Naruto-I

Naruto Uzumaki was confused. The past few weeks had been both good and bad. So, he didn't know what to feel. Should he be happy that he was making good progress on his path to becoming the Hokage? Or should he be pissed that a random person he recently met was being asked to take up the office? What was worse was that she didn't want the job! How could one not want the job? It went against everything he was.

There was this whole deal about a village elder turning traitor as well. Apparently, he had been kidnapping kids, doing experiments, building an army, and all sorts of wild stuff. Heck, some missing kids from his old orphanage were also targets, it sounded like. That rattled Naruto. What if he had been kidnapped as well? He shuddered at the thought of it.

The old man was really sad about it because the traitor was apparently his old best friend. Naruto could not even begin to understand how a best friend would betray someone like that. It was something completely against his nindo.

But it looked like the old man was taking accountability for missing it, and was going to retire as well, taking all of the other old people out of their positions along with him. Some were supportive of the traitor as well, so a house cleaning was required.

Once again, that led to the discussion of who the new Hokage should be, and the old man had pointed at Tsunade.

On one hand, he kind of liked grandma Tsunade. Even though she was violent and angry all the time. It was not his fault that he was speaking the truth. She was an old woman pretending to be decades younger than she was. Using a jutsu, no less. He always called it how he saw it. So, granny, it was.

The reason he was growing to like the granny was because she was one of the few people who knew about the stupid fox and did not care. Sure, she got angry at him for his antics. But that was it. Her annoyance was only due to his actions. She didn't care about the monster inside him. It felt… he didn't know how to explain how it felt. He had always had the old man in his corner. Iruka sensei had his back for a long time too. But he had never had an older lady be in his corner like that. Maybe this was how it felt to have an aunt. She was old enough to be a grandma, so he would call her that regardless.

What was awesome though was that she was the granddaughter of the first Hokage and the grandniece of the second Hokage. Heck, apparently her grandma was named Uzumaki as well. Naruto liked to think that they were distant relatives of some sort.

A part of him was not happy that he had relatives who had not taken care of him. But Sakura's scary brother had taken him aside and told him how she was outside the village, grieving for the loss of her loved ones. It was still a shitty excuse, but Naruto was not one to hold grudges like that.

He wouldn't understand the feeling of loss as well. He never had any loved one that he had lost. Maybe he would do something similar if something happened to the old man or Iruka sensei.

Even then, he couldn't exactly relate. When he thought that the bastard Mizuki had almost killed Iruka sensei, all he felt was rage. But then again, Iruka sensei hadn't died, so Naruto hadn't really felt loss like that.

This once again tied to his problem with the bastard in his team. Was it better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all? Naruto would say that it was better to have loved and lost. At least that way, you had memories to cherish. You had something to acknowledge the connection. To him, having never felt the true love of family, it always felt as if a part of him was missing. It was like a gaping hole in the center of his being that demanded to be filled. One of his main reasons for wanting to be the Hokage was that he felt as if that emptiness would be filled then.

Naruto didn't like to talk to other people about it. Heck, he didn't even show his sorrow outwards. On the inside, it was a different matter altogether. But he had found out over time that there was no point in showing the negativity. There was nobody to comfort him when he did so, after all. So, he had taught himself to be happy.

And things were looking up! He was a genin now. He had a team. Sakura was good. She was mean at times, but only when he disturbed her when she was busy with something. Correction, she had been mean like that during the academy days. Of late, she hadn't been like that. It was not as if he was not at fault. It didn't matter. She had that scary brother of hers, and Naruto did not want to piss him off. Not like it was difficult to piss off Ichigo Haruno. Just say anything bad about Sakura in front of him, and expect retribution.

His other teammate was a different story altogether. It was common knowledge that Sasuke did not like anyone. Naruto figured that Sasuke hated his teammates even more than he hated people in general. The fact that Sakura beat him for the top spot consistently was something Sasuke hated. He had always been at loggerheads with her. More so, when he found out that she had a genius brother who was training her. Naruto thought that the bastard was just jealous.

On the other hand, the problems Naruto and Sasuke had with each other were too numerous to mention.

Speaking of bummers, he had a teacher now too. A lazy troll of a sensei, but he was his sensei nonetheless. Especially after his recent encounter with Sakura's brother, he had managed to wrangle his sensei for more training.

And that led him to the present.

He sat on the training ground, taking a breather, as his clones vanished and reappeared at different locations all around him. Shunshin jutsu was so much fun! Initially, he had almost smashed into a tree. But after Sasuke had left, Sakura had once again let out that long-suffering sigh that she usually did, and told him to get his clones to do it. No injuries that way.

