Transcending My Wings

{Dan} Wow! Naruto is back in the shinobi world again!

{Naruto} I don’t know if I’m excited to be back… There are gonna be a ton of battles again… but on the other hand, I get to see Itachi again.

{Dan} One track mind… guess that’s to be expected.

{Choji} -just woke up- last night’s food was so good!

{Itachi} Remind me why I was here last night?

{Naruto} You didn’t like being with me?

{Itachi} -sputtering- N-no I di-didn’t mean it like that!

{Naruto} Waah! Itachi doesn’t like me anymore!

{Dan} Of course he does! -whispers to Itachi- offer him Ice cream!

{Itachi} Would you like to have some ice cream with me Naru-chan?

{Naruto} Really? With me? I love you Itachi-san! -glomps Itachi-

{Dan} Okay! They’re good now… so I should get on with the chapter.

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To Transcend My Wings
: : Chapter 5: : Call of the Stars
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Once again Naruto found himself on unfamiliar grounds wearing the garments he had the first time he had come here; he noticed that the curse mark that was supposed to have been placed on his neck was missing. His best guess was that since it was just his soul that had crossed over when he returned to his body, he was able to fight it off. Especially now that he is in his body when he had crossed over, the curse mark did not apply. Another effect, that he had noticed, of having his body and soul as one, was that his chakra reserves felt more powerful like it was multiplied ten-fold. But for some reason, he couldn’t use it. He still felt his chakra seeping through but it was more like a faucet left half-open. He had no way of suppressing it or letting it all out at once. Still though, all in all, he still felt a little bit more powerful than when he had first arrived in the shinobi world.

“Wonder where I am, if only I could find a landmark then maybe I can find my way back.” Naruto strolled through the forest where he currently finds himself. It took the better half of the day for him to find himself out of the forest. He also had managed, once, to walk around in a circle which frustrated him all the more because he knew he was walking in a straight path. Once out, he saw small stack houses which could only mean that he has found others nearby. This way he could ask for his way back to Konoha. Naruto figured that since he didn’t have a hitai-ate that represents a ninja from a village, he would just have to pose as a traveler. This wasn't exactly a lie since he wasn't a shinobi from any village.

He reached one of the small houses and knocked on the wooden door. He was met by a rather old lady asking him what it is that he had needed. He simply asked for directions and had bid her farewell and thanked her all the same. Naruto started to walk away but the lady stopped him and asked him if he had any place to stay the night. He simply shook his head no, but she insisted that he stay over with her family for the night will come all too soon and she would have hated for him to get caught in the dark.

He took the offered hospitality and followed the lady inside. He was surprised to see that the family she mentioned only consisted of herself and a small cat. He had envisioned a full family consisting of a mother, father, son or daughter, but the sight of seeing the old woman cuddling the cat made his heart swell. It felt like those times that his father and him would just sit down and watch tv together or do anything, just the two of them. He felt nostalgic but he kept himself in check and strode over to the small table in the kitchen of the small house and sat himself on the chair opposite of the old woman.

“I’m sorry for intruding like this, ma’am”

“No trouble at all, son. It’s rare for young villagers to travel on these roads. There are only a handful of young’uns in this place after all and call me granny, grandma, I think of everyone here as my family.”

“Do you mind if I ask if you have anyone else living with you?”

“It’s alright, and the answer to that would be no just me and my cat but we do get visitors from time to time… have you eaten yet?”

“Actually no… now that I think about it.”

“Well then , you better eat my famous soup and I would think that you should rest up since I presume you would be leaving in the morning to go back to your village.”

“That’s right, thank you so much for your hospitality.”

“What a nice young man.” Naruto blushed a little from the praise he got for his manners. He didn’t bother to comment further until the older woman said, “I would like you to have the bed for tonight.”

“Oh no! I wouldn’t want you to sleep on the floor. I’ll just take a blanket and something to lay my head down on.”

“What a sweet boy, alright, I’ll get you a futon.”

"That's alright, I'll get it… you should rest up instead, you seem troubled?"

"It's alright dear, I just really worry about the shinobi of my village." Naruto seemed a little confused, he didn't notice any shinobis when he got to the village, but then again, maybe they were just good in hiding chakra signatures.

"You have shinobis in this small village?"

