I have to say, I'm enjoying the feedback I'm receiving. Yes, the last chapter was basically just a background/introduction chapter, so it really wasn't going to be all shit n' giggles. On another note,
ScorpinokXV: …I…damn. Thank you for your helpful reviews, and suggestions, which I am mulling over right now. It's a bit of an ego booster, but you're extremely helpful as well, so all props to ya'.
Ronin Kenshin: I wasn't really aiming for Naruto to be portrayed as Jiraiya, but then again, I suppose the Gama Sennin is just like me. Perverted, and awesome! ^-^
Kami no Kage: Meh, as I said-and you pointed out :) - it wasn't really a humorous chapter, I was honestly just trying to get the story rolling along. However, in the end, I really didn't feel like explaining what a Sekirei was, so I was plotting discretely 'Alright, something slightly funny to distract them…' And then bang! A lil' bit of old Uzumaki Naruto came out. Despite the fact that he was being perverted when he proclaimed it…I guess that's where the Jiraiya reference came in. '^_^
Zaralann: Thank you, I try my Russian friend.
Dark Vizard447: I already started writing, but when I read your review, I couldn't help but chuckle. As for why, you can see in the chapter.
As soon as I uploaded the chapter, I read it on my Ipod, and I was like 'Oh shit, there's like two dozen mistakes in this! Edit fucking NOW!' So I'm going to revise it slightly.
On with the story!
Uzumaki Naruto marched through the streets of Tokyo, perverted grin plastered on his face, and his eyes curved upwards showing his questionable joy. In all seriousness, the blonde was ecstatic; he could sense anything he wanted to with a simple transition to sage mode, which meant one thing. He had the upper hand. Nonchalantly putting on his sunglasses, the blonde sat there acting like he was staring at the public news report, while in reality he was gathering nature chakra. After a minute or two, the blonde's eyes snapped open, now they took on a color of yellow, with bar like pupils. The orange and red outline around his eyes was ignored, seeing as he had locked on to every chakra signature in the city. In total, there was over a hundred of them, varying in different sizes and potencies.
However, one made him feel a small drop in his stomach. The singular signature was extremely…bleak. Its level faltered every now and then, not having any will to keep it consistent. He immediately recognized the feeling of the chakra. It was similar to how his felt when he was kid. This feeling…it was everything…helplessness, depression, hollowness, loneliness, and that numb feeling of dread. All of it lead down to one thing: abandonment.
Naruto's lecherous grin slowly faded from his face, as his eyes morphed back to an icy blue color. Turning his head towards the west, the blonde saw some trees peaking over the smaller buildings. With a melancholy expression set on his face, the blonde started walking towards the source of chakra.
Naruto was found walking through a park of some kind, zoned in on the chakra signature. He was close; he could literally feel the depression rolling over the area. After a small curve, he spotted the source of chakra. It was a woman; she had short cut light brown hair, an almost lifeless expression on her beautiful features, and was garbed in a bloody open doctor's coat. She seemed to be injured, which made Naruto feel a slight numbing sensation in his chest. He slowly stepped forward, and asked gently, all past perversions gone, replaced by genuine concern "Hey…are you alright, Ma'am?"
The woman glanced at Naruto, before she whispered in such a broken voice, Naruto couldn't even word it "I'm…just…a useless tool…" Naruto kneeled down next to the bench, and saw a small amount of blood pouring from her right side. He frowned and gave the girl a sympathetic expression, before cooing "Shh…what happened to you?" She continued to hollowly stare at him, until she looked away and murmured "I'm…a broken wing…there's no use for me…" While the expression on Naruto's face was caring, inside, his mind was racing a mile a minute 'What in the hell should I do?'
Mentally screaming in his mind, the blonde sighed and bit his thumb drawing blood. The woman's eyes widened, while Naruto started flashing through a few hand signs. She slowly examined the blonde haired man, before asking in a voice barely above a whisper "What are you doing…?" Naruto kept his gaze in front of him, but answered stubbornly "You're hurt. I'm getting you some medical attention." With a small waft of his hand, a minuscule puff of smoke appeared in front of him, revealing a few different types of medical supplies.
