Konoha's Legion
Chapter 8
By Jeconais
Author Notes:
If you expect anything different to previous chapters, why are you still reading?
He arrived in a large room, in a dramatic half-crouch.
“... and Naruto Uzumaki,” Kiba finished saying.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said to his teammates.
“You’re late!” Sakura screeched.
“Well,” Naruto said, “While on the road of life...”
“He was stopped by a,” Sasuke continued, a smirk on his face.
“Old woman whose cat was on fire. Of course, I had to put it out, so I used a water Jutsu. Unfortunately, it sent the cat in to the Forest of Death, where I had to rescue it by mud wrestling two alligators and a water buffalo!”
Sakura laughed.
“Man,” Naruto complained. “Making up lies is hard. So, why are there so many people here?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “We were all ignoring a silly illusion designed to keep idiots away, apart from Tenten, Mini-Gai and Neji who were putting on a great acting job, before some idiot had to show off and ruin it, letting all the losers in.”
“Hey,” Kiba protested.
“So why was said idiot saying my name?”
“Meet Yakushi Kabuto,” Sasuke said, nodding toward a tall Genin. “He was about to give us some info on those cards of his.”
“Hi,” Kabuto said cheerfully.
Naruto nodded at him. “Well, don’t let me interrupt.”
“Sabaku no Gaara,” Kabuto said. “From Sand, clearly. Mission record is spotless, including one B-rank. And he’s never been injured.”
There were some gasps of respects, as people looked at the red-haired boy, who didn’t seem to care.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Naruto asked in surprise. “You didn’t even say that he’s the Jinchūriki of the one-tailed cross dressing loser, Shukaku.”
Killing intent flooded toward them from the said demon container. Sasuke managed to stay still, but the other Genins in the room flinched.
Naruto growled. “I told you, that’s not how you do it!” Before he could release his own killing intent, the blonde girl with Gaara dived out of the way. He hit the other container as hard as he could, dragging out Kyūbi’s chakra as well.
Every Genin facing him dropped to the floor. “I told you,” Naruto snarled. “As soon as I get permission, I’m ripping Shukaku’s fucking tail off!” He cancelled the intent. “Now, you were saying?” he asked Kabuto politely.
Kabuto looked shocked, before he nodded slowly.
“Erm, well, you’re the other one he wanted to know details about.”
Naruto smiled. “Go ahead then.”
“Kid, you remember the name?”
“Yes, this is the git who released Sasuke early. And he smells. Like Anko, but a lot stronger.”
“Uzumaki Naruto,” Kabuto said, his voice a little scratchy. “Son of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Kitsune. On his first mission, he killed the C-Ranked Demon Brothers, the A-Ranked missing nin from Mist – Momochi Zabuza, the B-Ranked missing nin Fuja, the Merchant Gatō and over two hundred bandits.”
There was absolute silence in the room, as everyone stared at him.
“What?” he asked playfully. “It was a good mission.”
“He also has an S-ranked mission on his stats, and that he’s been trained by Jounin, ANBU and two of the three Sannin. He’s Konoha’s general specialist, having worked with all the Genin teams. Oh, and is the only Genin here in the bingo books, Rain have him marked down as Konoha’s Legion, B-rank, with thirty million Ryō on his head.”
“Wow,” Naruto exclaimed. “That’s amazing, Kabuto-kun. In fact, Torture No Jutsu.” A steam of clones rushed out of his mouth and in to Kabuto’s before the man could blink.
“Are you loyal to Konoha!”
Kabuto nodded. “Yes.”
“Liar,” Naruto spat, as his clones reported an increase in heart rate and sweating. It wasn’t much, but the spike was timed to perfectly for it to be anything else.
There was a flash of lightning, followed by many different form of transportation, as the Hokage arrived with Eleven, and a troop of ANBU. A second later, Seventeen appeared with Tsunade.
“Naruto, what’s going on?” the Hokage demanded.
“This idiot’s not loyal to us,” Naruto explained, glaring at Kabuto. “First strike was that he was the one who released Sasuke early from hospital, meaning Haku-chan had to work even harder to help him out. Second was that he smells of snakes, fresh snakes, and third, he has seen a copy of Rain’s new bingo-book. So I’ve asked him, and he was lying when he answered.
“I’m currently incapacitating him. I suggest we get Inoichi to drag every damn thing out of him.”
“Grab his teammates,” the Hokage ordered.
“Oh no you don’t,” Naruto snarled, suddenly looking at the disabled boy on the floor. “Torture no Jutsu!” He poured more clones in, as he received images of them dying in their thousands. Kabuto’s chakra was killing them. The clones were fighting as well as they could.
Kabuto’s body bucked.
“Tsunade-chan, help.” He poured more clones in. “He’s trying to kill himself, he doesn’t want his secrets out.”
“I’ve got it,” Tsunade said. “He’s trying to inject Chakra straight in to both his heart and his brain. Can your clones disable him completely?”
“They’re trying, but he keeps killing them with bursts of Chakra. They’re getting to small to do anything useless, so are just dispersing. I need to work out a way of stopping them from dividing in the future.”
“Attack his brain, try and disable him from there.”
Kabuto’s body gave an almighty jerk, before it went still.
“Kami damned son of a bitch!” Naruto swore. He kicked the body, hard.
“He injected his own Chakra straight in to his heart. There was nothing I could do. Sorry,” Tsunade said to the Hokage.
The Hokage sighed. “You did your best, both of you.”
“Can we get anything out of his body?”
“No,” Tsunade grunted. “High level medic nin only, no blood line or anything. I think I need to go through the hospital, see if he was working on his own.”
Naruto looked at Eleven and Seventeen, who nodded. They reached down, grabbed the fallen traitor, and vanished with him.
“Where are they going?” Babe-chan asked curiously.
Naruto looked at her. “They’re going to cut off his hands, rip out his tongue, and pull out his eyes, then bury him head first in the middle of the road in to Konoha, so that he can never rest, and his soul will wander limbo for eternity, blind, unable to talk, and unable to help himself. That is the fate of those who betray my village!”
Yugao nodded slowly.
“Good luck with the exam, Naruto,” the Hokage said, and they all vanished, leaving the Genins alone again.
“Naruto,” Sasuke said, his voice a little thin.
“Sasuke?”
“You know that Itachi is a traitor, right?”
Naruto nodded.
“Can I do the digging?”
Naruto grinned at him. “Sure.”
“Troublesome blonde,” Shikamaru muttered. “Why are you even in this exam anyway?”
“So I can become Chunin?”
“Half the room is scared of you, the other half is praying that you never think that we’re traitors. You use lightning as a personal transportation device, and have been trained by the best in our village.”
“So have you guys, ‘Nai-chan’s great, Asuma’s one of the best with his blades. Gai, for all his eccentricities is brilliant, and Kakashi’s not bad either.”
