Chapter Three: The Extraction
Betad by Carrie2sky
Kakashi ran into Tsunade's office, panting heavily.
"Tsunade-sama," he started to say but stopped, because he had to catch his breath.
"What is it Kakashi? Have you found something yet?" she asked as she looked with worry at Kakashi who stood with his hands on his knees, panting.
"We've found Naruto's jacket down at the training fields . . . and about . . . 650 metres . . . from there we found another origami rose . . . they're heading south-west," Kakashi finished finally catching his breath.
"Good job, Kakashi. Is there something else?" Tsuande asked, looking a bit relieved when he stood up.
"Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are still in the village. When they found out that Naruto had been kidnapped they decided to stay in Konoha. Since Gaara and Naruto are good friends, Gaara wanted to help with the search for Naruto. They should have left Konoha yesterday, but they're still here for some reason and then this happened with Naruto," Kakashi explained while crossing his arms.
"Well, I'm not surprised since Gaara's the Fifth Kazekage. He shouldn't be here. He should be in Suna. He's just come here because of the meeting we had among the five great countries three days ago. Can he really do this, even if it is for a friend?" asked Tsunade with a frown.
"Seems like it, but I don't think he cares about his Kazekage title when it comes to his friends, especially Naruto," said Kakashi and Tsunade nodded in agreement.
"Where are the sand siblings now?" she asked.
"Down the training fields together with Konoha 11," Kakashi answered. "They're trying to find a trace of Naruto or Konan or blood. We don't know if he struggled or came with her without a fight. But I think Gaara, Temari and Kankuro want to join the search," he added.
Tsunade seemed a bit troubled by this. "Well, there's no time to waste anymore. To the training fields," she said.
When they come to the training fields, everyone was there including the sand siblings Gaara, Temari and Kankuro from Suna.
"Gaara-sama," Tsunade greeted him and stepped forward. "I know that you want to help us find Naruto, but do you really think it's such a great idea?"
"To obey orders is something I've never been so good at, and the elders in Suna don't like it that much, but Naruto's my friend, and I think you know why I'm doing this," Gaara answered with the same emotionless expression, as always, on his face.
"I understand, but you all can't come . . ." began Tsunade looking at all of them. However, she got interrupted.
"Nani?" asked Chōji and looked at her with burning fury but it was still full of respect since she, after all, was the Fifth Hokage of Konoha and a legendary Sannin.
" . . .because of security reasons," Tsuande finished and Chōji suddenly looked at something interesting on the ground.
"Neji, Lee, Kakashi, Sakura, Gaara and I will go and when we come back I want Gai, Ino, Chōji, Shino, Temari and Kankuro to check up the injured if there are any. Kurenai, you should rest, but if you want to, you can stay here with your team," said Tsunade and got a 'hai' as answer from them all.
"Good then, lets go!" she yelled and they left.
Naruto looked up at the ceiling and continued with his thoughts. "Pein-sama," he suddenly heard a voice say and he felt his life being sucked out of his body.
Pein . . . he's the Akatsuki leader. Ero-sennin told me that back at the hospital. But if he's here it means they will begin with the extraction, thought Naruto and his breathing went faster and his inhalations shorter.
"So . . . Uzumaki Naruto, the host of the powerful Kyūbi," said a man's deep voice outside of Naruto's line of vision. "Such a pleasure."
"Pein . . ." said Naruto quietly, but loud enough for Pein to hear.
"It's Pein-sama to you, if you're even going to talk to me," said Pein walking towards him so Naruto could see him.
Pein was a long, brown haired man with piercings all over his face. His eyes were grey blue–ish, but there was something different about them. His eyes were divided in circles in different shades of grey and blue. A read line surrounded the eye and it looked like a bloodline limit to Naruto.
Naruto didn't answer. He just looked at the man with fear, respect and hatred. He was the Akatsuki leader the reason for Gaara's death. Thanks to Chiyo-baa-sama, they were able to revive him.
