To Free the Bijū Ch. 4

This story is based on the Fanfiction story 'God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm' by Thanathos. If you wish to read his story, I recommend it, stop by his page and read it. He has already given me permission as long as I give him his much needed credit. I'm grateful to him for giving me a chance. Well, I by no means am forgetting my other story 'The Jinchūriki of Ten-Tails, but I recently saw the last movie and with another idea I had in my mind I proposed myself to invent this story. (Except for the parts that are Thanatos')

Reviews:

- Aetemus, the Kyūbi knew the signal it could launch would gather the youki from the surrounding area, it didn't do it because after it touched its master it dissipated, and return to the underground. the reason why was that it only recognized that its master was there, it couldn't have known that Kyūbi needed it. Once Kyūbi realized where they were, he sought out the highest form of concentration possible, coincidently it was in the underground lab. Naruto does the experiment and as he is dying Kyūbi know has the ability to send its signal via the wounds (remember the youki was injected into Naruto, his seal isn't made to move the chakra around and outside his body) so he sends the signal via the wound, the remaining chakra comes, helps out and Kyūbi infuses it to his own. part of the reason stated was that since it was alone for so long, its predetermined 'mission' ('self-preservation until reuniting with the main-body is possible) wasn't done because technically Kyūbi didn't have his chakra, therefore he was 'hollow' of the main body. Once the youki entered the system Kyūbi could control it and set out to save Naruto and give him a different genetic make-up.

- Mystolon, You have to understand that this is from Naruto's point of view as well as his parents that have Tsunami in such high regards. While it is true that Naruto has higher chakra levels than Kakashi, he does not have the control. you must have noticed. Naruto doesn't learn jack shit in the anime of jutsu. Jiraiya was supposed to train him to become able to defeat Akatsuki... he didn't give him a wider repertoire of jutsu, he didn't give him a fighting style, and his chakra control was the same as always. Naruto can only do his wide range of Rasengan attacks, the shadow clone and transformation. Heck I've never seen him do the body flicker jutsu. That's the anime. Here tsunami has her parents to learn to do different jutsu, high caliber ones in fact, and her chakra control is the same as anime Naruto. He has a lower number of tries with jutsu because they trained more his sister than him, therefore she is 'better' than him. And do go dissing on Genjutsu! You'll see what I have in mind.

-star445 ( It kinda sucks that Naruto is only using taijutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu because he cannot use ninjutsu in a battle against an strong opponent and genjutsu won't work that well.) () You know People really have a one track mind if they think that for a second. I mean no offense, but did you read what you just wrote? (It kinda sucks that Naruto is only using taijutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu because he cannot use Ninjutsu…. Dude or dudette what the fuck! There are plenty of people in the anime/manga that don't use Ninjutsu and kick ass. The Hyūga's, Lee, Tenten, Maito Gai, Tsunade ( her strength is an explosion of chakra, no Ninjutsu) Gaara used only his sand. Kankurō his puppets, the samurai, and so on. Now, read your comment again. Read mine. Enough said. Second if people think I'm gonna make Naruto weak ass because he didn't show enough Genjutsu or abilities then they haven't understand the intro. Those three chapters are his reason for being how he is. You saw, you read. A lot of negligence, mistakes, errors and resentment and he left. I won't have him return or try to help Konoha. He doesn't have precious people there, or a reason to do so. I told you in the beginning, he will be a dark Naruto, like Menma from Bonds of Shinobi. Which coincidently made me write this story… there I vented. Sorry if some people don't like it. There are other good stories out there that might interest you because this one doesn't go how you wished. Nothing goes how you wish. That's life. Now I really hope this is my last vent for some time. At least for 10-15 more chapters. I will see this true to the end, whether people like it or not.

So, onwards with the show.

"Hi" means talking

'Hi' means thinking

Hi means demonic/out worldly voices or thoughts

HI means jutsu

(HI) means jutsu translation

Disclaimer: That's what I get for reading the commentaries before writing.


"If one is desperate for love, I suggest looking at one's friends and family and see if love is all around. If not, get a new set of friends, a new family." -Jasmine Guy


As much as Naruto wanted to leave immediately, he found that a short wait was necessary. He needed materials: food, clothes, seals, ink, kunai, scrolls, his painting set, …and heirlooms, as much as he hate to admit it, his par- the Namikaze and Uzumaki had some valuable artifacts. Oh he wouldn't take the important stuff, the one they would notice immediately, no he would take the older ones. The ones that marked an Uzumaki.

Kushina had told him at one time, when she actually noticed him, that his great-grandfather had a spectacular sword. Not a sentient sword. Not one with a special ability. No this sword had gone through thick and thin with his great-grandfather. Supposedly the sword was considered one of the first forged by the son of and Uzumaki and a blacksmith from the Land of Iron. The man took double the time to finish it, because for some reason the material was harder to define than most. It helped him against opponents many times stronger than him, it was said that with each battle he became exponentially stronger, as did his chakra for reasons yet unknown. With his age, that could only come from an Uzumaki, he had fought against the destruction of Uzushiogakure and when he noticed what would be the conclusion he gave it to Kushina as she left. She never touched it, saying that such memento wasn't yet a force she thought to be worthy of handling.

