Woo for morning release! Well technically it's the afternoon by now, but it's not like too many of you are gonna find this as soon as it's posted anyway. That last manga chapter inspired me, so now I think I know where to go next. I know a lot of you will probably be confused by some of the stuff in this chapter (I had to get pretty obscure to keep with the theme I was going with there), but then I've got a knack for doing confusing things eh?
Disclaimer: Seriously thought, last chapter was SO badass!
As mindless as the beast that reigns within
Naruto had gone a long way for the sake of cooling off, longer than most people needed anyway. He had left Seiryuutoshi in the foulest mood he had been in for a long time, and had walked as far as the mountain range a mile away from that place. It was here that he had remained for the past couple of hours, training vigorously to blow off the great deal of steam that had gathered inside him. From the release of that steam, the once peaceful environment had changed very much.
The azure sky set across the emerald trees, tall jack pines that had never once lost their colour even in the harshness of winter. The grass had long since disappeared, replaced with fragments of bark from trees that had fallen an immeasurably long time ago. The ever present scent the needle like leaves exuded was refreshing in a way, but tended to linger unpleasantly. The sound of the wind drifting along the many trunks was like a sleuth of bears were rolling lazily down the hills.
This was the scene, until one reached the place Naruto used for his training. Here a great many of those trees had fallen to the ground, and most certainly not by natural means. Splinters the size of human arms were scattered everywhere, like magnifications of the scraps of wood already on the forest floor. Pine needles continued to fall from above, the wind blowing them from the still standing trees they had fallen upon. In amidst this wreckage of peace, Naruto stood with his left arm held wide.
He looked over to his arm, watching as the last signs of chakra faded away from it. The wind around his hand calmed and stilled, until all that was left was his bandaged sleeve. He watched his arm for a good few moments, before looking away and allowing it to drop by his side. "I finally complete that Jutsu, and I don't even feel that proud." he thought to himself, as he moved over to the trunk of a tree that still stood. There he sat himself down, resting his back against the bark as he looked over to the town a good distance away. A faint smile curled onto his lips, but not one of contentedness or joy. "So Gaara's got control of the Ichibi huh? You ask me, that's way more dangerous than the Kyuubi."
A faint chuckle slipped past his lips, one hinted with just a little bitterness. Even now he still stood by what he said, that if they didn't learn to control the Bijuu that they would be wasting power the five great villages would not. Though he was pretty sure there were very few ninja he couldn't at least match, he didn't want to take the chance of ignorance just for the sake of a moment of tranquillity. "I'm willing to go through hell to do this… but they aren't."
He stopped himself at that realisation, the small smile he had disappearing. The other Jinchuuriki had fought tooth and nail for a multitude of things, one of which was to rescue Naruto himself from being imprisoned in Konoha. He wasn't so simple that he would deny the lengths they would go for each other, but now that he gave it thought, he wondered if perhaps that was the furthest extent they were willing to go.
That was a side effect of them never having met Pein, perhaps. Even to this day Naruto still held strong all the times he had spoken to Pein, and even now he believed in that person. But the others never got to learn what he knew, so was it natural they had become small minded? Maybe that was Naruto's fault, caused by his not being straight with the others from the start. But there was no use thinking about that now. He needed to work with his mistakes, and turn it into something right.
He gave it some thought, as he sat there by that tree. What was the answer to the question of how to get the Jinchuuriki to follow the path he himself was walking? Did he have to demonstrate what Pein sought and how it would bring a better way? Or maybe he just needed to show them that they could put their faith in him, while he continued to put his faith in Pein. If that was the case… then he knew just what it was that he needed to do. He closed his eyes, closed his mind, and closed his heart. It was time to pay a visit to someone he hadn't seen since he was first imprisoned in Konoha.
The sounds of the woods had disappeared, replaced with a distant chorus of slow exhales passing through a long echo. There was no smell in this place, nor any air to taste. All that existed was sight, sound and touch. Maybe because of the lack of other senses, those three seemed all the more powerful. The pitch blackness was still intangible, the noises holding course. And the water spreading around Naruto's feet felt just as warm as ever.