Grabbing a swab, he uncapped a bottle of Hydroperoxide and dipped it inside. Pulling it out, he gently nudged the loose hanging shirt on the woman out of the way. Seeing a deep vertical cut, he warned "This is going to hurt a little bit," Pressing the swab to her wound, he heard her hiss and slightly shake as the hydrogen and oxygen solution seeped into the deep slash. After a moment, he removed the swab from her wound, and tossed it to the side. Taking out a large medical bandage, he pressed it to her wound, and started wrapping her stomach with medical tape took keep the pressure constant.
With a small hand gesture, the medical materials were gone in more puffs of smoke, while the blonde closed the flap of her shirt. He asked while buttoning her shirt "You're a Sekirei, correct?" The woman didn't answer him, but he did feel a weight press against his shoulder. He glanced over to his right shoulder without moving his head, and saw the woman had fallen asleep, her breathing was slightly hitched, while her face was beat red. Slowly, Naruto picked the woman up bridal style, and looked down at her face. On her forehead, there was an odd looking tattoo, with a bird, four comas like symbols, and the yin-yang representation below it.
Shrugging the woman tighter into his grasp, the blonde started walking towards his current place of residence. On his way back, he noticed it was about midday, but the odd thing was there was no noise whatsoever. Putting his guard up, Naruto started walking at a brisker pace, his eyes darting around the empty streets. Once he made it back to Miya's home, he quickly opened the door with his feet, and immediately went up the stairs. Finding his door easily, the blonde slid it open with his foot, and stepped inside. Using his foot in the same manner, he closed the door, and placed the woman down on his futon.
Naruto sat down cross-legged, and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly 'Why did I bring her back to my room again? I should've just dropped her off at the hosp…' His inner thoughts were cut off as he saw the short haired woman staring at him lifelessly again. Biting back a sigh, the lone Uzumaki asked neutrally "Are you alright?" The woman just continued to stare at him for a few minutes, before she finally asked "Why did you help me?" Blinking and tilting his head at the question, almost as if it was foreign to him, the blonde parroted "Why did I help you?" She just kept her hollow gaze on his eyes, while he stared back. After a moment, the blonde answered while taking his glasses off "Why wouldn't I? You were injured, and I couldn't leave a beautiful young lady like yourself out there alone, now could I?"
The woman's eyes widened substantially, as if she was told the meaning of life, and started blushing madly. Fighting back the urge to laugh at the adorable expression the woman was making, the blonde grinned foxily and introduced himself "Names' Uzumaki Naruto, what's your's Ma'am?" The woman paused, before speaking "Akitsu…" Naruto smiled and inquired "So you're a Sekirei, right?" Again, her eyes widened, as she slowly nodded, while murmuring "I'm…a broken Sekirei…I cannot be winged…by my Ashikabi-sama."
Frowning at the statement, Naruto had to ask "Why is that?" Somberly gesturing to her forehead, she explained "My Sekirei crest is located on my forehead…this means, I'm unable to be winged…I am a broken Sekirei." To Akitsu's surprise-and slight discomfort-Naruto leaned up to her face, and started examining her forehead. After a moment, the blonde pounded a fist into his open hand, and exclaimed in understanding "Ah, I get it! That's a suppression seal, and here I thought they didn't have those in this world."
Before Akitsu could inquire what Naruto meant about 'this world', he bit his thumb, and made a spiral on her forehead in his…blood? With the tiger seal, Naruto commanded "Kai." The Sekirei crest glowed hot orange, before fading away. Akitsu was in total shock. She could feel it…her crest…it was gone. But there was also another feeling stirring inside of her. It felt warm, if not hot, and it was causing her to get uneasy.
Naruto clapped his hands together accomplishedly, and mumbled to himself "I guess Ero-Sennin was right on about me needed to know a little bit of Fūinjutsu." Naruto was about to continue rambling, before he noticed Akitsu leaning forward towards him, her breathing was heavy, and a little bit of sweat trickled down her flushed face. As Naruto opened his mouth to speak, she pressed her lips against his, while whispering "Ashikabi-sama…"
With a flare of light blue, various wing like tendrils of chakra shot out behind her, while Naruto started to return the kiss. After a moment, the kiss softened, and chakra wings receded into the red Sekirei crest that appeared on the back of her neck. When Akitsu pulled back, Naruto gawked at her, before whispering "Wait, does…that mean…I'm…your…Ashikabi?" Akitsu shyly nodded, blush prominent on her near expressionless face.
