Naruto: More Than Skin Deep
Chapter 21
Hey all! I'm currently writing this introduction during second period, because Microsoft Access won't work properly, due to my school's filters acting up. (Sometimes I really hate my school computers, even if they are faster than the one I have at home.) Anyways, I thank you all graciously for all of you wonderful reviews, and for those of you who thought flying hamsters of doom were funny. And for those of you who were worried that Naruto was getting perhaps a bit TOO dark, don't worry. He'll only be dark for one or two more chapters. But you know, I'm glad that more people have gone on to my forum, that makes me happy inside. I use the ideas from that forum for reader/writer feedback while in mid-chapters, so I can come out with the most optimum chapters. Enough of my babble, onto the story!
BTW: I don't own Jack shit, so don't sue, cuz all you'll get is a happily insane chocolate lab with an eating disorder.
"You're his grandfather?!" Tenten screeched. The old man winced at the volume before responding. "Yes, my name is Uzumaki Ryu. My son was Uzumaki Arashi, his father. My son chose to become hokage instead of taking over the throne after me. Then he went and got his fool self killed."
Kyuubi scowled, "I would be careful saying that around Naruto, old man. It's his dream to become Hokage and make the village recognize him." Ryu's face tightened, "Ah, yes. I must say I'm not too happy with my village due to their behavior of them, but unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do, short of disbanding the village, and there was no way I would be able to do that."
"So you just left him there to suffer? You could have taken him away, to have him grow up loved!" Kyuubi was getting worked up, while the others were beginning to get some semblance of what was going on.
The man got angry "I wasn't allowed to! The council stopped me from taking him away, saying that he had to be killed! The most I could do was threaten them not to take his life, and that was only because I had Sarutobi on my side! Did you think I wanted him to grow up abused? I love the boy, and I regret that I wasn't there for him earlier, but I am able to do so now. I must try to make up for my weakness beforehand."
Kyuubi still looked angry, but she slowly regained control of herself. "Take us inside, where we can put him down."
Ryu nodded, and led them inside the castle.
Five minutes later, they were kneeling in the throne room, with Naruto sleeping across the hall in the honored guest quarters.
"First things first, young lady, may I ask what your name is?" Ryu asked, indicating Kyuubi. She narrowed her eyes, but didn't budge, "My name is Kyuubi, or rather now Kyu. I am no longer the nine-tailed fox, that is Naruto's job."
Ryu quirked an eyebrow, "Truly? I have heard of his exploits during his missions. That must be what was driving him."
That caused the girls to shift uneasily, something which Ryo took note of. "What is it? Am I wrong? What caused him to do so well?" Hinata bit her lip and looked down towards her feet. "Don't tell me… it was you wasn't it? What did you do?" again, no answer. "TELL ME BEFORE I HAVE YOU EXECUTED!"
"We were his fiancés, your lordship. We broke up with him when he stopped paying attention to us to focus on his training." Ryu stared at Kyuubi. "Finally, a straight answer. I know about your situation. The new Kazekage informed me. He told me that Naruto was conflicted about you during his training. He said that Naruto was unsure whether or not he should marry you before or after he fought the Akatsuki, and I believe he was advised to marry you beforehand. Well, you screwed that up royally, now didn't you?"
"Oi, ojii-san, don't be so hard on them. They did what they thought was right, off of the information thay had. I really should have spent more time at home, instead of training. However, they did act a bit rash."The newcomer's words were conversational, but his tone was clipped. They turned to see Naruto stride forward. He was dressed in a skintight dark red muscle shirt with black combat pants and boots. He was wearing his spike-knuckled gloves, and his kamas were in their sheathes behind his back.
"You recovered so quickly, Naruto-kun. I'm surprised." The blonde grinned, "Don't be. It's not that hard to recover from chakra exhaustion when you're technically a demon lord."
Ryu chuckled, "No, I suppose it isn't at that. So how much have you heard?" "Not a whole lot, just their explanation and your reprimand. Why, did I miss something important?"
Ryu chuckled nervously, "Well you see,… uh…" he rubbed the back of his head. Kyuubi rolled her eyes, "MEN! Naruto, this man here claims he's your grandfather."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Really now? That's interesting. If what you're saying is true, then why didn't you try and help? Surely you could have done something during the chuunin exams, when you were watching the matches."
