Stronger

A/N: How I came to write this, I dunno, but after being awake for 48 hours it seemed like a good idea. This is basically Naruto as Saitama from One Punch Man. Just a bit adjusted, of course. Naruto ain't bald.


"-Five-hundred... seventy-two!" a man's voice barked roughly, echoing through the clearing. The exclamation was followed by an explosive breath of air and a strained grunt.

"Five-hundred... seventy-three!"

The young man's voice echoed loudly over the clearing in the lush forest. His blonde hair was slick with sweat, his white shirt drenched just as well. The man's face was but an inch from the ground, his teeth grit to a painful degree as he willed his arms to push himself up again. His breathing was ragged and loud, strong enough to send the dust on the ground away in small waves. His sweat was pooling underneath him and with a mighty heave, his arms snapped straight again.

"Fivehunderedseventyfour!" he all but screamed with what little oxygen had remained in his lungs. His arms shook under his own body weight but he refused to give in. His mouth was wide open as he tried to inhale more and more oxygen, his torso heaving with every breath like it could be his last. There were tears in his sky blue eyes, the odd whisker marks stood out starkly even on his rather tan skin. In the corners of his mouth were trails of dry and caked blood from the times he had bitten his own lip to keep himself from passing out that day.

The young man looked about ready to die. No one sane or even fanatic would have continued at this point but even as his arms threatened to simply fall apart, he let his body drop to the ground yet again, catching himself just before his nose touched the ground. Veins bulged on his temples, his arms strained visibly and he tried to do yet another push up.

His body didn't budge, his arms no longer strong enough to push him up. The blonde man grit his teeth, his eyes closing tightly. "Not-! Yet-!" he grit out, "I need to-! Be stronger!"

His conviction was unfazed by his weakening body. In his blue eyes was a fire, a power greater than any there was before. With an primal snarl, he pushed his body up yet again but he didn't have the breath to count.

The sun was setting behind the trees hours later but the young man was still there, doing push ups.

"Sevenhundred-! Fifty!" his voice rang out and he showed no sign of stopping.

People had long forgotten about him, about Naruto Uzumaki, the academy dropout. No one cared for what he did, so no one knew why he trained like he did. Years ago people had stopped caring about the outcast, the one they had called a demon. He was but a pariah, a thorn in the villagers side.

But he'd show them. His will was unyielding and he was bringing his body up to speed. No one would have thought what would become of the boy they had chosen to scorn.


He was on his last lap around the village, on lap seven-hundred and then some. His heavy and harsh breathing had long since replaced his counting of laps. Naruto's throat was dry, his lungs burned with every breath and his legs felt as if they weren't even there anymore. He was walking on dead limbs, but his eyes were still focused, if the exhaustion threatened to let them fall shut. The fire burned in his blue eyes, stronger and stronger with every day. Almost three years had passed since he had failed the academy. Almost three years since he swore he'd become stronger.

With a hoarse scream of defiance he pushed on, breaking into a full sprint. The tree he had used as starting point was just ahead of him, not even half a mile. For a second, the world seemed to black out. Everything faded and his vision went dark. Naruto blinked twice and stumbled over a tree root, the root of his goal.

He wanted to laugh, but couldn't. He was too tired. Tomorrow he would do it again and the day after that. He wouldn't stop until he was strong enough. It was barely September when Naruto passed out underneath the tree.


It was winter in Konoha, fluffy white snow was covering the streets of the village and people had begun decorating their houses or shops for the upcoming festivities. Bright red and yellow glow illuminated the busy market streets and bathed them in warm light that could almost let one forget about the freezing temperatures.

Almost.

"Achoo!"

The young blonde man sneezed violently, his whole body spasming once. He loudly sniffed his runny nose, his bleary blue eyes focused on the crowded street ahead of him.

"I hate the cold!" he grumbled to himself, tightening his navy blue coat around his shoulders. For added protection he raised the fur lined collar up high, shielding his red cheeks form the wind. He pulled what appeared to be a coupon from deep within his coat, peering a it.

