NARUTO 14

"Wait, you're saying that Sasuke got chased by his crowd of fangirls for hours, to the point he fell and hit his head, and he's now in the hospital after they molested him a bunch?" Naruko asked Sakura and Ino who were chatting just in front of them in the classroom before Iruka showed up for classes.

Carl raised an eyebrow at the news. It…was kind of funny. Done in by his own admirers.

"Yeah, it's true!" Sakura looked back at Naruko with an amused snort. "The ANBU squad that showed up had to seriously work hard to separate the girls from Sasuke."

"It's an incredible situation that even ANBU weren't prepared for." Ino interjected. "They could have killed all the girls mobbing Sasuke within seconds. But they were our own civilians, and they weren't exactly "attacking" a shinobi of the ranks. So they were stymied in exactly what to do."

"So it took them nearly an hour to pull all the fanatical crazy girls off of Sasuke. Which led to him being admitted to the hospital ward." Sakura added.

"And now they have maximized the protections of the hospital so that they can deal with crazy civilians mobbing him, without killing the civilians. After all, it's so easy to put civilians in an illusion, enemies could use them against us in the future to distract from a real attack." Ino threw in, eager to share gossip.

Thankfully Carl and his friends had gotten to Ino and Sakura early enough to save them the fate of being fangirls themselves. They were taking their ninja career seriously. Even though they loved gossip, they were serious about their ninja career.

"Apparently with the Evaluation coming up in the next few days, the fangirls were getting desperate because they thought they wouldn't be able to stay in class with him. So they mounted an organized Sasuke hunt, trying to catch him and force him to acknowledge their feelings, or something like that." Sakura stated with disgust.

"Yeah, I saw them running down the street outside my parent's flower shop, chasing after Sasuke." Ino added on. "It was hilarious, actually. If those pathetic fangirls actually spent as much time training as they did chasing after their 'precious Sasuke', they wouldn't have to worry about getting dropped from the academy."

"Their ridiculous acts in the name of 'love', and their ridiculous diets that are making them too weak to even last the length of a short run, is making us Kunoichi look bad." Sakura shook her head in contempt.

"Yeah, they can't even get through the obstacle course, it's just pathetic!" Naruko laughed, earning some scowling from said fangirls who overheard her.

Over the past nearly three months the fangirls had slowly come to the realization that they weren't getting anywhere with sucking up to Naruko. While Sasuke would simply ignore them, giving them the illusion that they had a chance, Naruko would actively prank them if they bothered her too much. It was hard to keep up the delusion that they were getting anywhere when their target attacked them back, and not in the way they wanted.

It was a strange situation, where the fangirls had some kind of invincible pride in themselves where they thought people should suck up to them. They believed they were worthy of the Uchiha heir. They believed that Naruko, as the heir of the 4th Hokage, should be grateful for their attention.

"So, he's in the hospital now?" Carl asked.

"Yeah." Sakura confirmed. "I was at the hospital yesterday for my volunteer hours, and I saw him being carried in by the ANBU, as they pushed the fangirls off him. The shameless sluts had actually ripped off most of his clothes from his unconscious body before they bothered to think about bringing him in for medical attention from the injury they caused. Nurse Minetori told me that it was touch and go for a while. He was technically dead for a minute or two before they revived him. She said that if they had brought him in any later, he would have actually died."

The group paused at that thought. They had never considered the fangirls a threat before now. They were weak and focused on getting in Sasuke's pants above all else, so they never actually seemed like they could do any damage. And sure, Sasuke wasn't the top, but he was pretty talented. And here the fangirls had hounded him to exhaustion and actually almost killed him in their fanaticism.

"From now on, if any crowd of fangirls or civilians or anything come at any of us, we need to take it completely seriously." Carl voiced out to the group. "No holding back because they are weak individually. I don't want any of us to die in such a pathetic way. Better to maim, cripple, or kill a mob of civilians than to die at their hands."

Carl saw the sober realization in all their faces. While he didn't think there would be any problems his friends couldn't overcome, it was a sober realization at just how easy it was to have an accident, or get taken out by a lucky shot.

And sure, he could probably bring them back with the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection jutsu, but he didn't want to have to do so. Who knew if there would be complications preventing it, or if they would die just before he left this world and they were left behind?

And while it was easy in the Naruto world to grab souls back from the dead and resurrect them, that wasn't to say it was that easy in other worlds. They might have more active and powerful death gods in other worlds that would strenuously object to him snatching souls from their control. And then he would get into a fight. The last thing he would want to do is have a tug of war over his friend's souls. That would probably not end well for his friends.

"So when is Sasuke supposed to recover?" Hinata asked. "The evaluation is in a week, will he be back for it?"

"He'll probably be back in a day or two." Sakura replied. "Nurse Minetori said that while the head injury was bad, they were able to patch him up good enough that he wouldn't stay long. So he'll probably make it. I'm sure if he didn't they would make an exception for him, though."

Sakura scoffed at the special attention Sasuke always seemed to get. As a civilian kid herself, she saw the special treatment that Sasuke was getting from the civilian council differently since she wasn't a fangirl who thought it was natural that Sasuke get special treatment.

