Digi does not own Naruto; the privilege of destroying him to complete project Tsuki no Me by sacrificing the Kyuubi belongs to me, the rest to Kishimoto
Sage
Book IV: Lightning
"A person that learns from their mistakes is smart. A person that learns from other people's mistakes is smarter." – Proverb
"You're lost again, aren't you?" Even with the heavy mist surrounding the group it was clear Fuu was the one speaking, her deadpan tone cutting through the fog like an overly sarcastic knife.
"I'm not lost! And don't say again like it's happened before, we were not lost. I just happened to be reading the map wrong." Naruto shot Fuu an annoyed look before returning his attention to the path in front of him; if he took his attention away it was quite likely they would stray off the road.
"By wrong, do you mean upside down?" This time it was Shizuku at the receiving end of Naruto's agitated glare; not that anybody could tell when seeing even a few feet in front of them was impossible.
"It was an honest mistake! I've never been to Kaminari no Kuni before." Shizuku just snickered into her baggy sleeves making Naruto wonder how she was dealing with the cold with such thin clothing.
"Yeah and if this keeps up I'll start to think we still aren't." This time Naruto found he didn't have the energy for a scathing retort, he just settled for pranking Fuu at a later date. He sighed wearily into his scarf, tilting his sugegasa back to peer up at the sky; it was useless though, the heavy water vapour in the air made it impossible to even see where the sun was.
"Come on, Konoha is just in a forest! It even has roads leading to it! Why do all the other Hidden Villages have to take their names so seriously? Suna is in the middle of the desert, Taki is nearly impossible to find unless you're lead there and Kumo is hidden so high in the mountains you either get lost in the mountains or pass out from the thin air!" After a few seconds of silence he realised he was ranting to deaf ears and slumped forward dejectedly; briefly he wondered what had happened to his wise monk persona.
"Don't worry Naruto, the merchants have to get there somehow. We'll find Kumogakure eventually." Naruto smiled appreciatively at Shizuku as she rested her hand on his shoulder; or at least he thought it was her.
"Actually, Kumogakure is a mostly militant Hidden Village. All merchant and domestic requirements are met in other villages further down in the mountains. The village itself is purely for housing the Shinobi, their families, the equipment stores, and the Raikage tower. Food and produce is moved to the Shinobi populace in large supply runs coordinated weekly. So in a way it's more of a large base camp than a village in the ways we define the term." Once again Naruto sunk down; Fuu's almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Shinobi once again proving to be spot on.
"Great." Shizuku frowned at Fuu, or at least where she thought Fuu was, the cloud bank they were trying to navigate through was really quite thick. On a positive note it wasn't raining, probably because they were actually in the clouds as opposed to under them; still a plus for Shizuku though.
"Can't you find Chakra sources in the fog with your eyes?" Naruto straightened up as they continued on, suddenly looking like he hadn't just broken down slightly.
"No, there's something about the cloud here that just bounces around the Chakra. Everything just looks like a vague blue haze." Shizuku looked down while Fuu looked thoughtful, it wasn't very different to her normal look but her lips pursed slightly.
"What about summoning something to fly us over the clouds?" Naruto turned to the former Taki Kunoichi, hand raised and mouth open, only for him to falter and just stare at the girl for a moment.
"That... is actually an excellent idea." He just blinked to himself for a moment as he wondered why he hadn't thought of that sooner. He put it down to not being familiar enough with his new path before moulding his Chakra and slamming his hand down. "Kuchiyose!" For a moment they weren't blinded by the mist as the small explosion of smoke pushed it away, giving the trio a brief glimpse of what Naruto had summoned.
"What the heck is that?" The other two shared Shizuku's sentiments as they stared at the strange creature. For the most part it looked like a bird with grey feathers, except about ten times as big as an average hawk. However its beak was horribly distended, looking more like a drill than a mouth.
