Chapter 18: The Truth Comes Out
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The trip to the pre-selected training grounds was mostly quiet and uneventful. No one knew what to say and for the most part they were more curious in the sudden trip. Neji for one was trying to figure out why he had been forced to go on this trip. In his mind it was a waste of time. However, he wasn't about to disobey and order. 'He just had to accept the challenge didn't he?' he grumbled bitterly. Team ten on the other hand was terrified of what was to come. They had seen the training that team seven did on a daily basis and had no idea how they were going to survive the trip. The only thing they could think of was when were the chunin exams? The jonin were quiet for an entirely different reason. Zabuza and Kakashi knew what was coming while Gai and Asuma were merely trying to avoid being detected. Naruto was still trying to recover from the meeting with Hiashi. As soon as they arrived Kakashi looked around and nodded to Sasuke.
Both teams watched in both shock and fascination as the raven haired boy placed several layers of seals meant to erect barriers, ensure privacy and detect intruders. The area that the seals covered was massive. Turning back to his jonin Sasuke motioned that the barriers were in place. That was when the almost twenty hour silence was broken.
"Set up your tents and then try to get some sleep. We'll be getting up early tomorrow and we will need you rested for the training that you will be doing." Kakashi said turning to the teams. As the genin turned to follow orders Asuma looked at Kakashi and narrowed his eyes.
"What is going on Kakashi? This is out of character for you." Gai raised and eyebrow. The genin began to pay more attention while continuing their task.
"All in due time Asuma. There is no point in telling you now besides that is Sasuke and Naruto's decision to inform you. It is their secret." Gai blinked as every one turned to look at team seven only to sweat drop noticing that their tent was already up and all three of them were already asleep. None of them wanted to miss out on the precious sleep that they were most likely not going to get during the training. Glancing over at team eight Gai realized that they too had also finished setting up their tents and were out cold. How they had done so as quickly as they had would forever remain a mystery. Resigning themselves to waiting for the answers they wanted the rest headed to bed.
Unfortunately, for the weary teams morning came far to quickly and before they knew it they were gathered around a fire eating some kind of stew that Sasuke had cooked before anyone else had awoken. Setting their bowls down as they finished Gai looked over at the two silent genin that had been acting oddly for a long time.
"Kakashi said that we would need to get our answers from the two of you." Naruto and Sasuke groaned. They were not looking forward to giving the explanation again. Sighing and taking a deep breath Naruto looked around.
"I'll answer when everyone is done eating. I don't want anyone to choke..."Naruto trailed off realizing that somehow everyone had finished in the span that the sentence had taken. "Okay fine. Do you want the abridged version or the detailed version that may take an hour or so?" Asuma blinked and then shook his head.
"The version that gives the best explanation for what is going on, why we are here and what is causing you two to act so strange."
"Pretty much the long version then." Sasuke dead panned making everyone twitch.
"Sasuke and I traveled from the future to stop the end of the world." Naruto confessed making everyone that hadn't already known blanch.
"That can't be possible." Neji choked out.
"It is. You see in three years time a criminal organization called the Akatsuki will declare war on the entirety on the shinobi world which will spark the fourth shinobi war." Naruto started.
"Were they insane? Every nation versus them would have been the shortest war ever." Ino interrupted.
"In a way yes it was short. It lasted about three days once the fighting started." Sasuke replied making everyone smirk. "At the cost of approximately two-thirds of the world's ninja population and the village of Kumo being razed to the ground." The smirks faded to horror as they digested what had been said. Not even teams seven and eight had been informed of that.
"How?" Shikamaru stuttered out.
"The long version it is. Long story incredibly short, Obito didn't die sensei. He was saved by the evil will of the Juubi and Madara Uchiha who was also still alive. He tried to return to Konoha only to witness Rin's death. As a result, he decided that he would go along with the plan to resurrect the Juubi. Working together with Zetsu, Obito gathered ten of the strongest nuke nin in the world and re-purposed the Akatsuki from a resistance to Hanzo the Salamander to an organization hell bent on capturing the nine bijuu. Some of the members include Kakazu of the five hearts, a Taki nin that once tried to kill the Shodaime Hokage; Hidan a jashin worshiper; Sasori of the Red Sand and even Itachi Uchiha. Furthermore, Orochimaru used to be a member as well and considered one of the weaker members." Naruto explained making the colors drain even faster from the nin before them. Sasuke then spoke up.