“It’s too troublesome to argue with you,” Shikamaru groaned.
“Excuse me?”
Naruto turned to face one of the Genin’s that had approached them. “Oh, you’re one of Yugito’s Genin’s, right?”
The boy nodded. “Why are you called Konoha’s Legion?”
Naruto smiled. He pulled out a small bit of Foxy-chan’s Chakra, and allowed it to turn his eyes red. His teeth elongated slightly, giving him a faintly demonic look. “My name is Legion, for we are many.” With barely a puff of smoke, Naruto created a level three clone for every Genin in the room.
“They slice, they dice, they use Chakra,” Sakura said, her voice eerie in its lack of inflection. She reached out and sliced the cheek of the one nearest her. It bled, before the wound healed.
Naruto clapped his hands, and every clone vanished, leaving him with a panoramic impression of the room, and nothing of use.
“That’s enough, Naruto,” a large man wearing a trench coat said.
“Ibiki,” Naruto said in pleasure. “You’re our first proctor?”
He nodded. “Want to introduce me?”
“Guys, this is Morino Ibiki, our head of Torture and Interrogation. He is absolutely brilliant at getting people to talk. I once saw him get one Jounin to confess everything, with just a paperclip. It was amazing!”
Ibiki smirked, before he released some Killing Intent. “You will enter the next room silently. You will take the test. If you get caught cheating, you will fail. You will not ask questions. You will not whine to your mothers.”
Naruto saluted silently, put one arm around Sakura’s waist, the other around Sasuke’s shoulder, and marched them both forward.
“There’s a seating plan. Follow it.”
Sakura sat down and sighed to herself. Sometimes, she wondered just who she was teamed with.
Sasuke was supposed to be the best. He was from the best clan in Konoha. So she’d asked him why he was accepting, to a degree, that Naruto was learning faster than him.
He’d given her two replies. One, that thanks to Naruto, he had a Jounin teaching him every day, as well as a girlfriend. Two, that while he might be from the most prestigious clan, the best clan, Naruto was part of the Namikaze family. Even Sasuke’s dad had talked with respect about the Fourth Hokage.
But here she was, finding herself agreeing with Shikamaru. It wasn’t fair. Naruto was no more a Genin than the scary scarred proctor was. And to be honest, neither was Sasuke.
Sakura liked to shop, to have some time off, and to live a normal life. Sasuke like to train. Naruto liked to create fully living replicas of himself so that he could do everything he felt like.
It was completely and utterly insane.
She looked at her test, and started to sigh. It was going to be difficult.
“Don’t jump.”
It was only because she had been expecting something bizarre that she didn’t.
“Your ears are pretty,” the voice continued. “The boss has got a clone here, with Sasuke, and a couple finding the correct answers.
She picked up the pen, and wrote on a piece of scrap paper for notes, “That’s cheating.”
“Well, of course it is, we’re Ninja, not Samurai.”
“Good point,” she wrote, and relaxed. She spent the hour having a weird chat with the clone, scribbling her part of the conversation down, and ignoring everything about her, not even paying attention to other Genins being thrown out.
“Listen up,” Ibiki ordered. “The last question is oral. However, if you fail it, you will be stuck as Genin’s the rest of your life.”
Sakura gasped softly.
“You can’t do that,” one Genin from the corner shouted.
“I can do what I want,” Ibiki snapped back. “Take it and fail, or get out of here.”
Sakura found herself looking at Naruto, suddenly aware that every else was. Naruto had a half-smile on his face. In his hand, a pencil was twirling so fast, it was almost hypnotic.
“Hear me, brat?” Ibiki asked.
“You say something?” Naruto asked casually.
“You get this question wrong, and you’ll stay a Genin for the rest of your life.”
Naruto smiled. “I get this question wrong, and I’ll never be Hokage. I’ve got a lot riding on it. But, I’ve always felt that if you’re going to fail, you should do so spectacularly. At least I know I’ll be the most over-powered Genin in existence. It’s everyone else I’m worried about.
“Just imagine it, sent home because they got a question wrong, and having to face the scorn of everyone they ever cared about, knowing that they are stuck as they are for the rest of their lives. Having to face the disappointment of their own Kage.
“I’ve got family to rely on, so even if I lose, I can still succeed. Everyone else? Good luck to them.”
Sakura gasped in shock.
“The boss is playing with the Genin and helping Ibiki out,” the clone in her ear said casually.
“I quit,” one of the Konoha Genin’s called from the back. “I’m not ready!”
That started a landslide, as team after team backed out, until there were only twenty five teams left.
Ibiki started to laugh. “The rest of you pass. Thanks for the assist, Naruto.”
Naruto smirked and saluted at him.
“Oh thank Kami,” Tenten muttered. “For a few seconds, I thought you were actually serious Naruto. But there is no way in hell you’re not living your dream.”
“What the hell?” The blonde with Gaara asked.
“It was a test of your will,” Ibiki explained. “Sometimes, you have to face a life or death situation. This was a replication of one. Anyone thinking clearly would have realised that I have no power over any village but my own.”
From outside, there was a sound that seemed like a female yelling.
Naruto laughed, and stood with his arms open, his posture braced.
“…aaaaaiiiiii!”
A window in front of Naruto exploded open, showering him with glass. The glass cut his face, not that Sakura could see that clearly, as Anko landed in Naruto’s arms. A banner exploded from her hands, attaching itself to the far wall.
“Your second proctor, the very sexy and extremely taken, Mitarashi Anko!”
Said proctor was currently making happy sounds as she licked the blood from Naruto’s face.
Sakura was pretty sure that Naruto’s hands were holding the Kunoichi up by her arse, and she tried not to be jealous.
Anko looked up. “Wow, only twenty five teams left. I’m impressed, boss.”
“Your little buddy there helped.”
“He ain’t little where it counts,” Anko purred.
‘Bitch’, Sakura said in her own mind, far too scared to say it out loud.
“Okay, those of you who are left, clearly have mental guts, so next it’s see if we can make you puke. So make your way to the forest of death. You’ve got thirty minutes.”
Naruto leaned backward, so he could use his hands. They flashed a few times, and the two of them vanished in their lightning.
“He could have taken us as well,” Sasuke grumbled.
“Where are we going?” Neji asked.
Sakura nudged Sasuke, who looked at her curiously. Sakura tapped her ear. Sasuke smirked.
“That way,” he yelled, pointing. As all the Genins looked, Sakura found one of her earliest fantasies coming true, she was being carried in Sasuke’s arms, at speeds far faster than she could move, out the window and down the side of the building. As the clone gave her directions, she pointed.
“Byakagun!”
Sakura pouted, as she realised Neji was already following them, and with his eyesight, they were unlikely to lose them.
