Naruto was far more ornery than usual as he partook in the usual D-rank missions that genin teams like Team 7 got. While part of him knew that this was truly necessary at this point in time, seeing as how the village was getting over the damage incurred during the invasion of Oto and Suna, the part of him that was locked away at the age of eight that was used to missions that could end with him being killed and the brash childish part of him that resurfaced after his memory had been sealed and longed for missions with potential for action like that.
With the knowledge of his sealing Naruto was able to sort out what memories were fake and which were his own. It helped that the genjutsu seal that was placed on him to change his appearance was broken, revealing the numerous battle-scars that littered his body from his time in Ne. It really helped having a visible association to certain memories; his first night in his apartment after the invasion was for the most part spent in front of a mirror repeating the line, 'Oh I remember getting that one!' over and over throughout the evening.
Over the course of the next two weeks he had to adjust to just being a normal genin with a true elite's mindset, Tora was lucky that she hadn't tried to run away since the invasion or Naruto might have killed her retrieving her… accidentally of course.
His rapport with his team, whatever he might have had, shifted tumultuously after the chunin exams. Naruto's thoughts on Sakura had changed to a clearer line of thought. The girl thought he was useless for the most part, and while compared to how he was supposed to be she was right, it stood to reason that even grossly handicapped as he had been he had still been vastly superior to her when it came to the ninja arts.
While he may have been a goofy annoyance while he had been a genin he had still been nothing but pleasant to the girl and had given his all at every corner. Her habit of fawning over the Uchiha and downplaying anything Naruto accomplished grated on his nerves at this point. Naruto ruthlessly crushed his mental facilities that she was a good person, and that he had romantic interest in her because when it came to him she was a bitch. She was his teammate, that didn't really mean they had to be close, he just had to tolerate her and work with her to accomplish his mission. He didn't see anything pleasant about trying to associate with her outside of missions.
Sasuke had taken to the habit of staring at him and trying to verbally provoke him when he offered any input into their missions. Sasuke had been feeling inadequate after seeing how Naruto not only saved him from Gaara, he had dispatched Gaara handily without too much effort, captured the Kazekage's children swiftly thereafter, and headed back to Konoha and routed an Oto ambush against a Konoha squadron.
This lead to now. He had been trying to goad Naruto into a fight so that he could really test his own capacities against the blonde, but not only was there no time for sparring as they didn't have team training while rebuilding the village, Naruto left so quickly after the day's work was done that Sasuke couldn't follow him, and he was never able to trail the boy for too long before losing him.
Kakashi had noticed quite a few changes in his blonde student since he had let him go during the invasion. While the scar over his eye was the most glaring one, his attitude was another. He didn't try to keep his team's spirits up with indomitable brightness. He still cracked jokes, and his overall timing was vastly superior now Kakashi had to admit, but they were bright flashes in an otherwise dreary day of rooting through Konoha's rubble.
Naruto no longer took to calling him Kakashi-sensei. When he reprimanded Naruto on this habit he had seemingly picked up Naruto responded by saying that he hadn't taught Naruto anything other than tree-climbing, and he technically learned how to do that years ago, he just 'forgot'. Kakashi noted the bitter tone in Naruto's voice when he said 'forgot' but didn't press too much. He figured that Naruto was still bitter from being cast aside during the chunin exams.
The differences in Naruto's gait, actions on missions, and how he now treated his teammates showed him that there was a vast change in Naruto that he couldn't pinpoint exactly.
He watched Naruto drop another stack of wood by the building that his team was working on at the moment, and walk off again to grab more. There was something he was missing about this.
XxX
Team 7 had been dismissed for the day and Naruto had taken to wandering around Konoha. He had taken to treating the villagers with the same apathy and looks of annoyance that they gave him. He didn't care about them, he was in a bad enough mood as it was.
He had been unable to find Danzo since the invasion ended. In his haste to track his trainer down and report back to him, as he technically never failed or completed his mission, he had found that the older base for Ne had been abandoned. Cursing the old cripple out in his head he realized just how difficult it truly was to find Danzo when he didn't already know where he would be, 'You'd think there would only be so many places that you could hide a group like Ne in this village.'
