Naruto never decided on giving up his journey to the land of demons. On the same day he went to god's tower, another dark clone journeyed on west beyond the land of rain.
Bright blue skies. The sun shining brightly overhead. Naruto lied contently on the bowsprit of a huge ship, a long bar of wood as thick as a tree trunk. Pelicans flew overhead, blackened by soot from resting near the ship's funnel. The little boy was almost completely relaxed, gazing at the slow back and forth motion of the waves, bits of the forest on the visible shore passing his vision as the ship kept moving.
Almost three hours ago, after the little boy had crossed the border between the land of rain and stone, he spotted an extremely wide river possessing the thickness of a small lake. Mentally consulting the map, he saw it was named the Crosscut River and ran from the ocean down south, headed up through the land of rivers before cutting to the west through the land of wind a bit before heading north into the land of stone. The river cut through almost the entirety of that small country, but curved north again into the land of earth just before the land of stone's western border. Normally, Naruto would've thought nothing more about it but a shape in the distance on the river caught his eye.
Focusing his vision a bit, he saw it was a huge ship with two masts of unfurled sails, a tall funnel in between them, leaking black smoke into the air. Across the hull Naruto made out the huge words 'S.S December' with a smaller phrase of 'Kaminari Enterprises' just above it. It didn't look particularly like a ship geared up for battle; there were no cannons or any weapons to be seen. On the deck he made out the figures of people dressed in white uniforms with strange inverted hats moving about. The ship was following the river westward, and Naruto sensed only weak chakra signatures on board (what Yami had classified as 'civilian' level), so the little white youkai made the carefree decision to check it out.
Of course, given his nature to not attract attention if he could help it, Naruto sneaked aboard invisibly after waterwalking his way as it passed by. He saw all the sights the topside had to offer, even climbing up both masts. Overhearing a conversation between a few of the white uniformed guys, Naruto determined that it was what they called 'merchant vessel' that was going to deliver at Wakkanai port, which Naruto remembered was the farthest west the river stretched in the land of stone before curving north. Good. The little boy went inside the bridge next, deciding to venture belowdeck afterwards. After melding through the wall of the bridge, inside he saw a stout man dressed in a more official looking white uniform. He was very tall and grizzled, a greying stubble coating his wide jaw, an officer's cap on his head. The man also seemed a bit jolly, whistling as he handled what Naruto supposed was the steering wheel, possessing deep laugh lines on his face.
After looking around the room a bit, Naruto stopped in his tracks when the man suddenly stopped his merry tune and spoke.
"I've been captain of this ship for over thirty years. I think I got a pretty good sense of when there's someone there!"
The big man didn't move though, still keeping his eyes front, looking out the windows while keeping both hands steady on the wheel.
"Didn't see anything, so are you a spirit or summat? Why are you here spirit? I swear if you're gonna haunt me and my crew I'll fight ya! I don't care if I can't touch ya!"
Naruto sensed...worry for something other than self-preservation beneath the captain's bluster. The little boy was more concerned by the fact his presence was detected. He checked again, and confirmed the man's minimal chakra levels.
'Well...If I was found out then I guess there's no point in being invisible anymore.'
The white youkai materialized his form (minus the youkai traits of course), which the captain spotted in the corner of his eye.
"A kid? An invisible kid...? You...you're one of those ninja fellas right? Wow, I guess they really do train 'em young."
The captain began mumbling to himself, eyes swiveling back to the view of the front of the ship through the window. Naruto had sensed the big man was calmed. Before the little boy could respond, the man spoke up again.
"I hear ninjas can take care of themselves but you're just a kid, you shouldn't stowaway. Think of your mom and pops. They're sure to be missing you."
The man looked about to go on a lighthearted but long-winded scolding so Naruto quickly said:
"They're dead."
'Still have dad though...sort of.'
The captain paused open mouthed before clearing his throat uncomfortably.
"Ah. Er...why do you want to stowaway?"
"I wanna get to the land of demons."
"The land of demons? Oh!"
The big man recognized the name as a country in the west. His gaze seemed to grow a bit searching as a sudden realization occurred to him.
"So you've just been on your own..."
The captain seemed to come to decision.
