Wakashudo

The first time Naruto awoke, it only lasted for a few seconds and all he could feel was a soft futon that somebody must have laid him on. Unfortunately, he was unable to open his eyes and fell back asleep almost immediately. The next time he was more successful. Forcing his eyes open he tried to take in his surroundings, but he couldn't focus. The whole world was just blurry. Somebody leaned over him, but in the dark it was impossible to tell who it was.

“Naruto you're okay. The Sake that you drank was actually water laced with a sleeping drug. Don't try to fight it and you should be fine by morning.”

Even through his haze shrouded mind he recognized the voice of Shizune. He wanted to ask about the meeting and if they had gone yet. When he opened his mouth though, it felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls. Giving into his body's demands he asked, “Water.”

“Here drink this.” Naruto felt a straw pressed against his lips and he tried to sit up, but his body disagreed with his decision. Instead he just sipped at the offered water. Satisfying his thirst he pushed the straw away with his tongue, “The meeting?” The drugged Genin wanted to go back to sleep, but fought against the temptation.

“They left already. Don't worry about it.” Shizune placed a hand on his forehead and while it may have been the drugs he found it rather soothing. “Please don't hate Lady Tsunade for this. You're a lot like Nawaki, her brother. He died going on a mission he wasn't ready for and I think the similarities were too great for her.”

The blonde wanted to protest that he was not Nawaki. He was Naruto the future Hokage , but either the drug was pulling him back to sleep or it might have been the soft stroking of his hair. His last thought was a strange one. He briefly wondered if this was what it felt like to have a mother. Then he fell asleep again.

In the morning Naruto woke up for the third time tired ,but able to move. He was alone in the room and he threw the covers off of himself before climbing to his feet. It was then he was grateful that he was alone as he had a morning problem. Hearing voices from the other room he tucked his little problem under his waistband knowing only the bathroom could relieve it.

Some of the drug still must be pumping through his body because he was tired which was unusual for him. Then he remembered how he had been tricked and anger washed over him. Sliding the shoji screen open he scanned the room until he found the target of his anger, “You drugged me!”

Tsunade hardly glanced over at him from where she sat at the table, “Yes, yes I did.”

Naruto couldn't believe her dismissive tone. She didn't even sound sorry. Words came out of his mouth, but as he tried to say several things at once it all came out as gibberish. Jiraiya’s hand landed on his shoulder cutting off his incoherent rant. “Welcome to the I have been drugged by Tsunade club. I'm a three-time member.”

Oddly the man's confession made him feel better. His opinion of the older man had gone from dirty old man to possibly as good as his boasting. Puffing out his cheeks Naruto tried to let his anger go ,but not before remembering why he had been drugged, “How did the meeting go?”

“You would have been bored,” Jiraiya waved his hand dismissively. “The guy just needed to hand some stuff over and wanted a status report on the village.”

The Genin deflated when he heard that. It had probably been too much to hope that this rendezvous would be of something of vital importance to the village. Looking back over at Tsunade he noticed something new. She was leaning against a small plane box, “What's that,” Naruto asked pointing at the object.

“Documents,” the older woman replied.

Naruto nodded not thinking anything of it. Then he remembered his other little problem and left to deal with it. Even though they had the best room in the Inn there was still no bathroom and he had to go into the hallway to use the communal one. As he sat there relieving his bladder he had a strange thought. It was a big box for documents. How many documents would it take to fill such a thing?

The more he thought about it the stranger it seemed. Why wouldn't the agent just seal all the documents into one scroll? If that Tenten girl could do it with weapons a ninja should be able to do it with paper. The more he thought about it the more he thought that they were hiding something from him again and that was not cool.

The young Genin's mind went into scheming mode as he became determined to look into that box. After all it could be anything. By the time he finished his business he had hatched a plan. He summoned a clone and walked with it back to the room. The original Naruto stayed outside of the room while his doppelganger went in and announced that it was going to go lay down again. However, it closed the door to the room improperly leaving a sliver the original could peer through.

From his position at the door the blonde could see the older woman and waited for her to take her elbow off the box. Unfortunately, that didn't immediately happen and he had to wait. Hearing someone coming up the stairs, Naruto tried to look innocent calling upon all his years of trying to get away with pranks.

It was Shizune who came up the stairs carrying four bento in her hand stacked one on top of the other. She paused when she saw him and said loud enough to be heard in the room, “Naruto, I hope you're feeling well.”

