I hope that all who read this find enjoyment in doing so.
Dedicated to my best friend.
Don't own Naruto. And I suggest listening to the song "My Name is Skrillex (Skrillex Remix)" by Skrillex while reading this chapter. Skrillex.
Chapter 13: Rooms Filled With Beasts
Early morning in Konohagakure no Sato outside the Lee residence...
Kushina carefully stepped along the street as she approached her destination, avoiding stepping in the puddles that the previous day's rainstorm had left everywhere. She wanted to be sure that her package stayed completely dry. She carried her package carefully in her arms, a small box covered in white wrapping paper and tied with red ribbon which formed a decorative bow at the top. 'I hope this will help him out of his funk...' she thought to herself as she turned in through the gate at the street. She kept her eyes to the ground as she walked up the path through the front yard, still trying to avoid slipping on a puddle, and as a result she did not notice the other visitor to the household already standing on the porch. As Kushina began to step up onto the porch her eyes finally rose and she nearly dropped her present out of surprise. Standing there next to the door with a worried expression on her face and a box covered in green wrapping paper and tied with a pink bow tucked under one of her arms was her red-headed teammate.
"Satsuki? What are you doing here?" Kushina asked her teammate. Satsuki continued to stare at the house worriedly as she responded.
"Same thing you are, I'm here to try and cheer Minato-kun up... but the weird thing is that nobody is answering the door..."
"Huh?" asked a surprised Kushina. "But his parents always answer the door really fast, his dad loves visitors."
"I know, they usually run interference for Minato-kun when he is being shy and doesn't want to talk to me, but today there is no response... It's so weird... I'm going in to take a look." She reached out to open the door, but Kushina caught her wrist and shook her head.
"You can't do that, it's their house. We should just try again later or something." Satsuki wrenched her arm free of her rival's grasp.
"Not a chance, this is too peculiar! I'm going in." and with that she slid the door open and boldly walked right in uninvited.
"Satsuki!" cried out Kushina as she nervously made her way in to retrieve the red-head.
Kushina came stumbling into the house to find Satsuki standing still as a statue. She was about to ask why Satsuki was simply standing there when she was also frozen still. Her eyes had followed the direction Satsuki was facing and found what had caused her to become paralyzed. The two girls stared down the hallway into the kitchen, where they could see Mr. and Mrs. Lee both slumped over the table, ice cold cups of coffee in their hands and a long senbon that had a bright red feathery wisp decorating its back ends protruding out of the base of each of the jonin's necks. The genin stood immobilized by shock and terror for a minute during which the only audible sound in the house was the clock on the kitchen wall clicking away the seconds, appearing as loud as a lumbering giant's footsteps in the stillness and near silence that gripped the home. It was Satsuki who eventually broke the spell of incredulity that held them, voicing aloud her first thought.
"Minato..." she said in a hushed voice, nearly a whisper but heard clear as a church bell in the grave stillness. "Minato!" she then shouted aloud, shocking Kushina from her own stupor with her voice shattering the menacing calm. Satsuki took off for the stairs, vaulting up the entire flight of steps in a single leap as she raced for Minato's room.
Kushina rushed over to the Lees and carefully examined them, knowing not to attempt to move them until she was certain doing so would bring them no harm. She held the back of her hand in front of Mrs. Lee's mouth to check her breathing and her body released a tiny sigh of relief when she felt the slow steady flow of air against her skin. She then carefully held Mr. Lee's wrist and placed two fingers against the blood vessels close to the surface of his skin on the inside of his wrist. She felt his pulse vibrate against her fingertips, slow but strong and consistent.
'It's almost like they are just sleeping. Whoever did this wasn't trying to kill them obviously. This must be some kind of coma, but who...' she wondered to herself as she pinched the back of the senbon in Mrs. Lee's neck between to fingers and gently applied force to pull the senbon from her. After an instant of intense suspense in which Kushina felt like her heart would beat right out of her chest and onto the table in front of her, the senbon came clean out of Mrs. Lee's neck leaving no visible sign of damage and leaving no bleeding in it's wake. She carefully repeated the action with Mr. Lee and once the needles were laying on the table she placed a hand on each of Mrs. Lee's shoulders and began to shake her gently.