"...Alright, it just so happens that my destination is the closest someone can get to the land of demons by boat. I'll take you there...but you didn't exactly pay for transportation. Sorry kid, company policy, not that I expect you to know what that means. You could work for it though."
Naruto sensed no deceit from him, and was curious where this was going. Again, the captain didn't wait for a response.
"You'll...er...Ah I got it! You'll be the spotter for stuff closer to the ground. Take this kid."
Without taking his eyes off from the view out the front windows, the captain rummaged through his coat pocket and withdrew with something that looked like a thin headband with a small metal piece attached to it.
"This is a wireless radio, a little something that'll let you talk to me within a certain distance. Go ahead and put it on your little head."
After seeing Naruto put it on, figuring out how to adjust the strap on it, the captain said:
"See that little metal thing? It's the speaker I'll hear you from. Go ahead, try it out now, but not too loud."
Naruto lightly expressed a greeting into the metal piece and was surprised to hear it reverberate throughout the room.
"It's our sound system kid. Anyway, your job is just to stand at the front of the ship and look down at where the ship is heading. If you can see the ground through the water, tell me. I wouldn't want the ship banking into the shallows now."
Just as the captain said this, the kid promptly disappeared from the corner of his eye. Two seconds passed before he could react, but the man spotted a speck in the distance, something suddenly appearing at on the bowsprit of the ship. Using a pair of binoculars, he was able to see that it was the figure of the kid lying on it.
'It's like those ninja types are from a whole 'nother world.'
Suppressing a chuckle, the captain pulled the cord on a public address speaker nearby. Within a moment, the big man's voice was broadcast to the whole ship.
"Attention everybody, we have a new...temp crew member. It's a stowaway...but uh, you all remember the last time we had one right? Same deal here folks. That's all."
Elsewhere on deck, near the front of the ship, a few sailors paused in their work.
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"We're pretty far away from the nearest port. Do people just jump on boats from the sea now?"
One of the more sensible deckhands brought up.
"Whoever it was most likely sneaked on when we were loading up stock a few days ago. They were probably found just recently, so only now cap's making an announcement about it."
That sailor spotted a little boy lying on the bowsprit of the ship with the headset on his head. After pointing him out to the others, another sailor said:
"That must be him all right. Looks a few years younger than our cabin boy."
"What's cap makin' him do?"
"Look's like spotter work."
The oldest of the conversing sailors replied, to which a younger sailor shook his head in disbelief.
"Spotter...cap is just being cap, I guess."
This was met with a round of chortling, with the sailors resuming their work afterwards.
In truth, the captain didn't need Naruto to be a spotter. That specific deckhand position was deemed unneccessary over five years ago with the invention and introduction of sonar technology to ships. In fact, the captain took a glance at his sonar monitor right that second. The captain just skewed with the company rules a bit, to give an excuse for the little boy. Meanwhile, said little kid overheard their discussion, but didn't really understand it.
For the whole boat ride, Naruto did almost nothing, unknowing that the captain had used the ship's sonar tech to plot an unobstructed course. Hours passed, and when the sun reached it's highest point in the sky, the little boy was disrupted from his leisure when he sensed one of the sailors approach him.
"You're a member of our crew kid! Temporarily, but a member nonetheless! You hafta to come eat with us."
It was then when the white youkai realized that the ship wasn't moving, being moored near the shoals of a beach, and that during this time of day people would usually have lunch. Sensing nothing but friendly intentions, he followed the man belowdeck to some sort of mess hall. A quick sensing revealed that everyone on the entire ship was gathered there, and it was quite rowdy too. Although most of the sailors were grown men, Naruto was able to quickly connect with a sailor who looked similar to the white youkai's age. Named Hishaku, the boy had shoulder-length brown hair, thick eyebrows and light brown eyes.
"Nice to meet you Naruto! The talk of the crew is that you're a ninja right? Are you strong?"
Naruto remembered how he had consumed the Kyuubi and those root ninjas. That should be proof enough right?
"Of course I'm strong! I'm not a ninja though. I wanna be a doctor."
"Eh? Not a ninja? Ok, well I'm gonna be captain one day!"