Sakura was very aware that if she hadn't made friends with Ino, and then Hinato, Naruko, Carl, and the others, she very likely would have been struggling to get anywhere with her training. She may have even fallen into the same trap as the fangirls and thought that the only way to advance herself was to get Sasuke as her sponsor.

So as a result of realizing how close she came to being one of the fangirls that she detested with a passion, she had a strong negative opinion of the focus and special treatment so many people had over Sasuke Uchiha. Especially because she saw how few of the teachers over their first year had spent in giving the civilians kids the needed training. All the teachers had sucked up to the Uchiha as much as the fangirls.

And if she didn't have her friends that helped her with her training, she would have been hopeless and helpless. And that feeling, that realization of how close she came to being something she hated is what drove her antipathy towards Sasuke Uchiha and his special treatment.

Out of all of Carl's friends among the academy students, Sakura was the one that reacted the strongest against the Uchiha. All the rest had a kind of distasteful apathy. He wasn't important to their lives, so he was unimportant.

Iruka entered the room at that point and the students ended their conversations as the lesson progressed.

Carl looked at the civilian fangirls that were laid out on their desks, exhausted from the morning workout. He shook his head at their awful state. They wouldn't be nearly as pathetic if they didn't buy into the myth of the Diet that they were on. Whoever started that myth should be shot. Seriously, what were they thinking, convincing 10 year olds to starve themselves to be "sexy"?

And he could only blame the parents of those fangirls for that one. The kids just didn't have enough experience in life yet to realize how dumb they were being by blindly following and imitating the adults in their lives. And no matter how many times their teachers at the academy explained to them how bad an idea it was to diet while in ninja training, the brainless fangirls didn't listen.

Carl shook his head in disgust at the brainless and relentless attitude of the fangirls before he returned his attention to the lesson as Iruka went over a declassified mission report so they could recreate the mission after lunch in Team Exercises. One side would be the defending side, the other would be the attackers. It was a fun little war game that was started recently that would help them get used to ninja missons.

XX

Two days later Sasuke returned to class.

Carl, sitting in his normal seat toward the back, had a good view of the last Uchiha of Konoha entering the classroom.

Sasuke seemed to be acting like normal on the surface, but Carl could see that his expressions, the thoughts that ran below the surface, and even his posture and movements were completely different from before.

Before, the Uchiha moved like a ninja in training. He was nearly a genin in level of physical ability and moved like it. But now he moved like a civilian. A very fit civilian, yes, but he didn't move like a ninja in training anymore. There was just something in the way he casually walked without any spatial awareness or vigilance.

Not to mention how he seemed to be barely restraining a face splitting grin as he looked around the classroom. Very unusual behavior for the Uchiha.

"Is the Uchiha acting strange, or is it just me?" Carl murmured to his friends.

One by one they spent a few moments studying Sasuke. Even Shikamaru opened his eyes from where his head was resting on his desk and watched for a moment.

"He moves differently. He almost seems happy, gleeful. He moves like a villager, with no ninja awareness." Shikamaru mumbled. "Bothersome." He put his head back down on his desk, determined to avoid whatever it was, since he was sure it was more trouble than it was worth.

"Whatever." Kiba said with a sniff before he returned to his book about his clan's ninja dogs. Ever since Sasuke proved that he wasn't a team player by never joining them in training, Kiba had absolutely no time or care for the Uchiha. He had his "pack" that he ran with. Anyone else was unimportant.

Sasuke paused before sitting down in his normal seat. He looked around the classroom. When his eyes landed on Ino and Sakura in the row in front of Carl, he almost seemed to be unable to contain his excitement.

Then Sasuke looked up and when his eyes landed on Naruko, he seemed very confused for a moment, before awareness abruptly awoke in his eyes and he seemed even more gleeful, if that were possible.

The edge of Carl's lips raised in a slight sneer at seeing how the Uchiha was eyeing the girls in their class. He was acting like the female academy students in their class were his property that he could reach out and take anytime he wanted.

"Ino, Sakura." Sasuke tried purring in a sexy voice as he approached the two girls with a smile. "Thank you for the get-well flowers." He immediately looked over up and over Ino and Sakura at Hinata, Naruko, and Yakumo so he didn't see the shock and disgust bloom on Ino and Sakura's faces.

"Hinata, you're looking lovely. Hello Naruko. What a blinding ball of beautiful sunshine you are. And hello to you to, gorgeous." Sasuke said to Yakumo as he continued to attempt his charmer routine, though he didn't seem to know Yakumo's name.

The way that Sasuke was acting was very unusual. Carl knew from reading his body language that he didn't even know Yakumo's name right now even though he was hitting on her. Something fishy was going on.

"We didn't, you know." Sakura flatly stated with undertones of anger in her voice.

"What?" Sasuke, startled at her words, looked back down at Sakura.

