Naruto: Senju Resurrection

Chapter 22

Team seven stood in front of the tower. Finally, they could relax a bit before the last test. Being on guard for 120 hours straight was tiring for the best of them. They had left Kabuto to his teammates when they met up outside the tower. Sasuke seems to have seen Naruto's mistrust towards Kabuto and his team because he acted more guarded around them. They walk into their room and notice that it is empty except for a big frame with a poem inside. "If "Heaven" does not exist, enrich your knowledge, and prepare for the chance. If earth does not exist, run in the fields in serch of an advantage. Open the series of Heaven and Earth, and the perilous way shall be redressed... This is namely the secret of "the one that guides..."" Naruto reads aloud. "What the hell does that mean?" He asks his teammates. "It looks like there are words missing there." Sakura states as she is pointing towards holes in the poem. "It probably has something to do with the scroll. I think this means we're supposed to open the Heaven & Earth scrolls," She deduces.

Naruto hands her one of the scrolls. They unravel both at the same time. "Look out, that is a summoning jutsu! Throw it over there!" Sasuke says urgently. A giant poof of smoke erupted, and Iruka stood before them. "Hi there. It has been a long time," He says as he gives them a warm smile. "What is going on?" Sakura asks. "It appears you guys have had a rough time," Iruka observe. "Tell me about it! Five days is way too long to be on guard!" Naruto says with an easy smile on his face.

"By the way, we need to talk to Hokage-Jiji. Some stuff happened in the forest." Naruto's easy expression melted away. "Eh.. what happened. It must be serious if you need to talk to Sandaime-sama," Iruka asks with a worried expression. "We ran into a nuke-nin. We can't tell anything more than that. I'm sorry." Naruto says before anyone had a chance to tell Iruka. "I understand, but I can't promise that you get to speak with him," Iruka says after thinking about it for a bit. "Although you aren't even supposed to talk with your jonin senseis, so I will see what I can do," Iruka adds. "Thank you!" Naruto's smile returns quickly. "I'll go and see if you can talk to him. Also, congratulations on surviving the second exam!" Iruka says with a smile as he leaves in a shunshin.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us you had Mokuton!" Sasuke says in a hurt voice. "We are supposed to be teammates. You should be able to tell us anything," He continues to rant As he walks around the room. Naruto was sitting on his knees in front of him. He did feel bad about not talking about his Kekkei Genkai. It is a big part of who he is and a big source of pride. Same as it is for Sasuke and his Sharingan. Sasuke paces back and forwards while ranting loudly about trust and camaraderie. Sakura, on the other hand, had totally forgotten about the incident. She was too focused on what had happened to Sasuke afterwards. Now she wanted to voice something about the weird bruise Orochimaru had left on Sasuke but couldn't get a word in edgewise. After a couple of minutes of Sasuke's rantings, there where a knock on the door.

Naruto went and opened it. "Am I interrupting something?" The kind voice of his Jiji says. "No please come in we have a lot to talk about." Naruto says while sending a warning glare towards his male teammate. "So I hear you had a run in with a nuke-nin in the forests," The aged Hokage says. "Yes. We ran into Orochimaru," Naruto says seriously. The Hokage almost swallowed his pipe. He hadn't gotten any report that said Orochimaru was back in the village. "Are you sure it was him?" He asks in a grave voice. "Positive. He had a snake summoning contract and confirmed my suspisions himself after I confronted him." Naruto says in a sombre tone. "I think he did something to Sasuke," Sakura pipes up. She couldn't hold it to herself any longer. Sasuke looks towards her angrily. "He also knows about my Mokuton..." Naruto adds.

The Hokage took a couple of puffs from his pipe. This was bad. Very bad. Orochimaru knowing of Naruto's Mokuton was bad. His interest in the Sharingan was also something to take into consideration. "He also put some form of seal on my stomach. I can't feel the Kyuubi's chakra anymore." Naruto whispers to the Hokage. "Okay, here is what we will do. Sasuke, you will come with me, and we will check whatever Orochimaru did to you and Naruto. Can you lift your shirt," The Hokage says. Naruto lifts his shirt, and Hiruzen looks at the seal. He saw the Gogyō Fūin. "This won't hurt a bit. Ready 3..." But instead of counting down, he slammed his hand into Naruto's stomach. "Gogyō Kaiin!" He says as Naruto loses consciousness. "He will wake up in an hour or two, don't worry," The aged man soothes the worried-looking Sakura. "Come on now, Sasuke, let's meet up with Kakashi so he can look at that thing Orochimaru did," He leads Sasuke out of the room. "Your final examination starts in 3 hours. You should rest until then," He says as he closes the door on Sakura and the sleeping Naruto.