Naruto:Making Of A Hokage

Coming Together

A harsh wind howled through a grassy field. Masked ninja ran through it, rustling the grass as their cloaks fluttered wildly with the wind. One of the ninja, the presumed leader wearing a plain white mask came to a halt, his two followers doing the same after a signal from his raised hand. He hummed quietly and took a step forward.
"Wha-!" He exclaimed just as blood sprayed out of several deep cuts made on his body before it fell lifelessly on the ground.
The two other masked ninja were instantly on the alert, the falcon-masked ninja quickly putting a hand to his partner's shoulder as the world around them changed.
"Genjutsu!" The grey-masked ninja let out in a feminine voice. She took in her surroundings with an audible gasp. Gone was the grassy field, replaced with a small clearing near a tall hill. A growl came from underneath her mask as she quickly got to work, easily finding what she was looking for, "Two different sources of chakra. One of them is off the charts." Her arms dropped to her sides, fingers lingering on the ninja pouches that were on either side of her waist.
The falcon-masked ninja didn't respond but pulled out a katana that was strapped to his wait, its silver blade glistening with the sun's rays as he took a step forward, "We know you're hiding, come out already!"
"Quite a bold one, eh?" A voice spoke up in amusement as a tall figure emerged from the woods surrounding them. His face was covered from view by the tassels of his large straw hat, as was most of his body by a black cloak with red clouds. "Just you're average group of ninja, but they couldn't have gotten here by mistake," he continued as he reached for his hat and took it off, revealing a shark-like face with a smirk in place, "Could they be Anbu? Haven't fought any in a while."
Another figure emerged from the nearby woods, this one not wearing a hat and carrying an emotionless expression on his face. "It's been a long time," he spoke without any hint of emotion, directing his attention to the falcon-masked ninja, "Sasuke."
The falcon-masked ninja gripped his katana tightly, hands shaking as his knuckles whitened. "Itachi..." sparks emitted from his blade as it turned a light blue color, "It won't be like last time."
"You appear to believe yourself equal to me," he spoke calmly.
Sasuke let out a shaky breath, trying to calm himself. "I've been waiting for this moment for years. Facing you with me being more than capable of killing you. There's no way I'll lose myself to emotions now," his voice was calm as he relaxed the hold on his blade. Emotions had been ripped out of him by Root, the organization that had taken him after his fight with Naruto. "I will kill you her and now."
"Then come, Sasuke," Itachi responded, "Show me what you believe to be strength."
Explosions rocked the area as a thick layer of smoke spread through the usually quiet swamp that Fu knew like the back of her hand. Her eyes were narrowed, focused on the enemy as she moved through the air, hidden by the heavy smoke in the area. It was thanks to her Bijuu that she was able to see under such conditions since it gave her better vision and kept her eyes from being irritated.
She smirked slightly as she came to a halt and ran through hand signs, "Wind Style: Compressed Blast!"
Her wings expanded before flapping at the same time, creating a powerful blast of wind that shot through the air at an incredible speed. It wasn't enough though since, being from the Akatsuki, Deidara had no problem in maneuvering his clay bird out of the way and didn't waste any time in swinging both arms to send a flock of clay birds towards where the attack had come from. The birds disappeared into the smoke before being triggered into dozens of explosions by a bright flash from inside the smoke. He scowled, not fully understanding what was going on but dropped from his bird and had it rush into the large cloud of smoke, all the while taking a large amount of clay into his hands.
He kept an eye on the smoke as he fell through the air, an explosion going off inside the large cloud of smoke as he flipped in the air and created another large clay bird to land on. The attack hadn't killed her, in fact, the possibility of it hitting was low since he had seen her swift agility. Underestimating a jinchuuriki was something he wasn't willing to do despite the way he spoke to them. Not because they were strong but because of the Bijuu sealed within them being able to tear down a whole village with little trouble.
His train of thought was interrupted as he caught movement from inside the cloud of smoke. A shadow seemed to grow bigger until the jinchuuriki emerged from the cloud and flew straight at him at full speed with her hands clutching something on her waist. Not wanting to be blindsided by a sudden attack, Dedidara focused his scope on her arms in an attempt to get a closer look. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, not seeing anything on her hands and switched his sights to her face while still being zoomed in. He noticed her cheeks bulging, much to his confusion since she hadn't used any hand signs.
