Chapter 7

" So last time we were here there was a locket?!" Naruto shrieked, when the elf in front of them confirmed. " Impossible, I-I-I don't remember it!"

" That's because you're an idiot." Sakura muttered and furrowed her brows. " Harry, can I...can we please see the fake locket, so that we could remember...?"

" Of course..." the boy said and drew out a golden necklace out of his pocket. Everybody looked at the serpentine S, inlaid with glittering, green stones: It was easy to visualize it as a minuscule snake. Suddenly, Sasuke shivered and backed off. Of course, everybody turned to him.

" I've seen this before."

" Well, of course you have, we just said it was here two years ago.." Naruto reminded and received a hit from Sakura.

" You're a complete and utter idiot...How stupid could you possibly be?! Sasuke and the others arrived later than us. They never came here!"

" Oh, blimey, you're right..."

None of the others listened to them, though, because Sasuke's expression was blank, but his eyes were wide.

" Sasuke..." Hermione tried to put her hand on his shoulder, but the boy glared at her and she stepped backwards, bumping into Ron.

" Where have you seen it then? Was it while we were at school?" Harry asked with hope in his voice.

" Why-...Why the hell would Voldemort put one of his horcruxes in Hogwarts, Harry? Dumbledore was there, remember? If there was a horcrux, he would have found it, so there's no way.."

" Your logic is good, Naruto..." Hermione interrupted him. "...but as Harry has told us before , if there was one place dear to Voldemort, it was Hogwarts...although I still doubt there is something like this in there..."

Hinata frowned, confused by the girl's words. Did she believe there could be or not be a horcrux in there, after all...

" All of you shut up..." Kakashi finally stood up, drawing the attention of everybody, even Kreachure, the house elf, who has seen this locket, the one because of which his master has died. After that, the sensei turned to the Uchiha. " Where have you seen it?"

" I've seen this thousands , no, millions of times...It...It was Orochimaru's locket. It was always with him, wherever he went."

" That snake bastard..." Naruto hissed and Ron tapped his shoulder.

" I know that feel, dude, believe me..."

" So you tell me, that Orochimaru owned that locket, which is a horcrux of Voldemort, who used to be his partner two years ago. And you tell me, that Voldemort hasn't seen this locket with his so-called-partner in the time they were working together?! Kind of weird..." Hinata muttered.

" It was with him everythwre..." Sasuke repeated, glaring at Hinata, as if she was trying to make him look like a liar. Kakashi stepped in to stop them from doing anything reckless.

" Are you sure it was the same locket? The absolutely same one?"

" One hundred percent sure..."

" I don't remember seing that locket with Orochimaru, when we were fighting..." Sakura mumbled, still with narrowed eyes.

" Wait a second, guys...just a second!" Harry said all of a sudden. " Isn't that Orochimaru creep dead?"

" Yes."

" So we can simply go and check his grave, right?"

" No."

" Perfe-...Wait, did you just say 'no'. "

" Yes." Kakashi confirmed and then sighed, remembering that the people in front of him weren't shinobi. " When one of our people dies, the body is turned to ashes, because otherwise, there is a possibility that there would be people who would go after the corpse to draw out the power and the secrets from it..."

" You can draw out power from a dead person? That's...disgusting...and in the same time astonishing..." Ron wrinkled his nose. " And secrets...what kind of secrets can a body hold?"

" They're close enough to hear my little secret, right?" Naruto asked Kakashi and after a minute, he nodded briefly.

" Perfect...Look, everything has its own secrets. Each and every one of your bodies contains magic, right? Well, your magic is not identical...I think...that's how it is with us, shinobi. Every one of us has different chakra, with different affinities, different capacities, different special powers. That's what the bad people in our world are after. And Naruto just reminded me of an amazing example. Years ago, many many ears ago, before your magic even existed, before the world was in its currents state, there was one man, who put the beginning of everything in here. People refer to him as Rikudou-sennin. That was an almighty man, with powers same as the ones of a god. He created everything in our world. He created all the jutsus known to us, every one of them, the fire jutsus, the water, lightning, earth and wind ones. His powers were huge. And to even make it better, he had a ten-tailed...a ten-tailed...let's call it a pet."

" A ten-tailed pet?..."

" Yes. We call it the Juubi. It had an enormous amount of powers, even greater than the ones of Rikudou-sennin. Basically, this creature was the strongest thing in the world, and it belonged to that man, which made him that powerful. And the two of them became one. The chakra of that...pet...was mixed with Rikudou's...the pet was closed in him and they worked together. But the power of the Juubi was simply too much to handle, that's why Rikudou separated it in nine pieces, creating nine tailed beasts. There was a one-tailed beast, two-tailed beast, and so to a nine-tailed beast. These nine creatures contained the powers of the Juubi. The more tailes one beast had, the stronger it was..."

