Warning: In this fic Natsuko was roughly thirteen and a half when she was banished.
Sitting at her desk in the Hokage Tower Tsunade sighed as she realized her stash of was empty. It wasn't surprising given the rate she went through the stuff. The last three years had not been good for Konoha; the fallout of Natsuko's banishment had been unexpectedly severe.
First Wave Country had cancelled all their trade treaties saying that they wouldn't have any kind of alliance with the village that banished their hero. She had read Kakashi's mission report and didn't understand what they meant since it said the mission success was due to Sasuke and his activation of the Sharingan. There was a note saying that Natsuko had accessed the Kyuubi's chakra but other than that there was little mention of her role. The Council had tried to negotiate but Tazuna, the mayor of Wave, had refused to even meet any of the envoys.
That had been bad enough for Konoha's economy but it was only the beginning. The alliance with Suna was at an all-time low, all trade and cooperation had been cancelled. The best she could expect from the new Kazekage was assistance in time of war. Again she didn't understand since the report said that Gaara's change of heart was due to the Uchiha.
Koyuki Kazahana, the Daimyo of the recently renamed Spring Country had also cancelled all trade agreements including the technology exchange program. The council, who had been salivating at the idea of having the secret of the Chakra Armor, had been outraged. All envoys had been sent back only this time they left with a promise of hostile reaction should they try again. Tsunade was no fool and started to doubt the truth of Kakashi's reports when she once again read of the Uchiha's 'great accomplishments'.
Tea Country had followed, as well as a number of minor villages the leaf had alliances with. The real shocker however was when the Fire Daimyo himself had come to Konoha. He had demanded answers and hadn't been pleased with what he had learnt. The military funding of the village had been cut by 40% indefinitely and half the higher ranking missions were sent to Suna.
She just couldn't see how one kunoichi had such an impact on so many people and in so many places.
Three years ago, when the Council had moved for the girl's banishment she had, at first, fought against it. After all it was because of Natsuko that she had been willing to come back to Konoha. Oh she held no illusions that she had a real choice. If she had refused to return the Council would have revoked her Sannin travel rights and she would either have been declared missing nin, or ANBU would have been sent to bring her back by force. But Natsuko had reminded her of her late brother and his desire to become Hokage to protect the village he loved. Eventually however she had caved in and agreed with the Council. She knew that most of the civilians just hated the 'demon brat' and wanted to get rid of her but some of their concerns were real.
First she had used the Kyuubi's chakra to the point that she defeated a level two curse seal. Tsunade knew that her old teammate's creation gave a large power boost so the kunoichi must have used large quantities of youki to bring back the stray Uchiha. His extensive wounds had been more than enough confirmation. The possibility of Kyuubi influencing its vessel was not to be taken lightly.
Secondly Jiraya had warned her of the Akatsuki and their quest to 'collect' all the Junchuriki. The Godaime had been pained to admit it but housing the target of a group of S-class criminals was a risk Konoha couldn't take. Her plan was to have Natsuko reinstated when Konoha had recovered from Orochimaru's failed invasion and was better prepared for such a conflict. She had ordered Jiraya to have his spy network keep an eye on her but that hadn't worked out the way she hoped. The girl had dropped off the face of the earth and the only reason they hadn't assumed her to be dead was because her name had still been on the frog contract. Half a year later that had no longer been the case, apparently she had signed another contract though they had no idea which one. Gamabunta had not been pleased.
The hardest blow however came from her apprentice. Shizune had been rather upset, scratch that she had been royally pissed-the-fuck off. At first Tsunade had thought that it would be a temporary thing since in all their years together the young woman had never stayed angry at her for long. How wrong she had been, three years later and Shizune still hadn't forgiven her. They barely spoke anymore and the younger had abandoned her post as Hokage's assistant in favor of working at the Hospital.
Just as her depression was starting to set in Tsunade's senses alerted her to a presence at her office window. Recognizing the chakra signature she didn't even turn as she spoke to the new arrival.
"What do you want Jiraya?"
"Tsu-hime my spy network just informed me that Akatsuki attacked Suna and have got Gaara." She turned so fast it was a miracle her head didn't snap off.
"When did this happen?"
"Yesterday, if we move now we can get there in time to help. Maybe we can repair Suna-Konoha relations too." She nodded, saving the Kazekage would definitely improve relations but something was bothering her.
"Why didn't they send for help?" Jiraya sighed. He had hoped to avoid the question.
"From what my informant told me they don't trust Konoha with their kazekage's safety, something about not knowing the difference between a demon and a vessel." Tsunade winced at the remark. She pushed the inter-com button on her desk.
"Get team Kakashi I have an urgent mission for them."
A small puff resounded through the silence of the desert of Wind Country as a bottle of cool water was unsealed. Natsuko tucked the storage scroll back into her belt as she as she took a long gulp. Over the last three and a half years she had grown to a respectable 5'5" thanks to a healthy diet and constant training. Her dress code had changed drastically from the orange nightmare she used to ware. She now wore low cut black pants that clung tightly to her hips but were baggy from mid-thigh down and ended tucked into black combat boots. Her midriff was uncovered, showing off her toned belly and slim waist. A camouflage style black and red mini-T-shirt covered her large C-cup breasts. Finally she wore black fingerless gloves with steel knuckles and a black trench coat. With her thin whisker marks, sky blue eyes and long vibrant blonde hair she cut a very attractive figure. She was now seventeen years old and more than happy with how her life had turned out.
She smiled fondly as she looked at her partner. She wasn't sure how things would have turned out if she hadn't met him but she doubted that it would have been good. He hadn't changed much in their time together. Actually he hadn't changed at all and while he looked to be the same age as her, he was actually eight years her senior. She knew why of course, but it was still an amusing thought. He was dressed similarly to her, black boots and baggy black combat pants, tight sleeveless black and red camouflage T-shirt, black fingerless gloves and black trench coat with his black katana strapped to his back.
