Chapter 21

Senju's Heir

~~Years ago, Konoha~~

"They're the ones that started it," Naruto grumbled, his lips pursed. "Stupid Iruka-sensei... Always taking everyone else's side..."

Naruto kicked a random pebble standing in the way, his face pouting furiously. He turned back to the road that led to the Academy and stopped just to stick his tongue out in their general direction. Finished with his petty attempt at retribution, he continued on his way to no particular place or direction.

Naruto sighed seeing the sky starting to lose its color, as if warning that darkness was not very far off. He groaned feeling his stomach start to rumble in protest, no doubt angry it had nothing to provide nutrients. He dug his hands into the pockets of his undersized shorts and pulled out whatever they contained. He sighed yet again seeing a mere three coins, eight coins short of a good meal at a dango shop.

Deciding he had no choice but to skip dinner -too lazy to hunt or fish-, Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and decided to go for a walk.

After hours of pointless droning, Naruto came across a lake not far from the Uchiha clan's compound. He did not know how he ended up there, but Naruto ignored the reason in favor of exploring it. He ran his way to it and noticed that a small pier ran across the lake.

At the edge of said pier was Uchiha Sasuke, the kid he hated above all else in his classroom; even more than Iruka-sensei.

Naruto stopped himself from climbing the remainder of the hill keeping him from the lake moments after noticing Sasuke. Instead, he observed the boy as he sat at the edge of the small pier with obvious despair. He couldn't blame him, however, considering his clan had been massacred a short time ago.

From the rumors he had heard, his entire family had been killed as well, at the hands of his elder brother, no less. It was like something out of a horror story to Naruto.

...

Without his knowledge, Naruto's feet began to climb the remainder of the hill, until they were firmly standing atop a cemented sidewalk. His hands still in his pockets, Naruto's lilac eyes softened at the sight of Sasuke's hunched figure. He felt a pang in his chest which he couldn't very well identify, a sour and unpleasant pang that urged him to join him.

Before Naruto knew it, he had outstretched his arm and even opened his mouth to speak. But before saying anything at all, Sasuke turned, his onyx eyes red and puffy from crying. Feeling like a fish caught out of water, Naruto immediately brought his hand back to awkwardly scratch at his head, a sheepish grin across his face.

Not being in the mood to act social, Sasuke glared and turned away from the blond, his eyes returning to their original purpose of staring at his reflection. He innocently glanced over his shoulder to see Naruto's reaction and wasn't surprised to see him glaring in complete outrage.

Naruto mentally kicked himself for trying to -yet again- start a conversation with Sasuke. He marched his way across the sidewalk as his hands kept themselves busy in his pockets. Once he was sure they were both out of hearing distance, he peeked over his shoulder and found Sasuke doing the same.

Both boys immediately turned away from each other, deciding their pride was more valuable than a possible interaction. Feeling not so alone in the world, they smiled, the sun finally setting in the distance. For one of them, it was his first time smiling in weeks.

"Rasengan!"

"Chidori!"

The exact moment they reached the floor was the exact moment Naruto and Sasuke released their Jutsus. Destruction was forced to a higher tier of meaning as the wooden dragon exploded upon impact, dealing maximum damage with its mass alone. Then came the systematic booms of two destructive Jutsus colliding with flesh, dirt and grass, all in a split second of difference of each other.

The center shockwave blew dust in every direction, obscuring vision halfway up the height of the giant pillars of the surrounding area. The trees closest to the explosion were bruised by dents the size of lamp posts, and only a massive crater remained to tell the tale of what had caused the damage to the environment. Residue chakra could still be seen coming in and out of existence in the cloud of dust, speaking volumes of the density of chakra required to create such destruction.

Sasuke appeared with Naruto on the branch they left behind, the latter's arm around the former's back. Both of them were panting, but Naruto's were more shallow and rapid. Sasuke's, on the other hand, were regulated and mild, but the sweat in his brow indicated he had exerted himself beyond his limits.

"You know what" -Shikamaru landed grinning from ear to ear- "I'm beginning to question whether you two are really human. Cause seriously; damn."

"Hey."

"Shikamaru...!" Naruto grinned back as he tried to take a step forward, only to collapse and have to resort to use both of his closest friends for support. "Woh, I feel, kinda woozy..."

