This marks chapter 14 of Spiral Tailed.
To tell the truth, this is my least favorite chapter. For one it is another chapter where it is nothing but getting there. Next chapter will be where I want to get to with the Nagato mission, so bear with me here. If you don't like it, I am right there with you. Promise, next chapter something happens.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to it creator, not me. This is only a nonprofit fan work.
The Quarry of Reminiscing
The west gate of the village stood unceremoniously at their backs. Unlike that of Konoha's gate, this one had only two standing post to signal the village's end. There weren't any doors to close nor were there any sentries at the gate. He didn't know why, but Naruto found the non-show-off-y style of it all very pleasing. There weren't any large walls at either end of the gate, separating the view of the field that surrounded them. All that was there was two lonesome posts that had nothing to do but stand there.
While her companion watched the gate, which she found to be odd since there was a slight admiration in his eyes, Tayuya was fuming from their client's tardiness. The man had said an hour after dawn, to meet him at the western gate. They arrived at the preset time, for the client to not appear, even twenty minutes after arriving. What more, her companion was now occupied with other things at the moment, which meant that time would pass only slower.
"Naruto, you know you could at least try to talk." she said, with slight desperation, too desperate to try to cover it up. The blonde swiftly turned to meet his companions face. "What did you just say?" Naruto asked back in surprise. Tayuya cocked an eyebrow at the way her companion had acted and said, "You could try to talk, you know that?" she said. Naruto shook his head and said, "Not that." Tayuya cocked her eyebrow more and started to rub her head. "What else did I say?" she asked him, her anger getting a slight rise out of not saying it out right.
"Did you just call me Naruto?" he asked her. She was near the explosion point of her anger, but still said as calmly as she could, "That is your name, isn't it?" "Yeah it is," Naruto started. Tayuya readied her hands to strangle him before he continued. "But you never refer to me by it. If you talk to me you usually call me s**thead or something like that. That is if you are talking to me. You usually try to keep mum."
Tayuya said nothing to counteract that; it was the truth. She looked at Naruto for a second, still silent. "Now see, that is what I am talking about, you don't talk that often." Naruto said to her. Tayuya shook her head, "Listen, I didn't want to start some damned argument over my speech habits! All that I wanted to do was start some conversation. Besides, if you want me to call you sh-" Naruto reached his hands straight out, waving his palms at her to interrupt her, "No, no, no, no. I like the change." He gave her his shining grin, "I hope you keep it up Tayuya-chan." Tayuya looked away from him, "First name basis from now on?" Naruto smiled at her nodding, "That would be nice Tayuya-chan."
She turned her head down and sighed, "Fine." Naruto nodded to her again, and looked around, his sights landing on the posts. Tayuya brought her hand to her head; she thought he was going to start going into a daze again. Then Naruto grabbed her free hand. Stricken with surprise, Tayuya flailed around cursing at Naruto. "What the f**k s**thea- Naruto!"
The blonde turned to her with a grin, "I think it might be better to sit, don't you think so Tayuya-chan?" She stopped flailing around, but didn't start moving either, making Naruto drag her in a way. Even after all the time spent with him she was still dumbstruck each time he was considerate. With a sigh escaping, Tayuya started to walk with Naruto to the posts. Even if she was complying it didn't stop her from looking at Naruto and saying, "We could easily sit on the ground we stand on." Naruto turned his head to her while still walking, "Tayuya-chan, it is common knowledge that sitting with your back to something is more comfortable than sitting without."
The two came upon one of the posts and started to sit. When they turned to sit down, they meet with resistance, finding that their hands were still locked with each other. Both gave off a slight blush as they released hands to sit. When they got situated, Tayuya gave off a slight content sigh. Naruto looked at her with a grin, "Comfortable?" he asked. Tayuya took it as him mocking her and shot him a glare, "What is that supposed to mean?" Contrary to what Tayuya thought would happen, Naruto's grin grew. He looked at her and said, "It means exactly what it means. Are you comfortable?" Tayuya looked the other way and mumbled, "Right." She turned back to him, meeting him in the eyes, and asked, "What makes you so… so… thoughtful?"
She was getting pissed off at not knowing why he was the way he was. She knew about the Kyuubi and how it made Naruto the black sheep in his village. She knew that he was a lonely person, his apartment, and lack of neighbors back at Konoha, the clue. She even got slight hints of his treatment as she looked in his eyes. What she didn't know was why he was such a happy-go-lucky person. She had a life that consisted of being lonely, hungry, painful meetings with every type of person imaginable. That is how life was for her as she was without a home at an early age, it gave her an easy sympathy for him, but he didn't need that.
