Hey everyone! I know it took me such a long time to get this one up. I am in the middle of basketball season. I am the coach so there is more than just practices and games. I have so much going on. But with the holidays there should be more time for me sit a just write. which I plan to do just for you guys!
Thank you guys so much for the support, you all are amazing! Because of you, this story is much more popular than I could ever have hoped. But lets make it more popular shall we? Tell your friends, family, random strangers, ANYONE! Thank you all so much.
Just a tid bit for you. No mater what is going on in life, life ALWAYS gets better! I promise you, there is NOTHING you cannot handle. You can get through it, and be better because of it!
I love you all!
ENJOY!
THE PREVIOUS DAY IN KONOHA....
Itachi watched carefully as each member was double checking their lists. Konan was helping the large Gozu with his list. The big man could not read things written that small. Now half the battle was finished. Now came the hard part, getting out of the village with some of their most sensitive and precious scrolls. This would deal a severe blow to the village and Danzo. At least they would not be in Danzo's hands anymore.
Itachi led the team to the door. In about five minutes they would either have been seen by the Leaf or well on their way to freedom....
Itachi raised his fist in the air. A patrol was walking by in a few seconds. They needed to wait until they passed. No one spoke as the patrol passed right on the other side of the door. Itachi counted in his head.
Just three more seconds.
The footsteps of the guards passed and Itachi gave the one handed signal. The door burst open and the Blue Flame flew out of the room at top speed. Using the same route they took in, they followed back to the door they entered. Itachi calculated less than ten percent chance of them getting actually caught.
"Someone is coming," muttered Gozu behind Itachi.
Raising his fist, Itachi and the rest of the Blue Flame skidded to a halt at a cross section.
"Where?"
"From the left."
Itachi cursed. That is where they needed to go. The only other was would take them at least half a minute more and being caught by guards. Itachi had no choice. He closed his eyes and gathered chakra.
The footstep of the guard grew louder and louder.
The brash member of the Blue Flame hissed in panic. "Itachi what do we do?"
Itachi did not respond. Instead did... nothing.
"Itachi."
As the guard took a step around the corner, Itachi opened his Mangekyo Sharingan. A simple genjutsu and the guard fell slouching against the wall.
"Couldn't you tell us you were going to do that to him?" Konan asked rolling her eyes.
"Did you kill him?" Blurted out the brash member.
Itachi faced the rest of group as his red eyes faded back into onyx. "Just a slight genjutsu, just to make him sleep. Come on, we have to get out before he is discovered."
Turning heel, Itachi led the Blue Flame to their entrance door. The raven haired Uchiha nodded at Gozu, who at an inhumane speed took the lead right into the closed outer door. The door was flown off its hinges into the wall of the Hokage monument. The Blue Flame flew out and up the Hokage monument. Everyone stuck close together to minimize being caught by anyone.
Finally reaching the top of the Hokage monument the Blue Flame continued their run into the forest behind the monument. Itachi stopped and looked back over his old home. He just helped pull off what most nations only dream of doing. Top secret scrolls filled with top secret jutsus, seals, and training methods created for the Hidden Leaf Village or for others.
However, these belonged to people that only have very few remaining descendants scattered throughout the lands. It was time they returned to the rightful hands.
"Itachi."
The Uchiha turned to see Konan standing the shadows of the trees with her hood off.
"We have to move."
He nodded. The two synced in their running toward their objective.
"Naruto-kun will be happy to hear that we got everything."
Konan nodded. "We were lucky they had everything in the same place."
"It wasn't luck," Itachi muttered.
The blue haired Hidden Rain rogue looked over at her companion. "What do you mean?"
Itachi did not look over to witness the very suspicious eyes of Konan burying deep into his soul.
"Itachi," growled Konan in warning.
"We have to keep moving." He launched himself farther ahead to catch up with the rest of the Blue Flame. Konan rolled her eyes. Typical Itachi.
Soon after, Konan and Itachi regrouped with the Blue Flame. Their objective was not overly far from Konoha. Where they were headed to, they could still see Konoha, but be a safe distance away. After some time Itachi looked behind him at the retreating Leaf Village. He had, multiple times, snuck into the Hidden Leaf, both for the Akatsuki and the Blue Flame. While in the Blue Flame he did it mostly for Naruto, meeting and checking up on certain people.
