Naruto:A New Path

Broken Pride

The sun was setting as Naruto faced Anko. He sported a few scratches on his face, his long-sleeved shirt was drenched in sweat and his breathing was uneven. His eyes were focused on his current 'sparring' partner. He found it hard not to groan, she didn't even looked phased by the hours they had spent sparring, in fact she looked as amused as ever.
A short distance away, a few clones could be seen training on the new taijutsu style. He had been relieved to know that Anko had approved of the method since she had said that the faster he learned, the better their spars would be. He was already familiar with the basic stances thanks to the many clones he had training. Unfortunately most of the clones had already dispersed by ricochet kunai, courtesy of Anko, though he didn't really know if they had been accidents as she sported a smirk each time one was 'killed.'
He turned back to the kunoichi, knowing that it wasn't time to think of other things. Slipping into his new taijutsu stance his eyes narrowed on the opponent, he shifted his weight to his left leg and waited for some kind of opening. She suddenly shifted weight in one foot, giving him the opening desired.
The Chunin shot off the ground and charged at the older ninja, his left arm on his side while the right was set in front of his body. He jumped in the air as he twisted his body to the right, throwing a punch with his left arm as he did so. Anko smirked as she easily caught the fist, feeling a bit of pain from the momentum the punch had gained, before using her other arm to throw a jab at the blond's stomach.
Naruto raised his right knee, blocking the attack, before using his other leg to kick at Anko's arm. He pushed against the arm with his leg, using the momentum to push himself off her grip. Landing a few feet away from Anko, he bent his knees and jumped at her once more, throwing a jab with his right hand.
Anko easily knocked the hand aside before throwing an uppercut to the boy's chin. The blond's eyes shut in pain as he sailed through the air. He gritted his teeth as he set his eyes on the ninja as he sailed through the air. Losing sight of her, even when being knocked around, always resulted in a painful kick to his chest.
Quickly twisting his body he took out a couple of kunai, flicking them at the older ninja without missing a beat. Anko took out her own kunai and flung it towards the incoming projectiles, impacting against one of them as she jumped after the blond. Naruto's eyes widened as she extended her hand and caught the second kunai without much trouble, before flinging it right back at him.
The blond quickly ran through hand signs, putting a hand around his mouth.
'Wind Style: Devastation!' a powerful gust of air shot out of his mouth, blowing the kunai away without any trouble. He landed on the ground and let out a sigh of relief, that kunai had been to close.
"Idiot!" Anko yelled in anger, appearing behind him in a cloud of smoke. She kicked the blond on the back, earning a yelp of pain as he turned to face the kunoichi with a glare, "I told you no to use ninjutsu!"
"What the hell?" Naruto yelled back, "You just tried to kill me! Was I supposed to let the kunai stab me?"
"You were supposed to knock it away with any kind of weapon. Any ninja with a brain would have done that," the snake mistress countered, "I told you not to use ninjutsu but that didn't mean that you were out of long-range attacks. You did use kunai but only once. Shinobi are supposed to use every available resource as a weapon, something that you didn't do."
Naruto crossed his arms, letting out a sigh. "Fine," he let out, "I'll keep it in mind."
Anko smiled. "Good, because we're done for the day," she announced as she began to walk away, turning her head to the bond, "Let's go. We're gonna go get something to eat, you can leave the idiot troop behind if you want."
"HEY!" was the collective shout of the Naruto clones, all glaring at Anko.
Naruto chuckled nervously before following after his new sensei. One thing he had learned was that when his clones were pissed they tended to do stupid things, like yell insults and get him in trouble instead of them.
"Wait up!" Naruto called with a frown as he followed after the kunoichi.
Ino smiled in contempt as she sat on a river's edge. Her feet were dipped in the water, cooling off a bit after another day of training. Her cheeks were flushed and her face held a few trails of sweat, part of her wanted to just dive in the water but knew that she would end up smelling bad.
She gazed at her hands as her smile grew. It was the first time, in a long time, that she had seen such improvement on her skills. After training on chakra control with Tsunade for hours and hours she finally got to see the results. She had used a few of her water jutsu and had been surprised with how much easier they had come out. It was as if they were second nature to her.
The kunoichi turned to her teacher, the older woman putting the many books she had forced her student to read in scrolls. "Master Tsunade," Ino called with a confused look on her face. Tsunade turned to her student with a questioning look, "Why was it so much easier to use my jutsu? I know that I've been working on chakra control but I never thought it would improve that much."