Naruto understood things from both sides of the fence. He understood how Sarutobi disliked a secret branch of the military that he didn't directly control running rampant under his nose. It wasn't good for a supposed military dictatorship, as Konoha was supposed to be, to have something like that among them. It was unnerving to say the very least. But Naruto knew that if he truly knew that honestly, Danzo only had around twenty/twenty-five well-trained ninja, including himself. Compared to Konoha's forces it was simply a drop in the bucket. And while Konoha's true forces had a never ending supply of recruits and potential, only certain types ever had a chance in Ne, and they weren't readily replaceable.
Ne took Konoha's dirty missions. The jobs that somebody had to do, the kind of stuff that stepped on people's toes on the large scale of things but if they never took place then it would expose Konoha's back to the lions. The killings that Konoha couldn't be caught having any hand in, the alliances that could substantially benefit Konoha but that had less than moral bases. There was a reason that the seemingly most powerful village in the nations didn't have too many problems regularly compared to the others.
Sarutobi directly chose not to accept certain missions for the sake that they could be seen as an aggressive move on Konoha's part, Danzo took these missions for Ne. Ne had to be better than the majority of other ninja simply for the sheer difficulty that their missions entailed. There were no D-rank missions, hell there weren't even any C-ranked missions. Everything you did in Ne was B-rank and up. If you weren't ready then you trained and drilled until you were, no other way about it. If you couldn't cut it after all of the things you were put through until that point then you died, namelessly, facelessly, and miles away from home.
He needed to find Danzo. He knew that the second he actually put on Konoha's hitae-ate he was basically no longer Ne's shinobi, but he still had the mindset of completing his mission. He also wanted to find out exactly what the hell happened to him. If anyone knew, Danzo did.
His thoughts then drifted to the mission he had been tasked with as he clinched his fists, his emotional nature spilling out. If only he had gotten back sooner, if only he hadn't stuck around for so long, if only somebody didn't get a wild hair in their ass and sabotage Otogakure's information department with explosives! If only all of those things hadn't happened then he would have been able to return and send word on Oto's plans.
He had found everything. He found that it was being run by Orochimaru. He found that they had a then-rookie Konoha genin, Kabuto Yakushi, as his lead spy. He found that Orochimaru had finished his immortality jutsu, he'd even had the misfortune of seeing it being performed, he couldn't eat for the rest of the week afterwards. He even knew Orochimaru's main ambition for coming, and when he saw the markings on Sasuke during the fight with Gaara he mentally kicked a pothole into his ass.
Naruto's eyes panned around the village as he walked, all of the people taking part in the restoration of their homes. If he had broken the seal on himself even a day sooner, how much loss of life could have been diverted? How many lives need not have been lost? Could the Sandaime have been able to take the proper precautions to acutely prepare for Orochimaru accordingly?
He looked up at the Hokage Monument as his thoughts drifted to the third face from the left. He had gotten much closer to the old man after he had been sealed. His mind had almost reverted back to its four year-old state and he reached out to the only person he really knew. Even trying to bury his emotions, he still felt a faint sting at his eyes that he had to push back.
He had to put his thoughts on the back-burner for now, as he saw Jiraiya leaning against a fence looking at him. Naruto strode up to his side and spoke cooly, "So what do you need from a lowly little genin like me ero-sennin?"
Jiraiya pushed himself off of the wall, "I want you to come with me to find someone."
Naruto raised his eyebrow, "Aren't you the Hokage now?"
Jiraiya let out a short laugh, "Those old goats wanted me to take up the spot, but I have too much on my plate to just do so like that."
Naruto headed past him towards his apartment, "Then I'm not going. I'm not some escort or bodyguard, I'm a shinobi. If this isn't an order form my higher-ups then I'm not volunteering for this. I can spend my time better by helping to rebuild, getting back to my old level of skill, and finding out who put those goddamn seals on me."
Jiraiya caught up with him quickly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Well the other genin can help rebuild. And I was going to teach you a jutsu that makes Chidori look like child's play. And those seals, I might know something about that."
