Chapter XII
Author's Note: Wow. Got over 20 "Favourite Author +" and "Story Alert +" in my inbox in the two days since I posted my least-favourite chapter. I HAVE FIXED THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CHAPTER; GO BACK AND RE-READ IT!
To the reviewer Re'ozul – I never said that the first part of Arc II, Chapter VIII was between Sasuke and Orochimaru, nor did I say that it was between Pein and Madara. *grins wickedly* Having the readers assume that, of course, suits my purposes quite well. It may be the one, the other, or something else entirely different! Thank you for your review – sign in, though – I like being able to respond to reviewers one-on-one.
Oh, and here's a Character update for the Naruto Fanfiction filters:
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 3:14 AM, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:
In the Naruto Fanfiction section, you seem to eschew the Character of Killer Bee (or, in the Anglicised Romaji, 'Kirabi'). Yet you include minor characters from the filler arcs. I consider this as something of a grave oversight, seeing as Kirabi is the container for the 8-tailed ushi-oni and is rapidly becoming a fan favourite character.
Might I suggest that you rectify this as soon as possible?
Sincerely,
Bloodreaver Alpha
On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 6:42 AM, Categories [] wrote:
Added
"No way!" Naruto gasped, staring at the taller man as they bounded through the mountains as Kirabi led the way to the Village Hidden Amongst the Clouds. "You're a Jinchuuriki, too?"
Killer Bee (or Kirabi, as he was actually called) grinned and nodded. "It's true, I promise you. Got the Eight-Tailed beast, not the last, not the least. 'Salright for a demon, don't bother me none when I'm dreamin'; almost pals you might say, though that isn't to say I really trust it that much, so it isn't a crutch."
That brought Naruto up short. "Waitaminute," he protested (loudly, as was typical of him, but the Kumo Jinchuuriki didn't seem to mind), pointing his finger at the tanned man, "You actually get along with it?"
Kirabi shrugged. "I sure do, let me tell you. It's give and take, and when I'm awake, I let it see Killer Bee's home country and let it in on the win, and the thrill of the kill. Of course," he admitted, "it's a pretty calm bastard, so with Kyuubi you might get plastered if you don't watch your step; around that fox, if you're inept he'll eat you instead of greet you."
"Oh," Naruto said, a pained grimace on his face. "Well, that may be a problem. The bastard fox and I don't get along real well."
Using his broad hands to power himself over a natural wall in the rock, Kirabi frowned, daylight reflecting off of his sunglasses. "That's bad, to make it mad." He shot a glance towards the Konoha-nin. "The thing you gotta discover, my orange-wearin' brother, is that the demons ain't liars, and they each got their own desires. You gotta just give and take, just don't give so much that you break." Naruto easily replicated the tanned ninja's feat, and as their feet landed on the rocks behind it, the blonde frowned.
"Yeah, but the only thing the fox wants is to be set free so that it can 'crunch the little yellow monkey between its teeth'," Naruto parroted mockingly.
"That's 'cause he's been dissed; you don't wanna piss off that thing or else it'll bring a whole lotta trouble to you on the double. I suspect that you ain't treatin' him with respect."
"Aw, come on! Respect?!" Naruto whined. "It's a giant fucking fox that wants to blow shit up and kill people! How the hell am I supposed to respect…that?"
The Kumo-nin frowned in mild disapproval. "The demons are forces of the earth, and they each deserve it, or else they'll treat you like shit. Be polite, and they'll treat you alright."
Kirabi jumped off of a precipice and plummeted several hundred feet to land heavily on a small plateau. Naruto followed him, mulling over the advice that the older Jinchuuriki had given him. There was silence between the two of them, save for the crunching of rock and gravel beneath their feet as they travelled, until the Kumo-nin broke it several minutes later.
"Take a look, my friend , 'cause we're just about at the end."
Naruto looked.
A veritable sea of clouds blanketed the upper spire of an enormous pillar of rock, just beneath which Naruto and Kirabi could see the walls of a grand city rise up, fashioned of the same iridescent black stone of the mountain itself. Naruto's breath was taken away at the sight; the clouds, instead of being pale grays and whites, seemed to cycle between subtle reds and diffuse blues…no, wait; now it was a pale green, now faint yellow…
The ever-shifting colours ensnared his admiration and curiosity. It seemed to be one colour at first, but as they swirled around the peak, it was as if the light itself broke itself up into pieces and infused the condensed water vapour with soft pastels at random.
"It's…" Naruto struggled to find words that would convey the depths of his awe, unsuccessfully. Kirabi nodded once.
"Beautiful, isn't it? My home is the shit," Kirabi stated proudly, and the blonde Konoha-nin couldn't have disagreed with the tanned Jinchuuriki if he'd wanted to.
"Yeah…wow. Is it always like that?
"No; the sun's gotta catch the clouds right, but when it does…" Kirabi whistled appreciatively. "Man…whatta sight."
Naruto was a little surprised. Kirabi had given a casual salute to the guards at the gate, and though they gave the blonde ninja a glance, it was hardly more than cursory. They obviously didn't feel the slightest bit wary about a ninja from Konoha within their walls. Naruto suspected that it might have to do with the fact that Kirabi was escorting him.