"I said, we didn't leave flowers for you." Sakura was looking at him angrily. "I wouldn't want you to have any mistaken ideas. None of use bothered to visit you. That was all your fan club." Sakura motioned to the outraged looking group of fangirls. "You should thank them for bringing you flowers to the hospital room they sent you to."

"But…You are my most ardent fans…" Sasuke stuttered, looking back and forth between Ino and Sakura, completely confused at what in front of him.

"No, we aren't." Sakura flatly told him, glaring at the Uchiha.

Looking at Sakura's reaction and how angry she seemed, Carl suddenly came to the realization that her mother was probably one of those civilians that encouraged their daughters to get close to the Uchiha and try to ensnare him. She was so angry at the implication from Sasuke that she was a fangirl because she had her eyes opened early to the nature of the fangirl and she wanted no part of it.

Carl was pleased inside to see that his early intervention with those pamphlets had worked out so well. It would have been a shame if Ino and Sakura had wasted so much of their time and potential on frivolous pursuits.

"That you would dare call us fangirls is incredibly offensive. No way would we be brainless enough to act like that. Why don't you toddle back over to your normal seat and bask in the warm glow of obsession from your admirers." Ino added, also offended that the Uchiha would dare assume they were his fans.

Carl was wondering what was going on as well as he stared at the normally emo brat. This was completely out of place for Sasuke. Even before his clan was slaughtered and he was tortured by Itachi, he was never happy, friendly, and social.

So while Ino was telling Sasuke off for thinking that her and Sakura were ever his fangirls, Carl sent a Legilimency probe to Sasuke's mind to see just what was going on. Who had rearranged his mind to give them the creepy, flirty Uchiha in front of them?

A few moments later, Carl pulled back his magical mind probe and shook his head with a snort of bemused disgust.

Apparently he was in a stranger fanfiction world of Naruto than he thought at first. When Sasuke Uchiha had hit his head due to the fangirls, he had actually died. Some guy named Dewey Bullock had taken Sasuke's place in his body. Dewey had died in the modern Earth world from being run over by a truck, and somehow he had transmigrated into Sasuke's body.

Carl had gotten a bit of an overview of Dewey's life and attitude so he could figure out just what was going on here. Dewey had been a fan of the Sasuke Uchiha that was portrayed in the original Naruto comic.

'That already tells me a bunch about how much of a douche Dewey is for actually liking the emo Uchiha.' Carl mentally spit in Sasuke's direction. 'Being a fan of the power set that the Sharingan gives is one thing. But actually praising Sasuke Uchiha for betraying his friends and his village in his quest for power. Ugh, despicable.'

And now that Douchey Dewey was in Sasuke's body, he thought he had won the lottery and was entitled to build himself a huge harem here in the Naruto world.

The fact that the douche was moving on his 10 year old classmates in a disgusting attempt to hook them early was really offensive to Carl.

If the asshole had simply decided to be friends with everyone around him and train as he waited to grow up, Carl wouldn't have felt disgusted with the transmigrant.

Once they were all adults if he then tried to get multiple partners, Carl wouldn't have cared one bit. If everyone in a relationship is a consenting adult, then no one should stick their nose in their business.

But after looking into his mind, Carl saw that the new Sasuke's plan was to befriend the "hawt ninja girls" with the intention of inducting them into his growing harem as soon as he could. The person in Sasuke's body felt like he was the winner of the lottery to have gotten the Uchiha's body. He didn't feel like he needed to do anything but crook his finger and all the women should be running to jump on his dic-, er… in his arms.

And that was the crux of Carl's disgust with the dude. He was attempting to get fresh with girls that haven't even gone through puberty yet. He was basically using his adult experience and knowledge to try to hook the young kids before they grew up and gained experience to know what they wanted out of life.

In his anger at the presumptuous fool, Carl cursed the person who used to be Dewey that was now living in Sasuke's body. An impotence curse, a shrinkage hex, and an aversion jinx would do to keep him in check for the next eight years. An impotence curse to keep him from being able to get it up. A shrinkage hex to punish him for having thoughts about 10 year olds by making his unit as small as a toddlers. And an Aversion jinx that would keep him from attempting to lay hands on anyone in a sexual manner.

He would still be able to fight in their Taijutsu practices, but if he ever tried to put lingering hands on anyone, his hands would start burning and wouldn't stop until he figured out how to keep his hands to himself.

Carl knew how discombobulating being dropped into a new world could be. How when it felt like there were no more rules to hold you back, you could get a bit giddy and excited at the things you could do. So he only cursed the boy to force him to not be able to act on his immoral thoughts and plans, to give him the time to acclimate to this world. And he certainly wasn't going to let some overly horny transmigrant prey on his friends.

If the new Sasuke had done anything more than simply thinking about how to seduce 10 year olds, then Carl would have made him disappear for good.

But in this manner Carl was able to punish and maybe reform the transmigrator before he went too far. He knew that having a thought or idea didn't mean someone would necessarily act on it. So using the curses he would make sure the guy couldn't act on his thoughts, and would check up on him periodically to see if he got his act together, or if he was just as much of a waste of air as his first impression gave.