A smile appeared on his lips. "Oh yeah," he said quietly to himself, "Fifty percent off Ramen!" He strode on through the market with a slight spring in his step. No one recognized him, no one cared about him. Just as it should be.

Naruto arrived at his destination minutes later, a Ramen stand at the very end of the market. Ichiraku's Ramen stand wasn't as popular during the winter season than it was during the summer, but it served the best ramen in all of the land of fire. At least, according to Naruto, who had yet to leave the village. At all.

He was about to enter when a group of blurs passed by right in front of him, so fast in fact that the coupon he held in his hand got blown away. Naruto blinked owlishly after the precious piece of paper. "Oh no, you don't!" he exclaimed and... vanished.

There was and odd disturbance in the air where had been standing, a shimmering like a heat haze before Naruto appeared again, holding his coupon. It all happened so fast, no one had even noticed. With a satisfied grin, Naruto entered the Ramen stand.

"Pops! Twelve helpings of your best Ramen! Half off!"


The chunin exams were as good as finished. There was to be a huge tournament in the stadium not too far from where Naruto lived so he decided to go see how strong his former classmates had become. Since he had stopped playing pranks and cause mayhem, no one even seemed to recognize him anymore, so buying a ticket was no problem. Finding a seat in the crowded stadium, however, was.

"Man...," he sighed to himself. "Where did all these people come from?"

Naruto stood atop a pillar on the stadium roof, trying to find the row he was supposed to sit in. Squinting down into the crowd, he caught a glimpse of bright purple and knew of only one person with hair that crazy. He hadn't seen her since forever, but now was as good a time as any! He vanished from the stone pillar he had been standing on. It cracked ominously as he kicked off but remained standing.

He appeared in a flurry of wind and dust in the aisle next to Sakura's row, the girl with the pink hair. She blinked against the sudden bout of wind and immediately looked in his direction.

"Hey Sakura!" he greeted cheerfully, "It's been ages!"

She squinted, apparently not recognizing him. Then her mouth fell open. "N-Naruto?" she asked shakily. "Is that you?"

He laughed loudly and sat himself down in the empty seat to her side. "Why yes! Come on, I can't look that different!"

Then again, he did. Ever since he had begun training and eating properly, he had shot up almost a foot. His hair was shorter, his features lacking any baby fat. And he had gotten rid of the jumpsuit. That must have been it.

"Is it because of the clothes?" he asked, pulling at his tight, blue tee. "Or the hair?"

Sakura just nodded as her eyes roamed his frame. "I..uh, I mean, what... what happened to you?"

Naruto furrowed his brow. "What do you mean, happened?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I failed the academy. That was pretty much it."

"I remember that!" she snapped back. "But you look so... so...-"

"Oi Sakura!" a voice interrupted. "Whose the hunk that took my seat?"

Naruto swiveled around in his seat, immediately recognizing the teal eyes he found himself looking into. "Ino!" he greeted with a laugh. "How's it going?"

The blonde girl recoiled a bit, eyes wide. "Naruto!? Holy shit!" She leaned to the side, looking past him at Sakura. "Holy shit!" she repeated to her.

"I know, right?" Sakura returned, nodding feverishly.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking from one girl to the other. "What did I miss?"

Ino waved her hand dismissively at his question. "Nothing," she said nonchalantly while she smoothed down her top. She still wore it midriff free. "But that's my seat."

"Oh," he made, "Well, then I'll better find mine. I did buy a ticket after all."

When he tried to stand up, Ino pushed him back down. "Oh that's fine," she said lowly, fluttering her admittedly long eyelashes at him, "You can stay." Her hand rested firmly on his shoulder, squeezing a bit. "One condition, though."

"Okay...," Naruto said, remembering some of the conditions she had set back in the academy when he wanted something. Like his money. Or one of the Uchiha's hair. "Name it."

She smiled strangely at him, eyes just a little bit narrowed and her head lightly tilted. "You can stay but I'll sit in your lap."