Natsuko sighed contentedly and took another gulp of water. It was amazing to her, how three years could make a world of difference.
FLASHBACK THREE YEARS AGO
Natsuko looked down at the seal her newfound nii-chan had written on her left forearm. It looked like a plain circle but considering her previous experience with seals she was rather weary of it.
"So what does this seal do exactly Naruto-niichan." He gave her an evil smirk that that put her even more on edge.
"It's a combination of training seals. It increases the weight on all of your body in a similar fashion to gravity seals and it increases resistance making movement harder. When you channel chakra into it a number will appear in the circle. Each time you channel chakra into it the number will increase showing what level you're at."
Natsuko pushed a little chakra into the seal and watched as it glowed and a number '1' appeared inside the circle. As expected she felt an increase in weight and it became harder to move. It was as if the air had become a bit thicker, or like moving under water. Still, while it was noticeable she had expected a bigger difference.
"Level 1 isn't too bad, should I go straight to level 2?" She asked. Naruto shook his head.
"No, I want you to get used to level 1 first. You'll probably ask me at some point so I'll explain right now. When I train I always take the time to master a stage before I move on to the next one. For your physical training that means increasing the weights a little at a time and making sure you can perform perfectly before you increase them again. There's no point in getting faster and stronger if your form becomes sloppy is there? You'll find it annoying at first, having to rework all your katas each time you move up a level, but you'll get used to it and I promise the results will be worth it."
She seemed to accept what he said which came as a relief since most ninja wanted results as soon as possible. He also knew that her trust came, in part, from the fact that someone was finally taking an interest in her training.
"So what are you going to teach me?"
"Let's see… when you used kage bushin there was a lot of wasted chakra, so we'll have to work on your control. Your taijutsu is… well let's just say it needs a lot of work. You don't have a sword so I suppose you don't know any kenjutsu, I'll teach you that from scratch. I'll also teach you fuinjutsu. There are loads of things I can teach you that aren't shinobi skills but are still very useful. So yeah I've got loads to teach you, in a couple years' time you'll be stronger than most jounin. When you get to that level we'll start taking missions so you can get some experience."
Natsuko frowned. "How am I going to learn all that in just two years? I mean if it was that easy everyone would be super strong."
Naruto smiled softly. "First the fact that you aren't dead despite basically receiving no training whatsoever shows that you have a lot of potential. Second you have me as your personal sensei. And third we're going to make use of the insane amount of kage bushins we can make."
The frown on Natsuko's face was becoming a permanent fix. "How will kage bushin help in training?"
Naruto almost jaw dropped. How did she not notice with the amount of bushins she can make?
'I guess she only uses them in battle situations. In that case she wouldn't have time to process the memory feedback.'
"Well you see originally kage bushin no jutsu was an Uzumaki technique. The Uzumaki clan was kind of famous for having very large chakra reserves but as a result they had rather bad control. One of the smarter clan members created a clone that could work on chakra control for him. That's the kage bushin, anything the clone learns will go back to the original through memory feedback. For most shinobi the jutsu is too costly but for an Uzumaki it's the best training method there is."
Natsuko's enthusiasm started boiling up as she realized the possibilities. She jumped to her feet and pumped her fist in the air.
"This is great! I'll be able to train in everything. I'll be kicking shinobi butt in no time!"
"Hey! Hey! Calm down. Even with kage bushin we're still going to take it bit by bit. For the first month we'll have two groups of bushins. The first will work on basic chakra control exercises. Tree walking, water walking, leaf balancing, and kunai balancing. The second group will work on taijutsu. I don't really use a single style because with kage bushin I can master a style just through muscle memory. We'll do the same for you, first with the basic style then the more elaborate ones. While your clones are doing their thing I'll supervise your physical training. This is the only thing kage bushin can't help you with. You'll start every morning at sun rise by doing sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, squats and jumping jacks. Then we'll spar until lunch time. It'll be hard at first but this way you'll learn to save your energy. After lunch we'll travel for a few hours and spar again. When we're done we'll set up camp and turn in for the night. "
END FLASHBACK
That first month had gone well. Natsuko took to taijutsu like a fish to water. She absorbed the different styles at an incredible rate and could switch from one to another in the blink of an eye. As he had predicted their spars were short to begin with. While he never went all out he didn't go easy on her either. He would fight at a level that would make for a long fight in which she never had a moments rest. After the first week or so she was learning to move efficiently and to wait for the right moment to attack rather than just charging in. From then on the spars became longer and harder every day.
Her chakra control group made good progress, but she still had a ways to go since Kyuubi's presence made her chakra reserves even larger than her Uzumaki bloodline.
When the month was over Naruto was more than satisfied with her progress and ready to move on to the next stage. By then they had crossed to the very north of the Elemental Countries.
FLASHBACK
They were currently standing on a large flat platform carved right out off the side of a mountain. It looked as if someone had tried to chop the top off only to stop half way through, leaving a smooth horizontal floor and equally smooth vertical wall. The platform itself cut about five hundred feet into the mountain and was roughly twice as long. Natsuko wasn't sure how high up they were and she really didn't want to think about it. She watched her brother as he placed his hand on a seemingly random part of the wall. There was a faint glow and a door sized rectangular hole opened soundlessly. Naruto walked in without a word. She had come to expect that of her nii-chan. He would always explain things in detail and was would be happy to answer any question she asked, but when no words were needed no words were spoken. After being alone for the best part of thirteen years it wasn't all that surprising. Following him she found herself in a long tunnel with the same dimensions as the entrance. Which had closed after she passed through it? The walls and ceiling gave a soft blue glow allowing her to see where she was going. After twenty feet she stepped out of the tunnel and felt her jaw drop.
