and talked with the Mizukage, and is now going to meet the Kazekage. 'Maybe it's my luck.' Naruto chuckled.
He thought of staying in the estate and starting the elemental mastery of other elements and possibly meeting the Dragons to see what was going on, but visiting another Shinobi village piqued his interest and postponed some to the future.
It's not like he can't practice while travelling, he will get experience on how to hide from an Elite-Jounin level shinobi and test his espionage skills as well against the same.
Kakashi acted as if he didn't notice Naruto replacing as the blonde was the rear guard and the replacement happened smoothly according to the blonde. 'Oh my, I didn't think he was using clones till now. Very clever.' The masked man chuckled under his mask.
'I wonder what else he is doing.' Kakashi knows the Shadow Clones are used for many things. But using them for missions is not something he ever thought of as it needs a lot of chakra and nobody has that much chakra. Nobody except Naruto it seems. He was about to ponder deeper when his pink-haired student interrupted.
"Land of Wind? I thought it was a desert nation." Sakura said in a neutral tone not to insult anyone. She learnt respecting others. The training they were going through was working as the pink-haired girl didn't stop to rest.
"Yes. It takes 3 days for us to reach there. So it's a long journey ahead." The scarecrow said.
"You are gonna teach us something during this trip?" Sasuke asked, running beside the man.
"Maybe if we reach there sometime ahead, I can teach you some jutsu," Kakashi said with an eye smile and that sparked an interest in the Uchiha who increased his speed.
They moved at high speeds for an hour when Sakura had enough and stopped to rest, which stopped the entire team. They sat to take a breather and waited for the only kunoichi to recover.
With Clones
"So the boss replaced you?" One of the blood clones asked and the other nodded. They were working on Rasengan and trying to make some ice jutsu from the hand signs Haku showed them and it was a slow process.
Some basic jutsu like spikes, senbon, and floor were easily copied following some earth and water jutsu. But the uniqueness of Ice Style is yet to be explored.
They are yet to create any strong jutsu like freezing water or people that are hard to escape and deadly. They are working on that and Bukijutsu from Tou-chan's scrolls.
While the 2 blood clones are discussing progress, one of the shadow clones brought the scroll from Kiri, interested to see what was in it.
"Yo, guys. Who is interested in seeing what is in this bad boy?" He asked, showing the scroll and the other blood clones noticed it.
"Yeah, that one was like that for some time. Guess the boss forgot about it. Let's see what's in it. Keep it in this sealing circle." Said one of the blood clones.
The sealing circle in question can mitigate any explosions and triggers from attacking, thus saving the scroll from self-destruction if such a mechanism was put in it.
The Shadow clone put the scroll in the array and all of them moved a few meters. The blood clone moved forward and inspected all the seals on the scroll.
He started to slowly unlock all the seals and as the last step was a blood drop, he smeared it across the layer, and with a puff of smoke, a letter and some 'tools' were thrown out of the scroll. A voice started speaking. If Naruto remembered it correctly, it is his grandfather's.
"To the attacking cowards who are attacking my country and people, get the fuck out. You hooligans had caused enough mess.
Since the seal was opened by Uzumaki blood, I'm assuming you have one of my people with you. I want you to listen closely to the seal and listen carefully to what I'm about to say.
I will know if you try to act smart." The voice said and the first blood clone went near the seal where the voice is coming and as soon as the ear was near, a low-frequency sound was sent by the seal.
"If you think you can cheat me, there. That oughta neutralize you. Now my dear fellow clansman, I, Uzumaki Ashura, thank you for bringing the thugs that ravaged our lands to justice.
In the scroll are some artistic pranking tools I made for my daughter, Kushina. She is a hyperactive one I'm telling ya. If you are wondering, this scroll was obviously made to be noticeable.
And the addition of 'danger' makes it more enticing for those criminals to take it, thus diverting the attention from the actual scroll which was kept in a secret chamber.
I hope I have bought you enough time for you to escape from them and hope you are in good health and rebuilding the Uzumaki clan.
Best Wishes,
Ashura Uzumaki."
The voice died out.
Many clones had dispelled from the laughter the letter caused them at the bittersweetness it presented about the situation in Uzushio back then.
The pranking tools started to come out of the scroll and though they were old, they are quite ingenious in design and the clones saw how some can be used as ninja tools.
With the Original
Naruto was surprised by 100 laughing clones' memories and had to bite his tongue to not laugh out loud. The sheer audacity of his gramps to prank the enemy brought unbearable joy to him.
Though some low groans made out despite his suppression, he slowed to not let his team listen to his laughter. He made a shadow clone, which replaced him and after an hour of non-stop laughter, he joined the team on their journey.
