Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Naruto of The Six Paths 1

AN/: Okay this is a new idea I had. Anyways a few things. The 'That man' and 'HE' references in the beginning chapter are all Tobi. We don't know who he is yet so I cant use a name but unlike all the human's the Shinigami will know that the man isn't Madara Uchiha so he will refer to him as 'That Man.' Everyone else will still know him as Tobi or Madara until the war starts. Also in this fic the Sharringan is a perverse mutation of the Rinnegan, which are actually the 'Eyes of God' in this fic. I will elaborate more on both subjects later in the fic but I'm telling you all this now so no confusion occurs.

Also I have not updated my fics in a while as I went abroad for summer school. Generally I spent more time roaming around and working then writing. I have not abandoned them. They will probably be updated within the next week or two. It may take that long simply because I don't want to give out a bullshit chapter. I will re read them myself and will post when I'm back in the flow with them.

•••••

The Shinigami sighed a little as he watched the human's jump in front of the Kyuubi's claws. This hadn't gone as he wished at all. That vile man was ruining everything. Because of him the child of prophecy was now parentless. It sighed as it looked at the boy when it suddenly got an idea. While he as a god couldn't directly interfere he could still do something.

He vanished and suddenly appeared in front of a large cage. Two red eyes glowed as the Kyuubi's thrashed against the bars. The Shinigami growled in irritation. It was also partially the Kyuubi's fault for this happening.

It snapped it's fingers and suddenly the raging fox was replaced by a woman with red hair and slitted eyes. She couldn't have been older then sixteen or seventeen. She had a very ethereal beauty that would have ensnared many men and even women but the Shinigami was not one to be swayed by something as trivial as beauty.

It said in a gravelly deep voice " Are you finally in control of yourself child."

The slightly disoriented woman snapped up straight as she recognized the voice and said " Shinigami-sama! What are you doing here! And what do you mean. The last thing I remember were those accursed eyes, the Sharringan… and then nothing…"

The Shinigami sighed as it had suspected as much. It spoke after a second " Yes it is as I feared. That man used his eyes to subdue you. That accursed clan has always been causing trouble but their time isn't far… To think Kami's gift to this world would have become so tainted…"

The Kyuubi watched silently as the God seemed to be speaking to itself more then her. As prideful and strong as she was she didn't have the arrogance to interrupt a god. He seemed to snap out of it and said " Because of his and partially your actions, this worlds last hope has just been sentenced to a life of hardship. Naruto Uzumaki. He was supposed to grow up with both his parents to protect him and guide him. Kami saw fit to bestow the gift of her eyes once again to another human of that Uzumaki clan she is so fond off. HE was able to taint the last one and now he has orphaned this one and sentenced him to a life of hate and cruelty. I have come here with a… request."

The Kyuubi nodded silently as a feeling of dread overtook her. Despite it being called a request she was very well aware she couldn't refuse. She spoke

slowly " What is it that you require of me… Shinigami-Sama."

It sighed again and said " This boy, Naruto Uzumaki. You must protect him and make sure he achieves his destiny. Kami-sama has seen it fit for him to have the power of her eyes but with his parents gone there is no one to protect him and her gift from those would use it for their own gain. I have loosened the seal so that you may be able to interact with him but unfortunately his father made the contract with his soul and as per Kami-sama's laws even I cannot break this contract so that is the most I can do. Kami-sama would be… most upset if this child wasn't raised properly. You will do not well to fail or slack of." it finished in a menacing tone. She felt his aura for a moment but it was enough. She knew she had no choice in the matter.

She nodded shakily and said " Hai Shinigami-sama! I will ensure the boy will achieve his destiny."

The Shinigami nodded and then said " That is good to hear child. May fortune smile upon you."

He then promptly vanished as if he had never been there to begin with. Kyuubi slumped against the wall as the god finally left. She was beyond angry that she had been manipulated by those disgusting mutations called eyes again. It wounded he pride as the strongest demon in existence. Those eyes, the Sharringan. It was the entire reason she was in this mess. That man, Madara Uchiha summoned her into that valley and she had been a weapon or tool in these human's petty wars ever since then. And now she was stuck having to raise one of the disgusting things… even if it had been blessed with a power that was superior to even her own.

She suddenly remembered the Shinigami's words. People would try and use the child just as they did her if they saw his eyes. The eyes of a God. She channeled all the power she could towards his eyes casting the strongest illusion she could. No human would be able to break it and only one with the Mangekyo would be even able to detect it. To everyone else it would seem he was channeling to much chakra into his eyes.

Suddenly she felt fatigue set in. Even the seal loosened she was barely able to cast the illusion. It was still powered by a small portion of the Shinigami's essence and she was hard pressed to overcome even that. She just saw the humans finally find the boy through the seal before she slumped over against a wall passing out in exhaustion.

•••••

Eight year old Naruto Uzumaki sped through hand seals as fast as he could before he yelled " WaterStyle: Cannonball!" as he spewed out a huge sphere of highly pressurized water. It sped towards the logs he had set up in the middle of the pond he was standing on and smiled as he saw it explode into small splinters. He had finally mastered the technique to an acceptable level. Blue eyes shimmered for a second revealing the legendary rippled, purple eyes hidden beneath the demonic genjutsu before it quickly reapplied.

Naruto had always been extremely intelligent for his age and was considered a prodigy on par with people like Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha. He sighed as he walked back towards the shore slowly and sat down. Kyuubi's voice rang through his head ' You did a good job Naruto-kun. That was almost a good as your mothers technique.'

Naruto smiled slightly and thought back ' Really Kimiko-chan, I thought I could still make it better. Kaa-san's looked stronger.' Naruto had met the Kyuubi at an early age. She had made contact with when he had been just around five years old. She had been his first real friend in life as people generally hated and bullied him most of the time, glaring at him and even sometimes yelling at him. She hadn't really seemed to like him much in the beginning when they first met but Naruto grew on her as the years past. It definitely helped his case that he was the only source of any form of intelligent conversation she had had in over half a century. Her other seals had been too tightly set for her to even consider trying to talk to her containers.

Kimiko replied ' Well your still young Naruto-kun. You will only get stronger with time. Now lets work on some of Mito's wind techniques and we can call it a day after that. You have to be up for the academy after all.'

Naruto nodded as he started to practice some of his ancestor, Mito Uzumaki's techniques. He still remembered how he got access to them two years ago.

(FLASHBACK!)

Six year old Naruto sighed as he sat in front of Kimiko's cage. She appeared behind the bars and said " We need to start your Ninja training from today."

Naruto was now very excited as he was very happy to be able to finally become a ninja. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. He looked up at Kimiko and said " Umm Kimiko-chan, will you be teaching me?" He really hoped she was. He would love learning from Kimiko-chan.

A small frown marred her beautiful face and she replied " I can't use any of the techniques you humans use simply because they won't work with Youki… but I was sealed inside two of the strongest humans this village has produced and was once a part of the beast sealed inside the Sage of the Six Paths. I can provide you with their memories and emotions inside your mind so in a way it will be like they are teaching you. This way you will he able to learn all the ways of your family and all of the powers granted to you by your eyes. But that leads to another problem. How will we explain your strength. Fortunately for you I came up with an ingenious plan…"

(FLASHBACK END!)

Indeed Kimiko had come up with an amazing plan. He had managed to get an appointment with the Hokage who had a soft spot for him and requested being given anything belonging to the Uzimaki clan to him. He quoted Kimiko and said ' I want to make sure that I am strong enough to protect all my friends and my family in the future Hokage-sama. Please you must help me.' Naruto didn't feel bad about tricking the man since what he said wasn't exactly a lie as he would indeed protect his friends and the man was keeping too many secrets from him which he only knew because of Kimiko and his ancestor's and mother's memories.

Needless to say the old man had caved instantly after hearing the emotional speech from the 'impassioned' six year old giving into his demands without to much hassle. It wasn't as if he would ever expect a six year old to try and manipulate him like that. And thus Naruto gained possession of whatever was left of his clans scrolls in Konoha.

Gaining the scrolls had actually worked in his favor. They were far more extensive then he had ever imagined. They were filled mostly with notes on Fuinjutsu of all types and WaterStyle ninjutsu and many notes on various weapons techniques. Though note quite as extensive there were also notes and instructions on Genjutsu and Taijutsu which were not that common amongst the Uzumaki who preferred weapons and genjutsu which was uncommon due to the extremely high reserves the Uzumaki possessed.

If this was only the small portion of the clans original archives he was very disappointed. Much of the knowledge had been lost forever when the clan had been destroyed. Even with Mito's and Kushina's memories he hadn't been able to salvage much as they had both left the clan at early ages to live in Konoha.

Naruto took a deep breath ad he got ready to use a wind technique. Mito Uzumaki unlike her clan who were mostly water users was a wind user. She had developed many signature techniques that had only been passed onto one man by the name of Danzo Shimura. He had been a young genin who had caught Mito's eye as he had graduated and had apprenticed under her until the end of the Second Shinobi World War. She had taught him much on sealing and many of her wind techniques from the series of 'vacuum' techniques she had created but had passed away before she his instruction could have been completed.

Naruto sped through Hand-signs and yelled " WindStyle: Vacuum Wave!" as he spat out fairly large sphere of wind that impacted another log. This time it was blasted backwards with many deep lacerating cuts all over the log. He had little doubt that had it been a person they would have been gutted and bled to death within a minute. Mito had been actually been able to turn her opponents into paste and a few times even a bloody mist with her vacuum techniques. He hoped to be able to reach the same level of prowess as his ancestors one day.

He huffed as he fell to the floor. Unlike his mother's Water techniques Mito's vacuum techniques were very chakra intensive and put a large strain on his throat due to the extreme control required to prevent him from destroying his own lungs. He was very fortunate possessing the Rinnegan helped his control or he would probably stuck doing chakra control exercises a large portion of his life. He knew for a fact control had been the bane of both his mother and Mito due to their jinchūriki status.

Naruto sighed in relief as he felt Kimiko immediately send chakra to his throat muscles speeding up the process of his healing ten-thousand fold. This was a very great benefit of being a jinchūriki besides having met Kimiko in Naruto's opinion. The near instantaneous healing was very cool and useful in his opinion.

Naruto mentally thanked Kimiko and started to walk away from his 'personal' training ground. It was more of a small clearing which he had set up to suit him over the last two years. It wasn't as well maintained as any of the real training grounds of the village but he didn't mind.

Naruto made sure to seal all the scrolls he brought with him into a blood storage seal on his upper forearm. It had taken two clones almost a week to apply it properly as he made sure it was able to have maximum storage space and life before the seal started degrading.

He used the roofs to make his way to the apartment so as to avoid all the irritating civilians glaring at him as he walked along the street. Naruto made it to his apartment in fifteen minutes despite it being across the village.

He owned the entire apartment complex apparently. The Hokage never made him pay rent and no one else lived there. The only reason he knew about it was apparently his father had been a bit of an investor and had bought a few buildings here and there. This had been one of the few to survive Kimiko's rampage.

The rest of the land had been sold to village at inflated prices so Naruto lived comfortably despite his only source of income being the small orphan stipend he received. Despite bring overpriced for many things Naruto could easily live a mildly extravagant lifestyle without earning a penny on just his parents savings alone till he reached thirty.

Naruto walked up towards one of the pent house suites on the top floor and carefully swiped his blood on a seal on the front door. He then flared his chakra slightly and the door popped open as the system he set up recognized him. If anyone not recognized by the system tried to forcibly open the door they would be met by a hail of senbon aiming for the legs coated in paralytic poison that would subdue the intruder and cause hallucinations. They would also be shocked by a large jolt of electricity.

Many would consider this paranoid but to Naruto it was necessary. Not only was this his home but he had many secrets that needed to be protected. This system would allow him to prevent any sort of accident from happening. Kimiko totally supported his cautiousness. One could never be cautious enough in the profession Naruto had chosen after all.

Once Naruto was inside the house he quickly undressed and took a shower washing away the sweat from the days exertions. After a nice long warm bath Naruto put on his night clothes and went to sleep. He had to wake up early for the academy tomorrow.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he sat in his seat listening to the instructor Iruka drone on and on. Naruto respected the man greatly as even though it was obvious he had mixed feelings about Naruto, he never let it interfere with his teaching and treated him fairly. Unfortunately for Naruto much of the first year of the academy was only theory along with mild physical work out and basic chakra exercises.

He spent a major portion of these lessons talking to Kimiko who was only too happy to be the center of his attention or plain sleeping when he could get away with it. His took a cursory glance around the room. His class had many of the children of the current clan heads of Konoha, many of whom were actually slated to become the next heads of their clans as they got older.

Naruto only got along with Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi from this group and was on speaking terms with Shino Aburame. He was too much of a private person to really get to know better. All three would become the heads of their family when they were older. The other children were far too immature or irritating in his opinion. Kiba Inuzuka seemed to think of himself as some sort of Alpha male and kept picking fights with anyone who was stronger then him and was just too rowdy for Naruto's taste.

Amongst the girls, Hinata Hyuuga was extremely shy and didn't seem like the type of person you would expect to become a Shinobi at all. She never wanted to hurt anyone and always tried to play peacemaker when a fight looked to be starting amongst the girls. Ino Yamanaka was also the daughter of the current head of the Yamanaka family yet barely showed skills above that of what you would expect from a civilian. She never took any of the training seriously and was a total gossip monger. Kimiko told him girls who behaved like that were called 'fangirls'.

The last and most irritating person in the class was Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto could safely say he really disliked the boy. Naruto had been familiar with both the sons of the Uchiha clan for quite a long time. Seeing as Naruto was considered to be a prodigy like his brother, Sasuke treated him like he had killed the boys favorite puppy and after the massacre had occurred a few months ago he had become downright unbearable, always challenging him to fights. He would admit Sasuke was skilled for their age group even if he didn't really compare to him.

Naruto had become acquainted with the Uchiha clan as a child as he had met one of his mother's friends and teammates Mikoto Uchiha. The woman had met him when he was around six years old and he had invited him to the compound. As such he had even gone to the Uchiha Compound every odd month whenever she would invite him over. Naruto enjoyed his visits to the Uchiha as a child as he had had a sort of rivalry with Sasuke before the massacre occurred and had often asked Itachi for tips on training and stories on Shinobi life in general.

Mikoto was extremely kind to him and always made sure he had had a proper meal and would generally fuss over him as if he had been her own child even though Naruto knew her husband hadn't approved of Naruto's presence. He had been very sad when he had found out what Itachi had done. Itachi had earned himself a high spot on Naruto's shit list when he had killed Mikoto and his family. He really didn't care all that much for the rest of the clan but to an orphan like him there was no greater crime then what Itachi had done.

Kimiko had been very put out that he was friends with an Uchiha and even told him he was fraternizing with the enemy. Naruto just told her to be quiet and that not all Uchiha were bad, even if the majority were jackasses. He could still remember the big smile on Kimiko's face when she heard what Itachi had done. Naruto could understand her glee. The clan that had caused all her suffering had almost been eradicated from the face of the planet.

Suddenly Naruto ducked as his senses screamed at him and a piece of chalk flew over his head. He looked to see Iruka staing at him angrily as he said "NARUTO! Stop dozing in class!"

Naruto just smiled and said " Sorry Sensei." It was obvious he wasn't sorry at all. He could hear Kimiko snickering softly in his head. This seemed to piss the man of more then ever.

Suddenly he smiled evilly and said " Well since you seem to think you know the history of this village so well, tell me what techniques made the Yondiame Hokage famous during the Third Shinobi World War?"

Naruto really wanted to laugh at the mans face. He had the memories of people who had been there since the time the village was founded by the First Hokage. He probably knew things about it that Iruka didn't even know. Naruto smirked ever so slightly and said " Minato Namikaze was a member of Jiraya-sama's genin team and during the war he created two techniques that made him one of the most feared Shinobi across the land. These were the Rasengan and the Hiraishin. With these two techniques he had been able to eliminate two entire battalions of Shinobi from Iwa singlehandedly earning him the moniker Yellow Flash and a flee on sight order in the bingo book. Due to this singular event he turned the war into the favor of Konoha that had been loosing the battle before hand."

Naruto smirked as he leaned back into his chair and said innocently " Anything else… Sensei?"

This snapped Iruka and the rest out of their daze and he nimbly nodded and said " No that's good enough Naruto… keep up the good work I suppose but STAY AWAKE!" Naruto just nodded as he promptly closed his eyes again making some snicker and Iruka sigh. Why did he even bother really. At least Naruto could still answer the questions unlike a few of the other slackers like Shikamaru and Kiba.

Kimiko scolded Naruto ' That was so mean Naruto-kun. Your foolish sensei doesn't know you have the memories of the wives of the First and Fourth Hokage in your head.'

Naruto just smiled playfully at her and said ' That's not my problem is it now.'

Kimiko wiped away a fake tear and said dramatically ' They grow up so fast. Just yesterday he was jumping around excited to learn from the great Kimiko-sama and now here he is using her teachings to toy with those idiotic humans!'

Naruto snorted and said " Your such a drama queen Kimiko-chan."

She smiled cheekily at him and said ' You wouldn't want it any other way.'

Naruto just smiled and said " Hai hai Ojou-sama."

They continued their playful banter till the academy ended. After some lunch Naruto went out to do his own private training. He wanted to use his Rinnegan for a bit. He still took to long in-between his gravity attacks.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto of the Six Paths 2

Naruto sighed as he sat waiting for Iruka to announce the teams. While Iruka gave a speech on their duties as shinobi of Konoha Naruto and Kimiko were going over the list of techniques they had obtained from the Forbidden Scroll thanks to that idiot Mizuki. While Naruto had a wide array of wind and water techniques and a huge list of them that he still had to learn, he didn't have any technique over C or B-rank in any of the other elements. The Uzumaki scrolls also didn't have many techniques from those elements.

Kimiko said ' Well this looks promising even if we were only able to copy down thirty only these all seem useful.'

Naruto gave her a mental nod and said ' Yeah I can't wait to learn all of these especially the Shadow Clones. It will be good practice for when I use the Six Paths technique.'

Any further discussion was halted as Iruka finally started announcing the teams "… Team Seven is Akamichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino and Uchiha Sasuke under Jonin Hatake Kakashi. Team Eight is Team Eight is Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Haruno Sakura under Jonin Kurenai Yuuhi. Team Ten is Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru and Aburame Shino under Jonin Sarutobi Asuma."

Naruto sighed and smiled slightly as he heard his team assignments. He was happy with it. He wasn't sure how long his patience would have lasted if he had to be on a team with Sasuke or Kiba or Kami forbid a fangirl. Having the memories of some of the strongest women in the world and having-quite possibly-the strongest female existence on the planet as your closest friend ensured Naruto had some pretty high standards when it came to women. Beside he doubted Kimiko would have ever let him befriend a fangirl. She would probably chew his ears out.

He turned towards Shikamaru and Shino who were coincidentally seat next to each other and nodded. He then went over and took the seat that Chouji had vacated from next to Shikamaru to go sit with his own team. He then said " So… were all working together from now on huh. Well Im looking forward to it."

Shino adjusted his glasses slightly and said " Indeed Naruto-San, I will be a pleasure to work along aside you and Shikamaru-San." Shikamaru who had had his head down the entire time just grunted in agreement. Naruto only knew this as he had been friends with Shikamaru over the past few years and eventually anyone who was friends with Shikamaru had to learn how to decipher them.

They just sat together in a semi-comfortable silence waiting for their new sensei to come get them. Eventually the door opened and a beautiful woman with raven colored hair and red eyes walked in. While she was definitely beautiful she wasn't Kimiko beautiful. He really doubted anyone could compare with her really. He could feel the smugness rolling of Kimiko as she heard his train of thought. She cooed ' Awww thanks, Naru-chan. It means so much to hear you tell me I'm the prettiest in the world.' Naruto sighed. Kimiko could be such a tease. He was dreading the day his hormones really started kicking in as he got older. He had no doubt she would do her best to get a rise out of him.

The woman looked over all the genin and her eyes landed on Team Eight. She said in a slightly low voice " Team Eight come with me." Kiba had a huge grin on his face. Naruto sighed as he noticed that. No doubt he was excited about having so an all girls squad. He was such a lecher for a twelve year old.

As the woman left another man in the standard Konoha Jonin attire entered the room. He had a beard and bore a slight resemblance to the Third Hokage. He had a sash around his waist with a kanji for 'fire' on it. Very patriotic in Naruto's opinion. He wasn't going to criticize. He made sure all his clothes had the Uzumaki swirl on them when he had found out it was the symbol of his clan.

He looked to them and said " Team Ten with me." Naruto got up along with Shino and cuffed Shikamaru on the head for good measure as they started following their sensei. He lead them out of the academy and through the village. Eventually they reached the market district and entered a barbecue restaurant. They all took a seat at a random table and Asuma spoke up " Don't worry, this first meal is on me. I just want to get to know you guys. Just basic stuff like your names, likes, dislikes and any dreams or goals you have. I'll go first. My names Sarutobi Asuma. I like barbecue and traveling around the nations. I dislike traitors and those who use others for their own gain. My dream… well maybe to settle down one day and have a family." He then pointed at Shino.

Shino shifted in his seat slightly and said " My name is Aburame Shino. I like insects and walking in the forests around Konoha too look for new types of insects. I dislike those who judge others for no reason and traitors. My goal is to become strong enough to be a good head of my clan when I'm older."

Seeing as Shino was finished he turned slightly and pointed at Shikamaru. Shikamaru sighed and said " My name is Nara Shikamaru. I like watching clouds and sleeping. I dislike troublesome people. My dream is to live an average life. Marry an average girl. Not to good looking or not too ugly. Have two children, a boy and a girl. Live to a long ripe old age and die before my wife." Everyone blinked. Shikamaru really thought his life through and that was probably the most he had ever said in one go. Naruto could hear Kimiko laughing uproariously in his head. Asuma shook his head and pointed towards Naruto.

Naruto sighed and said " My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, my friends and training. I dislike those who look down on others for something that isn't their fault and traitors. My dream is to restore my clan to it's former glory."

Asuma nodded having expected more or less the same from what he knew about his students from their files. Shino was silent and very task oriented. Shikamaru was very smart even if he never applied himself in class. And Naruto was mature for his age and very skilled in most aspects of the Shinobi life even if his grades at the academy weren't top notch due to bunking and sleeping in class. He was actually compared to people like Itachi and Kakahi for those who had seen him training and fight at the academy. He had never lost a single fight or struggled with any task set according to his record. The only reason he hadn't graduated early was due to his own choice and the fear of cranking out another Itachi, except with even more firepower. No the elders of the village had decided to take it slow especially since there was a relative state of peace amongst the villages.

Asuma smiled at the genin and said " Well technically their is another test administered by the Jonin sensei of each team when they are assigned but I'm not going to administer it. I've been watching you all at the academy extra carefully last month and can see you will all work well together which was the point of the test. Instead we will be having a mock battle so I can see where you all stand skill wise tomorrow. Anyways meet me in training ground 10 at eight tomorrow and we can talk about it more then."

Naruto nodded and said " Alright sensei." as the man turned to leave. Once he was gone and Naruto turned to his now official team and said " Alright guys I suppose I'll see you tomorrow. And you better not be late Shikamaru!"

Naruto just got a 'troublsome' in response. Shino nodded to him and said " Good bye Naruto-san, I will see you and Shikamaru-San tomorrow as well." as he turned to leave as well. Naruto ran a hand through his hair and thought what he should do to prepare for tomorrow.

Kimiko spoke up ' Don't sweat it Naruto-kun. You cant really learn any technique that can help you beat a Jonin. Just start learning these new techniques we acquired and train normally.'

Naruto nodded and replied ' Thanks Kimiko-chan. I know your right. I'll definitely learn the Shadow Clone technique today. I know I can make other clones and all but it's an awesome technique from what I've read. And I suppose I'll brush up on some Shuriken jutsu as well. I haven't practiced mine in a while.'

Kimiko nodded and said ' Yeah that's a good idea.' Naruto headed towards the forest where he had set up his training sight long ago. It hadn't really changed much. The only differences were that Naruto had made the pond deeper using improvised Earth techniques and had added a few more targets and an actual training post. He thanked god for Sealing techniques. Transporting it by hand would have been very difficult.

Naruto went near the water and made five water clones. Being the least durable clone technique he knew they required very little chakra having the drawback of requiring a large amount of water. You could make them from the water molecules in the air but that required an extremely large amount of chakra or control of the element on the same level as the Second Hokage who was considered the greatest water user to date in the history of the shinobi world since the clan wars ended and the village system had been set up.

Over the years Naruto's weapon training had changed and evolved in difficulty based on his own ingenuity. He had started at normal targets like everyone else and moved on too linear moving targets he had been forced to set up in the woods when that became easy. After the linear targets he moved to hitting independent think constructs meaning clones with weapons as they were free to move as they pleased adding a three dimensional aspect to his training. And from there it evolved to what it was today. He would have the clones hide in the forest and evade him while trying to take him down as well. The only rule of this 'game' was long range weapons only. Naruto had made sure to use blunted weapons after a rather nasty accident when he had first come up with the idea. He was sure he would have bled to death on the forest floor if it hadn't been for Kimiko.

Kimiko had encouraged this admittedly rather painful and suicidal training method as it helped him in many aspects at once. Tracking, reflexes, evasion and stealth were just the most important of them. After the oversite of using real weapons had been corrected Kimiko and Naruto had reasoned it was a good idea. Since his Rinnegan didn't activate in clones they were only one tenth of his strength he had a significant advantage over his clones. And Kimiko reasoned the best way to learn was through pain and Naruto had always been more receptive to practical training methods. Since the weapons were blunted getting hit only hurt like a bitch and they barely drew any blood. The most he ever had to deal with was a cracked bone which Kimiko would heal overnight. It had been undoubtedly the most painful training he had ever attempted and it was probably only really possible for him thanks to Kimiko's presence. After the first week he was finally able to keep up with two clones and in a month he could handle them like a pro. Currently he could handle five clones if he really pushed himself.

It took over an hour but Naruto had finally been able to finish of the last few clones. They had a bad habit of sticking together and covering each other which made it difficult to hit them but Naruto eventually managed to overwhelm two. From there it was simple matter to pick of the last three over the next fifteen minutes.

Naruto took a deep breath as he finished his last clone. It was a good way to warm up and Naruto made sure he did this almost every two three days just to keep his reflexes up. Naruto then unsealed the copy of the Forbidden Scroll techniques he had awaited yesterday. They were all B-ranked so he could still explain them away as something he picked up from the Uzumaki scrolls.

He hadn't really wanted any A or S-rank techniques as they weren't meant for a one on one fight. They were meant to kill many people at once. He didn't really have the control necessary for them anyways hence he forwent even looking at them. He soon found the Shadow Clone technique. After re-reading the instructions and warning given in the scroll Naruto resealed it and made the hand sign. The clone turned out looking half dead much like his earliest attempts at the regular Clone technique.

Undeterred, Naruto kept going for the next hour until he finally made a prefect solid clone. And much to his glee it had the Rinnegan just like him. he could tell despite the clone's seemingly blue eyes as he suddenly had double vision. It was a very weird experience he decided. Fortunately while they shared vision he couldn't send the clone any commands as it ha no chakra receptors on it unlike the corpses the sage had used. This meant he only had to get used to the double vision first and not have to worry about maneuvering the bodies at once. He wasn't too put out about it. Konoha hadn't been built in a day after all. He would get too that level eventually as well.

It was strange having double vision. He looked over himself from his clones perspective. His attire consisted of tight blueish short sleeved shirt with a dark blue jacket with light blue edges. He wore simple black shinobi pants and shinobi shoes. Naruto himself had slitted sky blue eyes and rather long sunny blonde hair that fell around his face in bangs. It was just like his father's albeit longer. He had rather feminine body being lean like a swimmer. This was probably his mother's gene's showing in his opinion.

Naruto sent the clone to sit in a tree and made a Mud Clone. He started sparing with it at a slow pace. It was extremely disorienting having two points of view. He had been hoping to be able to use this to his advantage in the fight tomorrow but it seemed he had underestimated just how disoriented it would have been. It was hard to imagine the sage was able to use it with more then two as if they were an extension of his own body. At this rate he wouldn't even be able to make Shadow Clones to help him tomorrow.

He spent the next two hours just fighting with his clone. He finally decided to call it a day when he saw the sun setting. He would need to rest for tomorrow. It would be a good way to see how far he had come over the last few years. Clones and memories could only do so much after all.

•••••

Naruto nodded to his new teammates as he entered the field as their sensei had instructed. It seemed he hadn't been the only one who had decided to come early though it was surprising to see Shikamaru early. As if sensing his thoughts Shikamaru said " Don't give me that look. My mother kicked me out of the house early in the morning and I had no where better to go."

Naruto just nodded. Shikamaru's mother was the bane of his existence so to speak. He was sure Shikamaru only did half the things he did because his mother made him do them. Any further thoughts were cut off as Asuma appearing in the clearing using the Body Flicker Technique.

He looked over at them and said " Good your all on time. Well let's get this over with. You have an hour to impress me. You have to come at me with the intent to kill if you want any chance. Okay so… Start!"

All three of them immediately jumped into the woods around the area. Naruto looked around and saw Shikamaru and Shino were already together. Naruto walked over and said " Well… how do you guys want to do this."

Both Naruto and Shino looked over at Shikamaru. While Naruto was certainly very smart and Shino was also a good tactician they both knew they didn't really hold a candle against Shikamru in that regard. He was without a doubt the smartest in their generation. Shikamaru muttered 'troublesome' under his breath and said " Okay so what can you guys all do. I can use my clans Shadow Possession technique though it still needs a bit of work and I'm pretty good at the stuff we learnt at the academy."

Shino adjusted his glasses and said " I an also well versed in all aspects of our instructions from the academy except Taijutsu and furthermore an good at the manipulation of my clans bugs. I am able to perform the most basic techniques of my clan."

Naruto sighed and said " Well I'm good with all the academy stuff and know a couple of wind and water techniques. I'm good at Sealing techniques as well though my I'm best at close range." Naruto was strongest in close range as despite being able to perform many techniques due to his Rinnegan he still had fairly bad control over elemental chakra and wasted huge amounts of chakra to make up for the power lost from his elemental chakra due to lack of control. As it was, Naruto had only done the most basic elemental manipulation exercises for water and wind while he hadn't done any for any other elements. He couldn't use his Rinnegan techniques so his man focus had always been Taijutsu and weapons techniques and his Sealing techniques.

His teammates looked impressed by his repertoire. Shikamaru finally shaped out of it and then came up with a plan. Shino had the faintest of smiles on his face when he heard it and Naruto himself had a small from on his face. Kimiko whistled in his head and said ' That boy is pretty sneaky… for a human anyways.'

Naruto was used to her disregarding attitude to any human other then him and said " Yeah well Shikamaru always was the smartest of us even if he was the laziest also."

He was snapped from his thoughts when Shikamaru said " Okay Naruto your up." Naruto nodded as he started walking back out of the clearing.

•••••

Asuma sighed as he heard the faint sound of shuriken traveling through the air and just ducked as the throwing stars past over him. He really hoped they didn't think that was enough to beat him. He turned around and his eyes widened as he barely dodged a strike from Naruto. Asuma cursed as he turned the attack away and threw Naruto over him. Naruto flipped in the air and landed on his feet. He wasn't paying attention and had almost payed for it.

He looked over to see Naruto had discarded his jacket somewhere and now only had a black muscle shirt on. The strangest and maybe most dangerous addition to his attire was the golden-black gauntlet on his left hand. It was connected to a stinger on his middle finger with a golden chain. The stinger was about twice as long as his normal fingers increasing his attack range ever so slightly.

Asuma whistled and said " Fancy weapon you got their Naruto but let's see if you know how to use it." as he drew his own trench knives. He wasn't going to use the Fly Swallow technique on him but the knives still kept them on equal footing.

Naruto stayed on guard waiting for Asuma to attack him. Asuma nodded to himself. At least he knew it was better to let the stronger opponent attack first. Deciding to test the waters Asuma attacked with a simple punch which was expertly deflected outward with a deft flick of Naruto's unarmed hand while simultaneously opening Asuma's guard. Naruto tried to capitalize and jabbed his stinger towards Asuma's other hand's armpit.

But Asuma was a Jonin and was easily able to duck at the last second. Naruto's hand flew over his shoulder skimming against the fabric of his flack jacket. Asuma immediately took advantage of this and moved forward to prevent getting kicked and again threw Naruto over his shoulder. This time Naruto performed a spring roll as he hit the ground minimizing the damage he would take.

Naruto growled as he was again avoided. Asuma was impressed the kid obviously knew what he was doing. Not a single wasted movement. Though he had been moving rather slowly. Naruto decided to change his strategy. This maneuver usually got his clones. He drew some shuriken and threw them at Asuma. Asuma didn't move instead moved to deflect them with his knives. Just as he deflected the first one Naruto vanished in a Body Flicker appearing behind Asuma with a low strike aiming for his kneecaps from behind. Just as the stinger sank into Asuma's flesh the body puffed into a log. It was then promptly riddled with shuriken.

Naruto heard clapping from behind him and tuned to see Asuma standing there. Asuma spoke up " Well that's a scary combination. If you had been faster then me I could have been crippled for life. I really didn't expect a genin to have such mastery of the Body Flicker technique."

Naruto ignored Asuma and started going through hand-signs and yelled " WindStyle: Vacuum Sphere!" as he spat out a huge sphere of wind moving towards Asuma at high speeds. Naruto had chosen his weapon specifically because it didn't impede his hands while fighting and it was extremely durable. It was the culmination of all his experiments with sage's Creation of All Things technique. Naruto was no where near the sage's original level where he had been actually create Kimiko and the other bijuu but he could still use it to make small things like weapons and even household items.

As Asuma jumped towards the trees Naruto smirked as he suddenly couldn't move. Bugs came out of nowhere and took his knives and weapons from him. Asuma groaned and said " What is this?"

Shino who suddenly appeared near them said " You fell for our trap sensei."

Shikamaru's voice rang from inside the forest " Man this is so troublesome. Let's end this already." Asuma suddenly started moving towards a small clearing with the trees knocked over. Taking that as his que Shino raised his hands and suddenly the ground crumbled revealing a rather deep ditch from which bugs flew back into his body. The top was lined with paper bombs.

Shikamaru said " Okay we win right or do we have to actually throw you into that hole." He was sounding lightly fatigued now. Naruto supposed making a Jonin do something against their will was pretty tiring."

