Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shots in the Dark ❯ Star 3 ( Chapter 14 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Jim Ohki 
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 466 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 466 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I make no claims at ownership of any copyrighted characters, places or events used herein. The only thing I make a claim to is this fic, which originated in my head and any original characters created by me herein. The following was made for public consumption at zero profit, and is not for sale except to the owning companies. Yes, I dream big.
Special Notes: I always forget to mention this, but unless I specify otherwise people are in their canon outfits.
Star Sage, Part Three
By: (Driver) Jim Ohki
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; Six Months After Disappearance
Naruto Uzumaki loved this place. Being that it currently had all of one occupant in the form of himself allowed for practice of wide-area, army-killing techniques. Two days ago he had managed to combine Fuuton: Atsugai with Fuuton: Shink?gyoku creating a truly devastating jutsu.
His father, watching from within his subconscious, was beyond impressed when the melding of Pressure Damage and Vacuum Sphere wiped out a significant chunk of forest. It helped that the second of the pair was similar to the Fuuton: Renk?dan that the boy had seen from Shukaku during the Invasion.
His mother on the other hand had pumped her fist at the mayhem, cackling with glee at the destruction of innocent woodland.
While Naruto truly enjoyed getting to cut loose to see what, exactly, he could do now he did miss human contact. It had taken all of a month for him to run out of short-range and limited destruction material to practice with. In that time he had seen Sam get her transfer to a place called Area Fifty-One, Teal'c went to Dakara to attend to Jaffa business and Daniel was bounced from team to team as new ruins were discovered across the galaxy. Getting permission to come to this Habitable Moon, as was evidenced by the Gas Giant in the sky, had been fairly easy after an accident in the Gym.
That was the last time he tried making Explosive Tags indoors without paper or ink. Just remembering the chaos he caused when his experiment backfired caused a shiver to run down his spine.
Being isolated as he was also made it hard to keep up with current events in the Galaxy. The Toads had complained of the 'squeezing tube' effect so he limited his summoning to once a week making it so that he was even out of touch with the events at home. The blond figured that if there was anything he should be aware of somebody would inform him of it, such as the missive he'd gotten on his first check in about Sasuke leaving the village.
That didn't bode well, for Orochimaru wasn't uninformed when it came to seals and could potentially get information about the Stargate out of the Uchiha if he so chose.
Speaking of, the Stargate came to life unnoticed as Naruto had made camp twenty kilometers away so as to not accidentally damage or blow up his only way home.
"Why are we here again?" the new SG-One team leader Cameron Mitchell deadpanned, taking in the scenery. He had not met the boy General O'Neill had sent him to collect and was completely lost as to why the teenage child was left alone in a remote corner of the Galaxy.
"This should be fun," Sam Carter smirked, waiting for a reality-defying event from the blond boy. She had long since given up trying to understand how he did what he did as even genetic profiling came up empty.
"Indeed," Teal'c gave his one word liner, wondering just how much the young man had improved since the last time they had crossed paths.
"Well, you know Hammond is getting another promotion," Daniel tried to be the voice of reason, something he found he had to do a bit more with Mitchell than he had with O'Neill. "As such, he's pulling Jack into his current job so that some schlub that would love to mess with us doesn't get the opportunity. I hear we're supposed to get some General by the name of Landry as the head of the SGC."
"We need Naruto to be on Earth when Hank Landry takes charge," Carter could have sworn she had already gone over this with her new CO. "We have made strides in our treaty with his village but have hit a road block in the form of the rest of the population on his world."
Mitchell nodded, having read the files. Konoha was being stubborn in prohibiting the teams from Earth leaving the village and exploring the lands around it. It was difficult enough to get into the village proper, having to disguise themselves as civilians almost as soon as they set foot on that rock.
"All right guys, let's try a maximum power Bijuudama!" a male voice echoed through the trees, earning the attention of the team from Earth. Sharing a concerned glance, especially after Daniel paled significantly, they double timed it to the camp site they could faintly see in the brush.
The four saw a glowing gold shape that looked like Naruto in the maw of the biggest fox in history. What was offsetting was the black lines and symbols that were also in abundance from spirals on the back of his hands and stomach to solid bars on his face to strange comma shapes surrounding his neck. The fox he was standing on mirrored his look with solid bars for whiskers and black stripes running from the blonde's coattails all the way to the tips of the tails along with looking like ribs.
"What the fuck is that?" Mitchell hadn't been exposed to the truly odd and bizarre unlike the rest of 'the band' so he could be excused for his surprise. Finding no answers from the old hands, his eyes shifted to the left to fall on an exceptionally quiet Vala Mal Doran.
"No-no-no-no-no-no, not them," her time as a Goa'uld host flashed before her mind's eye, bringing forth memories that at the time hadn't made any sense. Now she understood why Que'tesh had lost so much influence after her fleet was decimated trying to take a certain planet.
Before anybody could get the treasure-seeker to talk, the massive form of a golden fox with pupil-less eyes turned to look in the other direction before an enormous ball of black energy grew in front of the open mouth.
"Uh, we might wanna seek shelter!" Daniel barked, eyes wide in panic as he looked for a fortification to hide behind. The SGC flagship team didn't get a chance to move as the sphere was fired off into the distance where it detonated like a nuke.
"Holy Buckets!" Carter screamed over the noise as the ground shook hard enough to make them all lose their footing, even the usually unflappable Teal'c. The initial shockwave had already passed their position, leaving them all temporarily deaf as debris started raining from the sky. It was a good thing they were already on the ground as whole trees zipped by overhead, taking out more of the forest.
"Fucking awesome!" Naruto had the gene that loved explosions apparently as he took in the havoc he caused. His clones that were scattered around had survived the Tailed Beast Ball, giving him multiple angles of the same view. He couldn't wait for the memories when they dispelled. "Next is Artillery Mode!"
"This guy is his own tank," Mitchell had barely heard the blond over the ringing in his ears, "on top of being his own ICBM?"
"There's a reason I gave up figuring him out," Carter looked vindicated, having taken some flak from the Colonel for not having all the information she could on their one-time guest. Sure enough, as they watched, the golden head swiveled around to a different target like a turret before letting five shots loose spaced a second apart. The top of the hill that had been aimed at disappeared under the barrage, a cloud of smoke obscuring the impact site.
"Takes the meaning of 'fear me' to a whole new level," Daniel couldn't help himself, having to make the O'Neill-esque quip.
"Indeed," the resident Jaffa gave the Double Raised Eyebrow as his way of showing surprise. Having heard the legends from those that remembered on Dakara was one thing. Seeing the power live, in person was something else entirely.
"Not bad at all!" the subject of the discussion crowed, having decided to put on a show when he felt his visitors arrive. Playing dumb was fun when the situation allowed it. "Now to test Rapid Fire Mode!"
"That's not fair," Vala had enough of the memories telling her to flee for her life. Now that she could witness one of those blasted Energy Constructs in action she wanted no part of anything to do with the boy. That and she had slipped into fantasy land about being able to wing destruction about on a whim.
"So; he's an ICBM, tank and rail-gun wrapped into one package?" Cameron was getting fed up with redefining the kid with every action he took.
"Don't forget his own army," Carter helpfully supplied, looking nonplussed in the face of the deadpan glare she got in return. "And you can add Anti-Air turret to the list."
The reason for her amended statement was obvious as Naruto kept shooting at nothing in the sky as fast as he could, leaving tracer-like beams of energy to burn out after travelling a few thousand feet into the atmosphere.
"That works, now for the finale: Beam Mode," the five had enough of seeing one person changing the landscape because he could. Before anybody could approach the reason for being on this planetoid that somebody let Jack name, said reason added some trenches to the surroundings.
"Aah, what a good workout!" he slowly descended to the ground, reverting a more human coloration instead of the glowing yellow he had been. "So, what do I owe the honor of this visit to?"
"Ah, uh . . . please don't kill me," Vala was in full submissive mode, something that earned smirks all around as she rarely showed this side of her personality.
"Why would-. Oh, you were one of them," the blond had looked confused at first before being enlightened by his long-term tenant. "Meh, I don't see you doing anything evil so no worries."
"You can tell who used to be a host?" another twist in the mystery had Carter really wanting to park the young man in a lab to plug him in to every machine she could.
"My life-long guest can," he patted his stomach to emphasize his point, "thanks in part to those snakes ingesting . . . Naquada? Is that how it's pronounced? At any rate she can tell that you once played host Sam but said nothing of it because it's really none of our business."
"So, what was that?" Jackson pointed off in the distance at the dissipating dust cloud.
"A Tailed Beast Ball," was given like it was an everyday occurrence for a good chunk of the landscape to disappear under nuclear fire. "That's as good as it's going to get unless I happen to get the Yin half of Kurama. Then I can do more than just a Yang/Nature chakra mixture. Should be good enough to crack a planet in half if I wanted to, I think."