"Mrs. Lee? Mrs. Lee can you hear me? Please, please oh please wake up Mrs. Lee." she pleaded as she shook Mrs. Lee gently, her pink hair dragging back and forth short circular paths on the table as her head rolled at the top of her neck limply. Luckily, just as Kushina was about to cease her stirrings Mrs. Lee breathed deeply and released a long low moan of disrupted contentment, a sound like somebody makes when being disturbed from a very pleasant nap. She moved out of Kushina's grasp and her eyelids shuddered a few times before slowly blinking open.
Mrs. Lee stared blankly forward for a second, gathering her bearings before speaking in an aggressively annoyed tone,
"Alright, who is dying at the hospital this time? And why does it always have to be the middle of the night for Senju's sake? I swear if this is another false alarm somebody is getting crippled." She continued to mumble incoherently as she placed her hands on the table and slowly lifted herself to an upward seated position. She stared at the table, blinking for a moment, before she realized she was in fact at her kitchen table. Her eyes widened in confusion and she turned to look at who had woken her to be visibly startled to see Kushina. "Kushina? What are you doing here so late at night sweetie?" Kushina looked deep into Mrs. Lee's eyes and slowly responded in a monotone voice,
"Mrs. Lee it's late morning, not the middle of the night." she then reached over and picked up one of the senbon from the table and held it out in front of Mrs. Lee's face. "Me and Satsuki found you and Mr. Lee at your kitchen table, knocked out with these in your necks." Mrs. Lee's eyes widened, completely caught off guard by the statement. She swiped the needle from Kushina's hand in one clean motion and examined it carefully, sniffing it's tip then lightly placing the broad side of the tip in the edge of her tongue for an instant. She smacked her lips and her eyes narrowed in anger.
"This is a venomous toxin! We've been drugged! Whoever did this is dead! Get up Lee!" She turned and reared her fist back before punching her husband hard on the top of his head, rocketing his entire body into and through the nearest wall and into the next room. Kushina stood with her face drained of blood and pale in terror with her eyes wide in shock. Seconds later Mr. Lee's head poked out of the massive hole his body had left in the wall, a bright smile on his face and with a light cheerful voice.
"Yes my eternally youthful love blossom?"
"We've been drugged Lee, somebody knocked us out last night using senbon and a toxin. Get your ass in here." Upon hearing her explanation the look of happiness on his face melted instantly into one of intense focus and scrutiny. He leapt to his wife's side and picked up one of the senbon to examine for himself. Mrs. Lee turned to Kushina, who was still frozen in white faced fear, and with her arms crossed in front of her and a scowl she addressed the young genin. "You said you and Satsuki found us like this, where are she and Minato at now?"
The color returned to her face, Kushina's eyes turned down and to the right, staring at the floor before she responded.
"Satsuki ran upstairs to check Minato's room, but Minato wasn't with us when we found you..." Mr. and Mrs. Lee's ferocious faces dissolved instantaneously into looks of pure unbridled terror, Mrs. Lee's mouth hung slack and her body shook slightly as she stared past Kushina at the wall. Mr. Lee's legs gave out beneath him and he fell to his knees as he too stared off into space.
"No... not again..." whispered Mrs. Lee when suddenly Satsuki burst out of the hallway and into the kitchen.
"Minato's room is empty!" Satsuki cried out through a flood of her own tears, her voice shaking and breaking from her withheld sobbing. "There are signs of a struggle on the bed, and all of his things are missing along with half of the clothes in his closet! They even took his ninja tools and medical supplies! Mrs. Lee what are we going to do?" Mrs. Lee's face re-solidified out of her display of hopeless despair and into one of purified, intense, maternal focus and her voice became deep and solid as the earth underfoot.
"We're going to the Hokage."
A few minutes later, at the Hokage's office in the Hokage's mansion...
