Chapter Two: Catalyst
Team Seven walked down the dusty path, side by side, taking in the scenic splendor provided by the shade offered by the towering foliage. As per their normal routine, Sakura pestered Sasuke for a date, to which the brooding Uchiha declined. That led Naruto to ask out his rosette-haired crush, to which was met with a vehement response in the negative.
"Come on, Sakura-chan! Please!" the blond boy whined, imploring for at least one shot at happiness.
The green-eyed kunoichi-in-training gave him a look of pure disgust. "There's no way in hell, Naruto!" she screeched, feeling revulsion overload her senses.
The Uchiha scion merely rolled his eyes, already tired of hearing this scenario going around in circles, with no hint of it ending in sight. 'So annoying…'
"I promise you, Sakura-chan, it'll be fu…fu…a…" Naruto flinched when a tickle hit his nose. He tried to hold it in, but it felt like it burned his throat if he tried to suppress it. So, he did the natural thing with the tingling sensation in his nose…
He sneezed.
"Achoo!"
When he released the buildup of air, an emerald flame erupted out of his throat and escaped his mouth. His nostrils burned like hell when smoke drifted out, all the while coughing and gagging to rid himself of the disgusting odor clogging his sense of smell.
Sakura indignantly sputtered when she witnessed that display, eyes grown to the size of apples as she jumped to the side. "N-Naruto, you idiot! What the hell?" It almost scorched her!
'Wait a minute…' She had to backtrack a bit. 'That fire didn't have any heat to it! Am I sure that I saw what I thought I saw?'
"…" Sasuke owlishly blinked, face just as calm and cool, but inwardly, he thought differently. 'Huh…that's a pretty decent trick…for a moron…'
"Ugh…" The blond sniffled. It was strange to him. Normally, he never got sick, if he recalled correctly. He twitched his nose. "That was…weird…" He sharply sniffed again.
"Hey, guys…" The trio of genin turned to see their mentor with a cheery expression on the exposed part of his face as he had caught up. His naked eye crinkled in amusement. "What seems to be the problem, hm?"
"Sensei, Naruto tried to burn me with fire!" she squawked like a parrot.
"What?" the bewhiskered genin stammered. "Did not! I just sneezed, and then, fwoom! I felt a burning feeling in my throat!" He waved his hands in a frantic flap.
"I guess what they're trying to say is that Naruto sneezed, and suddenly, he blew out a green blaze like my jutsu," the brunet casually explained, shrugging like he did not care. It still held his interest, and hoped that it did not prove itself a challenge to him.
Their jōnin-sensei's lone eye blinked once. "Huh. Odd, that. You sure you're feeling fine, Naruto?"
The runt of the litter—in Kakashi's point of view—rubbed his temples. "Yeah. Other than a small headache, I feel okay…"
Kakashi hummed. "Well, that's that, I guess." True to his nature, the orange book was back out in his hands. 'Plus, I have to notify Hokage-sama of this incident…'
"Say, Kakashi-sensei," the cherry blossom of the team chimed in once more, "why did you need to speak with Tazuna-san?"
"Oh, that," the Copy Ninja realized. "I told him I was taking the money from Gatō as…compensation for the mission. The small amount I got was just enough to make up for the difference in the graduated payment."
"Well, why didn't you give the old drunk a cut of the dough, Sensei?" Naruto candidly asked.
"…He owed us," he remarked like he addressed the weather forecast. "It's as simple as that. With this reimbursement in hand, Konoha will make note of the recent developments and look the other way, forgetting that it ever happened, since we solved their problem."
The blond shinobi looked dejected. "Still doesn't seem fair to me, though."
Kakashi sounded hopeful, for once. "Don't worry, Naruto. I'm sure the Wave Country will bounce back and recover after our help."
The youngest of the bunch let loose a heavy sigh, feeling incompetent for not doing much of anything in the mission. He executed that fiasco on the bridge quite poorly, now that he thought more on it. As loath as he was to admit it, personally, his brooding bastard of a teammate's shout for gauging the enemy on the outside fell on deaf ears, and it nearly cost the other boy his life…all due to a lapse in judgment from the blond ninja. 'What was I thinking?' He slightly shook his head. 'Of course, I wasn't…'
Simpleminded, yes, Naruto claimed himself to be, but that often led to others calling him stupid…or a bumbling moron…or an uncouth idiot…or any other apt description along those lines. Nevertheless, that did not mean much to Uzumaki Naruto. He toughed it out through sheer determination, but it went to show that he should start thinking before engaging enemies on the battlefield, rather than coming up with a plan in the heat of the moment.
'Well, that trick Sasuke and I used to break Kakashi-sensei free from Zabuza's hold in that water-prison thingy was pretty awesome,' he mentally amended. Somehow, he doubted that he and the dark-haired boy could ever duplicate such flawless and seamless teamwork again.
After a pregnant pause befell the crowd as they marched back home, and just as he felt the urge to utter a few more words, he heard the sound of a woman crying that came from Sasuke's direction.