"Yes, although we are not really part of the five great hidden villages, some time ago, a group of people started studying in the art of the shinobi ways and soon, we got ourselves a small army capable of using ninja arts."

"What brought on the need for ninjas? When I got here, it seemed like a peaceful place."

"You are right about that, we were once peaceful, but one night a shooting star fell from the sky. We valued it at first, since it was rare for something like that to happen, but later on, we found out that the piece of rock was producing some sort of radiation that enhanced chakra. What we didn't know was that the star was actually hurting our people."

"If you know that now, then why keep on doing it?"

"It's not my place to say, but our old leader thought better to stop the star training, but when he died, our new leader declared the village genins to mandatory star training."

"That's horrible! Why doesn’t' anyone do anything to stop it?"

"It’s not from lack of trying, I’ll tell you that much. There were once two great ninjas from our village who tried to stop it but they were killed in the process by our current leader, now their son is living secluded from here but I visit him now and again though he isn’t banished he prefers to keep away from village affairs most of the time."

"So I guess by making example of the boy's parents, the current leader gained power through fear."

"Yes. Let's save this for another day. You must be exhausted from walking all day." The old woman and Naruto got up and Naruto cleaned off the dishes before the old woman told him where to get the futon and other things. Naruto set himself down in the living room instead and proceeded to go to sleep. He wondered why this village seemed so poor considering they had their own shinobis. He also wondered what kind of a man their leader would have to be to destroy lives like that. Soon, the blonde fell into a dreamless sleep.


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Naruto woke up early the next day; he noticed that the sun was just rising up as well. He took the futon and everything else back to where he got them and decided to clean up a little before he left. It was the least he could do for the old woman's hospitality. It only took a couple of hours to clean the dishes, dust around the house, sweep the floor, and make breakfast. Once Naruto was done, he left a note saying that he was very grateful for letting him stay the night but he must be going now.

Naruto was only a couple of minutes away before he heard a screaming onto the far left. He jumped in attention and headed over that way, thinking someone could be seriously hurt. He came upon a clearing where he saw a guy, around his age, attacking someone with what looks like a lion made of chakra.

"Stop! What are you doing?" yelled out Naruto.

"Don't come any closer!" yelled back the mystery man. Naruto noticed that the boy wasn’t trying to hurt the villagers directly, he was using his own ninja art to merely keep them back and then drain the others of their star power to save them. Naruto didn’t have time to think as the old woman from before appeared behind him to see what all the commotion was about.

"Stop this Sumaru!"

"I need to stop them! My friends and the villagers are in danger if this star training continues!" Naruto looked a little more closely towards Sumaru and found that he is holding a piece of rock which he presumed would be the star they all used for the chakra training. Naruto rushed over to Sumaru's side while Sumaru was busy attacking the oncoming star nins.

"Let me help you," said Naruto as he came towards Sumaru. Sumaru pushed him back and was thrust back as the stone made contact with his skin.

"I don't trust you," growled Sumaru as he used his ninja art to form wings around him. Naruto was able to extract a bit of chakra from the star just by simply grazing it, so he copied the jutsu and followed the young man. Everyone was surprised to see another person, much less a civilian by the looks of it, use the village's secret jutsu.


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Naruto and Sumaru ended up in an open field. Sumaru turned back towards the blonde haired man hoping to get some answers on how the other knew of the Kujaku technique.

"How do you know how to use my village's special technique." Before answering, Naruto looked more closely and analyzed the young man in front of him. The guy is currently wearing a hitai-ate of the star village which meant that he was trained by using the star as well. He also took note that the boy’s chakra levels could rival a chuunin or jonin in the konoha village.

"It's hard to explain but I can copy most jutsus just by looking." Sumaru looked at the blonde in front of him, skeptical if the blonde had any sort of bloodline limit.

"Are you after the star as well?"

"No, but since you have it, I want to destroy it. After hearing it from grandma, it seems to me that your village is in trouble because of the stone."

"You should just leave, this isn't your problem."

"Probably not, but I am making it my business to do so."

"Leave before I rip you to shreds! Ninja art: Kujaku, Beast," the boy had a chakra flaring out like peacock feathers and all of a sudden the chakra changed form and turned into what looks like a lion.