All was silent for a moment, until Naruto sprung up grabbing Akitsu into a bear hug, and started spinning around exclaiming childishly "YATTA!" After a few moments of exuberant yelling, Naruto stopped spinning and jumping around, and looked down at the dizzy woman in his arms. Sweat dropping, he steadied Akitsu, while she slurred something incoherently.
Sitting their selves back down, Akitsu fell forward into Naruto's shoulder, and with a cute noise she left the conscious realm. Allowing his sweat drop to grow a few sizes, Naruto noticed the white medical tape bleeding into red. Scratching the back of his head nervously, the blonde chuckled "Note to self. Don't do that again…ever."
Two hours later-
After Naruto finished stitching Akitsu up; she was dead asleep on his futon, with a content expression set on her sleeping features. Taking in a long breath, Naruto stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Yawning, the blonde noted it was dinner time. With a careless shrug, he walked out of his room-closing the door-and continued his way down the stairs. Entering the dining area, the blonde noticed it was only Uzume and Miya sitting down at the table. Deciding it was not important; the Uzumaki took a seat, and murmured a low prayer, before he started eating.
After a few moments of silence, Miya stated with a tone of curiosity "So, Uzumaki-san…there was a girl with you earlier today." Uzume cocked an eyebrow, while Naruto chuckled with some mirth bleeding through his tone "I love Japan." Both women gave the blonde deadpanned expressions, while he looked off into space, shit eating grin in place.
After a moment, Naruto collected himself, and asked "Hm, where's Minato and Musubi? I'm sure he would be back by now…" Seeing as the woman obviously didn't know, Naruto further inquired "And what about that…Kagari fellow, or is he still working?" Miya answered nonchalantly "Kagari-kun works as a host, so he won't be back for a little while." It took about two seconds to comprehend what the woman told him, before he shook his head and continued eating.
After a relatively quiet dinner, the present residents of the house heard footfalls at coming from the door. Everyone turned their attention towards the doorway, to see Minato carrying a small blonde haired girl on his back, while Musubi followed in tow, almost completely naked, only sporting Minato's jacket. A few drips were heard, and all the females and Minato turned their attention to Naruto, who had a steady stream of blood flowing from his nose.
As if opening his mouth to speak, Naruto made an odd noise, before calmly walking towards the doorway…just to nod approvingly at Minato.
The next morning-
Naruto awoke with a weight and warmth cuddled into his chest. He glanced down to see it was Akitsu lightly snoring into his white t-shirt. Not really having a problem with it, he merely closed his eyes again. After about thirty seconds of silence, he heard "Ashikabi-sama?" Not bothering to open his eyes, the Uzumaki answered "Yes, Akitsu-chan?" After another small pause, the Sekirei asked "…Don't humans work for an income?" Naruto hummed in acknowledgement, until Akitsu continued "…Then why aren't you working?"
Naruto's eye twitched, before he grunted "Because Akitsu-chan, you're currently on top of me, and I don't feel like making myself look like an asshole this early in the morning... That's what the afternoon is for." Slowly getting off her newly instated Ashikabi, Akitsu watched as Naruto sat up, and rubbed his eyes. After a moment, the blonde yawned and glanced at the Sekirei. She was still covered in blood, and in that doctor's coat. Frowning, he stated "You need to get cleaned up." After this was said, the little amount of emotion that started growing on the stoic Sekirei disappeared.
They both stared at each other blankly for about two minutes, until Akitsu's head dropped down, depression rolling off her. Naruto stared at her for another moment, before he stated bluntly "I meant a shower, Akitsu-chan."
Naruto and Akitsu-who was now wearing Naruto's baggy clothes and clean of blood-walked into the dining area, to see everyone already sitting down. As they spared the couple some glances, Naruto stayed at the doorway, and spoke curtly "Alright, to be frank, it's pretty obvious she's a Sekirei, and I need to go…discuss my occupation, so treat her well, Ja ne." Faster than anyone could oppose, Naruto was out the door, leaving Akitsu to stare blankly at them.
