Chapter 7, Blizzard + A Vampire
"Naruto-kun." Naruto's head jerked up from the hard surface of his desk, sending the multitude of kunai, scrolls and brushes clattering to the floor. It had been mid-afternoon when he started. He'd bolted out of class, earning a plethora of confused stares as he raced through the school, and shut himself in his dorm room without another word. His father's scroll was laid out upon his desk, the remaining nine Hiraishin kunai and single used blade placed equidistant from each other atop it, with a calligraphy set to the side.
Now, bars of pale moonlight were thrown across the room through the wide window, bathing it in a ghostly white hue broken only by the short burst of colour in his decorations. He must have worked himself too hard, he realised, looking down at the half-finished kunai on his desk. The seals were intricate beyond belief, and making even a single mistake could mean disaster on a universal scale. Space-time techniques were dangerous things to mess around with, and getting the slightest curve wrong as he copied the seals from another could result in a tear in the very fabric of reality. But the risk was well worth it. He wanted desperately for Yukari to keep one with her, so that he could protect her even when he wasn't around, which surprised him a little. Why was he so serious about defending these four girls that had wormed their ways into his life that he'd use his father's prized kunai to do so?
"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" He looked up to meet the worried eyes of his friend and old partner, and smiled weakly.
"Sai..." He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head from side to side. "Silly me. Must've fallen asleep at the worktable." His hands moved to pick up the clutter from the floor and continue working, but Sai's hand on his wrist stopped him. He gave the ROOT a questioning look. "What are you..."
"You can't seriously consider continuing, can you? Look at you, Naruto. You're exhausted, and rightly so. Even the 'No. 1, Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja' has to take a break sometime, or you'll just fall apart at the seams."
"What are you talking about, I feel- agh!" He cried in pain as Sai's grip on his wrist tightened, and he turned a glare on the dark-haired boy.
"I'm guessing you were unaware that I know a sufficient amount about psychology? I can read you, Naruto. You're working yourself to the bone, and however much you'd like to deny it, it shows. What are you so scared will happen if you don't finish those kunai? Is it the girls? Are you worried something bad will happen to them?"
"I don't know!" Naruto snapped, and Sai recoiled for a moment. Naruto had yelled at him before, but not quite like that. He wasn't angry. He was anxious, paranoid, saddened even, but not angry. If he had been, his voice would've been overwhelmed with a soft growl, like that of a dog, rather than the weak tremble that Naruto must've noticed, as he fell silent. "...I have no idea what I'm afraid of. What could hurt them, here, in Youkai Academy? The damned headmaster's some kind of god, after all. And it's not like I'm goin' anywhere." He sighed deeply and leant back in his chair, brushing his hair from his eyes. "But no matter how hard I try to convince myself, I can't shake the feeling something bad's coming. Something I can't run away from, and I can't just blow up at like other problems. I don't want Moka, or Yukari, or any of them to get involved, but I just don't think it'll be that easy."
"So you want to prepare them. Give them a means to stay safe long enough for you to deal with your problem and protect them with all of your strength." Naruto didn't reply, but that must have been all the answer Sai needed, as he gave a small laugh. "I can never seem to figure out whether this noble streak of yours is charming or just plain irritating. You've got a good heart, Naruto. I know I'm not the first to say that. But you can't help anyone if you're dead on your feet, so get some rest already." Naruto opened his mouth to retort, but thought better of it. With a groan as he stretched out his tired muscles, Naruto rose from his chair and moved towards his bed, stopping only for a moment.
"Sai...?" The Anbu gave an interested hum. "Thanks. And I don't if I ever said this before, but... you're a good friend." Naruto's words seemed to echo in the silence of the night, and brought a warm smile to Sai's face. A real smile. He fidgeted with the collar of his white school shirt and the crimson tie around his neck.
"Naruto-kun... you... have no idea how much that means to me." He turned to leave, through the window rather than the locked front door, but his eyes were drawn to the scattered materials with which Naruto was transcribing the Hiraishin seals onto Yukari's knife. A thought came to him, and he smiled. "I suppose... it would be the least I could do for you." With all the grace his years of shinobi training had granted him, he descended into Naruto's recently vacated chair and took up his brush, dabbing it in the jet black ink and bringing its curled tip to the steel surface with a mechanical precision as he traced the Hiraishin's complex seals onto the blade. And there he sat, working, long into the night.
"Whatever you decide is dear to you, Naruto, I'll help you protect it. As your friend."
