CHAPTER TEN
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/n: I'm not abandoning this damn thing...I swear. Now that life seems to be less chaotic I actually sat down and wrote a new chapter. Pain of the Fox is still being rewritten I am debating about putting the few chapters I have redone up and getting rid of the crap-tastic ones. The next update for this I hope I will have done before the end of the month.
The Raikage entered the cell and approached the writhing boy. He kicked him heavily in the ribs and laughed as the sound of breaking ribs met his ears. Naruto screamed again as he felt the bone shatter pierce his lungs. The man kneeled down next to the shaking boy and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt, "This is only the beginning."
Naruto's eyes were filled with fear and tears ran down his cheeks as the Raikage forcibly dragged him down the hall and into the laboratory. Taki and Karu stood against the wall averting their eyes. The Raikage strapped the boy to a metal table and made his way to a tray filled with surgical equipment. The man picked up a thin scalpel and tested the edge of the blade on his thumb. The blade made a small cut that quickly welled with blood causing the man to nod in satisfaction.
Naruto watched as the Raikage brought the blade closer and closer to his face. The man slowly dragged the blade across the whisker like marks on the boy's face creating thin ribbons of blood that flowed down his tan flesh to collect in stone bowls that had been placed flush with his neck. Several seconds passed before the men saw minute amounts of steam rising up from the cuts as the skin knit back together. The Raikage gasped, "Get me the serum."
Taki nodded and moved over to a refrigerated cabinet pulling out a syringe filled with a deep purple liquid. The elderly man took the syringe and injected the fluid into the blonde boy's neck. The Raikage again made shallow cuts along the whisker like marks. Naruto winced and whimpered at the stinging sensation once more. The Raikage waited several moments before giving a small chuckle, "It seems the serum works. I want you two to analyze his blood and see how the serum stops the healing processes from occurring. There should be enough chakra in there to let you tell, and I also want to know how long the effects stay apparent in his blood as well."
Karu and Taki each nodded and took a bowl respectively going over to the lab set up. Karu set about preparing a slide as Taki began missing samples of the blood with various other substances. The Raikage nodded his head in approval before taking a hold of Naruto and dragging the boy off the table and into the hallway. "You're not going back to the cells you know. You're going to the lab now that we know this serum can help control the demon… I want to see if anything else can be controlled."
Naruto's bright blue eyes widen and he gave a weak attempt to bolt down the opposite hallway only to find the Raikage was spry for his old age. The old man moved like lightning and took a hold of Naruto's shirt pulling him backwards harshly almost choking the boy. "You're a stupid child aren't you?"
Naruto's eyes widened in fear as the man raised his arm and slapped him harshly across the face bringing tears to the blue eyes. He gave a sharp cry and fell to the ground as the man brought his knee into his sternum giving a grin at the sickening sound the boy's organs bruising. Naruto found himself once again yanked sharply to his feet and shoved down another hallway in the opposite direction of the cells. The Raikage kept shoving him along whenever Naruto paused refusing to give the boy a moment to rest. It wasn't until the boy was swaying on his swollen, aching bare feet that the man paused outside a steel door. Naruto watched as his captor took a chain from around his neck and slid a key into the concealed locking mechanism.
The Raikage gave a harsh laugh and took the boy by the arm and dragged him into the laboratory. "You know nobody from your village is ever going to come for you. Everyone wishes you were put to death. Nobody will care that you're missing."
It was with those words that the spark drained out of Naruto's blue eyes as his mind wandered into the past to all the cruel looks, words and actions he had already experienced in his young life. He couldn't stop himself from thinking, 'Maybe Kakashi-san doesn't like me and only did what he did because Jiji-sama told him to. Maybe I am just a mission to him.'
The Raikage gave a smile and ordered Naruto to go stand against the wall and cracked an even wider smile when the boy obeyed his order. He walked over to where the boy was standing and chained his ankles and wrists to the wall, "These chains are designed to draw out and harness chakra so even the most skilled ninja is nothing but an energy source for the experiments we run here. Most only last a few months before their bodies give out, but you and you alone will last us for years."
Naruto gave the man a blank, dead eyed stare and let his small frame sink against the wall feeling his energy slowly begin to ebb from him like a slowly receding tide that would not return. He watched as the man walked over to a series of strange glass vials that went from the ceiling to the floor. The Raikage placed a palm against the cool brass that held the vials to the walls and laughed manically as they were slowly beginning to pool with swirling blue and red streaks of chakra.
