Part 2, Hidden in Plain Sight: From Fire and Leaf to Wind and Sand
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Noriko was numb.
Totally and completely numb.
She had witnessed the deaths of everyone who was been precious to her, the people that loved her and that she had loved and in the end she couldn't do anything.
Failure.
That's all that she was. She couldn't protect anyone, not even those that meant the most to her.
She could see Temari's face as she told her that she loved her.
Neji's lifeless eyes staring up at her from the ground.
The pain.
Noriko realized that she loved Temari, more than she thought that it was possible to love anything or anyone.
"I wish that I could've done more, No-chan…" whispered the Kyuubi from deep within her mind.
'There was nothing more that you could have done onee-chan.'
"True." Came a voice from right next to Noriko's ear. "But Kyuubi-san did not have to be so brash."
Noriko's eyes sapped open to see three figures in front of her, two men and one woman.
The woman was robed in a kimono that shone like the sun itself, with a crimson obi; her face was kind and loving. The man to the left of the woman wore a black, that glowed ever so slightly with a pale white light, yukata tied with a thin silver obi, his arms were not through the sleeves, but crossed over his wrapped and muscular chest; his face was sharp and hard, but his eyes softened when he met Noriko's eyes. The last man, on the woman's right, was wild and unruly looking, with long hair, dripping water, his formerly white and red kimono and hakama were stained from looked like years of being soaked in brine, at his waist was a straight sword.
"But…" continued the voice that had spoken first, it was the woman, "Had she not done what she did, we would have overlooked the wrong that we have allowed to occur. By our own fault, this has happened, the reason that you stand in front of the two of you today. Come forth."
With a swirling of red chakra, Kyuubi appeared next to Noriko, her head bowed and sitting on her haunches.
Noriko sat up from laying on her back, and moved into the seiza kneeling position, her feet tucked neatly under her bottom, and bowed to the three in front of her.
"What are we supposed to do with you?" said that man to the right of the woman; his voice was hard and gruff.
The woman lightly slapped the man's arm, smiling.
"You were always brash, but is it not polite to introduce ourselves before we discuss our business?"
"And you are too kind for your own good…" snapped the man, shaking his head, sending small drops of water flying. "but… as loathe as I am to admit, you are right."
"Then I shall begin." Said the man on the woman's left, his voice was whispery, but the woman never looked at him. "I am Tsukuyomi."
"…Susanoo." grunted the other man, gripping his sword hilt with his left hand.
"And I…" said the woman, her eyes locking with Noriko's, "am Amaterasu."
Noriko and Kyuubi left their heads bowed, and bowed deeper; not saying anything, and an awkward silence prevailed over the small group.
And it lasted a few agonizingly long minutes.
"Well…" said Amaterasu, a little awkwardly. "What are we supposed to do with you?"
"It seems…" said Tsukuyomi, "That every time we allow this soul to return, it is bound to the Kyuubi. This cycle cannot go on; we have turned our heads and ignored this for far too long."
There was a sudden inrush of air and chakra all around Noriko and Kyuubi as other forms took shape.
They were all her…
Different versions of what she could have been.
Noriko could see herself in all of them, the boy with the wings and a hammer who was standing with a shadowy female with wings and a large sword, several ANBU with her signature golden hair, another young boy with orange hair and the Kyuubi's eyes who was now handing back Susanoo's sword after having stolen it. Another "Naruto" stood tall and proud, holding a wooden staff and had a greenish aura around him and there was a young boy whose hands glowed with a gentle white light. There were several of the "Naruto" her that had odd and fairly creepy doujustsu or kekkei genkai. Still others were rather normal looking, just a mass of boys and girls that all had the same gold-blonde hair, varying shades of blue for eyes, the three whisker marks on the cheeks and the same sad expression.
"We have taken measures on a individual basis." Said Amaterasu gesturing at the two winged figures and several others.
"And there are those who sought us out." Continued Susanoo, keeping a grip on his sword and eyeing the orange haired boy warily.
"And there are still many of you that we have missed." Sighed Tsukuyomi. "Yes life is unfair and cruel, but this situation has caused us to act."
