Chapter 12: A Secret Revealed
XoX
"Kagari/Homura!" Was the cry that went up as soon as the fire user collapsed. Naruto took quick note of all those who used the name Homura, those being Uzume and Matsu, and the others who used Kagari, as he rushed towards the now unconscious fire user.
The stampeding sound of rushing feet followed Naruto as he arrived at the fire user's side and knelt down. The first thing he did was turn the now unconscious figure over onto his, or her, Naruto still wasn't sure which, back. The fire user's clothing had been burnt quite badly, the entire upper half of the clothes Kagari/Homura had been wearing now pretty much consisted of a small, ragged looking piece of cloth that had so many holes in it that nothing was covered. This meant that the fire user's chest was on full display. A pair of decently sized, round mounds with light pink nipples and aerola sat where there should have been male pectoral muscles. They were definitely not something a male should have.
On top of Kagari/Homura's chest being on display, Naruto could see that the fire user's skin had several severe burns on them. Most of them looked like second degree burns, though there was a rather nasty third degree burn on the fire user's left torso that made the skin look like an overly cooked steak. Thankfully that seemed to be the only major injury that the blond could find.
Ignoring the chest, the burns, and the numerous tenants of Maison Izumo standing directly behind him, Naruto placed two fingers to the man's neck. He had a pulse, one that was slightly weak but going steady. That was good, since the fire user had only suffered from burns then so long as they were treated quickly, it meant Kagari/Homura was unlikely to die from the wounds. Though there was still the issue of just how to fix the apparent problem. It wouldn't do for him to simply save the fire user, only for the Sekirei to light up again.
"Naruto-san," Miya's voice penetrated the din, and the one she called to responded by turning his head to look at her. He had never seen the woman look quite so worried, her eyes were open, no longer calm or controlled they seemed to possess a frightened look he would have not expected to see from the fearsome landlady. Her eyes flickered, going to Kagari/Homura's still form, then back to Naruto. "What happened? Is Kagari-san –"
"Kagari will be fine," Naruto said, turning back to the person in question. Taking care not to let his skin touch any of the fire users burns, the blond lifted the gender confused Sekirei into his arms and stood up. "So long as we get him to his room I can heal him. As for what happened, how about I tell you after I heal our friend here, ne?"
Miya frowned, looking from Naruto to Kagari, more specifically the fire user's chest. "Perhaps it would be best if I healed Kagari-san," she suggested, but almost immediately Naruto shook his head.
"No offense, Miya, I'm sure you know first aid very well," he started, tilting his head as he determined what the most delicate way of putting this was that wouldn't reveal his secret. "However, I not only have a much more efficient method I can use to heal Kagari, but you must also take into account that he was reacting to me." With that said, Naruto quickly moved passed Miya, and began to bully his way through the other Sekirei in his path.
"Reacting?" Miya said, a hand going to her mouth in surprise. She quickly made to follow Naruto, nipping at his heals as he moved with quickened footsteps. "Naruto-san," she called when the blond had to stop so he could open the door to Kagari/Homura's room. "Naruto-san, what do you mean you have a more efficient method of healing him? And was he really reacting to you?"
"I'm sorry, but I be more specific in answering your first question other than to tell you that I simply have a better way of healing him than bandages and salves," Naruto said as he moved through the door, his voice slightly clipped as he spoke. He needed to heal Kagari's wounds, and this woman was not only stopping him from doing that, but also trying to pry information he refused to part with out of him. "As to the second, I think that answer should be obvious. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really should start healing Kagari."
Naruto made to close the door, but just before he could shut it, a sheathed blade shot out from the crack, stopping the door from closing with a slight 'bang!'. Narrowing his eyes, the eternal shinobi watched as the door was pushed open by Miya, who was now giving him a stern look, the kind of look that someone who was not used to being ignored was ignored.
"Miya," Naruto said slowly, as if by doing so he could quell the frustration he felt building up inside of him. It didn't quite work, and anyone who had basic talent at reading people would be able to tell that the blond was reaching his limit. "Could you please remove your sword so that I can shut the door?"
"Of course," Miya replied in a tone that was both pleasant and stern. "Just as soon as I come in as well." The woman took a single step forward, no doubt making an attempt at moving into the room before Naruto could deny her access. She didn't get any further than that single step, however, as the blond she was currently at odds with stepped directly in her path.
"I apologize, but this isn't something you can be in here for," Naruto spoke through gritted teeth. "You'll only get in the way." His blunt words and the tone in his voice had Miya narrowing her eyes at him, not in the usual crinkling shut way, but in a way he had not seen yet. As the purple twin orbs grew slightly smaller, all emotion from the woman's eyes seemed to vanish, and in it's place only a slight killing intent remained. They were a warriors eyes.
"I suggest you rethink what you just said," Miya spoke in a tone that was chillier than a winter in the frozen tundra. "This is my house, and while you are a guest in my house, you will follow the rules that I lay down and listen to me. If I tell you that I am going to be with you while you help Kagari-san, you are not going to stop me. Am, I, clear?"
"Crystal," Naruto grit out, his patience finally reaching his limit. While the burns on Kagari would not kill him, they were still very painful, and the longer they remained unhealed the greater the chances were that they would get infected, particularly that painful looking third degree burn. And this woman was stopping him from doing his job. "However, you're still not getting in."
What happened next would be something that Miya would not be able to describe even if she tried. One minute, she was looking into Naruto's eyes, and the next all she felt was incredible killing intent that was so strong she stumbled backwards and almost tripped over her own feet. She stared at the blond, her eyes widening ever so slightly as something black and ominous rose up from behind him. She could only make out a silhouette of whatever it was, but that was more than enough to make her freeze, her blood running cold as she stared at the... creature, that seemed to radiate blood lust and killing intent unlike anything she had ever felt.
And then it was gone, disappearing so suddenly that Miya had to blink and wonder if she had just imagined it.
Without giving the woman time to recover and make another attempt at getting in his way, Naruto spun on his heels and the door suddenly slammed shut behind him. The sound of a lock clicking into place signified that the blond had locked the door so she couldn't get in without breaking the door down.
"M-Miya," the scared voice of Uzume sounded in her ears. The lavenderette did not turn, she was too busy staring at the door that had just closed on her face. Her mind was busy trying to replay the last few seconds of that conversation in her mind, trying to help her discern what had just happened. Unfortunately, at the moment all she could think about was that thing that had appeared behind Naruto when he had finally lost his patience with her.
"Wh – do you know what that was?" The question seemed to snap the woman out of her funk, and she finally turned her head to look at a wide eyed Uzume. So she had seen it too, then. Turning her head some more, Miya saw that it looked like everyone had seen the same thing she had. Matsu and Musubi were holding on to each other tightly, their eyes wide and their bodies shaking with unknown fear. Kusano had buried her head into Akitsu's leg, and the ice user herself was looking at a wall, surrounded by a thick, frosty fog, and both her and Kusano seemed to be covered in a thin layer of frost that both were ignoring.
Turning back to Uzume, Miya shook her head. "I-I don't know what it was," her voice sounded just as stupefied as the rest, and maybe even a touch fearful as well. She looked back at the door, taking several deep breaths to calm herself down. When she felt sufficiently calm, she looked back at the door one more time, before spinning on her heels and walking off.
"All I know was that was no Hanya."
