Literal Love at First Sight

Part 6

It was the day of the third round of the exam, and Naruto was dreading being forced to interact with the others from his age group. He had effectively disappeared after graduation and avoided them when they came in for their missions. He was hiding in the shadows during the preliminaries as well. Unfortunately, they were bound to see him standing next to the Hokage as his guard and the ANBU commander, though only he and the Hokage know about the second one. He was well known as Arashi no Kami (The Storm God). So this was a deterrent for the other villages.

After he and Tobirama had seated, the reportedly dead Kazekage showed up. Due to being Kyuubi's jinchuriki, Naruto could sense emotions, and the supposed Kazekage wreaked of bad intentions, no matter how good he was at keeping it out of his chakra. He and his fixation both know this is Orochimaru wearing Raza's face.

Eventually, it was time for the first round. The opponents were Neji versus Kiba. He could already tell that Neji would lose even if only because he underestimates his opponents. And as he predicted, it came to pass.

Somehow, he managed to go unnoticed, or perhaps unrecognised, for most of the first round. When it was time for the spoiled Uchiha and the Ichibi's host to go, the Uchiha still hadn't shown up, so Tobirama asked him to inform the proctor that the brat was disqualified due to his inability to show up on time.

He promptly did as told. The blonde jumped down to the proctor, Genma, who is replacing Hayate due to the attack. "The Uchiha has been disqualified due to his inability to show up on time. We will be moving on to- '' Genma was cut off mid sentence by a tendril of sand forcing him to jump back while I deflected it with my wind, which at this point was instinctual as breathing. "Stand down or you will be disqualified. This is your only warning, Subakku no Gaara," I ordered in my Commander's voice. "Mother wants your blood," he stated as he began attacking me in earnest.

I guess I have to reveal my chakra chains then. Several orange glowing chains made their way out of his back, earning gasps from the ninja in the crowd that he ignored, manoeuvring around the tendrils trying to block them and locking around the crazed jinchuriki, covering everything but his chest where his faulty seal is located. Naruto used the chains to pull him closer while he pulled out some ink and a brush. When he was close enough, the container of the kyuubi ripped the part over his heart off, revealing to him the mockery of a seal that he began fixing at the speed that only a true master of seals could achieve. Before anyone could so much as think to stop him, he had already activated the new seal, causing the previously thrashing boy to fall limp. He slowly released his chains and carefully lowered the now slumbering boy.

After he set the boy down, Orochimaru finally snapped out of it and ordered they begin their attack. Baki and the older Suna siblings jumped down from the balcony to collect Garra, with Naruto allowing them to as Garra could no longer be forced to give over to his bijuu at any waking moment.As soon as they were out of sight, he hirashined to his fixation, who had allowed himself to be tagged as long as he could do the same.

When he appeared, he promptly blocked a large branch from stabbing into Tobirama from behind. "Are we fighting your brother of all people, Tobirama?" Naruto asked above about the loud noise of jutsu and weapon clashing. "And what could possibly give you that idea? Was it perhaps the gigantic branches of wood trying to kill us or maybe Hashirama himself who is standing right in front of me as an edo tensei?" was the sarcastic response. "Tobirama, you've allowed someone to call you by your given name?!" exclaimed the first Hokage. This earned him an eye roll from his younger brother and a snicker from the currently unknown blonde. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. It's nice to meet you!" The now identified blonde introduced as they clashed kunai to kunai. "An Uzumaki! Now I wonder if my dearest little brother gets along with you so well. Your clan has always been able to get through to even the thickest of skulls." Hashirama chuckled, earning a huff from Tobirama and a surprised but happy look from the ANBU Commander.

In the background, we see Orochimaru being pissed at being ignored and shown up by a (seemingly) child. Said child was going toe-to-toe with the eldest Senju brother while the younger Senju, who, might he add, was supposed to also be dead, was fighting himself. And the sennin was losing. He needed to retreat before he actually managed to get himself killed. And he did retreat, but not without having his arms sealed away. As soon as he left, Naruto and Tobirama began tag-teaming Hashirama. When the white-haired man began sealing him away with a carefully blank face, the older man shot him a beaming smile and spoke, "I'm glad you're happy now, little brother. I will love you always." With those words, Hashirama disappeared and the dam broke. Naruto had never comforted anyone before nor had he been comforted, so he was at a loss. He finally gave in to his instincts and hugged the other man tightly as he'd seen others do when they cried on tv or read in books. Tobirama stiffened at first until he realised who was holding him and relaxed while hiding his face in the blonde's neck as he silently cried. The other ANBU waited a moment to approach and allow their leaders to gain their composure before heading over, ready to get this attempted invasion over and done with.