Dead Man Walking
A/N: A one-shot story hook; what is Madara's intervention made the Fourth look at a different way of truly getting rid of Kyuubi and take the weapon out of the hands of a madman? What would happen to Naruto if he was truly a sacrifice, rather than a vessel? This is one idea of when the Shiki fuuin is done differently, and Naruto bears a burden of a different sort.
'I'm not strong enough...'
It was a thought that had plagued Minato all his life, the idea that someone he loved would be put at risk or worse due to his own weakness; right now, with his own death mere seconds away, that fear looked to be realised in the worst possible way. With the hand of the Shinigami stuck through his stomach and the burning red eyes of the Kyuubi glaring down at him, fighting against the death god's power, he realised there was no way he could use his original idea of sealing the monster into his newborn son. The masked madman that had brought the demon here and fought him for his convoluted reasons of war and peace, the man who had killed his beloved Kushina by ripping the Kyuubi from her seal, he could not be allowed to have even the possibility of regaining control of the strongest being in the elemental nations. No seal would be strong enough if the man recovered and came for his son, so he had only one option left; to save Konoha and everyone in it, Namikaze Minato had to become the first man in history to slay a demon.
But his strength was failing, and even with Kushina expending the last of her life-force beside him to chain the monster down, he could not drag the beast into the Shinigami's stomach with him.
Suddenly the chains, noticeably thinner than before, finally snapped; Minato's eyes widened and he let out an anguished gargle of pain as the redheaded woman by the side of his finally slumped to the ground, her life expended having used every scrap of power to save her adoptive village. The Kyuubi reared up, free of its binding with a deafening howl, and Minato knew that it would soon be over; he could not finish the beast and his life was therefore forfeit to the kami of death. In mournful rage, he silently prayed to any god who was listening to heed his prayer and save his village...
...and the god immediately over his shoulder answered.
With a voice like nails down a chalkboard, the Shinigami spoke, and its words filled Minato with dread; there was a way to achieve his goal but the price, the price was too steep; he had lost his wife, must he lose his heir as well? A decision that no man, no father should ever be forced to make was thrust on his shoulders and he had but a second to make his choice of Naruto, his newborn son Naruto, or the entire village of Konoha. With tears of grief dripping from his cheeks, the Hokage wrestled down his grief and paternal duty, making the sacrifice for the good of his people, and suddenly, let his arms drop a little lower, delivering the bundle he carried into the Shinigami's extended arm.
His last thought was that he had failed his family and deserved his torment for all eternity, and it was a grief so deep that even the look of horror in the eyes of the Kyuubi as it realised its death was finally upon it could not ease the burden of guilt that crushed his soul as the Shinigami's jaw descended.
XXX
Wonder what the boss wants me for?; the question was in Miterashi Anko's mind as she whistled idly, walking through the Hokage's tower with a kunai spinning negligently on the end of her finger. The T&I operative and special jounin casually sauntered past the receptionists' desk, flipping off the secretary that greeted her presence with a disdainful sniff, and nodded to the hidden ANBU guard at either side of the Hokage's door. Opening it and letting her trench coat flare around her, the snake mistress stepped inside as though she owned the place and greeted casually,
"Yo Hokage-sama", retrieving an old dango skewer from her coat pocket and picking her teeth with it, ignoring the look of distaste that flicked across the face of the chunin in the room, she asked the hundred-ryo question, "you do you need me to kill?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen was an old man who looked older, almost crushed by the burden of running a village in his advanced years. However he was the ninja who had been the God of Shinobi in his prime and he still possessed that aura of power around him such that, when he spoke, even the outspoken Anko paid very close attention,
"Thanks for your quick appearance Anko-chan, but your next assignment should involve no killing, at least not for the moment..."
"Awww", Anko interjected, face a childish pout, "and I was looking forwards to getting out of the office – you got me all excited for nothing".
"...and whether that excitement is a good thing or not is a matter of opinion", the Hokage muttered before speaking out loud, "sorry Anko, but your next assignment is as a teacher", before the look of amazement could fade from the kunoichi's face he pressed on, "one of the students in Iruka's latest class has the potential for SAID – I want you to bring it out of him".