"They managed to capture the Ichi through Nanabi fairly easily. However, their initial attempt to capture the Hachibi ended in failure. It was after that the Raikage organized a five kage summit. Obito declared war at the summit. It would have originally been seven against eighty thousand shinobi but not only were they able to create one hundred thousand Zetsu clones, one of the members used to work for Orochimaru and managed to do a mass Edo Tensei to further strengthen their forces by resurrecting some of the strongest ninja in history. The Akatsuki and the deceased members of the Seven Swordsman included." Sasuke explained. Naruto picked up from there.
"In the first day alone, forty thousand ninja from the allied shinobi forces were killed. Granted they also managed to cut the Akatsuki's forces in half but when the Edo Tensei were brought into the mix it basically became a slaughter. Among the resurrected were former kage and unfortunately the one person that was unbeatable." Naruto flinched a little and looked at the sky.
"Who Naruto?" Kakashi asked fearing the answer. Inwardly, he was praying that it wasn't Minato.
"Uchiha Madara, who had finally passed away. The problem is Madara has no weaknesses, as an Edo Tensei he was immortal and would never run out of chakra. Finally, he had manifested the Rinnegan not long before his death. No one could touch him and if they did he barely felt it. It got even worse when they finally resurrected the Juubi. Once the Juubi regained most if not all of its former strength Madara absorbed the Juubi and became even stronger. We could barely touch him. Then the Rabbit Goddess was released from her prison in the moon. Honestly she was easier to fight than Madara was and we actually beat her." Naruto said sheepishly. The group looked at him oddly. Sasuke laughed a little.
"Dobe was the only one that could sense Zetsu at the time and as a result he was able to sneak up on Madara and managed to rip him in half allowing for Kaguya to absorb the Juubi." Neither Naruto or Sasuke expected the jonin from falling over.
"So Madara's biggest ally betrayed him?" Ino squeaked.
"No. Zetsu was never Madara's ally he was using him to free Kaguya. Anyway, after we were able to reseal the Juubi and end the war, everything went to shit. Konoha began to lose it's allies because of a century's worth of poor decisions and the level of nuke nin that were produced that assisted in the Juubi's resurrection. No one could trust the village especially after the decisions that were made by Danzo were brought to light. Assassinations he did without permission, wars started and other various problems. While dirty secrets are normal for a hidden village, the fact that the Sandaime had allowed it to happen for around sixty years. Not long after, it was discovered that despite resealing the Juubi it's chakra had seeped into the ground poisoning it. It began to spread and kill the animals and crops." Naruto stopped for a breath.
"As a result of the poisoning resources became scarce. The dobe was able to hold it off for a while and stop it from affecting Konoha with the Senjutsu that he had learned however, when he had offered to do the same for the other countries they refused. They wanted nothing to do with Konoha or it's nin. Eventually the countries began to fight for the resources and Konoha, which had yet to be affected, became their target. We had the most untainted food, water and medical supplies. This started the fifth shinobi war." Sasuke said quietly. The mood had grown somber.
"At the time that the war started I was about eighteen or nineteen and when we did the jutsu to come back I was thirty one. That was how long we managed to last on our own." Naruto whispered. "Unfortunately, it was not to be. Eventually the enemy forces made their way to the gate and that was when we did the jutsu. It was a village wide consensus to do it while the enemy was being held off by the remaining forces, even though the backlash would kill everyone within the village walls. Either way they were going to die. They just decided that they would die to give us a fighting chance to save everyone." No one said a word. The knowledge of what was to come was weighing on them. Now that they had most of the details the group wished that they hadn't known. What Naruto and Sasuke had lived through was more than a nightmare and explained everything about their personality changes.
"I can't imagine the Hokage allowing you two to come back like that on your own. They should have been the one to come. Not that I don't like you two but...why are you laughing?" Ino snapped at the boys that had fallen over.
"The hokage did come back." Sasuke howled. Ino blinked and then squeaked.
"No way! Sasuke did you...?"