"What do you think?" Yukari couldn't answer. Her mouth hung open in a look of unbridled awe at the knife before her. True, it didn't look all that different than it did before; its three prongs glinted in the light, painted with a light crimson gloss so that it had a coppery shine, and a red ribbon hung from its circular pommel. To the young witch, however, it was amazing. She tentatively took the kunai and turned it over in her hands, examining it in all its glory. It wasn't a knife. It was the confirmation, not that she truly needed any, that Naruto truly cared about her. That he would protect her with his life if she were in danger. "Hellooo? Earth to Yukari?"
"O-Oh, Naruto-kun..." she started, snapping out of her trance. "S-Sorry, I must've spaced out... it's beautiful..."
"I'm glad you like it," Naruto said with a grin, and shared a conspiratorial look with Sai, who was watching with an amused look as he rested his head in a palm, elbows propped up on the desk he'd swapped with Saizou. It had been surprising how eager the large boy had been to stay as far away as possible from the blonde as possible. Strange.
"Like it...? I..." It didn't look like anyone was going to get much more from the small girl as she stared absentmindedly at the kunai in her hands with a blush on her cheeks. Naruto looked about the class to see that a few people were looking over at the strange group of students, but most were absorbed in the conversations they'd struck up to pass the time until the teacher arrived. And then, there was...
"Hey, whose seat is that?" He pointed at the seat situated directly in front of him, at the very front of the class and next to the window. He'd never actually seen anyone take the seat before, yet no one had ever commented about it, as if it were a natural occurrence. It wasn't often that seats went unfilled, especially in the front row. Moka and Kurumu looked at each other for a moment, and seemed to have a silent conversation between them.
"Hey, you're class representative," Kurumu finally said. "You tell him."
"R-Right. Well, according to the roster, that seat belongs to Shirayuki Mizore, but not once has she ever come to cla-" Moka stopped abruptly as the door opened, and two people walked in. One was easily recognisable as Nekonome Shizuka, striding into the class and placing the stack of books in her arms down on her desk. The other however, was not so familiar.
She, for it was certainly a she, looked absently around the room, until her pupilless, sapphire eyes fell on him and stayed there, unflinching. Her mouth hung open slightly, so that her lollipop balanced precariously on her pale pink bottom lip, and her breath seemed to crystallise in the air despite the relatively warm temperature. One hand, half hidden behind the long sleeve of the white tee she wore in place of the uniform dress shirt, twirled a lock of lavender around her forefinger in an alluring manner, while the other fidgeted with the hem of her pleated skirt, drawing the blonde's attention to the striped purple stockings that stretched the length of her long, slender legs. Naruto stared openly at her as she slid gracefully into her seat and pressed her back against the window so that her body faced the class. Her eyes, however, never left Naruto.
"You're Uzumaki Naruto, right?" she whispered, as Nekonome began the lesson. Naruto stared deadpan at the girl. She doesn't show up for class for over a week, then turns up like nothing happened and decides to take an interest in him? The chances were infinitesimally small. Then, all of a sudden, the girl leant over the desk toward him and stared him dead in the face, her cold breath tickling his skin. She licked her bottom lip, lollipop stick twitching as she did so, and her eyes flickered between Naruto's ocean blue orbs and his gaping mouth. Was she going to kiss him? He blushed, and it didn't settle anything in him to see that she did as well. "You're... cuter than I imagined."
"You're not bad yourself." What was he saying! Not only should he not be flirting with this weird girl, but that was lame! "You're Shirayuki, right?" She didn't answer. Naruto's heart rate skyrocketed as she leant past him and placed her lips beside his ear so that the chill of her breath caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end.
"Please..." she whispered, sending a pleasant shiver down his spine. "Call me Mizore." A furious shriek pervaded the relative silence of the room as the rest of the class listened to Nekonome's lecture, and Kurumu's chair fell to the floor with a clatter as she rose to her feet, levelling her glare on Mizore, whose blush still lit up her cheeks. Naruto leant backwards in his seat, putting himself far out of the line of fire between the two females. He knew from experience that Kurumu could be incredibly possessive when the situation arose, and Mizore had practically been all over him without so much as an introduction.
"What the hell d'you think you're doing, skank!" Naruto winced. Harsh wording, but from the impassive expression on Mizore's delicate features, she hadn't paid it any mind. "Get your face off my Naruto-kun before I tear you a new one, here and now!" Nekonome had stopped the lesson momentarily, and even she gaped at the confrontation. Naruto could have yelled at her. Why didn't she do anything to stop her? Granted, Kurumu was like a charging rhino when she got going, but she was a teacher for Kami's sake!
