It has been nearly a month since my last update. Getting through 2 holidays, 5 birthdays in immediate family and an entire weekend ruined thanks to the city inspector not liking my lack of yard maintenance means my writing takes a back seat to life. Now, on with the story. (Yes this is nearly identical to the one from my other story. I wrote it, I can copy it.)
Trouble With Seals
Kakashi looked at all the blondes in his office and sighed. 'I think every adult blonde in the village is here right now.' Ken merely sat beside Tsunade listening to Inoichi describe the process he and a trio of other Yamanaka would go about working on the memory seal keeping Naruto trapped in Ken's mind.
"The most difficult task we have is not in the main seal itself. If it was that alone, we would have removed it the first day. The problem lies in the additions to it made by whoever put the seal on Ken. From the research I have done, it closely resembles the work of Orochimaru before he fled Konoha."
Tsunade growled at that, "Orochimaru? That means Sound is behind what happened to Naruto?"
"It appears that might be the case. Let me explain a few things we have managed to come up with in Intelligence. Information we have on Sound shows Uchiha took it over shortly after Naruto destroyed Akatsuki in the Konoha Invasion. One idea we have come up with that fits our data is that Uchiha is planning something mainly in regards to his original team, Team 7. First, Naruto disappears but is apparently not dead. Second, in the initial attacks, Haruno Sakura disappeared from this very building. Third, before Kakashi-sama took office, the attack on him by Sound and Uchiha himself merely destroyed his Sharingan eye when they could have killed him outright. In fact, every other ninja known to have been at the mercy of Sound has been killed."
"Now Sound has been extremely 'generous' in the past to return the body of every slain Konoha ninja to the village. This is mainly a morale ploy but it gives us a chance to know something into the mind of Uchiha. Finding Naruto, Ken, has changed things in how we viewed the plans of Uchiha. The valley Ken was found in is very isolated and a week's travel for a ninja from the place he was ambushed at eight years ago. This indicates he was placed there deliberately. Sakura has never turned up as an operative for Sound so we are now assuming she is being held somewhere as well. One analyst put out the idea that Uchiha was saving his team for last."
"With that in mind we looked over the parts of the seal unfamiliar to us. It turns out many of the components were familiar just never in that combination before. The add-on works like a key to removing the main seal but only if certain conditions are met. If the right conditions do not exist, one portion of the seal will act as an explosive tag and blow Ken's head apart."
"Ouch," muttered Ken.
Kakashi looked up at Inoichi, "But you have no idea what that condition may be at this time, correct?"
Inoichi nodded glumly, "Correct, Hokage-sama."
"Then, what is your plan, Inoichi?"
"My clansmen and I would try to partially 'lift' the main seal and try to 'peek under it'. Basically, open a temporary hole in the seal to see Naruto's last day. If we can see Naruto's last memory regarding the sealing itself we might get a clue into the key for removing it entirely."
"What kind of danger would that put Ken in?" Tsunade asked angrily.
"If I make a mistake, both of us will die," Inoichi replied.
Tsunade walked with Ken back towards the Uzumaki home in silence. Hinata and the twins were off doing things with Hiashi so they had the place to themselves until the Yamanaka were ready for Ken. Ken surprised Tsunade by speaking up once they had closed the gate behind them.
"How important is Naruto to you? To this place? I understand what he is to Hinata, but why so much effort for one person?"
"That is a tough one to answer, Ken. It is a very complicated situation. There is a lot about Naruto we have not told you about; a lot of things that we can't explain in simple words."
"Please, tell me what you can, Tsunade?"
"Well, Naruto was an orphan and a prankster. He was loud and occasionally both an idiot and a genius. He never went back on his word and he never gave up on anything he set his mind to do. Kakashi once dubbed him Konoha's number one most surprising knucklehead ninja. He found unconventional answers to conventional situations."
"But even that does not justify all this effort, Tsunade. There has to be more to it. Ninja are all over the place here. What good is one more?"