They heard Asuma sigh and say " I gotta say I'm impressed and yeah you guys pass but…" the Asuma in front of them burst into smoke and another voice from behind Naruto spoke " You should always check to make sure your opponent is real. A little nick will do usually." They genin all jumped backwards only for Asuma to raise his hands and say " Woah cool it guys, you still did pretty good. If you would have actually been able to beat me I wouldn't really have been much a Jonin now would I. Now let's head back to grounds."

They headed back to the training posts in the clearing and all sat down. Asuma spoke up and said " So I'm mostly sure what your plan was by now but I want to hear it from you guys as well."

Shikamaru groaned a bit but continued " Well the plan was for Naruto to occupy your attention and force you to the tree-line. I just needed you to jump so I could catch you with my shadow and we would have Shino use his bugs to disarm you and start draining your chakra so you chances of escape were less. While Naruto was keeping you busy Shino directed his bugs to make the hole while I put the paper bombs in. That was a pain. I had to climb up an down that rope so many times. Anyways we would use my shadow to take you to the pit and force you to jump in while blowing it up an burying you alive if you had been an enemy shinobi."

Shino at this point interjected " When did you escape sensei?"

Asuma rubbed his head and said " Well I sort of was never there. That was a clone the entire time. I told it to go easy on you guys but you surprised it and me quite a bit." They all nodded. It was a good tactic on Asuma's part. He then looked at Naruto and said " Well your the only one I really fought. Your Taijutsu is very good from what I've seen. And you can perform a B-rank wind technique which is very impressive even if you have to brute force it but lucky for you I just happen to be a wind user as well. As for you both I can see you guys have good mastery of your clans techniques and a basic grasp of stealth but I need you to fight me in a Taijutsu fight to so I know how good you are. Shino why don't you go first."

Shino nodded and proceeded to fight their sensei in Taijutsu. Shino had a very rigid style that mostly utilized upper body strength from what Naruto had seen in the academy and it had not changed over the years. The fight lasted about five minutes until Asuma called it saying he ha seen enough.

Shikamaru after getting cuffed by Naruto also went to fight next. He unlike both his teammates didn't have a fighting style. He used the basic academy style and modified it in the heat of battle to suit his needs. From what Naruto understood from his mother's memories Nara's were generally weapons users and long range fighters preceding o fight from a distance only closing in when there was no risk of getting hit. Shikamaru did not seem to deviate much from the norm of his clan.

Asuma called it again in five minutes and said " Well okay from what I've seen this is a very diverse team. Naruto hear specializes in close-mid range combat and has excellent overall skills. Basically the muscle of this team. Shino while is decent at close range prefers using his insects to box people in and finish them from a distance. From the few times I've worked with the Aburame I know they are excellent trackers due to their bugs. He specializes in capture and scouting. And Shikamaru prefers long range combat using his Shadow to maneuver people into traps and finish them of from a distance. He's the brains of this group specializing in diversions and traps. Overall this team has a few kinks that I can see but we will work those out as we go."

Naruto nodded and said " So what do you want us to do now sensei?"

Asuma got this funny smile on his face that had all his new students feeling a little on edge. He finally said " Oh well… how about we go for our first few missions together and then we'll see after that."

As it turned out the missions they were given by the Third were nothing but glorified chores that no one else wanted to have to do. Naruto had been blindsided by them just as everyone else had been. Now you would think he would have known about them but his mother had grown up in a war a Mito had already been a fearsome Shinobi when the village was first formed. His mother had only known D-ranks are boring. Naruto vowed to tell her when he died D-ranks weren't just boring they were downright torturous and almost bordered on Slave labour.

The first mission had been fairly simple. They had to go to the outskirts of the village and resupply the village border patrol shinobi squads. Being shinobi, lifting extremely heavy crates and the like was still not THAT difficult. It had taken them almost two hours to transport them to the underground storage facility in the headquarters.

The next mission was just ridiculous. Thy had to go to the source of the hot springs Konoha was famous for and make their way towards the spa while removing any garbage that may have been imbedded in the stream. Now the spa had a filtering system but they still assigned this mission every week for whatever reason.

The last mission was just torture. They had to travel along the sewage system while placing medicine around the sewers to kill of rats and other vermin that used the sewage as their nesting grounds. Naruto finally understood why the village never had any sorts of infestation problems. Some poor souls went down to that god forsaken place to medicate the water every other month. Asuma had categorically refused to even go down with his team opting to send a clone. When Naruto tried to do the same Asuma had stopped him saying usually all D-ranks were to be completed without the use of any forms of ninjutsu unless otherwise impossible.

D-ranks were supposed to provide a common goal for fresh genin giving them a common goal and common hardships giving birth to the beginnings of comradeship that could save them in a real mission. That was the official reason that D-ranks were made in the first place. Naruto called bullshit. D-ranks only purpose was to have an easily payed cheap workforce that could make sure the that the dirtier jobs of the village were taken care of by someone.

The genin all crashed in the training grounds after their third and final D-rank of the day. It was only two or three pm in the day and yet were already quite tired. While Naruto wasn't quite tired, he smelt like shit and his clothes were all dirty. Basically having been raised by three woman Naruto had some habits many preteens would consider girly. His longish hair was one example and his habit of trying to remain as clean as possible was probably another.

As such he was pretty put out right now. Kimiko seemingly agreeing with him said ' Wow you look like shit.'

Naruto sighed defeatedly and said ' Please don't remind me. I feel like shit to. I'm cover in slime. Do you have any idea how difficult it will be to get that gunk from the sewers out of my hair!'

Asuma snickered as he saw the state his team was in. As if on queue they all turned and glared hatefully at him. This was probably the reason Jonin took teams to see their team suffer just like they did when they were genin. He then said " Well okay guys we just have to do some training as a team and then we're done for the day. Just basic formations they made you do in the academy nothing else. We'll work on the more advanced stuff as you guys advance more."

And so they spent the next two hours working on standard formations that they were taught in the academy. Asuma would have them work out more advanced formations related directly to their skills when they got used to each other's fighting styles a bit.

When Naruto made it home it was just four in the evening. He forwent a shower and instead went to do some personal training of his own. No need to avoid it if he had nothing better to be doing. After he finished his own training by eight in the night Naruto was dead tired. He took possibly the longest shower of his life washing himself throughly paying special attention to that damnable goo that fell in his hair. When he finally got to his bedroom he was quite possibly the tiredest he had ever been in his life.

Over the next week a sort of basic routine was formed. They would meet up at eight at training ground 10. The next two hours were devoted to personal training or the like. They mostly focused on their Taijutsu with Naruto squaring of against Asuma to get some experience while Shikamaru and Shino would usually be doing exercises to get in better shape. Asuma had apparently consulted someone named 'Gai' for help for the best workout routine. After that they would spend the next few hours doing those awful D-ranks. Chasing cats. Cleaning dog houses. Babysitting. Cleaning. Heavy lifting. Almost all sorts of odd jobs you could think off. These would usually finish around two. After that they would go to have lunch at a place of choice by the team meaning either a sushi stand for Shino, Iciraku Ramen's for Naruto or BBQ for Asuma. Shikamaru didn't care either way. After a relatively quick lunch they would go to training ground ten again and work on team formations and the likes. It was not that bad overall when they got used to it though that didn't stop Shikamaru from complaining. Well Shikamaru wouldn't be Shikamaru if he didn't complain.

AN/: That's a wrap! I showed the surface of his abilities in this chapter and a introduced his team and all that jazz. I also gave Naruto the most unconventional yet epic weapon I could think off. I already two stories where he has a bladed weapon so I thought why not Suzumebachi. Soifong is totally epic and I love her weapon and fighting style. Keep in mind that this isn't a Zanpakto so it won't necessarily have the same abilities and no bankai. That would be totally overkill. That also means no 'Death in Two Steps' in case anyone was hoping for that. That would also be overkill as he would just need to hit anyone twice and boom it's over. That's no fun at all if your going to want to write an epic fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto of The Six Paths 3

AN/: Well here is another chapter of Naruto of The Six Paths. Some more Team Ten development. More training. Maybe a look at the start of the C-rank. Idk will see as I write.

•••••

Seven weeks. It had been seven weeks since the start of Team Ten. Naruto was pretty happy with how his team had turned out. Shikamaru was a slacker most of the time but he did his part in the end even if he bitched about it constantly. Shino was a bit of the silent type but was an overall good guy. Though he was a bit of a stickler for the rules but Naruto wasn't going to hold it against him. Asuma was a bit lazy and took an unnecessary amount of pleasure in wathing them suffer but wasn't that bad if you got past that and was pretty serious at least when he was training them. Other wise he was pretty laid back. Sort of like an older, more mellow, constantly smoking Shikamaru really.

Naruto sighed as he got out of bed as the alarm rang. He would have just stayed in a little but then he would be late and Kimiko would scold him for being lazy. Well at least she didn't nag him like most women seemed to nag men. He remembered that Jonin Kurenai getting on Asuma's case for smoking in front on children.

Kimiko's voice interjected in his thoughts at this point saying in a sarcastic tone of voice ' Well I'm glad you don't think I'm troublesome like you lazy ass of a teammate puts it Naruto-kun.'

Naruto just smiled and said ' Morning to you too Kimiko-chan!' She just huffed and closed their connection again. Naruto sighed. Kimiko could be such a drama queen some times.

He quickly dressed up and started walking towards the training grounds. He got there and saw Shino already there in his signature trench coat. Naruto raised his hand and waved saying " Hey Shino. Good morning. Isn't that lazy ass Shikamaru here yet?" Well he sort of picked up Kimiko's way of describing his teammates.

Shino just adjusted his glasses slightly on his face and said " Good Morning Naruto. No Shikamaru isn't here yet. My kikaichū inform me that his nearby along with Asuma sensei. Over the past few weeks Shino had finally started calling them by their first names. It was a welcome change by all. He had also marked them with a special insect from his body that allowed him to track their movements and whereabouts.

As if having heard Shino, Shikamaru walked into the clearing while Asuma BodyFlickered into the clearing almost simultaneously. Leave it to Shikamaru to arrive exactly at the latest he could. Asuma saw they were all in the clearing and said, " Well it's good to see your all here. Today I'll be teaching you an important chakra control exercise. We are going to be climbing tree's." Asuma sighed disappointedly when he didn't see any of his team looking even slightly confused by his statement. He just had to get the team with the know it all's. While he supposed it was a good thing all his students were smart it deprived him of many moments of fun. Shikamaru was a genius tactician who would probably surpass his father in the future. Shino was also very smart though it wasn't on the same level as Shikamaru he was still a dangerous opponent and had an underhandedness to his moves that Shikamaru didn't possess. Naruto wasn't smart like both his teammates but his intelligence and ingenuity showed itself clearly on the battlefield. He had yet to see the boy make a bad choice during their mock battles and spars. It was like he always knew exactly where to attack for maximum effect. His attacking style was absolutely ruthless and meant to kill, cripple and disable to opponent especially when he used that stinger weapon of his.

He sighed and snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Naruto call out " Like this sensei." Naruto then proceeded to walk up the side of the tree as if he had been doing it for years. Asuma sighed again. He really needed to find Naruto a hobby besides trying to be able to pull of every little trick he came across in his family scrolls.

Asuma just nodded and said, " Yeah thats pretty good Naruto. Let me guess you probably know the water walking one as well right?" Seeing Naruto nod he really wondered why the kid didn't want to be promoted early. He obviously had the skills and the drive. He could probably become a Jonin by the time he hits sixteen even at this rate. It was obvious he already knew all the basic genin skills. Asuma then yelled " Okay Naruto just go back to trying to cut that boulder okay!" Asuma wanted to laugh at his own statement really. Naruto was probably the only genin to have such a firm grasp on elemental chakra. He had already been able to cut a leaf in under a second so Asuma had told him to try giant boulders. Despite his skill even Naruto was still too young to attempt a waterfall. He would probably destroy his chakra points from overloading them. No he would leave that till the kid was a bit older prodigy or not.

Asuma turned back to his other students and said, " Alright guys let me explain this. To walk up the tree like Naruto did you need to generate a steady and constant amount of chakra at the base of your feet. This will allow you to stick to the trunk of the tree. If you use too little nothing will happen and if you use too much you'll blast yourself off the trunk. Give it a try and don't worry if you don't get it down too quick. Most genin take about a week or so to just be able to stick and a month to just he able to climb all the way to the top." Asuma smiled slightly as he saw his students contemplate his statement. He had learnt early on that they liked to be given a challenge so to speak. They both would do their level best to have it down much sooner then the times Asuma had given them. In actuality the times he gave them were for those absolute failures that were genin even at age sixteen or seventeen. These kids all had a large amount of talent. He wouldn't be surprised if they had mastered it within a week.

He just lay down against a tree and pulled out a cigarette while his students did their respective training. Another reason he found for people taking a genin team. You got paid to just sit back and relax most of the time.

Shino and Shikamaru didn't make much progress overall but Asuma wasn't worried. He knew they would have it down soon. Naruto himself didn't have much progress with the boulder either. He was barely able to scratch the boulder as it was after almost two months but it was pretty good progress in Asuma's opinion. Elemental training took years to complete. There was a reason it took a while to become a Jonin outside of wartime at a young age in Konoha.

Jonin were required to be able to use elemental chakra to its fullest capacity as one of the perquisites for promotion. Of course there were exceptions for those who showed so much skill and promise in their own fields that this could potentially be overlooked but this was only done for absolute masters of their fields like Gai and his taijutsu or Kurenai and her genjutsu. At this point Asuma was sure no one could beat either of them in a straight battle in their respective fields except his father, the Third.

They all walked towards the Hokage tower to receive today's missions. Asuma hoped they got the Tora mission. His team had been able to escape it so far. He remembered having to chase the cat as a genin and according to Kakashi it was still as vicious as ever.

They entered the hall and were greeted by the Third who was handing out missions personally. He smiled at them and said " Well Team Ten, which one do you want today. The Inuzuka want their kennels cleaned again and a Civilian Council member has issued a mission to have one of his stores cleared out and cleaned. And on another note it seems 's cat Tora has escaped again as well. She would like to have the cat back before she leaves the village with her monthly shopping tomorrow."

Before they could say anything Asuma interjected " We'll take all three dad." He totally ignored the heated glares he got from his team. This was his chance to see them get messed up by that damn cat damn it! It was totally worth it. He would just treat them all to lunch later.

Naruto complained about the dog mission the most. He disliked having to do such missions so Asuma got them just to mess with him. It seemed his dad had caught on as well since he usually only offered them such missions… whenever he was actually at the desk anyways. It only took half an hour as being Ninja dogs they had the intelligence to do their business in one relative area. Washing the place down was made simpler with Naruto's water manipulation. Asuma was really put out when his team found out you can technically use ninjutsu and the likes on D-ranks as well.

After they cleared out all the kennels and got them clean they headed to the store they were supposed to clean. It was a relatively new store and the owner wanted it spotless before he brought in the next season's shipments. It took them a bit but they were able to clean the place relatively quickly even with Shikamaru moaning continuously about how it was all so troublesome.

He enjoyed watching them chase the demon cat Tora. It was indeed just as dangerous as when he had been a genin. It had scratched Naruto all over the face and much to his amusement crapped on Shino's coat. Even Shikamaru got bitten on the arm. In the end when they finally cornered and captured it using Shikamaru's Shadow Possession technique, he had to stop Naruto from stabbing the cat repeatedly with his weapon Suzumebachi. He was sure Shino had tagged the thing with his kikaichū though.

They made their way back to the mission hall to receive their pays fairly worn out as always. They took the envelopes prepared by the chūnin at the desk and headed towards the BBQ restaurant. It had been his choice today. Naruto turned towards Asuma when he didn't come with them and Asuma just waved him on and said, " Don't worry guys. I just need to talk to my dad a bit."

They nodded and proceeded to head for lunch. The Third lit his pipe and said, " So Asuma how is having your own team. I recall you telling me you would never teach a bunch of brats a few years back."

Asuma sighed as he smoked his cigarette and said, " Well it's pretty… I don't know… fun. Their all really skilled, especially Naruto. I swear the kid seems to know everything I'm going to teach him before I even get to it. Hell the only thing I really help him with is his taijutsu and elemental manipulation. " Asuma sighed when he saw his fathers rather disbelieving stare and said " Yeah you heard me right, elemental manipulation. Otherwise his Ninjutsu's great. His taijutsu's even better and while he can't really do genjutsu due to his 'condition' he can at least break the most basic illusions I put on him and I'm pretty sure he is good with Sealing techniques as well. I can see why he's hailed as a prodigy."

Sarutobi puffed his pipe and thought ' Well he certainly inherited Minato's skills even if he has Kushina's looks and attitude if you minus the hair and the eyes.' Taking another puff he said " What about your other students. Shikaku's and Shibi's children if I'm not wrong."

Asuma just took a drag of his cigarette and said " Their both very skilled as well even if their not like Naruto. Even though he has no motivation Shikamaru is probably the smartest person in his entire generation. He'll probably give his father a run for his money as Jonin commander when he's older. He can plan almost two hundred moves ahead and is definitely the brains behind the team even if each and everyone one of them is smart. And Shino is really skilled with his clan's techniques. He's paranoid as hell though. Puts his bugs on almost every person he meets. The kid is smart even if he isn't as smart as Shikamaru. He has a certain… ruthlessness that Shikamaru lacks in his planning. I can see the kid joining the ANBU's hunter division when he gets older. Possibly even Black OPS eventually."

Sarutobi 'hummed' as he smoked his pipe. Finally after a few minutes had passed he spoke up " Do you think they are ready for their first C-rank then. Most teams don't do one until at least three-four months in but from the reports I've been hearing about this graduating class from you and Kakashi and Kurenai I think they are a bit special. I suppose it's not surprising whose children most of the teams consist of though…"

Asuma thought about it. Really he thought they could handle it. He just had a bit of a feeling that something may go wrong. He shook it off. It was a C-rank. If it went bad he could handle it right. He turned towards his dad again and after taking another drag of his cigarette to calm his nerves said " Yeah I'm sure they can all handle it. We'll take one next week. It should give them time to completely master their tree walking."

Sarutobi nodded. That was a good idea. A little chakra control never hurt anyone right. He made a reminder to store away a good one for his son's team. They had never been out of the village so a good one to some nice far away place would suit them fine. He remembered Naruto had always expressed an interest in traveling like that anyways. He watched his son waving casually at him as he left to catch up with his team. He sighed as he turned back to his damnable paper work. He couldn't escape it even at the mission table.

•••••

Naruto was excited. He was finally going on a real C-rank. He had been extremely excited when Asuma told him. Now these he knew weren't exactly dangerous but it would be the first time he left the village and saw the outside world from his own viewpoint instead of Mito's or his mother Kushina's. He knew he would probably have to kill eventually on a C-rank but unlike most people this didn't really matter much to Naruto. He knew it was necessary due to his mother's and Mito's memories and had been sort of raised by a demoness who considered humans worthless for the most part and had no problem with killing. He knew it wasn't something he should enjoy but it was also a necessary and extremely common part of his lifestyle.

He waited patiently by the gate for Asuma to bring the client. Shino was leaning against a tree while Shikamaru was actually already asleep by the looks of it. Lazy bastard. Finally Asuma came forward with a relatively short middle-aged man. He smelled strongly of cheap booze even though it was still quite early. His slightly forced movements gave away that he was tipsy if not downright drunk.

He looked at them and slurred " Aww man. I pay good money for protection. Not some snot nosed brats."

Asuma waved his hands in a placating manner " Don't worry Tazuna-san. They are very skilled despite their ages. And if anything goes wrong I'll be there as well and I'm a Jonin."

The drunken man seemed to quite down accepting that he really wouldn't be getting a change in teams and said loudly now " Listen up brats! I'm the super bridge builder Tazuna and you better protect me with your lives!"

Shikamaru spoke up and said, " This is a C-rank. Should there be anything that will there be any danger that will require us to put our lives on the line because that would make the rank higher." Leave it Shikamaru to answer a question with a question.

Tazuna just laughed and said, " I'm just saying kid." Shikamaru just scrutinized him for a moment before muttering his trade mark troublesome and leaving it alone.

They all started walking away from the village at a civilians pace seeing as Tazuna couldn't jump in the trees like they could. They could have carried him but everyone wanted to enjoy the moment away from the village, even Shikamaru. They kept walking quietly throwing cursory glances around them. It was more for show really. Shino had spread his bugs all around them. They wouldn't be able to notice anything that would be able to slip by them anyways.

Almost five hours out of the village Naruto was starting to get restless. It was definitely more boring than he had anticipated. Kimiko's quipped in his head ' Well what were you expecting, fireworks. Or maybe some high level opponent.'

Naruto sighed as he heard Kimiko's teasing voice. Leave it too her too enjoy his crushed hopes. He replied ' Well I was hoping for I don't know… something. Walking so slowly is really irritating.' Shikamaru certainly agreed with him if his occasional mumbles were anything. Shino, well Shino wasn't the type to complain out loud even if he had any problems with most things.

Kimiko just sighed and said ' Yeah I know what you mean. Watching you fight these leaf ninja is boring. You can't kill them and there isn't even any blood! What sort of lame ass fight is that!' she finished in a whining tone.

Naruto sighed and said ' Okay how about the next time we come across some bandits scum bags or something like that, I'll kill them. Happy?' He didn't mind killing them. They were the main source of crime in the Land of Fire anyways and more often then naught took part in many vile activities like rape, human trafficking and smuggling. He literally knew this from the memories of his mother and Mito. While Mito still never left the village all that much, during the war Kushina had come across many bandits who used the chaos of the war to raid towns kidnapping women and even children no older then eight or nine years old for their sick pleasure. No Naruto had no issues personally hunting down and killing those type of people in the most brutal and painful fashion.

Kimiko was satisfied hearing this knowing this was the best she was going to get and nodded. While more often then naught hunting and killing these pathetic human's was far below her as a demon even she appreciated a good display of power. After all in the demon realm power was everything. That was why she was the new queen of her realm after the sage separated the Juubi even if she was a female. She could simply wipe the floor with all the competition for the position.

Suddenly the silence was broken by Shino who said in his ever-monotone voice " Sensei, my kikaichū are picking up two chakra signatures up ahead right on the roadside. They appear to be hiding in ambush. What should we do?"

Asuma frowned as he heard this. If they could hide by the road in plain sight that meant they were ninja but Asuma didn't know their affiliation or objective. Finally he ordered " Stay on guard but don't do anything if they don't act first. No sudden movements. They may have nothing to do with us at all after all."

Shikamaru muttered troublesome as they moved forward a bit more cautiously. Naruto looked over too the roadside looking for anything out of place and finally noticed a puddle in the middle of extremely dry patch of land. That had to be it. Naruto was on full alert ready to materialize Suzumebachi in an instant.

Shino who was in front passed without any reaction. Naruto and Shikamaru who were next passed as well. Asuma walked by only for the puddle to burst into smoke and two ninja with large gauntlet type weapons connected by a chain burst out and wrapped Asuma in said chain promptly using it to shred him to bits. One of them chuckled and cockily said " One down!"

Naruto exclaimed " Sensei!" as they both charged towards Asuma. Naruto cursed and materialized Suzumebachi and moved quickly to intercept them. Behind him Shino seemed to direct his bugs to surround them. Naruto appeared in front of the lead ninja and kicked him forcing him to stop and block with his gauntlet. The other one was immediately intercepted by Shino's insects forcing him to detach his half of the chain and jump back. Apparently he recognized just how dangerous the kikaichū could be.

Naruto's opponent tried to jab him with his claws only for Naruto to deflect all the blows with forearm on which he wore Suzumebachi. Being created through his Creation of All Things technique Naruto was confident it wouldn't break even if Taunade of the Sannin punched it full strength. He would probably still break his bones from a blow like that though so he wasn't too keen on testing that theory.

Naruto let the next punch sail over him instead grabbing onto his opponent's arm and in a show of great physical strength born through daily training and the strengthening presence of Kimiko's chakra, threw him over his shoulder. The man flipped in the air but before he could land Naruto appeared behind him in a BodyFlicker and stabbed him from behind. The man never even registered his presence until his left lung was pierced by Suzumebachi's venomous stinger.

Naruto shoved the dying man off him as he turned to see their other opponent shocked. The shock gave way to anger as he charged towards Naruto disregarding personal safety yelling " Gozu! You brat you! I'll kill you." Naruto scoffed at the man's foolishness and was about to kill him as well only to stumble. He looked down in surprise to see the dying man had his foot in a tight grip even as he died hoping to give his brother a chance. Naruto cursed as the man was almost on him and prepared to use his Rinnegan technique only for the man to freeze mid-step and immediately be engulfed in Shino's kikaichū, which started draining his chakra. Connecting the dots Naruto looked towards his shadow and saw it was connected to another just as he had expected.

•••••

Shikamaru cursed in his head when he saw the shinobi kill Asuma. He just froze in fear. If they took down Asuma what chance did a dead last genin like him have. He watched in despair as his team futilely tried to repel the attackers. Naruto took one on while Shino kept the other at a distance with his insects. He watched as Naruto took one of then down easily and the other immediately charged him in rage. Everyone expected Naruto to take him down as well but only Shikamaru noticed the dying man trying to grab Naruto's leg. He cursed and made the hand seals for his Shadow Possession Technique.

'Please make it in time! We already lost Asuma!' he prayed in his head. Just as the man was five feet away from Naruto Shikamaru finally caught him. Shino took advantage of this and immediately trapped him with his insects draining his chakra. Shikamaru collapsed in relief at being able to save his long time friend and teammate.

He looked towards Asuma's corpse again only to frown. What the hell was going on? The floor was littered with woodchips! It struck him. He had totally ignored his dad's teachings and didn't study the battlefield. He had let himself get swept up in his emotions and almost lost a teammate because he wasn't quick enough to act. He then looked up and saw that he had indeed been right as Asuma appeared.

•••••

Naruto ripped his foot out of the now dead man's grip and moved forward to eliminate the last enemy only for Asuma to appear in front of them alive and well. Momentarily shocked he growled as he realized what happened and looked at the spot Asuma 'died' and saw the remains of a log. And here he was going to kill these two to avenge the man. Asuma knocked out their other attacker and said "Good job guys. You all handled that wonderfully. Naruto, Shino good job on protecting the client. These were chūnin level shinobi. Try not to kill your opponents so quickly though Naruto. Only if you have too. Shikamaru you froze up in the field. That was very dangerous but I'm proud you were able to overcome your fear too be able too save your teammate. We will talk more about it later but I want all of you to be proud. You all did good."

They all nodded and then Shino spoke up " Sensei, what will we do with this one. We can't just leave him hear right?"

Asuma nodded and said " Well I didn't think you would really need to worry about this so early in your careers but incase you ever happen to run into such a situation again I'm going to give you a crash course on interrogation on the field. We need to find out why he attacked us anyways. Come on then. Tazuna-San you as well but I suggest you keep your eyes closed and try to block out the noise. It's not really pretty."

The man nodded and followed them into the woods. As it turns out Asuma hadn't been lying when he said it wasn't pretty. Asuma basically pummeled the man over the next half an hour before he finally spilled his guts. None of the genin looked forward to doing it in the future. Beating up and even killing a guy during a fight was one thing but this was basically torturing a defenseless person. Even Kimiko wasn't really into the entire torture and interrogation thing stating that she liked it when they at least fought back and presented a challenge. Otherwise it was no fun. Naruto agreed with her as well. It was no fun fighting someone who didn't fight back.

Apparently Tazuna had lied just how difficult the mission would have been. He was apparently some hot shot bridge builder for Wave that had a hit out on his head by Gato of the Gato Corporation. Apparently the bridge would result in the crash of all his business in Wave which he was the unofficial tyrannical leader off. Asuma wanted to cancel the mission but Tazuna spun a sob story about how his country would die and his daughter and grand son would miss him. This got Naruto feeling sorry for him as he never had a family of his own. Kimiko urged him to keep going as she was sure he would get too see a good fight that way. After all if Naruto ran into any trouble she just had to pump him full of her chakra and well who really stood a chance against the combined powers of the Rinnegan and her demonic chakra.

Shikamaru thought it was a drag but they couldn't let scum like Gato run around or he could try something similar with the leaf village's allies. Shino concurred. In reality they felt just as bad for Tazuna as Naruto did. Asuma was partial. He really wanted to help but in reality just so many things could go wrong and he couldn't help but worry. He looked over at his students. They were all strong. They weren't the strongest but they were still strong. He himself was ranked as an A-rank ninja in the Bingo book so there wasn't much in the ninja world that could really challenge him. Unless they hired a ninja of his caliber or God forbid an S-rank ninja they would be fine. While there were many A-rank ninja around there were only around maybe twenty S-rank ninja in the entire world not counting the Kage's of each village. The chances of one being there were almost zero. With these thoughts in mind Asuma gave into his team's desire to complete the mission. Until the mission was over he would curse himself repeatedly for ever giving in.

Naruto smiled as Asuma caved. He could feel Kimiko's excitement of watching a good fight. Well good for human's anyways. She could destroy most of them with a flick o her paw/hand anyways. They took a small boat that Tazuna had prepared for before hand to sneak back into the village. Asuma knew it wasn't a tactic that would fool most Jonin but it would at least allow them to get by the mercenary guard Gato seemed to have patrolling the village.

They took a forest pathway that had fallen into disuse to sneak around town. Tazuna's home was situated a bit away from the main town apparently. This worked out much better for them in the long run. If it it attacked they wouldn't have to worry about harming a passerby.

Naruto was feeling on edge. They were being watched. He just knew it even if he couldn't pinpoint the location. He heard the faintest rustle of leaves being moved slightly and immediately launched a kunai towards the noise. Everyone froze as Naruto moved the the bush to show a rabbit impaled on the knife. Shikamaru sighed in relief. Naruto wasn't so convinced. His Rinnegan had seen chakra their for the briefest of instants and it had still been too much noise for such a small rabbit.

Suddenly Asuma screamed " Get down!" as he tackled Tazuna. His genin team all complied falling flat on their stomaches as what appeared to be a giant cleaver type sword sail over them and imbed itself in a tree.

Asuma immediately turned towards the sword as he saw a man appear crouched on it's handle. Asuma cursed internally as he recognized the man. He spoke in a deceptively calm voice " Momochi Zabuza, whats a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen like you doing out here."

The man turned toward him and said " Well well if it isn't Sarutobi Asuma member of the Twelve Ninja guardsmen and son the current Hokage Sarutobi Hizuren. And and a couple of snot nosed brats too. Is it your genin team. Well my boss wants that old man your escorting. Hand him over and no one get's hurt."

Asuma drew his trench knives and said " Sorry but I can't just abandon the mission you know. Nothing personal."

Zabuza laughed and said " Hmm, that's what I wanted to hear. Now I get too rip you to shreds. Hidden Mist Technique!" he called out as the mist around them got even thicker then it was before.

Asuma smirked and said " All of you protect Tazuna. Don't interfere in this fight. I'll handle this one. WindStyle: Great Breakthrough!" Asuma yelled out as he cleared away all the mist around him.

Zabuza growled from his revealed position above the water " Ugh, I hate wind users. Fine let's see just how good you are Asuma!" as he charged towards Asuma at great speeds despite having the obviously heavy blade in his hand. Asuma activated his Flying Swallow technique and met his charge head on.

Zabuza was very skilled with his blade and was able to keep Asuma at a distance despite his blades weight swinging it around as if it weighting nothing more then a small iron rod. Asuma kept ramming his knives against the blade with very little effect despite channeling wind chakra through them. He had barely cut about 1/4 of the way into the blade.

Zabuza swung the blade in a wide arc around him only for Asuma to jump over it. Zabuza cursed internally in his head as the blade sank into the ground and instead of trying to draw it out used it as leverage to try and deliver a kick to Asuma's gut forcing him to retreat. Asuma growled as he missed an opportunity to injure his opponent. Making conversation to buys some time Asuma said " That's an impressive blade to be able to stand so many of my blows. If it was a normal sword I would have probably cut right through it."

Zabuza laughed and said with obvious pride " This is one of the Seven Swords of The Mist, The Executioners Blade. You even cutting it this much is a pretty big deal really. These swords had been designed to stand up to almost anything. Only the greatest wind and lightning users are even able to damage them."

Asuma sighed and thought' Okay I've lowered his fighting capacity a great deal because he can't use the silent killing. I have the advantage but how do I use it. I can't get past his guard unless I leave myself open. And I have to make sure he can't go for the kids or Tazuna either.'

Asuma pulled out a bunch of kunai and threw them at Zabuza forcing him to dodge since they were infused with wind chakra. Suddenly another Zabuza appeared behind Asuma and kicked him towards the water. Asuma cursed as Zabuza appeared behind him and said " You fell for my trap! I set this place up before you got here Asuma! Water Prision Technique!" he yelled as an orb of water formed around Asuma.

Asuma growled as he smashed his fists against the orb in vain. Zabuza laughed and said " Don't bother. This water is as hard as steel."

Asuma suddenly calmed down. As hard as steel was no problem. He focused Wind Chakra around his palms and slashed at the water cutting right through it. He tried to gut Zabuza with his makeshift technique forcing him to jump away. Asuma smiled patronizingly and said " I think you underestimated just how well I've mastered my element Zabuza. Cutting steel is child's play for me."

Zabuza growled in rage " Pesky wind user!" as he charged at Asuma. Most of his techniques were meant to be used with his silent killing. Now he was pretty good even without his mist but Asuma was an A-rank shinobi just like him he just was at a disadvantage without his best techniques. Trying to rush his opponent Zabuza taunted " I still got why I wanted Asuma! My water clone is already hunting down the brats and the old man. I just have to keep you here long enough for it too finish the job!"

Asuma cursed as he realized that was a distinct possibility. He took a deep breath. He needed to believe in his team. They could at least beat a clone. He needed to end this quick. He smiled confidently at Zabuza and said " My team can take care of themselves. You worry about yourself." He just wished he was as confident as he had sounded.

•••••

Naruto cursed as he dodged another swing of the giant sword. The clone was pressing him harder and harder. He had barely blocked the first blow with Suzumebachi and he was pretty sure the blow from that cleaver had cracked his bones even if it had saved him and the team from decapitation.

Shino was retreating with Tazuna farther away so he could provide support while protecting the client and Shikamaru was trying to use his Shadow technique too bind the clone but he want good enough at it too use it in such dark conditions. All in all the situation looked pretty bleak.

Naruto sidestepped another blow as the blade sank into where he was standing not a second ago and blocked another kick from Zabuza. At this point he was only alive because Zabuza's clone was only 1/10th of his real skill. It was unreal. It was hard to imagine this was just one tenth. He was being pushed to his limit just by the clone and he couldn't even touch the damn thing even if he was faster then it. Zabuza had way more battle experience.