All was silent in the office, until,
"Bwaahahahahahahahaha!" Anko's hands fell to her knees as she laughed uproariously, "Wh'what did this gaki do to piss you off so much? Giving him to me as a student – if he's lucky I'll poison him, break every bone in his body, kill him and make sure he's never found, and if he's really lucky I might do it in that order!"
"Not this one you won't", Iruka chimed in, and such was the conviction in his voice that Anko stopped laughing and looked up, "he is...different from the others..."
"...for reasons I will not divulge", the Hokage said mildly, though both nin present knew that point was now cast in stone, "if he wishes to tell you he will do so, in fact I'd prefer it if he did as it might help him trust you and vice-versa". Anko nodded at this before becoming more serious,
"SAID you say; that's a lot of assumptions about a genin", and it was; SAID, or Sabotage, Assassination, Infiltration and Demolition, ninja were rare and highly prized assets for a village as it was they who could cripple a rival village before a war even began, or go into deep cover and siphon valuable information back into Konoha. Most SAID's were trained when they reached chunin level at the lowest, so to hear of a genin being potentially groomed for the role was almost unheard of; especially since Itachi went off the deep end, even if he never actually completed the training; "which brat is it?"
"Uzumaki Naruto".
A silence fell over the room at that name, as it always seemed to do when brought up in casual conversation; Anko immediately became more wary and would have asked a question had she not seen the faraway look in the Hokage's eyes. The old man was in the room but not present; he was thinking backwards, his mind on the past...
...remembering...
XXX
He had been the first to arrive after the Kyuubi vanished, and tears sprung from his eyes as he saw the prone body of both Minato and his wife. They had been married only a few scant months, since Kushina's pregnancy became immediately noticeable; it was far too short a life for them both to share together. Wearily the former Hokage (soon to be reinstated, he cursed again at the death of his successor) steeled himself against the pervading aura of doom that lingered even after the Kyuubi had been sealed away, and gently moved the cold body of Minato to retrieve the new Jinchuuriki he had been forced to create from his own son. Wearily giving orders to others as the others arrived on the scene and trying to shake the sensation of wrongness from both him and the others around him as they did so, the Hokage formed hand signs and teleported both himself and Naruto back to the Hokage's tower, writing off the fact that he botched the simple technique twice as fatigue from the battle twice.
It was only when he arrived back at the Hokage's tower with the strange sensation still all around him that he looked down at Naruto; as soon as he found himself having to fight his own body to look at the baby, he realised something, somehow, had gone horribly wrong.
It was only three days later, when Jiraiya stumbled into his office after looking after his godson and checking on the seal without pause, trying to see Minato had done to alter the seal and cause such a calamity, that Sarutobi would have even the slightest inkling of what the Yondaime had damned his son to live as. Jiraiya had looked worse than at any time the Sandaime had ever seen him, even after Tsunade had caught him peeping at her or following Orochimaru's defection. His skin was pale and gaunt, lines on his face that had never been there before as he clutched his sensei's desk, the first words he spoke chilling the blood of even the God of Shinobi,
"Uzumaki Naruto", the Toad Sage croaked, voice dry even as his eyes were wet with unshed tears as he found himself remembering the past three days, trying to work on a baby he should have loved but could hardly bring himself to look at, "should...not...be..."
