Kukukuku, well it's true Digi-kun doesn't own Naruto, but soon I will have the means to claim it for myself in the Sharingan!
Sage
"The man of wisdom is never of two minds; the man of benevolence never worries; the man of courage is never afraid." – Confucius
"Just what is this place anyway?" Shizuku was staring into the darkness beyond one of the many doorways lining the corridors as Naruto lit yet another candle with pure fire Chakra.
"I don't know, it looks abandoned. I read that a lot of the Third Shinobi War took place in Kusa no Kuni, maybe it's some kind of ninja base." Shizuku blinked as she tried to make anything in the smothering darkness beyond what Naruto had already lit.
"Wouldn't there be symbols for the village everywhere then? So far it's all just the same wooden pattern and candle brackets." Naruto frowned as he moved on to the next spot on the wall, all the while looking out for any Chakra signatures in the area. For all he knew the monkey was long gone along with the scroll; alternately it could have just completely abandoned it somewhere. While sealing scrolls, like any Fuinjutsu, did let off some Chakra it wasn't enough for Naruto to see through walls.
"I really don't think Shinobi would go about emblazoning their symbols everywhere, especially during a war." Shizuku looked around in confusion as she abandoned the room, not being able to glean anything from the oppressive darkness.
"Don't they wear those forehead protector thingies with their village's symbol on them?" Naruto nodded absently as he looked into a room; seeing nothing but banks of old-looking computers and a few desks he quickly came back out. "Why do they do that anyway? I mean, aren't they supposed to be sneaky? Isn't having the village you're from printed on your forehead kind of counterproductive?" Naruto sighed as the two moved on; he knew Shizuku was only making conversation because there wasn't much else she could actually do down here in the dark.
"I believe it's a matter of pride in your village, the place you grew up and want to protect." Shizuku nodded slowly as they walked, their feet clapping against the earthen slabs beneath them to echo down the hallways.
"But couldn't somebody just steal another village's forehead protector and frame them for something?" Naruto gave a small smile as he lit yet another of the seemingly hundreds of candles in the base.
"I'm sure somebody has thought of that and actually tried it in the past. And I'm just as sure somebody has found ways of preventing it from happening again. Remember if one village can do it then they all can." Again Shizuku nodded slowly, her lip pouting out slightly in a rather cute manner.
"Yeah yeah, you don't have to spell it out like I'm dumb." Naruto just chuckled as they walked on, his eyes scanning the area methodically for any sign of, well, anything. He smirked as he put on his best sagely voice and raised his head in an over-exaggerated display of haughtiness.
"A thing is never too often repeated which is never sufficiently learned my young student." He only heard Shizuku mumble something under her breath as she crossed her arms under her chest and pouted again.
"And that's another thing, you should stop with all the wise proverb stuff. It's really-" Naruto's eyes suddenly shot open in surprise as he leapt at the girl, tackling her around the waist to the ground just as a large slab of the floor flipped over. If he hadn't moved any sooner Shizuku would have most likely been crushed beneath the weighty stone block. The violette just stared at the spot with wide eyes, her breath coming out on short shallow gasps as Naruto quickly got to his feet again.
"Where are you?! Come out!" The blonde was worried, he had only sensed the attack moments before it happened by the minute amount of Chakra leaking into the earth. Now though there was nothing, nothing at all to even indicate the attack had happened; the hallways were quiet and Naruto couldn't even see a whisper of Chakra besides himself and Shizuku.
"Shizuku, stay close to me." The blonde whirled around when he met no response only to come face to face with a wall of solid earth. "Shizuku!" The blonde placed his hand up against the wall, quickly drawing the Chakra out of it before smashing his fist right through it, breaking down the now brittle earth. Unfortunately all he saw beyond it was darkness, Shizuku was gone and Naruto couldn't even see her Chakra signature. "SHIZUKU!" All he got was his own voice repeatedly echoing off of the wooden walls around him, mocking him with their shared plea. A growl rose in the blonde's throat as he slammed his shakujou down on the ground once, the sharp noise carrying all the way through the quiet base.
"I will raze this base to get her back if I have to! Do you hear me?!" Again only his own voice greeted his ears as the anger-filled call reverberated around him.