"Every time you are killed, every time you have sought us out, and every time that we or the shinigami have found you; it has altered the true flow of your life." Whispered Amaterasu, as she looked ashamedly at the mass of blondes in front of her. "While there has always been multiple realities in which you and the Kyuubi have lived, there was never supposed to be this degree of pain and variation that your soul has gone through."
Still Noriko, Kyuubi, nor any of the others behind them said anything.
"And so…" rasped Susanoo "Our honor as kami, though we answer to no one, has forced our hand in assistance. We have to right the wrongs that we have afflicted upon your souls."
Tsukuyomi simply nodded while Amaterasu put her hand on Susanoo's soldier.
Finally, after another long period of silence, Noriko asked:
"Am I still destined to be jinchuriki?"
All of the figures behind her stiffened, and Kyuubi looked sharply at the girl next to her, a little bit of hurt in her eyes.
All three of the kami, refused to meet the young woman's eyes now that she had raised her head.
"Yes…" sighed Tsukuyomi, "The jinchuriki are the sad symbols of man by which they must be judged. All of man's fear and hatred and happiness and love are what make the jinchuriki able to hold the demon within them. A world without one of the bijuu, sealed or not, is a world that destroys itself-"
"You misunderstand the question." Said Noriko, cutting the lunar man off. "I was asking if I were to be bound with my onee-chan or not, you have answered that and more than I have ever wanted to know about my plot in life."
The Kyuubi still not saying anything; just wrapped a tail around her vessel's waist.
"There was a time when I might have resented being rebound to onee-chan…" sighed Noriko, placing a delicate hand on the head of the Kitsune next to her. "But I realized what you said a long time ago, we are the balance that is needed for the world to function."
"I assumed that you were smarter than you looked." Came the gruff voice of Susanoo.
"What's the catch?"
The question shocked the kami, they hadn't said anything about anything, only a slightly deep discussion about the nature of the girl's soul.
"What do you mean?" asked Amaterasu, taken aback.
"Why else would we be talking like this, bringing these other versions of my soul, and all three of you in the same place when I know that," she gestured to both Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, "have not seen, let alone spoken to each other in the past several millennia."
Amaterasu still refused to look at her fellow, even though she could feel his eyes on her face.
"We are here to offer you another chance at the happiness that we have denied you in our negligence." Said Tsukuyomi, a neutral expression on his face.
"That I knew." Said Noriko, ignoring the look that the Kyuubi sent her in shock. "but I have been used so many times before, I don't care if you have good intentions, I want to know everything that you have up your sleeves."
There was a low rumble that rolled through the space that they were in; it took Noriko a moment to realize that Susanoo was chuckling; it was an unsettling sound.
"I knew that I like this girl." He gasped through his mirth. "She stands before the three of the most powerful being in all of creation, and she defies our will!"
Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu stared at the man in shock.
The mass of "Narutos" stirred uneasily behind Noriko, who now stood, her chin held high, her eyes flashing.
"There is no catch my dear girl." Said the still chuckling kami, "Only a second chance at the life we denied you."
"Let you will guide your hand." Whispered Tsukuyomi.
"And let your heart guide everything else." Finished Amaterasu; regaining her senses and holding up her hand to stop more talking.
"These other you's" she said gesturing to the mass of blondes. "They are the few that have finished their lives, ended at the right time or before, but they finished; that is why you came here and instead off to nirvana like they had. Every jinchuriki, by their simple existence, earns the right to nirvana without reincarnation. You, Noriko, though all of the endings of your life that the shinigami saw for you, your death by trying to jump back in time, even though it was the Kyuubi's idea and not your own, was not one of the ends. That is why you came to us, we are the final judges of souls, you have been deemed innocent and you are too early."
Tsukuyomi spoke next, but to Kyuubi and not to Noriko. "You, on the other hand, tried to go against our direct will." There was a sense of finality to his words; Noriko and the others behind her tensed, as though they were ready to spring in defense of the kitsune that had so plagued them in life. "But, you did bring to light our error, and for that you have been forgiven. Do not betray our forgiveness again."
Susanoo looked at Noriko in silence for a long time.
"There will come a time when you will be ready to have a sword of your own."
"I have one." Said the confused girl.
"Namikazi Minato will keep his blade, though you be his daughter in this world and the last, he will not know you as such and his blade will not pass to you. When you are ready, the oniyuri, which you will rename, will come to you."
