Don't own Naruto. I'd prefer owning Tobi anyway.
"Speech"
'Thought'
CHAPTER 11: DIVERGING POINT
"What's with all this ice?" wondered Kisame. "Which one of you did this? I really don't like the cold, ya know."
'He didn't do this?' thought Kakashi. "Wasn't us."
"Really?" asked Kisame. "Then what's up with the ice?"
"Kakashi-sensei, do you know him?" asked Sakura unsure of their relationship with Kisame.
"Well… no," answered Kakashi.
Both Tazuna and Sakura had plenty of things they could have said about Kakashi at the moment but decided to hold their tongues on Kakashi's incredulities until after they were safe.
"But this guy does," declared Kakashi as he pointed towards Zabuza.
"Are you going to help me or what?" questioned Zabuza.
Kakashi, Tomoyo and Sakura had their weapons at their ready upon hearing that
Kisame stared at Zabuza.
"What makes you think I came here to help you?" asked Kisame.
"You goddamned friggin' shark bastard!" swore Zabuza. "Then what the hell are you doing here?!"
Kisame showed them a menacing grin.
"I just came to say 'Hi'," answered Kisame as he released an impressive amount of killing intent.
Tomoyo quickly rushed up to Kisame and swiped away at him with her dagger.
Kisame blocked it with his sword which was still wrapped up in cloth.
"You're pretty cute when you're angry," said Kisame. "It's a shame that you won't be alive for much longer."
Kisame twisted his body around as he swung his sword upwards pushing Tomoyo away. The shark like man swung his sword to the side.
Kakashi stared at the missing-nin's sword as it squirmed within the confines of the cloth that hid it from view.
'That's not normal,' thought Kakashi.
"Looks like Samehada's hungry," said Kisame as he reached for the cloth that contained Samehada with his free hand. "Guess who's it going to have for lunch."
Kisame unwrapped the topmost layer of the cloth as Kakashi threw an exploding tag attached to a kunai towards him.
Kisame swung his sword knocking away the projectile that was thrown at him towards the glacier to his right and began to perform a spinning attack with his sword.
As Kisame rotated around swinging Samehada in such a way that the cloth unraveled itself in the air.
Samehada's true form was revealed to them in the shape of a grotesque looking sword covered by huge black spikes. The sword looked to be alive as each individual spike on the sword was wriggling about.
"What kind of sword is that?" asked Sakura. "It doesn't look normal."
"That's because it's not," answered Zabuza gruffly. "That sword he is the odd one out of seven. It has a mind of its own."
Kisame grinned maniacally as Samehada's spikes began gnashing against each other even more fiercely.
Tomoyo glared at Kisame and his sword.
"Everyone, don't let it get near you," ordered Tomoyo. "As long as it's within a meter of you, Samehada can drain away your chakra."
"Oh, you know about her special ability?" said Kisame. "Not just pretty but smart too. Samehada's definitely going to enjoy tearing through your skin."
Tomoyo quickly evaluated their options knowing how slim their chances were. Kisame wasn't listed as an S ranked ninja in the bingo books for nothing.
"Kakashi-san, set Zabuza free," declared Tomoyo. "We'll need all the help we can get."
Kakashi nodded and signaled for his dogs to leave.
"You sure you want to do that, little girl?" asked Zabuza as the dogs poofed into thin air. "I might decide to turn against you when I see my chance to run."
Tomoyo glared at him.
"I know about your relationship with Hoshigaki Kisame," stated Tomoyo. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to pass up your best chance at bringing him down."
Zabuza pulled out the Kubikiri Houcho out of the ground where it had been resting since Tomoyo had set it there.
"Hmph," snorted Zabuza. "You really did your research on us didn't you?"
"I am always thorough with my work," replied Tomoyo sounding a little proud of herself.
Zabuza swung his sword down but stopped in mid-air to get a better grip on his weapon.
"Well then, shark bastard," started Zabuza. "You don't mind a five on one match do you?"
"Five?!" yelled Tazuna. "But I'm just a weak old man!"
"Didn't mean you, old man," said Zabuza. "What do you say Kisame?"