From his right he heard Sakura gasp. He, however, didn't find anything especially malevolent in it. He shrugged. "Sure. Help yourself." He patted his knee.

Ino all but threw herself against him, rump first. He was almost forced to exhale. Good that his body had become somewhat resilient against... well, a lot of things. Impact was just one of them.

As Ino got comfortable by more or less leaning against him, Naruto asked Sakura, "So who's fighting?"

There was something in Sakura's eyes as she watched Ino wiggle and squirm away in his lap but it disappeared as soon as her eyes met his. "Oh, uh, actually-"

"Number 2, Uchiha! Enter the arena!"

"Ah," Naruto made, "so the brooding one is up first." He chuckled to himself. "Haven't seen that one in ages. How's she doing?"

"She's on my team," Sakura explained, scowling at Ino, who had thrown an arm around his neck. He merely smiled back, not sure what that was about. "Me and Kiba didn't make it into the finals, Satsuki was the only one."

"Two kunoichi on one team?" Naruto wondered aloud. "Didn't they... not do that?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, well... we were one boy short after you... uh..." She let it hang there.

"After I failed," Naruto said casually. "So they threw Kiba at you instead?"

Ino interrupted whatever Sakura was about to answer. "And they got me with Shika and Choji!" she whined. "Both of them were so lazy, we didn't even make it out of the forest!"

"Forest?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself. There was only one he could think of besides the general abundance of trees around Konoha. And the one he thought of had served pretty well as training ground. Not that there was anything left to train with. He may or may not have accidentally exterminated the entire animal population of the place.

"Yeah," Ino whispered directly into his ear. Her breath tickled so he leaned away a bit to face her. She pouted for a second. "The Forest of Death. Lots of bugs and leeches in there..." She shuddered, throwing her other arm around his neck as well, essentially hugging him. Now this situation was beginning to become uncomfortable.

Sakura coughed loudly. "Ino, do you mind?" she asked angrily, glaring at the two of them. What did he do wrong?

"I do, yes," Ino returned with a wry smile, placing her head on his shoulder.

There was a chill in the air between the two girl and Naruto suddenly wanted to be somewhere else. "Uh... w-whose Satsuki's opponent?" he asked in an attempt to shift the topic away from... well, whatever this was.

Sakura, still glaring at Ino, answered him. "It's the redhead. Gaara of the Sands." Fear, real fear, crept into her features. "He's a monster. He butchered one of our teams in the forest."

Naruto's easygoing features hardened, his eyes narrowed and the smile disappeared from his lips. For a split second it appeared as if someone else entirely was sitting there. Someone angry. Someone powerful. It was all over before Sakura could even blink but the lingering presence of something still served to put everyone in the vicinity on edge.

"Think she can beat him?" he asked, again an easy smile on his face.

Sakura blinked rapidly as her eyes darted around wildly, tying to pinpoint the raw power she had just felt. When she didn't come up with anything, she made a dismissive noise though her nose. "As if anyone could beat Satsuki."

Naruto laughed. "I remember you saying that before. Well, I certainly never could." He couldn't beat anyone back then. Now however...

"No one could," Sakura said, laughing nervously. "She got even stronger. We survived a fight with Orochimaru!"

Now she sounded rather eager. The name sounded familiar to Naruto. Was it something Iruka had once said? "Orochimaru?" he asked.

Ino looked at him with disbelief. "Are you kidding? How can you be such a hottie and not know who that is?!"

Were these two things connected? And since when was he a hottie? "Ah, I dunno?" he asked, smiling lightly. "So tell me, who is that guy?"

"Not sure it was a guy," Sakura mumbled under her breath. "He's on of the three legendary Sannin, a former student of the Third."

"Of the old man?" Naruto asked. "Why would a student of him attack you?"

He could see Sakura's fist twitch. She had wanted to hit him again! "Let me finish, god dammit! He betrayed Konoha years ago! He did a lot of weird experiments to villagers he abducted. And just over a month ago he put this weird seal on Satsuki!"