After being shot down by Sakura and Ino, and ignored by Naruko, Yakumo, and Hinata, Sasuke stomped his way over to his usual seat in a pouting manner. He really wasn't giving Carl a good first impression.

"What a weirdo." Naruko stated in a wondering tone. "He's never trained with us before, even when we invited him a bunch at the beginning of our first year. But now, after hitting his head, he comes over and tries to act friendly. Too weird."

Carl snorted inside. He wasn't too impressed by the new Sasuke either.

Sakura opened her mouth to explain to Naruko exactly what Sasuke was trying to do when Iruka showed up, so she tabled it for a later discussion. She would have to enlighten her naïve friend about certain aspects of male-female interaction.

After Iruka gave his announcements and while they were filing out to the practice field for physical training, Carl kept an eye on the new Uchiha while pondering the encounter this morning.

He examined his reactions to the transmigrant and considered whether he had been a bit harsh on the kid this morning by hexing him so much. Did he go overboard? The transmigrator was still pretty giddy from finding himself in a new fictional world, so it was kind of understandable that he would be doing some stupid things until he figured out how to live here properly. And he might not be a bad person, once he got his equilibrium back and wasn't loopy from his abrupt death and relocation.

But after pondering what he'd seen in the brat's head, Carl decided that he had gone the right route. The newly re-ensouled Uchiha had already had two days to get settled and used to this new world, and he had access to Sasuke's memories, so there was no real excuse for acting so ridiculously except that he thought he was free to do whatever he wanted here.

Dewey turned Sasuke was thinking that the world was his playground and that the people were his toys. So he needed a smack on the nose to tell him 'no'. Carl would try this indirect method first by setting boundaries for the boy. If he didn't get the indirect method of directing him, then Carl would have to get more direct and explain to him why what he was doing was wrong.

It certainly didn't say much for Dewey-turned-Sasuke's character that the first thing he thought of in these circumstances wasn't how to integrate himself into his new life and survive. It was how he was going to take advantage of everyone through his status as the last living Uchiha. He thought about how he was going to convince every girl into his bed, even though they were too young to get up to those kinds of things.

That really was the cherry on the top of the shit sundae that was Sasuke's character. He was eager, gleeful almost, to be taking advantage of the people around him. He only considered how they could benefit him, how he could use them. He wasn't thinking that they were real people with their own goals, thoughts, and dreams. To him, they were just things to be used for his benefit.

So Carl felt that smacking him in the nose with a metaphorical newspaper was the best route for now. If he still didn't get the subtle hints, Carl could give him some more obvious ones. He would just have to wait and see what the brat did in the future. Would he finally settle down and realize that the people there were real people that he couldn't mess with? Or would he continue in his deluded dreams of using and abusing everyone?

Besides, Carl was making bets with himself as to how much time the new Sasuke would spend with burned hands. So it might be amusing to see how long it took the new Uchiha to learn his lesson.

XX

Things settled down into a routine for Carl after the day the new Sasuke appeared.

He spent time with the Wyvern summoning clan, learning their martial arts, training with their young ones, and doing tasks for them. It seems that the Snakes were unusual in that they liked having their summoner to have a specific snake that acted as their main partner. Most of the other clans had a more lax relationship with their summoners. Whoever was interested could come by and train with him while he was there.

The Wing-fu of the Wyverns was a three dimensional martial art. Humans and many other creatures couldn't fly, so a lot of their moves, holds, and throws were based off of the idea that they would have the earth to use as an anchor and lever in their martial arts.

The Wyverns, on the other hand, often fought mid air. A throw does nothing but get some distance from the enemy when there is no earth there to slam them into. Many of the grappling holds that Carl knew were based on the idea that he would have the earth underneath him to use against the opponent. Mid-air there was none of that. The opponent could simply turn away and slip out of the hold.

So the Wing-fu was all about how to do the most damage possible in strikes, swipes, sweeps, bludgeons, claw attacks, etc. And one had to really think in three dimensions to stand a chance. His Byakugan eyes were actually a big help in this endeavor, since he could always see through the sneaky feints and eye blinding moves that they used to cover sneak attacks. 359 degree X-ray vision was an amazing cheat.

As the weeks and months passed by, Carl had long realized that even though he had mastered the Wing-fu of the Wyverns, he was being tested on his patience and perseverance. Which is why they hadn't started training him in Senjutsu yet. So, he abided by their schedule.

He would spend a day a week with the Snake clan, and one day every two weeks with the Chameleon clan to fulfill his obligations with them.

Aside from his work with the summoning clans, his blood clones were spending their time in various pursuits as well.

His clone in Konoha had been enjoying the spectacle that Sasuke was bringing him. He seemed a bit dense, really, since he kept trying to hit on the Naruko, Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Yakumo, and Yamiko instead of diving into his training. Those girls who were serious about their ninja careers were incredibly annoyed by his smarmy attempts to woo them when they were busy with training.

Even though the girls hadn't gone through puberty yet, they were smart enough to have studied about adult relations in advance. And while Naruko had been initially a bit confused and unable to connect Sasuke's actions with the "flirting" that she had read about, with Sakura's explanation Naruko had become aware of what he was trying to do and was incredibly disgusted with Sasuke.