"It wasn't just the chakra control exercises," Tsunade explained after a brief pause. "It was also because of your medical chakra training," she began, getting back to sorting the scrolls, "Medical chakra is a lot like water. It flows and gives life. Think of it as an advanced form of water control."
Ino nodded, taking her feet off the river and getting up. "I got it," she walked over to her teacher and took a few of the scrolls on hand, "Long story short. If I train my medical chakra, my water jutsu will get stronger, right?"
Tsunade nodded as she finished with the scrolls. "You're kind of right," she admitted. "Let's get going," she ordered as the two began their usual stroll back to the village. The medic turned to her student once more, wanting to explain further, "Remember that chakra control helps reduce the amount of chakra wasted on a jutsu. That means that your jutsu will not only be stronger, since you get to control where the chakra goes exactly, but you'll be able to use them beyond your past limit. Also, we've been working on your chakra capacity, which means that now you'll be able to use a lot more jutsu than before."
Ino grinned, she was finally getting there. Of course it would take time to make a large improvement but she knew to be patient. Her training was going well and she didn't need to rush it. Now she would get to really help out instead of hiding behind her teammates. She couldn't wait to get stronger.
Naruto let another stick of dango into his mouth, the sweet taste running through his mouth. He chewed on his food as he looked at his new sensei oddly. She ate the meal with a smile on her face, her eyes closing in contempt with each bite. He had never seen someone enjoy a meal that much,
"What are you looking at brat?" Anko as she gulped down her food.
"Nothing," Naruto sighed out, watching as the snake mistress took her sake cup and drank its contents, setting the cup on the table before going back to her dango, "Isn't eating sake and dango a little weird?"
Anko smirked as she used a napkin to wipe her mouth. "I'm insulted," she frowned, "Whatever gave you the idea that I was 'normal?'"
"Good point," the blond muttered, slumping his head on the table. He closed his eyes and let out a yawn. Today's training had been more than demanding and, judging from the lack of memories from his clones, it was still going somewhere on the forest.
"Look alive kid," Anko scolded with a frown. Naruto glared at her, exhaustion written all over his face. She couldn't help but grin, "It's not right to just ignore your guest, right?"
Naruto's ears perked up, "Guest?"
The snake mistress smirked as she rose from her chair. "Sorry I didn't before but, the loser of our little sparring match was going to pay for dinner," she took one final gulp of sake before ruffling the Chunin's hair. "Later, brat. We're gonna start our training tomorrow morning at around seven," with that the kunoichi disappeared in a cloud of smoke, shocking some of the civilian bystanders.
"You are paying for this, right," a rather large man with a shaved head and bushy grey mustached stated with a glare.
Naruto gritted his teeth as he reached for his wallet, she would regret this.
Ino strolled down the streets of Konoha, making her way home. The sun was setting and the streets were a little crowded. She could see a few couples walking hand in hand and she couldn't help but let out a pout. Naruto had gotten home and they still hadn't gone on a proper date. With all of the training going on, they didn't have too much time to spend together. She made a mental note to ask him on a date later.
"Hey Ino," a voice called out. Ino turned to her side to see Shikamaru walking towards her, his steps really slow and his eyes closed in irritation.
"What is it?" she wondered, it wasn't usual for Shikamaru to look for people.
The lazy Chunin let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "I was assigned to the shinobi exchange program," he began. Ino's eyes widened slightly at the bit of news, it seemed a bit rare to send a clan member to the Sand. "Anyway," he continued, "I will be leaving tomorrow morning and wanted you to tell the people I know, save them the trouble of asking around. I'll probably be back next week… What a pain in the ass."
"Fine," Ino sighed out, figuring that he had never really asked her for anything.
Shikamaru nodded, digging his hands on his pockets. "I'm off then," he muttered before walking away.
Ino let out a small laugh. He was getting a bit more serious about being a ninja but it didn't change the fact that he was lazy, she didn't think that anything could change that. The kunoichi resumed her trek back home, wondering who should be the first to know.
It was dark as two Anbu watched over the last of the Uchiha, Sasuke. The young ninja was currently punching a log rigorously. His movements were slow but it was to be expected as he had just been sent out of the hospital a few days ago.
The Anbu continued to watch over the Uchiha before their head snapped to the side, hearing the sound of crunching leaves. The two nodded at each other before rushing at the direction the sound came from, jumping through the branches of the nearby trees. Their heads suddenly perked up before stopping dead on their tracks and jumped down to the ground just as two strings of webs hit the tree branch where they had just been.
The ground beneath them suddenly gave out, a large crater forming beneath them. They jumped away from the ground but were suddenly struck by two large arms, belonging to a large ogre. The two Anbu crashed on the ground. The ground beneath them suddenly rose and covered their bodies, leaving only their heads exposed.