Naruto may have had a home, but he didn't seem much better off. A million and one things could have happened to him, all horrible and traumatizing, and he was the happiest person she had ever met. She didn't know why he was, nor would he say why. Today though she vowed to make him tell.
Naruto seemed to ponder it for a second and turned to her, "Well, why are you the way you are?" Tayuya's eyebrows twitched as her eyes narrowed. "What kind of response is that?" she said in aggravation. Naruto cocked his eyebrow inquisitively and said, "You tell me first, and I will tell you." Tayuya's eyes held a bit of distain as she started, "Well first of all, I can sum it up by saying life didn't had me a gift basket." The last part of her sentence was marked with a rise in volume in her voice. "I was on my own from almost the start, my mom and dad abandoning me for no apparent reason. I had to take to the streets, homeless, and hungry. I met people who would use me to do their bidding, which included thievery and mugging. When I had food or money, the people who helped me get it would take it away, without giving me reason. I ran away from several crime syndicates before I was six, mostly because the people there were getting handsy. I only struck a little luck by the time I was ten, which was when Orochimaru found me. He took me in and kept me safe from all others. But even then, I had to fend for myself."
"All of that is the reason that I am angry. I wasn't the one to get a normal life." Tayuya finished, her throat slightly sore from raising her voice at times. Naruto seemed to look at her, with concerned eyes. He then tried to comfort her, giving her a small back rub. Although she did nothing to protest, she did say, "You don't have to, I sorted this out a while ago." She didn't look at him, but was sure that a smile came on to his face. "You're right, I don't have to, but I want to."
Tayuya sighed, "There you go. Well I told you my reason, what's yours?"
Naruto and Tayuya heard a voice to their front, "Kind of guessed you two were a couple. Himiko owes me some money." They both turned their heads to the man who was talking to them. Nagato stood there, a bit off from where they sat, his face slightly pained, looking down at both of them. He had a giant pack on, with a pickax fitted on the side of it. He had a straw sun hat on his head, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Do you two need a moment?"
Naruto and Tayuya looked at each other, to find they were close enough to kiss and parted swiftly. Naruto got onto his feet, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Tayuya stood off, close enough to still be connected to Naruto if someone was to pass by, but far enough to not be connected in that way. Nagato looked at both of them, needing to turn his head to do so, and said, "You two even match!" Naruto scratched his head again and said, "It just happened like that this morning, I suppose."
"Why are you late?" Tayuya asked, wanting the two to get off the subject. Nagato turned his head to her, and grinned in a stupid way. "Hangover." Came the one word answer. "Got a little carried away with Himiko last night. Over did it with the drinking, and kind of went out like a light. The girl took everything in my wallet when I passed out. Then she took me home, the sweet little thing." Naruto wanted to laugh at that, but repressed it wanting to be seen professional. The man disgusted Tayuya, since the man was obviously a drunk, and this seemed to happen before.
"Well," Nagato started, "we should be heading out. The faster we get there, the more I will be able to mine." Nagato then walk west to the mine, with Naruto and Tayuya close behind.
They walked in silence for the most part, not making idle conversation, since Nagato silenced everything on the grounds that it made his hangover headache worse. It made things bad for Naruto, since he was starting to get bored. He did anything he could to try and preoccupy himself. He counted the shrubbery as he passed them, but the field started to get scarce and things got few and far between. He looked up at the clouds to see if he could see shapes, to find a cloudless sky. Naruto's face drooped into a massive frown. He could not go long without doing something and if he did, it would be extremely psychologically painful for him.
As soon as he felt ready to yell in frustration, a wind blew from the north, carrying the scent of kicked up dirt. Both Naruto and Tayuya looked to the north, to find a small dust cloud. "Nagato-san," Naruto started, "I think your tormentors are coming." Nagato looked to the north to see the dust cloud. He turned to Naruto and asked, "You think its them?" Naruto gave a slow nod. He reached into his pouch to give a couple of kunai to Tayuya. "You ready?" Naruto asked with concern in his voice. He expected her to immediately dismiss his question, but he found her to be unsure. Without waiting for the answer, he turned to the north and told her to stay and protect Nagato. She immediately rejected Naruto's command.