Kisame watched Zabuza get into a familiar stance.
"Don't you think that's a little unfair?" asked Kisame. "I don't mind waiting for the kid to get up. It'll level the playing field."
Zabuza snorted.
"Hey shark bastard, still remember the oath?" asked Zabuza.
Kisame's grin grew wider and Zabuza smirked in return.
"LIVE FOR DEATH!"
"AND DIE FOR BATTLE!"
With that they lunged at each other.
--
"GRUGH!" grunted Naruto as he felt a pillar of ice slam into his chest sending him sailing through the air over the glacier and onto the now frozen river.
Riding on a moving pillar of ice, Haku descended onto the river and stood there ready to mete out more damage.
Naruto made to get up but slipped and fell on his face. He cursed the ice for that.
Haku raised his sword up and fissures began to form around them in the frozen surface of the river.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at his opponent's actions and clawed at his icy islet trying to grab hold of it.
Haku made a wave like motion with his sword and several of the newly formed islets lifted themselves up into the air revealing the water underneath.
Naruto looked around him knowing exactly what Haku intends to do with the floating islands.
That's why he started pumping chakra into his feet preparing for his next move.
Haku brought his sword down and all the floating blocks in the air zoomed towards Naruto.
Naruto released the chakra out of his feet but then something unexpected happen.
Instead of launching himself into the air, the chakra he released out of his feet shattered his foothold into pieces. This caused him to fall into the icy waters under him.
'SHIT!' cursed Naruto inwardly.
Naruto felt the cold flood his sense as he submerged into the cool depths of the river.
Despite his absence, the ice blocks still smashed into each other right where Naruto had been. Shards of ice flew apart from the point of impact.
Some of these shards dove into the water nearly impaling Naruto. Nearly impaling meaning that there were now two big gashes around his waist and his jumpsuit was cut up in a lot of places.
Blood flowed freely from his fresh wounds as Naruto quickly unzipped his jacket and removed it from his person.
Naruto pushed himself further underwater hoping to lose Haku's mark on him.
He did. But that didn't matter to Haku at all. Naruto had to come up eventually. If he didn't he'd die.
Haku decided it wasn't such a bad idea.
The seemingly frozen boy lifted his sword up into the air and ice began to emerge from the cross guard extending the blade's length by three meters. From that newly formed blade several branches of ice protruded outwards and stretched themselves to every part of the river that wasn't covered by ice.
Snowflakes began circling the around Haku's weapon before breaking off from the blade's main structure and along the branches until they finally reached their targets, the water.
Within moments, all of Naruto's possible escape routes froze over.
--
"Hn…" groaned Sasuke as he woke up.
"Hey, you feeling okay kid?" asked Tazuna as watched Sasuke sit up.
Sasuke looked around slowly before going into full alert the moment he saw what happening some distance away from him.
In less than a second after spotting the battle in front of him, Sasuke had discerned that someone new had just arrived and judging from the giant piece of metal and water jutsus that the blue-skinned man was assaulting his allies, it wasn't back-up.
He made to grab for his weapons but while doing so, found that his body felt sluggish and sore. He also noted that he lost another pair of shoes. He quickly stored away a mental note to buy more for the future.
"Sasuke-kun!" shouted Sakura as she saw that Sasuke had finally woken up.
Dodging a stray water jutsu, Sakura dashed over to Sasuke's side.
"THANK GOD YOU'RE ALIVE!" screamed Sakura joyfully. She embraced him in a warm hug as he came to realize why he was bandaged up in some places.
"Sakura what's going on? Who's he?" asked Sasuke referring to Kisame who had just finished a set of handseals for a jutsu that allowed him to launch razor sharp blades of water at Zabuza, who was now on the defensive, by slashing at him with Samehada. "He doesn't seem to like Zabuza very much."
"Sasuke-kun, right now he's our biggest problem," said Sakura. "He's more powerful than Kakashi-sensei, Tomoyo-oneesama and Zabuza combined. I'm barely keeping us even with him"
"Sakura," started Sasuke.