What happened next completely threw him off guard. A blinding powder shot out of Fu's mouth, making him cry out in pain as his scope caught the thing without any protection. "You bitch!" He clutched his scope in pain, closing his right eye as he let out a series of curses.
'Now's my chance!' Fu thought to herself as she flew at the Akatsuki member at full speed, her whole body being in engulfed in green chakra, to the point of having her body outlined in the form of a beast with four tails. She came to a halt once getting close enough and extended both arms, pointing the palms of her hands at the enemy. She gritted her teeth as a ball of black compressed chakra began to take shape between her hands.
The smoke filling the area was blown away as the ball of compressed chakra shot at Deidara in the form of a giant yellow blast that sent shockwaves across the swamp. The attack engulfed the Akatsuki member whole before going off in an explosion so powerful that it's cheer force managed to tear some trees off the ground.
"Got'em," Fu grinned through pants as she descended to the ground, her wings fading away slowly. That last attack had used up most of her chakra, leaving her too exhausted to pull on her Bijuu's chakra without losing control. At least the battle was over despite what Naruto's worry. "I told that idiot that I'd be fine."
She lowered her gaze downwards as she landed safely on the ground. A small chuckle left her lips before it was replaced by an involuntary gasp. Her shadow was being blocked by a bigger one in the shape of a bird. Her eyes widened as she spun on her heels and came face to face with the Akatsuki member, this time standing on top of a dragon-like figure made up of clay that flapped its wings calmly though it created powerful winds.
"H-How?"
Deidara smirked. "I appreciate your attempt at art but..." he trailed off, referring to the explosion from earlier. "It's all about the timing!"
BOOOM!
Fu was pushed back as a powerful explosion went off before her feet. Her eyes shot up in panic as she quickly flipped in the air, landed on a tree, and kicked off of it just as another explosion obliterated the place where she had just been standing. She gritted her teeth as she broke into an all-out sprint, running away from a string of explosions that seemed endless. How he had the time to plant them all she didn't know, but what she did know was that they were gaining on her. She could even feel the heat coming from the explosions burning the back of her neck.
Her orange eyes darted all over the place, looking for a way out until they finally came to a stop when seeing a large body of water. Without thinking, she quickly dove into it and swam as far as she could, hoping to be protected from the powerful explosions.
Deidara watched everything from the sky, a smirk on his face as he tracked the jinchuuriki's movements. It had come down to the basics, a simple substitution jutsu with a rock clone and he had the fight in the bag, even if her attack could have potentially killed him had he not been careful.
His smirk never left his face as he watched the rest of the explosives he had set up around the area, light up the swamp. It wasn't enough to take care of a jinchuuriki, they all seemed to have ridiculous endurance, but it would be enough to leave her heavily damage and easy to capture.
It was a good thing that he had set up all of those explosives across the swamp just in case their hideout need to be destroyed.
Lightning cackled loudly as Sasuke broke into an all-out charge against the older Uchiha. His blade emitted sparks violently as he swung it horizontally, letting out a shot of lightning on the stationary enemy who replaced himself with pitch-black crows as the attack hit. Having not expected that, Sasuke stopped dead on his tracks and almost jumped out of his skin when feeling a hand clasp his shoulder. Fear tore through his being, memories of that night flashing through his mind as his brother stood behind him, looking at him with a bored expression.
"You're unbearably slow," Itachi deadpanned as Sasuke broke out of his trance and jumped away, twisting in the air as to land face to face with his brother. "You lack conviction. In your own twisted way you believe yourself to be strong yet you're still hundreds of steps behind me."
An animalistic growl emitted from under Sasuke's mask as he filled his blade with lightning once more, this time adding much more than before. "You've always been an arrogant bastard," he growled as bolts of lightning shot out of his blade, tearing through parts of the ground beneath him with relative ease. "Stay that way... It'll make it easier for me to kill you."
From the sidelines, Kisame watched the two brothers with an amused grin. Because of the brat throwing chakra around like it was nothing, Samehada was getting exited, quivering in anticipation against his back. The Akatsuki member turned his attention away from the two Uchiha, his eyes landing on the final masked ninja that had come with Sasuke.