"Oi!"

"You overdid it again," Shikamaru remarked dryly, though his smile remained. "Coming from you, I'm not surprised. But you could at least try to stop worrying us so damn frequently. It's gotta be shaving years from our lifespan."

"Stop ignoring me, dammit!" Kiba finally snapped. "What the hell happened? Is everyone alright? Is it done?"

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto, his expression softening. "This is all you. It's best if you let them know."

Naruto chuckled as he nodded. "Hey, guys... How you doing...?"

From Ino's location, Tenten audibly growled into the feed. "Dammit, stop stalling and kill the suspense already! Just tell us if you landed the Jutsus successfully!"

Naruto turned to Sasuke, the latter nodding in approval under his right arm. "Neji, do me a favor and take a look, will ya? I know you're tired beyond all hell, but this is kind of important."

Neji reopened his eyes, the veins around them growing in size. "One moment..."

Neji made his way to the location where he could see Naruto's group from overhead. Once there, he started his way toward the floor, where dust was heavy and residue chakra was even heavier. For a moment, he could see nothing within due to his exhaustion and the density of chakra in the atmosphere. Still, as he adjusted his focus to better see the insides of the dust, he made out something immediately.

Neji's eyes broadened at a revelation. "This may be optimistic of me, but I think there's a body in the middle of all that destruction... A body mangled beyond recognition, and without a single indication that it harbors any life...! I think... I think Orochimaru, is dead...!"

Hinata nibbled on her lip as her own Byakugan confirmed Neji's evaluation. "Naruto-kun... I can see it, too...! You guys may have really...!"

Landing next to Kiba, Chōji grinned, his right hand pumping into the air. "WE FREAKIN' DID IT! I say we celebrate with some barbecue! Naruto's buying!"

"YOSHAAA!" Lee somehow crowed through the line. "Behold the power of youth, my dear comrades! We managed to defeat a Kage-level ninja!"

Hearing Neji and Hinata's deduction, Naruto allowed himself to hope, his eyes turning to Sasuke. "Oi, do you think we really...? I mean" -his eyes actually watered a little- "could we have actually done it...?!"

Sasuke could not help but notice that he and Naruto may have just done the impossible by working together, something he didn't take for granted. "Naruto," he started, the left side of his lips rising. "That time in Shin's lab, you remember what I told you, right?"

"Heh, about killing someone like Orochimaru...?" Naruto's face started losing color, and after a moment of silence, his head simply nodded forward. "Yeah... I remember..."

Seeing Naruto's eyes starting to fall over, Shikamaru sighed. "Let's take him back to Sakura. It may be too late now, but maybe she can knock some of the stupid out of him."

Sasuke scoffed at Shika's jesting, his head nodding in agreement.

...

After regrouping with all their scattered friends, Naruto was rested between Hinata and Neji, Sakura sitting overhead. All twelve of them had smiles on their faces. Most of them were sitting around the injured, except for Sasuke, Shikamaru, Lee and Kiba; they were conversing about the events they went through individually.

Tenten was balancing a kunai on the tip of another as Ino watched in fascination. Chōji was eating chips next to Shino, who was happy to have found a form of rare bug he could breed with his own. Sakura had her hands over Naruto's face, and while the latter was conscious, his eyes were closed to gather all the energy he could.

The atmosphere between the group was warm and welcoming. They represented in every sense of the word a united unit, a group of soldiers who survived what countless others would not. And as they joyously socialized amongst each other, they were ignorant to any outside threats because they were in each other's presence, and they trusted each other to be capable of handling it.

It was no surprise that no shred of hostility existed among them, despite the life or death exam they found themselves to be a part of. It was all thanks to what they survived through as a team.

After a small portion of his health had been restored, Naruto instantly pounced to an upright position, startling Sakura in the process. "Woohoo! I finally feel somewhat better!"

"You don't!" Sakura flicked Naruto's ear, dragging a startled yelp from the blond. "For God's sake, Naruto! You just finished fighting two ninjas! And one of them was a Kage-level Sannin! At least let your body acclimate to the condition its in before you try and move, otherwise you'll risk a serious injury."

