A/N Yo not much to say just enjoy and review.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter Seven: Setting the stage.
Unimpressed that was the word to describe what Galatea was feeling as she stared at the hogtied Suna siblings, why her decrepit sensei gave them the mission to track down these three she still had no idea, they all looked so pathetic, but no more than Sabaku no Gaara. Once Galatea and Hitmoi got the green light to leave from Itachi they immediately went to track down their third teammate in order to help him other with his fight, but upon their arrival they discovered Naruto standing over the three relatively unharmed.
"Tch, they don't look so tough." Galatea said with her arms crossed under her bust.
"Well their unconscious and tied up, Galatea-chan." Hitomi said as she stood next to the blonde bombshell.
"I'm not going to lie; they could've had me if Gaara would've worked along with them." Naruto said as he placed some seals around their makeshift campsite to ensure they weren't ambushed in the dead of the night. "Every single time his brother or sister tried to give him a hand, Gaara would just threaten to kill them, what psycho…"
Hitomi's eyes snapped towards Naruto in surprise. "He's said he kill them?" Hitomi asked astonished that someone would even speak such words to someone they grew up with. "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" She said staring at Gaara's unconscious form.
"He's like me." Naruto spoke up as he finished setting a parameter.
"Like you?" Galatea asked looking at her best friend. "How is that guy anything like you?"
"According to Samehada he's a Jinchuriki," Naruto explained. "And we all know Samehada been around for a while so I trust its judgment.
Hitomi instantly activated her Sharingan in order to see if she could spot something irregular with the boy's chakra. "Why would Suna send their Jinchuriki? I thought you guys were so important they kept you close to home? No offense." After all, she did word it as if he was an object.
"None taken." Naruto quickly said waving of Hitomi concerns.
"Suna is up to no good…" Galatea said getting her teammates attention, seeing their curious looks she decided to elaborate. "Why else send someone so off hinged to a foreign nation. Yep, I think they're going to try to pull something big real soon."
-Hokage's Tower-
"Those bastards!" Kushina yelled as she listens in to her son's sensei inform Minato on Suna's secret exploits. "Do they really think they can actually pull this invasion off!? Konoha has fought and defended itself from about every village that hands out headbands and it's kicked all their asses, what possibly makes Suna so cocky that they can just try and destroy us like that!?"
Minato didn't even try to calm his wife down as he digest the news of Suna's betrayal, there was once a time when the blonde Kage would try find a way that would resolve this conflict before it even took place, but that was a time before he almost lost his family because of some madman's schemes. During the years Minato spent trying to find a way to return his son, he also was finding his way of thinking becoming more and more cynical, where once he would try to find peace he now found himself think about just outright obliterating his opponents, but once his son was returned those thoughts waned, until now.
"Tell me Danzo-san," Minato began as he stared at the old man in front of desk. "What is that gives Suna the confidence that they can actually pull off this attack?" Minato asked, while Suna was known to produce high quality shinobi over the years they have grown weaker and poorer leaving them in a position that probably wouldn't allow them to attack one of the strongest shinobi village.
Reaching into his robe, Danzo withdrew a scroll that held information on some of Suna's latest exploits. "The first act Suna took against us was allying themselves with one of our greatest traitors Orochimaru, the second was sending their Jinchuriki into the exams."
Kushina eyes widen at the word Jinchuriki. "They must be planning on having their Jinchuriki attack the village from the inside!" Being a former demon holder the redhead very well knew just how much damage a rampaging Jinchuriki could do. "We got do something about it."
"I've already put things in motion to hinder Suna on that front." Danzo informed the two.
Minato raised an eyebrow at Danzo's declaration. "Care to elaborate?" The blonde Kage asked.
"I've ordered my Genin squad to take out the Suna Jinchuriki during the second phase."
"What!" This time Minato actually had to restrain his wife. "You sent my Naruto-chan and Galatea-chan to deal with a fucking monster raccoon!"
While Danzo managed to keep his usual stone façade inwardly, he was very much worried about the upset momma kunoichi attacking him.
"Please Kushina-chan calm down; I'm sure Danzo-san has a reasonable explanation!" Minato said as he barely managed hold the love of his life back.
Coughing into his free hand, Danzo went to explain himself. "The reason I asked my team to confront the Suna Jinchuriki is because I know that they are more than capable of taking on strong opponents an example would be the wave mission."
Minato narrowed his blue eyes at the elder Shinobi, even though he didn't put it on display like his wife, the fourth was upset with Danzo's arrangement. "While I am not happy that you sent my Suna to handle a Jinchuriki without my knowledge I'll trust your judgment of you teams skill, but in the future do be sure to run something like this to me before hand. Dismissed."
"Hokage-sama." Danzo said with a small bow before he left out the door.
-Hours later in the Forest of Death-
"Would you calm the hell down!" Naruto yelled at the newly awoken Suna shinobi, currently the Meta-Human ninja was fighting urge to send a backhand towards his fellow Jinchuriki. "No one is going to end your stupid existence!" Naruto really couldn't believe the extreme shift in personality, instead of the merciless killer persona, Gaara was now acting like a frighten kitten.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Gaara's voice was laced with an obvious sound of fear as he tried to summon his sand fourth to protect him from the finishing blow he knew was coming, but no matter how much he tried not even a grain of sand heeded any of his mental commands.