And then there was that. The immense gate that reached higher than Naruto could see, unreasonably tall bars that had to have been fitted by inhuman means, with the only decoration of a large sheet of paper that bore a seal Naruto couldn't hope to understand. It was these bars that he slowly walked towards, listening carefully for the slightest sound of movement from the resident of this abysmal place.
The beast behind the bars let out an exhale, stirring from the deep slumber in which it had spent a great deal of time. Even without seeing it, Naruto could feel the demon lifting its head, searching through the dark for the person who had disturbed it. It didn't take long to find the reason, and soon ducked its head in for a closer look. There the weak light cast upon its visage, and the Kyuubi no Yoko made its appearance.
"I don't sense any killing intent from your body." the giant fox spoke, its crimson eyes fixed upon Naruto with an almost glassy look to them. That appearance was soon to disappear, as its eyes sharpened considerably. Naruto was taken aback as the Kyuubi suddenly ducked its head, shifting rapidly as its black nose pressed against the bars. It sniffed so hard that Naruto could feel the pull, almost drawing him closer to the clutches of the demon fox. "Who is there… is that?"
Naruto blinked in surprise, hearing something he hadn't been expecting. The Kyuubi was looking at him as if he was seeing someone else, or perhaps recognising something in Naruto he had never seen before. The Kyuubi did not finish its search fast, and in fact seemed to be growing more and more agitated the longer it looked. Naruto was still trying to work out just what it was that was catching the beast's attention, when he recalled something he had been told not so long ago.
"A friendly word of warning; those eyes of yours shouldn't exist. My own eyes can see that they were not granted to you by normal means. Someone put them in there, and that someone's presence still exists."
"What is it, what do you see?" Naruto demanded, taking a step forward to make it easier for the Kyuubi to examine. At first he had thought little to Neji's words, but the fact that these eyes of his were a mystery still bothered him. And if that presence the Hyuuga bastard spoke of was also getting noticed by this monster, then there was no way he could ignore it. If the Kyuubi had an answer to this, then Naruto had to find it.
The nine tailed beast seemed almost not to hear what Naruto was saying, its search was for its own purpose and didn't have the slightest interest in Naruto himself for now. But when he saw that his Jinchuuriki's eyes were different, he couldn't help paying the boy closer attention. "What are those eyes, how did you get them!" the fox demanded, as close to the bars of the cage as it could physically become. Naruto could see that if it could, the fox would already have Naruto in its hands, either to bring him to its eye, or its jaws. "What is that presence?"
Naruto continued to look at the Kyuubi, realising with a sense of loss that he couldn't get any answers here. He bowed his head for a moment in disappointment, before shaking it hard to remove him from any trace of a slump he might develop. "Looks like you can't help me out on this one." he told himself, as he reluctantly decided to put this matter on hold. He had another reason for being here, one that had little to nothing to do with his eyes. "I'll have to find out about them later… but for now."
The Kyuubi seemed to sense Naruto's change of heart, and somehow understand his intentions. It paused as Naruto took a further few steps forward than he ever had before. Those odd yellow eyes looked upon the Kyuubi's form, fixing it with a stare that seemed to be learning something incomprehensible. The Kyuubi couldn't help returning this look, before an idea stemmed into its mind. "Could it be that you really are here for my power?" it asked, lowering its head down to the floor of the cavern. Its own eyes looked back at Naruto seeing something equally valuable to whatever the boy was seeing. "There is someone you want to defeat, isn't there? Tell me who it-"
"Uchiha Madara."
The Kyuubi's ears pricked suddenly, that name causing a reaction of surprise that wasn't clear to be welcome or not. All the same, the narrowing of its eyes and the spreading of its grin suggested that this information was useful to it in some form. "A fouler chakra I have never sensed." it spoke, its voice mingled with distaste and respect. "Yet you yourself want to kill him? But with the way your chakra is, it's so mediocre. It would take a lot of power for you to-"
"Where's your other half?"