Naruto was not the sharpest kunai in the pouch at the best of times and the lingering effects of the drugs had certainly not added any IQ points, but he did realize that it was now or never. Without responding to the kind woman he flung the door open and jumped into the room. He tried to knock the box away from its guardian, but it was a lot heavier than he thought it was and all he did was end up knocking it over. The top fell off and something rolled out of it.

There was an eerie moment of silence and then Naruto scrambled backwards until he slammed into a wall. The object was a black-and-white head and if that wasn't strange enough the severed head was gagged. Between the rolling around and some effort on its own the gag was loosened and it shouted from the top of its lungs which were clearly not attached to it, “Jashin, strike these infidels down.”

Those words seem to set everyone in motion. Tsunade grabbed the head by its hair and shoved the gag back into its mouth before sticking it back into the box. Shizune rushed into the room to see what the commotion was and Jiraiya was at his side before he could finish saying, “Why is there a head in that box!” Tsunade leveled a glare at him, if it could kill it would have reduced him to ashes and thirty people standing behind him.

“Calm down,” Jiraiya said stepping in front of him.

“Calm down?” That head just talked.” Naruto would admit that anatomy class had not been his best subject, but decapitation was supposed to be fatal.

“No listen, it's a jutsu.”

That magic word calmed the blonde’s mind and he looked at the older man for an explanation. That man is using a jutsu that allows him to survive anything, even decapitation. He's a member of Akatsuki. Like the two that came after you in the village. Do you understand?”

Naruto nodded as the strangeness of the situation passed. A talking decapitated head, he could handle this. “How did you um,” what was the right word, “capture him?”

Jiraiya hesitated, but then held out his hand to help him up, “It will be easier to show you. Come on.”

Naruto took the offered hand and followed him out of the room past an annoyed Tsunade and a concerned Shizune. By the time they left the Inn Naruto was starting to wonder if the man was going to tell him anything. Sometimes Iruka would do that when he didn't want to answer a question. He would just ignore it until Naruto or occasionally someone else forgot about it. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

“Yeah, I just want to show you something.” They walked to where they had entered the village the previous day and the older man paused and pointed at a tree. “You see those cuts in the bark over there? That was what the three of us noticed yesterday.”

The blonde squinted seeing the cuts, “You all saw that, how?”

“Your eyes notice everything, but your brain filters a lot of it out. It's a lot like when one of your Shadow Clones is destroyed. You don't remember every single detail, but you remember the important ones.”

“What are you talking about,” Naruto asked confused. He didn't learn anything from his Shadow Clones.

The older man eyed him like he just said something incredibly stupid. “You're telling me you haven't noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“The Shadow Clone Technique was originally developed for scouting. So, once a clone is dismissed you can access what it learned.”

“How,” the blonde asked wondering why no one had told him before.

“Ask your sensei when we get back. We're getting off topic here. Anyway we notice this marking and even though it was an old one the cuts were new. That meant it was probably a trap, but we weren't sure.”

“Okay, but how does this lead to a head in a box,” Naruto asked remembering his original question.

“I'm getting there, now shut up,” his perverted sensei words lacked any anger. “This particular symbol hasn't been used in over a decade, but when they're training new recruits to recognize these things they use an older symbol which is no longer in use. That is why we chose to meet the man, although we weren't expecting him to be Itachi.”

Naruto's reaction to the news made his reaction to the severed head seem restrained in volume at least. His shout of surprise sent birds a half a mile away into the air.

Jiraiya stuck a finger in his ear in an exaggerated gesture, “I forget how loud kids can be.”

“What are you talking about, he's one of them. He is evil.”

“I know what he did,” the sage interrupted. “Akatsuki has its members work in pairs. Apparently when I killed his partner the group started to have second thoughts about him. If an enemy can capture the head of a ninja they can learn a lot and even though I destroyed his partner's entire body Akatsuki still thought that he double-crossed them and was trying to give us information via his partner’s corpse."

“He claims the leader sent a team to kill him, but he was able to defeat both of them. One of them was that talking head you saw. He gave us some information about bank accounts and some other things about the group. Then he left.”

“You let him go? Why didn't you capture him or something,” Naruto demanded.

“To what point? If the group has turned on him and judging by his injuries, we now share a mutual enemy. With a little luck he might take out a few more of them before they kill him.”

As the Genin opened his mouth he paused and thought for a minute, it was something he was trying to do more often. It was logical he supposed. Although for some reason he didn't think that Sasuke would be happy to hear this. The blonde wondered if he could tell his raven haired friend about the news.

