Naruto: The Seal of Legacy

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At this moment, a group of three students from the newly formed Team 7 were resting in the cave they had recently borrowed from the giant bear.

Not long before, they had finished obtaining two other scrolls from hidden places. These scrolls had a similar difficulty of retrieval as the previous one. The first one was in an abandoned stone structure that was being used by a pack of large gorillas, and the second one was on a cliff surrounded by some rather strange snakes, each of which was dispersed by smoke after a strong blow.

Naruto suggested that they were either shadow clones of one of the snakes, which was unlikely, or they were someone else's jutsu aimed at guarding the scroll, which was closer to the truth. Sasuke had literally said that it was the work of "that" woman, which Naruto and Sakura were in complete agreement with.

Eventually, after spending a little over a few hours, the group returned to the cave to catch their breath before entering the last place full of traps and possibly unknown and dangerous beasts.

It was Sakura who was stressing out the most, but after so many encounters with the various critters of this forest, her nerves had managed to go through a bit of a hardening, allowing her to stay calm much better than before.

Naruto meanwhile was looking at the fire where small lizards on sticks were cooking, which didn't look too appetising, but it couldn't be helped as everyone needed to eat. Even Sakura, who was showing the utmost disgust on her face, silently ate her portion.

After snacking, the group began to rest in silence. Sakura kept glancing hesitantly at Sasuke, trying to think of a way to make conversation with him. The brunet was staring at the flames of the fire, deep in thought.

Naruto couldn't just sit there and do nothing, so he took out all the scrolls they had obtained and began to look at the seals that were on them. He had noticed at the beginning that they were part of something bigger, and he wondered if he could make a complete seal with four of them. Plus, there might be clues in there that could help him overcome the traps.

Laying out all four scrolls, he began to examine the structure of the seals, tracing the paths of chakra, and the strings of formulas. This particular seal was not as complex as it wanted to appear. The lines were all studentically basic, and it was only the division into smaller parts that made it look complicated.

While Naruto was studying the scrolls, and trying to match them together like a mosaic, his actions were noticed by Sakura, who still hadn't figured out a way to talk to Sasuke. Especially now that he looked so pensive. She'd already realised that the guy didn't like anyone disturbing his peace or distracting him from any task, so she was simply afraid of causing him to dislike her even more. That's why, instead, she decided to distract herself with what Naruto was doing.

As she approached him, she saw the blond man arranging the scrolls so that the seals on each one connected to each other, forming a single formula.

Seeing this, Sakura couldn't help but speak in wonder:

"You were able to figure this out?"

Naruto looked around in surprise, only now noticing Sakura walking up to him. He had been too caught up in the moment, and only now realised that he had been being watched all this time. Pulling himself back together, Naruto smiled calmly at the girl, and replied:

"Not quite, but I'm almost there," here Naruto pointed his finger at the parts of the seal that already matched, "basically, it's a regular storage seal. It holds something that should definitely help us. Except I've only been able to get three of the pieces right, but the fourth scroll won't fall into place," Naruto's pensive face stared at the girl, "maybe..... you have any ideas?"

Sakura nodded, a little surprised, and looked more closely at the seal pattern, which was vaguely familiar. Frowning, she said:

"Honestly, I'm not sure," she pointed to the pieces already assembled, "but this pattern looks familiar to me. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't remember."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in surprise as he returned his gaze to the already assembled seal, and abstracting his gaze from its structure, he took a closer look at the pattern it formed. And indeed, the pattern of the seal did resemble something.

"You're right, it does seem familiar," Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, calling upon his enhanced memory.

And just a few seconds later, he was able to remember where he had seen the pattern. It was a pattern on the cover of a book they had studied at the academy. It was an introductory lesson on how to unseal storage scrolls. For this lesson, a special storage seal was used, modified so that even a novice student could interact with it safely.

Smiling brightly, Naruto looked at Sakura, and said:

"I get it! After you mentioned that pattern, I remembered seeing it on an introduction book to seal storage at the academy."

Blinking her eyes in surprise, Sakura looked at the pattern again, and realised that Naruto was right. Also smiling, she replied:

"Indeed, now I remember too! That seal was slightly altered, so it's no wonder we couldn't recognise it straight away."