All was silent for a moment, until the little girl that everyone called 'Ku-chan', ran away scared of the stoic Sekirei.
…
Naruto sighed as he was digging into the ground again. The contractor was an asshole, period. And the fact that Naruto cussed him out in both Japanese and English didn't help his case. So currently he had to make up a day and a half's workload, even though he did more than everyone else did that day in four hours. He absently noticed Minato started working, but honestly didn't care. The lone Uzumaki was too busy plotting how to kill the contractor, yet make it look like an accident.
Later that night-
Naruto and Minato walked home, both tired and exhausted, even though Naruto had more reason to be. Turns out, when Naruto is just plain pissed off, he can accomplish a lot in a little amount of time. Such as, I don't know, say six days' worth of physical labor in ten hours. Minato exasperated "How could you do that much work in one day?" The blonde haired male only grunted in response. Once they walked into their building of residence, they were greeted by the sight of Seo eating dinner with Miya, Musubi, and Akitsu. Naruto continued walking, but mumbled "Miya-san, Musubi-san, Akitsu-chan…sup' Seo."
With that said, the blonde trudged up the stairs. Once he left, Miya asked "Oh my, why is he so tired?" Minato chuckled nervously, and replied "Well…he kind of did about a weeks' worth of labor in about one workday." A large sweat drop was shared around the room.
Once Naruto got upstairs, he noticed something odd. Shrouded in shadows, he could see round glasses reflecting some light…almost as if it was leering at him for noticing it. Staring blankly at the glasses, the blonde stated rather blandly "Pardon me, but you've obviously mistaken me for someone who gives a shit." Naruto walked into his room, slamming the door shut, and landed face first into his futon, letting sleep claim him.
The next morning-
Anyone at the table could see there was some obvious tension coming Naruto, who was glaring daggers at Minato. The brown haired male nervously tried to explain "U-Uzumaki-san…Ku-chan said she saw someone, I can't help it that she went to you first…" Naruto's eye twitched, then he growled "Two o' clock in the fucking morning, Minato. I had four hours of sleep, before your child of a Sekirei came in and woke me up." After he finished his final sentence, a large rock slammed into his head, while Miya chimed pleasantly "Oh, my hand slipped. You shouldn't curse in front of children, Uzumaki-san."
Picking himself up from the floor, Naruto looked from the smiling Miya-who had a deadly looking visage behind her-to the large forty pound rock-which had some of his blood on it-a few times. Not really being able to hide his curiosity, the blonde asked "Where did you get that rock?" He wasn't given an answer, seeing as the visage increased in size. To everyone's surprise, Naruto didn't seem the slightest bit affected by the looming atmosphere Miya was producing. With a rude yawn, the blonde got up and indicated lazily "I'm going to work out,"
Without any further explanation, the scar faced man walked out of the room and out towards the yard. Once outside, he settled into an offensive staggered stance. Closing his eyes, Naruto breathed in deeply, before he started shadow boxing. Bopping and weaving for about fifteen seconds, he shot in on the fake opponent with a standard wrestling sweep single. Pivoting on his knee, he stood back up and started going through multiple Muay Thai techniques, from knees to elbows, as if he was locked up in a clinch. Transitioning back to shadow boxing, the blonde repeated the cycle, adding in new moves to each set, for about fifteen minutes. As he began to sweat heavily, Naruto dropped to the ground and started cranking out pushups, after completing twenty five; he switched to his back, and started doing crunches. After finishing that set, he sprung to his feet, panting deeply, he slowly hopped side to side, giving his body a thirty second cool down, before he started the workout over again.
After about two hours of intense conditioning, he finally sat down under the tree, and started to catch his breath, panting heavily. Looking down at his sweat drenched clothes; he huffed and mumbled between pants "If…there's one thing…these people…know how…to do…its…train…" Whipping the sweat the found its way into his eyes away, Naruto stared up at the blue sky.
Observing the clouds for a few minutes, he snorted "Hmph, I'm acting like Shikamaru now…" Suppressing the urge to start reminiscing, the Konoha Shinobi stood up, and slowly took off his shirt, which felt-and was-four pounds heavier. When the shirt was removed, all that was left on his chest was plain black tank top. He threw the soaked shirt over his shoulder, and walked towards the house. As he entered, he heard the sounds of Musubi and Ku-chan cooking, while Minato talked to them. Shrugging indifferently, Naruto threw his soaked shirt into the laundry basket, and went into the bathhouse.