Suddenly Zabuza rushed him with far greater speed abandoning his sword entirely surprising Naruto enough for him to land a solid blow on Naruto pushing him back. Zabuza drew a kunai to finish the dazed Naruto only for him to freeze. A voice spoke up " Geez Naruto, how many times will I have to save you like this. Shino finish him quick. I can't hold him for very long with this lighting."

Shino didn't reply but it was obvious he heard as the clone was suddenly covered by insects and dissolved into water. Naruto coughed slightly and said " Stop bitching Shikamaru, you try fighting toe to toe with an A-rank ninja even if it was just a damn clone. I couldn't even touch the damn thing." He sighed in relief as Kimiko's chakra started flooding his body and thought ' Thanks Kimiko-chan.'

She just replied ' Don't worry about it Naruto-kun. Just try not to have your ass kicked so often. I'd rather not have to deal with having to mend your broken body every time this happens. I do this enough when you train as it is.'

Naruto just sighed and said ' Yeah yeah sure. I'll definitely try.' Always the snarky one. At least he was alive. And he could have totally kicked that damn clones ass if he could use his Rinnegan techniques but at this point he had no viable excuse to explain them away.

They all gathered around Tazuna in a defensive formation and waited for Asuma to finish up his fight. It was an uncomfortable five minutes before a staggering Asuma showed up. He sighed and said " Sorry guys he got away before I could finish the job. Apparently he had some back up disguised as a Kiri hunter ninja."

Shikamaru groaned in dismay at the chance of having to fight such an opponent again while Naruto sighed as well. If he had back up that meant trouble. That meant team ten would have to deal with the hunter ninja while Asuma fought Zabuza whenever he decided to strike again. Ugh it was just one thing after another with this damn mission. Shikamaru was right. This was troublesome.

Tazuna sighed when he saw the condition everyone was in and said " Come on. My house is not far from here. You can all rest and eat up there. We don't want Gato's thugs to catch up with us when we're all tired."

Asuma nodded and said " Alright Tazunas-san lead the way."

They walked for another half hour at a brisk pace and got to Tazuna's house. It was a rather normal quaint two story house. Tazuna knocked on the door and it was opened by a woman in her early thirties. She smiled when she saw Tazuna and said " Tou-san, I'm glad you made it back safely! And are these the leaf shinobi you went to get?"

Asuma nodded and said " Hello ma'am. Yes we are assigned to protect your father until he completes his bridge. I'm sorry for sounding abrupt but is there anywhere my team can rest? We are all very tired."

The woman nodded and said " Thank you for helping my father and the Land of Waves. Yes there is a room upstairs. Last one on the right. And oh, my name is Tsunami. Pleased to meet you shinobi-san."

Asuma nodded and said " Alright Naruto, you're in charge. Set up a perimeter and whatever else you deem necessary. Take shifts through the night. We'll plan more in the morning but right now I really need to sleep."

Naruto nodded and said " Shino take Asuma-sensei upstairs. Shikamaru you set wire traps in the trees around the house. I'll set up a barrier to let us know if anyone come's within a hundred yards of this place. Hurry up. I'll have Shino spread his bugs in a wide net around the place at night along with my Shadow Clones so we can all get a decent amount of sleep. If either of you think of any other measure or come across anything make sure you bring it up. This is basically an A-ranked assignment so remember to go all out. In all likely hood we won't really surprise the enemy but even the slightest warning of their arrival will be better then nothing."

Even as he said this he was unsealing his supplies set up the seals necessary. Asuma nodded seeing his students had it under control and let Shino help him up the stairs. He was dead tired and was probably about to faint soon.

Naruto sighed as he started writing on the tag he was making. Some of the larger scale seals or the strongest one's took a few moments to set up which were hard to obtain on the battle field but he was in no rush now. The specific seal Naruto had in mind was similar to the Konoha detection barrier Mito had set up during the First Shinobi War on a much simpler and smaller scale. It would inform him every time someone entered or left the vicinity of the tags. He sighed as he started to draw the first tag. This would take a while.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he threw the kunai at the tree. It sunk in up till the hilt. While his teammates were practicing water walking as they needed more chakra control Asuma was teaching him his own personal Flying Swallow technique. Unfortunately unlike Asuma who could pierce through a a group of trees and then a boulder behind them with just a simple kunai, Naruto could barely penetrate one tree. Naruto didn't want to see what he could do when he threw one of his trench knives.

Asuma was on the bridge while Shino and Shikamaru were busy with their training on the water around it. Even Shikamaru was doing it without complaint. Having an A-rank ninja actively out to kill you was a great motivation to train apparently. Naruto had a single Shadow Clone there so he had a basic idea of what was going on. He himself was about five hundred meter's away from the bridge in w forest area do he could practice his technique.

According to Asuma unless the enemy had an extremely good medical ninja it would take about a two weeks to heal Zabuza from the injuries he had gotten. It had already been a week since then. Shikamaru and Shino had gotten the hang of the tree walking exercise on the first day since they had started practicing back at the leaf village while they probably wouldn't master water walking it would still help their control.

Naruto charged his chakra in another kunai as he threw it getting much the same result. He didn't let it disappoint him. He thought to Tazuna's family. His daughter, Tsunami was really nice and helped them however she could. She was a really great cook as well. His grandson Inari was a bit of a prick in Naruto's opinion though. He was always going on about how they would die and how Gato was unbeatable. It took a lot of will power not to beat the kid senseless or yell at him on Naruto's part. Naruto really hated quitter's like the kid.

Suddenly Kimiko's voice piped up in his head saying ' Don't get distracted now Naruto-kun. Focus on your training. Besides I'll start thinking your gay and a pedophile if all you can think about is that useless human child when you have the most beautiful existence in this dimension in your head.'

Naruto laughed slightly and said ' Your such a tease Kimiko! And how can I be a pedophile! I'm like a few month's shy of becoming thirteen.'

Kimiko 'hmmd' and then said in a sultry voice ' A tease am I Naruto-kun. Well why don't you come in here and I'll show you just how much of a tease I really am…' she finished of suggestively.

Naruto now grinned. Kimiko really knew how to cheer him right up. He then said triumphantly ' So you admit your a tease!'

She just said in a singsong voice ' Only for you Naruto-kun!'

Thinking she was trying to tease him again Naruto decided to attempt turning the tables on her again and said ' Well maybe after I finish training I just might take you up on that offer Kimiko-chan!'

Kimiko was surprised to hear her host respond like that. She realized what he was trying to do. Now that wouldn't do. She would have to show him who was top fox here. Smirking to herself she said ' I'll be waiting for you Naruto-kun!'

Naruto sighed as she cut the connection. He just couldn't one up her and she knew it. It wasn't all that surprising seeing as she was like 10-20 his age even if she was physically just sixteen or seventeen. He returned to his training feeling fresher and with renewed vigor.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he stood on the bridge with Shino near by. It had been just over two weeks since their fight with Zabuza. They had left Shikamaru behind to defend Tazuna's home in case it got attacked.

Suddenly a the mist around the bridge seemed to be getting denser. Naruto was feeling on edge. Suddenly Kimiko's voice popped into his head and said ' Naruto this mist is filled with Chakra.'

Naruto cursed as he ran towards Tazuna and yelled " Sensei! They're here!"

Asuma went through hand signs and was barely able to blow away the mist when he was forced to dodge. A voice cackled " Did you really think I was going to let you dispel my mist again a second time! You won't get a chance! Haku make sure the brats can't try anything!" as the mist thickened again. Suddenly Zabuza appeared from in the mist swing at Asuma forcing him to block with his trench knives.

At the same time the hunter ninja dashed towards Shino intent on killing the weaker one first only for Naruto to dash in front of him and deflecting all the senbon with his gauntlet. Haku didn't stop charging him and slashed at Naruto with another senbon in hand only for him to stop it with his gauntlet initiating a stalemate. Haku's voice filter out from behind his mask and said " I have the advantage!"

Naruto now wary said " And why would that be?"

Haku said " Both your hands are occupied so you cant use your techniques where as I can use one handed seals." He demonstrated as much as he went through one handed seals and stomped on the water around them and said " Secret technique: One Thousand Needle of Death!" as needles levitated around them and flew at Naruto as Haku jumped away.

Naruto demonstrated he was just as fast as he jumped away away just as Haku did avoiding the deadly water needles. He charged Haku as they landed trying to catch Haku of guard. Naruto ducked under a hasty swipe from Haku letting it sail over his head and stabbed Suzumebachi towards the boys heart. Haku was only saved by his reflexes as he moved towards the side receiving a rather nasty gash on the side.

Naruto jumped a bit back now that he had drawn first blood. Haku panted as he held his wounded side and said " I underestimated you severely. You are even faster then I am. But for Zabuza-sama I will not stop even with a wound such as this." Naruto watched in fascination as the boy's wound seemed to freeze over.

Naruto cursed as he saw Haku going through hand seals and charged him but the boy jumped backwards as he yelled " Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors!" Naruto watched guardedly as what seemed to be mirrors appeared around him. Suddenly Haku seemed to appear in one and said " This is my ultimate technique that even Zabuza-sama cannot best! Now give up or I shall kill you."

Naruto's response was a wind enhanced kunai sratching the mirror Haku was in. Naruto watched amazed as the kunai just scratched the surface. He knew for a fact he could cut right through a tree when he threw kunai enhanced with wind chakra. Those mirrors must be really tough.

Naruto watched in surprise as Haku seemed to jump out of the mirror and start jumping in and out of the mirrors. He was moving so fast Naruto could barely keep up with him and that too was only because of his Rinnegan's great perceptive abilities. Suddenly a hail of senbon came at him and Naruto frantically deflected them with Suzumebachi.

Haku watched in shock as the boy actually deflected all the senbon with his gauntlet type weapon. He was truly skilled if he could actually even keep up with him at these speeds. It was no surprise he was able to keep up with Zabuza-sama even if had only been a clone.

Naruto frantically tried to analyze the technique. It seemed to increase Haku's speed and reflexes till he could only see him with his Rinnegan. He looked down to the two senbon that made it past him. Both had been aimed at vital spots and only missed because Naruto tried to move out of the way. That meant his aim was as good as ever even at such high speeds. Naruto sighed as he realized he only had three options. He could wait and try to find a pattern and take Haku down with one of his faster techniques. He could possibly use his Gravity techniques and destroy the mirrors or capture Haku. And the last option was using Kimiko's chakra. He sighed as he finally picked his Rinnegan abilities. With the mist no one but Haku could even see him. Due to Haku's increase in reflexes he didn't want to risk trying to hit him and missing leaving himself open. And if he even used Kimiko's chakra he didn't need Asuma fussing over the state of the seal.

Naruto deflected another Hail of senbon this time only one made it through his guard but again hit noting overly dangerous as Naruto suddenly extended his hand to the left and said " Universal Pull!"

Haku watched the boy extend his hands towards him and he felt himself suddenly yanked right out of the mirror with tremendous force and go fly towards the boy. He tried to raise his arms in a futile defense but was unable to as Naruto brutally stabbed him in the skull with Suzumebachi using the momentum against him ending his life in an instant. The last thing Haku saw was the boys regretful face.

Naruto sighed as he let Haku's body fall. He hadn't wanted to kill the boy. Truly from their battle Naruto could tell Haku had been a decent person who Zabuza had been using but he didn't want to risk the boy trying something in some desperate last ditch attempt to kill him or possibly pull out an even more dangerous technique. So he ended it in an instant.

Naruto sighed as he looked around for Tazuna. There was no point on dwelling on the boy's death. In the end he was the enemy and was helping scum like Gato destroy this country making him just as bad as any of them.

He saw Shino and Tazuna near one of the railing and walked over. Shino turned towards him and said " Did you finish your opponent?" Naruto just raised his blood coated weapon leaving the rest of the details to his teammates imagination. Tazuna seemed a bit disturbed about the way such young kids talked about killing so casually but brushed it off. They were shinobi and the other guys would probably kill them and him without much hesitation.

Naruto then said " Has it been enough time."

Shino nodded and said " Yes he should be tired out by now. My kikaichū have both of them surrounded in any case." Naruto nodded and started going through hand signs.

•••••

Asuma jumped backwards dodging another swipe from the giant sword. Like Zabuza had said he really hadn't gotten a chance to use any wind techniques. Zabuza was panting lightly as he jumped towards Asuma again and swung his blade again. He was feeling more tired then he should be but he couldn't tell why. Asuma wasn't using any techniques and he wasn't under genjutsu so he left it alone since he might not have healed as well as he had thought he had.

Asuma himself was feeling a bit tired now as he used his knives to deflect the giant sword. It only pushed him back a few feet. Asuma stifled a grin. Before that swing would have probably sent him flying of the bridge. It meant the plan was working. Suddenly they both stopped a moment as a voice shouted "WindStyle:Great Breakthrough!" as a huge gust of wind was generated blowing away the dense mist.

They both looked towards the source and saw it was Naruto. Asuma sighed in relief while Zabuza had a pained look on his face for the briefest of moments. They both knew what happened. The boy's bloody weapon and the unmoving body some feet away was all the answers they needed. Asuma shouted " Good job Naruto I'm about finished up here as well."

Zabuza felt anger and charged towards Asuma in rage. First these leaf bastards killed Haku and now they were belittling him! He was a member of the Seven Swordsmen of The Mist! No Jonin and his genin squad would beat him. He roared " We'll see about that Sarutobi Asuma!"

He swings were getting sloppy and soon Asuma found an opening and stabbed him in the stomach with a trench knife. Zabuza coughed and said " How did you beat me! You were barely able to keep up with me last time!" as blood slowly pooled out of his wound. Combined with his grief and fatigue he just couldn't stand anymore.

Asuma sighed as he said " My genin squad. They are probably the strongest in Konoha. Not just strength wise. They all have great potential and diverse abilities that compliment each other's. One of them is probably one of the smartest guy in leaf village. He and his teammates analyzed whatever they noticed about you from your battle and pooled all they knew together. From their he found a major weakness in your style."

Zabuza's eyes widened even as he died he wanted to know what this genin found that no one else had ever noticed. He gasped out " What could that possibly be?"

Asuma by this time had pulled out a cigarette and said " Your mist. To create it you have to saturate your chakra in the air around your body so that even too most sensor shinobi you are invisible in the mist. He used the abilities of another of his teammates and had him slowly draining the chakra in the air while your body was continuously forced to pump out more and more to compensate the chakra that was being lost and keeping the mist from dispersing. It was a small amount so that you wouldn't notice in the heat of battle. You tired yourself out quickly and the death of your partner was the last straw. You lost it and it gave me the opening. That was all I needed."

Zabuza gasped as he heard this. To think a genin was able to find such a big hole in his technique. These genin were something else. Asuma was right. They would all be great in the future even though he had initially thought they were pathetic. He finally died as the pain became too much from all the acid that had leaked out of his stomach killing him. His last thought was that it wasn't that bad dying to such a team.

Suddenly they heard clapping as they looked towards bridges start and saw it was Gato and he had brought what seemed to be an army of mercenaries. The short man spoke up and said " Good work Konoha shinobi! You saved me the trouble of killing them! I wasn't going to pay these bastards anyways. Now hand over the old man and I may just let you walk out of hear alive.

Asuma tensed as he said " Not a chance Gato! We won't hand him over to you."

Gato growled and said " Okay then kill these bastards! And the one who kills the old man gets to keep his daughter for himself!" The mercenaries all cheered and were about to charge only for kunai to pierce Gato's skull even as he retreated behind his 'army'.

All of the mercenaries looked towards who threw it and saw it was the blond kid and one yelled " Hey you punk! That was my meal ticket you just killed!" The other mercenaries growled and said " Let's kill these losers and raid the town! It's filled with food and women! We don't need Gato to do that!"

Naruto growled as he heard this. These were type of scumbags he hated. They deserved to be put down like dogs. Naruto said in a cold voice " Sensei leave this too me. Shino you may want to leave or at least cover your eyes. I don't want to scare you."

Asuma seemed to get what he was saying and said " You don't mean…"

Naruto nodded and said " Yeah I've always wanted to test my control and what better way then on these scum."

Asuma really wanted to intervene and stop his student but he was tired and there really may not be any other way. He sighed as he knew he would regret this and said " Shino we are leaving." even as he grabbed Tazuna and picked him up jumping away from the bridge. Now Shino was very confused and wondered what technique Naruto had that even Asuma-sensei was afraid. But he had orders and jumped away after him

As the mercenaries began their charge Naruto said " Ready Kimiko-chan!"

Kimiko who had a huge grin on her face said " Yeah let's do this. I haven't massacred anything in a long time." as she pumped Naruto with huge amounts of her chakra. Naruto growled as he felt pain and got onto all fours. An orangish glow seemed to envelop him strongly reminiscent to a fox with a single tail swinging behind him.

Naruto's eyes snapped open revealing red eyes with rings in them and with a feral grin he said " Let's do this!" charging the mercenaries. Not a single man walked away from that bridge and that day the river turned red.

AN/: And that's a wrap! I was going to describe the Massacre in GREAT DETAIL but thanks to these fucked up rules about ratings you will have to use your imagination. Just think like really gory stuff and then some. Anyways if you want too imagine Naruto's eyes like imagine Rinnegan in red. And if the fights seem a bit rushed it's because I HATE the wave arc and want to finish it quickly so I stuffed it down in one chapter. Anyways I show cased some of Naruto's abilities so tell me what you think. Keep in mind that he was just as strong as Haku when he graduated if he went ALL OUT meaning Sealing techniques Rinnegan and all that jazz.

He could conventionally hold a Jonin in a fight with his one tails form but would probably loose or stalemate. I said Jonin not A-rank ninja keep this in mind as well. He would have his ass kicked. Tell me what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto of The Six Paths 4

The Third sighed as he looked at Naruto and said, " So you don't regret killing any of those men?"

Naruto shook his head negatively and said, " No, I don't. They were all prepared to kill everyone in the town and my team as well. I couldn't allow that. Besides they are all criminals of some sort. Why should I regret killing such men? If anything they deserve to die."

Hizuren puffed his pipe slightly. He couldn't really refute the statement. He then said " And the Kyuubi's chakra. How did you access it?"

Naruto sighed as he expected this question. Fortunately he had an answer prepared. He said slowly " As you know I've been studying seals since I was six years old. I noticed the seal on my stomach since I was seven. Naturally I investigated. It took me well over a year to discover its purpose only. It contained a bijuu and leaked its chakra slowly into my system. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out which. So I've known about it a lot sooner then Mizuki ever mentioned it in the forest. I've discovered it allows me to draw the beast's chakra when I'm in danger or if I willingly try to take it by force. Too date I haven't been able to draw more then one tail but even that power is devastating."

Hizuren sighed as he processed that. In hindsight it made sense. The boy wasn't stupid in any sense of the word. He should have seen this coming. He then sighed and said " Any why never mention this to anyone?"

Naruto decided to play his trump card on the old man and said " I've never had anyone to tell even if I wanted too…" shrugging his shoulders as if it didn't matter.

Hizuren almost physically flinched as he heard that. It was hard to remember sometimes just how alone the boy was. It was a miracle he wasn't some murdering physicopath like Suna's jinchūriki. His intelligence said the boy had killed over twenty shinobi since he was born including one Jonin and supposedly even the Kazekage's brother Yashumaru. He massaged his temples and said " Alright Naruto you're dismissed, but please try to not ever try something like this again. I don't want you to have so much blood on your hands if you can avoid it."

Naruto just made a noncommittal noise as he left. Hizuren sighed yet again and said, " What do you think Inoichi?"

Inoichi appeared next to the Hokage's desk his camouflage technique dispelling and said " Well he honestly doesn't have any remorse over killing those men. He truly believed they deserved it and it was the only way to save the town and his team. He doesn't… revel in killing but… how should I put this… he doesn't care if he does kill his opponent. Especially if he believes they are bad people or they deserve it." Personally he didn't think the boy was all that wrong in killing those men. They had all been planning on killing and raping the entire town. He would have also killed without hesitation if someone ever tried to do anything like that to his wife or Ino.

Hizuren nodded and said " It seemed so to me as well. And his take on the Kyuubi's chakra?"

Inoichi thought about what he should say and then said " Well I think he see's it as a trump card of sorts. An advantage he has over other's when he is loosing. And he doesn't seem to hold any hatred for the beast. I'd even go so far as to say he might enjoy using the power on some level. Sort of like alcohol to some people. If you put it in front of them they will drink it without hesitation but they won't go out of their way to drink."

Hizuren nodded slowly and said " Indeed I would say that is actually the best stance he may have. It is far better then hating it, as that would just be throwing away an advantage or even worse if he used it all the time. I can't imagine what having such power active can do to one's mental state." he finished thinking about the Sand's jinchūriki. Inoichi nodded and said " Indeed that couldn't do anything good for the boy. Still I don't know why but I feel he has even more secrets up his sleeve." Seeing the Hokage's alarmed look he said " Well I don't think he is a danger to the village but just that he plays his cards rather close to his chest."

Hizuren sighed sadly as he heard this, but he knew it was true. He had never gotten the boy to really open up or trust him. He supposed it was to he expected with the type of childhood he had had. Hizuren looked towards Inoichi and said, " Thanks for your time Inoichi. You can go back now."

Inoichi nodded and said " Hai Hokage-sama." as he turned towards the door and left the Hokage to his thoughts. Well as long as Naruto was a happy and loyal member of Konoha he couldn't do or ask for more. He only hoped that Kushina and Minato would forgive him for all the loneliness and pain Naruto suffered as a child.

•••••

Naruto smirked as he walked out of the office. He had done wonderfully if he said so himself. Kimiko's voice chimed in ' Yes Naruto-kun you were excellent. It's still hard to believe you can manipulate the leaders of your village like that. Pathetic human's.'

Naruto sighed. Kimiko really loved taking pot shots at human race. He just sighed and said " They all underestimate me because of my age. In reality I have more then a hundred years of experience to draw upon thanks to you. I know exactly how the village works. They probably had a member of the Yamanaka standing next to the Hokage using some form of cloaking technique to access my mental state. I crafted my answers so that nothing seemed to be suspicious. It helped that I believed what I was saying to him anyways. That way, there is no lie for them to possibly detect." Though in a way Kimiko was right. The Third was far too attached to him or he was too forgiving. It would come to bite him back one day. Naruto easily used the 'connection' they shared to have the man in his favor. In reality he was more neutral towards the man. He had ruined his childhood despite his best efforts to make up for the mistake.

He shook his heads clear of thoughts of the third. There was no point on dwelling on the past. He instead thought of the unintended side effects of his little 'killing spree'. He had been forced to explain his 'hidden power' to Shikamaru and Shino. They were both too intelligent to buy a cover up. Much to his surprise they had been a bit distant at first but came around saying he was still just Naruto to them. It had been the one of the most emotional moments of Naruto's life.

Shino had said ' It is no different then my kikaichū beetles. Even though they live inside me I am not a beetle.'

Shikamaru had said ' This is all so troublesome but in the end your still Naruto, the guy I grew up knowing half my life.'

It went without saying the team was much closer ever since they had come back from wave last week. Though his teammates were oddly protective of him now. It was nice at first but it was now sort or embarrassing and borderline ridiculous. Shikamaru would sort of give all the civilians who glared at him or whispered the evil eye and Shino's bugs would start chattering and sometimes even fly out.

He sighed as he entered his apartment. It was a long day and even though he had done no training today it was mentally tiring trying to misdirect the Hokage and trained interrogators. He was asleep even as he hit his bed.

•••••

Naruto stood still on the water as Asuma relaxed in a tree near the lakeshore. Shino and Shikamaru were both gone for the month training with their family's to master newer techniques. Apparently the last mission had motivated them to train harder. They had been quite lucky that no one died and wanted to avoid another situation like that.

Naruto focused. The water around him started spinning slowly. Slowly it started picking up the pace and started spinning faster. Sweat collected around Naruto's brow as he tried to maintain control. He finally lost control and the water around him blasted outwards in a small wave. Naruto panted as he fell to his knees on the water. Asuma's voice shouted across the lake " Not bad Naruto! You held it for at least thirty seconds longer then last time."

Naruto yelled back " Thanks sensei. I'll try again in a minute. Just let me catch my breath a minute!" He was attempting the next step in his water manipulation. Unlike the first step, which was just to form a small wall of water, this step was about manipulating large amounts already existing water. Various clan's and village's had different exercises. The Uzumaki clan in accordance with their name had water users attempt to create a giant whirlpool. The user started out small just trying to create a small whirlpool barely a few feet across. They would then move on from there increasing the size and speed of rotation. Masters of the technique were able to form a whirlpool instantly sometimes over twenty feet in diameter. The shape wasn't entirely important but as it was an Uzumaki tradition he would be damned if he didn't fulfill it.

He had come a far way with the boulder exercise since he had begun it a little over three months ago and was now able to cut it a bit over one fourth of the way through with no problems. He still had a bit of a problem generating large amounts of elemental chakra but didn't let it bother him. He knew it would get easier as he got older. As it was most Uzumaki who did the 'whirlpool exercise' were usually either in their mid or late teens. He was just thirteen as it was.

Naruto kept up his attempts of the exercise for well over an hour his best time being around two minutes before he would loose control. Asuma called out " Hey Naruto! That's enough for today. Let's get lunch and we can do some taijutsu training afterwards."

Naruto nodded and said " Sound's good sensei!" as he started walking towards him. He was feeling a bit tired as well. They had suspended going on any missions for a month and Naruto was taking full advantage of the extra time with Asuma. Asuma didn't mind helping him out since he had nothing better to do the entire day seeing as he couldn't take missions on his own while he was registered with a team unless specially given one by the Hokage and all his friends were busy with their own teams or missions.

They went to BBQ restaurant which Asuma loved and had ate slowly since they didn't have any particular schedule to keep. After a long lunch they headed to training ground ten. They spent the next hour or so sparring. Naruto while not particularly a threat to Asuma was at least fast and strong enough to give Asuma a good work out. His fight with Zabuza had shown him he needed to up his own training a bit. He wasn't sure he could have won a second time without that ingenious plan from Shikamaru. After two hours even Asuma was sweating hard and he finally called for a stop and said " Okay that's enough Naruto. Let's call it a day for now."

Naruto sighed as he let Suzumebachi dematerialize and said " Okay sensei I'll see you tomorrow then." Naruto himself was sweating hard but due to his Uzumaki blood and status as a jinchūriki he was sure he could have kept going if he needed to.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he stalked the stupid cat Tora. One month later and now they were back to the monotony of D-rank missions. Even training everyday with Asuma on his own was better these stupid missions. Naruto whispered in his radio " Hey Shino? This is it right?"

A voice cackled back over the radio " Yes the insect I left on the cat is responding. This is indeed Tora."

Naruto had no idea why but despite being the cat of the fire lord's wife the damn cat looked just like about any other stray he had seen on the streets. Shouldn't it have been… cleaner at the very least? He shook his head and said " Okay Shikamaru, target confirmed bind it."

Another voice crackled over the radio " Ugh so troublesome… Shadow Possession technique!" Naruto watched with satisfaction as the damn monster froze mid step. He created a clone and had it pick it up. The filthy creature always tried to scratch him whenever he held onto it.

Asuma's voice came onto the radio and he said " Nice job guys. And by the way we are so keeping these radios permanently. They are totally cool. This way I don't have to follow you guys around."

Naruto sweat dropped as he heard that. He swore sometimes it was like Asuma was some long lost Nara clan member. He heard a small snore over the radio and corrected and just sighed. Okay he was wrong. No one could beat a real Nara at being lazy.

After Naruto cuffed his lazy Nara friend they made their way to the mission hall to return the cat to the Fire Lord's wife. The entire team including Shino watched gleefully as the woman smothered the cat. After the woman signed to scroll signifying the end of the mission they went to the mission desk to receive the day's pay for their usual set of three missions per day.

This time the desk was manned by a couple of chūnin including Iruka. Iruka smiled as he saw his old students and said " Hey guys. How's is shinobi life treating you."

Shikamaru just muttered ' Troublesome' getting Iruka to shake his head. The boy hadn't changed much apparently. Shino pushed his glasses up and said, " So far it has been satisfactory sensei." A typical Shino response. Answering without giving away any real information. Seeing as it was his turn Naruto just shrugged and said " It's alright. D-ranks are a pain though. Here sensei." he finished handing Iruka the mission scroll. He didn't really want to elaborate either since he was never particularly friendly with Iruka.

He gave it a cursory glance and after looking over the seal and nodded saying " Good job guys. From what I've heard you guys do almost two three missions every day. Keep it up and I'm sure you will be chūnin in no time."

Everyone nodded as they accepted their envelopes containing their pays and Shino said, " Thank you sensei."

They just walked out of the hall quietly and saw Asuma was busy chatting with his father who was carrying some scrolls to his office. The Hokage apparently sensed them as he turned around and said " Good day team ten. I hope everything is going well."

They nodded and said " Hai Hokage-sama."

The old man chuckled and said " Well I'm sorry I wasn't able to hand you your missions today but the work load has increased this time of year so I wont be able to hand them out for some time."

Seeing the slightly un-comfortableness of his team Asuma decided to intervene and said, " Well I'm sorry dad but we have to go. Have team training planned out and everything. Besides since you look so busy we can talk later."

Sarutobi just chuckled again and said, " Well don't let me keep you. I wish you luck with whatever training Asuma has in store for you."

The boys nodded and said " Hai, thank you Hokage-sama." as they turned around to leave. Once they were outside Shikamaru spike up " We don't really have any team training do we?"

Asuma sighed and said " Well I had to come up with something or would you like me too take you back in there?" This shut Shikamaru up immediately. He definitely didn't want to be in the Hokage's presence too long. He had no idea how to act with the man. He was the village leader yet he acted like he was some kindly grandfather. He was sure his teammates were just as lost. Shikamaru sighed again. For all the intelligence of his team it was probably the most Socially awkward and team ever. A lazy guy like him and an anti social insect loving guy like Shino along with the prodigious overly mature, yet hated guy like Naruto.

As he looked over to his teammate Naruto he couldn't help but worry a little. The guy sometimes acted like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Shikamaru could understand that on some level. Most of the civilian and a small amount of the older shinobi population hated his guts. Something like that could really weigh you down. Or so he imagined. But sometimes he still felt as if it was more then that. Like Naruto still had some other problem that only he knew about. He sighed and shook his head. Naruto would tell them whatever it was eventually. Until then there was no point in dwelling on it. Naruto was a troublesome guy. He had accepted it a long time ago. He groaned as the training field came into view. He knew training wad important if he didn't wasn't to let his friends get killed but he still didn't have to like it…

Naruto sighed as they finally entered training field ten. Asuma spoke up " Okay guys at this point you have pretty much flawless teamwork so we don't need to worry about that. I want you guys to start doing whatever your families have you doing or whatever you are doing on your own. If you need any advice I'm over here." he finished pointing to tree, which he jumped into and lay down in one of the larger branches.

Naruto went towards the water to practice his water manipulation while Shikamaru went towards a makeshift range riddled with targets at various angles. Asuma had used it once to really test their throwing skills and they had left it up since then. Shino actually created a clone of himself made of insects surprising Naruto as he never imagined you could actually use insects for such a technique and started sparring with it. Naruto frowned when he noticed it dispelled within a minute. So it was fragile like most clone techniques.

Naruto seeing his teammate needed help with taijutsu yelled " Hey Shino! How about I make a mud clone and let you spar that. It is more durable and you'll get experience against a more flexible style."

Shino adjusted his glasses and said, " That would he most helpful Naruto."

Asuma smiled as he looked on at the exchange. While he was more then willing to help out Shino this was better in his opinion. It promoted teamwork and let him laze around at the same time. The perfect win-win situation for him.

Naruto smiled as he saw Shino squaring off against his clone, which for obvious reasons hadn't pulled out Suzumebachi. He didn't want to kill Shino just rough him up a bit at most. He then returned to his own training. Concentrating hard he smiled as a slowly a whirlpool of around five or six feet formed around him. He could maintain this around five minutes before he started feeling the strain. Naruto slowly started expanding the whirlpool and started feeling the strain on his chakra as it tried to keep the water from escaping due to the high velocities he was spinning it with. He noticed early on he could increase the size dramatically as he reduced to speed of rotation but that eliminated the point of the exercise. Finally Naruto's control failed and the water escaped in the form of a small wave. Naruto sighed as he failed again. Not letting it get him down he took a deep breath and tried again.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he read the scroll again. They were going on their first C-rank since the mission to the Land of Waves and Naruto couldn't help but feel a little on guard. The last time they had run into a freaking A-rank shinobi. He could tell his teammates felt the same. It was a simple delivery mission. They had to deliver a scroll from Konoha to Kusa. It was only rated C-rank due to the fact that the mission was so far away from the village.

Asuma sensed the mood as they jumped trough the thick foliage common throughout the Land of Fire and said " Lighten up guys! That last C-rank was a freak mission. The chances of something like that happening again are almost non-existent. If the village miss-ranked missions so often we wouldn't have many shinobi living shinobi. They would all die as genin."

Naruto sighed as he forced himself to relax. Asuma was right. It was a sort of freak accident. He was over reacting. They would be heading for Tanzaku Gai where a team of shinobi from Kusa was going to be waiting for them at a predetermined exchange point.

They made it to Tanzaku Gai about half an hour before the exchange was supposed to take place. The city was fairly large and had a huge bustling market filled with various casinos and shops. There were a few taverns but they seemed mostly inactive. It was probably due to the fact that the sun hadn't set yet.

They moved through the city at a slow pace just looking around. Suddenly Asuma spoke up " Look alive now. There they are."

At the other end of the street was a team of what appeared to be genin. They were a few years older then Naruto and his team. They all stood stock still staring stonily at team ten. The street was empty except for them. Slowly Asuma and team ten walked forward. Naruto could feel the tension in the air. His hand flexed feeling bare without Suzumebachi. Shino's insects were chattering away slightly sensing their host's anxiety. Shikamaru's hand subconsciously itched towards his weapon's pouch.

If anything it felt like Naruto was in some sort of stand off. Suddenly Asuma just flicked open his pouch and threw a scroll towards the other Jonin who nodded at them and wordlessly walked away, his team following.

Team Ten watched feeling slightly underwhelmed. Suddenly they all heard Asuma start laughing loudly as he said, " Oh god that was just… you should have seen your faces. You looked like you expected enemy shinobi popping out of the woodworks. I bet that team from Kusa is enjoying this as much as I am!"