"How far have you gotten with-," Carter started to ask before a clone was there-and-gone before the shrubbery in the direction of the camp started rustling. When a few thousand copies of the boy stepped out of the brush the party from Earth felt the urge to form ranks.
"Done, done, done and done," the blond anticipated the questions the blond woman wanted to ask. "It's great to be in as many places as I want at the same time: I get so much more finished quicker."
"You have gotten better, Naruto Uzumaki," Teal'c stood tall, knowing that the boy was harmless unless he had to get violent. While being surrounded by a battalion's worth of the same person was unnerving he knew he hadn't done anything to incur the young man's wrath.
"I told O'Neill-Jiji I needed an outdoor training area," he ignored the muffled chuckle of Daniel at calling Jack an Old Man, "so when he provided this I got to cut loose. There used to be a mountain range forty clicks that way." He pointed over his left shoulder. "Well, as you can see it's no longer there. It was my testing grounds for everything bang, boom and pow."
"Anyway," Mitchell felt the need to get things back on track, "we're here to pick you up. SGC is undergoing a change in command and the new Boss would like to meet you."
"Perfect," most of the crowd of himself vanished back into the trees to pack up his temporary home. "I was just about to ask you guys if I could come back. I've learned about all I can from what I had to study and need more new material. That, and I'd like to contact home to be updated on things there."
"That works," Daniel nodded while crossing his arms. "We're having some issues with the Konoha Leadership in regards to talking to the other villages and generally exploring your world."
"Well, yeah," Naruto knew what he was talking about. "I may not initiate it but I have been pulled into the Communal Mind Link a couple of times. My disappearance has had a rather nasty ripple effect in not just Konoha but pretty much everywhere else. Everything is in turmoil as Iwa and Kumo are building their forces, causing the other powers to build up in response. Now's not the best time to be pushing for exploration outside of the village as it's just not safe."
"I think we can handle ourselves," Mitchell had his doubts about a good chunk of the populace being ninja of all things. His belief wasn't so much arrogance as it was simply being uninformed –and, to be honest, more than a bit disbelieving- of what the planet the blond haired boy called home.
"Cam," Daniel tried to warn the man and got waved off for his trouble by the subject of their trip.
"I have no doubts of that," the young man clad in a black and orange tracksuit took the question head on. "I've read what I could of the past deeds of your people and we've all been most impressed." He patted his stomach again, indicating what he meant. "That being said, I know you haven't encountered a Shinobi before. Some of us are fast enough to literally dodge bullets. Most of us have enough stealth to get into your formations to wreak havoc without you knowing beforehand we were even in the area. Then there are the powerhouses, the ones powerful enough to simply wipe out a platoon with minimal effort."
He had paused, looking uncertain for a moment before plowing on.
"If that wasn't enough, there are nine of us that can change the landscape," another gesture at what was once a forest surrounded by mountains to emphasize the point, "or if pressed into it can shoot down anything that comes our way."
"We saw that," the Colonel was gracious enough to not argue the points made. "However, we aren't some helpless bunch of civilians."
"You'd have to prove yourselves to Tsunade-Baa-Chan and the Leadership, not me," Naruto had enough of the conversation, knowing that it would start going around in circles. "In the mean time, what have I missed being out here?"
"Ah . . . oh dear," Carter had been dreading that question from the youth. She, just like the others, knew that the recent jaunt into the Ori Galaxy by Daniel and Vala was being kept under wraps until the right time. No need to worry the Milky Way just yet that they had inadvertently opened the door for the cousins of the Ancients to enter the Galaxy.
"We, ah . . . we could use your help," Jackson had heard the tone in his friends voice, knowing that his folly was going to come around to bite him in the ass.
Hokage's Office; 0900; Six Months After Disappearance
Life had not been easy for Tsunade Senju since Naruto Uzumaki went walkabout off-world. Even though it had not been by his own choice, his going through the Stargate was the catalyst to the current mayhem.
Jiraiya had proven himself yet again when he convinced his old teammate to put the 'Gate in the forest behind the Hokage Monument Plateau. She had originally wanted to use the back of the shelter inside the Monument but he had argued her down on the fact that nobody went into Konoha's Backyard for some strange reason. Not even Danzo Shimura ventured forth into the trees north of the village.
There was a ready-made defensive point for their use already in place. Most of the Shinobi frowned at being in the Kyuubi's Bijuudama crater but got over it seeing as it made for an easy-to-fortify location.
She had taken the risk of bringing those that were in one way or another bound to the boy into the loop. This had returned dividends as fears of war continued to spread. The fighting in Ame had finally made the public wake up to events in the rainy village, each of the Great Five paying particular attention to the battle that had been on-going since word of Naruto's 'death' had circulated.
That it was a battle between an Uchiha and a Rinnegan user was not overlooked.
Certainly there were times when the fighting slowed to a crawl or an engagement abruptly ended so that the sides could recuperate before it all started again. Nobody was foolish enough to try to get between the two during these down times nor was anybody making preparations to attempt a land-grab once it was over. Whoever came out victorious was a force to fear, either way.
Konoha was just too quiet without the rambunctious blond bouncing around causing mayhem. Various ANBU had been caught four different times asleep-while-standing and just as a test Konohamaru Sarutobi was sent into the headquarters on a prank spree. When all of the cloaks were successfully switched out for a neon-pink variety the Hokage about clobbered the ANBU Commander into next century. They were supposed to be the best of the best yet instead were acting like cannon-fodder.
Tsunade let her thoughts wander, not really focusing on any one thing at any one time. It was rare enough for her to get the down time to do so and she was more than willing to take full advantage of it.
The next random thing to cross her mind was the Rookie Ten and their training. With worries –fear was too strong a word to use yet- about war spreading their schedules were usually booked. The one that had it the worst was Sakura, being down both her teammates leaving her in the lurch as it were. The pinkette was doing what she could to bolster her individual skills at the sacrifice of her teamwork.
The female member of Team Seven brought thoughts of the other M.I.A. member to the forefront: Sasuke Uchiha. The boy had seemingly gone mad, thinking that Orochimaru would train him for free. Anybody that had any dealings with the White Snake –forget knowing him on a personal level- knew that the man always had a price for everything he did.
At least she didn't have to listen to Naruto screaming his head off about bringing the Uchiha back. She shuddered at what her imagination supplied with that scratchy voice of his. The next chance she got she was going to look at his throat; his desires to be heard had apparently done some damage at some point that needed attention.
Neither Minato nor Kushina sounded so hoarse, even after a shouting match so something had to be wrong with the boy's vocal cords. At least, she hoped so as having to listen to that gravelly voice for the rest of her life did not appeal to her at all.
Thinking back on the training subject, she heaved herself out of her comfortable chair and left the office. Paperwork had been minimal of late as Danzo had been put to work actually doing something in the village other than plot ways to ruin the hard work of the previous 'Kage. Not only was his Né division brought into the fold 'cleaning house' of the spies from everybody else but the man himself was tasked with internal affairs oversight. In the past six months only A or S-Ranked missions crossed her desk.
Shizune fell in behind her long-time mentor as she left the Hokage Tower, heading for the Training Grounds. While the blond was S-Rank in terms of her prime, her almost two decades of binge drinking and generally goofing off had dulled her edge. Her pride, now that she was in that seat under that damned hat, demanded that she live up to the standards set forth by her predecessors.
Naturally, getting close to her Sensei's level would be an accomplishment. Nobody bar Naruto had a chance of getting within a league of Minato as the man had done the at-the-time impossible time and again.
The lone Senju almost missed a step as her mind conjured images of that knucklehead learning even half of what his father had known. He had already been on track, getting the Rasengan to work for him even though it took too long to set-up as it was. Jiraiya had sent what was written down to the boy, wherever he was, in the hopes that he could get it all down.
She had no idea that the source material was hanging around inside his navel, making nice with the Kyuubi.
Thinking about the Fourth naturally led to the other thing Naruto needed to learn how to control: the Bijuu in his gut. Details of that night sixteen years and change ago were scarce. The Kyuubi had suddenly appeared inside the Wall without prior warning which was highly suspicious by itself. There had to have been outside interference as there was no way Kushina nor Minato would allow the beast out of her seal. There was no proof of that unfortunately as the only two who had witnessed the entire event died after taking a claw meant for their son.
The current blond Hokage shivered, knowing that only one Clan had even a chance at controlling the Bijuu as if they were puppets: the Uchiha. Her Grandfather could calm them, yes, but control was out of the question as the masses of chakra were surprisingly prideful. He had been the last to have the Mokuton ability, making any future rampages such as the last one a disaster.
To think, the last known Uzumaki had to deal with five hundred feet and a few metric tons of pure rage.
