Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other references within this story.

Key

"Summons and Biju speaking"

'Summons and Biju thinking'

"Human Speech"

'Human Thought'

Jutsu


The Other Side of the Coin

Chapter 5: Yin


Bright blue eyes snapped open. It was that dream again. She could remember the blood pumping through her body, the urge to kill, to maim, to slaughter roaring through her mind. But most importantly she could remember the terrified look on her brother's face.

Minami rolled off her bed. Fuzzily making her way to her closet she froze when she noticed the calendar. It's Graduation Day.

Eyes widening, Minami quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. Reaching the table she shoveled all the food on the plate into her mouth, grabbed a piece of toast and ran out the door, not even saying goodbye to Kushina, who was a little shocked at her rudeness. Kushina smiled. It was graduation day wasn't it? She remembered that she did just what Minami had at the Senju compound where she grew up. She couldn't really hold it against her daughter. Kushina turned towards the table and stared sadly at the one cold plate on it. She and the rest of her family had already eaten except for one. She wasn't even sure that her sochi was in the house sometimes. He was always so quiet. Sighing to herself, she wiped away the tears running down her cheeks and threw away the food before washing the dishes and silently walking back to her room. Maybe she could see him at the end of school? He was going to graduate wasn't he?

Minami rushed through the streets, waving every now and then as she passed various shopkeepers. If she could make it there early, she could probably talk to her brother alone! She had noticed that he seemed to hate crowds.

Arriving at the academy, she headed inside and was disappointed to see almost everyone there. Of course, it's Graduation Day. Everyone would get here early. She noticed her brother sitting far away from her, his eyes closed and leaning back on his chair. She frowned and her mind wavered. She sat back and remembered just how badly her brother had been treated.


Flashback

Minami was hiding on the stairs. She was high up and peeking over the railing staring down at her family. Her parents had just stopped her brother as he was heading out the door. It was the about a week after the incident.

"What?"

Naruto's question was cold and curt. Her parents flinched as did she. Her brother was never that cold! She even remembered his happy personality as she once noticed him in a park under a tree, talking to her Auntie Rin. Minami frowned. Auntie Rin never came around much more. She sometimes would smile at her, before shaking her head at her parents as she escorted her brother to school. Her tou-san had assigned her this job, seeing as she was the only one Naruto ever talked to.

"Err… Naruto… we were just wondering…" Minato stuttered a little. "You wouldn't like to maybe train with your sister would you?"

This was apparently the wrong thing to say.

"Train?" Naruto softly muttered. "You want to train me? After all that's happened, NOW YOU WANT TO TRAIN ME?" His words ended in a shout.

"Sochi, please we're sorry, we just-"

"I already told you to save it. I don't care about your reasons, I don't care about your apologies, regardless of what you were thinking, THIS happened." He raised his arm, still tightly bound in a cast. "Do you know… do you know what I always thought as I went to bed? 'Maybe if I show tou-san how strong I am, he and kaa-san might love me again'." Naruto's mockingly cheerful expression shifted into his previous emotionless visage. At his words, Minato flinched and Kushina began to tear up.

"Do you know to what lengths you would have to go to," Naruto started. "To make a child think he isn't loved?"

At this Kushina actually burst into tears and ran out of the room. Minami flinched at his words, thinking it was her fault that her brother was this way. Running down the stairs she ran towards Naruto.

"Nii-san, I'm sorry!" She yelled. Jumping forward she tried to hug her brother, only to meet nothing but air.

"Save it, I'm done with this conversation."

Minami turned and just managed to glimpse her brother as he walked out the door. He was only 8, he shouldn't be this angry. She flinched as her mind threw her logic back at her. He was only 8, he shouldn't have suffered this much. As much as she didn't want to admit it, he had all the right to be angry…

Flashback End


Minami sighed. Ever since that day, Minato and Kushina would daily confront her brother and try to talk to him. Even Kiba could probably tell how that turned out. Her brother had gotten even farther away from her family than before. Eventually, her parents had seemingly given up. The day that they did, she swore she saw triumph in her brother's eyes, almost as this was the final proof of neglect: That they would give up on him. Minami herself knew that if SHE was at fault, she would never stop apologizing. In fact, she sometimes managed to catch her brother as he was leaving the academy and apologize. He would of course blow her off, but she would never give up. And if she had to become stronger to do it, so be it. She was mid-chunin level in strength after all. She could possibly even give some jonin a run for their money if she used the Kyuubi's chakra. She flinched at the thought of it, the memory of her brother's face, his eyes wide in terror, the sound of ripping flesh and the smell of blood assaulted her mind. She immediately banished those horrid memories.

Minami sighed again before turning away from her brother and looking around the room. Iruka-sensei hadn't arrived yet and she saw that everyone was starting to get rowdy. Perhaps she should-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Iruka burst into the room. Oddly enough, everyone quieted down. Normally it took an application of Iruka's big head technique to get everyone to shut up, but it appears that today, everyone was too nervous to do much in his presence. Iruka walked to the podium and began his speech.