If she hadn't known better she would have thought she just stepped into a daimyo's garden. They were standing at the edge of a large circular cave. It was five hundred feet across and one hundred high. Despite being inside a mountain there was soft grass growing on the floor. To her left there were a variety of fruit trees and bushes. A small river ran from one side to the other about half way in, with a little wooden bridge crossing it. To the right the river ended in a crystal clear pond with exotic fish swimming around. On the other side of the river there was a small one story traditional style house and a Sakura tree.
"OK how in the name of Kami-sama did you get a Sakura tree in here?" Natsuko asked incredulously. Naruto looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"I put in a storage seal." He replied dryly. Natsuko blinked, blushed and looked down in embarrassment. The answer was quite obvious really. Naruto gestured and they started walking towards the house.
"This is easily my greatest non-combat related achievement. I have five other safe houses exactly like this one throughout the Elemental Nations. The only thing that changes is the location. The others are all underground rather than hidden in a mountain. They're also much closer to civilization. Being the most isolated this one is by far the best for training. Everything is powered by seals, the artificial sunlight; the temperature; the river's flow. I even have a hot spring on the other side of the house. There are also seals to keep the water and air pure. The entire cave is surrounded by security seals with a blood seal at the entrance, so even if we are attacked here we'll have plenty of time to react. There are three emergency exits by the way."
He turned to see his sister gapping like a fish out of water and grinned in satisfaction.
"I know! It's great isn't it? I never thought I'd trust anyone enough to share it." He ended in a melancholy tone that pulled Natsuko from her stupor. She walked up and wrapped her arms around him tightly, burying her face in his chest.
"It's beautiful onii-chan." She mumbled. "It's perfect."
Naruto grinned and slid an arm around her back and the other under her legs. He picked her up bridal style, causing her to 'eep', and carried her across the bridge and into the house.
END FLASHBACK
They had spent the next week relaxing after their long journey, swimming in the pond, sitting under the Sakura tree, or bathing in the hot springs. The safe house hadn't been built with privacy in mind since Naruto hadn't intended to have company of any kind. But they had developed a close relationship and weren't bothered by the proximity they had to share.
FLASHBACK
They were now on the training area outside the mountain safe house, or as Natsuko called it, the ledge of doom.
"As you've noticed this training ground has a potentially dangerous particularity. Being a freakishly smooth surface at a rather high altitude there are often gusts of wind that vary from a gentle breeze to a freezing gale. I didn't actually plan that when I was cutting the rock but I decided to leave it as it is. This will force you to always be on guard. At any moment a powerful wind could blow through and you'll have to use chakra to stick to the floor. Believe me you don't even want to think of falling from this height! Now! I want you to take this and channel some chakra into it."
Taking the small piece of paper she did as she was told and pushed chakra into it. To her surprise it split in half vertically, then after a moment the left half burst into flames and the right half crumbled to dust. She dropped the paper so as not to get burnt and leveled a mild glare at her brother. Ignoring her displeasure, Naruto nodded at the results.
"That was chakra paper used to test elemental affinities. In your case you have a primary affinity for wind. That was the paper splitting in two. Then you have strong affinities in fire and earth. Those were respectively indicated by the flames and the dust."
"I take it that's a good thing?" She asked observing his satisfied expression a little warily. Naruto just shrugged.
"It's neither good nor bad really, it's not the elements that matter but what you do with them. Anyway, down to business! From now on the training schedule will be a bit different. Most noticeable is that we no longer have to travel so we'll be training in the afternoons as well."
Natsuko let out a groan upon hearing that. She was glad to have a dedicated sensei but her nii-chan was a merciless slave driver. It was a testament to his demanding nature that the most relaxing moments over the last month were their daily runs to cross Elemental Nations. The thought of being pushed to the limit all day long was daunting to say the least. She steeled her resolve and rekindled her determination. She was Uzumaki Natsuko by kami! Nothing would make her give up.
Seeing his sister getting psyched up Naruto grinned widely and explained the training plan.
"Your mornings will start the same, up at sunrise to do your warm ups. Then we'll spar until lunch as usual. During that time I want you to a group of kage bushin working on advanced chakra control. Another group will work on mastering one of your elements, I'll let you choose which. Finally I want a group working on fuinjutsu. I'll let you choose how many clones to have per group just make sure you don't slack off. Any questions so far?"
"Why am I only working on one element? Can't I just use clones to work on all of three?" She asked with a cute pout. She may have calmed down over the last month but the prospect of throwing all kinds of jutsu around was just too tempting. Naruto answered with a chuckle.
"You could but in the long term this way will yield better results. By training three elements at the same time you're more likely to miss something. A little detail can make the difference between good and perfect." Seeing her nod in understanding he continued. "After lunch the training will be much more theoretical. We'll both make groups of clones and mine will tutor yours in all sorts of skills and knowledge, from engineering to first aid to cooking."
Natsuko raised an eyebrow. She could understand engineering since might help if she had to destroy a bridge or something. First aid was a given, not everyone has a Kyuubi enhanced healing factor. But…
"Why the hell do I have to learn about cooking?" She half yelled.
"Have you ever eaten a ration bar?" He replied in with a deadpan voice and a slight shiver of disgust. Her eyes widened and she nodded her head vigorously. Those things were vile! She made a silent oath to pay extra attention to the cooking lessons.