XXX
A slight clearing of the throat from next to him made the Sandaime blink and he realised he was in his office again; he shook himself as he realised he'd slipped back into his memories again; damn, it's becoming more frequent – I must find a successor soon. Looking up at Anko again, he hid his concerns behind a paternal smile and folded his hands in front of him again,
"Yes, Uzumaki Naruto", he reaffirmed, as much for his benefit as for hers, "his grades have been deemed acceptable and his work last night, the capture of the rogue chunin Mizuki, have shown that he has the potential to succeed in your line of work". Anko's eyebrows rose,
"Mizuki came in from him?" She shot a glance at Iruka and, seeing his nod, whistled, "Damn, and I thought that was you Iruka-kun – Kurenai-chan was on your genin squad, I thought you used one of her genjutsus on the traitorous bastard". At that Iruka had the grace to blush,
"No, by the time Naruto-kun took him down I was, ah, unconscious due to the shock of my wounds, and the poison the traitor used on his weapons", the chunin teacher rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously, a little put out that he had been taken down so easily and had his bacon saved by one of his students, "we found out later that Naruto's genin exam had been sabotaged by Mizuki and he'd been tricked into stealing the Forbidden Scroll. However, he managed to learn a technique from it last night and used that to...incapacitate Mizuki". Anko laughed again,
"You call that incapacitated; man, the Academy's sure changed since I was a genin", even now Anko could still picture the former chunin laying in his cell, eyes blank and staring forwards, not reacting at all even as Ibiki branded his skin with a hot iron to encourage him to talk about his betrayal, "what technique did he learn?"
"Kage bushin", the Sandaime answered, making Anko's brow wrinkle in confusion; how would that account for the mental trauma?; "I tested him last night and he can make almost ten of the things now, but that is beside the point", getting the meeting back on topic, the Hokage half-stood and pushed a folder across his desk to the special jounin, "he is your potential apprentice and currently waiting at the Academy. Please test him and determine if you can take him as an apprentice – the meeting for success or failure will be held at five o'clock this afternoon".
"Is that normal or Kakashi-time?"
"Normal time".
"Okay", scooping up the folder Anko bowed and turned to leave, "now I've got a cute little student to torture, it's like my birthday". Whistling happily to herself, Anko had one hand on the door handle before a sudden shout gave her pause,
"Oh, Anko-san", looking over her shoulder the special jounin saw Iruka fiddle with something at the back of his neck before drawing something that looked like a necklace over his head, "if you're going to be Naruto's sensei you'll need this". He tossed it towards her, Anko catching it negligently in one hand before looking at the plain grey stone; though, is that a seal array? Keeping her doubts off her face, the snake mistress of the Hidden Leaf village let her eyes sparkle with delight and slipped the necklace over her head, caressing the stone as it slipped down her chest and making both men in the room look away,
"Aww Iruka-kun", the chunin blushed again, "I knew you cared, you were just too much of a goody-goody to show it. Don't worry", she thrust her chest forwards, almost making steam rise out of the teachers' ears as her cleavage threatened to erupt from the top of her battle armoured shirt, "I'll keep it warm for you, just don't expect me to roll over and lie down when you want to take it back". With that innuendo and a last, cheery wave, Anko departed with a grin on her face as she opened the folder on her soon-to-be-ex-student.
XXX
Well his awareness isn't all that, and the less said about his fashion sense the better; having snuck into the Academy ground and made herself comfortable on a window ledge outside the relevant class room, Anko had observed the four genin before her and recognised them as her and Kakashi's students. Luckily picking out her gaki was simple; he was the one sitting well apart from the others and dressed in a blinding orange jumpsuit, apparently reading from a scroll in front of him. It wasn't good enough from someone who intended to go into SAID, they had to be as sharp as knives at all times; so, lesson one...; without further thought, Anko flicked a dango skewer into her hand and threw it at the back of Naruto's head.
The reactions of the four students was immediate and varied; the pink-haired girl screamed as the wooden weapon thunked into a desk, the Uchiha jumped up into a combat pose and palmed a kunai and the last boy, the one Anko recognised as an Inuzuka when he turned around and faced her, jumped back as he saw her and tried to get into a fighting stance as he saw where the attack had come from, though he was hampered by the desks around him. Naruto, however, had a different reaction to all of them; he moved, just enough to get himself out of the way of a lethal shot, though the jerk of his head wasn't enough to stop the sharp tip of the stake gashing open his cheek. That's strange; even as the blood dripped onto the scroll he was reading Anko felt her appreciation rise slowly – despite the wound he had given no reaction, not a twitch, flinch or hiss of pain, he just seemed to swallow the sudden hurt,
"You missed, sensei".