Once again the Kyuubi was interrupted, this time in a completely unpleasant manner. Naruto was staring up at it with a blank face; the only aspect of his expression that contained any meaning where his eyes. His gaze caught the Kyuubi stupid for a moment, but not numb. The beast's complexion quickly turned into a hateful look as its lips curled back and released a low, threatening snarl that caused the water of the cavern to tremble.
Even so, Naruto's gaze was unwavering. He looked at the giant beast with meaningful eyes, seeing that which he had never seen in the past. The Kyuubi was a mass of physical energy, raw and without knowledge of limitations. He could see that which gave the beast its legend to an extent, but couldn't escape the one indominatable truth that kept this creature from the myth of raising tsunamis and crushing mountains. For all its power, there wasn't a shred of mental energy inside that beast.
"You don't have a mind." Naruto said, more thinking aloud than actually speaking. If there was no mental energy, that could only mean that the Kyuubi was an incomplete source of chakra, nothing compared to what it should be. With that thought in mind, Naruto realised that the beast was nowhere near as powerful as the legends foretold. Of course, that still meant it was an insane force, but without that detrimental key there was no way of knowing where it actually ranked among its brethren. "So all you are is hatred and instinct…"
While the Kyuubi's look of rage grew, his snarl increasing in volume likewise, Naruto thought carefully to himself. Yagura had been right about this then, reasoning with the beast was impossible. And there was no way Naruto could resolve himself to take on the Kyuubi when it was like this. It looked like he had no choice but to admit the Kyuubi to be outside his reach. This was the way it seemed to be. Yet in spite of this, Naruto smiled.
"I think I got an idea…"
Ignoring the nine tailed beast for the moment, Naruto knelt down to the water and brandished his finger. Slowly, he drew the tip through the still stream, using just a shred of chakra to keep the ripples constant. Satisfied that what he had drawn looked correct, he got to his feet and without fear began walking towards the gate. "All I need is the most basic of Fuinjutsu." he thought to himself, as he approached the seal that held the Kyuubi in place. He raised his hand to his mouth and bit into the finger that he had drawn through the water, getting enough blood to flow so that he could do as he needed. "Thank you Itachi."
In a well calculated jump, Naruto rose into the air towards the paper seal that was high above. He landed with a hand and his shins against the gates, his chakra holding him firmly in place. There, at the available space at the bottom of the seal, he carefully drew his own seal onto the paper. This consisted of a circle with a spiral outside it, which when it touched the circle at the bottom became a straight line reaching for a dot in the centre.
Though it was rough, it was enough to do what Naruto wanted. He spread his writing hand out to the side, and focused to the point where flames of chakra emanated from his fingers. "Fuinjutsu: Stream Method!" he called, before pressing those fingers around the still wet seal. Infusing his chakra, he gave the seal an existence past a simple drawing, and had it do its job. Though he himself could barely notice the effects, he couldn't deny them. And as he dropped back down to the water, it seemed neither could the Kyuubi.
"What is this, what have you done?" the demon fox demanded, fruitlessly trying to see the seal Naruto had created. After a few moments, to Naruto's satisfaction, the seal seemed to have a slight effect. The Kyuubi begun to blink in confusion, as if it had suddenly been dazed by something that only affected it itself. Then suddenly its eyes snapped open, and directed themselves straight at Naruto with pure loathing inside them. "YOU!"
Naruto's hair flew back from the force of the roar, and he winced uncomfortably as he felt his eyeballs dry. But the smirk he wore could not be removed, nor the sense of excitement that rose from within him. It looked like what had started out as a half assed theory had worked out after all. "Looks like the Yondaime's seal regulates how much chakra I can draw from you." he said, taking several steps back to admire the full effects of his Jutsu. He couldn't help feeling a little giddy, nor could he ignore the irony that the Kyuubi seemed angry. After all, this was in a way a gift from Naruto to the beast. In fact, just to keep the demon from fretting over it, he decided to tell the beast personally before he left. "All I'm doing is giving you mental energy. It's not much, but you should be grateful. Ha ha ha ha!"
