Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the tv shows and all the characters pertaining to the show belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me. I am not doing this for profit, or any other type of gain other than the pleasure of writing with his awesome characters.
His face was twisted with furry as he slapped the little girl, causing her cheek to swell and her little body to go flying. With inhuman speed he rushed across the room and caught her so he could throw her into the rugged wall to the left of the barred doors, instead of out of the window. That would have been too fast.
"Why couldn't you just be normal?" he snarled, baring fangs practically glowing white, his eyes burning red with his drunken fury.
"I am sorry!" she cried, tears leaking out of her one working eye of the purest yellow. Her hands went up, clasping together and pleading while her head bowed low to the ground.
He snarled again, the sound feral and terrifying for it meant his fury was only beginning. He stumbled over to the bedside table of his bedroom, grabbing the barrel full of alcohol and chugging from it for a minute straight. The little girl didn't move, she just prayed to the Ultimate Creator that he would just decide to pass out instead of continuing the weekly beating.
"No, you aren't sorry, not yet. But you will be, for disgracing the Ultimate Creator and my family legacy." He approached her trembling form slowly when a woman of incredible beauty practically flew into the room, shattering the heavy oak doors into a bunch of little pieces. "What do you think you are doing?" the man snarled as the woman scooped the child into her arms, protectively putting her body between the drunk man and the sniffling child.
She wanted to cry, big crocodile tears, sobbing until her bruises finally healed. She was favoring her left wrist and the woman believed it might be broken. But she wouldn't cry out, would only shake and bite her lip to keep from insulting the man with her tears.
"I am protecting my daughter." Her voice was calm and voice even, most would think she was very brave for facing the king in such a way, if they didn't know the truth, "from her father." And with that she swept out of the room, her robes whispering quietly over the plush rug on the floor.
With a roar of absolute furry the man went on a rampage around the room, smashing the giant wooden bed, breaking his oak chest in half, and shoving his meaty fists through the ceiling. The man then stumbled over to the back room, opening the door with a mighty heave that knocked it off its hinges. His eyes could see more clearly, his royal blood already filtering out the intoxicating substance, so he found it only slightly difficult to open the chest and remove the totems for travel to the Third Realm. He placed each in its respective cradles upon the floor and spoke the words of power, his fury still making his blood boil.
He just wouldn't look at that disgrace of a child anymore, he wouldn't allow that abomination ruin anymore of his time in the First Realm. His white hair tore free of the tie that usually held it back as wind whipped through the chamber. He stared at the colorless strands with his colorless eyes, a single tear slipped out of his eye, and he stepped into the swirling portal of inky blackness.
Uzumaki Naruto's tan skin glistened with a thin sheen of sweat as he aimed another punch at Sai's face. The white skinned boy easily blocked the attack but the punch was quickly followed by a kick to his stomach he had actually not seen coming. The two boys had been training for some time now and both of their senses were beginning to dull due to fatigue. Sai was one of very few ninja who could actually keep up with Naruto's monstrous stamina, and of course the blonde found this stimulating.
"Are you ready to surrender yet?" Naruto laughed as Sai slowly picked himself up off of the ground.
With huffed breath Sai responded with a deft no and managed to land a punch on the unsuspecting whiskered face of the cocky blonde.
"Ouch!" Naruto rubbed his sore cheek gently and glared at Sai. "It is so on!" he cried and went in for another sloppy attack.
"Naruto," Sai said in a hushed whisper as they continued to spar more slowly, with less enthusiasm, "did you sense that?"
"Un," Naruto glanced at a tree on the opposite side of the clearing to Sai's back, "but I don't see anything."
"Someone is definitely watching us then." Sai smirked, "I guess they've come to see me kick your butt."
Naruto did not return the smirk. Sai was not acquainted with everyone in Konoha that knew Naruto in a good way and the blonde may not be very good at sensing chakra but he knew it was no one familiar with him. Wait, that's not so, he recognized the signature but it was so faint, so uncertain that it felt like a long lost memory returning in the form of hearing—not the best memorizing tool your brain has to work with. "I think we should go find out who it is..."
"Naze(why)?" Sai stopped crouching and stared at Naruto like he was the most wonderful person he had ever seen before in his life. He had meant to give Naruto a dubious look but, the boy having blocked all his emotions since his childhood through cruel training, didn't quite know what face to give.
Naruto shook his head in annoyance at the teen's ignorance, "Because I don't recognize their chakra!" Naruto pouted when Sai assumed a childish smile.
"Now, now, Naruto, don't you think you're being paranoid? Everyone knows that you aren't very good at sensing chakra and what-not."
