A strange new life. [Naruto]

"Go on a mission." Naruto held Gama-chan, shook his deflated wallet, hoping a coin had gotten stuck inside and survived the Ero-sennin. None did. "It will be fun."

The Ero-sennin walked up ahead, without a care in the world. Not a thought spared to Naruto's murdered wallet.

Naruto stomped the ground. Yelled. "Where the hell is this granny?"

"Ehh, I heard from that nice lady back in town that Tsunade is in the next city over."

Naruto eyed the perverted frog guy with distrust. It wasn't the first or second time the Ero-sennin had said that.

"Wasn't you going to teach me a jutsu stronger than Chidori?"

If Naruto's voice had a bit of whining, he couldn't be blamed for that. That had been the whole reason he agreed to travel with the old sannin in the first place.

"Alright," Jiraiya said.

Naruto squinted his eyes. "Really?"

The frog sannin nodded.

"Then hurry up and teach me something!"

Jiraiya smiled. "Now, don't be impatient. It would be pointless to just train without collecting intelligence on Tsunade at the same time."

Naruto narrowed his eyes again. Wasn't this the same line the Ero-sennin used in the past three towns as an excuse to spend all night drinking?

---

"Focus, focus."

Naruto repeated the mantra, imagining the chakra moving toward the drawing in his palm. He wasn't alone; there were a few others him trying the same. He hadn't forgotten Hinata's advice. Her face popped on his head; a smile appeared on Naruto's face.

Would Hinata try to learn this jutsu from him as well?

"Focus, focus." One of the nearby clones said.

Naruto focused harder, thoughts of the semi-mute girl and her cupcakes reluctantly pushed aside. The chakra moved like a whirlwind, gathering on the palm of his hand at the leaf's symbol he had drawn there.

"Now!"

With one last push, the chakra moved, and the rubber ball exploded. It created a small crater on the ground. Naruto flew away at the impact, fell a dozen meters away.

"I did it!" He muttered, looking at his burned palm.

"Looks like you've mastered the second stage," Ero-sennin said.

When had the old lecher arrived?

"…Of course I did. Let's do the third stage now." Naruto said, then he closed his eyes. Just for a bit. He was exhausted.

---

"…" Naruto looked at the balloon the Ero-sennin had tossed his way, not believing his eyes. "Isn't this just a normal balloon?"

"First stage was rotation," Ero-sennin said, raising one finger. "Second was power." He took another empty balloon from his pocket, filled it, then held it in his hand. "And this is the third step."

Naruto looked at the balloon. It was just a regular balloon. Nothing was happening.

"You're messing with me? Nothing is happening!"

Jiraiya laughed. "It might seem like that to you, but let me show you."

He raised his other hand, and a tight coiled ball of swirling chakra appeared there.

"Like a mini cyclone. Isn't it beautiful?" Ero-sennin asked.

Naruto looked at the unmoving balloon. His voice wavered. "…The one in your right hand, is the same thing happening there?"

"Yes," Ero-sennin said. "You have to take everything you learned and contain it."

---

"Not interested," The young-looking Obaa-san said.

They had finally found the old lady, but she looked like a young woman. Had the Ero-sennin mistaken this pretty young lady for the granny they've been looking for? It was a sort of open bar or restaurant, where half walls separated the tables between the customers.

Together with the young Obaa-san, there was another woman and a piglet. A spread of skewers and drinks on the table between them.

"The title of Hokage is a joke. Only an idiot would want it."

Naruto acted before his brain could process things. He was on top of the table, trying to punch her drunk face off, but a hand held him by the scruff of his neck.

"Lemme go!"

"Calm down, Naruto, this is a bar."

"I won't let her just stand there and insult the Old Man or the Fourth Hokage!"

Naruto clenched his fists. Glared.

"I don't care if you are an old lady or not; I'm gonna hit you!"

Tsunade got up, leaned in, her face closer to Naruto. "Outside, brat." She taunted.