Stripping, he grabbed a towel, and started heating the water. While the heater was kicking in, the blonde started to wash himself before entering, as per condition of using the bath. After a few minutes, he deemed the water a comfortable temperature, and sat in. Moaning slightly, he let the hot water soothe his overused muscles, eventually melting all of his concerns away. While he was in his own little wonderland, he didn't notice the bathhouse door open. Only when he felt a disturbance in the water, did he notice he had extra company in the bath.
Cracking one eye open lazily, he absently noted it was Akitsu-who was nude mind you-sitting on the opposite end of the bath. Closing his eyes again, the blonde went back to relaxing. It took about fourteen seconds, for the blonde to realize what actually just happened. One could tell, due to the fact a small stream of blood made its way out of his right nostril. Sighing, Naruto whipped his nose, and asked with his eyes closed "Akitsu-chan…care to explain why you're in here?" Akitsu replied in her drone like tone "To wash your back, Ashikabi-sama."
Allowing another sigh to come out, he gestured with his hand and groaned "Come here." Akitsu did as he asked, but was slightly surprised, as Naruto grabbed her by the waist, and tucked her into his shoulder. Leaning back even more, the blonde hummed in contentment. Akitsu merely snuggled in closer to his chest, and examined his scars on his abdomen. After a few moments of silence, Akitsu asked "Ashikabi-sama? How did you get all of these scars?" Naruto unconsciously started rubbing Akitsu's arm, while he answered "Battles… accidents …stupidity …ignorance or arrogance… too many to explain…"
Akitsu further inquired "Battles?" Letting an amused smile form on his relaxed face, as he started to speak "Well…once a many years ago…I used to be a solider of sorts…I guess I should start from the beginning…"
After giving Akitsu a very watered down version of his past, which concealed the fact he was ninja from a different dimension, they finally got out of the bath, bringing their total time in it to about four hours. Giving Akitsu some time to conceal herself, he wrapped the towel around his waist, and threw his dirty clothes into the laundry basket. Yawning, he slung an arm over Akitsu, who again was only wearing a baggy T-shirt, and drawled "Odd…I'm not even hungry." Akitsu simply walked with him upstairs, until they got into their room, and her Ashikabi asked "Akitsu-chan…why aren't you wearing panties?"
Throwing the blonde an embarrassed glare, she mumbled "I…forgot…" Naruto merely shrugged, and walked over to the closet. Sliding the door behind him, he threw on a pair of boxers, and reopened the door. Akitsu was staring at him again in her own awkwardly cute fashion, which made him chuckle. Plopping down into the futon, he got comfortable, while Akitsu fixed her body into his. Throwing the covers over them, Naruto closed his eyes, and thought with a smile 'Despite getting my head bashed with a rock, today turned out to be a good day…'
Can't sleep…probably shouldn't have taken a six hour nap… '^.^
Oh, well. I hope you guys like the chapter, since Naruto opened up a lot more, showing more of his personality. Before anyone asks, the whole Akitsu deal, with him being comfortable with her so quickly, is basically the huge ass plot hole in Sekirei. Despite only knowing each other for two days, they can cuddle abnormally contently, Ex. Minato and Musubi. On a little note, I'm positive there is going to be some literary mistakes, due to fact...well I kind of got lazy editing...and grammar was never my strong suite...I think.
Word count is at 3,900 and should be over 4,000 when I'm done with this Authors note, but that's where I like my chapter length, right at that 4-5,000 mark. What I have been trying to do though, is make each chapter advance one episode in the anime, since Magna is too undistributed to do that with. I don't really see how much farther I can stretch it out, seeing as the only other thing to happen in this episode is Matsu general attempt on raping Minato…sooooo…ya know…JA-NE! *Quick use of Shunshin no jutsu to escape*
Chapter start- …sometime Sunday afternoon (?)
Chapter end- 4/24/12 3:31 a.m.
Total time dedicated into the chapter-…eh give or take five to six hours.