"Oh myyyyyy, is the bite-sized monk angry perhaps?" Naruto whirled at the voice that sounded like it was whispering right into his ear; only a darkened corridor greeted him.
"Where are you?" A dark but almost playful chuckling echoed from what appeared to be all around the blonde, like the very walls were speaking to him.
"Oh but isn't that part of the fun in this little game of hide-and-seek? Don't you know? You trespassed on Orochimaru-sama's property and now you're paying the price." Naruto quickly composed himself with a deep breath; focusing on his Chakra and not the voice that seemed to love to mock him. "Oh ignoring me? My my my, that just won't do." There was a pause as Naruto continued to scan the area for any sign of the mystery speaker. "Perhaps you would be a little more inclined to indulge me if you knew what the prize of the game was hmm?" Naruto could now tell that whoever this was took almost sadistic glee in what they were doing.
"Find me, find me if you can little monk. I don't believe your young friend here has all that long." The voice began to fade away as it spoke, the last few word sounding like a whisper that was far too close for Naruto's comfort. Naruto slammed his staff through the corner of a wall in frustration, finding satisfaction in the chunks of mortar and splinters of wood now littering the ground. He quickly took another calming breath to stop his trembling fist before quickly forming five shadow clones, his current limit.
However as soon they began to run off into various corridors to cover more grounds large pillars of earth grew at astonishing rates beneath them. Three of them were instantly dispelled into clouds of smoke from being crushed whilst another was pinned by its arm to the ceiling. Naruto cursed, dispelling the remaining two as he took off at a run; when his vision was split multiple ways he lost some of his ability to see Chakra so it was harder to predict the attacks. As much help as the clones would be in covering more ground they were useless if they couldn't get more than a couple of feet.
"What a naughty little monk, cheating is strictly prohibited." Naruto had to visibly restrain himself from shouting back at the mysterious voice but he refused to give it the satisfaction. That same irritating musical voice just laughed at him as he sprinted down yet another corridor; sounding neither male nor female. The dark was no issue; his eyes granted him good enough vision to at least see where he was going.
"Tick tock tick tock, your friend's head's on the chopping block" Again the voice cackled madly while Naruto did his best to ignore it, frantically searching for any Chakra signature he could find. Finally he found success as he rounded a corner to see Shizuku tied up, bound by her wrists and ankles, just lying in the middle of the corridor. However as he approached her he slowed, shakujou raised defensively in front of him as his eyes narrowed.
"Shizuku?" The girl blinked her eyes open tiredly before they landed on Naruto; suddenly she was alert as she struggled against her bonds, shouting muffled words against the gag in her mouth. Naruto jogged over, staff still raised in a defensive manner as he quickly unbound the girl. She got to her feet wearily, rubbing her sore wrists before suddenly pouncing on Naruto, wrapping him up in a warm hug.
"I knew you would come Naruto!" Suddenly though the girl froze, her eyes going wide with shock as she jerkily turned her head to see Naruto with his outstretched fingers just finishing applying precise pressure point attacks down her spine. "N-Naruto?" The blonde's hair was shadowing his eyes as he stepped back from the now paralyzed girl, shakujou raised out in front of him.
"Where is Shizuku?" The girl just stared at Naruto with wide, tearing eyes, unable to move her body.
"N-Naruto, what's going on?" The monk's head sunk even lower as his hands clenched into fists; seeing Shizuku that way hurt him. He strode forward pressing his hand up against her stomach as his eyes narrowed.
"I will drain you dry of Chakra if you don't tell me where she is." All of a sudden the frightened, timid look of the violette's face vanished, replaced by a cruel smirk, far too wide for her own face. Her neck swivelled awkwardly at angles that weren't physically possible just to face the blonde as her usual teal eyes faded into a dirty brown.
"How very… fascinating." Before Naruto's very eyes the girl before him lost all natural colour, her entire form taking on an earthy brown hue before crumbling away into dirt. "My duplicates are exact copies, there isn't a single flaw or strand of hair different, how did you notice the difference?" Naruto pivoted on his foot to face where he thought the voice was coming from only to see a grotesque sight.