Tsunade sighed softly, "He had a special power, Ken. He could make people better just by them getting to know him even a little bit. He changed so many for the better, one person at a time. He saved me from my own pain and brought me back to be Hokage even after I swore to never set foot in this place again. He made Hinata strong enough to defy her own clan just for a chance to be with him. Every day he made Konoha better than it was the day before."
"When he was taken from us, only a few people noticed right away but the entire village noticed it soon enough. Something was missing. It seems that Naruto was much more than just a ninja; he was the Soul of the Village."
"The soul of the village?"
"I know it sounds like mystical nonsense but it's true. In each generation, one Konoha ninja rises above all others to lead and inspire others. Something my old sensei Sarutobi Hiruzen called the Will of Fire. Most of the time, that person ends up becoming Hokage. My grandfather the First had it, my uncle the Second as well, then sensei as Third. Naruto's father came next as Fourth. When the Fourth died, it seemed to disappear even though the Third took the lead once more."
"After a time, Naruto appeared with it. He was always doing the impossible and succeeding when anyone else would fail. The first Sound Invasion, finding me, the entire Akatsuki business. I was preparing for the day I could hand things over to him as Hokage when he vanished. That was when things fell apart for Konoha."
"Alliances fell apart one by one. The Sand Village pulled away after our pitiful efforts to find him. They barely talk to us now. The countries that Naruto affected did the same. One by one, they found no reason to maintain alliances with us. Gaara said it best, 'If you could so callously write off a future Hokage who was the son of a Hokage; what would an alliance with such a country be worth?'"
"No one tried at all to find Naruto?"
"Oh, I tried all right. For a month, Konoha ninja scoured the countryside looking for any trace of him, living or dead, but found nothing. Danzo and his minions whispered in the Daimyo's ear that we should not be spending our efforts on a dead man. The Daimyo agreed and ordered us to cease all searching. Any search for Naruto would have to be done through a paying contract. Only Hinata kept trying. She would never admit Naruto was dead. She said in the most certain terms, he was only locked away somewhere but not dead."
"She told me her reason the other day. You would have to ask her yourself because she asked me not to say why."
"It is because Naruto's name is still on the Toad Contract. I knew about that. Katsuyu, my slug summon, told me about it but I never pressed Hinata on it. If I had asked her about it officially, I would have to turn the contract over to the village. When the twins are old enough, they can sign it and with three consecutive generations of one family on it, it would be considered a family contract and untouchable by the village."
Tsunade sat quietly for a minute before speaking again. "But right now, Naruto will be the one thing we need more than anything else. He would be hope and we are sorely lacking in that."
Ken nodded in agreement, "There are worse reasons to risk dying, aren't there?" Then he grinned at Tsunade. "Going out with a bang for a cause beats dying on my knees before some random bandit for a hand full of copper pieces."
Ken looked at the place where he would be sitting for the attempt to peek under the seal. "Gee, you think you could make it look more like a torture device?"
Inoichi chuckled, "Well, most of our guests here are not willing visitors to this room. The restraints are strong enough to hold unwilling jonin for mental scanning. You nervous or something?"
"Nervous? Yeah, just a lot."
"You can back out of this you know. No one would fault you for it," Inoichi stated.
Ken shook his head, "No, I can't. Even if it wasn't something scary beyond reason, I gave my word that I would go through with this. Call it a fatal flaw but Hinata tells me that is a trait I share with Naruto."
Inoichi helped Ken into the chair and applied the bindings so he would be held motionless.
Inoichi nodded to his clansmen and made his jutsu to enter Ken's mind.
Inoichi found himself in the sewer foundry he discovered last time in Ken's mind. Ken looked around in a curious fashion, as he had never seen such a thing before.
"It resembles Kama's foundry but why is it in a sewer?"
"Likely that is a holdover from Naruto. Since his life was not a good one in his early years, his mindscape must have been like a sewer and full of bad memories."
"Hinata did not talk much about Naruto's past in much detail. It seems there is a lot about him people are holding back from me. But you talk to me like I am not Naruto. Why is that?"