"You'll make a good distraction," he spoke casually as he grabbed his sword and put it in front of him in a relaxed stance.
The masked ninja said nothing, instead reaching into her ninja pouches and producing two daggers. She dropped into a battle stance and shifted her weight between her feet, ready to pounce at the enemy without a moment's notice.
It only seemed to amuse Kisame even more as he broke into a large smirk, "Ah, you might be some fun after all."
Fu coughed violently upon resurfacing. Blood trailed down from a gash on her forehead, having been hit by a falling rock, and pain ran through her left arm which had been hurt by a large boulder that sank in the water. It had been by an immense amount of luck that she hadn't ended up with her arm stuck in the boulder since she didn't have enough chakra left to free herself from such a grasp.
Another cough left her body as she swam to the water's edge and pulled herself out of the dirty water, falling limply on the ground and rolling over so that she could lay on her back. "Dammit, who would've thought that the sissy could do so much damage?" Fu groaned in pain as she sat up, mouth forming into a scowl as she let out a breath. "There's no way I'll be able to use this much..." she muttered after having a look at her left arm and finding it to be filled with cuts and a lot of swelling around her elbow.
Her eyes turned to the sky, feeling a bit annoyed at the way her opponent fought. She liked to enjoy a good fight but this guy was not making it fun in the slightest. It was as if he was always one step ahead and, worst of all, he used that knowledge to keep himself a good distance away from her, forcing her to rely on long range attacks. Just thinking about it made her sigh as she got back on her feet and walked to the nearest tree with a light limp.
Using more of her Bijuu's chakra was out of the question now, not to mention that her left arm hurt badly with the slightest of movements, and, to make things even worse, she still had no idea how to fight the guy. 'At least I have enough chakra for tree walking,' she chuckled bitterly before walking up the tree.
"There's something up there!"
The Naruto clone pointed at an odd dragon-like figure flapping its wings high in the air. He and Temari were currently running through the swamp and were finally getting close to the battle site after spending much time on the move. The battle site itself was quite close to where they had parted ways with Kankuro but they had to take several detours because of large parts of the swamp being lit up in flames.
"I wonder what king of jutsu caused those explosions earlier, could it have come from him?" Temari wondered out loud, a frown on her face, "Such an attack could even level a village. We have to stop whoever used it or we might end up regretting it later."
"Right," the clone nodded before stopping on its tracks, eyes widening slightly before nodding. Temari looked at the clone in confusion, having stopped a few steps ahead of him due to his sudden halt. The clone turned to look at her as a grim expression crossed its features, "I'll leave whatever is up there to you. Just hold him off for a few minutes, boss is nearby so he gave me another assignment."
The Suna kunoichi nodded despite her confusion, watching as the Naruto clone ran off at a fast speed. With the clone gone, she turned her attention to the sky, eyes landing on the flying figure as a look of anger flashed through her face, thinking that this was the person that had put Gaara's life in danger.
"You'll pay for that," she muttered to herself before running towards the figure.
Ino gritted her teeth, concentration showing on her face as she flung a pair of kunai at the incoming sea-serpent summon. The two projectiles dug into the beast's underside but they didn't seem to have any effect as it gathered chakra on its snout before firing it off, but she already had the sea-serpent's attacking patterns memorized so dodging the attack came down to a single jump and a twist in the air. Her eyes didn't leave the enemy as she landed on the water, reached into her kunai holster, took out another pair of kunai, and finally kicked off the water in order to avoid being hit by another blast of chakra that exploded where she had just been standing.
The kunoichi landed on a tree and wasted no time in taking out ninja wire and wrapping it over the two kunai. It didn't take long for her to finish and kick off the tree in a powerful leap that put her a good distance above the large summon. She then threw the two kunai at the back of the summon's head with deadly accuracy, succeeding in having the projectiles dig into the beast's rough skin. An accomplished grin formed on her face as she flipped in the air in order to land safely on the water behind the summon, which quickly turned to meet its opponent, gathering chakra on its snout once more before stopping dead on its tracks as a shadow attached to its own.