Back in Seiryuutoshi, with the afternoon sun cast on its glorious white walls, Fuu was pacing through the corridors of the former trade centre worriedly. Everyone had gone their separate ways, Gaara and Yagura to get to know the place and Utakata and Han to take care of certain things. None of them had said anything about Naruto since the discussion ended; it looked like they had decided to let him cool off. But Fuu wasn't entirely comfortable with that, since she knew that Naruto wasn't likely to become level headed just because he threw his fists at the air for a while. She was torn between going out looking for him, or doing as the others were.
"What to do what to do…" she thought to herself, as she walked through the halls of the hacienda style estate. She still recalled the state she had seen Naruto in when she had met up with him in Konoha; how he shattered walls, slaughtered guards, then looked at her with a smile and sly comment even as blood dripped from his eyes. If that was him in a good mood, she didn't want to know what he would be like after releasing that much anger back there. "I never thought he could be so scary-"
Suddenly she jumped in shock as she felt a hand land on her head. From behind her someone stepped around, walking backwards with a calm smile on his sweat streaked face. Fuu had to blink a couple of times to make sure she was looking at who she thought she was, considering her early concerns. "Yo Fuu-chan!" Naruto said, giving a two fingered salute as he slowly backed away from the younger girl. That gesture soon turned into a thumb jerking behind him and a questioning look. "The others this way?"
"Uh- yeah!" Fuu said back in surprise, realising that this was in fact the very person she had been thinking about. Feeling relief, she joined him as he turned around and continued on, glad that she no longer had to make the decision of bothering him. "Everyone else is in the courtyard talking to the store owners and everyone else who's important in this place. They figured it would be better to get it out of the way… you know… with the way things are…"
"Is that so?" Naruto mused, as the two of them turned and stepped into the main office. There was no one else inside this room, but from the opening to the balcony they could easily hear voices that suggested the meeting Fuu had mentioned. Naruto didn't waste any time in rushing over there, vaulting over the desk and hopping onto the railing of the balcony. Down below he could see the other four Jinchuuriki standing before a group of at least thirty adults, Utakata taking the reigns of explaining the situation. "Isn't it rude to start without the boss?"
All eyes were suddenly on him, including the shocked ones of his allies down below. Naruto kept himself standing tall and proud. Though he wore a grin at the moment, he let it slip after he acknowledged that it wasn't the best expression for this situation. And so once he had donned a more serious look, he decided to fulfil his role as leader and give his "people" his first speech. "Listen, all of you." he said, fixing their attention as his arms slipped across each other. He looked at them all like he knew them, like how he knew he should look at them. This was way over his head, but he wasn't going to give in yet.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I'm a disrespectful brat who doesn't have a clue what he's doing. That's the truth. And so is this. As long as all of you are under my care, I'm not going to abandon a single one of you. That's the first rule; no one gets left behind. I know what you're all thinking; you've been let down by Otogakure and are scared that we're going to change your home into something you won't even recognise. I'm not going to let that happen."
He lifted his gaze to the windows and shadows, looking over the Shinobi that separated themselves from everyone else. Those who used to belong to that very village had been gathered here too, and so Naruto spoke also to them. "There are a lot of you here who have been hurt in the past, and some who maybe need to know what that feels like. It doesn't matter which side of that you're on, because from now on you're all the same. We'll protect you as long as you show us that you're worth protecting. There's no free ride here, so don't expect anything to be handed to you. Anyone got a problem with that?"
"Yeah, I got a problem!" yelled out one of the bulkier men present here. He stepped forward to make his angered presence known, his thick gut and shiny bald head already doing a wondrous job at that. He glared openly at Naruto without any intimidation of the sharp toothed boy with the giant sword. For that, Naruto already felt a slight respect for him. "We've lived here for years and have never faced any trouble! We don't even need your protection; you being here will only BRINGtrouble!"