It took a second for Anko to realise he was talking to her,
"Oh?" She climbed in through the window, ignoring the gawking of the other genins as she stood to her full height and addressed Naruto, "and what made you think I was aiming to kill maggot? You could have dodged that shot fully couldn't you?"
"Yes, but if you were aiming to kill you would have used a more suitable weapon than a dango skewer"; interesting – he knew what I used after just one look at the weapon; "and besides", he continued as he rolled up his scroll, a trace of something that might have been amusement in his voice, "it said on your bio that you had a fascination with blood so I figured that if you get some now, you won't need as much later".
"You've done your homework I'll give you that", Anko admitted grudgingly, realising it was important for a SAID operative to be fully briefed and informed on their targets at all times; though that doesn't mean I have to like a smart-arse; "but we'll see if you've got what it takes over the next hour or so. Follow me maggot". With a nod, Naruto turned around and stood up in one movement, showing his sensei his bright blue eyes and blonde hair, as well as the strange mark on the left side of his head, about level with his eyes.
What the hell is that thing?; for the first time Anko realised she might have done better to give the preliminary notes more than a brief skim through; it looks like a clan tattoo, but he doesn't have a clan. Dismissing the thought for now, the special jounin jumped back onto the window sill and beckoned Naruto to follow,
"First test, keep up with me on the way to the training ground, oh and you three", black, brown and pink hair looked up at the woman as she favoured them with a predatory smirk, "make yourselves comfortable, Kakashi should be here in the next hour and a half or so". Jumping out the window just as the cries of dismay from the genin rose in the air, Anko landed on the Academy ground and pelted away for the training ground, her potential student hot on her heels.
XXX
"Right, well you made passable time", Anko admitted cheerily, though she was a little impressed by his stamina and speed as he was only trailing her by about two minutes – not like she'd ever admit that to the gaki however, "still, we'll have to beat the remaining snail-speed out of you during training. Kami alone knows why but your sensei and the Hokage have got it into their heads that you're suitable for SAID work, you know what that means right?" Naruto smiled, though there was no warmth in it, something that perturbed her a little, but as they'd only just been introduced she brushed it off as nerves,
"Yes". Anko waited a moment but he didn't elaborate – not all that unexpected as his file had said that he didn't have much to say at the best of times; he had always been one of the quiet ones in class,
"Okay, because of that you'll have to pass two tests of mine before I even think about graduating. First one's this; we're going to have a little game of hide-and-hunt", Naruto flicked his eyes around the training ground as Anko's smile broadened, "I'll give you...thirty seconds head-start, and get your eyes off what you can't afford gaki before I make sure the Yamanaka clan will be the only blonde to proliferate in the village again". Naruto didn't react to the threat, instead he merely smiled that same bland smile; this reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger one exactly what...;
"I am merely looking at my handicap sensei", he explained, pointing at the necklace her could see around her neck, "and I already know I'll never have children". Anko snorted,
"Handicap, apart from that orange monstrosity you're wearing". Naruto likewise snorted before looking at his sensei and speaking in a perfectly calm tone,
"If I didn't wear this I doubt most people in Konoha would be aware I existed at all"; what does that...?; before she could think on it, Naruto had carried on, "Still, thirty seconds..." With that, he was gone.
Anko wasted a few of her seconds thinking about what he meant by a handicap, pulling the necklace out from between the breasts and trying to examine the seal matrix imprinted on the stone, though fuuinjutsu had never been her thing and she couldn't work out what they did, or how this tiny thing would constitute a handicap for him. And what did he mean by never having children, that sounded a little morbid for a child, unless he was still in that 'I-hate-girls' phase every boy went through. Shrugging as she realised his time was up, Anko leapt into the tree to pursue her erstwhile quarry.
She found him within eight minutes, not terrible considering his new status as a ninja and his inventive use of Kage Bushin as decoys, though the heat-vision of her snake summons negated most of that techniques' confusion factor. He even managed to set up a few traps along the way, though they were sloppy due to time constraints, but as she approached her cornered quarry, one of her summoned pythons keeping an eye on him but, surprisingly for the snake summoner it hadn't wrapped around him, she felt herself slightly disappointed he hadn't given her a better run,
"Tsk, tsk", she wagged a finger and dismissed her summon, "I guess all those reports on your stealth were exaggerated..."