"Why don't you shut up?!" I'll show him! Naruto thought as he cupped his mouth with his hands, took a deep breath, and shouted to their visitor, "Hey!! Come out of there!!"
Sai's smile had changed to one he had seen Sakura use whenever Naruto did something stupid, which was quite often. "What if they end up being...?" whatever else he was going to say was cut off by the sudden appearance of a person fully cloaked in all black kneeling beside Naruto as if they had been there the entire time.
The person was completely covered from head to foot in an all black material that looked too heavy to be wearing in the middle of the summer. The way they were kneeling was like that of a servant getting ready to receive orders on whatever they needed to do next from their master, whom they deeply respected. Naruto and Sai had never seen this person before, whoever they were.
"Um..." Naruto glanced nervously at the person who did not move an inch; they didn't even look like they were breathing. "Who are you?" he asked as he drew a kunai slowly and as inconspicuously as possible: Sai had already drawn his oddly shaped katana.
"I am Saika, Naruto-danna."
Naruto blinked in surprise at this. "W-what?!" Naruto and Sai stumbled the word out at the same time when her suffix finally sunk in.
Piercing yellow eyes shifted towards them both with confusion shinning in their golden depths like that of a child. The girl said nothing and waited for their move.
"What did you call me?"
"Naruto-danna." Her words were smooth, her voice like velvet in an oddly cheesy way as though she had stepped right out of a romantic novel and her Japanese was oddly perfect, no breaks could be found in her words that everyone else used.
"Master Naruto?" Sai asked to confirm what he had heard.
"Hai," she nodded her head once vigorously, her face concealed by the garment she wore.
A mask? Naruto though in confusion, "So..." he paused to think, his exhausted, overheated mind did not feel like thinking at the moment, thank you very much. "If you're my servant then remove your mask." Naruto believed it was one of his friends from the village trying to freak him out. It didn't mater that he didn't recognize their chakra or that he didn't know anyone with yellow eyes. The blonde ninja just couldn't remember having ever gotten—or needing—a slave.
"Hai, Naruto-danna," she reached up to her face, wrapped her fingers in the thick black mask and yanked it roughly free from her face where she dropped it unceremoniously onto the ground. Naruto and Sai were slightly surprised to see the masks lining made of steel or some other type of silver metal.
"Is all of your clothing metal?" Naruto asked confused as he bent down and picked up the mask. A gasp from Sai alerted him back to the girl and, upon looking at her face, he too gasped as he dropped mask. The girl was stunning! Her face was round, pointed at the eyes, long lashes that were curled and dark, bangs of fluorescent green covered half of her face that complimented her yellow eyes in a way Naruto had never thought would be possible and her lips were plump and a thick red that contrasted with her—literally—white skin in a lovely way. There were little imperfections though, like how her nose was just a little too narrow for her face, her neck was a little too thin, her bone's a little too prominent in her small frame. Naruto wasn't completely crazy about how short she was but it didn't really make much of a difference.
"Hai, Naruto-danna. I crafted it myself with my chakra abilities."
"Chakra abilities?" Naruto thought dully on how it would be possible to craft steel and which elements it would take to do it. "Ah you mean a kekkei genkai."
"Naruto," Sai touched Naruto's sleeve with a hint of worry in his stance, "We should head back to the village before it gets too late."
"What about Saika-san?"
The girl winced slightly and her eyes fell with sadness, "You may go to your home, Naruto-danna, I have a home in the mountains." She paused to look back at the blonde, as if sensing his question.
"Then why'd you come here?"
She gave a faint hint of a smile, "To inform you that I am still alive, to let you know that I have not forgotten what you did for me, and so you know that there is always a sanctuary in the mountains for you and your allies."
"What I did for you…?" he whispered in confusion. Naruto was absolutely sure he would have remembered an amazingly beautiful face such as hers.
The girl looked up at the setting sun, craning her neck from where she still knelt, "If I may have my mask back so that I might get home before too late I would be most grateful."
"Uh, ara." She stood as Naruto handed Saika the mask quickly. He was reminded again of how much shorter the girl was to him and this time the thought made him smile: her little imperfections from before were endearing and made her unique.
Saika put the mask back into place and vanished without a puff of smoke, instead a whip of flame; a splash of water, a crackle of electricity, and a patch of churned dirt were what sent her off on her way. Naruto had never seen anything like it and neither had Sai.
"Naruto, let's go." Sai said, already half way across the field of training ground sixty-four.
"Un," he said and quickly followed, pushing all thoughts of that gorgeous face into the back of his mind for later processing.