The ground of the corridor in front of him bulged outwards, rising up into a loose, curvy pillar of mud that began to drip large chunks of mud onto the ground where it was absorbed back into the floor. Slowly as more of the dirt fell away a form was revealed, that of a tall, lithe man wearing a dishevelled brown tunic and trousers with more dirt than fabric. However most horrifically his legs seemed fused together, still attached to the floor as if he was simply a stray root from some plant.
His skin was surprisingly pale from what Naruto could see beneath his dirty mop of dark hair that fell about his face, covering one eye and falling most of the way down his back. The one visible eye was the same dull brown that the clone had just before fading away into dust, gleaming with interest and a sickening glee. This was only strengthened by the abnormally large grin that almost threatened to split the man's face in two.
"My, aren't you just an interesting little monk? I wonder what else you can do." Naruto's eyes simply narrowed dangerously as he planted his staff in the ground firmly, taking a loose starting stance for the Kaminari no Mai.
"I'll show you, Banshou Ten'in!" The entirety of the man's upper body suddenly lurched forward as if pulled by some invisible robe however he stayed firmly rooted to the floor. Naruto still used the opportunity to cover the distance between them, lashing out with a solid finger strike to a nerve bundle that should have paralyzed the man long enough for Naruto to complete the manoeuvre. However to Naruto's surprise where his fingers impacted the man, his body just crumbled away like loosely packed dirt.
"Ohh, now that tickled." Without warning the man's body suddenly extended grotesquely until he better resembled a snake, quickly wrapping Naruto up like a boa constrictor. With his prey bound the man lowered his torso until the two were at eye level. "Hmm yes, I feel there are many fascinating things to discover about you once we get you onto the operating table." Naruto just grimaced as the pressure on his body increased as he was wrapped up tighter.
"N-Not going to, urgh, happen, Shinra Tensei!" He struggle for a moment before his eyes shot open, one of the rings that circled his pupils contracting for a split second. Like a wall an invisible burst of energy quickly expanded from the boy's body, strong enough to completely blast the man's snake-like lower body into chunks of useless earth. He lay there for a moment just staring at Naruto with those same lifeless eyes that continued to sparkle with intrigue.
"Ohh yes, I will have to bring you to Orochimaru-sama himself, he will want to take a good, looong look at you… Naruto." As he spoke Naruto watched as his body seemed to melt away into mud, quickly fusing with the floor until there was just a pair of bloodshot brown eyes staring at him out of the earth, then they too vanished. The blonde quickly picked up his shakujou, leaning on it for support as he gasped for breath; being slowly squeezed until you could feel your bones begin to creak was not pleasant.
He tried to figure out what had just happened; when the man moved into the floor his Chakra vanished completely, like he was literally nothing but actual mud. However there, while he was choking him, it was all too visible; Naruto didn't know how anybody could just vanish like that. It was weird but he could have sworn the man's Chakra was brown; that in itself was incredibly strange. He tried to rationalize that it must have simply been a clone of some sort but the more he thought about it the more he was sure that was the real man in the flesh, or mud.
The worst thing was that Naruto realized why it seemed so familiar, the man's Chakra was different in the same way Shizuku's was. However instead of his Chakra flowing like water through a stream it seemed sluggish like liquid mud, trickling down a hill. In some places when he had been merging with the floor Naruto had seen his Chakra stop moving all together. Naruto filed that information away for later, he was sure it would somehow be important, for now he still had to focus on getting Shizuku back.
He continued to run through the halls, noting that the voice seemed conspicuously absent as well as the fact that there seemed to be fewer choices about where he could go. Fairly soon, before he could get frustrated enough to start blasting through some walls, he found himself in a large open room that was already lit. The light hurt his eyes for a few moments after running through the dark tunnels for so long and he was forced to cover them with his arm. When he lowered it his eyes widened in surprise.
The room was full of Shizuku copies, all of them fake if their Chakra signatures were anything to go on. Disturbingly they all felt like extensions of that one man more than normal clones which put the blonde on edge. As if he could be summoned with a thought the man appeared on the ceiling, melting out of the roof to hang their limply, again resembling a root. Before he could do much though all of the Shizuku copies turned to look at him, their teal eyes watering.