XoX
After locking the door behind him, Naruto sighed and let his back lean against the wall as he closed his eyes. Now that he was no longer in Miya's presence, the eternal shinobi felt the beginning stirrings of guilt. He truly believed he had every right to be angry at the woman for not letting him get to work on healing Kagari, and he doubted that belief would change with time. Fatal wound or not, the fire user was still badly injured, third degree burns were nothing to scoff at. To top it off, Naruto could feel Kagari's pain through the small bond that had formed due to their reaction. It was much like that time in the Arboretum where he had felt Kusano's fear, even though he had yet to wing her at the time. While the pain itself was negligible compared to some of the things he had experienced in his life, it was enough to compound on Naruto's worry for the person passed out in his arms to fray his patience completely. So he felt he had every right to be angry at Miya for not letting him do what needed to be done.
At the same time, he couldn't help but feel guilty. Miya had known Kagari longer than he had, the fact that he and Kagari had only met a total of four times and one of those times he had snapped at him while the other he had quite literally burst into flames notwithstanding. It probably wasn't far off for him to say that Miya most likely thought of the fire user as family, one of her precious people. No doubt her worry for Kagari was such that she probably didn't want to leave his side. It was only natural that she would want to be there when Naruto healed the fire user, he couldn't blame her for that.
There were many other issues compounding this problem, however, and none of them were dealt with easily. Such as the fact that what Naruto was about to do was not something he wished any of his tenants or even his Sekirei to know he was capable of doing right now. A part of it, he knew, was just paranoia. He didn't want to reveal his abilities to anyone he may potentially have to fight with some time in the future. Another part of it was simply habit. After keeping his existence and everything about him a complete secret from everyone, Naruto didn't really know how to trust anymore. Sure, he had shown Musubi his clone technique, and Akitsu his Sennin Modō, but those had been rookie mistakes he had made due to his confusion and overemotional state caused by the bond. And having already made that mistake twice, he had no desire to do so again.
A moan forced Naruto's eyes to snap open and look down at his soon to be patient. Kagari was still passed out, however, she, and he had decided to go with 'she' because he could not think of Kagari as a man with those mammaries on her chest, was quite obviously in pain. It must be particularly bad if she could still feel it enough to moan out in pain.
It didn't take long for Naruto to regain his bearings, and it took even less time before he had placed Kagari on the bed. The first thing that needed to be done was catalog all of Kagari's burns. Going through the handseals necessary, Naruto activated the medical scanning jutsu he had learned from Sakura. With the activation of the jutsu his hand began to glow a light green color, the energy surrounding his hand making it look like it was wreathed in green flames. It was a testament to just how hard the jutsu was for him. Normally the green glow was only supposed to be a light layer of chakra that coated his hands. Naruto had far too much chakra to be truly control it. It was, in all honesty, a miracle that he could even perform medical jutsu.
Placing his hand just a few inches above Kagari's torso, Naruto slowly and carefully ran the hand up and down her body. As he suspected she had a massive amount of burns. In fact, her entire body was currently covered in one large first degree burn, which was discerned easily enough through simply visualization, the fire users entire body had become a light red sometime after Akitsu had doused the Sekirei's fire. There were also a number of second degree burns, mostly along her chest and stomach, but a few were on her legs. The final issue were the two third degree burns, the one he had seen on her torso, and one that was located on her left inner thigh. Those would be the wounds he had to heal first.
Now that he knew what injuries Kagari had, he could begin getting to work on actually healing her. The first thing Naruto did was remove the burnt remains of the fire user's clothing. While a medical ninja of Sakura or Tsunade's level may be capable of healing injuries through their clothes, Naruto had nowhere near that level of control. He was not a medical ninja, and due to his ridiculously large chakra reserves, he would never be a medical ninja. In order for him to be capable of using a medical jutsu to it's fullest potential, he needed to see the injury he was healing. Otherwise the entire jutsu would end up spread out across the patience entire body, and while some might think that's a good idea, it could lead to an overdose in foreign chakra, which would in turn lead to a bad case of chakra poisoning. Considering just how powerful his chakra was, such a thing could easily kill the patient he was trying to heal.
It was as Naruto was removing Kagari's pants that the blond was forced to pause. "Well," He said dryly to himself as he stared at the now nude Sekirei. "Now I know that he's not one hundred percent female anymore." Indeed, while the upper half of Kagari's body was very much that of a female, it was the lower portion that let him know that Kagari was a male, or at least half male. If it were not for the fact that Naruto had seen much weirder things in his life, he probably would have freaked out by now. The blond sighed. "A transvestite Sekirei... now I've seen everything."
Shaking his head, the blond decided it was time he truly got to work. Sitting down on the bed, the blond went through another long stream of handseals. Naruto then brought his left hand over his heart and clenched it into a fist. A green flame erupted from his hand, a fire made from pure healing energy. Taking a deep breath, the blond immortal soon began the long and arduous task of healing Kagari of... erm, well, he began healing the fire user's burns.
He started with the more serious burns, the two third degree ones he had seen. Placing his hand directly over the burn on Kagari's torso, Naruto closed his eyes and began to focus all of his attention on the task at hand.
It was difficult, far more difficult than any other jutsu he had ever used. Truth be told, this was the first time he had ever used true medical ninjutsu in a long time. Sakura may have taught him the hand signs and the theories, but he had rarely ever had a chance to use them before. Of course, given that he had regenerative abilities that were so powerful he could lose an arm and not have to worry about being permanently crippled, it only made sense that he would rarely ever need to use medical ninjutsu.
Opening his eyes, Naruto focused his attention on the injury he was trying to heal and saw that, much to his relief, the large burn was healing. It was very fascinating to watch, he had to admit. The cracked and broken flesh that had been blackened by the fire that once tried to consume it was beginning to heal. The skin that had been burnt off and exposed the muscles underneath slowly crawled it's way along Kagari's torso, the muscles and fat underneath that had been cooked until it was burnt and cracked was starting to slowly close up, the blackness that made the entire burn look like someone had rubbed charcoal on the wound began to clear up, the muscles once more becoming a healthy pink color. It took around an hour for Naruto to finish healing the wound, but by the time he was done, the once burnt skin was now unmarred and unblemished. It was as if the burn had never been there to begin with.
Naruto continued working, concentrating on the heavier burns first, then moving onto the lighter and more superficial burns. The entire process was very long, taking nearly four hours due to how hard the task was for him. He was not a healer, his chakra control had never been good enough to use healing jutsu very well, and so actually using it to heal a wound of any kind meant he had to pay extra attention to what he was doing. It required him to focus the entirety of his being into the soul task of healing so that he wouldn't make a mistake. Despite the arduousness of the task, Naruto eventually managed to heal Kagari of all his, her, burns. The final task was to get the fire user redressed.
The host didn't have very much in the way of variety, Naruto noticed as he looked through the fire user's closet. In fact, the only outfit the Sekirei had was the white long sleeved shirt and black pants combination that he had always been seen in around the house. Well, that, and the black suit with trench coat and facial mask was there too, but since it wasn't considered everyday wear, Naruto decided not to count it as a viable option for the fire user to wear. Without any options, the blond was forced to grab one of the pairs of identical clothing and dress then fire user in it.
The entire procedure of redressing the fire user in some appropriate clothing was not only a touch more difficult than Naruto thought due to the fact that Kagari was pretty much dead weight at the moment, but also a lot more embarrassing than he thought it would be, especially considering there was no one watching. Thought he just figured it was because Kagari was, well, not quite a guy, but male enough for the entire situation to feel awkward. Actually, it was likely made even more awkward specifically because Kagari was only half male. There was just something that felt inherently wrong with a chick sporting a penis.