"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
"What happened to Naruto?" asked Sasuke. "There's something wrong with air around us, what happened?"
Sakura hesitated for a moment before answering him.
"Naruto's other side came out again. He beat that hunter-nin and knocked him down into the river."
'Naruto beat him?' thought Sasuke feeling somewhat bitter at that.
"After that, that blue guy showed up and all this ice came out of nowhere. But he wasn't the one who made them."
"What do you mean he didn't make them?" questioned Sasuke.
"The ice isn't his. He hasn't even used any ice ninjutsu against us yet. He even asked Kakashi-sensei about it," explained Sakura.
Sasuke reflected on his memories from the moment he woke up and noted that none of them involved any ice ninjutsus. Just water.
"Wait… If he didn't do it then that means…" started Sasuke.
Sakura nodded.
"Naruto's still fighting the hunter-nin," finished Sakura.
Sasuke's face then became serious, his Sharingan unconsciously flaring up in his eyes as he stood up.
"Sasuke-kun! Your eyes… they've turned red! How-" said Sakura continuing to mouth some words that Sasuke couldn't quite get.
Sasuke held out a hand for Sakura to stand up.
"Sakura, stand up," ordered Sasuke.
Sakura took his hand and did so, still staring at Sasuke's now red irises.
"Sakura, you said that you were barely keeping up with that blue guy, right?" asked Sasuke rhetorically. "With these new eyes of mine, we'll do more than even the score."
Sakura quickly recollected her thoughts for battle.
"After that, we'll make sure that idiot doesn't kill himself."
--
'DAMN HIM!' Naruto cursed his opponent as he continued to pummel the ice wall between him and precious oxygen.
Naruto pulled back his fist once more and thrust it as fast as he could at the ice. Unfortunately, the water pressure acting on his body drastically reduced the force behind that punch so much that it didn't even make a crack in it.
Naruto knew that punching the ice underwater was a terrible idea but he couldn't think of much else to do. None of his offensive ninjutsu he was capable of would be able to help him. The ones he could pull of underwater were too weak to break the ice and the ones that were powerful enough would have ended in him drowning anyway.
Naruto then had an idea. His offensive ninjutsu might not cut it but his wind manipulation chakra might.
Naruto placed both his palms in front of him and onto the ice. He then tried to form wind chakra but found that it was difficult to do so. The strange yet powerful chakra that was flowing through him was coming out in greater amounts than his own.
But that didn't stop him from pushing out more and more wind chakra. He could feel his arms burning in pain from the ridiculous amount running through them. With every bit of his own chakra that he squeezed out, at least three times as much of the other chakra came out as well.
Naruto pushed more and more chakra out of his hands, gritting his teeth in pain. The ice was definitely cracking apart but it'd take at least a few more minutes to get through at the rate he was going.
Naruto didn't have a few minutes. He needed to get out fast.
Having decided on new measures against the cracked layer of ice that was keeping him under, Naruto pushed himself down further into the water to get some distance.
Focusing on his new task, Naruto leaked out minor amounts of wind chakra around his feet swirling the water around them.
'NOT ENOUGH'
Naruto poured more chakra around his legs and allowed it to spin faster. Keeping his legs locked together, Naruto picked up speed as the water swirled around his legs swirled faster and faster.
He readied his fist for one big punch and redirected himself towards the cracks he made moments ago.
Despite the fact that Naruto was moving at an impressive speed whilst underwater, he knew that it wasn't enough to break the ice. That's why two meters before his target, Naruto stopped flooding the water.
Allowing the momentum and his bouncy to carry him upwards for a brief moment, he compressed as much chakra as he could, both his and the one that kept pushing itself into his pathways, into his right hand and soles of his feet.
Feeling as if his fist was being burned from the inside, Naruto ignored the pain and released every bit of the chakra in his feet for one final burst of speed.
An explosion of energy took place just under his feet pushing him upwards that would have been impossible for even the best swimmers to travel at underwater without the aid of chakra.
As his fist impacted upon the ice, Naruto noticed something had happened to his hand.
It was covered in blood red chakra.