Naruto could hear Kimiko laughing at him as well inside his mindscape. Naruto actually blushed in embarrassment. He couldn't believe they had just done that. Shikamaru also seemed pretty embarrassed and said ' Troublesome'. Naruto was sure he could see the faintest of blushes on Shino's mostly hidden face. Finally Naruto looked back at Asuma who was walking back towards the leaf still laughing and looked over to his teammates and said, " We never speak of this again?"

Shikamaru and Shino both nodded and said " Agreed." as they also started waking after their sensei putting the rather embarrassing experience behind them.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he made his way home form their daily team meeting. It had been another month since their second C-rank and they had taken a few more. A few delivery and retrieval missions. A search and destroy mission in the missions where they had to hunt down a group of bandits who were raiding merchant's shipments. And an escort mission to the land of rivers.

As Asuma had told them they weren't extraordinarily hard and they never ran into any missing ninja again. Indeed they didn't even get into any fights except the search and destroy mission where they subdued and arrested all the bandits.

Suddenly he heard a voice behind him yelling " Naruto-sama! Naruto-sama! Wait!" Naruto turned around and came face to face with none other then Hanabi Hyuuga. She was the sister of the shy girl from his graduating year named Hinata Hyuuga and was the second daughter of the head of the Hyuuga clan, Hiashi Hyuuga.

She huffed as she caught up with him trying to recover her breath and said " Ohayo Naruto-sama!"

Naruto smiled at the younger girl and said " Hello Hanabi-chan. How was your day at the academy?"

She smiled shyly at him totally unlike most Hyuuga he had seen. Maybe it was a trait of Hiashi-sama's wife both his daughter's inherited. He recalled Hinata had been really shy and soft spoken as well. He snorted as he instead imagined Hiashi being shy. He 'knew' him from a few of his mother's memories and from what he saw Hiashi was a pretty ice cube type guy.

Clearing his head he heard her say, " It was good. Iruka-sensei's lectures were a bit boring but of course I paid full attention! I even made notes!" She said pulling out a notebook to accentuate her point and then continued on " We had taijutsu practice again and as expected I was the best!" she finished obviously very proud of her achievement.

Naruto smiled and ruffled her hair just like he had seen people Mito do to her children in her memories and said " That's great Hanabi-chan. As long as you keep working hard I know you'll be the best kunoichi of your year."

She blushed prettily and said " Hai Naruto-sama! I sparred against one of the boys who picked on me. I beat him up real good." she said a bit gleefully for a ten year old. That made Naruto frown as he remembered how he had met her in the first place.

Some kid's had been bullying her telling her that she had creepy eyes and that she looked really ugly and had made her cry. Naruto had been passing by and had seen this and intervened since he himself possessed a dojutsu and he remembered from his mother's memories how bad it felt to be bullied by other students. He had scared away the bullies with a bit of killing intent, a nifty trick he had picked up from Mito and told Hanabi that he thought she had very pretty eyes. Apparently she had developed something of a crush on him, as she would always try to catch him on his way home from training often even running away from her branch member caretaker. She would always try to impress him with her good grades and excellent talent in class. Naruto thought it was cute and he didn't discourage her since he knew how bad it felt to be rejected by others thanks to others. He figured she would grow out of her crush, as she got older anyways so it wasn't a big deal.

He smiled at her and said, " That's good Hanabi-chan. The best way to deal with a bully is to show that you are stronger then them."

Hanabi suddenly blushed slightly and said " Naruto-sama… could I… come watch you train again…" she trailed of hopefully. She had once caught him in the middle of training and from then on she would ask to come watch him train from time to time. He didn't really know why but he didn't really mind.

Naruto deciding to mess with her a little pretended to think about it and said, " Hmm, I don't know. Won't your caretaker be looking for you? And what if Hiashi-sama gets worried his daughter is missing and sends the Hyuuga clan to hunt her down?" Hanabi looked down sadly at her feet at the apparent rejection and Naruto smiled slightly and said " Just kidding Hanabi-chan! Let's go. I don't mind."

She looked up smiling brightly before bowing slightly and said " Arigato Naruto-sama!"

Naruto and Hanabi made it towards Naruto's 'personal' training ground and she sat down under a tree and looked towards him waiting for him to do something. Naruto deciding to continue his water manipulation training walked toward the middle of his even more expanded pond and tried making the whirlpool again. He made one almost ten feet across and held it for a minute before he collapsed onto the pond. He snorted. It wasn't much of a pond anymore. He had expanded it so much it really was so much of a really small lake.

Suddenly he heard Hanabi gasp from next to him as she said excitedly " That was so cool Naruto-sama! Will we learn that in the academy?" she asked obviously excited at the prospect of learning something like that. Naruto rubbed his head slightly and said, " Sorry Hanabi-chan, this is a water manipulation exercise. You wouldn't even learn this unless you have the water element.

Hanabi sighed sad that she wouldn't learn something like that before a cute frown marred her face and she said, " But Naruto-sama, wasn't your element wind?"

Naruto was impressed she even remembered that and said, " Yeah it is but I have two, wind and water."

Hanabi nodded and said " Naruto-sama really is the best learning two elements at such a young age."

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly and said " Aww well I'm nothing special Hanabi-chan." but she wasn't convinced.

Naruto continued for another half hour before he finally stopped and decided to practice some taijutsu. He was about to create a clone when Hanabi spoke up rather meekly " Umm Naruto-sama, could you please… spar with me." she said the last bit quickly as if afraid he would reject her.

Naruto was surprised ad this was the first time she had asked anything like this. Deciding to humor her he said " Sure Hanabi-chan…"

Hanabi dropped into the gentle fist stance activating her Byakugan while Naruto stood at the ready. Seeing that Naruto wasn't going to attack she charged forward aiming for his shoulder. Naruto knowing how deadly the gentle fist could be deflected the hit by slapping away her hands at the wrist instead of blocking or catching it. She seemed surprised for the briefest of seconds and swung her other hand towards his chest. Naruto sidestepped and attacked with a slow swing of his own which she was easily able to counter. It continued like this for a bit.

Hanabi would keep trying to hit him while he would most deflect and dodge her attacks rarely attacking on his own. While his own style was much more aggressive he didn't want to hurt her. Finally he ended it by grabbing both her forearms and flipping her over a bit gently until he had her pinned under him. She had a huge full face blush on her face no doubt due to their close proximity and Naruto said, " I win Hanabi-chan! But you did great. I can see why you are the top student in your class." as he slowly got off her.

She nodded and said, " Thank you Naruto-sama but I must leave now." before she hurried away. Naruto sighed as he watched her leave. In truth she impressed him. While she wasn't very fast, her technical skill with her style was very good. She could have probably beaten most his graduating class except heavy hitters like himself, Kiba and Sasuke at least when they had graduated. He wasn't sure about their skill now except Shikamaru's and Shino's since they were on a team. He then decided to wrap up his own training and started going home as well.

He headed towards his apartment and took a shower. After a nice long soothing shower, he headed towards bed. As he lay down he said " Night Kimiko-chan…"

She mumbled back sleepily " Night Naruto-kun…" as she fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto of The Six Paths 5

AN/: Okay here is another chapter of Naruto of The Six Paths. Its mostly another filler but don't worry things start heating up a lot in the next few chapters. And in response to the review about this being a Naruto/Hanabi fan fiction... well that isn't the plan... at this point I'm not really sure myself who to choose... i have Kimiko, Hanabi, some foreign kunoichi...hell maybe even an OC... Review and tell me who you guys would prefer... Anyways let the story begin!

Naruto sighed as he stood in front of the academy. They had been entered into the chūnin exams by Asuma and Naruto was waiting for his team before the first exam. He looked up and saw Shikamaru walking towards him with Shino right behind him. Leave it to Shikamaru to arrive at exactly the last moment, but he was surprised Shino was coming so late. Usually Shino was much more punctual. Seeing his teammate's quizzical look Shino said, " I made sure the Shikamaru would show up before time."

Naruto smirked as he heard that one. Neither of his teammates ever really left anything to chance. He just shook his head and said " Come on guys, let's do this."

Both his teammates smiled slightly as they entered the building. It was extremely crowded, full of genin Shinobi from all over the Elemental nations. Though the Shinobi from the leaf seemed to be the most. Not surprising seeing as Konoha was the host village for the exam.

Naruto looked over towards the entrance and saw that two leaf chūnin were preventing everyone from entering. Naruto smirked as he saw the huge crowd in front of the door. He just ignored it and continued towards the next flight. Shino and Shikamaru followed him, neither missing a step. It was pitiful how so many genin fell for such an obvious genjutsu.

They neared the 'real' designated entrance and saw Asuma standing against a railing smoking one of his customary cigarettes. The looked over to them and just stared and puffed his cigarette. He sighed and said " Well this is it guys. You guys are one of the best teams in the hidden leaf. A lot is expected from you guys. But I want you guys to forget all that. Just remember I'm going to proud of you guys no matter what you do. I only have one piece of advice. Believe in yourselves."

Naruto smirked and said " Don't worry Sensei, I know we can do this."

Shikamaru nodded and said, " Yeah, this is all troublesome but I'll do my best." Shino just pushed his glasses up letting his teammates do the talking.

Asuma smiled and said " Good luck guys." before he Body-flickered away.

Naruto smiled at his teammates and said, " Well guys let's do this." as he pushed the door open. They were one of the first teams inside the room. Naruto quietly made his way towards a corner his team following quietly. He then looked towards Shino and whispered, " Got them?"

Shino just nodded and said " I've tagged all of them with my bugs." We will be able to find and avoid all of them with ease now." Naruto nodded in satisfaction. They had all gone over scenario's for the exams and according to Shikamaru they would probably be tested in teamwork situations inside and outside battle and everyone knew the last part of the chūnin exams would one on one fights. The exam occurred every six months and Naruto remembered Iruka had taken the entire class to the exams to watch when it had been held in the Leaf village a few years ago.

They didn't know what the non-combat exam would be but they were taking a few precautionary measures for the combat exam. Shikamaru suddenly groaned as the door opened. Naruto looked at him questioningly and he said, " That was team Eight. That means Sakura here and that means Ino isn't far behind. I just know they are going to do something troublesome before the exam starts."

Naruto sighed and said " Well its unavoidable." himself knowing it was true. Kiba stopped and sniffed the air before grinning and bee lining towards them and said loudly " Well look here you guys are here as well!"

Surprising both his teammates and team eight Shino spoke " Indeed we are Kiba-San as are Team Seven." As if summoned, Sasuke's squad appeared as well.

He smirked at his old classmates and said " Hn these exams will be a piece of cake if they let losers like you compete."

Naruto sighed. Typical Sasuke. Kiba growled loudly and said, " Shut up you bastard! We've improved a lot since the academy! I bet I could wipe the floor with you."

Before the argument could escalate, another type of fight broke out. Ino and Sakura glared daggers at each other as Sasuke stood in between them with ignoring them both with his ever present scowl. Naruto sighed at the scene. No matter how stronger any of them had gotten it was obvious they had not really matured much.

Suddenly someone coughed loudly behind them and said " You know if I was a bunch of rookie's like you I wouldn't draw attention to myself like this so early on in the exam." Naruto almost jumped out of his skin as he turned to face the voice. He hadn't even sensed the man approach. The speaker was probably in his late teens or early twenties and was dressed in dark purple Shinobi clothing. He had silver hair and a pair of spectacles on as well.

Kiba ever the one to never back down to a perceived threat growled. Seeing this the bespectacled boy raised his head in a placating manner and said " Oh you don't have to worry about me. I'm just a fellow leaf ninja helping my juniors. You have to worry about them he said gesturing to the room behind him."

All of them looked over his shoulder and Naruto saw that they had attracted a lot more attention then they had been planning on. Most everyone was glaring in their direction and while the KI in the air didn't bother Team Ten it seemed to at least put the other rookies on edge.

Ino being the daughter of the former head of the interrogation department tried weaseling more information out of him and said " Well if your being so helpful does our nameless senior have any useful advice for the exams then?"

Naruto smiled slightly to himself. Maybe his classmates had matured more then he gave them credit for. The spectacled shinobi just smirked and said, " Your senior's name is Yakushi Kabuto and he can do even better. He can show you his Ninja Information cards." he finished as he drew out a pack of orange cards.

Now intrigued Naruto himself spoke up and said " And what might those be Kabuto-San?"

The boy just continued smirking and said " Well I've taken these exams more then once. So I've gathered information from my previous exams about them and the other nations in these cards. I've even got some interesting information about most of the Shinobi in this room." he finished in a very boastful tone.

Now Sasuke who was extremely interested spoke up and said " Well then what can you tell me about Rock Lee, Uzumaki Naruto and Sabaku no Gaara?"

Everyone looked at Sasuke surprised that he was interested in so many people. Kabuto seemed almost put out and said, " Well you took the fun right out of that. You even know their names." as he drew a card.

He looked it over and said " Well this is for Rock Lee. His teammates are TenTen and Hyuuga Neji. Their sensei is Might Gai. They have completed 403 D rank missions, 21C-ranks and 1B-rank missions. His Taijutsu skills are of the charts while he has no particular skills in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu to speak off."

He blanked the card and continued " And here is Uzumaki Naruto. His teammates are Aburame Shino and Nara Shikamaru. His sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. They have completed around 48 D-ranks, 6 C-ranks and wow an A-rank as well! He is skilled in both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu and has a decent grasp on Genjutsu. His other notes say that he killed the apprentice of Momochi Zabuza single handedly without taking any major damage and that he proceeded to Massacre an army of over three hundred bandits single handedly."

The entire room was now looking at Naruto warily. It was obvious he was no normal genin. Kabuto then snapped out of it and blanked his last card and continued " Lastly Sabaku no Gaara is the son of the Fourth Kazekage and his teammates are Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankuro. His Sensei is Baki. I don't really have much on him since he isn't a leaf ninja. All my notes say about him is that he has never even been scratched during any of his missions."

Sasuke grunted as he looked over at Naruto. It was hard to believe Naruto was that strong but he knew it was true. They had fought countless times in their academy years after all. He knew Naruto was like him in many ways. He had something that pushed him more then the others. Made him work harder. He wanted to restore the Uzumaki clan just as Sasuke himself wanted to restore the Uchiha. Sasuke sighed and stopped his thoughts. It looked like he would have to prove to everyone he hadn't been left behind.

Suddenly there was a large puff of smoke in the middle of the room and a large group of chūnin from the Torture and Interrogation department appeared in the middle of the room. The apparent leader yelled loudly " Alright maggots! I'm your proctor Morino Ibiki and the first part of the chūnin exams have officially begun! Each of you is assigned a Number. You will sit in a seat corresponding to that number. Now move it!" he bellowed pointing towards a room.

Kimiko growled at all the loud noise and said, " This one must be compensating for something." It took a lot of Naruto's willpower not to laugh as he walked towards his seat.

Kimiko sighed as she continued, " Well at least my little Naruto-kun doesn't have that problem. It wouldn't do if he couldn't please me properly." Naruto suppressed a blush and replied ' Kimiko not here! I'm taking an exam!'

She pouted and said, " What I was just pointing out how you were better then all the vermin in this room. You should be happy a beautiful entity such as me is complementing you."

Naruto knew he wouldn't really win any verbal exchange with her. Instead he decided to her and said ' Hai Hai Ojou-sama. It is an honor that someone of your stature compliments me so highly.'

As she was satisfied Naruto closed their link. He sighed softly. She could be such a drama queen sometimes. He looked around to see where his team was seated. Shikamaru was five seats directly behind him and Shino was next to some Waterfall Shinobi near the front. He looked around too see that the chūnin from earlier had taken seats surrounding the participants.

Suddenly Ibiki coughed and when he had everyone's attention, he started explaining the rules. Naruto frowned as he listened to the rules carefully. These were the weirdest rules he had ever heard for any type of written test. Naruto quickly flipped over his exam and looked over the paper the moment the proctor yelled begin. He frowned as he finished reading the entire paper. While he certainly could answer most of the paper he was sure half of these thing had never even been covered in the academy.

He frowned and thought ' It's like they are encouraging you to cheat. This test would have been impossible without mother's knowledge…' He sighed and started his exam. He was sure Shikamaru and Shino would see through the exams easily. He answered the first question and just lay down face first on the table. He would enjoy a nice nap. He only had to answer one correctly to pass after all.

Shikamaru sighed as he saw Naruto lay down and go to sleep. Well at least Naruto didn't need any help with his exam. It would have been a pain to try and use his Shadow possession with all these chūnin watching. He answered a few questions to be safe and followed his teammates example, laying his head on the table.

Shino smirked as his insects retrieved all the answers from Sakura. His estimations had been correct. She had been able to answer all the questions easily. His bugs told him his teammates were both done as well. All that remained was the last question. But he wouldn't relax now. Something was always wrong when everything seemed too easy. He just sat silently in his seat waiting for the examiner to give him the last question.

Naruto sat up slightly disoriented as Ibiki spoke up loudly, "Well now it seems that it time for the final question, although I've got to say there are more of you than I thought there would be. But still there is one thing, that I did not mention earlier when I explained the rules of the test to you, that rule being that you can choose to take the tenth a final question or not."

Upon hearing this, the examinees were of course surprised and slightly confused at what Ibiki was saying.

"Choose, what the hell do you mean by that?" asked a blonde Suna kunoichi.

"It's simple really if you choose not to take the exam your points from this exam will be reduced to zero, where both you and your team-mates will automatically fail the test", explained Ibiki.

"Then what's the point of giving us the choice, of course we're going to take the question?" stated genin from Kusa.

"Well you see there is actually more to this rule", replied Ibiki, which made the examinees more nervous. "For if you do the tenth question and you get it wrong, you'll not only just fail the exam. But you'll also lose your privilege for taking the Chūnin exam forever."

"What the hell kind of dumb as rule is that", cried Kiba as he stood up and pointed accusingly at Ibiki. "There are people here who have taken the Chūnin exams in the past!"

At this Ibiki just chuckled darkly, making many of the genin nervous.

"You I' am afraid were unlucky, as this year I'm the one making the rules, which is why I am giving you all the option of quitting", replied Ibiki and then continued.

"Those of you who're not confident in answering the final question can quite now and take the exam next year and the year after that", stated Ibiki, before chuckling darkly again.

For the next few minutes, the room was filled with an intense, atmosphere, caused by what Ibiki had said, where the doubts of many of the genin started to creep into them slowly.

Soon enough several genin who could no longer take the pressure raised their hands and stated that they were giving up, where they were then joined by their team-mates.

One by one, more and more genin teams left, where after a little while the number participants of the Chūnin exam had been cut down in half.

Seeing that the number had now been cut in half, Ibiki decided to add just a bit more pressure to see if there were any more to be weeded out before giving out the tenth question.

"This is your final warning now! If any of you have any doubts in correctly answering the tenth question, I suggest you leave now. For if you don't leave and you fail to get the tenth question you will never enter this exam again!"

At this, the weight and pressure of the decision that they had to make began to weigh more and more on the remaining Chūnin hopefuls, who doubted themselves more and more as they watched other participants give up.

Naruto watched apathetically as more and more people got up and left. From amongst his classmates he could see both Sakura and Hinata were about to quit. Sakura looked over towards Ino and gained a determined look on her face and she lowered her half raised arm. Hinata seemed to notice this, as she to seemed to dig up some courage and lower her arm.

"Eighty Genin, eh? More than I expect…but still, since you all seem ready to take the question, I've only one thing to say… you all pass!"

After hearing this, the Genin were of course surprised and confused at what Ibiki had said.

After getting over her surprise, Sakura imminently stood up and spoke, "Wait, what do you mean by we passed? What about the tenth question?"

At this Ibiki smiled, "The choice to take the question was the tenth question, as there was no actual question to begin with."

"So what were all those other questions, were they all just a waste?" asked the blonde Suna kunoichi with annoyance, at how they had been all duped.

"No, they had a purpose as well, they were all to test you information gathering skills" explained Ibiki, where after seeing the slight confuse look on some of the genin's faces. He went on to explain the objective and goals of the first test, and how they were all tested and how the test involved skills needed to be a successful Chūnin.

During the explanation, Ibiki even removed his bandana to reveal all the scars on his head that he received from being tortured, showing what you've to go through, to keep the secret of your village from its enemies. It made Naruto think of the man Asuma had tortured for information during their mission to Wave.

Once the explanations were finished a round object suddenly burst though one of the windows, after which a large banner with the words "Second examiner, Mitarashi Anko is here!" appeared in front of Ibiki along with a tall violet haired woman. She wore a tan overcoat, complete with a fitted mesh body suit that stretched from her neck down to her thighs along with a dark orange mini-skirt.

Upon her arrival the woman named Anko cried out "I am the second examiner Mitarashi Anko and it's time for the second portion of the chūnin exams!"


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto of The Six Paths 6

AN/: Im pretty happy with how you guys reacted to the last few chapters. I got so many reviews. I was a bit worried when i first put it up since it only had like 7 reviews for the first two chapters but it finally seems my story is becoming mainstream. And I'm glad to here what all you guys think about the parings... i don't know if ill make it a harem since I'm to super confident i can keep it realistic like say Pokemaster 12 or Kenchi 618 can in their stories if it a harem one... anyways thanks for your reviews and support and i hope you all keep reviewing and telling how you like or- shudders- dislike it... ill keep this short since i know most people don't like reading AN's. I never did until i started writing myself. I response to some of the reviews i got yes i made a math error while i wrote the last chapter and if you have any questions go ahead and ask and ill answer in the next chapter if it doesn't give away any important details... So now that is done here is another chapter of Naruto of The Six Paths! Enjoy...

Naruto sighed as he walked through the tower. It was the final day of the exam and he couldn't wait for it to end. They had easily found their scroll thanks to Shino and his kikaichū. Despite this they hadn't made it to the tower until the second day. They had made a little detour and helped Team 10 against a team from some unknown village from the sound.

Naruto had only stopped because only Ino had been awake during the fight. Both Chouji and Sasuke had been taken down before hand by some other team. While this in itself wasn't much of an achievement in Naruto's opinion, it had only been a single genin who had used a strange seal on Sasuke that gave him almost demonic power.

He would have loved to study the design longer but he had to remind himself that such a matter could wait until after the exam. Ino had been tight lipped on the genin's identity but he wasn't worried. Anyone with that type of strength would easily make it through the exams. A clash was inevitable. He could feel Kimiko's anticipation for a worthy opponent.

He walked towards the hall they were supposed to meet in. As he entered he was surprised to see Shikamaru was already present along with Shino. There were a few other Shinobi from the Sand and Sound and surprisingly team Eight. He had been shocked to find out they had made it to the hall on the second day.

He walked over to his teammates and nodded. No words needed to be said at this point. The third exam may have been every man for himself but at the end of the day they were Team Ten. None of them would forget that.

Naruto scanned the room and saw that along with The Third and all the proctors, the room was filled with many Shinobi. Most were from the Leaf but there was also a Shinobi from both the Sand and Sound village. The door opened again and the final team walked in. Naruto smirked when he saw it was a fairly battered Team Seven. So they had made it trough the forest after all.

Kimiko sighed in an overly dramatic fashion and said ruefully " How unfortunate. I had hoped that rotten Uchiha child would have died in the forest. Oh well you can't have everything I suppose…"

Naruto ignored her comment used to her hate of the Uchiha clan and instead focused on the Hokage's speech. Naruto sighed as he heard all the chūnin hopefuls' shocked gasps as the speech progressed. The exams were just another replacement for war. It made sense, Naruto supposed. The number of casualties was certainly limited by this system. A necessary evil. That was the best way he could describe it he supposed.

Suddenly one of the Jonin with a katana coughed and said loudly " If I may Hokage-sama, may I please explain the rules of the third exam?"

Sarutobi nodded and said " Of course Hayate. Go ahead."

The man started explaining the rules of the third round. The exams would take place one month from now allowing everyone to train and rest while invitations could be sent out to the Feudal Lords and other men of importance around the elemental nations.

What caught everyone of guard was the next part of his speech. Apparently to many candidates had made it through the first and second exams so a preliminary match had to be held immediately to lessen the number of genin in the finals. It may have seemed slightly unfair to everyone but Naruto understood why it had to be done. The exams were all about promoting the prowess of each village. Hence only the best of the best could be shown. This was the final test to screen anyone not worthy to be in the exams out. The promotions of any the genin to chūnin themselves was actually a very small part of the exams. It was all about business at the end of the day.

Hayate then asked if anyone wanted to give up. At the second call surprising everyone Kabuto raised his hand giving up claiming lack of stamina. Naruto frowned as he heard this. According to Kimiko his chakra levels were perfectly fine. In fact his chakra pools were almost even with some of the Jonin in the room totally dwarfing most of the genin in the room. First he had scaring accurate information on almost all the genin in the village and even some on those not even a part of the village and his abnormal chakra levels. Something was definitely wrong here. Things just weren't adding up.

Naruto was forced to let his suspicions go as the screen in the room started blinking and announced the first match up.

' Uchiha Sasuke vs Yoroi Akadō.'

The match was fairly even match-up until the end. Sasuke was slightly better then the older genin in Taijutsu and despite the genin's chakra absorption technique Sasuke was able to hit him with a newly made technique he called ' Lion's Barrage'. It was a fairly impressive display of Taijutsu and definitely showed that Sasuke hadn't been slouching off. But if that was the extent of his training Naruto was slightly disappointed. He had definitely expected more from the Uchiha heir. From what he understood Sasuke's brother, Uchiha Itachi had already been a Jonin at this age but so far it didn't seem Sasuke was as talented as him. His skills were barely chūnin level at this point.

'Zaku Abumi vs Shino Aburame'

Shino totally dominated his fight seeing as his opponent was unable to use both arms properly. Naruto was slightly intrigued by the strange techniques the Sound Shinobi seemed to employ.

Naruto was sure the genin would probably never be able to use his arms again unless he had a healer on par with Tsunade of the Sannin. Shino was a very ruthless and vicious fighter under that logical facade he had. Naruto reminded himself not to get on his bad side.

'Misumi Tsurugi vs Sabaku no Kankuro'

This was another one-sided fight where Kankuro easily overcame his opponents Soft Physique Adaptation technique through his puppet.

'Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura'

This was a very long and drawn out fight and while Naruto acknowledged both girls had definitely improved since the academy, they were definitely nowhere near chūnin standards. In fact he felt they had just reach the standards for being genin in his opinion. It was obvious their respective teams had carried them through the exams. Naruto thanked god his team wasn't like that. The match surprisingly resulted in a double knockout.

' TenTen vs Sabaku no Temari'

Tenten was a weapon's specialist and just as good if not better then Naruto with weapons but was defeated quickly by her opponent Temari who seemed to be a Fūton user like himself. But it was obvious to Naruto once he witnessed her technique that while her affinity for wind was high she had yet had done almost no elemental manipulation exercises. Her technique consumed lots of chakra and had minimal cutting power. But it was still enough to beat TenTen.

' Nara Shikamaru vs Tsuchi Kin'

The girl lost almost pitifully easily to Shikamaru, as she had never seen his Shadow Possession technique before. He had almost immediately captured her with his shadow after distracting her with a salvo of kunai.

' Sabaku no Gaara vs Dosu Kinuta'

This was perhaps the shortest fight in the entire preliminaries. Dosu had tried to use the strange contraption on his arm by rushing towards Gaara just as he was about to hit Gaara he was enclosed in a coffin of sand and crushed to death. No one had even had the time to react it had been over in a matter of seconds. Basra just frowned before he disappeared in a Sand Body-Flicker appearing next to his sensei again.

Kimiko growled as she witnessed the match and said " I knew it! That kid is had that dumbass demon Shukaku sealed inside him!"

Alarmed by the presence of another jinchūriki, Naruto quickly thought ' Are you sure Kimiko!'

The demoness nodded and said " Yeah I am. I felt suspicious when I first sensed him but was positive. That sand is proof it's Shukaku for sure. I could feel his chakra radiating throughout the sand when it changed form. Naruto frowned as he looked at his fellow container before looking back at the screen.

' Hyuuga Neji vs Hyuuga Hinata'

The match was another rather one-sided one. While definitely having improved since the academy, Hinata just didn't have the conviction or the heart required to fight. Neji preyed on her doubts and fears mercilessly. By the end of the match, it was obvious his hatred of the main branch of his clan ran deep.

' Rock Lee vs Uzumaki Naruto'

Naruto smirked. It was finally his turn. He jumped into the arena and looked towards his opponent. He was just a bit taller then Naruto himself and wore a rather tacky green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers. He had rather large eyebrows and a bowl-shaped haircut.

The boy named Lee smiled Dazzlingly at Naruto and said " Yosh! Let us begin this hot blooded battle!"

Naruto stared at him warily and went over what he knew about the boy. According to Kabuto, he was a prodigy in Taijutsu while he had no other special talents. Naruto wouldn't believe the last part until he saw it but he was sure the boy lee was primarily a Taijutsu user looking at his attire. The idea was further reinforced due to his sensei. Might Gai was after all on off the foremost expert of Taijutsu in the village.

Lee seemed to calm down and he reached into his pouch and took out a salvo of shuriken, which he promptly threw at Naruto. Naruto jumped backwards taking of his jacket before throwing it towards Lee and his projectiles.

Lee frowned as the jacket obscured his vision while ruining his aim and was about to beat it aside when his senses screamed at him to move. Lee rolled to the left not a moment too soon as the jacket was torn to shreds by a wind technique which passed through his last position.

Naruto smirked as the jacket passed in front of Lee's face and quickly went through handsigns before announcing quietly " Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets" sending a barrage of invisible projectiles towards Lee. Naruto watched calmly as his technique tore up the area Lee was before. As expected of a Taijutsu prodigy. His reaction time and reflexes were superb. Naruto had expected to at least scratch him with that attack but he had underestimated Lee's abilities.

It seemed a Taijutsu fight was inevitable. He didn't want to waste chakra trying to hit lee with techniques again and again. He slowly materialized Suzumebachi and said, " Well then let's begin Lee-San."

Lee nodded and charged towards Naruto. Naruto blocked the first punch with his forearm before ducking under the next and returning with a punch of his own toward Lee's stomach, which Lee sidestepped. From there a fierce exchange began. Naruto was much faster then Lee but the boy's technique was slightly superior to Naruto's. He had no flaws or opening in his movements.

Naruto frowned as he sidestepped another attack and launched Lee back with a devastating kick. Lee's Taijutsu was superb. There was no doubt. But he was so slow. It made no sense. Lee was fast for a genin but it wasn't anything special. He should have been much faster. Naruto blocked his next few attacks with Suzumebachi and knocked him back creating some room.

Up in the balcony everyone was watching the Taijutsu exchange with rapt attention. Both genin were exceptional. Naruto's classmates already knew Naruto was strong. They were more surprised there was someone able to keep up with him like this. He had always been the strongest in their class hands down. It was a big deal watching some no name clan less genin forcing him to put any effort into the fight.

Kakashi who was standing next to Gai commented, " They are both very impressive."

Gai nodded and said " Indeed it's not everyday I see anyone who is able to keep up with Lee in Taijutsu."

Kakashi nodded and said, " I'd say he's more then keeping up. Naruto has control on the flow of the battle."

Gai smirked and said, " You haven't even begun to see the true potential of my student, Kakashi."

At this point Asuma interjected " Yeah well Naruto hasn't really started getting serious either. I seriously doubt there is a genin in this room who can beat him one on one."

Kakashi seemed surprised by such a bold statement but said nothing. Gai smirked and said, " Is that so Asuma! Well we will see about that then. It's about time Lee get's serious. ALL RIGHT LEE, I'M GIVING YOU SPECIAL PERMISSION FOR THIS MATCH! TAKE U'M OFF!"

Lee who was about to try and kick Naruto immediately jumped backwards and said enthusiastically " Really Gai-sensei! Are you sure? I thought I was only supposed to take them off incase important people were in danger."

Gai just gave his student one of those creepy smiles only they were capable off and said, " Don't worry Lee! This is an exception!"

Naruto watched as he sat on top off the giant statue in the tower and started taking off his leg warmers. Naruto watched in a sort of underwhelmed manner as he took off some leg weights. Lee sighed in apparent relief as he released them and said, " Ah I feel so much lighter. Now I am truly in the springtime of youth!"

Suddenly there was a huge explosion as the weights hit the floor. The only thought that passed through Naruto's mind was ' Well shit…' before he felt a tremendous force smash him in the stomach. Naruto was launched backwards towards the wall at a high velocity and smacked into it hard enough to crack it.

Naruto cough hard as he staggered to his feet. Some blood leaked out of the corners of his mouth as he steadied himself. That had hurt. He could already feel Kimiko healing the damage. He looked over towards Lee who had a confident smile on his face.

Seeing that Naruto was on his feet again Lee frowned and said, " It is most un-youthful of me but I must ask that you give up Naruto-san. I don't wish to harm a fellow leaf Shinobi."

Naruto started chuckling as he heard this. Everyone was surprised. Sakura said out loud " Why is the idiot laughing. I know he's strong but even he can't keep up with someone that fast."

Shikamaru scoffed when he heard this and said, " Don't be stupid. You're underestimating him. It would take a lot more to be able to beat Naruto. Just watch."

Naruto then said, " I'll admit you caught me by surprise Lee-san. You are pretty strong but… Kai…" Naruto suddenly held his hands in the ram seal before vanishing and Lee suddenly gasped as he felt Suzumebachi's stinger pierce him near the shoulder. " Don't underestimate me." Naruto finished coldly.

Lee jumped backwards. His arm was bleeding and while he would be able to use it, in this level of fight it became a severe handicap. Lee frowned as he looked at his shoulder and muttered " Most un-youthful." before he blurred towards Naruto trying to get a heel drop on him. Naruto blocked with his forearm. Lee smirked as he occupied his opponents' hands and brought down his other leg in mid-air again showing everyone his insane Taijutsu skills.

Surprising everyone, in a show of great flexibility Naruto used Lee's own arm as a pivot and blocked Lee's second leg with his own. Both of them disengaged only to start trading blows the moment they landed. Lee was faster then Naruto but he was injured. Unknown to Lee, Naruto had the Rinnegan to help him read Lee's movements and attack patterns but it was still a difficult battle as Lee was faster then him.

Finally seeing that he would get nowhere like this Lee jumped backwards and launched a huge Salvo of projectiles towards Naruto. Naruto cursed as he was forced to jump into the air to dodge. Lee smirked and blurred towards him yelling, " Dynamic Entry!" as he tried to kick Naruto in the solar plexus. Key word being tried. Naruto had already started doing hand signs as he was jumping and quickly used " Fūton: Stream" blowing a steady stream of Fūton chakra to propel him out of harm's way.

