Disclaimer:
I don't own Naruto, the Naruto world, or the characters used (well maybe the
OCs in this fic, but bleh). I'm just using them for a profitless fun play,
while trying to make a fanfic story including some elements i'd very much love
to see in the original Naruto story (but most likely never will).
Spoiler warning! This fic will spoil everyone who is following the plot through
Naruto anime. Deviates from the original storyline around manga chapter 177,
which is still ages ahead the anime.
A/N: About the "kake kanji": I took some liberties with this... Since
Tsunade has only the "ka" from kake written on her back. It basically
means "gambling" in English anyways, a sort of charm that stays
always with her. Some of the characters might be bit OOC. It's somewhat of an
AU anyways. Also since the specifics behind some Jutsus haven't been defined as
canons, i just made up the theory part on my own.
Story warnings: Rated PG-13 for violence, blood, and character death.
It's not going to start with any of that, though, so everyone can just relax
for now... But this is the only warning.
Finally a greeting to everyone who finds their way here... This is the first
fanfiction chapter i've finished and sent anywhere. I'm working on a few other
Naruto stories too at the moment, in addition of chapter two to this one, so
lets see if they become ready enough to be posted someday. I will not be able
to update this story at a weekly rate.
---
Prelude:
The Sand and the Sound and the Leaf had their happenings, and Tsunade has
returned. Kakashi and Sasuke have been healed up. Naruto and Sasuke already
tried to solve their disagreements with the results well known. The Sound
hasn't sent any gate dudes or gals to the Leaf, but instead something far worse
has happened elsewhere...
---
"That kind of power... Damn you, Naruto..." Sasuke muttered to
himself while sitting on a tree branch, chewing his thumb nail, and wearing a
focused but clearly frustrated face. He had witnessed the power of Rasengan
firsthand just a moment ago, and proceeded to frown at his own incompetence.
Even Kakashi came to lecture him, but that was all forgotten by now. Sasuke is
driven forward like a mad bull. He really must get much more powerful, and
fast, to be able to face Uchiha Itachi still during this lifetime. He spat down
from the tree once, rose up, and lept off towards his house. From a nearby
rooftop Sakura watched after him with a very sad face. Naruto was heading for
some extended breakfast at the Ichiraku Ramen along with Jiraiya, who was
advising him against all kinds of misuses of his few Jutsus. Kakashi was
traveling the short distance to the Hokage office for his next mission. Little
did he know, that a surprise was already waiting for him when he arrived...
---
Genesis Dragon, chapter one: It's a Mission
---
Kakashi lands in front of the office building, and casts a tired glance at the
people in front of him. A closer look reveals two messengers wearing Leaf
headbands. They have apparently just arrived to the village and seem to be
demanding an audience with the Hokage. A medical Ninja is sizing up their
wounds, and two Chuunin officials query about the meaning of this whole thing.
"What is the matter here?" Kakashi asks. One of the messengers turns
his head to Kakashi, and is revealed to be Genma, the Special Jounin.
"Kakashi-san", he replies with a quick nod. Genma is wearing a
slightly torn and muddy Leaf Jounin outfit around his very slim body, with the
blonde, slightly muddy hair flowing to his cheeks from under the black bandana.
The usual pipe, which should be hanging from his young mouth, is oddly missing.
The Leaf headband is tied around his left arm. Also there are numerous injuries
around his body, judging from the loose bandaging covering parts of his arms,
legs, and torso. His companion seems to be in a similar shape. "Genma-san.
Is there a problem here?" he asks again.
"We have to report to Hokage-sama immediately... Even if there is a
mountain of paperwork to be done. Can you help us out here?" Genma is
obviously tired; He has big bags under his eyes, and his stance seems to hold
him up only barely. There is a short, but quiet pause, which everyone spends
speculating about this peculiar scenario and its possible outcomes.
"Sure." Kakashi then replies, and turns towards the Hokage office.
"Excuse me, but we need to report to Hokage-sama immediately", he
declares to the two Chuunin officials, flashing his trademark unimpressed,
uninterested face at a close range to intercept any counterarguments. He does
have an appointment with the Hokage anyways, so stopping them to follow
regulations and correct order has become that much harder already... In the
end, only a hasty, forced, slightly agreeing grunt accompanies the three when
Kakashi, Genma, and his mission partner start to walk up the ornamented stairs.