--
Up on the icy surface, it seemed as if as if Haku had turned into a solitary ice statue of a silently distraught human. The reason for this would be that his entire body was now composed of ice. The fact that he hadn't moved since he made the barrier between him and his opponent.
His face was painted with a mix of pain and confusion.
He didn't understand why but strange things were going through his head.
Fight
Fight
Fight
There was a slow chanting in his head that was telling him to fight. It kept egging him on to seek battle once again. His urge to strike someone down became stronger and stronger with each chant but something else had taken his attention.
He was seeing things.
He was seeing glaciers being formed before him. He was seeing icicles the size of trees being plunged into the ground. He was seeing a man create a pillar of ice. In one form or another everything he saw had ice. He saw it being used against people. He saw it being used to kill people. He was seeing so much.
Everything was happening so quickly. In a single instant, the boy felt as if he had been through countless battles.
It started off slowly with a few of them but the images intensified both in numbers and speed as time passed by. The images exploded in his head the moment he lost sight of Naruto underneath the waters.
Not knowing why he was seeing all these images, Haku subconsciously memorized everything he saw picking up more and more knowledge on battle.
Seconds flew by and his mind became weary. So weary that he wasn't even able to remember why he there in the first place. He was even beginning to lose sight of who he was.
He probably would have if it weren't for what happened next.
BOOM
Not very far in front of him, a powerful blast of water had erupted from underneath the ice taking with it a fairly sizable amount of the frozen floor.
Haku remained still as huge chunks of ice flew by him as he watched the water splash all over the ice allowing him to see the one behind this sudden development.
On the opposite end of the newly created hole in the ice stood Naruto wet and cold from his entrapment underneath the ice.
Despite the cool frigid air around him along with the intense pain that he was experiencing in his now limp, bloody and broken right hand, the boy's temper hadn't cooled down the least bit as his crimson red eyes now held his prey within sight.
Without so much as a warning, Naruto made his move and drove his left fist right into Haku's chest with so much force that Haku's icy body cracked all over as he was sent sailing through the air.
Haku didn't remain despondent for much longer as the chanting in his head became louder and clearer.
Twisting his body in mid-air, Haku had managed to maneuver himself back onto his feet as he returned to the ground positioning the weapon in his hand as a guard.
Sending several newly formed pillars of ice at Naruto while reforming his icy body back to perfection. The intensity of the images he was seeing seemed to have decreased somewhat but that made it much easier to hear something else.
Fight
The chant was getting stronger.
Fight
It was relentless.
FIGHT
He could do nothing to disobey it.
Forming several icicle spears around him, Haku pasted a crazed smile on his face as he lunged towards his opponent and sent more projectiles Naruto's way.
--
Up on the bridge a battle of equal importance and intensity was still taking place.
Kakashi dodged Kisame's destructive downward swipe at him forming seals as the sword dug deep into the bridge.
Just as Kakashi had accumulated enough chakra to bring out one of his lightning jutsus Kisame sneered and tore Samehada through the bridge sending shards of concrete towards the Konoha Jounin.
Kakashi grunted as he ended his attack prematurely. Jumping away from his opponent, Kakashi was thankful that he did as Kisame's Samehada tore through that diversion.
As the shark-like man emerged from his concrete cover, Zabuza took the chance and swung his own blade aiming to separate his legs from his torso.
His goal went unfulfilled as Kisame simply blocked with Samehada's hilt. However, the sheer force behind Zabuza's swing was enough to send him skidding backwards across the bridge.
Fortunately for them, Tomoyo was already there to stab Kisame's right shoulder with her dagger.
Despite the fact that her weapon successfully dug into the blue man's shoulder, he still somehow managed to push her away with Samehada using only his right arm shredding bits of her shirt leaving her wounded abdomen visible.
Kakashi was quick to catch her before she could fly over the bridge through one of the newly made openings in the glaciers around them while Zabuza continued to engage Kisame.
Going over her wounds, Kakashi found that there were several small but deep gashes on her right forearm and abdomen. The gashes also seemed to have burn marks along the edges of those gashes.
