Naruto: The Last Harbinger of Storm
NTLHOS BOOK 2: Chapter 20: Once A Legend, Always A Legend.
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Author's Note:
Hey guys! 👋💙
Many of you might have noticed that I had already updated the latest chapters on other free platforms like AO3 and Webnovel, but not here. That's because I was facing some issues with my account on this site. Thankfully, it's all sorted now!
To make up for it, I'm uploading two chapters today on this platform.📖 Before you read this chapter, please make sure to read the previous one titled "Old Memories."
Some of you might feel I'm just stretching the story with sentimental chapters but there's more to it. If you've been paying close attention 👁️🗨️, you'll notice I've been shifting Naruto's personality slightly. Until now, he's been a distant, calculating ruler 👑⚖️ focused only on grand plans for Uzushio 🏰, never stopping to feel.
But soon, he'll be alone again… and this arc is my attempt to bring back the individual Naruto and not the emperor, the man behind the emperor 🤍⚡. That was the purpose of these past few chapters on nostalgia. 🌫️🌀
Next chapter:
The much-awaited meeting between Naruto ⚡, the Fire Daimyo 🏯, and Hiruzen 🐒 is finally here!. 🌩️💥🔥Stay tuned, and don't miss it! 🎯📅
Thanks again for the love, support, and patience. 🫶💫
Please like, comment, and share your thoughts they truly mean the world to me. 🖋️💌✨
Let the storm rage on. 🌪️👁️
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"Charisma is the fragrance of the soul's fire, felt before it is understood, remembered long after it's gone." — A.A. Atticus
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Previously on NTLHOS-2:
As he stepped out into the cool air and walked to the abandoned bridge, a figure appeared before him, blocking his path a shinobi clad in a green spandex suit, his stance unwavering, his presence unmistakable.
We haven't talked in while Naruto said the now grinning Guy.
Naruto rubbed his temple and preparing for Guys exuberance when he sensed the other four appear few meter behind him unlike guy they were all reserved.
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Now:
"Indeed, it has been a while," Naruto replied.
A soft smile tugged at his lips as he turned to the familiar faces. "Good to see you all, Iwashi-sensei, Raido, Hayate, and Genma."
"Good to see you too, Naruto," Iwashi said, his words sincere, but quickly cut inn by Genma's dry, lazy drawl.
"Oh, Iwashi… he's no longer just Naruto," Genma muttered, half-mocking, half-lazy. "He is Lord Naruto now, above us mere mortals, gracing us with a wave as if we still matter. Not long ago, wasn't he just that wide-eyed kid who looked at us like we were the next S-rank legends?"
Raido scoffed continuing the banter, elbowing Genma. "What are you talking about, Genma? Lord Naruto could handle S-rank shinobi now like they were fresh genin. Your scale doesn't even begin to measure his grace."
Naruto let out a faint chuckle, his smile barely widening. Their banter was laced with mock-flattery, a tone that once might have irritated him but now, after all that happened, felt very refreshing. These weren't worshippers or his follower. They were comrades, men who once stood beside him not beneath him.
He hadn't heard anyone call him just "Naruto" without the title in years, not anyone other than Tsunade.
It was… refreshing.
"I should've known," he murmured, glancing sideways. "Chakra sensors can be fooled. But you, Guy… you found me by the pattern of my footfalls, didn't you? That's mighty impressive."
Naruto gave him a genuine smile. "How are you doing, anyway?" he asked, moving towards the small gathering.
The group instinctively fell into rhythms chatting, laughing, walking side by side toward the secluded haunt where the old Hokage Guard Platoon used to gather.
Naruto had heard from his informants: after his banishment, these men had been among the few who spoke out against the Daimyo's decree. It had cost them. The Guard Platoon lost favor, lost footing with Konoha's upper echelons. And yet, they had never changed their tunes.
Guy had been too valuable to isolate. His personality and quirks were impervious to political pressure. For someone who considered hard missions a blessing and took joy in punishing his own body, there was little the elders could do to control him. They could assign him a hundred missions in succession, no matter how difficult or absurd, and Guy would gladly take them on.
