Chapter 205 - Recap of Story So Far Part 2

Notes - This is not a chapter, this is a recap, you can call it flashback or whatever, I understand new readers may not like it, if you caught up recently in the last month or so, But this is for the old readers to catch up to the story so far. In a day or two once I catch up with the last few chapters, only then even I will be able to remember what plot I had planned for this book considering it was on Hiatus for the past 2 years. I humbly ask for your understanding on the matter. Thanks and have a nice day/reading...

The following is a recap from Chapter 48 - 64

As Naruto, Sasuke and others prepare for their training, Akatsuki is on the move sending their members to gather the new recruit named Deidara who is easily subdued by Uchiha Itachi, leaving no space for arguments, Deidara agrees to join under the condition of being allowed to experiment with his art. As this happens behind scenes, Jiraiya helps Naruto to contract gama-bunta who Naruto successfully summons, resulting in the great elder Toad of Mount Myōboku coming across a divine revelation of what Naruto's current course of actions would lead to in this timeline, whereas Sasuke back in the Hidden Leaf makes progress with his Shape manipulation. Deidara is finally recruited and paired up with Sasori who then set off for their next mission to kill Orochimaru in the Hidden Sand one month later, which Sasori had decided after reading a few reports sent by his spy Kabuto and Naruto also successfully gets a contract with Gama-bunta. As training continues, back in the Hidden Leaf, Sakura and Karin start on their first day of medical ninjutsu training, meanwhile Hinata wakes up to find Hiashi mad at her for a letter that Naruto wrote, aware of the feelings, Hiashi pressures Hinata into giving up such thoughts only to be rebelled. Shocked by Hinata standing up for Naruto almost drives Hiashi mad, but manages to calm down and leave the scene. Sasuke continues training under Kakashi while also learning about the history of shape and nature manipulation techniques. Meanwhile, Back in one of Orochimaru's hideouts, Kabuto uses one of the 5 living bodies he had gathered to summon the Third Kazekage, who's organ was obtained from a few remains that the Hidden Sand had found in one of Sasori's hideouts. The day continues with Chōji and Shikamaru training, following which they go for BBQ where Kankuro and Temari discuss their plan to tackle the finals. Gaara on the other hand stood on top of the building he stayed at, observing people down below in the town, trying to gain a deeper understanding of empathy, Kankuro arrives after the discussion with Temari to find out Gaara's outlook on life had completely changed over the day, due to the battle with Naruto, with a new aim to become a better person, and even a Kazekage. Kankuro being shocked by Gaara's plans warns him of the tough path ahead, Gaara acknowledges without much discussion on the matter. Soon, the scene shifts to Sasuke who is impatient after having made a sizeable progress on the Chidori, he looks at Kakashi and asks if there's another technique that does not need a long learning curve. Kakashi demonstrates the summoning technique, summoning pakkun, the ninja dog in the process, however is interrupted by a sudden summons. Sasuke uses advantage of Kakashi's absence to attempt to summoning jutsu only to end up being reverse-summoned to the Ryūchi cave. As this happens, Naruto is introduced to the old/basic methods of information gathering by Jiraiya using a restaurant where informations are spread by word leading him to take note of Akatsuki's presence.

As Sasuke lands in Ryūchi, the Great Sage Snake takes his appearance as fate and presents him with an opportunity to gain power, to which Sasuke greedily agrees, leading to start of three staged trials where Sasuke battles with different Snakes. As this happens, Orochimaru's cautious preparations against Naruto leads him to discover a potential problem to which he and Kabuto head to the Uzumaki clan's grounds to find the Mask that can help summon the Reaper death god, thus freeing Minato's soul which was trapped by the Death God shortly before Minato's death in exchange for power to help seal Kurama. With this, Orochimaru resurrects Minato who's emotions are immediately taken control by a seal attached to a kunai placed by Kabuto into Minato's body. As these events happen, Sasuke in the Ryūchi cave's first trial ends up facing a thousand snakes was being cornered to the point where he had to think out of the box to turn Lightning Natured chakra to his advantage by using it over his kunai following which he ends up completing the first trial, Meanwhile, back in the Hidden Leaf Village Sakura and Karin leave the Library to take the day off to which Sakura decides to end with by visiting the Hospital to check on Lee. The duo stop at the flower shop, where Sakura and Ino lock horns again, while Karin is reminded of Naruto's presence while staring at Dandelions.