In half a day, they crossed 1/5th of the journey and decided to rest in a clearing for food. The packed food they brought came out as each of them started eating.
As always, Kakashi was secretive, turning around while eating, not showing his team his real face, which disappointed the Genin.
Unable to bear the silence, Sakura broke the silence. "What can you tell us about the Land of Wind, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Land of Wind, eh? It is a great nation like ours and has a shinobi village, Sunagakure no Sato, and the Kazekage protects the Land of Wind. Though last I heard, the Daimyo is not happy with Suna. It is confidential information after all and we are not told everything. Suna is well known for its Wind users and has the most Wind affinity shinobi." He said, pointedly to Naruto.
"So it is most useful to me, huh," Naruto said in joy. As he couldn't deny it, Kakashi nodded silently. Sasuke on the other hand is eager to show the blonde who is superior and grinded his teeth in silence.
Sakura was being Sakura and admired the foul face of the Uchiha with Inner Sakura running around like a headless chicken as her counterpart couldn't understand what was going on.
2 days Later
After a throat-drying journey through the unbearable heat of the Wind Nation, and being warmly welcomed by a few sand storms, Team 7 finally reached an oasis. They can see a large wall, which they aren't clear about.
While Sakura and Sasuke are gasping, walking like elderly, hands on their knees and barely making steps, Kakashi from prior experience, lowered his head mask.
He added another mask in addition to the face mask he always had as he knew how treacherous the winds can be on their journey to Suna. Sakura lost it in the first hour while Naruto didn't wear it.
The blonde started something that surprised his team and walked across the desert as if the wind didn't affect him. Sasuke and Kakashi had to use their Sharingan to understand what the blonde is doing.
Naruto has a layer of fast-moving wind surrounding him, which acts as a shield to the blonde and is thus not affected by the wind-blown across the desert.
The speed of the wind surrounding Naruto is very high compared to the wind-blown across the desert, sparing the blonde from the wind and heat.
Naruto used his Ice affinity to cool the air that is circulating around him, this made him stay calm across the journey. Though he wanted to use it on his team, he knew he didn't have enough mastery to do so and even the slightest mistake from them results in drastic consequences. So he didn't try.
Soon they saw large walls and slowly made their way to the structure when Kakashi took lead.
Naruto noticed the strategic importance of the area and had to give marks to the big heads who planned the location of the village.
Being surrounded by desert offers Suna a good natural deterrence against invasion, as few foreign powers would be willing to endure the sandstorms and water scarcity only add to the fact that Sunagakure itself lies in a fortified valley behind cliffs of rock if he deduced it correctly, the passage is the only In and out of the village restricted to a single cleft between two cliff faces, making the area very hard to attack from the ground. They approached a small entrance in the gap and saw a shinobi standing guard.
"Halt. State your purpose." They heard a man ask in a gruff voice from his position guarding the village.
"Hello, Shinobi-san. We are from Konoha carrying an important message to Kazekage-sama from Hokage-sama. Here is the order." Kakashi said, giving the guard a scroll that had the order of the Hokage with the Hokage seal.
Naruto noticed how Kakashi said the Kazekage's name first instead of Hokage's, which came out as a sign of respect to the leader of Suna, impressing the guards because of the preference he showed their leader.
'That's smart. So respect the leader and give first preference to them to get positive points from the people and shinobi. Noted.' Naruto thought.
After skimming through the scroll, the guard nodded in satisfaction and scrolled the submitted scroll, and turned to Kakashi.
"Your id." He said. Team 7 showed their id. Naruto didn't miss the surprised look the guard gave his team after going through ids. But after noting their names in the records, they were allowed in with a general direction to the Kazekage Tower.
"Well, that's easy," Sakura said as they entered Suna and Kakashi nodded.
"Suna is our ally. That's why the formalities are minimal. If it is not, then things would be different." Kakashi said as they moved on. After passing through the narrow crack in the walls, they got the first glimpses of Suna.
The buildings seem to be made of clay, which would help to keep the buildings cool, and people covered their bodies from top to bottom unlike how they were in Konoha.
Team 7 understood the reason as the sand and wind storms they came across made it clear. They slowly made their way to the Kazekage tower, its almost straight road from the entrance.
With Suna Guards
"Did we just come across the Shiroi Kiba(White Fang)?" The guard who verified Team 7's ids asked the other guard.
"Didn't someone say the White Fang is dead? He doesn't seem old. Maybe he is White Fang's son?"
"Idiots, he is Sharingan no Kakashi. Son of Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang. He is a famous ninja himself. It's said that he copied 1000 Jutsu with his Sharingan." A third person said as he removed his cover.