"They were not", he cut her off, and she was so shocked that a genin would do so that she fell mute and even forgot the throw a senbon through his tongue, "as I said I was under a handicap. Let us try that again sensei; thirty seconds, but take Iruka-sensei's necklace off before you come for me", he smiled, a challenge in his bottomless eyes that hadn't been there before, one that Anko just longed to take up and beat so she could rub his face in it, "that will be a challenge for you". The special jounin snorted,
"On this evidence I doubt it, but what the hell", she shrugged carelessly, "if I catch you this time I'll bleed you out". His sickening smile only widened, once more sounding alarm bells but she couldn't recognise where from, as he nodded, spoke,
"Deal", and was gone.
What the hell is wrong with me?; it had been half an hour, thirty minutes since she'd started this hunt, and Naruto was eluding her. Nothing she had could track him, not her snakes, not her senses; several times she'd flared her chakra, thinking he had a genjutsu over either himself or her, but the feeling of discomfort that lingered over her at times wouldn't dispel. She leant against a tree, feeling slightly sick as she realised that, this time, she was going to have to admit defeat,
"Okay gaki", she shouted, forcing the quaver out of her voice as for some reason she felt like she wanted to cry, "come out, you've passed this half of the test".
"Good", the voice from the other side of the tree made her reflexively bury a kunai into the bark, the alien sensation of weirdness creeping over her as Naruto stepped into sight not five feet from where she'd been standing. Even as he was there, though, Anko felt herself straining to keep an eye on him, almost as if her body or, perhaps not even her body but some other part of her, instinctively rebelled and tried to move away from this strange boy who could hide almost in plain sight,
"Alright gaki", mastering herself she forced herself to look him dead in the eye for a second before, against her will, she was forced to look away, "whatever this is call it off".
"I cannot", she was ready to retort before he spoke again, realising she couldn't see his upraised hand, "put your necklace back on; it will act as a buffer to my...abilities".
Anko didn't need telling twice; she rushed back to the tree branch she'd hung the necklace on and slipped it over her head, almost sighing in relief as she did so as something seemed to crystallise in her mind again, the ominous presence banished for a moment even as Naruto once more stepped back into her eye line. Sensei and student regarded each other for a moment before Anko planted her hands on her hips and demanded,
"What the hell was that gaki, some kind of bloodline limit?" To her equal consternation and frustration, however, the orange-wearing brat chuckled darkly and shook his head,
"No, it is not an ability of the blood", he stressed the last word slightly, though before Anko could puzzle on that he carried on, "what is the next part of my test sensei?"
"What? Oh yeah, that", unease still prickling at the back of her mind, the snake jounin found she wasn't getting the same kick out of explaining her next task as she would normally – for some reason, even as she outlined the task, she wasn't as confident as she had originally been that Naruto would fail the supposedly-impossible mission she'd set him.
XXX
Well, another year, another genin team failed; seeing the slumped shoulders of the would-be Team seven disappear over the horizon Kakashi flipped another page in his book and sighed – like all those that had come before them, this team had never had a chance of working together properly. The Inuzuka was too hot-headed, the Haruno too much of a fan girl and the Uchiha...well the less said of him the better – the boy was spoilt, arrogant and would be killed in his first serious mission unless someone knocked him down a few pegs, a process Kakashi had hoped he'd just started. He was running a draft of his mission report over in his mind when a vague feeling of unease, similar to killing intent, slid over him and he deftly pivoted on the ball of his left foot, seeing another ninja behind him, staring him down,
"Uhh", caught slightly flat-footed by this, Kakashi scratched the back of his head at the same time as tried to fix the short, orange figure with his single eye, "can I help you?" The other genin, he had to be, raised a hand to the left side of his head as though scratching an itch before speaking,
"Hai Kakashi-san; my jounin-sensei requires me to obtain those two bells at your waist to pass my genin exam; I would prefer to resolve this peacefully". O...kay; that was unexpected, even for the Copy nin, a man it was said was impossible to surprise,
"And your jounin-sensei is?"