"I am not going to stand by and play a guard. I have been waiting to fight for a long time." She responded to his order. She then ran past him, kunai ready in both hands. She wasn't one to admit weakness, even if it meant that she would end up getting injured. She may have been fully healed, but she was always the genjutsu user in the sound four, she wasn't up for frontal battle.
While she was running, Naruto rushed passed her, waving at her while saying, "Hi Tayuya-chan." He crossed his arms, Tsume Akuma popping into existence when he did and he picked up speed. Tayuya commented in her mind that it seemed that was his go-to tactic, rushing headlong into danger.
Naruto got several yards away from the dust cloud, before finding out the dust cloud contained bandits not ninja. Naruto thought of two possibilities, one, the bandits were the ones who scared off Nagato, or two, the bandits had normal bandit intentions and Jiraiya wasn't playing protector anymore. He hoped it was both, and then the mission was half way done.
There were three men; the one in the middle, seeming to lead, was a powerful looking man, who carried bladed knuckles on his hands. To the left of the leader was a lanky man, seeming to be weak, with a simple katana in his hand. Then the last on the right was a normally proportioned man, who was a foot back from the normal group and was covered by a large cloak from his shoulders to his ankles. Each of them ran stupidly to Naruto, who rushed them back.
Naruto jumped when he was still a couple yards away, to land on the big man's chest. Naruto kicked off with kouasshuku heki, shooting the man back several feet. When Naruto landed, instead of getting shocked silence, he heard arrogant laughing, coming from the lanky man. The man grinned at Naruto and said, "A kick? Is that the first blow you land? Should have killed the idiot when you had the chance." The big guy on the ground seemed to choke on his own voice as he spoke from his position lying on the ground. "Boss I'm sorry I was over excited." The big man then coughed up blood and after lay unconscious. The lanky man seemed shocked that his associate was taken down. He turned to Naruto, pulling his katana in the air and charged. Naruto dodged the first few slices to play with the man, and then stopped the blades with Tsume Akuma. As he was about to finish the man with his claws, a kunai became lodged in the man's head. The man fell limp to the ground as a corpse. Naruto looked in the direction the kunai was thrown to find Tayuya. She stood there plain faced and said to Naruto, "I told you I wasn't going to stand by. You were going to finish these guys without me." Her face turned to anger with her last sentence. Naruto scratched the back of his head and gave his apology before he turned to the last one.
The man stood in a battle stance, ready for Naruto. Within a second, Naruto was in front of the last man and kneed him in the gut. Naruto spin kicked the man, shooting off kouasshuku heki when it connected. The man flew back from the force and landed on the bigger man. To Naruto's surprise, the man got up and dusted himself off. He looked straight at Naruto and smirked. Naruto was about to go for the man again, before the man disappeared suddenly in smoke. The big man he was standing on top of gone as well.
Naruto looked to his companion and said, "I guess that one was a ninja." Tayuya gave him a look and said sarcastically, "Yeah, I guess." Tayuya walked away with Naruto following behind trying to defend his mistake.
When they got to him, Nagato asked if everything was all right, and Naruto told him about the one ninja. Nagato tensed up in shock, "You mean there was a ninja?" Naruto and Tayuya nodded. Nagato seemed to be worried for a second, before he turned to Naruto. "You can take care of them, right?" Naruto nodded to Nagato, clenching his hand into a fist in front of is face, while he said, "They will wish that they hadn't thought of attacking us." Nagato seemed to have happier spirits and began walking west again.
It took them half of the day to reach the quarry. Naruto was surprised to find a hole in the ground reminiscent of a canyon in the middle of the field. If he didn't see a series of ramps around the edge of the quarry he would have thought that one would have to jump off the edge to reach the bottom.
Nagato was fiercely tired when they got there and told them to stop. He took off his pack and went through it. He brought out a big package, along with supplies for building a fire. He took the next couple of minutes building the place around the fire, along with a rotisserie stick above it. Nagato opened the package revealing a big slab of meat, and tied it to the stick. Nagato was about to try to start the fire when a burst of flame shot up from the dry wood.
Nagato tried to find the source of the flame, finding Naruto standing next to him with a finger pointed at the fire. "What?" the old man asked, thinking that Naruto was pointing at the fire since it lit up abruptly like that. Naruto looked at Nagato and smiled, "Nothing, just lighting the fire."