"You're a separate personality from Naruto, Ken. I have done enough mind walking to realize that much. The hard part will come about when the seal comes off. It could erase you leaving just Naruto's personality. It could erase Naruto leaving Ken's personality with Naruto's memories filtering in. Or the two of you could merge into something new entirely. I think since Naruto was so experienced with the Shadow Clone technique and assimilating the clones' experiences, the two of you will end up merging in some fashion."
Inoichi stood before the 'wall' that lead to Naruto's memories and looked back to Ken.
"I have scrolled back through all of your memories back to the moment you awoke in that valley, Ken. Now I need to get my clansmen to do their part." Inoichi faded from view slightly before reforming and nodding at Ken. "This will hurt a bit, Ken."
The wall in front of the pair began to glow as the Yamanaka outside activated their jutsu.
A pinhole appeared in the wall and the pair were surrounded by the last memories of Naruto.
Naruto grumbled as he leapt to another tree. He got called away from his honeymoon vacation early to deliver a stinking message to the Land of Birds. The mission was bumped up in rank because he was specifically requested to make the delivery. The pair of chunin accompanying him kept out of his line of sight on his flanks. They were unfamiliar to him but the local daimyo had said non-allied ninja passing through needed an escort. In a few hours, he would be at the Land of Birds and rid of them. He could take the long way back on his return trip and avoid this area.
The trees thinned out up ahead as Naruto approached farmland. He hated traveling by roads. Most ninja hated being out in the open. He just hopped to the ground and never broke pace as he headed down the farmland road.
An explosion erupted beneath his feet and he was thrown to the side into a field. Naruto shook his head lightly as he got up and scanned the area. A dozen ninja wearing Sound headbands surrounded him and the pair of chunin.
One called out to him, "Surrender, Leaf Scum!"
"As if. So how is your boss, Sasuke-teme doing lately? I have not had a chance to kick back and chat with him in a while."
"Do not disrespect Uchiha-sama, jinchuuriki. A dozen of you would not even be close to the man he is."
"Oh, you mean he got that fat?" Naruto laughed at how that made the Sound ninja bristle. "If you boys would kindly step aside, I'll be on my way and you can tell Sasuke I ran into you."
"You can tell me yourself, Dobe," Naruto heard a voice call out.
"Oh, hey Teme! I see you still like the butt bow your sugar daddy left for you. I think you really should look into something more manly."
Sasuke growled. "You never change, Dobe. Your life is in danger and you still do not take things seriously."
"Nah, if I was in danger I would be long out of here, Teme."
Whatever, Dobe. I heard you got married to the Hyuuga girl last month. You never invited me to the ceremony."
"Yeah, well, friends of the bride on one side. Friends of the groom on the other. No place in the seating chart for people who say they want to destroy Konoha. You know how it goes."
"Hn." Sasuke inclined his head to his ninja, "Attack."
The dozen Sound ninja all rushed forward to engage Naruto and the pair of chunin with kunai. A brief scuffle drove the Sound ninja back with minor cuts and the trio standing protecting each other's backs.
"You really need better quality ninja, Teme. I am not ever sweating yet," Naruto taunted.
"Hn." Sasuke made a hand seal and the ninja on Naruto's right exploded in a fireball that engulfed Naruto. "They were never meant to."
The fireball faded to show Naruto laying on the ground with the right side of his face badly burnt and all the hair on that side of his head was ash. A blow to the head finished the job the explosion started and Naruto fell unconscious.
Naruto woke in pain unlike anything he had felt before. He could barely open his right eye and his left was swollen and had blood running into it.
"Ah, you're awake Dobe. Good. I was hoping you would be awake for this part. It is so much more fun when the victim is awake for his defeat."
"Not … defeated … yet … Teme," Naruto stammered out.
Sasuke chuckled evilly, "You still don't get this whole thing was a trap set just for you, Dobe."
Naruto slowly pulled his hands into the sign for his favorite jutsu but nothing happened.
"Orochimaru kept massive notes on everything, Dobe. A doubled Five Point seal over your Kyuubi seal to lock up both yours and its chakra. Orochimaru's first attempt at the Chunin Exams years ago was unstable and a double should mesh nicely and prevent even the tiniest of leakage. You will have to learn to get by without it. Ah, but then again, you won't care. When we meet again, it won't matter. Konoha will be gone and you will have missed it all. I'll give my regards to your wife."
