Legends of the Whirlpool

Chapter 1: Enter - Kurohi Hogosha!

"Ah, it feels good to come back home after so long…" a man in a straw hat and large cloak walked through the gates of Konoha. It had been more than a decade since he left. 'I just hope that he's alright… Sarutobi did give me his word…' It was then that he heard the sound of laughter coming his way.

"DARN YOU, NARUTO! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" a chunin yelled.

"YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT THIS TIME, UZUMAKI!" yelled another. "YOU'LL PAY FOR DESECRATING THE MONUMENT!"

'Naruto… Uzumaki?' the man's thoughts started to spin. His eyes looked to the mountain etched with Hokages' faces.

The mountain was covered in paint. Graffiti was all over and the Hokages looked like drag queens. The man couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

'He has Kushina's spirit…' His thoughts were interrupted by laughter again, now coming his way.

"HAHAHAHA! YOU GUYS JUST DON'T HAVE THE GUTS TO DO WHAT I DID!" the man looked down the street to see an orange blur coming towards him, two chunin on its tail. The man hid in a nearby alley to watch the blur speed past him, chunin following. A boy in orange reappeared out of the fence across the street, laughing at the two chunin who had disappeared. The man decided to make his move.

"Hahahaha! Too easy!" The boy said.

"Oh? You think so?" The man inquired.

"GAH!" the boy jumped is surprise. "w-who're you?"

The man started to chuckle. "Me? Just a man who enjoys the thrill of the chase. Nice work on the Hokages, by the way, they've never looked better!"

"Really? You think so?" The boy had a big smile on his face.

The man looked at him: blue eyes, blond hair, and that smile… 'Minato…' "Of course! anyone with enough guts to do that is good in my book! So who are you, anyway?" he had to make sure.

"Me? I'm -"

"In a whole lot of trouble!" a voice yelled from behind him. "Uzumaki Naruto!"

"GAH! I-Iruka-sensei, What's up?" Naruto asked nervously.

"You're supposed to be in class, that's what's up!" as soon Iruka tied Naruto up, he turned to the man, "thanks for distracting him, I'll just take him back to class."

"Umm, you're welcome?" the man just stared as the two disappeared. His mind started contemplating what to do. 'Hmm… I know I should check in with Sarutobi first, but this is just too good to pass up!' he chuckled to himself as he disappeared from the scene.

(Konoha Academy)

"All right class, since our lecture was interrupted again," Iruka gave a glare at Naruto, who just shook it off, "we'll go over henges again."

The class gave an audible moan.

"No moaning. now everyone come to the front and perform the jutsu."

As the class did the technique, no one noticed someone in the shadows.

'Let's see how your ninjutsu is, Naruto-san…'

"Next up, Naruto," Iruka said. Naruto stepped forward, but soon held a smirk on his face.

"HENGE!" a large poof of chakra revealed a young blonde woman with a nice figure. The thing was… she was naked, the chakra clouds covering her well.

Iruka was stunned and blown back, curtsey of a large nosebleed.

'…You really are your mother's child, Naruto' the man chuckled, a bead of sweat running down his head.

"HAHAHA! That was my newest technique: Orioke no Jutsu!"

"BAKAYARO! DON'T GO MAKING STUPID TECHNIQUES!"

The man glanced at the rest of the students. 'Hmm… the big guy's an Akimichi, Pineapple-head is a Nara – he's too bored not to be, the other blonde is Yamanaka's girl, the wild one's definitely an Inuzuka, takes after his mother. The sunglasses kid is obviously Shibi's, and… Pink hair? That's different, and she seems to be staring at… an Uchiha…' he stopped his train of thought to twitch erratically and restrained himself from revealing himself and killing the bastard outright. He'd come so close now, he couldn't blow it all now. He distracted himself by glancing at the last notable student, which was hard, considering she was practically hiding herself in her jacket. 'A Hyuga? Seems she's the black sheep of the family, and about time there was one.' He followed her line of sight to see it fall upon the prankster he saw earlier. 'heh, who would have thought. The Princess fawning over the Lost Prince… hmm… that might actually be a good story plot. I'll work on it later. Now, I've got plans to make.'

(Hokage Tower, a few days later)

Sarutobi Hiruzen was scribbling away on the paperwork that littered his desk.

*Sigh*'Damn this paperwork, how did you defeat it, Minato? I may be the Professor, but even I'm stumped…'he grumbled as he continued to work away.

