Izuna's Nindo

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 3: Naruto Next Generation

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Chapter 70- Izuna's Nindo

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Two days after the end of Team 1's first A-rank job that turned out to be an S-rank mission, every ninja involved returned to his village. Takeshi Minamoto, calmly followed by Oji Tatari aka Voodoo, returned to Kiri and went to bring Yubo Kumi's corpse to the scientific department of his village.

There, after leaving the A-rank mercenary's dead body to the mortuary section, he went to find the 6th Mizukage and Suigetsu Hozuki waiting for him. When he arrives with Voodoo, hands cuffed behind him, Suigetsu makes a flabbergasted face and refuses to believe what he sees.

"Don't play tricks on me, kid!" he yells at Takeshi. "Who's that target you disguised as the once most wanted man in the continent?"

Oji doesn't say anything, and just sighs, understanding of the mercenary hunter's reaction.

"Suigetsu, unfortunately for you, this is really Voodoo, ranked 3rd most dangerous bounty hunter, and formerly 1st." explains Chojuro, glad to see his youngest elite ninja back.

"I suppose the Lord 7th Hokage told you about my yielding." guesses Oji.

"No way! The Hokage? What does Sasuke's buddy have to do with this?" complains Suigetsu. "Hey, brat, you trying to play me, aren't ya?"

"I shit you not, Suigetsu-sensei." answers Takeshi provocatively, satisfied by his unpredictable win of their gamble. "We've bet 100k ryos that I'd catch bigger fishes than you, and here it is. So spit out the money!"

Suigetsu grunts silently, and can't do much but accept his defeat. He takes it as a lesson. He should probably stop taking advantage of naive young recruits to make money. On his mission, he butchered a trio of A-ranked targets, but this doesn't compare to one of the top S-rank.

"Pff, yeah whatever. I have way more money than that saved." comments the Hozuki clan member.

"About that, how much is the reward for an S-rank?" asks Takeshi to the Mizukage.

"This man's life value in the bingo book is no less than 10 million ryos." answers Chojuro, before adding a few details when he sees Takeshi's happy reaction. "However, two things. First, you didn't defeat or kill him, since he surrendered. Second, you accomplished this mission as a hunter-nin, and the purpose of this corps is for the office to save money on criminals' capture. So, you'll only be paid the legal minimum for an S-rank job."

Takeshi loses his happy expression and looks down, disappointed.

"Cheer up, kiddo! That's still a million!" Suigetsu adds, to reassure Takeshi.

"Oh boy! A million?" exclaims the young Minamoto suddenly. "Hear that, Tentoki! I'm soon gonna be richer than Mom and Dad! Looks like nothing pays more than being a ninja."

"Kid, you have no idea how much being on the other side is more profitable." says Oji, to shut Takeshi's mouth. "Mizukage, the Hokage must have warned you of my conditions, did he?"

"He did, and I accept them. You won't be executed, but jailed and interrogated." answers Chojuro.

"That's not it." interrupts Voodoo. "My condition is no mind-reading, manipulation, illusion or torture. If you don't respect these rules, I can easily kill myself without any movement. You won't be able to stop me from doing it if I want to."

"If you were ready to end your own life, why'd you ask for pity and jail instead of a fair and square death sentence?" interrogates Suigetsu.

"I'm offering my knowledge. I'll give it willfully. If you refuse to cooperate, you'll probably dispose of me at some point. I might as well end it early before you make any immoral profit."

"Did you, of all people, just say we were immoral?" yells Suigetsu, triggered by the mercenary's behavior.

"Don't worry, Oji Tatari." says Chojuro to calm the situation. "We'll let you tell us about your organization by yourself. However, your condition doesn't make mention of any other type of knowledge that we'll gladly acquire by our own means."

"What does that mean?"

"Your unique jutsu, and your clan's immunity and ease with curses." answers the Mizukage. "They gained the scientific department's interest. The director requested an audience with you. I hope you'll be cooperative."

Chojuro then looks behind Oji and nods to salute someone. Voodoo turns around and squints his eyes, suspiciously. From the entrance door of the laboratory building, a man in a lab coat, with long smooth blue hair, walks out and greets every present person.