But the others, Hayate especially had not been spared. Hayate, who seldom spoke, carried his scars in silence. He had paid a price the others hadn't. He was denied promotions and never received the grant for his treatment. It was Naruto who secretly arranged a sponsor to cover the medical expenses that eventually cured him of his lung condition.
The Hokage Guard Platoon, though no longer central, remained indispensable. They were the only ones left who knew the diluted version and the principles of the Hiraishin. And for that alone, many tolerated their presence.
As the laughter settled into thoughtful silence, they reached the small structure at the edge of the training ground—a resting area the four of them had built together. This was their old hangout.
The small house hadn't changed.
Wooden beams still bore the scars of careless kunai. The tatami mats had been replaced, but the scent of incense clung to the walls like memory. Naruto stepped inside first, ducking slightly out of habit. The others followed behind, the air between them lighter now.
Raido flopped down cross-legged with a sigh, cracking his neck. "It's been a while since we came here. Since we fell out of favor, we've been reassigned, and some other team uses this training ground now. Still, this place smells like Hayate's awful herbal tea."
"Still better than your cooking," Hayate replied dryly, easing down opposite him.
"I can cook."
"No, you can burn water," Genma drawled, tossing a toothpick between his fingers.
Naruto chuckled, setting the kettle on the old iron stove. "Then how are we here, in this spot, if it's used by another team?"
"Oh, we have the Emperor with us," Iwashi said with a grin. "Who's going to ask you to leave? Even speaking to you rudely could trigger an international incident. At the very least, that excuse lets us sit in our old abode."
He settled into the corner where he always used to sit, letting the memories settle in with him. "If the Lord Hokage asks why we intruded on Team Delta's training ground, we'll just say you insisted. How could we refuse a man who's basically a major daimyo in his own right? Besides, if any of those uppity kids come claiming this place as theirs, it'll remind them we were the cool ones first. What do kids know? We're the OGs of this ground."
"You were the cool one," Genma said. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm still cool."
"Yeah," Naruto added, pouring water into the kettle, "you used to scare me, when I was first was offered a mission with you guys."
Genma grinned. "Used to?"
Naruto shot him a mock-glare. "You were the guy with the senbon always in your mouth. That's terrifying to a eight-year-old."
"True," Raido nodded solemnly. "He used to poke it through apples and call it training."
"That's still training," Genma muttered, feigning offense.
Hayate let out a rare chuckle, leaning back against the wall. "Hard to believe the brat from back then is now... well, you."
Naruto shrugged, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I still feel like him sometimes. Just more… tired or is it responsible."
Iwashi looked over, eyes steady. "You've earned that tired."
They let the silence sit a moment. Comfortable. Real.
Then Guy burst in like a thunderclap, having taken the long way, on purpose, of course, for extra cardio.
"I AM HERE!" he boomed, cheeks flushed with enthusiasm. "My YOUTHFUL COMRADES!, the day glows brighter seeing your faces together!"
"Did you run up a wall again to make an entrance?" asked Naruto, not even hiding his grin.
"Naturally," Guy said, settling down with a heroic huff. "Stairs are too humble for such youthful vigor!"
Genma pointed his senbon lazily at him. "You know we're drinking tea, not charging into battle, right?"
"Tea can be a battle! A battle against aging, against fatigue, against… mundane flavor!"
Everyone groaned. Naruto handed him a cup.
As the tea steeped and the air warmed, conversation turned softer. Raido brought up a mission from the Rain border. Iwashi recalled a prank that he had pulled on Ibiki. They laughed. Not loud. Just enough.
And then the mood shifted just a little.
As they began sharing some of their troubles, Naruto leaned back and said, "If it's really that bad, why didn't you accept my offer?
"You really meant it, huh?" Hayate asked quietly. "The offer to Uzushio."
Naruto didn't answer right away. Just watched the steam rise from his cup.
"I did then. I do now."
