"Wow..." Ino whispered to herself. Naruto had answered a lot of questions from his friends, all were about the Kyuubi and the chakra he used just now to fight Dosu.
She couldn't believe it, the blonde standing in front of her is literally a hero. She was also feeling sad and angry after hearing how he was treated even though he just saved everyone's and their parents' asses.
They still couldn't process that Naruto had a mountain sized fox sealed within him. They were speechless to say the least.
"So that's the real reason why you said the prices in the weapons shop were cheap." Tenten whispered to herself. Lee clenched his fists and had flames of youth and pure determination burning in his eyes.
"Naruto!!! I thank you for your service to Konoha!!" Lee declared, making Naruto laugh at his words.
"I don't think I deserve that Lee. I don't even remember what happened during that day." Naruto replied. Lee shook his head.
"No! You deserve the thanks, Naruto! If not for you and the Fourth Hokage, all of us wouldn't be standing here! And I wouldn't have found my eternal rival!!" Lee argued youthfully, making Naruto smile warmly at him.
"If it isn't for you being here, I don't think I would've had a dream." Shikamaru muttered with a smile on his face, Naruto's smile widened.
"And if it isn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten serious about being a kunoichi and wouldn't have found my dream to work towards." Sakura patted his shoulder with a warm smile on her face.
"Yeah! And I wouldn't have found my true dream! Which is to one day wield the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths! " Tenten added with a big grin on her face.
"If it wasn't for you Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura here would still be my rival instead of my best friend!" Ino added while wrapping an arm around the pink haired kunoichi. Sakura smiled warmly at her words.
"Thank you, my hero." Satsuki whispered with a small smile on her face. Naruto blushed at her words. His smile couldn't be any bigger.
"We all owe you one, that's for sure." Choji commented while throwing a bag of chips at Naruto who grinned as he caught it.
'So he's the same as me in a way. We are fated to be branded with a seal that we can never escape from. But how can he still smile so happily after all the ostracization and resentment he went through?' Neji thought while observing the scene silently.
"What about this, Naruto?" Satsuki whispered to Naruto while looking at the cursed seal. Naruto smiled at her.
"It's alright Satsuki. Whatever Orochimaru wanted it to do to me has failed, thanks to the Kyuubi's help." Naruto whispered back. Satsuki was surprised.
She was surprised that the beast and Naruto were cooperating. She would thought that the fox would resent Naruto for being his jailer.
'That's probably what that dark red chakra covering him while he was sleeping. Naruto and the Kyuubi were fighting whatever the seal was trying to do.' Sakura thought, overhearing the conversation due to being so close to the blonde.
"Lee! Let me help you with that!" Sakura shouted while walking towards Lee who was being scolded by Tenten for charging in so recklessly despite knowing the opponent's capabilities of harming him.
"Thanks so much!! Sakura-san!!" Lee replied while giving her the 'nice guy' pose. Sakura smiled as she healed Lee's damaged ear with the Mystical Palm Jutsu.
After resting with the rest of the Konoha Shinobi for a while, they split up since some of them still had scrolls to find.
Meanwhile, Team 7 made it to the tower after thirty minutes of going at full speed while using chakra to boost it. When they walked in the trio looked around and frowned when they saw it was empty.
"No one's here? We're the first ones to pass then. I thought someone would have at least been here to greet us and take the scrolls." Naruto grumbled.
" Look at that! " Sakura shouted while pointing to a large poster on the wall opposite of the entrance.
"It's telling us to open the scrolls." Satsuki whispered. Naruto quickly took out the heaven and earth scrolls and gave one to Satsuki. Sakura watched nervously as they opened it.
The two opened the scroll and looked to see what was inside. Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized the complex seal on the scroll.
"Satsuki! It's a summoning scroll! Toss your scroll now!!" Naruto shouted. Satsuki gritted her teeth and threw it. She took out her kunai, expecting the scroll to summon an opponent for them.
The scrolls landed on the ground in an X position. A few seconds later the there was a puff of smoke coming from the scrolls, Naruto unsealed a tri-pronged kunai while Sakura unsealed a kunai of her own.
