Um...I can totally explain how this happened. Um...uh...nope, got nothing. Well, nothing witty anyways.
For those of you who can't tell, I got inspired and said "Screw the rules my free time need more dragons!" and thus I wrote chapter 2 for this. All 10,000 words of it. Man...these chapters may need to be toned back. I mean...wait, no. I can totally do 10,000 words for each chapter. And if I cannot, then I will write more for my Word of Honor! And if I can't do that then - oh wow channeling Gai and Lee there...sorry about that.
Anyways, onto the show!
Who Walks Among Dragons
He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone.
Chapter 2
After an evening with possibly the strangest events happening, having a summon that basically ran away from him, and then being unable to find the scroll he'd signed to check on it, the annoying ringing of an alarm clock woke that Naruto bright and early did not help his mood. With a small grumble, he flailed his arm in the air for a second before bringing it lightly onto the device to silence it. Staring up at the ceiling, he slowly rose in a zombie-like manner. Rubbing his eyes and sighing, he got himself ready for the day.
A quick shower after putting water on to boil, he emerged just as it whistled so he could pour it into his ramen cup. Waiting for the three minutes was his least favorite part of eating ramen, and today it was made worse because he had things clearly on his mind.
First; what the hell had happened to Musshu last night? He'd seemed fine at the beginning, and Naruto figured they both were having a bit of fun seeing how awesomely over the top Musshu could be. His smoke and fire introduction of himself had given Naruto plenty of ideas for ways he could try that later for himself. Maybe if he found a way to make it orange…that would be beyond awesome. When they'd been starting to talk about the really interesting bits though, he'd just screamed and run away. It was frustrating.
Second; where had his scroll gotten to? It had been fully unrolled so that he could get to the end, but with the limited amount of information he'd gotten from Musshu he'd pieced together that whatever had set him off was because he was a summoner. The only problem? He couldn't find out anything about what being a summoner meant, seeing how the scroll that might've told him anything was no longer in his room. Maybe it went back to the summons when he'd summoned Musshu, to show them their new awesome summoner? If that were true, why had Musshu reacted like that?
And his final confusion, and possibly the smartest thing his brain could even blindly think of; why had the scroll been in a wall?
Unfortunately, that final question had even less theories, and even more questions attached to it. After all, he'd summoned a dragon and yet whoever had it before had hidden it away? Why? The more questions that came to his mind, the more Naruto wished he had a piece of paper to write them all down with that wasn't going to be important for his later, more awesome exploits. Gripping his head as though it could help alleviate his headache, he gave up for now. Breaking his chopsticks and loudly shouting his thanks for the meal, he dug into his food.
Once done, Naruto threw the cup away and made his way to a 'backroom' part of his apartment. Contrary to some people's belief, namely no one's since few people cared, his room wasn't simply one room. In a connected space to his room and housing area, there was a connected room. There, he stored a lot of what he'd acquired or put things so he could practice with them.
In one corner of the room, he had a training dummy that he'd made to look like his sensei Kakashi. In made far more sense this way to him; after all, if he could beat his sense, Sasuke couldn't dream of beating him. The main problem with that logic was that Kakashi was leagues above him at the moment, which meant he still needed plenty of practice before that was possible. But then, that was why he had the thing in the first place.
In another corner, he had scrolls of all sorts. Some were on chakra theory, some were on different ways to fight, and he'd recently gotten some on pressure points and Anbu tactics. Truly he'd acquired a small library of his own that he could look through at his leisure, and become awesome from it. With no one to test it out on, and with fewer still who could explain the concepts that he'd seen in them, he wound up forgetting most of the stuff in them before he could ever apply them. It didn't help that he had the focus of a chicken on speed most days, but that of a soldier primed for battle during a fight. Thus continues the circle of Naruto confusing nature.
What Naruto was looking for here though was to check to see if Ukki-san and his other plant friends were alright. No one in his class or outside, as far as he knew, was aware that he'd taken up a hobby taking care of plants. He wouldn't quite call it gardening because he didn't have a true garden, just a couple of potted plants that he took care of. Each had its own name, but Ukki-san was the one that he'd had the longest, and as such was the one that he felt closest to. Or at least, as close as one can feel to a plant. He'd heard somewhere that talking to plants helped them be healthier, so that made his connection closer to them as he softly spoke to them as he worked.
"Hey Ukki-san." Naruto said, gently patting its leaves. Getting some water, he slowly began watering Ukki-san and the others as he slowly looked them over. "Mah, Ukki-san, you're taking all the sun! You need to be nicer to the other plants, they need some to you know. You're little, but you definitely know how to be a sun hog when you want to be."
Snickering at his 'joke', he gave it a tiny bit more water as he turned each on in turn to allow it a better chance of getting the sun he needed. A lot of it had been trial and error, with less error once he'd quickly realized that mistakes could lead to the plants dying on him. He didn't want that.
Poking one of the new plants, his eyes grew distant as he remembered the seed's origin. Though just a sprout, the seed he'd gotten from Nami no Kuni was growing nicely, and the little bud was more than enough to let him know it was a strong little seed. "See Ukki-san? Haku needs to grow too." Straightening out, he gave the plants a look before grinning. "Alright, keep an eye on Haku Ukki-san. I want him to grow up big and strong, just like you okay? Don't get into trouble while I'm out. Last thing I need is for you to get into trouble while I'm with my team."