As Sasuke talked, he was drawing on Naruto's forehead.
Naruto's eyes were drifting closed as he saw Sasuke's Sharingan eyes activate and he muttered, "Lock." before he made a series of hand signs and pressed his palm against Naruto's forehead and muttered, "Seal."
Naruto's view faded to black.
Inoichi and Ken stood stunned at what they had witnessed.
"This is a major complication," Inoichi muttered. He looked at Ken and spoke up, "Lets get back to the world and we can tell the Hokage what we have seen."
"I hope you understood it because I sure as heck don't," grumbled Ken.
Kakashi leaned back as Inoichi and Ken related what they had seen in Naruto's last memory.
"Uchiha was always one to brag. The part about the dual five point seals for the chakra we already knew about and can remove those at any time. The difficult part is the memory seal. In order to unlock the secondary potion of it is something no one in Konoha has; a Sharingan eye.
(A/N I was sooooooo tempted to end the chapter here)
Kakashi's frown was visible through his mask. "This clears up one other mystery. It explains why Sasuke had gone to such great lengths to destroy Obito's eye." Kakashi pointed at the patch over his left eye. "I think we must be glad for his arrogance once more."
"When he had me beaten and sliced the eye, he just sliced and never followed up on it. He merely assumed he destroyed the eye. But, I did something I had never done before that day; I flinched."
Kakashi lifted up his eye patch to show a badly damaged but partially functional eye bathed in green chakra.
"Years of seeing different jutsu taught me a bit more than basic first aid and I managed to get to the eye fast enough to partially preserve it with a stasis jutsu. When I remove the jutsu, I can use it once before it stops functioning completely. Tsunade agreed with me that keeping it a secret, as an ace in the hole against Sasuke would be the best course of action. I think this might be a good use for it. Don't you?"
Ken was still confused but Inoichi was smiling. "You already know the basic unsealing technique from your days in ANBU Hokage-sama. We believe they would be the same." Inoichi recited a list of signs used by Sasuke to make the memory seal.
"Ah, one extra in the beginning, that must be the lock sign. I would have about 10 seconds before the eye stops functioning completely so I have to get it right the first time." Kakashi alerted a messenger to get Tsunade to meet them at the hospital.
Tsunade arrived shortly after Ken and Kakashi were waiting in an exam room.
"We are only going to get one shot at this, Ken. You ready?" Kakashi asked.
Ken just nodded and lay back on the table. Tsunade attached a brain activity monitor and backed up to let Kakashi access the seal on Ken's forehead.
Kakashi pulled off the eye patch and took a few deep breaths. He silently ran through the hand seals needed to remove the memory seal once to make sure he remembered them properly.
"Tsunade, on my mark, release the stasis jutsu to the eye. I will need the extra two seconds it would take to refocus my chakra from doing it myself."
Tsunade placed her finger on Kakashi's left temple and waited.
"Now."
"Release"
The green glow faded from Kakashi's Sharingan eye. Blood and fluid gushed out of the ruined eye as Kakashi flooded it with chakra and his hands went into motion barely a second later.
His hands sped through the needed seals as the seconds ticked away.
At nine seconds, he finished and pressed his palm to Ken's forehead and said, "Release" He rapidly made one additional sign and muttered "Unlock." before grunting and leaning forward in pain and pressing his hand to the ruined and now useless Sharingan eye.
Tsunade pressed her own fingers to Kakashi's forehead and said, "Sleep" as her forced sleep jutsu overwhelmed the one eyed man.
The readout on the brain monitor was fluctuating wildly as the scarred man gasped and writhed but she took no sign of his head exploding as a good omen.
The brain activity monitor spiked then nearly flat-lined before coming back up to sleep levels as Ken passed out.
"Now, we wait." Tsunade called in a pair of nurses and a gurney for Kakashi and told them to prepare him for surgery. She would be doing it herself. "Send word to Uzumaki Hinata that Ken is in the hospital. She will want to be here when he wakes up."