"He looks so frighten…" Hitomi said as she watched the boy try to scurry away despite his restraints. "I'm really starting to feel bad holding these guys captive."
Galatea didn't really have the same mindset of Uchiha princess as she found herself extremely annoyed by Gaara's behavior, being the physical person that she was, Galatea stomped over to the sand user and picked him up with just one hand. "Man the hell up!" The pseudo Kryptonian yelled. "You are a captured Shinobi acted like you have a pair!"
"Leave him alone!" A voice said getting team Danzo's attention. "I swear if you hurt Gaara I'll get you back for it!" Temari said sneering at Konoha kunoichi for manhandling her youngest brother.
Instead of replying verbally, Galatea just dropped Gaara unceremoniously and placed her hands on her hips with intent to deliver a cutting remark to pigtailed girl, but before she could say something, she felt a hand on her shoulder only to look back and see Naruto.
"No need Galatea-chan we've already got'em." He said calming her down, before turning to Temari. "Why do you still want to protect the guy who said they kill you just because you wanted to help?" He asked.
Temari looked confused at the question as she wonder just what relevance did it have. "Because he's my brother…" She growled out.
Naruto gave a brief nod at Temari's answer as he turned his attention to Gaara. "Do you hear that?" He said gesturing towards the Suna Kunoichi. "Despite all of that 'get in my way or I'll kill you crap' she still wants to protect your ass, just what kind of bastard do you have to be ignore such love!"
"I'm not supposed to be loved; I'm a weapon that is all." Gaara responded.
"Being a Jinchuriki doesn't make you a weapon you dumbass!" Naruto said earning Gaara's confusion. "I should know I'm in the same boat as you." He revealed.
'He has a monster in him too! No wonder he's so strong' Temari thought as she remembers how skilled he was during the fight.
"How…how can you possibly be anything like me and not have the same look in your eyes?" Gaara asked as he locked his green eyes with Naruto's baby blues.
Looking down at his captive, Naruto mind briefly travelled back to his old days at Cadmus. "I could've easily had the same eyes as yours…" He said thinking of all of the assassinations he did for the betterment of humankind. "But I had someone to help me keep my humanity."
Galatea looked away to hide her developing blush as Naruto looked in her direction.
"For fuck sakes, dude acting like how you act isn't any way to live. You better learn to love ones who care about you or you might just end up thrown in a ditch without anyone mourning your lost, and when that happens trust me, your existence will really be erased."
Gaara just became quiet as he took in Naruto's words.
"While I really appreciate the family therapy could you please just let us go!?" Kankuro said finally speaking up.
-Three days later-
"I hate just about any food that isn't prepared by my mom…" Sasuke said as he begrudgingly took another bite of his fish, currently the members of team seven was taking a break after a day full of looking for their needed scroll.
"Ugh today was a bust…"Natsumi said as she waited for her fish cook a bit more. "The only reason we even got are heaven scroll was because those Kiri guys thought they could trick us."
"It was a good thing Sasuke-kun's Sharingan could see through their clones." Sakura said praising her crush.
Instead of responding to the praise, Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he stared at his food. "Natsumi…"
"Yeah I know…" That redhead said knowing that little interruption was going to cost her a meal. "Sakura."
"I'm so tired…" The pinkette complained.
"Zankukyokuha (Extreme Decapitating Airwaves)!" A voice yelled out as a massive gust of wind overtook team seven.
"Hmp that was easy." Tsuchi Kin said as she looked at the wreckage caused by Zaku's Jutsu. "I thought the Uchiha and the Namikaze would be tougher."
With his arms still outstretched, Zaku looked back at his team with a grin. "They didn't stand a chance against me." He said cockily, but just when he thought their mission was done, the Oto Genin was shocked to feel an intense pressure on his arms. "What the hell is this!?" Zaku yelled as he took in the sight of red chains wrapping around his arm.
Dosu was quick to act as he pulled up his sleeve to expose his melody arm to and began scanning the area just in case of another sneak attack. "Kin go help Zaku!" He ordered the lone Oto kunoichi.
Before Kin could even attempt to help her teammate, Zaku was pulled into the thick canopy by the chains. "What the hell!" She said as she watched him shoot upward, just when Kin thought this situation couldn't get any worse she suddenly felt hands clasp around her ankles.
"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation)!" A voice yelled underneath the longhaired Oto kunoichi before the hands dragged her underground. "There's dirt in my hair I know it I just know it!" Sakura said as she rose out of the ground trying to brush any dust out of her hair.
Dosu gritted his teeth as he aimed his melody arm at the newly emerged kunoichi with intent to blast her with a disorienting sound wave; this whole situation was going to hell very fast.
"Not so fast!" Sasuke yelled as he appeared behind the banged shinobi with intent to deliver a deliberating roundhouse, but instead of getting a foot full of face like the Uchiha wanted he instead found his kick blocked by the metal construct on his target's arm.