She suddenly smirked, and started to make some hand seals. “Close your eyes, Sasuke - Sunrise No Jutsu,” she called, turning in Sasuke’s arms, so that she was draped across his chest.
A bright light lead to a scream from Neji, and she smirked to herself. “You can open them again.”
Sasuke did, and launched them both on to a roof. “That,” he said, “was bitchy, uncalled for, and harsh. Really good work.”
Sakura smiled to herself cheerfully. They arrived at the designated meting place a few minutes later.
Naruto was sitting with his back against a tree, Anko was stretched out, her head in his lap.
Naruto looked at them. “Pretty good,” he praised. “If you hadn’t been bugged, it would have been perfect.”
Sasuke grumbled and hnnn’d to himself.
Anko stretched like a cat, before prowling to her feet as the others, lead by Shino, started to arrive.
“Bitch,” Ino spat.
“Team Seven’s Resident Bitch,” Sakura corrected calmly, buffing her nails on her shirt.
Ino had a look of grudging respect in her eyes.
“Okay, listen up,” Anko yelled. “Rules are simple. You each get a scroll with either a symbol for Heaven or Earth on it. You have five days to get to the centre of the lovely forest in front of you, with one of each. How you get it is up to you. Don’t open the scrolls in the forest. Sign the forms the Chunin are giving out, as they absolve of us any legal liability if any of you croak it.”
Naruto grinned at her, before he signed the form with a swirl. He passed it to Sasuke, who did the same. Sakura smiled at them both. “Gonna look after me?” she whispered.
“Only if you need it,” Naruto replied.
Sakura smiled and signed her own name.
“You guys have gate six,” A Chunin said.
They walked toward the huge gate. “How do we want to do this?” Naruto asked.
“What’s the cheat option?” Sasuke asked.
“I blanket the area with clones, steal the first scroll I come across, then we ride the lightning to the tower, and be done in time for lunch.”
Sakura took a deep breath. “I need to see how I really am,” she admitted. “So can we pretend that you’ve not got a stupidly powerful demon inside your stomach, and pretend that Sasuke hasn’t been training every waking moment for years?”
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks. “Sounds fun,” Naruto admitted.
“Hn,” Sasuke said.
Sakura elbowed him firmly in the stomach, understanding that was Sasuke talk for, ‘I’m too cool to say that your ideas intrigue me.’
“Go,” Anko yelled.
She took the lead, aware that both boys were jogging next to her. She spotted Ino in the distance, and sent her a little smile. “Screw you, Pig, you’ve got a fatty and a lazy bum, I’ve got two guys willing to let me try and find myself in relative safety.”
“Sakura, you’re in charge,” Naruto said. “You tell us what to do.”
Sakura nodded and took a deep breath. “Can we have a perimeter ring of clones?”
Naruto nodded and fifteen appeared. “They are only level one,” he said. “So they’ll act like my first clones did.”
She nodded. “We’re going to head straight for the centre for a while, then stop and make camp. We’ll leave three clones henged as us in the middle, while we rest in a tree.”
“A trap?” one of them asked.
She nodded.
There was a series of foxy grins that signalled their approval. They rushed away, and she started to move. The boys alongside her again.
“Okay, I’ve got a move for you.”
Sasuke almost stumbled in excitement. “What does it do?”
Naruto’s hand flew through a quick series of seals. His body suddenly turned green and quickly elongated in to a dragon. He lurched forward and took a bite out of a stone boulder, before reverting to normal.
Sasuke dropped to his knees.
“Oi,” Sakura said, “worship later, move now.”
“Sorry,” Sasuke mumbled, as he got to his feet. “You’re going to teach me that?”
“Foxy-chan says that a guy named Liu Kang developed it ages ago. He seems to think it would suit you.”
“Please say thank you to her,” Sasuke said politely.
“She can hear you.”
“Oh. Thank you, Lady Kitsune.”
“And here I thought he was just a gay idiot.”
“Foxy-chan says ‘you are welcome’. If you master this one, we have one where you turn yourself in to fire, and teleport inside another person. And that’s not to mention the Stolen Chakra Fireball.”
Sasuke shuddered deeply, and Sakura had the thought that Naruto had just earned himself Sasuke’s eternal loyalty. She knew her ex-crush craved power, and there was nothing more powerful than Kyūbi, in terms of raw power at least.
“As for you,” Naruto continued, looking at her. He put his hand against his side, and pulled out a long stick. He threw it at her. “You’re going to have to learn to use this.”
“It’s a stick,” she pointed out dryly.
“It’s a staff,” Naruto said patiently. “You’d be amazed at what you can do with it, with a bit of Chakra.”
“Thank you. But why?”
Naruto jumped over a fallen tree without taking his eyes from her. His awareness, and Sasuke’s, was simply amazing. He seemed to be deep in thought. “Because,” he said slowly, “we’re Team Seven, and always will be.”
Sasuke grunted his agreement.
Sakura smiled and went quiet, she called a halt a few hours later, but rather than settling down as she would normally, she looked at her stick (and she was going to call it that, it seemed like a Naruto-ish thing to do, and that seemed to work for him.)
A clone appeared in front of her, and silently showed her how to hold it.
Naruto exchanged a long look with Sasuke. He could tell that the other boy was bored as he was. He couldn’t even teach properly, because that sort of move needed space and chakra, both of which they had to keep to themselves at the moment, if Sakura’s plan was going to work.
And for a Genin, it was a good plan. It used her resources, and the three Rain nin who were approaching stealthily had fallen for it.
Naruto smiled and created two new clones, one of which henged in to Sasuke. The real Sasuke looked at him curiously. “Me before Foxy-chan, you before Haku,” he mouthed.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, then shifted silently, and closed his eyes for a nap.
Naruto snorted to himself, as the Rain nins rushed in. With some accurate throw of weapons, they had the three clones on the floor trapped. The two new clones silently jumped over to Sakura, who smiled at them.
She whispered something, then jumped down as the three clones on the ground dispersed.
“How nice,” she murmured. “Welcome to our camp.”
“Where’s the blond,” the lead demanded. “We can make a fortune from his head.”
“How?” she asked. “I doubt boiling it would work.”
Naruto sniggered under his breath.
“Look, kill her.”
Two of the Shinobi moved forward, but Sakura was already moving, she span, kicking one on the stomach as she threw a kunai at the other. The other one dodged the flying weapon.
The Sasuke clone landed next to her. He posed heroically. “Now, you die,” he declaimed dramatically. “By killing you, I’ll be one step closer to killing him!”
The real Sasuke’s eyes opened, and he looked at Naruto reproachfully. “I was not that bad!” he mouthed.
Naruto didn’t bother to correct him.
“Shadow Clone No Jutsu,” the clone impersonating Naruto shouted excitedly.
Naruto rolled his eyes and created a bunch more for the clone. “Prepare to suffer a beat down, Uzumaki style!” the clone cried.