"Shadow Possession Success..." Shikamaru muttered to himself with a weary grin. He stood on the sidelines, having been ignored by the sea-serpent in favor of attacking Ino. A grunt escaped his lips as he fought to keep the summon from moving, its cheer strength making it a very difficult task, "Hurry up, I don't know how long I can hold this thing."
Ino gave an affirmative nod and quickly sprinted towards the summon and ran up its body, coming to a stop once she made it to its head. She quickly took hold of the ninja wire tied to the kunai she had thrown earlier, and ran down the summon's body in a circular pattern in order to have the wire wrapped around its neck. She came to a stop once making it to the other pair of kunai that were sticking out of the summon's underside and tied the wire around it, making sure to do it as tightly as possible before running away from the summon.
"You can let it go now Shikamaru!" She called out with a grin as the beast regained its movements, its eyes quickly finding the kunoichi as it snarled loudly. "Time to end this..." she muttered to herself before running through hand signs and slamming both hands on the water, "Summoning Jutsu!"
A large cloud of smoke formed beneath Ino's feet before being blown away by a pair of strong brown wings belonging to a large eagle that took for the skies with Ino standing on its back. The sea-serpent watched the large eagle with anger, ignoring Shikamaru once again which he took advantage of. Not wasting any time, he ran up the sea-serpent's back until making it to its head and retrieving the two kunai that were pierced in the back of its head. Now with the two kunai on hand, he jumped high in the air before flinging both projectiles at the eagle, Ino grinned as she caught the two kunai without much problem.
The kunoichi dug into the kunai pouch on her waist and took out a few explosive tags before getting to work and attached them to the ninja wire. She had used all that remained and it left her with a good amount of wire that clung loosely on the summon's neck, meaning that their plan would most likely work. She glanced down at the sea-serpent to see it flailing wildly as Shikamaru landed on its head and used chakra to keep himself from being shaken off. He then ran down the beast's body and retrieved the couple of kunai on the beast's underside. Ino grinned when seeing Shikamaru glance at her, and gave him a nod that signified that everything was ready.
"Here goes nothing..." Shikamaru grumbled as he got off the sea-serpent before running away from it as fast as he could, all the while grasping the two kunai tightly on his hands.
The sea-serpent roared in rage as it gathered chakra on its snout once again, whirlpools creating around it as it took aim at the moving Shikamaru only to struck in the back of the head by a blast of water. It let out a growl as it turned back to see Ino standing on top of her flying summon, her right hand outstretched while her left was on her side, holding on to the two kunai tightly. The sea-serpent snarled just as Ino dropped her hold on the kunai, making the two projectiles shoot at the summon as the ninja wire was being pulled away by the running Shikamaru.
Ino smiled weakly as she held up a hand sign. "It's over..."
The many seals on the ninja wire, wrapped around the summon's neck, detonated in a powerful explosion that engulfed the sea-serpent in a cloud of fire and smoke. Harsh winds picked up as shockwaves rocked the area, making the water shoot up as a heavy cloud of smoke and debris filled the area.
"That turned out to be way too much trouble," Ino let out in a sigh as her summon landed on the ground, uncomfortable by all the smoke as it flapped its wings in an attempt to blow it away. "Don't worry, we won'g be here long," she patted her summon's feathers and looked to her side when hearing noise, seeing Shikamaru walking towards her with a frown on his face.
"Let's get going already. I'm sure you also heard that loud explosion from earlier... Something bad is definitely going on with the others."
Ino gave him a nod as he jumped onto the eagle's back, big enough to give the two enough room to sit stand comfortably. "Let's go," she spoke loudly to the summon, earning a cry as it took air with a simple flap of its wings.
Naruto sat in a meditation pose on a grassy patch of land, his eyes closed and brows furrowed. This was necessary for this particular technique that he had developed while on training with Jiraiya. It was the ability to communicate with his clones.
This was incredibly useful when gathering information but it came with several restrictions, such as only being able to use it with a single clone, meaning that he had been forced to enter Sage Mode since he dispelled the remaining clone gathering natural energy. He also needed to be perfectly still since the technique required all of his concentration, this meant that he was vulnerable to attacks so using it while in battle was out of the question.
'She's safe and moving towards the battle site.'
A relieved smile formed on Naruto's face, 'Good, find a place to hide and gather natural energy. I might need Sage Mode again.'