"Not so fast!" Natsumi said as she jumped to the ground with Zaku bound in ninja wire. "Wow Sasuke are you going to tell him 'stop right there' while you're at it?"
"Leave Sasuke-kun alone!" Sakura said answer for the busy Uchiha.
Not paying any mind to his teammate's taunt, the young Uchiha instead focused on making sure his opponent couldn't get a clear shot with his freaky looking arm. "Hn, I don't know who you guys are but I do hope you got the scroll we need." Sasuke said as he easily blocked a left hook.
"Fuck!" Dosu cursed as he felt the Uchiha's fist dig into his side, a glance upward revealed Sasuke's active Doujutsu, dealing with a the legendary Sharingan wasn't what Dosu had in mind when Orochimaru told him and his team to go after the Uchiha.
Sasuke allowed a smirk to slither on to his face when he saw Dosu react to the blow giving him a perfect opening to send a chop to the Oto shinobi's neck.
A soundless gasp escaped Dosu mouth as he brought his hands to his throat as a reaction to being struck in the neck. "Huuuuu" He wheezed right before his world faded into black.
"Does he have the scroll we need?" Natsumi asked as she walked towards Sasuke who was checking the bandaged boy for a heaven scroll.
"Jackpot." Sasuke said as he pulled the scroll out of Dosu's sleeve.
"Finally we can leave this stupid forest." Sakura said in relief. "I really need to wash my hair."
-The last day-
"Finally we can finish this thing!" Galatea said as she and her team approached the tower. "Man I'm going to give that old coot a piece of my mind for making us stay in that forest for longer than we have to."
Hitomi shook her head at her easily annoyed outburst. "It wasn't that bad, Galatea-chan, at least Naruto-kun was able to talk some sense into that Gaara kid." It took a couple of days but Naruto was actually able to form some type of kinship with the Suna Jinchuriki, at first it was slow going but the blonde was able to convince his lifestyle choice was a sure fire way to get stabbed in the back.
Naruto's right eye twitched a bit as he received some feedback from his recently dispelled clones. "My clones just released those guys so we're all in the clear." He informed his team as they walked into the tower. "So now what are we supposed to do?" Naruto asked looking around the empty room.
"Maybe we should open the scrolls?" Hitomi suggested.
Galatea nodded in agreement. "That's the only thing we can do at this point."
Seeing their logic, Naruto pulled Samehada from its leather strap. "Gonna need those scrolls Samehada."
"Gigigigi." The tip of the sentient sword suddenly opened to reveal a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.
"Thank you." Naruto said as he reached into the sword's mouth not in the least not worried that he being bitten. "Got'em." He said pulling out the scrolls.
"Man that's freaky…" Galatea said as she and Hitomi shuddered at the display.
"Hey! Samehada isn't freaky he's awesome!"
"Gigigigi!"
"No you're awesome!"
"Gigigigi."
"No, no, no you're awesome!"
"Gigigi."
"Hey!"
Hitomi rolled her eyes at the two. "A boy and his chakra eating sword it doesn't get cuter than that, but can we please just get this thing over with."
After placing Samehada back into its strap, Naruto placed the two scrolls on the floor. "Ok you guys ready?" Naruto said preparing to unroll the earth scroll.
"Yep." Galatea said with her hands on the heaven scroll.
With a shared nod, the two blondes unrolled the scrolls at the same time and instantly a cloud of smoke filled the area.
"Well if it isn't little Hitomi." A voice said through the smoke.
"Shisui-san!" Hitomi said as she recognized the voice, Uchiha Shisui the best friend of her elder brother Itachi.
-With the Suna team-
"I can't believe all three of you lost to one person…" Baki said in disbelief as Kankuro told him of how the Hokage's son purposely sought them out to defeat them. "Konoha must know something that must be why they sent Namikaze kid after you."
"From what I could gather, that Naruto guy was after us because his sensei thought we'd show them up in the final stage in front of all the dignitaries." Temari informed her sensei.
"Yeah I don't think those guys know about the invasion." Kankuro added. "They were just looking for another reason to show us up and screw our village up."
"We should just return to Suna to inform the Kazekage." Baki said not convinced that their invasion would be a surprise.
Meanwhile through it all Gaara remained silent as he thought over the conversation he had with Naruto.
-Back at the Chunin exam-
Now with the second stage officially ended the remaining Genin were lead into a large stadium-like room where they were giving a giving a speech by Minato on how the Chunin exams were a way to promote good relations between different villages. However, it seemed this year was an anomaly since every team that made it to the second stage was actually teams from Konoha. As Minato went on with his speech, he was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Gekko Hayate who informed the blonde Kage that they should began the third stage in order to slim the numbers down for the fourth.
Once the sickly looking shinobi introduced himself to the gathered Genin, he ran the rules of the second stage and had them turn their attention to an electronic board that will announce the fighters.
"The first match will be between *Cough* Uchiha Sasuke and Nara Shikamaru."
Done and done. I know it's boring I just wanted to let you guys know I'm still interested in this story despite the amount of attention I've been paying to it.
Anyway I got stuff to do. Please review!