Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past was real.-Cormac McCarthy.
Naruko made arrangements for Karin to stay with the Uchiha's while she was away with Jiraiya. The miniMaki was so excited, because she liked Mikoto, who always made sweets and made sure to save her some. Naruko apologised about having to leave. Karin was okay with it, but demanded that Naruko win the Chunin Exams as payment. The blonde agreed.
Jiraiya was most insistent on leaving soon. He already had Jiji's permission to whisk Naruko away to train and was on her doorstep bright and early. Too early and he had to wait three hours before Naruko came back down to let him in.
He was taking her to train with the toads, right after she learned the summoning technique. So, they moved to a training field on the outskirts of the village and Naruko summoned the big boss Gamabunta. Said boss tried everything he could think of, to not accept Naruko as his new summoner, but Jiraiya threw in the fact that she was the Yondaime's daughter and the attitude of the enormous amphibian changed drastically. He promised to make her his most trusted minion and she'd learn all of the 'toadly arts' in no time.
Naruko had to restrain herself from hugging the toad. He was so big and awesome, but she was pretty sure that he wouldn't appreciate being coddled by a blonde midget. He was a boss, and deserved to be treated as one. Even though she thought he looked cute!
Jiraiya placed his large hand on her back, "Congrats brat! You won over the great Gamabunta!"
Naruko gave him a thumbs up, not bothering to look away from the toad.
"Is she your new apprentice? And is she going to come and train?" Gamabunta asked the Sannin.
Jiraiya gave the boss a large grin. "You know it! She's earned her apprenticeship and I believe she'll become great. Besides, the great Jiraiya only trains the best!"
Gamabunta rolled his eyes, "Sure. I'll tell Fukasaku-sama to reverse summon you two. See you soon!"
Naruko gave Jiraiya a look, "Reverse summon us? Where?"
"Mount Myoboku of course! Be prepared kid, you'll be in toad heaven!" Jiraiya winked and Naruko's eyes sparkled.
Naruko was surprised when the field they had been in, was replaced with a very bright and cheery looking place. Verdant plants were all over the place. The sky was a mix of gold and blue and the temperature was moderate. Naruko smiled to herself. If she had any thoughts, it would be that Mount Myoboku, was paradise. The very air was light and seemed to exude peace.
"Jiraiya-boy, this is the new apprentice Bunta-boy was talking about? She looks a lot like your last apprentice. Family I believe?"
Naruko looked down and into the gold eyes of a small toad. He was green with white hair that looked like a mohawk and bushy eyebrows with a small goatee. He wore a cape, and she thought he looked adorable!
"Yes, Fukasaku-sama. This is Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze, Minato's daughter and my goddaughter," Jiraiya nodded, patting Naruko's head.
Naruko looked at the small toad. He was watching her and she gave a small bow, "Hello."
Fukasaku eyed the girl. The bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes. But, she wore a face mask, which showed signs of mistrust and fear. Possibly the result of a past incident that made her self conscious. She seemed to be excited, but knew that it wasn't needed at that moment. She had perfect posture, showing that she was a fighter who had full belief in her skills, but didn't seem cocky. Her clothing wasn't normal for ninja. The last time ninja wore breastplates, was during the Second Shinobi World War. There must've been more to the item than what it looked. She didn't have a weapon pouch like others did. Instead she had two zanbato on her back. He recognized that they were legendary Kirigakure swords. She was very different, that was for sure.
She had high chakra reserves, most likely from being an Uzumaki. And there was a dark chakra beneath her own. It wasn't exactly evil, but wasn't all too kind either.
"She has much chakra," he stated.
Naruko nodded, "I'm the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko."
Fukasaku nodded in understanding. That explained the enormous levels of chakra. He was impressed that she had the chakra perfectly balanced. If she had naturally good chakra control, then her Senjutsu training would progress quickly.
"I look forward to teaching you Senjutsu, Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze," he smiled at the girl.
Naruko leaned to the side, "I'm eager to learn Jiji-Sennin."
Jiraiya gaped as Fukasaku laughed heartily. His head thrown back.
"Yes, we will get along swimmingly, Naruko-girl."
Jiraiya sighed and shook his head in disbelief. How could she get away with calling a Hokage Jiji? A great Gama Sennin Jiji? Tsunade, Ba-chan? Him Ero Sennin? Did she not know what respect was? And how could they let her. Granted he complained about her nickname for him, but the others didn't!
"Well Fukasaku-sama, I'll be going. I'll return in twenty-eight days, and I can't wait to see how far along she's come."
The elderly toad nodded and Naruko looked at him.
"Where are you going?"