"Even after all this time?"
Naruto met his gaze. "Especially after all this time."
There was no pressure in his voice.
Genma leaned back with a smirk. "You know, Lord Naruto, if you keep talking like that, we might think you actually miss us."
Naruto smiled into his cup. What went unsaid was clear—they would remain loyal to Konoha and wouldn't leave it. But that didn't mean they would stop supporting him.
"Maybe I do."
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Just as the talks went further and they were reminiscing about old times, a squad of ANBU materialised before them. The group of five shinobi stood up immediately except for Naruto, who remained seated, casually sipping his tea.
"You Grace, Lord Daimyo is waiting for you. You were supposed to arrive an hour ago," said the cat-masked ANBU. The statement caused the five shinobi to exchange glances of shock. They had not known that the Daimyo was waiting for Naruto at all, and to hear that Naruto had apparently delayed such an important meeting just to chat with them was astounding.
"When we went to your residence you were not there," Cat continued, voice muffled. "We were concerned for you, so we went on a lookout for you."
Both Naruto and the ANBU knew that was a false worry, no one could do anything to Naruto. Not now, not after all that had happened. The only person who could possibly do anything to him was the one in the Hokage Tower, and even that was debatable. Naruto raised his teacup with an easy grace and directed a small wave at the cat-masked ANBU before speaking.
"Oh, do let the Daimyo know that I was in an important engagement," Naruto said, a teasing grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, "and had to move his meeting later by an hour."
The cat-masked ANBU's gaze flickered briefly to the assembled jōnin, as though silently questioning whether this simple gathering was his important engagement that necessitated making the Daimyo of all the people wait. But, of course, she did not say anything. You do not question an emperor, especially now, after the Uchiha incident.
Naruto finished off the last sip of tea and stood up, dusting off his robes. "But you are lucky," he said to the ANBU, his tone taking on a lazy drawl, "to arrive at exactly the time my engagement was done. Will you be escorting me to the Daimyo's abode?"
"Yes, Your Grace," said the cat-masked ANBU.
Naruto then turned to Guy and the others. "It was fun chatting with you after so long. We will meet some other time. The grumpy old man is getting impatient, I suppose." He raised his hand in a casual wave goodbye to them. Then, instead of instantly vanishing via a shunshin or teleportation like any other Daimyo might, Naruto decided to walk.
Naruto had sensed his own guards from Uzu had already taken their positions. He had fooled them into believing he was still in his room, so as to slip away for this excursion. Now, they had formed a wide perimeter around him, ensuring he was safeguarded. That was simply how it worked when one was the Emperor.
"It's good to see you, Cat, how are you doing?" Naruto said, smiling down at the cat-masked ANBU. The tone he used was eerily similar to how he had once addressed his fellow ANBU during his operative days.
Cat straightened. While she had never been part of his team, though Cat had served on Team Ro she had participated in several operations under his command. Naruto was one of the most decorated members in ANBU history and he also conducted training camps few of which she had attended, back in the days his boot camps were the most sort after. Even today, division heads like Key, the Head of Sealing and Shark the authority on Water Release both of whom were once Naruto's mentors, still use him as an example and standard for an ANBU operative.
"I have been doing well, sempa…" Cat halted herself. "I mean, Your Grace."
Naruto merely chuckled. "I'm no longer ANBU, Cat," he said as they walked through the village streets.
Even now, after all these years, Naruto remained a legend within Konoha's ANBU—the perfect operative, someone who had pulled off the impossible time and time again. Despite the political tension between Konoha and Uzushio following his departure, ANBU operatives never turned against him. While they would act against Uzushio or Naruto himself if ordered, they still considered Naruto as the one upon whom injustice had been done. They respected him, many even admiring him. For them, Naruto was one of the best ANBU had ever produced. His legacy lived on in training drills, his innovations in many aspects of ANBU life—both in the field and in operations management—in field stories, and in his benchmarks. New recruits were still taught about him in the academy, which created no small amount of friction between Konoha's upper echelons and the village bureaucracy.
