Chapter 8: Chapter eight
With Sarada
After giving up some Information to Naruto, she told him she'd keep some information secret. She thought that while they know of some events from this era most of it is left unclear and they might change as new possibilities and changes with who they are after can happen or speed up the changes. As she arrived at their current current base. Everyone's attention was brought to Sarada as she entered the room. "He knows and will try to help us on what he can," said Sarada with a smile. As the group looked at her "How did you manage to do that" Asked Eida.
"He sensed me and managed to capture me he seems to be better trained and got to a possible theory of time travel being in play by either a fuinjutsu or Space-time jutsu," said Sarada embarrassed at being captured so easily. "What happened to this shift in abilities it must've been pretty dramatic," asked Sumire as Mirai was thinking the same thing. "He was constantly attacked by the civilians and came close to death multiple times until Lord Sixth appeared and saved him," said Sarada depressed. As the whole group also tensed not knowing it would be that dark. "How dare they attack a Child," Asked Mirai angrily hitting the wall. "It seems like Danzo is more active this time around than in our timeline," Said Sumire this made everyone nod as Eida had a few questions.
With Naruto
In simple words Naruto was irritated, The reason why was three simple words 'D-rank missions.' He was first told about them by Mikito later Kakashi, Yugao, and Anko went into more detail about them being glorified chores. That helped young genins earn quick money while also passing by normal workers and helping them build teamwork. That didn't take away from how irritating they were.
Now the team was chasing a creature that made veteran Anbu and the Hokage hesitate to take the mission. It was the D-rank mission to catch the beast named Tora. "Dog in position," said Kakashi over his Intercom "I can see the target, over."
"Cherry blossom in position, over " Answered the Pinkett from her hiding spot in the bushes. "Avenger, in the position of the target's escape route, and waiting over," said Sasuke. "Ghost in position-" Naruto stopped talking when he saw the beast notice their presence and started running. Target's moving towards you, Dog over," said Naruto "Copied" said Kakashi throwing a pair of kunai causing the beast to change directions. "Tatget's heading in your direction Cherry blossom over"
"Understood," said Sakura so she could drop on the target, but he managed to move just a few centimeters to avoid being caught "Shit, it's heading towards you, avenger," said Haruno through her communicator. Hearing those words Sasuke moves to a place where he is a few meters behind the beast. "Now I've got you, you damn furball," said the Uchiha as he slowly approached his target, but his declaration of victory alerted the target, who upon noticing the presence of the raven-haired boy instead of fleeing jumped in Sasuke's direction.
At that point, a scream is heard in the streets. "Avenger is down Ghost it's your turn."
The target is returning to intercept and contain him until we arrive" said Kakashi.
"Understood," Naruto said as he appeared in front of the target, which stopped in front of the Blonde. But what he did surprised everyone. He sat before the beast, which looked at him for a few seconds. When the Blonde extended his hand, the cat-shaped beast smelled it and rubbed it against Uzumaki's palm.
At the moment that the rest of team 7 or the two members that were left at the moment, arrived at the place, they saw with great surprise how the beast was purring while the Blonde calmly brushed the cat's fur. "Target Tora captured and secured," the Blonde said bringing everyone out of their shock."Naruto, how did you do that?" asked a stunned Kakashi. "Cat grass, Kakashi-sensei" Replied the jinchuriki taking out a small bag with said plant inside, the last part making Sakura laugh lightly.
' Why didn't I think of that,' Kakashi mentally scolded himself. "Well, let's go inform the Hokage," said Kakashi when everyone saw Sasuke appear at the place with a bunch of scratches on his face and a grumpy face, which caused Naruto to hold back his desire to laugh. His companion was a different matter. "HAHAHAHAHA that's what the fucking Uchiha get oh I wish you had your Sharingan active to have a mental image Oh forget I have it," Kurama said as he slammed his paws on the water laughing. "That's enough Kurama," said Naruto. "Right, right you and your Uchiha ladies" Kurama grumbled.
