Naruto awoke to knocking at his door. He stretched his body. Most of the pain from yesterday was still present. His drained chakra reserves had recovered a little bit since his narrow escape from Izumi. He didn't remember much of what happened, but he knew that Izumi and Kurama wound up fighting one another and Hikari was presumably captured. Naruto didn't know what to do. He wanted to save Hikari, but he hadn't even fully recovered from his previous injuries. As much as he hated it, Izumi would easily outclass him without Kurama's help. He was stuck. Hikari would have to wait.
"Come in" Naruto said mid yawn. The door opened to reveal Ayame carrying a tray full of food. Nothing crazy, just some cooked fish and rice. She smiled at Naruto, "Good morning Naruto-kun. I brought you breakfast. I won't be able to stick around long though, training starts soon."
Naruto nodded and accepted the tray of food. The two enjoyed eachother's company for a bit until Ayame needed to leave.
The young man slowly prepared himself for the day ahead, and decided that he would take a look around Seiki for himself.
The small village was pretty cramped. The refugees from Ame took up most non-essential space inside the wall surrounding the village. Seiki itself was constructed on a small island out in the middle of a large lake. The crumpled remains of a stone bridge that once led to shore were visible in the almost impossibly clear water. Overall the view of the world surrounding Seiki was stunning.
With Naruto's enhanced vision he could even see Zinra swimming around in the water in the distance. They were small for Zinra, but no doubt deadly. The wall would easily keep them out.
Naruto could tell that the men of the settlement were itching to fight the Zinra and protect their new home, but they were bitter that Eiko refused to teach them the ways of her fighting style. They had some combat training, but they were still just civilians, better suited to non-combat support roles in his mind anyways.
With that, Naruto returned to the temple. He walked into the dojo and saw the apprentices sparring. As soon as he walked in, the apprentices stepped up their game. Ayame and her current opponent were in a heated fight. "Hey Ayame look, it's your boyfriend." Her opponent said, causing Ayame to blush. "He's not my-" She was almost caught offguard when her opponent got in close and let forth a flurry of attacks, most of which Ayame was barely able to dodge. She didn't escape without a few bruises though.
She was breathing heavy, 'I can't afford to look weak in front of Naruto' She thought to herself. Even though she knew her opponent was definetely stronger than her. Eiko slowly walked towards the spectating young man. She spoke to the dueling pair, "Ayame, don't get distracted. Fuyo while I appreciate your drive to win, win with honor." They both nodded and resumed their fight.
For most shinobi it would be considered a fast paced fight. Both Fuyo and Ayame were moving and striking at speeds that could best most rookie Jonin. Naruto was shocked that Ayame could go from being a civilian to what seemed to be a seasoned fighter in the time he was away. Whatever Eiko's reasoning for not training men, he couldn't argue with the results the female apprentices were achieving.
The fight continued, but Fuyo's kept pushing Ayame back, never giving her the opening she needed to make a decent strike. She could taste the blood in her mouth, and her breathing had become erratic. She didn't know if she could continue much longer.
At this point all of the apprentices in the dojo had crowded around the fight. According to all of their whispers Fuyo had yet to be defeated by another student.
"You can do it Ayame-chan!" Naruto cheered. Most of the girls in the room turned green with jealousy. Including Fuyo. Eiko spoke up again, "Ayame, if Fuyo wins this fight I'll have her be Naruto's caretaker instead."
Fuyo smirked. Ayame saw the look on Fuyo's face. She thought she was going to win, Ayame needed to prove her wrong. Fuyo's offensive contuinued, she threw a barrage of punches at Ayame. The ramen chef narrowly deflected the punches.
Fuyo spun around and would've connected a kick to Ayame's gut had the underdog not sidestepped out of the way and grabbed her leg. Ayame used the energy of Fuyo's kick to spin her and throw her back across the arena.
Fuyo recovered just in time to block Ayame's gradually slowing attacks. Eventually she caught one of Ayame's fists. Ayame sent her other fist at Fuyo's face, but it was caught as well. Fuyo smirked before Ayame let out a yell and planted her forehead right on Fuyo's nose sending her stumbling back until Ayame connected a kick to her face. A resounding 'THUD' was heard throughout the dojo as Fuyo hit the ground unconcious.
Ayame fell to her hands and knees breathing heavily. Shocked at her own victory. The other apprentices were silent until Naruto started clapping, at that point the rest joined in. Eiko just looked on with a smile.
Some of Fuyo's friends took her to the temple infirmary as Ayame finally got back up on her feet. She looked at a smiling Naruto, and gave a small chuckle. She slowly walked over to him and gave him a hug.
Eiko cleared her throat. "Why don't you go clean up and take the rest of the day off Ayame." Ayame nodded and left the dojo with Naruto following close behind.
With Satsuki
The young Uchiha woman had stumbled across a field full of Zinra corpses, little scraps of paper could be seen throughout the field. "Yo, Jiraiya, over here!" She whispered loudly.
Jiraiya leapt down from a tree and examined the battlefield. Several 'Hunter' class Zinra and one 'Goliath' class Zinra lay dead. Little bits of torn up paper littered their bodies. Upon further examination he determined that they weren't exploding tags. There were no scorch marks along the edges of the paper.