The Hokage sighed deeply to himself as he sat down in his desk chair, settling in for the long day of paperwork and decisions ahead of him. Moegi could be seen through the open door speaking to a chunin in the hallway. The chunin handed a stack of papers to her and she nodded consent as the two parted ways, she then walked into the office and reached behind herself to close the door.
"You should leave that door open, we should try to encourage as little property damage as possible." spoke the Hokage before his assistant could close the door. She blinked in surprise and leaving the door open turned to him in confusion.
"What sir?" He sighed deeply, this time breathing a sigh of resigned suffering not of comfort.
"Actually you should probably wait somewhere else for a few minutes. Somewhere far away from here." She continued to blink in bewilderment.
"Why would I want to do that sir? What is going on?"
"I'll tell you after it's over, now hurry up before you get caught in the crossfire." He closed his eyes and swiveled in his chair to face the windows, his back turned to the door.
"Ummm... alright then sir... I'll be back in a half an hour..." she cautiously stepped out the door and began to walk down the hall, not taking her eyes filled with questions off of the Hokage until he was blocked from view by a wall. Once Moegi was gone the Hokage opened his eye and stared at a nest of birds in a tree down in a park below. He watched half interestedly as the mother bird pushed her babies one by one out of the nest to either fly or fall to their deaths. As he watched this he slowly counted backwards out loud.
"Three... Two... One... Annnnnnnnd-" The sound of a titanic impact blasted through the air and immediately accompanying it tremors rocked the building, causing a pen to roll off of his desktop onto the floor. "There they are." He set his feet squarely on the floor as the quaking ceased and just as he pushed off to turn his chair around to face the door a woman charged into the room and slammed her fists down on his desktop surface. This impact left two identical wooden craters, each with a diameter of around thirty centimeters, embedded in it's formerly pristine form and sent all the paperwork covering the desk fluttering through the air in a cloud of white. The Hokage smiled visibly beneath his mask and calmly asked, "Yes Sakura? How can I help you this morning?" Just as the question escaped his lips three more people marched into the office to stand behind the enraged amazonian kunoichi.
"What did you do Kakashi! ? !" Mrs. Lee bellowed at the leader of Konoha, her voice booming with rage and sharpened to a razor edge by her accusatory tone. "Minato has been kidnapped and this has your name written all over it! Tell us where he is or I swear to God above that Hokage or not you will never eat solid food again for the rest of your life!" Behind her the steadily furious gaze of her husband lay trained on the Hokage menacingly as every muscle in his body flexed visibly beneath his attire. Kushina stood with confusion written all across her face, her usual Uzumaki smile nowhere to be found, and Satsuki's eye sockets were puffy and red from crying with worry. The Hokage met Mrs. Lee's terrifying gaze with an even tempered gaze of his own that spat as if he was sizing up the threat she had laid against him in her last statement. Then the Hokage broke their locked gazes and sighed heavily as he placed one of his hands gently on top of one of her fists which was still sitting in the center of a miniature crater in his desk's surface.
"I didn't do anything, I just stood aside so others might be able to act Sakura. And trust me you will be glad I did."
"And why is that!" she growled.
"Because it was Bee." The statement hung in the open air, splashed over the group gathered in the office like water to douse a raging fire. Then the tension and killing intent that had held the room in a choke hold snapped, gone in a single moment and replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief that radiated from the two parents.
"Oh thank God, I thought this was serious. You could have just told us Kakashi sheesh now I feel silly." said Mrs. Lee with a giggle and a blush of embarrassment as she gently petted the desk she had devastated and smiled with self consciousness.
"I'm sorry Sakura I wasn't sure at the time that you two would be okay with letting him go while in such a fragile condition. That, and Bee is so fond of his theatrics."
"Pfft, please sensei, Bee and the others will help more than any of us could." Mr. Lee laughed aloud, his hands falling to rest comfortably on his waist as his stance loosened. Kushina and Satsuki blinked in surprise at the instantaneous shift in mood and looked at each other in confusion.