Jiraiya placed a hand on his shoulder pulling him out of his thoughts. “Come on, let's head back to the Inn and get ready to go. That head has a shelf life on it and I want to give it to Ibiki while it can still talk.”

Naruto shuttered, but he wasn't sure if it was just from the thought of a former examiner or the idea of him interrogating just a head. Then he realized what the man had said, “We're still a few days from Konoha.”

“Not by toad,” the older man replied.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Of all the ways the citizens of Konoha had imagined their next Hokage would arrive, by giant toad had not been one of them. Naruto didn't know what this particular toad's name was, but it was smaller than Gamabunta and yet was capable of leaping a mile at a time. The ride had been bumpy and fun. It was almost disappointing when they stopped a half-mile from their destination and dismounted to walk the rest of the way.

Still, their approach had been noticed and by the time they reached the gates a crowd was there to greet them. This seemed to tick off Tsunade as much as it made Naruto nervous. He liked being the center of attention, but this wasn't for him. Quietly he slipped away from the three adults and pig without being noticed.

It did feel good being home again and his first thought was to head to Ichiraku for some of their excellent ramen, but then he remembered Gama-Chan was still flat. After thinking some very angry thoughts about a certain old man, he headed for his own apartment trying to remember if he had replenished his emergency cash supply since the last time he had dove into it. Reaching his door he shoved his hand into his pocket searching for the key when he had a sudden horrifying thought.

When he had traveled to Wave country he had asked Iruka to water his plants while he was gone. This time he had left in such a hurry that he had told no one. Opening the door he was fully prepared to see his plants shriveled up, but to his surprise the first one he saw appeared healthy as did the rest of them. Maybe his old sensei had heard of his departure and had watered his plants for him. He had to abandon that theory when he walked into his kitchen and found a note attached to his refrigerator.

I watered your plants and threw out your milk when it went bad, sorry. We need to talk Sakura.

The blonde reread the message once, twice and then a third time before he grabbed it off the fridge and bolted out of his apartment. He was halfway down his apartment stairs when he realized that he didn't know where he could find her. Well, he could try her home first and if she wasn't there he didn't know what he would do, but no reason to worry about that now.

Racing to his female teammate’s house he paused as it came into view. Last time he had popped up to her window he had almost seen something that would've gotten him killed, but knocking on the door and possibly running into one of her parents wasn't appealing either. In the end he compromised and jumped up, but to the side of her window and tapped on the glass.

A moment later he heard the window slide open and a familiar voice say, “Naruto your back.”

It might have just been the blonde’s deluded imagination, but she almost sounded relieved to see him. “Hi, I got your message.”

“Why aren't you looking at me,” she said interrupting him.

“Oh sorry, I didn't want you to think I was trying to peep on you,” again he added quietly to himself turning to face her, “what do you need to talk about?”

Her smile faltered, “It will be easier to show you. I'll be down in a minute.”

She closed the window before he could ask any other questions and as he dropped to the street he wondered what would have her so concerned. True to her word she emerged from her front door and darted past him saying, “Come on. We're going to the training field.”

Trotting after her he asked, “What's wrong?”

“I'm not sure really, but I'm concerned.” She didn't seem inclined to elaborate and a heart beat later changed the subject, “why didn't you tell anyone you were leaving?”

Naruto put his hands behind his head, “It all happened kind of fast.”

“Yeah, no kidding, nobody bothered telling us. Sasuke and I showed up for the team meeting and when you didn't show up we started to get worried. We had heard about the incursion and that there were some injuries. After Kakashi was late, even for him, we decided to check the hospital. He was there, but you weren't. Nobody knew where you were and I ended up asking that little kid you hang out with and he said you had gone on a mission.”

“Is that all he said,” the blonde questioned.

“Pretty much,” his pink haired teammate turned her head to face him while keeping up her rapid pace, “You know, they do seem to look up to you.”

Naruto smiled at that, “they're pests, but I like them.”

Sakura seemed like she was about to say something more, but there was a loud crack of wood and she hurried up over a small hill. Naruto followed close on her heels and took in the sight as he crested the hill. Sasuke was alone in the training field and he was currently trying to reduce a training post to splinters. From the looks of it he had already reduced one to that state and there was a third one waiting to be abused.

“He's been like this for weeks.”

“Why,” Naruto questioned frowning at his third teammate. There was something wrong with Sasuke's strikes. They were technically perfect or as close as Naruto could tell, but there was anger in them. It was like he was throwing a temper tantrum. He had done that, of course, but to keep it up for weeks, that didn't seem right.