Tsunade knew that for a Jinchuuriki controlling the power of the beast was not an easy task. Never before had Mito or Kushina even tried with the Kyuubi, instead burying it under so many seals that it was essentially locked away from the rest of the world. Even getting the two previous containers to talk about housing the beast had been impossible as they were of the belief 'out of sight, out of mind'.
Well, that worked for sixty years so why not? The drawback to that line of thinking was self-explanatory in the result of Naruto having the blast thing sealed into him the night he was born.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the noise coming out of Training Ground Eight. Somebody had the gall to let Gai loose on the poor Gennin.
"YOSH! THE FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE MOST POWERFUL HERE TODAY! SUCH YOUTHFUL DISPLAYS OF PASSION; OF FIRE; OF YOUTH!"
"I left the office for this?" Tsunade questioned nobody as she talked to herself.
"Tsunade-sama, save us!" Sakura panted, crawling across the ground to wrap herself around the Hokage's legs. "He's completely insane! Please, you've got to help us!"
The moaning pile of flesh that had once been Kiba Inuzuka gave a thumbs-up to that statement before his arm went limp from the strain.
"Hmmm? You say something Gai?" Kakashi had yet to notice the arrival of the Godaime, otherwise he would have kept the comment that always set the Green Beast off to himself.
"Damn you Kakashi! Your attitude is always so hip and cool!" the man thundered at maximum volume, sending birds into flight in the surrounding trees.
"Tou-san, you can kill me now," Hinata had suffered the most damage by being around the Taijutsu nut. Neji was actually giving her the look of pity for having to train with his Sensei for the morning.
It had only been three hours.
"Gai, what did you do to the poor Gennin?" Tsunade proved she was stronger, grabbing his left arm and pulling him around to face her. "I asked you to test their Taijutsu and work out any flaws you found not turn them into hamburger or break their psyches."
"The Power of Youth these youngsters displayed was just inspiring!" somebody had given the man caffeine apparently as he shook with excitement. "My Flames were stoked into an Inferno and I had to help their Flames of Youth EXPLODE!"
"Fuck you!" the purple pile that was Ino moaned, going so far as to give the man the finger. That was all the energy she had, returning to the land of unconsciousness having stated her opinion.
"Such Unyouthfulness!" the Gai Mini-Me roared, scandalized by the behavior of his fellow Gennin. "Gai-Sensei fanned your Flames of Youth! YOSH! My own Flames are burning brightly!"
"Mental note to self," Tsunade had enough of the pair, clobbering them in the head to earn some silence. "Never ask Gai to evaluate anybody ever again. Shizune, we have work to do."
"So, Kakashi," she talked while she worked, getting Shikamaru Nara out of the pretzel shape he had become. "Talk to me here, what did you see?"
"I saw . . . well, it was not pretty," his lone eye drifted from his book to his boss, who deserved his attention. "The only reason Shikamaru is a Chuunin is his tactical planning. Along with the rest of the Rookies his Taijutsu is borderline terrible. In fact, the last time I had seen hand-to-hand that bad was Naruto . . . oh Kami-damn it."
"The Academy managed to sabotage the Clan Heirs?" Shizune was able to pick up on where the silver haired Jounin was going.
"The basic Academy style had to be taught to all for fair fights," the leader of Team Seven explained. "While the Clans have taught their own styles to their members, they all build off of the primary style. In their efforts to sabotage Naruto they had to undermine the rest of his class so that nobody noticed the different stances being taught. They must have assumed that the Clans would correct the errors on their own, leaving him and the Civilian Born in the lurch."
"Kiba's the only one out that class to fix his issues," Tsunade had watched the Preliminary Round tapes. "Even then, the flaws that those soon-to-be-fired teachers pawned off as Taijutsu were fairly easy to spot."
"Well, one of those teachers is dead," Kakashi didn't need to mention Mizuki by name, having heard of his stupidity with a Orochimaru-made juice. "The rest –bar Iruka as he was the only one to teach properly- have been cycled out to the Borders last I heard as the Sandaime had finally wrested control of the Academy away from the Civilians after that class' graduation."
"Of course they would let it go," Shizune shook her head while straightening Chouji's spine. "They lost the leverage to hold Naruto down and as such gave it up as a bad job. That and I believe they came under pressure from an Elder or two when the Clans started grumbling about the effectiveness of the teaching staff."
"What about Ninjutsu?" Tsunade felt a migraine coming on.
"Other than the Basic Three," it was a sign that the book had vanished from Kakashi's hand, "and what the Clans teach their children . . . non-existent. Sakura is suffering the most right now, having nothing to fall back on but the basics. Most of that falls on us Sensei though as we've had almost two years to teach them." Left unsaid here was that the one student he had actually taught had vamoosed from the village.
"I'm not even going to ask about Genjutsu then," the Hokage could tell from that blunt evaluation that the question had become moot. "What the hell am I paying you for then? It's as you said, almost two years and yet their skills have barely grown since graduation?"
"The Clans don't like us teaching their children things that are 'outside tradition'," Kurenai had enough of taking flak for something out of her control. "The Hyuuga are the worst as Hinata has a Water Affinity and needs to completely revamp her Jyuuken into something she can use. Hiashi scoffed at me when I brought it to his attention."
The Gennin that were aware of the goings on frowned at what they were hearing. Neji had known from the formation of his team that the traditions, while good as a base, needed something extra as a wild card. His defeat courtesy of Naruto highlighted that glaring hole in what he had been taught –either by the Clan or himself. Tenten wanted to grumble about not being part of a Clan herself but knew the futility of arguing with the blond 'Kage. She had limited herself to Bukijutsu –Weapons Technique- and she knew it. Hinata, playing dead, wanted to cry at the brutal truth being figuratively shoved in her face. She was of a similar mindset to Neji, on top of knowing how to fix her issues but not being allowed to by her Clan Elders. Shikamaru was frowning at what he had heard, wondering just how much he had missed out on not only in the Academy but during training. Having something other than the Nara Shadou techniques added so many dimensions to his strategies.
Every single one of them had similar thoughts swirling around in their head, causing either mental or literal frowning.
"The best we can do," Asuma decided to speak up, feeling awkward at his teaching method being called into question, "is get the Clans to train their children once we can get them to take it seriously. After that . . . well, we might just have to train them how we want without their approval."
"That's a serious risk you're talking about," Shizune had moved on to Shino, turning his head back around to the proper orientation. She didn't even stop to think of how it was possible to still be alive with his head facing the wrong direction.
"Unfortunately," Gai had awoken at some point and was being serious for a change, "we're going to have to take that risk with the current troubles. So unyouthful." He started shaking his head, as if truly disappointed by the actions of the other villages.
It was hard for those in the know to not say anything about Naruto. Hinata had many a late night, staring up at the stars knowing he was out there somewhere and more than likely training his ass off. She wasn't alone in that regard, even if she had no idea as for security purposes any mention of the boy was to be made post-tense.
It was annoying to the Hyuuga Heiress.
Off to her right, Neji shuddered. The last time Hinata had gotten truly annoyed with anything one of the Elders went from being a he to a she.
Fear the Heiress indeed.
"So, to summarize," Tsunade ignored the sudden feeling of doom in the air, "what we have is basically a blank slate in the Rookies. You Senseis let me worry about the Clans for we need every Active Shinobi at maximum potential. Train them into the ground if you have to, but I want results. Time is running out after all."
There were no arguments to be made, at least by the Jounin and their charges.
Konoha Council Chambers; Next Day 0830; One hundred eighty-eight days After Disappearance
"This is an outrage!" Hiashi Hyuuga thumped his section of the table with a closed right fist. "As per the Founding Charter we are autonomous in regards to how our own are trained! You cannot arbitrarily issue an order that overrides that!"
"It's been over a hundred years," how the Senju remained calm nobody would know, "since Konoha came into being. I respect the traditions more than you think I do. That being said, don't you think that the other villages, especially Iwa and Kumo, haven't figured out any of your fighting styles? Wouldn't having several aces up the sleeve make you feel better about your Clan's survival rate?"
"It's the concept of the matter," Inoichi was about as pleased as the Hyuuga Patriarch. "If you had come to us first this would likely be a nonissue. Instead here we are wasting time arguing over something that will likely happen no matter how much we don't like it instead of planning for the worst."
"I am planning for the worst," she quoted him, resisting the urge to punch her area of the table. "We do not have a Jinchuuriki. The other six not in allied control might very well be poised to level the village. Even if that comes to be, I want them to bleed for it. The damned Civilians have weakened our forces by loosening the standards to be a Shinobi. I had an evaluation done yesterday on the Rookie Ten: as a group they barely pass wartime standards. Individually, thanks in part to the Chuunin Instructors sabotaging Naruto Uzumaki, their skills are a joke!"
"Even in death the boy finds a way into the conversation," Shikaku grumbled, barely lifting his head off of his arms. He was as annoyed with the Hokage as the rest of the Shinobi Council. He just felt it was too bothersome to make noise like the others.
