Chapter Four
Naruto sighed softly, his legs dangling from the edge as he was sitting on top of the Konoha entrance gate. It was two days since Toneri messed with Naruto’s eyes. The ninja had explained to the Third Hokage, Kakashi, Iruka, and Hiashi what Kurama had informed him of. They were all shocked to hear the news. But it didn’t take Naruto long to get back to his normal self. He put his big smile on his face and shrugged what happened to him off. And even if he didn’t admit it to himself, he was more serious about being a ninja. The young ninja swore to pay more attention to his surroundings, and he knew he had to practice his aim when he’s scared or angry. He noticed that when he’s angry his aim is affected by it. And today he swore to remain happy no matter what. Why you may ask? Well, he was finally getting to go on a mission that wasn’t boring chores. He had packed everything he needed for the trip. He smiled seeing his team walking towards the gate.
He happily hopped down from the top of the gate landing on his feet. He frowned a little seeing the person they were escorting. A grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He was wearing a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. His name was Tazuna and Naruto didn’t really like him because of how rude he is. “I still don’t believe how three children are going to protect me,” Tazuna spoke with a frown on his face.
“We are more than capable of protecting you Mr. Tazuna. Let’s go please.” Kakashi stated as Shikamaru made sure to keep Naruto from shouting at the client. The six began their journey to Land of Waves. Sasuke kept his plain, stoic face on while Sakura was chatting his ear off. Shikamaru would keep near the blond ninja. He was secretly worried about him. He had heard of what happened to his friend. Well, all he knew was that Naruto was attacked.
As some time passed, the group stopped in their tracks as they heard rustling in the bushes around them. Sasuke slowly squinted his eyes looking around. He slowly placed his hand in his pouch grabbing a kunai. Shikamaru raised his left brow looking over where the rustling was coming from. “Naruto,” Shikamaru whispered quietly getting the blond’s attention. “Activate your byakugan. You’ll be able to see a chakra origin.”
Naruto looked to Kakashi who nodded. Even though the Hokage had told Naruto to keep the use of the tenseigan to a minimum until they learned more about the abilities it holds and what the catch is. Naruto did the hand signs activating the tenseigan. The first time using it was weird. It was like the byakugan, but different. He felt a strange power flow through him as he used it. He kinda liked it. He looked at the bush not seeing any chakra outlines.
“Hmm, no. There’s no one around,” Naruto whispered quietly as he deactivated the tenseigan. “It’s just a rabbit,” Naruto laughed a little walking over to the bush and reached over. He stood back up straight showing a rabbit in his arms. Naruto smiled setting the bunny down before the group continued their path. Kakashi looked around the forest. He felt like something was off and he didn’t like it. He could tell someone was following them.
“Naruto, what was with your eyes? Those weren’t the byakugan,” Shikamaru questioned sticking to Naruto’s side. The blond looked at the ground sighing softly. Sasuke looked up ahead at the two not enjoying the fact that the blond ninja had a strange dōjutsu. All thoughts and concentration were stopped when they heard Sakura scream. The three ninjas that were in the back of the group looked ahead seeing Kakashi fall to the ground. Sakura immediately got in front of Tazuna when two men charged at him.
One of the men had shoulder-length, wild dark-brown hair and dark eyes. He had a rebreather that covers the lower half of his face and a large, clawed, poisonous gauntlet on his left arm which had a chain coming out of it that had the other end attached to the second man’s own gauntlet. He wore a camouflage suit with bandages around his waist, dark-colored, knee-length sandals and several pouches around his waist. His Kirigakure forehead protector had two horns on it. The second man had short slicked combed-back brown hair, no eyebrows, and grey-colored eyes. He also has sharp teeth and long arms reaching down to his knees. Sasuke moved quickly as he saw the second man fling the first ahead at Tazuna and Sakura.
Sasuke quickly pulled out his kunai slashing the chain in half. Shikamaru performed a few hand signs managing to stop the two attackers dead in their tracks. Sakura pushed Tazuna back getting behind Naruto and Shikamaru. “Mind telling us exactly who you two are?” Shikamaru questioned before the man with the rebreather on chuckled as if it was an obvious answer. Naruto closed his eyes trying to listen to the forest around the group. He then widened his eyes before tackling Shikamaru out of the way. “Naruto what the hell?!” He shouted before noticing the tree across the opening they were in had a poisoned kunai in it.
“It was a timed trap!” Sasuke shouted seeing the two men jump into a tree standing on a tree branch.