Sasuke was now smirking.
Sakura dashed forward, heading for the lead, while the clones fought the other two. The two Rain nin weren’t that bad, all things considered. Competent Genin, and were putting up a good fight.
The Naruto clone was having more problems than the Sasuke clone, who had scored a direct hit with a fireball.
The Naruto clones dogpiled their target, and just punched and kicked in an embarrassing example of how he had used to fight.
Sasuke finished shortly afterward.
“I knew he was faking,” Sakura’s opponent said with a smirk. “You leaf nins trying to impress everyone.”
“That’s a low-level clone you idiot,” Sakura retorted. “Both of them, the real ones, are up in that tree.”
Naruto was impressed, and shared his impressed look with a shocked Sasuke. Naruto knew that they were both thinking the same thing – we need to practice more.
“What?” The Rain nin demanded.
Sakura sighed. “I’ve asked the boys to let me go through this exam properly. I’m a normal leaf Genin, not some driven avenger or some idiot savant of the ninja world.”
“Ouch,” Naruto mouthed at Sasuke.
Sakura suddenly jumped forward, spin kicking the nin. He moved back, and in to a couple more thrown kunais.
“Stop playing around, little girl, and let me get to the ones I want.”
“What?” Sakura demanded. She pulled out her staff, and foregoing any attempt at finesse, brained the nin over the head, repeatedly.
Naruto dropped down to the ground, as Sakura turned, tears running down her face.
“Sakura?”
“I-I-I-I broke Stick!” She held up her now dented staff.
“It’s okay,” Naruto said. “That’s only a training stick. When you know what you are doing, I’m going to give you a real one.”
“Really?” she asked, sniffing a little.
He nodded, and found himself being hugged. He looked at Sasuke for help, but the bastard had gone back to sleep.
Sasuke woke up the next morning, to find Naruto heading to the river, with a fishing rod, presumably looking for food for breakfast. Which was good, because he liked fish. He stretched, and dropped down from the tree he had slept in.
“You do know,” he said to Sakura, “That it is cheating to use clones?”
“Pfft,” Sakura said, waving her hand airily. “We’re Ninja, not Samurai. Let them have the honour, we’ll get the damn job done.”
He nodded approvingly.
“Now that we have both scrolls, we’re just going to head to the tower today,” Sakura said. “No point in asking for trouble.”
He pouted slightly.
“No,” Sakura said firmly, “You are not allowed to fight Gaara.”
“Why not?”
“One, because he’s powerful,” Sakura replied, “and two, because Naruto has already got their first.”
“No fair,” he said with a slight smile.
Sakura suddenly looked at him seriously. “If I had acted like this six months ago, would I have had a chance?”
He looked at her for a long moment. He had no real wish to tell her that she was the wrong sex for him, so he ignored that bit. And as he did, he realised that yes, he would have been more interested. The idea of a fangirl, one who never challenged him was pathetic. He needed someone who would stand up to him, tell him when he was being stupid, and help him get where he needed.
He took a deep breath. “You’d be third,” he said honestly. “After Haku.”
“And?” she asked curiously.
“Do you want to know?”
She looked at him for a long moment, before her eyes widened. “Four?”
He shrugged and nodded, understanding that Four was the female Naruto clone. He would have wanted the real one. If he was in to girls.
“She treats you like nothing special, just pushes you,” Sakura sighed.
He nodded once more.
“Great,” she muttered. “My male team mate is a better girl than I am. Thank Kami that Haku is female.”
“You know that I don’t fancy you?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke restrained the urge to jump. Sakura didn’t fair quite so well. “How long have you been there?” she demanded.
Naruto grinned. “Long enough. Four, and I, both prefer girls.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you are beautiful and powerful. And your annoying cheerfulness is a million times more palatable coming from Four.”
A huge blast of wind suddenly ran through the camp, throwing Naruto in to the distance.
He turned, immediately on guard, moving in front of Sakura. Sakura had her new training stick in her hand.
“Ku ku ku ku,” one of the female Genins from Grass whispered. “Sasuke-kun.”
“You are not a Genin,” he stated slowly. He could feel the Chakra inside this person in front of him.
“Good, good,” the female said, before she reached up and pulled her own skin off. The face that was revealed was incredibly pale, with dark eyes that dominated a long face. He had long dark hair that fell forward.
Sakura wretched, losing her breakfast.
“Orochimaru?” Sasuke gasped, setting in to a fighting stance. This was the other Sanin, the guy who had performed unholy experiments on over sixty children.
“I want you to come with me, Sasuke-kun,” Orochimaru whispered. “I can give you the power your soul needs, the power to destroy your brother.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Oh yes, I can make you so powerful.”
“Wow,” he said softly. “In fact, I must say that I’m Katon No Jutsu.” The fire balls exploded from his mouth, to the surprised Ninja, who barely dodged.
“Oh, well done,” Orochimaru whispered. “So very clever, no signs or anything. You’ll make a fine host.”
Somehow, Sasuke knew that he’d rather have Foxy-chan take control of him, than this guy. Almost too fast for him to see, the foreign ninja attacked, punching at him.
He twisted, activating his Sharingan quickly, not so much for the copying ability, but the ability to follow the traitor.
Sakura jumped out of the way, and stood poised. He appreciated her sense to get the hell out of the way.
Orochimaru appeared in front of him, his foot flying out. He dodged, and was helped as Orochimaru had to move to avoid a stroke from Sakura.
The foreign nin back-handed Sakura away, and she thumped heavily in to a tree, landing on her knees, shaking.
“Stay still,” Orochimaru growled, releasing killer intent. It was the most that he had ever faced directly, even dwarfing Naruto and Foxy-chan’s, it was the intent of a natural killer.
He grunted and threw himself to one side. The practice from what he had felt before meant he wasn’t going to stand there like an idiot and get killed.
“Ku ku ku ku,” Orochimaru chuckled happily. “You are impressive, Sasuke-kun, so much so, we’re going to be so happy together.
Absently, he threw another series of fireballs at the freak.
Four snakes exploded from the guys sleeves, shooting toward him. He reached behind his back, and pulled out a sword. He wasn’t exactly proficient with weapons, but nothing beat a piece of metal when decapitating snakes, so that was what he did. He hated the feeling that this idiot was playing with him.
Haku’s voice echoed in his mind, telling him to keep cool, to do what he could to stay alive.
There was a slight rustling and he relaxed a little bit, Naruto was back. Together, they’d take this fuck down, and show that no one was better than an Uchiha… except maybe a Namikaze with a demon in his stomach.
And that was a close maybe.
Orochimaru swayed casually, and batted Naruto’s attack away with contemptuous ease. The speed Naruto was travelling must have been Jounin level, and Sasuke suddenly saw the difference. As big as the difference between a Genin and the Jounin, the gap between a Jounin and Sannin was just as big.