"You dare-!" Tsume Inuzuka felt a sting in her pride at that last barb.
"They don't know much beyond the Basic Three," Tsunade got the result she wanted with that little nugget of information. All of the Clan Heads looked highly disturbed at finding out that much of what they had learned at that age was left out. "When taking their Clan training into account their skills rise to the point of being Seasoned Gennin. Even Shikamaru is sorely lacking in this regard, being a Chuunin only for his strategic mind."
"The village comes first," Shibi Aburame felt the need to voice his opinion. "That was one of the tenants that Hashirama-dono didn't budge on when Konohagakure was founded. We all know this. Logic dictates that we move on to more important issues regardless of our personal feelings to Tsunade-dono's orders."
"I will do what I can to keep the Elders happy," Hiashi frowned at his 'boss'. "They will want a concession once the crisis has passed."
"Moving on," she gave a nod to the statement, showing she heard and understood the message. "Intelligence has gathered data that suggests Iwa and Kumo are going to be butting heads. Onoki and É may not like us but they really don't like each other. The Tsuchikage sees the Raikage as some upstart punk with muscles for brains while the other sees him as an old man well beyond his prime. Unfortunately our ally Taki is in the middle of the two and has requested reinforcements for their borders. Kusa has been making overtures to Iwa to not be overrun, only leaving annexation off of the table. Ame is still locked in an internal conflict and is most likely unaware of the goings-on beyond their borders. Oto . . . well, being run by Orochimaru nobody really cares if his little toy gets crushed."
"The two focusing on each other is good for us," Choza used his right hand to rub his chin. "While the smaller villages being caught in the crossfire is not a good thing, we could maybe use it to our advantage."
"Kusa hates us for what we did to them in the Second War," Shikaku shook his head, seeing where his childhood friend was going. "That's probably why they have been negotiating with Iwa instead of talking to us, as the lesser of two evils."
"This is most disturbing," the Elders had been exceptionally quiet for a change, sitting back and taking in everything without offering anything in return. Koharu was the one who had enough, earning a frown from Homura. "Everything is in a state of flux. Just having the new Mizukage in the village six months ago wasn't the best of ideas. Why in the world she even had to be here I have no idea. The same with the new Daimyo of Yuki no Kuni. I don't particularly care if she was an actress first, having her appear with almost no notice . . ."
"You damn well know why they were here," Tsunade jumped in, hoping to redirect the conversation. She had been like this since the 'funeral', moving any topic that involved Naruto along quickly without giving anybody time to think. She let the others make their own conclusions as to why she did it though, instead of trying to point them in a direction.
"Hokage-dono," the Treasurer brought all attention to himself, even if nobody could remember his name. "whatever it is that you have invested in is a money pit. Our reserve budget is down to less than a quarter and justification is going to be needed for further expenditure."
This guy had all the vibe of being a Danzo lackey. Faces all around the room scowled at the implications of such a thought.
"It's a classified SS project," she had been waiting for somebody to speak up about where the money had been going. Fortunately since the secrecy was so high it was one of the things that went directly to her desk and was not in public circulation. "As such I cannot tell you anything about it."
"We keep getting a request from," one of the Chuunin that worked the Mission Hall spoke up while flipping through some of the paper in front of her, "a company called 'International Exploration' that has no headquarters that we can find. They claim Konoha as the starting point though, suggesting that they are in the village . . . somewhere."
Tsunade managed to keep a straight face at the rather cheesy name of the people on the other side of the Stargate. She had been rather firm in her denial of their wandering about the countryside when stability was nearing an all-time low. One of the downsides was that they were offering a major payday for letting them . . . do whatever it was they did when encountering new people. It appeared that they refused to take no for an answer, something she was going to have to bring up with the new guy in charge the next time he called. They want to ignore her warnings, then fine.
She'll gladly take their money.
"There, problem solved," she directed at the Treasurer while pointing at the Chuunin. "I've been delaying their mission request until things calmed down but since they won't listen to reason we'll let it go through. They've offered as much as three hundred million to do whatever it is they actually do. And yes, they're good for it . . . I've seen the cash."
So long that the Stargate didn't get revealed to the rest of the village she could play this properly. Having them disguise themselves was out of the question as they were undoubtedly going to be armed to the teeth just in case, which was going to pique the curiosity of any that saw them. Their weapons alone were something that wasn't used by anybody on their world that she knew of.
Earth; SGC Briefing Room; 1000; One Hundred Eighty-Nine days After Disappearance
"Incoming wormhole!" Walter barked over the alarm up the stairs, interrupting the meeting between Naruto and the new base CO Hank Landry. The man was deeply disturbed to see a teenager running about the galaxy, training himself to be a One Man Army. Well, that and/or an Army of One. It was rather confusing trying to classify just what it was the boy could do.
"IDC confirmed," the Sergeant kept on talking, even as the flagship team appeared from somewhere while the pair that had been upstairs arrived in the Control Room. "SG-Five on PX9-190, Naruto's world."
"Report Colonel," Landry was trying to get up to speed with the usual goings-on in the mountain. With a potential ally in the making, even if their technology base was skewed, he was really wanting to hear anything positive.
"Somebody want to name that planet?" Mitchell quipped, having a basic grasp on planetary identifiers. Either they had that God-awful computer identification or some bizarre name that took twenty minutes to learn to speak properly.
"Our request has finally been granted," the video feed showed one of the many Colonels that inhabited the SGC. It was confusing to most on the chain of command with so many of the same rank floating around. "We're now in the clear to begin exploring the place and request reinforcements."
"As much as I'd like to go, I think not," Naruto put his foot down promptly, surprising everybody around him. "Except for a few, they have no idea I'm still alive and I'd like to keep it that way for a bit. Besides, there's no doubt that as a mission request your guys are going to be escorted around by Shinobi of Konoha. Unless they run across a battalion they'll be fine."
"You're going to have to face them at some point," Sam frowned at the sunny-blond, which he waved off with aplomb.
"Just wait until they get a load of me," he had to throw the movie reference out there, being one of the better quips in existence. "When the time is right I'll step back onto the planet I was born on. Until then, I'd like to keep training and maybe squeeze in some exploring. Oh, and kick some ass while I'm at it. Can't forget that."
"I'll send you SG-Eight," the General was not amused by the banter, giving a hard look at the boy on his right. "If you need more just call and . . ."
"Uh, sir, sorry to interrupt but the leader of the village wants a word, sir," the man on the other end managed to get that out before stepping out of the way as one of the more beautiful women that any bar Naruto had seen stepped into the camera's sight.
And began talking in that weird dialect.
"Universal translator, off!" Kurama boomed from within the seal, laughing her ass off as the sight of the most basic communication error between humans: incompatible languages.
"Roughly she says that you've pushed her into a corner," Naruto sighed in annoyance, ignoring the ad-lib from his navel. "The situation is deteriorating with the other villages by the day and she can't guarantee your safety."
His voice had caught her attention, as she leaned toward the small monitor on her end to take a closer look. When she found him she exploded into speech, barely pausing for breath while finding time to shake a fist at the camera.
"Yes, yes I see you too Baa-chan," he wiggled the fingers of his right hand at the pick-up on his end, before realizing that he hadn't spoken in his native language. Trying again he got her attention, the pair going back and forth at a rapid pace.
"Does anybody understand a word they're saying?" Vala was rightly confused, turning slightly to her left to look at Daniel.
"Nope, that dialect makes almost no sense to me," he shrugged with a smile and a bounce, feeling like emulating Jack O'Neill.
"Indeed," the man of many words deadpanned, making his opinion known with just one.
This . . . was going to take a while.
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; One hundred Ninety-four days After Disappearance
"Silly woman," Naruto looked like he was talking to himself yet he knew he wasn't. "Thinking that I'd been slacking off while out-and-about. BAH!"
"She cares for you, y'know?" Kushina spoke up for the first time in days, having been working over a Fuuinjutsu formula that required her entire attention. Second chances to be with her son aside, she was going to finish some of her projects in life.
"Even I caught that," Minato shook his head in exasperation. "A little too much for a woman of her age. I think some of the old agreements are starting to –gurk!"
"What agreements?" Naruto phased into being in the mindscape, glaring at his parents. Kushina chuckled while Minato choked, being in her vice-like grip. "What did you do?"
"Ah, you see, y'know . . . and then, y'know you see . . .," she tried stalling for time, dropping her husband in the process to scratch at the back of her head.
"Goddamnit, what did you do?" he repeated the question, putting a little more UMPH into it.
"Be nice Naruto," his father didn't like the tone, even if the question was valid.
"I just wanted you to be happy," she pouted, squatting in a corner with a raincloud over her head while doodling on the ground with a finger.
Oh dear, this . . . this complicates matters.