Naruto landed on the wall and stuck to it using his chakra. As he landed Naruto started going through another set of hand signs. He quietly intoned " Fūton: Vacuum Wave" as he sent huge wave of deadly wind chakra at Lee. Lee was barely able to dodge the attack by leaping over it while simultaneously using a kunai to block the follow up volley of projectiles Naruto threw towards him.

Naruto frowned and thought ' I could have ended this by using the Flying Swallow Asuma showed me but that would have killed him for sure.'

Lee got to his feet slowly. Both he and Naruto had scrapes and dirt all over them. He could feel the bruises beginning to form. Added to that, Naruto had the advantage due to Lee's earlier injury at the start of the match. He couldn't believe he had gotten so cocky though. And now it was costing him. At this rate Naruto was going to win simply because Lee would loose too much blood. A battle of attrition was not in his favorable to him. It was quite shocking to meet someone with such stamina though. Usually only his fights with Gai-sensei or occasionally Neji lasted this long.

Naruto watched, as Lee seemed to look upwards at the balcony towards his sensei. They seemed to have a private conversation and Gai-sensei then nodded solemnly at Lee. Now Naruto was on guard last time this happened Lee suddenly got much stronger. This time though he would be prepared.

Gai sighed and said, " I'm sorry Asuma, your student is truly exceptional but this is over. Lee is about to end it. Though I have to say your Naruto-kun really is in the springtime of youth. He has my respect."

Asuma just made a noncommittal noise and said, " We'll see Gai. I'm not about to give up on my student yet. He still has a few tricks up his sleeve as well. Besides your forgetting who he is…"

Kakashi glanced sharply at Asuma and said, " You don't mean… he can use the beast's power?"

Asuma nodded and said, " Only a small fraction but it's still pretty intense if you ask me."

Both Gai and Kakashi fell silent. If that was true, then most genin really didn't have any chance against him. Gai prayed silently for Lee's victory. It seemed he really would need to use his trump card here after all. He just hoped both Naruto and Lee could walk away in one piece.

•••••

Lee looked towards Naruto and said, " You truly are an exceptional fighter. Truly in the springtime of youth! But I will not be the only one to be left behind here! I'm sorry Naruto-San but it ends here! First gate Open!"

Naruto cursed as he heard that. Lee was opening the inner gates. He knew all about them. They gave one a massive increase in power and physical ability but also destroyed the body. The muscles tore themselves slowly could even result in death of permanent disability in less adept users. And also opening all eight gates gave one unrivaled power but always resulted in death.

Lee dashed forwards at even higher speeds then before and Naruto was barely able to get his guard up when a powerful kick to the chin shattered it and propelled him upwards. Lee pushed himself off the ground after Naruto and kept pushing him higher and higher with an incredible series of kicks. Naruto could feel his bones creaking as he was struck repeatedly. Suddenly Lee appeared beneath him ' And Naruto idly thought ' The Dancing Leaf Shadow…' as the bandages around Lee's arms came loose and started to wrap around him.

Naruto took advantage of the brief respite he received and quickly made the ram seal. Almost immediately, Lee's form went rigid and he convulsed. Naruto used Lee to cushion his fall as the hit the ground while simultaneously delivering a devastating blow to Lee's stomach. Naruto was sure he had just broken the boy's lower ribs.

Naruto huffed as he rolled of Lee. His body hurt all over, especially his jaw. Kimiko was frantically trying to heal the damage but this would take a bit longer then the usual scrapes and cuts he got. He was sure some of his bones had micro fractures. It was a miracle he hadn't broken any bones. Being a jinchūriki really was a blessing. Any normal person would probably be as still as Lee was right now but Naruto could still move.

He staggered to his feet and said while spitting out blood and a broken tooth "Call … the match. He won't be getting up. I sealed his movements. I could slit his throat right now."

The proctor and many others who had been in shock from what just happened snapped out of it. He looked towards Lee's almost immobile form and was about to call it when chakra exploded around Lee. Naruto watched in shock as he realized what the boy was doing! He was opening more gates in an attempt to overcome the seal. Already knowing he wouldn't be able to reach Lee in time to knock him out Naruto thought 'Kimiko!'

Already knowing what Naruto was Asking Kimiko pumped a large amount of her chakra into Naruto. Naruto couldn't suppress a hiss as he felt all his wounds heal almost instantaneously. He groaned as he stood up straight. His eyes turned from icy blue to a deep vermillion red and his teeth and nails became sharper. His whisker marks also seemed to become thicker.

Meanwhile Lee got to his feet as he broke the seal Naruto had applied to him. He wondered when Naruto had put that seal on him. He considered asking but let it go. He couldn't waste time idly chattering. He had chakra leaking from him like a beacon and his entire skin had turned an angry red. Lee dashed towards Naruto with such speeds that the ground behind him exploded from the force and Naruto met him head on. Both boys attacked with reckless abandon. They injured each other only for the wound to heal over almost instantly.

Naruto growled as he felt Lee punch him in the stomach. Naruto latched onto it and through Lee towards the arena wall with monstrous strength. Lee skidded along the floor like a skipping stone and was barely able to recover himself as he neared the wall landing on it feet first.

He looked up to see Naruto was already in his face first drawn to punch him. Lee sped away and from there it descended into what seemed to be a rather deadly game of tag. They sped around the arena trying to eliminate the other but neither could land a decisive blow.

Up in the balcony everyone watch with their jaws on the floor. The match was obviously not a normal fight between genin. They were moving so fast only the Jonin in the room could keep track of them. To their fellow genin they were nothing but blurs.

All the rookie genin were amazed with Lee's strength. They had never imagined there were people that strong. But what shocked them that Naruto was down there in the arena fighting him. The fight was even. He was able to keep up. He wasn't on the defensive or running away. He was able to meet someone as terrifyingly strong as Lee head on and push him back. The thought that someone they grew up with was so strong was a shocking and a bit scary. Many of the rookie's wondered just how hard Lee and Naruto must have trained to get to that level.

Naruto smirked as he saw Lee flinch for no reason. It seemed he was finally at his limit. Lee swung towards Naruto's face only for Naruto to sidestep it and get into his guard. Before Lee could react Naruto grabbed his face and drove his head straight into the hard concrete floor they were standing on. At this point he wasn't holding bam anymore. He had held back slightly so as not to kill or injure Lee too much but this was ridiculous.

Not giving him a chance to get up Naruto kicked him in the side of the chest and propelled him towards the other end of the arena. Naruto then appeared above the flying Lee and gave him another devastating dropkick to the gut. Lee hit the floor hard, blood flying out of his mouth as his lungs were forcefully emptied.

Naruto mercilessly stomped on one of Lee's legs and an audible crack was heard. He had just broken the boys leg. Naruto finally let Lee go and said to the proctor " I don't want to kill him but if this continues he will definitely die or at least be permanently injured. Please call the match. I don't want that on my conscience."

The proctor seemed to agree as he raised his hand to declare Naruto the winner only for Lee to rasp out " Wa…it… I can… still fight!" as he tried to struggle to his feet.

Naruto's eyes widened. This boy. He was something else. Naruto sighed as he let the Kimiko's chakra die down. He reached onto the floor and picked up a rock as he walked towards Lee. Naruto said, " I commend your willpower but this is over Lee. I will not loose here either. For what it's worth you're the strongest opponent I've ever fought. If you're up for it, we should definitely spar later but for now… I'm sorry… Goodnight" as he brutally brought down the rock towards the boy's forehead to knock him out.

Naruto's hand suddenly stopped as Gai appeared next to him holding it preventing it from hitting Lee. He had tears in his eyes. Naruto nodded to him respectfully as he backed down. The match was officially over. Someone had interfered making Naruto the automatic winner. Gai looked towards Lee and said quietly " Stupid boy… there is no need to push yourself so much. You've already proven to the world you're a splendid shinobi…" it was obviously painful for him to see his student like this.

Naruto sighed as he felt some of the pain return as he walked towards the balcony again. He absentmindedly waved of the medic-nins. His benefactor was better then any medic-nin. She could regenerate an entire limb for him if he was ever unfortunate enough to loose one. Kimiko smiled as he heard her container's thoughts. He really was too sweet. She the smirked and said " Aww so flattering Naruto-kun, but I would rather never have to do that if I can help it… though at this rate it seems inevitable… being driven so far by a mere genin… how shameful… and I had really thought I had trained you better… You're going to have to work hard to make this up to me. Shaming me like that. In front of that weakling Shukaku to! He must be laughing at me even now!"

Naruto just silently listened to her rant with amusement. She really was such a drama queen. She always started rambling when she was worried. He felt happy that she worried for him so much. It was a nice feeling to know she cared so much for him. He sighed and thought ' How about a massage Ojou-sama. You always did enjoy those.'

She suddenly purred and Naruto realized his mistake. She smiled coyly and said in a sexy voice " My my Naruto-kun so bold… Rather then me enjoying them… could it be… that you wanted to touch little old me? Did you wish to make me relax and then ravish my gorgeous body."

Naruto just sighed and closed their link. She was incorrigible. He finally made it up the stairs and plopped down next to Shikamaru. He was pretty tired. The match had been surprisingly draining. He noticed most everyone was looking at him and he said " What?"

Ino growled and said " What do you mean what? What the hell was that? You just wiped the floor with that guy and you don't have a scratch on you! How come none of us knew you were that strong?"

Naruto looked at her incredulously. Was she serious? He was a goddamned shinobi. He wasn't just going to tell everyone how strong he is. Naruto just gave a non-committal shrug of his shoulders and said, " None of you were ever able to push me that far…" That immediately shut everyone up as they looked away. He was right. Most of them were nowhere near that level.

Asuma rifled his student's hair and said " That was amazing Naruto. Good job. Even I was a bit worried for you when that kid opened five of the gates but you came out fine. And to think all three of you guys are in the finals. You really do know how to make a guy happy!" The way both Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were sulking made it obvious they had all bet on the exams.

Before the conversation could continue beyond that point, the board beeped again showing the final two contestants.

' Akimichi Chouji vs Inuzuka Kiba'

This fight seemed rather anticlimactic after the fight everyone had just witnessed. Chouji hitting power probably surpassed even Naruto's unless he was using Kimiko's chakra but he wasn't very fast hence he was unable to beat Kiba. Kiba who had always been good at Taijutsu had improved a lot but lacked the attack power to take down Chouji. In the end it had taken multiple hits from both his and Akamaru's Fang over Fang technique to take the large boy down.

Naruto sighed as the last match finished. He had unsealed another jacket for himself while the match had been going on and was busy inscribing a seal on Suzumebachi instead of watching the final match. He was trying to complete an idea he had had on the wave mission but he had never gotten around to using it. But due to the boredom of the last few days of the exam he had started on it and just needed to put some finishing touches on it.

He looked up to see who his opponent for the final match would be. They had all drawn lots and now they were announcing the final match-ups.

' Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji'

' Uchiha Sasuke vs Sabaku no Gaara'

' Aburame Shino vs Sabaku no Kankuro'

' Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari'

' Kiba vs winner of round four'

Naruto smirked. All the people he wanted to face were on his side of the tournament bracket. Despite the apparent mental instability of Gaara, Naruto wanted to measure himself against another jinchūriki. He just felt sorry for Sasuke. He would loose simply because no genin had a chance of beating a jinchūriki, especially one willing to use their demon's power. And even his match against Hyuuga Neji would be interesting. He was obviously just as deadly in close range as his teammate Lee. His fight with Hinata proved that.

He sighed as he made his way away from the arena. He was looking at a long month of training at this rate…


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto of The Six Paths 7

AN/: Hey guys! I just wanted to say to a few people asking about my other stories that i haven't abandoned them... its just i spend most of my time writing this and now school is opened up so i don't really have much time for them between school, friends, Naruto of The Six Paths and watching other anime... and any other shit i do in the day. I might restart them when i finish the first part of this story. This update was a bit late as i found two totally awesome anime that i recommend you guys watch if you are into watching things besides Naruto, Sword Art Online and Campione. Also i want to thank all my totally awesome supporters for their flattering reviews and i hope they all keep reviewing! Your reviews inspire me to keep all this up! Also i got my first flame but i suppose i don't really care about that since the response to this is good otherwise... I'm kidding i totally hated it! Anyways please keep reviewing and now I'll stop rambling... Here is another chapter of Naruto of The Six Paths!

Naruto sighed as he lounged around the hot springs waiting for his new sensei. Asuma had told him that it would definitely be worth it to at least meet whomever it was and that Naruto would definitely be interested in being trained by them. That had been almost an hour ago. Naruto was about to give up and leave to find Asuma when he heard some giggling noises. Against his better judgment Naruto decided to check it out.

To his surprise he saw none other Jiraya of The Sanin peaking into the hot springs through a small hole in the walls. Naruto knew much about the man so his behavior wasn't shocking to him at all. Jiraya was a major pervert and was the author of the infamous IchaIcha series. He was also Naruto's father's sensei and a good friend of both of his parents. He was present in many of Kuhina's memories.

Kimiko sighed as she saw him. She said " This is probably the 'sensei' that smoker was talking about. I suppose it's not surprising he would train you. He was good friend with both Kushina's and her mate." Naruto just nodded and finally thought ' Yeah I suppose… so how do I get his attention?'

Kimiko smirked and said, " Well you could always try the method your mother used…"

Naruto sighed. He really had no choice. He took a deep breath " HEY PERVERT ARE YOU THE ONE ASUMA SENT ME TO MEET!" Kimiko roared with laughter as Jiraya jumped and cursed out loud while all the women in the Hot springs screamed and ran away.

Jiraya quickly turned around and ran away from the place clearly trying to run away before the women were able to put their clothes on. He grabbed Naruto by his jacket as he passed him before using a Body-Flicker to escape.

Naruto was dropped on his ass roughly as Jiraya Body Flickered into a clearing. He sighed in relief before rounding on Naruto and said " You brat! What was that for?!" On the inside he was thinking bout how eerily similar that meeting had been to his and Kushina's.

Naruto just shrugged noncommittally and said, " Well you were sort of ignoring me…" Copying his mother's first statement to him completely. Naruto smiled slightly as he could feel Kimiko's joy at playing with the man's mind. She could be so childish for being a demon queen.

Jiraya just grumbled and said " So your the brat Asuma wants me to train huh… I do see what's so special about you…"

Naruto just sighed not rising to the barb. Instead he calmly said, " Well I could always show you… Jiraya of The Sannin…" While it might have seemed cocky and downright foolish to challenge a Sanin, Naruto already knew what Jiraya wanted.

The man chuckled and said " Oho! You know who I am and you still say that!"

Naruto just shrugged and said " I don't like people looking down on me simply because they are stronger."

Jiraya smirked as he heard that. The kid had guts. And he was pretty good if the reports from the preliminaries were anything to go by. But he wanted to see it for himself. He then looked at smirked at him and said, " Fine impress me and I may even make you my apprentice."

Naruto smiled as he heard that. A small part of him couldn't help but feel he would be closer to his parents if he mastered all their techniques and this was definitely the man to help him in that regard.

Naruto quickly undid the restriction seals he placed on himself, getting a raised eyebrow from Jiraya. Those were pretty rare and hard to make. He then asked, " Made those yourself Gaki, not bad… but… if that's all you have…"

He said this as he dodged all the blows Naruto rained down on him, expertly dodging and occasionally blocking the blows. He was mindful of Suzumebachi's stinger and didn't let it pierce or cut him. As he finished his statement he delivered a powerful kick to Naruto's chest propelling him into a tree.

Naruto coughed as he staggered to his feet and charged again. This time he made two clones and had them attack together. One of the clones took out a handful of shuriken and through them at Jiraya. The next clone was going through hand signs and said quietly " Fūton: Great Breakthrough" increasing the speed of the projectiles tremendously. The original himself pointed his hand towards Jiraya who was airborne and yelled " Stinger Shot!" as Suzumebachi's stinger shot off his finger much like a bullet towards Jiraya.

The stinger pierced Jiraya's body only for it to turn into a log. One of Naruto's clones grabbed him and threw him into the air just as the ground they were standing on turned into a small swamp. Naruto retracted Suzumebachi's stinger as he was in the air via the small cable that connected it to it's gauntlet and made another Shadow Clone in the air used it as a spring board to clear the swamp. As he neared the edge Naruto could see Jiraya's chakra waiting for him near where he would land underground thanks to his Rinnegan so he shot the stinger into one of the surrounding trees and used it to pull himself into the trees.

Suddenly Naruto felt a knife on his neck and looked behind him to see a Jiraya standing there with a Kunai. He smirked at Naruto and said, " I'll admit your not bad Gaki…"

Naruto suddenly smirked and said, " I'm not done yet!" as he suddenly started glowing. Realizing what was happening Jiraya cursed as he pushed Naruto and jumped away. 'Naruto' exploded and unbalanced Jiraya mid jump. As he landed suddenly four of the tree's surrounding him started glowing and Naruto's voice rang through the forest " Be careful, that's a Four Corner Sealing Barrier. One move and you'll be blown away."

Jiraya started laughing and said " Not bad Gaki! I'll give you a point for being able to set that up so fast without me noticing but… don't underestimate me…" ' Jiraya' winked as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto cursed as he was forced to jump out of his hiding position due to a volley of shuriken. Seeing another volley coming at him Naruto quickly used his ' Stinger Shot' to propel himself into a tree avoiding the deadly weapons.

Naruto quickly went through hand signs and yelled " Fūton: Serial Vacuum Waves" as he shredded to the entire forest in front of him. Naruto smirked as he saw a slight red patch floating in mid air just outside the range of the massive attack he had just used.

The patch slowly materialized into Jiraya with a slight cut on his cheek standing there. He had been using some sort of invisibility technique to hide in the forest but Naruto had been able to see his general location thanks to his Rinnegan. Jiraya slowly reached up and touched his cheek. He brought his hand down and looked at the small amount of blood before he started laughing heartily and said, " That's good enough Gaki! You've definitely impressed me. But seriously we should keep this between us you know. Master and Student secret. I can't have people knowing a genin was able to injure me."

Naruto just had a big smile on his face as he heard Jiraya's words and said " Whatever… Ero-sensei…" he finished using the same name his father Minato occasionally used for Jiraya.

Jiraya just looked surprised and grumbled a bit about disrespectful brats but besides that made no move to stop Naruto from calling him that. It seemed he also missed his old student dearly.

Shaking himself out of his the melancholy mood Jiraya said boisterously " Well if your going to be my apprentice Gaki, we are going to have to make it official. Your going to be the next Toad Sage kid. Are you ready for that." He asked in a surprisingly serious voice. Naruto thought about if for a second. He finally decided and nodded at Jiraya. He wanted to follow in his parent's footsteps as well. He would become a Toad summoner just like his father.

Jiraya grinned as he saw Naruto nod and thought ' Minato, Kushina, I only met the kid only recently but I can already tell he's special. Where ever you guys are I can tell you'd be proud of him. Dot worry I'll protect him from now on… even with my life if I need to…' He then took of the giant scroll on his back and opened it. It was the Toad Summoning Contract. Naruto looked at it reverently. It only had a few names on it. The last two were the only he recognized. Jiraya's and his father's.

He then looked towards Jiraya and said " Umm how do I sign it?"

Realizing he hadn't told the boy yet, Jiraya said " Just bite your finger and write your name on the scroll next to the last one in your blood." Naruto bit his finger hard and looked at it in wonder. It was strange to see the small wound not heal over instantly. Shaking of that thought Naruto slowly wrote his name neatly next to his fathers. He went slowly so as not to make a mess.

Jiraya smiled as Naruto finished writing his name and said " Alright Gaki, now that you've signed your name you're officially my apprentice. That means you will be learning kick ass techniques for the great Jiraya-sama. And I don't just mean Ninjutsu." he finished wiggling his eyes suggestively.

Kimiko snorted and said " Your too late pervert, this one's mine! I won't let my precious Naruto-kun have his first time with some ugly whore! His virginity is mine!" Naruto sighed as she continued her monologue. He had the faintest of blushes on his face as he kept listening to her. He couldn't help but blush at the idea of even doing half the things Kimiko described with her… or anyone really… Who knew she was such a pervert herself…

Naruto shook his head and cleared them of his naughty thoughts and focused on Jiraya again. He then said, " So Ero-sensei, I signed to contract. What do I have to do next?"

Jiraya thought for a moment before he said " Well ideally you have to summon the Toad Boss or some other lesser important toad and announce yourself so I'll be teaching you the summoning technique over the next few days."

Naruto nodded and so his ' training' under the Toad Sage Jiraya began. In reality Jiraya would either go peak at girls or be doing something similar after giving him a bit of advice and a goal coming back every now and then to check his progress. At first it miffed Naruto that he wasn't being taken seriously but he soon got over it as he realized he really didn't need Jiraya sitting on his head babying him the entire time anyways…

Naruto also kept up his elemental training under Jiraya's supervision. While Jiraya wasn't a user of either Water or Wind, he had quite a bit of experience with all the elements. Surprisingly Naruto sealing skills improved the most. Jiraya and in turn, his father were masters of combat seals. While both Mito and Kushina had some experience with them, their area of expertise were more along the lines of Barriers and larger complex seals. It was not surprising since they were both jinchūriki. They had wanted to be able to control Kimiko in case their seals ever faltered. Also unlike all his other subjects he had never had anyone to discuss sealing with. Jiraya was able to provide useful insight on many types of seals and even some more innovative ways to use them.

Two weeks before the finals, Naruto received a strange summons. Jiraya came and told him that the Hokage was summoning him. Naruto agreed to go readily. Despite any personal issues he felt he had with the Hokage, he was still the leader of the village and Naruto's Commander in Chief.

Jiraya led Naruto into the Hokage's off and stood by the wall. Surprisingly the office was full of many of the top Shinobi in the entire village. He felt really out of place. Despite being very strong, he was pretty certain each and every one of them could wipe the floor with him. Confused, Naruto looked towards the Hokage and said " Hokage-sama, what do you require of me?"

The old man sighed and looked every bit as old as his seventy years. He took a puff of his pipe and said " Naruto regardless of weather you accept this mission, anything you hear must not be mentioned to anyone outside the room. Is that understood?"

Naruto nodded slowly. Seeing this Sarutobi continued, " While you may not be aware of this, right now you are one of the foremost genin in the village and are probably one of the best Seal users in the village behind only me and Jiraya." This comment drew some unbelieving snorts from some of the Jonin in the room.

Sarutobi continued without missing a beat, " Hence I have a mission for you." Seeing he had Naruto's attention Sarutobi continued, " Well I have no way to say this easily. Both the Sound and Sand villages will invade us during the Third part of the Chūnin exams. And we have reason to believe the enemy plan's to use the jinchūriki of the Ichibi no Shukaku, Sabaku no Gaara to cause havoc and provide a distraction, allowing enemy shinobi into the village itself. Normally I would have Jiraya deal with it but he will be busy defending the walls while I deal with the Kazekage. I would assign ANBU or my Jonin to handle him but they are all spread thin around the village since we will be facing against two villages. Hence after them you are the best suited to deal with the enemy jinchūriki as a seal user and jinchūriki with any chance of success."

Naruto absorbed all this information with shock. They would be going to war. He remembered his mother's experiences in the last war. They were terrible. He shook his head clear of those memories and said confidently " I accept Hokage-sama." While he said that, he wasn't sure he would be able to stop Gaara entirely or at least fast enough to prevent him from doing any damage. But it wouldn't stop him. Otherwise his friends would die. The image of his classmates being cut down by enemy shinobi fueled his determination. He would definitely win.

The Hokage nodded solemnly and then said " Be aware the you must not tell anyone we are aware of the invasion. None of the genin are aware of this and if the enemy finds out we were aware of their attack it could be disastrous."

Naruto understood. Genin couldn't be trusted or really expected to keep their mouth's shut. It was probably considered a risk just telling him. Naruto said, " I understand Hokage-sama… if that is the case I need to begin making preparations immediately."

Sarutobi nodded and said " Good Naruto-kun, you are dismissed. I pray that you are successful." Naruto just bowed once before swiftly turning and started going towards his apartment. He needed to make some preparations.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he stood in the middle of the chūnin exam stadium next to Shikamaru. Today was the day. The day they went to war. The exams suddenly seemed so unimportant. But he would need to fight seriously. After all he knew nothing about the invasion. Shikamaru seemed to notice he was tense as he put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. That just made Naruto's resolve even stronger. He would definitely protect all of them.

The proctor was surprisingly different for the preliminaries and the finals. This time it was a man named Shirunai Gemna. He seemed like a rather laid back person. He signaled for the first match to begin. Naruto took a deep breath as he faced of against Hyuuga Neji. For now he needed to focus on the fight. He just needed to follow the plan for his fight against Gaara later.

Neji seemed to sense his nervousness and said " You are skilled, but the moment I was chosen as your opponent you were destined to loose."

Naruto scoffed and said, " If such a thing as fate and destiny existed I would be dead by now." Neji frowned but made no further comment instead activated his Byakugan as he got into the traditional Gentle Fist stance.

Deciding to make the opening move Naruto threw a couple of kunai at his opponent only for him to pluck the first out of the air and deflect the rest. Naruto frowned. The advantage of the Byakugan was in the great difficultly of hiding from it and it's 360-degree vision. A sneak attack was virtually impossible if the user was on guard. In which case " Shadow Clone technique" Naruto intoned quietly. Two clones popped into existence and took up positions around Neji giving him multiple views of his opponent. Naruto smirked. His opponent wasn't the only one with a Dojutsu.

Neji frowned as he looked at the clones. They were impossible to tell apart even with his Byakugan. One started going through hand signs and it said quietly " Suiton: Gunshot" as he spat a glob of water towards his opponent only for him to roll out of the way. Neji then back flipped over a Fūton: Vacuum Wave that came at him from behind and quickly drew a kunai from his weapons pouch and deflected a blow from the now materialized Suzumebachi.

The two standing at the out area stopped using jutsu and instead drew weapons and started peppering Neji with well placed throws, simultaneously creating openings for the one that attacked him and preventing him from going on the offensive or even use any techniques. At this rate it would only be a matter of time before he made a mistake.

Neji ducked as kunai sailed over his head from behind and then flipped over the Naruto that was charging him finally getting behind the one engaging him at close range. Neji quickly spun around and aimed a blow for the back of his head, a fatal hit, only for Naruto to duck as if he had expected the attack and suddenly Neji's senses scream at him to move. Neji tried to step away from his opponent but was unable to dodge the stinger that shot through Naruto's jacket and grazed his shoulder.

Naruto clicked his tongue as his sneak attack failed. He had damaged his jacket for nothing. He reloaded his stinger on his finger by pulling the stinger back via the cable connecting it to his gauntlet. Neji was breathing hard. This was the first respite he had gotten since the match started ten minutes ago. He looked towards his shoulder. If that attack had hit he would have lost for sure. As it was his opponent had drawn first blood. He had only avoided the full attack thanks to his Byakugan.

The one who had been fighting him seemed tired as well. He snapped his fingers and both the Naruto's who had been using weapons to keep him on his toes charged towards him. So that one was the real one then. Neji grinned as the clones neared. He would be back in the fight of he could get rid of them just as they both attempted to stab him he started spinning while releasing chakra from multiple parts of his body and yelled out " Rotation"

Both the clone's attacks were stopped and they were blown away by the attack. They dispelled as they hit the ground hard. Naruto frowned as he saw this. He took out a few kunai and tossed them at the still spinning big only for them to bounce off. His frown deepened. So that technique could deflect both short and long range attacks.

He decided to try blunt force. Naruto started going through Hand-signs and intoned quietly " Suiton: Cannonball" as he spat huge sphere of compressed water at Neji. Neji just smirked and used his Rotation to defend against the attack. Not deterred he went through more hand signs and called out " Fūton: Vacuum Bullets." as he spat a large amount of bullet-like wind blades at Neji. He still wasn't able to pierce the chakra surrounding Neji.

Naruto's frown had not vanished as he analyzed the technique. It could block both long and short range attacks regardless if they were piercing or blunt force attacks. Further more it didn't matter if the attack focused on one area or multiple areas. Truly a fearsome defensive technique.

Seeing that Naruto had stopped his attacks Neji said, " See it was destiny! That you will loose to me!"

Naruto just sighed and said, " Just shut up. You keep on going on and on about fate and destiny. Even when you were fighting Hinata. You got handed a bad hand in life. I get it. But your not the only one dip shit. So don't try to use that as an excuse to try and stand out as if you're special."

Neji growled in anger and said, " What would you know about it! You who has everything handed to them!"

Naruto cut him off and said angrily " Don't kid yourself Hyuuga Neji. Everything handed to me. As if. I grew up on the streets an orphan with no one to care for since the day I was born. I worked hard to get anything and everything I have."

Neji growled and said " Enough there is no point in trying to explain something like this to you. This is a fight so let us fight." Naruto just responded by dashing towards him with speeds even greater then the one he displayed against Lee. Despite the increase in speed Neji was able to keep up well. Naruto slapped away a palm strike and tried to use the momentum to kick Neji only for him to bend backwards and dodge. Naruto jumped backward as he drew some throwing stars and shot them towards Neji. Neji threw his own and they kept throwing weapons at each other trying to get past each other's guard. Neji and Naruto were easily able to track all the weapons thanks to their respective dojutsu's.

Naruto suddenly charged forward and locked kunai with Neji. They both tried to throw the other off but another Naruto suddenly jumped upwards from behind Naruto and threw a pair of kunai's enhanced with wind chakra towards Neji. Neji's eyes widened as he noticed the clone and he quickly disengaged and dodged the kunai, which actually sunk all the way into the ground.

Neji let out a breath of relief as he thought ' That was close. But to think he was able to form a clone during that exchange. He truly is a dangerous opponent.' Naruto sighed ad he tried thinking of another attack pattern. They were getting nowhere. He could end it by using a larger attack but he didn't want to waste energy before the invasion. He was jinchūriki but even he would need all the energy he could spare if he wanted to be of any use.

He sighed as he thought ' Okay I'll create an opening with Kimiko's chakra and then nail him with one of my faster techniques.' Even as he thought this small amounts Kimiko's chakra entered his system and he charged Neji with increased speed. The boy was barely able to jump out of Naruto's way only to have to deflect even more weapons. Naruto was already in his guard as he landed and grabbed both his hands at the wrist before he kneed him in the stomach. Naruto then seemed to bulge and Neji only had a second to realize what was happening before 'Naruto' exploded engulfing Neji in a huge explosion.

A body flew out of the explosion and crashed into the ground. As the dust around the body settled it revealed an immobile Neji with numerous first and second degree burns on his body. Seeing that Neji wouldn't be moving without assistance soon Gemna called the match in Naruto's favor.

Naruto then looked towards Neji and said, " There is no destiny or Fate you can't change with your own two hands. Remember that. Otherwise I wouldn't be standing here today in front of you." before he jumped up towards the room where all the other finalists were waiting.

Gemna looked down at Neji as they waited for the medics to come and he the said " Given time even a caged bird is able to pick the lock on it's cage and fly free. Uzumaki Naruto did it and so can you…" Having been one of the Fourth's bodyguards he knew Naruto's parentage. He was sure the Fourth would have been proud as to how his son had turned out.

Naruto frowned as the match between Sasuke and Gaara was delayed. Where the hell was Sasuke. Shino's opponent Kankuro had given up. That left only Shikamaru's and Temari's match in the first round.

It was a very long drawn out match but in the end Shikamaru was able to maneuver her into the large piles of weapons Naruto and Neji had left behind. He had used them to extend his shadow's range and capture her. He then shocked everyone by giving up. Naruto sighed as he saw that. He would definitely beat the crap out of Shikamaru for that crappy ending when all this was over.

After a ten-minute wait Sasuke finally arrived with Kakashi-sensei. The following match had Naruto reassess Sasuke. He had been able to get up to the same speed as Naruto and Lee within a month and had even started learning elemental manipulation. Maybe he had some of Itachi's skill after all.

Suddenly Naruto felt a genjutsu take hold of him. He quickly released it and looked around. Shinobi shot up in their seats as the civilian spectators fell over under the effects of the technique. Naruto was already jumping towards Gaara as when a giant flare went of in the Hokage's box.

Sasuke was looking around in confusion as Naruto landed next to him. He yelled, " Naruto! What the hell is going on?!" Before Naruto could answer Gemna said " War… Naruto you have your orders. Sasuke I want you to gather all the other genin and then gather all the civilians you can find and lead them towards the shelters. You are the leader of this mission. Go quickly."

Meanwhile Gaara's siblings landed next to him and received orders from their Jonin. They then grabbed Gaara and started retreating. Naruto frowned and quickly gave chase. The enemy Jonin tried to intercept him with some kunai but Gemna covered him and deflected the kunai.

Sasuke frowned and said, " Where is Naruto going?" He wasn't exactly friends with Naruto but he was a comrade and he didn't want him to die either.

Gemna said without taking his eyes off the Sand Jonin " He has his own mission and you have yours now go quickly." Sasuke hesitated for a moment before he nodded and sprinted of towards the stands to look for his classmates.

•••••

Naruto grunted as he dodged another wind attack from Gaara's sister. She had valiantly stayed back to protect her brothers. Naruto could respect the amount of courage it had taken to do that. He went through hand signs and returned fire with his own technique.

He frowned as he realized he had missed. She was pretty good. But Naruto had no time to play around. He jumped straight into her next attack and intoned quietly " Shinra Tensei." the attack was blown away by his technique and he used her momentary shock to close in and knock her out with a strong hit to the temple. He laid her gently against a tree and quickly continued after Gaara.

He caught up rather quickly thanks to his speed and was about to engage the older brother Kankuro as Gaara moved away only for Shino to appear. He said, " I've got this one Naruto. You take out the other one. And then we can head back towards the village together."

Naruto nodded and yelled " Thanks Shino!" as he sped of in pursuit of Gaara.

Kankuro chuckled and said " He won't be alive by the time you get there… that is if you can even beat me."

Shino had no visible reaction to his opponent's words and just said " Naruto is the strongest in out generation without a doubt. I believe in him. He will stop Sabaku no Gaara and any plan you have with him."

Naruto senses suddenly screamed at him to jump. As he jumped a yellow-brown blur passed under him. Naruto looked at who attacked him and to his shock saw it was Gaara. Except he was partially covered in sand and had what seemed to he an arm and tail made of sand.

Naruto tensed as he took in Gaara's new appearance. So this was his Jinchūriki form. Gaara seemed to have lost his mind! He kept growling and had spit flying out of his mouth. He looked towards Naruto and said " Uzumaki! Mother wants your blood!" as he charged again. Naruto jumped out of way and watched as Gaara literally plowed through a dozen trees behind him. Getting hit by him would obviously be painful.