"I can't leave, and your jutsu is only hurting you so just drop it!" Naruto wanted to persuade the man that he is willing to help but all of a sudden, the boy's chakra came undone and he fell unconscious. At that moment, three ninjas from the village took back the star and the boy with them. The three ninjas, once gone, were replaced by another man who appeared from out of nowhere. Naruto couldn't understand why he couldn't move at all.

"I'm sorry that you are dragged into this mess but you may not be permitted to live." The man disappeared once more and another group of three men came at him from three different directions using the same beast type of jutsu to attack. Naruto overcame the immobilizing jutsu placed on him and he moved quickly to the side and tried to call on his chakra but nothing happened. He almost panicked, but he remembered that he had a purpose for coming to this world again (death not being one of them) so he side-stepped the attack and jumped behind one of the shinobi and knocked him out by delivering a swift and deadly strike to the back of the head. The other two didn't want to retreat so he had no choice but to knock them out as well.

The blonde roped the three guys using the men's shirts since he didn’t have anything usable at the moment. Since he was also supposed to be dead, he took the garments and headband of one of the guys and used it as a disguise to get back to the village without anyone gaining suspicion. He ran back towards the village to try and save the boy but he also couldn't help but wonder why he couldn't call upon his chakra when he needed it. He couldn't find a plausible reason so he just focused on saving the boy from their own village leader.


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Once back, he noticed that the people around seemed to be weary of his presence. He concluded that the villagers did not like the way the village was run but couldn't do a thing against their leader in fear of getting killed. He walked along as swiftly as could while trying not to gain suspicion, but he did catch a rumor about the capture of a traitor and is now being held at the hospital for detainment as he passed by.

"Why not kill him on the spot if he's branded as a traitor? Only reason to keep him alive is if he was of value." thought Naruto on his way to the hospital. He couldn't ask which one of the buildings are the hospital but a slightly large building caught his eye and he decided to head there first to see if he was right in assuming that it was the hospital.


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Naruto scouted the building to notice that there was a hidden trap door in the west wing of the first floor. He tripped the switched and found himself to what he could only describe as a cave. He followed to the end and he saw Sumaru strapped on to some machines keeping him barely alive. No one was around so he took Sumaru out of the machines and tried to summon up jutsu once more.

This time, Naruto succeeded in summoning up healing chakra and let it run through the boy's system. He could only repair so much of the boy before nothing reacted any longer. This was enough to get Sumaru up and alert. He noticed Naruto beside the small make shift bed with the healing chakra retreating back to its owner.

"Why did you help me?"

"I thought I was clear when I said I wanted to destroy the star."

"We should get going, they're going to fuse parts of the star to the new genins as a way to experiment but I know it's going to kill them." Naruto could see the panic in the boy's eyes so he followed the boy quickly. The two ended up in front of a ceremonial gathering. Three genins were on stand-by to take in a part of the star. The two wondered why the ones present are allowing this kind of thing to happen. Then the old woman who took care of Naruto spoke up.

"We should stop this, we risk killing off our children for one man's ambition!" Several other people also joined in the chorus but were quickly shut up as soon as one of the leader's bodyguards took the old woman and brought her forth to the man.

"That's Akahoshi, we need to stop him before he harms anyone else."

"Grandma is gonna get hurt, we need to act now." Sumaru took action first and summoned his ninja art kujaku to take down a few of Akahoshi's followers. Naruto used a shadow clone to take the genins away safely and to sneak up on the enemy so he could take the star in all the confusion.

"I got it!" yelled out Naruto but he didn’t notice a katana coming down from behind him. Sumaru came out of nowhere and pushed Naruto off to the side away from danger, but he was a little late as the star was cut in half. Half of the rock was picked up by Akahoshi and the other half was with Naruto. The villagers were surprised to see Akahoshi take the rock and fuse it onto himself instead. The man doubled over in pain not a moment too soon.

Sumaru went to Naruto's side to help, but as soon as he touched Naruto. A kanji for 'star' appeared on the back of his hand and the piece of the star that Naruto was holding on to was absorbed into Sumaru's body much like with Akahoshi. Naruto felt a slight sting on his stomach which probably was the star sign appearing.

"What's happening to me?" asked Sumaru as waves of pain wracked his body.

"This means, you are my guardian." Concern filled Naruto's eyes as Sumaru kept crying out in pain.

"Guardian?"

"We'll talk later but you need to concentrate your new chakra to overcome the star's effects." Sumaru did as he was told. He felt he could trust this Naruto person and tried to focus his chakra. Then the star sign flared a light purple and he cried out in pain once more.