"Takeshi, Suigetsu, Tatari. This is Sir Hideo Kotobuki. The director of the scientific department." tells the Mizukage.

"Yeah, I know who that is, Mizukage." comment Suigetsu.

"Pleased to finally meet you, Suigetsu Hozuki." says the man. "And who's the boy?"

"My name is Takeshi Minamoto." says the young Kiri-nin. "I'm a jonin and hunter-nin, under the command of Lord Mizukage. It's nice to meet you too, mister Kotobuki."

Hideo simply nods to express his appreciation, and then looks with disgust and mistrust at the surrendered mercenary.

"Oji Tatari, may you come with me?" says the scientist. "There's plenty of things I'd like to test out about your Jujutsu."

Oji hesitates at first, having a bad feeling about this man's intentions. Not having much of a choice, he complies and follows the man inside the lab building.

"Whatever you have planned, you better not try anything stupid." he warns the scientist.

"Oh, don't worry, it shouldn't harm you in any way… At least, this is if your ability really works as I was told."

"I'm sure there's some other things you'd want to discuss other than my Jujutsu." Voodoo replies with a mistrustful tone.

To this, Hideo Kotobuki doesn't answer. He just quietly smiles and walks faster to quickly get to his office.

The capture of the 3rd most influential mercenary of this new era frees the Shinobi Union of one among many worries. Still, other important S-rank criminals are still on the run, and the demise of one of their fellows will bring some changes to their classification.

The rank of 1st and 2nd most prized bounty hunters are still respectively those of Crow, an international hunter with unknown origins, and Killin' Kiss, aka Meinu Imai of Kakumei. The 3rd place now goes back to Guroi, aka the Ripper, who formerly had the 2nd place. And his 4th place goes to White Claw, a mysterious young name in the business that has no face or real name to go with.

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At the same time, at night in Konohagakure. The 7th Hokage left his office a few minutes ago. Before going home, his instincts and feelings lead him to the 3rd training ground of the village, where Team 7 always used to train together back in the day.

There, as he expected, Naruto finds Izuna Uchiha relentlessly punching down trees and venting his feelings. He stays in the distance to observe his student in action. After a while, he realizes that Izuna's hits become stronger and stronger, until the young man collapses and falls with his back to the ground. Still conscious, he just stops wasting his strength and looks at the night sky silently.

"Impressive strength." says the Hokage, who finally comes closer.

"Hokage-sensei?" says Izuna, turning his head to see Naruto arrive.

"Won't you have Sakura worried by staying out this late?"

"My mom isn't home. She's still at the hospital." he answers.

"What about your sister?"

"Home. She's sleeping."

Naruto stops asking useless questions and gets down to sit next to his student. After a few quiet seconds they spend watching the stars together, the Hokage brings up the reason he came for.

"There seems to be something bothering you about what you've seen or experienced during your last mission. Tell me, Izuna, what's on your mind?"

The young Uchiha first doesn't say anything, and keeps exploring his thoughts on hiw own. When his mind alone isn't enough to get answers anymore, he speaks out.

"Sensei…? Are we not in an era of peace?"

"… I'd like to say we are, but it's not yet totally the case." calmly answers the Hokage. "Otherwise, what would my job be for?… More seriously, we aren't at total peace of course, but we are indeed in an era of calm never reached before among the 5 great nations."

"… Then… Why do we, young ninjas, still have to live as soldiers? Why do we still have to commit murders for a pretended noble cause?"

Naruto takes a close look at the boy's thoughtful and melancholic face. This question is quite meaningful and well thought. He is brought to wonder about his past self. Did he ever ask himself the same thing?

"Izuna… Honestly… War never ends for good. Almost a century ago, the founding of the hidden villages had put an end to the warring states era, only to replace it with great ninja wars. And now that we've put an end to this, nostalgia and fanaticism in the hearts of some ninjas cause the rise of the mercenary order, offering the services that we, ninjas, abandoned… The end of a conflict will only fuel a newer one. It is unpredictable, and inevitable. Higher conflicts even emerged from outer worlds with the Otsutsuki clan nowadays. And it is very likely that it turns out to be the genesis of once another age of conflict… This is the philosophy taught to me by an old enemy."