Chuckling again, he headed into his apartment to prepare to head to his team's meeting place for the mission. Normally it was at a bridge just west of the Hokage's Tower, but today he was headed in the other direction towards the estates they were tearing down. A part of him wanted to just use his clones and be done with it, but Kakashi had told him he didn't want him using jutsu. Something about not having enough eyes in the world to keep an eye on him or something.
As he thought of this, he paused as his jacket hung off his arm. Technically, if he did something before the mission, it wouldn't count as being made on the mission. Which would mean that if he were to, oh let's just say, summon a fire breathing dragon to help out, Kakashi couldn't really say anything about that.
Grinning, Naruto finished pulling on his jacket and moved to the center of his room. Pausing, he thought about Musshu again. What if he got a different dragon that wasn't as cool as Musshu? What if it was a lot bigger then he was? What if this new one was meaner and attacked him? What if –
Naruto had already bit his thumb, run through the hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground before these questions even popped into his head. As the black scrawl covered the floor, he realized this could've been planned much better. Still, as the smoke erupted, he waited patiently to see who he got.
In the summoning realm of the dragons, Musshu quickly discovered he had a problem upon arriving at the river where Haru slept. While he had a lot going for him, with a good night's rest and getting to his location in what was a record for him, he'd simply let this single fact go right over his head.
He didn't have enough chakra to wake Haru up.
Or rather, he didn't have any human chakra in his reserves to use. Dragons were not immune to their own fire or the attacks of other dragons, but once a dragon went into the state of sleep there was only a few ways in which he knew they could be awakened.
One was that a god called for them. When this happened, it was quite literally a call to war, and one that every dragon knew from their scales to their teeth that must be responded to immediately. The next best bet was to for a dragon from the same 'family' as the other dragon, but that wasn't viable seeing as Musshu was a red fire dragon and Haru wasn't. The final method he knew about, and possibly the simplest when it was actually applicable, was to have a human give another dragon some of their chakra so that their fire would…change, and it would spread through whatever the dragon had wrapped themselves in to allow themselves their great sleep. Once enveloped, it…would do something, and then they'd wake up.
Musshu didn't pay much attention to those last parts since he'd never imagined he'd ever meet a human.
Now though, not only had he met one, he'd been summoned by one! And, after freaking out when his mind finally caught up to the reality of what had happened, he'd then run away and forgotten to bring him to the summoning realm to keep him fueled to continue to awaken the other dragons. Which was a very bad thing, seeing how Shinryuu had called for the council to come together. Musshu was a great messenger, but even he wasn't good enough to get out of this one without some clever work.
"Oh, Stony's gonna kill me." He muttered, pacing the river's edge in worry. "Okay, okay…he doesn't know that Haru's still asleep, so I can just…say he didn't want to get up. Yeah, that's good. And then I'll go wake up the other…dragons…and say they were sleeping too? Yeah, I'm sure they'd all be so tired after a couple decades asleep."
Slapping a claw over his eyes, he shook his head. That was a very dumb idea. It was almost as bad as when he'd been involved in the incident with Ping after he'd lent him some money to go to the mountains. Ah, good times. Or not, depending on your point of view. It was a long story.
"Focus Musshu, focus!" He said, scratching his head as he tried to think of a way out of this. "Come on, I can do this! I mean, it's not like our summoner is gonna just call for me to come see him again after the way I left last night. He'd have to have really, really liked my first impression to – why do I feel all…tingly?"
Blinking, he felt a sudden pull on his presence. Shrugging, he relaxed and let himself be 'pulled' towards it. The tingling sensation increased until, with a puff of smoke, Musshu left the summon's realm.
And found himself face to face with a whole lot of orange.
"…it's finally happened. I've gone color blind!" Musshu shouted, covering his eyes and falling over dramatically. "It's over, all I can see is orange! I knew I shouldn't have let myself be pulled into this, I just knew it!"
"Musshu!"
Eyes snapping open, Musshu peaked from in between his claws. Thankful to see some color again, his eye glanced down and blinked slowly at the sight before him. Whirling to his feet, he all but tackled the boy's leg.
"Oh thank Kami!" He shouted, wrapping tightly around his leg. "I knew you'd call me back, I just knew it! I knew my devilish charms and awesome nature would get you to call me back!"
"Uh…" The boy looked confused. "That's not what I was expecting, but I guess it works." Kneeling down so that he could be closer to Musshu, he grinned widely. "How are ya Musshu?"
Musshu let go of his leg, zipping around to get a better look at the boy. From the night before, he'd been…preoccupied with his own introduction, and as such he'd forgotten to get a good look at him besides general colors. The boy had spikey blond hair that seemed to stick out uncontrollably, and yet didn't cover his face much thanks to the headband across his forehead that was sporting a metal plate on it. His blue eyes looked at him with a look he remembered himself having on more than one occasion; one of barely concealed excitement and curiosity. Further down, the boy wore an amazingly orange tracksuit that had a few slashes of blue and white on it, including the white high collar part of it. Looking him over again, Musshu noticed that there was a symbol on the metal plate attached to his headband. Turning his head and squinting a bit, he almost thought it looked like a leaf in a sense. Or was it a bird? Maybe if he turned his head the other way he'd be able to – whoops, he was being talked to.
"Uh, what was that? I kinda spaced there for a second."
The boy pouted, before grinning again. "I said, it's a shame I got you again since I was hoping for a big fire breathing dragon to help me out, but then I figured that it'd be way cooler to talk to you since you're pretty neat."
Aw, well that was nice. Sure he wasn't the epic fire breathing monstrosity he could be yet, but at least he wanted to talk to him. Right?
"Hey, I can breathe fire too ya know." Seeing him raise an eyebrow, he growled. "Watch this."