"Oh dear, so many little girls to pick from and yet all of them are fake… how sad." As he spoke the man's body stretched down from the ceiling, his torso coming up to face the blonde with a sickening grin. "Or are they?" Naruto clenched a fist as he raised his other hand, ready to blast all of the clones away if he had to.
"I don't have time for your games; tell me where the real Shizuku is!" Quickly the man out up a hand, a playful smirk on his twisted features.
"Ah ah ah, I wouldn't go launching one of those fancy gravity blasts Naruto-kun. You see, little Shizuku is somewhere in the room; you wouldn't want to hurt her now would you? Didn't you make a promise that she would never cry again?" Naruto suddenly froze as he stared at the limp man who simply grinned back like he was meeting an old friend after many years.
"How do you know that? And how do you know my name?" The man let out a quiet chuckle that became increasingly sinister as it went on, suddenly dropping to the floor as his body splashed out like a drop of mud on the floor. As it congealed back together into his body his head swivelled on his neck to stare with piercing eyes at the monk.
"Oh but I know you Naruto-kun, I know all about you. Your Rinnegan, little Shizuku, even the special guests in your stomach." The blonde took an involuntary step back as the man finally re-formed, his legs still fused in that disturbing way. "You see, Orochimaru-sama saw fit to grant me a tremendous power in return for keeping this little out-of-the-way base safe for him. He allowed me to become one with the earth, giving me an un-killable body of mud and dirt. Not only that but I am able to reach deep into your mind with only a single touch; just one brush and all your little secrets come tumbling out." He smiled again, his body growing slightly as he was raised higher into the air.
"I am Midara, guardian of the northwest research facility. Now, how should we proceed with our little game?" By this point Naruto's eyes were shadowed by his hair, his hands clenched into fists that trembled ever so slightly.
"I said, give me back my friend." There was no prior indication, no subtle hints, no warning whatsoever. One moment they were in a brightly lit room full of Shizuku clones, the next everything just exploded. When the dust finally cleared it revealed a large layer of sand covering everything, most of the duplicates themselves having been broken down into sand grains. Midara himself was tightly bound in a cocoon of the fine golden grains, only his head sticking out.
"You think a trap made of earth can hold me? Have you listened to nothing I've-" The mud-man suddenly paused, his eyes widening in panic as his struggled became more apparent.
"What are you doing?!" Naruto allowed the briefest of smirks to cross his features as he brought a second hand up, focusing all his control on the sand binding the slippery man.
"You know my abilities, so take a guess." The man growled in irritation, his face distorting grotesquely as he attempted to change his body and escape the sand prison.
"Your Preta path, but how!?" Naruto chuckled slightly as the sand began to constrict around Midara's body.
"You obviously didn't look all that hard into my memories then. The Preta path works against anything my Chakra makes contact with and this sand is saturated in it." His expression became darker as his glowing Rinnegan eyes pierced through Midara like he wasn't even there. "Now tell me where Shizuku is. Even if your body is immune to regular attacks I bet it won't work if you're drained of Chakra." As if to punctuate the point the mud-man began to feel dizzy from the quick rate he was losing his energy.
"Go to hell brat!" The man tried to spit in Naruto's direction as the blonde walked closer but the sand constricted even further, making him gasp loudly. The man's mouth twitched up in a sickening facsimile of a grin as he looked directly at Naruto. "Go ahead, crush me. See if you get your little girl back ever again." Naruto just maintained his smile which had once again settled into his usual serene look.
"I've already said I would raze this base to the ground before I allow her to be hurt. You've seen my memories, am I lying?" The struggling man only growled again before laughing darkly between strained breaths. "Anyway…" He jingled his shakujou casually causing the man to suddenly look at the simple staff with fear "…I don't need to crush you when I have this right?" Midara only narrowed his eyes as Naruto raised the shakujou until the end of the staff was just in front of the mud-man's forehead.
"Last chance Midara of the northwest base, tell me where Shizuku is." Naruto's only reply was another failed attempt to spit at him before his eyes narrowed and he tapped the end of the staff against the insubstantial man's head. There was the distinct sound of a gong ringing around the room for a moment and when it passed Midara had tensed up, his eyes glazing over slightly.