All ten thousand Naruto clones (the real one hiding amongst them) struggled with their training in furious fashions. Their hands were all cupped with a single leaf held delicately between their palms and they were focusing their chakra into that leaf with all of their might, trying their absolute best to make it split evenly down the middle like a good leaf. Naruto's natural chakra element being wind, he was supposed to be able to split a leaf in two by focusing his chakra thin and sharp just like the only other wind ninja in Konoha had told him just a minute ago but it didn't seem to be working no matter how long or hard they tried.
His many clones were cursing in anger at their leaves—as though they just knew he was trying oh so very hard to brake them—which refused to split in two when rather suddenly a clone threw up his hand in triumph, sort of.
"Hahaha," the other clones around the one laughing stopped to stare, curious despite themselves. "I did it!" he cried and held up a leaf that was barely split at the top, "just a little more and I will have completed this training!" the other Naruto's grumbled and a little argument broke out between the triumphant Naruto and another random Naruto clone that was petty and ended when another Naruto held up his leaf and cried out "Alright!" The triumphant Naruto gasped at the sight of the leaf just a hairs breath away from splitting in half.
Sai watched from the woods, curious and reading from one of his many self-help books, "When your friends are working unusually hard on the job or doing their hobbies, it's nice to casually bring them a snack or drink." Sai blandly looked up at the horizon of Naruto clones, "Working unusually hard... Seems normal to me." He took out the apple he had brought in his bag for Naruto and took a bite out of it as he sat down and prepared to do his favorite past time: painting.
"OI!!!" a sudden screech made everyone present look up at the waterfall that Yamato had created by using water chakra. The rocky crag the waterfall cascaded from was made by earth chakra and the plants sprouting from its sides came from combining the two elements: something Naruto wanted to learn how to do some day. Atop the apparition stood, to Naruto and Sai's decided shock, the girl that had visited them a week before. Both teens had put her in the back of their minds but Naruto had not been able to forget her entirely. "Naruto-danna!!" she cried, shielding her masked eyes as she looked over the large group of Naruto's. "There." She whispered to herself and jumped down from the waterfall, pushing off from one of the trees jutting from the side of the giant earth shelf and landing in front of the circle that Yamato had made to help suppress the Kyuubi's chakra should the demon get control of Naruto. Without pause she rushed through the crowd, looking at each of the Naruto's in turn before reaching near the middle. "Ah, Naruto-danna, glad to see that you are ok." Saika smiled but Naruto was unable to see it.
"Saika-san?" Naruto seemed confused even though it was very obvious who was behind the metallic mask.
"Hai!" she said and dropped down to her knee, crouching in that position once more, her mood seemed to darken and the happy energy he had just felt her emitting was obliterated.
"Why are you here?" he asked, barely able to keep the clones from disappearing from his sudden shock. As she took a breath to answer he cut her off, "Could you take off your mask whenever you're around me, it's kinda creepy."
"Hai," her head turned to look beside her on each side before she once again ripped the thick steel from her round face. Naruto noticed that there were no ties to hold it to her face and he wondered just exactly how she kept it there. She looked up at him wither brilliant yellow eyes that had haunted his dreams since he had first seen them.
"Why are you kneeling?"
"You are my master, it is only proper that I kneel until ordered to do otherwise."
"Ah," he felt hugely awkward now, "then, would you stand and tell me why you're here?" as she stood he thought of something else, "And could you not call me master?"
"Does it offend you...?" it sounded like she had been about to say something else but had decided against it.
"No, it's just..." he struggled to find the right words with an unusual pout on his whiskered face.
She smiled, "You are too kind hearted to see it like that, ne? May I call you Naruto-kun then?"
"Un," he smiled brilliantly and his clones began to train once more while he continued to stand there. No point in not getting any more training done.
Saika's smile abruptly disappeared, "I believe there is someone with great power after me."
"Do you know who it is?" Naruto asked as he looked over her head—which was surprisingly easy—to see Sai talking to Kakashi, gesturing in their direction calmly and Kakashi nodding his head slowly to confirm something.
"No, I have no idea." Saika turned around to look at the same place as Naruto and narrowed her eyes upon seeing the ninjas. When she looked back at Naruto it seemed like she wanted to ask him something but did not. "It has top be someone of great power because, even though they are not too near here, I can sense their malicious and evil chakra." She paused to take in a shuddering breath, and only then did Naruto notice that she was trembling; it was so hard to tell in that outfit. "There have been many people to attack me in the seven years that I have lived in the mountains but I...I am scared of this one."
Naruto's brow furrowed in thought when Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke, Sai beside him, appeared with ink swirling around his body.