Still, despite his embarrassment Naruto managed to get Kagari into a set of clothes, and also covered the fire user up with the blanket on his bed. He was actually somewhat surprised that Kagari even had a bed, since most Japanese homes only used futons. Naruto himself may have had a bed, but that was because he had gotten so used to them while living in Europe and America. Plus, they were a lot more comfortable, especially those new memory foam mattresses.
It took him a moment to realize how far off track his thoughts were getting. Using medical ninjutsu for so long must have taken more out of him than he had realized. While his chakra stores were practically full, and he could feel them recovering at a rate that was inhuman, his mental exhaustion was such that he could probably collapse and go to sleep right now. Maybe he should think about taking a quick nap before going on with the rest of his day...
With a tired sigh, Naruto stood up from the bed and began walking to the door. Unlocking and opening the door, Naruto made his way outside. The hallway was empty, well, mostly empty. It took the clinking of chains for him to realize that Akitsu was still in the hall. The ice user had taken to sitting against the wall next to Kagari's room, her back straight as she sat in seiza. It seemed that the moment the door had opened, she had focused her attention on him, which would explain the clinking of her chains.
"Have you been here the whole time?" asked Naruto as he turned to fully face the woman. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if she had been sitting there the entire time he had been inside healing Kagari. His question was answered and his thoughts proven correct when the woman nodded slowly.
"Ah, yes," she admitted with little hesitation. Naruto nodded to himself as he held out a hand to the snow woman. After a second or two, he realized that she hadn't taken it. Looking down he saw she was staring at the appendage in confusion, probably not quite sure why he was offering her his hand.
"Come on, Akitsu-chan," he said, making a gesture with the hand he had offered. "Let's get you up and than meet up with the others." Akitsu blinked, then slowly reached her hand out towards his. The moment their hands touched, her pale cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
Naruto's lips twitched ever so slightly as he pulled the ice user to her feet. The woman really did look quite adorable when she blushed like that. Normally she was pretty unflappable from what he had seen so far, and the only time she ever blushed seemed to happen when he was some way involved. Though he was surprised by how shy she could act, considering this was the woman who often times forgot to wear panties.
"So where are the other's?" asked Naruto as he switched gears.
"Ah," Akitsu tilted her head to the side, then looked up at the stairway that Kagari's room was next to, before looking back at him. "Upstairs," she answered with deliberate slowness. Naruto frowned at her before turning his own attention towards the stairs. A small sinking feeling appeared within the pit of his stomach. Why would they be upstairs and not in the living room?
"Well, why don't we go upstairs and meet them?" suggested Naruto as he began walking. Behind him, the rattling and clinking of chains let him know that Akitsu had begun to follow him, her light footsteps barely making any noise on the hardwood floor. With an almost absentmindedness about it, Naruto couldn't help but think that the ice user would make a capable ninja if trained.
Before he could actually beginning walking up the stairs, Naruto heard the hurried sound of footsteps coming from the very direction he planned on going. Less then a second later, two of his Sekirei, Kusano and Musubi, appeared at the top of the stairs. The two stopped the moment they saw Naruto, a pair of nearly identical smiles appearing on their faces, right before they launched themselves down the stairs and made to tackle Naruto in a hug.
"Naruto-sama!" Musubi shouted out as she nearly bull dozed Naruto over, running smack into him and wrapping her arms around the blond in one of her earth shattering hugs. Naruto stumbled back several steps and was forced to reinforce his body with chakra in order to keep his ribcage from being shattered. Thankfully he was fairly used to the girls spontaneous bursts of affection, as well as just how ridiculously strong she was. If he wasn't, then Naruto might have actually ended up getting seriously injured by the girl.
Despite the creaking of his ribs, the blond began returning the girls hug. It was partly instinctual and partly a conscious effort on his part. While showing his Sekirei affection through physical contact felt natural, there was another part that rebelled against it. It was the unfortunate circumstances of his life. Now that he had formed bonds, it was just a bit more difficult to truly show affection for these girls. They weren't some one night stand he would sleep with and never see again, they were his Sekirei, and that made all the difference in the world, differences he still wasn't used to.
"You're so amazing!" his first Sekirei continued crowing as did her utmost to smother him with affection. Down below Musubi, hugging on to his left leg, Kusano added her own 'Mmhmm!' of agreement with the older Sekirei's words while nodding her head. Naruto blinked at the pair, nonplussed as he wondered what he had done that would warrant this kind of reaction from his girls. While part seemed to admire him a lot, he hadn't been around them for the past few hours. Naturally he was curious. "I can't believe you managed to heal Kagari-san like that! Your powers are so cool!"
Naruto really should have known better than to tempt fate. Like a bucket of ice cold water being dumped on him, the blond felt his entire body run cold. His mind blanked for a full second before rebooting and trying to put the words Musubi had just spoken in a format he could understand.
Had she really just said what he thought she did? But how would she even know about the way he had healed Kagari? She may have known about his ability to create corporeal copies of himself and transform some of them, but that didn't mean she would have been able to come to the conclusion that he was capable of healing people as well. No offense to Musubi, he liked her, he really did, but she wasn't very sharp when it came to using common sense and logic. So how had she managed to find out he had healed Kagari with his medical ninjutsu? The only way she could have done that was if she had actually seen him at work, and the only way she could have seen him was if she was there or...
Matsu.
A growl escaped from Naruto's lips as he realized how Musubi, Kusano and, if he was right, everybody else in the house except Akitsu, because she was waiting right outside the door, and Kagari, because he/she was asleep, knew about his medical ninjutsu. Once again, Naruto had gone off half cocked thanks to a Sekirei reacting to him and decided to help someone without putting even a lick of thought into what he was doing. Just what the hell was wrong with him! You'd think after making so many mistakes within such a short time frame that he would have learned from his previous mistakes. But no, it seemed that despite having screwed up numerous times, and despite having told himself he would do better, the blond still found himself screwing up, and now it had ended up costing him much more than he had ever expected it to. He cursed himself for making such a rookie mistake, just as much as he cursed Matsu for spying on him when the whole reason he had kicked Miya out of the room was so no one would know about his abilities.
Well, he was not going to let this slight against him go just like that.
"N-Naruto-sama?"
The voice caused Naruto's head to snap over to Musubi, who flinched under his gaze. It seemed that even she could tell he was angry, perhaps due to the bond, though from the way his face was twisted into an angry snarl, she might not even need it. At first he wondered why she looked so frightened and concerned. While Musubi had no doubt seen what he had done to heal Kagari, it wasn't like she was at fault. If nothing else, Naruto could be safe in the knowledge that the girl was far to naïve to do something as subtle as spy on him. The fact that she had just come down and told him that she had essentially watched him use medical ninjutsu to heal someone of their burns told him that. It wasn't until he actually saw his reflection in the mirror that the eternal shinobi realized how frightening the look on his face truly was.
A look at Kusano's face told him that she was frightened by it too. Aside from the fact that she was no longer attached to his leg, she had buried herself into Musubi's side and was hiding from him.
'Calm down, Naruto,' he thought to himself. Closing his eyes, the blond took a deep breath, released it, then took another one and released that too. 'It's not Musubi's fault, nor is it Kusano's fault. I doubt they even realize the significance of what they've done. They are innocent in all of this.' After one last shuddering breath, Naruto felt that he was sufficiently calm, and opened his eyes to look at Musubi again.