"I'm not sure how long it will take for you to learn everything, but when you have you will be able to use the afternoons for elemental and fuinjutsu training. In the evenings we'll cover genjutsu, kenjutsu and other things but the pace will be slower so we can cool of before bed time." He finished with a large smile. It took everything she had to not pummel him for using such a jovial tone to describe her torture/training. Instead she just heaved a wary sigh.
'It's going to be a long couple of years!'
END FLASHBACK
From that point on time seemed to lose most of its meaning. The repetitive training made each day blurred into the next. Natsuko's only solace was that they took Sunday's off. The old Natsuko, the one who tried everything to gain people's attention, would have disregarded her sensei's words and trained all her elements at the same time. Having a teacher who explained why he wanted her to do something rather than just telling her to do it made a lot of difference. She had decided to start with wind manipulation since she shared the element with her onii-chan. It took her just under a week to cut a leaf in half. Naruto had been well prepared and had apparently collected, and sealed, thousands of leaves during their month long journey. She had expected to start learning all sorts of cool jutsu.
FLASHBACK
"So onii-chan what cool jutsu are you going to teach me some cool futon jutsu?" Natsuko asked as she bounced on her heels in anticipation.
"No." He answered simply, stopping her in mid-bounce.
"Whaaat? Why not?" She asked incredulously. With a sigh Naruto replied.
"Normally from here the next exercise would be to cut a waterfall using wind chakra. As always however I've come up with a better way to do things. The waterfall exercise is basically the same as the leaf exercise, the only difference is that you have to convert and pump out a lot more chakra."
Natsuko's face scrunched up as she concentrated, trying to see where this was going. The main thing she had come to realize was that where many would say 'better quality than quantity' Naruto would say 'better quality AND quantity'. That was it!
"So rather than move on to making more wind chakra you want me, to learn to control what I can make first." She said, causing him to give her a proud smile.
"Exactly! Start by taking a leaf, but instead of cutting it in half I want you to cut a swirl in it. When you've got that down choose another pattern, and so on until you think you can cut anything you want into it. When you've got that down you can move on to the waterfall exercise."
She nodded and created a batch of fifty clones and unsealed a scroll of leaves. She was really growing to hate the things.
END FLASHBACK
At first she had been a little upset about not learning any jutsu. However when she moved on to cutting shapes in a waterfall a few miles away from the safe house she realized the great advantage of what Naruto had taken to calling the 'Uzumaki training style'. For the average shinobi, those who use the standard training method, hand signs made up for the lack of control over the element. With her ever increasing skill in manipulating wind she could shape it without hand signs. She couldn't yet do anything too complicated. But she now had the incentive needed to push through the repetitive exercises.
It took six months of kage bushin to fine tune futon manipulation, when she had completed training her wind element she decided to move on to the next. However when she told Naruto she got an unexpected response.
FLASHBACK
They had just finished their morning warm ups (Naruto does them too so he stays in top shape). Before creating the morning work groups Natsuko drew her brother's attention.
"Onii-chan I'm ready to move on to fire manipulation now!" He just nodded. He had seen her progress and knew that she was ready. She could still make some improvements but that was to be expected.
"OK I'll get you started on that but I'll also want you to study the contents of this scroll." He handed her a medium sized scroll with the kanji for wind on it. Unrolling the scroll she found that it was covered in storage seals with names of wind jutsu under them. She saw names like 'futon: daitoppa', 'futon: rekudan' and 'futon: kaze no yaiba' written on it. She looked at him with raised brows.
"What's this for? I mean I can probably do all of these through wind manipulation so why bother learning them?" She asked.
"Because others will use them, if you can recognize the sequence of hands seals your opponent is making you'll know what jutsu he or she is going to use before he or she does it." She nodded in understanding. "Right! Now let's move on to fire manipulation. There are two ways to start, the first is to take a leaf in your hand and set it on fire. The second is to charge fire chakra into your lungs and breathe it out. When you've got that down I want you to try and work out the next step yourself. I'll help if need be, but it's best if you create your own advanced manipulation exercises. Like I said before the problem with most shinobi is that they're too lazy to work things out themselves."
END FLASHBACK
Mastering katon manipulation took longer than futon. Having to figure it out for herself made it harder but she got there in the end. The first part that she got down was changing the chakra in her lungs into katon chakra and exhaling a ball of fire. She guessed that it was because the air contained in her lungs was easier to ignite than the air around her hands. To practice her control she would compress the fire into smaller and smaller balls, making them incredibly hot. Once she was able to set a leaf on fire with her fingers she found that 'lung fire' was generally hotter and 'finger fire' was easier to shape. She eventually developed a system where she would shape the fire with her fingers and then breathe more heat into it.
Once her second element was on par with her first she moved onto earth.
FLASHBACK
"OK! Natsu-chan doton manipulation will be like katon in that I won't be able to help you beyond the basic exercises."
He took out a scroll and unsealed the contents. When the smoke cleared she could see a huge pile of pebbles. Rather than asking she just waited for an explanation.
"In books you'll read that the exercise is to turn the pebbles to dust. What you actually want to do is use your chakra to change their density. That includes turning them to dust but also the opposite, making them harder." He brought his hand to his chin in a thinking pose, and then shook his head. "That's all! You'll have to work out the rest yourself. By the way we've been here for just over thirteen months. At the end of the second year we'll be leaving to get some fighting experience. We'll still be training but I want you to get earth manipulation down before then. I've also got something else to teach you in regards to elemental chakra so the faster you finish the better."
END FLASHBACK
Natsuko's series of flashbacks were interrupted as her brother gave her arm two short taps. She looked at him questioningly. Naruto handed her a pair of binoculars and pointed to their left. She brought them to her eyes and scanned the horizon for what had caught his attention.
"That was pretty easy, yeah!" Said Deidara enthusiastically, "No one can stand against my art, yeah!"