With it, he would also take Jutsu scrolls that Kushina usually left around. She would take time between missions to read and reread the scrolls to compare how she used them and what could be gain if she did so in a different way. Her notes and scribbles all around the parchment. Sadly Minato did not have a scroll for the Rasengan. Supposedly, it was best practiced and shown to whomever it would be taught and the practices to do so. Minato had shown Tsunami the Rasengan but her control at the moment was fairly weak and told her to wait until a few weeks. Ironically had they listen to him, she would have done so in record time.

Moreover, something was wrong with his Genjutsu. His control was slightly off, meaning that he would have to go to the pond in the back of the garden and spend almost at least two hours to regain his abilities of water-walking, but his Genjutsu was odd in a new way. It wasn't that he was unable to cast them, quite the opposite. The problem was that he couldn't really control them anymore. He could no longer calculate if a Mekura lasted five minutes or two weeks, if it did disappear.

It felt as if all the requirements he had worked with, how much chakra is needed to make it last, how to dose it, had suddenly changed. To use a simple comparison, he had all the right ingredients, but the concentrations were all wrong, resulting in screwed up cooking.

'Oi! Kyūbi! What the heck happened to me?'

'What could you possibly mean Human?'he asked with a sneer.

'My chakra, my Genjutsu, my control! It's changed!'

'Oh, that!'he said as if he remember something unimportant. 'It's part of the procedure I did to you in that underground lab. It's nothing much really.'

'What did you do?!'

'Relax Human, first off it should be simple for you, and they are all connected to me. I told you earlier on that I was syphoning your chakra. Now that I have my own, your own reserves are back to how they should be. In fact, because I continued to strain them you might have 1.5 or almost double of what you a week ago had, now that I'm not using them. You should be glad Human; with this, you have more chakra for more jutsu and more abilities. Besides with that there were a few changes… that you might find useful…'

'Kyūbi!' His face was matching his hair in anger.

'Bah, as if you scare me Human. Remember our deal. Now look at your arms, preferably at your biceps.'

Naruto was not finishing the conversation that way, Kyūbi would get scolding later own. He looked at his arms and took off his shirt. To say he was surprised was an understatement. To say he was shock was even more. He was simply stupefied. "What the heck?" there in his arms, he could see it. He could flex it. It was his, it was the only explanation. His biceps, all the way from his proximal biceps tendon in his shoulders all the way down to distal biceps tendon, the muscle mass had grown. Contrasting both his forearms and finger, it was like having the handle of a machete and eating knives at his fingers. They looked huge, not part of his kid body. 'What the heck?!' he could picture the Kyūbi having an amused grin on his face. 'What is this?'

'That! Is my chakra.'

'W-What?'

The Kyūbi sighed. 'Pitiful Human and you call yourself intelligent.' Naruto almost shouted 'Hey!' before remembering where he was. 'Until you can attain a level of prowess in Fūinjutsu and change the seal, the only place I could store my chakra for easy access was your biceps. With no chakra running through it when you were injured, and I can't store it in me, as the seal doesn't let me, I had to place it there so I could use it or sustain myself without worries. Luckily, for you, because your sister had pumped so much chakra into you before, you were able to place it there without problems. That isn't to say, that you can use it whenever you wish, it will only respond to me and my desires. The commands I gave it are my own and you do not need to learn them, except for a fact.'

Naruto had visibly cooled off by now. 'What is it?'

'Nothing that will hurt you or endanger me. One order I gave was that when you used those Genjutsu of yours, a little speck, something miniscule to me, you won't feel it and I won't lose sleep over it, will pass over to your chakra coils and enhance said illusions. Add that to the fact that you are no longer just an Uzumaki-Namikaze and your set.' He yawned at the end.

'Oh when you put it that way I- WAIT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AIN'T AN UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE ANYMORE?'

'Oh yeah, I changed your genetic make-up. That stuff you rubbed on yourself was DNA from the Kurama clan. Think of it like this. Your mother got pregnant with not just your fathers semen, but with a man from the Kurama clan as well. Or that you have some Kurama blood on you now.'

'Kyūbi-baka, don't say that kind of stuff! I'm still a child!'

'The Kyūbi huffed.'Whatever'And it went back to sleep.


While this would not do, it had good unintended side effects. As mentioned, the Genjutsu were a lot more potent than before as shown when he placed one on a group of Hyūgas that made them believe they were seeing every shade of pink and it took them four tries to break it. It cost less, now that he had more chakra, but with his quick control training that morning, he had it back.

"If I focus on Mekura and other subtle ones, leaving them with a SHADOW CLONE, I should get them under control by evening, and be out of here by sunrise. I can test the others later, there's always a bandit somewhere." Naruto told himself.

And so he did.