"I have no idea, I just thought for something that would be able to carry us. I didn't really think of any specifics." He moved to the side, noting that the creature at least had the Rinnegan eyes which mean it didn't exist naturally, thankfully. "Well, it'll do for now, come on." With that Naruto jumped up onto the bird's back, staring strangely for a moment at the black spike seemingly impaled in the creature's neck. "That's weird, it looks like a Chakra rod is implanted here, but I've never summoned this thing before." Fuu hopped up next, taking a moment to look at the spike before grabbing a hold of it so she wouldn't fall off.
"Well it makes a good handhold." Shizuku jumped on last, looking wearily at the bird-thing's head, she could have sworn its eyes were looking at her. Naruto wasn't quite sure how to get the bird to move but as soon as he thought that its large wings began to beat up and down rhythmically, quickly lifting the improbably large beast up into the air. He noticed that with each flap of its enormous wings some mist would be cleared away, revealing more of the road, and he wasn't the only one.
"Hey, why didn't you use your wind manipulation to just clear the cloud away?" Naruto just shot Shizuku an unamused glance as he held onto the bird tightly.
"It's a little late for the suggestions. Anyway, with the amount of Chakra that it would take to do such a thing we would have Kumo Shinobi on us in minutes. We want to try and keep a low profile this time around." Shizuku just snorted quietly into her sleeve; nothing they did was ever 'low profile'.
"As least then they would be able to lead us into Kumo." Fuu quickly shook her head as they slowly rose higher into the air, making Naruto wonder just how thick the cloud bank was.
"Incorrect, Kumo's first initiative when confronted by possible hostiles using Chakra close to the village's border is immediate detainment followed by questioning." Shizuku just looked thoughtful as she gripped onto one of the bird's massive feathers, fighting the suction the wings made as they pumped down.
"Well that doesn't sound too bad." Fuu just stared at the girl for a moment before Shizuku lowered her head sheepishly. "You didn't really mean questioning did you?" It wasn't really a question but Fuu shook her head anyway.
"I think we're almost there." As if Naruto's words were prophetic at that moment the group burst from the surrounding clouds, wincing as the bright sunlight hit their eyes. For a moment they all just sat there is silence, looking around in total awe at the world around them. White fluffy clouds stretched out as far as they could see like an ocean of wool, only sparsely penetrated by towering mountain-tops that broke through like they were climbing towards the sun.
"Whoa." That summed up the collective thoughts of the group fairly accurately; their awed expressions making them look like children seeing the sea for the first time. Naruto was the first to recover as he began to peer at a nearby cluster of mountain tops, seemingly the tallest out of the range. The he spotted it, the shine of glass and metal wrapped around one of the peaks; a grin spread across his whiskered cheeks.
"Hey, what do you know? We weren't that far off." He was about right; the village was probably only a few miles away, minutes if they made the journey on the bird. Of course them landing in the middle of a village on what was quite clearly a summon, if not a strange one, would be incredibly suspicious. From Fuu's description Naruto didn't picture Kumo as the type of place to be all that welcoming to such an arrival.
"We'll land over there." He pointed out a small rocky outcropping that just about poked through the clouds, only a short distance from the village itself. It was close enough that they wouldn't get lost and far enough that most sensors wouldn't immediately pick them up. A few minutes later they were dismounting the large and odd bird which was quickly dispelled in a burst of smoke. Shizuku shivered slightly, she could've sworn the creepy avian shot her another look just before it vanished.
The only sound echoing in the now slightly thinning mist was the jangle of Naruto's shakujou and the click it made on the rocky ground as the group walked. By now they should have been within a few hundred metres of the village, unless of course they managed to get lost again. Thankfully at that moment a small group of Kumo Shinobi, as their headbands indicated, dropped down in front of them, led by a young man with spiked-out blonde hair.
"Stop! Come any closer and we will have to arrest you under suspicion of infiltrating Kumogakure." Naruto smiled pleasantly at the man as he moved his staff away from his body in a disarming manner.
"It's alright, we're just travellers looking to enter the village to re-supply and see the sights." The young man stared at the other blonde for a moment with piercing black eyes before nodding with a shrug.
"Alright, you're telling the truth. If you'd lied your Chakra would have been disturbed." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that; then again to was to be suspected the first people to meet possible intruders would be sensor-types. "We'll escort you to the village entrance, but be warned; after that you will be under close surveillance, anything we find suspicious and a Kumo Shinobi will not hesitate to apprehend you and your companions." Naruto nodded amicably as be motioned for the older blonde to lead on.