Sure enough, when the bewhiskered genin turned his sights on the brooding bastard, he saw the crying image, holding her hands to her face as the tears freely fell through the cracks. The dark tresses that fell to the center of her back reminded him of the sheen found in his teammate's hair, too. What felt off-putting to Naruto was the view of an apron over her dress that had been stained red. 'Wait…is that…blood?'
Through the whimpers and the pitiful sniffles, the blond barely pinpointed that the ghost of a woman kept murmuring a single word as she hovered over the self-proclaimed avenger. "Sasuke…"
A single thought danced around Naruto's head as he bore silent witness to the heartbroken woman, feeling the rolling waves of forlorn regret drift from her depressing aura. 'So weird…'
XXXXXXXXXX
The rookie genin cell managed to arrive in Konoha without any other roadblocks. Well, save for the cycle of bickering among the three units, with the children's mentor running damage control as the neutral buffer.
After checking in at the gates for clearance, the assembly of four walked toward the prominent rock busts carved into the mountain that loomed over Konohagakure. Under the four, masculine heads that represented power and prestige among their morale as shinobi stood the odd-looking Hokage residence, a sprawling mansion located near the Ninja Academy, where the Fire Shadow in question resided during his reign. During the time of the founding of the Elemental Nations, Senju Hashirama, the founding ninja who had been christened the mantle of the Hokage, enacted its construction, along with his legendary wood-producing powers to facilitate the process.
The unfortunately lucky team continued their way to see the reigning Sandaime Hokage for their mission debriefing, in addition to delivering their report on the outcome. The strangely silent cell stood around the door leading into the summoning chamber, waiting to be called in. The summoning chamber of the Hokage mansion was where Konoha shinobi filed missives and took on the currently available missions for those who wished to participate. The missions in question were ranked based on urgency and how sensitive the information proved to be. On other occasions, various missions that came in had voluntary labels tacked on them, meaning ninja had the option to accept or decline.
Entrenched in their thoughts, the chūnin helper on duty opened the door, disrupting them all together. "Hokage-sama is now available for you to see him," he automatically said. "You may now come in, Team Seven."
The three preteens and one adult breached the threshold of the western-style door and set their sights on their commanding officer, a wizened old man who had a forty-two-year, nonconsecutive tenure as the Third Fire Shadow. His bleached white hair due to his old age contrasted with the dark tone of his wrinkled face. The ceremonial robes of red and white draped over his calm features, conical hat with the kanji for 'fire' emblazoned on the edge perched atop his thinning hairline. The oldest man in the room commanded an unquestionable authority, further exuded by the gleam in his dark irises. With his elbows resting on the arms of the swivel chair, the senior veteran closed his fingers in a steeple-like fashion, blocking his mouth from view.
"Ah, Team Seven," the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, gruffly intoned, feeling the need to smoke his pipe, "how well did your mission fare?"
"Well," Kakashi decided to act as an interim spokesperson, "for the most part, we succeeded in guarding our client toward his objective. The bridge is now complete."
'For the most part?' Hiruzen pursed his lips. "There's more to this, isn't there?"
The Copy Ninja heard the authoritative tone behind the simple question. 'Time to fess up…' Gathering his information and sorting it through his mind, the jōnin carefully worded the rest of the details and skirted around his blond charge. "Well, yes. You see, the mission was mislabeled, for starters."
"How so, Kakashi?" the Sandaime prodded even further, wanting to get to the heart of the matter.
"We ran into a…complication with regard to protecting the client." The ashen-haired assassin rubbed the back of his scalp. "It was later confirmed that Gatō contracted mid- to high-ranking shinobi under his roster. My worst suspicion had come to pass: the Demon Brothers attacked first, meaning that there were stronger ninja waiting in the wings. Despite the mounting obstacles that loomed ahead, our squad gave the unanimous consensus to press onward, wishing to complete the mission."
Hiruzen's eyes perceptibly narrowed, indicating that he felt not too pleased with how foolhardy that rash act would have carried out into the worst case scenario. "So, you recklessly put three lives—four, including the client—in jeopardy, regardless of the shift in parameters?"
'He's not liking this one bit, at all…' Sakura observed, visibly shrinking from their commanding leader's steadily growing presence.
"After initially thinking that a Kiri hunter-ninja killed Momochi Zabuza, a rogue from the Hidden Mist who showed up next, it turned out that the Demon had an accomplice aiding him. The young boy, Haku, put Zabuza into a false death state while we recovered for a week at the client's abode."
"And why, pray tell, did you not request for backup?" Hiruzen sharply inquired, mouth twisting into a sour frown. "You had well within that week to request for assistance."
"It was…a major oversight on my part, mainly due to the fact that I was rendered immobile in that time due to the overuse of my…special eye," he shakily defended. "I apologize, sir."
The Third Fire Shadow outwardly hummed. "So, what became of Gatō?"
Now, the Copy Ninja hid a smirk behind his facial covering. "Oh, he was personally dealt with. He's taking a dirt nap."