"How long do those take again? Two months wasn't it?" Mr. Lee asked with a laugh. "I distinctly recall how un-youthfully the old advisers would react to Naruto's prolonged youthful absences from Konoha."
"He is going to be arriving there already a month into this year's sabbatical so he will only be gone for one month. He will be due to return the morning before the announcement is to be made to the public."
"Oh what excellent planning on your part sensei. And hey, this gives us an opportunity to throw him a surprise party! We will have an entire month to plan, how perfect." replied Mrs. Lee genially.
"What are you all talking about?" suddenly interrupted Satsuki, a blush on her face from being so far out of the loop. Kushina was simply standing looking puzzled beyond reconciliation at the pieces of information that the two could glean from the conversation.
"Yeah, where is Minato at and why is he going to be there for a month? And what was that about my dad? I'm very confused..." said Kushina. The Hokage chuckled aloud as Mr. and Mrs. Lee made their way out of the office hand in hand smiling all the way and talking excitedly about plans for a surprise party.
"Well please allow me to explain, and I'm sorry if we confused you two. You see Minato will be gone for a month because-"
With Minato, in an unknown location...
Minato found himself once again shrouded in the fog of unconsciousness. Recognizing the familiarity of the lack of sensation and lucidity he reached through the fog attempting to grasp at sensation as a transition into consciousness. He located his sensation of touch and felt himself laying on something soft and comfortable, a painful pounding radiating from his forehead. Using that as a foothold he slowly dredged himself out of the fog and reclaimed his lucidity. He slowly opened his eyes, wincing with the pulsating pain as he pushed himself up into a seated position. He rubbed one of his hands against his forehead, feeling a stinging pain when he touched the goose egg that rested square in the center of his bare brow. He focused chakra into the palm of his hand and began to heal away the sore lump on his head as he looked around himself. He found himself in a room with wooden walls and flooring and a single all white door. The room was tiny, only just large enough for the bed on which he lay to fit in. The walls were completely bare but for the paint, the bottom half painted red and the top half painted green separated from each other by a narrow band of white. Looking down he examined the bed he lay on. It was a spartan piece of furniture, a bare wooden frame and a mattress. No blankets or sheets, not even a pillow. Then he realized he was wearing what he had gone to bed in the night before, a white sleeveless and his underwear.
Finishing healing his forehead and feeling rather exposed he took a quick look underneath the bed by leaning over the edge upside down. There underneath the bed frame was a small pile of his own clothes, one of his tank tops, a pair of pants, his sandals, even his gloves, dog-tags, and headband. The only thing not in the pile were his usual earmuffs and shinobi tools, and realizing this he then also realized that the bare sides of his head felt cold. He quickly dressed, leaving his white sleep shirt on the bed, and took a deep breath. 'Okay... I've been abducted. But I'm still alive... so what does that mean? Ummmmm... okay they could need information, or... well they probably are after the Kyubi after all I'm not some genin I'm the jinchuriki and nobody would go through all this effort to abduct some random genin. Again though, why am I still alive?' He scratched his head in confusion and apprehension. He had the distinct feeling he was being watched, but though he searched the room top to bottom he found no means of monitoring anywhere. 'Okay, they aren't watching me... whoever they are. That probably means I'm being guarded... Well they aren't getting the Kyubi that is for sure.' He approached the door and carefully laid one of his ears against its surface, trying to listen to what was beyond its barrier. He heard nothing coming from the other side, and taking a deep breath and holding it he reached for the doorknob. 'Okay, on three... THREE' He turned the knob and pushed against the door with his shoulder, throwing his weight into it hoping to break the lock. But instead the knob turned fully without resisting and he came tumbling out of the door, landing face first on the floor beyond.
Quickly leaping up and lowering into a defensive position he stood frantically looking around for the guards, but he saw absolutely nobody.