He finally had it all, for some reason he didn't know the Shinobi were in an uproar and highly disorganized. He wanted to go one last time to the library to copy a few Genjutsu that were original to Konoha, but with such disarray, he actually got into the Forbidden Section. The one that only Elite Chūnin with the capabilities, Jōnin, ANBU, and everyone else with a certain level of clearance could only get to. He actually found a few Jutsu that were made by the Nidaime Hokage, and were high level ones at that. Maybe he could take them? 'It's only their fault that they didn't guard this place well.' He thought. Using a sealing scroll he took them all and when back to his house, well tomorrow he wouldn't be able to call it that. A few Mekura here and there and he returned to his room without problems.


He had everything he needed, as his family was asleep and under Mekura that should last until tomorrow afternoon, so there was no problem on that front. The gates of Konoha would be closed, but Naruto had found out that in an hour, a shipment of goods would leave Konoha, meaning that he had a window of opportunity for his escape. All that kept him here, second thoughts were surprisingly not it, was the question if he should leave a message.

He didn't want to write a letter in which he expressed his anger, as that would only make the whole thing look like the thoughtless action of an upset child, and destroy the significance and meaning of his decision to leave. However, he didn't want to leave nothing behind and be considered kidnapped, as that would not only put anyone he would meet at risk of being accused of kidnapping, but it would make him look weak, not to mention that if he didn't leave a message, nobody would even consider that he left of his own will.

He needed something to deliver a message. It needed to be clear, short, stylish, and most of all, obvious. The best message was useless if nobody noticed it.

An idea sparked in his mind. The place where he learned of his, now not, parents lies. Where he learned first-hand how the world truly worked for those that were given attention and emphasis. A few seals would do the trick. He might have never done many pranks, but let it be known that Naruto had the works of a prankster as was in his blood.


Leaving had proven easier than Naruto had originally feared. A quick Mekura to the guards who were arguing with a merchant about something, probably taxes, a little bit of sneaking, crawling under the cart to get through the barely-opened gates, and then carefully sneaking away.

Of course, he couldn't have known that the reason it was so easy was that in his training to relearn his Genjutsu, some of his guinea-pigs just so happened to be the squad that was responsible for watching over the barrier that evening.

After a while, Naruto paused. It was odd. Now that he was so far away from Konoha that it could no longer be seen through the trees, he felt different. A bit of regret was there, but not much. What had truly changed was that for the first time ever, Naruto felt free.

Here, away from the civilization that he had known and detested most of his life, away from their looks, their expectations, their pity, from those that looked down on him, never seeing just who he was and what he could do, Naruto felt his heart soar. Freedom, sweet, sweet freedom. He understood why people were willing to fight and die for this feeling.

Still, now was not the time to get lost in thought. Mekura would wear off tomorrow, and in three days with the correct conditions, his parents should receive his message, and then send out forces. In a way, it was a last test for his parents. Mekura would wear off tomorrow afternoon, and the day after, it would rain in the evening. If they hadn't sent out anyone by then, it would be impossible to find him.

Also, in four days of civilian pace, he would reach his destination. He had the improved Henge up, to ensure that nobody that wasn't looking for him would find him by coincidence, just in case some Shinobi returned to Konoha using his route. Where he was going?

Well, Suna was an allied nation, meaning that this would be one of the places he would avoid in the near future. Maybe after things settled down a bit, but not yet.

Small nations like Taki and Kusa were on his list, but they too were allied with Konoha and would keep an eye out for him the first few months. Ame probably wouldn't care about Konoha, but Naruto had no intention of celebrating his freedom by walking into a dictatorship.

Kumo and Kiri were just too far away, he'd be caught on the road if Konoha checked.

Iwa was good, as who would expect the son of the Yondaime to travel there of all places, but if he could come up with the idea of hiding in a territory where one didn't initially look for him, then so could the Nara. Somebody would check the vicinity of Iwa, if only to make sure that he hadn't hidden behind the border to wait for them to give up.

And while there were many other countries that had much more usefulness for him, right now he wanted a place that had the peace he needed to continue his studies on Kyūbi's seal, had an area where he could train his Suiton Jutsu without problems, and had little-to-no reliance with Shinobi.

Kyūbi as if reading his mind questioned. 'Is there really such a place?'

'Of course, Kyūbi-sama.' This one was part of their deal. Naruto agreed without a care. He didn't care what he called him, he just did to humor and appease the damn ego the furball had. 'Remember one of the most important things one looks for in his travels is: Locations, locations, locations.'

'Really that place is your 'location' to answer your pleas?' *huff* 'You better know what you are doing.'


The sudden disappearance of the Youki that had plagued Konoha for years, reminding them of what they had lost, had caused a panic. Everyone knew by now that youki didn't just vanish, so if it was gone, that could not be good. Was it just hiding, waiting until a large number of people were in its grasp before returning and killing them all? Had it wandered to different sectors of Konoha, where nobody was expecting it, in search of more prey?

