Good day, my dear readers, here I have the fourteenth chapter of "Konoha's young sage"!
* Review response:
bleacher, T3Ko, eclipseX, lordamnesia, acepro Evolution, Still Not Dead Yet, Ignisha, wordless764, Elemental Dragon Swordman, Lycan91, Evil E. Evil, Skelo, nonjames, Hero's Valor, thank you, people!
ChaosLord SilverLink310, actually, I planned 'Snow mission' to have a significance later on, so it's not exactly filler (though, next chapter definitely will be one. & Unreal crossover at that. ^_^ Yes, THAT Unreal ('98))
cruel vamp, Naruto is still in process of recreating rasengan - I planned to show this in the next chapter. It'll be complete by 20th chapter, I think.
Reishin Amara, Naruto will use both sage mode and Kyuubi's yoki. Plus at least once he will successfully summon Kyuubi's spirit to fight alongside with him. But not, I won't even try to fit it with Shippuden. There are some wore interesting plotlines...
DrangoWings, too late, man. Sorry. But those two might be involved in my other stories.
* Jutsu list:
Kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
Ame no shi- (B-rank) Rain of Death - fuyunjutsu attack: user throws the 'Ame no shi' (just a time-freezing containment seal) up into the air, where it releases around one hundred kunai (or any other heave objects) with explosive tags attached to them. All explosive tags will explode at the same time, causing a lot of damage in the area.
Doton: keisei - (B-rank) Earth style: formation - jutsu of my own creation. Allows user to modify earth in a small area at his will. User need to stand on the ground to do this jutsu.
Katon: housenka - (C-rank) Fire style: Mythical Fire Phoenix - this fire jutsu creates series of small fireballs. The ninja can also hurl a projectile which is covered in these same flames.
Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu- (unknown rank) Twin Dragon Blizzard – User shoots two focused blizzards at the target. The blizzards have the shape of a black dragon with red eyes.
Hyoton: genkan - (C-rank) Ice style: freeze - creates ice from water.
Katon: akahiryuudan - (A-rank, border S-rank)Red Fire Dragon Projectile – User breathes out a stream of white-hot flame shaped like a dragon. The projectile is semi-sentient and homing, so it's easier to outright destroy it, then to try to evade it.
Onipou: katon: hitoya no funsui - (unranked demonic jutsu)Demonic Arts: Fire Style: Fountains of the Underworld - Rather slow attack, but able to deal tremendous amount of damage if it hit the target. jutsu is active, until user cancels it.
Disclaimer: still don't own 'Naruto' or any of it's characters...
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using Kyuubi's power or Gaara while using Shukaku's / jutsus"
'thinking of higher beings / Kyuubi talking to Naruto through mental link'
Thanks for: 500+ favorites, 125 000+ hits!!!
Special thanks to CloudBloodBane for beta-reading this chapter!
Konoha's young sage
chapter 11: The end of winter. Part 2
The jinchuuriki duo had a small ...talk with the director about filming them. In the end, they got what they wanted, and made sure that their kiss won't be included in the film. Despite the directors many protests... The rest of the sailing went well and without any accidents, well, other than Yugito catching Naruto and repeating that kiss in private... As they reached the port on the mainland, two groups separated. The Nibi jinchuuriki remained in the town, waiting for the ship to Lightning country, while team seven, Koyuki and the filming crew got on the trucks and were on their way to the mountains or daimyo palace... At the first stop Asama called team seven to his truck.
"Now that we are in the Snow country and already had an attack, I need you to protect Koyuki-hime twice as much." The man said, looking at Kakashi.
"One of those snow ninja called her princess." Naruto observed. "Were they right?" Asama slowly nodded.
"Yes. Koyuki-hime is the rightful ruler of the country, but when she was but a child, her uncle usurped the power by killing her father, Sōsetsu-sama, and we had to send her out of the country. I think, Kakashi-san, you were the one who did that." Silver-haired jounin thought for several seconds, before agreeing.
"I remember evacuating a girl from the burning palace, but I was never told she was a princess."
"Yes, yes, anyway... We lost all contact with her after the evacuation and thought that she died. Several years ago I finally saw Koyuki-hime in one of the movies and I was so happy. I did all I could to become her personal assistant and, well... you already know the rest. Please... Help us return Koyuki-hime to her rightful place." Asama pleaded.
"Don't joke with me. Even if I'm still alive, my heart is dead. Snow country is not my problem." Koyuki, who appeared in the doorway sometime ago said rudely.
"B-But?" The man began, but was interrupted.
"No." With that the princess left. Kakashi sighed.