"What?" he wondered aloud, severely confused. He stood in the middle of a corridor, the hallway continuing on to the left and to the right. Directly across the hallway from himself was another door, and what hung on that door caused Minato's jaw to drop in shock. Hanging from the door was a small white sign with words sloppily painted on it in big red letters. It read 'Find Out Why You're Here Inside' "You've got to be kidding me... are these people idiots?" he asked himself incredulously. "Who would fall for such an obvious trap?" he shouted, insulted that anybody would think he would fall for that. "Fuck this shit." he said as he turned right and started off down the hallway. He was halfway to the end of the hall where it turned to the right when he stopped. He put a hand to his chin for a moment then looked back at the doorway he had stormed away from. 'Or... they know I wouldn't go in a door labeled like that... and that is really the exit... or they would know I would think like that and anticipate me to go in there anyways... or...' He groaned aloud and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. 'These people are either some of the most clever shinobi I've ever heard of or they are the dumbest. There is no way to tell one way or the other!' He looked back up at the door again, the sign hanging crooked by a string on the doorknob looked almost like it had been slapped together minutes ago. He walked back over to the door with the sign and stared at the sign up close. The lettering was shiny and reflective in the dull light of the overhead florescent bulbs. 'Is... is that paint still wet?' he wondered. He reached out a hand and dragged a finger across the letter 'F' and cursed in annoyance when his finger was stained red by the confirmed wet paint. Wiping his finger on the wall he stared at the door. Finally after several minutes he took another deep breath and said to himself,
"I gotta know. Here goes nothing." He reached out and turned the doorknob, then very gently, very slowly, pushed the door open. Wincing with anticipation he expected a trap to be set off by the opening, but nothing happened. Surprised but pleased with his choice he stepped inside the room and closed the door behind himself.
He found himself standing in a massive circular chamber with a domes ceiling, nearly one-hundred feet in diameter, with four doors including the one he had entered through positioned at ninety degrees from one another. The flooring in this room was earthen and in the center of the floor sat a young woman. The woman appeared to be older than himself by a several years, looking to be around eighteen years old. She was sitting with her knees pulled up below her chin and her arms wrapped around her shins, grinning at him as he stood there eying her suspiciously. She had deeply tanned skin and hair as deep a black as a shadow at midnight. Her hair was pulled back and woven into a very tight fishtail braid that hung down her front over her right shoulder. Her bangs were swept to hang over the right side of her face and diagonally across her forehead she wore a shinobi headband with the symbol for Iwagakure, tilting it in such a way that it covered her right eye like an eye patch. Her other eye excitedly stared into his own, a pale lavender that seemed to glow. She wore a black tank top with netted shinobi under armor visible beneath. Down her arms she wore white shinobi wrappings, covering her from her fingertips to just below her shoulder. She wore loose fitting black cargo shorts that fell just below her knees, and from the knee down to her boots her shins were also covered in white wrappings. From where he stood it appeared that the back of her tank top exposed her entire back up to her shoulder blades where it crossed over to remain a functioning shirt. His eyes were then drawn to her smile, and her unusually large canines which, although not so big as to be unnatural, did seem to contradict her sleek toned body type in a way that he couldn't quite put his finger on. After several moments of silence as they sized one another up Minato finally spoke.
"Who are you?" he asked in an even tone, trying to speak in as deep a tone as wouldn't sound fake. She leapt to her feet and placed hands on her hips before responding,
"MY name is Kuri Sierra. Who are YOU?" she said pointing a finger at him from across the chamber. Minato looked down at his hands quickly then in a dead voice devoid of emotion he said,
"I am the jinchuriki of the Kyubi. Why am I here? What do you want?" the girl frowned and 'tsk'ed several times while shaking her head, a clear display of mock pity.
"Wrong answer eh? Okay well whatever for now. If you want to know why you are here you need to go through that door over there." she said pointing to the door directly across the space from where Minato stood. Looking closely Minato could see another sign hanging from that door as well, this sign reading 'This Way.'
"Okay, thanks I guess." replied Minato keeping a skeptical eye on her as he attempted to take a step to the right to circle around the room.
However his step was blocked and immediately retracted when she suddenly threw a kunai right where his foot would have now been if he had completed the step. He leapt back and raised his fists to defend himself, having no shinobi tools of his own to return fire with.