Hokage Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi the god of shinobi the third Hokage was fighting one of the greatest enemies that every Kage faced. No matter how powerful the person, this enemy did not back down and did not give any truce, the paper, in that Hiruzen could only sigh. ' I wonder how Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei could handle all this,' the current leader of the leaf questioned himself as he remembered how his former mentors didn't seem to be affected by the paperwork, and he even remembered that they had plenty of free time, which confused him even more. But his reflection was cut short when he heard a knock at his door. "Enter," Hiruzen said, hoping and praying that there wouldn't be any more paperwork.
When the door opened he saw something he never thought he would see in his life, a scene that even made both him and his Anbu, who were hiding in the office, gasp in surprise. Because at this moment they were watching how Tora the nightmare of the leaf, was purring in Naruto's arms while the latter stroked the feline's head. "Mission accomplished Hokage-sama," Kakashi said bringing both the old Hokage and the anbu squad out of their thoughts.
"G-Good job Team 7," said Hiruzen, already somewhat recovered. "But may I ask how you managed to complete the mission?" said the Hokage as he saw the strange scene unfolding in front of him. "Why don't you ask the one who managed to catch Tora," Kakashi said with a nod towards the blonde who smirked."Naruto how did you manage to catch Tora and you're still in one piece" asked Hiruzen seeing the state Sasuke was in and wondering why Naruto didn't have any scratches. "Simple Jiji," said the Hanyou while showing the same bag as before "Cat grass" This made all the Anbu hit the nearest wall he had while remaining hidden.
Naruto could swear he heard several whispers saying 'Why didn't I think of that' in the room, the jinchuriki suspected that said whispers came from some Anbu that were in the room. "Well, with that complete it will be better to call the owner," said the Third Hokage using the communicator he had on his table "Bring Shimi-sama we have her pet" After a few moments a slender woman appeared with several jewels adorning both her fingers and her neck, and with a little makeup on her face.
"Oh my cute baby," said the woman, who ran to where Naruto was took Tora in her arms, and began to strangle the cat in a hug "I was so worried, tell me, did you miss me, did you miss mommy?" asked Tora's owner. The entire group could hear the cat's meows of pain, which brought a smile to Sasuke's face. ' If the damn animal suffers,' thought the Uchiha as he saw the animal's suffering. "Excuse me, Shimi-sama," Naruto said, drawing the woman's attention. "If you allow me, I could give you a way to prevent Tora from escaping any longer."
"Naruto, leave it at that," Kakashi said, trying to prevent his student from offending the woman in any way. "Calm down Shinobi-san, continue, cutie…" said the Daimyo's wife. "You said you have a solution to stop my baby from running away," asked Shimi.
"Of course Shimi-sama, if you lend me Tora for a while," the Blonde asked to which the woman handed him the cat, Naruto placed it on his shoulders and began to pet its head and scratch its neck "If you just let it rest in your arms and pet it, I could assure you that Tora won't run away as much anymore," said the jinchuriki as he returned his pet to the woman. She began to do what the Blonde said and saw how Tora stopped trying to escape from her hands and began to purr at her caresses.
"What is your name, cutie?" the Daimio's wife asked. "Naruto Uzumaki, Shimi-sama," said the Blonde "Thank you very much, Naruto-san," said the Daimio's wife turning her head to the village leader. "Give this one the bonus payment for being the first to find the meaning behind the first since your team right little Kakashi found the hidden objective behind the Tora mission,"
"Hidden objectives?" asked Sakura a little shocked and confused now that the shock had worn off "Yes, While we are shinobis and may be hired to escort or guard a person of high standing," Kakashi said with a serious tone his book hidden. During these times you might witness the client doing acts that you know aren't right. In these times you must choose between completing your mission and ignoring what you saw. Or doing what is right." Finished Shijimi.