Naruto blinked. The mention of the captain brought one thing to mind. Just how did the captain sense him originally? Near the end of lunch, Naruto went to ask the burly man for the answer.
"Say captain? How did you sense me? What kind of jutsu is it?"
"Jutsu? Nah, it's not any of your ninja shenanigans, at least I don't think so. It's just that me and the ship have been together so long, she's my baby see? It's like she's a part of me! That's how I gotcha."
Naruto blinked twice, not really understanding. Another sailor, one who didn't hear the whole conversation but only heard the captain's answer, turned and nudged the little boy.
"Kid, just ignore our ol' cap when he get's all crazy like this."
The captain sported a funny looking mock hurt expression, to which the surrounding shipmates exploded into laughter. Naruto grinned. This atmosphere...it wasn't bad.
Wakkanai. A bustling port town where crowds could be seen walking on the cobblestone streets. It took for the sun to just begin its descent below the horizon for the ship to lay anchor here. Invisibly standing above the roof of the ship's bridge, Naruto silently surveyed the crew of the S.S December as they began unloading wooden boxes of varying sizes across the gangplank. He recalled the captain's words when he had given back the headset:
"Alright kid, good luck out there!"
The burly man's broad grin flashed through Naruto's mind as he tensed to jump, deciding to check out the town first and resume his journey after that. However, the little boy suddenly stopped. His keen hearing picked up voices from a place the white youkai certainly believed he shouldn't be hearing them. Peering over the starboard side of the ship, the side not facing the port and where no sailor was present, Naruto saw three people standing on the water next to the ship, covered by the hull's shadow. The little boy sensed that the weakest chakra was the same level as the root ninjas. Considering that root, therefore anbu, were the elite, that meant these three could be said to be pretty strong.
"Heh. Destroying these ships here in front of this whole town will bring us great infamy. That'll start bringing in the important clients and then we'll start making the big bucks."
The tallest of them said, a man Naruto made out to have natural gray hair and a fierce look on his face. The white youkai sensed him to be the strongest of the three, way stronger than the other two combined. The other two appeared to be twin brothers, both with identical appearances: crimson colored eyes, brown hair. They were even dressed in the same gaudy fashion. Naruto differentiated them with the fact that one of them wore showy earrings and seemed to be the talkative person of the two, while the other was silent. The earring brother spoke up.
"Wait Kajura-senpai, we never made a name to call ourselves yet."
"Eh, let's go with Ishi Terrorists for now."
Came the grey haired man's response.
"Sounds good."
The talkative brother replied, the other one merely nodding his head. Naruto narrowed his eyes, deciding to delay his tour of the town, to delay his journey. The little boy inferred that these men were about to do bad stuff that most likely negatively affected the captain and the crew he got to meet. He also realized that these three were strong shinobi who he didn't care much of at all. Recalling a previous conversation he had with Yami, the one about consuming powerful ninjas, Naruto began to salivate, his face darkening.
'...I'm gonna eat these guys...and increase my power..."
Meanwhile, Kajura gestured to the ship.
"Twins, you're up."
They nodded and seemingly began preparing a jutsu together. Before they could execute it out, a rugged face appeared over the side of a ship, looking down at them. It was the captain.
"I had a hunch my baby was signaling that something was over here, and she was right! Who are you people?! Walking on water like that...you're ninjas aren't you? What are you doing there?!"
Although originally surprised by his appearance, Kajura quickly grew irritated by the captain's rapid speech.
"I'll dispose of him."
The grey haired man casually threw a kunai straight at the captain's head. A faint wispy blue outline could be seen surrounding the weapon, and it flew at such a speed the captain literally didn't have enough time to dodge it if he wanted to. In that split second, the big man widened his eyes, only staring at the instrument of his death.
Clang!
Just before it could pierce his forehead, the kunai seemingly bounced off the air. Uzugan spinning, making everything slow down, Naruto (while still invisible) had reached out and smacked the piece of metal coated in wind chakra away. The Ishi Terrorists, expecting a quick death, all raised their guards when that didn't happen. They heard a sound of rushing water behind them and spun around. A giant wolf-like beast made of water towered over them, almost double the height of the ship. It swung its hefty forepaw in a sweeping arc and the three shinobi scattered, their attention on the ships replaced by a more immediate threat.