Naruto looked at him, "Okay, you've got me on the rebuilding. And did you hear what I said? I need to get back to my old skill level, I don't need a jutsu, I have enough of those I just can't use them right now. I need to get back to my old speed and strength first and foremost. I felt weak like an infant and moved like a snail during the invasion." Naruto's eyes shone as he absorbed the last of what Jiraiya said, "And you're damn right you know something about my seals. You're telling me whether I choose to go or not. You're just lucky that it would probably be easier to just go with you, that and I'm bored around here."
Jiraiya grinned at him, "Well let's go and get you packed. We'll leave immediately."
Naruto pulled out four scrolls, "I already have everything here. I always keep supplies for a long mission on me at all times, you never know when you'll get called away." He placed them back into the pockets of his jacket, "This big, bright piece of crap is good for something I suppose."
Jiraiya laughed loudly, "If you hate it then why wear it?"
Naruto's eye twitched, "When I went home after the battle to look for clothes this was the closest thing to shinobi gear I had in my closet… What the hell did they do to me? I wouldn't be caught dead in this. How did I live for as long as I did wearing this eyesore?"
Jiraiya laughed again, getting his chuckles out of seeing the boy tear himself down. Jiraiya reached into his pocket and placed some bills in Naruto's hand, "I'll tell you what gaki. I'll give you two hours to go and get yourself outfitted. Meet me at the main gate then and we'll take off."
Naruto let a smile cross his face as he turned to head back towards the market district. He waved back at Jiraiya and pocketed the cash.
XxX
Naruto wandered through the market district looking around. While the Naruto that had become a genin would simply enter a shop and hope he didn't get ripped off, this Naruto was sick of being broke all of the time and was running through his head all of the shinobi shops that had done it to him, 'That place did it, that place did it, that place won't even let me in TO do it…'
Naruto had gotten his tools from old scavenging habits. It amazed him how many tools were wasted by ninja just during training even back when he was little. He cultivated his pack rat habit back when he was first being trained by Danzo, storing all of the useable things he could find for himself as a sort of surplus and handing the broken and un-useable stuff to Ne's armory to be melted down and remade. Apparently he continued that little habit when he had been sealed as well, because he still had tons of weapons sitting inside one of his closets in the apartment.
Naruto stopped at a rather plain looking shop, and having no memory of ever being in there, he opted to give it a shot.
XxX
Tenten yawned as she sat at the counter of the weapons shop her family owned. She wasn't having a good overall month. She had gotten destroyed in the preliminary rounds of the chunin exam by that Suna kunoichi Temari and was forced out of contention. She had decided to help her teammate Neji train for the final exam for the month in between tests and had even gone to the competition to watch him mop up the competition.
Things don't always work out like that huh?
She then had to watch him be utterly beaten by the unassuming blonde kid that was on the same team as the Uchiha, the dead-last of the class under hers. He cut down his Jyuuken and not only got up from Neji's best techniques and shrugged them off, he re-opened his tenketsu after they had been sealed off. He even had enough strength afterwards to run around the stadium in celebration after he won.
Then she ended up being put under a genjutsu that engulfed the stadium and missed the invasion of Oto and Suna. After the invasion was over she spent more time at her family's shop seeing as her sensei was spending a lot of time at the hospital with her green-clad teammate Rock Lee due to his grievous injuries, but it wasn't busy, seeing as how there weren't a lot of ninja that needed to stock up for missions, as they were helping with the reconstruction, so here she sat, bored.
Yep, not a good month overall one could say.
The bell to the store rang, signifying a potential customer, "Hello, welcome to-."
As Tenten's eyes drifted to the door she saw the very same blonde kid that had beaten her teammate looking around her shop, "Hey!"
Naruto turned to face her curiously. Realization spread over his face, "Oh, hi there. Tenten right?"
As she looked at his inquisitive face she noted the scar sitting over his right eye, huh, that's new. She pointed out at him accusingly, "You're the kid that beat Neji!"
The tone of her voice stated it like he had committed some kind of crime. Naruto tilted his eyebrow, "My name is Naruto, and don't look so shocked. Was I supposed to let him win or something?"
Tenten was taken aback by his calm answer. She was conditioned from seeing him throughout the exams to expect a loud, hot-headed response, "It's not that, it's just that you really weren't expected to win then."