As Hokage, it was Minato's duty to ease the worries of his people, and so from council-meetings over public speeches to personally joining the search-teams and equipping them with reverse-summon seals that they could use should they be attacked by the Youki, or simply trapped under debris of crumbling buildings. The Youki had weakened all structures and foundations, so collapses and, in the sewers, cave-ins where nothing unusual.

Kushina wanted to show her support of her husband and joined the search-squads, of course equipped with one of Minato's seals. She was the first that entered a building, after it had been declared structurally safe enough to enter, and was the first to enter the sewers, knowing that nothing was flowing through them, as that section of the sewers had been walled off to prevent the youki from moving that way.

They had parked Tsunami with the Yamanaka, to make sure she stayed out of trouble and wasn't lonely. Sadly, when they departed, both had still been under Naruto's Mekura, which told them to ignore anything about Naruto, including his absence. By the time it wore off, both had too much work and pressure on them to spare either of their children a thought.

Almost a week would pass before the Namikaze-family would rejoin at their home. By then, it was too late.


Naruto looked up at the sky. The first drops had fallen a while ago, and now heaven had opened all floodgates. Naruto stood there, letting the rain wash over him, washing away the last connection to his family.

Naruto sighed and turned around. It was done. The last bridge was burned, the last chance given and wasted. He was officially alone, an orphan with no family.

Without looking back even once, he continued on his path, wherever it may lead him. His destination was still half a day's journey away, and he needed someone to let him in, not that it would be too hard, seeing that he was quickly getting used to the new concentrations of chakra needed for his Genjutsu. Naruto walked.


A week had passed, and the Namikaze-family could finally reunite. Tsunami had stayed with different clans throughout the week and hadn't set foot in the house since then. Kushina and Minato only went to and from their bed and back to work. Neither passed the conditions to activate Naruto's seal. That is until today.

The entire village had been searched, every sensor had been on duty 24/7, and Konoha could finally be labeled safe. Not only that, but now they were finally able to make use of those sectors of the village that had been unusable in the past. All in all, Konoha had gained more ground on which it could build, helping the village hidden in the leaves to flourish even more.

Kushina was home first, and immediately started preparing a meal for the family, namely a huge pot of ramen.

Minato came next, completely exhausted from getting perhaps twelve hours of sleep during the entire week.

Finally, Tsunami was brought back from the Akimichi by a random member of the clan, who left after making sure that the girl had actually gone through the door of the compound.

Initially neither parent was too worried with Naruto, knowing that the boy usually had some watchers, and even in the cases where he gave them the slip for a while, he didn't really do anything worrying, mostly just reading, meditating near a pond, and/or watching Shinobi train. Still, when Kushina entered the kitchen seeing only two people sitting there, she frowned. She knew that Naruto regularly skipped lunch, but she felt that this day, they should all be together.

"Does either of you know where Naruto is?" She asked.

"Out?" Tsunami guessed, not really caring. The smell of ramen was much more important over her stupid brother, after all. Not to mention that she had played with her friends until late in the evening, and was woken up very early, only to play more. She was tired.

But now Minato frowned. "Kushina, do you remember who we asked to care for him while we were away? I know that we were talking about him the night before, but what happened next?"

Kushina considered it, racking her memory but coming up blank, when she noticed something. "Minato, is Naruto's chair humming and glowing?"

Indeed, the old chair was giving off pulses of light, as if trying to get attention.

"Tsunami, come here." He drew a few seals around her, gave her a slip of paper, and looked her in the eyes. "I'm going to activate a barrier around you. What I just gave you was the key to release it. If something happens, you wait until it's safe, and then you run and get help, do you understand?"

Tsunami nodded, now scared by the seriousness in his voice. Minato activated the seal, encasing Tsunami in an azure orb that would stop just about anything. After knowing she was safe, he carefully stepped next to his wife.

It seemed unlikely that someone had entered, he had two arrays to stop that, but it never hurt to be careful. Using his limited abilities as a sensor, Minato tried to see if anything was unusual. He could sense his arrays all over the house, his wife, the barrier with his daughter in it, and, faintly, the chair... along with a few around the house giving the same power. There was a small amount of chakra in it, but it was not enough for anything dangerous. If there were an explosive-seal on it, then it would only explode the chair, maybe send pieces in their directions.

Deeming it fairly safe, Minato pulled out a kunai and tapped the frame with it, Kushina looking over his shoulder.

Low and behold, as he expected the chair blew of its legs, the seat, and back in a short second. Both covered their faces from the incoming debris. They looked at each other unsure, before the same explosion came from different parts of the house and outside. Both quickly nodded to each other and told Tsunami to stay put while they checked the house. Indeed at every part of the house that had an object that belonged exclusively to Naruto were blown off, toothbrush, toys, towel, even his room, having the loudest explosion, was also part of it.

"What the?" Minato muttered. Now that it was over he returned to the kitchen where he was surprised to see that the chair that had been blown had miraculously reform itself, he saw a small seal, a fairly basic one that allowed the user to save a simple Genjutsu and play it. It had been all the rage a few years ago, when everyone used the seal on chests, wallets and other objects. But how did it get here? He looked at his wife.