"It's not good." He said. "As Dotō found us, we have no more chance of avoiding him. We need to fight, and for that we need more people..."
"We will only lose time." Sasuke said. "The four of us are enough." Somewhere deep down, the silver-haired jounin had to agree with his student.
"Anyway, I'll talk with Koyuki-san. Hopefully, I'll be able to change her outlook a bit." And then he left. The rest of team seven followed him, leaving Asama and the filming crew to discuss things among themselves.
***
Trucks exited a very long cave and stopped near the cliff. People immediately started preparing for filming another scene, when the director's assistant brought bad news...
"D-Director, w-we have a big problem!" He said in a scared voice.
"What now?"
"Y-Yuki-san ran away... again." Kakashi, who stood near them and heard everything, roared:
"Team seven!" Within several seconds, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were there. "We will have to disperse and find Koyuki-san as fast as possible."
"Um... Kakashi-sensei, can't you use your dogs?" Pink-haired kunoichi asked. The Copy-cat ninja only shook his head.
"In such a snow they'll be useless." Sakura turned to Naruto.
"Koyuki is civilian; it won't be possible even for Gamasora to trace her chakra signature. And he will freeze to death there – he's a toad, remember." Kakashi nodded.
"We can't lose much time. Let's go. Meet there in... six hours. If you find her, use the radio." Two genin and one chuunin nodded and all ran in different directions. Moment later the silver-haired jounin started looking for the runaway princess too.
***
Naruto and several of his shadow clones were inspecting the forest that lay in his search area... Finally the blond jinchuuriki felt one of his clones release itself, sending him the memory of Koyuki's location. Naruto then informed the rest of the team, released the rest of his clones and sped towards where the sleeping or, worse, unconscious princess lay in the snow... As he picked her up, the blond shinobi muttered his breath:
"Pretty good, more than eight kilometers in two hours and through so much snow..." Suddenly, he felt Koyuki shifting.
"If you want to be a good actor, you have to be fit. Now leave me alone!" Naruto glance over his shoulder to the woman.
"Nope, can't do that. It's my mission to protect you. And I always finish my missions!" Taking a deep breath, he started running towards the cave. Sure, it wasn't the shortest way back to the camp, but he didn't want to spend more time outside in the snow, than needed... He was halfway through the cave, and already declined the princess' pleading to leave her at least ten times, when something happened: a pulse of chakra ran through the floor, melting the snow and ice there and revealing railroad tracks.
"Oh, shit! The train." Koyuki said fearfully.
"The train?" Naruto asked, but his question was answered, when a metal monstrosity appeared right behind them. "Is it... the train?" He felt the princess nod.
"It will run over us!" She screamed.
"No." Naruto let the train come closer and then did a somersault, landing onto the front of the train. While they were in the cave, no one could even hope to harm them there. When they were again outside, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, still holding Koyuki, moved onto the roof and then jumped into the snow on the right... The train stopped.
"Nice moves, my dear Koyuki." A voice said through the loudspeakers on the train.
"Dotō?" Princess Koyuki asked in fear.
"The one and only. Now..." The man was about to say something more, but several logs hit the train. Everybody looked up and saw a small army of samurai, led by Asama Sandayū, standing on the rise. Asama said some heroic words, and the army attacked. "Those people are still alive?" Dotō asked. The leader of the snow ninjas that stood there with him tried to apologize and promised to change this, but the tyrant of the land of Snow had different plans. "There's no need, Nadare. They need to know, who they should be afraid of." Dotō gave a sign, and the last seven train cars had their sides opened, as well as two turrets activated. And everywhere on them one could see kunai launchers. "Fire!"
"Oh, shit!" Naruto threw Koyuki from his back and flashed through handseals before slamming both his palms onto the ground. "Doton: keisei!" A stone wall rose between the train and the samurai army, taking the rain of the blades on itself. While this wall for sure saved a lot of lives, several samurai were still killed and many more wounded or maimed. Asama himself got several nasty wounds; he'll live, but will have to spend the next several weeks in the hospital... Naruto fished one of his special tags from his pouch and attached it to his own kunai. "Good thing I recreated it... Time to strike back, you, monster!" And the blond jinchuuriki threw the kunai high into the air. When it was over the train, he did a single handseal to activate the tag. "Ame no shi!"
"Dotō-sama... We need to run!" Naruto heard that man, Nadare, yell. Immediately the locomotive and the first car separated from the rest of the train and sped away from the zone, targeted by Naruto's attack. They managed it, but still, Ame no Shi destroyed all but one train cars left behind. The blond jinchuuriki took care of it with another Doton: keisei jutsu... Suddenly there was another explosion, and everyone saw the railroad bridge, along with the runaway part of the train, fell into the abyss.