TBC
A little shorter than the norm, but that's okay. After another unscheduled hiatus getting anything out is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
To all the readers/reviewers, two thumbs up for writing would be just dull without you!
Special Notes: I always forget to mention this, but unless I specify otherwise people are in their canon outfits.
Star Sage, Part Three
By: (Driver) Jim Ohki
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; Six Months After Disappearance
Naruto Uzumaki loved this place. Being that it currently had all of one occupant in the form of himself allowed for practice of wide-area, army-killing techniques. Two days ago he had managed to combine Fuuton: Atsugai with Fuuton: Shink?gyoku creating a truly devastating jutsu.
His father, watching from within his subconscious, was beyond impressed when the melding of Pressure Damage and Vacuum Sphere wiped out a significant chunk of forest. It helped that the second of the pair was similar to the Fuuton: Renk?dan that the boy had seen from Shukaku during the Invasion.
His mother on the other hand had pumped her fist at the mayhem, cackling with glee at the destruction of innocent woodland.
While Naruto truly enjoyed getting to cut loose to see what, exactly, he could do now he did miss human contact. It had taken all of a month for him to run out of short-range and limited destruction material to practice with. In that time he had seen Sam get her transfer to a place called Area Fifty-One, Teal'c went to Dakara to attend to Jaffa business and Daniel was bounced from team to team as new ruins were discovered across the galaxy. Getting permission to come to this Habitable Moon, as was evidenced by the Gas Giant in the sky, had been fairly easy after an accident in the Gym.
That was the last time he tried making Explosive Tags indoors without paper or ink. Just remembering the chaos he caused when his experiment backfired caused a shiver to run down his spine.
Being isolated as he was also made it hard to keep up with current events in the Galaxy. The Toads had complained of the 'squeezing tube' effect so he limited his summoning to once a week making it so that he was even out of touch with the events at home. The blond figured that if there was anything he should be aware of somebody would inform him of it, such as the missive he'd gotten on his first check in about Sasuke leaving the village.
That didn't bode well, for Orochimaru wasn't uninformed when it came to seals and could potentially get information about the Stargate out of the Uchiha if he so chose.
Speaking of, the Stargate came to life unnoticed as Naruto had made camp twenty kilometers away so as to not accidentally damage or blow up his only way home.
"Why are we here again?" the new SG-One team leader Cameron Mitchell deadpanned, taking in the scenery. He had not met the boy General O'Neill had sent him to collect and was completely lost as to why the teenage child was left alone in a remote corner of the Galaxy.
"This should be fun," Sam Carter smirked, waiting for a reality-defying event from the blond boy. She had long since given up trying to understand how he did what he did as even genetic profiling came up empty.
"Indeed," Teal'c gave his one word liner, wondering just how much the young man had improved since the last time they had crossed paths.
"Well, you know Hammond is getting another promotion," Daniel tried to be the voice of reason, something he found he had to do a bit more with Mitchell than he had with O'Neill. "As such, he's pulling Jack into his current job so that some schlub that would love to mess with us doesn't get the opportunity. I hear we're supposed to get some General by the name of Landry as the head of the SGC."
"We need Naruto to be on Earth when Hank Landry takes charge," Carter could have sworn she had already gone over this with her new CO. "We have made strides in our treaty with his village but have hit a road block in the form of the rest of the population on his world."
Mitchell nodded, having read the files. Konoha was being stubborn in prohibiting the teams from Earth leaving the village and exploring the lands around it. It was difficult enough to get into the village proper, having to disguise themselves as civilians almost as soon as they set foot on that rock.
"All right guys, let's try a maximum power Bijuudama!" a male voice echoed through the trees, earning the attention of the team from Earth. Sharing a concerned glance, especially after Daniel paled significantly, they double timed it to the camp site they could faintly see in the brush.
The four saw a glowing gold shape that looked like Naruto in the maw of the biggest fox in history. What was offsetting was the black lines and symbols that were also in abundance from spirals on the back of his hands and stomach to solid bars on his face to strange comma shapes surrounding his neck. The fox he was standing on mirrored his look with solid bars for whiskers and black stripes running from the blonde's coattails all the way to the tips of the tails along with looking like ribs.
"What the fuck is that?" Mitchell hadn't been exposed to the truly odd and bizarre unlike the rest of 'the band' so he could be excused for his surprise. Finding no answers from the old hands, his eyes shifted to the left to fall on an exceptionally quiet Vala Mal Doran.
"No-no-no-no-no-no, not them," her time as a Goa'uld host flashed before her mind's eye, bringing forth memories that at the time hadn't made any sense. Now she understood why Que'tesh had lost so much influence after her fleet was decimated trying to take a certain planet.
Before anybody could get the treasure-seeker to talk, the massive form of a golden fox with pupil-less eyes turned to look in the other direction before an enormous ball of black energy grew in front of the open mouth.
"Uh, we might wanna seek shelter!" Daniel barked, eyes wide in panic as he looked for a fortification to hide behind. The SGC flagship team didn't get a chance to move as the sphere was fired off into the distance where it detonated like a nuke.
"Holy Buckets!" Carter screamed over the noise as the ground shook hard enough to make them all lose their footing, even the usually unflappable Teal'c. The initial shockwave had already passed their position, leaving them all temporarily deaf as debris started raining from the sky. It was a good thing they were already on the ground as whole trees zipped by overhead, taking out more of the forest.
"Fucking awesome!" Naruto had the gene that loved explosions apparently as he took in the havoc he caused. His clones that were scattered around had survived the Tailed Beast Ball, giving him multiple angles of the same view. He couldn't wait for the memories when they dispelled. "Next is Artillery Mode!"
"This guy is his own tank," Mitchell had barely heard the blond over the ringing in his ears, "on top of being his own ICBM?"
"There's a reason I gave up figuring him out," Carter looked vindicated, having taken some flak from the Colonel for not having all the information she could on their one-time guest. Sure enough, as they watched, the golden head swiveled around to a different target like a turret before letting five shots loose spaced a second apart. The top of the hill that had been aimed at disappeared under the barrage, a cloud of smoke obscuring the impact site.
"Takes the meaning of 'fear me' to a whole new level," Daniel couldn't help himself, having to make the O'Neill-esque quip.
"Indeed," the resident Jaffa gave the Double Raised Eyebrow as his way of showing surprise. Having heard the legends from those that remembered on Dakara was one thing. Seeing the power live, in person was something else entirely.
"Not bad at all!" the subject of the discussion crowed, having decided to put on a show when he felt his visitors arrive. Playing dumb was fun when the situation allowed it. "Now to test Rapid Fire Mode!"
"That's not fair," Vala had enough of the memories telling her to flee for her life. Now that she could witness one of those blasted Energy Constructs in action she wanted no part of anything to do with the boy. That and she had slipped into fantasy land about being able to wing destruction about on a whim.
"So; he's an ICBM, tank and rail-gun wrapped into one package?" Cameron was getting fed up with redefining the kid with every action he took.
"Don't forget his own army," Carter helpfully supplied, looking nonplussed in the face of the deadpan glare she got in return. "And you can add Anti-Air turret to the list."
The reason for her amended statement was obvious as Naruto kept shooting at nothing in the sky as fast as he could, leaving tracer-like beams of energy to burn out after travelling a few thousand feet into the atmosphere.
"That works, now for the finale: Beam Mode," the five had enough of seeing one person changing the landscape because he could. Before anybody could approach the reason for being on this planetoid that somebody let Jack name, said reason added some trenches to the surroundings.
"Aah, what a good workout!" he slowly descended to the ground, reverting a more human coloration instead of the glowing yellow he had been. "So, what do I owe the honor of this visit to?"
"Ah, uh . . . please don't kill me," Vala was in full submissive mode, something that earned smirks all around as she rarely showed this side of her personality.
"Why would-. Oh, you were one of them," the blond had looked confused at first before being enlightened by his long-term tenant. "Meh, I don't see you doing anything evil so no worries."
"You can tell who used to be a host?" another twist in the mystery had Carter really wanting to park the young man in a lab to plug him in to every machine she could.
"My life-long guest can," he patted his stomach to emphasize his point, "thanks in part to those snakes ingesting . . . Naquada? Is that how it's pronounced? At any rate she can tell that you once played host Sam but said nothing of it because it's really none of our business."
"So, what was that?" Jackson pointed off in the distance at the dissipating dust cloud.
"A Tailed Beast Ball," was given like it was an everyday occurrence for a good chunk of the landscape to disappear under nuclear fire. "That's as good as it's going to get unless I happen to get the Yin half of Kurama. Then I can do more than just a Yang/Nature chakra mixture. Should be good enough to crack a planet in half if I wanted to, I think."
"How far have you gotten with-," Carter started to ask before a clone was there-and-gone before the shrubbery in the direction of the camp started rustling. When a few thousand copies of the boy stepped out of the brush the party from Earth felt the urge to form ranks.