Naruto chose the Suiton: Water Beast for a few reasons. There was plenty of water around to use, plus the beast could use its own huge body as a shield for the ships. Also, one of his father's tips about fighting the other day was to make the first move to hold the advantage. Well Naruto wanted to make the first move but not reveal his position, so the Water Beast Jutsu was suitable. Jutsu like the Futon: Great Breakthrough and Katon: Fire Dragon Bullet kind of gave away the user's relative position, which wasn't what the little boy wanted. Lastly, Naruto kind of wanted to gauge the abilities of the three shinobi, and them fighting a huge distraction would let the boy observe them all he wanted.
"Heya captain, those guys want to destroy every ship in this harbor, and I'm fighting them."
Naruto summed up the situation quite nicely in his opinion. As he was still invisible, the captain seemed to look around a bit, not knowing where the boy's voice came from. Remembering that the little stowaway could turn invisible, and seemingly brushing off his close encounter with death, the captain said aloud.
"I won't let you fight alone kid!"
The big man dashed into the bridge, and almost immediately after his voice could be heard from the loudspeaker to everyone on the ship.
"Crew, stop what you're doing! We're under attack! Get the crossbows and the harpoons and rush to the starboard side! Hit those three guys you see and no one else! Naruto is already fighting them with his ninja stuff!"
The captain's orders were heard not just by the crew, but by the fighting shinobi below in the water.
"We lost the element of surprise. Anyhow, got any ideas for this thing, Kajura-senpai?"
The twins clearly followed the grey-haired man's lead. When they saw that he wasn't attacking but clearly thinking of something, the two brothers merely continued to dodge. The beast didn't attack at unavoidable speeds for them, anyway. Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance, seeing that they did nothing but evade. Shortly, Kajura spoke up.
"I remember what kind of technique this is. Attacking that beast is useless, it will just replenish itself out of the water. We have to target the person controlling it, that's the only thing keeping this jutsu active."
"But where could the user be?"
"Can't be too far away. Whoever it is also has to concentrate to use it. I would guess somewhere around the ships. Fire away Etoro, Metoro."
Kajura calmly analyzed.
'They're practically guessing where I could be...So they're probably not sensors then...'
Naruto concluded as he invisibly stood on the roof of the bridge. The little boy also saw how the man's eyes flickered to each brother as he said their names. Etoro was the talkative one, while Metoro was the silent one. Etoro laughed and leaped to his brother's side.
"Finally! Ready our combo attack brother! Yoton: Expanding Flame Rings!"
As his brother ran through several handsigns, Metoro then spoke up for the first time in a rather taciturn voice, making handsigns of his own.
"...Koton: Steel projectile."
'Kekkei genkai?'
Naruto thought, remembering that Koton and Yoton were not of the five standard nature transformations. Yami had told him all about blood limits, how they could not be copied or taught to others. The root ninjas he had consumed thus far may have had hiden, secret techniques not taught to outsiders, but no blood limits.
'If I eat them, will I get it?'
The very thought made the boy's invisible spiraled eyes shine with animistic hunger, and a thirst for power. The boy carefully observed what the twins did next. A quickly expanding ring of flames appeared from Etoro's hands while Metoro launched forth a large ball of steel the size of a man. The steel ball seemed to absorb the flames as it sped towards the harbor, gaining a magma-like appearance. Whatever it was, Naruto supposed it wasn't good. The boy promptly willed a Suiton: Water Colliding Wave, a giant wave of water bursting forth at the same height of the water beast, heading straight for the glowing hot steel bullet. Naruto knew the wave would block the harbor (therefore the boy himself) from the sight of the three shinobi. He could now use a Futon: Great Breakthrough without giving away his position. At the same time the wave appeared, the white youkai expelled an extremely wide swath of wind, propelling the wave ever faster.
'Lava...that sounds awfully like fire and earth mixed together...'
Naruto suddenly thought as he finished his wind jutsu. From his understanding of the elements, water beat fire, and lightning beat earth.
"Raiton: Thunderbolt."