"Good riddance." Naruto muttered under his breath.
Those, who survived the train and could move, helped with the evacuation of those, who couldn't... or were dead, from the battlefield. Koyuki spoke with Asama, but it only strengthened her desire to leave the country. This turned into the argument which made her try to leave... This only made her fight with Naruto... Though, the fight didn't last long...
"What the?!" A zeppelin flew up from the abyss, a zeppelin made from the first car of the train! Koyuki turned around to see, what was going on, but only saw a net capture her and pull her to that zeppelin.
"No, I won't let you!" Naruto yelled, attaching wire to his kunai and then throwing it at the gondola. The knife hit the wooded side of the car and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki started climbing up... When he reached a solid surface, he paused to collect nature's energy and enter his sage mode, god knows, he might need it... With a light punch Naruto destroyed the door and entered the gondola. He immediately was found by the pink-haired snow kunoichi, but she could do nothing as the jinchuuriki's fist connected with her stomach, sending her through the wall into the 'main area', where both Dotō and Koyuki were.
"What is it?" Tyrant asked, looking at the sage-teen, who entered the room. Four more snow shinobi, who guarded Dotō, shot wires at Naruto. The blond shinobi let the wires wind around him, before easily tearing them apart.
"Why you?!" The large man, Mizore, tried to punch Naruto's back, but even through his chakra armor he felt like he hit a stone wall. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki slowly turned around, before punching back, almost sending the man flying out of the zeppelin.
"I don't know, what you are, but this should stop you!" Nadare said from behind him. Then Naruto felt unbearable pain shoot through his back. Using the last of his quickly dissolving powers – his sage mode had just several seconds left, and his chakra had been drained – Naruto uppercut the man, breaking several of his ribs. Then the Konoha ninja passed out.
"What was that thing?" Koyuki asked, pointing at the device on Naruto's back.
"It's a chakra suppressor, the best device to control a shinobi's chakra. No matter how much he has, it will suck all of it, causing him more pain, the more chakra it drains." Dotō chuckled evilly. "So, now, will you give me the hexagonal crystal?" Koyuki hesitantly removed the crystal from her neck and gave it to the tyrant. The man looked at it for a second, before roughly grabbing the princess by her collar.
"Don't play games with me! This one is a fake!" Koyuki's eyes widened in surprise.
"F-Fake? How is it possible?" Then it hit her. "Hatake Kakashi. He switched the crystals."
"Should we capture him, Dotō-sama?" Mizore asked.
"No need." The tyrant glanced at Naruto, unconscious on the floor. "He will come to us on his own. After all, he is the one, who never abandons his comrades."
***
When Naruto woke up, he was quite sore and chained to the wall in a small cell in some kind of a prison. He tried to send chakra to his muscles to free himself, but immediately all the chakra he tried to use was sucked from him, and a pain shot through his back.
"Oh, damned thing." He tried to move again, this time without using chakra, but the heavy chains got in the way and he couldn't do much.
"You may as well do nothing." Koyuki said from the cell across. "You can't free yourself. That thing on your back, it drains all of your chakra." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki sighed.
"Now I understand why it's said, that there is no spring in the land of Snow." He saw the princess look at him. "Spring is the time for the renovation, it's time when everything awakens and starts changing, growing for the better. Yet, people here have their spirit broken, be that by the hand of tyrant, or by harsh weather... They don't do anything, and the spring will never come to their souls." Naruto paused. "As for my situation, there is nothing a shinobi can't deal with. If this thing sucks my chakra, it must have its limit, I only need to overload it..."
"But!" Koyuki exclaimed.
"Don't worry. Better, think about spring." He closed his eyes. "The Earth has unlimited potential for life, it has unlimited energy, you just need to call for it, be it for the crops one is growing, or for the battle to protect something precious. All we need to do is let the Earth bring spring to us. But if we give up, it will never happen." Naruto became completely unmoving, letting the flow of energy into his body, letting the energy fill every cell of his body. Finally, he entered the sage mode, and immediately pushed every little bit of energy to that damned thing on his back. At first, the already familiar blinding pain shot through him, but then... There was an explosion. His plan worked! Yet, he needed time to heal his wounded back and come back to his senses after the "torture"... Almost an hour later, Naruto found he was ready to break out of the prison. Once again, he activated his sage mode. With the power now flowing through him, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki easily broke the chains. Now free, he walked towards the grating of the cell, but as soon as he touched the rods, he found out that they were under voltage. "Damn!" Sage mode helped a little there, so the blond teen managed to rip the door from its hinges.
