Chapter Twenty-Five: Chaos
"So this is one of the small gambling towns that are dotted around the country." Naruto converses with the others.
"Sure is kid, these little places are all owned by the same company, they are each slightly different to trick the chronic gamblers into thinking they might be luckier with a new place, it also allows the companies to gather a ridiculous amount of information on the people constantly visiting them." Jiraiya confides in them.
"Disgusting." Sasuke condemns the various slovenly people walking around in the middle of the day, "They no longer care about their appearances, all they do is just walk from one place to another to lose money, chasing that thrill."
"Life is too hard for some people." Naruto mutters while staring into the distance.
Gaining concerned looks from the three others he shakes it off and smiles while walking into town, enjoying the multiple buildings decorated in vibrant colours, it is always interesting for the three to see new things. Jiraiya once also thought like them before he was old and well-travelled, now he just notices the small things about the town that are useful to him, the many brothels that could provide him with some relief, the homeless people he could go to for information, the civilians with a downtrodden expression that could be given some money to gain their loyalty.
"I have some people to talk to for information, you three go find a hotel to stay in and I will find you." Jiraiya instructs them.
The Genin don't even bother to ask him how he is going to find them, they have learned to have some faith in the weird pervert after traveling with him for a couple of days, while he might have a strange personality and appearance, when it came down to it the man was incredibly reliable when he needs to be.
Naruto looks towards his two friends and tilts his head in question while looking around. Receiving two matching nods they head off and decide to look around for a nice hotel, after all Jiraiya was the one paying for it.
Walking through the village was peaceful for a couple of minutes before they were approached by a small group of strange looking men.
"Hey there." One of the men says while the others surround them.
"Hey." Naruto responds obliviously, "Do you know a nice hotel around here for us to stay in?"
"Sure kid, just follow me and my friends here." He smiles greedily.
"Okay." Naruto replies before he hears a sigh behind him and feels Sasuke's hand land on his shoulder stopping him from following the nice man in front of him.
"Naruto…" Sasuke trails off in annoyance.
"What?" The blond asks in confusion at the expression on his friends face.
"They are trying to kidnap us." Hinata explains helpfully, trying to stop a small giggle from leaving her mouth, which coincidently leaves the thugs surrounding them rather unnerved at how nonchalant the three seem to be.
"Ahhh right." Naruto realises with a shocked expression on his face, mouth open in surprise. "Are you sure?" he asks sceptically while looking at the nice looking men around him.
"One hundred percent sure." Sasuke answers with a dull tone of voice.
"No, I think you're wrong." Naruto happily smiles while turning to the man who talked previously, "You wouldn't do that would you?"
Said man chuckles menacingly to the others who quickly join in.
"See!" Naruto points out, "Evil people don't laugh."
"That was an evil laugh though." Sasuke immediately counters.
"You can laugh evilly?" Naruto is once again shocked speechless.
"Sometimes I forget you are a moron, then, there are other times, like now, that I am reminded of your complete lack of common sense."
"You can totally laugh evilly." The demon inside him speaks up, shocking the surrounding thugs.
"Go on then!" Naruto appears to challenge himself to the onlookers.
Instantly the look on the blonde's face changes to one of anger and insanity while a deep throaty chuckle starts falling out of his mouth, spreading a miasma of anger and bloodlust everyone that can hear it. Sasuke and Hinata both pale slightly at the sheer anger in the voice.
"Wow!' Naruto yells loudly, amazed at the chicken inside him, sending his gaze at the previously conscious kidnappers who seem to have passed out in fear from the voice.
"Now that the fun is over." Hinata says with a slight dark tone of voice. "Should we help the world out a bit?" she says while looking over the bodies of their attempted kidnappers.
"Sure." Naruto smiles happily.
"Yes." Sasuke replies neutrally.
Each of the three draw a kunai and slit the throats of the downed thugs, Hinata with a grimace, Sasuke with a small grim smile and Naruto with a blindingly bright smile splitting his face.
Inside the seal at the same time stand two beings of almost unimaginable power, one shrouded by shadows while the other is lit up by fire, a giant nine tailed fox locked behind giant bars.
"Something is wrong with Naruto." The voice says with slight worry in her voice.
"So what? He killed some pathetic vermin, let him rid the world of as many as he can." The Kyuubi uncaringly replies, cringing away at the look the shaded embodiment of charka gives him.
"It is not the fact that he killed them, it is the fact that he didn't feel a single thing as he ended their lives, I can understand it if he did it with a technique, it is much easier to distance yourself from you own actions when they aren't done by your exact hand, but to personally end their lives and not feel a single thing, I fear that us being inside him is slowly changing him, or at least it is muting the things he feels." The ethereal voice hypothesises.
Hearing the shadows words, the Kyuubi bursts out into laughter for a couple seconds before quieting down and informing his room-mate of something.
"You don't understand, it is not us that is doing this to him, this was done to him long before you came here. It has been a gradual process since he was a child." Receiving a look the fox quickly continues, "How do I saw this nicely, Naruto is an incredibly broken child, you might think he acts weird on purpose and he might tell other people that he does, but I have been with him since the beginning, I saw when he was really a young boy, filled with hope and courage, never giving up and I also saw when that unstoppable young boy shifted. Slowly but surely he shifted, no longer caring about the people around him, only caring about a couple of people, did you know he used to cry at night because of how he was treated?"