"But it isn't what you believe, is it?" Izuna questions, curious to learn more about his hero's past troubles. "How does your job help against this cycle? How did you prove this enemy wrong?"

Naruto pauses for a moment and breathes in.

"Wars will never stop taking away from the living." he tells. "But our power against it, is our will. The will of fire, as we call it here in Konoha. The values, the people, the beliefs we put our faith and soul in, are our reasons to keep going. This will is to never give yourself up to hatred, and give your all to protect those values… While some may think that a man is at his strongest when he has nothing left to lose, and is left only with lust for war, it is actually the complete opposite. A man is at his best when he has something to protect, and when he craves for peace. That thing he wants to protect, be it his family, village, world, or simply himself, it doesn't have to be at threat for him to feel the need to protect it. The peak would be for the something to protect, to be peace itself."

"How can you be so convinced of this?"

"Ask your dad." simply answers Naruto to Izuna's credulity.

Izuna stops asking questions. The Hokage reads through his feelings and guesses what really busies his mind. Since he won't tell it, Naruto brings it up by himself.

"I see what bothers you… Despite our efforts, we're still not at the end of the road. We're not done with conflicts. Ninjas still didn't reach their peak. But for now, there is not much to do, other than accepting it and trusting the upper minds."

"The daimyo?" asks Izuna, trying to guess what upper minds his sensei is referring to.

"… More the Kages, actually." Naruto answers. "This is what Takeshi and Boruto do. They leave the thinking aside and run after the honors of the current society. This is why they don't mind all the mandatory violence you've been through these last few days."

Izuna just frowns his eyebrows, unsatisfied by this answer.

"So am I just supposed to get over it? Should I just numb my soul and pretend to trust you enough to end all my worries magically?"

"Of course not. Ninjas with minds like yours are the pillars of this world. They are those who make the change. Like me, Gaara, or any of the Kage…" Naruto explains, before deciding to add a more personal thought to his argument. "My father, the 4th Hokage, was pretty much like Takeshi and Boruto. He just followed the orders of lord 3rd, and became a war hero. Truth is, people like them could become great leaders in times of conflict, but not nowadays."

Izuna squints and thinks about what his master just said. Does he mean that the life model that his father or other Hokages were is outdated? He did say that Boruto and Takeshi couldn't become Kage. Naruto, still sensing his student's doubts, brings on an important topic to conclude the discussion.

"Did anyone ever tell you about nindo, the ninja way?" he asks.

Izuna rises to sit next to his sensei, and waits for more explanation, intrigued by this question.

"When I was even younger than you, I went on a mission, where I was confronted with the same heartbreaking violence as you." Naruto tells. "On this mission, I was inspired to choose my own rules and path. To go by my own command is what I decided… I'll never go back on my words. This is my nindo."

Izuna looks up to the Hokage, with his eyes full of admiration, and keeps listening.

"How about you make your own nindo out of these feelings you're expressing?" suggests Naruto.

"Right… No one deserves to die. Casualties are just the result of us losing to war." Izuna thinks before solemnly declaring. "My nindo will be… To never waste a life."

"Wow! If this ain't the mind of a future Hokage." proudly says Naruto.

"Thank you, Hokage-sensei." Izuna says with a wide smile on his face. "It feels good to speak out your feelings."

"Right. Being able to reach out and speak for yourself is essential." says Naruto while standing up, before putting on a mischievous face. "How are you ever gonna confess to Inoue without that?"

"What?" exclaims Izuna, surprised and shaken by this sudden exposure.

Naruto laughs, to mock his student's reaction, and changes the subject, to not bother him more than he already did. He offers his hand to help him stand up.

"So what were you training for?" he asks as Izuna takes his hand.

"On this mission, there was that woman, who stood up oddly quickly after I punched her face." he explains. "I'd like to improve my strength."

"Well, punching trees won't make any difference. You have to think of a new method. Something to make your fists feel different… How about adding chakra nature to them, like Boruto does with his gentle fist?"