The little boy whispered, discharging two thick streams of lightning from his palms, hitting the wave and conducting through it. Naruto wasn't too sure what elemental natures could make up steel, but he was open to see the result of the collision. Hopefully the wave would beat back the twins' attack and push the three shinobi at his water beast, which would smash 'em.
Almost a millisecond before contact, the glowing hot ball of steel released a high pressured shockwave and exploded in a huge firestorm, violently churning the river's surface. It completely blasted Naruto's augmented water wave back, most of the wave evaporating in a huge cloud of steam. The resulting storm engulfed an area Naruto estimated to be almost half the harbor, except it appeared his wave was able to push it just enough so that it barely did not touch a single ship. By now, the entire crew of the S.S. December had rushed to the starboard side, brandishing whaling harpoons and crossbows. They tensely watched in awe as the firestorm had erupted.
'Wow...That's big.'
Naruto thought, watching as the huge mass of flames began to die out. After it did, the little boy grinned.
'Got 'em.'
When Naruto had originally fired off his lightning jutsu, he aimed straight at where he had sensed the twins. He didn't let that up, even when his water wave was repelled. As the smoke cleared, the white youkai saw that his aim was true. The twins' sizzled and blackened bodies could be seen slowly sinking into the depths. The white youkai, who was still shocking them, finally stopped and lowered his arms. That particular Naruto was actually a shadow clone. He still felt the need to bait Kajura, since the grey-haired man hadn't used any of his abilities yet. The invisible dark clone Naruto had sunk beneath the water and was swimming his way to the twitching bodies, temporarily changing back to the darkness he was made of, consuming the twins whole.
Immediately, the dark clone blinked. There were no rush of random, disjointed images this time. He felt as if he experienced the twin's entire lives almost instantly. How they had grown up in the village hidden in a mountainous valley, Ishigakure.
'I guess only two young guys are nothing compared to a fox who has lived for eons and the lifetimes of seventy four root ninjas...Maybe I can handle more.'
The little boy didn't even have a headache. More importantly, Naruto now knew the identity of the last shinobi, Kajura. Possessing the Magnet Release kekkei genkai, the grey haired man was a famed jonin of Ishigakure and known by the moniker 'Lightning God Self'. He became a missing-nin recently, along with two fellow Ishigakure jonin, the twin brothers Etoro and Metoro Konjiki. Naruto couldn't wait to devour him, especially when he saw Kajura's most powerful jutsu from the twins' memories, the one he was named for.
Meanwhile, Kajura wasn't too happy. Almost immediately after the twins' signature combo attack had detonated, two jet streams of lightning had streaked out of the flames and hit the brothers before they could react, electrocuting them and causing their bodies to smoke up. Their eyes rolled back as they collapsed, but the lightning continued to shock them. Marking them as done for, Kajura's thoughts raced. Who was targeting them? Bounty hunters? But the three of them weren't missing-nin long enough to earn a price for their heads. This wasn't Kirigakure, Ishigakure had no such thing as an anbu faction that targeted traitors from its own village. Then what? Did a couple of 'good samaritans' overhear what they were planning and decided to stop them? Whatever the case, the experienced Ishi jonin determined the enemy to be four ninjas at the very least. One for the water beast behind him, one for the wave, one for the lightning jutsu. He also caught the unnatural speed of the wave and correctly guessed it was enhanced by a wind jutsu of some sort, so that made four. Oh, and judging how the twins were hit despite the flames covering vision of the other side, the enemy had a sensor among them too.
Which is why when the smoke cleared, Kajura was extremely surprised to see the small figure of Naruto's shadow clone release its lightning jutsu.
"What the fuck! It's just a brat!"
The Ishi jonin didn't have long to express his incredulity as the crew launched a volley of everything they had. Behind them, the port's alarm bells tolled loudly, and the town militia could be seen assembling. One of the crew members had been dispatched early on to warn the town of Wakkanai, plus the explosion hadn't exactly gone unnoticed. However, the nukenin didn't even put them in his eyes, uncaring of those in 'civilian' level. Casually evading the slew of arrows and metal harpoons, including a swipe from the back from the water beast, the grey haired man grew incensed. He didn't believe that the brat was alone.
