Naruto:Making Of A Hokage

Schemers

"That's..." Naruto stammered after hearing Fu's plan.
The mint-haired girl grinned and placed both hands on her hips, "Admit it, you wish you thought of it."
"That's not it," he answered, "I mean, if we were to do this we would get on the bad side of several villages. Besides, they'll find us in a heartbeat since we don't have anywhere to hide."
"'We,' huh? Looks like you're already warming up to the idea."
Naruto sighed, knowing what she was saying wasn't entirely false. It was just that her idea sounded stupid but brilliant at the same time. Someone had surely thought of it before, though not for Fu's reasons, but there were so many obvious obstacles that trying it would be a waste of time.
"Listen Fu," he spoke while rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Gathering all the jinchuuriki in order to form a kind of organization–"
"Lethal force," Fu corrected with a grin.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Fine, a 'lethal force.' Say you manage to find a few jinchuuriki, what then? How do you even plan on keeping the villages from looking for you. Having to be on the run and constantly looking over your back will prevent you and them from leaving peacefully, much less get anything done," he argued with a frown.
"I'm sure there's a place they won't think to look. Somewhere that's hard to get in to while at the same time being a place not completely away from society, just in case we need supplies," Fu replied.
It all clicked as a cold sweat ran down Naruto's spine after hearing her argument. It scared him just how convenient their timing had been. She was looking for a place to hide all the jinchuuriki while at the same time giving them a base of operations… His hands shook with excitement? Fear? Want?
He didn't know which but what he did know was where to find such a place.
"Fu…" he muttered quietly.
She looked at him oddly, "What is it?"
A smile formed on his face as he took a quick glance at the group of ninja walking in front of them. Judging by their surroundings and the massive tree that loomed over them, they were really close to the village. It looked like he and Fu couldn't go over the details until the next day.
"I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, we'll meet here early in the morning," he spoke with an exited grin, stopping on his tracks when noticing that Fu was not walking anymore, probably not wanting to get too close to her village.
"Tell me about what?" Fu asked with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto grinned as he gave her a wave and walked a bit faster, "The ideal place for your plan."
Her eyes widened at the information as an exited smile spread through her face, only to be replaced by a look of anger when seeing the blond walking off with no intention to stop. "So that's what that weird grin was about…" she muttered to herself before throwing her hands in the air and walking off towards the place she called home, "That bastard's not going to let me sleep after saying that."
Naruto took off his ninja sandals with a sigh of relief, a weight dropping from his shoulders as he stretched his arms over his head, relieved that he wasn't weighed down by his ninja equipment as he was only wearing a plain black t-shirt with his dark blue pants. It had been a really long day and he was glad to be relaxing on a comfy bed for once. Not only that, but the room itself was pretty nice. It had a few pieces of furniture, twin beds and its own shower; giving him the essentials to relax.
Or at least, he wished it did. Sure the bed was comfortable but hearing the shower running was enough to make his heart thump loudly against his chest. Shikamaru and Temari had gone off to find Kankuro and stay with him since the head of the Waterfall Village had given them the proper accommodations because of what happened with the Kazekage, though he had a feeling that the Sand siblings would be spending the night in Gaara's hospital room.
He was broken out of his thoughts when the sound of the shower seized, again making his heart beat at a wild pace. Having spent most of his money on ninja supplies had come back to bite him in the butt since he ended up with a small amount of cash, so small in fact that combining it with Ino's remaining money barely managed to pay for the room. He had of course asked for a room with two beds since he didn't want to insinuate anything and make Ino uncomfortable. That didn't mean he wasn't though.
He almost yelped in surprise when hearing the restroom door creak open and turned to meet Ino, only to gape when taking in Ino's appearance clad in only a towel. A bright blush spread through his face as Ino's face turned a red color.
"W-What are you gaping for? Don't look!" Ino exclaimed while clutching the towel to her body in an attempt to cover herself.
"Sorry!" Naruto yelled before turning away from his girlfriend, all the while blushing madly and trying to fight back indecent thoughts. "Why did you even come out here?"
Ino continued to blush and scurried over to the restroom, closing the door behind her with a slam. "I thought you were leaving!"
"Well, I didn't!" Naruto responded in slight panic, face flushed as the image of Ino's body outlined by that towel refused to leave his mind. He frowned and sat up, clearing his throat as he rose to his feet and approached the restroom door before speaking in a trembling voice, "S-Sorry about that… I uh…"
The door opened, making Naruto take a few steps back as Ino emerged from the restroom wearing a plain white shirt and black shorts, looking at him with a lingering blush on her face. "It's okay…" she trailed off while averting her gaze.