Taking a deep breath, he let loose a fireball the size of his head that very quickly died out before it could get further then his head. To him though, this was a great success.
"Ha, you see! Now that's what I call my old man's barbeque." Musshu said proudly, looking up at the boy with crossed arms and a smirk. Compared to some other dragons, or rather any older dragon, it was a pitiful display. However, he'd worked hard to be able to even breathe the small fire before his first molting, and he'd done it so by gum he was proud of himself!
"That…was tiny."
Flinching, he turned on the boy and scowled. "Oh yeah? Well why don't you try making a fireball then? Or better yet, come down here and say that to my face you…uh…um…wait, what's your name again?"
Any semblance of threating he was going for was thrown out the window, which luckily for Musshu meant that both of their previous comments were now forgotten. "Ah, I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"
Silence.
"That's it?"
Naruto blinked, not sure what to make of that. "What do you mean?"
Musshu sighed. Clearly this human had not been taught in the proper ways of being epic. Waving his hands, he shook his head and explained. "No, no, no that won't work. Not like that anyway. You don't have the pizzazz~! The spunk, the fire! You gotta make yourself stand out Naruto! Now come on and give me a real introduction! Tell me; who are you?"
Naruto blinked, scratching his head. Before Musshu slapped his face again in pity, a light came into his eyes. Letting out a shout, he hopped back and slammed a smoke bomb onto the floor. Apparently he'd learned something about how smoke helps a person stand out when it cleared. Perking up, he tented his claws together as he watched over the new introduction.
"I am the man who will become the next Hokage!" A voice said from the middle of the cloud, the shadow becoming noticeable now that the smoke was beginning to settle. To Musshu's surprise, two more shadows could be seen through the cloud.
"The hero of Nami no Kuni…" The shadow on the left spoke, the shadow of his arm motioning towards the center.
"The most unpredictable shinobi in all of Konohagakure no Sato…" The shadow on the right said as he too pointed to the center figure.
Throwing his arms to the side, he pushed some of the smoke away to reveal his grinning form and the form of two clones who were presenting him dramatically. "The super awesome, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Musshu blinked, glancing between the three of them for a brief moment. Picking up a piece of paper to scribble on for a moment, he finally nodded and held it up. "I give ya six out of ten."
"…what!" One of the clones shouted, stomping his foot angrily. "That was at least an eight you red lizard!"
"Dragon!" Musshu said, sticking his tongue out at the blonde. "And you didn't do as good as ya'll could have. I mean come on, the setup is amazing, but the finish…meh. You get bonus points for these two introducing you, but you dropped it at the ending. You need something that'll pop more than 'super awesome', and that'll catch the ladies attention too. There was no appeal to the ladies there. Maybe 'international lady's man' or some other bigger words that'll make you sound intelligent."
Naruto and the clone blinked, tapping their chins in synch as they thought it over. Musshu chuckled softly at this, amazed by how in synch he was with them that they were able to do something like thinking with flawlessly coordinated movements. Starting to see fumes come from their ears as they likely overthought what was really something simple, he waved them off.
"Alright, alright, listen up. You don't need to worry about that, alright? I, the great and powerful Musshu, will be your instructor and tutor in making an epic intro." Musshu said, with a toothy grin.
"Ah…right." Naruto said, not completely sure what to make of that. Musshu's intro was pretty epic, but when Naruto had given his points it was on the performance. If he added the titles…damn, it would still be better than his. "So…should I call you Musshu-sensei?"
Musshu's eyes seemed to gleam at this question. "Yes, yes you should. You may also call me; Oh Great One, the Guardian of Summoner's, or the Red Screaming Whirlwind of Doom."
"…what?"
"It's a long story, I'll tell ya later."
"Okay then." Naruto scratched his cheek. At the thought of 'later', his eyes widened and his head snapped to his clock. "Oh crap, I'm going to be late!"
"Late? Late for what?" Musshu asked, watching as Naruto ran towards the door.
"I have a mission with my team!" Naruto replied, flinging open the door and began rushing down towards the stairs to get on his way.
Musshu popped his head out of the doorway, a curious look in his eyes. "Can I come?" Seeing Naruto stumble, he quickly ran up to him. Climbing up his leg, he pushed himself under Naruto's jacket and moved quickly to pop his head out by Naruto's ear. "I promise I'll be quiet, just let me watch how you humans interact. Please? Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please~?"
"Alright, alright, jeez calm down Musshu." Naruto muttered, surprised to be the voice of reason for a change.
"Yes! Woohoo, road trip!" Musshu shouted as Naruto took off towards where they were going. As they traveled, Musshu couldn't help but feel a bubbling feeling as they ran down the streets. After a couple seconds, he recognized it as his sense to obligatorily break out into song.
The streets of Konoha were filled with the strange sound of "Don't Stop Me Now" set on repeat, which eventually turned into an even odder duet once Naruto figured out the words and began to sing along.
At their current meeting point, Sasuke slowly sat down on a nearby stump and stared out at the housing district they were tearing down. It was less of a district what with all the previous work that had been done that had involved tearing down the other parts, but Sasuke had been quick to realize what this place was; a graveyard.
Maybe Naruto had a point with all of his ramblings when they'd been first coming to this place.
Not the ghosts or anything like that, but the idea of walking on someone's memory. This had been a place that people grew up in, that they'd made memories in and done Kami knows what else. People had lived and died here and now…there was nothing but houses and streets, empty and lonesome to those who looked at it. It was depressing.