When the smoke cleared it revealed Iruka standing there "Hey! Long time no see, kids!" Iruka greeted with a happy grin.
Team 7 was surprised, they weren't expecting the academy instructor to be apart of this. Iruka looked at them.
"Looks like something big has happened while you guys were in the forest." Iruka commented while looking at Naruto's cursed seal and at Sakura's new hairstyle.
Her under shoulder-length was tied up in a ponytail with a hairband Ino borrowed her. Naruto loved it a lot.
"Yeah I know right! Sakura-chan looks suuuper beautiful with this hairstyle!" Naruto replied with a grin on his face. Sakura blushed vividly and looked away shyly.
Iruka raised an eyebrow at her reaction to his compliment before shaking his head. "That hairstyle does suit you, Sakura. But I'm talking about this, Naruto." Iruka pointed at Naruto's cursed seal.
"Oh this? It's just there now." Naruto replied to him, making Iruka confused. The instructor shrugged, believing Naruto's words for now. He would have to ask for more details later.
"I'm glad you three are alright. When I heard about the fight you three had with Orochimaru, I almost fainted. Oh....what would I do if my students died.... " Iruka whispered, making his ex students frown at his words.
"Hey! We're all here right! So you should be happy instead of thinking about the what ifs!" Naruto replied. Iruka smiled and nodded at him, Naruto always knew just what to say in times like these.
"I'll be informing Lord Third about your safe arrival to the tower right away. In the meantime I suggest you rest from your ordeal, chances are Lord Hokage will call the three of you in to give a report on what happened. So stay in your room until you're told otherwise. "
Naruto saluted Iruka. " Ya got it sensei! We'll stay put! Believe it!!" Naruto replied energetically.
"Right." Iruka muttered back. He was tempted to say more, to ask Naruto if he was alright, but if Orochimaru had given Naruto what he thought it was, then the Hokage would need to be informed immediately.
He disappeared with a Body Flicker a moment later. Satsuki patted Naruto's back. "Hey, let's go get ourselves a room. I'm sure want to check out the seal, am I right?" Satsuki asked him. Naruto grinned and nodded at her.
"Yeah! You read my mind!"
.
.
Naruto was sitting on the ground with his shirt off, showing off his body. Satsuki and Sakura who were sitting in front of him, were staring at his body with no shame at all.
Kneeling beside Naruto was his Shadow Clone. The clone was examining the seal. It frowned in thought as it stared at the seal on the original Naruto's neck.
It was a decently high level Fūinjutsu, yet at the same time it was so sloppy the blonde clone had to wonder what Orochimaru was thinking to put something like this on someone.
The clone started whispering to the real Naruto. A few minutes later, Naruto nodded and dispelled it. He sighed as he saw the girls staring at his body like it was a piece of meat.
"Girls, stop being perverts for a moment. I figured out the seal." Naruto called them. Satsuki and Sakura blushed in embarrassment at being called perverts, even though they were not. (Lie)
"It's a fairly high level seal, powerful too. A few of the seals on there I don't even recognize. However, it's also been made rather poorly. The snake bastard doesn't really care if someone lives or dies from this. I can see a few seals that I have knowledge of. "
" There's a slave seal, which is designed to bend the will of the person using it to whoever created it. A modified pain seal, this one is to inflict pain on a person if they decide to use it against the seal against its creator. And a mind slave seal, normally these are designed to control others by controlling the chemical processes in the brain."
" This one however looks like it enslaves the user's will to the power of the seal, basically it acts like a drug, the more you use the seal the more you'll crave its use."
"So you're basically a guinea pig to him then." Sakura whispered with a frown on his face. Naruto smirked and shook his head.
" Not anymore, I have more info to share with you. The Kyuubi told me that this seal first absorbs my chakra and the natural energy from my surroundings, converting it into senjutsu chakra through the consciousness within the cursed seal and then pumping it back into my chakra pathway system to enhance my abilities."
The girls were confused. Sakura raised her hand, intending to ask him a question.
"Senjutsu? Natural energy? What's that? "
To be continued.....