"I was there with him over the years as he slowly closed himself off to everyone but a few others, and I am afraid it is too late now to change that, this is only a guess but I would say that it is now almost completely closed, no room for someone new to enter his life."
"You have given me some things to think upon." The female voice responds before falling into silence.
Back in the real world the three finally come across a nice looking hotel to stay in for the night, entering the foyer of the building they see a small bar to the side and a nice reception area to the left, heading straight ahead they walk up to the front desk.
"Hello, may we book three different rooms please, one with two beds and two with singles." Hinata starts politely, fitting someone of her heritage.
The older woman behind the desk smiles down at the three before her, "Sure." She pauses for a second looking through the book of reservations at the hotel and taking off ten percent just based on his nice the young teen in front her was, the amount of rude of uncaring people that travel in these towns is enormous so she always does these sorts of things for the kind ones.
"That will be 30,000 yen please."
Quickly handing over the money that Jiraiya gave them for this very situation the three start to make their way upstairs before Naruto pauses with wide eyes looking towards the bar to the side. Shaking his head he walks over to a certain table with an older blonde woman sitting next to an older teenage black haired women.
The other two are confused by Naruto's actions before looking at the table he was heading towards and are shocked at their own luck, quickly catching up to him.
"Hello." Naruto yells loudly, shocking the two at the table who were having lunch.
"Hello back to you." The black haired one responds kindly feeling a smile spread across her face at the infectious expression of happiness on the young blonde's face. "How may we help you today?"
"We need you both to come back to The Leaf Village and for her to become Hokage." Naruto bluntly answers while pointing at the now identified Tsunade of the Sanin.
"Wha.." Tsunade gets out in confusion before what he said kicks in. "You want me? Me?" she clarifies. "to come back to Konoha and become Hokage?"
Nodding happily to himself, "Yes, I'm glad you agreed so easily, Jiraiya talked as if it was going to be hard." Naruto happily accomplishes his mission while taking the hand of Tsunade and pulling her away from her table, much to the amusement of the two Genin on his team.
Snapping herself out of her momentary stupor she pulls her hand away from the young ninja in front of her. "I'm not going to become the Hokage." Tsunade snaps at him angrily. "It is a fool's job." She yells loudly in the middle of the foyer.
"Fools job?" Naruto asks in confusion.
"Every Hokage dies, why anyone would ever want to become one is mind blowing" she states in contempt.
"Hmmm." Naruto lets out in contemplation, "That is a good point."
"I know." Tsunade speaks up triumphantly, finally someone understanding her point.
"Brother." A stoic voice comes from the side.
The five turn to see two individuals draped in black robes with red clouds designs adorning them.
Four of the five group immediately tense up and go into a fighting stance at the sheer chakra the blue skinned one is emitting.
Sasuke feels his mind start clouding over in anger at the appearance of the one who spoke before, memories of his family, his mother, his father, his cousins, dead at the feet of this monster in front of him start playing repeatedly throughout his mind.
His head is turned to the side forcefully by Naruto who has a pitying look on his face.
"What?!" Sasuke growls out.
"That is what you are going to look like when you get older?" Naruto asks in a sad voice, instantly pausing all the ninjas who were just about to get into a fight.
"What?" Itachi Uchiha asks.
"No offence, I mean I'm sure you have a certain appeal to some but I wouldn't call you attractive, or even normal looking, what happened to your cheeks?" The blue skinned man besides Itachi can no longer hold it in and starts laughing to himself at the expressions of the others.
"What?" Tsunade is now also flabbergasted at the young blonde in front of her, didn't he know that the man before him was an S-Ranked threat who could kill him with a flick of his fingers.
"Don't even get me started on blue man here." The laughing of said blue man quickly stops, "You have gills and spikey teeth, are you even a human? Not that I'm racist towards blue skinned fish people but I just didn't think any of them existed." Naruto clarifies.
"Do you want to die punk?" Kisame Hoshigaki growls threateningly.
"No, it is actually quite the opposite." Naruto smiles happily while twiddling on one of his hands.
"What do you mean?" Itachi asks, now curious on the actions of the teammate of his brother.
Sasuke, broken out of his anger and finally realising the situation he is in smirks at his brother, with burning hatred in his eyes. 'I know I am not strong enough now to fight out but one day I will be and then I will get my revenge.' He thinks to himself angrily, only just ignoring the urge to lunge at his brother, thanks to the fight in the forest of death with Orochimaru he know knows the distance between him and someone like his brother.
"It's easy." Hinata's quiet but strong voice sounds from behind Naruto, "It's a distraction."
"Wha-" is all Tsunade, Shizune, Itachi and Kisame get out before Naruto yells loudly.
"SEAL! Reality Marble!" he yells happily as instantly a giant Tanuki of sand appears in the hotel, completely destroying it.
"I AM FREE!" A demonic voice spreads across the town.
A:N:
Sorry for the long Hiatus.