Naruto nodded. He had no idea who that guy was. "I see," he said, trying to look more serious. "So... where is Satsuki then?"

Sakura's excited face fell and she glowered back into the arena. "Our lazy ass sensei is keeping her back, I swear! Always late!" Her voice was rising considerably as she spoke.

"Geez Sakura," Ino huffed from his lap, apparently disappointing that he hadn't done whatever the hell she wanted him to do, "You always whine about Hatake but isn't he actually really hot? And, like, just a few years older than us?"

Sakura's pale skin darkened with an intense blush. "I-! No-! He isn't!" she stammered out. "S-Shut up! Ino-pig!"

"But Naruto is even hotter," she more or less purred, patting his chest as if it were something precious.

He didn't feel particularly hot. Then again, maybe they were referring to something else? The way Ino was looking at him like he was hot ramen made him uncomfortable. "Look, they're starting," he said.

Sure enough, down in the very center of the arena, a tall silver haired man appeared. At his side, a young woman with long black hair.

Naruto felt an odd flutter in his chest. There she was, even more beautiful than he remembered. The girl - no, woman that had inspired him to grow stronger. Once upon a time he had envied her. Petty jealousy over her strength had driven him to humiliate himself over and over again. And when he failed the academy, when the harsh reality of it all came crashing down, only then did Naruto see just how lonely she was. But he also saw how strong she was, to keep fighting with tooth and nail even after her whole clan, her family, had been all but slaughtered.

Naruto had heard the stories the people told among themselves on the streets. How Itachi murdered every single Uchiha, every man, woman and child only to leave his little sister behind in a pool of blood. Naruto didn't have an easy life but it was far from hard. Even after the whole ninja thing had failed, Naruto still got supported by the old man, by the Hokage himself. And how many other orphans could say that from themselves?

Maybe it had been the fact that, despite all his loneliness and pain, he had still been better off than Satsuki, that drove him to go even further. Strength was his goal, but it wasn't for him. He was becoming strong for her, for all the lonely ones out there. If he was strong enough, he could prevent all that from happening to anyone else. Maybe it was impossible, maybe he could never grow strong enough, but he would strive to go as far as his body allowed. So he could at least protect those close to himself; the old man, the chef Teuchi and his daughter and, most of all, Satsuki.

Saying that the girl needed protection was kind preposterous. Just by looking at her Naruto could tell that she was strong in her own right. She emanated an aura of power, of the calm before the storm. Her muscles were defined, her eyes wide awake and she held her head high, not with pride but with dead certainty that she could win this fight.

In these years since he had last seen her on the graduation ceremony Satsuki had grown into a women. Unlike Sakura, her body had filled out, if not too much for a young adult. Her frame was slim and slender, but probably nothing but muscle, tendon and chakra. Her hair was captured in a high pony tail, though her rather messy hair was all but straight. It reached down to her hips, swaying gently in the breeze. She wore a high collared, short sleeved shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back. It was the very same shade of blue that his shirt was. Underneath that, she wore what had to be padded body armor, the black fabric ran down the length of her arms and covered her left entirely like a glove. Her legs were almost entirely bare, safe for the ridiculously short spats she was wearing and the two black knee protectors.

Involuntarily Naruto swallowed. Just about know he'd understand the "hottie" thing. Was it getting warmer here?

Suddenly a defeated sounding sigh came from Ino, which forced him to tear his eyes from Satsuki. She disentangled herself from him and stood, stretching her arms far above the head. "Well, I see that there's no chance for me," she remarked rather sullenly. "With the way you look at her, sheesh, I wonder why I didn't feel that through your pants."

It took about half a minute for Naruto to grasp what she had implied. "W-What!?" she sputtered, "I wasn't-!"

"You say that", Sakura added, grinning at him. "But you almost drooled all over Ino while staring at Satsuki like some lost puppy."