Gaara kept up his incoherent mutterings as he attacked again. Naruto quickly took out a tag he had made specially before hand for Gaara. Naruto made a clone and gave it to him. It would he the clone's job to tag Gaara when it got an opening. It had taken almost a week to draw up due to the intricacy of the seal.

Naruto then went through Hand signs and yelled " Suiton: Cannonball!" as he spat a large sphere of water at Gaara. The insane boy jumped right into the attack and tried to hit Naruto only to be blown away by some unknown force. Naruto had used ' Shinra Tensei' again.

Gaara was coming around for another assault. He had no choice then. Kimiko flooded him with her chakra and he entered his own one tailed state. Gaara seemed excited by this as he charged straight at him. Naruto met the assault head on and they both fought for domination. Gaara swung his tail at Naruto only for him to block it. Then before Gaara could react Naruto's own tail hit his unarmored side leaving a huge gash on the unprotected skin.

Gaara fell towards the ground in pain as he roared loudly. Before Naruto or his clone could take advantage of any of this he was engulfed in another sand shell. Naruto blew the sand away with his ' Shinra Tensei' but it was too late, Gaara's entire body sans his feet had been engulfed in sand.

Kimiko made a face and said, " If Shukaku had any children that is definitely what they would look like."

Naruto just commented impassively, " I pity the mother…"

Kimiko guffawed as she heard this and said, " Did you just try to crack a joke? In a fight?"

Naruto just sheepishly rubbed his head ignoring the beast in front of him and said " Why, is that weird for me? I was just trying to lighten the situation you know."

Kimiko nodded sagely and said, " I'm so happy! My little Naruto-kun stops his fights just to entertain me! Why don't you come in here later and I'll REWARD you." She almost purred the last part. Naruto sighed. Kimiko would try and turn any conversation he had with her into sexual banter… She was worse then Jiraya simply because she was actually good at it!

Naruto dove to the left as Gaara plowed through his last position much faster then before. He turned and looked back at him. If the damage to the surrounds was anything to go by he was more destructive. Gaara roared and said " Your strong Uzumaki! You and the Uchiha! It's because you're like me! You fight only for yourself! But ill prove I'm the strongest! I'll kill you here and I'll kill the Uchiha and then that entire village!"

Naruto's eyes hardened and said " Your wrong. I don't fight for myself. I fight for my friends, my family and my home. The will to defend those. That's where true strength come's from. Fighting for yourself make one weaker."

Gaara just growled in anger and said while charging Naruto, " Fine then, show me this 'true' strength! Defeat me or I'll personally hunt down anyone you hold dear and I'll rip them to shreds!"

Naruto glared at his opponent as he charged as well and yelled " Gladly! I'll show you your wrong Gaara!" They clashed again and again. But neither side gained the upper hand. Naruto couldn't hold him down to long enough to pierce the dense armor of sand he had around him while Gaara couldn't pin down Naruto who was much faster then he was.

Naruto frowned as he dodged another wave of sand shuriken from he opponent. This was ridiculous. They were getting nowhere. He had to make an opening so the clone could put the tag on Gaara. He decided to change his plan off attack. Just as they charged each other, Naruto used Shinra Tensei on Gaara blowing him away while ripping of some of his armor at the point of his attack.

As Gaara sailed through the air four Naruto's popped into existence next to him and they all grabbed one of his limbs. The real Naruto appeared above him, going through hand signs. He whispered, " Fūton: Vacuum Great Sphere" as huge concentrated blade of wind made contact with Gaara. It totally obliterated the clones Naruto had made but was still only just able to cut through the dense sand.

The clone Naruto had made before hand was in position underneath them and quickly used ' Bansho Te'ein ' on Gaara yanking him towards the ground at great speeds. At the same time the real Naruto did the same on the tag the clone had in his hand. He then slammed into Gaara and slapped the seal onto his stomach just as they both hit the ground hard.

Naruto groaned as he got to his feet. He looked at his opponent who was on the floor next to him breathing hard. He finally let Kimiko's chakra recede. Using it for so long certainly put a lot of stress on his body despite his heritage. He looked towards Gaara whose sand armor had dissolved into a mass of sand around him since the chakra holding it together was disrupted.

Naruto staggered to his feet. His job wasn't done yet. That seal he placed on Gaara was only temporary. Seeing Naruto coming towards him Gaara seemed frightened as he yelled " No stay away from me! I won't cease to exist!"

Naruto laughed bitterly and said, " Don't worry Gaara. I won't kill you. I understand why you turned out like this. It must have hurt right being so alone all your life. People glare and look at you as if your trash. Trust me, I know the feeling. But don't let it stop you. I kept going and I for friends. People who cared for me. People I'd give my life to defend. People I can kill for. And make no mistake, if you ever try to hurt my friends I'll kill you." Naruto thought of, Kimiko, Team Ten, Hanabi, Jiraya. His classmates. They were all his precious friends and comrades who had saved him from becoming like Gaara. Naruto sighed as he wiped away a stray tear that had made it into his eye and continued, " And you're not alone either. You have your family," he pointed towards a tree where Temari who had woken was watching them. " And you have me now Gaara. I'll be your friend from now on." Naruto finished with a smile.

Gaara looked on in amazement at Naruto. He was his… friend. It was such a strange word to Gaara. But for some reason it made him feel something he hadn't felt in long time. He felt happy. He felt so happy. Someone had accepted him after the longest time. And he couldn't stop the tears that gathered in his eyes. He watched as Temari landed in front of him in a defensive position against Naruto, even though he had beaten her with such ease.

Temari looked at Naruto with all the courage she could muster and she yelled, " I won't let you hurt Gaara!" She knew she couldn't stop Naruto. He was even able to stop an almost fully possessed Gaara with such ease. What hope did she have? But he was still her otouto. It was her job to protect him.

Gaara coughed and said, " Stop it Temari. We're done. Let's find Kankuro and go home."

Temari looked back at her brother in shock. He was ordering her to retreat. She saw the tears in his eyes and was barely able to suppress her gasp. This kid. He was able to bring Gaara to tears. She nodded slowly and said " Okay Gaara. Let's go home." as she gently helped him up.

As she helped him jump towards Kankuro's last position Gaara suddenly looked at her and said " I'm sorry Temari… for everything." Temari looked at her brother in shock. She couldn't suppress her own tears at seeing him like this. She just shook them off and said " No problem Gaara. We're family." He seemed surprised by her statement but just smiled and nodded. Temari felt her heart stop. Gaara smiled. When was the last time she had seen that? She looked back towards the battlefield and thought ' Uzumaki Naruto huh. Thank you. For everything.' She would be eternally grateful to that boy… no that man. He had given her her family back.

•••••

Naruto jumped back towards the village silently. He had sent Shino to report the defeat of Sabaku no Gaara to the village. Kimiko commented, " That was unlike you. Why did you spare all of them?"

Naruto sighed and thought ' Gaara… he was just like me. He was so alone and hated. I would have become the same thing he was today. But then I met you, Kimiko. You and everyone else saved me from that darkness. And then I made more friends along the way and I wasn't so alone anymore. I guess… I just wanted to save him like you all saved me…'

Kimiko remained silent as she listened to him. They kept going towards the village. Suddenly Naruto thought ' Hey Kimiko, Thank you… really thank you…'

She just nodded and said " No problem Naruto." This was perhaps one of the few conversations they would ever have where Kimiko didn't crack any lewd jokes…

•••••

Naruto sighed as he landed next to Jiraya on top of Gamishiro, one of the many battle toads Jiraya was able to summon. Naruto said, " I defeated the enemy jinchūriki, Jiraya-sensei." He used the proper tittle since it was no time to be joking around.

Jiraya nodded and said " Good. Me and Ibiki have it handled here. I want you to head to the gate and help hold the line there. Show them why Konoha is considered the strongest village in the Elemental Nations."

Naruto nodded to both Ibiki and Jiraya and said, " I'll be going then. Good luck sensei, Ibiki-San."

Jiraya just smirked as he took down a Sand Jonin with a rib shattering punch and said, " Keep your luck kid. Just come back alive. And I'll promise the same."

Naruto smiled and nodded while saying, " It's a promise then." he then quickly jumped away towards the Gate. It seemed like the east wall was where the Sand shinobi had been concentrated as he saw mostly all Sound shinobi fighting at the gate.

Naruto dodged a kunai and cut down what appeared to a chūnin with a quick jab from Suzumebachi in the lungs. The chūnin coughed up blood as he fell over. Naruto moved to help the fighters near the gate only for an ANBU to appear in front of him. The masked operative kept going through hand signs and said, " Why are you here genin! All genin were supposed to be evacuated! Get out of here before you die!" She said this as she incinerated two Shinobi from the sound village with a fire technique.

Suddenly a Jonin burst out of the ground behind her and was about to cut her down only for Naruto to stab in the head from behind. He had easily seen his chakra underground. An orange glow surrounded Naruto as has voice got deeper and he said, " I'm no ordinary genin ANBU-san, in fact I excel in such a fight!"

Naruto slammed his hands onto the floor and yelled " Summoning Technique!" In a huge puff of smoke the toad boss Gamabunta appeared. Everyone stopped when they saw the coming of such a legendary summon. Gamabunta's battle with the Kyuubi was a thing of legends. Gamabunta blew a puff of smoke out of his pipe and said, " So you were actually able to summon me Gaki! I'd thought Jiraya was exaggerating but no matter. I'll help you this time since this obviously an emergency but you better only summon me again for your initiation!" He said this as he stomped on a squad of Sound Chūnin.

All the Konoha ninja cheered as they saw Gamabunta start wreaking havoc in the enemy lines. They had fallen back so as not get caught up in the cross fire and were instead using jutsu to help the giant toad thin the enemy lines. Naruto himself stood on top of Gamabunta's head and kept fire various techniques at anyone who tried to climb onto Gamabunta. Together with all the leaf Shinobi at the gate they were soon able to push the enemy back out of the gate.

When they finally killed of the last enemy Shinobi Gamabunta went back to the summon realm amidst many cheers. The Anbu from before slapped Naruto on the back and said " Not bad Gaki! You're actually not that bad! Maybe in a few years you can work as my subordinate as an ANBU!

Naruto smiled as all the shinobi at the gate congratulated him or slapped him on the back for a job well done. According to intelligence from ANBU headquarters, the enemy was being repelled out of the village at multiple points and the enemy leader who appeared to be Orochimaru of the Sannin had also retreated from the devastating injuries he had received from the Sandiame Hokage. The only bad news was that the Sandiame himself was in critical condition and was only alive because Jiraya had been able to save him at the last minute by breaking the barrier Orochimaru's men had set up. It was unknown if he would be able to make a full recovery.

Naruto slept in the next day for the first time in many years. The battle yesterday had really drained him.


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto of The Six Paths 8

AN/: Hey guys its been a while but I've finally got the next chapter up! In this one there might be a few people who don't like how it turns out but please bare with me as everything is necessary and will serve a purpose. Also my updates may become much slower then when i started as school is heating up and between Soccer and Schoolwork it is difficult to find time to write decently. Anyways here is the latest chapter of Naruto of The Six Paths!

It had been almost two weeks since the invasion. Him and Shikamaru had been promoted to chūnin almost right after the invasion. According to Asuma, they were lacking manpower and both Shikamaru and Naruto had impressed the judges enough to warrant promotion. He had worn the vest for a week before he abandoned it for his regular attire. Since then he had been going on countless border patrol and resupply missions. The village needed to maintain an aura of security and maintain the safety on the roads of the Land of Fire so merchants weren't afraid to travel.

Asuma and Jiraya were both away on important missions and he wasn't sure what Shikamaru was doing. Probably border patrol like he was. Shino and the other genin were all going out in makeshift teams on constant C-ranks without any Jonin supervision as the Jonin were now exclusively doing A and S ranked missions. Chūnin squads were mobilized mostly for B-ranks and occasionally a C-rank that was a bit too difficult for the genin.

Naruto sighed as he walked towards the Hokage Tower. While the Third was out of commission, the elders were the one's handing out missions. As he neared the tower he saw Jiraya was actually at the entrance. Naruto casually waved at him and said " Hey Ero-sensei."

Jiraya's lips twitched and he said " Already a chūnin huh brat. Where's the jacket. I remember I couldn't take the thing of for at least a month."

Naruto just smirked and said, " Well I just prefer my normal clothes better."

Jiraya sighed and getting serious said, " We have a mission."

Naruto confused and said, " Hold on you and me? Wouldn't I just get in your way?" Naruto knew he was good but anything they gave Jiraya was a bit out of his league yet.

Jiraya just smiled and said " Don't get your panties in a bunch Gaki. We are just going to be looking for someone. And if I don't bring you along how else will I ever get around to training you?"

Naruto's eyes lit up and he got excited. He always got a little giddy at the idea of new training. Jiraya sighed and said, " Calm down Gaki. Just meet me at the gate in a hour and pack enough for two weeks." Naruto nodded and headed back towards his apartment. He just needed to grab a few scrolls and he was good to go. He always kept his ninja supplies ready incase he had a sudden mission like this.

Naruto met up with Jiraya at the gate at the appointed time and they headed out. Naruto did know where exactly they were going so he stayed quiet and followed Jiraya's lead. They apparently had to track down the last of the Sanin, Senju Tsunade so she could both heal the Third Hokage and also become the Fifth Hokage. He didn't even know where he would even begin to look for her so he left that to Jiraya. Instead he just messed around with his Suzumebachi. He loved the new addition he had made and was wondering what more he could do with it. The cable had been a lifesaver in many situations.

They kept walking at a civilians pace. Jiraya seemed to be in no rush. Eventually they reached a nearby town and Jiraya bought a room for the night. He immediately found a girl to 'woo' and left. Naruto just hoped he did whatever he was planning with her at her house. Hopefully he remembered Naruto was in the room as well.

Naruto just lounged around inside the room and kept toying with Suzumebachi. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Naruto went and opened the door only to see two men in black cloaks with red clouds on them standing outside the room. That wasn't what scared Naruto. One of them had a fully mature Sharringan and looked faintly like Sasuke. That could only mean… Naruto was standing face to face with one of the most deadly men on the planet and the most infamous criminals in his village, Uchiha Itachi. While Naruto didn't recognize the man next to him, He had chakra levels that even dwarfed Jiraya. In fact he had almost twice the amount of chakra as Jiraya, Naruto hazarded.

Itachi looked at him and said, " Please come with us Naruto-kun."

Naruto backed up a step and said, " Who are you guys?" Trying to play ignorant of his identity to buy time. He just hoped that pervert Jiraya was nearby because, by Kami Naruto needed him right now. He silently thought ' Kimiko, quickly. I just need to surprise them for a moment and then escape.'

She nodded and pumped her chakra into his body. But apparently his opponents sensed his intentions as the blue skinned man with Itachi quickly pulled a giant blade wrapped in bandages from behind him and swung at Naruto so fast he almost didn't see the attack even with his Rinnegan.

And as suddenly as Kimiko's chakra entered his system, it vanished. In fact could barely feel any of his chakra at all. Seeing Naruto's confusion the blue man chuckled and said " My Samehada eats chakra. It especially loves a bijuu's chakra. In fact you gave it the best meal it's had in ages." Naruto gasped as he recognized the name. It was one of the legendary seven swords wielded by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. It traditionally belonged to the leader of the organization before it fell apart due to bloodline purges.

Itachi said to his partner, " Good job Kisame. This will make it easier to contain him." Naruto was now really worried. He had tried to go all out but these men had him beat in a single swing. He felt fear for the first time in a long time. He had never gone against such insurmountable odds ever in his life.

Suddenly a distraction came in a most unlikely form. Sasuke burst through a wall a 'Chidori' in hand and he immediately tried to attack Itachi, no doubt trying to catch him of guard. Itachi barely shifted his body and caught Sasuke's hand just above the wrist preventing him from doing anything. His reaction time was insane!

Itachi then seemingly applied force to his hand as Sasuke screamed and an audible crack was heard throughout the hallway. He then through Sasuke backwards. Kisame chuckled again and said with a huge grin, " Who do we have here? He has the Sharringan and looks a bit like you to Itachi. What's going on?"

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment and then said, " That is Uchiha Sasuke… my younger brother."

Kisame laughed loudly and said, " And I had heard you had killed that entire clan. Well whatever you can finish the job today then."

Sasuke staggered to his feet and yelled, " Uchiha Itachi! I lived just as you said! I lived in hate and dreamed of killing you one day to avenge my clan. And now I'm here to make that dream a reality!" he screamed as he charged Itachi, Sharringan blazing despite his injuries.

Itachi smacked him hard and sent him flying across the hall. He then walked after him slowly to where Sasuke had collapsed and lifted him by the collar. He then looked Sasuke in the eyes and suddenly Sasuke started screaming his lungs off. And just as it started Itachi dropped him like a rag doll. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Both the men who had been ignoring him turned back towards him. Kisame, who had a sadistic smirk on his face said " Say Itachi, don't you think I should chop of a limb or two to make sure he won't try anything?

Itachi said nothing. Apparently he took this as an affirmative as he swung the huge blade towards Naruto. Naruto couldn't help but close his eyed as the blow neared. He suddenly heard a clang and looked up. In front of him was an armored toad blocking the blow. That meant. Even as he realized it the entire hallway seemed to be engulfed in flesh. Jiraya appeared next to him and said " And what do two S-rank criminals like Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame want with my apprentice?"

Itachi just stared at Jiraya impassively and said " Jiraya of the Sanin. It is a pleasure to see you again after so many years but I think it's time we left Kisame." Even as he said that they had both begun moving away from Jiraya.

Jiraya yelled, " Like I'd let you both get away!" As he said this the flesh on the wall turned into what looked like tentacles and pursued both of them. There was a loud boom right after they rounded the corner and Jiraya clicked his tongue and said, " Damn it they got away…"

Both Naruto and Jiraya went around the corner to see how they escaped. The wall and flesh seemed to have been melted away by what seemed to black flames. This seemed to surprise Jiraya greatly for some reason. He then pulled out a scroll and drew a fire seal on it. It hadn't taken him even a minute to draw it and it was elegantly done. Just by looking Naruto could tell it was of the highest quality and better then any he would find in any shinobi store.

Naruto finally asked, " Aren't you going to go after them?"

Jiraya nodded negatively and said, " No, they were after you. I can't risk the chance that they may have more agents in the area waiting for me to leave. And even if I caught them it would be two on one. I would be at a disadvantage."

Naruto nodded and then asked, " What did they want from me anyways?"

Jiraya frowned and said, " They were after the Kyuubi's power. There is an organization called Akatsuki that is trying to gather all the bijuu. They only have nine members but each and everyone one of them are S-ranked criminals. And some time in the future this organization will be hunting people like you and Gaara. Jinchūriki."

Seeing Naruto's worried expression Jiraya laughed and patted him on the back saying, " Don't worry Gaki. It'll be quite a few years before they are able to act. Right now they are just in their information gathering stages. They have to infiltrate each and every Great Village. Something like that will take extensive planning and time. By the time they come for you I'll make sure a top class shinobi no doubt."

Naruto nodded and said " Thanks Ero-sensei…"

Jiraya frowned as he saw his apprentice's totally crushed demeanor. Thinking of a way to cheer him up he said, " And while we're on that note I'm going to teach you nifty new technique." He held out his palm and a small blue sphere of chakra formed in it. Naruto recognized it immediately. It was the Rasengan! It was one of his father's original jutsu! Seeing the amazed look on Naruto's face Jiraya said " This my boy is the Rasengan. Don't be fooled by its appearance though. It might look as deadly as say Kakashi's Lightning Blade but it packs one hell of a punch." he demonstrated by destroying the rest of the wall in the hallway.

Naruto looked at Jiraya and said " Umm Ero-sensei… won't we have to pay for that?"

Jiraya cursed loudly and said " Damn it grab the Uchiha and let's go! I want to get out of here before the owner gets here!" Naruto chuckled as he grabbed Sasuke. Despite being an S-ranked Shinobi he was sure forgetful. Just like at the hot springs, the moment Naruto had a secure hold of Sasuke, Jiraya immediately Body-Flickered them both away towards the entrance of the town. They coincidentally ran into Gai-sensei at the entrance who had tracked the young Uchiha to the town. After giving him Sasuke and finding out that Itachi had also knocked Kakahi out as well, Jiraya quickly took Naruto and they traveled to the next town much faster so they would be able to find a room for the night.

In the next town, Jiraya told him there were three steps to mastering the Rasengan. Apparently for the first one he had to pop a water balloon with just his chakra. After seeing Jiraya's demonstration he was able to mimic the effect in a week while they traveled around the Land of Fire looking for Tsunade. It had been easy since he had been able to see how Jiraya's chakra flowed when he popped the balloon thanks to the Rinnegan.

Jiraya praised him saying that was much better then Jiraya's attempt though he neglected saying by how much. Over the next two weeks they were staying in Tanzaku Gai as apparently there was some sort of festival there and it was bound to attract Tsunade.

So everyday Jiraya would leave Naruto in a clearing while he attempted to do the second part of the exercise. He would supposedly roam the town looking for information. Naruto had to guide his drunken sensei home from brothels on more then one occasion. It took Naruto a total of ten days to generate enough power to pop the ball. Fortunately the last step required no extra equipment but it was the most difficult as it combine the first two steps; rotation and power together.

One day Jiraya randomly led Naruto into a pub to get a drink. To Naruto's shock they ran into their very target enjoying a meal at the same place of their choosing. Naruto could effortlessly say Senju Tsunade was a beautiful woman. Despite her real age, she didn't seem a day over thirty. She had long blonde hair of a lighter shade compared to Naruto's and hazel eyes. Her body was fit as expected of kunoichi but perhaps her more striking feature to Naruto was her bust size. Even Naruto who usually kept his cool in most situations could help but sneak a glance at them.

Her student Shizune was also easy on the eyes but was different from her master. While Tsunade seemed to be a passionate and emotional type of person from Jiraya's descriptions, Shizune seemed to scream helpful and kind with her appearance and demeanor.

Tsunade seemed unhappy to see Jiraya and said " Ugh first Orochimaru and now you Jiraya. It's like the past is coming back to haunt me."

Jiraya didn't let her un-warm welcome phase him and said, " Now Hime don't be like that. I just wanted to see you again. What has it been, almost four years since I even met you?"

Tsunade snorted and said, " Cut the crap Jiraya. We both know that isn't why your here. Now what do you really want."

Jiraya sighed and suddenly said, " You're being recalled. The shinobi council is recalling you. They need you to help heal the wounded from the invasion and Sarutobi sensei as well. Also… you've been elected the Fifth Hokage…"

Taunade stared at him for a long time before she started laughing and said, " That was funny Jiraya. We both know I'll never be Hokage. It's a fool's job."

Naruto's eyes hardened a he heard this. While he had no aspirations to be Hokage, it was a great honor to be named a kage. You were the defender of the village. A symbol of hope. His father had said as much to his mother once when she had asked him why he wanted to be Hokage and this woman was spitting on that same tittle.

She seemed to see it as she then turned towards Naruto and said " What, you got a problem with what I said punk?"

Naruto frowned and said, " As a matter of fact I do. All the Hokage without fail were shinobi of great strength and were all Heroes of the village. They all loved the village and made great sacrifices for it. You have no right to look down on them."

Tsunade just laughed and said, " Big words kid but at the end of the day every Hokage besides Sarutobi-sensei died young."

Naruto scoffed and said, " They all loved the village and gave their lives for it. There is a difference. You don't have the right to look down on their sacrifice. In fact I'm surprised they are even giving the position to someone like you." Naruto didn't know why he was so worked up but her attitude just rubbed him the wrong way.

Tsunade snarled and said, " You got a death-wish Gaki! What are you a genin probably? I bet you haven't even had to kill someone ever in your life yet. In fact I bet I could beat you with just a finger."

Naruto growled and said, " Want to test that theory Granny."

Shizune was trying to calm her master down but the comment on get age made her loose it. She jumped to her feet and said " Lets go then Gaki. Right now!"

Naruto just responded, " Gladly you old Hag." as they walked outside. Jiraya jump Palmer his forehead and thought, ' Idiots…'

Naruto faced of against Tsunade and said, " Alright let's go Gaki! Show me what you got!"

Naruto responded by materializing Suzumebachi and charged her. She was able to dodge his attacks as easily as Jiraya had when they first met. Not being deterred Naruto made two Shadow clones and tried to attack in tandem with them but it changed nothing. She dispelled one before flicking the second, sending it flying towards Naruto who had been charging towards her. Naruto used his Stinger Shot trying to hit Tsunade through the clone but she dodged and actually wrapped her finger around the cable and was able to yank him towards her. She drove the finger mercilessly into Naruto only for it to burst into a splintered log.

Naruto his on top of the building and thought ' Damn she has some seriously insane strength. I can't use Kimiko for this, as that would be serious overkill. Most of my techniques are too powerful to be used in such a location. We already had to flee the last town. But at the same time it's obvious none of my weaker ones will even faze her. '

He sighed as he reached a conclusion. ' If I can hit her with a Rasengan it will be over in an instant. But I haven't mastered it perfectly yet. Oh well it's really the only option I've got.'

Tsunade sighed, as the blond Gaki did nothing for over a minute. She would admit he was good but if that was all she could probably beat him in her sleep. She ducked as he suddenly sailed over her head. She was about to jab him only for him to yank that stinger thing which was in her other hand instead of on his finger. She realized what he was trying to do and jumped upwards just as the cable passed under her. She smirked. It was a pretty good idea but it wouldn't work on someone on her level. Suddenly she heard a faint sound and turned around.

Naruto was standing behind her with a slightly unstable ball of swirling chakra in his hands. Her eyes widened as she recognized the move. Just as he charged towards her she poked the ground with her finger causing it to split. Naruto was dumbfounded by the display of monstrous strength and jumped up at the last second so as to not fall into the ditch she had created but this disrupted his focus for the briefest moments causing the Rasengan to explode in his hand.

He ignored the pain and got up to continue the fight but suddenly Jiraya appeared behind him and gripped his shoulder firmly effectively ending the fight. As Tsunade saw this she relaxed her stance and then yelled at Jiraya, " You idiot! That last move was the Rasengan wasn't it! As if a brat like this could learn it! What are you playing at teaching him something like that!"

Naruto frowned as heard this. He knew Tsunade knew all about his heritage. If he wasn't able to learn it then who would? Still angry with her Naruto said, " Of course I can learn the Rasengan. Just because the Fourth Hokage made it doesn't mean it's impossible to learn. I'm going to surpass him and use that power to protect my friends and my village… which is more then you can claim."

This seemed to piss of Tsunade more then anything and she yelled, " A looser like you would never be able to use that technique! It took the Fourth over three years to make it! What chance do you have!"

Naruto smirked and said, " I bet I could have this down in a week at most."

Tsunade laughed and said, " So you want to make a bet do you Gaki! Fine. You're on. If you master the Rasengan in a week I'll become Hokage. I'll even throw in this necklace as well!" she showed him a piece of jewelry he recognized immediately.

It was a necklace Mito had given her husband, the First Hokage as a token of her love after their marriage. It was heirloom of Mito's family and it had been passed down in her family to the eldest child of each generation. Mito had carved the special seals into it that actually helped amplify the calming effect the First's chakra had on the bijuu. To Naruto it was worth more then Tsunade's acceptance of her Hokage position. An heirloom of his clan. His determination to win the bet just shot through the roof. He wouldn't sleep until he could form the Rasengan in an instant just like his father.

Naruto nodded vigorously and said, " Get ready to put on that stuffy hat Tsunade-baachan! I'm definitely going to have this down before the week ends." Tsunade's eye twitched at the way he referred to her but she said nothing instead signaling Shizune to follow her as they left. Jiraya sighed as he looked at the giant ditch Tsunade left behind absentmindedly fixing it with his Doton manipulation. He turned towards Naruto only to find him already practicing. Naruto had made much progress since they started almost a month ago but he took too long to form the Rasengan and it leaked chakra like a sinking ship. He couldn't help but sigh. Well at least he was motivated. The boy had all of Minato's skill as a shinobi and more but at heart he was just like his mother, Kushina.

Naruto spent the next few days living in the clearing Jiraya had been training him in. He didn't even bother returning to the room and had a clone get his meals. Every waking moment was spent trying to master the technique. Soon the clearing was filled with craters of various sizes. As was the way with these things Naruto got better an better with each attempt. Soon the chakra leak became minimal and the rotation speed was faster. The attack power was also higher and it became easier to form not requiring him to take his full attention away from his surroundings like before. Naruto was confident he would have it down before his one-week was up.

But again as is the nature of these things, Naruto's intense training eventually tired him out despite his heritage and status as a jinchūriki and he passed out from sheer exhaustion on the fourth day.

When he awoke he found himself inside a small hotel room. Naruto's body still felt slightly stiff as he looked around the room. He spotted Tsunade's apprentice sleeping on a couch in the corner of the room. She apparently sensed his gaze as she to got up soon after him. Seeing Naruto sitting up she rushed over and pushed him down saying, " Don't waste your energy right now! I found you passed out in a clearing with severe chakra exhaustion. You shouldn't move around at least for another day or two."

Naruto smiled at her. She really was a nice person. She had dragged him all the way here just to heal him and had even let him sleep on her bed. Still smiling and said " Don't worry Shizune-San, due to my Uzumaki heritage I recover rather quickly. You can even check. I'm totally fine. Besides I still have to finish my training." That was slightly untrue. The real reason was Kimiko's chakra.

Shizune frowned and used a diagnostic jutsu on him and he had healed perfectly just as he said. Even his hand, which had severe chakra burns on, it had healed totally. Not a trace of any damage was left. She couldn't fathom it. Usually chakra exhaustion took a few days to heal and those burns on his hands would have at least stayed for a week. She then belatedly remembered Naruto was a jinchūriki. Maybe it was a power he had received from the beast. She sighed and said, " You have mostly healed but you still have to stay here for the night. I want to make sure nothing happens to you over the night."

Seeing that he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise, Naruto just nodded and said, " Then let me sleep on the couch Shizune-san, I would rather not deprive you of your bed." She tried to wave him of but eventually she conceded and let him move to the couch when she saw he wouldn't give up either.

Naruto got to know her better over the night. Apparently she had been Tsunade's apprentice since she was a young genin and left the village with her when her uncle Dan died. She had also told him the story about Nawaki and Dan, and how their deaths had affected Tsunade and made her the bitter person she was today. Naruto in turn told her a bit about himself as well. She was surprised to here he had already become a chūnin. She had thought he was a genin just like Tsunade.

The next morning Naruto said goodbye to Shizune and continued his training but took in easier on her insistence. He was okay with it since he had almost mastered the Rasengan and now it was just a matter of practice rather then difficulty. Over the next two days his Rasengan did improve but was still not perfect. But he was confident it was more then good enough. Naruto went towards Shizune and Tsunade's hotel rooms only to find Jiraya being helped into the room by Shizune. Immediately worried for his sensei, Naruto rushed over and yelled, " Oay Ero-sensei! What's wrong!"

Jiraya gasped and said in a raspy voice, " Tsunade… drugged me… she's going to go meet Orochimaru… we have to… stop her." While he said that it was obvious he wasn't in any condition to do anything.

Naruto quickly turned towards Shizune and said, " Shizune! Can't you do something?"

She bit her lip and finally said, " I can make him an antidote but whatever Tsunade-sama used on him is strong. Even with an antidote the full effects won't wear off immediately."

Naruto smiled. That would need to he good enough. He said, " That will have to do. We will need Ero-sensei if Orochimaru is going to be there…" Naruto had no illusions of him being able to beat Orochimaru in a fight even if he was injured by the Third. Shizune nodded and after using a few diagnostic techniques was able to make an antidote within an hour. Naruto couldn't help but be amazed. She really was an exceptional medic-nin. Apparently the drug Tsunade used on Jiraya messed up his chakra systems. But thanks to Shizune, Jiraya was at least up and on his feet.

They quickly took of in pursuit of Tsunade using her pet pig Tonton to track her down. She ha apparently confronted Orochimaru and he had pissed her off. There were huge craters heading in the general direction away from the small town. Naruto was really glad she had never hit him directly now.

They took off across the plains in pursuit of Tsunade and found her fighting Orochimaru and surprisingly Kabuto. Naruto growled as he saw Kabuto slap Tsunade who had collapsed due to her fear of blood. Apparently this had pissed of Jiraya as well as next second Kabuto was sent flying towards Orochimaru as if he was a rag doll. Naruto looked at his sensei in awe. Even Jiraya packed a pretty mean punch when he wanted to apparently.

Orochimaru sneered when he saw Jiraya and said, " Well well, Jiraya I should have expected to see you here and is that the Kyuubi brat as well. Another student of yours? Hopefully this one will actually live past their second decade."

Jiraya frowned and said, " Hello Orochimaru. I can't say it's good to see you again. Sensei really did a number on you though didn't he? I wasn't really able to get a good look at all your injuries as you fled the village."

Orochimaru just sneered again and said, " Don't worry Jiraya, I'll see you and your precious village burn to the ground."

Jiraya prepared to engage his former teammate in battle and said, " Naruto, Shizune be careful with that kid in the glasses. I know he was able to go toe to toe with Kakashi even if it was for a few moments. I'll handle Orochimaru." He then jumped towards his teammate as he said that.

Kabuto then walked up to them slowly and said, " It's been a while Naruto-kun. How is everyone doing? I heard you and Shikamaru-kun got promoted. Congratulations!

Naruto just frowned and said, " I always did feel something was wrong with you. This explains a lot Kabuto-san."

Kabuto frowned and said, " Oh my it seems you're not in the mood to play. Fine then let's begin." He then burst towards Naruto at high speed and swung his fist towards Naruto. Naruto sidestepped it but wasn't able to retaliate as Kabuto was already on the offensive again. Naruto frowned as he noticed chakra around Kabuto's hand much like a knife. Suddenly Kabuto jumped backwards as a few senbon passed through his previous position. Shizune landed next to Naruto and said, " Don't let him touch you Naruto. He's using chakra scalpels. Even a grazing hit can sever a muscle or an artery."

Naruto frowned and said, " Ninjutsu it is then…" He went through some hand signs and said quietly, "Fūton: Vacuum Bullets" as he spat a large barrage of invisible wind blades at Kabuto. He rolled out of the way and threw some kunai at them but Naruto deflected them with Suzumebachi.

Shizune suddenly said, " Hold your breath… Poision Smokescreen!" as she exhaled a purplish mist from her mouth. It engulfed Kabuto. Naruto frowned as the mist prevented him from seeing Kabuto. Since it was laced with chakra it was hard to track Kabuto's as well.