Kakashi moved silently down the hallway like a ghost. His years of ANBU taking over as he slipped back into the silent assassin he was famed to be. The man's kind eyes slowly taking on a hard dangerous tone as he progressed down the hallway a kunai now clenched tightly in a slightly sweaty palm. He saw the cells up ahead of him on the left and gave a grim smile as he moved just a hair faster searching for any chakra signatures. He felt the faint, but familiar vestiges of Naruto's chakra and tried to expand his search focusing this time on just the familiar chakra. He could not feel that same chakra, but he could feel two unfamiliar signatures up ahead.
The silver haired jounin clenched the kunai just a little bit tighter and moved for the two signatures. He came to the door at the end of the hallway and broke through the door effortlessly landing in a crouch amid shattered wood and glass catching both Karu and Taki off guard momentarily. It only took the two men a matter of seconds before they had their kunai in their hands and were leaping over the desks at Kakashi.
The silver haired man gave a soft growl deep in his throat leaping from his crouch in a graceful arc slashing through the tender flesh of Taki's arm as he sailed past barely feeling the weapon of his opponent part the skin of his cheek. Karu and Taki nodded to each other each running towards a different side of the room before going through a series of hand seals each blowing a medium sized streak of fire that took on the shape of a roaring dragon. The two jutsu intertwined coming straight at the other man making him have to drop to the ground and roll out of the path of the attacks. Taki and Karu watched as Kakashi once again moved towards them, this time staying low to the ground. The two men also crouched low intending to take the former ANBU out. They moved forward as one and suddenly the man in front of them turned into two after using a silent clone jutsu.
The two Kakashi's moved in synch, exuding so much killing intent that both Taki and Karu suddenly found themselves frozen in place. As the clone and original moved passed them, twin arcs of blood followed their blades as two heads fell simultaneously to the floor. Kakashi then banished the clone and left the room ignoring the blood that had splattered across his mask and shirt, slipping even farther into the ANBU mind set. He continued down a new hallway melting into the shadows again his senses once again on high alert for Naruto's familiar chakra signature.
Naruto felt his eyes growing heavy as his chakra was forcibly removed from his body. As his lids slid shut he suddenly found himself stand once again in front of the large cage with the glowing red eyes that seemed to be dimmer this time. "Why? Why are you not letting me take control? I can take care of us. I can free us!"
The blonde boy started shaking lightly, "I don't know what to do. I'm scared."
He leapt back as the bars separating him from the demon rattled heavily. "You pathetic excuse of a human whelp, I refuse to die here! Rip the seal off or else I will force my control on you!"
Naruto shook heavily and began backing up, "NO! NO, I don't want to disappear!"
The bars rattled heavily as the fox crashed into them, "It's too late for you! You're already gone, you will become mine! I am you."
The boy fell to his knees again sobbing repeating the word 'no' over and over again. Kyuubi exploited that moment of weakness to his advantage stretching out a small tendril of his red chakra touching Naruto's chest with it. The boy's arms flew wide as the chakra spread and sunk into his skin, as his eyes turned a deep red. His back bent backwards at an impossible angle as his skin started to peel away from his body revealing a layer of pure chakra mixed with blood.
The Raikage's eyes shown with fear as he heard the chains hiss as they began to melt from the intensity of the chakra rolling off the boy in waves. He felt nothing as his body flew backwards through the wall as the chakra finally burst free fully causing an explosion.
Kakashi felt the sudden increase in chakra pressure within the building and shivered, "What is going on?"
He felt the explosion before he heard it, and found himself struggling to land on his feet as he flew backwards amid a shower of rock. The ninja's eyes widened with disbelief as he witnessed the Raikage go flying past and he felt a minute amount of pity as the other man was crushed against the wall by some invisible force. Kakashi carefully moved forward his senses on high alert as he heard wet footsteps. A body that was shaped like a fox made of pure chakra and dripping blood staggered from the whole in the wall. The being glanced at the lump of bloody flesh that had used to be the Raikage before turning its crimson gaze onto Kakash; It gave a leering grin and the man shook as realization hit him. The silver haired man choked out a singular cry of, "Kyuubi," before the creature was on top of him fangs of chakra grazing his neck.
~ R&R