As the crowd began to mutter their words of agreement, words that were quickly rising in volume, Naruto could feel the other Jinchuuriki shooting him looks of warning. But Naruto just gave them winks in return, silently asking for them to show some faith in him at this moment in time. He raised his hand in the air, and waited for the begrudging gathering to quiet down. When that happened, he did the unexpected, and hopped down to their level.
"I only just arrived here today, I've been dealing with some trouble that's been going on in the west." he said, slipping his hands into his pockets as he slowly walked towards the crowd. People moved aside to let him past, not taking their eyes off of him for the slightest moment. "But you know something? This village is the most beautiful place I've ever seen; you guys have a right to be protective of it. But you've undoubtedly already heard about what's going on out there. Iwa, Suna, Konoha, they're all getting pretty active. What'll you do if Kumo wants to occupy this place to get closer to what's happening?"
"Considering the turmoil in Kumogakure, that's not unlikely."
Naruto glanced over his shoulder with a look of surprise, seeing Gaara's meaningful expression. It appeared his words had triggered a realisation, which in turn Gaara had revealed to him. "That's right, if the Hachibi is gone, and Kumo tracks it back to Akatsuki, then that war will probably be big on their radar." he thought, as he returned his attention to the villagers around him. The looks on their faces made it obvious that they didn't understand what Gaara said, yet all the same were troubled by it. Naruto decided to clarify this to his advantage, seeing an opportunity. "He's right, there's every chance that Kumo is on their way here as we speak. And even if they're not, the daimyo will be in a tough position if there's no hidden village here. Understand that we're not just here to protect you guys, but the whole country. Will you let us do that?"
The villagers looked to one another with doubtful expressions, clearly not one hundred percent certain about what they had heard. A majority of the glances were cast to the primary naysayer, yet even he was caught silent by the fact that it was not simply their town that was being guarded. "You promise this town will stay the way it is, that our home isn't going to be warped by you ninja?" he asked, with a finger pointing accusingly at Naruto's chest. The young ninja looked up at the man with a confident face, giving a strong nod that seemed to satisfy that person. "We'll see about that."
With his consent, the others in the crowd were swayed in the same direction. Nods came all around as the villagers soon became rather certain of themselves. Once again Naruto was forced to acknowledge the power of consensus, and in this case he actually welcomed it. Deciding to make a professional start, he turned on his heel and strode out of the crowd towards his fellow Jinchuuriki. "Yagura, we need you to come up with a defence for the village, a Genjutsu or barrier or something." he said, fixing his eyes upon the straw haired Shinobi.
"I'll need a team to help with something like that."
"No problem, find anyone you can use and get them to it." Naruto responded, before moving on to the others. He could see they were still a little unsure of him, like the villagers, but he knew that when this was over all doubts would disappear. After all, he already had that little problem taken care of. "In the meantime I'll send my hounds out to create a perimeter, Fuu can assign some ninja to go along with them, and get some guards to patrol the town. Han, you heard the people, do your best to keep the town's aesthetics in mind when you start construction. Utakata, we need training camps for the less experienced Shinobi, and teams for the rest of them. Gaara, you work on our other business for now."
This concession was the one that concluded the Jinchuuriki's thoughts. Naruto was openly saying that Gaara could take care of the Akatsuki situation. As nice as that sound, every one of them got a bad feeling from it. Naruto however paid this little heed, as he himself had one last thing to take care of before he adjourned this little gathering of the faces. With his hands rising into the cross ram seal, he turned around and faced the villagers with a broad grin. "With all of your approval, my comrades and I will rebirth this village into something that will truly be a marvel to the rest of the world!" he said, in a loud clear voice. In time to his words, imitations of himself appeared on the roof of the building, throwing something over the edge. It was a crimson tapestry, created through unusual means, which bore an unusual symbol upon itself. It looked like a golden pinwheel, with three thick arms and three thin ones. An unusual design crafted by an unusual person. "So from this day forward, let this place be known as the village hidden in the capital, Keishigakure."