Once more, the girl in Shrine Maiden clothes flinched a bit, though it seemed to be more of a reflex due to how angry he had looked before than because of the look in his eyes now. "Musubi-chan," Naruto said in what he hoped was an even and patient voice. "Could you and Akitsu-san please take Kusano with you and clean her up in the bath? I need to speak with Matsu-chan alone for a moment."
Thankfully the blond's words seemed to be enough to snap the girl out of any inherent fear she might have been feeling. "Sure thing, Naruto-sama!" the excitable girl said, pounding her left fist into the open palm of her right hand. "Akitsu-san and I will get Kusano cleaned up right away."
Now much calmer than before, Naruto managed to give both Akitsu and Musubi a smile, causing the former to blush and the latter to smile as well. "Thank you," he said to them, before kneeling down next to Kusano. The girl was still buried in Musubi's thigh, though her left eye took occasional peeks out to see what was going on. When their eyes met, she 'eeped!' and buried her face into the skirt clad leg again. Naruto felt himself wince as he realized that he had caused the little girl to feel the same fear that Yomi once had. It made him feel sick to his stomach.
"I'm sorry, Ku," he apologized. At the sound of his voice the little girl poked her head out once more to look at him. Naruto let a small smile spread across his face, the best one he could manage given the circumstances, and slowly raised his hand to ruffle the girls hair. "I want you to know that I'm not mad at you or Musubi or Akitsu. So please don't be frightened of me, I would never do anything to hurt you. I promise."
Perhaps it was a testament of Naruto's resolve to be a better Ashikabi and let the girls into his heart that he was actually able to apologize so easily after getting so riled up. It probably had something to do with the bond, he knew, but at the moment Naruto could only feel that having the bond right now was a good thing. Whereas most of the time it's simply an unwanted burden, currently it was a small blessing in disguise, for it allowed the flow of emotions to go between him and his Sekirei, letting him know exactly what is wrong with the girls he was bonded to.
One of the things Naruto had realized about the Sekirei bond was that the bond usually acted both ways. It didn't just allow for him to experience his Sekirei's emotions, but often times they knew how he felt as well. However, most of the time Naruto's chakra, the very thing that his Sekirei had latched onto to form the bond, was surprisingly enough the very thing that interfered in their ability to feel his emotions. Naruto believed it had something to do with the nature of his chakra, but the only time his Sekirei actually felt what he felt was when he was experiencing extreme levels of emotional highs and lows, unlike his case where he felt his Sekirei constantly. It was something he was grateful, because it meant he could control what they felt from him when he wanted to hide his own emotions so he wouldn't disturb them.
Right now he was using that bond to let the child know he was not angry at her, pushing that belief towards her so she could feel it and know it was true. Kusano looked at him, her eyes blinking as she registered the feelings he was sending through their bond. Then she blushed and looked down at her toes.
"So you're not angry with me?" she asked, her eyes only occasionally looking up into his. With those large green eyes staring at him from under her scraggly blond hair, Kusano seemed to reach a level of adorable that had not been in existence before. No doubt about it, if he were a woman, Naruto would be screaming 'kawaii!' at the top of his lungs and attempted to squeeze the life out of the Green Girl. As things were, Naruto was not female and had far more self control than that. All he did was smile at the girl and shake his head.
"Of course not," he told her. "How could I possibly be mad at such a cute little girl." Naruto's words seemed to make everything better, much to his relief, as the girl stopped hiding from behind Musubi's leg and tried to knock him over with a hug. Fortunately for him, the blond was no forty pound weakling, and thus didn't even budge as he let the Green Girl bury her face in his chest.
He did hesitate for a second or two before returning the hug, however. Despite his promise to do better, Naruto was still not quite used to physical intimacy. It was strange, he had let his Sekirei sans Kusano kiss him all they wanted, Musubi in particular seemed to take every chance she could to do so. Even then, he had done his best to keep them all busy so neither of them would think about trying to initiate physical contact. Naruto himself had never initiated a kiss outside of the time a naked Musubi had fallen on top of him in the hotel he had first rented, and his winging of Akitsu. At the moment, the only time they were really intimate was when they all slept together, because he just hadn't been able to get out of that particular arrangement. Musubi, and to a lesser extent Akitsu, were rather adamant on him sleeping with them. Even then, Naruto was often up before either of them and would get out bed before they even woke up.
"I love you so much onii-chan!" Naruto winced at the little girls declaration. It wasn't the creepiness that bothered him. He knew that right now all Kusano saw him as was her 'onii-chan', so he could generally ignore the strangeness of the comment. It was the 'I love you' that bothered him. Much like with Musubi, Naruto still couldn't say it, or perhaps he simply refused to say it.
"Thanks, Ku," Naruto told her instead, pulling the girl back a bit so he could ruffle her hair. Kusano beamed at him as he gave her a small smile. "Now why don't you go take a bath with Mu-chan and Aki-chan. I have to talk with a few people about a little something called common courtesy." It was truly a testament to the calming effect his Sekirei seemed to have on him that the blond didn't even twitch as he finished his last sentence. That, or maybe he just didn't want Kusano to know what he meant when he said 'talk'.
"Common courtesy?" Musubi blinked, raising an index finger to her lips as she adopted a thoughtful look. "Is that like 'common sense' and 'discretion'? Because I've never heard of it before."
Naruto gave a tired sigh, but other than that he gave no reaction to the girls question. By now he had gotten used to Musubi lacking knowledge when it came to social moors and common sense that it just didn't bother him anymore. "No, Musubi-chan," he answered her, standing up once more after letting go of the tiny blond. "While it's similar to common sense, it has nothing to do with discretion. I'll start teaching you about it a little later, ok?"
That seemed to be good enough for Musubi, because she gave him a loud, "kay!" Before grabbing Kusano's hand and beginning to walk off. "We'll see you later, Naruto-sama!" she shouted, waving back at him as she walked down the hall. Naruto returned the wave before heaving a weary sigh. The small exchange between him and his Sekirei had forced most of the anger out of him, and now he was just tired. He wondered if perhaps he should put off dealing with Matsu and Miya for today and just do so in the morning, before shaking the thought off. No, he decided, it would be best if he just got this out of the way now, otherwise he would be unable to sleep tonight.
The sound of clinking of chains had Naruto blinking. Turning around he saw that Akitsu was still standing behind him, looking at him as if she were waiting for something from him. It took him a moment, but he eventually realized what she wanted. "I'll see you after you get out of the bath, Akitsu-chan," he told the snow woman, offering her a smile.
"Ah," Akitsu blushed, then looked away. "Yes," she said, probably an acknowledgment of his words though Naruto had never been too sure. In the same slow manner she does almost everything, Akitsu turned around and began walking down the hallway towards the bath house, the clinking of her chains the only thing Naruto could hear.
Sighing, Naruto placed his chin in his left hand and began using said appendage to crack his neck back and forth, the sound of multiple pops resounding off the acoustics of the hall. Now that he had nothing left to distract him from what he needed to do, the blond decided it was time for him to confront Matsu about her use of spy cameras in Maison Izumo.
It wasn't long before Naruto found himself standing in front of the secret entrance to Matsu's room. Without a moments hesitation, the blond put a hand on the door and pushed it open as he walked in.
