Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ After the Dream ❯ Lies ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Agent's Spiel: This is an old unfinished story set after chapter 237/8 of the manga. I'm not sure what that accounts for in the anime, but I think it's episode 130 something. I'm posting this version here while the rewrite, called Role of Seven, is up on fanfiction.net (same user name if you're curious).

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Lies

Three months had passed since the regrettable failed mission to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke. In that time many changes had taken place in Konoha. Team 7 had long since been dissolved, mainly due to the apprenticeships of its two remaining members. Sakura's training under Tsunade had far exceeded anyone's expectations, as had Naruto's. Unfortunately, the toad Sannin's original plans to take Naruto away from Konoha had been dashed to pieces; a feat that was quite easy for someone of Tsunade's ability. Konoha's Jounin were constantly away on various missions, leaving the village susceptible to attack. In exchange, she made sure that Jiraiya remained with her in Konoha. The other Genin teams continued training with only one small change: as Neji began training with Hiashi and Lee continued his recovery, TenTen was placed on Asuma's team to replace Shikamaru.

On this particular day, nine Genin and one Chuunin were basking in the glory of a hard earned break, as well as having fun at the expense of their unfortunate comrade. Their break had taken them to the training field where Naruto was currently struggling to complete the exhausting exercises that Jiraiya had set in order to move on and begin working on his new jutsu. Their favorite blond haired Genin - although Ino would argue against that epithet, unless of course it was being used for her - was currently grumbling about his companions' inconsiderate, degenerating behavior - using much smaller words of course. His mumbling was often followed up with a smack across the head and equally degrading mumbling from a restless Jiraiya; the group watching this amusing scene occasionally caught words such as “research” and “new book” coming from the famous ninja. Much to their amusement these only served to agitate Naruto further, eliciting occasional screams of what sounded like “Ero-Sennin” which only confused the poor rookies. As noon approached along with the impending freedom of their friend, the rookies were becoming bored; so it was much to their delight that a messenger from the Hokage summoned Jiraiya away freeing Naruto from his torture a bit early.

As Jiraiya headed towards Hokage tower, the rookies were already half way into town in search of lunch. The minute he had joined his friends Naruto's exuberance and never ending energy had returned, allowing him to amuse his friends with constant conversation, admittedly lacking in any intellectual qualities. It seemed there was an unwritten agreement between the rookies: they allowed Naruto to raise their spirits despite the recent troubles and in return they ignored his occasional lapses in thoughts and false smiles. In town the group shared a lively lunch time, though much to Naruto's chagrin ramen was not on the menu. Afterwards, they set off for the river near Naruto's favorite training grounds to spend the rest of the day swimming and basking in sunlight.

Unfortunately, this fun was not to be. They had been enjoying themselves for barely an hour when a shuriken grazed Naruto's cheek, abruptly cutting off the boy's laughter. The rookies' attention was immediately brought to the figure on the shore. Although the man was familiar to only one person among the group, his appearance was enough to assure the others that his presence did not bode well for them. He was at least a head taller than their sensei, and the large sword he carried on his back was easily as large as he was. His grayish skin, sharpened teeth, and gill like appendages did nothing to ease their growing apprehension. The bloody clouds on his black cloak and the slash through his forehead protector cemented the fact that they would be no match for him, and none of the rookies could miss the paralyzing affect this man had had on the normally fearless Naruto.

“Heheheh! What's this, a bunch of leaf brats fooling around? No wonder you're all so weak.” Upon hearing the stranger speak most of the rookies snapped out of their stupor. Naruto, however, continued to stare at him in horror; those closest to him heard a whispered, “Kisame,” but nothing else.

“Well fox-brat,” Kisame stated while looking at Naruto. “Either you come with me or I can use Samehada against one of your friends,” he said while petting his sword and staring calmly at the group surrounding Naruto.

While the others looked around in confusion, Naruto's eyes never left the ground. As many of his friends turned to him in concern they noticed a slight trembling in his clenched fist, this only increased when he heard a shot from someone on his left. “Who you callin' fox-brat, you ugly fish face.”