"Does he belong to you?"
"W-What?" Kurumu stuttered. The question had thrown her for a loop for a moment, as had the nonchalant manner in which she posed it. Mizore stared.
"I said, does he belong to you? Are you his girlfriend? Are you dating?" She pressed, and Kurumu stammered weakly. "No? Then he's fair game, isn't he?" Mizore flung her arms around Naruto's neck and pulled herself close to him, using him as leverage to sit atop his desk. She might as well have been in his lap. Naruto blushed darkly. Didn't he get a say in this? He knew better than to voice his question, of course. He didn't need the ire of both females directed toward him. Even now, he could see Kurumu barely restraining the urge to take Mizore's face off. He sent a pleading look at Nekonome, and she seemed to give in.
"That's enough, both of you. Kurono-kun, Shirayuki-kun, please return to your seats. If you must fight over Uzumaki-kun, do it during your time, rather than mine." That was not what he meant. Still, it seemed to placate both girls, as Kurumu slowly returned her chair to an upright position and took her seat and Mizore snaked her arms from around his neck, albeit reluctantly, and sat down at her own desk. Still, the look between the two, the heated glare that promised a final deathmatch, could've sparked lightning.
The class filed from the room noisily an hour later, and Mizore slid her book into her bag and kicked back her seat. The wooden back collided with Naruto's long-vacated desk with a loud crash. She looked in the direction of the door, where even now she could hear Kurumu chewing the blonde out. She thought she'd raised a fair point: from what she'd gathered, the succubus held no claim to him, or at least far less than she, someone who'd adored him for so long. Her form hugged the doorframe tightly as she moved across the classroom with a dancer's grace, barely making a sound as her feet glided across the floor, and she watched with a single amethyst eye as Kurumu clutched at Naruto's lapels with long, claw-like nails.
"What, exactly, was that about?" She hissed, and Naruto tried in vain to shy away from her baleful glare. Mizore's nails dug into the wooden frame and a soft hiss escaped her pale lips. How dare she talk to him like that? Treat him like that! She shouldn't even be able to stand near him! Oh, how she wished to storm over and tear the succubus to shreds, but that wouldn't be right. She needed to be more subtle, else whatever she did would only drive Naruto away and drive her into madness. Her eyes bore into Naruto with a longing gaze, and her attention was so focused on him that she didn't even notice the light frost gathering on the wall beside her. Her eyes drifted to Kurumu and Moka, the vampire stood at her side, and she scowled. Something would need to be done about that.
"I really wish I knew, Kurumu-chan." Something ached inside her. Why was he so familiar with her! "Wonder why Mizor- Shirayuki-san, acted like that?" Ouch. Not only did he revert to referring to her by her last name, though the small slip-up had brought a cheer to her heart for the slightest moment, but he was blind to her feelings? Granted, she'd met him only that day and had said only a handful of words to him in person, but surely what she'd said and how she'd said it should've gotten the point across effectively.
"Well, find out and fix it! Get it over with before the meeting, or we're gonna have problems!" Kurumu shoved Naruto back a little, and stormed off, dragging Moka behind her despite the rosette's soft, near-silent whimper as she was forcibly removed from the presence of her Naruto-kun. This was her chance, she realised. Without any of the females in his unwitting harem, she could approach Naruto without fear of intrusion. Yet, when her eyes fell upon the blonde once more, she hesitated, her mouth parted only slightly as she gasped. Naruto swept a hand through his hair, the blonde mess perfecting at his rough touch, while the other was thrust deeply into his pocket. He leant back leisurely, and his muscles were both relaxed and tensed simultaneously; like he was calm and collected, yet ready to kill at the drop of a hat. It was so exciting! To know that someone so strong and deadly, like a living weapon, could at the same time be the sweet, caring person she seen in his writing and the bright, cheerful character she'd seen firsthand, it was mind-boggling. And all of those would be all hers, as soon as she took the few steps forward and actually talked to him.
"N-Naa..." Mizore cursed herself. She couldn't even manage a coherent word, and that feeling grew to unbearable levels when he turned to her and stared into her eyes with those gorgeous sapphire orbs.
"Oh, Shirayuki." She flinched. "I didn't expect to see you there. Did you need something?" A soft blush came to her cheeks, and her hands shook uncontrollably as she removed them from the hem of her skirt. All she needed to do was say something. Not too difficult. Just open her mouth, and allow some intelligible speech to pour out.
