Act II: Chapter 5

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"How is he?"

The weight on my limbs felt light compared to the uselessness I felt when I thought about my teammates. I was standing in front of Tsunade and Hiruzen. She was at her desk, as was normal. The former kage was looking out of the same window he always did whenever I visited the Hokage tower.

"Which one?" I asked, although I knew who they wanted information on. But the truth of the matter was that all of my teammates, barring Guy, were not at 100%. I couldn't help but allow the sigh that was building in my chest to leave. "Lee is down on himself because no matter what he does, we run into genjutsu users. He activated his coils too late, and because of that he is not in touch with his chakra enough to use it, let alone feel someone else's in his body."

"You must believe in him, Naruto. He will find a way." Hiruzen told me, indulging me for a moment. He didn't want to hear about Lee any more than Tsunade did, but he was a very patient man. He cared for all of his shinobi. Tsunade stared at me, waiting for me to answer her original question.

"Sasuke is worse." I finally revealed, talking about the last Uchiha in the village. "I went to his compound last night. We wear his body and chakra down everyday, it's not enough for him. He goes home and heals himself with chakra he doesn't have." I revealed. I was essentially telling them that he was using the curse mark because of his low reserves. We all knew what that would lead to.

"He is allowing Orochimaru influence, every time he draws upon that chakra." Hiruzen pointed out the obvious.

'Well none of us know what it's like to have a part of the snake's soul tattooed on us, so it might have influence regardless of if he uses the chakra or not.'

That was something I was not allowed to reveal. I might be one of three people in the world with intimate knowledge of what the curse mark really was. Everyone else was just guessing. It was probably why they never could remove the mark. There were aspects of the seal that were so esoteric it must have taken Orochimaru years to find even small hints that what he wanted to do was possible. If I had to guess, I would say he was more familiar with Uzushiogakure than anyone alive. I doubted there was anywhere else that had the knowledge of fuinjutsu and the soul.

"He was fine two weeks ago, before that mission!" Tsunade exclaimed in a rage, as she slammed her hand down on the desk beneath her. I expected it to splinter into pieces, but she controlled her chakra.

"It was a reminder that he is not capable of matching his brother." The Sandaime said. It was as if he was working through the problem as well.

"No one should be compared to Itachi." I commented, mostly out of habit rather than anything.

"Did you ever meet him, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked, curiously. He was wondering why I thought so highly of Itachi's skills.

"I saw him pick Sasuke up a couple of times at the academy, that's it." I answered, truthfully. Well at least as far as these two were concerned it was the truth. I would do my best to take my otherworldly knowledge to the grave.

"Well prodigy doesn't quite encapsulate his genius. Kakashi was a prodigy but lacked the mental strength until recently to truly excel in this world. At 7 years of age, Itachi had such intuitive knowledge of chakra that I could only compare to the Shodai. On top of that he was wiser than most 4 times his age…" Hiruzen rambled, until Tsunade's head twitched in his direction. There was a subtle pulse of her chakra that almost felt like a warning towards the old man.

'He forgot that Itachi is a traitor, and I am supposed to view him as such.'

"...It is a shame that the pressure of this world broke him." Hiruzen finished, saving his rambling with the condemnation at the end of his sentence.

"This world has a tendency to do that." The words slipped from my mouth before I could really comprehend what I was saying. I never took into account who sat across from me. Tsunade was one of the broken souls, regardless of her strength or current presence in the village.

She didn't react, but there was a silence in the office for a moment. I could feel the mood slowly lowering into something resembling depression, and decided to remedy that.

"While I have the two of you here…" I said as I walked forward and touched my hand to the metal band on my left wrist.

A chakra signature that had been lingering near the roof of the Hokage's office flared, and I felt their presence rapidly close the distance towards me. It was about the same speed that Guy was using to train my team and myself at the moment.

My own chakra reacted as I saw the glint of metal in the ANBU's hand.

'Clang'

My black katana was in my left hand, reverse style, and currently locked with a silver bladed ninjato. Time seemed to pause as my opponent didn't continue their assault. They wanted to stop me from doing whatever it was I was about to do. I couldn't help but realize that it was the exact same Anbu that had held a kunai to my throat the time I came back from Wave.

"For goodness sake Bird, he's fine." Tsunade called out towards the ANBU. They immediately disengaged, and a moment later my attacker was back into their position in the rafters above me.

In a moment of pettiness, I turned and stared at their position menacingly. It was a message and it went a little something like this.

'Fuck you.'

The Sandaime chuckled in response, as he knew exactly what was going on in the Hokage's office. "You have grown Naruto." He commented between his chuckles, that sent smoke curling from his lips to the ceiling of his office.