"A stand-up comedian, we have here," he sardonically grumbled, anticipating the nonexistent punch line that never came. "And what of Zabuza and his little helper?"
"The shipping magnate terminated his contract with Zabuza and thought to double-cross him during our fight on the then-unfinished bridge, but…" the jōnin of Team Seven carefully measured his words again, "something unexpected happened, which unknowingly forced Gatō's hand. Zabuza and I teamed up to eliminate the bandits and interrogated the greedy merchant. We managed to get compensated for the difference in the heightened level of difficulty in the parameters of the mission, as per standard protocol…with Gatō's money." He flashed the Hokage a look that assured him that the lack of details provided would be elaborated on when there were…fewer ears present.
"That…will be all, Kakashi," the aged leader hoarsely intoned, already feeling another headache coming. He then looked up from his oak desk. "Do any of your genin have anything to say or add?"
Once Sakura and Sasuke supplied their side of the story, throwing out some scathing and berating remarks about the blond shinobi, who looked like he wanted to find somewhere dark to hide, said blue-eyed genin had his turn to speak in his own defense.
"I'd…rather speak with you alone, Hokage-jijii," he quietly murmured, completely out of his normal character. The tightness around his eyes showed how uncomfortable he was around his other two teammates.
Acquiescing to the boy's request, the Sandaime felt the need to remove the…cancerous agents from the room. "Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura…you are hereby dismissed. That will be all for now. Thank you for serving Konoha." The tone the Third Fire Shadow put into his voice brooked no further arguments.
The raven-haired Uchiha shrugged his shoulders and walked out first, followed by a somewhat stunned, cerise-locked kunoichi lingering behind, like a pesky shadow.
Once the door closed behind them, Sarutobi heaved a very long sigh and looked up at his trusted shinobi. "Your team has…an interesting dynamic, Kakashi."
"Yeah," he wistfully remarked, "they do have that…familiar feeling whenever I see them interact."
"So, Naruto-kun," dark eyes rounded on the bewhiskered kid, "what's this about…a green flame, as noted by your teammate, Sakura?"
The unpredictable noisy ninja gulped. "Well, it all started when I tapped into the bastard fox's power on the bridge against Haku, once Sasuke went down. I thought he was dead, so I just…lost it."
'So, the seal's strength depends on the amount of mental duress Naruto can take until someone pushes his berserk button, in a sense,' Hiruzen reflected. 'To a further extent, the angrier the boy gets, the higher the probability becomes of him drawing on the Kyūbi's power.' The kid had a bit of a temper problem; on that, the Hokage had absolutely little to no doubt. Then again, he indirectly caused the boy to become what he was today, as with most of the ninja population who chose to remain neutral or the civilian population that ostracized him from engaging in societal practices. Despite the Yondaime Hokage's last wishes prior to his untimely death, they were outright discarded; cast aside and clouded in the haze of pain while coping with the loss of loved ones consumed by the stories-tall fox demon set loose.
Either way, his wandering thoughts began to derail his focus. "Do you remember anything else during that period of time?"
"Well…everything felt…so hazy and dim," Naruto tried to explain to the best of his ability. He could not quite put a finger on it. "I saw red. Lots and lots of red."
The sage-like Hokage distractedly rubbed at the thinning hairs that made up his beard. "Hm…"
"Then," the youngest in the room continued, "when I came to, I saw the same person in the woods that woke me up from a training exercise Kakashi-sensei put me through." He decided to hold his tongue on what happened after that.
"What caused you to scream, then?" Sarutobi kindly asked.
'Oh, crud…' He tried his hardest to remain calm, cool and collected when being probed by his grandfather figure, but slowly, he started to flounder before catching himself. "The strain on my body from the fox caused me to shout beyond my control." Until the blue-eyed trickster got a better understanding of what he witnessed and felt ready to come clean, no one was going to find out.
The boy obviously kept something away from him, but, for now, Hiruzen decided not to press him further under the microscope of constant scrutiny. The commoners of the village already did just that, and then some. "So…about that green flame…"
Naruto's cobalt-blue eyes lit up in realization. "Oh, right! I forgot about that."
"No worries, my boy. Continue."
"Okay, so, after using the power of the Kyūbi, I've had this throbbing headache that comes and goes, and before we all got back, I sneezed. My throat felt so raw after this greenish flame blew out my nose and throat. It was kind of weird. Don't ask me how. I don't even know." For emphasis, Naruto's arms flapped like a bird due to his flustered state.
"…I see." The vaunted 'God of Shinobi' thought long and hard, coming up with possible ways for Naruto to get this new power of his under control.
During the small lull of silence, the dull pulse returned to the blond's head again as an image showed up from out of nowhere and started forming an image right by the seated Fire Shadow. Next to Hiruzen floated an old hag with a look of disappointment on her face, in Naruto's estimation of her mood. There was a rather nasty gash that split open the dark-colored robe draping over her body, which he assumed must have been the killing strike to end her life.