Sasori gave no reply as they made their way across the desert. They had just captured the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and were headed towards the cave that had been prepared for the Bijuu's extraction. Flying a dozen feet above the ground Deidara's clay bird was carrying an unconscious Sabaku no Gaara. The young Kazekage had fought valiantly and had been winning, but in the end he had sacrificed his victory to protect his village from the ex Iwa-nin's bombs.
The Akatsuki and their prisoner were now approaching the border with River Country. A blur of movement made them stop as a pair of ninja in black trench coats landed in front of them. The two duos observed each other in silence. The S-class 'artists' weren't worried, after all relatively few shinobi were a threat against them, and even less would attack them since they were wearing the distinctive Akatsuki cloaks. These two were probably upstart missing-nin trying to make a name for themselves.
The Uzumakis launched into action, surprising their opponents who were expecting boastful introductions and speeches. Natsuko thrust her hands forwards and a wave of large sand shot forwards, Deidara dodged to the left and Sasori to the right. The wave of sand passed between them and curved up towards the clay bird. It dived down, barely escaping the attack as it scraped over its back. Gaara was somehow unharmed but neither had time to question the occurrence.
Naruto slammed a fist into his foe and a metallic 'clang' confirmed his suspicions. He and Natsuko had observed the Akatsuki members for a while before attacking, Deidara of the Rock had been easy enough to identify from his description in the Bingo Book but the other had taken a while. It was only when they caught a glimpse of the wooden tail that they guess they were looking at a puppet, and that it was most likely controlled by Sasori of the Red Sands. He pushed of and flipped backwards to a safe distance as the tail tried to pierce his chest. He reached up and grabbed the hilt of his katana, drawing its black blade from the sheaf.
Deidara ducked a punch from Natsuko but couldn't dodge the knee that was sent at his face. He flipped over as he flew back and landed on his feet. Natsuko charged forwards and threw a combination of punches and kicks with roughly half hitting their mark. Realizing he was outmatched in taijutsu the missing-nin sprung backwards and his hand-mouths each spat out a clay dragonfly that headed straight for the blonde.
Naruto pumped wind chakra into his blade as Sasori's tail took a swipe at him. He kicked off the ground so his body was parallel to the desert floor, as the wooden appendage passed under him he spun on a horizontal axis. His blade passed through the wood and metal of the puppet like a knife through butter. As soon as he touched down Naruto twisted clockwise on his right foot and sliced in an upwards diagonal motion releasing a crescent shaped blade of wind that cut through the side of the 'tank' causing it to blow apart in a burst of smoke.
Natsuko rolled to the side to avoid the clay dragonflies just before they exploded. She pushed forwards and blew a wide ball of fire to intercept the incoming swarm of explosive insects. She ran through the dust cloud and drop kicked Deidara sending him flying back towards their starting spot with a satisfying crack as at least two ribs broke. Planting a hand on the ground she spun her legs in a helicopter motion and twisted her waist, ending up on her feet facing her opponent as he struggled to stand.
Naruto stared in fascination at the wooden man that emerged from the smoke. To take the art of puppetry to such a level was amazing. Sasori unrolled a scroll and a puff of smoke erupted, when it cleared a force of a hundred human puppets. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Natsuko with her back to him as she waited for Deidara to get to his feet. He smirked and pumped chakra into a kunai before throwing it at her and using shushin.
A few hundred yards away two kage bushin dispelled themselves.
Natsuko felt her clone dispel and received the flow of information from Naruto's fight. She grinned and took a deep breath as she dashed at Deidara. When she felt her brother's kunai closing in on her head she jumped high into the air and flipped back so she was upside-down with Sasori beneath her. Seeing his new opponent the puppet user had his wooden army send a veritable forest of arms, each equipped with a poison coated blade. Natsuko exhaled a stream of very hot humid air that bathed the attackers in a haze that would put any tropical climate to shame. The unorthodox technique destroyed the poison and damaged the puppets' joints, reducing their speed and agility. Natsuko weaved through the severely weakened wood soldiers, destroying them as she made a beeline for their master.
Deidara's eyes trailed Natsuko in confusion as she jumped away, seemingly abandoning the fight. Suddenly his danger senses went haywire as he heard the low whistle of a kunai. He only just twisted his torso in time to avoid the weapon impaling his heart. He winced as it cut his right bicep. Deidara's eyes widened in horror at the amount of blood that came from the wound, even more so when instead of falling on the sandy floor it rose to a good ten twenty feet above the ground and formed a large blood red storm cloud.
"What the hell?"
Naruto's shushined a short distance from the bomb user just as the blood cloud started to take form. His opponent's shocked exclamation brought a smirk to Naruto's face but rather than gloat he channeled more chakra into his jutsu and molded it to his will. There was a low thunderous rumble as parts of the red cloud darkened. He let out a small sigh as Deidara remained transfixed by the miniature chakra generated storm, this always happened. He had created it with the awe factor in mind, it drew the enemy's attention and then… A 'crack' resounded and a jagged beam of black lightening arced from the cloud and struck straight through Deidara's heart.
Deidara didn't even blink, his face held in an expression of amazement as he keeled over and fell to the ground. Dead.
Natsuko slammed her fist into her opponent's wooden body but only scored a passing blow as he dodged to the side. She spun on her heel to deliver a roundhouse kick to his chest but had to jump back as he slashed at her with a blade that emerged from his forearm. Natsuko ducked and swerved the blows from the remaining puppets as she tried to work out a way to kill a wooden man. Suddenly the clay bird dropped to the ground between them brining the fight to a halt. Natsuko and Sasori looked to their left to see naruto walking towards them and a dead Deidara behind him.