He didn't seem to notice the window was open until a few stray papers started blowing around.

"Damn it again! This is too much for me sometimes." He said as he got up to grab the papers. "I really should consider retiring soon."

"Perhaps, Sarutobi." A voice said from his desk. The old Hokage turned around to see most of his paperwork gone and the cloaked man in his seat. "but I doubt you'd find a good replacement."

"Who are you? How did you get into my office? And why are you here?" Sarutobi demanded.

The man chuckled, "Come now, Hiruzen. It's only been… twelve years? You couldn't have forgotten me. Or any of Us." He lifted his hat slightly to show the shine of a headband metal on it, engraved with a spiral.

Hiruzen stared, "It's you… Sh-"

"Kurohi Hogosha, Sarutobi. I have an image to keep." The man interrupted. "tell me, how is Naruto?"

"I believe you could see firsthand on the way here." Sarutobi said.

Hogosha chuckled again. "He's just like his mother."

"His father, too."

"Does he know?" Hogosha asked.

"No…"

"Why not? He deserves to."

"You know well the reason why."

"Not really. I fixed that problem years ago." Hogosha said with an unseen smirk.

"How?" Sarutobi asked.

"A true ninja doesn't reveal his secrets until he wishes them to be known." Hogosha seemed to recite. "…I wish to train him."

"The rosters have already been filled." Sarutobi said.

"Who's he with?" Hogosha asked.

"Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sa-" he was cut off by a pressuring KI.

"WHAT!" Hogosha practically roared. "You… DARE place Minato and Kushina's only son with…with… that THING! Have you gone senile?"

"It was not my choice. The Councils -"

"'The Councils' what? Said that the 'demon' should be hated and beaten? Sarutobi, you know goddamn well enough that I won't stand for it."

"It's out of my hands, Sh-"

"Hiruzen, you're Hokage because you have to make tough decisions, not squander away with useless paperwork. I expected you to do better with this. Your laws aren't protecting him at all."

"Speaking of which, where is all of my paperwork?" Sarutobi asked.

"I burned most of it, took it to the lavatories around town, y'know, more meaningful for it to be used as." Hogosha deadpanned, the Hokage gaping at him. "And you might need glasses to read the fine print. Most of them were giving your power to the Civilian Council. I think I even saw an execution permission form for Naruto in there…"

"What? But how did you…?" Sarutobi tried to find the words.

"One of Shadow can truly find sanity when utilizing the Shadow's friends themselves." Hogosha recited again, smirking. "just a phrase from Minato."

"…that clever brat…" Hiruzen chuckled. "So THAT's how he did it."

"For the record, it was Kushina-chan that gave him the idea." Hogosha laughed slightly. "A great woman behind every man."

"True, Sh-… Hogosha-kun."

"You're catching on, Jiji." Hogosha said. "I still want to train him."

"Then you'll have to take Sasuke as well."

"Absolutely not. Besides, I've got a better idea."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Sarutobi inquired.

Hogosha simply smirked and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

(Academy, day after graduation)

Naruto rushed on his way to school, actually happy that he passed, learned a new jutsu, and beat Mizuki-teme's ass. He went into the classroom, not noticing the man at the desk.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't pass?" Shikamaru asked, his headband tied around his arm.

"Hee… nope! See? I got it last night after a secret mission. Wanna know what happened?" Naruto smiled.

"Too troublesome…"

"That's what you always say…"

"Only when it's true. You see the new guy?"

"Huh? What new guy?"

"At the desk up front. You know him?"

Naruto looked at the teacher's desk to see a man wearing a dark blue kimono shirt with black flames along the edges and the sleeves. He wore shinobi pants and strange shoes that had metal over the toes and heel. His face was hidden by a large straw hat with a metal plate engraved with a spiral on it.

"Nope. Never seen him before in my life."

"Troublesome…"

Just then, heavy footfalls started thundering down the hall, the predetermined sign of fangirls raging. The door slammed open revealing a blond and pinkette.

"I WAS HERE FIRST!" they yelled at each other.

The man at the front twitched slightly at the sound. 'The Nara is right, "Troublesome" indeed.'

"Hi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called. The pinkette just glared at him.

"Urusei, Naruto-baka! Move it! I'm sitting next to Sasuke-kun!"

The blonde girl glared at the pinkette. "Like hell he is, Forehead! Sasuke-kun is mine!"

This led to the glaring match/rant that was common between the two.