" That means, that the one-tailed beast was the weakest and the nine-tailed - the stongest, right?''

" Exactly, Hermione." Kakashi nodded. " But their power was far too great, far too big and people feared it. That's why after years of destruction, the shinobi started sealing these beasts into people, which we call Jinchuuriki."

" Jinchu-what?"

" Jinchuuriki. These people were vessels of the nine tailed beasts, they were keeping their powers, some of them even befriended the beasts and received their help in battles. And once the vessels were close to death, the beasts were sealed in new, young bodies. And so everything was going on and on...until this ceratin day, time, moment, second...there are still Jinchuuriki, not all of the beasts are here, though...the Akatsuki have captured seven of the beasts, and the only ones left are the eight-tailed and the nine-tailed beasts."

" So the two strongest ones?"

" Yes, Ron, obviously..." Hermione interrupted and turned to Kakashi. " But the Akatsuki are gone, right?"

" Yes."

" And why did they need that power?"

" I don't know the answer of that question." Kakashi sighed. " But whatever it was, it was something big, because they were after the eight-tailed and nine-tailed beast, too."

" The vessels of these two beasts should be extremely powerful, judging from what you've said..." Harry noted.

" Oh yes, they're pretty much the most powerful shinobi among us right now..." Kakashi nodded and Naruto shot him a glance with a smirk.

" Wow, people more powerful than you, Kakashi?"

" Oh yeah, far more powerful than me..."

" Wow, do you know any of these two people?"

" Yup...Both of them..."

" WOW! You know that powerful people...who...who are they?!"

" Well..." Kakashi closed his book and bore his eye at the excited faces of Harry, Ron and Hermione and then at the expression of Sakura, that showed that she was barely keeping her laughter in. " One of them is only a friend and the other one I happen to know very, very well...In fact, he's my student..."

" Really? You have thought a Jinchikiki...?!" Ron gasped. " Awesome!"

" Jinchuuriki." Kakashi corrected patiently and smirked. " You happen to know him, too..."

" What the..." Hermione looked at the young shinobi with widened eyes. " It's some of you...Sasuke, Sakura or Naruto...right?"

" Yes, that's right."

" Sasuke..." Harry and Ron said in the same time, which Naruto frowned at.

" Wait...what?!" he yelled. " Why'd you automatically think it was the teme...?!"

" Well look at you and then look at me...it's obvious..." Sasuke said with closed eyes and a hint of a smirk.

" What's that supposed to mean?!"

" Enough, boys!" Sakura gritted her teeth and turned to Hermione. " You got it, right?"

" Y-Yes." she nodded. " So you, Naruto, are one of these people with tailed beasts inside them? That's impressive...which...I mean what is it..."

" What beast is inside of me?" the blonde chuckled. " It's the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed beast..."

" So you're the most powerful ninja?"

" Well, he wishes...he's a knucklehead who isn't in complete control of his beast...basically, he's a loser." Sasuke muttered not loud enough for the wizards to hear him, while Kakashi cleared his throat.

" Well, when he completely merges with the Kyubi, yes, yes he will be the most powerful...but Naruto's still very young. There were Jinchuuriki who, until the day the beasts were extracted from them, haven't ever been able to use the powers of the ones in them."

" So you use the Kyubi's chakra?" Harry asked with furrowed brows, and Naruto nodded.

" Only when I need it. And happily, he happens to be kind sometimes and offers help himself...But it's quite often, unfortunately..."

" And how do people understand who are Jinchuuriki...?" Hermione asked all of a sudden, interrupting Naruto. " I mean, the people who are after them, how do they know who are the people they're searching for. I don't think that when somebody is used as a vessel, everybody is being told, right? That would be stupid..."

" Of course it's not told. The secret stays in the respective village of the one. It's just that...well, they're quite easy to recognize when they, well, go a little overboard and unknowingly let the beasts take control over their actions..."

" Does that happen often?" Ron asked with widened in fear eyes, when he looked at Naruto. The blonde looked down to his feet while sighing heavily. Hinata stroked his back and smiled friendly.

" No." Sakura stood up. " That happens only to people who don't know what they're doing. Naruto has control over his beast. Naruto has tamed the Kyubi. That's it. No more questions!"

" What was that about?!"

Sakura glanced at Hermione with the words written all over her face...'I'll tell you later, don't talk about this anymore!'

" I-...eerm, well, how did we actually get here from that locket?!" Hermione hurried to say.

" The secrets of one's body..." Kakashi reminded kindly and skipped the page of his book.