"But I'm fine! Look!" Naruto raised his arm so everyone could see, and as they all turned, they witnessed as the chakra burns in his arms healed right before their eyes using the last remnants of the Kyūbi's chakra. "If anything, I-" he winced as a sharp pain inside of him brought him back down on his behind. "Crap...! Looks like I'm still not ok internally... Must be my exhausted chakra network..."

Kiba, like many others, still had his mouth open in disbelief. "Did your wound just heal in a literal instant...? I know you're a Senju and all, but isn't that overkill even for a Senju...?!"

"Yeah," Chōji agreed. "And what about that ridiculously powerful surge in chakra back with Orochimaru...? It looked as if you were fighting toe to toe with him...! We even thought Shika's plan would go to waste."

Naruto realized his mistake far too late. He returned all of his friends' gaze with one of his own, but unlike theirs, his wasn't brimming with worry and suspicion. After coming across Hinata's worried eyes, then Sakura's troubled ones, Naruto finally gave with a melancholic sigh.

Sakura placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, the latter turning to come across warm and kind emerald eyes. "Naruto, do you... do you have something to tell us?"

Naruto stalled the question as long as he could. But after another few seconds of tense silence, he crossed his legs and rested his elbows over them, his bangs of blond hair cascading over his right eye. Everyone began to near Naruto once they realized it was a serious matter, with Sasuke squatting right in front of him to make sure he did not miss a single detail.

Naruto sighed one last time, his fingers twiddling with a leaf that had been attracted by his own sense of vulnerability. "What you're about to hear is classified intel. I don't need to tell you what will happen to us if it ever gets out." He waited for any sort of response, but all he received was silence, indicating they wanted him to continue. "You all know the tale about the Yondaime and the Kyūbi nearly fourteen years ago, right...?"

Shino nodded hearing this, his wrist pushing up his glasses. "It is common knowledge among Konoha's citizens. It's the tale of how the Yondaime died to kill the Kyūbi, correct?"

"That's a lie," Naruto frostily retorted. "The Kyūbi can't be killed. Not by conventional means, anyway. The truth is... the Kyūbi was sealed. Inside a newborn baby, no less... But it wasn't just any random baby, either; it was the Yondaime's firstborn son... It needed to be a baby because a baby's chakra network is still undeveloped, therefore a perfect host to adjust to the Kyūbi's immensely powerful chakra. And well... To put it bluntly, Shika, do you remember the date the Kyūbi attacked...?"

Shikamaru's eyes began to widen. Everything, even their childhood together, was starting to make sense to him now. "October... 10..."

Tears began to drop from Hinata's cheeks as she stared at Naruto's troubled eyes. "Naruto-kun... T-that's the same day you were born... Then, that means you're the Kyūbi's host and the Yondaime's only son... right?"

Sasuke's teeth were grinding against each other. "How could I have never realized this myself...?"

In Kiba's case, both his eyes and mouth were wide open. "Naruto... I... I treated you like dirt when we were kids... I'm sorry..."

"Screw you...!" Naruto somewhat playfully retorted. "I'm not telling you guys this so you can feel bad for me...! I just, you know, I feel I needed to... I do admit I was a little scared, though... I thought you'd hate me for it, like the villagers did..."

Sakura gingerly took the edge of Naruto's scarf between her fingers, her tears falling despite her attempts to hide them. "I... I never knew... Why didn't you ever tell us...?"

Naruto chuckled, "Eheh... Well, to be fair, I didn't know either. Not until recently..."

"It was right after we left Port City, wasn't it?" Sasuke asked. "I remember you taking Kakashi to the side. I couldn't care less back then, but now, things have changed..." He glared at Naruto. "Back when we were kids, we were the same... Why didn't you ever approach me?"

Naruto had an immediate response to that, but instead of using it, he closed his mouth shut and lowered his gaze. As Sasuke's glare helplessly intensified, his mind struggled to bring back memories of a lake near the Uchiha compound.

Shikamaru rubbed his eyes as he spoke, "If I remember correctly, you guys are classified as Jinchūrikis, right?"

Naruto nodded. "I bet your smart-ass figured it out ages ago, huh?"

"No," Shikamaru denied. "I had my suspicions with Gaara, which eventually lead me to wonder about you, but I never imagined things were this convoluted. Your parentage, though... that... that has me in more of a trance than anything..."