“If you so desperately want to know who we are,” The first man spoke up with a laugh in his voice. “My name is Meizu, and this is my brother Gozu,” He informed the genin. Naruto growled softly standing up. As the two brothers jumped down from the branch, Meizu charged at Naruto while Gozu went for Tazuna and Sakura. With a quiet ‘tch’ Sasuke ran over hoping to get between Gozu and Tazuna in time.
“Shikamaru help Sakura I got him!” Naruto shouted as his kunai clashed with Meizu’s claws. Naruto jumped back avoiding the attacker’s poisonous claw swipe. Naruto pulled out three shurikens throwing them at the man. He laughed mockingly easily knocking the shurikens to the ground.
“You’re a pathetic kid.” Meizu scoffed starting to stalk towards Naruto. As Naruto dealt with Meizu, Shikamaru jumped down in front of Gozu with Sasuke by the brunette’s side his weapon drawn. Shikamaru nodded to Sasuke before the raven-haired ninja threw his kunai at Gozu. While the man dodged the kunai, Shikamaru took Sasuke’s hand throwing him up into the air.
Quickly performing some hand-signs. “Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!” And as Sasuke shouted this, a ball of blazing fire forms hitting Gozu sending him flying back. Naruto ducked back, his hand keeping him steady before kicking Meizu in his stomach. Naruto managed to get up onto his feet but as he looked up Meizu slashed the ninja in the side. Naruto shouted in pain falling to the ground holding his side. “Naruto!” Sasuke shouted as he was about to act two kunai flew out from the bushes each hitting the two attackers in their necks. Meizu’s eyes went wide in shock slowly turning around. As his eyes looked in the direction the kunai came from, he saw Kakashi standing on a branch crouched down.
“K-Kakashi Sensei? H-how are you alive? We saw you die!” Sakura shouted being startled at first before becoming pissed off that he made them go through all that without helping them.
“He sensed the attackers,” Shikamaru spoke up looking at his sensei. “He knew they would take him out first and attack us. He wanted to see how well we could handle ourselves.” The Nara clan member explained looking at the pink-haired girl.
“Correct, and I’m proud of you all. Sakura, you did a great job of protecting Tazuna. Shikamaru and Sasuke, your teamwork was great. The only problem I had was with you Uzumaki Naruto,” Kakashi spoke up as the group looking at the blond who was standing holding his side.
“Right! What the hell were you doing Naruto?” Sakura shouted at the blond who rolled his eyes. He breathed heavily gently and gingerly touching the wound.
“Don’t worry kit, the poison will not do harm to you,” Kurama informed the blond and Naruto took a deep breath again sliding his jumpsuit back down even though the slash marks still exposed the cut.
Kakashi turned around facing Tazuna who was practically cowering behind Sakura. “You have a lot to explain Tazuna,” Kakashi growled clenching his fist tightly. “Give me answers, or I will take my team back to the village and leave you here,” Kakashi threatened getting Tazuna to stutter a little and begged him not to leave.
“P-please, the Land of Waves needs this bridge, if I’m able to build it then it can save the village from Gato’s overpriced shipping. People are dying in the Land of Waves. I couldn’t afford a higher rank payment. Please,” Tazuna pleaded as he got on his knees in front of Kakashi.
“Sensei, if people need this bridge, we need to help,” Sakura spoke up and the Jonin sighed quietly. He didn’t want to keep going. There’s a reason he hasn’t requested a mission above C rank. This was clearly at least a B-rank mission. He rubbed the bridge of his nose before reluctantly agreeing.
“Fine, but once the bridge is built and you get paid for it, you are paying the amount of an A-rank mission,” Kakashi told Tazuna who nodded quickly. He was just happy he’d have people escort him to the bridge.
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As night drew over the ninjas and the bridge building, Kakashi decided the six would set up camp for the night. There was a chilling breeze in the air, the leaves of the trees around them rustled around. Everyone but Kakashi and Sasuke was asleep. The silver-haired jonin deciding it’d be best for at least one of them to remain awake in case something or someone were to attack and Sasuke not really finding himself to be tired. Sakura passed out happily dreaming about her and her Sasuke-Kun. Shikamaru was just asleep, dreaming about watching the clouds. Tazuna was dreaming about the bridge, thinking about all the good that would come out of it.
Naruto was joyfully dreaming about eating ramen until he found himself waking back up in front of the nine-tails prison. “Hmm? Awe man come on! Why wake me up!” Naruto shouted complaining crossing his arms.