The boy shook away the pain, but the elderly woman remained where she hovered—right over Sarutobi's shoulders. 'So…it's official,' he mused in outright defeat. 'I see dead people…'
"I believe that should be it for today, Naruto-kun," the eldest in the room reasoned, feeling that the boy had enough questions thrown his way in one day. "Rest well, and I'll see you later, okay?"
"That's what you always say, Hokage-jii," Naruto complained. "You're too busy running the village."
"This time, my boy, I promise," Hiruzen sincerely declared with a fuller intonation. "Now, run along. I know you got a lot of energy to burn."
With a beaming grin from ear to ear, Naruto wasted no time at all to fly out the door and away from the stifling atmosphere. 'And then, there were two…' His dark-colored eyes refocused on a solitary hazel—the only one left from Team Seven, their jōnin-sensei. "It would appear that the boy has a special ability, but I'm afraid that learning how to control it here is…for lack of a better word, inadequate."
Kakashi did not like where this conversation led. "So, you suggest sending him away? Now, of all times?"
"I don't have any other option, Kakashi," the Sandaime responded in kind. "Spiritual techniques are not part of Konoha's arsenal of mastered techniques. They're not part of our village repertoire."
It was all guesswork, according to the Copy Ninja. "The supernatural, then?"
"My logic does, in fact, lead me to believe that much."
"Well, if you send him away, then I'll be a genin short of a full cell."
Hiruzen's gnarled digits clasped together under his chin again, contemplating his next move. "Continue on like normal, and I'll see if I can find a placeholder for Naruto-kun, for the time being."
"What about the Chūnin Exams, Hokage-sama?" the ashen-haired veteran hazarded.
"What month is it, Kakashi?"
"…April, sir."
"There's plenty of time, young one. Three months, in fact." The Third Fire Shadow displayed one of his kindred smiles. "It'll all depend on your unpredictable ninja that he returns sooner than later. How long he'll be gone, I'm unsure, since it will solely be up to him."
"…Surely, you're going to have an escort for the boy, right?"
A snort escaped the Hokage's weathered lips as he fished around the top drawer for his smoking implement. "What do you take me for, Kakashi? Some old coot who would let all chaos zip through his ninja forces because our most valuable asset leaves on his own, knowing full and well that he might get killed?"
'Well, there was that incident that involved that slime-ball, Mizuki, who ran off at the mouth, regardless of the decree and blabbed it to Naruto, but…' Feeling his bitter retort die before escaping his mouth, the gravity-defying hair fell a bit after Kakashi heard the obvious, chastising sarcasm behind his commanding officer's words. "My…apologies, Hokage-sama. I spoke out of turn." He felt that chiding his superior at that moment would have produced…unbecoming results.
"I know," he brushed off, snickering for good measure. "I merely jest." Then, suddenly, Hiruzen easily slipped back into his professional mode. "Anyway, if I don't find a suitable replacement for Naruto, then I will either shift around the washouts that came close to passing and pick the one with the highest potential to be a genin, or mix around the currently active roster and get the kids to work with other genin, to further promote our teamwork dynamic." He paused for a moment as he took time to light his calabash pipe and puffed a bit of his rich tobacco. "If you see…my son, then tell him I have a request. I need to see him."
The scarecrow ninja could already feel the tension in the room, knowing the history and the estranged relations between father and son. "Yes, sir. I'll find Asuma right away."
"Thank you, Kakashi. You may go." Once the infamously tardy shinobi left his presence, Hiruzen slumped slightly into the groove of his chair, alone in his thoughts, minus the cloaked sentinels that shuffled about in his office. 'So…a flame that doesn't burn, but has the makings for greater power…'
It was a bold and daring action in one fell swoop to send a demon container to the outskirts of the Fire Country…to the hallowed grounds of the Fire Temple, with his son, Sarutobi Asuma, former member of the Shugonin Jūnishi, escorting the boy due to his knowledge on the lay of the land. 'I hope that our sister branch, the ninja monks, knows more about this strange phenomenon than we do…'
XXXXXXXXXX
En route to his apartment, Naruto walked in jittery steps, feeling dread line his innards as a large amount of souls mixed, mingled, or floated among the crowd, completely unaware of their presences. A scant few flickered like lanterns that lit up at night and disappeared without a trace. For some of the wandering spirits, the blond could not even look at them without flinching—severed torsos, missing limbs, twisted necks, and bloody messes flooded his vision.
The moans, groans, sobs and wails pouring forth made the blue-eyed genin's ears and head pound with agony. The sensual overload almost caused the boy to shut down, but he felt the urge to run to somewhere familiar and more comforting, wishing for it all to just…go away!
'I gotta get home!' he thought with a growing panic. His strides started to increase as some of the corporeal onlookers looked at him rather oddly. 'Why me?' Soon, his longer paces developed into a mad dash to where he considered home. 'How come I have to see dead people?'
Trying to maintain focus on the matter, he then took his time to think more on the strange happenings around him.