"I have one more question."
The three kami looked at each other, Amaterasu almost slipped and looked at Tsukuyomi, but she caught herself.
"Will I see Temari-chan again?"
They smiled.
"Wait and see." Said Amaterasu.
And Noriko knew no more.
KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO
OCTOBER 10TH
Namikaze Minato stood atop his toad summon, GamaBunta, a small child in his arms as the fearsome form of the great Kyuubi no Yoko advanced upon the village that he loved more than anything. His heart was heavy, His secret, but loving wife had died in childbirth, it had been a difficult pregnancy from the start; but she was determined to give birth to the daughter he now held in his arms.
"Are you sure that you want to do this?" rumbled the toad boss from under him.
"I wish that I didn't have too, but I have to save the village." Answered the Yondaime Hokage, mentally steeling himself for the task ahead.
"I don't approve."
"I know old friend, but this is more for Noriko-chan here." As if in reaction to her name being spoken, the babe in his arms giggled, a sound that echoed out over the lands. "She has to live, even if she is hated, her mother most live on, so her kindness can be shown to the world. I'm not doing this for the good of the village, not in the slightest, I know that they would never seen this little girl for what she is supposed to be, a hero. No… No. Those morons will only see her as a demon… "
While the Hokage and his summon where talking, the Kyuubi slowed its advance on the village, the rage that it had once held fading from its face. Slowly, like a simple genjutsu vanishing from their eyes, the village watched in awe as the body of the Kyuubi took on a definitely more feminine shape, her eyes grew kinder, and the snarl fell from her face.
It took the villagers a moment to realize what was now the expression on her face.
It was amusement.
She expressed her feelings in a great barking laugh that echoed for miles.
The Yondaime and Gamabunta staggered and looked at the gigantic fox in astonishment.
"Ooh… This is just too funny." Purred the gigantic kitsune, her eyes rolling over the young Hokage and the toad upon which he rode and the village that she had been about to attack. "Even if I were too continue my assault on your pathetic and petty village, you would have died Namikaze-baka."
The Yondaime balked at being spoken to like he was only a child, even by a great demon.
"You need not worry Gamabunta-san." Continued the vixen, fixing her gaze on the pair. "I am here only for the girl… your daughter."
Minato held the bundle that was his daughter closer to his chest, trying to hide her from the fox.
"Why do you want the girl?" Thundered Gamabunta, his grip tightening on his sword.
There was a immense silence that fell over the clearing as the Kyuubi no Kitsune looked down at her paws and fidgeted awkwardly.
"It is my duty to train and prepare the girl."
The two great figures of Konoha still looked unconvinced.
"I cannot allow you to die Namikaze-baka, your village needs you now more than ever and the old monkey will not be able to care for your daughter properly."
Though there were tears in his eyes, Namikaze Minato did the one thing that he dreaded most of all, and asked a question that he hoped would make this turn out to be a nightmare.
"You promise that you won't hurt her?"
Gamabunta gaped at the question and would have stared at his summoner if her could have.
The kitsune's gaze softened and her reply was just as soft.
"I give you my word, as a mother, that I will do everything in my power to ensure that no harm comes to her."
Then, not believing what he was doing, the last Namikaze presented his only daughter, the last reminder he had of his loving wife, Uzumaki Kushina, to the demon Kyuubi no Kitsune; his eyes were filled with tears.
With the utmost care and tenderness, the Kyuubi used one of her magnificent tails, she took the child from the Yondaime, a newfound respect for the man in her eyes. She placed the infant girl on her head, turned and walked away from the village.
Once the Kyuubi was a food distance away from the village, the few shinobi and villagers that had remained within the walls and heard the exchange, they let loose a great cheer, chanting the name of the Yondaime.
No one seemed to care that he had broken his heart for his village.
Namikaze Minato never noticed when Gamabunta returned him to the Hokage tower, placed him in the care of the former Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and his sensei Jiraiya, and vanished in a cloud of smoke. The paint that he was feeling left no room for anything else in the young Hokage, in one fell swoop he had lost his wife and now his daughter.
The two older men exchanged a look, both knowing that this was one of the burdens of being a Hokage, Minato would recover, but he would never be the same man again.