Matsu was there, just as he had expected. She was looking at him in a resigned manner, which meant she had somehow heard the conversation downstairs and knew that he was not happy with her. It wouldn't surprise him if she had spy camera's set up there as well. A glance around the room also showed him the monitor she had used to spy on him when he healed Kagari. It still showed the inside of Kagari's room, he could see the fire user lying on the bed. Judging from the angle of the camera, it was the perfect view to watch him when he used his medical ninjutsu.
The fact that she had not even bothered hiding the screen told him a lot, probably more than Matsu could even realize. Firstly, it was clear that Matsu already knew that he knew she had been spying on him, and obviously felt that by not hiding that fact she would show him that she hadn't meant any harm by it. Secondly, the expression on her face told him that whatever she had been expecting to see while spying on him, what he had done was not it. She was surprised by his ability most likely, or at least confused. Perhaps she was hoping that by proving she meant no harm when she had spied on him, he would answer the questions that were no doubt brimming in his mind.
"I am extremely disappointed in you, Matsu," Naruto spoke in a cold tone that caused the red head to flinch. "There was a reason I did not let Miya into the room while I healed Kagari. Did it not occur to you that perhaps, just like Miya, I have things about me that I wish to keep secret?" He did not give her the chance to answer his question. It had been rhetorical anyways. "What could have possibly possessed you to spy on me while I was attempting to help one your friends?"
Matsu winced, but didn't flinch away from him as he mentioned what he had been doing. "Naruto-san is a very mysterious person," she said, using the more respectful '-san' suffix for the first time since he met her. It just went to show how serious she knew the situation was right now. Even when Naruto had been discussing the Sekirei Plan with her, she had still called him Naruto-tan.
Taking off her glasses, a change seemed to overtake Matsu. Without the round lenses on her face seemed thinner, enhancing her already attractive features, and making her seem more mature than the childish Sekirei he had known for all of a day. The change was so startling that it was almost enough to make Naruto forget about why he had come here in the first place. For a moment, all he could think about was how beautiful the woman before him was. A small shake of the red managed to help rid him of the thoughts, allowing him to focus on Matsu as she spoke.
"He seems to finally be taking things seriously and is doing his best to learn about the Sekirei Plan and be a good Ashikabi, but Naruto-san is still a very mysterious person. We know so little about him." Matsu paused, seemingly in thought as if she were trying to decide on whether or not she should admit the next part. The pause didn't last long. "Naruto-san doesn't know this, but when he first arrived in Shinto Teito he caused a big stir." The blond in question raised his right eyebrow, but didn't interrupt as the red head spoke. "When his profile appeared in MBI's database at the airport, Minaka put almost all of MBI's resources into researching Naruto-san."
That caught Naruto's attention. With a narrowing of his eyes, the blond recalled the phone conversation he'd had with the President of MBI. Minaka had called him Minato, the name he had used last. Naruto had always wondered since that first meeting how Minaka had managed to connect Minato Namikaze with him, as far as he knew, the MBI President hadn't even been alive when he had used that name. And Naruto always made sure that any information people might have on him disappeared long before it could hit the web.
Did that mean he had slipped up somewhere down the line? Had there been a leak, or a mistake, and information on him that should have been erased from the very fabrics of existence managed to make it's way to the internet? It was possible, he supposed. After all, with the recent advances in technology there were a variety of means to film or photo people without them knowing. Inanimate objects had no intent, so even someone like Naruto would not know when he was being watched. It was quite possible that his image had been taken sometime down the road, a small snapshot at a grocery store, video footage of him at a bank, even a picture of something he had nothing to do with but just happened to be in via bad luck could have given him away. Even with the large network he had created to keep his existence out of everyone's eye, it was impossible to destroy every shred of evidence that existed. It was, in a way, similar to Matsu's description of the Invasion of Kamikura Island.
However, that now left Naruto with another question.
"How do you know about that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the red head. Matsu seem to have expected this, because the moment he asked, she turned around and began typing away on her keyboard. At first, Naruto frowned, wondering what it was she was doing when the screen began cycling through a list of images before stopping on his. He recognized what the screen was showing him as a profile template, his image was in the left hand side of the screen, and on it's right was general information on him, name, age, weight, height, hair and eye color, and Sekirei winged as well as a general information one might expect from a profile, though there was a lot of incomplete information on it, things like a personality profile and several other key aspects of information that Naruto would have considered the standard when gathering information.
"Uzumaki Naruto, age: 18, height: 195 centimeters, weight: 91 kilograms, build: lean athletic, hair color: blond, eye color: blue, Sekireis winged: number eighty eight, Musubi, number seven, Akitsu, number one hundred and eight, Kusano, and number zero two, Matsu, parents: deceased. Born in Osaka, Japan to a wealthy family, Uzumaki Naruto was left with a several billion Yen publishing firm that was responsible for creating the Icha Icha book series when both of his father died of a severe case of Influenza in 2005 and his mother died in a car crash in the year 2012. After completing secondary school he left Japan to travel the world and ended up going to Harvard Univeristy where he received his Master's Degree in Film and Theater. After graduating with a four point zero GPA he left America and returned to Shinto Teito, Japan, and now lives at Maison Izumo."
As Matsu listed off all of the information about him that was on the screen, Naruto found himself frowning. That entire profile was fake, with only the information about his physical appearance, Sekirei winged, where he lived, and his parents being dead being real. Even then, the only thing about his parents death that was real was the fact that they were dead. Everything else on that screen was a carefully crafted lie that would stand up to even the most comprehensive of investigations. He had even taken his 'parents' and the publishing firm into account.
Toad Sage Inc. was the name of the publishing company, and had been a 'family' owned business for over five hundred years. Stationed in Japan, the publishing firm had several fronts, small time publishing companies that Naruto had bought out over the years and integrated into his own business. That way it would be easier for him to publish his work without constantly having to go through the normal channels and possibly have someone realize that the same guy who had published a story twenty years ago had not aged a single day. This way, Naruto could go to any one of the two hundred publishing firms he owned around the world to get his work published. Often times, he would spend time at one company for several years, then move onto the next, and by the time he moved back to that same publishing form again, the people that he had first met would be dead and he would not need to worry about people recognizing him. It was an ingenious way to ensure that he could get his work published, remain anonymous, and make people think that all of these books were the work of a family that had simply passed down their stories from one generation to the next.
His 'parents' on the other hand were a set of special clones that Naruto had created with a permanent henge. The ones he had used this time had been based off of his actual parents, Minato and Kushina (though they had not been named such), and had been reinforced with a combination of seals that were designed to draw in natural energy and enhance the clones, making them not only last forever and not disappear with one pop, but also not disappear immediately after they 'die', that way no suspicion is drawn when no one can find a body. Once his 'parents' died, Naruto would go about creating a persona that matched the information that was already in the databases found within the various governments and internet by using the many contacts he had. The plan itself was extremely detailed, and thorough enough that no one should be able to so much as find a crack with the background he had provided.
"That's quite a bit of information," Naruto started, his voice gaining some impatience. "But that doesn't tell me what I want to know."
"Just give me a second," Matsu said as she continued to type. "I have to pull up the rest of what Minaka found..." as her fingers continued to move, the profile of Naruto moved off to the side and became slightly smaller, small enough that another profile could be fit right next to it, Naruto realized. "And there!" With one last click of the keyboard, another profile was pulled up, one that Naruto recognized immediately. After all, how could he not recognize himself.