“Kiba,” Naruto hissed out, “do not make him angry.” Many could only stare at Naruto in disbelief. How could he turn down a fight? How could Naruto ignore the challenge?

“What are you talking about idiot? We can take this fish-face,” Kiba growled back only to be shocked when Naruto looked over towards him with wide eyes.

“This guy is out of our league,” he said bluntly, turning slowly to the shore. “Heheheh, the little fox is getting smarter. Now, do what I say and I won't hurt the others.” As Naruto slowly processed his options, Kisame grew impatient; stepping onto the surface of the water, he quickly reappeared next to the nearest Genin, Sakura, and kneeled down bringing a kunai to her throat.

“Well fox brat what'cha gonna do?” he taunted, as he slowly lifted Sakura out of the water and began moving back towards shore. Naruto's eyes were wide with fear as he looked at his endangered teammate, with no other options he did what he always did. With a few quick hand seals and a shout of, “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu,” the area was suddenly filled with nearly a hundred Narutos. As his bunshin attempted to distract Kisame into letting go of Sakura the other Genin snapped into action.

One of the clones sidled up to Lee and after a quick “Henge” the real Lee raced off to the village for help. Another clone swam under Kisame attempting to hit him from beneath while Kiba attacked as well.

Kisame easily avoided their attacks, but while he was busy laughing at the “leaf brats” attempts to attack, he failed to notice the hand seals his captive was performing. Before he knew it his kunai was directed at the throat of one of Naruto's bunshin and Sakura was hidden among the many bunshin on the shore.

XXXXXXXX

As the rookies struggled against Kisame, a meeting was taking place in Tsunade's office. Standing in her office - other than Tsunade herself - were Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai, conspicuously missing was the infamously tardy Hatake Kakashi. Jiraiya picked up on Kakashi's absence the minute he stepped into the room.

“Where's Kakashi? And what's this about?” Jiraiya asked. Tsunade didn't even bother to look up from her desk as she answered, “He had a meeting with our informant; he'll come as soon as he finishes with her.” Jiraiya blinked several times before a small smile graced his features and he leaned back against Tsunade's desk watching the door. The others grew more confused, causing Kurenai to speak up. “Informant?” she said questioningly.

Tsunade actually looked up for a moment before turning back to her pile of paperwork and responding, “One of our informants on the Akatsuki; we have reason to believe they won't stay away as long as we originally believed.” The others looked very alarmed at this information even though both Jiraiya and Tsunade seemed to believe it wasn't particularly important. So of course when the door burst open revealing a rather wind blown and distraught Rock Lee they were quite shocked.

XXXXXXXX

Outside leaf, not far from Naruto and the others, two figures raced towards the village. “Are you sure about the latest information?” the leading figure, male from the sound of the voice, called out.

The figure behind him didn't miss a step as she replied back. “For the final time Kakashi-kun, last I heard Hoshigaki Kisame was seen two days ago heading toward Konoha. He's not moving on orders; it seems like he just got bored and as long as he doesn't kill Naruto, I don't think any of the others will do anything about it.”

“I thought they needed three years to prepare before they moved out again?” the leading figure, now revealed as the always late Jounin Hatake Kakashi, replied back.

“They do,” his companion replied irritably, “However that won't stop Kisame and most likely several others from playing with Naruto once in a while; we can't relax our guard.”

XXXXXXXX

In Tsunade's office a frantic Lee was trying to explain the situation at the river. It took a punch to the head from Gai, and another one from Tsunade just for the heck it, before he calmed down enough to explain, “We were at the river and this man just walked up and started yelling at us; I think he was talking to Naruto because Naruto seemed to know who he was. He wanted him to go somewhere with him….” Before Lee could even finish Jiraiya had taken off towards the river; Tsunade held the others back and beckoned for Lee to continue, “The man grabbed Sakura and threatened to hurt the rest of us; so Naruto used Kage Bunshin and had one of them use henge so I could escape and come warn you.”