“Because kit, I know much about the Tenseigan. And I think instead of having you not use it in fear of what it’s powers are, you should be taught how to handle it,” Kurama informed the blond whose eyes lit up briefly before he squinted at the demon.
“And why would you want to help me? What’s in it for you?” Naruto questioned standing up in the sewer water. Kurama let a hearty laugh out.
“Well, with the new chakra mode you’d have access to, you’d be able to allow me to come out of this prison,”
“So you want to escape? I can’t do that Kurama. I know that you’ve been nice to me, but I know that you still hate Konoha. Kurama I can’t set you free,” Naruto states as he took a step away from the bars of Kurama’s prison.
“Let me finish kit. Yes, I do still despise Konoha a little. But what I am suggesting is creating a body for me. And it wouldn’t be permanent unless you wanted it to. I would still be in this prison, or my body would be, along with my chakra. Kit, I’ve been stuck in here for twelve years. I want to be able to explore the world.” Kurama informed the boy who looked at the ground. He knew Naruto was questioning him. And Kurama wasn’t really all that surprised. He was a demon. If he were in Naruto’s shoes he’d be questioning everything said to him. “At least think about it. In the meantime, I will help you unlock Tenseigan Chakra Mode,” Kurama told the blond who tilted his head in curiosity at what Kurama was speaking about.
“Well? What’re you waiting for then?!” Naruto shouted, jumping a little. “How do I unlock it?”
“Well, for us to work on it, you need to be awake. And I’d rather help you practice when you’re awake than to tell you and have you hurt yourself,” Kurama told the boy who rolled his eyes crossing his arms.
“Fine, stupid fox. I’ll wake up,” Naruto huffed a little upset that Kyuubi was making him wake up to train. Naruto stretched out yawning before slowly sitting up rubbing his eyes. He looked around seeing Sasuke’s back facing him. Naruto silently stood up and began walking the opposite way. The blond walked until he knew he was far enough from the campsite to begin training without risking waking the others up.
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Kakashi was crouching down on a tree branch watching Naruto. So far he’s been there watching his student speaking to himself for close to an hour. “Come on Kurama! This isn’t funny!” Naruto growled hearing the fox laughing.
“Kit, I’m laughing because you aren’t doing what I’m telling you to. That power you felt surge through you the first time you used the tenseigan, that was the new chakra in you. What you don’t understand about your new eyes is that they replaced your regular chakra with the tenseigan chakra.” Kurama informed the blond as he looked around the forest while listening to Kurama. “To activate the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, you must let it flow through your entire body, and enhance it. It’s the only way,” Naruto frowned but knew he was going to have to do as told.
As he was about to activate his tenseigan, Kakashi cleared his throat landing behind the student. Naruto let a quiet shout out before looking towards his sensei. “And what are you doing out here so late Naruto?” Kakashi questioned crossing his arms. He knew that the blond was messing with the tenseigan. But he wanted to know exactly what the nine-tailed fox was telling the resident jinchuriken.
“Kurama told me about a chakra mode I could use. He’s teaching me how to activate it.”
“Naruto, is there any way you can hold off? We can’t risk being down a ninja during this mission. At least wait until we know for sure there aren’t any more tricks this ‘Gato’ person has up his sleeves,” Kakashi asked of the ninja who frowned crossing his arms. The hyperactive ninja nodded and reluctantly agreed to Kakashi’s request.
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In a cave underground, it was freezing and water dripped from the top of it. Small puddles formed and deeper into the cave, Toneri stood in front of a small orb. He was watching when Naruto first activated the tenseigan. “Yes,” He whispered in a victorious tone. “Unlimited power will be mine,” He laughed before hearing a muffled scream. He turned his head revealing a Hyuga girl with short, dark green hair and like the rest of her clan, she has large white eyes. She was wearing a full-length kimono with a white apron on top along with the village's forehead protector around her forehead.
Toneri frowned twitching his head slightly walking over to the girl. “Natsu honey,” He spoke gingerly while approaching her. “You are only alive because I am politely waiting for the right time to take those eyes of yours. But if you insist on being such a loud, and obnoxious little girl,” Toneri spat with venom to his words. He grabbed her chin and with no mercy or care, plucked Natsu’s eyes out. She screamed against the rag in her mouth before hers screams turned to quiet whimpers.
As Toneri walked away from Natsu, her eye sockets were empty and bleeding. Toneri laughed softly seeing Natsu as he put her eyes, into his sockets. “Thank you for your sacrifice,”