'This all didn't start until I used that damn fox's power!' Could that have been the issue? Even though Naruto never personally spoke with the Kyūbi, it seemed that now was a good time to demand answers from the reviled tailed-beast of legend. However, there stood one obstacle…
'How the hell do I talk to it, anyway?' He decided to work more on that later as his humble abode came into view. As soon as he entered the one-bedroom unit, a harmonious peace washed over his exhausted form, relishing in the sanctity provided by his home.
'Wait…no sounds on the outside…no spirits floating around…' Naruto sighed in comfort as he slumped along the door leading to the outside. 'What a relief…'
Much to his surprise, the bewhiskered ninja heard humming, and the soothing sound made him lose focus on reality for a few seconds or so. 'Wait…I feel funny…and where's that hum coming from?'
Even when seated, a sense of vertigo overcame him when a golden-yellow image flickered into his line of sight. The figure pranced around his little kitchen area, in the shape of a woman over the stove, appearing to be cooking something. The daydream felt realistic due to the smells wafting from the electric stove.
The humming, Naruto realized, came from the golden-toned figure in his eyesight. A hazy, but sketchy, outline defined her features. The long hair and shapely figure stood out the most in trying to pinpoint it to a near science. The woman's body tensed for a moment and turned to the side at a profile, exposing her really, really large belly.
'Whoa! Did she eat a watermelon whole?' he childishly mused, since no one taught him anything about the…origins of baby-making and procreation.
"Shh," the womanly entity hushed in small whispers. "It's okay, Naruto. Mama's fixing us something special…salt ramen!" The bulge in her stomach restlessly bubbled around. "My, my, you're a feisty one, dattebane!" The unknown female caressed and cooed around her stomach, the cooking meal on the stove somewhat forgotten.
The blond boy jumped from his spot on the floor, thunderstruck, and felt a rising warmth in the pit of his stomach. The heat, however, was accompanied by a cold anxiety that crept along his nerves. 'I had…a mother? Is…was that…me?' He crept closer to the intimate scene, numb to the world once more. 'Why didn't anyone tell me anything about my parents?'
Then again, how come he never asked around, despite the animosity thrown toward him on a daily basis for all of his twelve years of existence? For a boy who had the perseverance of a stone mountain, his foundation started to crumble right then and there.
From the constant disappointment in how his fellow men and women treated him, Naruto hid away and locked all that pain inside him, but now, those feelings of insecurity began to rear their ugly heads and rise to the forefront of his mind. He was always labeled as 'that kid,' 'that child,' 'that Naruto,' or 'that brat.'
The looks, once the blue-eyed boy carefully recalled, and the glares of scorn and hatred…hid away something else, just like his fragile smiles, his false acts of bravado to exude unbreakable confidence, and his penchant for pulling pranks.
His spiraling thoughts broke away like shattered glass when a soft hand touched his shoulder, causing him to squawk and almost jump out of his skin on his way back to reality.
Slowly, with trepidation coating the pits of his stomach, Naruto turned around to find…the golden-tinted woman, who tilted her head to the side, almost as if she gauged his reactions. Like sprinkling dust in the wind, the amber aura dissolved in the air, leaving behind an afterimage in the likeness of a vibrant, wine-red-haired woman wearing a yellow shirt underneath a dark-colored dress that extended all the way down to her ankles. Her big belly was nowhere to be seen, oddly enough.
"Ara?" The older woman blinked. "Naruto, don't you recognize your own mother when you see her?" No response. She then pouted, feigning crying. "I'm hurt!"
Words never spoken did not register on the mind of the young jinchūriki. He opened his mouth, but nothing ever came. He was too shell-shocked by this turn of events. That and, standing before him, was a spiritual image of his presumably deceased mother. His mind blanked out and he ran under the covers of his bed, wishing to any deity above that this was some sick, twisted, and cruel joke. "G-Go away!" Naruto sputtered, shivering under his thin sheets. "I don't know who you are, so, please…just g-go away…and leave me alone!"
A look of remorse crossed the spirit's face for a scant amount of time before her mouth formed into a thin line…and then, into a feral grin. She stomped over to the bed a meter or so from where she stood and did the one thing that ran through her mind…
She poked her son's head, even with the covers draped over his frame, with constant prodding. How she managed to do that and not pass through him was a mystery even beyond her understanding. "I can keep this up all day, Naruto, so you better get that from over your head, right now!" she chirped.
"No!" Naruto squeaked. "Please, leave me alone, I said!"
"I'm going to keep poking you until I see that cute, little face of yours, mister!" She gave the spiky-haired blond a knowing smirk, and even though he did not see it, he sensed the mirth rolling off in waves from the woman with an uncouth style of speech.
Not really considering the fact that an intangible ghost had the capability of actually touching human flesh, the bewhiskered genin threw off the blanket, mouth etched into a frown after relenting. He looked up at the spectral entity that appeared to be tapping a shoe against his hardwood floor. "What do you want?" he groused. "I've already had a crummy day. And who the hell are you? How do you know my name?"
"So…the old man didn't tell you a thing about me, did he?" she asked with concern lining her tone. She averted her gaze from her son to the floor. "You really don't know a thing about your mother—me—, Kushina?"