Tsunade looked out the window a moment, before turning back to those in the room. “I suppose you should head down to the river to get your teams. Jiraiya will handle Kisame.” With that Gai lead Lee out of the room and Asuma and Kurenai followed.

XXXXXXXX

Back at the river, the Genin had been struggling. Shikamaru had managed to catch Kisame with his Kagemane no Jutsu long enough to allow most of the Genin to make it to the opposite shore. Naruto, the real one, had made it to Sakura's side on the shore and they were making their way back to the river when Shikamaru's jutsu wore off leaving Kisame with a clear shot at the two. Naruto quickly shoved Sakura out of the way and farther away from the river and barely managed to jump out of the way himself.

“Get as far away from the water as you can. He's a Shinobi from Kirigakure; the water strengthens his jutsu,” he quickly shouted to all his friends.

This warning only elicited more laughter from Kisame. “I'll admit it, you runts are doing better than I expected. Just for that, I'll end this quickly and even leave the rest of you alive,” this said he began running through a number of hand seals before looking straight at Naruto and grinning as he spit out the name of his jutsu, “Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu.”

Naruto's eyes grew wide as a large dragon formed on the surface of the river and headed straight towards… Sakura. “Oh shit,” was all he managed to say before putting on a burst of speed, enough to rival Lee, and shoving Sakura out of harms way as the dragon came crashing down on him. Shouts of “Naruto!” filled the air as all his friends could do was watch helplessly as the dragon engulfed him none noticed the red glow that had appeared moments before impact. However, they did notice the terrible charka that shot through the area just seconds later.

XXXXXXXX

The two continued moving rapidly through the trees until a burst of chakra caused both to stop abruptly. “What on earth was that?” Kakashi's companion said in a slightly concerned voice.

Kakashi was already moving again and only took a moment to reply, “Naruto.”

This quickly snapped his companion to attention as she once again took off after him. “I guess that means we aren't going to see Tsunade yet?”

“No, Naruto just tapped into the Kyuubi's power. That was what we felt; if he tapped into that he's in trouble,” Kakashi replied, picking up the pace slightly.

XXXXXXXX

Tsunade spun around to stare out her window in horror as she felt a tremendous chakra coming from the direction Naruto was in. She recovered fairly quickly as the chakra disappeared almost immediately, but her door burst open just moments later revealing a number of frightened Shinobi all looking at her for answers. “Tsunade-sama, what should we do?”

She looked at them questioningly for a moment before completely regaining her senses. “Do nothing the situation is under control,” she said quickly before sitting back down at her desk and attempting to pretend she fully understood the situation. The shinobi at her door slowly drifted away trying to ignore the sense of doom that hung over the area.

XXXXXXXX

On the far side of the river the gathered rookies could only watch as the water dragon slowly faded away. Much to their shock the attack disappeared revealing Naruto standing and staring angrily at Kisame. A few attentive ones saw the Mist Nin mumble something, but not even Kiba's heightened senses were able to pick it up.

XXXXXXXX

On the other side Naruto was more than able to hear Kisame's mumbled curse. “Damn brat relying on the fox to save you.” Naruto glared at Kisame and slowly red chakra began seeping out and circling him, his fingernails and canines lengthened allowing Naruto to growl menacingly. He probably would have continued the change and attacked Kisame had Sakura not screamed from behind him. Naruto whirled around in order see what was frightening her; unfortunately, she was watching him. Her reaction caused Naruto to immediately revert back to his normal self, with the exception of his eyes.

As Naruto was distracted by Sakura, Kisame moved to strike bringing Samehada in wide arc intending slice through Naruto's arm. Screams from the other rookies brought Naruto around just as the sword began its descent.

Unfortunately for Kisame his sword never reached its target; instead the ground bore the brunt of the assault. Looking around, Kisame found Naruto five feet away standing next to a very angry looking Hatake Kakashi.

“Damn fox-brat, your rescuers have a horrible sense of timing,” Kisame grumbled, obviously upset with the interruption.