"Heh, you think this is the end brat? Orochimaru-sama will find you eventually, nobody can ever defeat him. Eventually you'll be laid down on a cold metal table and he'll poke and prod at those eyes of yours until nothing remains." As the man spoke his skin began to turn ashen, his hair falling away in clumps of mud as his body began to destabilize without the necessary Chakra to hold it together. "Just you wait and see Jinchuuriki, you'll die someday, someday soon." Naruto narrowed his eyes as the last of the man finally melted away into a small brown puddle of the floor.
His gaze was torn away as he suddenly heard a deep gasp for air and a choking cough. He looked around only to be surprised as Shizuku was held up by his sand in the exact position Midara had been in moments ago. With a thought that made his slightly queasy Naruto realized Midara had been holding Shizuku inside of his body this whole time and that was why he couldn't sense her or see her Chakra. He allowed the sand to fall away, catching her as she fell to the ground limply, still drawing in large breaths of fresh air.
"Shizuku are you okay?" The purple-haired girl offered him a weak smile, her eyes lidded as her head bobbed exhaustedly in his arms.
"He got mud all over my miko outfit." Her voice was rather weak and croaky but it still managed to get a small laugh out of Naruto.
"Come on, let's go." He gently picked her up, pulling her soundly onto his back where she gratefully wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on. As they walked her head would loll from side to side and her eyes began to droop but to her credit she stayed awake.
"What did you do to him?" Her voice was quiet, very different to how she usually acted; Naruto thought it was kind of cute. He just looked down thoughtfully as they made their way back through the winding passages of the base.
"My shakujou has the ability to permanently take away somebody's ability to use chakra. Without it his body couldn't hold itself together so he fell apart." Shizuku nodded tiredly as they walked closer to the exit, snuggling her face into his neck slightly to get more comfortable, eliciting a small blush from the monk.
"Is he dead?" The girl felt he blonde tense at her words, his steps pausing for a moment, the bright light of the outside just a few steps away.
"No." And with that Naruto walked on, vanishing from the base as his form was silhouetted by the bright light from outside.
"Oh hey, it's the monkey." Naruto's eye was twitching rather violently as he stared at the small Capuchin monkey who simply stared right back, chittering occasionally and nibbling at the scroll it was still carrying. Shizuku just sleepily waved at the small animal; it cocked its head slightly before parroting the action back to her making the sleepy girl chuckle.
"He's cute, can we keep him?" Naruto was still partially frozen, his eye now in excessive spasm as his mind re-booted from the crash it had undergone.
"He wasn't even in the base?!" Naruto's face was now a rather virulent shade of red as he trembled in mixture of exhaustion and frustration. However Shizuku quietly giggling into his ear calmed him down somewhat and he settled for slumping down onto the ground. Shizuku finally took the opportunity to slip off his back, lying down on the soft ground and letting her eyes finally close to get some much needed sleep.
The monkey scampered over to the pair, occasionally turning his head this way and that as he took in the young blonde monk and his sleeping companion. He held out the scroll in his small hands, shrieking a few times before dropping it and scurrying up Naruto's staff to perch there, ignoring the blonde for now as he began to pick insects out of his fur. Naruto just blinked at the strange sight before falling over on his back, leaving the staff upright in the ground to not disturb the little Capuchin.
"You know you really caused us a lot of trouble little guy." The monkey looked his way for just a moment, observed him and quickly went back to what it was doing. Naruto gave a dry chuckled as he raised his hand, once again bringing the sand up to form a makeshift hut. He noticed his arms burned slightly from the large influx of the Shukaku's Chakra he had used inside the base but he figured a nights rest would fix that, it usually did for everything else.
As his eyes began to close he cast a glance over to where Shizuku was curling up around herself, pulling her thin clothes closer to her body. With a wary sigh the blonde picked himself up and walked over, carefully draping his heavy cloak over her shivering form. Days in the jungle could be very warm and humid but at night it could get very cold. He smiled tiredly as the girl instinctively pulled the cloak around herself before a frown manifested on his brow.