"You can do it, just hold on a little longer."

Sumaru and Akahoshi doubled over in pain but Akahoshi started to change in physical appearance as the stone inside of him took effect. Sumaru, protected by his newly found element, was able to absorb the star's powers without changing appearance, but not only that, he also noticed that his body was healed completely from the star’s radiation. As soon as the two got back to their feet, Akahoshi summoned up a huge beast using his chakra. Sumaru did the same, only his was more powerful than Akahoshi's, but Akahoshi’s new body was able to take on damage one right after another. The two battled fiercely, but Akahoshi felt the star's effects on his body and his deformed physical form started to wither. In a matter of minutes, Akahoshi's body was entirely turned to dust. Sumaru also collapsed in exhaustion as his consciousness left him moments later.


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Sumaru woke up the next morning and saw that he still had the star sign on the back of his hands. He got up from what looks like a bed and he wandered down the hall to find Naruto talking to the old woman from yesterday.

"We need to talk," motioned Sumaru towards the blond boy.

“Okay, so talk.”

“How’s everyone?”

“Shaken but I healed everyone from the damages of the radiation to their bodies.”

"You've never told me your name."

"It's Sumaru, and yours?"

"Naruto."

“Tell me what you mean when you called me your guardian.”

“You see, short version, there was once a prophecy about a child saving the worlds with the help of the nine guardians and as it turns out I’m the prophesized child and you’re one of my guardians, although I’m not sure how to exactly save the world.”

“I guess you’re going to need me on your side then.”

“More likely, and not only that, I don’t think I can perform any jutsu or summon any chakra while away from my guardians.”

“What do you mean?”

“I tried healing yesterday but I couldn’t summon my chakra after they took you here to rest. I told everyone to come by here if they needed healing.”

“Guess that would put you in a difficult decision if we got separated… So how do we find the other guardians?”

“I met three of the other guardians in Konoha village.”

“And I’m the fourth.”

“Yeah, but I think that we should travel back first so we could regroup then search for the other guardians.”

“What about the village?”

“The village without the star is no longer any value to other shinobi villages so this place should be peaceful from now on,” said the elder woman as she came in from the living room.

“Then I guess this will be a peaceful place just like before the star arrived right?”

“Yes, that is true Naruto. We can now live in peace without worrying over attacking shinobis.” Naruto turned back his attention to Sumaru and asked what had been bothering him for a while since before the battle.

“Why did they take you and sedated you rather than kill you on the spot when they knew you were the traitor?”

“That’s easy, my power grew exponentially even without the training so they wanted answers, that, I guess, my body could provide.”

“I see, it’s good that we had stopped it now, I mean, with the star gone there wouldn’t be any more star training.” Naruto and Sumaru nodded in understanding so within a silent agreement the two bid the old woman a quick farewell and they headed on through the path to the hidden leaf village.

“Is there any reason why you’re so excited to get back to the village?”

“Maybe.” Naruto let a smile mar his sun kissed face as he raced down out of the village. On the way out there were greeted by smiling villagers thanking them from everything they have done to save them from their former leader. They just smiled back in return and went on their merry way.

“That grin on your face tells me there’s someone special you want to see badly!” Sumaru chuckled as soon as he saw Naruto blush and ran ahead as the blushing blonde ran to catch up and all the while shouting obscenities.

“i guess I am excited to see someone.”

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

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{Dan} Chapter done! Did you like your ice cream Naruto-kun?

{Naruto} Yup! I finished it really fast then Itachi let me lick his popsi-

{Dan} Aaah! My precious ears! Where’s my Kiba-kun when you need him?

{Naruto} I just meant he gave me his popsicle then bought me another one. The last one was kind of different though. It was kinda salty?

{Dan} You had sea-salt ice cream? I want one too!

{Naruto} No, not that… it had a creamy ending and it splattered all over my face… But he wasn’t done after that-

{Dan} Aaah! I said I don’t want to hear it!

{Itachi} Drop it Naruto.

{Dan} -mouths a silent thanks!- Please rate and/or review. Let me know if you have any questions! By the way, if you don’t know who Sumaru is, he’s a ninja from Hoshikagure (Village Hidden Among the Stars) he was seen before the jump in timeline during the filler arc in the animé.