Lightning shot from Naruto’s hands, while clones threw themselves at the enemy. Orochimaru gagged slightly, before a sword appeared, wrapped in a prehensile tongue that looked gross. The snake Sannin grabbed it, and removed the clones in one move.
Naruto leaped forward again, totally focused, and managed to catch a glancing blow on the Sannin.
“Impressive, Naruto-kun,” Orochimaru muttered. His hand smashed out, but Naruto dodged, his swords appeared in his hands, and he approached again, with three clones. There was a strange dancing synchronicity between the four of them.
“The Dance of the Crescent Moon,” Orochimaru said in delight. “How good to see that the art of sword play is still alive in Konoha!”
Sasuke took advantage to throw two Kunais, one hidden in the shadow of the other, before he attacked.
In short order, Orochimaru killed the three clones and blocked Naruto’s attack, avoided both Kunais, and kicked Sasuke in the face.
“I’m actually having to work,” Orochimaru announced happily. Naruto jumped back, his hands flashing. “Swamp of the underworld!”
Orochimaru sunk down slowly, laughing once more. “Jiraiya’s been teaching you everything,” he smirked. “The problem with this, of course, is that it’s designed to capture someone weaker than you. You may have Chakra, but you have years before you are at my level, Naruto-kun.” The snake Sannin concentrated for a second, and the swamp exploded, flying in to the distance in small chunks.
Sasuke dodged, as did Naruto. Poor Sakura managed to get a face full of wet swamp, and her swearing explained her opinion of that.
“Hmm, reinforcements, clever, Naruto-kun.” Four snakes reared up, grabbing Sasuke’s legs and arms, locking him in place. “I have a final gift for you.”
Orochimaru leaped forward, his hand glowing, as he hit Naruto in the chest. The boy flew into a tree, before he turned to Sasuke.
Out the corner of his eye, as he struggled, he could see Naruto desperately making some hand seals, leaning against a tree for support.
Orichmaru’s head flew forward, his neck elongating like a snake, his jaw open.
In quick succession, Sasuke found himself against the tree, watching as Orochimaru bit Naruto on the neck.
Naruto glared at him. “Boom.” He exploded, throwing the Sanin away.
Two lightning bolts appeared, as Four and one of the other clones arrived, then ANBU swirled in, along with Anko.
“Not what I was going for,” Orochimaru sniggered. “But good enough.” He sunk in to the ground, and was gone.
“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled, suddenly seeing the boy on the floor. He skidded over to him, arriving the same time as a swamp coated Sakura and Anko.
“Fuck, a curse seal!” Anko said, tearing his shirt open.
“Anko-san,” one of the ANBU said, “what should we do?”
“The bastard’s long gone,” Anko sighed. “Tell the Hokage, I’ll take Naruto to the hospital.”
“No!” Sakura shouted. “You can’t do that, he’d fail.”
“He needs medical assistance,” Anko pointed out.
“What are you going to do?” Sasuke demanded.
Anko paused. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Take him,” the clone said. “I’ll take the bosses place.”
“You okay with that, Eleven?”
“I’ll stay with the boss,” Four said. “I can’t do the rep… you know, like him, but I’ll do what I can. I’ll also gather the others.”
Eleven nodded. He walked over and took Naruto’s swords, before he stood in front of Four. Four reached up and punched him hard, knocking him out. She created a few more clones, and they beat the fallen clone up quickly.
“He’ll wake up in about an hour,” Four said. “Same as the boss would have.”
Sasuke groaned. “This is hardly the time to be fair!”
Four giggled and hugged the real Naruto, vanishing with him.
Four appeared in the foyer of Konoha’s hospital, cradling Naruto.
“I need a bed, immediately.”
There was a second’s pause, before nurses started to scramble. “Where’s Tsunade?” Anko demanded, as she appeared next to Four.
“She’s still in surgery, with Shizune,” Four said, “the Hokage and the Pervert are still in an important meeting. Nai-chan and Kakashi are with the other Jounins and we don’t know where, Hayate and Yugao are both out of town on a mission, Ibiki’s torturing someone and can’t be disturbed, Iruka’s teaching.”
Anko blinked. “Four, how did you know that Naruto was in trouble?”
Four sighed. “I’m not allowed to tell you. As soon as we found out, we tried to get everyone, and it was only by luck that we found you. We were about to go and grab all the ANBU ourselves. The boss isn’t going to be happy about things like this, so he’ll come up with a solution.”
Naruto was now on a gurney, and doctors were pouring over him.
“Fuck the meeting,” Anko said. “Look, Naruto-kun’s got a curse seal. Keep his temperature down, and do what you can to stabilise his chakra flow. I’m going to get Jiraiya.” She swirled away.
“Do you know any water Jutsu?” Sakura asked.
Sasuke shook his head.
“Crap.”
“There’s a stream about a mile that way, I think,” Sasuke said, pointing.
“Well, you get to carry the clone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m just a little girl,” Sakura said with an innocent smile. “And I stink.”
“Good point,” Sasuke mumbled, as he picked the clone up and pushed him over the shoulder. He weighed as much as Naruto, and he had to grunt.
They headed toward the stream, and set up camp quickly. Sakura went to the stream and managed to get the worst of the swamp of her clothes.
“Sasuke,” Sakura said, as she was finally feeling human again.
“Yeah?”
“We were lucky, weren’t we?”
“Yes. He was after me.”
“Why?”
“Probably my damn eyes.”
“That makes sense, his ambition as a child was to learn every Jutsu in the world. Your eyes would help with that.”
Sasuke shuddered deeply. He paused. “How do you know that?”
“Last night, I was reading a Hundred Great Shinobis of the Elemental Countries. He was in it.”
“Oh, yeah, good book that one,” Sasuke agreed. “Lots of cool battles.”
Sakura sighed and sat with her legs crossed. She took out a rag from her pocket, and started to polish her staff. “Did you see the problem with it?”
Sasuke settled down, with his back against a rock, slightly surprised to find himself actually having a somewhat decent conversation with Sakura. “Problem?”
“Most fights were the same, identical, boring.”
“Explain?”
Sakura rolled her eyes at him. “A conversation involves two people, not one barking single words in an attempt to get to the point immediately.”
“Sorry,” he grunted, and then smirked.
“Git,” she mumbled. “Okay, most of the fights were kick, punch, Jutsu, bigger Jutsu, flashy Jutsu, speed, more Jutsu, someone dies.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Some very good techniques were described.”
“And the person with the best techniques normally won,” Sakura added.
“Exactly.”
“How did Naruto beat Zabuza.”
Sasuke opened his mouth, and then stopped. How did Naruto beat him? Zabuza was as good as Kakashi. Zabuza had all the powerful Jutsus. “Naruto cheated.”
“Exactly,” Sakura agreed. “You look at a lot of the fights, and they were more like Samurai duels.”