---

Naruto tried to disentangle himself from the crater on the ground. He had tried to hit her with a Rasengan. It hadn't worked the way he wanted. He shivered. That young lady created this huge crater with a single finger. She was scarier than Ino and Sakura when angry!

"You taught him that?" Tsunade said, looking at the Ero-sennin.

Jiraiya nodded.

"Why?" Tsunade asked. "There's no way he'd master that jutsu. Isn't it cruel teaching him a jutsu he has no hope of mastering?" The young Obaa-san looked at Naruto.

"That's how dreamy-eyed brats get duped into the whole "I'll be the Hokage" farce."

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled. "It's not a farce!" There was a moment of silence. "Three days, and I'll have that jutsu mastered."

Tsunade smirked. "You're all bark, brat. But a man doesn't break his words."

Naruto glared back. "I never go back on my word. That's my shinobi way."

"I'll give you a week then," Tsunade said.

"A week?"

"If you master the jutsu, I'll give you this necklace," Oba-san said, showing the pretty green necklace tied to her neck. "If you don't, this is mine." She threw Gama-chan up, caught it.

The pleasant jingling of coins was a stab in Naruto's heart. When had the granny taken his wallet?

---

It was the fourth day since the bet, and Naruto wasn't sure if he could do it. It didn't seem enough even with Hinata-chan's secret training method. He couldn't compress the chakra enough until it stayed inside the balloon. Was there a secret to this no one told him? Was that why the Obaa-san waged the bad luck necklace?

Naruto thought back on the thing. It looked silly, a green piece of stone, but he thought Hinata-chan might like it as a gift. He felt his face burning, remembering his first and best friend. He had never forgotten that first academy day when she sat with him and offered him food, while all the other kids did their best to avoid him.

"Yosha!" Naruto yelled. He wouldn't go back on his word. He would win this stupid bet, win the silly necklace and gift it to Hinata.

Maybe she'd pinch his cheeks again? A silly smile crept on his face. That one time Hinata's clones crowd-piled him just after they returned from Wave came to mind. It's a shame she never did it again.

"Are you Naruto?"

The voice was young, a boy. Naruto turned and looked at the newcomer.

It was a teen dressed in a strange black cloak with red clouds on it. He had white hair and two red dots on the forehead near the eyes. But what caught Naruto's attention was the eyes. One was a vivid green, the other pure white.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked.

"I'm Kimimaro," the boy said.

There was a moment of silence before he raised a hand to his shoulder, parting his cloak to reveal bare skin beneath. He pulled a sword-like bone from inside his body.

"You'll come with me."

---

Naruto flooded the clearing with clones and swarmed the enemy.

Kimimaro spun faster than Naruto expected. Bones protruded from the joints of his elbows and knees, from his chest and back. Attacks were deflected, dodged, or simply ignored. More often than not, Kimimaro moved in a way that made Naruto's clones impale themselves in the bones.

Naruto moved around until he was at the enemy's back. He threw shuriken when an opportunity arose.

Without turning, Kimimaro deflected the thrown weapons.

How? Did that guy have eyes in the back of his head or something?

"You're weak," Kimimaro said.

He killed a dozen of the clones in a sweeping, fast strike. More swarmed, but it wasn't enough. The guy was faster than Hinata-chan even when she went all out, better at taijutsu than Bushy Brows and Sasuke combined. The clones couldn't touch him, and in the rare moments they did, they ended up impaling themselves in the bones.

In the distance, a quake hit the whole city. Naruto's attention tore away from the bone-guy and toward the commotion: Giant waves crashed through the houses, sweeping the place in destruction.

Pain exploded on Naruto's side.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off the enemy," Kimimaro said.

Naruto looked at the white-haired boy who didn't look that older than some other chunin in the village. Kimimaro held the bone sword, the pointy end piercing Naruto's side.