Itachi thought it ironic. Ironic that Naruto was still the center of everything. Instead of being the target of the world's most feared organization, he is now the leader of the organization that will change the world.
Minutes later Itachi lead the Blue Flame to slow their pace to a walk as they entered a particularly thick section of bamboo. Making their way through it, the team entered a small clearing with a tiny structure and a pool being watched over by two small creatures.
"Ah, Itachi-boy."
Naruto ducked under a swinging arm of a rogue. Naruto smirked as his round housed kick connected with the back of this target's head, rendering him unconscious. Naruto, Sakura and the rest of their recently aligned team of Konoha and Blue Flame had used the direction of the trap to find the rogue's camp. The team had caught the rogues with their pants down. Some of them literally.
It had been about twenty minutes since they started their attack. The rogues outnumbered them almost three to one, but they had better quality ninja.
Naruto finished his spin to see Sakura upper-cut a rogue fifty feet into the air only to snap kick another rogue into two more.
"Sakura!"
The pink haired ninja turned to see Kit in a ready position. She nodded and sprinted at him. Using his hands as a platform, Naruto threw Sakura into the air.
Cocking her hand back, she started to scream. Like a comet with rage, Sakura impacted and punched the ground screaming her usual war scream, "Shannaro!"
Debris, dirt, and rogues went flying on every direction. Naruto smiled under the hood, he really missed her. It was great to get back in the field with her. She was scarier than she was years ago. Naruto turned to see how everyone else was doing. Guren was having fun with four rogues at once flipping over them. He knew she was struggling not to use her Kekkei Genkai. He specifically ordered everyone not to use jutsus or anything that would give away who their real identity is. Yukimaru only had water jutsus, so hiding the fact that he had Three-Tailed powers, hence the name Three. Red, thank Kami, they had hoods, otherwise people would see what made him so special.
Of course his old comrades from Konoha was doing a great job at taking rogues out. He saw Shikamaru dealing with fours rogues at once. Maybe he would like some help? Naruto started running toward Shikamaru, but then saw something off the corner of his eye toward the center of the rouges temporary camp. Following his instinct he ran to the center of camp. He stopped when he heard a noise from inside one of the larger tents. Carefully entering the tent, Naruto come upon a scene where one of the rogues was in a futile attempt to escape from a large, familiar figure.
Naruto smiled.
Sakura landed a kunai into the chest of the last rogue she was battling, letting the body plop to the ground. Checking all around her, she looked for more enemies to find she had defeated them all. The pinkette took a deep breath to calm her breathing. Glancing down, she checked herself. There was some good amount of blood and dirt on her. Not enough to make her uncomfortable. But enough to make her feel and look very intimidating. Bodies surrounded her. This was one of the things they never really taught you in the academy. The amount of death you would have to witness and live through. Sakura was a medic. She had seen death more than enough times from the hospital and her work with Tsunade to become immune to it all.
She noticed she was alone. Where did Kit go? She decided to go and check on the other members of their little expedition. She started with the Konoha ninja first. No offence to the Blue Flame, but they were not that great of friends yet.
Everyone had eliminated all of the rogues in their sectors and everyone began to gather at the center of the rogue's camp. Neji and Red apparently joined up and were defeating rogues together.
"Is that everyone?" Shikamaru asked.
"Kit is not here," Three pointed out.
That answered that question.
The Konoha ninja started to look around for him. The Blue Flame seemed to be unaffected by Kit's absence.
Guren explained. "There is no need to worry. I am sure he is fine."
Neji raised an eyebrow. "You are not worried he might be hurt or something?"
Even the pink medic was a tad worry. Even if she was not showing it.
Three perked up. "No. He always come back."
"Yes I do."
Everyone turned to see Kit walking up with some recent blood splatter on the small part of his cloak and pants giving him a real scary look.
As he entered the group, the Blue Flame parted to let him in.
"What happened to you?" The pink medic asked.
"Just a little problem, but I took care of it."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the Blue Flame squad's leader. Something felt off. Not bad, just off. "What kind of problem?"
Kit chuckled slightly. "One that I took care of."
"Not very forth coming are you?" brashly asked Kiba. Akamaru barked in approval at the little jab his human took at the unknown Nine-tailed Fox Jailer.
Kit shrugged his shoulders. "We came what we came to do."
Neji nodded. "Mission accomplished."
"Ok everyone. Back to Konoha." Sakura said.
Everyone turned and began walking out of the rogue's camp.