Four shadows walked towards the fallen ninja. The Anbu watched as a figure raised its fist to attack.
Blood dripped from Sasuke's knuckles as he punched the training log with pure hatred. It wasn't fair. He had been stripped off his title as ninja, now a mere Academy student. He was forced to stay on his house which meant that he wouldn't be able to get any proper training done. And most of all, he had gotten his sharingan taken from him and the culprit was still running around without a care in the world. It just wasn't fair.
"Naruto…" he growled as he punched the log, more blood splattering from his knuckles. He raised his fist once more before hearing a loud impact coming from the outside of his family's compound, "What was that?"
He lowered his arms and walked towards the source of the noise, his steps loud on the quiet compound. His eye narrowed as four shadows jumped over the stone wall surrounding the compound. Sasuke's sharingan came to life as he leapt at one of the shadows, throwing a punch when close enough.
His fist suddenly came to a sudden halt, a larger fist covering his own. "What the-" he was cut off as a large fist met his face, knocking him against the ground. Using momentum Sasuke managed to roll with the impact and raised to his feet, slipping into his taijutsu stance as the four shadows landed in front of him.
Now in the moonlight he could see their appearance. One was a girl with red hair, wearing a black hat with bandages on the sides and a tan tunic with black shorts and shinobi sandals. Another had six arms and wore an outfit similar to the first girl's. The other, who he supposed was the one that attacked him due to his large size, had dull orange hair in an unusual hair style. The last of the group had orange spiky hair and wore the same outfit as the others, though he seemed different somehow.
"Fuck…" the girl of the team growled, "Don't tell us something fucked up your eye."
"I have nothing to tell you," Sasuke responded, rather smugly, his sharingan focusing on the opponents, noticing their headbands, "Tell me... What is Sound trash doing in my compound?"
"Who's going to tell him Tayuya?" the largest of the team asked, ignoring Sasuke's taunt, "I don't want to deliver this kind of news to Lord Orochimaru."
Tayuya scowled. "Don't ask stupid questions. We have the messengers, we don't need to tell him anything directly," she turned back to the Uchiha, eyes narrowing instantly, "You're coming with us."
Sasuke chuckled, "You're nothing but trash." He smirked as he looked at the four Sound ninja in front of him, they wouldn't pose much challenge. After all, Sound shinobi were nothing but a bunch of freaks with no skill, "I'm going to make you regret setting foot here."
"You're very confident," Tayuya smirked, "There's four of us and one of you. You look like shit and lost an eye while we're rested and experienced in killing. Things don't look too good for you, bastard."
The Uchiha ran through hand signs. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" a large fireball left his mouth, heading straight for the Sound Four. All Sound ninja jumped away from the attack and headed for the Uchiha.
Kidomaru smirked as he spit towards the Uchiha, his saliva turning into a web as it wrapped around one of his ankles. Sasuke growled and took out a kunai before running it over the web but let out a growl when it did nothing.
"What kind of web is this?" Sasuke exclaimed as Jirobo closed in on him. Not wasting any time he ran through hand signs once more. "Wind Style: Devastation!" he yelled as a powerful gust of air left his mouth.
"This jutsu again…" Jirobo muttered as he continued to run at the Uchiha, the wind doing nothing to stop his charge. He smirked as he threw a punch at the Uchiha's stomach, blood spilling from his mouth as he doubled over in pain. The Sound ninja followed with a kick to Sasuke's face, hurling him through the air from the cheer force.
Kidomaru smirked as he pulled on the web, smacking the Uchiha against the ground. Sasuke let out a cry of pain as he laid, completely vulnerable, on the ground. His whole body was in pain, his jaw felt as if it was being crushed, his stomach ached and the exhaustion from his training finally caught up with him. For now he could do nothing but look at the Sound ninja, he was at their mercy.
"What the hell do you bastards want?" Sasuke spat.
Tayuya smirked as she stepped on his chest, earning another groan from the Uchiha. She leaned towards him. "We don't want anything with you," she admitted before raising her foot and slamming it against his chest. Sasuke let out a cry of pain, his eye glaring at the ninja, "Lord Orochimaru is interested in you. He wants to make you one of his man. But…by the looks of things you're not strong in the least."
Sasuke glared in pure hatred, the curse seal hot against his skin as black marks covered his face.
"It feels good doesn't it?" Kidomaru suddenly asked, "The power of Lord Orochimaru coursing through your body. Did you know that it can grow to unbelievable levels?"
"W-what?" Sasuke grunted, a little interested in the idea of gaining more power.