Naruto got up and walked around the fire to Tayuya's position, directly across from where he was. He sat about two feet away from her, but that didn't stop Nagato from tormenting them. "I don't have a tent to put you guys in, so spare me from the romance." Nagato said monotonously. Both moved slightly away from each other, their faces growing red. "Listen Nagato-san. We aren't like that, we're just friends." Naruto tried to defend. Nagato chuckled dryly and said, "And friends give each other backrubs while keeping space between them to the absolute minimum?" Nagato seemed to have lost his headache.
Naruto tried to defend that without having to explain his and Tayuya's screwed up lives. "I…uh… was comforting her, she… hasn't had a good life." Naruto said as if he was treading on a tightrope. He had looked to Tayuya to see if she was angry with him now, only to see her look between him and Nagato disinterestedly. Naruto let out a breath he had found he was holding. He turned to Nagato to see the man also disinterested in what Naruto was saying. Although it pissed him off, he let it drop; he didn't want to reflect on anything now.
Naruto laid on his back to see the empty sky as Nagato cooked the meat and Tayuya sat looking at the fire. Nobody chose to speak, since they were using the time to rest. What was midday turned to twilight since Nagato refused to mine until he was properly fed. When they were done with the meat Nagato heaved up his pickax, put up his pack and turned to them. "Well we should get going, around midnight I will stop for the day. I should get a good haul in at least a couple of days. Two or three." he said to Naruto and Tayuya. He walked around the perimeter of the quarry until he found one of the ramps.
Naruto looked around as they walked down into the quarry. From the campfire there was not much to see except what he could, which were ramps and caves littered around it. With almost nothing hidden by the ramps as they descended, Naruto got the full view. It was at least a mile in diameter, even if it shape was oblong. The bottom was covered in shadow from the setting sun, but even though Naruto seen the glitter of semi-precious metals and gems. Every so often as they walked down the ramp, they would pass a cave. Nagato would walk right past without paying any mind. Naruto guessed that Nagato had a certain destination in his mind.
"You guys dug a pretty hole in the ground." Tayuya said sarcastically. Nagato gave a hearty laugh and swiveled his torso to address them while still walking. "You never heard of this place, huh." He stated. He turned back in place and started to talk again, "It just means you are foreign to our country. Back when everybody was mining around here, these mines were famous. But that is to say, only in our country. The government decided to keep quiet about them, and further develop our economy. They underestimated the quarry's haul. We all did."
Nagato looked around and let out a chuckle. "You see; these mines had not just some precious metal, or some gems. They are filled with just about every minable material. From junk ore to gems and precious metals." Nagato gave a hearty laugh and continued, "There was this one vein, it had so many different colored gems in it, it had gotten this place nicknamed the rainbow quarry."
When Nagato was finished he left an awed Naruto and half-interested Tayuya. Nagato then chuckled again, "Of course that means that the metals aren't pure, and the ones that are, are few and far between. That is why I am mining gems, and why the mine goes down so far. If there was a seeming stop in the vein then the mines would be as empty as they are now, with the exception of a few kind of like me. Then the vein would be rediscovered and every one would flock back here, digging down and down. We would not be able to move as freely as we are if people found out that the vein was rediscovered. That is why I don't spread word of the vein, I get it all to myself."
Tayuya rolled her eyes at the man's greed; he was like so many others she met in her life. Nagato seemed to pick up in step as he walked down the ramps. He chuckled to himself as he walked. She turned to Naruto, who was walking with a smile on his face. Tayuya guessed it was because of all the riches that dangled in his face around here. She turned back and sighed, maybe not even the purest had a defense against greed.
"Tayuya-chan, what is your favorite color?" She heard from Naruto's direction. He had gotten a bit closer to her and laid questioning eyes on her own. Both the question and his gaze caught her off guard, causing her to stutter out, "W-w-what?" Naruto's mouth curved to a grin and he repeated his earlier question. "What is your favorite color?"
"Why do you need to know?" She asked him back. Naruto responded with a smile on his face and said, "I just wanted to know." Nagato, who seemed to be slightly listening, said, "You don't know her favorite color? You just got yourself into hot water boy." Tayuya ignored the man and told Naruto, "Yellow." Naruto kept his head directed to her and after a while said dumbly, "Really?" Tayuya's eyes gave a small twitch and she said, "Really. Why would I need to lie?"