"Understood..." He looked up at the man expectantly who only returned it with slight irritation.
"Shee, now please follow me quickly, we have to get back to our patrol." He motioned for the two men flanking him to continue on their route while he took a different path, setting off at a brisk walk.
"So Shee, what's Kumo like?" The blonde man looked round at the girl dressed as a Shrine maiden with a raised brow before smirking.
"It's the most powerful village in the elemental nations; there isn't a better place to be from." Naruto gained a smirk of his own; because that very objective opinion wasn't biased at all. The rest of the admittedly short journey was made in silence before the group finally emerged from the oppressive cloud bank, only to gawk for the second time that day.
Kumo was beautiful; despite being a treacherous and mountainous region the people had adapted perfectly. Buildings were built in and out of the mountain-tops themselves offering unparalleled protection by giving an almost perfect view of the surroundings. Long sturdy bridges stretched between the various peaks, swaying slightly in the high-altitude breeze. The light glittered off of the surrounding clouds giving everything an almost ethereal look despite all the combat-ready Shinobi darting about with sure feet.
In the middle of it all, wrapped around the highest mountain in the range was an astounding feat of engineering. A large ring of metal and blue glass secured around the entire peak with the kanji for lightning proudly displayed at the front, clearly marking it as the Raikage tower. It sat like a jewel in Kumo's rocky crown, standing vigil over the entire village. Naruto blinked as he noticed a few of the windows on the top floor looked broken, like somebody had thrown something through them. Shee just looked at their awed faces with a small smirk before proudly looking at his village.
"Impressive sight isn't it?" He chuckled lightly as he turned to leave, the trio were in the hands of Kumo's ANBU now, watching from the shadows. "It has to be when we're competing with things like the Hokage monument and Iwa's volcanoes." With that he gave them a farewell wave before dashing off to meet back up with his squad.
"Well okay, where to first guys?" Naruto looked at his two companions expectantly, keeping an eye on the well concealed Chakra signature hiding in the shadows of a nearby craggy outcropping.
"Food/food!" Fuu and Shizuku looked at one another with smiles as Naruto laughed at their momentary synchronisation.
"Okay, food it is."
"Okay, I'm off to find someplace I can earn some money." Fuu waved distractedly at the blonde, currently reading one of the scrolls he had brought along with rapt attention. Shizuku walked over; she had also been reading but it was less relevant to her; without the more advance water manipulation techniques she was stuck on the more basic level. She was trying to be creative with her little water pillar but ultimately she couldn't advance until they had more information. Naruto wasn't so sure he could conveniently earn the trust of an academy student to get him the information this time.
"Good luck, just try not to run into the village's Jinchuuriki right away." Shizuku gave him a knowing smile while Fuu even looked up, a small smirk playing across her lips. Naruto just looked amused as he stepped out the door of the temple backwards, an eyebrow raised.
"Come on, I'm not that bad. So what if I accidentally ran into two Jinchuuriki in their respective village? It's not like it's going to happen everywhere." Shizuku just giggled into her sleeve before waving the young blonde off, returning to her scroll. They had been in Kumo for a few days now under the hospitality of an elderly priest who was already half-blind from age. Naruto was fairly certain the old man was only allowing them to stay because he seemed to have mistaken the blonde for somebody else; despite his insistence he was not 'Todoroi'.
He stepped out of the building, putting a hand up to block the sun from his eyes for a moment. Up in the mountains, without reliable cloud coverage, the sun seemed a lot brighter than normal. He supposed that was the only reason the mountain top was not bitingly cold; strong breezes and even storms were apparently quite common in Kumo. It was why every other building had a large lightning rod on the roof, both to re-direct nature's anger and harness it into power.
He was currently walking towards Kumo's small shopping district; he had already been through once before on a small tour the trio took to get acquainted with the village. There weren't all that many shops but they were all high-quality and most were for Shinobi outfitting. He figured he could earn some money in the evenings either cleaning or tidying up one of the stores. Unfortunately he seemed to have lost his way in one of the more winding alleys. He had no map to consult so he relented and walked over to the nearest person to ask direction.