Naruto kept his eyes away from Ino, too embarrassed to look at her directly. Now he wished he had actually gone to eat something instead of waiting for Ino to come out. Things with Ino were a bit more awkward now, probably due to his better understanding of what couples tended to do with time.
"By the way…" Ino began, losing her blush and instead frowning slightly, "Where did you meet that girl?"
"Fu?" He answered, earning a nod. "I met her when I was messing with my katana that one night in the woods," he grinned slightly as he sat himself on his bed, watching as Ino sat on hers while looking at him in curiosity, "I didn't want to say this in front of anyone else but she's actually like me and Gaara. A jinchuuriki."
Ino let out a gasp with an incredulous look on her face, "Are you serious?"
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I didn't want to say this in front of everyone else since I don't know if Fu wants to keep it from them."
"Then why did you tell me?" Ino couldn't help but ask.
His cheeks reddened slightly as he shyly scratched his right cheek. "Well, you're my… girlfriend," he spoke quietly, a small smile on his face, "I like to tell you about these kinds of things."
"Y-yeah," she replied with a light blush, touched by his words.
Naruto smiled as he rested on his side and let out a yawn, earning a giggle from Ino, "What is it?"
"Tired?" Ino teased with a small smile.
He chuckled and turned away from Ino as to lay comfortably on his back, extending his sore arms and legs. "Today felt way too long…" he trailed off, his face taking a thoughtful expression. "And then, there's what Fu told me before we got here."
"What did she say?" Ino asked, feeling curious at whatever was eating at her boyfriend's mind.
"She wants to gather all the other jinchuuriki and make a sort of group," he paused, taking the time to give Ino a grin after seeing the look of surprise that showed on her face. "I was pretty surprised too but then…" his brows furrowed as a sign of thought as he sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, giving Ino his whole attention, "After the idea sunk in and we talked about it… We somehow found a way to actually have a shot without the other villages intervening."
Ino couldn't help the look of surprise on her face, "And what's this shot of yours?"
He was on his knees, nails digging at the dirt as blood dripped down his chin. The falcon mask we wore was broken in half, showing his good eye which glared at the ground beneath him. His teeth grit tightly together, an animalistic snarl leaving his lips as frustration set in.
"Foolish brother."
Sasuke's vision blurred as he recalled Itachi's voice.
"It's been some time since we met and you're still walking forward at a snail's pace," Itachi commented calmly, not affected by his brother's burning glare. "Kisame," he turned his attention to his partner, currently standing on the side next to the limp body of the Root member he had fought. "We're leaving."
Kisame grinned as he walked over to his partner and gave Sasuke a glance, "We're letting him live?"
Itachi's eyes regarded Sasuke without interest as he turned on his heels and began to walk away, "Killing him is nothing but a waste of time. Let's go."
"Itachi…" He growled as he gripped the ground tighter, knuckles turning white. "I need more power," his ears picked up the sound of rushing footsteps, no doubt the rest of the Root members that had come too late.
Now he knew, as the Root members supported him on their shoulders and dragged him away from the area, he knew that Danzo had hindered him. He was supposed to be stronger, he felt stronger, that is until he met Itachi. He had been swatted aside like a fly, unable to keep up with his brother who seemed stronger every time they met.
So, as the Root members carried him away from the area, one thought lingered on his mind.
Danzo had failed him.
"It could work but… not without pissing off every village," Ino commented after Naruto had told her all about he and Fu's plan. It was ambitious to say the least, but actually pulling it off would mean becoming the world's enemy.
Naruto looked at the ceiling, still feeling tired after such a long day. "I know that but the Akatsuki, from what Jiraiya-sensei told me, let their existence known on purpose. Which means that if we're quiet enough and make the other jinchuuriki appear to leave by themselves, we have a shot at remaining secret since I don't think anybody is going to check Whirlpool for them," he explained, "There's probably going to be trouble with making them stay cooped up in there but we can come up with a solution for it later. Nearby villages might be a problem but I'm sure they won't talk if we give them protection."
"You've really thought this through, huh?" Ino looked at her boyfriend with a bit of awe, not expecting him to come up with a plausible solution.
He grinned in returned. "It's not a sure thing though. We have to look for the jinchuuriki, gain their trust, tell them about our plan, and then hope that they are okay with it," he turned his attention to Ino, giving her a small smile, "And I'm sure there's going to be some of us that don't want to leave our village."
She looked at him contently before grinning and moving to sit on the edge of her bed. Her grin only grew when she saw that Naruto had closed his eyes, probably deep in thought.