"Done, done, done and done," the blond anticipated the questions the blond woman wanted to ask. "It's great to be in as many places as I want at the same time: I get so much more finished quicker."
"You have gotten better, Naruto Uzumaki," Teal'c stood tall, knowing that the boy was harmless unless he had to get violent. While being surrounded by a battalion's worth of the same person was unnerving he knew he hadn't done anything to incur the young man's wrath.
"I told O'Neill-Jiji I needed an outdoor training area," he ignored the muffled chuckle of Daniel at calling Jack an Old Man, "so when he provided this I got to cut loose. There used to be a mountain range forty clicks that way." He pointed over his left shoulder. "Well, as you can see it's no longer there. It was my testing grounds for everything bang, boom and pow."
"Anyway," Mitchell felt the need to get things back on track, "we're here to pick you up. SGC is undergoing a change in command and the new Boss would like to meet you."
"Perfect," most of the crowd of himself vanished back into the trees to pack up his temporary home. "I was just about to ask you guys if I could come back. I've learned about all I can from what I had to study and need more new material. That, and I'd like to contact home to be updated on things there."
"That works," Daniel nodded while crossing his arms. "We're having some issues with the Konoha Leadership in regards to talking to the other villages and generally exploring your world."
"Well, yeah," Naruto knew what he was talking about. "I may not initiate it but I have been pulled into the Communal Mind Link a couple of times. My disappearance has had a rather nasty ripple effect in not just Konoha but pretty much everywhere else. Everything is in turmoil as Iwa and Kumo are building their forces, causing the other powers to build up in response. Now's not the best time to be pushing for exploration outside of the village as it's just not safe."
"I think we can handle ourselves," Mitchell had his doubts about a good chunk of the populace being ninja of all things. His belief wasn't so much arrogance as it was simply being uninformed –and, to be honest, more than a bit disbelieving- of what the planet the blond haired boy called home.
"Cam," Daniel tried to warn the man and got waved off for his trouble by the subject of their trip.
"I have no doubts of that," the young man clad in a black and orange tracksuit took the question head on. "I've read what I could of the past deeds of your people and we've all been most impressed." He patted his stomach again, indicating what he meant. "That being said, I know you haven't encountered a Shinobi before. Some of us are fast enough to literally dodge bullets. Most of us have enough stealth to get into your formations to wreak havoc without you knowing beforehand we were even in the area. Then there are the powerhouses, the ones powerful enough to simply wipe out a platoon with minimal effort."
He had paused, looking uncertain for a moment before plowing on.
"If that wasn't enough, there are nine of us that can change the landscape," another gesture at what was once a forest surrounded by mountains to emphasize the point, "or if pressed into it can shoot down anything that comes our way."
"We saw that," the Colonel was gracious enough to not argue the points made. "However, we aren't some helpless bunch of civilians."
"You'd have to prove yourselves to Tsunade-Baa-Chan and the Leadership, not me," Naruto had enough of the conversation, knowing that it would start going around in circles. "In the mean time, what have I missed being out here?"
"Ah . . . oh dear," Carter had been dreading that question from the youth. She, just like the others, knew that the recent jaunt into the Ori Galaxy by Daniel and Vala was being kept under wraps until the right time. No need to worry the Milky Way just yet that they had inadvertently opened the door for the cousins of the Ancients to enter the Galaxy.
"We, ah . . . we could use your help," Jackson had heard the tone in his friends voice, knowing that his folly was going to come around to bite him in the ass.
Hokage's Office; 0900; Six Months After Disappearance
Life had not been easy for Tsunade Senju since Naruto Uzumaki went walkabout off-world. Even though it had not been by his own choice, his going through the Stargate was the catalyst to the current mayhem.
Jiraiya had proven himself yet again when he convinced his old teammate to put the 'Gate in the forest behind the Hokage Monument Plateau. She had originally wanted to use the back of the shelter inside the Monument but he had argued her down on the fact that nobody went into Konoha's Backyard for some strange reason. Not even Danzo Shimura ventured forth into the trees north of the village.
There was a ready-made defensive point for their use already in place. Most of the Shinobi frowned at being in the Kyuubi's Bijuudama crater but got over it seeing as it made for an easy-to-fortify location.
She had taken the risk of bringing those that were in one way or another bound to the boy into the loop. This had returned dividends as fears of war continued to spread. The fighting in Ame had finally made the public wake up to events in the rainy village, each of the Great Five paying particular attention to the battle that had been on-going since word of Naruto's 'death' had circulated.
That it was a battle between an Uchiha and a Rinnegan user was not overlooked.
Certainly there were times when the fighting slowed to a crawl or an engagement abruptly ended so that the sides could recuperate before it all started again. Nobody was foolish enough to try to get between the two during these down times nor was anybody making preparations to attempt a land-grab once it was over. Whoever came out victorious was a force to fear, either way.
Konoha was just too quiet without the rambunctious blond bouncing around causing mayhem. Various ANBU had been caught four different times asleep-while-standing and just as a test Konohamaru Sarutobi was sent into the headquarters on a prank spree. When all of the cloaks were successfully switched out for a neon-pink variety the Hokage about clobbered the ANBU Commander into next century. They were supposed to be the best of the best yet instead were acting like cannon-fodder.
Tsunade let her thoughts wander, not really focusing on any one thing at any one time. It was rare enough for her to get the down time to do so and she was more than willing to take full advantage of it.
The next random thing to cross her mind was the Rookie Ten and their training. With worries –fear was too strong a word to use yet- about war spreading their schedules were usually booked. The one that had it the worst was Sakura, being down both her teammates leaving her in the lurch as it were. The pinkette was doing what she could to bolster her individual skills at the sacrifice of her teamwork.
The female member of Team Seven brought thoughts of the other M.I.A. member to the forefront: Sasuke Uchiha. The boy had seemingly gone mad, thinking that Orochimaru would train him for free. Anybody that had any dealings with the White Snake –forget knowing him on a personal level- knew that the man always had a price for everything he did.
At least she didn't have to listen to Naruto screaming his head off about bringing the Uchiha back. She shuddered at what her imagination supplied with that scratchy voice of his. The next chance she got she was going to look at his throat; his desires to be heard had apparently done some damage at some point that needed attention.
Neither Minato nor Kushina sounded so hoarse, even after a shouting match so something had to be wrong with the boy's vocal cords. At least, she hoped so as having to listen to that gravelly voice for the rest of her life did not appeal to her at all.
Thinking back on the training subject, she heaved herself out of her comfortable chair and left the office. Paperwork had been minimal of late as Danzo had been put to work actually doing something in the village other than plot ways to ruin the hard work of the previous 'Kage. Not only was his Né division brought into the fold 'cleaning house' of the spies from everybody else but the man himself was tasked with internal affairs oversight. In the past six months only A or S-Ranked missions crossed her desk.
Shizune fell in behind her long-time mentor as she left the Hokage Tower, heading for the Training Grounds. While the blond was S-Rank in terms of her prime, her almost two decades of binge drinking and generally goofing off had dulled her edge. Her pride, now that she was in that seat under that damned hat, demanded that she live up to the standards set forth by her predecessors.
Naturally, getting close to her Sensei's level would be an accomplishment. Nobody bar Naruto had a chance of getting within a league of Minato as the man had done the at-the-time impossible time and again.
The lone Senju almost missed a step as her mind conjured images of that knucklehead learning even half of what his father had known. He had already been on track, getting the Rasengan to work for him even though it took too long to set-up as it was. Jiraiya had sent what was written down to the boy, wherever he was, in the hopes that he could get it all down.
She had no idea that the source material was hanging around inside his navel, making nice with the Kyuubi.
Thinking about the Fourth naturally led to the other thing Naruto needed to learn how to control: the Bijuu in his gut. Details of that night sixteen years and change ago were scarce. The Kyuubi had suddenly appeared inside the Wall without prior warning which was highly suspicious by itself. There had to have been outside interference as there was no way Kushina nor Minato would allow the beast out of her seal. There was no proof of that unfortunately as the only two who had witnessed the entire event died after taking a claw meant for their son.
The current blond Hokage shivered, knowing that only one Clan had even a chance at controlling the Bijuu as if they were puppets: the Uchiha. Her Grandfather could calm them, yes, but control was out of the question as the masses of chakra were surprisingly prideful. He had been the last to have the Mokuton ability, making any future rampages such as the last one a disaster.
To think, the last known Uzumaki had to deal with five hundred feet and a few metric tons of pure rage.
Tsunade knew that for a Jinchuuriki controlling the power of the beast was not an easy task. Never before had Mito or Kushina even tried with the Kyuubi, instead burying it under so many seals that it was essentially locked away from the rest of the world. Even getting the two previous containers to talk about housing the beast had been impossible as they were of the belief 'out of sight, out of mind'.
