Hey there, everyone! I know, I know, I haven't updated in a LONG time. I got caught up in enjoying my winter break and have been slacking off on my story.I deeply apologize for my procrastination, and I promise I'll find a way to make it up to you guys. :) Anyway, thanks for the new reviews, I will take them into consideration when choosing a pairing. As for the Naruto/Kyuubi mental link, you'll see it for the first time this chapter. (Kinda hinted at it last chapter.) Anyway, on to the story! (OH, and I forgot to mention, I changed the title, because it seemed more fitting.)
Chapter 7: Combat and Conversation
The Demon Brothers ran side by side to the group. They veered their path to Tazuna, and the old man scrambled back in fear. Shinkei slid in front of him, holding up a kunai with two hands. Her face showed determination, but her body was shaking with fear.
"Out of the way, little girl!"
"Or we'll cut you down!"
The two brothers extended their claw arms and aimed for Shinkei. The girl closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. So this is where I...die.
But she didn't. She didn't feel anything pierce her body, although she heard it. She slowly opened her eyes in horror. Naruto was standing in front of her, both claws piercing his back. His head was lowered, so she couldn't see his face through the shadows his hair created.
A demonic voice echoed through everyone's eardrums. "If you lay a hand on her..." All of a sudden, the two brothers leaped back a few feet. Naruto turned around, his fists balled, and his head still lowered. "I'll kill you."
Then he dropped down into an animal-like stance on all fours and looked up. His eyes were red and slitted.
One of the brothers took a step back. "Wha-what the hell?"
With inhuman speed, Naruto bounded on all fours, and before anyone could react, he punched one of the brothers across the face, sending him flying back. Naruto grabbed the chain with both hands and pulled, yelling with anger. The chain split apart, but some of the blade had dug into Naruto's palms. Not noticing, however, Naruto looked around for the other brother, his entire body running on instinct. All of a sudden, Naruto dropped to all fours and immediately jumped to his left.
The ground when the blonde had been standing on a second ago exploded. Out of the dust, the other brother ran out his claw extended again. He slashed at Naruto's head, but the genin stopped the swing with one hand. The Demon brother's face was filled with surprise and fear. Then, Naruto closed his fist, crushing the man's weapon under the force of his grip.
The man flinched. "Damn kid. What the hell are you?" Sasuke suddenly appeared under the missing-nin and kicked upwards, hitting him square in the bottom of his jaw.
Even as the man left the ground from the force of the kick, Naruto punched his stomach before he got a foot off the ground, sending him flying towards his brother, who was unconscious next to the road.
Still not totally beaten, the brother threw a kunai at Tazuna in a desperate attempt to finish his objective. The leaves in front of the old man blew away as Kakashi appeared out of thin air and grabbed the weapon in mid-air casually.
The missing-nin gasped in surprise, and before he knew it, Kakashi threw the kunai at him. But unlike what the man thought was going to happen, the kunai flew past his head, only to be caught by Kurai and pressed against the brother's neck. "It's over."
After that, things had gone by quickly. Naruto's wounds healed amazingly fast, surprising even Kakashi and Kurai. Although none of the genin brought it up, they all remembered Naruto's change. Once, a few hours after the incident Izo had tried to ask Naruto about it, but Kakashi interrupted before he could get a word out. Naruto held a solemn look on his face for a long time.
The two jounin interrogated the Demon Brothers, but after several hours of no useful information, they left them under a genjutsu and tied them to a tree. Night had fallen, and it had been almost nine hours since the attack. They had gained about a mile of ground, and had set up camp for the night.
Kakashi got everyone's attention. "Alright everyone, there are three tents. Tazuna-san and I will be in one, the women in another, and the boys in the last one."
Izo looked slightly annoyed, but kept his mouth shut. Sasuke just continued looking gloomy and said, "Tch."
"It's eleven right now, and you can go to sleep anytime you want to, but be warned, everyone will take turns watching camp in pairs of two. First shift will be Sasuke and I, second is Naruto and Kurai, third will be Teki and Izo, and the last shift will be Sakura and Shinkei, with each shift lasting two hours." Kakashi looked over at the old man. "Tazuna-san?" The old man grunted his acknowledgement. "We need to talk." Sweat dropped from the old man's brow.
Naruto gloomily got up from his seat at the edge of camp and he trotted over to his sensei, taking a seat next to her. "When it's our shift, sensei, I want to talk about a few things with you."
Kurai looked a bit worried, but smiled anyway. "Sure thing, blondie."
Naruto's mood seemed to improve more after that. Kurai watched him go over to the other genin and start to open up a bit to conversation. I'm glad he's getting back to normal. I wonder what he's going through right now...
"Kurai, I need to talk to you. Privately." She turned around to see her fellow jounin standing on the edge of camp, the fire's light barely reaching him.
It seems I'm a very popular person to talk to this evening. The green-haired woman got up and walked over to her former ANBU captain. "Yes, taicho?"
"I talked with Tazuna-san about our little friends back there, and he gave me quite the interesting response." Kakashi sighed.
"Is that so? What'd he say?"
"Well, apparently, he has the infamous crime lord of the Land of Waves, Gato, on his tail." Kakshi sighed.
"That's not good for your health."
"Even worse, it seems we'll be running into more trouble soon. This time, from higher ranked missing-nin."