Wanting to surprise Naruto, she quickly rose to her feet and dropped down next to him, making him yelp in surprise as she wrapped an arm around him and rested her head on his chest. "You know… I didn't think that we would be sleeping on different beds tonight," she grinned slightly when feeling Naruto's heart beat wildly on his chest. She had to thank Anko later for all of her tips later.
Naruto didn't know what was going on, well, he did have an idea of what she was implying but he hadn't thought that the time would come so suddenly. It wasn't until now that, glancing down at Ino, he noticed her bare legs, silky and soft against his own. He swallowed a lump as his vision trailed up her body, taking in every curve as his face reddened.
"I thought we'd be doing something different," Ino whispered as she raised her head to meet Naruto's eyes, noticing his reddened cheeks and cheering inwardly. He began to come around and, just as he was about to speak, she pushed herself off the bed and moved to sit on her own, all the while grinning widely as she took in his surprised expression. "That's for not telling me about that girl earlier, now go to sleep."
Naruto could only gape as Ino covered herself with the sheets of her bed and turned away from him. He didn't need to see her face to know that she was grinning like crazy. She always loved to tease him like that, riling him up and then just stopping with that taunting grin of hers.
He grumbled something under his breath before getting out of bed and going over to the restroom, thinking that he would need a really cold shower if he wanted to sleep.
"Looks like I'm really late," Jiraiya grinned weakly as he walked through what appeared to be an area where a harsh battle had been fought. Trees were left in burnt crisps, craters were scattered through the area and the little vegetation that was left was uprooted.
"They hopefully got out of this one," he muttered to himself before running through hand signs and slamming both hands on the ground. A cloud of smoke erupted from the ground as a middle sized toad appeared before the sage, "I need you to tell the elders to reverse summon Naruto. I'll be leaving with you to Mount Myoboku as well."
"Got it," the toad nodded as he and Jiraiya disappeared in clouds of smoke.
Naruto was used to waking up to the weirdest of things. From Jiraiya getting slapped by a livid woman to a giant fireball going off only inches away from him. So, when he felt a sudden pull on his body followed by a rush of air he knew that his master had somehow found him. His eyes began to open only to be met by ground as he let out an involuntary gasp before slamming against the ground.
"Nice to see you made it out okay brat," came the voice of his master from behind him. Naruto growled as he pushed himself off the ground and glared at the older man who only smiled in amusement and waved him off, "No need to be so angry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. That, and I needed you to tell me what happened at the swamp."
Feeling a bit disoriented, Naruto grumbled under his breath while giving the place a quick look around and identifying it as Mount Myoboku, meaning that he had been reverse summoned. "We had a run with the Akatsuki," he answered while rubbing his eyes, not seeing the look of alarm on his master's face, "I managed to kill one but the other one got away. Oh, and… I had to use it ."
"Don't worry, I expected you to use Sage Mode against the Akatsuki but I just didn't think you would be running into them so soon, what happened?"
Naruto looked down, his eyes narrowing. "It turns out that the reason Gaara was in trouble was because the Akatsuki got to him. They didn't manage to extract his bijuu but I'm sure they were about to before we got there," he crossed his arms, his face taking a thoughtful expression, "Which means that they have a way to locate us better than any sensor ninja could."
"That could be a problem," Jiraiya nodded in agreement before clapping his hands and stretching his arms, "Well, now that I know you're all right I can go back to traveling. If the Akatsuki is on the move then I have to find out as much as I can before the trail gets cold."
"Be careful out there old man," Naruto grinned, earning a sour look from his master after being called old.
The sage scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest, "I may be older but that doesn't mean that I've lost my touch. Not only in combat but with the ladies as well, I bet you're not going to be anywhere near my amount of dates when you're my age."
"I really hope I don't," Naruto replied with a playful smirk.
Jiraiya chuckled before walking up to the blond and ruffling his hair, much to his annoyance. "You be careful too brat and don't do anything stupid."
"Quit talking like we're about to go off to some giant battle," the chunin rolled his eyes, "I'll see you soon."
With that the blond disappeared, leaving a grinning Jiraiya behind. The older man chuckled to himself before leaving the place, knowing that he had to move quickly.
Kakashi leaned against the wall of a building just far enough to listen to the nearby conversation of two Waterfall ninja. Apparently, the Kazekage had been brought back and, though unconscious, appeared to be in good condition. The team of Konoha ninja that had brought him were in good condition as well since none had to be hospitalized. Kakashi couldn't help but feel proud of his blond student, he was far from the loudmouthed kid that had joined his team.