He was planning on doing it but had forgotten it in the heat of the moment. It was for the good, anyway. Naruto did not want to deal with an irate Sasuke. And irate, Sasuke would be, if he knew that one could cut down training with the help of shadow clones.

Maybe it was disin… disti… dinsing… disingenuous. Maybe it was disingenuous to do this to a teammate, but Sasuke made no effort to get along with the team. So why should he? It was not his fault if the so-called genius hadn't unlocked his cheating eyes. Sakura was totally right about that.

"Hey, watch it!" he shouted, as a clone almost crashed into him at top speed.

"Sorry boss," the clone said before it flickered out once again.

Naruto couldn't help but grin widely once more. This was so much fun. The initial memories of clones crashing into trees, or crashing into each other were jarring. But he had gotten desensitized to it very soon.

"It looks like you've got it down pat," Sakura said as she got up and packed her supplies.

Naruto knew that Sakura often went out to train with Ino. Maybe he should see if he could do joint training with someone else as well. He was very tempted to ask if he could join Sakura, but it was too early. He was on amicable terms with her, and he did not want to spoil that by falling back on bad habits.

"Yeah. This has so many possibilities. It sucks that using this effectively in combat is so difficult. But with the number of clones I have, it shouldn't really matter, should it?" he asked. He had already cataloged an unholy amount of pranks he could pull with this. But the heavy training recently had forced him to think about combat applications as well.

"What are you planning?" asked Sakura.

"Eh, I was planning on strapping clones with explosive tags and swarming opponents. Even if they crash into the enemy, the clones will only pop. But the enemy would still be damaged due to the force of the collision," said Naruto.

Sakura looked at him with wide eyes and then started giggling.

"Only you, Naruto. People don't have the luxury of using clones in such an expendable manner. Speaking of…" she said as she began rubbing her chin.

"Yes?"

"There is a jutsu to make clones of projectiles. My brother taught me that. I think he also mentioned a jutsu where you can blow up clones. That would be better than any explosive tag," said Sakura, unaware of the monster she had unleashed.

"What? You mean I can make my shadow clones explode? Why didn't anyone tell me about it? I'm going to ask the old man," Naruto shouted as his clones which heard the conversation turned around, wide-eyed.

He began packing his gear quickly, as the training ground was filled with the echoing laughter of several clones of his.

"Dear lord, what have I done?" mumbled Sakura as she looked around the clearing with horror etched on her face.

Not paying her much heed, he dispelled his clones and began dashing out of the training ground like the hounds of hell were nipping at his feet.

"Bye Sakura," he hollered as he left a mortified Sakura behind.

##################

Things did not go as planned. He had begged and pleaded, but the old man had told him that it was not something he could immediately learn in a day. If he overshot the chakra needed for the jutsu, then the explosion would be very large and might cause him to harm himself. So, he needed even better chakra control to moderate the explosion. Which was the same issue Naruto had with normal clones. But then again, this was not the same Naruto who could not perform the academy clone jutsu. He could walk on water now without a second thought, so his chakra control was way better.

But there was a reason why Naruto liked the Hokage. The old man had told him that he would teach Naruto the Clone Great Explosion jutsu, and a bonus jutsu that the old man had created. It was called the Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu, and it could make shadow clones of weapons that he threw. He had missed it when Sakura had told him. He was too busy thinking about explosions. But how cool was that!

Naruto was already thinking up situations where the two new jutsu could cause him to perform cool finishing moves. He just had to learn them now.

Just imagine, multiple clones, all throwing shuriken. Each clone made more clones of the shuriken. Mixed with the shuriken would be exploding clones as well.

With a finishing move like that, he would become the Hokage in no time.

Things were looking up, nonetheless. The old man was busy with a lot of stuff, and Naruto's team was just heading for a C-rank mission. Even though the client seemed like a downer, Naruto wouldn't let that sap his enthusiasm.

He had new jutsu to look forward to. The old man said that he would teach Naruto the two jutsu immediately after he got back from the mission. Speaking of, he was on a cool mission as well. At least compared to the stupid missions they had been doing so far. There was no point thinking about anything that would bring down his vibe.

Naruto did ask why Kakashi sensei couldn't teach him the two jutsu, but it looked like he was going to teach them something else while they were on the mission. Which was another win-win situation, so he wasn't complaining.

Of course, he shouldn't have been tooting his horn too much, as things began going south soon enough.