Tactless as ever…just like her flesh and blood that breathed before her.
"…Kaa-chan?" The very name that flew from his tongue felt foreign, and yet, oddly natural, almost as if he yearned to say it. He soon realized that he started to open up to this strange woman. "I was only told that I was an orphan used to house the demon that attacked the village."
The translucent figure, now known as Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's birthmother, huffed, cheeks puffing out in a comical fashion. "And this is the thanks for me housing their bijū? To be ignored and brushed under the carpet like a speck of dirt? The nerve of them!"
"Wait…" The blond caught something…off…about this entire situation. "Their bijū…?"
'It looks like they really kept him dumb, ignorant and stupid for all this time,' she sourly reflected. "Yes. I was the Kyūbi's previous host for Konoha," the woman pointedly uttered.
"But…why are you telling me this? How come you're here, with me?" Naruto pleaded, trying to make some sense to all this madness. "And…why the hell did you name me after a ramen topping?" That question came out as a means of grabbing at straws, wondering about the answers therein.
The redhead let loose a heavy sigh. "Even I don't have all the answers to our problems, Naruto," she evenly replied, before a joking smile graced her features, "except for your name. That came from a book written by some lecher, and I thought it was a wonderful name." Suddenly, another thought crossed her mind as she owlishly blinked. "Hey, where's that old pervert, anyway? He was your de facto godfather, for gods' sake!"
For some reason, the boy could smell the scent of his mother, almost as if she were real to him. To test out the theory, he reached out to a curious Kushina and touched her arm, completely oblivious to the world around him, in addition to the jumble of words his mother spoke. "I can touch you, but you're a ghost…" He squeezed her limb. "You feel warm, too."
"…" A small idea sprouted in the previous host's head, but for now, it was all guesswork, at best. She wondered more to herself on how come she appeared outside the seal, even though she did not feel any chakra in her essence. "There's something greater going on, and I'll try to get to the bottom of it." A longing gaze emanated from the departed soul's soft visage. "You sure look like your father, Naruto, and you don't know how long I've waited to see you, even after I was taken away from you on the very night you came to this world."
"Wait…" The shortest of Team Seven felt a cold dread rising from the depths of his soul, "…my father?"
Kushina snorted. "To think that I fell in love with someone who I had written off as a flake while growing up…" Without warning, the long-haired apparition guffawed, holding her right hand to her forehead.
Naruto's impatience got the better of him. "Kaa-chan…what do you know about Tō-chan?"
"Well, you have his hair and eyes, so why don't you tell me?" his mother smoothly countered. "The answers you seek aren't always laid out for you. Sometimes, you gotta dig deeper…underneath the underneath…"
That struck a resonating chord, as noted by the gleam in Naruto's sky-blue eyes, but then, the sparkle turned to confusion. "I'm drawing a blank."
"…I guess that it'd be cruel of me to keep dangling it over your head, so I'll go ahead and tell you, anyway, to save you the trouble," the late kunoichi bluntly intoned, not really registering the indignant mutterings of the boy who sat on his bed. "Your father…was the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and the one you aspired to surpass."
For the countless time that day, Uzumaki Naruto, the fabled 'Mouth that Roared,' remained silent, stunned beyond what words could convey and unfeeling to the proverbial exploding tag that detonated around his life. The blond ninja-in-training slumped deeper into his bed, eyes glistening with lachrymal fluid that threatened to fall.
He barely took note of Kushina's warm limbs embracing him in a pining manner, wishing that she could help ease the burden brought upon by the truth denied to him from the very beginning. Strong in mind, the Red-Hot Bloody Habanero closed her eyes as her head rested on her son's mop of sun-kissed locks.
'But, I'm here, now, my son,' she mentally affirmed with a resounding determination, hugging him close to her body on the small bed, 'and I will never leave you again…'
XXXXXXXXXX
Loose dust blew across the barren side-road as Zabuza and Haku walked in silence. Their light footfalls, on the other hand, ground against the shifting grains, disturbing the peace and quiet in the countryside.
The Demon of the Hidden Mist felt the need to scout and investigate the leads that the slime-ball, Gatō, dropped as hints, and so, he followed through on the now-headless wimp's name-listing. Unfortunately, after a few more beheadings at his leisure, the duo came up empty on anything substantial. Now, the two skimmed the outskirts of the Water Country, in search of a purpose.
However, for some time, the short-haired, brunet swordsman had sensed…moving shadows that watched their every move for a while. He kept his demeanor cool and calculating as he ran through the potential enemies that tailed them. '…About six?' he conjectured. ' No…one's a decoy to throw me off.' His eyes sharply shrunk to slits. 'These guys must be the real deal, then. They don't waste movements.'
He decided to initiate first contact by pausing, to which Haku mimicked. "You know," Zabuza grated out, suppressing his resigned tone as his right arm reached for the hilt of his famed blade, "I don't take kindly to little gnats that pester me and keep following me, so why don't you show your faces?"