"I would firstly just like to say how proud I am. I'll admit, I honestly didn't expect some of you to be here today," He pointedly looked at Kiba and Shikamaru. "But you are here, and your time in the Academy is behind you. You are now shinobi. You are ninja, you are warriors. You are to serve underneath the Hokage, and you must be willing to die for him."

Iruka continued to drone on about how important they were to the village for several minutes. When he finished, Iruka looked around the room and noticed only a fourth of the class was paying attention. Iruka sighed. It looks like his speeches were still as boring as ever. It looks like both of the Hokage's children had actually dozed off.


Minami woke up with a start and realized that Iruka was listing off the teams.

"…Team 5 will be Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Minami Namikaze. Their sensei will be Kushina Namikaze. Team 6 is still in circulation. Team 7 will be Naruto Namikaze, Hinata Hyuga, and Sasuke Uchiha. Their sensei will be Kakashi Hatake…"

So her sensei would be her mom? That's awesome! Her mental party slowed. She was with Kiba. Shino she didn't have a problem with, he was nice and generally quiet as well as a hard worker, but Kiba was a lazy asshole and a pervert. He began hitting on her the first day of the academy. She generally brushed him off, even breaking his arm once. She swore she saw her brother smile when she did that but had disregarded it. Her brother never smiled anymore. At least not around her. To this day, he still paws after her, thinking she's playing hard-to-get. Her brother was sadly not on her team. She really wished he was, it would have been the chance she needed to get his forgiveness.

"…and Team 16 is still in circulation. You will meet your senseis here a week from now. Take a break until that time, you've earned it. I expect you all to make Konoha proud."

Minami sat in her chair, thinking about her team. She noticed her brother was the first one to get up and the first one out the door. She watched as Kiba approached her, no doubt to flirt with her and annoyingly ask her out on a date. She got up, did a few handsigns, and shunshined out of the academy.


Kushina sighed. It was lunchtime and her family save one were eating at the table. She watched silently as her daughter talked animatedly with Minato. She knew it was a façade, and that both of them were just trying to keep up appearences to one another. Naruto's anger had hit them hard. Kushina silently wondered what her sochi even ate during lunchtime, and if he did, what did he eat? The answer, though she didn't know it, was that Naruto actually ate at Rin's. His favorite food for lunchtime was red bean soup. She sighed mournfully, as a single tear made its way down her cheek. It was her fault, it was all her fault, if only they trained him, he would still love them, and he wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Minato and Minami stopped talking and watched as Kushina's shoulders shook. Minami frowned sadly. It seemed as if only her mother was strong enough not to hide her feelings. She suddenly froze. At the back of her mind she heard roars. She could just barely make out a few words.

"…THE… GOD... DEATH… HE…"

With a start, she realized it was the Kyuubi. It was afraid. Something out there was making it frightened, and if she heard correctly, it was a god? Shaking her head, she tried to clear her thoughts. Suddenly she shivered. Something cold had just washed over her. Looking around she noticed her parents frowning, both of them staring at the window. Something was wrong. Something was out there.


It was nighttime. The sky was dark, and the wind blew chillingly. All the denizens of Konoha that were out at night, be it in a club or at a friend's, were shivering in their beds, under the covers. Children whimpered, and adults comforted them, staring out their windows. There was something eerie in the air. Something dark, something that's not a part of this world.

Minami shivered in her mother's embrace. Just for today she had slept with her mother and father in their bed. There was something terrifying happening in Konoha, but she couldn't put it into words. And then it just disappeared. The chill in the air had lifted. Minami frowned. Just what the hell was that?


A single drop from the ceiling fell and rippled the murky water. The sewer was quiet. Pipes ran along the edges, some red, others blue. At the center of this maze of pipes stood an enormous cage. The darkness in it was prevalent; you couldn't see a thing inside. A single blood-red eye snapped open, the slit pupil pulsing menacingly.

"So…It appears that my other half walks the earth once again…"


A/N: Well that about wraps up this chapter. I'm sorry it was so short compared to the others (only 1900 words compared to my usual 2000-3000) but it was a bit of a rush job. My excuse for this is two-fold: The first is that I'm actually winging it. The chapters before this one were planned out and I just kind of winged this one. Anyway, on to business: Summons. Salamanders have officially won (I was actually hoping for this one), and I have already thought up how Naruto will get the contract. Anyway, I would just like to say this: This story is going to be stalled for 2 weeks. This is because my end of the year exams (finals, tests, whatever the hell you want to call them) are coming up, and I really need to use this time for studying. The next chapter will be released May 16th. Thank you for your patience, and once again, I apologize, but my education comes first before this story. Don't you DARE think I'm abandoning it. I swear I will see it through to the end. Once again, please review and tell me what you think. Any helpful advice will be appreciated, flamers will be ignored.