"Aww come to mama…" she cooed and scooped her up in her arms, hugging her for dear life which the cub loved if her purrs were any indication.
"Kiara come and have some lunch…" Naruto's voice rang in the kitchen and she slicked her way out of Tsunade's arms expertly who tried to keep her in her arms, but ended up falling off the couch face first...again.
...
She grumbled incoherent curses at the feline, rubbing her aching nose with an annoyed expression on her face seeing her lap up whatever he gave her to eat quite happily from her bowl.
Half an hour later, Tsunade was lying there lazily hearing the crickets in his large gardens and Naruto sat on the porch with the cub lying on her back and her legs high up in the air.
"Where does it all go you glutton? You don't even grow up neither are you fat or chubby, you're still so small…" Naruto asked the cub while tickling her stomach to get muffled mewls from her. Her paws tried to pry him off but to no avail and Tsunade smiled. Kiara had become a part of their group too over time.
"Oi! Where are you guys?" a familiar voice called out surprising them quite a lot.
"We're in here, come on up back…" Tsunade called out and sure enough both saw Sakumo come around with his hands behind his back and a wide grin on his face. Tsunade laid on her elbow, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought you were going to buy your sword smart ass…" she pointed out wisely, getting an eye twitch from the boy at her name calling but he gulped it down for now and grinned.
His hands were put out in front to show them a beautifully crafted katana unsheathed with a completely white blade and a black sheathe to go along with it in his other hand.
"Tou-san gave me the family sword when I got home, I ran straight from home knowing you two would be here. Isn't it cool?" he asked with a cheeky smile, getting nods from the other two who were looking marvelously at the beautifully crafted sword.
"It's called the White Light Chakra Sabre by the way, it's been passed down withing my family for generations now." he explained to add a bit more fascination to it and got dumb nods from his star struck friends while Tsunade ran her finger on the blade in amazement.
"Sugoi, you got such a cool sword…" Tsunade whispered making him puff his chest out proudly.
"…idiots have all the luck in the world." she continued making him deflate and cry anime tears at her words. Naruto laughed and all three enjoyed their free day happily to enjoy their friend's happiness together, playing around the house some card games, Tsunade's choice by the way, of which she won none of them as always.
...
A week later, some unknown clearings on the borders of the village…
Naruto walked past the trees covering the forest like clearing, while taking in the beautiful sights to his heart's content. This part of the forest, he had never been in before and he was sure no one else had either, seeing the non trampled grass growing all around the area.
He looked up and smiled at seeing the sun rays coming past the leaves of the trees and illuminating the beautiful clearing with it's sheen.
His feet took small and careful steps, to avoid any dangerous insects or snakes going around on the ground.
He loved doing this, to see the places in the village no one else ever ventured into. It was a loss in his mind of their own accord to not explore the place they lived and breathed in down to it's very core.
Finally, he walked into a small clearing in between the thick forestry of the seemingly lost to time area of the village. He looked on amazed at the large and thick tree in the middle of said clearing as if it were the whole nerve center of the village.
He walked closer to the tree, which was of the size of a small house in itself and touched it's large bark with his small hand. He could feel the synergy of life it breathed and the small pulses the tree was letting out each passing second as if it were alive and breathing.
He walked around it, looking up and down the tree and wondering whether to climb said tree or not when he stopped abruptly as his eyes caught on to something strange.
His baby blue eyes narrowed on a particular part of the tree covered with wild vines and he flicked out a kunai from his holster, carving the weeds out and brushing it clean with his palm to read a small thing inscribed onto it by human hands.
Konohagakure no sato
It read and he started hacking away the vines cleanly by channeling wind chakra through it and finally cleared away the small portion of the bark he wanted to see so much right now.
...
Today we stand here, asking ourselves the same question every shinobi has probably asked himself at one point in his life.
What is a shinobi? Why do we kill others as a way of living, mindlessly staining the ground scarlet?
My friend asked me this today too, after our small truce of peace marking the stop of centuries of conflict between our clans. So I answered him today, and we decided to carve this out for life here as a sign for the future generations to remember the horrors we went through and the time when we stopped to think of the past that lay behind us.