As they moved deeper into the village, Naruto addressed the ANBU operatives escorting him—not as a superior, but as one of their own.
As they neared the village proper, Naruto's eyes flicked toward a faint presence in the treeline. He smirked.
"You think I wouldn't recognize you sulking in the shadows, Spider? I taught you that trick, after all," he said casually.
There, hidden in the periphery, was a shadow team an unseen contingent assigned to protect the VVIP in case of an ambush. A silent net of blades. Naruto didn't even need to look twice. He could count at least thirteen ANBU squads forming a perimeter around him, a small army in itself. And that didn't even include the twelve Uzushio ANBU squads quietly following behind, staying just some inn and some out of Konoha's sensor range.
There was a rustle, and the spider-masked ANBU materialized. "Your senses are as sharp as ever, Senpai. Then again, you could always sense through the seal that concealed our identities," she said.
She then motioned for her team of seven ANBU to present themselves, breaking protocol, but doing it anyway.
"Oh, how the rookie has grown," Naruto said with a grin, noticing the figure behind the spider mask. "You have taken over the team and now you're the captain of the team. Congrats."
Despite wearing a mask, it was evident there was a blush beneath it. The young woman the spider mask aka Inori Yamanaka, was indeed the new captain of Squad Lambda, also known as Squad Agnis. " Senpai, Now, squad lambda is counted among the top three teams in Konoha's ANBU".
Naruto raised an eyebrow in a faux stern expression. "I should have you running 100 laps for that," he teased. "Have I taught you nothing? You're giving classified info to the leader of another village."
Inori looked chastised, bowing her head though she was unapologetic. Meanwhile, some of her team members were gawking. They knew full well who was in front of them the infamous Naruto Uzumaki, the legendary Captain Wolf, the man who founded their very squad and turned it into a lethal yet specialized unit- the OG. Captain Spider was one of the original squad members, Now infamous in her own right and now she is known for her strictness. To see her blush and be reprimanded made even the sternest of her subordinates widen their eyes in disbelief.
For them especially, this was a shock. Many of them had joined right after the infamous Captain Wolf left the village, following the sudden vacancies created by the departure of Serpent, Mole, and Captain Naruto himself. The original member who then took over was Captain Hatake, the White Tiger. However, when the Hatake clan eventually migrated, the next in line for leadership was Captain Sharon Kurama, AKA Seahorse. But politics got in the way he was overlooked for captaincy. Infuriated by the intrusion of politics in ANBU, Captain Sharon resigned. Another wave of unrest followed when Captain Carlos Uchiha AKA Bat, was placed on probation. He too quit.
After all this, the leadership of Squad Lambda finally fell to Inori Yamanaka, AKA Spider the last original member of the team, and the last to have trained under the infamous Captain Wolf.
There was a large hue and cry within ANBU over the decision to overlook two of the most decorated operatives. The official explanation cited their closeness to the known leader of a foreign village. ANBU, as a whole, was none too pleased.
Naturally, she was none too pleased. Despite the massive promotion, seeing so many original members leave had hurt the squad deeply, and the vacuum they left behind was enormous. But Inori refused to let her old team's name fall or fail. So she used the same training methods Naruto had devised. She employed the same seal-weighted gear he had once used, and made them train in the facility Naruto had originally built for the team, a place considered haunted by the newer members. To them, it was a week of hell, filled with obstacles and challenges. You didn't leave until the designated time was completed, no matter how brutal it became. Konoha had tried for years to replicate that facility and its results but it failed every time.
Over the years, these rookies had become the pride of the ANBU. They reclaimed their squad's former glory, and once again, Squad Lambda stood among the top tier. For the old guard and the new recruits alike, meeting their squad's creator the OG was great honour. Having him chastise their captain Spider was eye-opening, in more than one ways.
As Naruto joked and chatted with Spider, Cat, and a few old operatives on the way to the meeting point, many ANBU having gotten word that Naruto was speaking with ANBU operatives began to gather.