Not paying Kisame any attention, Kakashi peered down at his unusually quiet student as he felt him edge closer. Naruto was half hiding behind Kakashi and had his eyes firmly focused on his feet. “Naruto,” Kakashi said, nudging his blond student though this only caused Naruto to stumble a bit. He was interrupted from checking on his young student when two more presences entered the area. He looked up to see Jiraiya land next to him perched on a rather large frog. Across from them, the last person they wanted to see was standing not far behind Kisame.

“Naruto-kun,” the figure behind Kisame said, catching Naruto's attention. He would have been safer if he had kept his eyes down, as he looked up straight into the Sharingan eyes of one Uchiha Itachi. Unfortunately, the memories dredged up by those eyes immediately froze the fox vessel.

“Your teammate is injured; shouldn't you help her?” Itachi stated in his usual monotone voice. Naruto could only stare in horror for a moment until his senses came back to him and he whipped around to check on Sakura.

His pink-haired former teammate was on the ground where she had landed after being pushed out of the way of the water dragon. Sakura was clutching her ankle with one hand; however, her attention was not on her injured appendage. Instead, she was staring wide-eyed at Naruto with tears streaming down her face. He took a step towards her only to see her attempt to move away. Naruto stopped dead in his tracks and immediately dropped his eyes to the ground; he didn't bother to look up when someone landed next to Sakura moments later.

As this exchange occurred Itachi had already turned his attention to Kisame. “You were ordered not to harm the target,” he stated bluntly. Kisame only grinned and quipped back, “He isn't hurt at all.”

Instead of arguing further he looked once around the clearing before looking back to Kisame a stating flatly, “We must return to headquarters.” With that said, Itachi leapt into the trees followed shortly by Kisame.

Once the two Akatsuki members had left, Jiraiya and Kakashi turned their attention to the rookies; of course, they both ignored the rookies on the opposite side of the river and focused solely on Naruto and Sakura. Naruto was facing Sakura but staring at the ground fists clenched he refused to look at either of his sensei when they attempted to catch his attention. Sakura had calmed down enough to stare at the young woman who had suddenly appeared beside her. The young woman had already moved Sakura's hand away from her ankle and had begun to heal it. She looked up momentarily to smile gently at her but quickly turned back to her work.

Kakashi took a moment to look over at Sakura before turning back to Naruto. “Naruto what happened we could feel the fight in the forest,” he asked, attempting to wake Naruto out of his stupor.

As Naruto remained unresponsive Jiraiya bent down and poked Naruto in the shoulder. Attempting to ignore the fact that Naruto had just flinched, he spoke. “You don't look to bad off,” he said, referring to few scratches and bruises Naruto had sustained, many of which were already being healed by the Kyuubi. “Are there any injuries we can't see?” he asked. Naruto graced the two with a slight shake of his head to indicate a negative response but he continued to stare at his feet.

As Kakashi opened his mouth to speak again he was interrupted by Sakura's healer. “The ankle will be a bit tender for the next day or so but I healed the worst of the damage,” she said loudly as if purposely cutting off Kakashi. She then attempted to help the young girl up off the ground but Sakura refused to move; she beckoned for Kakashi who reluctantly left Naruto's side to see what was wrong. “Have one of the other Jounin take Sakura home; we need to get Naruto to Tsunade,” she whispered as she stood up. Kakashi nodded and gently picked Sakura up before walking over the river to where the others were being met by their sensei.

When he reached the other side, he was immediately confronted by a number of worried and confused shinobi. Being his normal self he ignored them and walked over to the other Jounin, handed Sakura to Asuma, and said, “Take her home. I need to stay with Naruto.” He then turned and walked back over the river.

The shocked group he left behind quickly erupted with more questions and shouting until Asuma grabbed his team and pulled them off; Gai and Kurenai quickly followed his example, both pointedly ignoring the questions of the Genin around them.

When Kakashi returned to Naruto he once again questioned the young shinobi, “Naruto what is wrong?” He was quickly met with a smack on the head from the female standing next to him. “What was that for Rin?”