“And Naruto keeps saying, we’re Ninja not Samurai.”
“Exactly,” Sakura agreed. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t learn all the Jutsus, I know Naruto is as well, but he’s concentrating on something else – being unpredictable. And I think that’s going to be more important.”
Sasuke slowly nodded. She made a very good point.
“So,” Sakura said, “I’m going to try and be more like him, only without the love of orange. Orange and pink really don’t go.”
He sniggered. “True,” he agreed. “At least he has better clothes now.”
“You can thank Hanabi for that.”
“The pint sized Hyūga?”
“Yeah. So, anyway, my point is, that being like Naruto looks like it has two advantages. One, you’re unpredictable.”
“And the other?”
“You have a load of fun, because you don’t care what other people think.” She held up her staff. “Stick and I are going to go places.”
“You know what would be funny? Your next practice with Ino, if you pull out stick and brain her like you did that Rain nin last night.”
Sakura giggled. “I might just do that,” she agreed.
Sasuke frowned as he felt three people heading toward them. He made a slight movement of his hand.
“So, Sasuke-kun, will you date me?” Sakura asked in a vapid tone that made him want to smack her.
“No,” he grunted.
“I hate you,” she cried, bursting in to tears. She ran off in to the forest.
“Just the person we’re looking for,” the first one said. He was tall, his head swathed in bandages, and it looked like he was wearing a fur cloak. His headband told him that he came from Sound, as did the others.
“How convenient, eh Dosu,” the one next to him said. He wasn’t as tall as Dosu, and had some weird looking cheek protectors coming from under his headband.
The girl with them seemed almost normal. Kinda cute, if you liked girls.
“We’re here to kill you,” the unnamed male stated.
“Zaku,” the girl chided. “You have no subtlety. Orochimaru has ordered your death, so you die. And the blonde brat with you.”
“Please,” Sasuke sighed. “The blonde idiot and I managed to get away from your, frankly disturbing, boss earlier. Three mere Genins aren’t exactly going to be a problem. I mean, any man who can swallow a two foot long sword has real problems, and the whole giving of a love bite to young guys, it makes people ask questions.”
As repartee went, Sasuke thought he didn’t do to bad for his first real attempt at this sort of thing. The three were now looking mad, which was what he was aiming for. And following Sakura’s lead in borrowing from the book of Naruto seemed like a good plan.
“Kin, get him,” Dosu ordered.
Kin’s hand blurred and five senbon needles flew toward him.
“Pathetic,” he murmured, not even bothering to rise from his position. He caught them neatly. His boyfriend was a master at these things, she was just a kid playing with sharp needles.
Kin suddenly yelped as the needles he threw back bounced of her forehead protector. It was a contemptuous thing for him to have done, and the glare he was getting showed she had got the message.
If he could have killed her with them, he would have, but as he couldn’t, making her mad was just as good.
Dosu sighed and raised his arm. “If you want something done,” he muttered.
“Vibrating Soun…”
Whatever technique he was going to use was suddenly stopped, as Sakura rammed Stick on to his arm. There was a harsh crack, and Dosu yelled.
“What the hell?” Zaku said, turning to Sakura.
Sasuke turned his Sharingan eyes on, launching himself forward at full speed. He threw a Kunai at Kin, kicked Zaku’s knee joint. There was a satisfying crunch, and Zaku yelled as well.
Sakura twirled Stick and turned to Kin.
Kin gulped, looking at her two team mates who were both cradling limbs. “Look, we’ll go,” she said.
“Leave your scroll,” Sakura ordered.
Kin pulled it out of her pouch and dropped it on the ground, before helping the two boys away.
“Why didn’t you kill them?” Sakura asked.
“What do you think Orochimaru will do to them when he finds out they failed?”
Sakura slowly nodded.
“That technique Naruto showed you to hide your Chakra is really useful,” Sasuke noted. “I couldn’t sense you either.”
“It gets harder as I practice more. I can cut of my chakra because I’ve not got that much. But as long as I keep practicing, I should be able to keep it up.”
“You do know that this is the first time you’ve done more than stand there with a kunai?”
Sakura suddenly beamed.
“Way to go, Sakura-chan,” Eleven, or Naruto, said, as he sat up. “You both did well. One thing to think about though, that technique won’t work in a city. All humans have Chakra, so having none would make you stand out as well. You’ll need to practice with civilian level.”
“Good to see you awake, El..Naruto?”
“I’m in boss impersonation mode,” Eleven explained. “I’ll do my best to act like him.”
“Okay,” Sakura said. “I’ve had enough of this forest, and I want a shower. Let’s get to the tower now.”
“You’re the boss,” Naruto agreed. “Lead the way.”
They arrived at the tower without incident, and once inside, they opened their scrolls, to find Iruka summoned. They were the fourth team to make it. And Sakura was very grateful to get a shower.
Tsunade barged in to the hospital room, followed by Shizune. “What happened?” she barked.
Four looked up from her place next to Naruto.
“The Boss was with Sakura and Sasuke, making breakfast, when he was thrown away by a huge blast of wind. When he landed, there were a couple of Sound Chunin waiting for him. Understanding that something was wrong, he ordered me and Eleven to get help, while he quickly took care of them the proper way – letting a hundred clones beat the snot out of them.
“Eleven and I tried to find anyone, but everyone was busy, so we were lucky to find Anko, by that time, we knew the boss was fighting Orochimaru-traitor, so we grabbed all the ANBU we could find, and went straight there.
“We arrived just in time to see the boss finish his chained move, a swap with a kamikaze clone, just after the bastard gave the boss a curse seal.”
“Four, tell all the clones, that I don’t care what I’m doing. If Naruto-kun is in trouble like that, you interrupt everyone, especially when it deals with S ranking traitors.”
Four nodded obediently.
“I agree,” the Hokage said, as he walked in with Jiraiya.
“We’re not Naruto,” Four tried to explain. “We’re clones, so we have to think of the boss’s reputation. But I’ll make sure we all know.”
Tsunade nodded and started to scan Naruto.
“I’m going to have to seal it as soon as he wakes up,” the Pervert said, as he prodded the seal. “Until then, all we can do is wait.”
Four sighed. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
Shizune moved over and knelt on the floor next to her. “Why?” she asked softly.
Four looked at her. “This is the first time I’ve been alone, he’s always there, you know, and now he’s not.” She burst in to tears, and dropped of her chair so that she could cry on Shizune’s shoulder.
“Woo,” Jiraiya cheered.
There was a crash, and as Four looked up, she saw a human sized hole in the window, and a figure arcing in to the distance.
Naruto looked around his mental landscape and frowned. In front of him, was a giant transparent barrier, cutting of his access to Foxy-chan.
Said Fox was banging on the shield, a confused look on her face.