"Absolutely not! After betraying Konoha twice do you really think they would let me be the Rokudaime? Dobe was the Hokage!" Jaws hit the ground at Sasuke's declaration. Not only had Naruto succeeded in his dream Sasuke of all people had betrayed the village twice. "Not to mention the creator of the seal and ninjutsu that was used to come back." The jaws fell even lower.
"Don't look so shocked I told you I would be Hokage. Besides with all the painting I did as a kid in the academy don't you think that fuinjutsu would be a logical step? I would be legally allowed to draw on things!" Naruto protested before falling into another bout of hysterical laughter. Asuma held his head as he realized that the most surprising ninja of Konoha had surprised everyone every step of the way.
"So why are we training until the exams? Also, why the insistence on doing missions during the training?" Shikamaru interrupted. The laughter stopped immediately.
"In several months time during the final round of the chunin exams held in Konoha Orochimaru, as the Otokage but disguised as the Kazekage, will invade Konoha with the forces of Oto and Suna at his side. Not only will the Sandaime die, but so will many other ninja. At least that is what happened the first time but things have already begun to change. Regardless we have to be ready in case it does happen." Naruto replied dead serious. The group froze as the information sunk in.
"If that is true then why haven't you told the Hokage and let him deal with it?" TenTen asked feeling a little fear.
"I don't trust the conniving backstabbing asshole!" Naruto snarled startling everyone. Sasuke jumped and put his hand on Naruto's arm.
"Please calm down Hokage-sama." He whispered catching Naruto's attention. Groaning he held his head. He knew the questions would be coming. Mostly from Asuma.
"What? Why?" Asuma and Gai sputtered not having expected such an outburst.
"He let Uzu be destroyed. He let my family die before I even got to know them. He knowingly kept me from my god parents. He let me live in the orphanage when I have two perfectly good homes to live in inside the village. He kept my inheritance from me. He got Sasuke's family killed. He did nothing to properly prepare Konoha for Orochimaru even after he was made aware of the pending invasion and he pissed me off by lying to me for years. During the war the so called 'professor' and successor to the 'god of shinobi' barely did anything of use. You tell me why." Naruto was struggling to control himself and he could feel Kyuubi's chakra rising. The campsite was quiet as they digested what they had heard.
"If what you are saying is true then that means that my dad broke one of Konoha's oldest and most important treaties dating back to the village's creation!" Asuma nearly yelled in shock. Kakashi looked away.
"It's true Asuma. We went to Uzu and reviewed the day that the attack happened. A call for help was sent out within five minutes of it starting. The forces of Uzushiokagure waited four days for reinforcements before they finally fell." He whispered making Asuma feel sick. He had no idea that his father could do something so callous and cruel.
"Shikamaru, the most prominent clan in Uzushiokagure and the founding clan of the village were the Uzumaki. Just as the Daimyo was an Uzumaki." Sasuke answered before the curious Nara could speak up. "Dobe's mom was one of the only survivor's and only because she had already gone to Konoha on request of the Shodai's wife Mito Uzumaki-Senju." The area fell silent once more. After a few minutes Shikamaru looked around and nodded to himself.
"What are we waiting for then? We have a village to protect and a traitor to deal with." To Naruto and Sasuke's surprise everyone in the clearing nodded. Then Neji thought of something.
"Naruto you and Sasuke said that some of the strongest ninja to live had been resurrected..." Naruto cut him off before he could finish.
"I'm afraid so Neji, your father was one of them. As was Asuma as he had died prior to the declaration." Team ten's eyes widened and Neji felt anger welling up inside of him. How dare they vandalize his father's grave and disturb his rest!
"I agree with Shikamaru let's get to work." He stated with barely concealed anger in his eyes. Naruto nodded and looked at Kakashi.
"You have been told what is coming and you know what to prepare us for. Sasuke and I have a better understanding and we can help if you need it but you are the sensei here." Naruto grinned at the jonin's startled expression.
"How many of you are training with seals?" After a second he looked at Gai and Asuma. "Really?" The two just flinched and nodded. They had yet to give their teams any seals because as far as they knew they didn't need to train them that much. Apparently they were wrong.
"We'll apply the seals and then ease you into the training regime that we will be using from here on out. Just a fair warning if you die during an exercise you will still be required to finish what you are doing. Understand?" The genin gulped and nodded. For some reason they had a bad feeling about this.
: To Be Continued: