NARUTO 10

Deep underground in certain, out of the way, parts of Konoha, one could find networks of tunnels that hid a great deal of ninja activity. The only shinobi that actively knew about and used the tunnels were the ROOT forces of Danzo Shimura.

The third Hokage probably had a decent suspicion that the ROOT forces were still active and taking on missions. But he trusted his old fellow apprentice and rival enough to not stick his nose in the clandestine business of Danzo, trusting that he would do what was right for Konoha.

That decision, to Carl who was looking at the situation as an outsider, made him think of Hiruzen as something of a naïve idiot.

But it was hard to judge Hiruzen too harshly over his failings in the matter. He had known Danzo for decades and he would have to see hard evidence of Danzo's betrayal of Konoha before he lost that trust. Simply seeing evidence that Danzo was doing unethical things wouldn't really cut it. Assassinations were unethical, but were a normal part of the trade that ninjas engaged in.

No, it would have to be some hard evidence that Danzo was actually a traitor to Konoha that would finally turn Hiruzen against Danzo. That attitude and mindset was part of the camaraderie and trust in their fellow Konoha shinobi that was instilled in them from a young age. The Will of Fire.

So it wasn't any wonder that even the Hokage never knew about all the tunnels that Danzo's ROOT forces had built. The weapons caches, the training grounds, the kidnapped children, some of them from Konoha's own clans, forced into being ROOT recruits. The inhuman training that was designed to kill their emotions and turn the recruits into emotionless killing machines.

No, the Hokage knew nothing about any of these things, ignoring it because of his trust in his "friend". And as a result of the Hokage turning a blind eye, Danzo had carte blanche to do what he wanted and use the methods he liked, no matter how despicable they were.

Deep in the maze of tunnels under Konoha, there was one chamber that was the center of the spider's web. For this week, at least. The needs of operational security had Danzo moving from site to site on a semi-regular basis. The codes and passwords were changed regularly to prevent any enemy from being able to gather intel and penetrate the ROOT organization.

In that chamber at the center of ROOT was an old man whose forehead and right eye was covered in bandages, with black and grey peppered hair sticking spilling out the top. His face was set in a stern expression, and his chin was marred by an X shaped scar. His right arm was kept tucked away in his robe, as if it was a sling for a limb that no longer worked. He sat at a desk piled with reports, a wooden walking stick propped against the desk.

There were two ROOT guards posted in the back of the room. They were dressed in the ANBU gear of black pants, shirt, and ninja sandals, a white vest with a short straight Chokuto sword over their right shoulder, and a white porcelain mask with animal face markings on it.

Danzo's ROOT members dressed the same as the village's ANBU forces because it let ROOT ninja act more openly in and around Konoha. If the Konoha ninja thought they were ANBU special forces, they could operate easily in the open when sneaking around would contrarily gain them unwanted attention.

Danzo was reading through some reports when something pinged on his awareness. Without letting on that he was aware of something wrong, he scanned the room while continuing to appear to be reading reports.

'The two guards are in their positions and alert. The air flow from the vents is normal; nothing is creeping through them. There are no unusual scents present indicating any gasses are being pumped in. The chakra reactive paper above the unimportant door isn't indicating anyone present using a stealth jutsu. The brazier in the corner…'

'Wait, the unimportant door?' Danzo's attention snapped back to the door in time to hear the guards outside the door collapse, unconscious.

Behind the cover of the desk, Danzo dropped a kunai from his left sleeve. Imbuing it with wind chakra to increase the sharpness and cutting area, he felt for the wind currents in the room. Roughly judging where the intruder was, he smoothly stood and threw the kunai at the same time.

Danzo's sudden attack brought the ROOT guards inside the room to full alert. While the kunai was flying towards its target, the guards unsheathed their Chokutos, only to stare in disbelief as the kunai froze in air.

A moment later, the stealth that Carl had been employing faded away, showing him as a five foot eight man with short brown hair, brown eyes, and dressed in standard black ninja gear, holding the kunai by its handle. Carl had employed a chakra based shape shifting technique to appear other than the heir of the Hyuga that he was, even if he was only a blood clone.

"Well, I'm impressed with your paranoia, there, Danzo." Carl chuckled.

A moment later two flashes of light behind the two ROOT guards heralded the appearance of two more blood clones shape shifted to look like a triplet of the first Carl's shape shifted form. Before the guards could react, the clones had placed seals on them that shut down their consciousness and blocked their chakra.

All three Carl's faced Danzo, who took a ready stance. He radiated supreme confidence that he would turn the tables on his three attackers.

Without warning, black seal script radiated from the feet of the three clones across the floor. Danzo started making hand signs while sucking in a great deal of air, intending to launch some piercing wind attacks at the three.

Before he could finish, the seal script from each of the three met up and surrounded Danzo, creating a blue silver barrier. A moment later, Danzo breathed out a shotgun of piercing wind attacks which impacted harmlessly on the barrier.

"Who…are…you…?" Danzo asked as he began staggering woozily. "Why…?"

"You're in no position to ask questions, now are you, Danzo?" The Carl that first appeared to Danzo asked in an amused tone of voice as Danzo collapsed to his knees, struggling to remain conscious. "Well. That's that."

Danzo passed out a moment later.

"B, see if he's really passed out, or if he's just faking." The first clone said.

"Yeah, sure, lazy A." B told the clone that was designated as A for the mission as he made a shadow clone that appeared inside the barrier. The clone that was labeled as C just sat back, amused at himself. They were all Carl, after all.

A few moments with a diagnostic jutsu confirmed that Danzo was passed out. The shadow clone dispelled a moment later.

A, B, and C dropped the barrier and swiftly moved to secure Danzo. First, they stripped the man who reminded Carl of Senator Kinsey in how he was determined to make more enemies for his homeland than he did allies.

"Well, gotta give the old man credit, he's not leaving home without being armed." C stated with humor as they found the numerous storage seals hidden in his clothes that were packed with various ninja tools.

"Even the old ninja of the village are pretty fit." A joked after they stripped the old man and saw that he was still packed with corded muscle.

"Yeah, old ninjas don't get that way by being pushovers." B agreed. "Look at that disgusting arm. The cartoon didn't do justice for just how disgusting and monstrous Orochimaru's experiments were."

The arm in question was the hidden right arm of Danzo. It was corpse white and nightmare fuel because of the face on his shoulder and the twisted flesh/wood texture. Orochimaru had dug up the corpse of Hashimaru Senju, the first Hokage, who had the wood release bloodline. They had injected and grown those cells in Danzo's arm, in the hopes of implanting Sharingan eyes from the Uchihas so Danzo could use them for a technique called Izanagi.

Izanagi was basically an extra life at the cost of one of the Sharingan eyes. It was based on the Creation of All Things Technique used by the Sage of Six Paths to turn imagination into reality. When Izanagi was used, they basically used the Yin release to cast a genjutsu on reality. Their body that suffered a killing blow would fade away, and their undamaged body would appear in a nearby location.

In the original show, Sasuke killed Danzo a dozen times over due to all the Sharingan eyes Danzo had implanted in his arm. Carl had preempted the old war hawk's ability to use Izanagi by destroying all the Sharingan eyes Danzo and his ROOT ninja took from the massacred clan, so this fight was a lot less annoying than it could have been.

And now all those Uchiha children that he saved were being raised in New Uzushio by the Silver Dragon Flight. Some of the older children, those that were almost eight, had to undergo some rigorous deprogramming. They had spent too much time with their clan, learning about a lust for power and holding on to their hate.

They were being watched and taught how to be decent human beings without being arrogant. Some of the kids were too far gone, and had required obliviations and de-aging so they could be raised again from scratch without the hater-ade the Uchiha clan had them constantly drinking.

"Well, let's get this guy situated." A stated as he placed Danzo face down on the ground.

B pulled out some inscription materials and began inking the slave inscription on Danzo's back. A secured the door and then kept watch over Danzo, while C made sure the ROOT guards were out for the count.

Just like with Senator Kinsey in the Stargate world, Carl felt it was appropriate to enslave Danzo and use him to attempt to undo all the evils he had done. It always seemed to be the most torturous part of their punishment for control freak evil people like them: not being in control and being forced to do things the not-evil way.

Kinsey, for example, had almost had a stroke when they shared out information about the Stargate and started working with the other nations. He was especially incensed when they opened up the technology they had found so far for everyone to share and innovate with.

He totally didn't care that with those actions the Stargate Program had access to so many more scientists, materials, and extra budget from the other nations than they could dream of sneaking through the black ops budgets. For him, the idea of sharing his toys and profiting even more along with making friends and allies seemed to be anathema to his very being.

Kinsey's soul seemed to yearn for power, for control, for profit. And it only made him happy if those things were his exclusively. He wasn't winning unless someone else was losing.

Danzo seemed to be cut from a similar mold. Rather than making allies, or growing stronger with the allies they have, he constantly sought to undermine all the enemies of Konoha. And by enemies, Danzo meant everyone who wasn't Konoha. So even Konoha's allies were negatively affected by Danzo's actions.

After digging through Danzo's records through the probes Carl sent, he discovered quite a few of Danzo's despicable actions. For example, the ninja village of Suna, over in the Land of Wind, was allies with Konoha. But despite them being allies, Danzo had been running operations in the Land of Wind, carefully assassinating various nobles and politicians in the court of the Wind Daimyo. He was then able to influence the replacements in the government so that a lot of business contracts the Court had with Suna was taken from Suna and given to Konoha.

These actions led to a huge cut in the ninja budget of Suna. Which created a great amount of resentment in Suna for Konoha. Which left Suna open to the manipulations of Orochimaru, which, in the future, would lead to the invasion of Konoha by the joint forces of Suna and Sound during the Chuunin finals when Naruto was a genin.

And all that was enabled by Danzo's short sighted and traitorous actions. It didn't matter that he thought he was doing right by Konoha by securing that extra funding. He was betraying an ally of Konoha, which was a betrayal of Konoha. Not to mention his actions directly led to an ally attacking Konoha because they were at the end of their rope.

B finished inscribing the slave seals onto Danzo. With a flash of light, they sunk into his bare back, continuing to glow slightly for a short time before fading to nothing, leaving his back once more bare.

"Okay, it's done." B said as he flipped Danzo onto his back.

"C, how are the ROOT guards?" A asked.

"I've Obliviated their memory of the attack and put a mild Confundus Charm on them so they won't notice they were unconscious for a time." C reported.

"Good." A stated. "Let's wake up Danzo here and give him his marching orders. Go ahead and get the station for processing the ROOT members set up, B and C."

"Roger that blue leader." B saluted as he began pulling out the needed equipment from their dimensional storage.

"Roger, roger." C joined B in setting up their ROOT deprogramming station.

They would have to do this job carefully over the next few weeks. Ninjas were squirrely and paranoid at the best of times. And if Danzo suddenly called in all of his ROOT agents at one time, they would be highly suspicious that he was compromised and might flee like rabbits.

So they would have to do it a bit at a time as the various ROOT agents came in to report on their missions. They would remove the seal that was on the ninja's tongues that would ensure their silence by exploding if they tried to betray Danzo.

Then they would get in their heads and deconstruct the conditioning that made them loyal and emotionless killing drones of Danzo.

Once the Carl's had caught all the ROOT agents, they may have to do the same for them that they did for some of the Uchiha kids, namely full Obliviations and de-aging so they could grow up to not be a hotbed of psychological issues, believing themselves to simply be Tools, or monsters, or whatever kind of emotionless killing machines that Danzo turned them into.

It was a good thing he had brought in plenty of caretakers and babysitters to New Uzushio. He would likely have a large influx of babies in the next couple of months.

A cast an Ennervate on Danzo, waking him up. He smiled a bit at seeing Danzo greatly desiring to do something, but he was held motionless by the slave seal.

"Good to see you awake Danzo. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Well, unfortunately you won't be getting answers anytime soon, if ever. But you are now our good little soldier boy. Your first order is that you will inform no one of us or what we have done to you. Not by word, gesture, intimation, writing, or any other means of communication. Even if a Yamanaka were to enter your mind, you would hide these memories from them. Your second order is…"

They spent some time with Danzo, setting up how he would bring in the ROOT members for deprogramming and what he would be allowed to do for his village in the future. Needless to say, Danzo thought he was already in Hell.

XX

Hiruzen sat back in his chair in the Hokage's tower as he stuffed tobacco into his pipe. His paperwork wasn't done, but he was taking a break for a moment. Igniting a small flame on his index finger to light his pipe, he was sorely tempted to just use the jutsu to burn the never depleting piles of paperwork instead.

Momentarily mastering his impulse, he was quite used to the temptation after all these years of battle with the paperwork monster, he moved the flame to his pipe while gently puffing on the stem, letting out small puffs of smoke as he got a good ember going.

While relaxing on his break, he looked out one of the windows of his office. The Hokage's tower was a round multi story tower where each level was slightly smaller in radius than the one below it. He was on the fourth floor, each floor being at least 14 feet tall. His office, being on the top floor, had three windows he could look out.

The window he was currently looking out had a view of the mountain where the faces of the Hokage were carved. Hiruzen idly thought back on the many years of his life. When he was a genin his jonin instructor was Tobirama Senju, back before he became the second Hokage. His teammates Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane were now his advisors. They had all gotten old. Time had marched on, unrelenting.

It really was amazing that all three of them were still alive. The odds of a single ninja living to their age were already high, much less having an entire genin team survive to their age. But his teammates had been growing more and more distant, more willing to go against his decisions in support of Danzo. He still felt a faint sense of outrage and betrayal over that. That they seemed to be abandoning him for his "rival".

The rift from his friend Danzo started years ago, back when he showed he was quite skilled in the ninja arts, which gained him additional tutelage from the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju. Ever since Danzo let jealousy of his opportunity move him, they became distanced, with Danzo always trying to beat him at everything.

Before he could finish his pipe in peace, the sounds of angry civilians stomping up the stairs leading to the reception outside his office drifted into his ears. They were loudly complaining about the "brat", and how horrible she was.

Hiruzen sighed. He was getting too old for this shit.

The door opened and his secretary poked her head in.

"Hokage, your next appointment, the Mikong Merchant Association is here a bit early. They are very agitated and demand to see you now, even though their appointment is in 10 minutes. What would you like to do?" Ruriho tentatively asked.

Hiruzen sighed again. He would have to rotate her out of the secretary position, if she couldn't even handle telling a bunch of angry civilians to wait until their appointment.

"Have them wait until the appointed time." He calmly stated, only for the Mikong Merchant Association members to push his secretary aside and slam the doors to his office open belligerently. Apparently they believed they had enough clout and economic power in Konoha to act unruly in front of him. That just wouldn't do at all.

Hiruzen made a hand gesture to his secretary to retreat, definitely have to replace her if she couldn't even keep a bunch of civilians out. He calmly puffed on his pipe while the five appointed representatives for the Association stomped in and stood arrogantly glaring down at him where he was still seated at his desk. They correctly assumed that his not standing to greet them was a slight on their importance and standing.

The leader of the group angrily opened their mouth, but before he could get a word out, Hiruzen radiated Killing Intent, causing the group to freeze in place and shiver in fear. Their anger disappeared like a fart in the wind, sweat sprung out on their foreheads and backs as they came to the abrupt realization that they stood before a man who could kill all five of them in a second and that he was perilously close to doing so.

Satisfied that he had put them in their place, Hiruzen retracted his KI a bit, letting them actually breathe again. He kept it up to a low level though, to keep them uneasy so they wouldn't become complacent.

"So, what does the Mikong Merchant Association have for the office of the Hokage at this time?" Hiruzen coldly asked.

The group of merchants gulped in fright. The encounter with the Hokage hadn't gone at all like they had planned. They had thought that by showing up early and forcing their way in, using their economic power, that they would be able to dominate the meeting, forcing the Hokage to see things their way and do as they wished. But that old man was scary, and they suddenly realized he was a ninja that could easily kill them all. It made them a lot more nervous and tentative than they wanted.

"Lord Hokage, we…we brought a petition to you to punish the demo – er…the Uzumaki brat that is disrupting the marketplace, and ruining the economic livelihood of Konoha. It – er.. she…" the spokesman changed the way he described Naruko based on the glare he was getting from the Hokage. "She has been constantly making a mess of the marketplace, leading to less trade being done, which is hurting the economic lifeblood of Konoha. If the disruptions aren't stopped and she be punished, then the Mikong Merchant Association will have no choice but to raise the cost of goods, as a result of the lost revenue."

The spokesperson finished, gulping nervously as he was stared at by the Hokage like he was a bug. Hiruzen took his time staring at the man, unnerving him. He finally placed his pipe down on the pipe stand on his desk. He folded his hand on the desk in front of him and contemplated how he would cut this man off at the knees, verbally. Even though he was tempted to do so literally, he had plenty of practice in withstanding the temptation.

"Do you take me, the Hokage, for a fool, Mohei?" Hiruzen asked in a deadly but quiet voice.

"Lord Hokage…?" The leader of the Association, Mohei, gulped even more nervously.

"You must take me for a fool if you think you can get away with your pitiful scheme." Hiruzen continued as if he wasn't even listening to the man's words. "My ninja have investigated the matter, and I find it very interesting that those merchants who are targeted by these pranks are the same ones who either overcharged Naruko Uzumaki, or who have assaulted her in one way or another.

"Take, for example, Aragoro, the produce seller. He is constantly throwing tomatoes at an Academy Student who will one day be one of my ninjas. No matter how many times he is pranked in retaliation for his assault on one of my future ninjas, he still hasn't learned how to reign in his emotions and stop being an idiot. And every one of you who has been targeted for a prank bears a similar culpability."

Hiruzen stopped talking for a moment to flare a bit of KI to keep them off balance and frightened. It was unethical of a ninja of Konoha to attack one of their civilians. But using a bit of KI to keep them off balance and better able to follow the directions of a ninja that would save their lives was acceptable.

"And now, here you are, in my office, threatening me with economic punishment to the trade of Konoha in order to try to force me to punish an Academy student, one of my future ninja, who has only been retaliating in kind for the actions you yourselves have started. You threaten to raise the prices of goods that my ninja pay for, making their lives that much harder. Those same ninja who are keeping you safe and fat and happy here in Konoha. And all because you can't learn this simple lesson: stop targeting Naruko Uzumaki and you'll no longer be a victim of a prank."

Hiruzen paused for a moment to enjoy the looks of dismay on their faces. It felt quite good. So often he had to force himself to be diplomatic and polite, even when someone infuriated him. But there was nothing stopping him from putting these idiots in their place, and it felt good.

"Petition denied." Hiruzen flatly stated while glaring at the group of five. "And as punishment for your failed attempt at strong arm persuasion, I will withdraw my protection from your group. I know that you've only been as dominant in the Konoha market as you have because you have had the backing of the Hokage office, which made other economic associations wary of stepping on your toes. This was set up in thanks for the help you have provided to Konoha in the past during times of war."

The group's faces paled in fear at the Hokage's announcement. If they weren't especially, their enemies would be able to band together and completely hurt their bottom line, their profit.

"But I see that you've grown beyond a need to have the Hokage's office protecting you and your interests, if you feel comfortable enough to come to me and make unreasonable demands like you have been. From here on out, you will have to sink or swim on your own. Good luck."

Hiruzen then turned away from the group of five who looked quite devastated at the news.

"No, Lord Hokage! Please reconsider your decision! Please! We have families and workers that rely on us! We need the stable income from Konoha to provide for them! Please!" Mohei fell to his knees, followed by the other four representatives as they all bowed in supplication and begged for the Hokage to reverse his decision.

Hiruzen knew they had been arrogant for some time, and had been making unnecessary enemies for themselves by their actions. It was their own fault that they took the favor of the Hokage's office for past actions as carte blanche to act in an arrogant way, making enemies left and right for themselves.