Ryu smirked, "I did. I'm the one who arranged for you to fight Neji Hyuuga. True, you may have had your matches decided by those slips of paper, but I had a genjutsu on the guard. You were supposed to fight Gaara of the sand."
Naruto copied Ryu's smirk, "So you allowed me to settle a personal match? How kind." Ryu sighed, "Look brat, I don't care if you think I'm your grandfather or not, but one of the other reasons I called you here was to commend you on you spectacular performance on your missions recently. Word has spread, and other, less powerful, lords are starting to bring their business this way. We are currently a time of extreme economic prosperity, thanks to you."
Naruto grunted, "Well, I don't need the thanks, I'm doing my job, same as everyone else. I just happen to be doing it faster and cleaner than the others." "Be that as it may, you're stil doing an exemplary job. Would it be too much to assign you more missions?"
Naruto was now in business mode. "No, I can handle them. I would prefer for them to be higher class though, A-rank gets boring after a while. Also I would prefer if they involved the Akatsuki, or any mentions of demons. There haven't been any attempts recently by kyuubi's enemies, but you never know, she might have a few more than the ones I already killed."
"Good. I will make sure more upper-class missions go your way. Now, I invite you to stay for a few days and rest up, or whatever it is you do." Naruto nodded, bowed, and left the room promptly.
Ryu looked at the retreating figure of his grandson before turning to the girls. "You have a lot to make up for."
Naruto was walking towards the room he had woken up in when his nse caught the scent of foxes. "What do you want, Kyuubi?" The scent halted. "I…wanted to…apologise." Naruto turned, his eyes like ice as he stared into her red ones. "Why? You were perfectly justified in what you did. I should have spent more time at home, paid more attention to you, at leats, that is, until you get killed by the next demon or Akatsuki member to come along. Then we would have what, maybe a years or two. I was training that hard because I wanted to keep anything from hurting you guys! I was doing it so we would have the hope of a future together! And then what do you and the others do? You leave me! Without a single word, even! Did it ever occur to you that if you had just told me what you were feeling, then maybe I might have toned it down a little?"
Kyuubi growled deep in her throat, "What do you mean, tell you how we were feeling? We never got a chance, you were always gone! From sunup to sundown, we never saw you! You of all people should realize when someone has had enough of you!" As the words left her mouth, Kyuubi instantly regretted them, mostly because she knew they were hurtful, but also because as soon as they registered with Naruto, his eyes flared red, a clawed hand suddenly gripping her throat and suspending her in mid air.
Gasping, she choked for what little air she could through his stranglehold. When he spoke, his voice was deep and demonic, "Give me one reason, just one, why I shouldn't crush your neck right now!" Kyuubi's face was slowly turning purple, and she clawed at the hand grasping her. "Well, speak up! What's the matter, having a little trouble?" His grip tightened, as his killer intent spiked. All of Kyuubi's energy went into a single small squeak before her vision started to darken.
As if sensing her imminent demise, Naruto snarled and released his grip, watching with disdain as Kyuubi gasped in air through her swollen throat. Hissing, he turned and marched in the general direction of the compound's training center. (A/N That dark enough for all of you, or do you want more?)
An hour later, the girls found Kyuubi sitting on her bed with her legs drawn up to her chin, tears falling silently from her face. Instantly, they knew something was wrong. Kyuubi was never one to cry.
Kurenai was the first one to her. "Kyuubi, what's wrong? What happened?" the woman just shook her head, refusing to answer. Hinata walked over and gently put her arm around her shoulder. Kyuubi stiffened a little, but managed to relax. That sent an alarm through the rest of them. Ayame kneeled to look Kyuubi in the eye. "Kyuubi, tell us what happened." Kyubi sniffled, before slowly raising her head from her knees. The girls gasped.
Kyuubi's throat was heavily bruised, dark blue and purple, in the form of a handprint. Her throat was still swollen, but had gone down somewhat from an hour ago. Anko saw red, "Kyuubi, who did this? I'm going to castrate them!" kyuubi mumbled something incoherent, "What was that?" "It…was Naruto." Anko froze in shock. Sakura paled, "Naruto…did that?"
