Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise, nor any of the other series I will be drawing inspiration from in this fanfiction. This is a work of fiction created purely for enjoyment, and no money shall be gained in its production.
Author Note: You have no idea how nervous I was writing this chapter.
Setting the groundwork for Naruto and Anko's friendship, while at the same time getting Anko to assume exactly the wrong things in order for her to not immediately run to the Hokage about the kid out in the woods, was a bit of a task. I think I went through three or four false starts before ending up with this version.
I hope it does both of them justice.
BADGER
Chapter 12
Naruto knew something was wrong the moment that Momma Badger stopped playing with him, her massive furry body now standing over him protectively as her eyes pointed down towards the base of the hill. Taking a moment to spit the fur out of his mouth that had stuck to his tongue when he accidentally bit her ear, he rolled over on to his front and looked down the hill with her.
For a brief moment he didn't realize what he was seeing as he watched the first human he had seen in a month and a half walking out into the clearing at the bottom of the hill. He had gotten so used to the presence of Momma Badger, his own reflection the only other face in his life, that it took him a moment to recover.
"Sorry for interrupting your play," the woman said with an awkward grin.
"S'okay," Naruto muttered, his voice barely audible over the sounds of the forest around them.
Bending down, the woman pulled out a small brown bag from a pocket on her long brown coat and poured something on top of a fallen log. Keeping the bag in her hand she took a few steps back to give some room, her feet steady in spite of the mud he knew rested beneath the leaves at her feet.
Momma Badger sniffed the air with an inquisitive nose for a few moments before starting down the hill giving a pleased grunt, heading directly for whatever the woman had poured out on the log. Pausing at the base of the hill, Momma Badger eyed the woman for a few moments as if to make sure that she didn't come over to take back what she had put there. After a brief stare-down, Momma Badger pulled herself up onto the fallen log, her large digging claws pulling off several patches of moss.
Sticking her long nose out she snagged a small bite of the roasted peanuts that the woman had put there, having been given peanuts by other people in the past without any trouble.
Naruto watched all this from the top of the hill, his heart thudding in his chest as he thought of the sad angry man he had run into the night he left the village. Remembering the cold eyes staring at him every day, he wondered if this woman would look at him the same way.
Seeing that Momma Badger trusted the woman enough to go down there, he decided to follow her example. The too-large soles of his sandals slipped several times on the damp leaves littering the hillside, forcing him to half crawl, half slide as he made his way down.
One of the first things he noticed as he got close enough to get a better look at their visitor was her eyes, which had light brown irises and no pupils. What shocked him the most was that the eyes were looking at him not with a cold glare, but with the same kind of warmth he had seen only a few times in his life.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked.
"Usually you give your own name first before asking," she said, her grin removing the bite from her words. "My name's Anko. What's yours kid?"
"My name's not Kid, it's Naruto. And she's Momma Badger," he told Anko, pointing over where Momma Badger sat on the nearby log.
Smiling at the boy's antics, Anko poured some more peanuts on top of the log, then took a few steps back to give Momma Badger some more room. Seeing that the badger was pleased with her offering, and not showing signs that she was going to attack, Anko decided to sit down on the log about six feet away.
"Are you hurt?" Naruto asked her, spotting the cuts on her coat sleeve as she sat down.
"Oh, that?" Anko asked, the sunlight flashing from her forehead protector as she glanced down at her arm. "I got cut a little on my last mission. But don't worry about it, I'm fine now."
"Oh," Naruto nodded, remembering how his own scrapes and cuts tended to heal pretty quick too. "Wait, are you a Ninja, like the Hokage?"
"Not quite like the Hokage," Anko replied with a chuckle. "The Hokage is a lot stronger than me. I'm only a Chuunin, after all."
"What's a Chuunin?" he asked, sitting down on the log next to Momma Badger.
"You sure are full of questions," Anko said. "Ninja are given ranks to divide them up by skill and power, so that the Hokage can easily tell who he should send on certain missions. First you have Gennin, who are usually kids that just graduated from the Academy, and lack the skill and experience to be out on their own. Next you have Chuunin, like me, who have been a Ninja for a while and have passed several tests to show that we have what it takes to go out on missions without having to be watched over by a more experienced Ninja."
Pausing there, Anko offered the open end of the bag of roasted peanuts to Naruto. After a few moments, Naruto nervously scooted a bit closer to her on the log so that he could grab a small handful of peanuts.
Putting a few of them in his mouth and biting down, he made a pleased grunt in the back of his throat, echoing the sound that he had heard Momma Badger make several times before. Hearing her cub's grunt, Momma Badger stood back up from where she had been sitting on the log, and walked towards where Anko sat with the bag of peanuts, the thick fur on her sides brushing against Naruto's back as she passed behind him.