Before they could react Sasori grabbed the still unconscious Gaara and held his blade arm to his throat.
"Stay where you are or I'll kill him." He spoke in a low monotone.
"What makes you think we care?" Naruto asked calmly. They did care of course, but is he doubted that it might make things easier.
"I don't know who you are but I recognize Uzumaki Natsuko. Unless she wants he fellow Jinchuuriki's head cut off you'll stay where you are." He answered and he started backing away.
Naruto made to go after him but Natsuko held him back.
"Naruto-kun don't!" She pleaded.
As Sasori was out of striking distance he turned and ran, carrying his charge on his shoulder and never noticing the smirks on Naruto and Natsuko's faces. They waited for a minute and Naruto turned to his sister.
"I think that's long enough don't you?"
She nodded and brought her hands up in a ram seal.
"Bushin Daibakuha!"
A quarter mile away a youki charged kage bushin, henged to look like the Ichibi Jinchuuriki, exploded disintegrating everything in a thirty foot radius.
Natsuko smiled widely as the clone's memories came back to her.
"Well that wasn't too hard!" She exclaimed.
"We had a good plan, and didn't give them time to react. Now let's go see your friend."
They started running towards Suna and quickly caught up with the group of four clones (two each) that were carrying the still unconscious Gaara. Dispelling the clones Naruto did a quick check to see if anything was wrong and found a small paper tag on the back of his neck.
"There's nothing too serious but they put a suppressor seal on his neck. It blocks the Ichibi's youki and stops it from healing him, once I take it off he should be back to normal in no time."
He pushed some chakra into the seal and deactivated it. He could just rip the tag of but it was always best to be careful with fuinjutsu. Naruto slung the young Kazekage over his shoulder and they headed off across the desert at full speed.
The sun was just setting on Sunagakure no sato and Sabaku no Temari was briefing a group of the best jounin in Suna for the Gaara rescue mission. There had been talk of asking for help from Konoha but the idea was shot down when one of the shinobi said that considering how they treated their Jinchuuriki it might be putting Gaara in danger from his rescuers as well. With the increase in missions it had taken almost two days for the team to be assembled since many jounin were outside the village. They would have to make haste to catch the Kage-nappers.
Suddenly a chunin appeared next to her.
"Temari-sama two shinobi in black have been spotted heading towards the village gates at high speed. They'll be here in a matter of minutes."
Temari turned and ran towards the village entrance. She hoped that it wasn't Akatsuki again, if it was they wouldn't be able to go after her brother. She tensed when the people they were waiting for came to a stop a short distance from her. They looked like they were in their late teens and, other than the red on their red T-shirts, were dressed all in black. She didn't think they were Akatsuki but that didn't mean they were allies, an opinion shared by the rest of her group if the drawing of kunai was anything to go by.
"Wow! We're not looking for a fight!" Naruto said as he took a few steps forwards and placed Gaara on the ground before stepping back.
"Gaara!" Temari ran up to her brother "What's wrong with him?" She asked with a small glare.
"He's just unconscious," Natsuko answered in a placating manner "those Akatsuki guys put a seal on him to stop his demon from healing him. Naruto-kun took it off so he should wake up soon."
Temari blinked as she recognized the kunoichi that defeated her brother at the chunin exams and her eyes widened, she had grown quite a bit and wasn't wearing the orange nightmare so she looked quite different. In fact if it wasn't for the whisker marks on her cheeks she would have thought it was someone else, and even those were thinner than she remembered.
"Natsuko-san?"
Natsuko grinned and gave a cheeky wave. Scrambling to her feet Temari bowed deeply.
"Arigatou! For bringing my otouto back!" She motioned for them to follow her as Gaara was carried into the village, "But how did you know we had been attacked by Akatsuki?"
Natsuko chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.
"We didn't! We were crossing the desert and kind of bumped into them." She confessed, causing Temari to sweat drop. The Suna kunoichi's eyes then strayed over to Naruto.
"Who are you?" She asked bluntly. He arched an eyebrow.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he replied, "Natsuko's partner."
Temari nodded and they walked in silence to the hospital where Gaara was placed in a bed to recover as doctors started running diagnostic jutsu over him. Natsuko looked at the person occupying the next bed.
"Hey! Is that makeup boy?" She asked incredulously, pointing at a clean faced Kankuro.
"Yeah! That's him." Laughed Temeri.
"He looks like he's been poisoned." Naruto said as he observed the young man's feverish form. Temari sighed.
"He is! He was poisoned by Sasori's puppet, there's nothing the med-nin can do." Her answer caused Naruto to frown. He knew quite a few healing jutsu but he wasn't an expert, since neither he nor Natsuko had to worry about poison. Sasori was renowned for his skill with poison so there would be no easy antidote. But…
"Do you have a sample of his blood? I mean a non-infected sample." Naruto asked.
A small glint of hope appeared in Temari's eyes and she quickly told one of the nurses to get the blood sample.
When the nurse came back Naruto took the blood pack and filled a syringe. He paused in thought, he had never tried something like this so he was trying to anticipate how it would work out. Coming to a plausible scenario he created a kage bushin and pumped more chakra into it. The reinforced clone took the syringe and channeled chakra into it before emptying it in midair.
The observers were surprised when, instead of falling to the floor, the blood sample hung like a small cloud. Clone Naruto then moved towards Kankuro and directed the blood to his bare chest. They watched transfixed as it sunk into him and disappeared from view. One of the med-nin turned to Naruto, looking alternately between him and his doppelganger.
"What kind of med-jutsu is that?" She asked eagerly. Natsuko snorted. Naruto sent her a mild glare before answering.
"It's not. It's an assassination jutsu."