The katana in my hand disappeared back into the seal on my right wrist. Then I did the exact same motion as before and touched the metal band on my left wrist. With a small application of chakra, and no more interruptions from the ANBU above us, a massive sealing scroll appeared. It was black with gold accents and one of my most prized possessions.

"As I was saying. In the event of my death, the village will need access to the contents of this scroll. I have already keyed Guy-sensei's chakra to the metal band here…" I said as I pointed to my left wrist. "...and the scroll here. I would like the both of you to have access to it as well, in the event of his death."

I approached the Hokage's desk and began to unfurl the scroll in front of them. Already, I could see the fuinjutsu lines required for the metal bands on my wrists on one corner of the scroll. Beside those was the matrix for the shield that I had only named yesterday. 'Red Shield of Heaven' could be read directly underneath that matrix. Towards the center of the scroll, diagrams of my armor and the fuinjutsu on them were drawn as well.

Off on the side, was a diagram of multiple parts of my body. Everything by my left arm was blank as I had yet to get to that. But my left arm had lines of fuinjutsu covering the entire thing. It was still in the beginning stages of its creation and if one looked closely they could see smudges from previous renditions of it already.

Nobody but those keyed into the scroll would ever be able to see the lines of fuinjutsu. The inhabitants of the room wouldn't be able to see anything but a blank scroll.

"I am honored, Naruto." The Sandaime said as his hand touched above his heart on his chest. He moved away from the window, and towards the desk.

"As am I, Naruto." Tsunade teased with a wink.

I smiled at them both and pointed to a single line of fuinjutsu near the top of the page.

"Just apply your chakra right here, and that will do the rest."

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Lee stood across from me panting in the same manner that I was. We both stood in the Strong Fist stance and we had just gotten done engaging in a particularly brutal bout of taijutsu only.

Neither of us had weights on our forms, so we were moving at our highest speeds. I was only able to keep up with the taijutsu freak because of how proficient I was becoming with enhancing my body with chakra. Lee's abilities were just pure strength, and that was terrifying.

"Lee, first gate. Naruto, everything is allowed."

'What?!'

I balked as I felt something in Lee shift. I quickly summoned two clones beside me with their katanas in their hands. I summoned my own blade and prepared myself for Lee. That was about the time when green chakra surrounded Lee's form and his skin turned slightly red.

My clones rocketed towards him, trying to win the spar before Lee could get used to the first gate. I was proud that I could at least perceive Lee move and dismantle my clones with his bare hands. But it didn't help my pride when he crossed the distance between the two of us and deflected my slash with the palm of his hand before landing a strike on my jaw.

I was pushed backwards and into the air from the force of his hit. I quickly located a clone in the forest to my right that I always kept there in case of emergencies and used the replacement technique on him. I landed with my feet on a tree limb just as I felt the memories of my clone getting kicked in the back and being dispelled.

Lee stood in the middle of the training grounds looking around for me. I didn't waste any time and blurred through seven hand seals before taking an inhumane amount of breath into my lungs. My left hand leapt to my mouth.

'Sensei said everything is allowed.'

'Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bomb.'

I wanted so badly to yell the technique to the heavens, but the reality of the shinobi world was that silence was key so I held the name in. But I released the fire ninjutsu without remorse directly towards my teammate. He would most likely dodge it, or sensei would intervene if he didn't.

A massive gout of fire with the face of a dragon rocketed towards Lee. If one were paying attention, they could see the branches that were in its path get burnt to a crisp immediately. I was so proud of the fact that I could use this B-rank fire ninjutsu. It was one of the favorites of the Sandaime, and I knew there was a reason he left the scroll for it sitting on my kitchen counter one night.

The jutsu hit the ground as Lee moved out of the way, and I let it explode while ending the technique. If it was an enemy shinobi, and I knew that they had chosen to block with their own elemental counters, such as a mud wall, I would have increased the chakra output and tried to roast them alive despite their defenses. But this was a teammate, and I didn't want to even hit him with the technique to be honest. It was mainly to show off a bit.

Plus I could feel his chakra honing in on my position.

I sealed my sword before priming my chakra and enhancing my perception to the limit of my capabilities. I ducked the dynamic entry, and sent a punch towards his airborne stomach as he passed over me. It felt like I was hitting a brick wall and I knew it didn't do any damage. Lee touched the trunk of the tree next to me and immediately kicked off into another dynamic entry sent towards my mid-section.

He wanted me to block it, but I refused and fell forwards. I had a trick however, because I sent chakra to the branch beneath me to make sure that I stayed on the tree. I swung myself down to where I was hanging upside down, with Lee standing right above me but I didn't stop there. I used the momentum of my swing to bring myself back up to face Lee.

Only this time I was holding a rasengan.