The unidentified Ninja limps visibly as they proceed through the busy hallways.
---
Tsunade is overloaded. There is just too much work to be done. She already has
been filling out forms and making decisions at a nerve-racking rate, but that
isn't even nearly enough to empty her wide desk of the giant piles of various
documents and files.
"Hokage-sama. Greetings." Genma begins and bows his head, as the
three Ninjas enter her stuffed office past the bodyguards outside. The room
smells strongly of old, stagnant paper. "I am Special Jounin Genma, and
this is my mission partner, Special Jounin Kawanaka. We have just returned to
Leaf only a few minutes ago. Have you been briefed already about our
work?" He then asks, carefully studying their new leader. She is sitting
behind the Third Hokage's office desk, wearing the usual green robe over a
white shirt -- With a quite low neckline, only barely covering her enormous
breasts. A cloth waistbelt is helping to hold the shirt in place. Her face has
graceful features, and the big round eyes are sharp to stay on top of
everything happening around her. The blonde hair is divided in two locks
running down her back, around the famous "kake" kanji. Finally in the
center of her forehead there is a diamond shaped mark. Genma wonders if her
little errand boys do anything but smile from morning to evening, while trying
to idle time in her office. The only thing ruining her rather overwhelming
looks are the big, dark bags under her eyes ... Inevitable tax from many a
night spent working restlessly for the village.
"Yes. Please report." is her reply with quick, but worn-out glances
at each of the entering Jounins, before proceeding to fill out another document.
"What a tired-looking bunch", Kakashi thinks to himself while rubbing
his chin at the back of the room, and studying the people before him.
Genma gives one more emotionless look over his shoulder at Kakashi, then turns
back slowly, breathing with a soft sigh, and begins, "Special Jounin
Genma, and Special Jounin Kawanaka are reporting. Scouting mission in the Sand
Country is successfully completed. Our job was to get information about
unstabilities in and around the country, and the Stone Country has been
identified as the main reason. After the Sand lost over a hundred of their
better Shinobi in the recent attack, the Stone Country Ninjas have begun
stirring revolts around the Sand Country's countryside, and also occupying
border areas with gradually increasing manpower." Tsunade's eyes flash for
a passing moment. Genma sighs once more, and looks like he is about to
collapse.
"Good work." Tsunade thanks the two Jounin, "You two are to get
some rest and treatment at the hospital immediately. I'll get the information
about your recovery and mission capability later." She beams a tired smile
at the two bandaged Ninjas, and sharpens her eye at their legs.
"With this, I can help, though." Tsunade says as she walks over and
kneels before Kawanaka, gathering Chakra to a visible glow around her hand. She
grabs his knee firmly, and a short gasp escapes from a visibly sweatting
Kawanaka. "That should mend the bone temporarily, and remove most of the
pain", she says and finishes the medical Jutsu. Genma and Kawanaka slowly
wobble out of the room, leaning to each other, with the latter one muttering a
quiet thank-you with his trembling jaw. Kakashi is still holding his chin after
the office door slams shut again, standing at the same spot in the back of the
room, and pondering the situation over.
Tsunade turns her attention to him, "Hello Kakashi. As you heard, there is
trouble in the Sand Country. Truthfully, I didn't believe at all when the three
Sand Nins came in a couple days ago in a much worse condition, saying this same
thing over and over again, and requesting our help to defend their country from
hostile invaders." She fixes her gaze at a corner of the room, and nibbles
the side of her robe. After a short silence she turns her face back towards
Kakashi again, and continues with a sunny smile, "I want you to begin
another mission. Forget the one I mentioned earlier."
---
An hour later Kakashi is searching for his Genins, thinking and pondering to
himself while jumping from roof to roof above the Konoha residential buildings.
He is still quite unassured of the decisions they came up with earlier, during
the briefing with the four other available Jounin and the Fifth Hokage. His
young soldiers had proven to be capable of surviving through the Chuunin test
alive, atleast, but taking them to a warzone might still very well be too much.
This mission has to be completed in any case, since ignoring the pleas of the
Sand Country might seriously tip the power balances of the five great Shinobi
nations off. The three brats all survived a confrontation with Orochimaru, and
later with the Sand Demon, though...