"I w-wanted to... Do you have a spare newspaper!" She all but yelled, and cursed herself. That was stupid, no matter how she looked at it. Her newspaper clipping needn't be her only link to him anymore, now that he was standing right in front of her. But, old habits die hard. And why on earth did she need to yell? Naruto stared at her for a moment, before searching his pockets and pulling out a crumpled roll of printed paper, tied shut with a rubber band, and handed it to her.
"Here you go." He gave a small chuckle. "Honestly, I didn't think you'd be all that interested in the school newspaper, what with the fact you're almost never in school." Mizore allowed a small smile. Obviously her blunder had been lost on him.
"Not the newspaper. You." At Naruto's raised eyebrow she reached into her bag and pulled out the beautiful blue and gold scrapbook she'd spent many an hour compiling and creating. She held it close to her chest, embracing it tightly, to the point where Naruto could only just see Mizore's name on the cover behind her closed arms. "I've read every news report you've written. When I was away from school, I requested that Nekonome-sensei send me each and every issue that came out." Her glittering amethyst eyes met with his, and she smiled warmly. She could feel her confidence building with each and every word, and soon she'd be able to...! "I love the way you write, because your work reflects you as a person. You're strong outwardly, but inside you've known pain just as much, if not more than anyone else."
"W-What are you..." Naruto stuttered weakly as Mizore stepped forward and pressed herself flush against his chest, wide lavender eyes looking up at him with such adoration. He could feel the biting cold of her skin through her clothes, but it didn't feel particularly harsh. Pleasant shivers coursed across his skin, leaving raised goosebumps in their wake.
"That weak persona, the pain behind the mask... that's your true self, isn't it?" Her hand alighted on his shoulder, light as a feather, and she pulled herself up towards his face. "I like that side of you. I can relate to him." Naruto tried to pull away, but Mizore's grip on him was surprisingly strong. "It must be lonely, not having anyone to understand your pain. I know that feeling... so don't be lonely anymore."
"Naruto-kun's late..."
Kurumu looked up from her notepad. Moka was sat at the lone table in the newspaper club's headquarters, chin rested in her delicate, dainty palm as she gazed almost longingly at the closed door. The succubus sighed and put her pen down beside her, swinging her legs over the windowsill which had quickly been designated her spot. Perhaps she had been a little harsh on Naruto earlier; after all, it wasn't his fault that Shirayuki came on to him so forwardly.
'Get it over with before the meeting, or we're gonna have problems!'
She hadn't truly meant that, of course. It was no secret that she disliked Shirayuki, but time with Naruto far outclassed being rid of that... that... ugh! She couldn't even think of a good enough insult! The horrible knowledge that Naruto was somewhere out there with Shirayuki, rather than here with her, just drove her round the bend! Another sigh escaped her lips, and she leapt down from the window to the floor, causing Moka to look round at her.
"Is something wrong, Kurumu-chan?" She packed her pen and notepad away in her bag and slung it over her shoulder, before moving to the door.
"I'll go find Naruto-kun and bring him back here. God knows what that Shirayuki girl is doing to him right now." She flinched at her own words, and it didn't help to see Moka do the same. It was easy to discredit her fears when she thought she was the only one with them, but knowing Moka was thinking the same made them seem all the more real. She forced herself to smile, grinning awkwardly at the vampire even as she gripped the doorknob tight enough to bend it. "Don't you worry, and don't move an inch! I'll have Naruto back before you know it!" She slammed the door shut behind her, and began to take off down the hall. It was eerily silent, even for late afternoon, when most other students would either be in extra-curricular clubs, on the grounds, or in their dorms. Not a soul wandered the corridors save for her, and that fact just made her more paranoid. She turned a corner to leap down the stairs, only to come face to face with the person she didn't want to find.
"What are you doing here, Shirayuki?" She spat, her muscles tensed as she readied herself for a fight. She wasn't one to jump to violence as a first option, but the cold look in the girl's eyes set a primal, animal fear in her. She had no idea what her foe was capable of, and it was highly likely that Shirayuki knew everything about her. "Where's Naruto-kun?" The purple-haired girl simply stared blankly at her, and all of a sudden, in a flurry of sub-zero temperatures and gleaming ice, the world turned black.