Nodding, Naruto was finally able to figure out how to arrange the last part of the seal to make a proper structure. After that, he and Sakura glanced over and high-fived each other.

Sakura really felt good about seeming helpful to the team. Moreover, she was really starting to realise the current Naruto was no longer the person she used to think he was. Naruto himself was also feeling quite unusual, as this was the first time Sakura had interacted with him in such a long and positive way. If even 'SHE' was beginning to thaw, his attempts to be a better person really hadn't gone to waste.

Turning his attention back to the assembled seal, Naruto finally injected his chakra into it to extract the contents, but unfortunately nothing happened. Blinking his eyes in surprise, Naruto tried again while trying to watch the flow of his chakra. The seal again failed to respond, but Naruto immediately realised what was wrong. Smiling bitterly, Naruto looked at Sakura, and said:

"It seems this seal requires too little chakra to activate. I don't have that good of a control. Would you mind opening it?"

Hearing his words and seeing the confused look on his face, Sakura chuckled quietly before nodding and answering:

"Sure, with my control there won't be a problem."

After saying that, the girl sat down next to the guy, and touching the collected pattern, injected her chakra into it. A second later, the scroll made a 'poof' sound, and then a small piece of paper appeared in a cloud of smoke. Looking at it, Sakura took it in her hands, and together with Naruto, they began to look at its contents.

As soon as they saw what was in it, Naruto immediately smiled happily, and said:

"Great! I was right, it has all the information about the traps, as well as the exact location of the last item."

Nodding, the girl replied:

"Indeed, it even has information about the maze that is inside, and the correct path, with all the traps bypassed," saying this, Sakura swallowed saliva with fear, "I'm afraid to imagine what would have happened if we had ventured in there without surveying the rest of the area."

Naruto nodded in agreement. At this time, Sasuke finally turned his attention to his 'teammates', and realised that they had managed to figure out the seal in the scrolls. Walking over to them, he snatched the sheet of information from their hands, and after reading the contents, he grinned slightly, and said:

"Hm, it looks like you relaxed too soon," saying that, he pointed at one particular place in the sheet, "look, didn't you find this place too strange? The construction of the words is too strange."

"Now that you mention it... It really is unusual," Naruto brought his hand up to his chin.

Sakura, on the other hand, just stared thoughtfully at the text. With a snicker, Sasuke explained:

"This is an encryption. Such an encryption was previously used by the Konoha police, led by my clan..." at that moment, the boy's face contained complex emotions,"if I understood the encryption correctly, it says that the correct path in the labyrinth will mirror what is described in the scroll. If you go straight according to the paper, you will inevitably fall into traps."

"Wow, I didn't realise Konoha used an encryption like that. Looks like whoever put together this practice paper definitely knew who was going to be in it," Naruto was really curious as to who was putting it all together.

Nodding his head, Sasuke frowned again, and said:

"Anyway, all we have left is to get the last item. Tomorrow, at first light, we'll go searching for it. I suggest you go to sleep right now."

With that, the frowning Uchiha walked back to his seat and lay down on the scattered leaves, falling asleep. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and decided to follow his example, as they could really use the rest.

The next day, as agreed, as the sun rose, the team gathered their belongings and prepared to leave for their final mission.

As before, Naruto created a clone to scout for new beasts. The team itself leisurely followed, letting the clone get ahead of them. They all had different thoughts, but one thing they had in common was that they wanted to succeed in their practical mission.

Reaching the desired area, the group stopped right in front of the first traps. Checking the information on the scroll, the team looked at each other meaningfully, and after nodding, headed straight for the landmark described in the scroll.

It was a large, withered tree that had lost all of its branches. It stood out quite a bit, so it wasn't hard to find. Naruto's clones had also confirmed that there were no other similar trees in the area, so there should be no mistake.

Following the directions on the sheet step by step, the group managed to overcome the first wave of traps. When they reached the next problem area, they lurked in the bushes, as there was a new cluster of snakes right between the building and them. It was obvious that they had been placed here artificially, as there was no sign of them nesting or any other hint of their habitat in this place.