"Let the fun begin," said Pein and jumped up to a huge finger, which was connected to an even larger hand.
No . . .this can't be happening, thought Naruto and felt his heart pounding harder and harder.
"Begin!" shouted Pein.
Naruto felt horrible pains go straight through his body like lightning, and then everything went black.
He couldn't see anything but himself, and he was getting paler and paler. The pain that went through his body was the only thing that could convince him about his existence; it was the only thing that told him he was alive.
No . . . it can't . . . end like . . . this! Naruto thought as he screamed through the pain, but only to one else were there, just himself, the pain and the white surrounding him.
" . . .is there a reality outside my mind . . .?"
" . . .what is knowledge . . .?"
" . . .what is truth . . .?"
" . . .what makes an action valuable . . .?"
"Who's . . . there!?" Screamed a horrified Naruto when he heard the questions.
"Aren't these the questions you've always asked yourself?" said a voice to Naruto.
"Yes . . . but how . . . can you . . . know that . . .?" he asked. It felt horrible to speak because of the pain.
"I've always been here, since the day Kyūbi attacked, even though you may not have noticed me," the voice answered.
Naruto tried to find the man who was talking to him.
"Where . . . are you?" asked Naruto and noticed that he went paler.
"Where?" answered the voice like an echo of Naruto's question. Suddenly, a bright light appeared.
"Who . . . are you . . .?" asked Naruto.
"Who I am? I hope that I'm the person I've always been. But I'm not sure if it matters anymore since I'm supposed to be gone from the world of the living," the voice answered.
Naruto tried to identify the voice but he could not.
Was it himself speaking? His conscience? But it can't be can it? Kyūbi was like his conscience; no one else could be it . . .
"Why . . . are you here?" asked Naruto. He could see the light getting closer and it was changing its form . . . it was getting more human in its movements.
The light became bigger. It looked like smoke or fog and it started to form contours of a human. But Naruto couldn't see who the human was because it was like watching the sun, but a flat sun. Looking from the side he could only see a thin, glowing string.
"Naruto . . .", said the voice. Naruto looked up at 'it' confused. "You're strong Naruto. You won't leave this world for a while because I won't let that happen."
"But . . . who are you?" asked Naruto again. He went even paler and Naruto didn't know how, but if the person in front of him had eyes they would have looked worried.
"I'm someone that cares for you. I can't tell you more for the moment, but I believe that you'll figure it out soon. You see . . . you have the right to know Naruto, it's not like I don't want you to know," answered the voice and Naruto felt something inside him, not just the pain . . . but what was it?
"But if I'll . . . know it . . . later on, it . . . means that you . . . will either get . . . out of . . . my mind or . . . I'll . . . die here with . . . you . . ." said Naruto and made a face of pain. Once again he could feel the worried gaze on him, even though there weren't eyes to give it.
"Try to speak as little as possible because if you try to speak you'll only feel more pain", said the voice in a warm tone. "If you want to say something to me, think it. Since this is your mind I'll able to hear your thoughts."
"Really?" Naruto asked or . . . rather thought.
Naruto smiled, but then he felt his life disappearing. He looked down at his hands and saw how pale he was: he was becoming invisible. He presumed that his face looked pretty much the same.
"But how am I supposed to survive this? I can't get out of here by myself, someone has to help me from the outside, or else I won't be able to do this," he thought so the man could hear, suddenly realising he didn't feel so much pain.
"Believe in yourself Naruto. What makes an action valuable?" asked the voice and Naruto could hear the happiness in his voice.
"The reason to it," Naruto answered and smiled a true smile.
"Exactly. The reason for an action can be different from case to case but why you really do it, is something else. You can do it for love . . . for your friends . . . for money . . . for your health or someone else's health. But the reason for the action is always the answer," said the voice.
Naruto could feel that feeling again, deep inside him
"Is there a reality outside my mind?" Asked Naruto himself. "Yes, and it's to that reality I'm going back to."