Damn idiot persona… It just had to wreck his standing in the eyes of the many. Oh well, he liked to be surprising anyway. Naruto sighed, "And that is why you have to learn to expect the worst in most cases, because then you can only be pleasantly surprised." Naruto remembered Danzo or other elder Ne operatives saying that to him a lot back in the day, then they would usually hit him or something… Stupid emotional conditioning.
Tenten noticed the scar over his eye and found herself curious, "How did you get that scar? Did you get it during the invasion?"
Naruto waved off her question, "It's a long story that I'm not even sure of and that you wouldn't believe if I told you. Don't worry about it. Do you sell shinobi clothes here?"
She nodded and pointed over in the correct direction, Naruto thanked her and went on over. Tenten watched silently as he walked over to the clothing section of her store and rifled through the selection, apparently he was getting rid of that sense-offending jumpsuit on his back. He nodded as he pulled out a set of shirts and a few pairs of pants.
He went into a changing room and came out a moment later in a dark-blue muscle shirt and dark blue loose pants tied at the ankles with wraps. He set the extras on the counter and went back into the accessories section and grabbed some black bracers that wrapped around his forearm entirely. As he walked back to the counter he stopped as he came across the swords. He stared long and hard for a moment until he pulled down and ninjato and unsheathed it, looking it over and testing the balance before shrugging and walking back to the counter with a grin.
He set the sword down and looked up, "Do you have something to secure this on my back?" Tenten nodded and reached down behind the counter to grab a strap for him to use. "So how much is all of this?" He seemingly gave her a set, appraising look as she tallied it up.
Tenten looked over what he bought and looked at him, "That will all come to 68500 ryo." Tenten watched him switch moods apparently as he cringed jokingly and pull out his wallet and money he had in his pocket.
He brightened up after hearing the price of his new equipment. Naruto chuckled as he gave her the necessary funds, "This'll clean me out, but it's necessary." He strapped on the sword and placed the bracers on his forearms.
Tenten watched him finish outfitting himself and huffed, "Do you even know how to use that sword on your back?"
Naruto shifted the ninjato into a comfortable position on his back, "I'm an old hand at it. It's time for me to get back into practice with kenjutsu. I was no slouch I should say, I might be rusty if anything." Naruto quickly drew his sword for a few test slashes and shifted through a few regulation Anbu stances before re-sheathing it, "I think I'll be fine."
Tenten's eyes gleamed for a second, "You wouldn't happen to be interested in a spar would you?"
Naruto smiled, "Yeah, sure why not? I don't have anyone to practice with anyway. I have to leave right now thought. I might look you up when I get back."
Tenten smiled at him as he moved towards the door, "I think I'd like that Naruto."
Naruto stopped at the door and turned around, "I left the jumpsuit in the back. Feel free to burn it at your leisure, like on your break or something. I still have a closet full of them to get rid of. Bye Tenten."
Tenten waved goodbye as he left the store. She furrowed her brow in thought, "How can a guy change like that in two weeks?"
XxX
Jiraiya noticed a familiar mop of blonde hair heading towards the main gate. As he got closer he whistled at Naruto's appearance, "Looking dapper kid."
Naruto looked up at him and grinned, "It's easier to get girls if you don't blind them when they look at you."
Jiraiya patted him on the back as they began walking through the gate, "Well said gaki…"
As they walked on Naruto eventually sighed and looked up at Jiraiya through half-lidded eyes, "Alright, we're far enough from Konoha that if I don't like what you have to say I can kill you and no one can stop me. Tell me what you know about my seal."
Jiraiya tried to be funny, "Well the Shiki Fuujin is meant to hold back the Kyuubi-."
Naruto gripped his sword as he glared at him, "Don't be an ass about this, I'm serious. What. Happened. To me?"
Jiraiya sighed, "Okay, but if I tell you this then you have to wait until I'm through explaining before you try to gut me, deal?"
Naruto kept up his glare but nodded. Jiraiya began, "Alright, you know your little trip to Ta no Kuni? I'm the one that found you. I was there too investigating rumors on Otogakure. When I left I decided to torch their files; stuff on Orochimaru's bloodline research, jutsu development, things like that."
Naruto's eyes widened. He unsheathed his sword and took a swing at Jiraiya in anger, forcing the man to jump back, "Hey brat! I said wait until I was done!"