"Did Naruto do this?" She asked.

Minato shrugged. "That seems the only explanation. He wouldn't tip off the arrays, and would not be recorded as an intruder. But there has to be someone helping him. There's no way that he could have enough knowledge of Fūinjutsu and Genjutsu to make this seal. It's simple, yes, but one must at least know what they're doing to craft this."

Kushina gave him a glance. "Minato, you have the habit of leaving things lying around. Is there ANY chance that Naruto may have learned something out of scrolls that you didn't put back into their shelves?"

Minato frowned, but nodded. "It's possible, but that alone would not... oh."

Kushina looked at him. "Oh? What do you mean oh?"

Minato scratched his head. "I gave Naruto the permission to browse the library, and he may have learned something there."

Kushina blinked. "I see. In any case, we should find Naruto, and ask him what this is supposed to mean. Look, he tore up half the house!"

Tsunami, after deeming it safe, had disarmed the barrier. She didn't really care about what was going on, she wanted her ramen! "Who cares about Nii-san's stuff? It's not like he's being here all the time."

Kushina turned around, her mother-senses giving off a bad vibe. "What do you mean he hasn't been here?"

Tsunami slapped her hands on her mouth, realizing that she had just made a mistake. "Nothing mom, can we eat?"

But Kushina was not stupid. "Tsunami Uzumaki-Namikaze, do not lie to me. Look me in the eyes young lady, and tell me exactly what you meant when you said Nii-san hasn't been here? Since when?"

Tsunami squirmed looking everywhere but her mother, until she finally blurted out "Ihaven'tseenhimsincehecalledmeforbreakfestaweekago!"

Kushina blinked. "Again, slower."

Tsunami bit her lip. "I haven't seen him since he called me for breakfast a week ago. Even then he was gone for three days while you were on that border patrol and he arrived that morning."

Kushina stared at her. While the crime was really petty, she didn't like being lied to and to be hidden things, much less by her own daughter and son. She remembered the day, and Naruto's irritated voice, she thought he just had a hard morning, or something had happened. She was going to ask him when she returned from the search. "So you were lying to us? When I asked you how you and your brother spent the time, he wasn't there? You left your brother alone?"

Tsunami looked at the floor. She mumbled something that could, with much imagination, be translated to "Yes mom."

Minato looked at her. " Tsunami, you know that we don't like lies. I think you should spend the day in your room, thinking about what you did. You will be skipping meal time today."

Tsunami stared in horror. "What about the ramen? Please daddy, not the ramen!" She begged, but her father would not be moved.

"What punishment would this be if we gave you ramen? Of course, you are not getting any ramen, that's part of your punishment. Now, are there any other things you'd like to tell us about? Some other misconceptions, or lies, that you didn't correct us on?"

Tsunami frowned, folded her arms in front of her chest, and stubbornly turned her head away. "I'm not telling!"

Minato and Kushina exchanged glances. Tsunami's reply had basically been a confession that there were other things, but right now, they had a different priority.

"In any case, we should find Naruto. I'm going to ask the guys watching the barrier for help." Minato told his wife, before vanishing in a yellow flash.

Kushina took Tsunami upstairs to her room and activated the seals to keep her inside. As she did, she realized that this was the first time she had done so with Tsunami, while she must have done it dozens of times with Naruto. Considering that she was doing to punish Tsunami for lying and hiding Naruto's routine disappearances, she started to wonder if there had been times when she had punished Naruto for something his sister had done, and how many secrets had they kept from her?

Afterwards she herself started to look for her son. The first step when looking for someone was to ask friends and associates, so Kushina decided to do the same. It was only then that she really realized an anomaly in Naruto's behavior. He had been watched ever since his accident, and while he had occasionally slipped away, those moments were few, and there usually was some witness that could dimly remember seeing him on the training-grounds, the library, or just strolling through town.

All the time he was observed, there was not a single time where Naruto had sought the company of someone his age, or any human contact beyond observing Shinobi train. She had to ask herself why her son acted that way, being so solitary. Even if the injury had put him in a bad mood, at least one of his friends should have at least tried to talk to him. Was it possible that Naruto didn't have any friends among his peers?


"What do you mean he may not be in the village?" Minato demanded.

While the barrier was more for detecting intruders and had a few faults, it could be used to look for a certain signature, if it was registered. Naruto's chakra-signature was registered, so he should have shown up as a red spot on the map, but it had stayed blank. The current watcher had stated that this could mean two things. Either Naruto was dead, a rather unlikely scenario, as residue in the coils should be enough to detect a corpse as long as he was fresher than two weeks, or he had simply left the territory the barrier encased. Needless to say, Minato had not taken the information well.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but that is really all I can say. He does not show up on the map, so either he's dead, or in an area that blocks the sensors, like a compound, or he is not in the village."

Minato nodded. "I see. Thank you for the advice; I'll check the compounds that may be the one in question." He Hiraishined away.

Appearing in front of the Hokage's tower, he looked around, trying to distinguish the one, Naruto would most likely be in. 'Let's see, what child Naruto spends the most time with?'