They continued walking, an entourage of masked operative increased. From time to time, new ANBU swapped shifts with the current escorts, each hoping to steal a moment with Naruto time. Some were old colleagues, men and women who had once bled alongside him in missions.
Mentors like Shark, came forth as well. They greeted Naruto, what shocked them was Naruto talked to them with respect and still called them sempai, while some of the old seniors of Naruto said he was leader Naruto just said this to shark for a starving boy with no resorce one water jutsu taught goes a long way to save him self in the field.
The whispers of "Captain Wolf" filled the air, hushed like an underground river that burst forth for only a moment before retreating again.
They spoke of old stories, jokes reminiscing about operations as they walked. The older once said how it was easy for newbies and they had laugh like…
"You haven't changed a bit, Senpai," whispered one ANBU wearing a Manticore mask. "Still making life complicated for everyone and everything around you. You don't know how easy the rookies have it these days. Remember that mission where we had to eat insects to from the gutter to survive? Now they're given sealed ration kits. Back in our time, those were reserved only for senior operatives on high-priority missions. I'm telling you, Wolf, the rookies get dumber with every new year these days."
Naruto's grin only widened. "Some things never change, Maticore," he responded, before turning to the cat-masked escort as they reached the building. "Lead on, Cat. The Daimyo won't wait much longer, and I've already pocked him plenty. The old man can't stand anymore."
As the climbed stiars, Naruto and his sizable escort reached the stately building where the Daimyo was waiting. A sqaud of samurai, clad in imposing armor, stood guard at the front. Their eyes flickered with recognition at Naruto's approach, but they remained respectfully silent and bowed their heads. One stepped forward to announce his arrival, but Cat moved first, slipping inside to speak with the Daimyo's retinue.
One last time, Naruto turned to the group of ANBU around him. The hush felt like a stillness in the air, a moment stolen from time itself. "I appreciate you people coming to meet me," he said simply, scanning all the masked faces Cat, Spider, Maticore, and the squads that had come and gone. "Thank you for seeing me safely here."
From the look in some of those hidden eyes, it was clear that many wanted to say more, to ask him questions. But Daimyo was standing Infront and the protocols of their station demanded them leave. They complied, each head inclining in a show of respect for their former captain turned emperor.
As they were leaving Spider glanced up from her bow and wispered. "We will never forget what you taught us, Senpai."
"Good," he said softly, "because you're carrying that torch now. Keep it burning."
He turned on his heel, striding confidently into the corridor lined with regal tapestries that announced the Daimyo's presence. A hush fell behind him, the ANBU slipping back into the shadows, their footsteps nearly soundless.
Naruto paused at the threshold to glance back. He saw Cat, Spider, and a dozen other masks glinting in the hallway's half-light. The swirl of emotions was it regret, pride, sadness, or an odd sense of comradery that crossed between them. And then, with the finality of a closing chapter, Naruto turned away to meet the Daimyo.
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To be continued. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts! Like and comment! 🙏🔥
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Chapter 21: Still Sharp As Ever. IS OUT!!!!!!!!!! (Politics begins)
Chapter 22: The Negotiation. IS OUT!
Chapter 23: Mind Game Through Mind Readers.IS OUT!
Chapter 24: Mind Walkers. IS OUT!
Chapter 25: A Parting Backhand. IS OUT!
Chapter 26: A New Turn. IS OUT!
Chapter 27: A Turn ON A Turn. IS OUT!
Chapter 28: Farewell. IS OUT!!!!!!!!
Chapter 29 – The Oath of the Oath-Keeper. IS OUT!!!!!!!!! (End of the Arc)
Chapter 30 – Aftermath.
Chapter 31: The Growing Crown, The cracking Roots.
Chapter 32: The Wandering Monk. 8k long
Chapter 33: A New face Or phase. 8k long
Chapter 34: Chinamaki. (NEW) 5.5k long
Chapter 35: Cross Roads. (NEW) 9k long IS OUT!!!!!!!!!