'I nearly lost her today. I wasn't strong enough to protect her at the start. I need to start taking my job as her teacher seriously. Starting tomorrow I'll teach her things that will actually protect her when I can't.' With a sleepy nod of satisfaction the blonde retreated back a little, having the good sense to grab a sleeping mat before crashing down on it, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the ground.
"My elemental affinity?" Naruto nodded as he walked, they were once again making their ay steadily through Kusa no Kuni, now in an eastern direction on their way to Kaminari no Kuni.
"Yeah, now that you have access to your Chakra and have begun control exercises we should get your affinity as soon as possible." Shizuku's eyes lit up; she had really recovered well from the whole underground base incident and was back to her old cheery self by the morning. Then again that may or may not have been due to the new travelling companion they had picked up. The little Capuchin was currently riding along on Naruto's shakujou, occasionally playing with the rings at the end of the staff to make them jangle more. Shizuka had affectionately named him Maseru, although Naruto had no idea why.
"Oh cool, then can you teach me awesome Jutsu like breathing fire or firing bolts of lightning!?" Shizuku was looking at him with stars in her eyes which made the blonde slightly nervous. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he looked away, suddenly finding the grain of his staff's wood very interesting.
"Actually the only Jutsu I know is the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Everything else is either due to my Rinnegan or my new sand abilities." Her shoulders slumped at that with Naruto once again noting the sound of the rain increasing for just a moment; it might have been his imagination though. "But I'm sure we can pick up some Jutsu scrolls once we find your affinity." As if a switch had been flipped 'bubbly' Shizuku was back, looking at Naruto with fresh determination and glee.
"Alright! So how do we find my affinity?" Naruto smiled confidently as he strode on, noticing that the trees were beginning to thin out slightly and more of the rain getting through the canopy which was a good sign.
"We need some paper, Chakra paper; you channel some into it and it reacts differently depending on your affinity. Most people only have one, others with bloodline limits can have two or three and then when most Shinobi become Jounin they develop a second. Except you can only see your second affinity on chakra paper once you master your first, otherwise the first overpowers the second. You have to train to be able to hold back that specific elemental chakra." Shizuku nodded excitedly, happy to be finally learning something again, even though the ability to walk up walls was still incredibly cool.
"Alright, then, where do we get Chakra paper?" At that Naruto smirked even as he pulled up his cloak's hood to protect against the rain which was now becoming even more apparent.
"Well there are three places in the elemental nations that produce it, Konohagakure no Sato, a few islands in Mizu no Kuni, and Takigakure no Sato in Tani no Kuni. Luckily, Takigakure is on our way to Kaminari no Kuni." Shizuku's eyes widened in happiness that they were already so close; of course it didn't last long as she too pulled up the hood of her cloak to ward off the rain.
"Unfortunately however I have no idea where Takigakure is." Shizuku nearly tripped and fell over at that; righting herself with a slight flush she looked at Naruto strangely; the blonde merely sighed. "They're supposed to be really secretive; even merchants are blindfolded and led through some caves before they're allowed in the village. Chiriku-sempai had been there once; apparently they get the paper from this enormous tree in the centre of the village." Shizuku blinked in confusion, also to get water out of her eye as a rain droplet fell down her face, but mostly in confusion.
"Well if merchants get there it can't be too hard to find." Naruto just sighed and rubbed the back of his head; he almost used his Shakujou to do it but remembered Marseru at the last moment.
"I wouldn't be too certain, the village prides itself on never having been invaded, not even once." As if some divine being chose that moment to stress Naruto's point the treeline finally broke. The two pre-teens found themselves looking over a large cliff with an incredible vista-like view stretching out in front of them. As far as the eye could see various valleys that seemed completely subsumed by forest spanned the landscape. Rivers flowed throughout the whole scene with various waterfalls dotted around from the numerous cliff faces. Shizuku blinked in amazement at the beautiful yet daunting scene.
"Wow, I can suddenly see why." Naruto on the other hand just groaned, having to lean on his staff for support all of a sudden.
"I still can't see any roads!"
A/N: Can anyone guess where the name of the monkey comes from? (And no you can't just type the name into Google and get the answer)