Naruto seemed to ponder that for a while before he said, "True." After that he said nothing and they went on walking without talking. The sun had set before the got to the bottom of the quarry, where apparently Nagato's destination was located. Even at the bottom they continued to walk almost directly across the quarry from where they had reached bottom. After that Nagato entered one cave by himself, telling Naruto and Tayuya to keep outside. Within a minute of him disappearing into the darkness of the cave, the sound of metal striking rock echoed from its depths.
Naruto and Tayuya got themselves situated on the ground just outside the cave, leaving hardly a gap for undetected entrance. Naruto sighed when he sat on the ground, knowing that midnight was far off. Tayuya sat down and looked into the sky, staring at the stars. "Sun down is around eight, right?" Tayuya suddenly asked. Naruto looked at her and said, "It should be, since it is supposed to be fall, but I can't tell here." Tayuya nodded and sighed, "Hot as hell during the day, then it freezes over at night. Can't tell what f**king season it is."
"Well when the moon is up directly in the sky, we'll know." Naruto said, trying to ease her. Tayuya groaned when she heard him say that and said, "Yeah, and until then we f**king freeze. Great." Naruto chose not to say anything more since Tayuya saw fault in anything and everything he said to comfort her.
They sat in silence until Tayuya started hugging her knees and shivering. Naruto turned to her, a small smile on his face, and said, "You can take searing temperatures, but a little cold gets you?" Tayuya shot him a glare in return. Naruto cringed a little under the glare. Suddenly his eyes brightened up, and he reached into his pack. "Now," he started, "you can't decline, since you are obviously cold. Even if you do, I'll still make you wear them, even if it comes to force." When he finished he pulled out his old coat and presented it to her. Much to his surprise, she took it without so much as a breath of denial leaving her. He watched her hurriedly put it on and smiled when it was fully on her. She hugged her knees to her body still, but at least she wasn't shivering. Naruto turned away from her, faceing his front, his smile still on his face.
Tayuya watched, as Naruto did nothing in the face of the terrible cold of the country. He sat idly still, without a coat, looking up at the stars, a small smile on his face. He would scratch his nose at times, but other than that did nothing that even remotely kept him warm. "And why doesn't the cold temperature effect you?" she said, mocking him a little, with a subtle tone of interest. Naruto looked at her with the smile still on his face and, with the smile continuing throughout, said, "There was this one winter that I couldn't go home and I spent those days in the snow and rain." Tayuya's face twisted and turned, trying to find the right reaction for that statement along with the expression that he had with it, finding only shock. With a bit of anger making her voice raise, she said, "What do you mean you spent a winter in the rain and snow?!" Naruto looked at her and said, "I mean I spent a winter in the rain and snow. How do you get that confused Tayuya-chan?" Tayuya's eye twitched and, with more anger rising, she said, "You know what I mean dumba**. Why did you spend a winter outside of your home?" Naruto's smile drooped and he turned away from her and said, "It was back when I had neighbors." Tayuya some how felt her anger raise and drop at the same time. "To be factual," Naruto continued, "I wasn't home for about a whole year, until the hokage ordered them to move."
Tayuya looked straight at him, almost pitying him, and asked, "Why couldn't you go home with them there?" Naruto then rubbed his head and he said, "I can't fully remember, funny, I remembered everything that ever happened to me only a couple of days ago."
Naruto had gone back to looking at the stars, as if not minding what they were talking about, or not wanting to touch the subject. His smile had come back as he watched the stars. Each twinkling light Naruto only got a bigger smile planted on his face. Tayuya wondered how he put that so idly behind him and go back to smiling happily.
"Peaceful night huh." Naruto said, without looking away form the sky. She looked up with him, seeing the clear night and millions of stars that shined brightly. She sighed and nodded, finding herself lost in the sky also. "Tomorrow is going to be a new moon." Naruto stated, biting Tayuya's attention from the stars. She saw him looking into the distance, toward the moon. She looked along with him, finding the moon to only be a small sickle in the sky, the position showing it was waning.
"I got to say, I feel a little sleepy." Naruto said. Tayuya looked at him to see his eyes looking heavy and his head nodding a little as his eyelids drooped closed. Tayuya pushed Naruto to wake him up. "We can't just fall asleep on the job. Especially when there are supposed to be enemy ninja about." she scolded him. Naruto scratched the back of his head, while telling his apologies. "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't get a good night's sleep." he said to her. Tayuya nodded to him, accepting his explanation.