Rage bubbled inside Naruto's gut. In the back of his mind, he heard the damned fox chuckling. Chakra spilled forward. Naruto pushed the sword away. The puncture wound regenerated in but a moment.

"Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked, teeth gritted.

"Telling you is a waste of time," Kimimaro said.

Naruto's hand flashed with a seal. He flooded the jutsu with the Kyuubi's chakra. He covered the whole clearing with even more clones.

"I'm gonna beat you up!" Naruto hollered.

His clones swarmed the enemy again, trying for the same strategy that worked against Gaara while he was half-transformed into the one tail. Meanwhile, Naruto concentrated on his hand, trying to form a complete Rasengan.

Naruto just realized that… he had no other jutsu to help him in this situation.

Hinata-chan had her explosions and doton jutsu, as well as her body flicker and barriers. Sasuke had his family fire and Chidori; he could copy the enemy's movements with his Sharingan and use shinobi tools better than anyone Naruto had seen.

Naruto, on the other hand, had no other jutsu other than shadow clones.

"Naruto! We got your message." A woman's voice called out.

He followed the voice. It wasn't just one woman. It was the young-looking Obaa-san and her companion. The one who called out was Shizune, the pretty black-haired one. The words registered in Naruto's mind. What message?

Shizune was fast. She pointed her arm toward Kimimaro and did something Naruto couldn't see.

Kimimaro reacted even faster than before. His bone sword spun, and Naruto heard clinking sounds—like metal hitting metal. Then Kimimaro pointed his hand toward Shizune. No, not his hands, his fingers.

With a wet popping sound, a small white something flew from his fingertips. Shizune threw herself out of the way. The projectiles hit the earth behind her, creating a small hole.

Out in the distance, the other battle still raged on. The sounds and impacts doing a good job of telling Naruto he had no business whatsoever with whoever was causing that much ruckus.

Tsunade, who had been mostly quiet, dashed in, waving between Naruto's clones. She punched down. The ground broke into a vast crater. Most of the copies got caught up in the ensuing devastation and dispersed.

"You punk, you're too young to be this cocky," She said.

"You are Tsunade," Kimimaro said from where he had fled. "Orochimaru told me how to deal with you."

Orochimaru? Who was that? Naruto had heard that name before.

"You're working with that snake?" Shizune demanded.

Tsunade moved in again, ready to attack once more. This time, Kimimaro didn't evade; he punctured his hands with a bone and splashed blood all over Tsunade.

The young Obaa-san stopped, staring at her bloody hands. She started to shiver like she was lost in her mind.

Kimimaro advanced on the now frozen young-old lady.

"Tsunade!" Shizune yelled, but she was too far away to help.

Naruto wasn't, or his clones weren't. In that one moment of clarity, he knew what he had to do. His problem was that he couldn't control his chakra. One of him wasn't enough to contain it. But hadn't Hinata-chan taught him better? His copies were more than just copies.

Clones rushed Kimimaro, getting in his way and preventing him from approaching the obaa-chan.

Meanwhile, Naruto built the power and rotation while a second clone contained it. Once it was done, a third clone grabbed Naruto's other hand, spun, and threw the original at Kimimaro, who was still fending off clone waves.

Kimimaro spun toward Naruto. His arm morphed into a large bone structure-like shield. The Rasengan hit the bone, bone cracked, but that gave Kimimaro time to move and throw Naruto away from him.

Naruto fell, hand first. His complete Rasengan hit the ground, created another huge crater.

"Time's up, Kimimaro." Another voice said. Naruto cast a glance. It was a guy that looked a lot like a shark. He even had gills and a tail, like a shark. The guy was also banged up pretty badly. Blood poured out of his mouth; pieces of flesh were missing from his arms and chest.

"The Frog Sannin will be here any second."

"Annoying," Kimimaro said.