"Naruto..." Kakashi reached out to touch Naruto when his hand was slapped away and a very vicious girl stepped in front of Naruto in a supremely possessive—and protective—way. A metal spike seemed to form in her fisted hand and she was poised to strike. "Who is this?" Kakashi appeared undisturbed by her threatening pose.
"Um, Saika-san?" Naruto laughed nervously, "What are you doing?"
"Do you know this man?" she asked in a snippety tone.
"Yeah..." and she backed off, her body relaxing, and she took her place behind Naruto; close but not quite hovering. Kakashi watched the metal spike as it seemingly disappeared but he assumed his eyes were just playing tricks on him in his old age. There was no way someone could combine lightening, earth, fire, and water elements to make steel. That kekkei genkai should have died out centuries ago when the last of the line had burned.
"Naruto, maybe you should release your kage bushin, for now."
"Un, Kakashi-sensei!" he said and enthusiastically released the technique.
A wave of exhaustion hit him suddenly and Kakashi easily caught him before he could fall. Saika was watching Kakashi carefully with sharp eyes, noticing everything and waiting to detect any signs of harmful intent. Sai noticed how her eyes seemed metallic but said nothing since Kakashi was regarding her in the same hostile manner. "Your name's Saika-san, isn't it?" he was smiling now.
She nodded her head slowly, her eyes never leaving his. It was clear that she did not fear him.
Sai spoke up quickly, "Saika-san approached Naruto and me when we were almost done sparring a week ago." Her yellow eyes snapped to him and some of their keenness softened momentarily before they shifted back to Kakashi. "I highly doubt she would do anything to harm Naruto, Kakashi-sama."
The silver jounin didn't even look at Sai as he responded, "Maybe, but the truth is she could be missing nin, a part of the Akatsuki, or in league with Orochimaru..." before he could continue Saika's face contorted into one of rage and disgust,
"I would never help that son of a bitch!" she hissed between her teeth, "I will admit that I do not have a problem with the Akatsuki but I would not join them either. I do not belong to a village to have abandoned, so I cannot be missing nin. Naruto has nothing to fear from me."
Kakashi and Sai did not miss the barely disguised threat.
"You hate Orochimaru?" Kakashi felt his heart lurch for a beat when Naruto spoke up and scared him; the old man had forgotten how quickly Naruto could recover. The blonde took a step away from his former sensei and gently grabbed Saika's shoulders so he could steady himself. She didn't move an inch. "What do you know about him?" despite being completely concentrated on her, Naruto didn't notice the blush on her cheeks.
But then her eyes narrowed before she glanced at Kakashi. "I would rather discuss this in private, Naruto-da, I mean Naruto-kun."
"Why?" Naruto looked at her with confused cerulean eyes.
"I do not trust anyone here but you." Was her cold response, "The Sai kid has no real emotions, therefore I cannot safely predict if he wishes to harm you or not. And I do not know this Kakashi at all."
"You don't like Kakashi-sensei? Why? He's the greatest guy I know!" Naruto exclaimed as he wrapped an arm around Kakashi's shoulders.
Saika looked at the ground, her face downcast, "I do not like his eye."
"His...eye?" Naruto looked at Kakashi's one visible eye with confusion. The man grunted but kept quiet even though he wanted to make a gay joke. "There's nothin' cynical about it..."
"Not that eye..." she looked at Kakashi with burning eyes, "His Sharingan disgusts me."
That statement shocked the three Konoha ninja. "You can see my Sharingan?"
"No," Saika snorted derisively, "it is behind your hachimaki. I can sense it. My master taught me how."
Naruto glanced at the aforementioned headband worn by his old sensei, "But why don't you like the Sharingan?"
Saika hn'ed at this question and turned to leave, "I will come visit you when you are not with an Uchiha."
"I'm not an Uchiha," stated Kakashi, causing Saika to pause, then to turn and face him.
"You would dare lie to me?" her eyes flashed with anger and a strange pressure filled the air.
"He's not!" Naruto stepped between the two; afraid a fight would ensue because of misunderstandings. "The Uchiha clan was murdered by Uchiha Itachi. Only him and Sas-Sasuke," he chocked on the name, emotional wounds recently opened continued to bleed. "They are the only ones left. Now please, stop fighting with my old sensei. You can trust him."
Saika paused then bowed to Kakashi, "Please forgive me then, if Naruto-kun holds you in high regard then there is no reason why I should despise you." Her eyes had remained locked onto Kakashi's, their yellow depths upholding the truth that her mouth was voicing: she meant what she was saying.
"Now," Naruto slapped his hands together with excitement. "Yosh! Let's hear all you have to tell of Orochimaru."