“That was for being unnecessarily blunt Kakashi-chan,” she said with an annoyed look on her face. Rin, as Kakashi had called her, was about five foot six with shoulder length auburn hair and brown eyes; on each cheek was a purple stripe that slanted out. She looked expectantly at Kakashi, waiting it seemed for him to rise to the bait. Jiraiya could only smile and shake his head as he attempted to ignore the two and focus on Naruto. As Kakashi did nothing but glare at his companion, she grew bored and walked over to Naruto.

Kneeling down in front of Naruto, she placed a hand under his chin and lifted his face so that she could see it. Jiraiya and Kakashi immediately understood why he had refused to look at them; his eyes weren't their usual blue they were red and slitted - the eyes of the demon fox. Rin ignored this fact as she smiled at him and said, “I need you to do me a favor, the Kyuubi's chakra is still enhancing your eyes. In order to get them to change back to normal, I need you to try and relax.”

She paused for a moment and watched as Naruto took a deep breath and nodded stiffly. Rin nodded as well before continuing, “Okay, I need to close your eyes and concentrate; try to picture the back of your eyes and the chakra that's flowing to them. The red chakra is Kyuubi's. You need to try and push this chakra back to its source.”

Naruto relaxed and unclenched his fists as he attempted to do what this Rin person had told him to. After a few minutes, Naruto felt the chakra fade away from his eyes; slowly he looked at Rin. Seeing Naruto's clear blue eyes looking back at her Rin smiled, “Good job, your control is getting better.” At this sudden complement a still silent Naruto blinked several times.

Kakashi laughed at Naruto's stunned look, which caused the young Genin's attention to jump to his former sensei, which also caused the blond kitsune to notice Jiraiya kneeling next to him with a rather perverted grin and a light pink blush on his face. As Naruto followed Jiraiya's eyes, he noticed that he was looking straight down Rin's dress. Naruto turned back to Jiraiya and stared at him with annoyance; as Rin saw this, her smile slipped off and she quickly stood up. Jiraiya looked up when he realized his view had been hindered and his questioning gaze seemed to only infuriate Rin even more.

Kakashi slowly pulled Naruto away from the feuding shinobi, just in time it seemed, as Rin's eyebrow gave one final twitch before she smacked Jiraiya causing him to fall over. “You annoying old pervert, if you ever try something like that again I swear I'll do more than just smack you.” With that she stepped over him and towards the other two.

Naruto seemed to come out of his stupor enough to realize that he had no clue who this person was, but that she seemed to know him. “Excuse me,” he said in an uncharacteristically polite voice, “but who are you?”

Kakashi began laughing as Rin blinked twice before biting her lower lip and looking apologetically at Naruto. “Sorry about that. I'm Chiyu Rin.” she said, introducing herself. “I was Kakashi's teammate when we were Genin…well when I was a Genin he was already Chuunin.” The last part sounded a little bitter but he ignored her tone choosing to study Rin a bit as she walked back over to Jiraiya. She was wearing a dress with a black v-neck top and a white skirt. The skirt of the dress was short and slitted revealing black shorts underneath. She wore the standard ninja sandals with fishnets reaching up to her knees. Over the dress Rin wore a high collared sleeveless jacket that was clasped once in front, it was white with red flames trimming the bottom,

She smiled at him and then at the still prone Jiraiya; her grin got bigger. “Hey Naruto, you wanna help me get Kakashi and Jiraiya in trouble with Tsunade?”

He looked at her for a moment before asking, “How?”

Rin's grin grew larger as she leaned down and whispered, “Just do what I say.” She looked up at a curious Kakashi and then back to down to Naruto. Before anyone could do anything she had grabbed his hand and shouted, “Run”. Kakashi's eyes went wide as she took off with a grinning Naruto right behind her.

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Agent's Spiel: Like I said old fic. Yes I know Rin is probably dead in canon but she was a convenient character for the role I needed. And Naruto is fairly ooc at the beginning of this fic.

Jutsu Translations:

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu/ Shadow Clone Technique

Henge/ Transformation Technique

Kagemane No Jutsu/ Shadow Imitation Technique

Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu/ Water Type: Water Dragon Blast Technique