"There are a lot more of them than there were in the rocks, and the snakes themselves are larger. I guess we'll really have to find the descent into the tunnel described in the seal," Naruto spoke this while looking around the immediate area for the next landmark.

Sakura nodded in agreement with his words, but Sasuke didn't react in any way. He sat and glowered at the snakes, calculating his chances of burning them all in a single application of fire jutsu. Realising that there were too many snakes and his technique was not yet perfected, he gritted his teeth in frustration. Sasuke really disliked the fact that they avoided problematic situations most of the time. This practice was supposed to be great training for his skills, but in the end, most of the time they were looking for a way to avoid battles. It was really annoying him.

''If it continues like this, I need to finish this kindergarten under the guise of 'practice' as soon as possible, and get back to training. Compared to 'this', my personal training is much more effective." Sasuke thought to himself, then looked at Naruto and Sakura, and with a nod of his head followed them.

The second landmark was a tree stump, the top of which was removable, like a manhole cover. Underneath it was a descent into a strange tunnel. After checking it with the clone and making sure it was safe, the team jumped down.

There was no lighting in the tunnel, so Naruto had to make a homemade torch out of a piece of cloth soaked in resin and wrapped around a stick. It wouldn't burn for long, but it would do for a while.

"Where did you learn how to make torches?" Sakura couldn't help but wonder. They hadn't learnt how to make torches at the academy. And while it wasn't hard to make something like this, it wasn't something she would have expected from Naruto before.

Flashing a slight smile at the pink-haired girl's interest, Naruto replied:

"I didn't know you visited the school library," Sakura was really surprised. She didn't go there very often herself, so to find out that someone like Naruto went there was really a surprise to the girl.

«Maybe his improvement in class has something to do with that.» Sakura was finally starting to realise that the guy was really taking himself seriously.

At this point, no matter how she looked at the current Naruto, his new image was too much of a contrast to his past. His skills were better, his knowledge was more extensive, and his appearance was recognised even by Ino. She especially liked the look in his eyes. It had become so calm and collected, yet warm and deep at the same time. It was so similar to Sasuke's thoughtful gaze, but at the same time so very different from it in its warmth and carefree nature, which was more of a plus than a minus.

"Well, as of late, I've had one very important goal. And in order to achieve it, I need to put a lot of effort into it. Otherwise, I just won't be able to succeed," Naruto looked and sounded quite determined while saying this.

Remembering his past rants, Sakura asked:

"You mean that desire of yours to become Hokage? " Sakura looked doubtful.

Smiling at her words, Naruto grinned, and shaking his head, replied:

"No, my goals have changed a bit. I have a new dream. More desirable and real than before. Becoming Hokage will only prevent me from achieving it."

Sakura wanted to ask again, but was interrupted by Sasuke's words:

"Shh, there's something up ahead," the Uchiha squinted into the darkness of the tunnel, at the end of which the archway that was the end of the tunnel was visible.

Looking in that direction, Naruto, having a sharper hearing, nodded, and said:

"You're right, there is something there," here the blond listened a bit, "from the sound of it, it sounds like someone is eating something."

Raising an eyebrow in a slight questioning manner, Sasuke asked:

"Eating...? How did you hear that?"

Smiling awkwardly, Naruto replied:

"Ah, I have a pretty keen ear," the blond became more serious, "I don't know who or what is making those noises, but we need to be on our guard. "

Sasuke nodded, and the group slowly made their way towards the archway, keeping their caution at the highest level possible. Reaching the end, they passed through the archway, and entered a large room.

The group gazed warily into the darkness, trying to make out the silhouette that appeared before them, and the torchlight that had begun to fade couldn't illuminate far enough. Suddenly, unexpectedly to the group, the room suddenly lit up with light, blinding the trio for a moment. After a second, as their eyes adjusted, they looked around and realised that the room appeared to be some sort of basement, with wooden supports some distance from the walls, and a staircase up at the end of the room. Right in front of them was a smiling Anko, who was nonchalantly eating dango on a stick, sitting on a small chair.

The sight of this clearly confused the group. Naruto was the only one who remained calm, and that was only because of his mind calming technique.

Amused by the surprised faces of the trio, Anko grinned predatorily and said:

"So, kids. You managed to break the seal in the scroll and get here after all, didn't you?"