Even though Sasuke could accept any of the fangirls that surrounded him, he seemed to disdain them for their focus on him. He was focused on those girls who were actually serious about their ninja career.

The stupidity and irony of his attitude was completely lost on the boy. He disliked the fangirls because they weren't serious about being ninja, but he himself wasn't serious about his ninja career either. He seemed more concerned about making a harem than he was in training. So he couldn't see that his actions were that of a fangirl trying to get in his pants. And he was wondering why he disgusted the kunoichi in training.

After his first round of cursing the boy, Carl didn't bother to do anything about him. Despite having the body of a genin, the soul that now occupied Sasuke's body had no experience in fighting.

And it wasn't like even the original Sasuke could overcome any of his friends in a fight, not with the amount that they trained with his special gravity / wind resistance training belt. They were far beyond him in skills and strength, and the new Sasuke was worse than the original was.

All of his friends were already high genin in body tempering and skills. They could all take the original Sasuke down, let alone the noob Sasuke with a new tenant. So Carl didn't really have anything to worry about on that front, and took to mocking and laughing at the boy anytime he made a fool of himself.

Another clone was spending time in New Uzushio, continuing to train with Karin, Hanako, and Nawaki while also getting to know Tsunade, Dan, and Shizune.

Carl saw how Karin, Hanako, and Nawaki interacted, and he could see those three making a great genin team together in the next year or so. Based on how they were interacting, Carl was thinking that Nawaki would decide to settle down in New Uzushio instead of returning to Konoha.

Despite the time that had passed since he was born, he was still only a 12 year old. And everyone that he knew back in Konoha had already grown up into an adult while he was gone. He was displaced in time, and having Karin and Hanako as his friends seemed to help him adjust and enjoy life again. Carl was pretty sure that Nawaki was adjusting his dream from being the Hokage of Konoha to being the Uzukage of New Uzushio.

One of Carl's clones also spent plenty of time with the Dragon Flight. There was another batch of eggs that would be hatching after they arrived in the next world, unless he brought them into the time pearl and adjusted the settings to allow time to pass normally inside so they matured and hatched. While he was considering it, he wasn't sure if he wanted or needed to do so. He would probably just let time pass normally from now on.

XX

Time passed for Carl, and the second year of his the ninja academy ended. The break started, and Carl enjoyed continuing his routine of working with the three summoning clans, his friends, the Silver Dragon Flight, and New Uzushio.

Many of his people had found projects of their own to study or events to participate in around the world. At the core of his dragons, they loved crafting new things. Naturally the best of their equipment was reserved for their own people of the Dragon Flight and New Uzushio. But they were also crafting pinnacle tier ninja gear for Konoha. They especially enjoyed working with the Chakra metals that they had discovered in this world.

The people of the Naruto world had discovered a rare metal that could easily channel and enhance chakra flow. And the only purpose they had come up with for the metal so far was to use them as weapons that could channel chakra especially well.

In the past there were weapons crafted out of chakra metal that became famous and known as legendary weapons.

Samehada was a six foot tall "sword" wielded by Kisame Hoshigaki that was comprised of a mass of chakra metal shaped into shark scales. The sword bristled with scales and could grow larger as it "ate" more chakra. It had even gained a limited amount of consciousness from having so much chakra fed into it and would attack anyone who wasn't its chosen wielder.

The Kubikiribocho, or butcher's blade, was another six foot tall sword that was wielded by Zabuza Momochi. It had a one foot wide blade that had a semi-circle cut out near its handle and a full circle cut out near the tip. Its special property was the ability to regenerate itself using the iron and chakra in the blood of its victims.

Then there was the sword of the Thunder God that was basically a light saber using lighting elemental release. The chakra metal handle used the chakra fed to it to create a blade of lighting that could cut or electrocute opponents.

The enthusiastic blacksmiths of Carl's Flight eagerly gathered information on the legendary weapons of this world and sought to recreate and improve them.

And many of the others researched other uses of chakra metal, experimenting in adding them into the current technology applications. Could chakra metal be used to channel more energy than naquedah? Could it be used in computing and circuits? How did it react to the crystals and storage medium they already employed? These and many other questions were being investigated by the members of the Dragon Flight that were basically science geeks.

His extra blood clones, bored with what they could do in New Uzushio, decided that they would infiltrate the other hidden villages and join their ninja academies. His blood clones only had access to his chakra when they were initially formed, so they weren't metamorphmagus like the original was. But they could use his magical, profound, and ki cultivation techniques and gain access to appearance changing abilities that ninja couldn't see through. So his clones were able to easily infiltrate the various villages.

He had one of his clones off in Suna training and being friends with Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Once it came to light that a mysterious ninja had fixed Gaara's seal so his sand wasn't acting murderous under the influence of the One Tail Demon Raccoon, Gaara's life had changed greatly. He could now spend time with his siblings, Temari and Kankuro. Along with Carl's blood clone, he actually had a couple of good friends and was able to attend the Academy in Suna to train to be a ninja.