Pondering that, Minato realized that he had never seen Naruto spend time with any child. Naruto's rhythm of life seemed similar to that of a Shinobi who lost those that he cherished, going through the motions of living without really opening to anyone. Kakashi would be a good example for this, although the man did spend some time with him, the last living person that he could relate with. His teammates were gone, Obito dead, Rin dead, so Minato was really the only thing that kept Kakashi from completely cutting ties with the world. And even with Minato present, Kakashi spent most of his time alone.

While such a behavior was not too uncommon for old men and veterans, it was not something that Naruto as a child should have.

As he didn't know who Naruto may play with, he decided to start with the Aburame, and work his way through other the clans if Naruto wasn't there.


Kushina was getting desperate. She had gone through Tsunami's list of friends, but nobody had seen her boy, or even knew anyone who was his friend. If children don't know anyone who is a friend of their best friend's twin brother, then that is sending a very worrying message. She was currently in the Hyūga compound, talking to the notoriously shy Hinata.

"I-I-I'm sorry I c-can't help you, K-K-Kushina-san, b-but I didn't see N-N-N-Naruto-san."

Kushina felt desperate. "And you really don't know anyone who spends time with Naruto? Nobody?"

Hinata shook her head.

Kushina pulled on her hair. "ARGH! It's like my son doesn't have a single friend!" She called out. Hinata was suddenly very interested in her feet. Kushina paused. "Hinata, does Naruto have friends?"

Hinata was trying to stare a hole into the floor. She seemed to be struggling with herself. Kushina put her arms on the girl's shoulders and went down on one knee so that they were at the same eye-level. "Hinata, please. Naruto's gone. If you know anything..."

Hinata couldn't meet her eyes, but she slowly shook her head. Kushina's head sagged in disappointment, until she heard Hinata's faint voice. "N-no, Naruto-san doesn't h-have a-a-any f-friends."

Kushina stared at her. "Hinata, do you know why?"

Hinata looked like she wanted to be anywhere, just not here. She really didn't want to get Tsunami in trouble, but she was a horrible liar.

"Hinata?"

Hinata bit her lip. "W-well, I k-know how it s-started." She finally admitted.

Kushina looked at her. "Really? How?"

Hinata gulped. "W-well, it s-started really harmless..."

And so Kushina learned of the birthday-party and of Tsunami's behavior. Needless to say, Kushina was shocked to hear of such behavior from the daughter she had believed as innocent as a kitten, especially since she had to this day not lifted the 'ban' she had placed on anyone who played with Naruto, confirming that it was still active whenever asked. That was beginning to worry Kushina. Together with a few other hints that Hinata had dropped, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to match to form a picture that she didn't like. It looked like Tsunami had started to use her brother as a scapegoat. But maybe she was overthinking things.


Minato had gone through all compounds that may have blocked the scan, only to find nothing and in many cases hear that his wife had been there first. So he returned to asking the barrier-crew if Naruto had returned, only to hear that this was not the case. So after he reunited with his wife, they decided to ask Kakashi for advice, as he was a tracker and should be able to find him fairly easily. Kakashi obeyed the call of his old sensei, and had promptly arrived, for a change not late.

"So you want me to find your son." Kakashi summarized after hearing the rather distraught parents out. "That shouldn't be too difficult. I know that he spends his time inside the village, so he shouldn't have much experience traveling. When was the last time you saw him?"

Minato and Kushina exchanged a baffled look, before Minato took the initiative. "I'm not sure about Kushina, but I haven't seen anyone not involved in the youki-hunt in a week."

Kushina nodded. "I was also involved in that, the last time I saw Naruto was before the sweep started."

Now Kakashi's brow twitched, once. "You're telling me that he may have a week's head-start? The boy knows how to water-walk, so he can do Shinobi-travel, which means he could be practically anywhere by now! And even if he traveled the civilian way, he could still already be well out of Hi no Kuni. Not to mention that we had heavy rain a few days ago, so if he left before that, then I'm afraid there is nobody who would be able to track him. All footprints are gone, and the rain will have washed away every scent. I'll try to get a trace, but if he left before the rain, then I'm afraid there's nothing I can do."

Kushina looked downcast, but still nodded. "Please do."

Kakashi nodded and headed out.

He had barely left, when another visitor entered. Minato managed a tired smile. "Hello sensei."

Jiraiya nodded in greeting. "So, where is this message that your son may have left?"

Minato showed him the chair. Jiraiya charged it with chakra, and the scene replayed itself. Jiraiya charged it again, taking the scene in again.

Finally, Kushina couldn't stand the silence any longer. "When that happened everything that was his was blown off. What do you make of it?"

Jiraiya scratched his head. "Well, if it is from Naruto, then the message is pretty clear. He is telling you that he no longer considers himself a part of the family, and left."

Minato shook his head. "But why would he do that?"