It all began when an innocuous puddle turned out to be a poor ambush attempt. At first, Naruto had been shocked at seeing Kakashi sensei getting slaughtered like that. But things had resolved soon enough. Sakura engaged one of them while Sasuke engaged the other, only for Kakashi sensei to appear out of nowhere and capture them both. None of them were injured, and their lazy ass sensei once again proved that he was a troll. The only bad deal about the whole fight was that Naruto didn't do much, and Sasuke got to show off.

But there were chances to do more. Tazuna's country was suffering and Naruto was determined to help.

"The timing of this does seem problematic," Kakashi sensei muttered as he tied the two shinobi to a tree and summoned a cute puppy. He quickly wrote something on a scroll and handed it to the dog.

"Pakkun, please hand this over to Lord Hokage. I suppose he'd ask you to guide a squad back to this location," he said.

"Sure. I smell the scent of others on these two, Kakashi. They were not alone. Be careful," the dog said and swiftly made its way back in the direction they came from.

For a second, Naruto was startled by the voice of the puppy. It sounded way older than it looked. He would have been surprised that the animal spoke, but he had already spoken to Sakura's summon, so he was used to it by now. Kiyokuma was cool. Initially, she was confused about ramen. But when he told her about the many fish-flavored variants, Kiyokuma had been adamant to try some. He'd take the cute bear to Ichiraku's one day. Which once again caused him to pout. He too wanted cool summons, damn it. Maybe he could bribe the polar bears with some Niboshi ramen and get them to sign him on.

"Sakura, I need you to summon a bear and get the word out to Ichigo. It's best if we proceed with backup," said Kakashi sensei, which immediately caused Sakura to look at the floor glumly. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sasuke stiffen at the mention of Ichigo. The bastard was always cagey when Ichigo came up.

"What happened, Sakura?" asked Naruto, putting the thoughts about Sasuke out of his mind.

She stayed silent for a moment before summoning a bear and relaying the information to it. Once it disappeared in a puff of smoke, she stood straight and turned back towards them.

"Ichigo has always been protective of me," she said slowly.

"We are aware," Kakashi sensei said with a drawl.

"Yes, well. He got worse after that fiasco with the traitorous elder. Kept bugging me about being careful, especially during C-ranks out of the village. He kept saying that if I came across any missing-nin, I should get a bear to reverse summon him at once," she said.

A part of Naruto yearned for someone fretting over him like that. Sure, he'd get annoyed, but he'd have liked it too. On the other hand, Sasuke just looked more stone-faced than ever.

"And?" asked Kakashi sensei.

"Well, I was getting annoyed at being treated like a vulnerable child, so I didn't tell him that I was going out on a mission," she said with a guilty look on her face.

"That's it?" asked Kakashi sensei with a snort.

"Yes," mumbled Sakura.

"Don't worry too much about it. Your brother would be aware that you were on a mission anyway. Your parents would have told him. Not to mention that he is a jonin, and you can't really fool him."

"If you think that you are capable of one-upping a genius as you are now, you are an idiot. A foolish little sister trying to play catch up," grumbled Sasuke, causing Sakura to turn around and snarl at him.

"Enough, we need to focus on our mission now," said Kakashi sensei, switching the topic.

"Yeah, well, now what?" asked Sakura, still glaring daggers at Sasuke.

"Let's keep moving. We'll summon a bear in a while and see if Ichigo can be reverse-summoned. As far as I know, he was still in the village. He would most likely be with Lady Tsunade and my kohai," said Kakashi sensei.

"Alright! Let's go," said Naruto, trying to dispel the heavy mood.

They all got into formation around the client and began walking.

Ten minutes later, Sakura resummoned the polar bear from before to check out the status of their backup.

"Saya, did you inform Ichigo?" she asked.

Naruto wondered why Sakura didn't use Kiyokuma for this mission. But then again, Kiyo was bigger than this Saya. He figured that Kiyo was more suited for combat.

"I did, Sakura. But he can't come immediately. It looks like there has been some infiltration in the village. Some impostors are creating trouble. Everyone is on high alert and focused on weeding all of them out. The village is on lockdown," said the polar bear.

Naruto had an immediate knee-jerk reaction to head back to the village and fight the intruders, but Kakashi's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Once again, the timing does not bode well," hummed Kakashi sensei, "I presume he was with Lord Third, or Lady Tsunade. What are our instructions?" asked Kakashi sensei.

"Yes. He is working with Lady Tsunade and the Mokuton wielder on finding a way to route the imposters. I didn't meet the Hokage, but Lady Tsunade was the one who suggested a course of action," said the small bear.

Kakashi sensei couldn't help but chuckle at that. Naruto might not be the brightest when it came to some stuff, but he knew people. He knew people very well.