His blood clone in Kumo was fitting in just fine. There weren't any notable ninja characters from the show his age, so he was mostly just making some friends and getting to know the various characters there.

His clone in Iwa wasn't actually able to make friends with Kurotsuchi, who was the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage. She seemed to be going through a bratty stuck up phase and thought that Carl's clone was another one of those that sucked up to her because her grandfather was the Tsuchikage.

Since that was her attitude, Carl's clone rolled his eyes and continued on to make friends with various other Iwa students and their families.

His clone in Kiri actually joined the rebels that were fighting against the fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi.

That whole mess of a country needed some help. Yagura Karatachi was the jinchuriki of the Three Tailed Demon Turtle. As the Mizukage, he had started the bloodline purges. Anyone who had a bloodline was hunted down and killed, which started a bloody civil war. And none of it was his fault.

At some point in his past, Madara Uchiha had shown up in his country and ensnared Yagura with his Sharingan eyes, enslaving Yagura to Madara's will, and forcing him to start killing off the bloodlines.

Was it any wonder that Carl didn't think highly of the Uchiha? One of the Uchiha clan's most famous ninja was sneakily killing off other clan's bloodlines. He was instigating war and conflict wherever he went. He was set on a plan to steal all the tailed demon beasts and combine them into the Juubi and seal it into himself so he could have ultimate power.

And the clan Madara left behind in Konoha wasn't any better. They had been slowly killing off the other clans in Konoha so they could gain complete power over Konoha and be the sole rulers. In Carl's mind, they were all a bunch of power hungry despots.

So one day shortly after Carl's blood clone joined the rebels, Carl himself infiltrated Kiri to right some wrongs.

The ninja village of Kiri was located on the main island of the Land of Water, which stretched over more than 25 islands in an archipelago east of the Land of Fire, between the Chigiri Sea and the Wani Ocean.

Carl had decided to infiltrate the village the old fashioned way instead of just beaming directly in. So he found himself standing in the humid and misty forests on the main island just outside of Kiri.

The protective walls of Kiri had nothing on Konoha's giant walls. But they did have ninja stationed every fifty or so feet on guard.

Carl was in his humanoid dinosaur form. His hulking bulk was armored with his profound armor that was shaped like local ninja gear. When in Rome and all that. His black pants were tucked into combat boots and wrapped in tape. He preferred boots rather than the sandals most ninja seemed to favor. Despite being able to regenerate toes if they got cut off in a fight, he preferred to have a good solid boot between his digits and any kunai.

He had ninja mesh armor underneath a dark green long sleeved shirt that had a hood to cover his hair. His endless ninja weapon pouches were on his thighs and at the small of his back. His Blue Orchid was in the shape of a chokuto on his right back. It was much bigger than a normal chokuto simply because his current form was seven and a half feet tall. A normal chokuto would look like a steak knife in his hands.

He sported the standard hunter-nin porcelain mask of New Uzushio. He had designed some nice hunter masks for his people with special seal work that would allow them to see through the masks like they were one way mirrors. They had the equivalent of bubble head charms on them that allowed underwater breathing and so they wouldn't accidentally breathe in poison from their enemies. And they had a voice modulation setting so they could change what their voice sounded like. Not to mention they had unbreakable charms so they could protect their faces if they got hit in combat.

He was also sporting some seal work that masked his chakra signature so he felt like the normal surroundings to other ninja. No one could detect him with chakra, even if they were within reaching distance. He would just feel like their surroundings.

Carl entered stealth mode and simply hopped over the walls between the sentries. They remained ignorant of his presence.

It was the middle of the night, so there was hardly anyone moving around. Because of the rebellion and the state of war, there was a curfew so the civilians were stuck in their homes all night long. Only a few ninja were patrolling around, enforcing the curfew.

Dodging the patrols was no work at all as he strolled through the streets of Kiri. Carl chuckled a bit inside as he made his way closer to his target. Even though he didn't feel like it was very hard to infiltrate the village, he was still enjoying himself as he made his way through the unaware village. There was just something fun about being a sneaky rogue that no one could catch.

Eventually he found himself in front of the large building that the Muzukage worked and lived out of. The man didn't have any family to go home to. And being hypnotized / brainwashed by Madara, he had no desire to do so either.

Wall walking up to a window, Carl opened it with a bit of telekinesis from the inside. Silently closing the window behind him, he walked through the halls until he arrived outside the room where the Yagura was sleeping.

Black Seal script crawled out from under his feet and spread around the hallway and around the room in front of him. Once his array was in place, Carl was satisfied that no one would hear anything that happened here or feel any chakra emanations.

He opened the door in front of him. Carl felt the attack coming from inside the room, but he simply held up a wall of air, blocking the torrent of water from bludgeoning him. With a thought, the wood from the table and bed inside suddenly began growing huge and shaping into hands that clamped onto Yagura.

A blade of air was shot from Yagura's mouth before he began drawing on the Three tails' chakra, forming a cloak around himself.