The image itself was slightly different, lacking the six whisker marks he had on now and the eyes were bit narrower, but the image itself was unmistakably him. It was also not like the profile image, which was simply showing a front view of the upper half of his body, in other words, a mug shot. This particular image looked like it had been taken by an old photograph from the middle 1900s', probably around 1945 or maybe the late 1960s'. It was a tad grainy, and looked old. He could see from the way the edges of the image itself were frayed and ripped that it must have been photocopied. Despite that, the image was still easily recognizable.
In another effort to keep himself hidden, Naruto had taken to using a modified form of henge so that he could remain disguised indefinitely. Often times he would just modify his looks a little bit, get rid of his whiskers, change his eye or hair color, most people never really took the time to look at another person in great detail. Usually they would only remember key facial features, hair, eyes, nose, and any birthmarks that may be visible like his whiskers or a beauty mark. He could change his entire look, of course. He had done that several times before, but due to how he kept up his facade of belonging to a 'family of authors' in order to keep writing and publishing his books, Naruto rarely ever changed himself into someone else completely. It may hide him much better, but it simply wasn't pragmatic.
The image before him now seemed to disprove his original idea and made him question whether or not he should have perhaps, used his henge to change his entire appearance.
"Namikaze Minato," Matsu stated, using the name he had used back than. "Age: deceased, height: 195 centimeters, weight: 91 kilograms, build: lean athletic, hair color: red, eye color: green. No other information available." The red head turned back to look at him, her expression a mix between grim and serious. "When Minaka first began looking up information on you, I got curious and decided to look up all of the information on you that I could. It took a while for me to get this information, Minaka had hidden it in a heavily encrypted file with almost as many security precautions on the information about the first and second Discipline squads."
The first and second incarnations of the Discipline squad, Minaka had done his best to either erase or hide all data related to them. The only reason Naruto himself knew about the first generation was because of Matsu, and the only thing he knew about the second incarnation was it's members. Number zero four, Karasuba had been a member of the second incarnation, was a part of the first incarnation, and was currently the leader of the third incarnation. There had only been one other member of the second generation, number zero eight, Yume, and Matsu had been unable to pull up any information on her except that she was deceased. Naruto had told Matsu to keep looking up any information she could on the second generation, but he was honestly expecting it to end up being a dead end.
The files that kept Matsu from reaching any information besides what they had already found on the second generation were incredibly complex, and not even the red heads incredible ability to hack and control any electronic device remotely seemed to be incapable of getting past the encryptions. Perhaps if she had direct contact with the mainframe she could, but Naruto didn't want to have to sneak into MBI just to gain information on a group that no longer existed.
Focusing on the task at hand, if the files containing information on Namikaze Minato were even have as secure as the secondary Discipline squad, then it was a wonder Matsu had managed to get to them at all, and a testament to her determination to get them. It must have taken her a number of hours working nonstop in order to get past whatever security the President of MBI had erected around it.
"Namikaze Minato looks exactly like Naruto-san, only without the whiskers. Despite that he is not shown to be related to Naruto-san in any way," Matsu said, her eyes now focused solely on Naruto. "Minaka seems to have made a connection to the two of you despite that. It could have something to do with the information I couldn't get, I only had enough time to download this much before a security protection program tried to trace the connection I was using to hack into their system and forced me to shut my computers down. I tried to get in again, but it was impossible after that."
"And you got curious about me because you thought there was some kind of connection between me and this Namikaze Minato," Naruto stated. "Is that it?"
Matsu nodded. "Minaka may be a monster, and he might even be insane, but he's very smart and never does anything without reason." Naruto grimaced as what she said was made clear. If Minaka thought there was some kind of connection between him and Minato, then there probably was. The worst thing about this whole situation was that they were both right. Naruto and Minato were connected because Naruto WAS Minato and just changed his name after faking his death by burning the house he had been living in and using a corpse doll to make people think he had died in the fire.
For a moment all was silent. Matsu was staring at him, obviously waiting for him to answer, and Naruto was trying to decide on what he should say. His first thoughts were to lie, naturally. He had not trusted anyone with this information ever, in the course of the many of thousands of years he had been alive, he had never told anyone about his immortality, or even hinted at it. Sure, in the beginning a few people had found out on accident, but they had never found out because of something he told them. By this point in time, lying was almost instinct for the blond.
His second thought was to, not quite tell her the truth about what she had found, but maybe give her a little bit. She was his Sekirei, after all. And more than anything he knew from what he had been told last night that when a Sekirei bonded to an Ashikabi, they pretty much became dedicated to that Ashikabis safety and happiness.
Now, Naruto still didn't trust Matsu, not after what she had done. Going behind his back to research him. At the same time, he wasn't really sure he could blame her. Given all that he had just learned he could understand her curiosity of him, and it wasn't like he had expressly forbid her from researching him, or even spying on him. While on part of him was upset that she would spy on him to learn something when she could have just asked (though whether or not he told her was a different story entirely), another also knew that it was hypocritical of him to get so angry when he often did the same thing. After all, hadn't he spent decades getting dirt on every single government and powerful political figurehead in the world? What Matsu was doing was no different then what he himself had done so many times in the past, the soul exception being that her reasons for doing what she did were far different than his own.
From what he understood, Matsu's investigation into him had, at first, been simple curiosity due to Minaka's unhealthy interest in him. Now though, her desire to learn more was probably simply her wanting to know more about her Ashikabi. Even he had to admit that he was a mysterious figure to many, after all, Naruto had pretty much set himself up to be mysterious and enigmatic. He didn't want people knowing about him, the true him at least, and thus he had set a trail for others to follow. Granted, most people would have found the trail of information he had given them and simply left things at that. With Minaka finding more than Naruto had ever expected anyone to, and Matsu discovering it, it had likely led to her wanting to learn more about him. It could even be theorized that the whole reason the red head reacted to him was due to what she had learned from MBI's database, though there was no proof to prove or disprove such a theory.
With all of these thoughts passing through his mind one after the other, Naruto determined just what he would allow himself to say to Matsu and how he would say it. "And you couldn't have just asked me because...?" Naruto trailed off, waiting for an answer. It was the first step in his process, get Matsu to realize that she didn't need to use subterfuge with him when she wanted something to make her feel guilty.
Matsu grimaced at his words, but remained determined. "Would Naruto-san have answered me if I asked?"
"Not at first," Naruto admitted, moving onto the second step. "You have to understand, Matsu, I have many secrets, and many people would and have died trying to obtain those secrets. However, I would have revealed those secrets to you... in time." The cold look he gave Matsu after this pronouncement sent a chill down the red heads spine. "Know this, Matsu, I do not like people spying on me. Just like Miya has her secrets that even you would not divulge to me willingly, so to do have secrets that I am uncomfortable revealing. Do not make me regret winging you by spying on me or forcing me into revealing anything I would not want to."
The words were harsh, Naruto knew, perhaps even too harsh. But he needed Matsu to understand the seriousness of the situation. He had not informed her that he didn't want her snooping into his past before, and so Naruto couldn't truly punish her for spying on him when he had healed Kagari. At the same time she needed to know that the secrets he possessed were something he didn't want her looking into, for both of their sakes. Naruto was not ready to reveal any of his secrets, especially now, and it would not do either of them any good if Matsu kept looking into his past.