Naruto pointed at him angrily, "You dumb old bastard! You were the one that turned the heat onto me! Don't you know the first thing about infiltration? Never let the enemy know you were there!"
Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Hey in my defense I didn't know you were there."
Naruto growled menacingly, "That was the whole point…"
Jiraiya got back on track as Naruto sheathed his sword, "Anyway, when I got you back me and Sarutobi-sensei found that you were a part of a group of ninja lead by a man high up in Konoha's politics."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Ne, led by Danzo."
Jiraiya pulled a double-take to look at Naruto, "You're admitting it exists! Wait… You're talking about it!"
Naruto sighed, "Yes ero-sennin. I swear, I kept telling Danzo it was the second-worst kept secret, almost as bad as me being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. The fact that Sarutobi-jiji AND you both knew about it proved that. And Danzo never put any seals on me, I was too much of a high-profile figure to make into a mindless drone, I mean at first he tried, but he quit after a while."
Jiraiya looked at him oddly, "Wait, so you always had your sense of self? You weren't a mindless drone? He just trained you?"
Naruto looked up at the man, "Yeah. And anyway I couldn't tell you anything currently relevant about Ne even if I wanted to anyway, seeing as how I haven't been there in four years. The old cripple probably cut his losses and let me go. It's all he could have done. Trying to get me back and break the seal might have been too risky."
Jiraiya looked down, 'We never had to seal him… He's right. As long as we kept a tight watch on him he couldn't have gone back to Danzo.'
Jiraiya gulped, "So about the sealing… Listen Naruto when me and Sarutobi-sensei sealed you we thought you-."
Naruto's blue eyes snapped up at Jiraiya's face, "'You and Sarutobi-sensei?' You and the old man were the ones that sealed me?" Naruto didn't wait for a response, "You asshole! You could have waited for me to wake up and explain what was going on to both of you! Instead you left me with the mindset of a four-year old? I was mentally behind everybody else by four years!"
Jiraiya already knew that they had messed up back when they first sealed him, but it still sucked to have it thrown back at him, "We didn't know what you would do when you woke up! We didn't know how you would react! We were just running damage control as quickly as we could!"
Naruto shook his head angrily, "There was no damage control to run! All this time! I'm a shadow of my former self! My chakra control is shit! I have a fraction of the speed I used to have! Why? I still trained hard even after I was sealed, I should have kept that speed!"
Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I kind of put a gravity seal on you too, sorry."
"I knew it! I knew I couldn't have been that slow naturally! Kami, I felt like I was wading in jelly." Naruto undid his hitae-ate to reveal his forehead, "Take the seal off damn it…"
Jiraiya made a few hand seals and placed his hand on Naruto's head, "Fuuin kai!"
A glyph of a seal appeared and faded from Naruto's head. He tested his body's functions with some short motions, "Okay. I feel better now…"
Jiraiya felt the need to keep explaining, "Naruto I-."
Naruto just kept walking, "I don't want to hear anymore right now. I don't think I can take much more of this story before I feel the need to hurt you. You guys almost killed my career you know that? Come on, let's get to a town."
XxX
Jiraiya and Naruto had gotten a hotel for the night in a town not far off. Upon arriving Jiraiya had gone off gallivanting after some woman who showed a little interest in him. This suited Naruto just fine as he didn't really want to be around Jiraiya at the moment anyway.
Naruto took himself up to their room and laid down on one of the beds. He had a whole new set of things to think about. Was Hiruzen close to him only because he had gotten out from under his watch once, or was it truly legitimate? When he showed up at the ceremony for Konoha's fallen ninja the day after the invasion he had gone up to the Sandaime's memorial and he didn't know what to feel. He shed not one tear, his head was jumbled enough at the time, he was still sorting through his mind to figure out what was factual and what was fabrication.
He shook his head free of that thought, putting his training under Danzo into use. He was a ninja, and while it was seemingly a simple mission it was still a mission, and he needed a clear mind to go through it successfully.
Naruto felt a pair of powerful presences coming closer to his door, they were hiding their chakra levels but it was noticeable that they were considerably strong. Now the side of him that had been out and about for the last four years wanted to confront them, see what they wanted, and, if necessary, kick their asses. Unfortunately for that line of thought, rational Naruto was in control at the moment.