"You know...." Kit began, he had everyone listening to him. "I have really enjoyed working with you all."
Once again, not surprisingly, all the Konoha ninja were surprised. Well, except Sakura. She smiled a bit.
"I think we all have in a way."
A "Suit yourself," came from behind them and Kiba was rolling his eyes.
"What is it Man-a-paws?" Guren teased out. The little comment had everyone smiling, smirking, or chuckling. Even Akamaru was laughing. "Are we not your cup of tea?"
Kiba threw his hands behind his head and growled.
Even with some laughs at Kiba's expense, the groups were getting along fine.
As the groups were making their way out of the clearing, Naruto heard a small bird call. He looked over, in the distance, in between the trees stood Konan, with her hood off. She gave him a slight nod. Naruto smirked. They were already successful at starting to get information? Dang, Itachi must not be holding back. Naruto kept walking like nothing happened.
The decision was made on taking some time to get back to Konoha. Naruto wanted the decision for multiple reasons. Most the reasons were now in the hands of his other team. He knew they had pulled off getting what they needed. This made Naruto so elated inside. Things were really going to start moving.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IN KONAHA THE PREVIOUS DAY
The Hokage was walking through his village in the shadow of darkness. Even in his own village, he did not take any chances. His two personal ROOT ANBU flanked him, but then, in the shadows, lurked three other squads of ROOT. Couple time a week, at night, Danzo would walk through the village to mostly stretch his legs, but then talk to his in-village contacts. He loved his information.
He was making his way towards the middle of the village when an ANBU appeared kneeling before him.
"What is it?" Danzo growled.
The ANBU spoke, emotionless and uncaring. "Lord Danzo, there is a problem."
Danzo did not like problems. "What kind of problem?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The team and made it over halfway back to the Hidden Leaf before the made the decision to stop. The mood was light and friendly now that the teams got good looks at each other and started to somewhat trust each other. Now it was getting late into the night and they were getting ready for bed. Once again Naruto volunteered to be first watch and offered one of his old comrades to opportunity to join him.
Sakura obviously jumped at the chance. This made Naruto smile.
The two sat outside of the cave they were at previously at, reliving the action of the day's events. Currently they were laughing about how Sakura punched a guy so hard he flew at Kit and Kit kicked him right back at Sakura.
"He looked like a rag doll," laughed out Sakura.
"That was priceless," Kit agreed.
Sakura calmed down a little. Then she remembered something.
"So what took you so long?"
Even though she could not see it, Naruto was giving her a very confused face. "What took me...what?"
"What took you so long to get back to everyone?" Reiterated Sakura. "Did the great man who defeated Itachi get taken by surprise?"
Whether that was supposed to be a real stab at him or not, even though it was a fabricated lie that kind of hurt his pride. "Well I was not the one who killed him, our leader was, but moving past that, I just ran into a little trouble, is all."
Sakura was still curious. "What kind of trouble?"
"Just a big guy that took some time to take care of. Nothing I could not handle." Naruto smiled under the hood as remembered how he was seeing Gozu capture the leader of the rogues and then melting into the ground to avoid being detected.
Giving Kit a playful punch, Sakura had to tease him. "Uh-huh, sure!"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MILES AWAY....
The rest of the Blue Flame was in a small clearing with one tree near the middle of it. To said tree, was the leader of the small but annoying group of rogues that the combined efforts of the other part of the Blue Flame and some Konoha ninja just silenced forever. However, this unfortunate soul was the only survivor. Because they made it that way.
Everyone was staring down the cross-legged, tied up rogue. Konan was standing behind Itachi who was squatting in front of the rogue. Said rogue, was breathing heavily, drenched in his sweat.
Konan closed her eyes and breathed heavily. Itachi was using his visual prowess to find out the information that they sought. They knew, what they were looking for and knew that the information was there. But Itachi was still working on it. And he had been at it for a while.
Konan was getting a bit frustrated.
Frustrated at the rogue leader. Frustrated at Itachi. Frustrated it was all taking way too long. Itachi was taking it way too easy on him.
Raggedly breathing out his defiance, the rogue said, "...I... won...'t... tell... you... any...thing..."
Itachi slowly opened his now onyx eyes to stare at the rogue. A voice came from behind him. "Itachi." The Uchiha turned slightly to see Konan out of the corner of his eye. "Can you hurry this up? We are on a clock here."