"I did not drool!" he defended, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"So you admit to staring at her then?" Ino asked, grinning just as evilly as Sakura.

"No!" he exclaimed. He hadn't been staring! Why would he? It wasn't polite! "I was... observing," he said lamely, grasping for the right words. "I mean, it's been years and all that..."

"You didn't look at me like I was some tasty pastry and it's been years too," Sakura said in a sing sung voice, prodding his chest with her finger.

Naruto bit his tongue and stopped himself from saying something stupid. It probably wasn't a good idea to mention that Sakura had barely changed aside from a few inches in height and the shorter hair. If he had learned anything in his time after the academy, then it was that woman didn't like to be described in a way that wasn't flattering. Apparently the size of a woman's breasts were something rather sore unless they were... a handful, he remembered some old and drunk guy telling him.

Looking at Sakura's... well, that wasn't eve half a hand. But, wisely enough, Naruto held his tongue. He mentally patted himself on the shoulder for that one.

"So you admit it!" Ino crowed, still standing in front of him.

He swallowed. Why was this making him so uncomfortable? "I admit that this is your seat," he said hastily, "So I better go find mine!"

Naruto didn't give them any time to stop him and briskly left in search for his actual seat. On his way he heard the proctor of the match cough violently before calling out with a surprisingly loud voice, "Hajime!"


She didn't waste any time fooling around. That guy had literally squashed a whole team from Konoha with his sand and more or less crippled Lee in the preliminaries. Lee had been fast enough to get through the sand but had been too tired to finish though.

She wasn't about to make the same mistake.

Like Kakashi had taught her, she forced chakra though her muscles and shot off as soon as the proctor called the match. Her Sharingan enabled her to see clearly at the high speed she was moving at but just before her fist could connect solidly with the redheads face, his sand intercepted her. It was like hitting a spongy brick. Minimally yielding but not budging and inch.

More or less grasping the shield midair she swung herself around, both knees aiming for the back of his head. The sand was there again, but this time she managed to punch though it. As fast as possible she let her left foot follow the breach and actually hit him. Still, it felt like kicking a stone.

But, not even ten seconds into the match, she had landed a solid hit. She could work with that. This guy wouldn't be much of a problem. His sand armor wouldn't protect him from a sever concussion. He stumbled a few feet but his sand was already lashing out at her and she had to jump back a few times.

Gaara grinned wickedly at her. "Mother will enjoy your blood, Uchiha!" he crowed maniacally, crazed eyes focused on her.

"Doubt it," she returned simply. "I won't be the one bleeding today." Because if she couldn't beat that freak, how could she ever hope to beat Itachi?

Gaara roared in rage and the fight continued.


"She's good," Naruto mumbled to himself, watching how Satsuki weaved her way though the many, many limbs of sand that tried to pierce her. That and her legs flexed rather nicely whenever she crouched low. Uh... Well, that was a new thought, Naruto noted. Not that he'd deny it; Satsuki was beautiful.

Some guy in front of him snorted. "The Uchiha is nothing against our prodigy."

Naruto focused on the people that sat in front of him for the first time since he had squeezed his way in here. All of them looked almost the same. Straight and rather long brown hair that was neatly combed back and matching beige kimonos with a symbol on each of their backs. Which clan was that again? Samey looking pricks... Oh, right! The Hyuuga! Shouldn't that mean...

"Oi! Hinata!" he called out once he spotted her, only one row and two seats away from him.

The girl jumped a little and made a noise of surprise. Well, even without her squeamish behavior she would have stuck out like a sore thumb amidst these losers with her raven hair and that blueish tint in them. Just like Satsuki, Hinata had grown to be a young woman since he had last seen her. Her hair was longer, her features more delicate and refined. And boy did she have big breasts. But, even though that was a good thing, Naruto had learned not to comment on that just as well. It was even worse when done in presence of family, which all those pricks probably were in one way or another.

"Naruto!" she called back, sounding rather happy. And, wow, she didn't stutter at all! That was one hell of an improvement. They had talked a lot in is last year at the academy after she had stumbled upon him almost drowning when he tried water walking. Well, he should have learned how to swim first.