Tenting his fingers as he looked over the buildings, his frown increased slightly as his mind wandered slightly to topics closer to home. Was this what the Uchiha District looked like? He knew that it felt similar sometimes with the haunted way one's footsteps echoed as they walked the empty streets, but surely there wasn't that much in common with a place like this. So why did he get a cold chill that ran up his spine every time he stared over this place? Like a ghost from the past was waiting for the last piece of wood that made up the humble homes to fall so it could...do whatever it was waiting for. Leave, go find a new place to haunt, Sasuke didn't care just so long as it didn't follow him.
He didn't need any more ghosts following him.
To his surprise, he was actually able to get a few more minutes of silence and meditation before it was broken. He'd almost wager that he could've fallen asleep there, if the flash of pink coming up the hillside that overlooked the place hadn't caught his eye. Bright eyed and practically bouncing as she ran up to him, he sighed as he greeted the girl.
"Hi Sasuke-kun!"
"Hn."
A traditional Uchiha Sasuke greeting if there ever was one.
While normally he'd expect Sakura to giggle at him even acknowledging her existence, she simply sat down near him and stared out with him. After their run in when Naruto had…ambushed him, she'd seemed a bit more uncertain of her standing with him. With the mission in Nami, and his near death experience, she'd gotten a bit clingier and wanted to stick around him as much as possible. To his surprise, he didn't mind quite as much anymore so long as it was moments like this; quiet, and with only the necessary dialogue between them.
Occasionally she would wring her hands together as though she had something to ask, but he ignored it since she never did come out and say it. He had plenty of good ideas as to what she wanted, but his answer was likely going to be the same regardless. With the activation of his Sharingan, he'd discovered that using it in battle situations was going to drag him down without proper practice and training. As such, he'd been training like crazy to make sure that his new eyes were able to help him and his team instead of dragging him down and making him as bad as Naruto was.
Speaking of the orange wonder, he could see him coming up the hill now. He appeared to be jogging at a brisk pace and…wait, was he singing?
"…don't stop me now~ cause I'm having a good time, don't stop me now~ yes I'm having a good time, I don't wanna stop at all~" Naruto sang as he ran up to them. "Hey guys, what's up?"
Sasuke and Sakura just stared at Naruto for a second before replying, having never seen Naruto quite as cheery and ever in a singing mood.
"Um, not much Naruto." Sakura replied, still unsure what to make of the strange scene that he'd greeted them with.
"You're the last one here again, so nothing new here." Sasuke replied, shrugging as he turned away. If Naruto wanted to suddenly change how he showed up who was he to judge? He just hoped that it didn't become a normal thing for them; he didn't want to get used to Naruto singing everywhere he went.
"I had to put out a fire." Naruto said, glancing to the side with a guilty look on his face.
Now that got their attention. "You set something on fire?" Sakura asked, sounding a bit concerned for Naruto. Likely it was for Naruto's mental stability more than anything, but it was still a bit of a change from her just hitting him on the head and being done with it. "What the hell did you do?"
"It wasn't my fault!" Naruto replied, waving his arms wildly. "You see I – gack…" Naruto paused as he suddenly jumped and rubbed his shoulder. "…I was practicing making a super awesome intro with a smoke bomb…and it…kinda got out of control."
Eyebrow twitching, Sakura smacked him on his blond head. Sasuke almost sighed at the familiar sight; it was almost like old times…but in a better way. "Idiot! You don't start a fire with smoke bombs! They aren't flammable like that!"
"But Sakura-chan~ there was –" Naruto began before Sakura smacked him again.
"Don't make excuses!" Sakura shouted again. Taking a deep breath, she gently rubbed her head. "Seriously…what would we do if you burnt your house to the ground? I mean really, where would you go?"
Naruto frowned and Sasuke glanced at the two of them with a raised eyebrow. That was a rather good question, seeing how Naruto was pretty much living on his own based on what they knew about him. Which was still not all that much, but more than the two of them knew about Sasuke so he wasn't complaining. Still though, had he planned anything in case of something like that?
"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I won't let my apartment burn down! I'm too awesome to let something like that happen." Naruto said with his normal big grin.
No, no he clearly hadn't.
Shaking his head, Sasuke decided to ignore the two of them for now, seeing how ridiculous Naruto sounded turned him off from wanting to hear any more. Even he had a backup plan for if something happened to his apartment; an entire district waiting for him to return once he'd finished his self-imposed mission that he could use until he could move out again.
Which brought him back to this district they were tearing down. Who were they? Kakashi didn't say anything, and there wasn't anything in the mission description about who the people who'd lived here before were. While normally he'd just do his job and be done with it, he felt that someone should be thinking about stuff like this. After all, it was quite possible that after he was gone, if there was no one else to take over the Uchiha District it would end up like this.
If that happened, he hoped that someone would at least take a moment to wonder about what great people might've lived there and question what ever happened to them.
"Yo."
"You're late!"
"Mah, mah." Kakashi said dismissively. "I'm only just barely late today."
Sakura and Naruto scowled at him, knowing that he was right; he was only a half hour later than normal. A new record for 'closest to on time', but still not the results they were hoping for.
With a bit of coaxing for them to calm down, they headed back down to finish the last half dozen homes they needed to work on to finish it up. Kakashi was pleased that they'd came up with the plan to divide and conquer themselves, even if he figured that tearing them down with each other's help would be faster. Especially with how slow Sakura had taken the first time around. He gave her points for not being afraid of manual labor, but she had approached it daintily and treated it like it was going to bite her.
Of the three, she was the one who wielded the sledgehammer the best though, so that did give her some points. She must've gotten some extra strength from all the times she'd punched Naruto in the head.