"A Fire Punch? Great idea, Hokage-sensei!" exclaims Izuna, now fully cheered up.

"Good, let's do this then." suggests the Hokage, getting ready for a night training session.

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Meanwhile, at Konoha's hospital, Sakura Uchiha is with Tsunade who' lying on a bed. The former Hokage recently fainted and was brought there where her former student is making her a diagnosis.

"You're fine. It was nothing. You just felt exhausted." the medic says to her master. "You'll be back home tomorrow morning as if nothing happened!"

"Sakura… we both know I don't have much time left." Tsunade says, in a serious tone.

The former Hokage, despite being only 73 years old, has the body of a nearly century old person due to her massive use of the mitotic regeneration jutsu. Without her Uzumaki and Senju ancestry, she wouldn't have gone that far. Sakura makes a sad face and sits down by Tsunade's side.

"Don't be so negative when you're with Izuna, please…" she demands. "You know, he's too emotional for this."

"Sakura…" says the elder woman, not answering to this demand. "Not once through years of battles had I worried about the consequences of using this power…"

Sakura remains silent and listens.

"I've lived through and fought in 3 great wars." continues Tsunade. "Always at the hands of conflict, I was ready to die at any time. So wasting my life expectancy away appeared just as another way to end it to me… But it's different for you. Naruto, he made it. Thanks to him, we live in a state of peace between nations. You didn't live through ages of war."

"If something requires me to fight side by side with my teammates again, I'll gladly give my life for their cause just like you." calmly says Sakura, full of resolve.

"Don't say that… You don't have to. You can live in peace. Unlike me, you have children and a family. Just for them, you have to enjoy a life in peace."

"… I appreciate your concern, but still… If my husband's quests have consequences that fall upon the village again, like 5 years ago, I'll have no other choice but to do as you did. I won't let myself die without exploiting all that I've saved in this seal for years."

"We sure have plenty of energy to put to use now…" says Tsunade. "For the last 18 years, since the 4th war, I have retired from combat, abandoned my ideal metamorphosis, and kept saving all my chakra within the seal. And you did too, just as I told you."

"I did… And considering the eventuality I just mentioned, It could be of use for me… But what about you? To what end did you save all that chakra in your forehead. You won't ever be able to use it…"

Tsunade doesn't respond at first. She just lets Sakura ease her mind, after she noticed that her former student was letting her emotions take over. After a while, she speaks, and reveals an important secret to Sakura.

"Long ago, as I was first learning about the Byakugo seal, I was looking for a power that would equal what Jiraya was being taught at Mount Myoboku at the same time."

"Sage Mode?" asks Sakura. "Is Byakugo what you were looking for?"

"… What if I told you, there is another way than Mitotic regeneration?"

"What do you mean?" questions Sakura, now intrigued about what her former master is telling. Unsure, she's wondering if Tsunade isn't starting to get senile.

The 5th Hokage stays quiet for a moment and focuses her mind to gather memories of what she is about to tell.

"At that time, as a young girl, I asked Katsuyu about what I just told you." she begins. "She told me about the way to achieve a power greater than Sage Mode with this seal… She told me about the progenitor spirit of the Byakugo… Katsuyu has little to no memories of how she discovered the seal, but she does remember that she was first taught its use by a mysterious entity, that she calls her mistress. This spirit's energy… Its brute chakra gifts your body with a regenerative capacity greatly surpassing that of the Biju and the Sage mode combined."

"Is this a real story?" asks Sakura, astonished by what she hears. "Why didn't Lady Katsuyu ever tell me about this? Why did you never mention it before?"

"… Sakura, do you remember, during the 4th war, when the two of us combined our Byakugo's powers to summon Katsuyu to the battlefield."

"Yes, we could summon 10% of her real body."

"Only 10%."

"It's true, but with all the chakra we've saved since then,… It is about 15 times more than we had at that time."