I shoved it towards his torso, but prepared myself to end the technique if it connected. I wanted to win the spar, not kill him. Lee sidestepped it and grabbed my wrist as it traveled by him. I was overextended, and Lee made me pay for it by launching a knee up towards my ribs.

It connected.

Despite the chakra that I was enhancing myself with, and the extremely advanced fuinjutsu lines that flared on top of my armor, I still felt my ribs creak in protest and the breath left my lungs. The rasengan in my hand dissipated and I was quickly kicked in the back by Lee, shoving me out of the forest.

I did a frontflip in mid-air and twisted. When I landed, it was in a crouch in the same clearing as before while staring at Lee's pursuing form.

"Enough." Guy called out, and I relaxed my body and chakra immediately. The entire world sped up as my perception slowed. That included Lee.

Lee did not stop at Guy's command and sent another dynamic entry right at my crouching face. My eyes widened, as I realized that I would not mold the chakra fast enough to react or protect myself.

A blur of green and orange filled my vision. When it was finished, Guy had Lee's foot trapped between his left forearm and his right hand. Lee let the first gate drop from his control and the green chakra surrounding him disappeared.

"I said enough Lee!" Guy yelled at the boy before letting his foot go. Lee, a testament to his training, kept his balance but set his leg back down. Lee's face instantly looked remorseful.

"Sorry sensei. I did not hear you." Lee told him sheepishly. He obviously hadn't meant to almost kill me, but I was still shaken by it. I fell onto my back and rested.

"Do not let it happen again. You're ready to use it outside the village, but you have got to be able to multitask while using the gates." Guy responded as he returned to his normal tone of voice.

Lee perked up at that. "I have your permission?" Lee said, as if Guy just revealed some major news.

"Yes." Guy answered seriously. "And you're no longer permitted to wear weights while on missions B-rank and above. You got seriously injured on the last mission because of those handicaps." Guy told him.

I had wondered about the events of the last mission. Lee had performed surprisingly badly when he was so strong with taijutsu and the gates. Even now I was doubting my ability to survive against him if he went all out. And yet, during the chunin exams, he was outshone by others. In the mission, he was almost killed. It was hard for me to reconcile the boy that I trained with that was so strong with the one getting sliced up because of a genjutsu.

Now to find out that he had been wearing weights the entire time we took missions, and wasn't permitted to use the gates it made sense. I seriously doubted Guy's judgement with that. This conversation should have happened way sooner.

"Thanks sensei!" Lee said and I looked up to see him hugging the man enthusiastically. That part of Lee had been missing the past few weeks as he had been in his slump. Apparently, Guy thought that beating me up in a spar before allowing the boy free reign as a shinobi was the way to cheer his student up. At least he wasn't wrong.

"Come on, let's go eat."

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"Guy has been pulled to fill in on an escort mission for the Daimyo. As it so happens, the duration should be about the same time as this mission for you three." Tsunade said as she held out a scroll without looking up from her desk. I stepped forward, as I was the only Chunin of our team. I would have to take the lead on it.

Sasuke, Lee, and I stood in front of Tsunade. It had been a surprise to find Shizune at our normal training grounds, instead of our sensei. She had already told us that Guy was on another mission and that Tsunade had one for us to occupy our time. It was the first time that I saw the Hokage assistant anywhere other than her desk.

"You're to head deep into the Land of Tea to the Degarashi Port and meet with the holder of the contract and head of the Wasabi Family." Tsunade said, and gave a wave of dismissal. "You have 9 days to arrive."

I nodded before turning to leave. I didn't particularly want to be late on the first mission that I was the lead on.

"Gather your things and meet at the south gate. Long term mission."

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I was at the southern gate of Konoha faster than my companions. I only needed to go home and tidy some things up before leaving. I didn't actually need to pack. I always kept long term supplies in my scrolls.

I was surprised to find someone waiting for me, however.

"Chunin Uzumaki."

I turned to find the unmistakable figure that was Ibiki Morino. He leaned against the wall directly beside the gate. I already knew what he was here for, although I didn't remember this happening in the anime.

Idate, his younger brother and missing Konoha-nin was going to be on this mission. I just wasn't sure how Ibiki was aware of his brother being there. Maybe he had found him a long time ago, and just allowed him to live a peaceful life in Tea Country.

"Sir." I said, giving the jonin a slight bow. "How can I help you?"

"It's not an order, don't worry." The man said as he stood up and stretched. "Although it does involve your mission." Ibiki answered.

"Are you taking point?" I asked, acting the ignorant chunin.

"Heaven's no. It involves your client, and one of his adopted children. The kid's name is Idate and he's my younger brother." Ibiki revealed. I didn't sense a single bit of hostility or even warmth from the interrogator when he mentioned his younger brother. "Would you mind giving him this?"