"Okay, so you're not gonna let me go through that door?" he shouted angrily.
"Nah, you can go through. I just want to see what you're made of first." she replied with a bright mischievous smirk. Minato growled, frustrated by the entire situation and especially at this bizarre woman blocking his path.
"Fine, I'll show you!" he shouted and in the blink of an eye he disappeared from sight. Kuri blinked in surprise and whistled aloud clearly impressed. Then her eye darted to the left and she raised both of her forearms into a block. Minato's foot then impacted her guard at high speed. Minato then twisted his body and brought his other leg down in an ax kick towards her head, but she twisted her arms around and grabbed Minato's leg using it to pull herself around to the left to dodge the kick and fling him to the ground. Minato however caught himself on the ground and now in a hand stand position he proceeded to deliver a swift, powerful series of kicks at her, pushing her back as she blocked them with her arms. Minato then roared as he twisted around, spinning on the flat of his back and shouting,
"Konoha Twister!" he stuck his legs out, one high one low as he spun to serve a staggered series of high and low kicks which Kuri struggled to deflect at such high speeds. Minato then spun up to a standing position and tried to throw a punch at her face. Kuri dodged to the side around his fist while moving forward and she kneed Minato hard in the gut. As he was bent over her knee he raised her arms and brought down a two fisted punch towards Minato's back. Minato however rolled to the side and again spun on the flat of his back, kicking her legs out from underneath her then flowing into a downwards ax kick to her torso. The impact from his kick was brutal, knocking the wind from Kuri's lungs and causing her cough up a small amount of blood. Then a smile split her face and she quickly flew through a series of hand signs before shouting,
"Doton: Shifting Earth's Pain!" Suddenly the ground beneath Minato's foot that was not buried in Kuri's stomach slid out parallel to his kick, causing Minato to fall painfully into a splits. Then just as he fell into the leg spread stone cuffs formed around his ankles, trapping him against the ground with his legs spread. Kuri rose to a standing position as Minato struggled to free himself. She backed up a few steps before forming more handseals and shouting,
"Katon: Searing Arrow Barrage!" Out of her mouth she shot five missles of fire shaped like arrows and hurtling towards Minato at high speed. Minato grunted then he wrenched his waist painfully, dislocating his right leg. With his leg dislocated he had the flexibility to wrench free from the stone cuffs and dodged right, narrowly avoiding the fire attack which pierced deep into the earth where he had been trapped with great penetrating power. Minato's hands glowed green and grabbing his upper right thigh he roared as he popped the limb back into place. Minato jumped towards her, his knee raised ready to deliver a boot to her head. Smirking she formed a few hand seals and said,
"Doton: Rotating Doors." She leaned back and fell against the the earth on her back, but when she hit the ground a rectangle formed out of the earth and swung around taking her underground and blocking Minato's kick.
Looking around quickly his ears turned and rotated trying to hear out her location. Then a rectangle formed out in the center of the space several yards from Minato and she came out of the earth standing. She stood smiling at him and wiped a little blood from her mouth before saying,
"Okay, you can go little 'Kyubi' dude." placing great emphasis on the word Minato had used to describe himself. "Right through that door over there." she said reminding him which direction to travel. Minato was stuck frozen in surprise at the abrupt end to the fight, expecting to have to defeat the woman to pass.
"You're letting me go? But I didn't win."