It was dark inside the cave except for one light. A red light that came out from a boy's mouth and eyes and it looked really painful.
"This is a waste of talent actually," Pein said as he looked down at the boy who was in horrible pain.
"How do you mean Pein-sama?" asked Tobi, looking at his leader.
"Naruto's normal chakra limits are unbelievable. They're extremely high without the help of Kyūbi. And his taijutsu is incredible," explained Pein while concentrating on the work at hand.
"Even if he seemed to be a naive, clumsy, idiotic boy . . . it was just a front," said Konan who looked at Naruto and then her childhood friend, Pein.
"Exactly," Pein agreed, while the rest of the Akatsuki looked at their leader and only female member. "Naruto is as good as the Copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi, maybe even stronger. When he wants to, he can use very powerful abilities that don't belong to Kyūbi. And his stamina is very strong indeed . . ."
"Before you came Pein . . . he was wondering a lot over something . . . at first he was terrified and then . . . he became so calm and quiet, so I asked him what he was thinking about . . . he said that he thought about the meaning of life," said Konan with no emotion on her face.
"I went into his memory, but it wasn't easy . . . somehow he blocked the biggest part of my jutsu but I caught these words . . . 'But a genjutsu is an illusion another person has created to get the advantage over someone . . . because you have knowledge about the situation from before . . .' He seemed to be thinking about questions that he couldn't find the answers for . . . 'Knowledge is easy to carry but hard to gather . . .'" she finished telling the others.
'Everyone can gather knowledge out of feelings, experiences and other people . . . What you have gone through once you can go through again whether you want it or not . . . but you can make a better situation out of the second time, because you have knowledge from the previous situation . . .' said Konan repeating Naruto's thoughts.
"It seems like the boy deserved the title as Konoha's number one knuckleheaded ninja," said Tobi. "The most unexpected . . ."
"How far Neji?" asked Tsunade.
"I can feel Naruto's chakra getting stronger, it is not that far . . ." began Neji, but Sakura interrupted him, with a pissed look on her face.
"We have been traveling for nearly thirty hours. An extraction takes three days so we have less then forty two hours to find Naruto and save him. How much longer do you think we have to go?" she asked while they were jumping through the trees.
"Maybe five more hours," answered Neji. "But we do not know how to get in to where they are and save him. If this is similar to Gaara, we may not be able to save him until tomorrow, and we have to rest as well."
"We don't have time to rest!" shouted Sakura.
"We have to Sakura. If we don't then we won't have enough strength to save Naruto," Tsunade said. She seemed troubled by Neji's words because she wanted to save Naruto so bad.
"It's five hours to get there, plus seven hours if we're supposed to rest. Then we have less then twenty hours to save him!" Sakura said with anger in her voice. Her hope was disappearing.
"Naruto will survive this," said Gaara jumping next to Sakura. "He's not a person to give up so easily, even if it is against the Akatsuki."
Sakura smiled faintly at this. It was the truth, she knew, but it's not a good idea to piss the Akatsuki off.
"We'll have to rest here for today," Tsunade announced and landed on the ground, where there were high and dense trees, perfect for shelter.
"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" the group said and jumped down as well.
"When do you think we'll get back to Konoha?" Lee asked Kakashi.
"Probably the day after tomorrow, but we don't know what Naruto's condition will be," answered Kakashi. "Actually . . . I'm not sure we needed so many people to rescue Naruto, but it's best to be prepared."
"Hai," Lee answered. He then took out some blankets for them, and after that he went and got some firewood.
"How long until it's finished?" asked Naruto, noticing that the man in front of him was getting more visible.
"Well, you've been here for more then a day, let's say . . . forty hours," answered the man while Naruto sighed.
"But if you have been inside me since fifteen years ago, do you know what has happened in my life?" Naruto asked, while sitting down because his body hurt so much.