"Miterashi Anko", ah, perhaps not so unsurprising then, she had always been one for impossible tasks and genin humiliation, she was probably around here now, waiting for the show to begin; and what sort of man would I be if I didn't oblige an attractive lady?
"I see; well I know Anko-chan and she only takes the best", Kakashi put his book away just to be on the safe side, no telling what this gaki could do, "we'll have to do this the hard way". To his surprise, when he managed to refocus on the genin (he seemed to keep having to blink dust out of his eye whenever he looked at the small form, or it might have been the atrocious orange of the jumpsuit burning his retina out), the boy seemed calm,
"So be it"; Kakashi dropped into a stance just as the fingers on the left side of the boys' head twitched...
...and Hell began.
XXX
The alarm bells that had slowly been building up volume in the back of her mind exploded into full volume as she saw the taller of the two forms suddenly drop his arms slack and recoil backwards, moving away from her student clumsily as Naruto rushed over to him. What the hell is going on – who is this damned kid? No-one should be able to do this, least of all to a jounin of Kakashi's quality; the man might have been lazy and pervert but give the devil his due, Kakashi was a damned fine ninja, but now, somehow, Naruto had utterly destroyed him without appearing to do anything. The jounin had collapsed bonelessly near the posts of the training ground, curling up into a ball apparently against his will as Naruto approached; she saw the genin reach down and tug something from the prone jounin before leaping backwards, hand to the back of his head again and Kakashi seemed to relax out of the foetal ball he'd curled himself into; before he could react, however, there was a scattering of leaves and Naruto was gone. Almost before he finished his body-flicker, however, Anko was in front of him, a kunai at his neck as she hissed venomously,
"Who the hell are you? There's no way you're a genin; I've worked with Kakashi Hatake and nobody puts him down like that, nobody! No genin in the world could pull the stunt you just did..."
"I am very grateful for that fact and you should be as well", Naruto intoned, casually dropping the bells he'd retrieved at her feet, "Kakashi-san will recover, they always do; he'll probably rationalise that he took a nap at the training ground for a minute, or zoned out reading his porn – he'll probably use that as an excuse later tonight for the jounin meeting".
Once more his logic deceived her – how was it a good thing that only he could cripple a jounin with little more than a dirty look? Naruto took this opportunity of her hesitation to jerk himself back out of range and beckon her to sit down, face grim as he made ready to speak,
"I will explain as best I can – if you will be my sensei you have to know what I am capable of, and why I can do what I do. However, for you to understand what I really am, I must ask you for a favour". Anko looked at him warily,
"What?"
"You can't explain or rationalise Hell, until you have been there yourself".
It took a moment for the message to sink in but, when it did, Anko shot to her feet and backwards, kunai drawn and levelled at the monster in front of her,
"You want, you want me to...after what you did to Kakashi! Are you out of your mind?"
"No", Naruto assured her, "I am fully sane, however, for my explanation to make sense you have to understand what it feels like to be around me; from there you'll understand why most people don't see me, don't associate with me. It's not because they don't like me, it's because they can't get close to me – I repel people by association even when not actively using my, gifts", she didn't miss the bitterness in his voice at that word but held her peace as he carried on, "this is what makes me an ideal SAID ninja – I can walk into any village in the world and not be seen, simply because people can't bring themselves to see me so convince themselves I'm not there". Anko nodded at this, digesting his words before, slowly, lowering her kunai,
"Okay, so after what you did to Kakashi, how come I'm not on the floor screaming like a little girl?" Naruto turned his head, pointing at the tattoo on the side of it,
"This is a control seal for my power; it tones down the affect my presence has on the world as a whole. It can't fully seal away my presence but, when combined with that necklace", Anko instinctively clutched at the necklace like a lifeline, the only thing stopping this child drowning her in horror like he had her former senpai, "it renders you immune to me. Take off the necklace and I will slip the first level of this seal, the same as Kakashi experienced".