Well, that worked for sixty years so why not? The drawback to that line of thinking was self-explanatory in the result of Naruto having the blast thing sealed into him the night he was born.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the noise coming out of Training Ground Eight. Somebody had the gall to let Gai loose on the poor Gennin.
"YOSH! THE FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE MOST POWERFUL HERE TODAY! SUCH YOUTHFUL DISPLAYS OF PASSION; OF FIRE; OF YOUTH!"
"I left the office for this?" Tsunade questioned nobody as she talked to herself.
"Tsunade-sama, save us!" Sakura panted, crawling across the ground to wrap herself around the Hokage's legs. "He's completely insane! Please, you've got to help us!"
The moaning pile of flesh that had once been Kiba Inuzuka gave a thumbs-up to that statement before his arm went limp from the strain.
"Hmmm? You say something Gai?" Kakashi had yet to notice the arrival of the Godaime, otherwise he would have kept the comment that always set the Green Beast off to himself.
"Damn you Kakashi! Your attitude is always so hip and cool!" the man thundered at maximum volume, sending birds into flight in the surrounding trees.
"Tou-san, you can kill me now," Hinata had suffered the most damage by being around the Taijutsu nut. Neji was actually giving her the look of pity for having to train with his Sensei for the morning.
It had only been three hours.
"Gai, what did you do to the poor Gennin?" Tsunade proved she was stronger, grabbing his left arm and pulling him around to face her. "I asked you to test their Taijutsu and work out any flaws you found not turn them into hamburger or break their psyches."
"The Power of Youth these youngsters displayed was just inspiring!" somebody had given the man caffeine apparently as he shook with excitement. "My Flames were stoked into an Inferno and I had to help their Flames of Youth EXPLODE!"
"Fuck you!" the purple pile that was Ino moaned, going so far as to give the man the finger. That was all the energy she had, returning to the land of unconsciousness having stated her opinion.
"Such Unyouthfulness!" the Gai Mini-Me roared, scandalized by the behavior of his fellow Gennin. "Gai-Sensei fanned your Flames of Youth! YOSH! My own Flames are burning brightly!"
"Mental note to self," Tsunade had enough of the pair, clobbering them in the head to earn some silence. "Never ask Gai to evaluate anybody ever again. Shizune, we have work to do."
"So, Kakashi," she talked while she worked, getting Shikamaru Nara out of the pretzel shape he had become. "Talk to me here, what did you see?"
"I saw . . . well, it was not pretty," his lone eye drifted from his book to his boss, who deserved his attention. "The only reason Shikamaru is a Chuunin is his tactical planning. Along with the rest of the Rookies his Taijutsu is borderline terrible. In fact, the last time I had seen hand-to-hand that bad was Naruto . . . oh Kami-damn it."
"The Academy managed to sabotage the Clan Heirs?" Shizune was able to pick up on where the silver haired Jounin was going.
"The basic Academy style had to be taught to all for fair fights," the leader of Team Seven explained. "While the Clans have taught their own styles to their members, they all build off of the primary style. In their efforts to sabotage Naruto they had to undermine the rest of his class so that nobody noticed the different stances being taught. They must have assumed that the Clans would correct the errors on their own, leaving him and the Civilian Born in the lurch."
"Kiba's the only one out that class to fix his issues," Tsunade had watched the Preliminary Round tapes. "Even then, the flaws that those soon-to-be-fired teachers pawned off as Taijutsu were fairly easy to spot."
"Well, one of those teachers is dead," Kakashi didn't need to mention Mizuki by name, having heard of his stupidity with a Orochimaru-made juice. "The rest –bar Iruka as he was the only one to teach properly- have been cycled out to the Borders last I heard as the Sandaime had finally wrested control of the Academy away from the Civilians after that class' graduation."
"Of course they would let it go," Shizune shook her head while straightening Chouji's spine. "They lost the leverage to hold Naruto down and as such gave it up as a bad job. That and I believe they came under pressure from an Elder or two when the Clans started grumbling about the effectiveness of the teaching staff."
"What about Ninjutsu?" Tsunade felt a migraine coming on.
"Other than the Basic Three," it was a sign that the book had vanished from Kakashi's hand, "and what the Clans teach their children . . . non-existent. Sakura is suffering the most right now, having nothing to fall back on but the basics. Most of that falls on us Sensei though as we've had almost two years to teach them." Left unsaid here was that the one student he had actually taught had vamoosed from the village.
"I'm not even going to ask about Genjutsu then," the Hokage could tell from that blunt evaluation that the question had become moot. "What the hell am I paying you for then? It's as you said, almost two years and yet their skills have barely grown since graduation?"
"The Clans don't like us teaching their children things that are 'outside tradition'," Kurenai had enough of taking flak for something out of her control. "The Hyuuga are the worst as Hinata has a Water Affinity and needs to completely revamp her Jyuuken into something she can use. Hiashi scoffed at me when I brought it to his attention."
The Gennin that were aware of the goings on frowned at what they were hearing. Neji had known from the formation of his team that the traditions, while good as a base, needed something extra as a wild card. His defeat courtesy of Naruto highlighted that glaring hole in what he had been taught –either by the Clan or himself. Tenten wanted to grumble about not being part of a Clan herself but knew the futility of arguing with the blond 'Kage. She had limited herself to Bukijutsu –Weapons Technique- and she knew it. Hinata, playing dead, wanted to cry at the brutal truth being figuratively shoved in her face. She was of a similar mindset to Neji, on top of knowing how to fix her issues but not being allowed to by her Clan Elders. Shikamaru was frowning at what he had heard, wondering just how much he had missed out on not only in the Academy but during training. Having something other than the Nara Shadou techniques added so many dimensions to his strategies.
Every single one of them had similar thoughts swirling around in their head, causing either mental or literal frowning.
"The best we can do," Asuma decided to speak up, feeling awkward at his teaching method being called into question, "is get the Clans to train their children once we can get them to take it seriously. After that . . . well, we might just have to train them how we want without their approval."
"That's a serious risk you're talking about," Shizune had moved on to Shino, turning his head back around to the proper orientation. She didn't even stop to think of how it was possible to still be alive with his head facing the wrong direction.
"Unfortunately," Gai had awoken at some point and was being serious for a change, "we're going to have to take that risk with the current troubles. So unyouthful." He started shaking his head, as if truly disappointed by the actions of the other villages.
It was hard for those in the know to not say anything about Naruto. Hinata had many a late night, staring up at the stars knowing he was out there somewhere and more than likely training his ass off. She wasn't alone in that regard, even if she had no idea as for security purposes any mention of the boy was to be made post-tense.
It was annoying to the Hyuuga Heiress.
Off to her right, Neji shuddered. The last time Hinata had gotten truly annoyed with anything one of the Elders went from being a he to a she.
Fear the Heiress indeed.
"So, to summarize," Tsunade ignored the sudden feeling of doom in the air, "what we have is basically a blank slate in the Rookies. You Senseis let me worry about the Clans for we need every Active Shinobi at maximum potential. Train them into the ground if you have to, but I want results. Time is running out after all."
There were no arguments to be made, at least by the Jounin and their charges.
Konoha Council Chambers; Next Day 0830; One hundred eighty-eight days After Disappearance
"This is an outrage!" Hiashi Hyuuga thumped his section of the table with a closed right fist. "As per the Founding Charter we are autonomous in regards to how our own are trained! You cannot arbitrarily issue an order that overrides that!"
"It's been over a hundred years," how the Senju remained calm nobody would know, "since Konoha came into being. I respect the traditions more than you think I do. That being said, don't you think that the other villages, especially Iwa and Kumo, haven't figured out any of your fighting styles? Wouldn't having several aces up the sleeve make you feel better about your Clan's survival rate?"
"It's the concept of the matter," Inoichi was about as pleased as the Hyuuga Patriarch. "If you had come to us first this would likely be a nonissue. Instead here we are wasting time arguing over something that will likely happen no matter how much we don't like it instead of planning for the worst."
"I am planning for the worst," she quoted him, resisting the urge to punch her area of the table. "We do not have a Jinchuuriki. The other six not in allied control might very well be poised to level the village. Even if that comes to be, I want them to bleed for it. The damned Civilians have weakened our forces by loosening the standards to be a Shinobi. I had an evaluation done yesterday on the Rookie Ten: as a group they barely pass wartime standards. Individually, thanks in part to the Chuunin Instructors sabotaging Naruto Uzumaki, their skills are a joke!"
"Even in death the boy finds a way into the conversation," Shikaku grumbled, barely lifting his head off of his arms. He was as annoyed with the Hokage as the rest of the Shinobi Council. He just felt it was too bothersome to make noise like the others.
"You dare-!" Tsume Inuzuka felt a sting in her pride at that last barb.