"I'm afraid it's too late, Mohei. You had plenty of opportunity to come to your senses. Why do you think so many of the pranks succeeded in the first place? It's because you needed a lesson to temper your arrogance. It's too late to regret now. Don't worry, just because I've withdrawn my support doesn't mean I'll help your enemies. You'll just have to sink or swim on your own. ANBU! Remove these men from my office." Hiruzen ordered.

A few minutes later, Hiruzen's office was empty once more. He had his pipe in hand again and was relighting it as he stared out the window.

'Now that my interrupted break has resumed, what was I thinking about?' Hiruzen mused as he looked out the window. He saw the face of the fourth Hokage on the mountain. 'Ah, Minato. You and Kushina would be so proud of your daughter. She's a ball of sunshine and happiness that brings joy to this old man's heart. If only you could see the pranks she's pulled, you in particular, Kushina, would be so proud.'

Hiruzen continued to puff on his pipe as he enjoyed his few minutes of peace before he had to go back to war with his nemesis, Paperwork.

XX

The weeks passed by, and in Konoha many things were changing. Not so much on the surface, but the underneath the underneath was experiencing a great deal of upheaval and change.

The first big change was the operations of ROOT. When Carl and his people in the Flight had been reviewing the actions of Danzo and his illegal organization, they had come to the conclusion that they couldn't just shut everything down at once.

Despite Danzo's horrible job of making enemies wherever he went, he had brought a sort of stability to the balance of power in Konoha and the surrounding Ninja villages.

'But now that I think of it, Danzo is like the anti-Naruto.' Carl thought one day shortly after having subdued and enslaved Danzo. 'Naruto would make friends everywhere he goes, but Danzo does the opposite!'

If Carl had Danzo pull all the ROOT ninja at once from the field, there would be a vacuum. They would also likely leave behind evidence that would point towards Konoha. So he would have to slowly alter the way the organization operated and begin pulling them out a bit at a time. A gradual enough transition would allow them to withdraw without pointing their enemies straight at them.

But at the same time, Carl didn't want to trust in the slippery and sneaky Danzo to be his link to the organization. So, he had Danzo bring the ROOT members in a bit at a time so that the movement of so many wouldn't alarm anyone.

Carl then replaced their little exploding seal on their tongues with magically bound contracts and seals to ensure their loyalty to him, even above Danzo, and they then began implementing the withdrawal of their operations and forces from the surrounding nations and back to Konoha.

Even with the withdrawal of ROOT forces, Carl's intel gathering was top notch, due to his technology and invisible probes that kept track of everything. So Konoha's intelligence gathering organization that got intel from ROOT didn't even notice a difference.

And as the ROOT agents were pulled from the field as they could, they completed the deprogramming treatment in one of two ways. Those who could handle their new lives and learn to live with their past were immediately assigned new duties. Otherwise, if they were too broken inside from Danzo's "training", then they were de-aged and sent to New Uzushio to grow up again.

Carl had a number of different places he needed personnel working for him. In Konoha, under the direction of Goram and Mortic, they started economic warfare. The goal was to drive the merchants to sell their businesses to the Silver Flight Consortium, who would then turn around and hire those they bought the businesses from.

He figured that by the time he was ready to exit from this world, he should have most all of Konoha beholden to him in one way or another. Before his exit, he would formally make all his properties a subsidiary of his Ninja Clan, the Hyuga. That way he could, hopefully, take all of Konoha and its people with him in the jump.

It was very ambitious, since a lot of the ninja clans of Konoha would no doubt fight him if they knew his end goal right now. Having one of the clans attempt to make all the other clans subservient to him would offend their pride and dignity.

Carl was sure he could offer enough benefits to each clan that, when the time was right, would entice them to at least make temporary concessions. And once they were labeled by the jump chain as his followers, no matter how temporary, it would ensure that his loyalty perks kicked in and they would be less likely to jump ship, especially if they began following him from world to world.

He was quite pleased with the reports that Goram sent him on the state of the business empire they were building for him. It wasn't something that he could have done easily before he enslaved Danzo. That crazy, paranoid, evil aligned man would have taken one look at his Consortium buying up properties and business in Konoha and immediately attacked. At the very least Danzo would have tried to assassinate Carl's people and replace them in order to take control of the Consortium. Damned control freaks were never happy when they weren't in charge of everything they could get their hands on.