Anko's mouth ran dry but, as she rationalised the idea with herself, she realised that if she wanted to train this potential prodigy in front of her, she had to know how he was, how he worked and what had made him into something akin to a...a Root! That was what she reminded him of – though he wasn't emotionless there was something about him that gave her the same vibe as she had around Danzo's emotionless zombies. Almost before she realised it Anko had slowly slipped the necklace off and was immediately assailed by the strange aura around Naruto's form; she had to fight hard, almost as hard as she did against the Cursed seal that still blighted her neck, to looked up and see his fingers resting on the seal on his temple, a finger on the trigger as he looked at her, forcing her to look away again,
"It will be brief", he intoned, though even before she could nod she had started to drown.
It was not killing intent, it was not bloodlust; it was like nothing she had ever felt before.
It was simply...nothing.
There was no sensation around her, an alien blankness that swept over her entire form and rendered her virtually incoherent; she could barely think to defend herself because she could barely think. Terror, or something like terror, swept over her mind in great, smother waves, crashing over everything she had ever felt before in her life and rendering it nothingness. Unlike exposure to killing intent she couldn't even end her own life to escape the nightmare; it took all she could scrape together just to breathe and tremble, she couldn't unclench her locked jaws enough to bite her tongue. Her eyes were squeezed shut, lost in the darkness...it was gone and she gasped, a cold sweat over her entire body as she blinked her eyes open, feeling hands over her cheeks as Naruto hopped back. She sat up, feeling something clink against the mail of her dress and realising he'd replaced the necklace around her neck after shutting off the unearthly terror he'd generated. Looking across at him, heart still pounding in her chest, Anko pointed at him with a single finger,
"Wha...What...?"
"What I am about to tell you is an S-ranked secret of the leaf", Naruto said, allowing her to catch her breath as he sat down and made himself comfortable opposite her. Before he could continue though, Anko had recovered and jabbed her finger towards the side of his head,
"Gaki, how many levels does that damned seal have?"
"I don't know", he replied simply, "I have only ever used up to level three for certain, and then only for a split-second – you saw the results of that last night". He smirked a little as Anko joined the dots and gasped,
"Mizuki! That was you!" Naruto nodded, actually looking a little shamefaced at that admission,
"Yes, I believe I broke his mind; I was only aiming for level two but I was angry enough to slip. I was lucky that Iruka was wearing the necklace at the time otherwise I might have broken him as well – as it is he merely believes Mizuki poisoned him. However, apart from that", he clapped his hands to returned to his original conversation, "I'm sure you're dying to know what my power is and how it works, so this is the secret – you know the story of the Kyuubi yes?" Anko nodded,
"Yeah, the Yondaime killed it by sacrificing himself and his wife to the death god". The genin, her genin she realised now with a jolt that might have been panic or perhaps pride, nodded,
"That story is almost true", Anko's eyebrows rose as realised Naruto knew something about that night that most of Konoha was in the dark about, "don't be alarmed the Kyuubi is dead, but that was not the original intention of the Yondaime. I don't know exactly what happened, no-one really does, but the original plan to deal with the beast was to seal it and create a Jinchuuriki – all the preparations were in place and a vessel ready for the sacrifice", he looked over at her directly and the snake mistress felt horror grip her heart in a cold iron glove, "any guesses who the vessel was supposed to be?"
"You", he nodded and she felt the world spin – how could the Yondaime, such a paragon of the Will of Fire, stoop so low as to ruin a child's life like that? Had there truely been no other way on the dark night so long ago?
"Yes, I was to be the Jinchuuriki of the Kitsune. But something happened before the sealing, something that made the Fourth alter the plan; rather than sealing the beast, he decided he had to kill it outright. For that reason he changed his request to the Shinigami, but from what I, the Sandaime and Jiraiya of the Sannin can determine, the sacrifice of his soul was not enough kill the beast. He could only seal half its chakra that way".