With that last command, Naruto rose to his feet and turned towards the battle site, easily visible due to the heavy smoke surrounding it. Whoever Fu had been fighting was strong, stronger that Mayu who had given him trouble. The powerful explosions that had thundered through the swamp not long ago were proof enough of that. If they were to defeat the enemy ninja then they would need all of their strength, but their numbers could probably help them bluff their way out of a fight.
In any other situation he would have fought and taken down the Akatsuki member but he knew for a fact that most of his teammates were damaged from their fights and he didn't want to risk having anyone die, not after he self-assigned the mission. Just thinking about any of them dying because of a bad call he made, was enough to darken his mood. Most of all Ino, his most important person which he wouldn't risk under any circumstances. He knew she could take care of herself but against the Akatsuki it was best to be fully prepared.
With that in mind, he decided on bluffing their way out of a confrontation. "With that in mind..." he muttered to himself while running through hand signs. They needed numbers and that's what he planned on giving, "Summoning Jutsu!"
Deidara watched over the swamp from high up in the air. His many explosions had caused the fire to spread faster and had also left several craters on the normally vegetated swamp. He had decided to wait for the jinchuuriki to come back up, knowing full well that she would end up trying to attack him once more. There was the chance of her escaping but he could easily locate her with his scope.
He smirked as he waited for the jinchuuriki but rose an eyebrow in confusion when catching sight of another kunoichi standing on top of a large tree, her dirty blond hair swaying with the wind.
"Where'd you come from?" Deidara wondered out loud with a hint of amusement, which only increased when spotting the jinchuuriki standing on top of another tree while holding her left arm in pain. He chuckled lightly before hearing a loud cry coming from behind him. Confused, he turned towards the source of the noise to find a large eagle carrying two ninja on its back, making him scoff in annoyance, "More of you?"
Not long after he spoke, a giant cloud of smoke erupted from the swamp, spreading through the sky as a giant toad came to view. His aquamarine skin tone caught his attention but not as much as the two huge katanas on its back. He scoffed once more when noticing the ninja standing on the toad's head, and not just any ninja, but the one that had been fighting his partner which meant that he had killed her.
"Shit... this might be trouble..." Deidara smirked in dark amusement. He knew he was low on clay, having been doing his best to show off his moves on the battle with the jinchuuriki, though it wasn't that alarming it certainly wouldn't do against so much foes.
Naruto watched as the Akatsuki member appeared to think things through, hoping to no end that he would leave since fighting him would be too dangerous. He could always use Sage Mode but he was already worn out from using it earlier and once his time limit was up, he was sure he would be easy picking for the enemy.
That's why he hoped that Gamahiro, the toad he had summoned, was enough to intimidate the Akatsuki member. Gamahiro easily rivaled the size of Gamabunta and, though cocky, he wasn't one for words which made it a better choice than the others since he was sure that, had he summoned Gamabunta, he would end up complaining about being summoned.
"Come on, just leave before they get too close," he growled through gritted teeth, eyes fixed on the next problem. While Fu and Temari couldn't get much closer to the enemy without leaving themselves wide open meant that they wouldn't move, that wasn't the case for Ino and Shikamaru. The eagle carrying them was moving towards the Akatsuki member with no apparent intention to stop.
Deidara weighed his options without the smirk leaving his face until he finally scoffed. "We'll meet again jinchuuriki!" He called out without losing his smirk. "Don't think for a second that you'll leave my sight though," he gave his clay bird a light stomp, making it began to move by flapping its wings rapidly and shooting through the air at a fast speed. Deidara met Fu's eyes as he flew by her, his smirk widening, "We'll be meeting again! And when we do, you won't be so lucky. I'll make you feel the power of my art!"
Ino watched the enemy fly off and was about to urge her summon to catch up to him before the command died in her throat when meeting Naruto's stern gaze. His deep blue eyes seemed to scream at her to let it go and it wasn't until then that she noticed just how tired he looked, probably not being able to do any more fighting. Her shoulders relaxed as she instead commanded her summon to land on the nearest patch of land.
Ino and Shikamaru were back on the ground a few moments later, the summon gone as the kunoichi had dismissed it. The two teammate didn't wait long for the others to arrive, first was Temari who appeared to be a bit upset and then a kunoichi that Ino didn't know. She looked at her oddly before Naruto arrived shortly after the massive toad leapt away from the area.