Carl used his own air shield to block the blade of air, and more seal script crawled out from under his feet while at the same time more arms of wood were created to grab onto each of Yagura's limbs.

A moment later the seal script had crawled up the arms of wood that held Yagura firmly in their grasp, and began forming into an array on Yagura's body. Once they were in place, they glowed silver blue as they activated.

Yagura's body jerked mightily as the sealing array suddenly broke the genjutsu / brain wash that had him in its thrall. Carl's sealing work left behind a tattoo on Yagura's skin that would keep him from being enthralled any more.

"What…what have I done!?" Yagura cried out in grief as he realized that he had been killing off the important bloodline clans of Kiri. He had single handedly ruined his beloved homeland. He had even had a special girl that he wanted to ask out, but she had a bloodline. And now she was driven away from him and heading up the rebellion against him. He broke down crying in despair.

Carl sighed in sympathy. The wooden arms released Yagura, who curled up in a ball on the ground in despair and agony.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to figure out that someone had mind controlled you, Yagura." Carl stated. Despite the continued crying from the broken man, he could see that Yagura was still listening to him. "I don't know if we can fix everything that the person who mind controlled you broke, but I'll help where I can. And you are still the Mizukage, so you can start the work of reconciling your people."

Yagura wiped away his tears and forced himself to contain his emotions. He was still a ninja, after all. And he had work to do to fix this mess. He could have his break down later.

"You're right, stranger." He said as he got to his feet. "Thank you for freeing me. My name is Yagura Karatichi, the fourth Mizukage, even if I won't be the Mizukage for long, and I owe you a debt." He bowed to Carl.

"My name is Carl." Carl nodded his head in return, but didn't give his full name of Hyuga. Best not to complicate things just yet. "I'll be in touch with you some time in the future. For now, I'd better leave you to your work."

And then Carl faded from visibility. Before he left, he mentally commanded the wood to return to its previous state, even repairing the door. And he ended the concealing seals around Yagura's room.

Yagura himself looked around the room that still had paperwork thrown around and dripping wet. It was surreal to be free in mind and body once more. Straightening his shoulders, he pulled out a dry piece of paper. He had many orders to hand out in the morning to begin ending this damned war and begin reconciling the ninja of Kiri with each other. And then he would step down as their Mizukage.

He didn't deserve the appointment if he could be mind controlled so easily. Especially after what he had done. There's no way they could trust him in the position from here on out.

XX

More time passed. Carl's class resumed their third year of the academy. Many of the fangirls had been cut from the program back in the first evaluation. But surprisingly enough, three of them had gotten a bit more serious about their ninja career. They were still acting like fangirls and trying to suck up to Sasuke while he kept trying to get closer to the clan girls, but both sides were very unsuccessful.

He continued training with the summoning clans, and Carl read from attitudes that he may soon be allowed to begin the Wyvern's Senjutsu training. So he kept his patience and continued his schedule.

He and his friends in Konoha continued their training in the afternoons. Carl was pretty proud of his friends and what they accomplished.

Shikamaru was not nearly as lazy as he was in the original comic, even while he pretended he was. He worked just as hard as the rest of them, but felt that he had to put on the Nara lazy front. He and Carl occasionally spent time playing strategy games, which both of them enjoyed.

Choji didn't have as much of a complex about being seen as fat, since he worked out hard and was full of visible muscle. With the belt that Carl gave him, he was always working hard and was the strongest physically of the group, aside from Carl's completely cheat-like existence.

With active friends that pushed him, Kiba was very strong and skilled in his clan's techniques. He still didn't have his canine companion Akamaru yet. Apparently there would be a litter soon, so before the end of their third year Carl would finally get to meet the cute little doge.

Shino, while still a quiet individual, was social in his own way and very skilled in more than just his clan's techniques with the hives in his body. Thanks to Carl's belt helping him train, he had plenty of chakra to keep his hives fed and try out some other jutsu than just what relied on his kikaichu bugs.

Nobodon found that he liked using a sword, so he was coming along well in that skill. He sometimes still couldn't believe that an unimportant orphan like him could make friends with so many clan heirs. But he was determined to keep up with everyone and stay friends for life.

Junirio had made friends with Lee in the class above them and found himself to be a Taijutsu enthusiast. He found plenty of people to practice with in their group, since everyone had different styles that helped him get good at adapting his skills to compensate for weird skills.

Hinata found she had an appreciation for the medical skills and so she was studying to be a medic nin, which was unusual for a Hyuga main branch member, but completely acceptable now that they had gotten rid of the main/branch divide in the Hyuga clan. She still worked hard at her own style of the Gentle Fist with their mother and she was frighteningly good at it.

Sakura was wavering back and forth between focusing on Genjutsu or studying the medical field with Hinata. Thinking back to the show and how Sakura became Tsunade's apprentice, Carl knew she had the skills to be an amazing medic. But he decided not to influence her decision and leave it totally up to her. So far she seemed to be splitting the difference and working with Hinata and Yakumo on both subjects.