Beside him, Asuma lit a cigarette before crossing his arms. "Looks like they did it," he inhaled deeply before letting out a bit of smoke, "I don't want to sound old but, those kids are going to blow right past us if we're not careful."
"Speak for yourself, that beard of your already makes you look ten years older that you are," Kakashi replied casually.
Asuma scowled, "Why does everyone say that? Even Kurenai told me to shave a few days ago."
The copy ninja chuckled slightly before pushing himself off the wall. "The Chunin Exam finals are going to be starting soon, let's go."
With that, the two ninja began to make their way to where the Chunin Exams were being held. Now with a load off their shoulders due to their respective students most likely being safe.
"That will work!" Fu exclaimed loudly, not able to hide her excitement after Naruto told her about the, literally, Hidden Village of Whirlpool. If it had been called a village in the past then it was most likely big enough to be a base of operations and it being protected by savage whirlpools, as Naruto had explained, meant that outsiders wouldn't be able to get in.
"Yeah but we have to keep this quiet though," Naruto answered while giving a quick look at their surroundings. They appeared to be safe from anyone's ears, being in the middle of a clearing with lush green grass and tall trees to keep them from vision but he couldn't be too careful. He was a foreign ninja in foreign territory, it wouldn't be rare to have a native shinobi spying on him.
He reached into his chunin vest and pulled out a scroll. "If we're really attempting this then we'll have to be as organized as possible," he handed her the scroll, "This has what I think we should do before anything else, which is contacting the others and having them agree to come with us."
"What happens after that?"
Naruto frowned, his eyes narrowed in thought, "We find a way to take them with us I guess. I don't know how each village keeps tabs on their respective jinchuuriki. If they have a really tight watch then we'll have no choice but to try to get to them while there's a big distraction."
"I suppose this big distraction you're talking about is the Akatsuki," Fu replied with a serious expression.
"Yeah, but don't worry. If it comes to that then I'm sure that they didn't prepare to fight two jinchuuriki at the same time."
Fu raised a brow at that, "What do you mean by 'two'? Are you not coming?"
He shook his head. "I'm staying in Konoha," he raised a hand just as Fu prepared to argue, "My life is there. I can't leave all of my friends and comrades behind just like that. Sure it took time but I'm happy there."
She sighed in response, "Fine, as long as you're keeping tabs on this then I'll be fine. But I'll need you to be able to come help whenever you're needed."
"Don't worry about it, I promise to come help whenever I can," he pulled out another scroll and handed it to her, "This here contains some seals I made for myself a while ago. You can have them since I can make more later."
Fu looked at the scroll with a curious look, "What do the seals do?"
He smiled, feeling proud of his work. "A bunch of things. One is actually a set of four that can make an area up to twenty meters mask your chakra for about ten hours. Another seal can send objects and even people to one of my toad summons, and another can summon that toad to get it to give you whatever you stored. This is how we'll communicate through letters."
"That's also how I'll be able to come to wherever you are…" his face showed disgust as he went over the last part, "Just summon the toad and give him the message and then… he'll go to wherever I am and… I'll have it take me to you."
Fu watched him in half-amusement, "You're gonna have it swallow you?"
"If it comes to that…" he trailed off, ignoring the kunoichi's sudden burst of laughter. "Well, that's it for now, I'll talk to you later."
Fu continued to laugh as the blond left, probably feeling angry about having to go through such extremes. "We can make this work," she smiled to herself after a moment of silence. She pocketed the two scrolls and turned her back on what used to be her home, the sun was rising in the distance and a cool wind ruffled her hair.
She felt free.
His eye was glazed over as he laid on the ground, watching the sky gain color. Bandages covered his exposed torso and his katana was at his side, ready to be picked in case of a sudden attack.
Power. The simple wish for it had driven him so far yet, he could never linger on a single spot. Every time he got stronger, someone even stronger appeared before him, putting him down so easily that it made his progress appear to be minuscule.
"You want power?"
His visible eye widened in as he clutched his neck in pain. A low hiss emitted from his lips as he sat up and reached for his blade but was stopped by another wave of pain. He shuddered as the pain grew more intense, making him let out grunts and clutch his neck tightly.
"Kill them."
The pain seized as he turned his attention to the rest of the Root members that were asleep on the ground.
"Kill them all. I'll give you power."
That voice. He hadn't heard it in so long. The voice of the person that had promised him power a few years ago. Orochimaru.
"Kill them. Show your power."
He rose from the ground, picking up his katana and gripping the handle tightly. The sharingan glowed on his eye as he approached the sleeping Root members.