“There was a rumor that his brother was one of those that breached the village’s perimeter and caused all that trouble the day you left. I'm not sure if you know or not, but they say his brother was the one that killed his clan when he was eight.”

Itachi again, Naruto thought darkly. That guy just kept causing problems even when he wasn't around. He shuddered as he remembered the head the man had given to Jiraiya. “What do you want me to do?”

“I don't know,” Sakura shoulders slumped in defeat. “I've seen his hands, he's hurting himself. He also is practicing a lot of jutsu and I think he is straining his chakra system.” Naruto turned to face her and he could see tears in her eyes. “I don't know what to do. He won't listen to me and with Kakashi sensei hospitalized I don't know who to turn to.” Her eyes stared directly into his, “Please do something.”

Naruto had always wanted for Sakura to ask him to do something for her, well, besides leaving her alone. He had hoped she would ask him for help with something or better yet even a date, but now that one of his fantasies had finally come to fruition it felt like ash in his mouth. Staring down at his friend he did the only thing he could do. “Sure, I can talk to him.” He started down the hill not having a clue of what to do.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Naruto had made no attempt to approach Sasuke stealthily, but his friend had either not noticed his approach or simply didn't care. With one particularly powerful blow a large portion of the back of the post splintered. “Cool,” the blonde spoke unintentionally.

The raven haired Genin spun to face him surprised and for second Naruto almost thought he was going to attack him. His teammates seem to stop himself and said, “You're back. Our captains still hospitalized so we're not going on any missions.”

As he turned around to resume hitting the post Naruto answered, “He should be better soon. Me and Jiraiya tracked down Tsunade. She's going to be the next Hokage and she's a great medic. She's even considered a-”

“Jiraiya and Tsunade, of the legendary Sannin,” Sasuke interrupted him.

“Yeah, you've heard of them,” Naruto responded slightly surprised.

His friend slowly turned around and stared at him in disbelief. “How the hell did you meet two of the strongest ninja in Konoha's history?”

Nervously, the blonde placed his hands behind his head and grinned, “Well Jiraiya taught me during that month-long break in the exam. Then he wanted to teach me a really cool jutsu so I went with him when he went searching for Tsunade.” It wasn't the entire truth, but it was close enough.

The avenger stared at him so long that Naruto was becoming nervous and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. After a minute Sasuke spoke two words, “fight me.”

He blinked in surprise and really looked at his friend. His face shined with sweat and his shirt was soaked clinging to his skin. This was probably how he appeared in his fan girls dirty dreams. Although, they probably didn't imagine his hands covered in blood. “You don't look too good. Maybe you should rest up. I wouldn't want you to say that I only beat you because you were tired,” he added the last part to make it sound like it was coming from him and not Sakura. Now that he had gotten a good look at his friend he was starting to get to become concerned too.

“What? Are you afraid?”

Naruto didn't like being accused of being afraid, “No. I could wipe the floor with you.”

“Big words, can you back them up?”

At that moment nothing would've made Naruto happier than to punch Sasuke right in the face, but he held back. “I'm not afraid,” he paused trying to think of a reason not to fight now and then he remembered something from the earliest days of his training and jumped on it. “We're not supposed to spar unless Kakashi or someone of equal rank is there to observe.”

The pale boy smirked, “Hiding behind rules? That's not like you at all are you that afraid?”

The blonde almost took a step forward and at that moment it would've been enough to start the fight. Yes, it would be a fight not a spar among teammates. The only thing that stopped him was the thought of a small boy. He needed to be a good role model for Konohamaru and pounding this jerk into the ground no matter how good it would feel would not set a good example. Clamping his mouth shut he turned around and walked away trying to ignore the jeers of the slightly taller boy.

“You couldn't put a single scratch on me. You're still the dead last.”

It took all the willpower that Naruto had to not turn around and show him what he had learned. By the time he was halfway back to the hill Sasuke had resumed hitting the post. Sakura ran down the hill to meet him, “What happened,” she asked concerned. Naruto ignored her and she ran in front of him, “Where are you going?”

The blond stopped and looked at her. At that moment he almost turned back to try and convince the boy to stop again, but his anger got the best of him. “I'm going to get Tsunade to heal Kakashi sensei and then we are both going to come back here and I will pound him into the ground like a stake.” He stepped around her and even though he was furious he could hear her following him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Authors note: I know I promised there would be a scene that would make this particular chapter M but, I just couldn't fit it in. Sorry but, when you see the next chapter you'll know why. I ask for your forgiveness.