Suddenly Naruto felt the ground shake and he jumped up yelling " Below us!" Naruto was able to dodge but Shizune who hadn't seen combat in over ten years reacted a second too late and Kabuto was able to sever her tendons in her right foot. She fell over and Kabuto took advantage of this and kicked her in the side of her chest. He was prevented from doing any more harm as Naruto tried to stab him with Susumebachi forcing him to retreat.

Shizune coughed as she tried to stand. Naruto gently pushed her back down and said, " Don't strain yourself Shizune. Go heal yourself and Tsunade-baachan. I'll keep Kabuto busy till then." She tried to protest but it died down when she saw his eyes they were totally focused. She realized arguing would be pointless and just said, " Don't die on me okay." as he set her down next to Tsunade.

Naruto just grinned and said " Don't worry I don't plan on dying here!" before he turned around and got ready to fight Kabuto.

Kabuto and Naruto faced of and Kabuto said, " You say that but can you keep that promise? Your opponents are one of the Sannin and myself. I won't brag but I'm pretty strong myself. You're just a kid in an adults fight. Stay down and maybe Lord Orochimaru will let you escape with your life."

Naruto scoffed and said, " I know all of that but you shouldn't forget… I'm pretty strong myself." He said this as Kimiko flooded him with her chakra. He would need the edge if he wanted to keep up with Kabuto long enough for either Shizune or Jiraya to finish up and help him.

Kabuto laughed and said, " My my is that the Kyuubi's chakra? Your serious aren't you. Well lets me show you the difference between us!" he yelled as he jumped towards Naruto with his scalpels activated again.

Naruto dodged the first blow and retaliated with a brutal kick to Kabuto's chest. Kabuto was sent flying back but he got up as if nothing had happened. Naruto frowned. His kick should have at least cracked his ribs but he didn't even flinch. In fact he was walking as if he was totally fine. Kabuto just smirked and charged forward again. Naruto tried to create some distance and use one of his bigger Ninjutsu but Kabuto was too fast to give him a chance.

He closed in for another Taijutsu exchange. This time he tried to jab Naruto in the stomach region but Naruto was barely able to dodge. Naruto cursed in his head as he was on a constant defensive. Kabuto was too fast. This was similar to his fight with Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame. Kabuto was toying with him. Every time Naruto got away from him or found a way to attack him, Kabuto would increase his speed. Naruto needed a plan or this fight was going nowhere fast.

Suddenly he had an idea. It was risky but if he was able to pull it off successfully he would win the fight. Naruto suddenly stopped as he retreated backwards and instead leaped right over the charging Kabuto. Kabuto's eyes widened as he saw this and he rolled forward thinking Naruto was trying to attack him. Naruto quickly made three Shadow clones and yelled, " Hey Baa-chan you watching! I'm about to win our bet!" as he said this, two clones circled around Kabuto surrounding him while one took up position behind Naruto.

Naruto concentrated. He had noticed that even in her near comatose state Tsunade had heard him. He gave his clones the signal as he completed his Rasengan and they both simultaneously used ' Heavenly Attraction' on Kabuto. Kabuto screamed in pain as he felt himself being yanked in two directions. While he did this the clone behind Naruto propelled him forward with 'Shinra Tensei'. Naruto was blasted forward by his clone and hit the now released Kabuto head on with the Rasengan.

Naruto felt large amount of satisfaction as the Rasengan dug into Kabuto's flesh. It then exploded in his hand again after a few seconds propelling Kabuto away like a bullet.

Naruto smirked and turned towards Tsunade and said, " I win!" Just as he said that he felt a pain in his heart. Naruto coughed up blood as he collapsed onto his knees. He thought ' Kimiko what's going on! My chest feels like it's on fire!' Kimiko who was rapidly trying to heal the damage said, " That despicable monkey severed the arteries around your heart!"

Tsunade's eyes widened as she saw Naruto collapse. Shizune rushed forward and saw performed a diagnostic scan on him. Tsunade feared the worst when she gasped and said " His heart's arteries. They were cut. The Kyuubi is trying to heal him but… it's not working fast enough. He'll die before it can heal all of them…" Shizune had tears in her eyes. She had gotten to know Naruto over the last few weeks and he was a good person. He didn't deserve to die like this.

Something snapped inside Tsunade as she heard those words. Not again. She couldn't let another on die. She'd already lost Nawaki and Dan. And here was a child who had inherited their will. Maybe not their dreams but he had the same fire in him that they had. He wanted to become strong to protect his friends and the village. No she couldn't let him die. Even as she thought all this she moved forward and gently pushed Shizune away. The girl was vainly trying to heal him but the damage she described was beyond her skills. Shizune gasped as she saw her mentor and whispered, " Tsunade-sama, you…"

Tsunade didn't respond. Instead she ran her own diagnostic and frowned. It was worse then Shizune had stated. The damage was near fatal. At this point only the Kyuubi's healing was keeping him alive. No she couldn't think like that. She had to be positive. She kept telling herself as she started healing the damage first. The Kyuubi was obviously sealing the larger one's first so she started the more delicate smaller ones. She silently kept going but couldn't help but despair. His chest wasn't moving. She increased her power output but it didn't move. Tears welled up in her eyes as she said, " Oay Gaki… Naruto, wake up! You won the bet! I'll become Hokage. You can't die yet… Naruto! You have your precious dream of surpassing all the previous Hokage right… so please wake up!"

Suddenly Naruto gasped. Tsunade gasped as she saw that as well. Naruto coughed and said, " Don't cry like that… Tsunade-baachan. I told you… I won't die here… besides if you keep crying, Ero-sensei… won't forgive me for making a beautiful woman cry…"

Tsunade couldn't help but smile as she heard this. She slapped him lightly and said, " You really are that idiots apprentice… flirting with me in your condition. Something only that idiot could have taught you." Naruto just chuckled weakly. Suddenly Tsunade's senses screamed at her. She spun around only too see Orochimaru slithering towards Naruto with a sword sticking out of his mouth like a spear.

She gasped and jumped in front of him taking the sword in her gut but effectively stopping him. Orochimaru's eyes widened and he said " What are you doing Tsunade. Stop this foolishness and don't get in my way."

Tsunade growled, ignoring the pain in her stomach and said, " I won't… let you harm this boy Orochimaru!"

He frowned as he turned back into his human form and said, " Why. Why would you go so far for some no name talentless chūnin."

Tsunade declared proudly, " Because I am Senju Tsunade, The Fifth Hokage."

Orochimaru's eye's widened and he said, " I see. In which case I'll kill both you and the brat."

Tsunade smirked and said, " Don't get so cocky Orochimaru. I may not have seen any combat in the last few years but I'm a Sannin just like you. Prepare to see a jutsu that even you have never seen before!"

While Orochimaru and Tsunade prepared to fight, Shizune dragged Naruto away from the battleground. He tried to stop her but she said, " We can't stay to close. They will probably use their summons and we don't want to get in the way." Naruto ceased his struggling after that. He had seen Gamabunta and he knew that both Tsunade and Orochimaru had summoning contracts as well. If they were even half of Gamabunta's size Shizune was right. Naruto didn't want to be crushed to death simply because one of them stepped or fell on him.

What followed was the most amazing battle Naruto had seen in his life. All three of the Sannin possessed truly amazing skills. Naruto frowned when he noticed that Kabuto had survived his attack and was actually assisting Orochimaru against the Sannin.

Eventually Orochimaru retreated and both Jiraya and Tsunade returned. Jiraya patted his student on the head and said, " Good job kid. I saw you take down that four-eyed kid. Next time we'll get them for sure… but now, more importantly… what's this I hear about Tsunade being beautiful. So you like older women Gaki! Nice pick as well! You have a good eye!"

He would have continued but at this point Tsunade smashed him into the floor with her super-strength. Her eye still twitching, she yelled at him, " Shut up you pervert! I won't have you trying to corrupt him!"

Naruto sighed. Were all high-level Shinobi this weird? Orochimaru was plain creepy, Jiraya was a pervert and Tsunade had anger management issues. Even Itachi and his partner had been weird. Kisame kept chuckling all the time and Itachi Uchiha was considered to be an insane mass murder. Oh well at least everything turned out fine in the end… now he just hoped he wasn't so messed up when he grew up…


	9. Chapter 9

Naruto of The Six Paths 9

It had been over a month since Naruto had returned to the village with Tsunade. She had quickly taken up the mantle of Fifth Hokage and the reconstruction of the village and the general organization had improved greatly. While she had become Hokage, Shizune had taken over the hospital and it was functioning much more smoothly under her supervision. While still considered the best, the medical program in the village had declined greatly since Tsunade had left the village after the end of the Third Great Shinobi War.

Naruto himself was either going on missions or training himself into the ground. Everyone was a bit worried about him but he just waved off their concerns and kept up with his ridiculous training schedule. The reason for his sudden increase in training was simple. Naruto realized he still wasn't at the level he needed to be able to protect himself and his friends. The last mission with Jiraya had shown him as much. He had survived only because of luck. Next time he might not be so lucky. After all luck usually failed you when you needed it most.

Over the past month Naruto had improved greatly. His greatest improvement was in his elemental manipulation. He could almost completely cut right through giant boulders with his Fūton chakra and his control on the whirlpool had become much better. His speed and strength had also seen a significant increase. In his fight with Kabuto, Naruto was barely able to keep up even when the man was obviously toying with him. Naruto wanted to prevent such a situation from rising again. Hence Naruto fully abused his status as a jinchūriki and trained his body until he literally dropped. He didn't have to worry about things like muscle tears and such as Kimiko would just heal any injuries as he slept. In fact due to this Naruto was pretty sure his training was far more fruitful then it would have been otherwise. After all other people would have to wait for their bodies to recover naturally. Other then that he had also practiced his Rasengan quite a bit. While still not quite as good as his father, he could now form a decently powered Rasengan in an instant in the heat of battle.

Naruto hadn't met Jiraya ever since the mission to get Tsunade. Naruto didn't mind though. He didn't need Jiraya to train and the man was probably doing important work for the village that took precedence over him. Jiraya was after all a Sannin and probably working overtime on whatever classified assignments Tsunade had given him. Naruto himself had been quite busy. He had gone on almost seven B-rank assignments ever since Tsunade returned. It wasn't surprising to Naruto. The village was short on manpower. Most Shinobi didn't have to the chance to sit back and relax. At least not until the situation in the village improved.

He had been on a few assignments with Shikamaru and apparently Naruto still had it better then most people. Acorrding to Shikamaru the Jonin were literally doing one A or S rank missions after another. It was believable. Naruto hadn't seen Asuma ever since he had become a chūnin. Naruto didn't dwell on it too much though. Everyone was doing their best for the village. Their home. He would also keep working hard. For the sake of everyone he cared for.

•••••

Naruto silently walked towards the Hokage tower as he looked around him. The village was slowly getting back on its feet. He was going to meet Tsunade who had summoned him to her office. It wasn't unusual for him. She usually gave him his assignments herself while most people had to get them from the mission desk. Some might consider that special treatment and unfair but Naruto didn't particularly care. It gave him an excuse to see Tsunade more often. He had the distinct feeling though that she sometimes tried to give him some of the less dangerous assignments. He didn't feel like she was underestimating him though. He knew that despite her accepting the Kage position she was still very fragile inside. She was still scared to loose someone close to her again like she had lost Nawaki and Dan all those years ago. It made him happy to know he meant that much to her.

Kimiko snorted and said, " Stop being so mushy Naruto. Keep up with your line of thoughts and I'll think you're into old women. How can you think that old hag is pretty when you have someone as gorgeous and perfect as me all to yourself!"

Naruto couldn't help but sigh as Kimiko spoke up. She hadn't forgiven him for 'flirting with the old hag' as she put it. Naruto didn't have the heart to point out she was probably much older then Tsunade.

Kimiko suddenly yelled, " Baka I'm not older then that hag! We demon's age differently depending on our power levels! If I was to covert my age to human years I'm probably much younger then her! I mean have you seen the perfection that is my body! At least I don't have to use a stupid technique to look younger unlike some people!" Naruto couldn't help but smile as Kimiko kept rambling. She always did this when she was flustered. Despite being such a tease when it really came down to it she was quite inexperienced with such things. It was… cute. Yes that was the word he would use to describe it.

Naruto tuned out her rambling as he neared Tsunade's door. He wasn't surprised when he saw he wasn't alone in the room. He had sensed the other presences besides Tsunade's. He smiled at Tsunade who smiled back as he entered the room. Besides her he immediately picked out Shikamaru in the room. He hadn't really changed much in appearance since Naruto last saw him. The only real change was the small tantō strapped on his lower back and his chakra. It was much stronger and refined since he had last seen him according to Kimiko. Naruto just grinned at his teammate who grinned back. It was nice to know everyone hadn't been slacking off.

Besides Shikamaru, Shizune was also present in the room. The only change was that she was in regular jonin attire instead of her usual dress. The last person was the only one Naruto didn't know personally. Naruto easily identified him as Hatake Kakashi both from his mother's memories and reputation. Naruto shared a small smile with Shizune and just nodded in Kakashi's direction, who just waved back lazily with what appeared to be a smile. It was hard to tell because of the mask.

Tsunade cleared her throat getting everyone's attention and said, " Well now that everyone is here we can begin. I'll get straight to the point. I have an important mission I need you all to perform. You have all been handpicked by myself and Sarutobi-sensei. Refusal isn't an option."

Naruto just nodded and Kakashi spoke up, " And what exactly is this mission, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade looked towards him and said, " Jiraya has found the location of the Hidden Sound Village. It was hidden in a remote location in the Land of Rice. It's more of a bunker then a village really. Your mission isn't really complicated. You just have to take anything useful you find in the village and destroy it as a message to Orochimaru."

Shikamaru coughed slightly and said slowly " If I may Tsunade-sama, wouldn't it be better to have a few squads of ANBU take care of it instead? While this team is very strong, such a place will no doubt be heavily guarded."

Tsunade sighed and pinched her nose before saying, " Normally you would be totally right but both me and Jiraya agree it is probably not a very important place to Orochimaru. It's too easily found for his tastes. And don't worry about lack of manpower. The real reason this mission will be so complicated isn't the destruction of that village itself. There is another reason… this will be the first of many joint operations we will be having with the Sand village to promote the new peace treaty we have with them." Seeing everyone's surprised faces she sighed and said, " Yes I know it is a bit surprising but it makes sense. Orochimaru killed the Yondiame Kazekage. The Sand village will probably be looking for vengeance and this is the best way to go about it. Killing two birds with one stone as it were. Despite the treaty resentment between some of our forces against the Sand is still present. They did try to invade us after all. Hence I picked all of you since I can trust you not to try anything against the Sand Shinobi you will he teaming up with. We don't need any new problems. The state of affairs in the village is already bad enough."

Kakashi nodded and said, " Don't worry Tsunade-sama, we will make sure this mission is completed without any problems." Everyone else voiced similar sentiments.

Once they all quieted down Tsunade handed them some scrolls and said, " Additional information on the assignment are in here. Kakashi, your in charge until this is over. I expect to hear nothing but good things."

Kakashi nodded and said, " Hai Hokage-sama." in a more serious voice. Tsunade seemed satisfied and said, " Alright then you're all dismissed good luck."

Naruto silently walked towards his apartment. Once he was inside he opened the scroll. The mission was only going to last a week including traveling time and was classified as an A-rank. They were supposed to meet up at the gate soon so Naruto destroyed the scroll after he memorized it and quickly grabbed his gear before heading towards the gate.

As he neared the gate, Naruto saw Shizune was already there. He waved at her and said, " Where is everyone else Shizune?"

She just smiled back and said, " I don't really know. But don't worry there is still some time before we are supposed to meet. He sat and exchanged some stories with her as they waited. She told him a few humorous ones from her travels with Tsunade and also told him a bit about her new job. Besides her job as head of the Medical program she was also giving a few classes on advanced chakra control in the academy to the older students and many of the newer genin. Apparently every one of the girls from his graduating class attended to course and showed quite some promise with their control and quick mastery of basic medical ninjutsu. This brought a small smile to Naruto's face. It was nice to here how everyone was trying harder to improve themselves instead of wasting time as they had during the academy. Shizune invited Naruto to attend a class as well despite being a chūnin. Naruto readily agreed. While he would probably never really be able to achieve the control necessary for advanced Genjutsu and Medical techniques, he was still interested in pushing his limits.

Before the conversation progressed further Shikamaru and Kakashi appeared. Naruto had been able to sense Shikamaru as he approached but Kakashi had been like a ghost. He appeared right next to them out of thin air. Naruto didn't let it bother him. Kakashi had been a jonin at the age of thirteen. He was obviously strong.

Kakashi smiled at his team and said, " Well since everyone is here we should get moving. We have to meet the team from Sand at the border of The Land of Rice."

They moved forward towards the Land of Rice at a steady pace. It took a little over two days to reach the Land of Rice border. Kakashi who was in the lead suddenly stopped and said, " It seems as if our teammates from Sand are here." Just as he said this four people jumped out of the trees and landed in front of them.

Naruto only recognized two of them. One was Sabaku no Temari, Gaara's older sister and the other man was her sensei. Naruto didn't remember hearing his name though. Both groups were looking at each other a little warily. It was obvious they didn't trust each other very much. Naruto sighed as the tense atmosphere didn't subside even as Kakashi and the man who identified himself as Baki talked.

Putting on a smile he walked over towards Temari and said, " Hey, your name was Temari right? How is Gaara doing? I haven't seen him in such a long time!"

The other two Sand ninja looked surprised at how he could talk about Gaara in such a friendly manner. They were even more surprised when Temari smiled at Naruto and said, " Naruto wasn't it. Yes Gaara has changed a lot since he fought you. He now also strives to be accepted by everyone around him. It is Gaara's dream now to become Kazekage."

Naruto just smiled happy to hear that he had such a positive effect on Gaara and said, " Kazekage huh, that is a nice goal. I'm sure he will make a fine Kage."

Temari frowned a little and said with a hint of sadness, " But it will not be easy. Many people still look down on him and are afraid of him."

Seeing her frown Naruto just put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly and said, " Don't worry. Gaara will surely succeed and become one of the greatest Kage's in the Shinobi world. After all he will have you and your brother to support him the entire way."

Temari looked up at Naruto's smiling face with a small blush. No one had ever really tried to reassure her before. As the oldest daughter of the Kazekage and Clan heir she was never supposed to doubt herself. But hearing someone reassuring her felt good. She couldn't help but marvel at the man who stood in front of her. Uzumaki Naruto was truly the most amazing and terrifying man she had ever met. He was able to fight Gaara head on in his released state. But that was not all. He had such a strong presence. You couldn't ignore it. It wasn't like Gaara's had been instilling fear in everyone else around him. His simply screamed ' Believe in Me.' Simply listening to him Temari felt better. She could finally understand why Gaara had been so affected by this man. She had considered it the first time but now facing him a second time she couldn't deny it. Uzumaki Naruto was a born leader of men. She had no doubt now that he would become an important figure not only in the leaf village but the entire Shinobi world as he grew up.

Temari forced her body to calm down and said, " Thank you Naruto."

Before Naruto could reply Kakashi said loudly, " Alright everyone listen up me and Baki-San have completed our plan of attack."

Baki stepped forward and said, " According to the information we have, this facility only has one entrance and while there are a few guards most of them aren't above chūnin level. There is no indication of any cursed seal Shinobi either. We will proceed down the main entrance and systematically scout out the entire base. If you find anything you will report it immediately with the short-range intercom we will be using for this assignments. Once we have established that anything useful has been taken we will destroy the base with paper bombs."

Kakashi then spoke up, " I know it doesn't really sound like much of a plan but it is the best approach for now. We can change up our plans as the situation changes. We will move out tomorrow at dawn so rest up. It will be a long day tomorrow."

Naruto turned towards Temari and said, " Well I better get going I suppose. I have to help Shikamaru set up the tents."

Temari just nodded and said, " It's alright. I have my own duties I must attend to as well."

Naruto walked over to Shikamaru and said, " Well come on you lazy ass it's time to pitch the tent." Shikamaru just groaned but got up slowly to help Naruto. The atmosphere around the camp became lighter during the night but it was still obvious everyone was on guard.

Naruto had first watch along with a Sand kunoichi named Maki. They didn't really talk much but she seemed nice enough. The next day they moved out at dawn like they had planned. The Sound Village was pretty small and really did resemble a bunker like Tsunade had said. As she predicted had it was mostly empty but they did find quite a few labs and many notes on some notes on the cursed seal. These were promptly copied and destroyed before they moved out.

They had run into just twenty Shinobi and a few scientists in the entire base. After they had searched the entire place, everyone met at the entrance of the village. Kakashi sighed disappointedly and said, " It was just as Tsunade-sama predicted. It seems as Orochimaru had already moved most of his forces away from this place. All that was left was that laboratory."

Baki said, " Well it can't be helped. Either ways we have completed our mission and we did get quite a lot of information on the cursed seal. It seems we were still able to get here earlier then Orochimaru has predicted. Otherwise it would probably have been totally empty and filled with traps."

Suddenly the earth underneath them rumbled and everyone jumped away just as giant earth dome formed around their last position. A loud voice yelled, " Damn it you dumb ass Jirobo, You missed!" It was distinctly female.

Even as the voice quieted down five individuals appeared in the clearing. All five of them were wearing Sound Headbands. Kakashi spoke up warily, " And who might you all be?"

A white haired man stepped forward and said, " We are Orochimaru-sama's personal guards the Sound Five. Now hand over the information you took from the village and surrender and maybe Orochimaru-sama will let you live."

Kakashi slowly reached for his pouch and said, " I'm sorry but I don't think that will be possible." Just as he finished that statement he was in front of the youth kunai poised to stab him. Surprisingly a bone sprouted from his hand and he easily deflected Kakashi's strike. Kakashi chuckled and said, " A tough one aren't you. Baki-San I'll handle this one. You can handle the others as you wish. Everyone listen to Baki-san's orders."

Baki sighed as he heard this and said, " Alright then, Shizune-San you please handle the one with two heads. Temari, Nara-San you both please handle the girl. Maki, Takego you both take the fat one. I will help Uzumaki-San with the one with six arms."

Everyone nodded and said, " Hai Baki-sama/San." as they jumped away to handle their opponents.

Naruto spoke up, " Baki-San, it may be rude of me to say this but please stay back. I want to test the power of this cursed seal." as he leapt forward towards the six armed man.

Baki sighed but didn't move forward. He was interested in seeing the boy who beat Gaara fight anyways. He would only step in if the boy was in danger. With that in mind he just leaned against a tree and got ready to watch the fight.

Naruto grinned as he landed in front of the six-armed man. He had wanted to fight someone with this seal ever since he saw it on Sasuke. It was very intricate design and he wanted to test its power.

The six armed man grinned at Naruto and said, " You sure that was a good idea kid. I'm pretty strong. You're probably going to need that guy's help if you want to even touch me."

Naruto just grinned back and said, " We will see."

The man grinned at Naruto and said, " Just remember brat. It was Kidomaru of The Sound Five who sent you to hell." Naruto didn't respond to his taunt. Instead he took out a few shuriken and threw them towards his opponent at high speeds. Surprisingly he didn't move to dodge. Instead he spar out what seemed like spider webbing and shot them all out of the air.

Kidomaru saw Naruto's surprise and said, " Like it. It's spider webbing. Thanks to Orochimaru-sama's experiments I was given all the powers of a spider. As a result my senses have been enhanced and I can produce this substance from all the pores of my body!"

Naruto smirked and said, " An unusual technique. Fine then, let's see you block these." he finished as he threw some more shuriken at Kidomaru this time infusing them with Wind Chakra. As expected they cut right through Kidomaru's webbing and he was barely able to move out of the way and protect himself. He was unable to totally avoid the shuriken due to his surprise though and had a few shallow cuts.

Kidomaru growled and said, " So you're a pesky wind user eh. And a good one if that level of manipulation is anything to go by. Fine then let's take this battle to the next level then." as he said this his body was started glowing slightly and strange marks started appearing on all the visible parts of his body.

Naruto smirked and said," Is this the Orochimaru's cursed seal then? I've been meaning to test myself against it. Fine then I'm sure we are both warmed up. Show me what you can do Kidomaru of The Sound Five."

The man growled at Naruto's mocking tone but didn't say anything beyond that. Instead he charged at Naruto intent on bringing him down. Naruto quickly materialized Suzumebachi and they engaged in a taijutsu battle. While Naruto had a lot more skill Kidomaru used a combination of his extra arms and the strength and speed given by his Curse Mark to quickly overwhelm Naruto. Naruto took quite a few hits and jumped away throwing down a smoke bomb to cover his retreat. He absentmindedly nursed his jaw as he felt Kimiko healing any damage he had taken. He analyzed the fight so far. It was obvious the Curse Mark gave a significant boost in strength and speed. Combining that with Kidomaru's six arms and he was quite a formidable opponent. But when it came down to actual skill Kidomaru was probably just as good as a skilled chūnin. It was obvious that he tried to use his strange techniques to surprise and quickly kill his opponents. A drawn out battle where his opponents could assess his abilities was not in his favor.

Naruto was forced to move as kunai came flying out of the smoke towards him at high speeds. Naruto rolled out of the way only to get punched in the face again and propelled backwards. Kidomaru burst out of the smoke and said, " I told you brat. All my senses have been enhanced. You'll have to try harder to hide from me!"

Naruto groaned as he got to his feet. The punch had almost dislocated his jaw. It was miracle he hadn't lost any teeth. Naruto stood up and said, " I see the Curse Mark is rather impressive. But still it won't be enough to beat me!" he finished as he suddenly appeared behind Kidomaru and propelled him forward with a kick. Kidomaru quickly scrambled to his feet looking around for his enemy only to eat dirt again as Naruto appeared above him and heel dropped him.

Kidomaru staggered to his feet as he looked towards Naruto. His eyes narrowed in hate as he looked towards Naruto who stood in front of him. His guard wasn't even up. This brat. To think such a brat could embarrass him like this. He would wipe that calm look of the brats face and make him beg for mercy. Yes he would make the brat pray. Kidomaru looked towards Naruto and yelled, " You wanted to test the power of the Curse Mark didn't you boy! Well then I'll show you it's true power. Prepare to die you brat!" as he yelled this Kidomaru's body was covered in a malevolent aura. Naruto watched in fascination as Kidomaru's entire body morphed. He quickly began looking less and less human and more like some grotesque monster. His muscles bulged as his skin turned into what looked like some tough red colored hide. He also seemed to gain what looked like an extra eye on his forehead. Kidomaru saw Naruto's fascinated look and yelled in a much deeper voice, " Amazing isn't it brat. This is the true form of those who have the Curse Mark. It's also known and Second Stage! Now prepare to die!"

Naruto wasn't able to respond as he was propelled backwards by a strong kick from Kidomaru. Naruto coughed up blood as he staggered to his feet. The increase in speed and strength was insane. Even Jiraya had never hit him that hard. Despite this Naruto smirked at his opponent and said slowly, " That was a good hit… but I'm not done yet!" Naruto brought his hands up slowly in the ram sign and undid the restriction seals he had placed on himself.

Kidomaru frowned and said, " I don't know what you just did but I'm ending this. I hope you enjoy hell brat!" as he blurred forward to kill Naruto. Just as he was about to connect Naruto vanished in a burst of speed and slammed a Rasengan into Kidomaru's hasty guard. Kidomaru shouted in pain as the attack dug into him.

As Kidomaru collapsed backwards Naruto said, " You weren't the only one who was holding back."

Surprising Naruto Kidomaru stood up while clutching his stomach and said, " You really aren't an ordinary brat aren't you. To be able to push me this far." As he said this what seemed to be chunks of golden solidified webbing fell of his skin. Naruto frowned as he realized that Kidomaru had secreted solidified webbing from his chest like armor. It seemed similar to the Sand Armor technique Gaara used. Despite that Kidomaru's stomach had a very large wound and it was bleeding steadily. If he didn't have that treated he could eventually die of blood loss. The Rasengan was truly a dangerous technique.

Kidomaru continued his rambling, " But I'm not done yet you brat. I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do." As he said this he spat out more of that solid golden webbing and formed what seemed to be a bow.

Naruto frowned at the unusual weapon and said, " I don't know what you're thinking but you'll never be able to hit me with something like that." It was true enough. There was a reason Kyuudo wasn't a common art amongst Shinobi. Only a few could actually use bow's well enough to be considered a threat on the battlefield. Naruto charged forward to finish of his opponent before he got the chance to fire.

Just as Naruto appeared in front of him Kidomaru yelled, " Too late brat! Die!" as he fired. The shot was surprisingly powerful and fast. It totally ripped right through Naruto and continued right through the forest unimpeded by the trees in front of it and embedded itself in one of the walls of the now destroyed Sound Village.

Before Kidomaru could celebrate he felt something penetrate his back and pierce his left lung. Kidomaru pulled himself off whatever had impaled him and staggered forward even as blood leach out of his wound. He turned around slowly and saw Naruto standing behind him, the Stinger of his weapon covered in blood. Kidomaru turned towards where he fired his shot in horror and only saw smoke already being scattered by the wind. That could only mean… he had hit a clone! Naruto looked coldly at the dying man and said, " Did you really expect me to charge you head on. You're going to die simply because you kept underestimating me till the very end. I drew out this fight to test the powers of Orochimaru's Curse Mark but it's obvious it isn't very impressive. The increase in speed and strength isn't worth the lack of rationality it seems to bring about. Of course you might just have been an arrogant bastard anyways but I guess we'll never find out now will we. I hope you find the afterlife to your liking."

Kidomaru just said, " Damn you… you… brat!" before he collapsed forward. Naruto knelt forward and checked the body confirming he was indeed dead. Naruto then pulled out a scroll and started to draw a seal to store the body. Usually he would just leave the body be as he didn't believe in desecrating the dead but he wanted to finally be able to examine the Curse Mark on his own and he was sure Tsunade and Shizune would love to examine this man's corpse.

Baki who had been watching the entire fight came forward then and said, " You are quite an impressive shinobi for someone so young. I know that quite a few Jonin would have had quite a bit of trouble against someone like him.

Naruto didn't respond to the compliment and said, " He wasn't very skilled. He just used a combination of his strength and strange techniques to quickly overwhelm his opponents. Once you see through his speed he wasn't that hard to kill. Against any high level opponent he wouldn't have lasted very long."

Baki didn't say anything. Instead he surveyed the other's fights. Most of them were similarly ending their fights. The Sand Shinobi Maki and Takego had trapped the largest Sound Shinobi in some sort of cloth technique before finishing him off.

Shikamaru had simply used his shadow to catch the enemy kunoichi allowing Temari to finish her off. Shizune had the toughest opponent. Apparently he had another person living inside of him. They had used some weird technique to merge their cells with Shizune and were going to kill her until she stabbed herself with a specially made poison. While she was completely immune to the poison she had used the Sound Shinobi was not. He had died in seconds.

Currently only Kakashi was fighting. His opponent had obviously not been the leader of his group without reason. He was totally in a different class compared to his subordinates. Despite this the man was still having a tough time keeping up with Kakashi. It was obvious the only reason he could even fight him was due to the influence of the Curse Mark.

Naruto watched the fight interestedly. It was his first time seeing a master of the Sharringan in action. While he had seen both of the last Uchiha in action it was the first time he had actually seen someone utilizing the famed dojutsu in battle. Or course he had seen many Uchiha from his mother's memories but this was his first time watching it in person and it was obvious that despite not being an Uchiha, Kakashi used his Sharringan better then many of the pureblooded Uchiha.

Kakashi was easily able to predict and counter any move the man from the Kaguya clan used against him. The fight went on for quite some time until suddenly the Kaguya clan member collapsed and started convulsing and coughed up a large amount of blood. He kept rasping for a few minutes before he eventually stilled. It was obvious that he had died.

Kakashi sighed as he pulled his eye patch over his Sharringan and said, " It was as I expected."

Confused, Naruto said, " What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?"

He looked towards Naruto and said, " I had a theory and wanted to test it out so I didn't kill him sooner. It turns out I was right. The Curse Mark puts a tremendous strain on the body and it seems continuous usage can shorten one's lifespan and even kill the user. In any case we will take their bodies with us so that the medical unit can examine them more closely and give us some accurate information. Of course the Sand will be welcome to share it with us as our Ally's." Kakashi finished looking towards Baki.

Baki nodded and said, " Yes and the fact that Orochimaru sent these men to obtain the information stored here must mean that it was important. Combined with the data we obtain from those notes and these corpses, we should be able to come up with a counter strategy for any other Curse Mark users."

Kakashi nodded and said, " Yeah. In any case we should get clear of the boarder. We don't know if Orochimaru has any other men in the area. I'd rather not risk a fight if we can avoid it."

Baki nodded and said, " Yeah let's move out. We can stay together until we reach the boarder then we will move out in the directions of our respective villages."

They kept up a rather fast pace for the next pace until they were finally clear of the boarder. It had taken such a short time, as the Land of Rice was a rather small nation. Both teams exchanged a few words of goodbye before they started moving towards their separate villages.

When the village gate finally came into view Shikamaru yawned loudly and said, " Man I'm glad that's over. That Curse Mark is so troublesome."

Naruto grinned as dropped down next to Shikamaru and said, " Ah there we go. I was wondering what happened to our Shikamaru. I remember when we had just become genin there wasn't a single mission you didn't complain about."

Shikamaru just stretched as Kakashi checked them all into the village and said, " You make it sound like it was years ago."

Naruto nodded and said, " It feels like it's been years. We come so far and so much has happened you know."

Shikamaru nodded and said, " Yeah, it sure does."

Before the conversation could progress Kakashi walked over with Shizune and said, " Why don't you both head home. Me and Shizune will handle the mission report."

Naruto smiled and said, " Thanks Kakashi-sensei. I'll see you guys later then."

Shikamaru nodded and said, " Yeah I'll head home as well. I need to talk to my father anyways."

Shizune waved at Naruto and said, " Don't be a stranger Naruto-kun! Come visit me and Tsunade-sama if you ever have free time. Despite how she acts, she enjoys it whenever you come over to visit her."

Naruto just nodded and said, " I'll probably drop by tomorrow after my training." as he jumped towards the nearest building. He sighed as he entered his apartment building. He silently walked towards his shower. He always enjoyed taking a long shower right after he finished any missions. It was rather hard to keep yourself clean on a mission out in the wilderness. After that he would probably get to bed early so he could wake up early in the morning before going to his training field. Maybe it was time to go over the Uzumaki scrolls again. With his elemental manipulation and learning the Rasengan he really hadn't had the time to go over them for quite some bit.