"Now you try, Naruto!" He caught the small, flat stone deftly between his index and middle fingers, and looked at it for a moment, before looking to Mizore. Her entire demeanour practically screamed cheerful. She was bouncing around on the balls of her feet, and her hands were clasped under her chin as she smiled warmly. Whatever it was that he was doing, it obviously made her happy, so who was he to deny her that? The pebble spun between his calloused digits, and his arm reared back before snapping forward sharply. The stone flew from his hand and bounced once on the water's calm surface, sending wide ripples across the once placid exterior, and continued on through the air where it traversed the entire pool and tore through the tree on the other side, shattering the aged bark like rice paper. He winced. Whatever was going on with his body, what with the incident with the chakra paper and now this uncontrollable physical strength, it was steadily getting worse.
"Amazing!" Mizore cried, staring at Naruto with wide eyes. He scratched the back of his head nervously, and turned away from the disturbed pool of water.
"Sorry to cut this short, but I really need to head back." He moved to leave, only to stop as Mizore draped herself over his shoulders. Her face nuzzled into the side of his neck, and her body was pressed against his back, bringing a pale blush to his cheeks. "Sh-Shirayuki, what are you doing!"
"You can't leave, not until I beat you!" she chirped happily, hugging the blonde close to her. Her smiled quickly faded, though, and she frowned. "You... you can't go back to that club of yours." Naruto shivered as her already low body temperature dropped to dangerous levels, and her grip around his neck tightened, burying herself into him. "If I were to lose you... if you were to go back to that Akashiya Moka you adore so much, I don't know what I'd do. So don't find out. Just stay here with me."
"All you need to do is just be mine."
The world around them seemed to freeze over, as the lake turned to solid ice and the soft breeze became a merciless arctic gale that tore at his skin like thousands upon thousands of knives. The frost gathered on the ground and rose into crystalline spires around him , and quickly spread out into thick, wide plates of glittering diamond that were horribly familiar to him as his eyes grew wide.
Mirrors.
At least a dozen of them.
All around him, closing him in, in a dome.
"I won't let you run away. We were destined to meet, and together we'll warm each other's frozen hearts." Naruto stared at her incredulously as she stepped away from him, twirling with the grace of a dancer and smiling at her reflection in one of the mirrors. She sent him a glance over her shoulder. "After all, you'll never find someone else who knows that pain you hide. Stick around a while, and I'm sure you'll never be able to leave."
"I can't stay here! I have to go back!" Naruto cried. Mizore scowled, and rounded on him. Her hands were coated with ice, turning them into vicious-looking claws that glinted in the sunlight as she raised them to Naruto's face. Naruto stumbled backwards, but his back collided with another mirror, blocking his escape.
"Back to Akashiya Moka? Back to Kurono Kurumu, and Sendou Yukari, and Hisakawa Manami? Everyone of them... Everyone who stands in the way of my love for you should just disappear! And that's exactly what's going to happen!"
"Stop it! You can't just get rid of them because you don't like them! It doesn't work like that!" Mizore stepped back, placing a clawed hand against her chest with a hurt look that made Naruto's chest ache. He tried to reach out to her, but she moved out of his range and stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.
"Why are you saying this... you should understand how it feels to be lonely!" Naruto gritted his teeth, and clenched his fingers into fists. Yes, he knew what it was like to be alone. That horrible solitude had suffocated his childhood self.
"Yeah, I know exactly how you feel." Mizore's heart soared, but immediately plummeted again as Naruto looked at her with cold blue eyes like chips of ice, nothing like the warm pools of sapphire that she'd fallen in love with. "But I don't feel lonely anymore, because I have friends! Friends that you're trying to slaughter because you think they're in your way! That's why...!"
"No!" Mizore cut him off with a scream, clutching at her head with her claws of crystal. "You can't reject me! You can't reject my feelings! That's not how I imagined this at all!" Spears of ice began to form from the smooth surfaces of the mirrors, and shot out at Naruto. The blonde leapt backwards out of their path, leaving the long spikes to penetrate deep into the soil beneath his feet. "You were supposed to fall in love with me the same way I love you, and we would be together forever! Don't take that dream away from me!"
"Stop this, Shirayuki!" Naruto cried, dodging another spear of diamond as it plunged into the earth to his left.
"No, you don't understand me at all... no one understands me!" Iced winds seemed to explode out of her as she screamed, tearing at Naruto's skin as he struggled to stay standing against the terrible onslaught of frozen gales. "Stay away! STAY AWAY!"