"Not always. Only in life threatening situations have I been able to see what was going on. And sometimes I can feel your feelings, but it has only happened twice during my entire time here so don't worry," he added quickly when he saw Naruto's shocked face
"But what I've never been able to see is when Kyūbi has taken over or if you used its chakra . . . even in the slightest. But once I felt the pain from it, and it was really horrible," the man continued in a sad tone.
"It's indispensable," said Naruto in a scared and sad tone.
The man soon became a figure with some human parts. Naruto could see his hair, a bit of his face, and his hands but Naruto couldn't see any colour at all.
"I'm proud of you and you're really strong fighting Kyūbi like this," said the man. Now Naruto started to see eyes within the yellow glow.
"I don't hear that too often . . ." Naruto replied. He felt really tired and the man noticed that his face was chalk white and his breathing was irregular, but even still . . . he smiled towards the man.
"But there is something that really impressed me," continued the man. At this, Naruto looked at him with curiosity. "When someones life is on the line, whether it was your own or another person's, you can use chakra which doesn't belongs to Kyūbi."
"Nani? I do!?" Asked Naruto in surprise.
"Yes you do," said the man and Naruto could feel that he smiled towards him. "Do you remember what Kakashi said during your training with him? When you created the Fuuton Rasengan? About your chakra?"
"Well, he said a lot of things . . . er . . . oh! He said that I have at least twice as much chakra as him, without the help of Kyūbi! But with the help of Kyūbi it was up to a hundred times more or something," Naruto said with a weak smile. He was getting weaker by the minute and the man noticed this. "But how come I have so much chakra? And is it really twice as much as Kakashi-sensei's?"
"You were obviously born with so much chakra and stamina. That's why Kyūbi and I can live at the same time inside you . . . actually . . . that is the reason to why we can live here at all. And about you and Kakashi's chakra . . . it's not twice as much from what I've noticed . . ."
"I knew it! It was a joke . . ." interrupted Naruto, but the man continued with a hidden smile in all that yellow.
" . . .it's rather three or four times as much. It's hard to decide since Kyūbi and your own chakra are a bit mixed," he finished.
Naruto looked at him with tired and shocked eyes. "Four times . . .?"
"Yes, that's right! When you were about twelve years old you had more chakra than a Jounin and for each year that passed your chakra grew even stronger. It's really rare for a kid to have so much chakra like you, and it's not easy to handle. With so much chakra it's hard to make jutsus which requires only a little chakra like Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique), Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)) and Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique). And if your chakra control is bad, it's life threatening," the man explained, while Naruto smiled sarcastically.
"Well, my chakra control sucks, but still . . .I can use it, he said. Isn't that the irony of life?" Naruto laughed and the man laughed with him.
"Well . . . as I said, I'm proud of you. You've never given up, even though youropponents have been much stronger. Your will power and your bad chakra control kind of . . .hold each other in control. Your bad chakra control meets good willpower and becomes a straight line," the man explained.
Naruto would have blushed if he had any colour left on his skin. "Is it even logical?" he asked.
"Not in the slightest! But we know that it works, right? But you have to promise me something. Don't push yourself too far. In fact, you should have died of exhaustion a long time ago," the man told Naruto in a more serious tone.
"If I had had a dad, you would have sounded like him right now," said Naruto, sadly.
The man didn't answer but laid a warm hand on Naruto's shoulder, which made him look up at the man. He sat next to Naruto but said nothing.
"I think it's time to get out of here," he finally said and Naruto nodded in agreement.
"But how?" Naruto asked. The man still had his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto felt that feeling again, and it was getting on his nerves, because he didn't know where it was coming from or why he felt it.
"Believe in yourself Naruto. Use your own chakra. You don't have access to Kyūbi's chakra here, so you have to trust in your own powers," said the man in a very serious but warm tone.
"What do I have to do?" asked Naruto, who looked really tired.
"You have to gather all your own chakra to your heart. After a while let it float back to its right places. Continue with that so you have chakra covering your whole body. It's much harder then it sounds, but you have to try. When your chakra's molecules are close to one another, but at the same time far away, a chemical reaction will be created. I can't explain more, you just have to do it," explained the man.