Jiraiya gave him an almost apologetic look. "I'm not in his head, but I think I can guess part of the reason. Look closely at the chair, heck look at everything his, what's left of it…"

Minato looked closely at the Genjutsu, he replayed it a few times before he noticed it. When looked in slow motion everything was destroyed save for the armchairs, those were left for last, before they too were destroyed. When the Genjutsu started, again the armchairs were the first thing to be remade. 'Armchairs… what's left of it… first and last…' he repeated many times in his mind before it clicked. . "Oh god. Kami have mercy, you think he found out about his arms?"

Jiraiya nodded. "It would make sense, and it is the only explanation why the Genjutsu starts and finishes that way at those particular spots. That's too much of a coincident to ignore. Either somebody else let it slip, or he overheard you talking about it, unless either of you told him?" He finished with a questioning look.

Both parents shook their heads, then Kushina clapped her hands in front of her mouth. "Oh no!" She gasped. "We talked about his arms just before I left for the border-patrol, remember?"

Minato's eyes widened as he remembered what he had said back then. Even if it was only black humor, if Naruto had somehow heard that part...

His pondering was interrupted by a number of seals going off, alerting him to a problem in Tsunami's room. His head snapped up. "Something's wrong with Tsunami!" He called out.

Jiraiya and Kushina immediately jumped up and ran to Tsunami's room, Minato leading the small stampede.


Tsunami had spent the day in a rage, throwing stuff around. She was never sent to her room, and she definitely wasn't denied ramen! That stuff happened to her brother, not her!

Eventually she had laid down in her bed, exhausted from breaking nearly everything in her room and the bathroom that wasn't sealed unbreakable. She wanted to sleep off the hunger when it started. Images of her, what she did to him, how he saw her in his eyes, how he felt, they seemed like a film, repeating and repeating, until she couldn't take it anymore and jumped off the bed. They stopped. None of the images came to her mind. All from her point of view. She touched back the bed when the images came back and as if a viper bit her, she took off her hand.

That was when the pain started. It started as a small burning, and she instinctively stood up to go to her brother. It was only then when she realized two things. One, that she could not leave her room, and two, her brother was not here, so even if she got out, it would do her no good.

The burning got more intense, and she barely managed to reach the toilet before all that was in her stomach stormed out the way it came in. she heaved again and again, even after she had thrown up everything that was in her stomach, and only tasted the bile on her tongue. However, it didn't get better.

Her lungs were burning, millions of freezing-cold needles rammed into her skin while said skin was being burned at the same time. Everything seemed to tighten, her joints felt like they were bending in the wrong direction, her blood was boiling in her veins, burning all tissue it came in contact with. Her internals were melting, her ears were popping under pressure, and two spinning drills were slowly being forced into her eyes. Tsunami had never been in such pain before; she had never even known such pain existed. She could not even scream, the pain was just too much. All she could do was whimper. She fell to the floor. A scrape on her knees, enough to draw blood.

The door flew open, and shadowy figures entered. "Tsunami? TSUNAMI! What's wrong with her?" That was her mother.

"I don't know!" That was her father. A hand touched her, and she latched onto it, just wanting the pain to stop.

"ARGH?" That was Jiraiya-jiichan. The hand was pulled away, and Tsunami whimpered again.

"It hurts. Get Naru-nii." She stammered. "He makes it all better. Need Naru-nii."

"Jiraiya, what's wrong?" Her mother.

"Hurts...Naru-nii..." She muttered, then, finally, everything turned black. A small explosion of the Kyūbi's chakra left her.


Jiraiya stared at his arm, which had the imprint of two small hands glowing in an angry red. He looked at Tsunami. "Minato, I think it's a surge."

Minato stared at him. "A surge? But she's been a Jinchūriki since birth! She shouldn't even feel them by now!"

Kushina, once being one, understood much about Jinchūriki, yet because she hadn't used the such before and the surges happening when so young she didn't know what they meant. She gasped. "Jiraiya, your arm!"

Jiraiya lifted it up. "It hurts pretty badly, I can tell you that much. I think Tsunami tried to channel the youki into me."

Minato gaped at him. "That's impossible! You're not a Jinchūriki; your body can't handle youki."

The older man looked at his arm. "Yes, I think we can see that."

Minato stared, at Tsunami, at Jiraiya's arm, then again at his daughter. "Now that you mention it, I never noticed any surge-pain even when she was a baby. But that's impossible. For her to feel it even now, she'd have to have channeled practically every surge into someone else. I think someone would have told us if something like that happened."

Jiraiya frowned. "What did Tsunami say before she fainted? 'Get Naru-nii, he makes it all better'?"

Minato's jaw dropped. "You think she..."

The toad-sage nodded grimly. "Yes, I do."

Kushina looked at both of them. "Can someone explain to me what's going on? What's wrong with Tsunami?"

Minato sighed wearily. "Nothing's wrong with her Kushina. Jiraiya thinks, and I agree, that Tsunami is going through a for Jinchūriki completely normal thing known as a surge, as you did. You probably don't remember being so young. What it means is that the bijū, in our case Kyūbi's youki, floods Tsunami's coils, and by extension her entire body, with youki. Don't worry Kushina, it's harmless to her. It happens to get the body used to the youki, so that in a situation where she has to call upon it, it won't immediately damage her body. The Jinchūriki normally only feels the first few surges, before the resistance against youki is high enough to ignore it. The first surge is the worst, and it only gets better from there."