Jumping along rooftops deep in thought, Kakashi doesn't notice another shadow
creeping up on him and quickly passing by. Jiraiya stops him, and they both
land on a rooftop, just next to the Konoha hospital, the one with a totally
wrecked water tank sitting on top of it.
"I heard you are leaving for Sand Country." Jiraiya opens the
discussion, and glances at Kakashi from under his white eyebrows. Kakashi is
just quiet for a few seconds, staring at the faraway landscape opening up over
and around the village, and then asks, "Aa. Do you think it's too much for
the brats?" Jiraiya needs to ponder this over, too.
"Asuma is bringing his team along with him, and so is Gai... Atleast
everyone he can get to come along. They all think of it as a growing experience
for the kids; To be taken to the frontlines", Kakashi says, with maybe a
slightly disgusted voice, and sharpens his uncovered eye, "Truth is, I'm
really worried about them all." Jiraiya can only nod in agreement. The old
sage continues, "There's a danger of death in every mission, especially
these days." Jiraiya eyes the widely damaged village over. Orochimaru's
recent attack on the Leaf Village had left toppled and smashed buildings
everywhere, and killed far too many. "Their war experiences will show us
if the brats are ready to really help the village out. From the dozens of
Jounin and ANBU we had to complete our share of the A- and S-ranked missions,
only a handful are left. Fresh blood will have to rise up to take
responsibility. It's the only choise." Jiraiya concludes, and turns his
body slightly to glance at Kakashi, "Also it's completely possible that no
actual combat situations will occur."
Kakashi sighs behind his face mask. It's going to be a long and worry-ful trip.
"I'd better get the mission preparations started", he says quietly
from behind the dark blue face mask, and jumps off towards the village center.
Jiraiya is left standing on the roof with a very difficult look on his face.
---
Next morning -- The sun is shining, and the weather is fine. Naruto arrives at
the bridge where Team 7 always waits patiently for Kakashi to arrive, usually
for overextended perioids. He is carrying a backpack readied with supplies for
a mission outside the village, as Kakashi instructed him to do yesterday, and
finds Sakura already there waiting for everyone else. She is wearing similar
equipment over her usual clothing. Sasuke is nowhere to be seen, which is a
sort of surprise with his regular cool-ass idiot punctuality. The biggest
surprise of all is Kakashi himself, though, who is actually on time for once.
"Sakura-chan. Good morning. Want to wake me up? I'm seeing a dream of old
man Kakashi standing on the bridge on time..." He begins and mutters
something more to himself. Sakura would chop him in the head for being so rude,
if she and Inner Sakura weren't still so shocked about the very same thing.
Kakashi looks at him, "Hiya Naruto. No dreaming now, because we are leaving
for a very important mission right away. Lets go to meet the others. We'll have
some company for this mission." He stops leaning against the building just
across the bridge, and turns towards the village main road. Sakura looks
concerned, "Sensei, what about Sasuke-kun?" she asks. Kakashi glances
at her briefly without stopping, and says just, "We'll catch him before
leaving." Naruto is still wearing a curious, unreassured look, and asks,
"Company for the mission? Do we have to babysit the other teams too while
completing the mission?" Kakashi chuckles as a reply. After a short pause,
he continues with his uncovered eye smiling, "We are joining with a quite
big bunch for this mission. Just wait for now and listen closely in the
briefing." The two of them catch the hint of annoyed sarcasm, so Naruto
and Sakura just follow him quietly through the busy main road, and still
onwards to the village gates.
'Quite a big bunch' is a pretty good definition of the crowd waiting next to
the village gates. There are various Genins from other teams, several Jounins
and some people Naruto doesn't know, all waiting for something. "Hello
Kakashi." Asuma says to him when they arrive, and continues with a puzzled
face, "Where's Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi stares somewhere to the right of
him briefly, and says, "Well... He's around. I'll get him before we leave.
Lets begin the briefing if everyone else is here."
Jiraiya jumps in from somewhere and lands in the center of the group.
"Good day to you all." he begins. "Ahh! It's the Perv...",
Naruto was cut off by a sudden hit from Jiraiya's finger to his forehead, with
him asking, "Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" He turns his mad
I'll-kill-you-face into a bright laugh quite smoothly while turning back, to answer
the curious looks of the people gathered around, brushing the hair on the back
of his head with one hand, "Well well, lets not worry about that and begin
the briefing. Can I have your attention?" he asks. The Jounins move about
slightly, scanning the area, but the others just stay put. Naruto is observing
the people he doesn't know, and the ones he hasn't seen in a long time. Most of
the others are doing the same.