Kakashi sat up with a start as he woke and realized Tsunade had hit him with a sleep jutsu. Several people in the room turned to look at him and many smiled. Inoichi nodded at him but Hinata had only glanced before turning back to the person on the other bed in the room.
Tsunade gave him a sly grin and walked around the bed to look him over.
"Hmmm, you woke faster than I expected you to once I lifted that jutsu." She ran a glowing green hand over the left side of his face and nodded before gently lifting the bandages. "Open the left one, Kakashi, I want to see it."
Warily Kakashi opened his left eye and was amazed to be seeing out of it. He felt no chakra drain like he always had from Obito's eye.
Tsunade gave him a smug look, "Well, the color doesn't quite match the original but I figure it is close as we can get. No sense in sealing off a perfectly good optical nerve when medical jutsu can replace the missing eye again. Welcome back to the world of full time binocular vision, Hokage-sama."
"Full time? When? How? Why?" Kakashi stammered.
"About four hours ago, a tissue donor a few years back who matched yours close enough to save and someone who is not a field medic to perform a routine surgery thank you very much, and because you deserved it."
"How is Ken doing?" Kakashi asked as he tried to get used to keeping both eyes open at once again.
Tsunade pointed past Hinata at the quiet Ken.
"No change since he passed out after the unsealing. His brain activity spikes every so often but he has not woken yet. No telling what is going on in there."
Ken was lost inside of a massive labyrinth of sewer tunnels. Several times he needed to backtrack and start over. He could find his way back to his starting point easily enough. His search had uncovered many caches of Naruto's memories but so far, he had found no trace of Naruto's core 'personality'. A good portion of the memories Ken had scanned were bad enough to make him wonder why he even bothered to want them. Tsunade and Kakashi were in for an earful when he got back out of here.
Ken turned to the last passage he had yet to try and slowly descended into the murky depths and sloshed through the mental sewerage contained within.
The tunnel opened out into a large open area. A wall on the far side glowed red and lit up the blackness. On a pallet in front of the light lay the object of his search. The still form of Uzumaki Naruto lay as if sleeping. The young unscarred face looked peaceful to Ken as the older man stood looking down at the younger.
The older man laid his hand on the chest of Naruto. Ken could feel his own life slipping toward Naruto as he looked down. "There can be only one and Hinata loves Naruto not Ken. So, for both of your happiness, its time for you to wake up."
The brain monitor spiked again as eyelids fluttered over cerulean blue eyes and slowly opened. Blue eyes looked to one side and met lavender tinted white ones. A weary lopsided smile emerged on his mouth as his voice whispered, "Hime, Ken never said that you make the most beautiful children in the universe."
Tears ran down Hinata's face as she heard the voice. The timber was Ken's but it was so familiar as well. "Naruto?" she whispered.
A slight nod followed. "Inoichi was right. I am sort of Naruto and sort of Ken but Naruto is the right name for me. Like all of my shadow clone memories, Ken's just seemed to fit right into place where they needed to be. I have missed you Sunshine."
Hinata leaned over close and hugged her Naruto tightly and began to cry, "Welcome home, Beloved."
Next Chapter: Moving Ahead, A Ninja Returns
End Notes:
I got a little heavy on the mindscape stuff and I hope I did not lose anyone. So ends the opening arc of this story. I am sorry to see Ken go away but he is not truly gone, just better.
I will not take any heat on the bit with Kakashi's stasis jutsu for his eye. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The eye allowed him to learn jutsu; it had nothing with his ability to cast them.
Review Notes:
One reviewer, Ksai, mentioned that he did not like Ken's reactions to things and how Naruto would not react that way. I told him that Ken was not Naruto. Ken was a separate personality that developed inside the body of Naruto after all the memories and experiences that made up Naruto were sealed off. He had a different viewpoint and goals based on his own experiences and I felt that with a great enough shock, he could faint. I hope my private message to him was good enough to keep him as a reader.
Details that the betrothal contract affect will be touched on in the future as Naruto learns more as his Ken memories add to what he knew before.
Flashbacks are over and the past is present. There will be no long windy monologues to interrupt battles.