"Don't pretend to be surprised. Those snakes, that was your doing, wasn't it?" Sasuke frowned at the woman while saying that.

"Hoo... So you guessed? Well, that's right. My little ones did play with you a bit," saying that, several snakes crawled out of the woman's sleeves, rubbing gently against the woman's face.

Sakura shuddered, feeling a certain disgust for these crawling creatures. At this time, the woman continued:

"Still, I'm quite surprised. You did it in just two days. Frankly, I doubted that a week would be enough for you. But who would have thought you'd have such a good balance of members on your team," she said, and then looked at the calm blond who was watching her with unconcerned interest.

Swallowing slightly, Sakura asked:

"So... D-does that mean we passed the practical?"

Shifting her sharp gaze to the pink-haired girl, Anko made the latter flinch. Grinning, the playful kunoichi replied:

"Oh, well of course not. After all, you never got the last object," Anko raised her hand and pointed her finger at the stairs leading up behind her, "and by the way, that very object is in the building above us."

Hearing her words, Sasuke decided not to waste time, and silently headed towards the stairs, ignoring both Sensei and his team. As soon as he got close enough to Anko to pass by her, she immediately threw an unexpected punch at the Uchiha, who only managed to block it with his hands before being thrown back towards Naruto and Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura ran over to the guy in a panic, wanting to help him up.

The Uchiha wheezed in pain, only irritably pushing the girl away from him, and standing up on his own, stared angrily at the black-haired kunoichi. While Sakura looked sadly at the guy, Naruto calmly assessed the situation, thinking of possible ways to deal with the situation.

Anko, on the other hand, laughed as she looked at the Uchiha's angry expression and said:

"Oh, I forgot to say that I don't intend to let you pass any further at all. Still, you passed the main part of the test too quickly, which could damage my reputation in front of the other jonin quite a bit. So, for the next couple of days, I'm going to play with you properly," saying that, she showed her most honest and 'innocent' smile.

The woman's words made Sasuke frown, and Sakura turned pale, as she didn't want to spend a few days in this place without food, water, and certainly not a shower. Naruto, on the other hand, took the woman's words with the same carefree expression. He only continued to casually survey the surroundings of the room. And after a few seconds, he thought of something.

Before he could share his thoughts with his team, one of them, which was Sasuke, rushed forward, folding the seals of his fire technique, and a second later, jumped into the air, then exhaled a large fireball at Anko, completely engulfing her in flames.

As he landed, Sasuke smirked, watching as the woman was covered in fire. Except, his smile immediately faded from his face, as after the fire was extinguished, all that was left in the woman's place was a burnt log.

"Replacement jutsu?" Sasuke looked around, trying to figure out where she was doing.

Suddenly, a pair of snakes burst out of the ground and bound the kid's legs, after which, straight from the ceiling jumped the woman herself, who grinned predatorily at the Uchiha and said:

"That wasn't a bad technique you had kid. Except..." the woman looked the guy in the eye, "it's too slow."

With that said, the woman made a sharp turn and kicked at the boy, throwing him back again. He was caught by Naruto, who had been talking to Sakura the whole time.

Stabilising the guy on his feet, Naruto said:

"Looks like you're pretty strong, Anko sensei," here Naruto crossed his fingers, and created two clones, "but can you last as long as you said you would?"

At that moment, the two clones prepared two kunai, and dashed towards Anko. At this time, Naruto himself began to whisper something to Sasuke.

It didn't take Anko long to destroy the two clones, after which she thought in surprise:

«Shadow clone jutsu... That's a forbidden technique of rank "B", where did he learn it?» finishing her thought, the woman returned her gaze to the group that had already gathered the three of them, making her smile to herself, «at least they're starting to work together.»

Nodding, Naruto stood in front of the group, and crossing his fingers, there was another flash of smoke, a little larger than before, temporarily hiding the group from her view, and a second later, several practice kunai came out of it, flying towards her, one of which she just caught, and used it to fend off the rest. After that, three Naruto immediately burst out of the smoke, fanning the rest of the smoke, and attacked her. While the clones of the guy were easy for her to deal with, the original was surprisingly more difficult.