"They don't know much beyond the Basic Three," Tsunade got the result she wanted with that little nugget of information. All of the Clan Heads looked highly disturbed at finding out that much of what they had learned at that age was left out. "When taking their Clan training into account their skills rise to the point of being Seasoned Gennin. Even Shikamaru is sorely lacking in this regard, being a Chuunin only for his strategic mind."
"The village comes first," Shibi Aburame felt the need to voice his opinion. "That was one of the tenants that Hashirama-dono didn't budge on when Konohagakure was founded. We all know this. Logic dictates that we move on to more important issues regardless of our personal feelings to Tsunade-dono's orders."
"I will do what I can to keep the Elders happy," Hiashi frowned at his 'boss'. "They will want a concession once the crisis has passed."
"Moving on," she gave a nod to the statement, showing she heard and understood the message. "Intelligence has gathered data that suggests Iwa and Kumo are going to be butting heads. Onoki and É may not like us but they really don't like each other. The Tsuchikage sees the Raikage as some upstart punk with muscles for brains while the other sees him as an old man well beyond his prime. Unfortunately our ally Taki is in the middle of the two and has requested reinforcements for their borders. Kusa has been making overtures to Iwa to not be overrun, only leaving annexation off of the table. Ame is still locked in an internal conflict and is most likely unaware of the goings-on beyond their borders. Oto . . . well, being run by Orochimaru nobody really cares if his little toy gets crushed."
"The two focusing on each other is good for us," Choza used his right hand to rub his chin. "While the smaller villages being caught in the crossfire is not a good thing, we could maybe use it to our advantage."
"Kusa hates us for what we did to them in the Second War," Shikaku shook his head, seeing where his childhood friend was going. "That's probably why they have been negotiating with Iwa instead of talking to us, as the lesser of two evils."
"This is most disturbing," the Elders had been exceptionally quiet for a change, sitting back and taking in everything without offering anything in return. Koharu was the one who had enough, earning a frown from Homura. "Everything is in a state of flux. Just having the new Mizukage in the village six months ago wasn't the best of ideas. Why in the world she even had to be here I have no idea. The same with the new Daimyo of Yuki no Kuni. I don't particularly care if she was an actress first, having her appear with almost no notice . . ."
"You damn well know why they were here," Tsunade jumped in, hoping to redirect the conversation. She had been like this since the 'funeral', moving any topic that involved Naruto along quickly without giving anybody time to think. She let the others make their own conclusions as to why she did it though, instead of trying to point them in a direction.
"Hokage-dono," the Treasurer brought all attention to himself, even if nobody could remember his name. "whatever it is that you have invested in is a money pit. Our reserve budget is down to less than a quarter and justification is going to be needed for further expenditure."
This guy had all the vibe of being a Danzo lackey. Faces all around the room scowled at the implications of such a thought.
"It's a classified SS project," she had been waiting for somebody to speak up about where the money had been going. Fortunately since the secrecy was so high it was one of the things that went directly to her desk and was not in public circulation. "As such I cannot tell you anything about it."
"We keep getting a request from," one of the Chuunin that worked the Mission Hall spoke up while flipping through some of the paper in front of her, "a company called 'International Exploration' that has no headquarters that we can find. They claim Konoha as the starting point though, suggesting that they are in the village . . . somewhere."
Tsunade managed to keep a straight face at the rather cheesy name of the people on the other side of the Stargate. She had been rather firm in her denial of their wandering about the countryside when stability was nearing an all-time low. One of the downsides was that they were offering a major payday for letting them . . . do whatever it was they did when encountering new people. It appeared that they refused to take no for an answer, something she was going to have to bring up with the new guy in charge the next time he called. They want to ignore her warnings, then fine.
She'll gladly take their money.
"There, problem solved," she directed at the Treasurer while pointing at the Chuunin. "I've been delaying their mission request until things calmed down but since they won't listen to reason we'll let it go through. They've offered as much as three hundred million to do whatever it is they actually do. And yes, they're good for it . . . I've seen the cash."
So long that the Stargate didn't get revealed to the rest of the village she could play this properly. Having them disguise themselves was out of the question as they were undoubtedly going to be armed to the teeth just in case, which was going to pique the curiosity of any that saw them. Their weapons alone were something that wasn't used by anybody on their world that she knew of.
Earth; SGC Briefing Room; 1000; One Hundred Eighty-Nine days After Disappearance
"Incoming wormhole!" Walter barked over the alarm up the stairs, interrupting the meeting between Naruto and the new base CO Hank Landry. The man was deeply disturbed to see a teenager running about the galaxy, training himself to be a One Man Army. Well, that and/or an Army of One. It was rather confusing trying to classify just what it was the boy could do.
"IDC confirmed," the Sergeant kept on talking, even as the flagship team appeared from somewhere while the pair that had been upstairs arrived in the Control Room. "SG-Five on PX9-190, Naruto's world."
"Report Colonel," Landry was trying to get up to speed with the usual goings-on in the mountain. With a potential ally in the making, even if their technology base was skewed, he was really wanting to hear anything positive.
"Somebody want to name that planet?" Mitchell quipped, having a basic grasp on planetary identifiers. Either they had that God-awful computer identification or some bizarre name that took twenty minutes to learn to speak properly.
"Our request has finally been granted," the video feed showed one of the many Colonels that inhabited the SGC. It was confusing to most on the chain of command with so many of the same rank floating around. "We're now in the clear to begin exploring the place and request reinforcements."
"As much as I'd like to go, I think not," Naruto put his foot down promptly, surprising everybody around him. "Except for a few, they have no idea I'm still alive and I'd like to keep it that way for a bit. Besides, there's no doubt that as a mission request your guys are going to be escorted around by Shinobi of Konoha. Unless they run across a battalion they'll be fine."
"You're going to have to face them at some point," Sam frowned at the sunny-blond, which he waved off with aplomb.
"Just wait until they get a load of me," he had to throw the movie reference out there, being one of the better quips in existence. "When the time is right I'll step back onto the planet I was born on. Until then, I'd like to keep training and maybe squeeze in some exploring. Oh, and kick some ass while I'm at it. Can't forget that."
"I'll send you SG-Eight," the General was not amused by the banter, giving a hard look at the boy on his right. "If you need more just call and . . ."
"Uh, sir, sorry to interrupt but the leader of the village wants a word, sir," the man on the other end managed to get that out before stepping out of the way as one of the more beautiful women that any bar Naruto had seen stepped into the camera's sight.
And began talking in that weird dialect.
"Universal translator, off!" Kurama boomed from within the seal, laughing her ass off as the sight of the most basic communication error between humans: incompatible languages.
"Roughly she says that you've pushed her into a corner," Naruto sighed in annoyance, ignoring the ad-lib from his navel. "The situation is deteriorating with the other villages by the day and she can't guarantee your safety."
His voice had caught her attention, as she leaned toward the small monitor on her end to take a closer look. When she found him she exploded into speech, barely pausing for breath while finding time to shake a fist at the camera.
"Yes, yes I see you too Baa-chan," he wiggled the fingers of his right hand at the pick-up on his end, before realizing that he hadn't spoken in his native language. Trying again he got her attention, the pair going back and forth at a rapid pace.
"Does anybody understand a word they're saying?" Vala was rightly confused, turning slightly to her left to look at Daniel.
"Nope, that dialect makes almost no sense to me," he shrugged with a smile and a bounce, feeling like emulating Jack O'Neill.
"Indeed," the man of many words deadpanned, making his opinion known with just one.
This . . . was going to take a while.
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; One hundred Ninety-four days After Disappearance
"Silly woman," Naruto looked like he was talking to himself yet he knew he wasn't. "Thinking that I'd been slacking off while out-and-about. BAH!"
"She cares for you, y'know?" Kushina spoke up for the first time in days, having been working over a Fuuinjutsu formula that required her entire attention. Second chances to be with her son aside, she was going to finish some of her projects in life.
"Even I caught that," Minato shook his head in exasperation. "A little too much for a woman of her age. I think some of the old agreements are starting to –gurk!"
"What agreements?" Naruto phased into being in the mindscape, glaring at his parents. Kushina chuckled while Minato choked, being in her vice-like grip. "What did you do?"
"Ah, you see, y'know . . . and then, y'know you see . . .," she tried stalling for time, dropping her husband in the process to scratch at the back of her head.
"Goddamnit, what did you do?" he repeated the question, putting a little more UMPH into it.
"Be nice Naruto," his father didn't like the tone, even if the question was valid.
"I just wanted you to be happy," she pouted, squatting in a corner with a raincloud over her head while doodling on the ground with a finger.
Oh dear, this . . . this complicates matters.
TBC
A little shorter than the norm, but that's okay. After another unscheduled hiatus getting anything out is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
To all the readers/reviewers, two thumbs up for writing would be just dull without you!