A shinobi is one who endures no matter the obstacles, that is what we could say in a sentence.
Why do we kill then? Why destroy life?
To protect life, life must be taken. That is the very law of nature. The cycle goes on and on, but what differentiates us from animals is that we have the sense, the sense to feel others pain and bask in it to share his sufferings.
That is what me and my friend dreamed of years ago, a place where everyone will understand each others sufferings and pain, and grieve together. A place where children will grow up peacefully, shielded from the violence outside the confines of that peaceful wall covering them.
We dreamed of a village. A village where children, adults and the elderly would come together and form bonds. Where children won't be thrust out to kill before they knew how to hold a brush and could enjoy the taste of sake before they died.
And today the two of us are content that this dream has come true. For today, this place marks the beginning of the peace we dreamed of achieving one day and shake hands to form a village where everyone can be happy.
Today, here with a shake of our hands we unite the two great clans of the Senju and of the Uchiha to form Konohagakure no sato.
-Hashirama Senju & Madara Uchiha, Year 1197 Warring Clans Era.
...
Naruto's eyes widened and he re-read the whole thing again before brushing the inscription with his palm.
"Jiji…" he whispered to himself, realizing what the Shodai Hokage and his grandfather had went out to achieve together. No one had come to this place since then if he could guess right, and it was seemingly forgotten.
He read the thing again and again, not getting enough of the beautiful words inscribed on the tree. The handwriting was mixed of two people, one of Hashirama Senju and the other of Madara Uchiha.
The year was the last year of the warring clans before shinobi villages rose up from everywhere to achieve what the two formidable clan leaders had once sought to achieve and had it in their palms at that time, seemingly bringing an end to the clan wars and halting the mindless bloodshed then and there.
His senses tingled suddenly, his eyes snapping back and glancing dangerously to the side. He flicked his kunai into a tree, making the birds fly up from it and he stood up, looking around the clearing furiously.
"Who's there?" he called out, getting nothing but silence in return and clenched his fist tightly.
"I know you're there, so no point hiding yourself anymore…" he called out yet again and this time a reply did come back.
"You're good for a child your age, to be able to sense my presence at so young an age you are the grandson of that man. Basking in the writings of his lost dreams…." the childish voice cackled a blood chilling laugh, making him flick out kunais in each of his palms and stand in his defensive kata, crossing the kunais in front of him defensively.
"What do you want?" he asked in a guarded tone, knowing he was all on his own in this abandoned part of the forest.
"Nothing…" the voice echoed from everywhere and his eyes roamed around to gauge his opponent's location. His untrained senses not quite able to pinpoint whoever it was that was hiding here.
"…but everything…" the voice said in a cold voice making him stiffen when he saw a strange hooded figure with a straw cloak sitting on a tree and launched his kunai at it. The figure caught it in his finger by it's hole and shook his finger in a 'not so good' fashion.
"Your potential lays hidden…" he whispered suggestively, confusing the blonde boy with his words. Naruto could feel a foreboding feeling in the back of his mind at seeing the figure who was hiding his appearance expertly in the shadow of the tree so he could not see him.
======================
If you want to read ahead of the public release on p atreon.
p atreon Link :
https://www.p atreon.com/sybife
|● sybife
"…but everything…" the voice said in a cold voice making him stiffen when he saw a strange hooded figure with a straw cloak sitting on a tree and launched his kunai at it. The figure caught it in his finger by it's hole and shook his finger in a 'not so good' fashion.
"Your potential lays hidden…" he whispered suggestively, confusing the blonde boy with his words. Naruto could feel a foreboding feeling in the back of his mind at seeing the figure who was hiding his appearance expertly in the shadow of the tree so he could not see him.
...
"What do you mean? Who are you?" he asked him, taking out a round of shurikens in his free hand to be ready for anything and the figure cackled.
"Who I am is not important, but your hidden potential needs coming out now. But certain conditions must be met to do so…" he spoke in his same childish tone once more throwing him in for a loop.