"N-Naruto? You're free?" Koyuki asked, surprised to see him in front of her cell.
"As I said, there was nothing a shinobi can't deal with." Then he ripped her cell open too. "Let's go." To his surprise, she nodded.
"Let's." The two of them ran towards the lift, but Naruto was against using it. Especially, since there were several explosions not too far from there – Kakashi and the rest of team seven must have came there.
"I have a better idea." He picked the princess up and started running up the wall. But just when he got to the bridge, someone cloaked appeared in front of him. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki set Koyuki down and tried to hit the person, but the man dodged the attack and, jumping away, removed his cloak. "Kakashi-sensei?" The Silver-haired jounin smiled with his only visible eye.
"Looks like I'm a bit late. You two are already free." He chuckled.
"You took the hexagonal crystal." Koyuki said and Kakashi nodded.
"Yes, I did. I saw that those men were after it and I decided to play it safe. Here" He gave her the real one. "Anyway, we need to go Sakura and Sasuke can't keep the enemy away from here for too long." Just as he said this, the rest of the team seven entered the bridge. "Lead the way, Koyuki-san." The princess nodded and they started running... After going through what seemed to be endless labyrinth of rooms and corridors, the five of them arrived to the giant dark chamber that Koyuki identified as the throne hall. The lights went on... Dotō stood up from the throne, which was on a rather high rampant, and walked towards the ladder.
"So... You're there, Koyuki." Koyuki briefly turned around and winked to Naruto and Kakashi, before running to Dotō.
"What the?!" Sakura tried to run after her, but the snow trio appeared in front of her, blocking the way... Koyuki gave the crystal to Dotō. The tyrant smiled and walked a little past her.
"Nicely played, Koyuki. You always were a great actress."
"Indeed, I'm an actress." The princess stated, taking a small blade from her robe and trying to stab Dotō through his back. But there was only a sound of metal hitting metal.
"You, little bitch!" The man growled and grabbed Koyuki by her throat. But the princess didn't give up and pushed them both down from the rampant. Naruto immediately dashed there, trying to save the crystal, but he was too late, as Dotō already stood up. "Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu!" Two black ice-made dragons with red eyes shot from his hands and slammed into Naruto's stomach, sending him flying back. "Let's go to the rainbow glaciers now." The tyrant said, removing his regal robes and showing dark-blue chakra armor underneath it. He then picked up a barely conscious Koyuki up and activated the mechanism that will destroy the hall. Using the smoke as a cover, he tried to fly away on the mechanical wings. But Naruto saw this and threw a rope with a weight to the princess Koyuki. She caught it, and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki joined the flight...
When they were almost halfway to the glacier, Dotō finally noticed the extra passenger and cut the rope, making Naruto fall down into the dense forest... As he landed, the blond shinobi saw Dotō flying away, and started running after him. But, of course, he was slower, so when he got to the glacier, the tyrant was already there working with something in the small building at the center of the glacier.
"Koyuki-san, are you alright?" Naruto asked. The princess only nodded weakly.
"Why you little shit!" Dotō ran through handseals. "Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki barely avoided being hit by the jutsu and tried to attack the man with taijutsu. But, unfortunately, Dotō was bigger, heavier and had a thick armor to protect him, so even with all his abilities, Naruto lost... The tyrant threw him to the center of a small but deep lake that was under the glacier and then directed another Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu to hit the blond shinobi from above, breaking the ice and pushing him into the ice-cold water. "Hyoton: genkan!" The jutsu sealed the hole in the ice...
"Naruto!" Koyuki screamed.
"Sorry to break your boy-toy, but we won't see him ever again." Dotō said evilly. "Now, let's see what this Kazahana treasure is shall we?"
When Naruto came back to senses, he found out that he was in very cold water, slowly sinking and with his chakra really low – he spent a lot to keep up with Dotō while he flew towards the glacier.
'My own chakra won't be enough to escape from here... And I can't activate sage mode in such a cold environment...' He sighed. 'Looks like it's time to take Kyuubi-chan's offer...' Concentrating, Naruto entered his subconscious, immediately finding himself in the middle of a mixture between a quagmire and tropical forest. The plants and their giant leaves made the place look like it was a natural corridor. The blond teen started walking. There were several crossroads on his way, but he never even slowed down for one, clearly knowing where to go. Finally he found what he was looking for: the "corridor" there was wider and had a transparent blue wall, going between two statues of toad warriors, with a dark-blue kanji for "seal" in the center. Without hesitation, Naruto walked through the barrier. He was now in the part of his subconscious where his Kyuubi-chan lived. But he couldn't, for once, see her. "Grr... I have no time for games right now." He said angrily.