In the Ryūchi cave the second trial begins immediately after where Sasuke faces of against Aoda, a single giant purple snake. Sasuke starts off with a few combos, only to find out that he would have to use his Sharingan if he needed to keep up with Aoda's movements. As this happened back in the Hidden Leaf, Kô, Hinata's caretaker returned from an errand which Hiashi sent him on, to find information about Naruto, only to be shocked to find Jiraiya, of the Legendary Sanin to take Naruto on a journey with him. Dejected, Hiashi temporarily drops the matter of investigating Naruto's background, whereas, Neji on the other hand finally makes an appearance after being cold to Hinata during the Chūnin exams. Neji finds Hinata in her room in the Hyūga estate and asks for forgiveness explaining that he had come to his senses. Hinata quickly accepts consoling Neji saying that she had forgiven him. Neji realizes that his only source of hate was the Hidden Cloud and Hiashi himself. As Neji left Hinata's room, He walks across Hiashi after acknowledging his existence with a glare and a bow, leaving an impression on Hiashi.

It was around night time, on top of a building a secret meeting took place between Baki, the Hidden Sand's jōnin leader and Kabuto. Kabuto handed over a scroll of Orochimaru's instructions for the Hidden Sand after he had penned it down in the Uzumaki ruins, meanwhile Hayate who was the exam proctor witnessed the meeting was planning to convey what he had seen, however as soon as he left the scene, he was immediately followed by Gaara, who then caught him and buried him alive temporarily. Seeing this, Baki and Kabuto nodded in approval following which, they left the scene. Gaara released the sand holding down Hayate and explained his circ.u.mstance and his aim to stop the invasion. Hayate saw no reason to not believe as he was spared on a condition to pass the information only to Hiruzen, who would be the sole authority on how to handle the matter. As this happened, Sasuke was busy facing Aoda, getting cornered to the point that he had to confront his emotions and memories to fuel his determination to create his first Chidori, which was very unstable. As sasuke almost unleashed his attack, the battle was stoped with Aoda surrendering to Sasuke after impact from the explosion of the unstable Chidori, leading to Sasuke clearing the second round of trials. Meanwhile, In a certain hot springs, Naruto and Jiraiya were in the Men's bath, soaking in the water. Jiraiya talked about Naruto's next training, in evolving the rasengan, whereas back in the Hidden Leaf, Hayate had reported all the details to Hiruzen. Hiruzen quickly processed the information. Determined to deal with Orochimaru, he decided to continue with the exams and call the other jōnins for a secret meeting the following morning. Back in the Ryūchi caves, Sasuke decided to undergo the third test, which involved the injection of the Sage Blood of the Great Sage Snake. After fighting a hard-earned victory in a battle of wills, Sasuke had awakened his third tomoe and also subdued the blood in his body.

The Next morning, Hiruzen called over the Jōnins responsible for the Chūnin exam and conveyed his thoughts, with a few others suggesting counter measures. It was finally decided to call in Tsunade of the three Legendary Ninjas for aid, along with declaration to put an end to Orochimaru's schemes. After the meeting Anko had appeared asking if she could help with the battle, however, she was instead tasked by Hiruzen to search for Tsunade. Back in the Ryūchi cave, Sasuke had finally adapted to the foreign blood in his body, the Great White Sage snake said it would be responsible for teaching the Snake sage jutsu and fighting techniques. Sasuke became attentive as this is what he would be undergoing till the day he had to meet Naruto again. Back in the Hidden Leaf, Kakashi tho worried about Sasuke was also busy with the plans for the Chūnin exams, so in order to fulfil Naruto's request, He had asked Yuhi Kurenai to take care of Sakura's genjutsu training, while Sakura had moved onto the first stage of healing jutsu. With that things were set into motion for the next three weeks.