"Hey, could you tell me how to get to the merchant district?" The woman he had talked to looked around with just a hint of annoyance. From her rigid posture and unusual outfit he could guess she was a Shinobi, the headband helped as well, and by her crossed arms and lightly tapping foot it was clear she was waiting for something or someone. She raised a blonde eyebrow at the small monk who had walked up to her.
"Huh, you're actually talking to me? You must not be from Kumo." Naruto blinked at the odd reply before returning his face to his normal serene mask.
"Is there any reason I shouldn't talk to you?" He said it almost jokingly which brought a smirk to the taller woman's face as she leaned in closer to him, an almost predatory look in her dark chocolate eyes.
"Oh there are several." She leaned in even closer, her voice becoming more of a sultry whisper. "But you shouldn't worry about those." She leaned back again, a satisfied look on her smirking features at Naruto's shocked and slightly dazed form. "Heh, you're too easy Gaki; gotta be more careful or some girl's gonna wind you around their little finger." She grinned again, looking very much like a cat playing with the mouse she had caught. "That is if I don't beat them to it." She finished by running her tongue across her lips, revealing slightly pointed canines behind shining red lips.
"Uhh, right... the market?" The woman just laughed, a soft tinkling sound that had Naruto shaking his head out of the daze that came over him. He looked the woman over; she had sandy blonde hair pulled into a long pony-tail, wrapped most of the way down with bandages with a small tuft at the end like a lion's tail. She ran a hand down her side, smoothing the tight purple and black top she was wearing, to rest on her hip, covered by a simple maroon sash. Strangely she seemed to have prayer beads wound around one of her bandage-wrapped arms, ending at her fingerless purple gloves.
"That way honey." She pointed off in a certain direction as Naruto gave a small and hesitant nod of appreciation, earning another tinkling laugh from the strange Kunoichi.
"Uhh, thanks..." The woman just gave a sly grin as her posture shifted, her hips moving to the side in an overly-seductive manner.
"Oh, wanting my name so soon? We only just met; isn't it polite to give yours first?" Naruto had to shake himself out of his daze again before nodding more assuredly.
"Right, it's Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki." The woman merely smirked as she leaned back against the building she had been waiting at.
"Yugito, or you can call me Nii-sama." Her smile once again took on a predatory edge. "Either's fine." Naruto just nodded as he took slow careful steps backwards, widening the woman's grin.
"Well then thanks Yugito-san." The older blonde pouted mockingly at that but Naruto missed it, he had already turned and walked on. Yugito merely sighed pleasantly as she crossed her arms again, pressing up her chest more noticeably.
"Kids are so much fun."
A few days later Naruto was sitting cross-legged in a rocky clearing halfway down a mountainside. Really it was a training ground but it just looked like a random plateau carved from the mountain. There was a single bare tree hanging precariously at an angle over the edge to a very long and steep drop below. Naruto liked it, it was very peaceful and it was just above the clouds to the point where a light mist drifted along the bottom few inches of the stony floor. If he looked out over the edge all he could see was an ocean of white with the occasional grey. It was nice to be somewhere it wasn't raining that didn't force him to circulate fire Chakra just to stay warm.
"Ah!" He flinched in pain as a stray arc of electricity left a slight burn on his hands. Currently, no pun intended, he was working on his lightning manipulation and it was proving to be a rather painful experience. The technique involved passing a small current between his slightly separated fingers, enough to be visible as a blue arc. Then as his control progressively got better he would separate the fingers more and more; the end goal was to pass the current between his hands in one continuous loop through his circled arms.
However lightning proved to be a rather unpredictable element to control; right now he could still only keep his forefinger and thumb about two inches apart. Any more than that and he would lose control, the electricity arcing out to leave him with a small but still irritating burn. It actually worked as a rather effective, if not unappreciated incentive; not that it helped the blonde's mood much as yet another small red welt appeared on his hand with an accompanying cry of irritation and pain.