Naruto nodded again. "But if I do this right, will you be released as well?" asked Naruto, while he tried to remember what the man had said about the chemical reaction and the molecules.
"Yes, but this will have a side effect. My soul has lived here for so long that I've gotten a lot of your life powers' so . . . when we get back to the world you may look different . . . you'll be younger," he explained.
"I'll be younger? Both mentally and physically? What do you mean?" Naruto asked in confusion.
"Well, when I got sealed inside you I was in my early twenties and you're fifteen . . . so . . . I guess you'll look like a two or three-year-old , but only on the outside. You'll only change physically, not mentally," the man clarified. "At least I think so, you may act a little different too, but . . . well, well . . ."
Naruto glared at him. "A three-year-old kid!? You've got to be kidding me!? So you mean I have to relive thirteen damn years of my life? Will I even remember anything from my life as a teenager?" Naruto asked, incredulously.
The man could feel how Naruto strained every nerve in his body. "You'll remember everything. You'll only look like a three-year-old boy. Your nin-, tai- and genjutsu abilities won't disappear. You'll be the same Naruto as before. A fifteen-year-old teenager, in a three-year-old's body. You have to pay a price for freedom and survival," the man told Naruto, who had calmed down a bit.
"You may be able to get back to your fifteen-year-old self, but only time can deside that," said the man as he ruffled Naruto's hair.
"Yeah, but . . . you probably know that I've quit as a shinobi. Tsunade-baachan wouldn't let me leave the village in search of Uchiha Itachi," Naruto said, looking away.
"No I didn't know that!" the man responded, shocked. "You can't quit as a shinobi Naruto! It's your dream to become Hokage one day, right? You can't just let that vanish in smoke because of something that happened between you and Tsunade-sannin! You idiot!"
"You're probably right, but I was so angry with her. Sasuke's my best friend, but the only thing he thinks about is revenge on his brother," explained Naruto. "He wants to find Itachi and kill him. So to get Sasuke back to the village, I have to find Itachi before he does."
Naruto went on. "I just can't let him do this to himself! He was and is still is my best friend! My first friend! I can't let him do it . . . he was the only one that noticed me . . . I just can't . . ." finished Naruto.
The man knew that if Naruto didn't get out of there soon he would lose his life.
"I understand Naruto . . ." said the man, and he really did understand because one of the feelings he had felt from Naruto was the feeling of love and comfort Sasuke had given him.
"Do as I said before and gather your chakra to your heart, and then release it. When you wake up, your appearance will have changed. But both of us will live," he said with a concerned tone in his voice. "It may sound egoistic that I'll finally be free, but you will at least live and if you want to I can help you in your life . . ."
"Okay . . ." said Naruto, closing his eyes. He tried to gather his chakra that he knew he had, and it was sure as hell that it was harder then it sounded.
"Your strongest chakra's deep inside you. Find it and gather it together with the other. Reach it," the man instructed.
Naruto thought that it sounded strange, but he did as he was told. "I'm trying . . ." hesaid. "But it really is hard to find my strongest chakra as you said, and the pain is just making it worse . . ."
"Naruto . . . you can do it . . ."
"I'm trying my best . . ."
"All of your friends will be waiting for you. You have to do this and I know you're capable of it . . ."
"But I . . ." began Naruto, but stopped and took a deep breath. He relaxed and searched deeper. It was like looking for Kyūbi inside his subconscious, a lot of pipes and water everywhere. But there was only one path that lead to Kyūbi, so it was probably the same here. Even though everything was white, he flew forward with an incredulous speed.
"There . . ." Naruto said, feeling a place with a lot of power.
So much power . . . the air vibrated and it was hard to breathe . . .
"You can do it Naruto . . . believe in yourself . . . and I believe in you . . ." said the man.
Before Naruto could go any farther, the man embraced him, and then a bright light appeared and everything became white and silent.