Three Weeks later…

Tsunade and Shizune appear at the Hidden Leaf Village, Sasuke also prepares to teleport to Hidden Leaf using Ryūchi cave's teleportation formation. Jiraiya and Naruto also head towards Hidden Leaf Village while Jiraiya thinks over the letter he had received about three weeks ago from Hiruzen about renewing his will and his plans to face Orochimaru. On the rooftop of the Hokage's building, Tsunade, Shizune and Hiruzen meet where conversation take place regarding current circ.u.mstances and regrets of not going through with Tsunade's plans in the old war which could have reduced the fatality rate by a lot, as the idea was only remembered once again after Naruto's suggestions to have Karin and Sakura train in medical ninjutsu. Using this Hiruzen says that he plans to make Tsunade's previous suggestion a reality should he survive the battle. The conversation continues as Hiruzen made Tsunade aware of Naruto's appearance following which Naruto and Jiraiya appear on the rooftop. Jiraiya and Tsunade greet each other following which Jiraiya confronts Hiruzen about his will which was mentioned in the letter addressed to the both of them. Hiruzen lets them know that he's willing to die in the upcoming battle and mentioned his plans to state Tsunade as the Fifth Hokage which shocks both Jiraiya and Tsunade. Tsunade insults Hiruzen's wish and the Hokage title angering Naruto who's identity revolved around the position. Naruto immediately defends the title both angering and reminding Tsunade of her Younger brother Nawaki and her lover Dan. Tsunade provokes Naruto to a fight to which Naruto immediately agrees. Tsunade says one finger is enough to which Naruto snickers. Back in the Hyūga district, Hiashi is alerted to Naruto's presence in the Hidden Leaf village by Hinata's caretaker Kô, meanwhile, Neji praised Hinata for finally completing her self-developed defensive technique which complimented the Hyūga clan's taijutsu. Hinata in satisfaction of completing her training held a letter that was written by Naruto while wondering how Naruto fared as it had been over three weeks since she had last seen him. The sight of Hinata staring at the letter made Hanabi quite curious about Naruto's existence.

Back on the rooftop however, Naruto was facing Tsunade. Tsunade taunted Naruto, but Naruto felt demotivated. Naruto quickly suggested a bet, knowing Tsunade's weakness. Tsunade took the bait and agreed to fight with a lifetime supply of ramen money on the line using one finger only. As the battle starts Naruto quickly angers Tsunade by snatching her purse full of promissory notes which instantly results her in using full force by using her leg to kick. However since she used more than a finger she instantly lost the battle. Naruto wins over the Necklace which was worth the lifetime supply of ramen in terms of money. As the four continued to discuss regarding the upcoming invasion and plans to handle the Hidden Sound and Hidden sand ninjas, including the Kazekage and Orochimaru, Naruto instantly suggests he can handle them with a team of his choosing to which Hiruzen and Tsunade instantly disagree, but Naruto manages to convince them. Hiruzen also mentions Sasuke's missing status to which Naruto instantly reacts by sensing Sasuke's chakra, finding him in the Uchiha District. Naruto concludes the talks and heads out to chat with Sasuke but ends up being confronted by Hiashi regarding Naruto and Hinata's relationship including the letter. After sparring neutrally and deciding to suffer a few blows, Naruto walks off like nothing happened convincing Hiashi to recalibrate his thoughts. Soon, Naruto shows up at Sasuke's house and gets updated on Sasuke's situation. Finding out Sasuke's thoughts Naruto convinces there would be a time when he would sit down and explain as the invasion plan had a higher priority. Before leaving, he tells Sasuke to meet him on the Hokage's office rooftop in two days time where they would set off for the mission along with Kakashi. Naruto then quickly stops by Shikamaru's house and also updates him with what has happened so far. Having convinced Shikamaru of his current plans, he then handsover Shikamaru his Flying Raijin kunai to keep it, in case Naruto fails to appear upon his turn in the finals.

Two days later, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune and Hiruzen meet-up at the rooftop. Hiruzen explains that the current assignment is an Off-Records S-Rank mission headed by Naruto and leaves to Naruto to explain the details. Naruto starts explaining his plans, which is essentially what happened in the previous timeline before Orochimaru made an appearance as the Kazekage during the finals. The idea was to stop Orochimaru from assassinating the Kazekage while convincing the Kazekage to become an ally. Understanding the key points the three were sent off on the mission by Tsunade, Jiraiya and Hiruzen. At the same time, Sasori and Deidara lay waiting next to the Hidden Sand…