"Oh, hello there, Momma Badger," Anko replied, surprised that the badger was willing to get that close to her. Pouring out another small pile of peanuts on the log between them, she continued with her narration. "Above Chuunin, you have the Jounin, who are seasoned veterans. You have to be really good to earn that rank, as not only are they sent out on some of the most dangerous missions, they are also trusted with watching over and teaching the fresh Gennin."
"What about the Hokage?" Naruto asked, eager to hear about how awesome the Old Man was.
"The Hokage is the strongest Ninja in the whole village," Anko said. "They know all kinds of crazy-powerful Jutsu, and they have to be really smart too, because they have to lead the entire village."
"Wow," Naruto exclaimed, the heels of his sandals hitting against the side of the log in excitement. "Ninja are really cool!"
"It can be fun," Anko nodded, pouring more peanuts on the log for Momma Badger, before holding the bag a little over the badger's gray-furred back so that Naruto could grab another handful. "But it can also be scary too. If it wasn't for the Luck of the Badger, I might not have come back from my last mission."
"What's the Luck of the Badger," Naruto asked, looking down to where Momma Badger was making a pig of herself on the peanuts.
"Well, to explain..." Anko scratched the back of her head, wondering how to start. "Have you heard about how the Kyuubi attacked the village several years back, and the Badger Boss was summoned to help protect everyone?"
"Like in the play!" Naruto shouted, startling Momma Badger, who looked over at her cub to make sure he wasn't hurt. "Where that one guy was all 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' and did that thing with his hands, and boom! There was the really big badger standing there, and the mean old fox couldn't beat her, but then she couldn't beat the fox, and they were all 'grr, grr, bite, chomp' and stuff!"
"Ah, yeah," Anko nodded, scratching the back of her head, unprepared for his rather... youthful description of a battle that had taken the lives of so many Konoha Ninja. "Well, nobody saw what happened to the Badger Boss, Hachimitsu, after the Fourth Hokage took her and the Kyuubi away from the village. The last signer of her contract died summoning her that night, so nobody had been able to summon her since, but many people believe that her spirit stayed behind in order to keep protecting the village. People that believe this, like me, will often give offerings to the Spirit of the Badger."
Ignoring the weight of the conversation that was passing over her back, Momma Badger decided that she had eaten her fill, and waddled over to tuck her body down next to Naruto's sitting form. Absentmindedly reaching down, Naruto started scratching her behind the ears, earning him several clucks like the soft quacking of a duck.
"That's the reason why I hiked all the way out here today, actually," Anko continued, holding up the now nearly empty bag of peanuts as evidence. "I made a deal with the Spirit of the Badger on my last mission that I would give some fresh roasted peanuts to the first badger I spotted if I was able to get home safely. After making a promise like that on my pendant, I was bound to my word, so here I am."
Reaching her other hand to the front of her chest, she showed the bone disk that hung around her neck, the image of a honey badger etched on the smoothed surface and filled in with black ink. Eyes wide in rapt attention, Naruto imagined a large ghost-badger wearing a Kage hat standing behind Anko in a fighting pose, ready to defeat her enemies.
"Wow, where did you get that?" Naruto asked, leaning forward over Momma Badger's back for a better look.
"I made it myself," Anko told him with pride. "It's actually traditional for someone to make their own badger pendant, since there is more meaning in something you make with your own two hands."
Anko let her pendant fall back against her net-covered chest and half-turned towards Naruto, propping one of her legs up on the moss covered log for comfort. She had spotted a pained look in his eyes several times that she recognized, having seen it in her own reflection before, that told her that he wasn't used to people being nice to him.
His attitude had changed greatly once he saw the Hitai-ate on her forehead, which meant that not only did he recognize the badge of the Ninja, but trusted them more than your average citizen. Although he seemed like a cheerful young boy, he was obviously a little starved for attention, since he hadn't gotten bored of listening to her as she described the different Ninja ranks.
On one hand they were pretty far away from the fortified walls of the village, but on the other hand he was relatively clean and obviously well-fed from what she could see beneath the net shirt he was wearing. Curious to learn more about him, but not wanting to upset a boy who obviously had great favor with the Spirit of the Badger, she decided for subtlety.
"It's a really nice day out here," she stated, giving an obvious glance around the forest surrounding them. "You must enjoy being out here, huh?"
"Oh, yeah," Naruto nodded. "It's much better out here than it was back in the village."
"Why do you say that?" Anko asked, trying to act casual to hide how eager she was to find out more.