True to form, the many presences convened around him in a loose circle, all five of them cloaked in ebony mantles with plain, yet intricate, nō-style masks. Each porcelain facial covering had a special design painted on it, from tribal-style, licking flames, to what resembled a soothing stream running through, or to a delicate zephyr blowing across. The only distinction that gave them away were the four squiggly lines around the forehead region.
'As I thought,' the unhinged nuke-nin recognized, 'the tracking ninja squad that eliminates runaways.'
The spokesman for the group—who had the commanding aura of a squad leader—walked up like he meant business. "Momochi Zabuza," he scruffily stated, "in direct violation of the crimes you have committed, we have been assigned to…eliminate you."
"In addition," the ninja who donned a wind-themed mask to his left tacked on, taking a step forward to match his leader's, "we will also confiscate what rightfully belongs to Kirigakure—your Kubikiribōchō."
"So," the Kijin growled out, "you've come to collect, huh?" Taking a measured stance, his dominant hand reached behind him, drawing the behemoth zanbatō from its harness strap. He kept vigilant eyes on the wary group sent out to get him. "On whose orders?"
"We don't owe you any explanations to a traitor," the assigned hanchō retorted in a clipped manner. The swirling current dashed on his mask appeared to have come to life when his face darkened. "Now, hand over your blade, or we will guarantee swift justice upon your head." The mountain-sized threat was evident behind the young man's professional demeanor. "You don't have any other options."
The nameless ninja's eyes narrowed. 'We must not let that auburn-haired harpy's goons make contact to enlist this monster,' he considered, swallowing a bit of his saliva, 'by any means…'
The eyebrow-less wonder, as what that blond-haired brat dubbed him before leaving, looked amused, not really feeling outnumbered or threatened. "By all means, you can have it," he muttered before plunging his large sword into the chest of one of the silent ninja to his immediate right. With one twist and a slight jerk upward after that, the man, whose life had already ended without a single scream for mercy, split in twain from the waist, up, blood gushing like a fountain, "over my dead body…"
The chief hunter-ninja murderously glared at the man who just took out one of his highly trained underlings from behind the hardened porcelain. 'This man shows absolutely no fear, even if he seems to be outmatched.' Clenching his fist, he unsheathed his tantō and pointed at the deranged ninja who needed to be put down like a diseased mutt. "Hurry up and kill him!" he shouted.
With orders in place, one ninja on Zabuza's two o'clock position charged at him when another managed to find his way into their target's blind spot.
Feeling confident in a clear shot, the two seekers fell into a pincer attack to disembowel the Kijin, but the plan failed…due to…
'A mirror made out of ice?' the shinobi in the blind spot hastily thought, only to get checked in the face by a foot from a young boy who seemed to have melted from said reflective surface. He did not feel the pain until a few seconds afterward as he skidded back in the dirt. 'So, Zabuza's little helper is a bloodline wielder from that Yuki clan?' He menacingly snarled. 'I thought they were wiped out!'
"Good job, Haku. You've done well," the Demon of the Hidden Mist dully praised, "but I got it from here…" With a will of thought, the famed Kirigakure no Jutsu bubbled and frothed from his frame, casting the entire area into a very hazy fog.
The last of the Yuki clan had a doe-eyed look etched onto his face, feeling his heart break again. "What?" he softly asked, his voice wavering and seemed to echo in the miasma.
"Watch out for his silent homicide technique!" the head of the hunter-nin corps exclaimed over the conditions of zero-visibility. 'I think it's time I make my move while my men soften him up. He won't know what's coming to him…'
"I want you to get out of here," Zabuza lowly remarked as he quietly found his way over to the boy who he wanted to call son, "and take this with you, too, Haku. I won't be needing it." He all but shoved the titanic Decapitating Carving Knife into the long-haired brunet's feeble grip. "Seal it in your storage scroll, and get your ass out of here…as fast you as you can."
"But…Zabuza-san, I—!"
Feeling a few of his Mizu Bunshin pop, the Kijin cut him off with slit eyes. "I don't want these meatheads soiling my tools."
The younger of the two felt a rising warmth from his core, actually feeling appreciated, but a bit heartbroken that his service with the man who gave him a reason to exist had unofficially come to an end today.
"Now, go. You have more years ahead of you, and you're not dying with me today. Those are your orders." The A-ranked rogue ninja, Momochi Zabuza, the heartless monster born in a human's flesh, had, in fact, cared for his weapons, and he felt that the boy—his son in all but blood—would be in better hands, elsewhere. 'I think I now know who these hunters belong to in their allegiance…' he dourly reflected. 'That bastard's insurgent group…'
Once he felt his boy's petering chakra, all eyes were back on him as they converged on his position. "Looks like I get to go all out." He allowed his words, along with his murderous intent, to leak out and reverberate in the mist. The Kijin of the Mist's Seven Shinobi Swordsman brandished a few kunai from his brace, even though he felt sort of exposed and naked for not having the comforting grip of his legendary sword. "Now, who wants to meet their maker?"