There was only one real conclusion in Jiraiya's mind. Konan. This was troubling indeed. Last he'd heard, his former apprentice Konan was working with Akatsuki. Jiraiya mulled over his options and sent a letter back to Kusa.
"We're going to do some preliminary reconnosaince, and see if we can't pinpoint Naruto's location. We'll make a decision when we find him as to whether or not we need backup." Jiraiya said, monotonously.
Satsuki nodded, whoever this Konan was, she must be strong to be a part of Akatsuki. Not as strong as Izumi, but it made sense that they might need some backup. Satsuki didn't understand why everyone was chasing after Naruto though. He was strong, sure, but he seemed wild and untamed, and he was only one man.
Satsuki shrugged. Ever since she'd seen Naruto in Danzo's base, she felt like she'd seen him before. Why would he attack Konoha shinobi if he were from Konoha? Sure they might've treated him badly, but it couldn't have been that bad. Could it?
She had no idea.
Kusagakure
Izumi had just recieved word from Jiraiya. It would be a couple of weeks before she could mobilize a task force. Zinra activity has been at an all time high, and Oriko had been spotted in the vicinity of Kusagakure.
Izumi put her head in her palms and sighed. She had gotten relatively no sleep the night prior. Nightmares of what Naruto must have gone through at the hands of Kurama to turn him into the thing that she fought in the forest surrounding Taki made her shudder. She didn't want the boy to suffer anymore, but he was stubborn.
She somewhat doubted her plan to keep Naruto with her, but it was the only way to ensure his safety. His kyubified voice filled her head again and only steeled her resolve. If he was alone Kurama was bound to overpower him again.
She had been unable to find someone capable of using the seal she had acquired, but she had begun to read up on it. It took a lot of chakra and uninterrupted time drawing the seal. She was sure she could handle it, but she would certainly need to train in the art so she didn't make a mistake.
It was then that her office doors flung open. A Kusagakure Jonin stepped in and spoke, "Your elite guard have captured Oriko." He said with a smirk.
Izumi smiled. This would be fun.
Kusagakure Prison
A blood covered Oriko lay chained to a table, She was laughing for a bit before hacking up blood. Then she started screaming in pain as the Kusagakure torture team started going to town on the snake Sannin.
Izumi looked down at her with hate filled eyes. This was the reason the world was so fucked. This sorry excuse for a snake. It pissed her off to no end. "Why were you in Kusa territory?" The torturer asked monotonously. Oriko just laughed, "Oh I didn't know this was Kusagakure, I thought I was in Kiri-AHHH" She screamed as they dug bamboo underneath her finger nails. They stopped for a minute and Oriko began laughing again. They were about to resume the torture when Izumi waved them off.
She stared into Oriko's eyes. 'Tsukuyomi' She said as she pulled the snake sannin into the genjutsu. Approximately three seconds later, she spilled the beans.
"I was in Kusagakure looking for Tsunade to help me with a cure to the Zinra Virus, I received a tip from an informant that she had arrived in Kusagakure about a week ago. I was also looking to recruit more people to hunt down Subject Zero: Naruto, and Subject One: Juugo, to further the same goal." She said then passed out.
Izumi looked down at the unconscious snake sannin. If Oriko was looking for a cure, it was more likely that she was going to use it as leverage to gain power, as opposed to her growing a conscience, but that was unimportant. She wanted to find Naruto and cure the Zinra disease. That put her in enough alignment with Izumi's goals for her to tentatively call her a potential ally... maybe.
Another important matter. Tsunade had snuck into her village, and Izumi didn't know until now. She looked to a few of the Jonin in the room. "Find Tsunade, and bring her to my office. Also, leave Oriko restrained but keep her alive. Feel free to torture her if she wakes up and gets annoying though." Izumi said, exhausted.
"HA!" Was their reply as they dashed through the village on the hunt for the ever absent Slug Sannin.
She probably shouldn't have used the Tsukuyomi like that. She was drained as it was, but her loss of vision was about to become a problem.
Seiki
Konan had wanted to spend some time with Naruto today. But he left the temple with Ayame quite some time ago. She was frustrated. She hadn't expected Naruto and Ayame to recognize eachother so quickly and get a long so well. She knew from the start that they were acquainted. Akatsuki had a file on the girl and her father because of their closeness to the boy when he was young. She began searching for him on the wall.
She enjoyed his company, and based on his chakra signatures he was no doubt much more powerful than he was before he left Akatsuki. He could help Seiki expand, and take the fight to the Zinra. Together they could no doubt push them back. She wanted to be there with him.
She knew that she wanted to protect and take care of him, but she hadn't expected this kind of emotional response from herself. She took in a deep breath. She hadn't felt like this since she was a young girl training with Jiraiya. She began to revel in the memories. Naruto reminded her so much of Yahiko.
She looked out at the lake for a moment. She saw two figures walking slowly across the water towards Seiki.
Hey guys! Howl's Curse here, I've had a bit of free time recently but that's about to disappear. I might update one more time before June, but I doubt it'll be more than that. Thanks for sticking around guys! Be sure to leave a review as well!