Dark lines spread from his neck until it covered most of his face and shoulder. He placed his hands on the ground, and a forest of bones sprouted around Naruto. The bones looked wicked sharp and dangerous.

Naruto heard an agonized yell. Shizune or Obaa-chan, he couldn't tell.

Kimimaro walked from between the bones. "You're coming with—"

Between one moment and another, Ero-sennin was in front of Naruto. He looked different, with two tiny frogs on his shoulders.

"No, he's not," He said.

Kimimaro looked around, then, as if he had heard someone say something, nodded and retreated back inside the bones.

Jiraiya turned toward Naruto. The man didn't look like he had just fought a battle that wreaked the whole city.

"I'm sorry it took me so long, Naruto."

Naruto looked in stunned silence for a while, then he yelled. "The obaa-chan!"

"Shit!" Jiraiya whirled, dashed inside the forest of deadly bones.

---

As it turned out, the forest of bones wasn't something that affected only the area where Naruto was. Half of the already destroyed city had been caught in the attack. Many had died.

Shizune and Tsunade hadn't come out unscathed as well.

Somehow, the Obaa-san had managed to stay alive even with a bone piercing her stomach and out her back. Right now, she was healing Shizune. The woman looked dead on her feet, and now, old; really old, like an old wrinkly hag.

Jiraiya approached, carrying Tonton, Shizune's pink pet pig.

"I'm sorry Tsunade," He said, placed the dead piglet by the Obaa-chan side.

"Shizune is going to live," Tsunade said, her wrinkling voice sounding weak. She got up with difficulty and walked to the dead piglet. With gentle movements, she picked it up and hugged it.

"Take her back to Konoha," Obaa-chan said. She turned away and started walking.

"Where are you going?" Jiraiya asked.

"Don't try to find me again," Tsunade answered without looking back.

Naruto looked at the scene, feeling conflicted. He didn't have a good impression of the old lady, but this felt bad on a whole new level. He didn't even have the courage to demand the necklace, even if he had won the bet.

---

Danzo traversed the corridors of his headquarters. The disruption of his activities in the Land of Waves was unfortunate, but any recruit from there probably wouldn't be ready in time. He would need to reinforce and ensure the other fronts of his operations weren't exposed now that more scrutiny was directed his way.

He crossed a door and, from the railing, looked at the training soldiers.

Some still needed work, but they'd fall in line sooner or later. Danzo had been in the business of making the perfect soldiers for years. By now, his process was the closest someone could come to perfection.

A shinobi covered in a dark cloak and deformed animal mask flickered behind Danzo. His operative knelt with one knee on the ground.

"Hinata's location was found. She arrived in Konoha."

Danzo didn't take his eyes off the new batch of recruits. Among those, he was particularly interested in the mist generator. The suppressive abilities of her bloodlimit had interesting applications if others could replicate it.

"Your orders?" His operator asked.

"What about the information from the Laboratory?"

"Our team is still unable to break the seal."

"Why?" Danzo asked.

"Uncertain. The seals are linked to a chakra signature we can't replicate."

"What is the status of the Iwagakure cell?" Danzo asked.

The operator's answer was immediate.

"We are ready. The decoy squad has been assembled and outfitted. We're waiting only for your orders."

"And Kumogakure?"

"Preparations are slower than expected. One of your cells was wiped out by the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, and effort had to be redirected to cover the fallout."

"They suspect our involvement?" Danzo asked.

"No, the cell in question was posing as a Konoha infiltration team; it cannot be traced back to us."

Danzo nodded. He'd have to move other resources to shore up the front on that side. Losing that cell also served to add even more pressure on Konohagakure.

"Your orders for the girl?" The operator asked.

Capturing the clone had its benefits, but now that she had returned to Konoha, Danzo had other means of keeping her from escaping. He made a mental note to send new orders to his agent in Konoha.

"Leave her be for now."