"I see there are questioning looks from quite many of you. We'll get to
the introductions in just a moment. Let me just say, that this mission is a
unique one in the history of the Leaf. For the first time ever there are Genins
attending a very dangerous A-ranked mission. More so, there are five of you
here, and one more to come." All the Genins start to give bewildered
looks. An A-ranked mission? "How troublesome." mutters Shikamaru.
Jiraiya continues before Naruto or someone starts shouting, "We expect and
need good results from all of you. Serve your village well, and you will be
rewarded. That's all about that. Lets hear who the Genin teams are, starting
from you, Asuma." he nods at Asuma.
"I am Sarutobi Asuma, a Leaf Jounin, and the instructor of these two
Genins and the Chuunin." Yamanaka Ino says her name aloud, searching
around for Sasuke with her eyes. Akimichi Choji says his name too, and Nara
Shikamaru ends the introduction of their team. Asuma nods at Kakashi, who says,
"Hatake Kakashi. Jounin instructor of three Genins." He nods to the
two Genins, and Haruno Sakura says her name to everyone present. Uzumaki Naruto
boasts his name out loudly and mentions being the future Hokage of the Leaf,
before being stopped violently by Sakura. "Uchiha Sasuke is the fourth
member of our team, who will be joining soon." Kakashi finishes. He nods
to Gai, who continues the round, "Maito Gai, a Jounin and in charge of a
Genin team. Two of our members could not attend to this mission..." He is
obviously getting teary-eyed from thinking about Lee and his injury, so Hyuga
Neji steps in, introducing himself calmly. Tenten couldn't make it either, for
reasons unstated. "Mitarashi Anko, a Leaf Jounin." Anko continues the
round. "Morino Ibiki, a Leaf Jounin." comes the answer from her left.
"Hagane Kotetsu, a Leaf Chuunin." continues the next person,
"Tonbo, a Leaf Chuunin." is the next one, and finally "Kamizuka
Izumo, a Leaf Chuunin." says the last person. Behind him are three more
cloaked figures, who aren't making any effort towards identifying themselves.
"Aha! Aha! You were the Chuunin thing examiner!" Naruto points at
Anko. "And you were too!" he points at Morino Ibiki, who looks mildly
amused first, and then chuckles lightly. "But these guys.. Hmm..."
Naruto ponders while looking at the three Chuunins, and the three more persons
wearing Sand headplates. First of the three Chuunins, who called himself
Kotetsu, is a spikeahead with bandages going over his nose, horizontally across
his face. The second one, who was Tonbo, is an even more bandaged guy with
bandages covering all of his hair and half of his face. The third one has a
dark blue hood over his head, and black hair covering his right eye. All of
them have the regular Leaf Chuunin outfits. The three sitting persons are all
wearing full body cloaks, hiding just about everything about them, but still
seemingly intentionally keeping their Sand village headplates in plain sight.
One of them is tall, probably taller than anyone else here when he stands up,
and the two others are at a head's height lower - Which doesn't look exactly
short either.
Izumo sighs, and explains to Naruto, "We all were watching you guys over
in the first test during that Chuunin Exam." The spikehead Kotetsu
continues, "Also we set up the extra Genjutsu test before that with this
Izumo here." They grin at each other. Naruto still doesn't look like he
would remember anything. He is standing in the center of the small group --
Hands crossed and wearing a face, which would implify deep thought in case of
anyone else but Naruto. In his case it's usually hunger. "We can further
discuss these matters while traveling. Our cue is here." Tonbo finishes
the discussion while looking at the village gates from behind his massive
bandaging, after which he turns to nod slightly towards Jiraiya.
Jiraiya clears his throat, and says, "It seems to be time to leave for the
mission. You will continue the introductions and explanations later." He
turns towards the gates with everyone gathering up their stuffs and following.
"Kakashi-sensei... Where's that lousy bum Sasuke?" Naruto asks.