"Well..." Naruto paused, looking nervous. "I don't know why, but a lot of people back in the village looked at me like I did something wrong. I asked the Old Man once, but he said it wasn't my fault, and that I shouldn't let it bug me."
At this, Naruto dropped his hand from Momma Badger's ears and started picking at some of the moss growing on top of the log, not wanting to look her in the eye in case she decided to start glaring at him like the other people had. It took a few moments for the swelling in Anko's throat do go down as she got the sudden urge to cry, seeing her own pain reflected in a child so young.
"People can be stupid sometimes," Anko finally said, her voice sad. "People in the village sometimes glare at me too for something than an old sensei of mine did, as if it was all my fault."
"It isn't fair," Naruto grumbled.
"No, it isn't," Anko agreed. "But I've learned to ignore those people, and thankfully I have found a few good friends over the last year."
Naruto nodded at that, remembering how much fun he used to have hanging out with Tenten back at the orphanage. Since none of the other kids had wanted to play with him for some reason, he guessed that Momma Badger was the first friend he had found since Tenten got adopted. Gathering his courage, he raised his eyes to look Anko in the face, and was surprised to see her smiling at him.
"W-would you be my friend?" Naruto asked her, his voice shaking a bit.
"I'd be glad to, kid," Anko told him, reaching out to ruffle his pale blond hair, her eyes noting the pale silver roots and adding that fact to the list of mysteries about this Nara kid. Eyeing the length of the shadows on the ground, she suddenly realized how late it was getting. "But it looks like it's about time for me to start heading back."
"You're leaving so soon?" Naruto asked her, a cute pout forming on his face. "Can you stay and talk for a bit longer?"
"Sorry, kiddo," Anko said, shaking her head. "It's going to be getting dark soon, and I've been on my feet for nearly a week now. Even I need my beauty sleep on occasion."
Standing up, she had a thoughtful look on her face for a brief moment as she wondered wither or not she should ask where he lived.
"Would you like me to walk you home?" she offered.
"Nah," Naruto replied, shaking his head. "I think I'm going to hang out here for a bit and enjoy the rest of the sun before going inside."
"Okay," Anko nodded, not wanting to press the issue.
"Will you come visit us again?" Naruto asked, sad to see his new friend leaving.
"Sure thing," Anko told him, reaching out to ruffle his hair again. "I'm going to be pretty busy with missions, but I'll come out here to hang out with you guys next time I have a chance."
"You promise?" Naruto asked, a hopeful look in his bright blue eyes.
Reaching down, Anko made a show of holding up her bone pendant, the movement easily catching the boy's attention. Seeing his eyes widen in recognition as he remembered her tell him she was bound to her word when swearing on her pendant, she gave him a brilliant smile before answering.
"I promise!"
Hachimitsu was finally able to break free of the Memory Walk, having gained some level of control and practice since the night that Naruto was found by Momma Badger. Wave after wave of memories had crashed against her, telling the story of a very sad and lonely child that tried his hardest to go through each day with a smile, hiding the pain he felt from the cold eyes of the people around him.
In spite of the pain and danger that he had experienced the night he was kicked out of the orphanage, Hachimitsu was glad that he had been found by the one he called 'Momma Badger'. For the first time in his life he had someone he could call family, even if she walked on four paws and did not speak the human tongue.
Equally amazing was the appearance of Anko, who arrived as a stranger and left as a friend. From within the seal it was amazing to feel the effect the young woman's visit had on Naruto.
At first he felt fear and anxiety, expecting the return of the cold glares and low angry voices. Soon these feelings began to fade behind the optimism that he still held within his heart, allowing him to realize that she was looking at him with warm eyes, much like he had seen on the Old Man, and the young girl Tenten that used to live in the orphanage with him. As Anko departed, Hachimitsu was amazed to realize that Naruto was looking forward to her return. The turmoil that had threatened to crush Hachimitsu began to fade away, replaced by his joy at finding a new friend.
What shocked Hachimitsu the most was the words the young woman had spoken of the Spirit of the Badger, which resonated with the Badger Clan's own belief in the First Digger.
First amongst the long line of Badger Sages, the First Digger had traveled far and wide to find a new home for his people after a great disaster had befallen their homelands, eventually coming across the verdant hills and valleys at the foot of Mount Myoboku. After gaining permission from Gamamaru, the Great Toad Sage, he was the first to break the dark soils of their new homeland to create the Great Sett.
It was said that his spirit still watched over the Clan, giving aid and guidance in time of need, much as Anko had spoken of the Luck of the Badger. It would be interesting to compare notes with the young woman at some point, if she was ever able to interact outside the seal.