Danzo turned from the conditioning arena, walked deeper into the complex. The operator followed. Among his recruits were some that were worth cultivating the bloodlimit. Settling down his agents as Konoha's citizens would be a good solution. New blood to fertilize the soil the tree grew upon.

"As you command."

Danzo had to admit he underestimated the girl's capabilities. Nowhere in the information he possessed were there details about her learning a version of Thunder Flying God or creating explosions without seal paper. The countermeasures designed to contain her were wholly inadequate. But now that she returned to Konoha, her fate was set.

It was only a matter of time now.

"What about the Nine-tails jinchuriki?" Danzo asked.

"A squad from Akatsuki is moving to intercept him."

That would need his intervention, but he didn't say anything for now. Danzo couldn't allow the nine-tails to fall in someone else's hand, not after all the preparation he'd done to control it. However, those orders would need to wait until the interloper had left.

"Initiate the next phase of the operation," Danzo ordered.

"As you command," the operator said, then disappeared.

Danzo walked alone, but not for long.

"You failed," the newcomer said.

Danzo looked at the intruder. Dressed in their particular black robes, flytrap protruding from beneath, the black and white face. The same as the clone had described when she was five years old. How?

"She's where I want her to be." He said.

"You failed," the voice repeated, tone mocking.

Danzo didn't answer. There would come a time when he'd rid the world of the abomination. That little band of criminals had their use, but they were fast approaching the end of their usefulness.

"It's only a matter of time before I have her," Danzo said.

"How did a mere child thwart your plans?" The creature taunted.

Danzo didn't deign to answer that. His weren't the only plans thwarted.

"Your master must be so proud," Danzo said, putting as much scorn he could in his voice. "I'll have her in due time."

"And here I thought you were Konoha's greatest spymaster… tricked by a child?" The interloper said before it disappeared inside the earth again.

Danzo had long pondered how the girl had learned of his plans regarding Shisui. It shouldn't have been possible, but it happened. While the pretense that he was obsessed with the clone was helpful in distracting his "allies," his concerns were other.

But now, years later, he needed to thank her for her intervention. It left him free to achieve his true goal. Danzo had failed to acquire Kotoamatsukami before, but soon, it would be his.

Shisui and the Uchiha clan had their fates sealed when the boy accepted the Hokage position. The optimal result would have been that wastrel of a woman taking the position herself, but this was a minor setback at most.

Danzo had years to prepare the field for his victory. Leaked information, spread rumors that built paranoia and mistrust. Shisui's allies would never feel safe, not when the new Hokage had their mind at his beck and call.

It didn't matter that Shisui wasn't one to abuse his eyes. If he did, it would only validate the rumors Danzo's agents spread: The new Hokage couldn't be trusted. If Shisui tried to fight back without evidence, it would look like attacking the respected council of elders without reason. If he didn't, Danzo's influence would only grow until he was ready to make his move.

Best of all, if Shisui gave up on the position, Danzo could move in, muster the village's support, and deal with the Uchiha once and for all.

For now, all that remained was to stoke the flames of war, to let Konoha burn just enough to realize they needed him.

Danzo wouldn't deny that Shisui and the Uchiha clan were formidable, but there wasn't much they could do surrounded on all sides by years of his influence and blackmail.

When war finally erupted, and the Hokage failed to protect Konoha, Danzo would return to claim what was always his. And if everything else failed?

Sometimes, you must burn the old and rotten to grow a new, stronger forest.

As long as Danzo was alive, Konoha's roots would grow stronger, even if he had to start from the beginning again. And once he was there, his real goals could truly begin.

A world of peace and prosperity united under a single goal. United under his guidance.

---

"..."

"..."

"Orochimaru is dead."

"..."

"The Three-Tails was killed."

"That will delay some of our plans."

"..."

"We still need time. Pain must recover."

"Orochimaru's task?"

"..."

"Partially successful."

"Make preparations. We start when the Three-Tails reforms."

"Understood."

"..."

"Kukukuku."

---