"You heard him shithead," Tayuya growled, putting more pressure on the Uchiha's chest, "If you were to come with us then you would gain this kind of power. Who knows? Lord Orochimaru has a lot of experiments, maybe he'll be able to get your eye back."
"There's more ninja coming," the quiet ninja of the group suddenly stated.
Kidomaru chuckled and shook his head, "Who cares? We killed those other Anbu, I'm sure we'll kill the ones that are coming."
"Remember what Lord Orochimaru said," Jirobo broke in, "He said that the Anbu weren't only composed of Jonin. Remember that the ones we killed weren't very strong."
"Fatso is right," Tayuya nodded, ignoring the glare from Jirobo. She stomped on Sasuke's chest one more time before turning to walk away. "Remember what we told you here Uchiha," she said without turning around. She approached her teammates and gave a firm nod, "Let's get going."
Sasuke watched the ninja leave, the dark marks around his face disappearing. He had to admit that he was interested in the prospect of more power but he still didn't trust the snake summoner. There was something else that Orochimaru wanted, of that he was sure but didn't know exactly what. The Uchiha cleared his head, he heard the sound of footsteps which meant that the ninja would be taking him away, he would rest for now and go over things the following day.
Kakashi stood in front of the memorial stone. He found himself doing this whenever he was having trouble or when he just felt a bit melancholic. It brought him a sense of peace, his own way of handling stress, other than his reading of course. Looking at the stone he couldn't help but notice that he had been coming here more and more lately. Things weren't very good right now.
He had been thinking of what would become of his team. Their meetings had been scarce in the last few weeks and they would be nonexistent until Sasuke was let out of his home. This meant that he would have to meet with Naruto and Sakura but that would also be in few occasions since his blond student had been rather busy lately. This was assuming that there wouldn't be any bad blood between his students, which was very likely at this point.
His eyes lingered on the names of his old team. He wondered what his mentor, the Fourth Hokage, would have done in his place.
"Kakashi-sensei?" a sudden voice broke him out of his thoughts. Turning around, Kakashi couldn't help but feel surprised, in front of him was a very unlikely visitor.
"It's rather rare to see you here Sakura," he admitted, watching the young kunoichi look down in what he presumed was nervousness, "What can I help you with?"
"...I-I want to get stronger," Sakura let out after a short pause. She looked down with a scowl on her face, "I know things are not good on the team but I want to be able to stand next to Sasuke and Naruto. I want to help them."
Kakashi looked at her oddly, "Help them with what?"
The kunoichi clenched her fists, thinking back at what was happening to her team. Sasuke being influenced by the seal Orochimaru had given him. Naruto going out on missions all the time. This stuff weighed on her, she felt powerless, she felt useless. She didn't want to be left out anymore. "Everything," she admitted, "I want to be able to go on missions with them. I'm not sure of what happened on their last mission but it felt as if I could have done something if I had been there."
"I can see that you're really determined," Kakashi said, his eyes calculating. "I'll find someone to help in your training but before that I have to tell you something," he decided. If he didn't tell her now then things would get bad, he needed to tell her in order to prevent her from doing something stupid.
Sakura looked at him oddly. He had gotten gloomy all of a sudden.
"Sasuke lost his eye because of a fight he had with Naruto."
Naruto sat on his couch with his arms extended in a show of exhaustion. It had been a while since he had trained so hard but was glad that he was. His clones had finally finished their training and he was a lot more familiar with the taijutsu style. It would, of course, take a little more time to get it to a point where he could use it in a real fight but he was glad nonetheless. Things were looking good. He gazed at his small apartment, noticing that he had yet to clean it up. He scowled before a certain item caught his eye.
A lone book, set on the small table that stood in front of his couch. It was the sealing book Jiraiya had given him some time ago, he had forgotten all about it. With the new training and missions he had had, time to read over the book had been scarce.
He picked up the book and flipped through the pages, a little uninterested by the concept of reading. Jiraiya knew how he loathed sitting down and reading but the sage had been right in telling him to think of it as a kind of training. That thought alone was enough to drive him through pages on occasions. But if he ever found the subject too boring, he would just drop the book and go find something else to do, he guessed that he didn't have the best attention span.
"Alright," Naruto muttered as he began reading where he had left off last time. "Sealing is an art in which the user is able to transport equipment to an 'alternate dimension' of sorts. By adding chakra to a seal (see page 42 for details) the user is able to call back that equipment at the time of their choosing,"
the Chunin scowled before closing the book. He rose from his couch and went over to the kitchen, wondering if he had any leftover ramen. The book forgotten on the couch.