'The other three or more must be hiding somewhere. No matter, I'll drive them out.'
"Playtime is over. Kid, you and the rest of your hiding friends are dead! Jiton: Lightning God Self!"
Flecks of iron began peeling away from the hulls of all the ships at the harbor, gathering themselves around Kajura. His body's scalar size quickly increased, 'till it appeared that the nukenin hit his limit. Still, in the end the metal giant was a full head taller than the already huge water beast. Seeing the giant also be coated with lightning chakra, Naruto could see where it got its name. Within the vicinity of the shadow clone, most of the crew gaped as they stood on the ship's deck, some dropping their weapons in fear.
The water beast tried firing a powerful torrent of water at the enlarged Kajura, but it was of no use, there was no visible effect and the metal giant didn't even budge. Swatting the water beast away with one hand, the nukenin laughed and started making his way towards the docked partially deconstructed ships. The giant human form didn't exactly move fast though, and Naruto supposed that the technique required quite a bit of concentration to move that whole huge mass of iron.
"There's nothing you can do in the face of my ultimate defense!"
Naruto wondered about that. The little boy doubted it could hold against a sage rasenshuriken or even his bijuudama, but both of those moves would completely obliterate the whole section of the river, the ships and Wakkanai port included. Then he came to a sudden realization:
'Why do I have to blow the metal off him? I have other moves.'
Naruto remembered that he had other jutsu that could beat the nukenin without actually having to touch him at all. Jutsu like the Mind Body Switch. The shadow clone raised both hands at the giant metal man, connecting his thumb, index and middle fingers, leaving a circle inbetween. He adjusted his aim a bit to line up with where he sensed where Kajura really was under all that metal.
'Shintenshin no Jutsu.'
To the crews of the docked ships and the townsfolk, it was as if the metal giant crumbled to pieces before them, sinking below the water's surface. At the same time on the roof of the bridge away from sight, the shadow clone fell backwards in a dead heap, yet still active. Naruto controlled Kajura's body to sink beneath the surface, the greyhaired man screaming incoherently in his own mind. The little boy was well aware of the drawback to the Mind Transfer Jutsu; the whole thing about how the victim with a strong enough will could overpower the user. To that end, while in Kajura's body the boy simply applied a genjutsu...on himself. It was basically the full repeat of the white youkai's spontaneous combustion sessions with the Kyuubi. Naruto was kind of immune to that sort of thing by now, but Kajura certainly wasn't. The nukenin could only mentally scream as he felt the vivid sensation of being burned alive. When the shadow clone retracted its mind presence, it was when it felt the other Naruto in darkness form begin to consume the greyhaired man. Kajura lied listlessly underwater, unheeding of his body's natural reaction to drowning nor of the enveloping darkness.
"I don't really understand what happened at the end there...but you beat 'em right?"
The captain said while his right hand rested on a tenuous looking railing of his ship, half of it missing from being used in the Magnet Release jutsu.
"Yeah. Sorry about the boat though."
The invisible boy replied while surveying the other missing parts of the ship. Thankfully, none of the docked ships were any danger of leaking.
"It may be wrecked a bit, but lives are more important. Besides, you saved us kid. I wish I could take you out further west, but ships can't run on land. You look like you're able to take care of yourself the rest of the way anyway. All I can say is, if you ever need a favor and we meet again, name it."
The boy internally resolved to remember this.
"See ya captain."
"May we meet again Naruto! Good luck out there!"
The captain loudly called, getting the feeling that Naruto wasn't on board anymore. Indeed, in that short moment the white youkai had already reached the other side of the Crosscut River. The white youkai smiled as he chased after the setting sun.
This was originally the second part to the previous chap, 'cause it happened on the same day, but I decided to have it stand alone.
Etoro and the other two are from Gaara Hiden. I remembered reading it, and about them? They were supposed to be from Ishigakure, and since Naruto was passing through there on the way to the Land of Demons, I thought, why not? Granted that the events of Canon Gaara Hiden occur about 10 years after this, I made the Ishi Terrorists a fledgling organization with only those three instead of the larger crime syndicate it was inferred to be in Gaara Hiden.
Fuyuriku: Thanks for pointing those out.
Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)