"Spoilsport." Naruto immediately turned around, but could do nothing to the vixen from dropping him onto the grassy floor with herself on top of him. "What does bring our strong brave shinobi to my humble abode?" She asked, planting a kiss on his lips. Naruto sighed and tried move the naked teenage-looking brunette from him.
"I need your help. Now." He said looking straight into her crimson eyes.
"Oh, you finally decided to take my offer?" She asked. "You know that I want you to pay for this?" The blond shinobi sighed.
"I know. I will pay later. Right now I have no time..." But the vixen interrupted him.
"No, no, no, Naru-chan, you aren't leaving without snogging me at least once!" And with all her demonic strength, the girl attacked his mouth with hers...
Dotō inserted the hexagonal crystal into the keyhole, when the ice over the place where a frozen to death Naruto should be, glowed red.
"What?" The ice and water, surrounded by the vapor, exploded upwards as the pillar of orange-red energy shot towards the sky. "What is it?" A pillar of water rose, with Naruto, surrounded by the bonfire of the same orange-red energy, in the center. Though, this Naruto looked more feral with his whisker-like marks deeper and darker, his nails turned into claws and his eyes, now crimson with slitted pupils. "Why don't you die!!!" Dotō yelled. "Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu!" Faster than ever before, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki evaded the attack, at the same time flashing through the handseals.
"Katon: akahiryuudan!" He exhaled an almost white-hot flame that took the shape of dragon and flew towards the tyrant of the land of Snow.
"Stupid boy!" Dotō hissed, sending twin black ice dragons against the fire one... The two jutsu collided, canceling each other and creating a lot of vapor... The rest of team seven, that just entered the glacier, froze. Kakashi from seeing his student access the demon's yoki. Sakura and Sasuke – just because of the level of power displayed.
'Why does the dobe have this power? Why isn't this power mine?' The last Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf asked in his thoughts. The cursed seal on his shoulder glowed red for a moment, agreeing with him... Naruto landed onto the ice, ready to perform the next jutsu.
"Onipou: katon: hitoya no funsui!" A reddish line spread from where Naruto's hands touched the ground, creating a very big drawing of ...something with ten big circles, one of which had Dotō in it. The whole thing flashed red and the tyrant got the message to get away from this, whatever it was. Just as he jumped out of the circle, a pillar of fire rose from it. The same pillars of fire were in other nine circles of this giant drawing... Seeing as Dotō escaped the fire, Naruto canceled the jutsu and performed a new sequence of handseals. "Katon: hōsenka!" While normally it already was fairly a strong ninjutsu, powered by the yoki of the strongest demon in existence, it became twice as deadly...
"Hyōton: sōryū bōfūsetsu!" But again, the ice dragons protected Dotō from being burned to death, creating another screen from vapor. "Stupid little shit, fire won't work against me!"
"Too bad, eh?" Naruto's voice, just demonic now, said, as the blond jinchuuriki appeared from behind the vapor clouds with his folded shuriken in his arm. "Your time ends here!" Naruto thrust his weapon forward, and it went through the chakra armor Dotō wore, and through the man's flesh. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki ripped the 'blade' from the now dead body and suppressed the yoki, returning back to his normal self. He took a step towards Koyuki. "Now it's your time, hime." Then he fell on the ground unconscious...
"Naruto?" Koyuki asked, but, of course, she got no response. "Naruto!.." She ran towards him, not paying any attention to what was going on around her... The generator deep down under the glacier finally activated, and the cold was drawing back... But no, Koyuki gave her attention only to the ninja who gave her the will to bring the Spring back...
"And... CUT!" the filming crew director, who apparently was there too, shouted.
***
The next morning the new queen of the land of Snow visited the hospital, where a still unconscious Naruto was. She sat onto the chair near his bed and for several minutes just looked at him. Not seeing any signs of him being awake, Koyuki sighed and decided to proceed with her plan...
"Thank you. Thank you for everything you did." She said barely above whisper, before leaning forward and kissing him. To her surprise, he responded to the kiss, even if he was still unconscious. But who was Koyuki to complain? If only she knew that at the very same time a certain vixen was snogging the very same blond hero senselessly...
'I'm sorry Naruto, but I won't survive on this for four more years... I'm not sure I'll survive for even two... I will do this. Hope, you will forgive me one day...' Kyuubi thought, as she started yet another round of snogging with Naruto...
R&R, comrades!