"So how", Anko took a moment to compose herself, a chill set deep within her now, "how did he...no", her face turned bloodless as she looked across at the boy in front of her, hairs raising on the back of her neck as she tried to disprove the obvious conclusion, "no, he couldn't, you were a baby – Kushina was there!"
"And she died holding the beast down long enough for the Yondaime to finish the sealing", Naruto explained, "but for the good of Konoha the Yondaime made a sacrifice to the death god that night and the Kyuubi was sent screaming to his realm. That is the secret to my power Anko, the reason I can never be accepted to society – by all rights I should have dies that night but somehow, perhaps due to the Kyuubi passing through me as the Shinigami dragged it to hell, perhaps by the intervention of the Kami, I survived, but as something that should not exist. I live and breathe, I have chakra and emotions, but because of what the Yondaime and the Shinigami took from me all life instinctively knows my presence is alien and rebels against it, running away or avoiding me, rationalising the cold chills or tears that follow me or shutting down and even breaking their sanity to survive if they can't escape me, because the most essential part of me was ripped away the same day I was born...", tears were running down Anko's face as she tried to comprehend the life he must have led; compared to that hell exile with Oroichimaru seemed like ne of Heaven's peach gardens, but much as she tried to block out his last words she heard them anyway, the last explanation of the eternal pariah,
"...I don't have a soul".
Naruto said nothing after this admission; he knew that it would time for his teacher to come to terms with the enormity of his admission and rationalise it in her own way. He looked away to give her some privacy as she dried her tears and sniffled, waiting for her to regain her voice enough to speak; and she will, for she is strong and she knows what it's like to be on the outside looking in – this is probably the reason Sarutobi-jiji chose her to be my sensei apart from her skills;
"And", she managed to gasp before looking up at him again, drying her eyes completely, "and the seal?"
"A modification of the Shiki fuuin, inked on me by the Yondaime", Naruto explained, "Jiraiya managed to change it while I was young, and create the necklaces that allow him, the Sandaime and now you to see me as a normal human, before my power could truly manifest and give me a chance at life and to serve Konoha – believe it or not I don't blame the Fourth, I pity him. He was said to be a kind man, so to seal away the soul of a child must have been a terrible burden on him even if it was the last resort. But I will honour his intentions", he stood up slowly, Anko likewise coming to her feet as she realised what he was saying and took it on board, "I have the potential to be a great shinobi, a weapon for Konoha and I will do so, though I will never be Hokage, too much of a bogeyman for that". Anko snickered,
"Yeah, I keep saying Ibiki should go for the post but the stubborn old git never goes for it, says the same thing you do. But, you're mine now gaki, so get ready for training and you'll get your code name tomorrow, though right now you owe me a shed-load of dango for that little scare earlier".
"That I can do, but before that, I have my own idea for a codename".
Oh really?; this intrigued Anko as she quirked an eyebrow, nodding for him to go on and explain his reasoning, something he did with a will,
"I read a lot when I was younger, books don't run away after all", he explained with a chagrined grimace, something Anko knew all too well as she motioned for him to go on, "and I came across readings from the times before the elemental countries. I read them because they were there, most of them made no sense but one of them, a fantasy writing about false wars fought with dice and tiny models, mentioned that in their world, or one of their worlds, a warrior existed that was like me. I liked the name they gave him so, if you accept Anko-sensei, my name is Uzumaki Naruto..." He stood to his full height, a genuine smile on his lips this time as she put a hand on his shoulder, contact he was not used to but drank in like a fine wine, allowing him to finish his introduction,
"...and I am Culexus".
A/N: A little dark, a little unusual and a little bit of a crossover (bonus points of anyone who can see what I've crossed over with here). I always liked Anko-Naruto sensei or brother/sister relationships as the two are alike in many ways. But as always, if you want to take this one on it's there, and before anyone asks why Naruto's not jumping around like a flea on a sugar high it's because due to his loss of soul people can't pay attention to him no matter what he does. As his condition was explained to him young, he understood this and calmed down, honing his skills and preferring to read rather than prank. Hope you enjoyed it and, until next time, ja ne!