Gently withdrawing her Yin Chakra tether from Naruto's mind, Hachimitsu opened her eyes once more to the earthen walls and glowing bars within the Eight Trigrams Seal that held her and the Kyuubi. The waters that had covered the floor of the mindscape had lowered, his sorrow having faded after several weeks of wandering the forests with Momma Badger without the constant glares and harsh whispers of the villagers surrounding him.
Becoming aware of her body once more, she was pleased to note that her own wounds seemed to have fully healed during her time in the Memory Walk, though a dull ache still lingered as a reminder of her fight with the Kyuubi. Thankfully the receding waters of the mindscape had revealed a small patch of solid ground beneath her, and she no longer had to deal with wet fur on top of her nagging aches and pains.
She was relieved to discover that she could see once more out of her left eye now that it was no longer swollen shut, though three thick scars running down the side of her face gave proof of how close she had gotten to losing it that night. Her black fur had turned silver in several other places from where the Kyuubi's attacks had also damaged her, leaving a network of thin lines across her body.
Turning from her self-examination, she looked over to where the Kyuubi lay on the far side of the cage, the water surrounding it stained red with the Youki Chakra that still trickled from the open wounds on its visible side. From the look of things, the Fox wasn't doing much better than it had been when Hachimitsu first awoke within the seal.
As the current Badger Boss it was Hachimitsu's duty to train to become the next Badger Sage, so that she could one day take up the mantle that Yuudai currently held, and chose a new Badger Boss to become her own student and heir. Since she had only been the Boss for a few short years there was much that she still needed to learn, and it was unfortunate that her lessons had not yet covered the Bijuu in depth.
Since the last signers of her clan's Summoning Contract lived in Konoha it was only natural that Yuudai had covered a few details on the Kyuubi in particular, as it was last seen at the Valley of the End during the battle between Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. Considering that the Kyuubi had been controlled by the Uchiha during that battle, Hachimitsu had to wonder if there was foul play involved in the attack that led both of them to be sealed within Naruto.
Thinking about the night of the attack, a mournful cry escaped her muzzle as she remembered seeing Fugu's lifeless body falling to the ground, her friend giving his life to give her the strength to hold off the attack of the Bijuu long enough for the Fourth Hokage to defeat it. Tears fell from her eyes, as she finally mourned her loss, running down her black and silver fur until they fell to mix with the red stained waters surrounding her small island.
Focusing her senses inwards, she examined the Chakra flowing through her body, noting that the seal was still feeding a thin trickle of the Kyuubi's chakra into her own coils, its corrosive properties thankfully filtered by the Eight Trigrams seal. Greater still was the potent Doton Chakra of the Okamoto Clan that was used to summon her that granted her the durability to not only fight the Kyuubi to a standstill, but to also withstand the Youki now flowing through her coils.
Most of the Summon Clans had only one contract, which allowed those who signed it to be able to summon any member of the Clan as long as enough Chakra was given to the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. In order to protect their young, and those who were not skilled in battle, the Badger Clan has a second contract held deep within the Great Sett. When a member of their Clan was deemed worthy, they would sign their own name in blood upon this scroll, allowing them to be summoned.
Reaching her senses further, she examined the connection that had been forged in her Chakra when her own name had been added to her Clan's Summoning Contract. This was the connection that Fugu Okamoto had fed his overcharged Doton Chakra through to summon her that night. Since he had been the last of their summoners, there should not have been anything on the other side, and so Hachimitsu was unprepared for what she found there.
Wither due to the seals that he had used to sacrifice his life to summon her, or the Shinigami dragging her along with the Kyuubi into the Eight Trigrams Seal, an echo of Fugu somehow remained on the other side of that connection. As impossible as it seemed, a part of her friend had somehow carried on past his death, carrying with it the last legacy of the Okamoto Clan.
More confident of her ability with the Mind Walk after her inexperienced dive into Naruto's memories, Hachimitsu sent out a tentative trickle of Yin Chakra until it connected with the echo of her friend. Thankfully the mind of an adult is much better organized than that of a five year old child, though the depth of his years made navigation no less treacherous.
At first the memories drifting past her mind seemed faint, dull and colorless like a picture left out in the sun for too long, making her realize that if she had not noticed his echo there any sooner they might have faded away entirely, and be lost to her forever. Feeding more of her Yin Chakra into this lifeless mindscape she was relieved to see color and vitality return to these precious memories, bringing her closer to her dead friend than she could have ever imagined.