XXXXXXXXXX
A green blur of a human being soared over the canopy, followed by a quartet of masked ninja at his beck and call.
The member of the dashing ninja was a middle-aged man with gelled, blue hair and an eye patch over his right eye, which clearly hid something from view. His special earrings that dangled from his ears jingled as the evening sunlight glinted on his hitai-ate, which displayed a set of four, squiggly lines, as well.
The man's frenetic gaze through the treetops never ceased while his verdant robes angrily fluttered in the wind brushing against him.
"Ao-sama," one of the masked ninja called from behind the gentleman up front, "do you have a visual?"
"Not yet," the man in charge of the ANBU Hunter Squad, Ao, gruffly answered, keeping his cool despite the circumstances. 'Yagura…what the hell did you do to foil Mei-sama's plans?'
Regardless of his violent upbringing in a patriarchic society under the Yondaime Mizukage's banner, Ao felt the need to end the regime of the Bloody Mist, and for that reason, Terumi Mei, the incumbent endorsed to become the next Water Shadow, had assigned him to the task of enlisting help from the current wielders of their special weapons to fight in the cause of putting a stop to the infighting. Unfortunately, for them, countermeasures were enacted before he had a chance to round up his crew to track down Momochi Zabuza, who was speculated to have been near Mizu no Kuni for some time, now. He prayed to the gods that they got to him first, instead of the Sanbi container's group of mindless drones.
Channeling some chakra into his conquest trophy, half of his vision flooded into a panoramic view of black, white, and varying tints of blue and gray. A few meters to the northeast, something caught his attention as disappointment filled his veins. With index and middle fingers pressed together, the hardboiled Ao signaled his crew to the area in question.
As soon as they landed, a somber atmosphere clouded around them.
Around the ring of five, dead shinobi, lay the kneeling body of Momochi Zabuza, eyes half-lidded with all sorts of weapons piercing through his frame. The only thing keeping up his bulky frame was a type of spear that dug into the earth around him.
"By the gods," one of Ao's hunter-ninja uttered, seeing the bloody scene before them, "we were too late…"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: And…another one bites the dust! Stick a fork in it. It's done. Compared to the standard I've currently held for the past three months for The Fox Druid, I…kind of fell short in word count, but I'm trying to keep this story concise and true to form.
At any rate, some notes of acknowledgement are in order to the usual suspects that are my go-to pre-readers for this installment: EliadS, weixuan18, and Arashi the Solar Phoenix.
Now, I'm guessing that you have already seen the change I've made to the title of this fic. Well, I did it for the obvious reason of keeping things clustered, and this merely helps me out with keeping matters sorted on my end. Henceforth, expect the next two parts of this series to be labeled as such, divided into three books:
Forces of Nature Chronicles, Book II: Rolling Thunder and Book III: Raging Hurricane
Other than that, there really isn't much to note, for the moment, and any questions that arise from this chapter will be answered in future updates. Trust me. You will see the links fall into place. Just be patient as I spoon-feed you samples of this new power source.
Well, I could throw in a few questions that may possibly show up.
Q: Will Naruto be overpowered?
A: As I've stated before, and I'll state it again, Naruto, in the stories that I write, will be balanced. I don't write super Naruto fics, and if you came for that, then I'm sorry to disappoint. Move along elsewhere.
Q: What's the link between seeing ghosts and this fire idea that's lurking about, but not really stated outright?
A: …You'll have to find out in future updates. I'm keeping tight-lipped about it.
Q: Pairings, if any?
A: …Kind of on the fence regarding that, since this seems mostly plot-driven. Romance isn't an aspect for this series; it's listed as Supernatural and Adventure, but expect dabbles of other facets in the future. But, I will set the record straight – NO HAREM for this story! Got that?
Next time, Chapter Three: Spirit of Fire, when Naruto travels to the Fire Temple to harness this new ability of his.
Until next time, enjoy your day (or night, depending on your time zone), ladies and gentlemen, and show me some love with a review, while you're down this far on the page. =)
Later!
Kanji/Rōmaji Guide
守護忍十二士 Shugonin Jūnishi: Twelve Gentlemen Guardian Ninja
抜け忍 Nuke-nin: runaway shinobi, rogue ninja, missing ninja, escaped ninja (interchangeable terms); ninja who left their village without the intention of returning, often because they have committed criminal acts or to pursue other personal gains, and the ninja village that they are from will often try to track them down and eliminate them
班長 Hanchō: literally, 'squad leader,' or 'honcho'
短刀 Tantō: literally, 'short sword,' 'dagger,' or 'dirk'
水の国 Mizu no Kuni: Water Country; in English TV, "Land of Water"
三尾 Sanbi: Three-Tails
Jutsu Guide
霧隠れの術Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique): D-rank supplementary ninjutsu; this displacement technique is a specialty of the Ninja from Kirigakure, where one causes a mist to spring forth by lifting up some water, then goes in and out of sight at will from within the pearly-white realm. The mist's thickness is controlled by the amount of chakra kneaded into it (Narutopedia).
