Chapter 7: Seeds

Naruto stared at his reflection in the mirror long and hard, staring into his dull blue eyes that held no shine to them, no sparkle. Not like they used to. They reminded him of when Jiraiya died in his fight against Nagato. 

It was a terrible time. 

He knew these eyes were that of someone who lost a lot, who has lost too much. He was determined not to lose anyone again but he wasn't so sure that would be possible. He wasn't strong enough yet. 

And he definitely wasn't strong enough to stop Orochimaru right now, and that was about a month and a half away. Stepping out of the bathroom, his eyes glanced towards the Chunin Exam sign up papers lying on his bed, crumpled and wrinkled from him having squeezed it when he received it. 

Obito was sure faster than Kakashi was when it came to recommending teams for the Exams. He glanced at his calender and felt his head begin to pound on his skull. He's been getting frequent headaches and sometimes migraines since the Wave mission that had ended two weeks ago. 

The thought of it made him want to vomit. He had killed dozens of Gato's thugs after thinking that they were just a small army of Zetsu. He failed to save Haku and Zabuza as well. The former thought rose in his head again as his eyes narrowed in thought. 

Why had he seen Zetsu and not thugs? He shook his head. Perhaps he needed to visit a Yamanaka or any form of therapist. Seeing those things were not good for his mental nor physical health. 

Zipping up his orange jumpsuit, Naruto quickly exited his apartment in favor of walking down the streets of the village he loved. Ignoring the glares and sideways glances, he arrived at a wooden fence where he saw a square box painted as a rock behind him. 

Breaking away from his thoughts, he turned around to address those within the pour disguise. "First of all," He began. "Rocks aren't perfect cubes. Second of all, why would there be a random rock in the street? Finally, why are you following Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon?" Black smoke erupted from the box as it surrounded a small radius around them as the small trio emerged.

"Ha! Knew you were the best of the best boss! Not even gramps could've detected my disguise!" Naruto fought the urge to hit the head of the arrogant boy who was just attending the academy.

"Konohamaru," Moegi began, coughing a little. "You used too much!" Udon, who had an eternally runny nose, decided to put his input as well.

"Yeah, you gotta calm down." Konohamaru rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

"Whatever, you guys just ain't down with my style." He then looked at Naruto with pleading eyes. "Hey boss, can you play ninja with us?" Naruto fought the urge to roll his own eyes out of his skull.

"Why would I play ninja with you? I have more important things to do with my life than beat up a bunch of kids." He replied easily. Konohamaru frowned and pointed an accusing finger at the blonde. 

"Why are you being so cold?" He shouted, causing Naruto's eyes to widen momentarily. "Ever since you got back from your weird mission you've been acting all moody!" 

"Things happen that you wouldn't understand." Naruto answered carefully. "I'm just tired." 

"Liar! Play ninja with us and I'll leave you alone for two whole days!" This time Naruto did roll his eyes. 

"Two? C'mon you have to raise it to at least a week." Konohamaru wore a grin that spread ear to ear. 

"Deal! You count to thirty and we'll run! If we can stay away from you for ten minutes we win! If you catch us you win!" Naruto nodded as he leaned on the fence behind him. 

"Fine, run along." He knew they were going to bump into Kankuro, Gaara's older brother as well as Temari, his older sister. He also knew what was going to happen. As he counted to thirty, he pondered if he should threaten Kankuro and maybe Temari and seem cool for once. 

Maybe. . .

Sighing, Naruto kicked himself off the fence, hands in his pockets as he turned the corner of the fence and sure enough, Konohamaru was in the clutches of a pissed-off Kankuro with a smirking Temari behind him as Moegi and Udon cowered in fear. 

Cowering in fear. Hm. 

"Let him go," Naruto called out calmly as he approached the two Sand ninja. "If you don't I'll be forced to cut off your hand." Kankuro smirked as he threw Konohamaru into the ground, who only backed away from the Suna Genin. 

"I'd like to see you try!" 

"It would be quite easy." Naruto replied, unsheathing is sword. "All I have to do is be faster than you, and I've been working on my speed as of late, I'm sure I could take a limb or two before you pull out your puppets to begin to defend yourself. Do you wish to try something, Kankuro of the Sand? Or will you cower in fear at your own helplessness?" Kankuro's eyes widened in shock. 

"How do you know who I am?" He questioned, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Did Suna have a spy for Konoha? Naruto shrugged.

"I know a great deal of many things that I'd rather not give any detail to, especially not to you. Perhaps you little brother, but not someone such as you." Kankuro's nose curled in anger as he pulled out the puppet wrapped in cloth, holding it with chakra strings as it hovered in the air. 