The man that sat besides her scowled something fierce at Hinata but she shrugged it off like some soft breeze. Ignoring the guy completely, she stood up and actually made her way over to him. The seats besides him were still free (apparently not everyone had forgotten him) and Hinata took the one on his right. She smiled nervously at him but didn't almost faint like she always did when he suddenly showed up rather close to her.

For a while he had wondered if she was allergic to him in some way.

"Hey there, long time no see," he said with a small grin. "How have you been doing?"

"A long time indeed," she responded wistfully. "And I'm... fine, I suppose. I didn't make it into the finals, after all." She put a hand over her chest with a pained expression. Had she been wounded? "What have you been up to all those years?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, first of all, I moved to the other side of Konoha. You know, the red light district and just a block away from that."

She nodded. "Well... that would explain why I haven't seen you at all. I'm not really around the, uhm, red light district." She twirled a strand of her raven her between her fingers.

Naruto laughed. "Oh I wonder why." He glanced at the man that was still glaring at her. "And I bet he's the reason."

Hinata's smile faltered a bit. "My father is... very strict."

Naruto frowned. No father should stare with so much disdain at his own daughter. "Yeah well, screw him," he said, loud enough for the man to hear him. His eyes met Naruto's but he didn't falter. Eventually, the Hyuuga averted his eyes. With a victorious huff Naruto turned back to Hinata. "So why is the whole bunch of pricks here with you?"

Hinata giggled before quickly hiding it behind her hand. "My cousin is fighting today," she said, looking down into the arena, where Gaara was holed up in a sphere of is own sand. "Right after this fight, actually."

Naruto tilted his head in thought. "Hmm... did I meet him before?"

She shook her head. "No, he was one year ahead of us. I... lost my fight against him in the preliminaries."

Naruto's eyes softened and his smile dimmed a bit. "Did he do that to you?"

Hinata's hand tightened in the fabric of her jacket over her chest. "I was defeated," she said solemnly, "I just wasn't strong enough."

Naruto nodded, returning his eyes to the fight. "You can always grow stronger," he said. "You just have to work hard enough. And never give up."


Satsuki frowned down at the sand shield Gaara was hiding in from the arena wall she stood on. Her left arm was probably broken. Thankfully she didn't need both hands to do the technique.

Gathering lightning in her palm felt like breathing to her. For a month straight she had practiced, driving herself into the ground to perfect this technique and grow stronger. The chakra flowed freely down into her palm, the spark of lightning consumed it all and not even half a breath after she had begun, she held the force of a lightning storm in her hand. It shrieked like a thousand birds fleeing in terror and the air crackled with power.

"Chidori!" she hissed harshly, already feeling the drain on her reserves. And then she simply let go off the wall.

She was falling almost freely, only occasionally kicking the wall to avoid hitting it's slight curve. The force of her technique tore asunder the stone of the arena wall as she passed, leaving a smoldering trail behind. Just a few feet above ground she kicked off the wall with all her might and shot off like a rocket towards Gaara's shell. Even with her Sharingan it was hard to keep track of everything.

Her hand shot out and served through the sand shield like a hot knife through butter. Satsuki passed the sphere completely, cleaving it in half. And ear shattering crack and a howl of pain followed.

Satsuki barely managed to stop on both feet when Garra's twisted voice rang across the arena. "BLOOD!" he howled, "IT'S MY BLOOD!"

His voice was loud enough to force her to cover her ears. There was an ominous pulse of malevolent energy, one unlike anything she had ever felt, before Gaara's sphere exploded. The sand erupted into all directions like a tsunami and Satsuki was forced to flee to the arena wall yet again. Monstrous limbs of sand with blackened spikes growing from all over them rose from the arena floor. Pale violet markings covered the arm-like appendages like veins as they continued to grow rove and flail in the arena. The merged into one, truly monstrous arm that was attached to Gaara, the veined sand covering half is body. Half his face had transformed into something animalistic, his eye now golden and it's screla pitch black.