"…"
"Whaaaat?" Temari screamed and ran to try and save her brother, although how she intended to do so was a mystery. She was stopped by Natsuko's hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, let him explain first." She turned to her brother and stared him in the eye, "You had better explain or else." She trailed off leaving him to guess the end of her threat.
Naruto paled considerably. While what she was implying would be a punishment for her as much as it would be for him, he knew just how stubborn she could be.
"OK! OK! I'll explain!" He said hastily, "The blood cloud is an original jutsu that works by taking a blood sample and using chakra to copy the blood's 'signature'. Everybody's blood is different, by using that difference I can target my enemies for assassination. Are you following so far?" At the collective nod, and knuckle cracking from Temari, he pursued his explanation, "When I have my target I can attack in two ways: identification and discrimination. Identification works by locking on to the target and striking at it, avoiding everything else. Discrimination works by locking on to the target but striking at everything else, avoiding it totally. In Makeup Boy's case the target is his blood and I'm attacking by discrimination, so it will strike at everything else and most importantly Sasori's poison. I guess you could say I'm assassinating the poison."
There was silence as they absorbed his words.
"Why is the clone doing it? Why not do it yourself?" The med-nin asked.
"As I said it's not a healing jutsu, I can only destroy the poison in his blood stream. I have to wait for the poison that's passed into other areas to cycle back to be destroyed and I don't feel like staying here all night, hence the clone." Naruto replied with a shrug. His lips twitched in a hint of a grin, "Speaking of 'all night' I'm whacked! Is there a good hotel we can stay in?"
Temari directed them to the best Hotel in the village, saying that all expenses would be covered and apologizing for not accompanying them. She wanted to stay at her brothers' sides.
Word of their rescue of the Kazekage had already got around town. As a result they were given the best suite in the hotel and told that if they needed anything to call for room service.
LEMON WARNING: INCEST
Naruto followed Natsuko into the room and locked the door behind them.
Toeing his boots off of his feet he crept up behind her, slipped his arms around her slim, toned waist and gently nibbled her left earlobe. Natsuko let out a soft moan as he stimulated the sensitive area.
"I thought you said you were whacked?" She asked in a sensual voice, smirking as she felt 'Little Naruto' press into her rear.
"I've always got energy for this," He said huskily, "besides; you shouldn't have used the 'no sex' threat. It just makes me want you even more."
His right hand slid down and rubbed her lower regions through the cloth of her pants. Natsuko's moans grew louder and she couldn't help but think back to the day their relationship took this new turn.
FLASHBACK
It had been a couple of months since they had left the mountain to get fighting experience by working their way through the Bingo Book. It was now Natsuko's sixteenth birthday and they were celebrating in an underground safe house in Vegetable Country. Naruto had declared that they were going to party and get drunk to celebrate and had developed a seal especially to prevent their advanced healing factors from eliminating the alcohol.
A few dozen bottles of sake latter, Kumo's finest, and they were piss drunk and seeing double.
"Hey Natsu-chan, pass me the bag of chips will ya?" Naruto slurred, finishing with a hiccup.
"Which one? There are about fifty!" She slurred back. Okay maybe there were seeing more than double.
She stumbled to her feet and grabbed a pack of the prawn flavored snacks, swaying dangerously all the way. A stray speck of dust floated across the floor and landed on her foot knocking her out of balance. With a drunken cry of surprise she landed on top of Naruto, her breasts pressing into his chest and her lips smooching against his.
The precarious situation sent their hearts beating overtime, pumping adrenalin through their veins and clearing their liquor addled minds.
Or rather clearing their liquor addled minds enough for them to start kissing each other passionately.
Natsuko moaned into the kiss when she felt his tong slide against hers as it traced the insides of her mouth. Tearing off his T-shirt to expose his muscular chest she ran her fingertips over his surprisingly flawless skin causing him to shiver in pleasure.
She yelped when he pushed her upright so she was straddling his waist, his hardness pressing at her crotch. Naruto lifted her top up but stopped half way so her face was covered from her nose upwards and her arms held above her head, exposing her firm C-cups and their light pink nipples. He trailed kisses along her jaw line and down the right of her neck, licking her collar bone tenderly before continuing to trail kisses between her firm breasts and down her stomach. When he reached her belly button he paused to dip his tong in it a few time, making her squirm in pleasure, before he moved his head back up and captured her left nipple in his mouth. He brought a hand up to caress the other fleshy mound, rolling his thumb over the nipple.
With his other hand he unbuttoned her pants and slipped his fingers into her white panties sensually stroking her nether lips. Natsuko screamed out in pleasure from the new sensation. She had never touched herself down there; having never received any kind of affection she hadn't even thought about a sexual relationship. He brother's ministrations were having unexpected results, though they definitely weren't unwelcomed.
Obeying her instincts she pushed Naruto back and undid his pants and boxers. She gasped when his tool sprung free. It was huge! Ten inches long and as thick as her wrist, the shaft was covered with numerous throbbing veins and crowned by a large bulbous head. Seeing a dollop of liquid emerge from the small slit she leaned forwards and placed her lips at the tip before sucking on it as if it were a straw. She moaned loudly as she tasted the delicious gooey, slightly salty substance. Trying to coax more out she wrapped a small hand around Naruto's member and started to pump up and down vigorously. She added a twisting motion and slipped the head into her mouth, moaning as her other hand rubbed her dripping pussy lips.
Naruto was lost to the pleasure his imouto was giving him. Her tiny hand jacking him off was amazing, but warmth of her mouth and the roughness of her tongue as it licked his head were mind-blowing. He stiffened and felt pressure build in his balls as his body begged for release.