At the same time, while Naruto was distracting Anko, Sasuke and Sakura ran around to her left and flanked the woman, forcing the kunoichi to twist in an unusual way, pushing the blond away from her and meeting the attack of the two kids with two snakes that came out of her sleeves.

"Look at them, attacking all together, how cute!" Anko grinned, pushing Sasuke and Sakura aside with her snakes.

With that, the woman ducked sharply, avoiding a backhanded attack from the blond man, who flew over the woman, and landed next to his mates, who smirked slightly as he looked at the woman.

Seeing this, Anko was a little surprised, and with a slight smile asked:

"What is it? Have you entered the excitement?"

Shaking his head, the blond replied:

"Nah, just rejoicing in victory."

Arching an eyebrow, Anko didn't realise at first what they meant until she heard the sound of a door opening from the side. Abruptly shifting her gaze towards the staircase upstairs, Anko noticed another Sakura who had already made her way full force into the upper room.

Blinking her eyes in surprise, Anko shifted her gaze back to the trio, with another Sakura among them. Seeing her gaze, Sakura smirked, then covered herself in smoke, turning into another Naruto, who then dispersed in an even larger cloud of smoke, leaving only Sasuke and Naruto in place. Looking at the surprised woman, Naruto said:

"I'm sorry Anko-sensei, but spending an extra few days isn't in our plans, so we had to play a little prank on you."

Hearing his words, Anko suddenly remembered how the previous clone summoning had created more smoke than the last time. She immediately realised that it was the moment he had created three clones instead of two, and turned one of them into Sakura. The real pink-haired one, however, was most likely hiding behind the wooden beams, making her way along the right side of the room towards the exit while the other timmenites diverted her attention to the left side. Realising how cleverly they had tricked her, the woman laughed:

"Pha-ha-ha-ha! Wow, that was pretty good, brats," the jonin girl actually found it to be a great demonstration of tactical teamwork, "honestly, I didn't expect any of you to possess the shadow clone technique, so tricks like that I simply didn't expect from you. "

"Does that mean..." Naruto tried to figure out if they had passed or not.

"Yes, you can relax, Gaki. You've completely passed. I have no intention of attacking you anymore."

Hearing this, Naruto sighed relaxed, satisfied that everything had turned out as he had planned. Sasuke also relaxed, as he had had enough of the first two exchanges of blows to realise that the gulf between him and this woman was still too wide.

Just at that moment, the door on the ceiling opened, and Sakura's face appeared from there, as she waved the scroll, and said:

"I have it, I got the scroll!"

After that, the group, accompanied by Anko, made their way out of the forest, and returning to the Academy, they handed this very last scroll to Iruka, who looked at them in surprise, and asked:

"Are you... finished already?"

Smirking, Anko replied:

"Ah, those little guys turned out to be much more capable than I thought. Anyway, they did well and my work is done, so accept the scroll and I'll be off," Anko waved her hand, eating another dango.

Raising an eyebrow, Iruka took the scroll, and placed it on the table after checking it. After that, he looked at Anko with a smirk, and said:

"I have accepted the scroll, the team's task has been completed. Except, you are still their sensei for the remainder of the week. So until the week is over, you are the one in charge of your group."

Anko's eyes widened at this and she cried out:

"WHAT? What am I supposed to do with them?"

Trinity looked confused at Anko's outburst, while Iruka spread his hands, and said:

"I don't know. But until the rest of the group gets back from their practice, I can't start class activities. So you can get busy practising or whatever. I didn't expect anyone to get the assignment done so quickly myself."

Sighing, Anko shifted her gaze to her team and said:

"Alright, go back to your homes for now. Tomorrow I'll give you a little tour of the interrogation department. Hopefully this will count as an educational activity."

At that, the group went home. Some went back to training, some began to get their appearance in order, and some began to prepare for their future date with Ten-Ten. Upon arriving home, Naruto read a message from the system.

[Mission Accomplished.]

[Reward will be delivered overnight.]

«Well, at least I completed the mission.» Thinking about a future date, Naruto scratched his head, «I guess I should let my mom know. Maybe she can tell me the best way to go about it.»

With those thoughts in mind, the blond went about tidying himself up.

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From the Author:

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