While this was going on, Naruto got up from his seat and crouched down in front of Sasuke, glaring him down. The Brooding Uchiha glares back, taking the unspoken challenge. The fangirls present were glaring at Naruto, believing he was bothering their Sasuke.

The man in the front watched intently, with a slight feeling he should do something. In foresight, he thought ahead placing shunshin seals on all the seats, planning to screw with the teachers with students switching seats at random for a few laughs. He figured now would be a good test. He quickly snapped his fingers.

He had good timing, the person in front of Sasuke leaned back, bumping Naruto forward and leaning almost falling into Sasuke. Lips touched.

But they weren't Sasuke's.

Instead, Naruto was face to face with Hyuga Hinata, her face both is shock and embarrassment, turning a bright red.

'N-N-Naruto-k-kun is k-k-kissing me -?' her thought process made out before fainting while blushing a deep red.

"EH? Hinata, what were you doing as Sasuke? Hinata? Hinaaaataaa." Naruto tried to wake Hinata up.

The man in front chuckled at the reaction, but was disappointed at Naruto's lack thereof. 'hmm… this might be trickier than I thought… all the more reason to keep it going, hehehehe.'

"Hey, where'd Sasuke-kun go?" one of the fangirls asked. The others looked around, finding the Uchiha where Hinata was before. His faced showed some surprise, but was quickly covered by his brooding before the fangirls saw.

"Kyahhh!" one of the fangirls squealed. "Sasuke-kun switched himself with the Hyuga! He's so cool!" the others soon followed in squealing. Sasuke made no point to correct them, as he was still brooding. The man in the front looked through his hat, staring incredulously at the scene.

'If this is the next generation of kunoichi, Konoha's standards have really fallen… I'm gonna have to fix that later.' The man looked over to the blond in orange, still trying to wake the pale girl in front of him. 'The village must not have taken Minato's wish to heart. That or this village is more populated by morons than I remember… probably both.'

At that moment, a bandaged Iruka entered the room to see the man and the class as it was. He stared at the man, who gave a few hand signals to explain what was going on:

[Conflict avoided. Flag of romance raised, yet unseen. Ears ringing from blind fools. Do you have earplugs?]

Iruka blinked at the man. He looked over the class to see that Hinata was in Sasuke's usual spot, out cold with Naruto trying to wake her up, the other kunoichi genin were on the stairwell praising Sasuke, who ignored them as usual. He looked back at the man and smiled. He sent hand signals back as best he could in his condition.

[Left third drawer.]

The man checked the drawer and pulled out a fresh set. He gave Iruka a thumb's up and gave a few more hand signals.

[Thanks. I'll need these in a bit. Continue with what you were doing.]

Iruka nodded and looked back at the class. He activated his special technique: the Kyodaina Waru Atama no Jutsu (Giant Evil Head Jutsu) "EVERYONE TO A SEAT NOW!"

The class was startled, everyone getting into a seat in less than ten seconds.

"Now, today is the day you will be placed on a team of three with a sensei. You cannot have them changed for any reason, so don't whine if you don't get who you want. Now, Team 1 is…" the list went on until soon… "Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura–" a cheer and a groan were heard. "- and Uchiha Sasuke."

The reactions switched, and an underlying growl was barely heard from someone. No one could tell who.

"…well that was strange… anyway, Team 7's sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. Team 8 will be Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino. Your sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi."

The man saw the now-awake girl start to shrink into her large coat when she heard her teammates, but perked up slightly at her sensei's name. 'heh, shy and wanting… I have a feeling this will be more interesting than I anticipated. Definitely Hitomi's daughter, but Hiashi probably needs a remedial lesson in family values. That and the Hyuga Council needs to be disbanded along with the Caged Bird Seal… another arc in my life, I suppose. *sigh*.'

"And finally, Team 10 will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji. Your sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma. Now as for our mystery guest…" Iruka looked towards the man in front, who chuckled.

"I suppose I would need to give my reason why I am here. Very well." The man stood up, standing over Iruka by a head at least. The new genin could see he had a large scroll slung over his back, and two medium-sized ones beneath it. He lifted the hat back, revealing wildly tame hair in a rich shade of blue. He had one or two wrinkles and a scar over his throat. His eyes were green and seemed dim, but held a certain spark of mischief.

"My name is Kurohi Hogosha. One of you kids gets the privilege to be my student. So who's it gonna be?" Hogosha said proudly and smirked at the faces of the genin.

A legend has returned to Konoha to create the next.