"Natsu-chan," He groaned though gritted teeth as he held on with all his might, desperate to feel this pleasure for as long as possible. "I-I'm cu-cumming! Gaah!"
With an inarticulate cry his orgasm erupted into Natsuko's mouth, ropes of hot thick seamen splashing into her mouth making her moan in satisfaction as her throat worked as fast as it could to swallow it all. When the tide finally subsided she made a show of swallowing the last mouthful, staring into his eye with a lust filled expression.
Naruto's cock had softened slightly after his orgasm but Natsuko's erotic action brought him back to full hardness in an instant. He pushed her back, gently but firmly, so she was lying on the floor. He crawled between her legs and placed the tip of his member at her entrance. In a moment of clarity he looked into her eyes for any sign of hesitation but saw none. He pushed forwards and sank into her slowly, both their mouths open in a silent scream of pleasure. Naruto stopped when he hit her barrier, most kunoichi broke their hymen during the rigorous training their trade required but he supposed that Kyuubi's youki may have prevented that from happening.
"Gomen Natsu-chan but this is going to hurt for a while, until you get used to me being inside you." He said softly placing small, loving kisses along her neck.
Natsuko really didn't know much about sex. There were special classes for kunoichi at the academy, but she had been thrown out like most of her other classes. So far she was acting purely on instinct and given how good it felt she was more than happy to continue doing so. She looked down to where she was joined to her brother, his huge penis was barely over a third of the way in. She shuddered slightly at the sight of his large member parting her lips, stretching her pussy to accommodate its size. Suddenly her instincts screamed at her, demanding that all of HER man's meat be inside her. Without thinking she curled her legs around his back and obeyed the primal urge.
Naruto waited patiently for his sister to reply. The seals had come off at some point and they were both free of the alcohol's influence. He was well aware this was a taboo and was considered wrong but he didn't care, he knew with absolute certainty that there wasn't a more perfect person he could be with. He needed to be sure, however, that this was also what she wanted. His wait came to an end when Natsuko's slender but powerful legs wrapped around him and without warning pulled him all the way into her. Naruto felt his cock break through her barrier and plunge all the way into her. His eyes rolled to the back of his skull as he passed out, collapsing on top of an already unconscious Natsuko. The pain and pleasure having proved too much for the siblings turned lovers.
Natsuko awoke when she felt the warm weight on top of her shift. She wriggled a little and moaned loudly as she felt the still hard shaft move inside her. She felt the weight lessen and opened her eyes to see her brother looking down at her and breathing deeply, she followed his gaze as it slid downwards. When she saw Naruto's pelvis flush with her and his cock buried to the hilt in her pussy, her eyes glazed over as the memories returned almost like a kage bushin dispelling. She had curled her legs around Naruto's back and pulled him into her in one swift thrust, she could vaguely remember screaming from the sharp pain before passing out. She looked back into her nii-chan's eyes.
"What happened?" She asked, her voice cracking slightly. Naruto leaned down and softly captured her lips with his.
"You got a bit, enthusiastic, and we both passed out, I'm not sure how long. But damn you're tight!" He pulled an inch of his meat pole out and thrust it back in slowly. Natsuko moaned at the heat and fullness she felt. Naruto grinned at her reaction, "It looks like fainting helped you sleep the pain off."
He started stroking in and out of her tight passage, thankful for the warm juices that were spilling from her in a continuous stream as she trashed around in pleasure. Deciding to step things up a little Naruto wrapped his arms around her back and pulled up so he was sitting on his heels with her still impaled on his cock. Placing his hands on her hips he lifted her up, sliding halfway out, and then released her. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent scream as the fire in her belly roared, burning hotter than ever. Naruto took hold of her hips and repeated the process again, and again.
After a few minutes of this Natsuko started lifting up and sliding down on her own. Naruto groaned as her vaginal walls clamped down on him in a vise like grip. He fell onto his back, unfolding his legs so she was riding him cowgirl style. She sped up as she got closer to her climax, her body glistening with sweat, her boobs bouncing wildly until he reached up and took them in his hands, massaging them and pushing her over the edge. She crumpled, losing control of her muscles and landing on Naruto's chest, her limp body twitching as her orgasm coursed through her. It took almost five minutes for Natsuko to come down from her orgasmic high and regain control of her body. When she did she lifted her head up, keeping her breasts pressed to Naruto's chest, and looked him in the eyes before pressing her lips to his.
"That was amazing onii-chan." She murmured lovingly. She frowned as she realized something, "You didn't cum." She flipped them over so she was under him, his cock still held tightly in her pussy. She stared deep in his eyes and ordered, "Cum!"
More than happy to comply, Naruto pulled all the way out until only his head was inside her. With a smirk that promised untold pleasure he thrust into her, hard, pulled all the way out, and slammed back in again. He built up a steady rhythm, his long powerful thrust brining a still sensitive Natsuko to orgasm over and over as the sound of their naked flesh slapping together echoed throughout the safe house.
Naruto continued pounding into his imouto relentlessly for half an hour never feeling the need to change position. By then they were lying in an ever increasing puddle of Natsuko's sweet nectar. Naruto would later conclude that it was only thanks to her healing factor that she hadn't turned into a dried up husk after cumming so much.
Naruto felt his coils tighten as he neared his climax. Giving one last thrust he buried himself as deep as he could in his sister's warm velvety depths and grunted as he splashed her walls with rope after rope of pent up semen. Natsuko screamed out one last time as she felt her brother's hot, thick cum splash into the pit of her womb and slosh around messily as he injected more and more of the substance into her.
END FLASHBACK
Natsuko moaned contentedly as she and Naruto made their way to the suite's king sized bed. She had one last thought before they descended into hours of pleasure making.
'Three years can make a world of difference."