For the next hour the two sat in silence that was until Tayuya heard a thud from her side. She turned to find Naruto lying on the floor, snoring quietly. She stood up and walked to his laying form and looked at his face. His face had a quiet peace to it and had a small amount of spittle coming out his mouth. Tayuya kicked Naruto, waking the blonde up.
Naruto got up with a groan and sat up right, rubbing his eyes while he did. "What is going on?" he said with a slur in his voice. A pull on his collar brought him up on his feet, with his eyes directed towards Tayuya's. "Listen Naruto, you dumba**, you may have had one mission as a nuke-nin under you belt, but this is my first mission as one, since you decided to start without me. And I will not allow my first one be botched by some whim you have to fall asleep!" After the final word she released Naruto from her hold. During her small tirade, she had given him some violent shakes, violent enough for him to logically determine that his insides had shifted. Naruto looked at her a moment, with her glaring daggers at him, and immediately sat down.
"You put Sakura to shame when it comes to scariness Tayuya-chan. I think you made my heart switch places with my stomach." Naruto said with an uneasy look on his face and a hand over his stomach. Tayuya sat back in her place and said, "This is the umpteenth time you talked about this f**king Sakura, what are you in love with her?"
She didn't hear an immediate response from Naruto. Naruto sat stock still, staring into space. Tayuya felt a sinking feeling when there was not an answer. Finally Naruto gained a voice and said plainly, "I don't know." Tayuya looked into his eyes, her sight questioning. "You don't know? What kind of answer is that?" She said with a little rage filled venom in her voice. Naruto either didn't hear it or decided to not pay mind to her tone. "It is a true answer. I don't know what love is Tayuya. If I went by it's plain definition, a strong feeling for another; then anybody who paid me a passing glance is a love of mine. It's more common definition, with passion and all other feelings like that is foreign talk to me. If I felt something I thought was related to passionate love, nobody was there to filter it passed. I have no idea what I feel, especially since I am so young."
"You didn't have anybody? Not one person?" Tayuya asked. Naruto shook his head, a smile on his face. "Not until later," he said, "but by then, well, it was something I didn't want to share. Embarrassed, I guess." Naruto gave her a grin and went back to looking at the stars.
"You still haven't told me the reason you have a large smile despite your past." Tayuya said to Naruto, as she looked at the ground. Naruto looked down from the stars, not looking at her, the smile still on his face. "There was this one event, happened around when I was five." He started, "There was this one man, who I would see around town randomly everyday. The random sightings got a bit more frequent and soon I found the man was following me. I didn't think much, I was a kid, unassuming and ignorant, as well as stupid. I never saw what was going to happen next. One day he decided to come up to me. 'Hey kid, you want me to treat you to lunch?' he asked me. I said yeah, since it was free food. He told me he knew a special place that sold great food. I followed him, and we wound up near some abandoned buildings, the owners gone from a war or the attack. He beat me until I found out what it felt like to have your limbs give out. Luckily a ninja who respected the third came and stopped him before I lost consciousness and probably stopped me from falling into a coma. The man was judged before the Konoha council, with them ruling that, for redemption sake, that I decide the man's fate. I told him 'say your sorry', and that was that." Tayuya gave him a stunned look, exploding with surprise and anger. Naruto picked up on the sudden change in her eyes. "Hey I was only a kid," he said, "After that the third hokage came up to me and said 'it takes strong will for one as young as yourself to not cry during or after your ordeal, but, it would have taken a man of considerable will to forgive an attacker.' he gave me a happy\sad look and keeled down to meet my face and said 'keep that that will of yours strong'. The man didn't stop after that and was ultimately sent to death by the council, since I always asked him to do the same thing. Each time the third would come up to me after and tell me he was proud that I could put such treatment behind me and not condemn the man. Although the time before the man got executed the old man said that maybe I should decide on a punishment for the man. The old man gave me reason to smile and each time he did himself, I would only smile greater. Through some periods I was able to catch him during a break and talk to him. He would always talk about the village and everyone in it. Thinking how peaceful it was gave him the biggest smile, and I came to smile when I thought of the peace in the village, despite my treatment. And every time I talked to him, he would tell me to keep that smile I had, it was the biggest he seen he said. And I did, always."