Naruto, after getting into his house, glared over his shoulder; or rather, he glared down his back. "Musshu, what the hell?"
Musshu popped up next to him and poked his nose with a serious look on his face. "I told you I just want to watch. That means you do not mention me. Would you want me throwing off your stealth by blabbing where you were at?"
"I wasn't!" Naruto hissed, feeling Musshu's claw dig slightly into his shoulder. "Stop doing that!"
"Keep your voice down then." Musshu said, slipping back into his shirt and put himself back to back with Naruto as he kept talking, eyes peaking over Naruto's jacket. "Besides, I wanted to learn more about your friends. Who was mister tall-dark-and-broody?"
"Hm? Oh you mean Sasuke." Naruto shrugged, getting back to work as he talked. For a job like this, he could afford a bit of distraction while he worked. "Well, he's a bit of a prick, but I think he's got a lot on his shoulders sometimes. He told me once that…well he mentioned that his ambition is to kill someone."
Naruto flinched at that memory, the recent knowledge of who it was making that an even stranger topic to think about. And he'd thought he was just trying to look cool when he'd said it at their first team meeting; he felt like the idiot a lot of people called him, seeing how he'd inwardly just brushed him off. He still wasn't sure if Sasuke was comfortable talking about it seeing how he'd only told him when he figured he was dying, so he didn't bother bringing it up again.
"Uh, aren't you all ninja? It may just be me here, but your jobs are to oh I don't know, kill people?" Musshu asked, trying to wrap his mind around that idea. He'd heard about ninja before, and he thought they sounded pretty neat sometimes. It was probably why dragons had let them make a contract with them in the first place, but…for a ninja to say that he had what accounted to a 'personal hit list' didn't sound right to him.
"We…" Naruto paused, hands gripping the drywall as he thought over that question. Zabuza and Haku's faces popped into his head, causing him to frown deeply. "We are ninja, but we are more than just someone's tool to get a job done. I will show the world that I can be a ninja in my own way and follow my own rules, dattebayo!"
"…what's a dattebayo?"
Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, it's just kinda a personal twitch I guess. I'm the only one who says it anyway, so it's kinda my own thing."
"Hm, you know you should throw that in at the end of your intro." Musshu said, tapping his chin in thought. "It's unique and kind of a staple of 'you' so they won't forget you. What do ya think?"
Naruto ripped a large chunk of drywall with a smirk on his face. "I like it! The super fantastic Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"
"Still need to work on the titles, but it's still a nice touch." Musshu said with a grin. Glancing out the window, he tapped his chin as he remembered Naruto's other teammate. "And what about the other one?"
"Eh? Other what?"
"The violent girl who hit you because you threw a smoke bomb in your house."
"Oh Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a small smile on his face as he spoke. "Well, she's Sakura-chan. She's pretty, she smart, and she's on my team. What more do you want to know?"
Musshu turned slowly, very slowly towards Naruto with a look of immense curiosity. "Dude, she hit you. Several times. For throwing a smoke bomb. What kind of woman does that?"
Naruto frowned, glancing at Musshu. "She was just worried about me. I said I was putting out a fire –"
"Which you were."
"And so she was worried –"
"Which is normal."
"And when I explained, it sounded really stupid, so she hit me."
"Which sounded painful. Why didn't you dodge?"
"I've been hit harder." Naruto said dismissively. Sighing, he stopped what he was doing for a second as he tried to explain a bit better. "…I don't want to worry her, and her hitting me is kinda her way of telling me she was worried. So, I let her hit me."
"Which is really dumb. I mean, why? She's not even all that pretty."
"You take that back!" Naruto said, hissing as Musshu dug a claw into his shoulder before he shouted again. "She is too pretty you're just not looking at it the right way."
"And what is the right way?" Musshu glanced over the jacket again, checking to make sure that they hadn't been heard. Not sensing anyone, he continued. "I mean, you're being kinda vague about it all, so why don't you explain to me what you see that I don't."
"Well…" Naruto sighed, going back to the wall. "People talk about how big her forehead is, and it kinda reminds me how I would get teased. She deserved to be reminded that she's got a lot of other qualities that make her awesome, and that it's the potential that matters!"
"Potential?" Musshu blinked. He'd been thinking about how right Naruto had been about her forehead for a second that he'd almost missed most of what Naruto had continued to say. "What potential are you talking about?"
"Well, she's really smart, like really smart. I don't think that a lot of the teachers in the Academy know a lot of stuff she does. Plus, according to Kakashi-sensei, she has super awesome chakra control. She may not be fully developed like some older women are, but I'm pretty sure she'll grow into a very beautiful woman." Naruto said, nodding to himself. "Plus, she's got a lot of strength from hitting me all the time, and she'll only get stronger too. So…yeah, she's got a ton of potential that I just think other people miss."
"…that was surprisingly well thought out." Musshu mussed.
Naruto chuckled nervously. "Well, I would've stopped asking her out a long time ago if I didn't think of reasons why I liked her. I mean, yeah she hits me, but she has a lot of other stuff that outweigh it. Plus, I'm on her team. With enough time, we have to figure each other out enough that she'll stop hitting me at some point in the future."
One can only hope.
"Whatever you say man, she's your teammate." Musshu muttered. "So what about old one eye out there?"
"That's Kakashi-sensei. He's kickass." Naruto said, feeling far more definitive about that after their conversation yesterday. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been allowed to take home the scroll that let me summon you. Speaking of…" Naruto froze, chuckling nervously. "I…um…I kinda…lost the scroll."