In many ways, Matsu was very lucky she was his Sekirei. When it came to guarding his secrets, Naruto had always been ruthless. Minaka was not the first to have discovered something about him that the blond did not want getting out. While rare, it had happened a few times in the past. None of those people who discovered information that could threaten to reveal his existence ever lived for very long, it was very easy to kill a person and disguise it as an accident, or to poison someone with a special brand of poison that would not affect the body for a month after it was ingested, and when it finally did react make it look like they had died of a heart attack. Naruto had developed and perfected the act of killing and making it look natural to an art form.
And it wasn't just the people who had discovered his secret that often lost their lives. Naruto was not willing to let anyone the person who discovered him was close to, to live either. Family, friends, anyone who Naruto suspected the person who found out his secret may have told was likewise killed off and the entire incident covered up without any evidence they had been murdered. It was ruthless, heartless, and many people would likely decry it as the most immoral thing someone could do. Which just went to show how far Naruto was willing to go in order to protect his identity.
"I-I understand, Ashikabi-sama," Matsu stuttered only a little bit, making it clear to Naruto that he had made his point.
"Good," Naruto said with nod. "I want you to get started on the Ashikabi and Sekirei profiles. Start with Higa Izumi and all of his Sekirei and then work your way down the list based on how many Sekirei an Ashikabi has."
"Of course," Matsu replied as Naruto started to leave. However, just as he reached the entrance to her room, the blond paused and then turned back.
"Also, I expect you to take down all of the spy camera's located in my room, Kagari's room, and the bathhouse," he ordered her, getting a much larger wince from the girl. Naruto was unsure whether that was due to him rubbing salt onto the wound he had opened, or because it would mean she would not get to spy on him while he bathed, but in the end it didn't matter. This was a test for her. Naruto would do his own sweep next week just to make sure all of the areas he had designated were camera free. If not then it meant he would not be able to trust Matsu, and that he would only be able to rely on her for information gathering, and even then it would be best to conduct his own investigations to make sure her work was accurate. This could be considered her chance to prove her sincerity to him.
"Yes, Ashikabi-sama," Matsu's voice rang out just as Naruto finished walking towards the entrance. He turned his head back once more to look at the red head, nodded, and then left.
He still had one more person to speak with before calling this day over.
XoX
She had known he would be coming. When the knock on her door sounded within her room, Asama Miya already knew exactly who would be there. Standing up from where she had been sitting in front of the shrine dedicated to her husband, the landlady of Maison Izumo slowly walked over to the door. Her steps were measured, unhurried, as if she were not actually concerned about the oncoming conversation that was about to take place. Opening the door, Miya got her first good look at the person on the other side.
The blond before her looked cold, and not the kind that was caused by the whether. Two glacial chips of ice were set in a face that was so dead a corpse would look more emotional. The coldness of his ice and his expressionless face posed a startling contrast to all of the other times she had seen Naruto. She had seen him happy, relaxed and playful, and frustrated, angry and lost. This new look was nothing like anything she had ever seen before. At least on him.
The look on his face was familiar though. Miya herself had worn that look many years ago, before she had fallen in love.
"Naruto-san," Miya spoke in a soft tone, using the more respectful suffix to address him with. Now was not the time for playful remarks and teasing. She opened the door a little further and stepped aside in order to give the blond access to her room. "Won't you come in?"
A frown crossed the blond's face, the only sign of emotion there was. From the slight tilting of her head it was clear to her that Naruto was thinking, most likely whether or not he should accept her offer. There was a slight tilting of his head for a single second, then he gave a nod and allowed himself to walk in through the door.
Miya closed the door behind the blond as soon as he walked in. Naruto used that moment to take a look around the room. Miya's room wasn't all that different from the others in Maison Izumo, same green tatami flooring, same white paper walls, and a window near the opposite side of the entrance. Really, the only differences about this room and all the other ones was that it was bigger, and held Miya's personal items. The object that held the most of Naruto's attention was the shrine on one side of the room. He recognized it as a shrine used to honor the dead as per Japanese customs. On top of the shrine was the image of a man with messy white hair and gray eyes that Naruto correctly deduced was Miya's husband. The incense she had lit a little while ago were still burning openly, sending small streams of smoke drifting lazily into the room.
For a moment all was silent as Miya walked past him, moving to the center of the floor where she once more sat down, placing her hands in her lap, and then looking up at him. His gaze bore into hers with an intensity that Miya found both strangely fascinating and terrifying. This man, he showed no fear of glaring down at her, something that anyone who had even an inkling of who she was would never do. Even her most hated enemy wasn't that stupid.
As the silence grew, Miya decided she would be the one to break it. "I take it you wish to speak with me about what happened tonight?" she left her question vague, while she was already positive that she knew the reason Naruto was here, she didn't want to be presumptuous and say something only to end up wrong.
The blond before her remained silent for a full minute, the intensity in his eyes not diminishing. Miya bore his scrutiny to the best of her abilities, it helped that he was not using that... thing he had managed to call forth last time. Finally, after the minute had passed he asked, "why did you do it?" and she knew exactly what he was talking about. It was hard not to, after all. The only question was, how should she respond?
"As I said before, Naruto-san," she started in a slow, careful voice, as if making sure that there was no way for the blond to misunderstand her words. "This is my house, and while you are a guest in this house, I expect you to obey me." Her purple eyes narrowed slightly. "Not only did you not obey me, but you deliberately made sure I could not follow you and locked me out."
"With good reason," Naruto retorted, his own eyes narrowing.
"Perhaps," Miya admitted with a small shrug. "But Kagari-san is my friend as well as my tenant. I wanted to make sure you would not do anything untoward while tending him."
"Don't give me that!" the blond growled, a snarl on his face. "We both know that's not the reason you were so adamant on coming with me! And we both know that's not the reason you decided to spy on me!" His accusations had Miya wincing. She had not expected him to notice that. The truth was, she trusted Naruto. She didn't know why she trusted him, nor the circumstances behind it's formation, all she knew was that she did. Apparently, he knew that as well.
"Is it really so bad that I know about your... abilities?" asked Miya, it was a question asked both out of curiosity and out of her desire to change the subject. She had a feeling that if she pursued the previous matter she would lose any argument they might have.
"Yes!" Naruto snapped, then grimaced. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, Miya could actually see the way his chest and shoulders began rising at a slower pace each time. A meditation technique, perhaps? When the blond opened his eyes again they were once more cold stones of ice set on a stern face. "It has nothing to do with knowing about my abilities. That does bother me a lot, yes, but given time, I may have been willing to inform you of them at a later time, if for no other reason than Matsu seems to trust you. But that was before you and she decided to completely disregard my privacy."
Miya hid her flinch his words caused quite masterfully, even as she tried to think up her response. When put the way Naruto had, her attempt to learn more about the mysterious blond did sound pretty bad. The way he said she was 'completely disregarding his privacy' made it sound like she was violating his basics rights in some way. It also had the affect of making her feel... vile, almost, or perhaps dirty, like she had committed some great sin that had stained her in a way that could not be seen by human eyes.
"It is hard," she began, and this time the slowness of her words seemed more about her being careful with what she said than trying to make her words clearly understood. "Living with someone you know very little about. Naruto-san is a very mysterious person, not only is he an enigma but he also refuses to let others know the real him." She was, of course, referring to the personality that Naruto wore more often than not. The friendly persona he had used when they first met, a combination of the by-product of being newly bonded to Musubi and the skilled mask he wore to hide his own bitterness at the world when in public or seducing women. Miya had already deduced that it wasn't real. The Naruto she and everyone else saw was not the true Naruto. Granted, it wasn't that hard given all of the issues the blond tenant had been having recently when it came to his own emotions, but those just made the persona he attempted to keep up all the more visible.