Focusing the Memory Walk on Fugu's last moments in a desperate need to understand why he had given his life to summon her, she quickly realized that the experience she had gained during her time within Naruto's memories had not prepared her for the intense clarity of a dying man's last thoughts. Bracing herself once more, Hachimitsu fought to hold on to her own sense of self as the waves of emotion threatened to crush her within its depths.
As Fugu prepared himself for death, he could only think of the path his life had taken to bring him here.
What had been intended as a celebration of those who had given their lives in defense of their village over the course of the Second Shinobi War turned into the greatest tragedy their clan had ever experienced. When the poison fog of the Mizu Nin rolled over them, only the strongest members of the Okamoto Clan were spared from the quick painless death that took their children from them.
Fugu was the youngest of his clan to survive, having just earned his Hitai-ate upon graduating from the Ninja Academy. His own manifestation of the Doton Chakra bloodline of his clan was the strongest recorded since his own grandfather, granting him a defense that those younger than him lacked, and allowing his body to fight off the initial effects of the poison.
Over the following weeks it became obvious that the suffering of the Okamoto Clan had only just begun, as medical tests revealed that the lingering effects of the poison had caused irreparable damage to their internal organs. By design, the worst damage was to the reproductive organs of those that survived, leaving them barren.
Knowing that their time was limited, the members of his clan had spent the last few years of their lives recording their knowledge within the archives of the Okamoto Clan Compound in the vain hope that at least a few of their number could survive long enough for a cure for their sterility to be found so that they could revive their clan. Over the next few years their numbers had slowly dwindled as the elders died one by one, their Chakra no longer able to support their failing organs as their bodies fell apart around them.
As the last surviving member of his Clan, Fugu was burdened with the knowledge that if the doctors were unable to find a cure for his sterility before his own body gave in to the effects of the poison his clan would die with him. Hoping to at least find an heir worthy to carry on the knowledge of his clan, even if the legacy of their bloodline was doomed to be lost to history, he spent the last few years of his life studying the legacy left behind by his elders in preparation.
As the poison continued to ravage his body, the doctors had been forced to resort to stronger and stronger medicines, in ever increasing doses, until the cure was doing nearly as much damage as the poison itself. He was already living on borrowed time when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, his body no longer able to resist the lingering effects of the poison that was slowly killing him.
It was no longer a matter of when he would die, but how.
Deciding that he would rather have history remember the last act of his dying clan be a glorious fall in battle, rather than lying forgotten in a hospital bed, Fugu prepared himself as best he could. With the use of Doton Bushin (Earth Clones) he painted a special Fuuinjutsu Seal upon his body that would allow him to focus every last bit of his Chakra into one final technique.
Knowing that no single Jutsu would be able to defeat a Bijuu, he decided instead to do what he could to at least slow the Kyuubi's advance long enough for the Fourth Hokage to arrive and defeat it. His last dying act was to entrust the fate of his village in the strength and tenacity of Hachimitsu, the Badger Boss.
His Clan's legacy would die with him, but his legend would live on.
Withdrawing from the Memory Walk, Hachimitsu heard the earthen walls of Naruto's Mindscape echo with the sound of her own crying voice as she mourned the passing of her friend once more. Seeing these memories made Hachimitsu realize just how desperate he had been to pass on the knowledge of his clan, only to have even that faint glimmer of hope to be stolen from him by the cruel hand of fate.
But there was still hope that this knowledge could be passed on, for these memories now lived on in the echo that had been left behind.
Realizing the opportunity that lay before her, Hachimitsu decided make his knowledge her own, so that one day she might find him a worthy heir to carry on his Clan's Legacy. Of course, that would also require that she find some way to leave the confines of the Eight Trigrams Seal. If she were lucky she would find the answer to that problem within these memories, or the lessons she had received from the Badge Sage, Yuudai.
Only time would tell, but locked here within the seal all she really had was time.
With her mind otherwise occupied, she did not notice the angry red Youki Chakra infecting her healing wounds slowly turn silver as it mixed with her own Chakra and spread out through her body.
Lacking any of the training that the Badger Boss had received on the Memory Walk, and having had its Yin Chakra torn from it before being placed within the Eight Trigrams Seal, the Kyuubi was unprepared for the storm of memories and emotions fed to it along the thin trail of chakra that connected them.
As the days had turned into weeks as Hachimitsu struggled to gain control of the Memory Walk, the Kyuubi's mind struggled to cope with the strange and powerful new emotions that bombarded it. Lacking any reference of its own, its subconscious mind was forced to make connections with similar memories of its own, trying to make sense of what it was feeling.
During this process, the last lingering effects of the madness caused by the Uchiha's Genjutsu finally broke. What effects this would have on the future only time could tell.