"Seeing that Jutsu, it should've been obvious..." Neji commented, who had been silent out of respect for Naruto's feelings. "That Jutsu he used to defeat me, the Rasengan, it's a Jutsu made by the Yondaime himself..."

"Amazing..." Lee muttered under his breath. "So my new rival is the Fourth Hokage's son, huh...? What a challenge it will be to surpass you, Naruto-kun."

"Wait," Tenten suddenly urged. "This is all making sense and all. But going by what you're saying, doesn't that mean your dad's a Senju, too?" The silence she created was unsettling even by her standards. "I mean, by the crest on your chest I can tell you're an Uzumaki, and we all know the Yondaime was most certainly not an Uzumaki, so... What does that leave?"

Ino stared at Tenten with as much interest as everybody else. "She's right, isn't she...?"

"Yeah," Naruto confirmed. "Believe it or not, my old man is the son of my grandma Tsunade, and my grandpa, Jiraiya. It's the reason some of you guys have heard me calling her Tsunade-obaa... It was a genuine honorific, not just me trying to mess with her..."

Chōji's fingers stopped picking chips for a moment, guilt apparent in his face. "Me and Shika used to hang out with you when we were kids... How did we never catch any of that...?"

"The same reason nobody could believe he was a Senju," Shikamaru replied. "How could someone who everybody thought was a loser consider he was the son of a Hokage who was said to be one of the strongest ninjas to ever live? To gullible fools, it was an insult to even consider it."

"I concur."

All startled eyes snapped toward the source of the unfamiliar voice. At the entrance of the hollow tree they were using for shelter was Orochimaru, unhurt from head to toe; even his clothes lacked a single imperfection. His arms were smugly crossed across his chest, and his eyes held a hint of amusement; the type a psychopath would have once triggered.

"I-impossible...!" Neji stuttered, his left arm helping him into an upright position. "We saw it with our own eyes...! He should be dead...!"

"You are centuries too early to think you can put a genuine scratch on me, little Genin," Orochimaru informed. "Lost limbs, fatal injuries... Such things mean nothing to me..."

Lee, as the most able ninja present at the moment, was the one to act first. He rushed Orochimaru, his leg cocked behind him as he flew through the air. Horror etched everybody's face, however, seeing Lee, a proficient Taijutsu expert, knocked from the air with a merciless elbow to the face. He rebounded off the floor, only for Orochimaru to bring his heel down on the back of his head.

Lee was immediately knocked unconscious, blood seeping from the side of his head.

"LEE!" Tenten shrieked.

Orochimaru wiped every trace of playfulness from his face. "Unfortunately, time is running short, and my patience is wearing thin. I no longer have the luxury to hold back and play with you."

"Ino!" Shikamaru howled.

Nodding nervously, Ino responded, "I'm on it!"

Once their minds had been connected once more, all of them rushed; even those that shouldn't be moving. Naruto and Sasuke were at the helm of the group seeking to get a quick blow in.

Orochimaru lifted a single hand as he riled his chakra. After they were mere feet from him, he released whatever chakra he had bottled up.

The hollow tree they were in was blown apart by the pressure alone. Shrapnel flew in every direction, the only objects following a perfect line being the bodies of the Konoha-Nin. They rolled on the floor like rag dolls, their arms and legs ending up on awkward and odd angles.

Kiba raised his head to see Orochimaru nearing, his eyes fixed on Naruto, who laid motionless behind him. "I won't let you..." he snarled. "Not today..." He snapped his head back seeing his partner. "Akamaru! Let's go!"

Orochimaru's expression and direction remained unchanged seeing Kiba rush toward him with his partner on his head. Once the boy's fist was inches from his face, he took Kiba's arm and struck him under his elbow, breaking the arm in an instant. Kiba released a blood chilling cry feeling the pain, but Orochimaru was not finished. His fist struck the Genin's face, breaking his nose and sending him flying back.

"Kiba!" Naruto yelled from the floor, still unable to move due to his exhaustion.

Shikamaru cursed, "Dammit!" In an act of desperation, the young Nara brought his hands together to use his clan's signature Jutsu. "Sha-!"

Orochimaru appeared before him, his right leg reeled. "The genius architect of