Outside of the tower and the Hokage's suites, the village partied as though they had not lost a vast portion of their population.
…oOo…
It would be thirteen years before anyone saw hide or hair of the child taken by the Kyuubi, known to very few as Noriko. It had become more of a urban legend among the hidden villages that the girl was the greatest kunoichi to have ever been born.
They had no idea.
Unlike every other time she had been reborn into life by the gods trying to their best to improve her life, Noriko remembered everything from her previous life, but not from every other life that her soul had lived. It was an interesting sensation, knowing all of the skills that a grown woman would know when you were just an infant. It was while she was too young to train her body for her future as a kunoichi, she contemplated her life, or lives as you may put it. She wondered how many times she had been wronged, reborn, requested to fix things, or put into service by the kami before those gods finally realized what she was going through and that they needed to take some kind of action.
By the time she was eleven, the fox spirit that had attacked Konoha vanished, Kyuubi, from inside her mind, informed her that there was only room for one Kyuubi no Kitsune in the world and that the fox that had cared for her as a babe was just a physical manifestation, granted to her by Tsukuyomi, to care for her.
"We must find a home…" came the voice of the Kyuubi from within her mind.
Noriko sighed, the fox spirit had been saying that ever since she had turned eleven and that was two years ago, but there was a method to Noriko's solitary life, one thing that her life hinged on.
Temari.
If she could not meet Temari, then there would be no point in going to Sunagakure like she had originally planned, and there was no point in leaving the great forest around Konoha if she was just going to turn around and come back.
No, Noriko was waiting for the Chuunin exams to make her move, to align herself with one village or the other.
Luckily for her, and she knew it, the very exam had started and she had been living in the "Forest of Death" for the past week, the animals inhabiting the forest giving her a wide birth, just like they should; animals knew when they were in the presence of power, they feared the power of the demons and they were downright terrified by the Kyuubi.
One thing brought her pleasure, the complaints made by the villagers that someone was stealing their goods; amounting to a full kunoichi battle outfit, a mass of shinobi projectiles, including shuriken and kunai. Even if he did not know it, his daughter was making his life hell, just like she would have if they were still a family.
In the distance, she could hear Anko's voice explaining the exam to the frightened genin; to her surprise, Orochimaru was not among them, nor was he anywhere near the forest or the village in general. Though, as she would later find out from a book that she stole from the library, her father had caught Orochimaru when he tired to kidnap the Uchiha heir after the clan's massacre at the hands of their own prodigy, Itachi, and had had the snake man executed for his crimes against the village and humanity. It was a welcome relief to not having to kill him again.
With the least amount of movement, Noriko concealed herself from the genin as they ploughed through the forest, looking for the other teams and their scrolls.
She smiled as the memories of her own time in the forest filled her mind.
Thankfully, this portion of the exam went off without a hitch, the eliminated teams recovered by oblivious ANBU who never noticed the fox girl watching over the injured or unconscious genin.
Still keeping her presence unknown to the other shinobi, Noriko watched the preliminaries, taking note of familiar faces in genin that were watching the bouts happening in the center of the indoor stadium.
Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kankuro, Garra, and…
And…
There, before her eyes…
The blonde hair, the fan…
It was Temari.
Or at least Noriko thought that it was.
She cursed the Yondaime as he dismissed the genin to go an prepare for the finals and she missed the object of her affections face in the confusion of the genin meeting with their Jounin sensei and leaving the forest.
With another sigh, Noriko left the stadium, already knowing that she had missed her chance to see Temari, she had waited years to see Temari, what was another month?
And eternity.
As if reacting to her vessel's state of mind, Kyuubi sent Noriko into a very vigorous training regiment, getting the teen's body ready for the trying effects of the Hiraishin that she had developed off of her father's.
It would take the entire month of continuous, arduous training to get Noriko ready, and it would keep her mind off of Temari in the mean time.
Neither demon nor vessel would be ready for what was in store for them in the future.
Author's Notes:
Well… here it is, the continuation of Hidden in Plain Sight Part 1, its not the longest, but its meant to set the tone for the rest of the story. As for updates, don't expect any until after the school year is out, I have far too many papers to write for my English classes to spend time writing this or anything else.
Remember, the vote for Noriko's pairing is still on for next few weeks.