"Are you ok-"
"I'm fine. I can still fight," Tomoyo answering the question Kakashi wanted to ask. "I can deal with this."
Kakashi watched her take out a small silver rod out of her pouch and brought it to one of her wounds. She winced in pain as the tip of the rod glowed a hot red and the red of her wounds turned charcoal black.
"?! What are you-" said Kakashi as he made to stop her but Tomoyo's glare stopped her.
"This is only a temporary solution. It'll take a few minutes but I'll be able to fight again. Make sure you stall him long enough for me to finish," declared Tomoyo as she continued to cauterize her wounds.
Kakashi reluctantly agreed and leaped right back into battle.
It was a good time to do so as had he been a second slower, he wouldn't have made it in time to stop him from digging Samehada into the other missing-nin's stomach.
Knowing that Kakashi's kunais wouldn't be able to hold off Samehada for long, Zabuza swung his weapon at Kisame's feet.
Kisame jumped high into the air and spun around swinging upwards in the air before swing it back down releasing his grip on it sending it flying towards his adversaries.
Tazuna winced as both ninjas moved aside and let it crash into the bridge forming a formidably sized crater.
His bridge probably wasn't going to make it to the end of the battle.
Still high up in the air, Kisame swiftly formed hand seals seemingly unaffected by the weapon protruding out of one of his shoulders.
An impossibly fog mist made itself known to them as it formed itself rapidly around Kisame hiding him from his enemies.
It didn't hide for long as Kisame emerged from the fog landing next to his weapon.
Both Zabuza and Kakashi took this moment to charge in towards the shark-like man with weapons in hand hoping to end it all before Kisame could pull out Samehada out of the ground.
As the blue skinned man reached for his weapon, Zabuza leaped into the swinging his sword upwards while Kakashi shot his two kunais aimed at Kisame's face and torso.
Just as Kisame was about to grab hold of his weapon, his enemies' reached their mark. Zabuza cleaved off Kisame's right hand which held Samehada's hilt and Kakashi's weapons dug into the back of the man's head and left shoulder.
Despite these indications of victory something was wrong.
Something happened to Kisame's amputated hand, the back of his head and part of his left shoulder.
They all melted away as water.
Kisame grinned as he watched both men open their eyes wide in shock as they realized that the Kisame they were fighting wasn't the real one. It was a water clone.
Despite the fact that it wasn't the original one, this Kisame twisted his body around swinging Samehada in a round arc pushing both Zabuza and Kakashi away before throwing it towards Tomoyo bursting into water as he did.
Despite the mixture of pain and heat that seared through his now badly injured forearm Kakashi was still able to see the giant blade embed itself into the bridge right next to Tomoyo.
Relief didn't follow the disappearance of the water clone as the real Kisame descended from the fog above them and landed in front of Tomoyo.
Kisame grinned menacingly as he pulled Samedhada out of the bridge.
"That really hurt, you know," said Kisame as he pointed towards the dagger still embedded in his shoulder. "I'm going to have to pay you back for it."
Tomoyo grit her teeth as she helplessly watched Kisame lift his blade over his head.
"Itadakimasu."
Kisame brought down his sword.
--
"Damn it!" cursed Naruto.
He's been busy dodging the ridiculous number of ice spears that Haku had been throwing at him. It was a miracle that he was able to avoid being impaled so far given the fact that his underwater escape took a lot out of him.
He restarted his fight with Haku moving on a 'high' originating from the amount of Kyuubi's chakra that had been running through his systems but that 'high' soon faded away with the malicious chakra leaving him to work with his now mostly gone reserves.
Despite his lack of chakra, he was somehow able to anticipate the ice spears course much quicker than while he was running on Kyuubi's chakra.
It was unfortunate for him that Haku was just getting started with his attacks as the chanting in his head became harder and harder to ignore as time passed by.
Deciding that he had enough of flying spears, Haku went on to try a different approach.
Dodging the last of the ice spears, Naruto pumped out some wind chakra through his feet and shot off towards the androgynous boy with a kunai in his left hand. His right hand was still as limp as it had been after the escape.