They stared unwavering at each other briefly before Itachi turned his eyes back to his target. Staring into the rogue's leader's eyes he saw there was still some resistance there. Some. Not much. But there was something different about it.
Closing his eyes, Itachi explained. "I cannot make the jutsu too powerful, otherwise it might scramble his brain too much or kill him. Either way we would lose the information we need."
"How much longer?"
Itachi opened his now Sharingan eyes and looked at the rogue's eyes. "Not sure."
"Can't you just get the information?"
"It's become more complicated than that." The commas in Itachi's eyes began to spin. "Mentally he is very weak but there is something there preventing me from accessing what we are looking for. Almost like someone knew this could happen."
Itachi slowly initiated his optical jutsu sending the rogue into a dream-world. Itachi was trying to re-create a world for the rogue where he believes he can trust someone and tell them what it is. As he got close to revealing what the Blue Flame was looking for, something popped up and blocked Itachi from going any further. To Itachi, it was familiar, too familiar. Itachi attacked and defeated the block, and in its defeat, the block revealed who created it. It was the same person we hired these rogues to wreak havoc.
Itachi backed out of the rogue's mind. The rogue's head slumped down from now being unconscious.
Eyes closed. Itachi stood.
"Did you get it?"
Turning around, Itachi opened his Sharingan eyes. "It is just as we suspected."
The aura of the Blue Flame was a combination of feelings, from excitement to rage.
"The person who orchestrated this whole thing is..."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
THE PREVIOUS DAY
Danzo walked briskly down the hall of the most secure building in his village. Walking through double doors flanked by multiple ANBU, Danzo moved on to the more important room. There were ANBU everywhere. They were checking the scrolls that were there.
Danzo walked up to Ibiki. "Report."
"There appears to have been a break in."
"Who could have done this?" Danzo growled.
Ibiki shrugged. "We don't know. Whoever they were, they were good. Knocked out the guards without killing a single one. Got in, took some scrolls, and left. All without a trace or without anyone noticing."
"We should be finding them, not praising them," Danzo snapped. He was not in a good mood. He was just humiliated.
Ibiki bowed. "My apologies, Lord Hokage."
Danzo ignored that. "What did they take?"
"We should have a list soon." As if planned and ANBU appeared and handed Ibiki a clipboard. Ibiki read through the scrolls that were missing. Some of them were familiar, some were not.
Danzo stretched out his hand, wanting the clipboard. Ibiki wordlessly handed it over.
Danzo started flipping through the pages. With every scroll found to be missing, Danzo's eyes widened. This was not just some random scroll grab. They knew what was here. All of the scrolls had two things in common. They were from the Uzumaki clan or they were related to the Fourth Hokage. Great seal masters. Seals and jutsus. All that were created for, by, or was given to Konoha.
All of them now gone.
Danzo began shaking with rage. ANOTHER humiliation. Something that has only happened since...
Everything came into focus.
The Blue Flame.
That was the only thing that made any sense. Even if they were not the ones who did it, this was a perfect opportunity. This gave Danzo a reason to detain The Blue Flame. Then he can really get some answers! Danzo internally smiled. He was going turn this major blow into a positive.
Silently Danzo turned and walked out. He needed to prepare. He knew they would be back. He just had to be patient.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PRESENT TIME
Sakura let out a big yawn as she trenched her arms. They, Kit and Sakura, were nearing the end of their watch. Sakura was feeling the effects of the fight. It was not necessarily difficult. The fight took a while but Sakura was pushing herself hard.
The pink haired girl looked over at the hooded Kit who was in a relaxed position with one arm draped over his knee. "Where will you go?"
Naruto looked over at his lifelong crush with a tilted head. "Huh?"
Sakura moved her head to rest on one of her hands and restated the question. "Where will you guys go after this? I would hate to think all this was for nothing."
Kit looked into the sky as if looking for something. "Well we need to meet up with the rest of our comrades. Then after that...who knows?"
Naruto looked back over a Sakura who was studying him with a trained eyes. He knew she was trying to figure out who he was. And he knew it would only be a short time before she did. He feared what her reaction would be once she found out who he really is.
"Why don't you stay in the village?" The suggestion came as a surprise to the hooded Kyuubi vessel. She wanted his to be there? Sakura adjusted herself closer to Kit. "We can ask the Hokage when we get back. I am sure did would not mind, as long as you can share some things with us."