"…eh?"
"Well, I had it in my other room, but after I went to sleep, I couldn't find it!" Naruto muttered, looking really nervous. "Before I called you here, I had looked all over my apartment for it short of flipping it over. I…I'm sorry." His head slowly bowed, scratching at the wall gently as he pressed his forehead to the drywall. "I must be a horrible summoner…I'm sorry."
Musshu wasn't sure what to say to that. On one hand, it was far from the truth; he should know seeing how he'd been the one to take it back to the summoning realm. On the other, this was a big deal and needed to be handled appropriately. Kami he was a hundred years too young to be trying to handle a problem like this. Still, the ball was his now, and he needed to act.
"Naruto." Hearing his name, the boy glanced back to Musshu. "Just so you know, I took the scroll home to the dragon realm. However!" Musshu growled, cutting off Naruto's relieved sigh curtly. "You need to take better care of scrolls like that. If someone else got ahold of it, what would you do? There would be two dragon summoners out there who could then fight each other. It'd be like getting someone who could copy you, only they might do it better then you. You need to be careful, okay?"
Naruto nodded slowly, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Alright, I can do that." Smiling at Musshu, he grinned. "Thanks for taking the scroll though. I'm glad to hear it's safe."
Chuckling despite himself, he grinned back. "Don't worry, that's what partners are for. You got our back, and we'll get yours. Speaking of, incoming sensei."
Darting down, Musshu hid himself once more as Naruto blinked and stared towards the window. A second later, Kakashi's head poked up and gave Naruto his traditional eye-smile. "Oi, Naruto, you almost done in there? Sasuke is waiting for you and Sakura to finish up."
"Almost done sensei! I was just…"
"Catching my breath." Musshu whispered helpfully.
"Catching my breath."
Tilting his head curiously, Kakashi shrugged. "Well, just come out when you're done. Sasuke is eager to be done with this."
"I didn't say anything like that." Sasuke said from outside the house.
"You sure? I swore I saw it on your face…oh well."
Naruto felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his head at that, causing him to sigh. Behind him, Musshu popped up and chuckled. "I like your sensei Naruto, he's pretty cool."
"That's what I said." Naruto replied with a grin.
Humming softly, Musshu paused as something crossed his mind. Looking down at his hand, he pressed it on Naruto's face. Feeling Naruto blink in confusion, he ignored it as he focused on his hand. "Hey Naruto, can I borrow some chakra? There's some stuff I gotta do, but I need some help and…well you're our summoner and all."
"Eh? Oh sure." Naruto replied, slapping his hands into the traditional 'ram' seal to help channel some chakra.
With his hand on Naruto's cheek, he felt the way that Naruto's chakra rose to the surface as he channeled it. To his surprise, his whiskers stuck out straight in a near comical way once it came into contact with his body, the sheer volume of it causing him to blink rapidly like he'd been given a sudden shot of coffee. "Whoa…"
"Uh, is that enough, or do you need more?" Naruto asked, pausing in his channeling and glanced at Musshu.
"No, no that's good. I mean WOW that's a lot of chakra you got." Musshu muttered, flexing his hand as the blue sparks flittered about his skin and sunk in to be used later. "Yeah…that should last a bit. Although…I might~ need some more later, so why don't you summon me tonight and we'll talk then."
Naruto grinned, giving Musshu a thumbs up. "You got it. I'll see you later!"
Musshu grinned, returning the thumbs up before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Rolling his shoulders, Naruto grinned with a small crack of his knuckles. "Alright, time to finish this mission, dattebayo!"
Returning once more to the dragon realm, Musshu almost giggled from how giddy he now felt. He was turbo charged, electrified, and so energetic now! He was very, very glad he'd left when he did, because the chakra he'd absorbed was now back on the surface and he was crackling like a bonfire; quite literally, seeing how he is a fire dragon.
Bouncing on his toes a bit, he glanced around. Amazingly, he was right back where he started earlier, only this time the issue he'd been having was now solved. Rubbing his hands together, he manipulated some of the chakra to his mouth and let it loose in a blue flame-like pattern that quickly spread across the surface of the water.
As it did so, it came into contact with its intended target. Rising and falling, it began to outline the thin pattern of something beneath the water, spreading out up and down the river until nearly seventy feet of submerged chakra-fire was 'burning' before him. Then, with a couple of bubbles, it began to move. Slowly at first, then with slightly increasing speed until it burst upwards out of the water and showered the surrounding riverbed with fine droplets of water. Shaking wildly, the 'flames' dispersed as a silver scaled dragon revealed itself.
The dragon was a bit less impressive in some ways than Shinryuu; the scales were far smoother, and the horns were not nearly as prominent. Despite the shorter horns, that was slightly made up for by the surprising amount of hair that he had; a rare trait for any dragon to have. With the slimmer, more streamline body though, Musshu was certain that the dragon before him could outswim, out speed, and out maneuver many other dragons. In fact, he'd heard many rumors that backed up these thoughts and theories quite accurately. Legends and tales of the current leader of the River Dragons, Haru.
With his calm, stone black eyes, Haru lowered himself to Musshu's level of sight. When he spoke, it was not with the earth shaking rumble and echo that Shinryuu's held, but a subtle ease that was smoother. "Hello there little one. What brings you to the edge of the river? Don't you know it's not safe to play near water?"
