The Will of the Future

4.

4.

—I DO NOT OWN NARUTO—

The day after Arashi's meeting with Team 7 and Danzo, we find the redhead, dressed in his jonin uniform, doing regular workouts to keep his body in peak condition, followed by sparing against some more durable clones at a more secluded training ground. The whole routine took most of the morning and it was nearing midday when the redhead finally rested under the shade of a tree. "Danzo's not going to let up anytime soon." Arashi thought as his eyes darkened. He had made sure not to reveal too much during his training as he had noticed the ROOT ANBU tailing him as soon as he stepped foot out of his apartment.

Quickly tossing aside his thoughts on ROOT before they got too dark, Arashi began to think of his ANBU mission taking place the following day. 'I'll have to be careful, otherwise the Fourth Shinobi War will begin much sooner. Damn. I should've brought up the mission when Kakashi invited me out, it would've been a good excuse. Oh well not much I can do about it now.'

As Arashi's train of thought ended, he heard the distant sounds of, what he assumed to be, a sparring match. Thinking he didn't have anything better to do, he decided to see if it was anyone he knew. To his surprise it was Team 7, or more like Naruto and Sasuke sparring as Sakura watched. 'Sigh. I need to get that girl out of her fangirl mindset.' Arashi had noticed that, once again, Kakashi was watching his team. 'Did he always do this? I thought he spent all that time at the memorial stone.'

He watched from the trees as the match progressed, with Sasuke having more finesse and getting a few more hits than the other. However, there were many times Naruto was able to catch Sasuke off guard with his unpredictability. Arashi smiled fondly at the sight. Both Naruto and Sasuke would grow physically and strengthen their bond, hopefully enough to keep Sasuke from defecting. Arashi's slip of emotion caused a small spike of chakra, which Naruto had noticed, allowing Sasuke to take advantage of his distraction and winning the match. 'I should really start to train him with his sensor ability. Even now it's there, latent, but there.'

Arashi figured he should just appear since Naruto had noticed him. With that, the redhead silently hopped from his perch on the tree.

"Arashi-nii-san!" Naruto shouted excitedly as he ran to the redhead, his exhaustion from the previous spar forgotten. "I thought you said you couldn't train us today!"

"Ah Naruto-kun, I still can't train you. I was in the area training myself when I noticed you and Sasuke-kun sparring." Arashi said while smiling fondly.

"Please Arashi-nii! You're super strong and I know you could help us!"

"Sorry, Naruto-kun. I have to prepare for a mission tomorrow, and since your sensei is dragging me to meet the jonin-senseis tonight I have to get my planning done before then." Arashi said while ruffling the younger's hair.

"Mission! Like out of the village! I bet it's super cool! Are you saving a princess!" Naruto's eyes practically sparkled at the chance to hear about a cool mission.

Arashi chuckled at Naruto's enthusiasm as he remembered acting the same way. 'We are the same person after all. Or once we were. I don't want any of what happened to happen again.' "Yes, it's out of the village. I can't tell you much else about it, as it's classified."

"I see." Naruto said a bit sadly, before perking up again. "That must mean it's super important!"

Arashi just smiled before replying. "Something like that. I have to get going now. It was nice seeing you guys, and make sure to stretch after that spar, Naruto, Sasuke. Ja!" With a lazy wave, similar to Kakashi, Arashi disappeared in a shunshin.