Clearly the snake-paedophile had something to do with this. He looked around, as there was a strange dripping sound.
He followed the sound, to see a black, tar like, substance slowly invading his mental representation of Konoha.
“That isn’t good,” he said to himself.
He absently created some clones, to find nothing happened.
“Fuck,” he said, as eloquently as the situation would allow. To sum the situation up. Foxy-chan was locked away, he couldn’t use chakra, and some black tar that just had to come from the snake bastard was invading his mind.
Life was just peachy at the moment.
It was the last Tuesday before a Full Moon, and the Summons were gathered for their other poker night.
As much as some of them liked Naruto, he was only a human, and Summons needed to have fun as well.
“You’re looking happy, Mand’,” Micha said. “Well, almost.”
Manda shrugged elegantly. “Orochimaru was not happy with my terms, and threatened to stop summoning me. I informed him that I could do with a holiday.”
“Tsch,” Emna said, “I presume he did not approve?”
“Threatened me. If it wasn’t for the contract, I would have eaten him there and then.”
“What about you, ‘Bunta?” Micha asked.
“Not much going on here, either. The kid doesn’t like calling us for unimportant reasons, and the Pervert doesn’t dare unless there’s a fight.”
“Is anyone getting any action?” Micha demanded.
Various no’s made their way around the table.
“Damn it,” Micha said with a pout. “How am I supposed to live vicariously through you?” She suddenly smiled, and for some reason, the other Summons got very nervous. “Let’s play,” she ordered.
The play was different from normal, as Micha was playing with a focus not seen before from the dragon.
It wasn’t long before she had amassed a sizeable amount. The only person to stick with her was Gamabunta, who was on a winning streak.
The two of them had both raised with all the money they had. “So, how about it, toad-face?” Micha said. “Ready for a real man’s bet?”
“Aren’t you a little female for that,” the Toad asked, exhaling smoke from his large cigar.
She frowned at him. “If you bet the right thing, I’ll bet what you’ve always wanted. A whole dragon skin.”
Gamabunta choked through his smoke, and leaned forward. “What do you want in return?”
“Your Summoner.”
“The Pervert?”
“Not the Pervert, idiot,” She sighed. “I want the kid. I’m fed up of being stuck here, so I’m risking my skin.”
“Deal,” Gamabunta said. He smirked. “Read ‘em and weep.”
Micha laughed softly. “Poor ‘Bunta,” she crooned, revealing her own cards.
The toad stared at them for the longest time. “Ma and Pa are going to kill me!”
At the end of the fifth day, all the Genin that had made it through the forest were gathered in a small stadium.
Four had sent him a message, that the boss was still unconscious, and that the Snake Sannin had really screwed him up. He’d passed that message on to Sakura and Sasuke, both of whom looked upset and mad. They’d given a brief highlight to the other Genin, especially to Neji and Tenten, who the boss was closest to.
In the three and a half days that they had been waiting, Eleven had worked with Sasuke and Sakura, helping to train them in private.
The Hokage, and then Hayate, explained that there was going to be a preliminary round.
Eleven found himself far too distracted to pay much attention. The feeling of aloneness was one he hated with a passion.
With seven teams having made it this far, one lucky person, a Yoroi Akado, was given a by in to the next round.
Everyone else was going to have to fight one opponent to get through.
A computer screen to the side threw up a random pairing, and the other Genin cleared the floor, and watched the fights.
The first was Kiba against the blonde girl from Sand. The girl was a long range fighter, using her fan to launch attacks. Kiba was a close range fighter, so it came down to tactics.
Kiba’s tactics were Genin level, the girl’s were Chunin level, so she won, with Kiba not getting a hit on her, and being blasted at high speed straight in to a wall.
The next fight made him smile in anticipation. He was against Tsuchi Kin. She worked for Orochimaru. If he couldn’t get to that bastard, he’d take it out on his minions. He jumped down, and nodded at Hayate. “Are you a Kunoichi, or are you a girl playing at being a Ninja?” he asked.
“I’m a Ninja, as you’ll see,” she spat.
He could see Tenten sigh in pity, while Ino looked confused. He looked at Sakura, who simply nodded at him.
“Begin,” Hayate ordered.
As fast as he could, he dumped as much Chakra as he could in to his legs, and moved. Less than a tenth of a second later, he had covered the distance between them, and his sword was buried deep in her chest.
She coughed, once, and stared at him in complete and utter shock.
He drew the sword back, and as she dropped to her knees, he swung the sword again, decapitating her.
Her head bounced on to the ground and her body slumped to the floor. There was a surprisingly large amount of blood.
Eleven pulled out a rag and cleaned the blood from his blade, then placed it back in his wristband seals.
Hayate coughed. “Winner, Naruto.”
Eleven nodded at him, and made his way back to his seat. There was complete and utter silence from the watching Genin.
He sat back down between Sasuke and Sakura.
“Feel better?” Sasuke asked.
“A little,” Eleven muttered. “Bastards.”
“As much as we are supposed to be tools, we are still human,” Sakura said.
“Or a living creature based on a human at one microsecond of time,” Eleven added softly, so none of the other Konoha Genin nearby could hear them.
Sakura smiled.
“Did you have to do that, Naruto?” Ino asked.
Eleven looked at her. “She worked for that traitor, Orochimaru. She tried to kill Sasuke and Sakura. She only needed one strike, she had two.” It was better than saying that he only killed her to punish her boss for doing whatever the hell he’d done to Naruto. And he’d even given her an out.
Sakura leaned against Eleven and gave him a hug.
Medics finished clearing away Kin’s body, and the computer rolled again. Sasuke smiled this time. He was against Dosu.
As Eleven had, he jumped over the edge.
“I won’t go down as easily as Kin,” he swore. “I will have revenge.”
Sasuke just smiled at him, his eyes turning red.
“Begin,” Hayate called.
Sasuke dashed forward, Dosu raised his arm and started to shout, but it was too late. Sasuke was too fast. His hands were flying, and as he skidded to a stop, he finished the Jutsu.
With a cry, his body changed shape, taking the form of a dragon, and he lunged forward, his large mouth over Dosu’s head. There was a chomping sound, before the dragon reared back and spat a head out.
He changed back in to Sasuke, who nodded at the stunned Hayate, and made his way back. As with Naruto, there was complete silence.
“Feel better?” Eleven asked.
Sasuke nodded. “He worked for that traitor, Orochimaru. He tried to kill Sakura, he tried to kill you.”
Sakura moved and gave him a quick hug. She sat back down.
“What the hell was that move?” Ino demanded.
“Naruto taught me it,” Sasuke said.
Sakura smirked. The medics were still clearing up the mess. She moved to the front, and got down on her knees. She looked across the ring at the last Sound ninja. “Oh Glorious Kami,” she prayed loudly, “please grant me my fondest desire, that I meet him in a match.”