Kakashi glances at Naruto, and says "Over there. Finally decided to come
in sight, eh?" while pointing ahead. Sasuke is standing in front of them,
looking extremely annoyed. The usual blue shirt has been changed to a lighter
black one, which otherwise looks pretty much same as the blue one. The shorts
and the sandals are the same he has wore on their every mission. "Bah...
Who's a lousy bum, you idiot?" Sasuke replies, and turns to the gathering
point without waiting for an answer. He can't face Naruto really well just now,
and only managed to say something fairly natural out of reflex, with his mind
working on several darker ideas. Mostly involving with ripping the mysterious
power out of Naruto and eating it himself.
"Sasuke-kun ..." Sakura says, but doesn't get any kind of reply from
Sasuke.
---
Few hours later the whole band is running through the forests of the Fire
Country, jumping from branch to branch at a relatively high speed.
They had met up with some Leaf scouts at the Konohagakure village gates and
then left for their undetermined mission destination. Jiraiya started to
explain some more stuff, aimed mostly at the unexperienced Genins, when
everyone checked over their supplies once more, "There's still a lot left
unclear about this mission. For now, you all are to mentally prepare for real
war, where people kill and get killed. All you Leaf units are very powerful and
able in combat, which alone can drive even a strong enemy away. It might just
as well be, that they will attack you without notice, trying to kill you. Be
very careful while traveling, and keep your eyes open at all times. After you
cross the border, it all is to be regarded as hostile enemy territory. The
Genins who haven't been filled in on the situation can ask their Jounin
instructors for the details. That's all. Take care, and return safely."
Naruto and Sakura are running next to Kakashi, and Sasuke seems to be somewhere
ahead and above them. He still has troubles containing himself in front of
Naruto. Sakura jumps from yet another branch and asks from Kakashi, "Can
you explain what this all is about to us?" Kakashi ponders for a moment,
and answers, "It's war." He lands to a branch, and takes a look at
the reactions of Naruto and Sakura while jumping on, "The Sand attacked us
with their best force, and they were driven away. Their overall strength has
decreased so much, that Stone Country decided to attack them instead. Now Stone
Nins are all over the Sand Country, the countryside is revolting and at this
rate it's only a question of time before the cities fall from inside. The Sand
citizens' pride and trust towards their leaders also took a serious blow after
it was revealed, that Orochimaru had completely tricked them into a full-scale
war with us."
Naruto caught some of it, and Sakura is pondering the information over.
"Sensei, where do we fit in the picture? If the country is already falling
on its own..." She asks.
"We are attending a small assumed battle at the north border of Sand
Country, where a certain bridge will most likely be the center of action. The
Sand Nins will take care of the Stone units inside the Sand Country, their
leaders will try to convince the people, and we will stop the possible supply
chain of the Stone Country army. That is, if they really are doing a
large-scale attack. Otherwise we will just guard the bridge and the surrounding
area for a month or so." Kakashi replies. They jump from branch to branch
again, slowly making their way towards the west border of Fire Country. Kakashi
glances over his shoulder at Naruto and Sakura, and says, "Be prepared,
and respect the power of your opponents. Stone Country isn't famous for any
great legendary Jounins like the Fire Country is, but that doesn't mean we are
safe at all. More so, since we aren't really fighting with the rest Leafs in a single
big group, but work towards our given objectives with only the four of
us."
---
When the sun went down after several more hours of traveling, they stopped and
built up a camp for the night. Dark forest opens up to every direction, nothing
else is visible. Wind brushes against the tree leaves, birds have quieted down
already. An occasional small animal runs away from the scary band.
"Hey you sensei, if we are going to war, you have to teach me a new super
Jutsu!" Naruto begins bugging Kakashi. Quite a many eyebrows, including
Kakashi's, are raised at Naruto. Shikamaru chuckles, sitting on a rock,
breathing heavily, "I can't believe you would do Jutsu training on top of
this." Sakura just sighs very loudly and lumps into her sleeping bag,
falling asleep immediately. Sasuke crushes a small stick in his hand while
looking at Naruto, sitting high up on a tree at the side of their camp. Ino is
just panting on her sleeping bag, and everyone else is settling down and eating
up their rations around the small camp. Some of the Jounins and Chuunins are on
watch duty. Gai and Ibiki both jump off to the trees to join the watch. Choji
and Neji are bringing firewood to Anko and Tonbo, who manage to start up a
campfire with a small fire Jutsu. Anko turns towards Naruto and says,
"Well well, what do we have here... Do you want to go run a few extra
miles for me?" while walking over to Naruto. He crosses his arms, has a
usual weird Naruto-face, and is probably trying to come up with a decent
retort. Kakashi can't help but to smile, "Don't worry Anko, he's a stamina
freak. A little training shouldn't stop him from getting up in the
morning." He still casts a curious eye at Naruto, though.