"Fukasaku-sama and his wife Shima will teach you Senjutsu. Right now, I'm going to do some spying on Orochimaru's forces and see what information I can get. Be good and when you eat, imagine it's something else."
Before Naruko could ask what he meant, he was gone in a poof of smoke.
"Well," Fukasaku said. "Let's go see Ma. She'll love you."
Naruko followed the old toad, looking around at the other toads. They were so cool!
Shima-sama was smaller than Fukasaku by about an inch. She was also green and had curly purple hair atop her head, with purple lines around her mouth that matched. Her eyes were a dull green with black with a horizontal line across each, like Fukasaku.
She had given Naruko a full look over and announced that she liked the blonde.
Naruko smiled, even though they couldn't see it, "I like you too Baa-Sennin!"
Shima laughed the same way Fukasaku had when Naruko had given him a nickname. Her husband joined in and they laughed themselves silly.
When everything returned to normal, Shima had asked what Naruko thought of Jiraiya.
She shrugged, "Ero Sennin is too perverted. Tsunade-ba-chan is always hitting him because he doesn't shut up. I think he likes toads as much as I do, because every title he uses, has 'toad' in there somewhere. He can be serious when he needs to be, and his feelings for Ba-chan are obvious, though she doesn't notice. A real romantic despite his less than noble 'literature'. Ero Sennin is a good guy, even though he's a self proclaimed, 'super pervert'."
The two Gama Sennin looked at each for a moment. Then they were laughing again.
"I like you!"
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Sasuke looked at his brother in apprehension. He wanted him to do what?
Itachi's face didn't show any emotion. He looked dead serious.
"Could you repeat that?" Sasuke asked, hoping that Itachi wasn't messing with him.
"Light that stump on fire without hand signs."
Sasuke nodded his head, "That's what I thought you said. How?"
Itachi didn't provide an answer. Sasuke focused on the stump, glaring at it. How was he supposed to set in on fire without handsigns? None of the Uchiha's fire jutsu were done without hand signs. Itachi was expecting something, but he had no idea how comply with his brothers order. I wasn't like he could set the stump on fire with his eyes.
His eyes flashed with the thought. He was told not to use his hands and had to have his Mangekyo activated when he did it. Was he supposed to do it with just his eyes? Was that a power of the Mangekyou? The records on such a power were very sparse, because only a handful of people in the history had ever achieved it. Itachi was a prodigy and got his Mangekyou when he was thirteen. He'd had five years to train his, so he probably knew the ins and outs of the mystery better than anyone in the clan ever did or would!
Sasuke started wondering how he was to use the Mangekyo in order to make fire. Was he supposed to think about lighting the object on fire? Or something else?
Sasuke stared at the stump. It didn't burn, or even smoke. He glared at it, wanting it to burn to the ground for not doing what he wanted.
Suddenly, the stump was surrounded by black flames that were eating it up like it was nothing. Sasuke could feel something strange in his left eye. Itachi was beside him in a second, with his own Mangekyou active. The fire died down and extinguished.
Sasuke looked at his older brother in silent question.
"Amaterasu, the fires of hell. We can summon them when we focus our Mangekyou on a certain object and wish it to be destroyed. However I use my right eye to summon the flames. You use your left. This leads me to believe that your right eye can shape the flames just as my left eye does. We most likely have the same powers, but they're inverted. How did you feel when the stump lit on fire?"
Sasuke was reeling. He had just used hellfire to set a stump on fire and his brother had just spoken the most he ever had in one sitting. "I was angry, because it wasn't on fire yet," he answered, half paying attention as he looked at the purple smoke coming from the once flaming stump.
Itachi nodded, "That is what happened when I first used it. I had read some very meager notes on the subject. It didn't light until I had finally growled in annoyance. Don't tell anyone about that little brother, or I'll bring out the most embarrassing pictures of you and give them to your love."
Sasuke flushed, knowing full well that Itachi would do it too. "Okay!" he said hastily.
Itachi entertained a brief smirk. "Good. Now, you can work on Tsukuyomi. Look into my eyes and try to put me in a Genjutsu."
Sasuke stared at his brother and felt his right twitch slightly. Itachi's Sharingan was off and Sasuke could see the Mangekyou of his right eye spinning slowly in the reflection. He blinked and found himself in a different place. Everything looked to be in the negative and he looked around, finding Itachi fastened to a cross. Itachi looked to be white, as the negative made his darks clothes bright in color.
"What the?" he mumbled. This wasn't what he was aiming for.
Itachi gave him a small smile, "This is your Tsukuyomi. Mine has a red sky and people come off as greyish. Everything else is dark red or black. Impressive that you got it on the first try." His Sharingan activated them and they returned to the real world.
Itachi looked at his little brother, "See how many times you can use Amaterasu. Then, try to manipulate the flames with your Tsukuyomi. This will strengthen your ocular power."