In retaliation Haku raised a wall of ice in Naruto's path in an attempt to stop him.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for the leaf genin, the ice wall wasn't thick enough to stop him as his body broke through it from the sheer speed of his leap.
It seems that his Reppu no Hou was much more effective above ground than underwater.
But without chakra boosting his endurance, he still felt a lot of pain as he crashed through it.
Landing just in front of Haku, Naruto took the advantage of his surprise to slice through Haku's neck.
This might have worked if Haku still had flesh. Unfortunately for the blonde, he wasn't.
Naruto's attack was returned with a pillar of ice emerging from the icy surface of the lake and ramming into him.
Haku watched as Naruto was thrown high into the air by his ice pillar. He formed several more around his opponent and directed them at the blonde.
Realizing that he'd be dead if he got hit by anymore of those ice pillars, Naruto desperately poured as much chakra as he could out of his feet.
It was no use. His Reppu no Hou had little to no effect in the air.
Regardless of the technique's effectiveness or Haku's aim, the first of the newly formed ice pillars brushed past Naruto's body missing its mark.
Seeing his chance to cheat death, Naruto kicked off the ice pillar and launched himself past two of the other pillars aimed at him.
Skidding across the ice as he landed a good distance away from Haku, Naruto cursed his now fully exhausted chakra reserves. He already used enough to put him away in the hospital for at least a week's worth of chakra depletion treatment.
Naruto was now staggering from the pain and exhaustion that permeated his entire body.
'Hah… everything's so blurry…' thought Naruto as he tried to make sense of what his eyes were seeing.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to make sense of it in time as a pillar of ice slammed into the boy.
Haku didn't stop there.
The ice pillar that Naruto's body was riding on kept on going until it collided into the glacier that was surrounding the bridge crushing the boy.
After a brief moment of silence, Haku was sure that Naruto had finally died but that idea went out the window the moment he saw the blonde's hand clawing at the ice pillar still crushing his body.
Going in for the overkill, Haku raised up several more pillars around Naruto's location.
In a snake-like fashion, the ice pillars stood still for a moment before all at once they twisted and dove in on the blonde.
Now certain of his invincibility and Naruto's death, Haku started walking towards the bridge now overflowing with murderous intentions.
--
As soon as his body got smashed into the glacier, he found himself inside sewers of mind once.
"BOY…"
Kyuubi's growl vibrated through the halls of his mind.
"GET OVER HERE!"
Naruto briefly wondered about what the fox could possibly want to speak to him about as he walked towards the fox's area.
Within what felt like a few minutes to Naruto, he was there right in front of the fox's cage.
"What do you want?" questioned the blonde.
"WOULD YOU AGREE WITH ME WHEN I SAY THAT WE SEEM TO MEET ONLY WHEN YOU ARE AT DEATH'S DOOR?"
Naruto's mind went blank as he tried to process what he had just heard.
"Say what?"
"WOULD YOU SAY THAT WE ONLY SEEM TO MEET WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DIE?"
"… Did you call me here just to ask me that?"
"NO. I JUST FELT LIKE MESSING WITH YOU."
"You need a hobby."
"I HAVE NOTHING TO DO AROUND HERE. THE ONLY THING I CAN DO BESIDES SLEEPING IS BOTHER YOU AND EVEN THAT'S HARD TO DO BECAUSE OF THIS ACCURSED SEAL."
For good measure, the fox slammed itself into the cage bars. Aside from the ankle deep water splashing about nothing else came out of the fox's body slam.
"So? Deal with it. You brought it on yourself."
The fox stared at the blonde intently from the inside of his cage. He noticed that like last time they met, the boy wasn't acting as he usually would in the real world. He was much less emotional in his own mind.
"BOY, WHY IS IT THAT YOU SEEM SO MUCH QUIETER IN HERE THAN OUTSIDE?"
Naruto tilted his head at that question.
"YOU SHOULD BE HATING AND INSULTING ME FOR ATTACKING YOUR VILLAGE OR BETTER YET BE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS. THE ONLY REASON YOU'RE STILL ALIVE IS BECAUSE OF ME, THEY WON'T FARE AS WELL AS YOU DID FROM FIGHTING THAT MONSTER."