He darted out of bed and leapt out of the window to find Jiraiya, fighting two opponents that were potentially overwhelming in strength for no reason didn't really appeal to him after just starting to get himself back into fighting condition. He knew they wanted him for some kind of unpleasantness, because in Naruto's life experiences for the most part new meetings equaled lots of pain and trouble.
Naruto dashed along the rooftops until he reached the outskirts of town. Naruto bit his thumb and summoned a toad. Not even giving it time to speak Naruto belted out an order, "Go find Jiraiya. Tell him to find me as fast as he freaking can or I'm screwed ok?"
The toad nodded and ran back into town to find Jiraiya. Naruto sighed and turned around slowly, "I know you're there. Come out already… Save us all some time here."
Two figures in black cloaks with red clouds appeared, both donning straw hats. Naruto sighed at the sight of the familiar red eyes signifying Sharingan, "Of course it would be a guy like Itachi Uchiha after me…"
The other figure chuckled and removed his hat to reveal a blue-haired, blue-skinned man, "It looks like you're still famous in that village of yours Itachi."
Naruto smacked his forehead, "And Kisame Hoshigaki… What a fantastic day… The hits just keep on coming." He set himself into a ready stance, "Who else do we have coming? You guys happen to have another S-ranked cameo coming from the woodwork?"
Kisame scoffed at the sight of Naruto's small frame, "Who knew the Kyuubi jinchuuriki would be such a runt? Itachi should I cut off one of his legs to make sure he can't run away again?"
Itachi stepped forward, red eyes spinning, "Please come with us Naruto-kun."
Naruto sighed and brought his hands together, "Kai. Come on now. I'm a kid but don't insult me like that. I'm not that easy to yoke into oppression you know."
Kisame reached for the sword on his back, "Itachi this kid is mouthy. Let me handle him. Samehada can just taste his chakra from here."
Itachi stared at Naruto, unblinking, "Very well. Don't go overboard and kill him, Leader-sama needs the jinchuuriki alive."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, 'Two powerful guys like this want me alive… They won't fight to kill, they can't. But I don't have that kind of restriction here. And all I have to do is wait for ero-sennin to show up. Even if the toad I sent is slow or can't find him, once the fight starts it shouldn't take him too long to get here."
Naruto drew his ninjato and in the blink of an eye was at Kisame's throat, who had brought Samehada down to parry his blade, "You're pretty fast gaki."
Naruto pushed with his sword, "I used to be faster…" He felt Kisame pushing him back and grunted, "…Used to be stronger too…" Kisame brought down his massive weapon on Naruto's shoulder and pulled back, slicing deeply into his shoulder, before kicking the boy off. Naruto picked himself up off the ground, "Ugh… I seriously need to whip my ass back into shape… Fucking seal… This ain't gonna cut it."
Kisame grinned maniacally as he rushed Naruto and swung at him with his sword. Naruto ducked low and swiped at Kisame's feet. In response Kisame uncorked a kick at the ducking Naruto's head. Naruto saw it coming and rolled out of the way, 'Man, I'm glad ero-sennin had the common sense to at least take the stupid gravity seal off of me. I'd be dead meat otherwise.'
Naruto sheathed his sword back into the scabbard on his back, 'Going blade-to-blade with one on the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist? Label me the idiot of the day…'
Itachi walked a few steps up, "You're better than our intel anticipated Naruto-kun. It was said that you were a dead-last genin-level shinobi. You've shown much surprising skill."
Naruto huffed as he ignored the dripping wound spanning his shoulder, "Yeah? Well there's no such thing as perfect intel."
"Indeed," Itachi removed his own hat to look at Naruto, "This battle is unnecessary Naruto-kun. Just come with us, you cannot defeat us both at your current level."
Naruto glared at the rogue Uchiha and the shark-like Kisame, 'They're right… I couldn't beat these two like this… If they were here to kill me. And I don't even have to win, all I have to do is last long enough for some help.'
Naruto smiled as he felt his wound begin to pulse with a familiar sensation. Apparently breaking the seal inspired the Kyuubi to stay awake more often again. Good, now if only he had found the time to set up his old arrangements with the powerful kitsune, then he could just have Kyuubi help him rampage on their asses and be done with it. There was time to think about that later, he had a tall order ahead of him here.