Ibiki held out a plain envelope. It had no writing on the outside to indicate who it was supposed to go to. I accepted it with a nod. "Of course." I told him as I pressed the note to a seal on my chest plate. It disappeared into the storage seal without hassle and quickly. I could see Ibiki watching me patiently. He didn't look like he was impressed, but I could tell he wasn't expecting my answer so quickly.

"Thank you." Ibiki said as he walked away, but before he could get out of earshot, he asked one more thing from me.

"Keep him safe, please."

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Shikamaru POV:

"Ma'am." I said, kneeling before the Hokage and her closest advisor, the Sandaime.

I had been in this exact same spot before, with the Sandaime's son standing next to me to guide me. Now I was alone and expected to act like I knew what I was doing. My training had been harsh, and the border patrols even harsher, but I was comfortable behind the mask and uniform now.

I could feel Bird, Tanuki, and the Commander's presence in the shadows above me. They watched me with eyes that begged for a mistake. They would not find one.

"We hear you are advancing quickly, Crow." Hiruzen said.

'So I am going to intervene…'

It was an easy deduction. I had shadowed my old classmate the past few weeks, on orders from the commander. He was no longer loyal to the village and he thought he was clever enough to hide it. The Hokage and the Elders didn't know what to do about it. Well, one of the Elders seemed like he had the answer, but he didn't count. Dad was right about Danzo, and he was right to pull my application from Root. I had no idea what it meant then.

I didn't answer the old kage. It was unbecoming to toot one's own horn. I still got my ass handed to me by my squad mates daily after all. I wasn't sure why they let me out on patrol so early actually.

Because I am far more advanced than I should be. The red uniform of an Iwagakure jounin danced across the front of my mind's eye. It was a similar red to Choji's uniform, and every time I made that connection with my mind, I realized that my teammate wouldn't have survived the same encounter. And yet here I kneeled, a survivor and 'savior' of my squad. All because the man ignored the shadow behind him.

"Like your father then." Hiruzen concluded as he puffed on his pipe. Dad was a man of few words. Unless he was talking to me or mom, of course.

"Oh no, he is more like his mother." Tsunade, the Godaime, corrected her sensei. My mothers face flashed before my eyes. She was the only woman capable of raising a hard working Nara. And she was so proud she liked to shout it from the rooftops. She never really noticed the way Dad stared at me when she proclaimed it. She still didn't know why he pulled my papers from early graduation either.

'A Nara needs time to grow.' Shikaku had claimed as he walked out of the house, ending the conversation. Very rarely did Shikaku put his foot down, and mother never disobeyed once he did. He didn't want the glory for the clan. In fact, he damn near hated it.

I never held it against him. How could I after he explained it that night? I was always a smart kid, and he was terrified of pushing me to become another prodigy. He had been there to clean up after Itachi, after all. It was easy to put the pieces together of those few weeks he didn't come home when I was eight.

'Still to this day, I've never seen him drink that much.'

"She would be pleased to hear you say that." I spoke, finally allowing my mind to rest for a moment. I was nervous being in front of these two.

"I bet!" Tsunade barked. Yoshino had been a close friend to Shizune's parents, and she was always familiar with the Sannin.

"They will leave soon." Hiruzen told her as a reminder to get on with it. I wanted to thank the man. This was torture.

"I'm sure you've already deduced it Crow, but you are to tail Team Ten. Do not intervene unless absolutely necessary. The Uchiha must not be allowed to fall into Orochimaru's influence. The results could be catastrophic for Konoha." The Sandaime said, finally giving me my orders.

"Yes, sir." I told him as I summoned the shadows around me. With another flex of my chakra, I body flickered towards the Southern Gate.

'Please don't make me do this, Sasuke.'

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A/N: Boom!

A little Shikamaru POV going on huh! I tried to get the character down, but I'm not sure if I did or not. I'm sure you guys will let me know.

Naruto gives us a little update on the Sasuke situation. I wanted to show off Naruto's progress a little bit in this chapter. Hence the interaction with the ANBU. Now I'd like to point out that he is not on the level of ANBU just yet! Just because he can sense and block an attack, does not mean very much. First of all, we don't know how much effort the ANBU gave. And secondly, it was a ten second exchange where all Naruto did was manage to block a strike that was never going to actually land. If you'll remember, the ANBU was only trying to stop him from summoning the scroll, not kill him.

It hasn't been that long since the last chapter, only a couple of weeks while Lee healed and what not. We also got to see them spar a little bit, and I wanted to showcase Naruto's ninjutsu, and Lee going all out. I also gave a bit of an explanation as to why Lee has been useless recently. That will change!

Sasuke is still a twat!

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