Nodding, Kyuubi sobbed, "Worst part is, I wish he would have finished what he started, I said something to him that I never should have." Ayame gulped but asked, "What could you have possibly have told him that would cause him to act like this?"
"We were arguing about his training schedule, and why we left him. then I told him… that he of all people should know when others have had enough of him."
Naruto was screaming inside his head as he crashed his fist into the trunk of the tree again and again. He knew he shouldn't have done what he had done, but she had to have said that, to bring up those painful memories that he had just managed to suppress.
The tree he was currently abusing was common in Konoha. Well over a hundred feet tall, with a diameter of about 20 feet. The bark was hard as a rock, but underneath, the wood was like steel. Blood flew in the air as Naruto split his knuckles open. Cursing, he switched to his other fist, accidentally hitting too hardwith it and breaking it. Growling, his anger was quickly growing again, and he kicked the tree hard enough to make it visibly shudder. He kicked it twice more before his leg snapped from the force of the blows.
Crying out, he sank to the ground as the sky above him darkened and raindrops began to fall.
"I don't know why I said that, I was just so angry with him. it just slipped out." Ino groaned, and started to bang her head against the wall. "Kyuubi," Stated Kurenai, "For an ex-demon who is thousands of years old, you sure do lack a goodly amount of tact. But what's done is done, now we have to focus on what's important. We have to try and earn Naruto's forgiveness, because we love him, and I for one don't want to have live without him."
Naruto simply lay on the ground, letting the rain wash over him. no matter what he did, he couldn't get them out of his head, they were always there, smiling, laughing, and, occasionally, yelling at him for doing something stupid.
From the angry clouds above him, a golden light formed, growing brighter as it approached the ground. Naruto knew what the cloud was, but right now he simply didn't feel like addressing the deity properly. "What do you want?"
Kami walked over to the boy and stared down into his face. "I've been seeing some disturbing things for you lately, Naruto, is everything okay?" Naruto chuckled darkly, "No, not really. I train myself to the extremes to hold up to my position as your champion, and that of Shinigami, to allow myself a chance to live a normal life soon, and my fiancées leave me necause I wasn't spending enough time with them. Then, when one of them says they're going to apologise, they end up insulting me further."
Kami bit his lip, "You know Naruto, you really don't have to be my champion. You've already earned your way into Heaven. I could take you there now, if you wanted. I could get someone else to by my champion. You don't have to bear the responsibility."
"Man, that sounds like it would be really good right now, but unfortunately, you chose me for this job, and I promised I would do it, and, as you know, I never go back on my promises." "Not even this once, when you're exhausted, and tired?" "As much as I'd like to, dude, I can't. maybe when I've fulfilled my task. Which reminds me, how close am I to ending it?"
Kami tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Well, you last fought a demon a few weeks ago, so I'd say you were pretty close, no more than a few demons left, before all of the ones strong enough to cross over to this plane are eradicated. One question though, your powers are now considered a bloodline, your whole family has been blessed by the two gods, which would include any children, who would also have the powers of a demon fox. If you accept my offer, that will all go away, ending with you."
Naruto sighed, "Kami-sama, at this point, I really couldn't care less. My parents are still young enough to have kids, and they don't really know me, I don't think anyone really does. So yes, I still accept your offer." "Very well" In a flash of golden light, the deity disappeared, the golden aura that had been holding back the rain dissipating, allowing the precipitation to resume its normal activities.
Hmm… sorry about that for those of you who were hoping for a happy chapter, this one was really dark, and I actually started to feel scared for my self when I really thought about what I wrote when Naruto was strangling Kyuubi. But I think that this was fairly possible, considering the direction of the story so far. However, I will tell you that it gets better by the end. But that could go two ways: Naruto might forgive the girls, and start a family of his own, or he might simply destroy all of the bijuu and go to Heaven. It depends on how I'm feeling. XP
P.S.- happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, my readers, and especially my reviewers, and for my good health this year, and I hope that next year I will be able to be thankful for the same things. Enjoy your time with your families, everyone.