Sasuke nodded and focused on the stump once more.
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Itachi carried Sasuke into the house. His mother clamored to know what was wrong and he explained that they had been training and Sasuke did a good job. He placed the younger teen on his bed and smirked. Yes, he had done very well for his first day. Only twenty-seven more to go.
Itachi went into the kitchen to see his mother looking at a camcorder. She was smiling as she shut it. "Itachi, could you be a dear and place this in my room on the bed?" she asked handing him the object.
He nodded and headed off, wondering what she was looking at. He decided that it couldn't be something bad if she smiling so much at it.
He opened side and turned it on. Then into the memory at the most recent video. He stood in the hallway for a good five minutes, watching his little brother confess to the girl of his dreams and sware that he was going to make her feel the same some day and that she was going to happily marry him within the next four years.
Itachi shut the camcorder off and quickly put in his parents room. He went back down the hall, quickly telling his mother that he had to go see Shisui and was gone before she had answered.
Locating his best friend was pretty easy. Shisui loved to train at the Uchiha's private training grounds and when he appeared, the man got a wicked gleam in his eye.
"More dirt on Sasuke?"
"Oh, more than you can imagine."
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Jiraiya sneaked into the enemy camp, masking his chakra as he slunk through the shadows. Orochimaru had his men waiting for something. The border of Oto no Kuni. Some of his most important followers were stationed outside the border, waiting for something. Jiraiya prepared himself for the next month of spying, his most dangerous mission yet.
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Naruko brought her arms up, blocking another attack from Fukasaku. For an old toad he was pretty damn fast and hit hard!
"Concentrate on your form! Make sure your Sennin Modo isn't disrupted!" the little toad ordered, coming at her again.
She nodded and lunged. They paired each others attacks for a good while, before he moved and she, unexpecting of the change in form was hit full on with the attack, losing balance and falling off the platform on the spike she had been fighting on.
Before she could plunge to her doom, Fukasaku's tongue wound around her waist, catching her. She sighed a yelled her gratitude.
The old toad nodded and brought her back up to her previous place.
"Again!"
Naruko sighed as she leapt off her platform and attacked the old toad sage. Jiraiya was due back in a few days and she wanted to be perfect on Kawazu Kumite before he showed.
According to Fukasaku, she had surpassed Jiraiya in Sennin Modo already. Where she only took two weeks to master it, without any toad like attributes, Jiraiya had yet to master it and he'd taken years to get to where he was.
She stated that it was because of Kyuubi or else she wouldn't be able to do it.
Fukasaku denied the claim, stating that she had more chakra than Jiraiya, perfect chakra control and had the right mindset. Apparently, Jiraiya was a prankster in his childhood and didn't take many things seriously. She didn't really find it hard to believe with the way he acted.
All she had to do now, was get the Kata's down, which was annoying. She had ten Kage Bunshin constantly working on them, hoping that she'd get it, but something just wasn't clicking.
She and Fukasaku fought well into the evening. They finally gave in and went to eat some dinner. Naruko left her clones outside to keep practicing, hoping that they'd find out what was wrong with her form.
Later that evening, one of her clones exploded and she woke from the knowledge. She's been trying to hit her opponent when that wasn't exactly needed in Kawazu Kumite. Because the natural energy was used, so even if a punch went by the enemy's head, they could still get injured with the force of the energy! She grinned and jumped up. It was time for more training!
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Jiraiya watched as Naruko and Fukasaku-sama sparred. He couldn't quell the jealousy he felt. She had mastered a perfect Sennin Modo in a month! Was that even possible? He felt like he should get up there and practice as well, because she was already surpassing him and he couldn't let her do that at her age!
He watched the battle for another hour and patted the blondes back when they finished. "I can't believe you did it!"
"That was worse than the training for Jinsokuna Ken. I grasped that easily, especially with Kyu teaching me. This was so different and we spent half my time here trying to get it down. I finally got it yesterday and we were perfecting it."
Fukasaku quirked a brow, "You know Jinsokuna Ken? No wonder you have such good chakra control then! To come here with knowledge like that, I think we found out why you're doing so well!"
Naruko thought about it. In Jinsokuna Ken, she had to mix two different chakra's in order for hers to be deadly. Her chakra and Kyu's chakra. So, with her mastery of mixing two chakra forms already, she had been able to learn Senjutsu quicker, because she understood the process.
So you really had nothing to do with it?
Pfft! No! I don't like amphibians. Especially that fat one!
Which one? A lot of them are fat!
The chief toad. The Yondaime summoned him to help subdue me when I attacked the village and that fat ass sat on my back! He was heavy!
Oh grow up!