And while all this underground warfare and shaking up of ROOT forces was happening, Carl and his friends were finishing up their first year of Academy training.

They had all been disappointed a bit in how easy the curriculum was. They had to find sneaky ways to continue training themselves so they actually improved, since the easy curriculum designed to allow weak civilians to shine wouldn't help them get any stronger.

The gravity and resistance belts that Carl gifted his friends with made a huge difference in their ability to get a good workout, even though a lot of their time was wasted in the classroom.

At the end of the year, Carl submitted a report of how the Academy was being run into the ground by the civilian concerns to the Hokage in his role as an ANBU member. While he wasn't too concerned about his close friends being screwed over by the curriculum, since he had found ways to counter it, he was very concerned about the future of the ninja Academy program in general.

If the curriculum wasn't changed now, then more and more graduates wouldn't last long as genin, if they could even pass a jonin's final test for their genin team.

Carl's report also detailed the declining mental health of Sasuke Uchiha. He urged the Hokage to force the boy to get some serious psychological help. Over the course of the year, Carl had watched as Sasuke had refused all offers of help training from him and his friends in the attempt to get him folded into their teams. He had continued to focus his mind on growing his hate, rage, and arrogance.

At the rate he was going, Carl wasn't even sure if the Uchiha brat wouldn't kill his own teammates in some crazy bid for power at some point in the future. He certainly wasn't stable enough for work on a genin team, that was for sure.

While Carl could do a great deal more to shape everything to his design, he decided to leave well enough alone, for now. He had time to finish arranging everything before leaving the world.

The matter of the academy curriculum was important, but not life threatening for now since his friends were all training up very well. He would be interested to see if Hiruzen actually did something about the academy when it was brought to his attention.

And the matter of Sasuke was concerning, but he didn't care enough for the boy to do anything drastic to "save" him. He would have to basically rewrite Sasuke's whole personality and memories to change him. He had seen what resulted of indulging Sasuke and chasing after him when Naruto, in the original story, kept trying to "save" his friend. Sasuke went off the deep end and tried killing everyone who showed concern for him, or were weak, or whatever. If Sasuke went that route, he would just let him die or kill him personally when he proved to be a traitor.

With the closing ceremony of the year finished, Carl threw his various concerns aside and focused on enjoying the family celebration they had that evening. His friends had agreed to get together the next day to have a party all together to celebrate. Then they would continue to regularly train during the break before the next academy year started.

XX

Carl was sitting cross legged in a cave with his eyes closed, an enormous white snake watching over him with narrowed eyes. He was following the directions the White Snake Sage had given him, and was utilizing the Snake clan method of gathering natural energy and mixing it with his chakra.

He found that it was actually very easy for him because he had plenty of experience in using nature energy from the Great Way of the Buddha technique. It was just a little bit different because he mixed the nature energy with his chakra instead of using it to fortify and strengthen his body.

A moment later a dark purple colored horizontal band appeared on his face, circling his head at his eye level. Opening his eyes when he felt the success of the technique indicating that he entered Sage Mode showed that his eyes had changed color to an amber yellow color, and his dark pupils had changed shape to a vertical slit, similar to a snake's eyes.

He immediately noticed that he could still see the 359 degrees, so his Byakugan wasn't compromised by Snake Sage mode. The combined chakra and nature energy that flowed through him was senjutsu energy, which was much more potent than chakra alone. Using senjutsu energy and being in Sage Mode greatly enhanced his physical strength, speed, and endurance, as long as he had enough nature energy stored to remain in the Sage Mode.

Most people could only spend a few minutes in Sage Mode until their stored up nature energy ran out. And since most people had to remain perfectly still while gathering nature energy, they could only fight in Sage Mode for a very limited time.

In the show, Naruto overcame that limitation of Sage Mode by having several clones sit around and gather nature energy, then pop when he needed them to, sending their stored nature energy to him. Jiraiya had used the two elder toads, Fukasaku and Shima, having them sit on his shoulders while channeling nature energy to him.