Musshu took several deep breaths, trying to make sure he didn't overdo it with all the energy that was still coursing through him. "I know, but I didn't come to pick a fight or anything, so I figured that would be…well something." Seeing the subtle quirk in Haru's brow, he continued. "I…made a friend named Ping. Me and him go way back…he still owes me money too. Anyways, he once thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with a water dragon. Needless to say, it…wasn't his brightest moment. Or mine for that matter."
Haru chuckled, imagining what sort of mischief the two of them might've gotten into. "As a fire dragon, I'm almost certain that you would've remembered how many times we of the rivers have held back the flames from the forest before the first summoner came."
Musshu nodded. "I've been told a few things about that, but I can't really say that I understand much about that. I mean, it was so long ago, and so many dragons appear to have forgotten…sorry, that's a…touchy subject for you isn't it?"
"You too if memory serves me right." Haru muttered. Giving the young dragon a kind smile, he sighed softly. "So then, what brings an eager young fire starter like yourself to awaken me?"
Musshu slowly rubbed his hands together as he thought of what to say. "Well…you see, the thing is...we have a new summoner."
"I know."
"And Shinryuu-sama told me to – wait what? HOW?!" Musshu certainly hadn't mentioned it, so his response was quite a bit further from what he was expecting.
"…you're a red dragon, and I'm a silver dragon." Haru explained slowly. "I do not have to be the brightest scales to know that you could not have been the one to awaken me unless you had help from either a god or a human summoner." Glancing around, Haru raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of, where is the child? I would have expected to have noticed their presence already with my awakening, yet I cannot tell where they are."
Musshu squeaked, eyes wide and head quickly shooting down to the ground. He could feel Haru's eyes on him, and he swore he could feel the several emotions that Haru's face went through as he watched him squirm beneath his gaze. Confusion, thoughtfulness, disapproval, and…was that amusement? Either way, he was still in so much trouble.
"…you forgot to bring them here, didn't you?" A slow, hesitant nod. "Did you at least learn anything about them before you returned here?"
"Um…oh! Yes I learned a few thing, yes." Musshu said, glad he finally remembered something about the boy. "His name is Uzumaki Naruto, he's a shinobi, he mentioned saving someone-or-another, and has a team of…rather strange sounding people. To be honest, I worry about their sanity a bit."
Haru chuckled softly. "With humans, one finds that questioning their sanity can become quickly a moot point; especially when in regards to those who have taken up the shinobi practice. If they haven't changed all that much from a hundred years ago, then I'm certain that the strangeness has only increased."
"…about that." Haru paused, quirking his head as he listened to the small fire dragon. "When I was younger, I was told grand tales about humans. About how shinobi's were feared by those without similar training, and even with. There was tales of how the wandering clan of dragon summoners had proven themselves and that there was even talk of settling down in one of the newly founded villages. Well, while I was there, I got to look around, and it looked like they did move to a village. And…I don't know why, but there's just something odd about Naruto that I can't put my claw on."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…he's blond." Musshu began, trying to remember all the details he could that were 'not normal' from what he remembered. "His eyes were a bright, bright blue, and he had weird marks on his cheeks. They looked like he'd drawn them on, but when I touched his face they were still there. Also, he didn't look to be older then twelve, and was living in a building alone. Alone. I know that humans and dragons are different, but I swore that humans were more paternal then to allow one of their brood to simply live on their own so young. And then there –"
"Did you ever consider that he may not have parents to raise him?" Haru asked, cutting him off.
Mouth opening and closing like a fish, Musshu suddenly felt a bit stupid. "Well, no. No I didn't. But-but then there was his chakra! It was…there was so much and it…" He looked down at his hands. The crackling noise had long since died down, but he could still see the burning blue chakra beneath his skin flickering every so often. "He had enough chakra that I can probably wake another dragon up without having to go back to see him."
Haru hummed, thinking about it quietly. "Well, he sounds like quite the special boy then. I wonder what will become of him when the council looks him over." Seeing Musshu still staring at his hands, Haru decided to address that particular question that he'd just recalled. "That is why you woke me, correct?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah that-that's why I woke you up." Musshu said, trying to downplay how distracted he was even as he chuckled nervously. "Um…Haru-sama?"
Haru paused again, the title still something new to him. "Yes?"
"Can…okay, this is gonna sound weird." Musshu muttered before taking a deep breath and bowed to Haru. "Can you please give me a ride to the mountain ranges? I need to continue my mission in waking the four dragon lords, and I…am still too young to fly."
Haru slowly placed his hands under his chin and hummed softly. Looking Musshu over a bit more, he winced as realization hit him. "…you haven't even hit your first molting cycle have you?"
"…I'm close. Should be maybe a month or two…or three. Hopefully." Musshu muttered, kicking at the dirt of the riverbank with a sigh. "I hope that won't be a problem for you or for –"
"It is of no concern to me your age. You are acting your age, and if you are the one who was called first, it is clear to me that your age may have made you the only one capable of being drawn out without…consequence."
Musshu winced, having heard of what happened to one who had attempted to summon one of the four bosses straight away. He…hadn't been a summoner for long, that had been certain.
Humming once more, Haru smiled and moved to circle around Musshu. Lowering himself, he slowly motioned for Musshu to climb on. Musshu, catching the motion and hit, grinned and scrambled up, gripping a few hairs as Haru wound up and all but launched himself up into the air towards the mountain range.
They had another dragon to awaken after all.
Shinryuu sat before the crevice of a canyon, sitting back and basking in the sun. He knew that he'd be felt soon enough. With the way his large presence moved, it'd be surprising if he'd managed to actually sneak into a place such as this. Feeling a striking breeze brush over him, his eyes slowly opened as he glanced to the shadows. Just out of sight, with a small rumble, he could just make out the shape of another dragon just before their eyes opened and gleamed from the darkness.