" Ah, right...well, a Jinchuuriki's body still hold part of the powers, it was just an example, but that's why bodies of shinobi get burned." Sasuke explained in a monotonous voice. " And that's why there isn't any grave of Orochimaru. His ashes are buried somewhere, in an unknown to us place. But there might be a possibility, that they've kept his stuff. Sakura, write to Tsunade. If the locket was with Orochimaru back then, it must be in Konoha now."

" Hai, Sasuke..." the girl nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

" Hinata, Naruto...why don't you go upstairs?" Kakashi asked after a while, offering the two teens the chance to stay alone for a while and Naruto to calm down a bit. He knew that making people fear him was the ill nerve of Naruto. his whole childhood he's spent alone, because people have feared him. That's why the girl nodded and almost dragged her boyfriend up the stairs. " Now, Kreacher, can you please tell me when you last saw the locket?"

" The locket's always been here. Always since...m-m-master Regulus..." the elf answered after a sob.

" That's impossible..." Sasuke crossed his hands on his chest. " That locket has been in Orochimaru for ages. Almost since I joined him. It's..."

" When did you, Sasuke, last see that locket?" Kakashi asked calmly.

" Well, I-...I-...I don't remember...a long time ago. I didn't actually pay much attention to Orochimaru, yet much to his accesories..."

" So it's possible, that this locket has disappeared from Orochimaru two years ago..."

" Y-Yeah,I guess so. But how did that locket come from Orochimaru to that house?"

" I don't know that, but we'll understand, right?" Kakashi muttered and returned to his Icha-Icha Tectics. " Besides, we don't know whether the real or the fake locket has been with Orochimaru..."

" What?! Wait...Kreacher, when did the locket disappear from here?" Harry raised his voice and stood up from the couch. " And who took it? Do you know?"

'' Two weeks ago, master...And it was Mundungus...Mundungus Flecher..."

The three wizards glances at each other and muttered in a low voice, in chorus..

" Dung..."

" That staeling shortey!" Ron hissed. " I told you he was no good!"

However, despite Ron's words, Harry has leaned forward and was handing something to Kreachure.

" I want you to have this, because I am sure that after everything you've went through, Regulus would have wanted none other than you to have it, right? But before that, can I ask you for something? Can you, please, find Mundungus and bring him here?"

" Of course, master..."

" Thank you, Kreachur, there you go..."

When the elf looked down to its hands and when it saw what was lying on its long fingers, it started sobbing uncontrollably, collapsed on the floor and started crying.

" For Merlin's sake, Harry! What did you do?!" Hermione's shriek echoed around.

" Nothing!" the boy answered automatically. " I just gave him the fake locket of Regulus!"

The gaze of Hermione softened, Ron frowned and Kakashi returned calmly to his book. And Sasuke was the same. Nothing...

" Overkill, mate...overkill..." Ron muttered and proceeded to get out of the room, where the sobs of the elf were driving him crazy.


" Even they...even they view me as a freak now, don't they?" Naruto burried his face in his palms, while Hinata was trying to comfort him. " It's always been like this. People have always thought of me as nothing else than a monster. Noone ever thinks of me, they only point at me and all they think of is 'Kyubi'..."

" T-That's not true, Naruto-kun!" Hinata said helplessly and rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping her tiny hands around his middle. " Who do you think I love, the Kyubi or you?...It's simply...ridiculous, Naruto-kun...Me, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-kun...everybody! We're your friends and for us you are Naruto...you shouldn't care what other people think of you..."

" I know you're right...but I really considered them my friends, too..."

" And I am sure they are!" the girl hurried to say. " It's just that they aren't a part of our world. They don't know what it means to be a Jinchuuriki, they don't know that you are powerful enough to keep your little orange fox friend inside..."

Naruto shivered and after a second, smiled.

" He's not really happy that you called him my little orange fox friend...and he threatened that he'd kill all of you..."

The boy sensed, how Hinata tensed and looked at him with apologetic eyes. No trace of fear.

" G-G-Gomen! I am so sorry! I d-didn't m-m-mean to..."

" It's alright..." Naruto laughed and hugged her back. " As if I'd let him harm the people I love most..."

Hinata smirked shyly in his chest.

" That's the Naruto-kun I know..."

" Yeah, your little orange monster..."

And then he leaned in to kiss her. At least that was the same as always in this mess they were in right now...


Hi, there, lovely people! I'm currently not at home, I'm on a vacation with my family, so I guess that excuses me somewhat...

I hope you liked this chapter, the mystery, though...

If you did, please, review!

Share what's on your mind! I'd gladly hear it :)

Also, a MASSIVE THANKS, for adding my story in 2 communities :)

I guess that's what I wanted to say, so...eerm, bye, until next time, lovelies! xox