Yakumo had a natural talent in Genjutsu due to her bloodline, so she would always include illusions in her repertoire, but her bout with being debilitated by the demon in her youth had left an indelible impression in her mind, and she worked out her body almost religiously. Even several years after she was able to exercise and feel normal again, she hadn't lost her glee at being able to move her body like she wanted again.

Ino was very proud of her clan's mind walking techniques, so she worked harder at those than she did at the physical aspects. That wasn't to say that she didn't work on her taijutsu, but it was secondary to the frankly scary things the Yamanaka clan could do to enemy ninja.

Yamiko hadn't found the ninja skill she loved above all others yet, so she was dabbling in a bit of everything for now. But she was becoming quite the skilled generalist, able to bounce from group to group, based on what she felt like working on at the time.

And like sands falling in an hourglass, time slipped by quickly. Towards the end of his third year at the academy Carl saw that the shipping magnate Gato moved a lot of his operations and capital into Wave country.

When he got the report on that iconic event approaching, Carl sent one of his blood clones to watch over the country.

In the original story Gato had pretty much gained a monopoly on all shipping in or out of the island country of Wave that lay off the southern coast of the Land of Fire. It was never actually said in the original story what Gato did with the ruler of Wave Country, whether he bribed the Daimyo, killed him, or if he was simply so powerless that he could do nothing about Gato.

Gato and his hired mercenaries became despots of the land, wringing the people of Wave of every bit of profit they could. The people of Wave started going hungry, then starving because of the thugs of Gato stealing everything from them.

Shortly after Naruto was put on team 7 with Sasuke, Sakura, and their jonin teacher Kakashi, they received a C-rank mission to protect the bridge builder Tazuna while he completed his super awesome bridge that would connect Wave to the mainland and would break Gato's monopoly on shipping, which would allow the people of Wave to once more have hope and be able to bring in food and ship out whatever their products were.

While team 7 was there in Wave, they learned the back story of Tazuna's family and the tragedy that was Wave Country. Tazuna had a daughter, Tsunami, and a grandson Inari. Tsunami's husband had died some time before and Inari had almost drowned in the ocean when he was saved by a fisherman named Kaiza.

Over time Inari took Kaiza to be a father figure and Kaiza and Tsunami grew close. Inari looked to Kaiza as a hero of Wave, to be looked up to, when Kaiza swam across the flood waters to close a dam door to prevent the village from being destroyed in a flood. He told Inari that he must protect anything that he cared about with both arms, in other words he must do everything wholeheartedly.

When Gato moved in and started strong arming the citizens, Kaiza tried to stand up to Gato, but was captured by the hired mercenaries of the shipping magnate. Gato then had Kaiza's arms chopped off before killing him in front of the villagers and Inari as an object lesson to never stand up to him.

Seeing his role model being killed in front of him broke Inari's hope and faith in the world, and he became a gloomy little brat.

So in the original story, Naruto managed to inspire Inari to once more fight for what he believed in. At the end of the confrontation between the ninja that Gato hired and Team 7, Inari had inspired the villagers to actually fight for their future. Inari brought the villagers to the bridge and helped mop up the remnants of Gato's forces.

The C-rank mission was one of the important character building arcs for the original Naruto. He learned that he should be striving to get stronger to protect his "precious people", rather than just to make people admire him.

He and Sasuke developed a brotherhood based on how they defended each other while they were fighting an opponent that overwhelmed them with his ice bloodline.

And it was one of the first instances of Naruto employing his Talk no Jutsu to convince people to turn away from the darker side of life. Both with Inari, and with the enemy ninja Zabuza, who at the end of his life admitted how much he cared for his Haku, who he had only treated as a tool up until then.

It was one of those touching moments that defines the character of the hero of the story.

And it was a storyline that Carl was completely derailing by way of a rain of kunai into the mercenaries of Gato.

When Gato brought his thugs to capture Kaiza, Carl stood out of sight and rained down kunai after kunai down on the thugs, who were nothing compared to a trained genin, let alone someone like Carl. Carl enjoyed finally using his pouches full of never ending ninja tools on a worthy target. He pulled out kunai after kunai, gleefully throwing them, hearing the meaty thwack sounds of them impacting the bandit like thugs that Gato hired.

With all the thugs crippled or killed, moaning in their own blood, shit, and piss around Gato, the midget shipping magnate had problems standing up, let alone protecting himself against Kaiza when he moved in to beat the little man up.

Despite the shock of seeing the rain of metal, Kaiza recognized that someone was helping him in the shadows, so he took advantage of the opportunity to end the threat of Gato.

Yes, despite how important to the canon plotline the Wave story arc was, Carl didn't care. He had fun derailing the tragedy of Wave before it happened. Seeing the little would be tyrant piss himself in fear was quite the funny sight. And this way he derailed Inari from becoming emo.

'Note to self: Have the Silver Flight Trading Consortium set up shop in Wave to prevent anyone like Gato from trying this again.' Carl thought as he watched the villagers celebrate the end of Gato.

He had let Gato run rampant just enough so they knew how bad he was, but not so much as to let Gato actually kill or maim anyone.

'Hmm. I should really commission Tazuna to build me a super awesome bridge.'