"Naruto-kun!" Naruto looked to the side, and between the mirrors he saw Sai and Manami, dropping from a hawk formed from Sai's Choujuu Giga. "Stay put, we'll get you out! Manami, can you break the ice?" The Taki kunoichi grinned and pumped a fist in the air.
"You bet your ass I can! Gimme a minute!"
"No, stop!" Both shinobi hesitated at Naruto's cry. "You can't do that, or she'll only become more unstable. Just stay where you are, I'll have this fixed in no time!" They stared at him wordlessly for a moment, but soon nodded. Naruto turned back to Mizore, whose very skin was beginning to take on an icy sheen as her powers ran out of control. "Guess it's time to try out this new fire affinity... Katon: Zukkoku!" A bullet of flame erupted from Naruto's throat and soared through the air, slamming into the frozen ground at Mizore's feet with an explosion of blazing orange and red. The mirrors shattered like glass as the shockwave tore through them, and the ice that coated the surroundings melted almost instantly under the intense heat. Two blurs shot from within the cloud of fire. Mizore's body hurtled out of the blaze and slammed into the ground with a painful impact, rolling helplessly across the grass until she finally came to a stop.
"Th-that..." she mutterd weakly, struggling to push herself up on weak arms. Naruto had attacked her. "I should have known..." Another spear of ice formed in her hand, only to be stopped as a firm hand gripped her wrist, holding it fast. There, silhouetted against the rising flames, was the blonde she'd been so obsessed with and, though she was loathe to admit it after this, she still adored.
"That's enough, Shirayuki... Mizore." Her eyes widened as she processed his words. He'd called her by her first name again. It sounded so beautiful from him, even with the harsh, serious look his face was twisted into. Her will to fight began to fade away, and with it the power that held her ice together, causing the spear in her hand to splinter into thousands of miniscule shards of glittering crystal. "I understand what you've gone through. For the first twelve years of my life, I thought I was alone. I was hated, shunned, and treated like a monster by almost everyone around me. Almost. There were that small few that saw me as a normal person, and didn't shut me out, or even treat me badly. They were my friends, and because of them I'm not alone anymore. That's all you need to stop the pain of loneliness: friends."
"But..." Mizore started quietly, but stopped as Naruto rose from his crouched position to stand at his full height. He thrust out a hand towards her, and she stared at it as if it were some alien being.
"So, Shirayuki Mizore, d'you wanna be friends with me?"
"How long is this going to take? We've been ready for a week now." The single crimson eye turned to look into a scowling pair of its brethren, set into the skull of a teen, his arms crossed over his chest as he shot a demanding glare at the cloaked man through the shadow of his dark fringe. The cloaked man leant backwards as he sat on the edge of the academic building, stretching out his limbs with a tired groan.
"Whether you're ready or not is irrelevant. We're waiting for him to be ready."
"We are shinobi, not samurai. There's no code of honour requiring both sides be prepared for battle before engaging in it."
"That's true, but the world has been waiting for this battle for a long time. It wouldn't do to start it prematurely. It wouldn't be nearly as interesting then."
"It's when you say things like that that I question your true motives... this operation's goal is to extract the Kyuubi's chakra, right? You don't have some secondary objective?"
"I assure you, Sasuke-kun. If I had any ulterior motives, you would be the first to know." The masked man turned back to look over the destruction caused by Naruto and Mizore's battle. "Besides, you needn't wait any longer. I think he's just about ready now. We'll begin soon."
Dun, dun, DUUUUUUN! Sorry, couldn't resist. But with Mizore on the team now, things can get rolling. I really hope you like this chapter, cause it gave me some trouble, and about halfway through things kind of went to hell. But I tried to differ from canon again, because of my relapse last chapter, and I've decided to all but stop watching the anime episodes for reference at this point, because that was one of the main reasons it stuck so close. It'll be difficult, since I haven't seen R+V for a good while, but if you weren't enjoying it what would be the point in writing? Anyway, next chapter is of course where the proverbial faecal matter will hit the fan, so stay tuned for that! Other than that, I bid you goodnight!
Review Corner
ForeverFallen76: The way I've written, Naruto can't write the seal formula from memory. He's had the scroll containing the workings of the Hiraishin for only a few days, after all. That's why he's using the other remaining kunai to copy from and inscribe the same seals on the used kunai to give to Yukari. He's not well-versed enough in the technique to use contact seals like Minato did. I can understand your confusion, but I am trying to steady Naruto's growth somewhat. So far he's been progressing in leaps and bounds, and I need to make sure he doesn't become God halfway through the fic.