You'd be humming another tune if you were sat on by someone at and they crushed you!
Sure sure.
She walked off to get her things, arguing with the fuzzball in her mind all the way.
Fukasaku turned to the Gama Sannin. "She's all ready to go Jiraiya-boy! She may just be the best Sennin we've ever had. One who wasn't a toad already. She prepared everything to go last night. She just wants to go and say goodbye to Ma."
"Thank you Fukasaku-sama," Jiraiya bowed and the old toad laughed.
"It was a pleasure. She's quite the driven little thing. Serious yet knows when to have fun. When she found out that Bunta-boy had sons, she started jumping up and down asking to meet them. Let me tell you, Kichi-boy and Tatsu-boy love her! She gives them candy she has sealed in her breastplate and totes them around whenever she isn't training. This has been quite a month. I'm a little sad that her training is already over," Fukasaku smiled.
Naruko walked up, completely dressed in her full outfit, swords and all. In her arms were two toads that were snacking happily on some pocky.
Jiraiya nearly died at the pleading look in those eyes. "You can't keep them Naruko."
The bug eyes grew wider and he found himself subjected to the puppy eyes of two toads and his goddaughter.
"We like her!" the orange toad insisted.
"She gives us candy!" the yellow one added, holding out the pocky.
Fukasaku was laughing as Jiraiya tried to explain that this was their home and they had to stay to grow stronger.
The three sighed and Naruko placed the toads on the ground. "Sorry guys. I'll try to summon you at some point though."
"Okay!" the boys cheered and hopped away, fighting over the box of pocky she had given them.
Fukasaku bid them a farewell and told them to visit as soon as they could. Jiraiya and Naruko waved before the lush vibrancy of Mount Myoboku was replaced with a woodland area.
"We're just outside the walls of Konoha," Jiraiya explained.
Naruko looked at him, "So, what did you learn?"
He wrinkled his nose, "Orochimaru has developed a way to switch into new bodies in order to prolong his life. He chooses those with powerful Kekkei Genkai, like your Uchiha's Sharingan. And you, for you Uzumaki blood. He enters another body every few years, keeping the abilities of the last one he used. One of the kids in the camp I was spying on, is the only survivor of the Kaguya clan and apparently, he was to be Orochimaru's next body, or vessel, before he got sick. Orochimaru would use that body and then move onto another one in due time, retaining the Kekkei Genkai from the Kaguya's blood. He's been doing this for a while it seems. He enters a new body that he has marked with one of his seals and takes over. That person's consciousness is destroyed with his presence and the seals power of draining it away."
Naruko glared, "When you say 'enters', what do you mean? Because I got this gross idea and I'd really hope it's not what I think."
Jiraiya smirked, "It's not what you think. His seals eat away at the consciousness of the person. A part of his soul, which is in the seal, slowly takes over the mind of the person the more they use his seal for power."
Naruko scowled as they walked. Orochimaru was a body stealing snake loving pedophile. Creepy!
"I found out that someone has been leaking info to Orochimaru about the Uchiha Clan. Apparently they gave him a detailed map of the Compound. He also received the information about yours and Sasuke's goals from this person and their family apparently. The Kaguya was disgusted that your Uchiha wanted to kill his brother for no reason and the others made it like it was something funny. Some of the men talked about the info from the 'inside'. A silver haired boy with glasses said that the person providing the information was named Sakuro and that he was trustworthy, because he'd been severely scorned by the village. I plan to inform sensei of this when we get to his office."
Naruko thought the name was familiar, but couldn't place it.
"More bad news, is that Oto and Suna are planning to invade Konoha during the final round of the Exams. Their planning to use the Suna Jinchuuriki as their trump card," Jiraiya sighed. "Konoha can never get a break it seems."
Naruko was still thinking about the name. Sakuro. It was like the male version of Sakura. She froze in place and Jiraiya stopped beside her.
"Sakura's dad," she mumbled.
"What?"
She began smacking his arm, "Sakura's dad! His name is Sakuro! He's on the Civilian Council and he hates Sasuke and I for telling the council that his daughter Sakura was worthless shinobi and should be dropped. He also hates Kaka-sensei and pretty much everyone else, because they voted to have her removed, and she was. She was a Sasuke fangirl that claimed to know everything about Sasuke, when in actuality, she didn't know squat! Sakuro Haruno and his family are the ones giving Pedo-Hebi-teme the info!"
Jiraiya frowned, "We need to tell sensei now. Shunshin!"
Naruko followed suit and they appeared in the Hokage's office.
He looked up in shock, "Quite an entrance you two. Welcome back!" He smiled, pushing the paperwork aside all too happily.
Jiraiya looked somber, "Sensei, we have some bad news."