"And so you think that gives you the right to spy on me?" Naruto asked bluntly, his eyes narrowing. While Miya did not flinch, she did turn her head away from the accusing glare. "You thought that because I wasn't letting you know about my past that you would just find out more about me by spying on me?" The blond shook his head at her. "That's pretty hypocritical, don't you think? After all, Miya-san has more than enough secrets of her own." At those words the blond looked over at the image of Takehito, and Miya instantly knew what he was talking about. A new emotion seemed to enter her mind and body, one that didn't take very long to place. It was one that she had lived with for a long time after all, an emotion she had felt almost constantly ever since her husbands death, and seemed to strike her with a vengeance.
Guilt. She felt guilty for spying on Naruto, a man who was a rather private person when it came to his past. Honestly, she was surprised he had let her know as much about him as he had. However, even with all of the things he told her, all of those little insights into his character, his thoughts, and his beliefs that he had let slip in his moments of weakness, he had never told her or his Sekirei anything of true significance as far as his past was concerned. She knew nothing about who he was save the few bits of knowledge, which was useless without proper context, that he had occasionally given.
When she had first gone to Matsu's room so she could watch Naruto as she tended to Kagari, she would admit that a part of her was angry. Never before had she been snubbed like that, even the woman she hated more than anyone else in this world would not dare be so blunt and defying to her, and that was saying something considering that woman was a bloodthirsty psychopath. Naruto had. He had not only defied her in her own house, but had managed to project... something similar yet vastly different from her own hannya's masks enough to actually surprise and somewhat frighten her. And so, with the blond having pretty much kicked her out of Kagari's room, she had gone to Matsu, angry and annoyed she had the red head spy on Naruto to see what he was doing.
Now she was beginning to wish she hadn't.
"Do you know why, whenever Matsu refused to tell me something I would just let the subject go?" asked Naruto, his voice now much softer than it was before. For some reason, it brought an even deeper sinking feeling into Miya's stomach. When all she could do was shake her head, the blond continued. "I didn't push her for answers because I knew they were things you have specifically requested her to keep secret. Considering she was adjusted by your husband and her position on the first incarnation of the Discernible Squad, it's clear that she knows more about you than perhaps anyone else save another member of said squad. I know I could have pushed her into revealing your secrets, as her Ashikabi my will over her succeeds yours, I know that, but I didn't force her into revealing something that would compromise you because I respected you. More than I didn't ask her to give away your secrets because I know what it's like to have a secret you either can't, or don't wish to share with anyone else."
"And so I respected your decision to keep your past a secret," Naruto finished, his tone cold. "But it seems that you can't show me the same respect." This time Miya could not hide her flinch. The blond seemed to be done speaking with her as well, because he spun around on his heel abruptly and made his way to the door. Unable to say anything, and unsure of what to say even if she had the ability of speech right now, all Miya could do was watch as the blond walked towards the door. He only stopped when he had reached the door, his left hand placed upon the handle. He looked over his shoulder and tossed her one last parting comment.
"You know, I was going to apologize for being so rude to you once I finished healing Kagari," he said, and Miya's shoulders gained a barely noticeable slump. Naruto shook his head. "Now I'm very glad I didn't." And with that last demoralizing shot, Naruto opened the door and walked out. Miya watched as the door behind him closed, and when the resounding 'click' of the door closing echoed in the room, clenched her eyes closed and let her posture finally slump forward in an expression that was both tired and distraught.
This entire situation could have gone better, much better. The worst part about it was that this was all her fault; for making improper demands of Naruto when he was only trying to help someone, for allowing her anger at being denied get the best of her, for spying on Naruto without realizing that perhaps he had his secrets of his own that were similar to hers, at least in importance. This was only the second time she had ever screwed up something so royally before, the first having direct connections to her husbands death. Miya could only pray that she would find a way to make things up to Naruto when she got the chance, otherwise things were going to get very tense within Maison Izumo.
XoX
After closing the door behind him, Naruto took a second to lean with his back against the wall. Closing his eyes the blond released an exhausted sigh as his mind began catching up with the days events. So much had happened in so little time, Kagari's near self immolation, Matsu and Miya spying on him and the entire mess that had started. The day was finally beginning to truly catch up with him, and when combining this with the past several days since becoming an Ashikabi and you had a blond who truly felt his several thousand years of age. By the sage he had never felt so exhausted.
Despite how tired he was, he could still feel his own emotions simmering beneath the surface. A boiling pot that had only settled, but not left. A part of him was still quite angry, though some of it had left during his conversation with Matsu, it had returned to him quite easily when confronting Miya. It was strange almost, both of them had done the same thing that had made him so mad, but only Miya held the brunt of his anger. When she had first opened that door, all of that anger that had been dispersing had returned with a vengeance. With Matsu, the longer his confrontation had gone the less anger he had to direct at her.
Was this another part of the bond? It was theoretically possible. If the bond was capable of acting as an empathic connection between him and his Sekirei, then perhaps it also served as some kind of protection against the Sekirei if the Ashikabi got angry. But no, even as he thought that the blond realized that if that were the case, then it would probably work towards cooling off all of his emotions and not just his anger. There was also the fact that he had been in what amounted to emotional turmoil and confusion since he had become untangled in the Sekirei Plan. That meant the bond couldn't be the reason.
Maybe he was just growing soft. The thought made him snort. He could kill without batting an eyelash. Sure, he may not be fond of battle anymore, but that was simply because he had nothing to fight for. Killing on the other hand, was something he had no problems with. You didn't need to fight someone to kill them, and Naruto had killed so many people that he had grown numb to the act. He remembered a time, back when he had first realized his curse that the act of killing would bring him nightmares. He would spend night after night writhing and sweating as the faces of those he had killed to keep his secret accused him of forgetting his senseis teachings, of abandoning his search for peace. Now, now Naruto's dreams were only of his failure during the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
And of his Sekirei. One mustn't forget about those dreams.
Shaking his head, the eternal shinobi decided he was far to tired to theorize on possible reasons for his anger to be directed at one person and not another when they both did the same thing. He needed some sleep before he could do any serious thinking right now. Maybe when he was more rested, he could resume his theory on why he felt less anger towards his Sekirei than he did Miya.
Which was why he was not that pleased to Uzume when he finally made it back up to the second floor. She was standing next to his door, her hips tilted slightly to the right, her left arm grasping her right one at the elbow as she no doubt waited for him. She looked nervous, he concluded. Her facial expression betrayed her, the way she shifted while waiting let him know how anxious she truly was. At the same time, there was a determination on her face that he had not seen for a while. Whatever she wanted to speak with him about, it was important enough that she was willing to cast aside her own fears to do so. The moment their eyes locked, her will seemed to form into a determined resolve. There was a hardened glint to them that Naruto couldn't help but admire.
"Uzume," Naruto acknowledged the girl as he walked up to his room. The busty Sekirei in the star shirt shifted again, choosing stand a bit straighter than she had been.
"Naruto," she said, then hesitated before taking a deep breath. "Can we talk?"
Naruto looked over at his door with a longing gaze, then back to the busty brunette before him. With a deep sigh, he gestured for her to proceed him down the hall, and then dutifully followed her when she moved past him.
Maybe he really was growing soft.