Naruto was silent for a time. He was hesitant. There was nothing he would not give to be back in the village with her and all his friends. The offer was very enticing. However, he remembered his situation, and the cold truth of reality. Once they knew who he was... it would be over for Naruto Namikaze.
"That sounds nice," Naruto said.
"But.." Sakura finished for him.
Naruto chuckled. "How did you know there was a 'but'?"
Sakura smiled a bit. "There usually is one."
She was right. Of course. "But... let us be realistic, Danzo does not trust me nor my fellow Blue Flame members."
"After this mission, that could change!"
Again, Naruto was silent. "Maybe."
"Why do you have to sound so down about?" Sakura thought it was strange how Kit was acting. They were hitting it off great. Why was he suddenly being this way?
Naruto was about to speak when Kiba, Akamaru and Guren walked up behind them. "Shift change."
Naruto nodded and got up. Sakura joined him walking back to their sleeping bags.
"I'm going to be honest with you," Rang Kit's voice. Sakura was not expecting it. She thought he just did not want to talk about it. She looked at Kit in anticipation. "As well as our teams have worked together on this mission I do not think Danzo will ever welcome us with open arms. I know the respect and the honor you have to follow the orders of your Hokage, as he is your village leader so you have to follow him. Danzo is a power hungry man, he would want to control us. We do not want to be controlled or used. His goals are separate than ours. We are just two different forces colliding that will never mesh. I'm sorry if that seems harsh, but that is the simple truth."
They arrived at the small, dwindling fire and their sleeping bags. Sakura was surprised to feel herself disappointed by his words.
"But..." he whispered.
The medic looked up at the mysterious man. There was a 'but'?
"I enjoyed working with you."
Sakura could not tell but she could just feel the smile form under the hood. This made her smile. She smiled at him. With a slight nod, they made their way to their own sleeping bags to succumb to the call of sleep and to dream about their own dreams.
The next morning came way too quickly for Sakura. She had loved this mission and the chance to get to know the Blue Flame more. And maybe a chance to get to know Kit better. However, as her luck would always have it, their time was growing shorter.
The trip back to Konoha was actually a lot of fun. Everyone seem to open up a little bit more about themselves. The Konoha ninja learned that Crys is actually really good at making great sushi. Sakura never thought that people like them could have interests, or even be people at all! It was kind of funny.
The closer they got to Konoha the slower their pace seemed to be. A few miles away from Konoha they got on the main path to the gates. They, almost, stressing almost, blended in with the crowd of people going to and from the Leaf. Along the path, Naruto heard a few bird calls and identified them as the eagles Konoha uses. They were flying toward the Village. Naruto figured they were alerting the Village the teams were returning.
Then, Naruto heard a bird call, not like the rest. He looked to his right and saw Itachi in the trees. Naruto smiled. Everything was ready. He turned slightly to his team and nodded, letting them know everything was set.
The gates where now approaching.
"Well gang," started Naruto. "It was fun!"
Sakura smiled. "Yea it was." The rest of the Konoha ninja agreed.
Looking ahead, the whole group and combined Konoha and Blue Flame ninja, spotted the Hokage standing in the middle of the street. He was flanked by his personal ANBU, Tsunade, the Village elders, and the council. Sakura and Naruto lead the mixed group before the Hokage. They stopped about ten feet from Danzo.
The Konoha ninja moved into a line and bowed to their leader together. Naruto and the Blue Flame did not even attempt to do the same thing.
"Mission successful, Lord Hokage," Shikamaru stated.
Danzo nodded, showing he actually heard Shikamaru, but his gaze was upon Kit.
Sakura followed her leader's gaze until her own emerald eyes rested on the figure of Kit. Soon everyone else noticed this and started looking at Kit. Most were confused as why Danzo was staring down a hooded man, who was not saying anything back. Suddenly the air became quite heated. There was an energy in the air. This energy was coming from Danzo. He was pissed. All of his hate was narrowed at the Blue Flame. The air was so tense, someone could cut it with a knife...
"You know I have been stinking my tongue out at you this whole time." Everyone almost jumped at the voice of Kit. Most deadpanned at his statement. This only served to make Danzo even more irate.
"I have had enough disrespect out of you," snarled Danzo, hate vivid in his eyes. "Surround them."