The thing howled again, a deranged noise that rattled Satsuki's bones. What the hell is that guy!?

She had not time to question what the hell was going on as she was forced to flee from the terrifyingly fast hand that attacked her.


The whole stadium shook and Naruto rose from his seat, as did most of the others around him. "What the hell is that?" he asked aloud, his body already tensing.

Hinata didn't have much of a chance to say anything when something exploded above the stadium. Fathers began to rain down all around him and most people suddenly slumped back into their seats, fast asleep. The whole of the Hyuuga seemed entirely unimpressed by the falling feathers, as were a few ninja still on their feet.

"A genjutsu?" he heard Hinata mumble just as a kunai came flying straight at her.

Naruto caught it without even blinking, the blade didn't even cut his skin. Naruto leveled his icy blue glare at the guy that had thrown the knife. With an almost casual flick of the wrist, the weapon was sent back to the enemy ninja. It tore straight though him, causing an explosion of dust and debris in the stands behind him. Hinata was looking at him as if he had grown a second and maybe even a third head.

"What?" he asked, just as he caught the second and third kunai, with one hand and not even looking in the general direction.

She was gaping at this point. "That was amazing!" she pressed out eventually.

He shrugged. "Well, maybe. But shouldn't we, like, actually do something about... well, whatever that is? An attack?"

"An invasion," someone drawled lazily from behind him. "Hinata, go report to your sensei. She has orders for you and your team."

As Naruto turned to eye the silver haired man that had appeared with Satsuki, Hinata quickly saluted and with a last longing look at Naruto, sprinted away.

"Any orders for me?" Naruto asked, leaning slightly to the left and letting a kunai whiz by his ear.

Kakashi shrugged. "You are a civilian. One would expect you to enter the bunkers."

"So technically, I can do what I want?" Naruto asked, punching a passing enemy ninja hard enough to send him flying all across the width of the arena.

The jonin whistled lowly as he followed the man's flight path. "Technically," he affirmed. "As long as you punch the bad guys, I suppose it's fine."

There was a gleam in Naruto's eyes as he casually ducked under a vicious kick that had been aimed at his head. His elbow sent the guy plummeting though the railing an d straight down into the arena. He glanced down into the pit. "Where'd Satsuki go?"

Kakashi regarded him for a moment. "She followed Gaara. He's a jinchuriki and will try to unleash the demon onto the village."

"Think she'll need back up?"

"I'm tempted to say no but if you can throw any more of these punches, I'm sure she'd appreciate your help," Kakashi pointed out. There was a loud rumbling sound from the direction of the front gates. Huge snakes rose from plumes of smoke and began to make their way towards the village. As if in response, three huge toads appeared in the same fashion. "Hm, seems we'll have our work cut out for us," Kakashi remarked and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto noticed that the silver haired man had neglected to tell him in which direction Gaara had gone. Well... Maybe I can do something about this then," he muttered, looking up at the purple barrier that towered over the booth the Kage had been in.


Hiruzen had expected a lot from this invasion but not both of his teachers. Reanimated as they may be, they were not nearly as strong as they had been when still breathing but they were a force to be reckoned with none the less. It wouldn't have been that much of a problem to beat Orochimaru alone, but beating him and the First and Second Hokage alone didn't seem possible. There was no help to be expected. The barrier around him was as good as unbreakable and would probably require Jiraiya and Tsunade at the same time to bring down.

Things looked grim and he was growing tired of this fight when the unbreakable barrier suddenly shattered like glass. A part of the roof exploded away and the boy with the many arms was catapulted so high into the air that Hiruzen could no longer see him.

Orochimaru, eyes wide with surprise, turned to whomever ad just obliterated what was supposed to be an unbreakable technique, only to immediately jump to the other side of the roof, as if in fright.