Kisame and Itachi covered each other's weaknesses extremely well. What Kisame lacked in long-range ninjutsu, potent genjutsu, and tactical finesse and patience Itachi more than made up for. Vice-versa for Itachi and his close range skills. Naruto didn't think he could win in close with Itachi anyway, that damnable Sharingan would give away his every move… unless.
Itachi walked ahead and called Kisame back, "Kisame, I would like to test Naruto-kun for a bit. Stay back for a moment."
Naruto would have grinned from ear to ear if it wouldn't have looked so suspicious. Itachi and Kisame both think he's weak. Itachi will probably let the 'genin' in close to humor him, that's where he would get his chance. He needed to abandon all logical reason and just flow. The only way to bypass the Sharingan was to simply move faster than the body could adjust to. As if that would work on someone like Itachi.
However, if Itachi could anticipate his movements then what would happen if even Naruto didn't know what he would do next? It would be a pain to try, fighting his own muscle memory and his own instincts just to attempt a new strategy on the fly… ugh, sounds like something his jumpsuit wearing self would try.
But then again, why the fuck not? Even an idiot can come up with some masterful gems of ideas every once in a while right?
Naruto ran in and ducked looking to jump when in range of Itachi, but as he crouched spontaneous inspiration came to him. Instead of jumping high as he had crouched to do he tumbled forward and rolled through. This random act got him inside of Itachi's guard. Now what?
As he saw Itachi move his arms to react to any action he could take from this point in a split-second Naruto once again listened to the most random thing he could think of.
He tilted his head up and spit directly in Itachi Uchiha's face.
Now at this time if he wasn't:
1. Already in a fight that he knew wasn't going to be pleasant if it dragged out, and that's IF he actually believed he had a snowball's chance in hell of actually winning said fight in the first place.
2. Flying by the seat of his pants too fast to take into account what he was actually doing… After all if he wasn't a bloody mess on the ground yet that had to count for something right?
And 3. Primarily trained to not show any emotion or feeling in combat against any enemy, even if pressed with insurmountable odds (And Itachi Uchiha was damn insurmountable for a handicapped former Ne operative four years out of the game.).
If it weren't for all of that, then he might have had the logical inclination to shit his pants when he saw that loogie make contact right on Itachi's left brow. And it worked too, because from the look on Itachi's face he damn sure never saw that as a viable option against him in the middle of a fight.
Itachi froze in place, giving his diminutive adversary the opportunity to launch a vicious jumping snap kick to the side of his head, sending him flying back to his partner.
The combination of seeing a 12 year-old kid spit into Itachi fuckin' Uchiha's face, and then seeing said kid dropkick Itachi Uchiha back fifteen yards left Kisame's jaw quite slacked. Kisame pointed dumbly at Itachi as he watched him rise to his feet, "Uh Itachi… You've… got a little something… right there…"
Kisame felt a shiver go down his spine as Itachi sent his Sharingan glare on his as he wiped his dripping brow, "Uh… You got it…"
The adrenaline from Naruto's little improv session wore off as he got distance and waited for Itachi's response. Naruto attempted a little denial therapy, 'Maybe he isn't as pissed as I thought? He's a former Anbu, those guys get bodily fluids on them all the time! A little spit didn't even faze that guy.'
Itachi turning a downright murderous look at him, spinning Sharingan enhanced of course, perished the thought that he was getting out of this alive without missing some important body parts. Being the highly trained professional he had been raised to be in his formulative years Naruto prayed to the skies above for even the slightest diversion. Anything that could tear Itachi's attention away from him for even a moment would be a gift from Kami herself.
"Itachi Uchiha!"
Naruto turned to find Sasuke standing shortly away, eyes affixed on his older brother, "You've told me to live my life with hatred in order to get strong enough to kill you. Well that day has come!"
If he wasn't such a highly trained warrior and if he wasn't in the middle of a serious, high-tension situation Naruto could have broken down and cried in sweet, sweet relief. Those two reasons, COMBINED, were the only reasons he didn't.
Naruto knew there was no 'I' in 'team'. But sorry Sasuke, someone had to take one for the team today.
And on this day, Naruto was more than willing to spell 'team' with an 'I'…