From out of the shadows, both ANBU and regular ninja alike hopped into a wide circle around the Blue Flame, in attack stances and weapons at the ready. Wordlessly The Blue Flame hopped into a defensive around Naruto. He stood, perfectly still, as if nothing was happening around him. Sakura was even more confused.
"L-Lord Hokage, what is the meaning of this?" Almost screamed Sakura.
Danzo's hateful gaze moved to her. "Get back and be silent girl."
Naruto did not like that. And since he was already surrounded, he felt the gloves were off. "Don't you dare talk to her like that!"
Danzo looked back at Naruto. "You have no say here! You cannot tell me what to do! I am the Hokage! And you are hereby put under arrest!"
Danzo's face went from furious to smug when Naruto remained quiet for a second. He thought he had the upper hand.
Then there was a noise. It slowly got louder. Then everyone realized that it was coming from Kit.
He was laughing.
Hard.
This, again, pissed Danzo off. Kit was supposed to be scared, not laughing. "What is so damn funny?"
This just made Naruto laughing even harder. "Under arrest?" He laughed some more. "For what?"
In an attempt to silence Kit, Danzo struck his cane into the ground. "Silence you fool! You are under arrest for attacking Konoha ninja and stealing Forbidden Scrolls."
Tsunade and the rest of the council were not informed of the robbery of their precious sealed forbidden scrolls from their most heavily guarded facilities.
Again Naruto laughed harder. "You think, that we, snuck into the village, broke in and stole scrolls that we have had no idea even existed, all while being out on a mission with four of your best ninja?"
Tsunade knew she liked this guy. "He does have a point," she mumbled to the rest of the council. Despite the situation, they chuckled. Danzo growled.
Kit sudden stopped laughing. "You're damn right we did."
Everyone's eyes widened at his declaration. Suddenly The Blue Flame's number doubled, as the rest of the Blue Flame's members appeared out of thin air around their surrounded comrades, ready to defend them. All the Konoha ninja jumped back at their sudden appearance.
"What the hell is this?" grumbled Danzo.
"This," shouted Kit, "is the rest of the Blue Flame. Say hello boys and girls."
No one spoke. Even in this situation, surrounded in the Leaf Village Naruto was making jokes. The situation was getting more and more intense with every passing second.
"Good," countered Danzo, "now we can detain you all at once." His smug smile got bigger thinking he had the upper hand. "You will tell us everything you know."
"I don't think so," snapped back Naruto.
"You are surrounded," shouted one of Danzo's lackeys. "Give up and you will not be harmed!"
Naruto looked around at all the faces he was surrounded with. This was his old home. These were his old comrades and family. It was kind of ironic, before they treated him like and outcast, now they were afraid him.
Then a soft voice came to Naruto's ear. "What was it all for?"
He turned to find his eyes had found his pink-haired crush. She looked on the verge of tears.
"What was it all for?" Sakura repeated. "Were you just using us? Using me?"
If she was trying to make Naruto feel bad, doing a great job at it. He saw the tears building in her eyes. That unspoken question of, did I mean nothing to you? That obviously was not true.
Now Tsunade stepped forward, interrupting their little fight. "So now, why don't you tell us who you really are?"
Naruto took a deep breath. He knew his identity would be found out eventually, he wanted it that way. Now the time had come.
"We are the ones who seek truth. We are the ones who are set apart. We are the ones who seek another path. We share the same dream. We will fight for it. We want everyone to have it was well. Our goals are the elimination of war, corruption, and pain. We are the Blue Flames of Rebirth, and our goal is world peace."
This outburst was not one that anyone had expected. An evil chuckle was heard as a response to that. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the source. Danzo.
"Such a childish dream," mocked Danzo. "The world is bigger and darker than you know. And you cannot change that."
"Ha!" Shouted Naruto. "You only think that. Only the weak minded think in such restricted ways. We actually have someone from across the sea from the Land of Ice. Mia."
One of the Blue Flame members lowered her hood slowly, revealing pure white hair and bright, light blue eyes. She was beautiful. Whipping out her favorite weapon, she held her white katana out in front of her. "And if any of you disagree with me, I dare you to come and change my mind." Itachi rolled his eyes under his hood. No matter in what situation she was always brash and head first. She and Naruto always got along in that aspect.
"So what does that matter?" grumbled Homura. "You will lay down your weapons and surrender."
"Yea, I don't think so," retorted Kit.
Danzo sneered, "I am done with you and your little group and your insolence!"