The time was late, the afternoon sun gone beyond the forests to the west. The sky had darkened rather quickly, allowing for a cool night filled with shining stars. Out to the side of the trade centre, just under a hundred yard's walk away, a small stream ran through one of the many gardens of this glistening village. This stream shimmered from the light of the moon, reflecting up into the single tree that occupied the small space, a willow that cast its leaves into the waters it rested beside.
It was at this tree, resting against the soft bark, that Sakura and Hinata could be found. The two of them were gazing up at the sky, feeling calmed from the sight high above them. They looked to be quite tranquil, though that was understandable, since they had never approached this place before. It was a new sight to them, one that they had quickly grown fond of. The whistling of the wind through the leaves, the passing of the water in the stream, it could even go as far as to be called nostalgic.
"Man, you sure pick some weird places to meet."
In an instant the tranquillity was ruined, as from behind them they watched Naruto approach. They both noted that even at this moment in time, he continued to carry that heavy looking blade around with him like it was necessary. The sight of that weapon, and the knowledge of what he could do without it was enough to destroy any feelings of peace they had garnered from those last few minutes. "You wanted to meet us for something?" Sakura asked, feigning indifference with skill enough to even make her eyes appear distant. Her one failure was asking that question though, since there was no other reason for Naruto to be here.
The sword wielder stepped past the two girls and came to a stop by the river. He let his hands take place on his waist as he looked down into the water, seeing the white light that shone back up at him. In all honesty this meeting was the last thing that mattered to him right now, but he wanted to take care of it before anything unnecessary happened. "I'm just gonna come out and say it; there's no reason for us to keep you around anymore." he announced, without looking at the two girls he was speaking to. He could already feel their rising tension, and at the moment he didn't particularly care for it. "You'll be taken a safe distance from this place. After that, you can do what you want, go back to Konoha, go after those two guys, whatever."
For an instant he had an idea of what it was like to be a Hyuuga, as everything that happened behind him went exactly as how he expected it would. Sakura took an indignant step forward, releasing an expression of shock and anger that was seconded by Hinata just behind her. "Wait, that wasn't what we agreed on!" the pink haired medic exclaimed, without holding back a fragment of her emotions like most Shinobi probably should. "Our deal was that we would do as you asked in return for being able to find-"
"If that's what it'll take to get you out of my face without wasting effort, then no problem." Naruto interrupted, his tone darker even than the night sky above them. To ensure he was not misunderstood, he cast a gaze over his shoulder that was as cold as a glacier yet as fiercely radiant as a bothered eagle. With these eyes, and his empty expression, neither Sakura nor Hinata recognised anything of the boy they thought they had figured out. "Follow Akatsuki, and you'll find the reason behind everything. Tell that to your Hokage, and sooner or later you will meet with those two again."
Both Sakura and Hinata paused at this clue, their minds reeling for any signs that they knew what Naruto was talking about. There was a good chance they had heard of Akatsuki at some point by now, but just how much they knew was a mystery. Sakura almost indulged herself in her rapidly rising desire for understanding, when Hinata grabbed onto her arm. Whatever the Hyuuga girl said, the Haruno one relented after a moment, and the two of them took their slow leave.
Naruto waited as the girls distanced themselves from him, fully aware that he would never meet those two again. A full minute passed where he contained his feelings, but when he was certain that he was alone, he found he could suppress them no longer. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" he laughed, his lips spreading apart into a creepy smile that was reflected in the ever moving stream. He crouched down by the water, getting a closer look at the face staring up at him from down there. The giddy feeling in his gut refused to leave, and seemed only to grow in intensity with each passing moment. "I've got a village… a country… an army… and soon the Kyuubi. It won't be much longer Pein… we'll show them the way, just like you always planned."