"What conditions? What potential are you going on about?" he asked him to milk everything he could from the man who laughed evilly.
"The potential that can only be found when you would lose someone you love right in front of your very eyes…" he whispered, leaning forward with a waving finger to make his point. Naruto couldn't help but shudder at whatever psychopath he had come across.
"Today you'll achieve it…" he whispered suggestively, once more baffling out the blonde boy.
"Your friend, that girl…" he whispered and Naruto's eyes widened in horror. He only had one female friend. He looked at the man with such hateful eyes, it almost made him shudder and lick his lips at the same time.
"What have you done to Tsunade? I swear if you have done anything to her…" he threatened the figure on instinct getting yet another childish laugh from him while he waved his hands up in defense.
"No need to get all riled up on poor old me, I come in peace…" he spoke childishly, making Naruto snort inwardly though he tried to gauge what the man wanted right now. He was much more than what he seemed to the naked eye.
"Then why mention her when you come in peace?" he asked him seriously, to know what he was talking about.
"Well anyone would mention a person who was abducted by some shinobi of a rival village ne?" he asked curiously and Naruto's kunai dropped in shock.
"What?" he asked in a whisper but the figure heard him and grinned seeing his horrified eyes.
"That girl, I saw a man take her from a clearing. All tied up and gagged, slung over his shoulder like a sack…" he trailed off feeling a cold metal on his neck. He glanced back to meet the cold eyes of the blonde and saw the boy he was talking to right now disappear in a puff of smoke, making his eyes widen momentarily.
"Shadow clone?" he thought and heard a small whisper in his ear that made his grin widen to ever epic proportions.
"Where is she?" Naruto asked coldly, and the man couldn't help but feel glee on his insides.
"The southern edges of the village, he must have crossed them by now and moving on towards the borders of the country. I would hurry it up if I were you…" he whispered before Naruto saw him disappearing right in front of his eyes as if he wasn't ever there in the first place.
"Who was he? Was he telling the truth? What should I do?" he thought, his mind jumbled up with a million doubts and questions right now while his hands shook in fear of what might happen to her.
"Should I go back to the village for help… no would take too much time and the man would escape cleanly without a trace seeing how far I am. There's only one way then…" he thought before blurring from the branch he was on a moment later and rushed past branches, blasting several off on his way with huge bursts of chakra from his feet.
He saw the trees coming to an end and jumped down on the ground, running at blazing fast speeds, as fast as his legs would go while pumping them with chakra to keep his muscles going without tiring even a little.
"You're going the wrong way gaki…" a voice spoke from his side only to see him the strange figure hiding in that cloak of straws from before.
"You won't be able to catch up with that man no matter how you see it…" he spoke wisely making Naruto glance at him dangerously.
"Watch me." he spoke calmly, before the figure saw that the blonde was running for a huge cliff. Naruto increased his speed twofold and jumped down with a start, opening his arms to twirl himself in mid air while the figure stood on the edge, completely dumbfounded at the actions of a certain Uchiha.
Though when he looked down, he saw Naruto taking out a kunai in his hand and embedding it in the rocky surface to slow down his fall and grinned.
"Interesting, most interesting…" he cackled and disappeared into thin air yet again.
Naruto's hair flailed around with the air passing through them when his kunai snapped in half from the force it was experiencing. He took out another in both of his hands and embedded them in the rock at the same time with all the force he could muster.
It worked. His speed slowed down and he buried them into the rock right to the hilt to get blocked by a small boulder in there and halt his motion momentarily, and he placed his soles on the rocky surface only to let out a burst of chakra to kick himself back and back flipped to land on the ground while skidding backwards and stopping himself by burying his kunai which were chipped off to the point of no return now.
His arms ached with the huge strain he had put them through but he paid it no heed and started running again. He jumped from boulder to boulder to pass the small stream quickly and just as he did, he was out of the village's borders.
He ran up to see the start of the forest and hopped up on a branch to begin his chase yet again. He smiled a small smile of relief when he saw a small patch of a footstep on a branch and knew he was now right on tail of whoever the abductor was. The man must be in a hurry if he hadn't cleared off his tail and confident that no one would follow him. But his mind was completely jumbled up by the figure from before.