Naruto sighed, and seemed to stare off into space. His smile had faltered a bit, but continued despite the mood he finished off in. His thoughts went back to those times with the third going through them chronologically, until the very end. After that his mouth evened out, no longer showing what was a perennial smile. Tayuya picked up on it immediately, since that smile and his purity had been the subject of all her recent thoughts. She couldn't say she was happy that he was plain faced now, but it calmed her to know he had other emotions. And now that she knew, she felt she should at least that she should try to bring the smile back. It was partly her fault for bring the third back to mind, even if she never knew that Naruto was close to the Hokage.
She searched her mind for something that was worth putting out there, but Tayuya had never tried to consol someone before. She dug deep into her mind for something she hoped would bring him back, for nothing to pop up. Her ineptness led her to shoot into the dark, hoping to get something that would at least bring him out of his mood. "So, why are we doing all this again? Why are we trying to take over Oto?" She asked, surprising herself with how coherent the question was to her interests.
Naruto had chosen to not divulge any information to her as to his reason, but he did have a savage smirk on his face, something she noticed he desperately tried to hide. The last instant that had happened was while they walked from Toritarō to Nagato, which ended the same. He might not answer, but at least it would put that face back to his normalcy.
"You must really want to know." Naruto said, a savage smirk flashing his teeth. Naruto chuckled a little and continued on, "Either that or you're bored." Naruto sat silent for a moment and things went back to how they were, with them sitting while looking at the stars. Tayuya was wholly immersed in the lights of the sky when she heard Naruto speak. "I want to show them just what they lost." He said, his voice hard. "I want them to see that even in defection, I am a hopeless slave to the village." Naruto looked evenly forward and continued, "I want them to see that Uzumaki Naruto is, in fact, a ninja of the leaf. But other goals are also buried in there also. At first all I wanted was to return to the village, as soon as we set foot out. Then, two or three days later, I decided that it was also to show that smug bastard, Uchiha Sasuke, that no matter who he trains with, it will matter not, since the snake will be crushed under my foot."
Naruto sighed and looked down, still with his savage smile plastered on his face. "Then, a week earlier, I realized that even if I do all this, the village's opinion will not change. This won't get me closer to my dream, being hokage; the village will never have their demon apart of their government. So, instead, I will rule over Oto, very much like that of the third, hoping to free them of the savage that is Orochimaru."
"He may seem crazy, but he gave me a home." Tayuya said to Naruto, not knowing if she said that to defend Orochimaru, or if she was trying to get Naruto to stop his plans for his own safety. Whatever she was trying to do, Naruto would get a spike of anger because of her saying that. "I don't hold that against him, but he has done things that have crossed me and my friends. I can't let him get away with it." He said, his voice, in fact, flooded with anger.
"Right." Tayuya said, settling back to watching the night sky. She didn't want to start anything that, she would end up regretting. The two sat in silence for the rest of the time, only making slight conversation. When Nagato came out of the cave and the moon reigned high in the sky the trio went to sleep, making a small camp at the bottom of the quarry.
Three pairs of eyes watched them, belonging to three men. The men were perched in a cave that hadn't any ramps leading to it. Two of the men stood while one sat on the ground in between them. The man on the ground had a black helmet on his head, with four horns sticking out of it. He wore skin clinging black armor on him and had a mask over his mouth. The two standing were the two bandits that had escaped from Naruto and Tayuya earlier. The one on the right was the large man, who led the pack; while the one to the left was the one covered with the large cloak, who took himself and the large man away from Naruto.
"So, those two are more dangerous than they appear? That doesn't seem like that much still." The sitting one said. "You'd think that, but the blondes kick not only took the air out of me but sent me back a ways." The large man said. The cloaked one then said, "We could probably take him three to one, the red head though, I am not too sure of her." The one on the ground made a slight chuckle, "No need, she will take care of them. Tomorrow under the new moon, she will get her sacrifices."
Chapter End
That is the end of chapter 14. Complaints are allowed, as long as you don't go overboard.
If you guys have any ideas to give me I have open ears. I'm not running out, it is the lack of. I know how I want to finish Spiral Tailed, but with the amount of current ideas I have it could end prematurely. To tell the truth, most of the ideas are spouted out of my head on the fly, but my mind isn't that quick, so yeah.
Review, but don't be too harsh on this chapter. Please tell me of mistakes in this one if you see them. I want to make sure it at least is presentable.