This boy knew too much for being just a kid. 

"Temari of the Sand, you seem to be a reasonable person. Tell your brother to step down before he gets put down, either way I'm fine." Temari narrowed her eyes at her fellow blonde. 

"So you know who we are huh? Then you know what would happen if you were to even harm a hair on our heads." Naruto shrugged once more. 

"War, but it would only begin something early," Temari and Kankuro froze in their place, their blood rushing through their veins as their minds seemed to think of as many possible conclusions as it possibly could. Did this no name boy know of the invasion? If so, how? Was he on there side? 

"How do you-" 

"Put the damn puppet away you fool!" Naruto boomed, making everyone, including Sayuri, who was sitting in the tree above them carefully, observing, flinch. "If you don't want to die then put it away." 

The Third Hokage, one of his precious people, died because of the invasion. He had a chance to prevent that, but the anger was still there. The hurt was still there. These two knew of the invasion, they were guilty. It made him mad. 

"Please," Naruto pleaded with gritted teeth. "Please just turn around and walk away, I don't want to kill you, and if you keep going on," His hand was shaking, fighting his inner darkness as his cerulean blue eyes turned into vermilion red with his pupils turning into sharp vertical lines, killing intent flooding from his body. "I won't be able to stop myself!" 

"I don't want to become a monster," He whispered, his hands tightening around his sword as he held it in front of him, the blade the only focus in his eyes, everything else was just peripheral and blurred. 

Blurred. 

"Temari, Kankuro, leave before I kill you." A dark, hoarse voice spoke from the trees above Sayuri, who jumped down from the tree immediately, her back towards Naruto who didn't even blink at her presence. 

"G-Gaara," Kankuro began nervously. "W-We were just leaving." The two siblings quickly exited the area. Gaara then disappeared in a sand body flicker before reappearing before Naruto, his dead and emotionless eyes gazing into Naruto's own. 

"I apologize on the behalf of my foolish siblings, they do not know their betters." Naruto closed his eyes for a second before reopening them, revealing bright blue once more. 

"Do not apologize for circumstances you cannot control. It only burdens the mind and places a heavy toll upon it." Gaara nodded. 

"I suppose so. What is your name?" Naruto felt a small smirk come across his face. 

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Gaara closed his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nostrils and exhaling through his mouth. 

"I am Gaara of the Sand. I will await facing you in the upcoming exams." 

"Count on it." With that, Gaara left the area. Turning around, Naruto only saw Sayuri, the Konohamaru Corps having left a minute before. He rose an eyebrow.

"Are you spying on me?" 

"No, I was in the area and heard the commotion." Sayuri responded quickly, still not sure what to think of the Uzumaki. 

She saw him shaking just moments before, fighting himself not to kill those two Genin. She saw the struggle, the internal dilemma, that was within him. He was ready to murder them. He wanted to murder them. It scared her. 

"Why were you sitting in the tree then?" He questioned, cocking his head to the side. "Did you perhaps want to make a cool entrance?" Sayuri turned a slight pink from having been called out, especially since it was true. 

Not that she would admit that to him. 

"Whatever dobe, think what you like." She said harshly, pointing her nose in the air. "Besides, you seemed to have it handled all good." Naruto turned in the direction the Sand Genin had gone. 

"Perhaps a little too good," He said with narrowed eyes. Sayuri rose an eyebrow but didn't speak, not finding the need to. Naruto would get whatever he needed out the way and she didn't necessarily care as to what that was, as long as it didn't hinder her own plans. 

Plans to get stronger. 

"Well, I'm going to train for the upcoming exams, I suggest you do the same, it'd be a shame to have to carry you to the finish line." Naruto didn't respond right away. 

After an entire minute, he did. "I will be adequate enough to defeat most of the competition in a one on one match. You needn't worry about my own training, focus on your own. Perhaps train with Sakura? We both know she's the weakest link on our team." He hated to say it, but it was true. As of right now, before Tsunade's training, Sakura was way too weak to even attempt the Chunin Exams. 

Then again, this was a different reality and Sakura didn't have the distraction of Sasuke, so she took her career as kunoichi seriously this time around, giving him room to breathe. If she was getting stronger, that meant he wouldn't have to worry about her safety as much as he would have if Sayuri had been Sasuke. 

He walked away from Sayuri, ending the conversation there. 

He needed to prepare for Orochimaru. 

And done. How was it? Good? Bad? Tell me! 

Anyway, yeah. I'm still sad, probably worse than usual. Oh well. 

Til next time my lil demons!