"There is a summoning jutsu to call the power of the progenitor… This is what Katsuyu told me. But it works just as her summoning. It requires the union of several Byakugo users and grows in capacity with the chakra stored. However, Even if our current savings could summon Katsuyu's whole body, it is not enough to summon the spirit… This is why we never mentioned it. It should be unachievable. It takes an entire lifetime of chakra saved to summon just a tiny piece of this power. Katsuyu herself, her original body, has actually received just such a tiny part of it."

Tsunade then shuts up, as her telling is over. Sakura doesn't know what to say. Essentially, she's troubled. If it is unachievable, why is Tsunade telling her about it now? What does she expect? While she's lost in her doubts and thoughts, Tsunade slowly raises one hand, with which she reaches out for Sakura's forehead with two fingers. With her other hand, she performs the Tiger hand seal.

Byakugo – Kai

Sakura is promptly awakened as she feels a tremendous power flow running through her and enclosing itself in her seal, for a second, she almost passes out, as if her seal had gotten physically heavier. Back to her senses she looks at her master's face, and sees the seal on her forehead fade away for good.

At this sight, she understands what just happened and can't hold back her tears. Tsunade just transferred the entirety of her Byakugo seal's energy to her student's. Lady 5th smiles and lowers her hand. She waits for Sakura to let the feelings pass, and just proudly looks at her. Still overridden by the emotion, the director of Konoha's hospital holds her elder's hands.

"Why?" she simply manages to say.

"Now with both our seals combined, you're close to having enough chakra to equate that of a lifetime." calmly explains Tsunade. "As I said, you don't have to go down the same path as me. With this help, you can do it. You can achieve the Byakugo seal's ultimate Summoning Jutsu."

"Lady Tsunade, that's…" she begins to say, still not catching her breath. "But even with this much chakra, I won't be able to do this without you."

"Oh don't worry, you won't be needing me when the time comes." immediately responds Tsunade. "No, when he reaches it, Izuna is the one who'll help you. It's you two who'll do this together. It's you two who'll get that power."

Sakura's tears stop flowing. She makes a shocked face, surprised by this faithful statement. She calms down and takes a deep breath in. Not saying anything, she bends over and holds Tsunade in her arms, lovely and gratefully hugging her. The two best medic-nin of the world remain like this, in a moment of peace and affection, until Tsunade brings more to her confession.

"I really wanted to do this. I really had to… Before it was too late." she says.

"Don't say such things." answers Sakura. "You sound like you're about to say you're ready to die now."

"Why not?" adds Lady 5th with a joking tone in her voice. "After all, why would I want to keep living in a world where Orochimaru is a more beautiful woman than me?"

Sakura gently laughs at this remark and lets the hug go. She gets back to sitting in front of her master who just proudly looks at her.

"It's getting late." says Tsunade. "You should go home to your kids."

Sakura gently nods, and smiles in gratitude. She stands up, and leaves her master to sleep in her room.

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Later, when she gets home, Sakura first focuses to sense Izuna's presence. She doesn't feel his chakra in the house. She knows what he's going through emotionally currently and worries a bit. Fortunately, her worries are washed away when she focuses more and senses the 7th Hokage's chakra calmly raging through the village, at the same place where Izuna likes to go when he's alone.

Her son must be on therapeutic training with his sensei. However, when she focused on sensing the chakra around her, there was another she felt. A very powerful and warm one, very close to her. Following her senses, she goes to check on her 5 years old daughter, Sarada, that she finds sleeping calmly in her room.

Sakura walks in the room and gets closer to the sleeping girl. She gently rubs her hand against her cheek, and notices a peaceful smile on Sarada's sleeping face. Standing here, she now senses the chakra of earlier again, but with no need to focus. She slowly turns around and looks deeper in her daughter's room, where light doesn't reach.

Out from the shadows, she sees him, that she had already recognized just by the sensation of his chakra, quietly and calmly stepping out from the shadows. Sasuke Uchiha, after almost 5 years of absence, slowly walks to come closer to his wife.

"S-Sasuke?" asks Sakura, shaken by this sudden and unannounced return.

"Sakura…" says Sasuke, with a sad and hesitant voice. "Please, hear me out."

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End of Chapter 70 – Next Chapter: Worldwide Chunin Exam