Kushina pointed at her daughter, who, even in unconsciousness, was writhing in agony. She remembered a bit from her own childhood. "This never happened before! I don't remember that from my childhood at that age and definitively not hers before this."

Minato gulped. "Well, Jiraiya had a theory..." He paused when he caught his old teacher giving him the evil eye "...and I agree," He hastily added, "that this is probably the first surge Tsunami has ever really gone through."

"Wait, I thought that happened as soon as the bijū settled? Tsunami has been a Jinchūriki since birth!"

Minato looked away. "Normally yes, but Jir... we suspect that Tsunami's case is a little different."

Jiraiya took over. "She tried to pump the youki into me when I touched her, and before she fainted she asked for her brother, since he 'made it all better'. We think..."

But Kushina had connected the dots herself, and remembered what Naruto had told her every time Tsunami was in his bed. It hurts. "No... You think she pumped the youki into Naruto?" She was deathly pale, and tears welled up in her eyes when she remembered dismissing and scolding him every time he tried to tell her.

Minato nodded. "It seems the most logical explanation."

Now Jiraiya spoke up. "It would also be one more reason why he up and left. Before today, when was the last time Tsunami was in his bed?"

Kushina frowned through her tears. "A few weeks ago. A month?"

Minato shook his head. "No, the seals I placed around the house also look who's in what room. Tsunami was in Naruto's room little over a week ago."

Jiraiya nodded his head. "I thought so. A surge is only supposed to happen roughly every two months until no longer done. It looks like Kyuubi's chakra is getting impatient because there is no progress, and shortening the intervals, probably while increasing the amount of youki. As with its sensory memory from the Kyūbi it remembered that its host needed to do this. Maybe it was getting dangerous to keep doing it until an older age and it started doing so in shorter intervals. Naruto was probably able to recover from the surge in two months, but with the way it is now, there is no way he could last when he is injected twice a month. I'm no expert, you'd have to ask Biwako, but my guess would be that his body is starting to break down. So if Naruto realized this, and somehow learned that you kept the true state of his arms a secret from him... well, we have a motive."

Minato sighed. "In any case, we should get her to Biwako, just in case we're wrong."

Jiraiya looked at his arm. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

Kushina rolled her eyes, grabbed a blanket and threw it over Tsunami's twitching body, before wrapping her up in it. "Like this Jiraiya. How else?"

The older man raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm single and have never been a father, so how should I know how to take care of a child?"

"Men." The mother mumbled as she headed to see her good friend Biwako, who would probably not be amused to hear that they still hadn't told Naruto about his arms, and that said boy was now missing, looking at his room most likely because he ran away. The two men followed her like obedient puppies.

As they headed to Biwako, knowing that they would soon get a scolding like little children, Minato felt like the weight of the world had been dropped on him. How could he have not noticed what was going on? Kushina had told him that Tsunami was one of the reasons Naruto had no friends, disturbing as it was. He and Kushina exchanged glances, and knew that they had made the same decision. After Tsunami was back up, there would be some changes. For both their children.


While his sister's life would soon change completely, both mentally and physically, Naruto learned that he had made a minor miscalculation.

When he had checked the maps for his destination, he had looked at Shinobi-routes. With those routes, his goal would be only half a day's travel away, but posing as a normal civilian, he could not just run through treetops and up cliffs, and most importantly, he was stuck with clear roads, and couldn't just travel in a straight line. Even more, he forgot that as a secluded place they didn't have the means to pass over so easily

So instead of half a day, it would take an entire day, if he walked through the night and sea, before he arrived at his goal, The Land of Waves. Still, there was nothing Naruto could do but start walking.


I have to admit. I thought that this chapter would be my original waypoint from now on, but I forgot the important things like his way of letting them know he left and Tsunami's surge. If you didn't notice I changed those parts a bit. More his way of leaving than her surge. I only added the memories and those I'll explain next chapter. If I want. I'm not completely sure. Yes you read correctly at the end. He isn't going to the Fire Temple. That's Thanatos' story, even if he hasn't updated… seriously before you start complaining. Read the reasons: he has a place that doesn't have Shinobi, he has the perfect environment for his Suiton Jutsu, with so many small islands and mangrove swamps, he can hide perfectly from prying eyes and continue his studies alone. Besides I want it that way. I've got a few ideas that most of you would guess… Anyway remember to read my other story I'm going to update that one first since I worked out the kinks I had with it and the characters. REVIEW!\

-REVIEWED the chapter changed a few words and added content to Kushina's part at the end that helps remember she was a Jinchūriki since the original fiction didn't have her as one. There may be some parts in this and other chapter that seem confusing or contradicting to what was said before. If so please PM about it, it would help the story and other readers like it much more.