Chapter 396: Chapter 393 : Confrontation
[A/N: Bonus Chapter. Holy crap! We reached 6104 Power Stones last week. We reached rank 12!! Both are the highest so far! If thie book would have been listed as a fanfic, we would have ranked 1 in the previous week!!! Keep it up everyone :)]
Fujin finished up his bowls of ramen before Naruto. He got up and said, "I'll be waiting for you tomorrow morning. Don't be late."
Naruto quickly swallowed the noodles and said, "I will be there on time. Believe it!"
Fujin nodded and left. As he left, he heard Naruto talking to Ayame in excitement claiming that he would be able to control winds like Fujin in no time. Naruto seemed to have already forgotten about failing the graduation exam. Fujin ignored it and began walking home.
He sighed and thought, 'I forgot how much of a punk Naruto was. Even though it's understandable considering his situation, It'll be rather annoying to deal with all the time. Should I curtail it?'
Fujin thought for a bit before deciding, 'Leave it. It's a thankless job and will require a lot of time and effort. I'll just have him act properly in front of me and compensate for that by filling his head with more prank ideas. As long as I'm not the one he annoys, I don't care. Besides, considering the amount of trauma he has, it will be better for him to let some of it out through pranks rather than bottling it all up.'
Fujin then began thinking about what to train Naruto in. Since Hiruzen had handed him the Flying Thunder God peacefully, he didn't intend to create much trouble for him. He thought, 'Training Naruto... It is something I have contemplated for a long time.'
He recalled his analysis, 'The advantage of doing so is very simple. Naruto's stocks are set to explode in the future. And no one, including Naruto himself, knows about this. Investing in him at this time, when very few others have, will make him feel indebted to me and make him take my side or support me as long as I don't do anything that is totally against his morals. No, even if I do something evil, he will still fight for my forgiveness.
So, if some of my future plans go horribly wrong and put me in a dangerous situation or make me an enemy of the elemental nations, I will always have a path of retreating.
Regardless, if things happen just as in the canon, there are only benefits in doing this. Even if things don't pan out the same, having a rank S ninja that I can easily influence is something invaluable.
However, there is a big problem with this... If I train Naruto, and if that helps him become stronger quicker than the canon timeline, then the story could change in ways that I might not be able to calculate, costing my advantage of future knowledge.
And the changes start at a very basic level. For instance, if my training somehow makes him competent enough to learn the Clone jutsu, then he will graduate and Mizuki won't be able to make him steal the scroll.
That would mean that Naruto wouldn't learn the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu until the Sun rises from the West and Kakashi or Jiraiya decides to teach him the jutsu that is tailormade for him. And I have no idea how much that would impact his ability to fight or even survive in his future fights.
Luckily, this change is easy to see and fix. I can just teach him the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu myself as a gift for graduating. Though I will lose my chance to sneak a peek at the contents of the forbidden scroll, I doubt the scroll he stole was the actual forbidden scroll. There's no way the Hiruzen I know would be this careless.
But regardless, such changes will happen in the future. At least the events during the Chunin Exams will change. Fortunately, the major events, like Akatsuki's movements, shouldn't be affected by the increase in his strength. Suna and Oto's invasion might be affected, but that's more due to me rather than Naruto.'
Fujin let out a sigh and muttered, "So many complications. What do you want?"
As Fujin walked, he reached a street that was completely deserted. In an instant, a masked ninja, wearing the Anbu outfit, appeared behind Fujin. The masked ninja heard Fujin's question and said in a monotonous tone, "Stay away from Uzumaki Naruto."
Without turning around to face him, Fujin asked in a plain tone, "Why?"
The ninja answered, "Lord Hokage's orders."
Fujin replied, "That's funny. I don't recall him passing such orders. So why don't you stop beating around the bush and say the real reason."
The ninja was surprised. He didn't expect someone to actually question him back. After all, very few ever questioned the Anbu. He said, "You ca..."
However, Fujin cut him off and said, "I thought Root was dissolved. What are you doing keeping an eye on the citizens of Konoha?"
Fujin was very well aware of Anbu's operating style. During the last three years, he had gone on combined missions with several teams. So it was very easy for him to realize that the ninja behind him wasn't from Anbu.
The Root ninja was shocked once again. Not only did the youngster in front of him not obey him, but he also revealed his identity. Not knowing how to handle the situation, he released a bit of his killing intent at Fujin and said, "Do as you are told."
For the first time, Fujin turned his head and looked into the eyes of the Root ninja. In the next second, the Root ninja immediately jumped away. His eyes widened in shock and disbelief as sweat appeared behind his mask. He wondered, 'Who is he? And how many people did he kill?'
Instead of backing out, Fujin had unleashed his own killing intent at the Root ninja. As someone who had spent the better part of the last 3 years killing a large number of ninjas and Nobles, the amount of people he killed far exceeded what the Root ninja had.
Though Fujin couldn't compare to Juzo in this regard, a Root ninja, who wasn't even at the Jounin level, wasn't his match. Since the entire killing intent was focused on him, the Root ninja couldn't endure it. He felt that he would lose his life if he didn't move away from Fujin.
Fujin muttered, "The next time you or any other Root ninja sneaks up on me, I won't be polite."
Without looking back, Fujin walked away. The Root ninja was still in shock. It was his first time seeing someone from Konoha who had no regard for either the Anbu or the Root. He wondered, 'Who is that guy? All ninjas are very polite towards the Anbu. If they know that I am from Root, they become even more polite and slightly fearful. But he directly threatened me and other Root ninjas?'
He quickly retreated and rushed towards the underground Root base.
Fujin ignored him and continued walking home. He thought, 'That's weird. I thought all Root ninjas would be aware of me. Even if Danzo didn't tell them, do they not read the Bingo book? That said, he felt quite weak and was probably only at the Chunin level. Maybe Danzo kept him busy for some mission.
Regardless, Danzo has gone completely silent. I had expected him to do something after spying on me. Though I didn't sense anyone later, I am sure that he still kept an eye on me. But it's been nearly 3 months. And I also went out on a mission. It is strange that he hasn't tried anything.
The main reason why I was so provocative in this little interaction is to see what Danzo would do now. If he has some malicious intentions, then this would provide him a good excuse to take action. Even if he doesn't take any action, I'll be able to get some clues on his intentions.'
Fujin was very interested in seeing Danzo's schemes. If Danzo hadn't tried spying on him, Fujin would have ignored his existence until it was the right time. But since Danzo displayed some intentions against him, Fujin knew that just waiting passively would give all initiative to Danzo. Once he ascertained Danzo's intentions, he would have a better idea of how to proceed forward.
Fujin reached his home and entered the basement. He finally took out the scroll and opened it as he muttered in excitement, "Flying Thunder God jutsu... Finally, I can learn it!"
He immediately began reading all the information regarding it.
While Fujin began studying, a figure appeared in the underground base of Root. He was the same Root ninja who tried warning Fujin. He went straight to Danzo and after getting permission, entered it.
He bowed respectfully and said in a hurry, "Danzo-sama, there is an issue. A Shinobi interacted with Uzumaki Naruto and promised to train him. I warned him and asked him to stay away from Naruto, but he refused to do so."
Danzo was surprised. He asked, "Didn't you threaten him?"
Sweat gathered behind the Root ninja's mask as he recalled how his threat went.
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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