"Hey! Who are you?" Naruto looked up, spotting a young dark-skinned Shinobi with short white hair wearing the traditional Kumo uniform of the white one-shoulder flak jacket over a dark grey hoodie. Oddly enough he had a sucker sticking out of his mouth; complimenting his overall bored demeanour well. He had a sword slung over his back although from the way he moved it was painfully obvious he hadn't had much experience with it yet; he kept re-adjusting it every couple of moments.
"Oh hello; I'm a monk from Hi no Kuni. I'm actually practising lightning manipulation so I thought what better place than Kaminari no Kuni?" He said it jokingly but was rather taken aback by how serious the boy suddenly became. As his feet touched down on the plateau he sank into a crouched position, looking down at the floor.
"Monks learning jutsu? But what if all the monks become more powerful than us Shinobi and decide to conquer us because we sometimes kill for money? Then I accidentally seduce one of the monk's daughters and she has to choose between her loyalty to her temple or her love with me? We run off together but are hunted down by both monks and Shinobi only to fight back, killing the leader of both sides causing instability in their ranks and causing the collapse of society as we know it." He looked up, actually looking a little afraid by what he said while Naruto just blinked at him.
"Well... that's certainly a concern." The Shinobi just nodded, his eyes widened; he was obviously still thinking about this strange alternate world of his. Naruto just shook his head and returned to what he was doing, only to cry out in pain as he was once again simultaneously shocked and burned a little. The dark-skinned boy looked up, apparently shaken out of his prophetic vision of a horrendous future as he glanced at what the blonde was doing.
"Oh, I remember having to do that, Bee-sensei never gave us any help. Well actually, he might have but because of the way he talks it's hard to tell sometimes." He walked over, crouching beside Naruto and watching the electricity arc between his stretched fingers. He moved his sucker from one side of his mouth to the other as he hummed for a moment. "Yeah, I got stuck around here too; it was Samui-taichou who figured it out first, she always does." He looked off into the distance and for a moment Naruto feared he was about to go off on another rant.
"What you're doing is trying to control the lightning, except electricity doesn't like to be controlled. It lashes out. Instead you simply have to imagine your fingers as points for the current to travel between, one the emitter and the other the lightning rod. This way you don't try and control the electricity, you simply guide it along a certain path. It's kind of like tricking it." Naruto looked up, rather impressed at the surprisingly helpful advice.
He looked down at his hand, circulating the lightning Chakra again as he slowly moved his fingers apart. He was shocked, again no pun intended, when he was able to move them all the way apart while still keeping a steady stream of arcing electricity going. He grinned, looking up at the cloud Shinobi with a thankful nod to which the boy just moved his sucker again.
"Thanks, but why are you helping me so readily?" The boy just shrugged lazily before frowning as he was once again forced to re-adjust the sword on his back.
"It's no problem; I just remember how frustrating it was when I was doing it. I'm Omoi by the way." The white-haired Shinobi held out a hand which Naruto gladly accepted, shaking once.
"Naruto." Omoi stood up, shifting the sword again with a roll of his shoulders.
"Anyway, you should wait until you see the second stage of lighting manipulation." The boy grinned in an uncharacteristically sadistic manner as if he knew something Naruto didn't.
"OMOI!" Suddenly a third vice cut in through the otherwise quiet mountain side causing a look of a alarm to appear in Omoi's widened eyes.
"Uh nice meeting you Naruto, I have to go now." With that he gave a quick incline of the head and practically leapt from the plateau like a base-jumper. Seconds later a very angry looking Kunoichi slid down from the same place Omoi had come from. She had spiky red hair that covered her back held back by a bandanna she had fixed her forehead protector to. Other than that she wore the standard Kumo attire just like Omoi except over a ragged, sleeveless grey vest and a long skirt. Most remarkable were her striking golden eyes which matched her small ball-bearing earrings.
"Hey you, blondie! You see a white-haired dopey looking guy come through here? Might have exaggerated some random story to ridiculous lengths?" Naruto just nodded quickly, pointing off in a random direction; he didn't know what Omoi did to aggravate this Kunoichi but it was the least he could do for the pointer he gave him. The girl just smirked viciously before sprinting off in the completely wrong direction; she too carried a sword but he couldn't tell if she was any more competent with it than Omoi.