"Why is he helping me? What the hell does he want?" he thought, but shook the thought off. He would have time for that later, right now he had a man to stop.
A man with a face mask covering his face along with full black clothes for stealth hopped from branch to branch straight towards the Rain country's borders. He smiled behind his mask, the information about the small slips in security of the Leaf had been spot on and now he had the Senju heiress on his shoulder.
Then they could rebuild the Senju clan in Kumo and use her offspring or even the girl herself for making perfect jinchurikis. The Raikage was going to be smiling in glee at having her in their midst with the Leaf unknown about her loss until it was too late.
SWISH…
He jumped sideways, but howled in pain when three shurikens got embedded in the back of his left thigh. Tsunade wriggled in her bonds and her screams were muffled by the gag tied over her mouth. He looked back to see the forest completely empty and growled behind his mask.
"You have some nerve Leaf scum, I am a sensor myself. You cannot hide from me…" he shouted in the seemingly empty clearing but got no response in return.
SWISH…
His ears caught the sound of another sound of metal whizzing in the air and he ducked when a lone kunai went past where he stood a moment ago, only to growl in annoyance and look around furiously.
Finally, his senses tingled and he grinned. He turned around to see Naruto falling down from a branch over him, a kunai in his hands to embed it straight in his skull. He launched a volley of shurikens himself while mentally sighing in relief that he was only dealing with a little child so he could get this over with quickly.
Naruto's arms and legs curled up to cover his front while the metallic stars got embedded in each of his limbs. Tsunade shouted in her gags and wriggled wildly at seeing what had happened only for her eyes to widen when Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke and a small log fell in place of where he was a moment earlier.
"A substitution?" the masked man growled, once more looking around when he turned around and blocked a kunai ladden hand with his forearm, only to meet the cold blue eyes of his attacker.
Naruto slashed at the man's waist who jumped back quickly to dodge it and the blonde followed him just as quickly, not letting up his charge and give the man any time to reprieve.
The jounin took out a sword and parried his twin kunai strikes expertly with small glancing blocks as if they were mere annoyances. But he had to admit the boy was fierce and relentless in his slashes, that were being executed with perfection laced in them.
"You damned brat, leave while you still can before I put you into an untimely grave…" the man growled, having to fight with one hand while the other had supported his captive on his shoulder.
The jounin finally had enough and pushed back, slashing at Naruto a vertical strike who blocked it with a cross guard over his head with his twin kunais.
The blonde winced at the brute force behind it and was forced to one knee, skidding back when he saw the man letting out a kick with his right leg and blocked it by crossing his arms in a cross guard.
Naruto cursed inwardly, the man was too strong and experienced with the only disadvantage that Tsunade was on his shoulder.
While he on the other hand, could not use his arsenal of ninjutsu comprising mostly of Fire jutsus and Shadow clones that would only drain him quickly and leave him open for the kill from how exhausted he already was after the long chase to catch up to the man for three hours now.
He ducked under a horizontal slash and rolled away from a vertical one that followed it, while the sword was embedded in the ground with a small cloud of dust to show the force behind it would cleave him straight through if it made direct contact.
The jounin had to give some points to the brat, no matter how annoying the pest was in his eyes.
"You're good brat, but how long can you keep this up. Better give up and I'll make it painless…" the man taunted while Naruto paid no heed to the man, but he was right in his assumptions. He was tiring himself out quickly and at a severe disadvantage on his hands.
Ninjutsu was no where near sights for this fight lest he burn Tsunade along with the man when he caught the man in a trap with his clones, for which he had no where near enough chakra to pull off the numbers that would need.
He was at a severe disadvantage at taijutsu since the man was a jounin, having the experience and advantage of strength over him.
The only thing keeping him alive was his agility and speed and that too was failing quickly as he was forced to dodge another swing of his dodge and the man was adapting to his style slowly yet surely.
======================
If you want to read ahead of the public release on p atreon.
p atreon Link :
https://www.p atreon.com/sybife
|● sybife
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