Danzo pointed two fingers at Kit. At once, fifty or so ninja jumped at the Blue Flame.
"Devine Whirlwind!" Kit turned in a circle with his arms and palms out, creating a vortex of wind blowing dirt and the attackers away from himself and the Blue Flame.
Sakura covered her eyes from all the dust flying at her. And the wind and dirt calmed. Whoever remained standing, looked up to see the Blue Flame and not moved and Kit was once again staring down Danzo. The failing wind was whipping around the coats of the Blue Flame giving them a more intimidating look.
"How dare you attack my ninja in my own village!" Danzo practically screamed.
"Actually you attacked us," Kit corrected with a mocking finger in the air. The he turned to the crowd and raised his voice for all to hear. "We are here to declare our intention to return this world to peace! It's an idea that your so-called leader thinks is childish and impossible! However, we of the Blue Flame think differently! We want to show that it is possible! We announce our intentions to eliminate corruption! To remove those who keep the idea of peace out of reach. Those who whisper lies to us to keep us in line and keep us fighting. People like your Hokage!" Naruto spun heel and pointed right at Danzo. People gasped at this declaration. Sakura was dumb founded at what Kit was saying.
Danzo was red from anger. "You know-"
"I know what?" taunted Naruto. "I know nothing? That is a shame, because I know a lot about you Danzo. The Shinobi of Darkness! You are so afraid of the light, the very thing that a leader should be growing and building in, yet you know nothing but black and darkness! And we have the evidence to prove it! Like that little band of rogues you just sent us to take out. We captured their leader. Once we got him talking, he had a lot to say. Especially about you, Danzo."
Danzo was gripping his cane very tightly. The wood started to creak. Everyone around was listening to what this hooded man was saying. This was bad. They had found out that he was paying the rogues to keep the security payment to Konoha coming in faster. He had to spin it his way. But Kit kept on going. "You are an evil man Danzo. You use fear and intimidation to get what you want. How you are Hokage is beyond me. You don't deserve the title."
"SILENCE YOU IMPOTENT FOOL!" screamed the furious Hokage. "YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU ARE A NAMELESS, FACELESS, AND VILLAGELESS WANT-TO-BE ROGUE NINJA, WHO HAS NO RIGHT TO BE IN THIS WORLD."
During Danzo's little spat toward him he turned around, his back toward Danzo. Naruto let Danzo's words seep in. Danzo was partially right. Naruto had become all those things. That stuck deeper at Naruto than even he would admit.
But Danzo was also dead wrong.
And Naruto was going to show how wrong Danzo really was.
"You're wrong." Said Naruto. "You are wrong at the top of your lungs. I do have a name."
Sakura watched as Kit reached up with both hands, and began lowering his hood. Sakura eyes widened more the hood was lowered. Bright, spiky blond hair. It couldn't be.
Naruto let his hood fall the rest of the way. He slowly turned around to stare into Danzo's eye.
"My name is Naruto Namikaze!"
Gasps were heard all around.
The world disappeared for Sakura. There he was. Her sunshine. Her pillar. Her best friend. He was alive. So many thoughts and feeling overtook Sakura at once she felt like she might cry. She missed him so much. She just knew he was alive, deep down. Now he was standing, in front of her! Alive!
But then why? He was alive, why did he not tell her? But why did he let her go through all that pain when he could have told her. She remembered he was sentenced to death. He had to disappear. Even if she could have helped him, they would have found him and killed him anyways.
She was sad, happy, disappointed, elated, and... too many other emotions. All that mattered right now was that he was alive.
She gave him a look over.
It was Naruto. That much was obvious. But his hair was longer. His bangs could hang over his eyes with ease. The ever present cerulean eyes seemed to almost glow with life. The whiskers almost seemed to be a little bit longer. He was broader in the shoulders. In that white cloak, he reminded her of someone. But who? He said his name was Naruto Namikaze. She thought it was Uzumaki. The only Namikaze she ever heard was.... The Fourth Hokage.
No way!
It all made sense now. Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage!
Unconsciously, Sakura took a few step forward. "Naruto..."
Naruto turned to look at her. "Hi...Sakura-chan."
Sakura couldn't take it anymore. The tears of pure emotion spilled from her eyes. Hearing him say this silly pet name for her again... "Naruto!" She began running forward then a hand stopped her. She was expecting Danzo, or some ANBU, but not her master.