"I… don't know," answered Naruto.
The boy looked up at the fox with a look of befuddlement.
"I don't really know why… but down here I feel calmer," said the boy. "I'm not supposed to feel calmer. I should be angry at you. Whenever I hear the adults whispering about me and you, I'd want to make you disappear. I'd want to eliminate you from my life forever. But down here…"
Naruto went silent.
The fox pondered about this odd shift in the boy's personality. It wasn't like when Naruto was using its chakra. That malice and rage that flowed through the boy while using it was a result of the fox's memories weaved into its chakra.
Its memories gave the fox power and it was because of its many memories that the fox had near limitless power.
In fact, its presence alone should have driven Naruto furious whether or not the boy hated him or not. Something else was at work here. But all that did was make Naruto seem more interesting to it.
"BOY, I DO NOT WHY IS IT THAT YOU ARE LIKE THIS WHENEVER YOU ARE HERE BUT I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING."
"What is it?"
"IT'S ABOUT THAT MAN REIJI. THE ONE WHO BLURTED OUT YOUR HERITAGE LIKE IT WAS COMMON KNOWLEDGE."
"What about him?"
"DO NOT TRUST HIM. I WON'T TELL YOU WHY BUT ONE DAY, THAT MAN WILL BETRAY YOU. AND IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO KILL HIM BY THAT TIME, YOU AND I WILL DESCEND INTO NOTHINGNESS."
"Huh? What?"
"YOU NEED TO GET STRONGER. MUCH STRONGER. AND YOU NEED TO DO THAT QUICKLY. YOU NEED TO BECOME STRONG ENOUGH TO USE MY POWER. MY FUTURE DEPENDS ON THAT."
"What are you talking about? I shouldn't even be listening to you."
"…"
For once, the giant fox was silent.
"What's the deal between you and him?"
"BOY… SOMEONE UP ON THE BRIDGE JUST DIED."
"What?! Who?!" demanded the blonde finally showing signs of concern towards his friends.
"I AM NOT SURE BUT WHOEVER IT WAS, DIED AFTER HAVING A GIANT SWORD PIERCE THROUGH THEIR BODY."
Naruto turned his head to the floor.
"…I'm going to need your chakra."
"YOUR BODY CAN'T HANDLE ANYMORE. YOU WILL GO THROUGH HELL IF YOU USE ANYMORE OF IT."
Naruto glared at the gigantic fox and gave him the last words of their conversation.
"I don't care. I'm taking it!"
Blood red eyes stared down into similarly colored ones as the water around Naruto turned deep red and swallowed him whole leaving no trace of him when the water finally calmed down.
The fox was surprised at this turn of events. It wasn't surprised that Naruto would go off to save his friends. It wasn't surprised to that he would even go through hell for them.
It was surprised that Naruto was able to call up its chakra when it didn't will it to.
"WAS IT BECAUSE OF THE MEMORIES IN THEM? OR DID HIS BODY ADAPT ITSELF TO HANDLE MORE?"
Kyuubi sat there silently in its cage wondering how it happened.
"NO MATTTER. THIS JUST MEANS MY ODDS HAVE IMPROVED."
With that the grinning fox retreated to the darker recesses of its cage.
Wow it's been a long time since I worked on this story. I had this half done for months but never got around to finishing it up. Originally it was a quarter done but because the more I wrote, the more it seemed like a good idea to leave it at a cliffhanger before getting to the end of the bridge battle. So some of the promises I made last chapter will be postponed to next chapter but hopefully I'll be able to pull it off well.
I'd really appreciate more reviews. I still need to know how I'm doing with this and at which parts I need to improve on. Hopefully you guys aren't confused with how things are going storywise since I don't want it to be predictable but the next few chapters are going to have more questions than answers.
No side story this time since I want to get started on the next chapter. Until I do put up the chapter, have fun wondering why I gave this chapter the title diverging point.
Next up, "Paths to Power".