"So?" she asked, the same mischievous smile on her lips. "Just keep moving, I don't wanna tire you out to early." She then turned her back on him and started walking towards one of the doorways Minato had neither entered from nor was about to exit through. He then noticed that she had a tattoo going all the way up her back, a tattoo of a tail covered in blue curling patterns, and as she walked away he could have sworn he witnessed the tattoo move. Deciding to ignore the strangeness and accept a gift given to him he stepped up to the next door and rolled his neck and shoulders before turning the knob. He found that on the other side of the doorway was a room of similar dimensions, but with two shallow pools of water near the edges of the room. The room was much colder than the last and he could see his breath in front of his face. Closing the door behind himself he looked and saw another young woman in this room, this one sitting atop a massive ball of what appeared to be thick steel chains rolled up into a sphere almost like yarn is rolled into a ball. She sat cross legged and stared at him with unsmiling intensity. She stared at him with eyes of different colors, the right was deep green while the left was yellow gold. She had short cut hair that did not reach her shoulders and laid flat, it was a deep red-brown color that highlighted her eyes and her pale white skin as well. This woman looked about twenty years old and wore a white fur lined gray parka over top of netted under armor with white wrappings underneath the netting covering her chest. She wore brown pants over thick mud colored boots and her fingernails were painted an icy pale blue. He noticed that around her neck she wore a shinobi headband with a geometrically symmetrical crystal shape on it, the symbol for the village of Shimogakure, which he remembered hearing had only recently become influential.
AN: In English this means 'The Village Hidden in the Frost' It is located in the Land of Frost southwest of the Land of Lightning
As Minato walked towards the center of the room he noticed a sign on the door behind her and opposite him that said 'Not There Yet, Through Here' he inwardly cursed and turned his eyes to again look at the woman he walked towards. Her face was an impasse, revealing nothing at all of her thoughts or emotions. She coolly stared him down as he came to stand a few feet in front of her.
"So who are you now?" Minato asked hiding his frustration and fear that he would have to fight her too.
"I am Akane Kagoshima-Ishida. They call me 'The Ice Princess of Shimo' and this is my training room. Who are you?"
'Training room?' wondered Minato inwardly as he responded, "I am the jinchuriki of the Kyubi and I want to know why you abducted me and brought me here." He looked down at the weapon upon which she sat and recognition struck him. "Hey, those chains are the same ones that helped tie me up in Konoha!" She sat unfazed by the accusation, evenly replying,
"Yes they are. I helped bring you here, as did we all participate in the act. Why do you ask?" she crossed her arms in front of herself in an icy display of defensiveness as Minato growled at her.
"What do you mean why? You fucking abducted me! Why? Why the hell am I here?" She stared at him, her gaze so steady she gave the appearance of being unblinking.
"If you want to know you must continue. But first I want you to do something."
"What you want to fight me too?" he demanded lowering into a fighting stance.
"No." she said flatly. "I want you to answer some questions I have for you." Minato rose from his battle stance but glowered at her nonetheless.
"I'm not telling you anything about Konoha."
"I wasn't going to ask." she said her body unmoving like a statue. "Tell me what your parents names are." she asked with her cold stare then added as if a second thought, "Please." Minato blinked in surprise at this question then responded,
"Rock Lee and Sakura Lee."
"And you are indeed their son?"
"You asked who my parents were, why would I give you the names of somebody else? I have no reason to lie about that."
"Really? Am I the only one who you might be lying too?"
"... Yeeeeessss... You're the only one here Ice Princess."
"No I am not, if you might recall there are currently two people in this room." Minato rolled his eyes and groaned,
"Well yeah duh, fine how about you're the only Other person here is that better?" She was silent for a moment then finally broke her gaze from him and looked to the wall. She took off her parka and raised her hands into a meditative position before closing her eyes.
"You can go." she said to him without opening her eyes. Minato shook his head, stupefied by the bizarre conversation as he headed towards the door. He chanced one more look backwards at Akane and as with the other woman he noticed something he hadn't before. She too had a tattoo on her back, and her tattoo also depicted a tail. The difference however was that there were two tails on her back and they were not decorated with deep blue swirls but with pale icy blue flames. And again he could have sworn they moved a little but upon reaching the door he looked away from her to the next chamber.
He opened the door and stepped into another massive training room, but what he found within amazed him. The room was filled with floating columns and flowing midair strings of water. The gravity defying water looped and twisted and in places remained perfectly still. 'What could do this?' he wondered then he noticed that standing atop a large disk of water that floated in the center of the room was another woman. But what shocked him most what that he recognized this woman, this woman he knew for a fact was fourteen years old.
"Naruka?" he cried out in disbelief, mouth agape. Turning away from the flowing water she had been focusing on she noticed his presence and smiled softly.