"Baki, sir. What brought you here?" The 2 guards saluted Baki.
"We just came back from the mission. Where did you send them?"
"To the Kazekage tower, sir."
"To the Kazekage tower, eh?"
'We just returned means Gaara will be there. No!' Baki thought in panic and rushed to the Kazekage tower. Baki knows how dangerous things can get when Gaara is around. The guards saw Baki leave and were dumbfounded.
With Team 7
They almost reached the Kazekage tower, silently seeing how different the Suna is from Konoha while Naruto differentiated the 3 major villages he saw.
They felt a small gust of wind pass them and saw a girl standing in their way. She has teal eyes and sandy blonde hair, which is gathered into four consecutive pigtails. She wore a single light purple-coloured, off-the-shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. She wore her black forehead protector around her neck. The team raised their eyebrows seeing her.
"Foreign shinobi in our home? Who are you and what are you doing here?" She asked in a condescending tone.
"We are here to deliver a message to Kazekage-sama," Kakashi said neutrally. He gave a side glance to his team, signalling them to go on guard.
"A message to father? You can give it to us. We will forward it." A male voice spoke and they turned to see a girl with makeup.
"I'm a BOY!" He yelled at them as if he knew what they thought. Temari laughed uncontrollably at that.
"Whatever the case may be. We need to deliver this to Kazekage-sama. It's Hokage-sama's order." Kakashi tried reasoning.
"What's this commotion?" They all heard another voice. But this was different from the prior 2. It was on edge as if it was annoyed and the 2 sand shinobi stiffened at the voice.
"Gaara, it's nothing. We have some guests, that's it." Temari said, trying her best to stay calm and convince Gaara.
"They have a message for father as well." The makeup gi-boy added as if it would change the case.
"I don't like them. Mother doesn't like them. They are not needed." Gaara said in a monotone. Something unexpected happened at that moment.
Sand, the sand Team 7 is standing on started to tighten around their ankles. Sasuke activated his Sharingan to see what was going on. Kakashi also unveiled his Sharingan.
'No! Is he Suna's Jinchuriki?' Kakashi thought in horror. As an experienced Jounin, he knew which Bijuu had what ability. And Suna's Jinchuriki was considered the most volatile among all.
Though he doesn't know the specifics or even if the boy in front of him is the Jinchuriki, he knew they were in danger and he needed to do something to escape.
Suddenly, a large gust of wind swept across Team 7, dispersing the sand around their ankles. This surprised everyone. Even Temari and the make-up boy.
"What? You dare defy mother?" Gaara said in anger.
Gaara's Mindscape
Gaara's mindscape was dull with endless darkness. In the middle of the void was a lone figure. It had a maniacal glee at the turn of events.
"Now I can KiLl ThEm!" It said with a happy face.
"Don't, Shukaku." A deep tone echoed in the endless dune of sand. In the middle of the dunes stood a sole figure. It is a sandy-brown-coloured tanuki, with black markings all over its face, body, and tail. It has a jagged, concave mouth with no tongue, and the sclerae of its eyes are black, with yellow irises and pupils that each take the shape of a black four-pointed star with four black dots around it.
"Who dares call me like that?" Shukaku screamed into what he thought was endless sand.
"Hahahahahahaha." He heard amused laughter echo through the area and sent sand in all directions in a fit of rage.
"Are you hurt by my laughter?" Kyuubi said, appearing in front of Shukaku. Shukaku was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the Kyuubi and stared in shock.
"Is that you, Ku-"
"Don't! Don't you dare call me by that name!" Kyuubi said in a threatening tone. Shukaku stopped himself.
"Why are you here then?" Shukaku yelled again, the sand around them shaking in his rage.
"Can't I see how my ototo is doing?" Kyuubi asked with a teasing smirk.
"Why you!" Shukaku yelled and sent sand toward Kyuubi to drown him in his sand.
"Ah, cute," Kyuubi said and with a fling of his tail, the sand dispersed.
"That's why I don't like you," Shukaku said, going on a tangent about how and what made him dislike Kyuubi. Kyuubi, on the other hand, watched in amusement.
"And then you threw me into the water-" Shukaku suddenly realized something. How did Kyuubi suddenly get here? He turned towards Kyuubi and shook his head as if it was his dream.
"Wait! How are you here?" He asked incredulously.
"I was waiting for you to realise that," Kyuubi said with a superior smirk.
"Screw this. I'll kill you!" Shukaku said and once again sand around them started to rise up threateningly.
With Team 7
Everyone was dumbfounded at the sudden events.
"You dare defy mother?" Gaara said in a threatening tone filled with malice.