Zaku flinched.
Hayate coughed, attracting their attention. The screen rolled, and with divine favour on her side, the next match was indeed Sakura versus Zaku.
Sakura cheered. She jumped over the side and in to the arena. Green chakra spouted out of her hands, as she moved in to place eagerly. She was bouncing on the spot.
“I quit,” Zaku yelled.
“You can’t quit,” Sakura yelled. “Get down here so I can show what happens to people who try and murder my team!”
Zaku shook his head.
“Winner, Sakura,” Hayate announced.
Sakura pouted as she made her way back to them.
“Nice one,” Eleven praised.
“Yeah,” Sasuke agreed. “Excellent.”
“She didn’t do anything,” Ino protested.
“Troublesome blonde,” Shikamaru mumbled. “That was the point.”
“Huh?” Chōji asked.
Eleven sighed. “As far as Zaku could see, two of his colleagues had just been swatted like flies, no offence Shino, and he was now facing a Kunoichi that he hadn’t been able to detect in the forest.”
“Exactly,” Sakura continued cheerfully, keeping her voice down. “He’s probably better than me, but one of the lessons in the book of Naruto, is to always play on your opponents mind.
“He was scared, and I made the fear worst, by publically praying for his blood, and then making my hands glow. He probably thought I was about to decapitate him as well.”
“Head Impale,” Eleven muttered. “We’re going to teach you that later.”
Sakura blinked, and then bounced in her seat.
The computer screen flashed again, and Neji’s name came up, against one of Yugito’s Genin.
Neji jumped down. The Cloud Genin looked reluctant.
Eleven sighed. “Yo, Team Seven had a grudge against those Sound bastards,” he yelled across the stadium. “The other fights will be normal Genin fights.”
There were some relieved looks from the other Genins, and an approving look from the Hokage.
“Neji,” Naruto called.
The Hyūga looked up.
“Win, but please don’t kill.”
Neji smirked briefly, and then got in to his Clan’s famous stance.
Anko removed her knife from the technician’s neck. “You can make the results random now,” she told him.
He pressed a button.
“Of course,” she continued. “I was never here.”
“Yes,” he squeaked.
“Because if I was here, I’d have to kill you to cover my tracks.”
“You were never here,” he said fervently. “It was pure luck that the second, third and fourth matches were like that. My code is truly random, so any matchup is equally as likely.”
“I’m glad we agree,” Anko said, and swirled away. Out of the three matches, she was most impressed with Sakura’s. She’d displayed some balls to bluff like that.
As soon as the matches were over, Eleven, Sasuke and Sakura rushed over to the hospital. They found Four and Haku sat with Naruto.
“Any news?” Sasuke demanded.
“None,” Four sighed.
Sasuke sighed.
“We’ve tried sending a clone in, but nothing come back,” Four added. “We are dispersing and not coming back. Something is really wrong.”
“So it’s something that Naruto and Kyūbi can’t deal with?” Sasuke asked. “I’d’ve been screwed then.”
“Do you think it was anything to do with the glowing punch the traitor landed on him?” Sakura asked.
Four looked up. “Glowing punch?”
Sasuke nodded. “Yeah, just before he got bit, there was a weird punch.”
Four looked deep in thought. “Where’s Three?”
“Probably still in the library,” Eleven said.
“Would you mind fetching him?”
“I’m running low on Chakra,” Eleven admitted.
“Here,” Four said, holding out her hand. “I refilled this morning.”
Eleven took her hand and breathed in. He smiled, and made some hand signals, before vanishing in the lightning.
“Who is Three?” Haku asked.
“He’s our main seal clone,” Four explained.
“And how and why do you recharge?” Sakura asked.
“We’re human, apart from the fact that we are Chakra constructs. Three knows more about the mechanics, well, except for the boss and Foxy-chan, obviously. We have Chakra coils, but the boss hasn’t discovered how to hook them up properly yet, so once we run out of Chakra, we disperse back to the boss.
“We recharge through contact, clone to clone transfers are pretty easy. Clones to human need a hug, very close contact.”
Haku smiled slightly, as he walked around the bed. “Here,” he offered.
“Thanks, Haku-chan,” Four said, and hugged him. Haku glowed briefly, before they separated.
“That is just…” Sakura started, before she sighed. “It’s wrong, on many levels.”
Four grinned. “Yep, and we love it.”
Sakura shook her head.
There was another burst of lightning, and two clones appeared. One was wearing glasses.
“Hey, Three,” Four said.
“Four,” he replied, with a small bow. “Sakura, Sasuke, Haku,” he greeted the others. “So you say that the boss was hit by a glowing fist in the stomach?”
Sasuke and Sakura nodded.
Three pulled back the sheets. “Four?”
Four nodded and placed her hands on Naruto’s stomach. A tattoo appeared, the inside was a spiral whirl, while the outside had six kanji points radiating out.
“That’s the Kyūbi seal?” Haku asked.
“Eleven?”
Eleven put his hands next to Fours, and a new seal appeared on his chest.
“Hmm,” Three said. “That’s a Five point elemental seal. It’s interfering with Dad’s seal.” He smiled, “You were right, Sakura, good work.”
Sakura blushed.
“Okay, guys, I’ll see you on the flip side.”
“Thanks, Three,” Four said softly.
He smiled, and pulled his hand back. “Five Element Unseal,” he cried, and slammed his hand in to Naruto’s chest. There was a wave of Chakra throughout the room.
Naruto reared up, and Three vanished. Naruto collapsed back.
“What happened?” Sasuke asked.
“Three used all his Chakra to release it, so he dispersed,” Four said softly. “I just hope the boss pulls through.”
“Because if he dies, you do,” Sakura whispered.
“No,” Four sighed. “I could keep going, so could all the level fours out at the moment, but we’d be lost, alone.”
“Alone,” Eleven sighed. “If I ever see that snake bastard again, I’m going to rip that fucking tongue out of his mouth and hang him from Dad’s head with it.”
The door slammed open, and Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraiya charged in. “What’s going on?” Tsunade demanded. “What’s with the Chakra pulse?”
“Snake gimp put a Five Element seal on Naruto, we think that wasn’t helping. Three released it.”
“Really?” Jiraiya asked in surprise.
Four nodded.
Jiraiya scanned Naruto’s chest, and then nodded. “He succeeded,” he said. “Impressive. The only problem that I can see, is that it’s taking an age to vanish.”
“Is it?” Tsunade asked.
“I would suspect that the curse seal is slowing it down,” Jiraiya explained.
“Three’s been on seal study permanently since the day after the festival. He’s only been dispersed three times, to move him up the levels. Apart from that, all he’s done is study.
“He also learnt a lot from the experts we have working for us, who dealt with the Hyūga problem. They gave him all sorts of practical insights.”
“So, what now?” Tsunade asked.
“We wait.”