Hiruzen's eyebrows rose and he, too, took a moment to look over at his savior. He almost flinched back. The young man appeared absolutely casual. His pose was relaxed, his expression more bored than anything else and he didn't seem the slightest bit winded. Aside from that, it was Naruto. That alone almost gave Hiruzen a heart attack. But what had him shiver, what had his fight or flight reflex scream at him to bail was this unbearable feeling of being in the presence of something utterly superior and deadly. Naruto emanated an aura of immeasurable power. His eyes were frozen fire, an icy blue yet a blazing fury, threatening to consume them all.

The First and Second Hokage immediately moved to attack the intruder, mindless puppets as they were. Hiruzen only needed a moment to remember that Naruto was not a trained ninja, that he had failed the academy years ago. Overpowering a body flicker hat almost tore his legs off, Hiruzen got himself in between Naruto and the two Kage.

His adamantine staff raised, he was ready to defend the boy he considered a grandson.

Only... nothing came to fend off.

The body of the second Hokage suddenly evaporated, as did most of the building underneath him. There wasn't even a shred that remained. But Naruto stood there, not half a foot away from the still in itself collapsing crater, his left hand a fist that actually steamed a bit. Hiruzen couldn't even blink twice before Naruto vanished again, his eyes unable to follow him.

The apex of the roof suddenly blew up as well, the sheer force behind it destroyed most of the tree Hashirama had grown in their fight. The First Hokage was gone just as well. He spotted Naruto in the very center of all the destruction and he found himself taking a step back again. The feeling of immeasurable danger didn't subside.

"You alright, old man?" Naruto called out to him, his stance entirely too casual for all this.

"Naruto," he began, still shaken. "Is that really you?"

The blonde looked shrewdly at him. "What? We met just a few days ago! You didn't seriously forget what I look like?"

No, that was Naruto alright. So why was he so strong? Apparently, the conversation wasn't to be held now when Orochimaru's Kusanago shot out from all the smoke and rubble, directly at him. Caught off guard, Hiruzen wasn't able to raise his staff in time.

But apparently there had been no cause for worry. Naruto had caught the sword, half an inch before it could pierce the old Hokage's heart. The feeling of danger turned into one of utter helplessness as Naruto's expression twisted into one of absolute fury.

"Oi," he growled menacingly down to where Orochimaru crawled out of the rubble, sword hanging from his mouth. "What's the big idea?"

Orochimaru's chuckle was just a tad less enthusiastic than it usually was. "My, my, how exceedingly rude to interrupt. I was just having a word with my teacher and- GURGH!"

With a vicious pull Naruto tore the Kusanagi from Orochimaru's mouth, more or less tearing tongue and jaw apart. Then, much to Orochimaru's obvious outrage, Naruto shattered the sword into a million pieces. Not that it seemed to bother him that the Kusanagi was supposed to be unbreakable as well. "This is as far as you go, tongue freak."

There was no witty reply. Orochimaru stepped backwards, eyes wide with actual fear. Naruto took a step in his direction and without any hesitation dashed right at him. Orochimaru jumped back but Naruto caught him midair. His fist impacted with his torso and absolutely destroyed it. There was no flash of light, no outcry of some technique. Just what had to be the most powerful punch Hiruzen had ever seen and a shower of gore as Orochimaru's body was reduced to a smear on the roof and wherever the rest of his body would go.

And then there was a beat of silence. Holy mother of-

"Fuck me sideways," someone to his left voiced, "He manhandled Orochi-fucking-maru!"

Hiruzen's mouth was still agape as he glanced at the redhead the dug her way out of the rubble. "I guess he did," he said lamely. He himself could barely belief it.

"Holy shit I'm free!" the redhead exclaimed suddenly, clutching her neck, "Take that, Kin you bitch!"

The ANBU flooded the roof and countless other ninja appeared. Only the Hiruzen realized that Naruto, who hadn't even passed the academy, had just now single-handedly obliterated three Kage level shinobi in under twenty seconds. All of it with just one punch each.

He was seriously getting to old for this shit.