"…so there's a new summoner then?"
With a slow, deliberate movement, he nodded. "Yes. According to the young fire dragon Musshu, he has signed in the very last slot of our summoning scroll."
"…and? What are you trying to say Shinryuu?"
"I am getting to that. You never were one for waiting patiently, were you?" Shinryuu asked, a mischievous look in his eyes as he recalled a time that felt like it had long since past.
"We're on opposites sides of the elemental table. Of course I'm not going to be nearly as patient as you." A flash of white, likely teeth, as the dragon growled at him fiercely. He paid it no mind though; they'd gone through similar enough things before to let him know that he had no real need to fear.
"Still, you could stand to learn a thing or two. Even Musshu was able to show his own ability to remain calm while waiting for my responses. And besides, it's not like I take –"
"You're getting sidetracked again."
"…true."
"…"
"…"
"…the boy? The…summoner."
"Mm,yes. This boy it seems is rather lucky. Had he attempted this even a month from now he may have very well been killed from chakra exhaustion. As such, we'll need to train him, and to bring him to a point that summoning one such as yourself or I will be…detrimental to his health." Shinryuu sighed, his eyes slowly raised to stare at the passing clouds.
"You say that like…wait, you aren't serious." He could hear the way the voice caught, trying to remain focused but failing at the realization of what he'd said.
"I said nothing."
"But you implied it. And you didn't deny it either."
"…"
"Kami help us."
Shinryuu's frown became more pronounced at that. "We have done this ourselves. If anyone is to help us now, it will be this summoner."
"Then may Kami have mercy on him."
Raising an eyebrow, Shinryuu slowly shook his head. "Oh? Is that the reason you are not happy with the new summoner? Do you still harbor ill will towards the samurai?"
"It was because of him that much of this happened!" The growl at him early paled drastically as killing intent all but rolled off the dragon in waves. For all who remembered, the samurai was not a gentle topic; for this dragon in particular, it was a topic that brought blood to a quick boil as well as years of barely suppressed rage. "It was because of that arrogant, smug, sword stealing samurai that we –"
"Calm yourself. We will deal with things of that nature later. Besides, it is more likely that the child is of shinobi ancestory."
There was a hesitance to question, but he knew the dragon well enough to know that this tidbit of information would catch their attention only too well. "…are you sure?"
"No. However, we will know soon enough." Shinryuu shrugged. What manner of ancestry the boy had was none of his concern. However, with the way things had proven in the past, it may prove better for all involved if he was.
"Kukuku, perhaps…this might work out better than expected."
"Perhaps it will."
"Ah, such a wonderful thought. It is truly a shame that those of my clans are not considered for the council of four dragons. I would love to be able to see him when –"
"There is nothing that holds you back from coming to this meeting. You are awake, and you have my personal invite."
There was a pause after this statement, one that was not unexpected. This broke years of traditions, things that were ground into the very fiber of their knowledge. However, for this to work, he needed to play to her pride a bit to get her onto their side. It wouldn't do to have her coaxed against them. He was more than strong enough to take most if not any dragon alive, but even he was not foolhardy enough to take on several of the most powerful and dangerous dragons in all the dragon realm alone.
"What of the fire dragon? Will he not be displeased?"
"Musshu is young. Any ill will he may have will likely be displaced by respect for those who he knows overpower and outrank him."
"And what of…that dragon? You know that he won't want to sit still once he knows of this, and that he's going to be left out of our meeting."
"…he will survive not being part of the decision. He lost his vote when he was cast into the pit of the mountain."
"It won't hold him."
"It's not meant to. Were we to try holding him back, we would have had him killed years ago and you know this."
"…I hope you know what you're doing. For all of our sake."
"…as do I. As do I…"
AN: I love how Musshu has been turning out, as well as the random bits of insight I had written down about Sasuke and Sakura. I mean...how much character development did Sakura and Sasuke actually get after the Wave Arc? Sasuke nearly died and Sakura thought he'd died. Naruto I can understand not learning quite as much seeing how his focus was on understanding his opponents and what their purpose in life was (thus the reference in this chapter) but the other two had their own stuff, so...what happened? I looked it over, and shockingly, it made me hate them less. Sasuke with the seal is an ass and a half, but before that point he was getting better. As for Sakura...she was pretty stagnant after we realized she was "damsel in distress" up until she decided she needed to fight for herself in the Forest of Death. Then she started improving.
The part with Musshu and Naruto discussing Sakura was another thing that I thought of. For all that Naruto is and does, I can't see him just allowing someone to hit him like that and then going "Will you go out with me?" Yes, there are people crazy like that, but seeing how I don't get that mindset, I don't see how Naruto would. Then it hit me (...wait, is that a pun?); Naruto wouldn't look at Sakura simply as who she is, but as who she could be. She could remain as the violent woman that we know her as, but Naruto sees her as growing out of it. When you consider that people who've either been through it before or seen it usually say "Don't worry they'll grow out of it" or "It's just a phase", you can kind of see how that logic would apply. I bet someone in the Naruto universe *coughIrukacough* probably told other people after his pranks that he'd grow out of it eventually, and Naruto figured that other kids his age would too.
Unfortunately, we know how that turns out in the end...well, we know how it normally does. And I am not one for "normal", so we'll see.
Also, a new dragon hiding in the shadows! With plot points! And another two dragons not named! What is going to happen?!
Wouldn't you like to know? Yes. And you will, in time. Till the next chapter, Guru out!