"Even without planning to, she is just going to cement her place as the Fifth, isn't she?" he grumbled.

"Of course she is. What was the suggestion, Miss Saya?" asked Kakashi sensei.

Without a word, the polar bear cub raised her hand, and a small slug peeped out of the kimono sleeve.

"Lady Katsuyu," greeted Kakashi sensei.

"Greetings," said the slug.

Once again, Naruto also wanted some cool summons, damn it. But he brushed that thought aside. He was more focused on hearing the news of the village. That was more important than anything.

"I suppose you will be acting as a relay?" asked Kakashi sensei.

"Indeed. Once the situation demands it, I will instruct young Saya here to reverse summon Ichigo Haruno. The situation in the village is quite chaotic at present, so we will only do this if it is absolutely necessary," she said.

"What exactly is the situation? Are we ordered to retreat and provide support?" asked their teacher.

"Please continue with your mission. The village is in lockdown. There have been multiple imposters trying to break into key areas. The problem is that all of them are indistinguishable from the originals, down to their chakra signatures. So, it has been a very vexing few hours for the ones in command. Young Ichigo is working on fuinjutsu solutions to the problem whereas Lady Tsunade has been working on feasible iryojutsu solutions. Young Tenzo has been working with the toads for any possible solutions with senjutsu. In this situation, nobody is allowed to enter the village, as the chances of more imposters sneaking in are high."

"That is alarming," said Kakashi sensei, his body tense, losing that lazy demeanor with the seriousness of the situation.

"Do not worry. Young Ichigo is rather convinced that he has the means to flush out these imposters. We shall wait and watch," she then chuckled a moment later, "Oh dear, he seems rather agitated right now. Let me repeat his words: No imposter is going to walk out of here alive. Their time is numbered. Once there are no more imposters among us, I'll be there immediately. Kakashi, I trust you to keep my sister safe."

"Tell him that I will."

"Tell him that I can keep myself safe," grumbled Sakura.

"How are you able to do that? Being in two places at once?" asked Sasuke with an interested gleam in his eyes.

"That is quite simple. I can divide myself, not unlike clone techniques. The difference would be that all of me are real, and all of me are me," said the slug.

"That is interesting," mumbled Sasuke as he seemed to want to ask more questions.

"You can ask questions later, Sasuke. Right now, we have a mission to finish. Saya, do have a method of staying hidden? We don't want someone to target you," said Kakashi sensei.

"Saya is great at stealth," added Sakura.

"Yes. I might not be as good as Kiyo at fights. But I can be sneaky," said the polar bear as she walked into the woods, out of sight.

"If I didn't know that she was there, I'd have a really hard time sensing her," said Kakashi sensei once the bear was out of sight.

"Yeah. And she's still learning as well. She said it was a technique of using natural energy in some way. She'll only get better with time," said Sakura with pride.

"I wish my dogs could do that. Their threat level would increase a lot," mused Kakashi sensei.

Naruto grumbled and looked at Sasuke, who was also looking displeased.

"We need to get some summons for ourselves," said Naruto.

A grunt was the only reply as Sakura and Kakashi sensei purposefully kept the conversation about summons ongoing as they kept walking. Naruto looked at Tazuna and could see that the old bridge builder was baffled at all that had happened. Served him right for calling him a shrimp.

A little while later, Naruto almost jumped in fright as he heard some rustling from a bush. He immediately calmed himself, as he realized that it might just be Saya.

"Down," shouted Kakashi sensei and Naruto immediately hit the ground, only to see a gigantic sword sail past overhead.

The sword embedded itself in a tree as a shirtless, muscular man appeared on top of the handle.

A loud chirping noise bloomed right next to him, and Naruto turned around, right in time to see Kakashi sensei slash a lightning-clad hand into an incoming lightning attack.

The thunderous clash caused him to close his eyes briefly as the light and the noise on impact were too intense.

"Well well well. It looks like the rumors of you cutting a lightning bolt were not just rumors after all," said another interloper.

This man was clad in a dark brown sleeveless vest with bandages wrapped around most of his torso.

Long, dark green hair swayed with the wind as he looked at the entire scene with a gleam in his eyes. He was wielding two swords, which were both crackling with blue lightning.

And for some reason, he was staring intently at Naruto.

##################

A.N: Apologies for the delay, got some stuff going on irl that demands most of my time.

Anyway, on to the story, I skipped out a few things because I did not want to write a canon rehash. A lot of things are going on in the background and most of you would have caught on. I did leave behind blatant foreshadowing in previous chapters as well.

The upcoming few chapters are going to be fun.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.