It seems like quite a many of the people in the camp would like to say
something, but they can't think of a nice enough way to say it.
Kakashi then raises his finger and places it in front of Naruto's face.
"Concentrate. I will show this only once." He makes five seals
slowly, and says, "Fuuton." aloud. Naruto memorizes the seals quickly.
"Try doing those, and tell me how it goes." Naruto has a look of
suspicion written on his face, "Hey hey hey, that Fuuton doesn't look like
a too spectacular Jutsu to me!" Anko sighs. The spikehead Kotetsu has a
curious look on his face, and he asks, "You are teaching something like
that to a Genin? I don't think he has enough Chakra..."
Naruto had finished the seals, and a strong burst of Chakra out of his body was
clearly evident to everyone nearby. "...Uh." Kotetsu grunts with a
slightly surprised face after seeing this. Two completely white eyes are
staring intently at Naruto and his efforts from the other end of the camp. He
is turning his head around, looking in every direction. After the Chakra burst
it all became very quiet again, so Naruto asks, "What the heck is this
Fuuton? Is it maybe the Nothing no Jutsu?"
No one laughed at his joke, and all the Jounins present are wearing a grave
look. Kakashi finally says, "Those are the initial seals for Wind
Elemental Jutsus. Your Chakra comes out quite... nicely... when executing them,
but try to focus it more around your body, and then finally try to keep it all
inside your skin, or embraced in your arms . If you let the Chakra get wasted
like that, it won't do any good." Anko's eyes flash at the word 'nicely'.
What a Chakra burst that was. It's already amazing to find something like that
from Genin or Chuunin level, but he did it after a day of running through the
forest, using Chakra constantly to keep him from slipping down the trees and
fixing his jump lengths. Or maybe he can jump through the forests at that speed
without using Chakra? That can't be anyhow possible. Could he just casually
extract power from the Ninetails all the time? That should have very serious
side effects. She decided that it's best to just go to sleep now.
A cold chill runs down her spine, as another Chakra burst explodes behind Anko.
Naruto grins to himself. He already has the super Rasengan, which only his team
knows about, and now he can master another cool Jutsu. "Hey hey,
Kakashi-sensei... Tell me... I feel a strong Chakra coming out, but what kind
of Jutsu is it?" He asks, and receives just a calm stare back at him.
Finally Kakashi says, "It can turn into quite a lot of different
techniques, once you master the initiation part", comes the reply. Naruto
obviously didn't figure out what he meant. Kakashi sighs. "Do you remember
when we were on our way to the Wave Country, and I did the Water Dragon Blast;
Suiton, Suiryuudan no Jutsu?" Naruto looks at him blankly for a while,
then a imaginary light bulb blinks repeatedly above his head. "Aaa! I do,
I do! That was a very cool move!", he grins and smiles at the same time,
which becomes something that is neither. Next he makes a serious face again,
"Then, what does this Fuuton thingy turn into?" Kakashi is silent,
looking calculatively at Naruto. Slowly realization reaches Naruto's facial
features, and he starts to grin and shout wildly, hopping about and hugging his
Kakashi-sensei, who would rather not be hugged. Then he turns back to training
with a very serious look. Almost everyone else has already went to sleep.
Naruto finishes the seals for the third time, and Chakra flows freely out of
his body, causing strong nausea from overexhaustion. Kakashi chuckles to Anko,
"That'll keep him off my back for now." She didn't get the sarcasm.
Anko is still thinking that Naruto will just dry himself out with a higher
Jounin level Jutsu, and die before the morning rises. What the heck is Kakashi
thinking? Even if the kid survives, does he realize that they are about to
enter a battle zone? Never mind wasting Chakra by loosing it out during the
Jutsu, what about saving some energy for the actual fighting...
From high above, two Sharingan eyes were following intently everything that
happened down below.
---
Chapter one / END