After she had gone Naruto just shook his head slowly before chuckling to himself; it was almost as if he attracted the craziest elements of any village he entered. He just shrugged it off as one of those things as he returned to his exercise; slowly though he began to drift off before completely loosing himself to his inner consciousness.
After getting the traditional welcome out of the way within his seal Naruto once again distracted Shukaku by throwing a Chakra rod. He found so far that his conversations with the Kyuubi went a lot smoother without the giant tanuki around. It wasn't like the sand construct was good for any meaningful conversation anyway beyond his insane mutterings and excited cries of 'father'. He sat down at the centre of the room, calmly mediating as the rhythmic breeze of the Kyuubi's breath caused his robes to flutter as they played their game of 'who's going to talk first?'
"What are you wearing on your head?" The blonde opened an eye slightly in amusement; he didn't even have to try today and the great fox already seemed highly agitated by something. His tone was dark and almost came out as a growl; further enhanced by his lips being pulled back into snarl.
"It's a forehead protector." The Kyuubi just snorted in its typical manner, its eyes remaining narrowed as it glared at its jailer.
"I know what it is Ningen." Naruto chuckled as he opened his eyes, dropping the pretence of meditation as he lounged back on his hands.
"Then why ask?" The enormous red eyes only narrowed further; it seemed the Kyuubi wasn't in the mood for their usual back and forth today.
"Why are you wearing it?" Naruto just raised a curious eyebrow, wondering why the Kyuubi was so interested in what he was wearing all of a sudden.
"It was a gift, and I think it looks good." Another warm gust of air swept over him with the fox's grunt of disapproval.
"You look even more ridiculous and pitiful than usual Ningen." Naruto just grinned; he wondered if it was at all sane to be completely unconcerned with the words of a being that could crush you with a mere absent flick of one of its tails. Okay... it wouldn't be that simple but the Kyuubi was definitely more powerful than he was, vastly so.
"When did you become a fashion critic?" All he received was another indignant snort, somewhat of a staple responce for the great fox. They lapsed into another uncomfortable silence with only the surprisingly gentle sounds of the Kyuubi breathing providing the background noise.
"What is it you truly hope to accomplish by coming in here Ningen?" Naruto looked up in moderate surprise; the Kyuubi's features were still twisted into a slight snarl but the venom in its voice was all but gone. Instead the great fox just seemed tired; it had slunk down to rest its head on its paws, one eye closed while the other stared at Naruto with a mix between curiosity and loathing.
"I've already told you, I want to understand you. To understand why you bear so much hatred." For once the Kyuubi didn't snort, it didn't grunt, it didn't rebuke Naruto in any way.
"Why?" Again Naruto couldn't help but blink in surprise; this was the closest he had ever come to holding a normal conversation with the Bijuu.
"Because you deserve the chance to be heard like everybody else." The great beast snorted loudly; although this time it was not out of spite or indignation. If anything the Kyuubi sounded somewhat amused, if such a thing were possible for a being of pure Chakra.
"I have wiped out entire human settlements over the centuries, killed thousands if not millions of your kind. To your people I am known as a harbinger of destruction and death, more akin to a natural disaster than an actual intelligent being. Why would you show me the same courtesy that you would your own kind when you can barely even comprehend what I am?" Naruto looked down for a moment, feeling as though he had to choose his next words very carefully.
"Because... If I don't, then who will?" For what felt like a very long moment there was silence, not even the Kyuubi's breathing seemed to break the sudden void of noise for a deafening second. Finally though it turned its enormous head, staring intently at the boy for a while before grunting and lowering its head back onto its paws.
"So what is it you want from me exactly? A testament? A confession?" Naruto looked up at the fox, trying to puzzle out just what he was seeing in the old being's face at that moment. Resignation? Acceptance? He might never find out.
"How about your story?" He saw the fox raise its brow a little as there was another quiet pause before it slowly nodded just once.
"Very well Ningen, we will see what you think when I am finished."