"H-Hey..." Naruto greeted a bit nervously, having caught wind of the heavy atmosphere between the kunoichi. Ino not as much, as she simply kept glancing at Fu, but the other two were a different story. Temari was visually upset while Fu appeared to be in a bad mood and returned each of Ino's glances with a heated glare. Shikamaru of course, stood to the side with his arms crossed, not appearing to be bothered with the atmosphere or just outright ignoring it.
Fu's eyes seemed to light up once taking sight of Naruto before she stomped her way towards him and jabbed a finger on his chest, "Why didn't you stop that guy from leaving?"
"Him leaving was good," he explained as he took a few steps back, "You're obviously tired as are the others. We've not only been running for a while but are pretty tired, fighting that guy would have ended up with some of us potentially dying." Fu scoffed and turned away from him, still upset about not being able to finish her fight. Naruto let out a weak chuckle before noticing his teammate's curious glances, making him clear his throat and waving a hand towards the mint-haired teen, "This is Fu by the way. She's a kunoichi from the Waterfall Village and helped us out earlier by fighting that flying Akatsuki guy."
Ino looked at Fu oddly before offering a polite smile, "Thanks for the help." She continued to smile as Fu gave her a quick look before snapping her head away with a scoff. The smile was replaced with a frown as Ino's right eye twitched, 'I'll kill this impolite bitch!'
Naruto's eyes showed panic as he quickly approached Ino and grasped her shoulders gently, knowing full well that she didn't take kindly to being waved off like that. "Calm down Ino, I'll explain everything," he assured in a harsh whisper, inwardly whimpering when noticing that Ino glared at Fu, who returned the gesture just as fiercely.
"All of us could have caught the guy that took Gaara," Temari spoke up with an angry look on her face directed at Naruto, much to his dismay, "You could have stopped him."
Shikamaru kept perfectly still, afraid that it he moved then he would end up like Naruto. Poor guy, standing between a very fierce glare competition that could escalate at any moment while being glared at by Temari... Had it been any other time, he would have probably laughed at the guy's misfortune.
After having explained everything, from Fu's situation to his reasons for not doing anything to stop Deidara from leaving, the group had made their way back to the Waterfall Village. They're steps were a lot slower due to exhaustion. He was glad that he had gotten Gamahiro to put out the fire as he didn't want to end up doing it himself and lose even more chakra. It seemed a bit selfish but the giant toad could put out the fire with a single attack while it would take him hours to do it.
He let out a yawn and stretched his arms, not worried about accidentally bumping into someone since he was walking at the back of the line.
"Where are you going?"
It wasn't until he heard the voice that he realized that his eyes were close, he opened them slowly and turned his gaze to Fu, who had slowed down in order to walk next to him.
"What do you mean? We're going back to the Waterfall Village."
Fu shook her head, "I mean after that. Are you going back to Konoha?"
He looked at her oddly, not expecting her to break out into conversation after giving everyone the silent treatment for hours. "Yeah, I guess," he answered, "We don't have any other missions and can hopefully rest."
"I see…" she muttered as if deep in thought.
Naruto rose an eyebrow before turning his attention to the group of ninja walking ahead of him. Ino glanced back at him, appearing a bit gloomy. He didn't know what was going through her head but gave her a reassuring smile which seemed to lift her spirits as she returned the gesture before turning back to the road ahead.
"Could I follow you out of this place then?"
"Huh?" He let out dumbly at the sudden question.
Fu frowned at him, her eyes showing nothing but seriousness. "I've had it with this village," she deadpanned with a bit of anger on her voice. "Now that I've met you, another jinchuuriki, I know that there are better things out there. I don't have to keep living this way. I can make my own choices. My destiny is not set in stone like it is here," she smiled to herself, "I can leave this place."
Naruto smiled, "Then we're probably leaving early tomorrow since I'm sure that we'll be spending the night in the village. I'll meet you at the gate at around seven."
"Oh and by the way…" Fu trailed off with a confident smile on her face.
"What is it?" Naruto asked with a bit of curiosity.
Fu's smile never left her face as she looked straight into Naruto's eyes, "I've come up with a great idea."