Carl had found that he could store up plenty of nature energy in his inner world, along with all the other types of energy he could store. That allowed him to remain in Sage Mode for as long as he wanted, really. His reserve of Nature energy was enormous, and he could use shadow clones to constantly refill the energy so he never had to stop using Sage Mode, if he didn't want to.

"Now that you've entered Sage Mode, try applying the energy to your Tenseigan." The White Snake Sage hissed at him. Carl nodded in acknowledgment.

He had already flipped the switch to transform his eyes from the normal Byakugan to the Tenseigan. Now he carefully sent the senjutsu energy to his eyes. He could feel the Tenseigan Chakra Mode activate. His body filled up and radiated Silver-Blue energy. 14 black Truth Seeking Balls appeared behind him, hovering in air, waiting for him to use them.

A smile appeared on his face, difficult to see beyond the glowing energy. He felt like the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, when activated with senjutsu energy as opposed to just normal chakra, was an order of magnitude stronger. He had to clamp down on the desire to start using his abilities on his surroundings just because he could. It was a natural high, excuse the pun.

"Amazing…" The White Snake Sage hissed in satisfaction to see Carl's power.

"I feel…giddy. And I wanted to immediately start testing my power and abilities on my surrounding, even though I knew it would wreck your home." Carl commented.

"Yes, such a sudden influx of power that one wasn't used to would be likely to affect one's emotions like that. It's good that you mastered those impulses, I would hate to have to move once more." The snake laughed in amusement concerning the first time he had gone into Sage Mode and played around, destroying part of a nearby cliff face.

"I apologized for that already and rebuilt the cliff with Earth manipulation, when are you going to let it go?" Carl groaned.

"When it stops bothering you that I mention it." The snake shot back.

"Is it safe to come and look?" Dakir called from outside the cave.

"Yes. It's a success, child. Come and look at what your partner is capable of." The white snake hissed back.

Dakir entered the cave and saw Carl glowing with power, her eyes grew wide in excitement at seeing him succeed so quickly, and not destroying anything.

"Congratulations, Carl." Dakir slithered closer, tasting the air around him and the power he radiated.

"Thanks, Dakir." Carl replied with a smile.

Over the past several months he had been spending a lot of time with the young snake, doing the equivalent of D-rank missions with her around the Snake clan so he could get to know the clan, show them his dedication and hard work, and also get in plenty of training time in the Snake style martial arts. The Snake style depended on a flexible body, sharp and fast strikes, quick recoil for defense against strikes, and plenty of grappling in a very flexible style.

It hadn't taken him long to learn the basics of the style due to his learning perks, and he spent plenty of time training with Dakir to help her get better and stronger. The idea behind their partnership was that he would be her lifelong partner so that the two of them could help each other grow stronger all their life. When Dakir matured she would be a very strong member of the Snake clan that would improve their standing among the other summons clans.

And now that he had proven he had mastered Sage Mode, it was time for him to move on and find the next summons clan who were vassals to the Divine Dragon clan. His people back in the regular world had found him the Chameleon summoning contract hidden in a cave in the Land of Bells, which was located nearly on the other side of the world, across the Wani Ocean. He would soon return from the land of summons so he could sign the contract and start training with the Chameleons.

But for today…

"Come on outside, Carl! Your farewell party can't start without you!" Dakir called out as she coiled around him.

Releasing the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, and then Sage Mode, he stood up and snickered at his friend's excitement for a party. He kept his Tenseigan eyes active, rather than letting them revert to the regular Byakugan, just because he could.

"Well, then. Let's go have a party!" Carl raced Dakir outside the cave while the White Snake Sage looked on in satisfaction.

"Definitely a much better decision to train him than that Orochimaru brat. And a year of 'missions' has allowed us to get to know him much better. I'll have to make that part of the clan's laws for how we interact with our future summoners." The White Snake Sage manipulated the mouthpiece of her huka to float to her mouth. She took in a deep lungful of smoke and held it for a moment before exhaling.