"Hello, good to see you again. How are you doing?" the woman asked in a friendly, if not reserved and even, tone. The girl had white skin tinged slightly dark from her life in the desert but not deeply tanned. She wore a baggy red shirt with long beige colored sleeves but with the top section of the shirt cut off from the shoulders up, so that it hung on her biceps and exposed her neck and shoulders to the air. A netted tank top could be seen and she had two bright red tattoos visible, one on each shoulder and each a single kanji. On the front of her right shoulder was the kanji for 'peace' and on the front of her left was the kanji for 'togetherness'. She wore red pants as baggy as her shirt, the hem of which dragged along the ground but as she was now standing atop water it sat in the water itself and around her waist she wore her Sunagakure headband facing forward. She had bright red hair that formed short matted spikes and from the middle back of her head hung down a very short spiky ponytail. Her eyes appeared without pupils, were green, and were ringed by dark lines on her eye sockets. Her small polite smile denoted dignity and grace as well as reliability and loyalty. However what always drew the eyes immediately when he looked at Naruka was the pair of massive tan gourds she carried with her tied to her back by white cloth harnesses that looped around her torso, revealing the delicate developing curves that lay hidden beneath her baggy clothes.
For a moment Minato could hardly respond, too surprised to see her to speak. Eventually he stammered out,
"F-fine, I'm f-fine." he then shook his head to get a grip of himself and asked the question that had stupefied him. "Wait! Why are you, you of all people, here? I mean you're the Kazekage's daughter for Christ sake." She chuckled gently in response and lowered the arms she had until now held outstretched. On cue all of the water floating in the air around the room dropped out of the sky and a cacophony of splashes announced their arrival on the ground. The water flowed into a reservoir that was set into the floor in the middle of the room taking up at minimum half of the floor space. The only water still in the air she stood upon and without even so much as a wave of the arm the disc of water hovered down and lowered Naruka to the ground next to Minato.
"I, my friend, happened to be here for the same reason you are here now." Minato then cautiously raised a finger to point at her and asked,
"Wait... the water... was that you in my bedroom?" she smile at him and nodded affirmation. His finger lowered then rose to cup his chin as he thought on what that meant. "So... I still don't know why I am here though. I mean I thought it was because I'm the Kyubi but..." her smile then took on a different nature, becoming filled with sadness instead of joy.
"Oh no my friend, it would appear you still haven't grasped it. Well you must go on to the next room and ask the man there if he is able to tell you." She pointed across the room to a door upon which hung a sign reading 'In Here Maybe, Maybe Further Still'. Minato looked hopeful for a moment, asking,
"So the next room has the answer?" When she shook her head his enthusiasm melted away. "Ugh, great. Well... I guess I keep going, too late to turn back." she smiled encouragement at him and walked off to a side door, pulling water into the gourds on her back as she walked, as he reached for the knob of the next door he needed to pass through.
Dear Reader,
Oh my... Well it appears I will be breaking my promise to introduce all the Original Characters in this chapter, but the length got away from me and if I had kept going this chapter would start looking like two chapters squished into one. I hope you all find the characters compelling and fun, and in the next chapter we will learn a great deal more about their location and the nature of what brings them all together there. Minato will have to grasp the point of what it is that brings him there and if he does not soon then who knows what will happen to him. The first Original Character, Kuri Sierra, was made by my friend on deviantart named KuroyukiDragon95II. The second Original Character, Akane Kagoshima-Ishida, was created by my colleague HotSpot the 626th . The third Original Character, Naruka of the Oasis daughter of Garra of the Desert, is my own brain child and I love her very much. An explanation for her ability will come later on but for now you will have to guess on your own. As always I appreciate and hope for reviews both critical and fun. I hope that this chapter did not disappoint and I hope you all stay excited for the next chapter. OH AND PLEASE REMEMBER TO HEAD OVER TO MY PROFILE AND PARTICIPATE IN MY POLL PLEASE!
Love,
Danthemanwithaplan7