This time both jounin sighed in frustration. After a few seconds of silence, Kurai spoke. "Is that all?" Kakashi shook his head. "It's never that simple."
"He told me that if the bridge he needs to work on isn't finished, the Land of Waves will stay under Gato's control. That man has been a thorn in Konoha's side for too long, so I think we should continue with the mission, despite the danger."
Kurai thought about the genin worriedly, but after careful thought, she agreed. "If we pull this off, the Land of Waves could be a powerful ally in the future."
"Alright then, it's settled. Don't mention anything to any of the genin, except maybe Naruto. It's up to you, though."
"Why Naruto? That idiot will probably open his mouth and tell the others" Kurai looked at the white-haired man with a confused expression.
"I think it would be a good idea to let him know of the dangers ahead, in case we have another, uh," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, "incident."
"Oh, I see. Alright, I'll let him know during our shift. He wanted to talk to me anyway, and I have a good guess at what it might be about."
Kakashi nodded. "I think we should join our genin back at the camp, or else they might get suspicious, if you know what I mean."
Kurai blushed and growled in anger. "You perv!" She slapped Kakashi, sending him flying. After the steam stopped pouring out of the woman's ears, Kakashi got up and raised his hands in his defense.
"I meant that they might think we're talking about something they shouldn't know, and they'll get curious!" Kurai blanched, then immediately stammered an apology. Kakashi just walked past her cautiously. "Perv." He walked away, leaving a flustered, and very angry Kurai.
Kakashi walked back into camp, Kurai close behind, the others of the group to busy talking to notice that they had gone.
Another hour passed by quickly, and already everybody was asleep, except Kakashi and Sasuke who were on watch. Their shift passed by fairly quickly as well, with almost no words crossing between the two except for the occasional, "Did you hear that?" and "It was nothing."
Kakashi woke up Kurai, who was apparently having a very naughty dream and blushing, which then made Kakashi nose bleed, which then made Kurai slap him, after which she apologized, saying she thought he was, "someone else". He grumbled and went back to his tent, slipping inside and quietly going to sleep.
Sasuke, after walking into his tent, lightly kicked Naruto awake. "Your shift, dobe. Don't let anyone slit our throats." Naruto just got up, already dressed, and shoved past Sasuke, bumping their shoulders purposely and angrily. All Sasuke said was, "Tch, dobe. Watch it", and went to sleep.
Finally, after many hours of waiting, Naruto would have the chance to talk with his sensei alone. Naruto's eyebrows scrunched up. I will find out what happened from sensei, and I'll make sure you never act up like that again.
A deep rumbling boomed inside Naruto's head. Insolent child. I will do what I please, when I please. Naruto gulped as he realized that rumbling was the fox laughing.
Shut up, stupid cat.
Don't push it, kid, or I'll eat you for breakfast.
Naruto knew anything he heard, said, saw, and thought would automatically go to the Kyuubi, and he had known ever since he had met the fox after he "changed". They hadn't talked much, but the conversation had shaken Naruto.
But he could think about that later. Right now he wanted to talk to his jounin, and here she was, in front of him, waiting for him to speak.
After a few seconds of silence, "Well Naruto, you wanted to talk, right?"
Naruto nodded. He sat down, careful to sit as far away from the tents as possible, and Kurai followed suit. "Sensei, I wanted to talk away from the others, because I didn't want them to hear this. I didn't want them to hear us talk about...him, or for them to know he was inside of me. I'm not ready for them, or anyone, to know. There's a lot I want to ask you."
Kurai sighed. I guessed correctly. "Naruto, before you continue, I want you to know that you can trust me more than anyone, and I will protect you from everyone and everything. That is a mission given to me by Hokage-sama himself. I was also ordered to tell certain things, and not tell others things. But before we get too into anything else, I what I'm about to tell you is one of the seven highest held secrets in all of Konoha."
Naruto looked scared, confused, and excited all at the same time. "Seven?"
Kurai nodded. "One of them you already know. You are the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko." Naruto gulped and nodded his head. "The other ones may or may not be revealed in due time, but there is one other one I was ordered to tell you should you show signs of the Kyuubi's influence. And I'm sure he knows most, if not all of these seven secrets. He has a long history with Konoha."
Naruto leaned in closer, sweat dripping in anticipation.
"You know the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju?"
"Of course."
"You must have heard the story of how he died in the Academy, right?"
"Ya, of course. It was one of my favorites. He died saving hundreds of shinobi in one of the many revolutions that were happening across the world near the time after Konoha's founding."
"Well, that's what they teach, and what they tell the general populace and other villages. But it's a lie. The number of people who know the truth does not even go past two digits. And your about to be one of them. The truth about the Shodai Hokage is..." Kurai looked around, cast a technique that let her send her thoughts into another person's head, and directed them to Naruto.
Naruto's eyes widened, and for the second time in his life, (the first being when he found out about the Kyuubi), he was absolutely and utterly speechless.
Well ladies and gents, I wanted to leave it at a cliffhanger. I promise you'll find out next chapter what she told him, and in the very beginning, too! So stay tuned! (And review please. :D ) About the Seven Secrets of Konoha (as I like to call them now), you'll gradually find out about them. Some may be blatantly obvious or already known, but some may be totally unexpected. Next chapter, "Secret of the Shodai Hokage". See y'all soon!