"Gaara, no!" The sand kunoichi said in a fearful tone.
"Please Gaara. They are our guests." The make-up pleaded.
"No! They must die for disrespecting mother!" Gaara said in a resolute tone. Sand started forming into 4 shapes.
"What's going on!?" Baki asked, appearing in the middle of the scene.
"Baki-sensei, Gaara is trying to kill the Konoha shinobi as they 'disrespected' mother." The make-up boy explained.
"Stop him, Baki-sensei." The girl urged.
"Stop, Gaara." A male voice said with authority from above them and all of their heads rose to see a lone figure standing on the balcony of the Kazekage tower.
He had auburn hair, dark eyes with a very stern look on his face. He wore a simple black jacket and pants with mesh armour underneath. He carried a small canister strapped to his hip. He wore similar attire to the Hokage except his was green instead of reddish-orange of the Hokage and the signature hat of a Kage with the kanji for wind (ιΆ¨) on it.
Team 7 understood he was the Kazekage and was waiting for him to do something. Naruto is ready to defend his team if Gaara tried something funny.
But as soon as the Kazekage ordered, Gaara's maniacal look was replaced by cold ignorance as he turned away from them and walked off.
They all sighed in relief. 'That jutsu is strong. If we're caught in it, I would have resorted to using Chidori.' Kakashi thought. He also analysed how well Naruto used that Wind jutsu. Others didn't even know by the looks of surprise on their face.
'That's terrifying. That sand stopped me instantly. I should find something to defend against it.' Sasuke thought in annoyance. When he thought he could fight against a chunin, this happened. Their team was humiliated by a puny Genin.
'Thank God we are alive. I thought we would be killed. I should improve my training. I don't want to be in a situation like this.' Sakura thought in relief.
'Phew. I thought I would have to use some more of my wind jutsu. Thanks, green suit guy.' Naruto sighed in joy.
While the primary relief was the same for the Suna team as well, they are curious to know where that wind came from to save them from drowning in the first place.
"Bring them up, Baki," Kazekage ordered and Baki turned to them, gesturing to the entrance. Team 7 followed the half-covered man. The sand team following them in.
After getting taken straight to the Kazekage office, Team 7 were surprised by the emptiness of the office. They know the Hokage office is empty except for a table and chair, but this is another level of emptiness.
The Sandaime has photos of all Hokages hanging on the wall with some of his memories like with his team and family. But this office just has a table and desk with the Sunagakure crest. Nothing else.
"What's the purpose of your visit?" The serious voice of the Kazekage brought Team 7 out of their musings. Kakashi moved forward and presented a scroll in front of the Kazekage.
"A message from Hokage-sama, Kazekage-sama," Kakashi said formally and moved back with a bow. Kazekage read through the letter and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Chunin exams, eh? It's that time already? Well, no matter. Suna will take part." He said and started writing his reply. After completing it, he sealed it and handed it to Kakashi.
"Thank you, Kazekage-sama. We will take our leave." Kakashi said with a bow, Team 7 followed him and left the room after the Kazekage nodded.
"Phew. That went well. Let's eat." Kakashi said as Team 7 left the Kazekage Tower.
"Rasa-sama they are-"
"I know, Baki. The wind that the blonde kid used is strong. He has an affinity comparable to or even stronger than our shinobi to Wind." Rasa said observing the leaving Team 7.
"They are envoys from an ally, Baki. By sending them, that old monkey wants to reassure us that the bond is still strong. Kakashi is not an ordinary Jounin to be sent on a mission like this. Guess the old monkey still has his sharp wit." Rasa said with a smirk.
"What do you mean he has Wind comparable to our shinobi, father?" Temari, who couldn't hold herself, asked.
"It's what it is, Temari. Now go train. I want you to beat him when you participate in the Chunin exams. Kankuro, send Gaara on your way out." He ordered and the sand siblings left without protest.
Meanwhile, With Team 7
"Chunin exams? Like the ones all villages shinobi participate in?" Sakura asked enthusiastically. As soon as they left the Kazekage Tower, she became chatty again and all members relaxed.
"Yes, Sakura. They are the same. I didn't expect the Kazekage to agree that quickly. Maybe he has something planned." Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"I definitely think the red-haired kid is trouble. Speaking of which," Naruto looked upon a small house.
"Where are you looking, Naruto?" Sakura asked in confusion and followed his gaze. The said red-haired boy stood there, staring at them coldly. The half-covered man appeared beside him and said something to him. They both left.
"He seems rather curious about you, Naruto," Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"Bugs me as well," Naruto replied as they continued to find something to eat.
And Cut.
That's it for this Chapter folks.
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