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto of The Six Paths 10

AN/: This is really just a small chapter to wrap up the first part of Naruto and finally head towards Shippuden... In other news i can't believe Shikaku and all of them were killed! Thats so F***** up! I feel bad for Shikamaru... tell me what you guys think?

ALSO REVIEW!

Now to the story :p

Naruto sighed as he walked towards the village. He had been gone on a solo B-rank mission and it had taken almost an entire week. It had been a simple delivery mission so he hadn't really run into any trouble. He had only stopped on the way back to the village to eliminate a group of bandits that had been in the process of raiding a border town of the Land of Fire. It wasn't a part of his mission and he doubted Tsunade would reprimand him for it. Keeping the Land of Fire safe was technically a part of any Leaf shinobi's job.

He stretched as he entered the gate and walked towards Izumo and Kotetsu who seemed to be on guard duty again. Kotetsu signed him in and said, " You should probably go to the hospital if you want to find Tsunade-sama. It says here to direct you there."

Naruto frowned and said, " Why would she do that?"

Izumo shrugged and said, " Apparently some leaf Shinobi got pretty seriously injured during a scuffle with some Sound Shinobi. I don't know much about it but I heard Shikamaru was involved and that it was Sand Shinobi who brought them to the village. Apparently they are still around. It happened yesterday so I don't really know much since we weren't on shift then."

Naruto was now slightly worried. Shikamaru was his best and closest friend after Kimiko. He quickly thanked Izumo and Kotetsu and was of to the Hospital in fast dash. He was in front of it within ten minutes despite its distance from the village gates. Naruto quickly entered and immediately spotted Shizune. She had apparently seen him as well as she waved him over and said, " Over hear Naruto-kun!"

Naruto quickly rushed over and said, " What happened Shizune? Is Shikamaru alright?"

She gripped his shoulders and said, " Calm down Naruto. Shikamaru is fine. And it would be better if Tsunade-sama explained the situation. Come on I'll take you to her."

She silently led him into the head office where Tsunade was apparently pouting over some book. It seemed to be some medical tome. She looked up as they entered and said, " Ah Naruto, good your back safely. I was a bit worried when you didn't come back yesterday."

Despite the situation Naruto smiled and said, " Don't worry Tsunade, I was only delayed since I stopped to take care of some bandits in a nearby town. They held me up some. Apparently the leader was some missing-nin who was hoping to take advantage of the situation within the Land of Fire."

She nodded and said, " That's fine I suppose. Less work for us all later on."

Naruto then looked at her and said, " Anyways what is this I'm hearing about Shikamaru and Sound Ninja. And apparently some Sand Ninja were involved as well."

Tsunade sighed and said, " I'll start from the beginning then I suppose. It will help you understand better. And remember some of the information I'm about to give you isn't unclassified yet."

Naruto nodded and said, " Alright, I'll keep that in mind."

Tsunade took a deep breath and continued, " At around midnight five days ago an unknown number of Sound Shinobi entered the village and kidnapped Uchiha Sasuke. Apparently they were seen by one Haruno Sakura who tried to stop them but was knocked out and left there. She was found just before dawn by some ANBU members patrolling the village. I immediately dispatched a team consisting of Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Inuzuka Kiba, Akimichi Chouji and Rock Lee after them to retrieve the Uchiha from enemy hands. At this time I also dispatched our fastest messenger bird to the Sand village requesting assistance and they dispatched an already fielded team consisting of Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankuro to help Shikamaru's team. Shikamaru's team engaged the Sound shinobi apparently lead by that brat Kabuto near the Land of Fire's border. They put up a pretty good fight but apparently the enemy had those pesky Curse Marks of Orochimaru's and those quickly turned the tide of the battle. Gaara and his team entered the battle here and prevented any deaths but were forced to retreat with Shikamaru and his team as most were forced to retreat due to the amount of damage they had already taken. Kakashi had at some point gone after Sasuke and the rest and caught up to him right at the border but apparently Sasuke attacked him and told him he had left Konoha of his own free will. Of course despite Sasuke's new Curse Mark Kakashi easily subdued him and was about to capture him but at this point Kabuto interfered and bought time for Sasuke to retreat. Kabuto then left his remaining men behind and retreated as well. Kakashi eliminated them all as fast as he could but by then Kabuto had eliminated both his and Sasuke's trail. By then the medical unit delivered first aid to Shikamaru's team and they were brought here. Shikamaru himself only had a few cuts and bruises and a broken hand, but his teammates had all taken major damage. At the moment I have examined and treated them all. All of them will make a full recovery since they had gotten proper medical attention from the medical squad but it was touch an go for quite some time."

Naruto dropped back in his seat as he digested all of that. It seemed a lot had happened while he was gone. He was glad everyone was safe. Sasuke's actions surprised him though. He looked towards Tsunade and said, " And then Sasuke… is Sasuke labeled a Missing-nin?"

Tsunade frowned for a second and then replied, " Obviously in a normal case he would have been classified as a Missing ninja but he is unfortunately, hardly ordinary. He is the last bearer of the Sharringan and we can't just kill him. At least not until the future of his clan is ensured within the village. So he will not be put in the bingo book. Unless he causes a major problem in other countries he won't be labeled a Missing-nin. Instead all shinobi squads will have a capture on site order."

Naruto sighed. The order made sense. The Sharringan was the dojutsu of one of the founding clans of Konoha. The Senju clan was already almost nonexistent in the village and loosing the Uchiha and the Sharringan would be a devastating blow. The then got up and said, " Is it possible to visit them?"

Tsunade shook her head negatively and said, " No at the moment none of them have been fully treated yet. And Shikamaru passed out from pure exhaustion after giving me his report. He isn't up either."

Naruto sighed and said, " I'll be going then. I'll just deliver my report at the normal desk then."

Tsunade nodded and said, " Yes that's fine. I'll call for you if I need anything or if Shikamaru and the others wake up."

Naruto got up and waved casually before jumping out the window. It was too much of a hassle to use the door and he had a lot to think about. He decided to head for the nearest training ground to blow of some steam despite having just come from a mission. He could always clean himself up later.

•••••

Over the next week Naruto was able to visit Shikamaru and the rest of his classmates. He also met Neji and Lee as well. Naruto was also able to meet Gaara and his siblings as well. He was happy to see that Gaara was adjusting well and he had become stronger as well. He hadn't taken any mission in over a week and Tsunade finally summoned him to her office.

He entered the door was surprised to see Jiraya in the room. He hadn't sensed him at all. Jiraya grinned at him and said, " Long time no see brat!"

Naruto just grinned back and said, " It's been a while Ero-sensei."

Tsunade snorted as she heard that said, " That never gets old. Anyways Naruto the pervert here has bought you for a month. Go pack your bags. You better be stronger when you get back."

Naruto looked between them confused and said, " What do you mean he 'bought' me?"

Jiraya sighed as he looked towards Tsunade and said, " You know how wrong that sounded. It made me feel like some pedophile. She means brat that I just hired you as my personal escort for a month. An A-rank mission. You better train seriously. This isn't cheap!" he finished crying anime tears.

Naruto looked towards him with an unbelieving stare and said, " With the amount you have just from your trash novels, I'm sure you could pay for a hundred S-ranks before your wallet felt it. I've seen those checks you keep with ya know!"

Jiraya chuckled and said, " Yeah yeah, details details, let's get going now brat!" as he grabbed Naruto and Body-Flickered right out of Tsunade's office.

Naruto recoiled in surprise and said, " Damn I hate it when you do that. It's just irritating when someone else uses the Body-Flicker technique on you."

Jiraya just shrugged and said, " I wouldn't have to do it if you didn't get me into such troublesome situations all the time. You know better then to mention my work in front of Tsunade! She would launch me across the village."

Naruto just shrugged noncommittally and said, " It's not my fault your a huge ass pervert."

Jiraya sighed and said, " Anyways brat we are wasting time. Go grab your stuff. We have to leave soon."

Naruto nodded and quickly grabbed a few scrolls. Once he had everything he needed and had secured his apartment he turned towards Jiraya and said, " Anyways where are we going?"

Jiraya just looked towards the sun and said, " Any second now…"

Just as he said that Naruto felt a sudden tug on his navel. Naruto eyes widened as he suddenly felt himself engulfed in smoke as he felt like he was just pulled along for the worst Body-Flicker ever. The smoke around him dispelled and Naruto could already tell he wasn't in Konoha anymore. Naruto turned towards Jiraya who was just grinning widely at him and said, " Welcome to Mount Myōbokuzan kid!"

Naruto looked at him uncomprehendingly and then said, " Where?!"

Jiraya sighed and said, " Well I'm not surprised you don't know about this place. In fact I would have been a bit worried if you had known. This is the home of the Toads when we don't summon them." Naruto nodded slowly. It explained how he had never heard about this place at all. Kushina didn't know any secrets about the toads at all despite being Minato's wife, as it would have been considered a breach in the contract Minato had had with the toads if he told or taught others about them. Even if they weren't human summon creatures guarded their homes and techniques just as fiercely as any human or family would have.

Naruto then said as he looked around interestedly, " So why did we come here? I thought you needed me to escort you or something."

Jiraya shrugged and said, " That was just official jargon so we could get you out of the village. You will spend the next month here. It is perfect. No one who wasn't a toad summoner can find this place. Not without extreme difficulty. This way you are of the Akatsuki's radar for a bit, get quite a bit of training done and get to finally acquaint yourself with the toads."

Naruto nodded and said, " That makes sense. I suppose I can't really be considered a toad summoner if I don't earn their trust." And so Naruto's one month long stay at Mount Myōbokuzan began.

•••••

Naruto stretched as he got up to begin his training. Jiraya had taken him to meet Gamabunta the Chief Toad and the Toad Sages Fukasaku and Shima along with the Elder Toad Sage. It had been a rather weird meeting in Naruto's opinion but Naruto didn't let it bother him. All of them had easily accepted him as their summoner. It was no doubt due to both Jiraya vouching for him and his own legacy.

While Gamabunta was the chief toad it was obvious the Sages held far more power in Myōbokuzan then he did. Indeed Gamabunta himself seemed to hold them in the highest regard. They all had very strange personalities but Naruto was already used to meeting strange people. He doubted he could be considered normal himself at this point. Both the sages were like the poster children of quarreling lovers while the Elder Sage himself gave of the aura incredibly experienced Aura. It was only something he had ever felt around the Sandiame. This was someone who had truly experienced everything in their lives.

His training mostly consisted of sparring against various toads and learning a few of the toads' special techniques. Surprisingly Jiraya's hair techniques were actually some of the toad's secret techniques. He had thought Jiraya was the sole creator of those techniques but apparently they were only for toad summoners.

Jiraya himself was not actually staying in Myōbokuzan. He was still doing his assignments for the village. Instead he would usually have himself Reverse Summoned to Myōbokuzan whenever he was free to train Naruto. His lessons so far hadn't consisted of anything new. Instead Jiraya would spar with him and put various restrictions on him for each spar such as not being allowed to use Ninjutsu or only being allowed to use specific techniques. He claimed that there was no point in learning anything new until he had mastered his current skills.

The most improvement Naruto actually had was with his Rinnegan surprisingly. Unlike in Konoha which where most everywhere was monitored somehow he was finally able to use his techniques openly without being worried of being discovered. The area around Myōbokuzan was vast and quite a bit of it was uninhabited.

Naruto cracked his neck as he stood up. He only had a week before he had to return to the village and he was going to take full advantage of it. As he stepped out of the room Shima and Fukasaku had provided for him he saw them sitting on a table eating their breakfast.

Naruto's suppressed his revulsion as he saw the huge bugs in the bowl already set on the table, no doubt for him. This was the only downside of being in Myōbokuzan. He was only given food fit for toads. Shima looked towards him and said, " Hurry up and sit down Naruto-chan. Jiraya-chan will be coming again to train you today so eat up. You don't want to fight him on an empty stomach."

Naruto just nodded and said, " Thank you for the Food Shima-sama." as he sat down and quickly ate while he kept trying to forget what her was eating. After he had finally force-fed himself the entire bowl he hastily made his exit only to find Jiraya waiting outside for him with a knowing smirk on his face.

Naruto growled in his throat but didn't say anything otherwise. Jiraya took extreme satisfaction in seeing him in discomfort. Jiraya led him to the training area and said, " Alright brat it's time to spar. This time you can only use the Substitution technique. You can't use any other technique. Anything else is allowed."

Naruto didn't respond. Instead he was already charging at Jiraya trying to keep him on the defensive. Naruto knew that it would be difficult to keep up with Jiraya once he got going so a blitz was the only option. Naruto materialized Suzumebachi and attacked Jiraya with a simple jab, which was easily parried with a kunai. Jiraya stabbed at Naruto catching him in the stomach only for 'him' to turn into a pile of rubble. Never stopping Jiraya spun and threw a pair of kunai behind him at Naruto who had appeared behind him forcing him to stop and deflect them with Suzumebachi.

Naruto scowled in frustration as Jiraya easily found him. While the Substitution Technique was definitely a useful technique, it was mostly disregarded by higher level Shinobi for a reason. While it was certainly handy in avoiding large attacks and weapons it left a chakra trail so large that even most genin would notice.

Of course there were a few Shinobi who took the technique to a whole other level like Konoha's Hatake Kakashi or The Legendary Sannin who had mastered it to such a degree that only sensors or shinobi of the highest skill could hope to follow them. Of course most S-rank Shinobi fell in that same list as well. He had no doubt those Akatsuki shinobi Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame were just as good at the technique as his sensei Jiraya.

Naruto himself had benefited from his training, as well even he didn't realize it. Jiraya didn't tell him but while he himself had no problems keeping track of Naruto most chūnin and even a few jonin would have difficulties keeping track of Naruto's Substitution. Truthfully he was again impressed by his students' ability to learn and adapt to things.

They continued for a bit until Jiraya had Naruto pinned to a tree. Naruto glared at his master who just grinned at him cheekily. He really enjoyed this more then he was supposed to. Jiraya finally let Naruto go and said, " Alright take a break and them meet me back here for the rest of your training. You're pretty good with your clones but I want to try and take it to the next level."

Naruto sighed and nodded before disappearing to collect his weapons. He had ended up using most of them during the spar.


	11. Chapter 11

Naruto of The Six Paths 11

AN/: I'm not sure if it's true or not or if it is even a problem to anyone but if anyone feels like Naruto's attitude is really different, I just want to say it was intentional. I've noticed that in many fics people with a time-skip the characters get stronger but there is no maturation. People can change in a few years and I want to show that Naruto isn't only stronger but he's changed a bit as well… On another note I can't believe Neji died like that! It's so frustrating reading the manga especially when I know Naruto is about to end. The thought makes me really sad actually. It's been something I've enjoyed for over 4-5 years and it sucks that it's about to end… Anyways onto the story… And Also… REVIEW!

Naruto cracked his neck as he stood at the village entrance. Guard duty really was the most boring job in the world. He really wished Tsunade would cut him some slack and not give him such a crap job again. Naruto then stretched and yawned deeply in an effort to wake himself up.

Besides him Shino, who had recently become chūnin himself said, " You should stay more alert Naruto. This is also an important job no matter how boring it is." Even though he said it in his ever-monotone voice Naruto could easily tell he was pretty tired himself.

Naruto stood straighter in a silent response. Shino himself said nothing as he got back to his own post. Naruto stifled another yawn as he snuck a glance at his former teammate. Shino along with all three member's of Team Nine had become chūnin in the chūnin exams held right after the invasion. They had been held in Grass Country and had been pretty tough but for second timers like Shino and Team Nine it had been a rather simple task.

It had been over a year since Sasuke had betrayed the village. It had been quite the scandal when Sasuke's betrayal had become public knowledge and was quite a shock to many people, particularly his own classmates. Many people had been devastated by the lost of the Sharringan in the village. As Tsunade had decreed he had a capture on sight order on his head but so far there hadn't been even a peep heard from him. Orochimaru was obviously keeping him well hidden and on a tight leash.

Naruto himself hadn't done much else interesting since he got back from his training in Mount Myōbokuzan. He had gone back a few times in between missions but not for more then a day or two at a time. As time progressed the workload finally started lessening after the invasion as more Shinobi got promoted or joined the ranks from the academy.

Naruto sighed as he focused on the road again. It wouldn't to let someone sneak into the village just because he was careless.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he stood inside Tsunade's office. She just kept ignoring him and was doing some paper work. Naruto didn't particularly mind since he was used to it but he was bored. He hadn't had an exciting mission in ages. Most of the time he ended up fighting stupid bandits and the occasional missing ninja stupid enough to wander into the Land of Fire. No one with any brains would willingly wander into one of the Great Five's territory.

He was stopped from his musings as Tsunade finally looked up and said, " Sorry about that. I have a rather interesting one for you this time. You're going to be working with that pervert Jiraya on this one. I'd rather not send you on something like this but somehow that pervert has managed to convince me this will be good for you."

Naruto looked at her in confusion and said, " Tsunade what are you talking about?"

Tsunade just ignored him as she got up and walked over from the desk and suddenly embraced him and said, " Just promise me Naruto, you'll come back safe."

Naruto was now really confused and a bit uncomfortable at the sudden closeness and said, " You got it Tsunade. I'll make sure to stay alive. But could you just tell me what I'm supposed to be staying safe from?"

She just smiled as she kissed his forehead and said, " Bye Gaki." Before Naruto could respond he felt the familiar tug of Reverse Summon and he felt himself yanked right out of Tsunade's loose hug.

Next thing he knew he was looking at Shima, one of the toad elders. Naruto blinked a few times taking in his surroundings and said, " Shima-sama why did you suddenly summon me?"

Before he could receive a reply he felt the same tug again and he was yanked away again and this time landed in a small cabin. He blinked again as he assessed his surroundings. To his immense surprise he felt Jiraya's chakra behind him. He spun around and saw that Jiraya was indeed standing behind him with a huge grin on his face. He waved cheekily at Naruto and said, " Yo Gaki. Long time no see."

Naruto took a few deep breaths and finally said, " Okay Ero-sensei. You have thirty seconds. Start talking and if I'm not satisfied you will be in for a lot of pain."

He just kept grinning and slapped Naruto on the back and said, " Don't be so uptight best ill explain everything. Tsunade hasn't told you anything yet right." Naruto nodded. Jiraya then continued, " Well it's like this. You know rumors about Kiri being at civil war have been going around for quite a bit right. Well suffice to say they are all true. But that's not important thing here. The important thing here is that we have found out that the Akatsuki are behind this civil war. They are controlling the Fourth Mizukage and made him start the bloodline purge. Furthermore we were approached a few months ago by the 'bloodline' side as it were for our support against the Fourth Mizukage. Tsunade has agreed to support them in return for Kiri's support in the future. A storm is coming with the Akatsuki as a catalyst and we will need all the help we can get against them."

At this point Naruto interrupted and said, " We're going to war so soon after we got invaded?"

Jiraya who had taken a more serious stance as he had been speaking shook his head and said, " Yes and No. Officially were are doing nothing. Unofficially we are providing the bloodline users with necessary supplies and weapons. Since they don't have control of a village they need supplies from somewhere and raids only get them so far. Also many members from ANBU Black OPS and NE will be providing support to the bloodline users. Besides that you and me will also be helping out. Mostly I'm an ambassador and will be in disguise so I'm not recognized. Only the top brass of the bloodline users know my real identity. To the rest I'm just a no name jonin.

Naruto had a feeling he knew what came next but decided to ask anyways, " Well Ero-sensei, where do I fit into all of this?"

The man grinned and said, " Why your my guard of course! And obviously you'll be my backup on some missions since we can't let just anyone know of my presence. It wouldn't do if it was found out Konoha was helping the 'rebel' forces. Kumo and Iwa are sure to react badly if it became public too soon. But if nothing is said and Kiri becomes stable again neither will dare try something as they would have to deal with the combined might of Konoha, Suna and Kiri."

Naruto frowned and said, " And Suna. They are aware of this plan?"

Jiraya nodded and said, " Of course. Their acting leader is that jonin named Baki. Both him and the elders of Suna back the plan totally. Orochimaru was a member of Akatsuki and they also want to prevent the Akatsuki from doing anything. Some Suna ANBU will also be helping but they have given primary control to us.

Naruto nodded. It made sense. Orochimaru had killed the Fourth Kazekage and as it stood Suna had taken a lot more damage compared to Konoha. But the lack of interference from Suna worried Naruto slightly. When he said as much Jiraya sighed and said, " Actually your wrong. It isn't worrisome. It was a tactical move on their part. If the plan succeeds they gain an ally by association but if it fails they can deny involvement. They are the only village without an acting Kage and they don't want to attract to much attention to themselves."

Naruto nodded and said, " Ah well if you don't need me for anything can I sleep on this. It'll take a bit before I can digest all this."

Jiraya nodded and said, " Sure go ahead Gaki. We don't move till tomorrow. This is exactly why I summoned you today instead of tomorrow you know."

Naruto nodded as he walked towards the room Jiraya indicated. He entered and lay down on one of the futons already set there. He was just about to doze of when he felt himself being forcibly yanked into his mindscape. He looked around only to see a red blur tackle him to the ground. Naruto looked up to see an almost angelic face framed with red hair staring down at him in anger.

Kimiko glared at Naruto and yelled, " Ah Baka! I can't believe you let that hag hug you and she even kissed you! Ah how hard is it to understand your mine! Ah why doesn't she just drop dead!"

She showed no intention of stopping her rant or moving of from on top of him. In fact he was sure she would keep straddling him until he forcibly moved her. But for now he was content to just listen to her rant.

Finally Naruto sat up forcing her to move. Before she could protest Naruto just reached out and hugged her. Kimiko just froze for a second before she returned the gesture. She sighed as she held him and said, " Ah what am I ever going to do with you Baka."

She repositioned him so he was now in-between he legs instead and wrapped her arms around him from behind. Naruto finally said, " I don't know if I'm ready. You know for war I mean. Sure I've killed and killed and done so many other things but…"

Kimiko sighed. As demon she couldn't understand the base conflict he was feeling. Killing humans was like killing animals to her. They were technically an other species to her so it was a lot like killing any animal to her. Demons couldn't truly be killed hence why such things never bothered them. But even amongst demon's children were never forced to take part in combat. It was easy to forget just how old the boy really was, barely fourteen. Really if she looked at it objectively, in her eyes he was slightly older then a baby. But of course she didn't see him as a child. He was so much more to her. She had played many roles for him. Mother. Sister. Friend. Teacher. She had been all these things and more to him. He had this power residing in him that just called to her. Set her blood on fire for him. Indeed had it been within her power she would have already taken him as her mate. After all there were not many that could do something like that to her. It helped that he was genuinely likable. But he wasn't ready for such things. He was still too young. For now she would just enjoy her time teasing him and molding him to be the best he could be.

Kimiko rested her head on his shoulder and said, " Don't give me that Naruto. Have you forgotten who you are? What you represent? You who have the power of greatest demon and the power of a god. There is nothing you can't face on this planet. Nothing is beyond your reach. Always remember this. I do not want to hear such words from you again. After all I raised you better then that didn't I. The man who will have me can't certainly be a coward after all." she finished in a teasing tone.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as he listened to her. She always knew what to say to him. She really was the greatest. He just wished he would be worthy of her affections. Powerful enough to protect her and everything he cared for. He just leaned back and reveled in the feeling of being in her arms. She hadn't held him like this since he had been a child. He had to admit he certainly missed this feeling of love and protection she could give off. It was surprising that the most dangerous demon on the planet could have such a gentle side to her. He considered himself really blessed to have seen it. He stayed like that in her arms the entire night.

•••••

Naruto sighed as he stood next to Jiraya waiting for the Bloodline 'rebels'. Of course Jiraya was already in his disguise. Instead of his distinctive clothing he was wearing the regular Kiri jonin attire and had transformed into a rather unremarkable brown haired man. The transformation was beyond flawless in Naruto's opinion. He would have never noticed if Jiraya hadn't told him. Of course a sensor might notice it but he would still only be able to detect the technique but that didn't mean much since the chances of them being able to figure out it is Jiraya was very low. Especially since even someone who was as familiar as Naruto with Jiraya couldn't detect him. It was obvious Jiraya wasn't feared as a spymaster for nothing.

They both had masks hanging on the side of their weapons pouches. While they weren't necessary for the meeting they would be later on. It wouldn't do to be recognized somehow. Naruto would admit he did have a rather distinctive appearance.

Suddenly Kimiko spoke up, " Someone's coming." Jiraya had also noticed as he straightened up. Naruto's hand instinctually flexed as he spread out his awareness trying to detect whoever was there.

A slight rustle behind him had Naruto spin ready to attack only for Jiraya to put his hand of his shoulder preventing him from acting. Naruto watched as three Shinobi jumped out from the trees and landed in front of them. Kimiko said lowly, " Don't drop your guard I sense more of them jumping about in the trees."

Naruto focused on the Shinobi in front of him. The most powerful in the group was also the only woman. She seemed to be in her early twenties and she had long vibrant red hair that fell well below her waist and sea green eyes. She was dressed entirely in a single piece blue battle dress. She had a sense of power and authority around her. And she was also quite beautiful.

The man next to her was much older then her and had blue hair and a single blue eye. Naruto didn't assume he only had one as he could have a special dojutsu under the eye patch he wore just like Hatake Kakashi. He wore a green battle kimono similar to the one Zabuza's apprentice Haku had seemed to prefer. He wore earrings with the kanji for 'hearing' on them. Naruto was pretty sure he could see some sort of Fuinjutsu on them but it was too difficult to decipher at this distance.

The last one was surprisingly a boy about the same age as him. He had shot blue hair. He had dark eyes and wore glasses. His most distinctive quality was the huge sword strapped on his back and the shark teeth he had. If Naruto had to wager a guess the boy was a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and the blade was one of them. He was unsure which one it was as neither he nor his mother or ancestors had seen it before.

Jiraya walked forward and said, " Slow justice is better then no justice. I want justice and peace…"

Naruto stared at Jiraya. What the hell was he doing? The man with the eye patch stepped forward and said, " To feel justice. It must be real justice."

Jiraya seemed to relax and he said, " I'm happy you were able to make it. I was getting rather worried."

The woman stepped forward and said with a pleasant smile, " Not at all Jiraya-sama, I'm am grateful to the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand for supporting us. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Terumi Mei and these are my guards Ao and Choujuro," she pointed towards the middle aged man and the boy who were with her."

Jiraya just smiled and said, " Ah the pleasure is all mine. I never imagined the Bloodline user's leader would be such a beautiful woman as yourself. This young man is my apprentice Uzumaki Naruto."

The woman looked towards him with surprise for the smallest moment of time before she turned away so fast Naruto almost thought it never happened. She then said with the ever-present smile, " As much as I would enjoy to continue exchanging pleasantries we must move quickly. Yagura's forces may attack at any moment and I would rather not fight them here in the open.

Jiraya nodded and said, " Please lead the way then."

Mei jumped back into the trees with her guards sticking close to her. Jiraya and Naruto started following them. Naruto could hear the faint sounds of others following them. Kimiko's voice popped in and she said, " Now that they are closer I would guess there are about ten others following us."

Naruto didn't say anything though. They kept moving for three hours. As they went deeper and deeper into the land of water the mist seemed to be getting thicker. Suddenly there was a huge explosion towards the right. Naruto cursed as he quickly jumped up next to Jiraya and said, " What's going on sensei?"

Jiraya had a grim face and said, " An ambush. Get ready. They'll get past the guards Mei had soon enough."

Even as Jiraya said that a squad of Shinobi burst out from the left and landed in from of Mei and her guards. The apparent leader said frantically, " Mei-sama there are about 30 enemies! Squad one stayed back in an attempt to delay them but…"

Mei placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and said, " Calm down Izuki. We have no choice but to fight." She turned towards Naruto and Jiraya and said apologetically, " I'm sorry Uzumaki-kun, Izumi-San it seems as if the fighting will begin much sooner then I had hoped."

Jiraya just grinned and said, " That's fine I suppose. It's been a while since I've had a good fight, right brat."

Naruto just nodded and said, " Yeah." Naruto was a bit worried though. He wasn't aloud to use Kimiko's chakra since it would be a dead giveaway about Konoha's involvement. Kimiko was quite upset about it but had agreed after much begging and placating from Naruto. Naruto materialized Suzumebachi as he waited for the enemy to appear.

Suddenly a hail of weapons came towards them from the trees. Naruto moved out of the way only for a Shinobi to burst out of the ground in front of Naruto. He grinned victoriously as he managed to slash Naruto with a kunai only for 'Naruto' to disappear in a burst of smoke. He wasn't able to react as Naruto took him out with a stinger shot from behind.

Three chūnin stepped into the clearing grinning at Naruto. Jiraya had disappeared the moment the fight started and Mei and her forces were surrounded by at least twenty men.

One of the chūnin said, " I can't believe that idiot Masaki got himself killed. Well if he could let himself be killed by a brat he didn't deserve to live anyways."

Another laughed and said, " Look and he's such a pretty brat. If I didn't know any better I would have thought he was girl with hair like that. You think we could have some fun before we kill this one?"

Naruto started laughing making the chūnin pause and stare at him. The last one spoke up and said, " What's wrong has the idea of dying finally made you snap?"

Naruto just grinned viciously at them and said, " Oh no no. I just think you guys are really funny. Talking like you could even touch me. In fact you know what I'll make you a deal. I'll let you fools kill me if you can even cut me."

The chūnin bristled and said, " Oay brat you're asking for it. Let's teach this one a les… ack!"

Both the chūnin jumped away in shock as Naruto suddenly appeared in front of their leader and stabbed him in the heart with Suzumebachi. Naruto just made a face as he looked at the blood on his clothes before he said, " Oh were you guys still talking? I was getting bored since you weren't making the first move so I decided I might as well do something. I didn't think this one would dye so quickly with the way he was talking."

Naruto kicked the body off him and sped towards the next one. The man was barely able to move out of the way of Naruto's attacks. Naruto had gained a lot of speed over the last year and the chūnin just wasn't able to keep up. Suddenly Naruto substituted himself with a log as the other chūnin tried to stab him behind with a sword. Naruto sped through hand signs and yelled, " Suiton: Cannonball." as he spat a huge glob of pressurized water at the chūnin who both scrambled to dodge.

Naruto smirked as they fell for his distraction and appeared in front of one of them and shoved a Rasengan right into the man's chest destroying it. The last man fell backwards in shock as Naruto sighed dismally and said, " Ah damn I got more blood on me."

The last man shuddered as Naruto turned his cold gaze towards him. He had never felt so afraid ever in his life. Staring into those eyes he felt like he was something insignificant being judged by a higher being. He screamed loudly and scrambled away from Naruto in fear. He ran as fast as he could and yelled, " You monster! Stay away from me!"

Suddenly he crashed into something only to look up and see the same eyes looking down on him. Naruto stared at his opponent dispassionately as he used a Rasengan on his head. He could admittedly have been more efficient about it but he had a lot of worked up stress to work out since yesterday.

Despite having talked about it with both Kimiko and Jiraya he had been still worried about it in his heart and just let his instincts take over. It definitely didn't help that they had been talking about violating him as well. Now that he was back to his senses he regretted doing that. His clothes were all bloody now. He had no idea how soon he would be able to clean himself again. Luckily none of the blood had gotten into his hair though.

He looked towards the bloodline users and saw that they were still fighting. He was still worried about Jiraya. Where the hell had he vanished. Naruto sighed as he started running towards them. Since they were supposed to be allies anyways creating a bit of goodwill wouldn't be a bad idea. Besides it would totally suck if Konoha got blamed for killing Mei.

Naruto cursed as he saw one of the wounded Kiri Shinobi try to sneak up behind the swordsman Choujuro. Naruto quickly used shunshin and appeared between them at the last second blocking the man's broken katana with Suzumebachi. The man's eyes widened Naruto used his considerable strength to send him flying.

Choujuro cursed as he saw the attack from the corner of his eyes. He knew he wouldn't be able to block. Just as the attack was about to hit the Konoha Shinobi named Uzumaki Naruto appeared between them blocking the attack and sending his assailant flying. The boy looked towards him for an instant and said, " Watch your back better." before he sped off after the man he just kicked. The only thing that Choujuro could think was ' So fast…' as Naruto disappeared. He had come and gone so fast Choujuro was sure if he had been fighting him he wouldn't have been able to defend himself. The sound of an explosion drew him back to the battle. Now wasn't the time worry about such things. He had gotten lucky and he wouldn't waste it by letting himself get cut down just because he wasn't paying attention.

Naruto blocked another strike from the broken blade and cursed in his head. Even though his opponent was injured he was a very skilled swordsman and was able to use the broken blade to keep him at bay. Naruto suddenly jumped backwards and went through hand signs before he said, " Fūton: Vacuum Sphere!" as he a sphere of deadly wind at his opponent. The man had and injured leg so he wasn't able to evade properly and was cut to shreds by Naruto's deadly attack.

Naruto turned back and saw that the fighting was mostly finished. Only two Shinobi remained and were surrounded by Mei her guards and the girl named Izuki. The other three with her seemed to have been killed. Suddenly Jiraya appeared behind the last two men and knocked them out.

Naruto watched as everyone relaxed as he walked back over to them. Mei checked over her men and then bowed slightly to Jiraya and said, " I thank you for your help Izumi-San even though we have yet to become formal allies it was appreciated."

She then surprisingly bowed towards Naruto as well and said, " And I must also thank you Uzumaki-kun. I am grateful that you saved Choujuro. And had you not occupied by all those Shinobi by yourself we would have been in for a much harder fight. I'm grateful Konoha is lending us the aid of such powerful Shinobi. Not many would be able to overwhelm a chūnin squad on their own as easily as you did. And of course Izumi-san's record speaks for itself."

Naruto blushed slightly from all the praise. He knew she was being overly nice to them since they were new allies but it was still slightly embarrassing. He just waved her of and said, " There is no need to thank me Mei-san, I was just doing my duty."

Izuki coughed and said, " Mei-sama it would be best if we moved to the base soon. We may have defeated the enemy for now but we are all tired and another confrontation would be a bad idea."

Mei nodded and said, " Of course Izuki you are correct. Let us move quickly then." Jiraya threw one of the men towards Naruto before picking up the last two he had captured. Naruto groaned at having to carry the smelly man everywhere but did it nonetheless. A nice long shower was look more and more nice.

They traveled another hour before they reached a face in the mountain. Izuki sped through some hand-signs causing the rock face to sink revealing a tunnel entrance. She said, " Make sure not to stray far from us or you may be killed by the watchers." Naruto couldn't help but suppress the sudden excitement that welled up inside him. He was inside the rebel base.


End file.