"Tsunade?"
Sakura could tell, Tsunade was fighting the same battle she was of running forward to Naruto. With a little jerk of her head, the older blond motioned to the situation at hand. Sakura looked around and suddenly remembered. Naruto was surrounded, by the very people he used to call family.
"Hey Baa-chan."
Tsunade could not help but smirk and the brat's name for her. "Brat."
Then it appeared. The very thing Sakura missed. That great, big, goofy smile of his. "Good to see you."
Naruto nodded. It was obvious, Tsunade had many questions. One of the most important was his declaration of his true family name. But she fell back on just one. But Danzo beat her to it.
"How are you still alive?"
Naurto's attention turned back to the wrinkly old Hokage, with a playful yet evil smirk.
"You mean after you branded me for death and sent your little pets on me to kill me?" Naruto's evil chuck, scared Sakura. "You need more than that to kill me." A dark energy seemed to almost radiate from Naruto, aimed at the Hokage.
The people around Danzo seemed to be very uncomfortable. A few started to visibly sweat. It was not killer intent coming from Naruto. It was pure evil. It was pure pain. It was all the negative emotions boiled together. It was everything that Naruto was not. But that look in his eyes. It was something more. Something ancient. Something primordial. It was scary. Awe-inspiring. Epic.
Danzo was somehow holing himself together with all this aimed at him.
Tsunade looked Naruto up and down. He had grown up. "Why did you not come for help?"
Only Naruto's eyes moved to Tsunade. "Uh, what do you think this means?" Using his thumb he point to his forehead protector. Sakura finally noticed it.
The mark.
The horizontal scratch through the Leaf symbol. Sakura gasped as her mind wrapped around what that really meant. A rogue. Naruto was a rogue.
"The village, which I sacrificed so much for, turned their backs on me. Then tried to kill me. This was the only path for me." Even if he was not talking about them, his friends, especially Sakura felt the sting of his words. "But I have to thank you. I have found another path. The path that will not only affect one village, but the world. I have found people who I trust with my life to help me transform this world. And it is all thanks to you... Danzo."
Danzo narrowed his eye at Naruto. Danzo began to say something when Naruto cut him off. "Danzo," Naruto used one arm to point at the old Hokage, "You are corrupt! You have hurt people, use them, and kill innocent people for only your own gain! Danzo, we will stop you!"
Danzo did not respond. Instead he had another idea. "Kill them!"
Danzo's ANBU did not hesitate, yet there were other ninja who knew who Naruto was and what he did for the village. However, they had to listen to the Hokage. They launched their own jutsus toward the white clocked rogues.
"NOOOOOO!" Sakura screamed.
Naruto only stood there with his arms crossed, with a small smirk on his face.
All the Jutsus impacted and crated a large explosion, creating more damage than Naruto's attack did. The wind whipped at Danzo's cloak. Sakura was blown back. She panicked. She could not lose Naruto again he just came back.
The debris and dirt clear to reveal, the only Blue Flame member who had moved was a now hoodless light blue haired woman who had her hands together in a hand sign. The Blue Flame was surrounded by a wall of think pink crystal. Guren single handedly stopped all the attacks.
Doing another hand sign the crystal disappeared.
Danzo was stunned at the woman's ability. Sakura was stunned to have run into this woman again. But hey, Naruto just came back from the dead. Anything was possible.
Suddenly Naruto's voice broke everyone's shock. "Sorry Danzo, we would love to stay, but we have a world to change. And we are coming after you. And thank you for all my family's scrolls."
Naruto nodded. All of the Blue Flame moved to surround their leader all holding a Ram hand sign. Naruto then flew through ten hand signs, landing on Ram. Naruto looked at Sakura and subtly winked.
Danzo's voice pierced the air. "GET THEM!"
Ninja jumped toward the rogues.
Naruto was waiting to do this. "REVERSE SUMMONING JUTSU!" Naruto slammed his palm on the ground. All the ninja were blown back from the steam that bloomed from the technique.
The smoke clear.
Sakura just kept staring at the spot where Naruto was. It was now empty. She fell to her knees. He was alive!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Two small creatures stood before a group of people who just appeared before them.
"So Naruto-boy, how did it go?"
Everyone on the Blue Flame lowered their hoods. They were all smiling at what they just pulled off. Toads from all around were coming to see the triumphant group's return.
Naruto smiled.
"All went according to plan."