"Will you stand and watch as your client rapes a young woman? Will you look the other way and pocket money as a bribe? These are scenarios you might find yourself in" finished Hiruzen while Kakashi discreetly noted his students' reactions. Sasuke seemed not to care as long as it didn't involve him they could do whatever they wanted. While Shijimi noticed Kakashi thinking of things and nodded to herself smiling at how Kakashi had grown from the last time she met him.
Sakura on the other hand was shocked and a little terrified of eventually encountering one of the scenarios they had told them. 'Wow, who could have thought that the dead last of our class would be making such an impact already' Inner Sakura exclaims, clearly proud of the young blonde. 'I know, it's almost as if he has' her thoughts ended as her eyes slightly widened as a realization.' he's been hiding his potential all along but why?' 'Maybe you should follow him and find out what he does. See how he trains, and maybe see his body under that cloak he's wearing' Inner suggested with a lecherous grin causing Sakura to blush slightly before shaking the thoughts away. 'I agree on seeing how he trains, but I will not give up on Sasuke-kun!' thought the pinkette vehemently defending her love for the raven-haired emo, casting her gaze over the team's resident emo.
At that, the woman left the room, and the Hokage looked at the group. "Good job, that's all, Kakashi. You and your team can take the day off." With that, team 7 left the room. "Okay, team 7, we'll see each other tomorrow at the same time at the Hokage tower," Kakashi said as everyone nodded and left.
With Naruto
He was heading off toward training ground 44 to get in some afternoon training Kakashi also wanted to meet him there to see what could be improved. "Narrutoo" The blonde stopped, turning around when he heard his name "Oh hey Kiba what's up any problems?" he asked looking at Akamaru as well. "Don't act dumb you asshole, What the hell did you do to my sister?" The Inuzuka said enraged "She hasn't been talking about you in a while, and I can't take it anymore" said the Inuzuka which was accompanied by a bark of Akamaru as Naruto became thoughtful. "MMM Well about two months ago I was training with Yugao-ch-" the jinchuriki stopped before calling his Kenjutsu teacher as he usually did "Yugao-sensei, and then Anko-chan arrived along with Hana-san and her three companions, and we trained a bit, an hour later Anko had to go to the interrogation rooms and Yugao had to return to her post as an Anbu," said the blonde "So I asked Hana-san to help me with some Taijutsu, which she agreed to, and we practiced for another hour, but then one of her ninkens who was near some bushes was bitten by a snake. Unfortunately, we couldn't see what kind of snake it was, so we took her classmate to the vet where she worked," continued the blonde.
"But since they didn't see what kind of snake bit their partner, they didn't know what antidote we had to use to neutralize the poison, so I decided to look at the symptoms their partner had and I managed to identify the type of snake," said the Hanyou. " Anko and her teaching methods," said Kiba with a shiver as he remembered when he went to see Naruto and Anko was helping him get some immunity to poisons as well as recognize them.
"After giving the antidote to her companion I stayed a little longer to see how she was recovering, then I stayed chatting with Hana-san to calm her down a bit," said the Uzumaki with a smile." said Naruto smiled "After we got the antidote I stayed and helped her calm down even more after that by just talking to her, and we started to hang out in training or just go somewhere and eat something", said Naruto with a smile as Kiba sighed then looking angry again. "I swear, you better stay away from my sister, or else you already have someone," said the dog boy while showing his claws and Akamaru began to growl, all this as an attempt to intimidate our blonde hanyou. "You know she's old enough to make her own decisions and while I am with Anko-chan and we both hate disloyalty I wouldn't do that to a friend," Naruto said looking at Kiba who growled "Well, I'm going to train, see ya around oh by the way hana-san was watching," said Naruto which made a shiver go down his spine
"Kiba" Hana said in a voice that denoted pure anger while the older Inuzuka's gaze darkened "Can you tell what you were doing?" the brunette asked. "Nee-san!!" Kiba shouted with fear clear in his voice "I-it isn't what you think, I was just annoyed about how much you've been babbling about Naruto and came to ask him some questions"
only to see Hana look at him with a look that would make Madara pee his pants.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to get involved in matters that don't concern you?" Hana said while her eyes only reflected pure annoyance and anger, at that the older Inuzuka cracked her knuckles. "It seems I will have to teach you what your place is, little brother," said the older Inuzuka with a smile that only promised pain. Seeing that, Kiba tried to run away, but Hana's three companions blocked his way, and he was grabbed by the shoulder. The younger Inuzuka tried to seek help from his canine companion. But Akamaru was sitting between his sister's two canine companions, Akamaru gave him a look and let out an apologetic groan, as he wasn't going to be able to help him in this situation. "Mercy" Kiba begs as a last resort.
"No, I'll make you remember Kakashi's training.," Hana said with a smile as the rest of her canine companions surrounded their owner's little brother to prevent them from escaping, even Akamaru could only stay by his companion's side as he watched the eldest Inuzuka snap her fingers. The next thing that happened was that a loud cry of pain could be heard throughout the village.
As Naruto jumped into the rooftops. "Seems like you have gotten someone's interest," said the fox grinning. "it's not like that, and let her maybe it'll kick her to train more seriously.' thought the blonde. as he continued to jump through the rooftops about fifteen minutes later, Naruto and his not so secret follower arrived at the edge of Forest of Death. Not wasting any more time, Naruto began to jump through the trees, opting for the less dangerous route due to the one following him. His would-be stalker hesitated for a bit before taking a deep breath and taking off after him. Keeping her distance to avoid being detected, but at the same time not losing sight of where he was going. Not knowing that he already knew she was there. It didn't take long for Naruto to get to the center of the training ground. Knowing he only had a handful of minutes at most before his follower would arrive. Creating a few Shadow clones and setting them to work on an assortment of things. From tree walking and going to stances to sparing on the lake surface. A few clones were working on his bloodline as he wanted to continue developing it and seeing what it was its limits. Somewhere going through katas with a sword the rest were practicing throwing kunai and shurikens.
With Sakura
The pink-haired girl bounded through the trees she saw her blonde teammate leap through. A short distance in front of her, she heard the sounds of weapons colliding and grunting. In the back of her mind, she was a little concerned for the blonde not that she would admit it out loud. Increasing her pace, she quickly bound through the trees, until she could see the clearing. Letting out a loud gasp in surprise, as she hid herself behind the tree she was on. which was a few lines back from the training ground where a small army of Narutos were training. 'how can he create so many?' Sakura mentally asked herself. 'Imagine him using it in bed' Inner Sakura pervertedly commented.
This made Sakura blush immediately at the implications and form a small nosebleed before shaking her head 'damn it inner we came here to see how he trains!' Sakura mentally ranted 'I love Sasuke-kun! not this blonde twerp! Sasuke-kun probably trains harder and has more muscles.' Her thoughts were derailed as a few clones started to take off their cloaks and shirts. Exposing just how muscular Naruto was. If she was honest with herself, the pinkette would have to admit that Naruto was well more defined than Sasuke was. However, if she was honest with herself, she wouldn't have her inner self pointing out the obvious comparison between the two.
'you were saying' chuckled inner Sakura to herself 'Just imagine feeling those rock-hard abs of his' Another mental image assaulted the poor girl's mind, causing her to blush up a storm to rival those of Hinata in her early days. 'No! Sasuke-kun and I are meant to be together!' mentally screamed Sakura 'Why are you pushing so hard for Naruto now? you loved Sasuke-kun too!' 'No you forced me to love Sasuke because he was the only one you ever looked at.' pointed out Inner 'Now that you pay attention to other boys, I have something to compare the Uchiha to.' 'I don't...'
"Compare the two boys in our life right now,' her inner self stated. "Sasuke barely talks to us, is always calling us losers and weak, and barely acknowledges us. Naruto-Kun on the other hand has been civil towards us and has even given us tips to improve ourselves. even Kakashi-sensei who we expected to play favorites with Sasuke trains him but seems to be more forced and when he trains us and Naruto he seems to try.' She was so engrossed in her inner dialog, that Sakura didn't notice a large looming shadow over her until the last second when a Gurgled sound alerted her that something was behind her.
Turning around she saw Naruto with a black blade thrust into the throat of a horse-sized tiger-like beast, causing her to gasp in surprise. "You know there's a reason why this place is called the Forest of Death, right?" asked Naruto, allowing the body of the beast to fall out of the tree. "You also know, If you wanted to watch me train, all you had to do was ask instead of following me. Kinda makes you look like a stalker, you know." Sakura was dumbfounded, while her inner self was laughing her ass off inside her mind. He had known she followed him.
"How did you..." "Know?" finished Naruto for her as he turned fully to face her. Unfortunately for the pinkette, Naruto wasn't wearing his shirt, allowing her to see a close-up of his muscles "since we left the Hokage tower." Sakura only watched in shock. He didn't just sense her here he knew the entire time but still allowed her to think she was undetected. She was broken out of her thoughts when she felt his arms wrap around her making her eyes widen. She looked up at him slightly blushing as she could feel how toned his muscles were.
"Don't get the wrong idea sakura-san ." He replied as the both of them sank into the shadows, only to arrive at the training ground before he let her go. "It's merely more comfortable to speak down here." Moving a short distance away he observed his clones sparring as he already knew that combining different taijutsu styles to work synchronized and become one would be difficult. Kakashi already had experience doing it so he wanted to get pointers he also made a point to visit Mikoto as she knew of the Sharingan and was one of the few people Kakashi took pointers on actively sought out to discuss some new things.
"How can you make so many clones? and how come they look solid?" Sakura finally asked shaking off the experience she just felt from travelling through the shadows. Which was something she was still confused about. With Darkness, she expected it to feel cold and foreboding. Not warm and inviting that she experienced. "Well I have an insanely chakra reserve," answers Naruto. "As for your second question, they aren't the academy clones, they are an advanced form called shadow clones, and they are solid clones. You see since my ridiculously high chakra reserves, I can't make illusionary clones like those the academy taught so Anko-chan taught me this instead. "But what's the purpose of having them train?" she asked as she noticed them doing various exercises. "It's not like they can transfer their memory to you." this made Naruto raise an eyebrow with a grin, as Sakura's mouth dropped open. "They can"
"Yes, as they were created by lord second during the warring states period to help his clan fight the Uchiha," said another voice which caught the pinkette's attention as they saw Tsubaki and Kakashi who were standing upside down on a branch. "They were repurposed for espionage and information gathering due to their ability to act independently from the user the one downside is that you risk overloading your brain and slit your chakra too thin a reason why it's a forbidden jutsu," said Kakashi as he jumped down as tsubaki followed a bit embarrassed to let her old student see her like this.
"Then why is he using a forbidden jutsu" ask/screamed Sakura. "That's because I gave him permission to use it," said Kakashi. "Why is Tsubaki-sensei here? And why are you here Kakashi sensei?" asked Sakura confused looking at Tsubaki who blushed as Kakashi's eye smiled. "I'm helping my student refine his skills," said Kakashi surprising Sakura. "And I-I'm here to bring my master some launch," said Tsubaki blushing. "Maste,r" Asked Sakura. "Yes, After the thMizukiki incident, I came to clear that I knew of his actions and was regretful and lost. As punishment, Hokage-sama made me Naruto-kun slave as he was the one affected by Mizuki's plans." Tsubaki is regretful and Sakura is shocked.
"It seems like I could help you guys Sakura you need to improve the most I've been neglecting you in hopes you would try to improve but I now see that was the wrong way so I'm going to be changing things," said the silver-haired sensei making the pinkette "Don't worry Naruto will help you and catch you if you fall.
a few hours later
Sakura was tired and sweaty. Far more than she had been in her prior training sessions and to her surprise she enjoyed it. Kakashi and Naruto had taken time out of their day to help her. True to Kakashi Naruto caught her and even gave her pointers. As Kakashi had told her his motives to try and change her from a fangirl to a kunoichi and his reasons why made her shocked to know he cared that much about her safety. Tsubaki had left telling them she was going to the the shopping area to get some food. Naruto quickly stopped her saying he would go with her as she didn't want people to not hit on a beauty like her which made her blush.
while with Naruto's clone
Both Tsubaki and Naruto arrived needing some resources. Naruto used a transformation so Tsubaki didn't have to face such hate from the vendors as they would overcharge her or try to get her rotten food. While they were there Tsubaki took the liberty to go buy some clothes at a shop with a clone of Naruto's clone as he needed to get some things as well when he happened to crossroads with Mikoto.
When Mikoto saw him she quickly greeted him and they both began to chat for a while, then Naruto offered to help Mikoto with her shopping, to which the Uchiha initially refused, but with the Hanyou's insistence, the raven-haired beauty ended up giving in and accepting the blondes help.
The Hanyou smiled as he remembered how he didn't use his Henge again while accompanying the Uchiha, where the merchants frowned at how he was accompanying the Uchiha matriarch. Needless to say, several of the civilians tried to pull him away from Mikoto, which ended with several civilians terrified, courtesy of the Uchiha, who said 'If you have any problems say it now, and if I don't like whatever you're going to say, consider yourself dead', more or less those were the words Mikoto said. More than one of the civilians decided to speak and obviously, their words bothered the raven-haired Uchiha even more, after dealing with those annoyances as the Uchiha defined, they managed to finish making the purchases they needed.
After leaving the shopping area, the redhead invited him to eat ramen since according to him, with all the work he had been doing, he had not had time to visit the Uchiha like he did in the past. The raven-haired Uchiha told her that it was okay and that she didn't have to worry about it, at least until the woman's stomach growled slightly then she quickly nodded and began to walk in front of the redhead, but unfortunately for the Uchiha, Naruto had managed to see a small blush, which increased when the redhead managed to reach her and take her hand.
He told her that she was going in the wrong direction, which caused the Uchiha to form a small pout on her cheeks, which made the redhead laugh a little.
They spent lunch chatting about one thing or another of their daily lives, when they both finished Naruto accompanied Mikoto to the Uchiha compound, where he decided to help Mikoto a little with the chores of the place where again the raven-haired Uchiha told him that he didn't have to do it.
But the Uzumaki simply ignored that and began to help her, while they were arranging things they began a quiet chat in which they both saw that time had flown by and it had already become night, so the Uzumaki said goodbye to the Uchiha and was now leaving the purchases on the kitchen table.
"Today was a good day," said the redhead as he headed to his room, and when he opened the door he was surprised to hear a voice.
With Tsubaki
she had also a blast reflecting on everything that happened since her ex-fiance tried to defect from the village. Naruto had been the opposite of what she had expected with Naruto treating her like family and having deep conversations that helped her heal from everything that had happened even becoming something she cherished and a pang of jealousy hit every time. She saw Anko had been the lucky one to get him.
Different POV
Sarada along with the other group observed from a distance everything unfolding as they also noticed some things that changed and things they were happy. As they reunited "So what's the mission" said Sarada looking at Mirai. "We are going to infiltrate a ROOT base and try to get some members to switch preferably Commander Sai and if Possible Tarune and Fū.," said Mirai looking at everyone who nodded. "But how Lord Danzo had countermeasures if we try to mess with fuinjutsu and even then he was no fool and was a powerful shinobi," said Sumire as Mirai and Sarada nodded. "We'll use this they are special fuinjutsu tags that will put some memories of who can help them or glimpses of a possible life they could have with their support. We could have a better chance" said Mirai "But who made the tags" said Eida who had been silent she was a great sensor and was constantly using her Senrigan to observe a certain blonde as she was reminded about Boruto causing her heart to skip a bit as everyone noticed this narrowing their eyes.