As they made their way towards the Raikage's offices in the centre of the village, Naruto was struck by how similar Kumo was to Konoha. He'd always taken pride in the knowledge that he'd been raised in the strongest of the Hidden Villages, and through no fault of teaching or training had acquired the unconscious belief that Konoha was the only 'friendly' Hidden Village.
But he saw the same children playing, the same casual interactions between civilian and shinobi, the same merchants hawking the same wares along the same streets, and felt the same sense of homely comfort that Konoha had.
He even got some of the same glares from said civilians, though he knew that here it was due to his open affiliation with the Leaf, as opposed to his status as a demon container. In a way, it was something of a shock to have his beliefs shattered, regardless of whether he had been aware of them or not. He looked around, wide-eyed with curiosity, and continued doing so until Kirabi shoved open a heavy set of doors and pulled him inside. The original two occupants of the room, interrupted by the intrusion, turned to face them.
The Raikage was an older man of about forty or fifty who shared a startling number of physical characteristics with Naruto's escort. He was dark-skinned, heavyset though hardly fat, and had white facial hair neatly trimmed into a smart moustache and a small though thick goatee. Most of his body was hidden underneath the utilitarian robes of office that draped his imposing figure. Naruto was strangely reminded of the Sandaime Hokage.
The other occupant…Naruto stared, completely at a loss for words for the first time in his life.
She was tall, very nearly matching him centimeter-for-centimeter in height, and her pale golden hair was drawn back in a practical braid. The slender woman, clad in muted colours of black and pale purple, was older than he was, but he estimated that the difference between their ages could be counted on one hand. Black eyes stared proudly out from unusually slanted eyes, and her slender physique burst out in all the right places into impressively feminine curves.
Holy shit! Naruto thought, knocked arse-over-teakettle. Holy shit, holy shit, ho-ly shee-it!
Waitaminute! His mind pointed out stubbornly. What about Sakura-chan? Don't we like Sakura-chan?
Sakura? Naruto mentally retorted. Who the fuck is Sakura?
"Oi, Kirabi!" He managed in a hoarse whisper, nudging the much taller man in the ribs. "Who's the babe?"
Unfortunately for the male blonde, Yugito had an excellent pair of ears that worked just fine. A single muscle in her neck twitched as she leveled a flat glare at the Konoha-nin.
"'The babe'," she said, frost coating each word she spoke, "has a name. And my name happens to be Nii Yugito, Jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Nekomata." Her 'situation' wasn't exactly a secret, after all, and it certainly worked wonders to cow the occasional annoying upstart. Her already narrow eyes become slits. "So I'd advise that you be a little more circumspect in your comments, boy."
Naruto's eyes widened, even as his face fell with disappointment. "Aw, come on!" He cried. "How fucking fair is it that the hottest fucking woman I've ever seen has a demon sealed into her, too?! Tell me how un-cool that is!"
Kirabi shrugged. "It's un-cool as hell, Tinkerbell. Ain't many as pretty as Kitty-cat, brat, and that's a fact."
Yugito blinked, uncertain as to whether or not she had been complimented or insulted by the other blonde, but definitely surprised that he hadn't seemed the least bit frightened about her condition. She ignored her fellow Kumo-nin's statement; he was incomprehensible to her at best. She was possessed of a keen mind, though, and mulled over Naruto's comments at top speed, only to come up indecisive, so she took it the way she was most familiar with: Insult.
"Something wrong, Leafling," she growled, "with a woman holding a Bijuu? Maybe you think only a man could hold one back?"
She'd encountered like-minded individuals, and though they were uncommon at best within Kumo's walls, their comments still chafed her. No way in hell was she going to deal with that kind of rubbish from some brat from Konoha.
She expected a lot of things, really; she expected him to try to ignore her and pretend that he'd said nothing, in which case she'd kick his ass. She expected him to cower and back off, in which case she would also kick his ass. She expected him to bluster like a jerk about men being stronger than women, whereupon she'd crush his balls…and then kick his ass.
Naruto, though, wasn't the "Number One Most Surprising Ninja" for his curious skill in baking chocolate cookies (the recipe to which Tsunade had made him destroy so that only he could make them, and only for her), and so out of the myriad of replies Yugito had expected him to make, he chose one that she hadn't even considered.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto asked, cocking his head to the side as he squinted at the female Jinchuuriki in painfully obvious confusion. "What does being a guy have to do with anything? Hell, Tsunade-baa-chan's the strongest person I know, and she can kick my ass with just a finger." Naruto shrugged. "It's just that Akatsuki is gonna be after you next, and it pisses me off that they're gonna try to kill a first-class smokin' hottie like you. I tell you," he said, turning back to Kirabi, completely missing the astonished (and embarrassedly pleased) look on the kunoichi's face, "those Akatsuki guys are fuckin' stupid if they're willing to kill off someone like her for a stupid demon." Yugito's embarrassment worsened when the Raikage's brother simply nodded solemnly in agreement.
Yugito and Kirabi, in contrast with almost every other Jinchuuriki in existence, had truly been seen as heroes of their village, and while there were those within Kumo's general populace who were wary of the two, they weren't regarded as anything other than extraordinarily powerful ninja who shouldered an additional burden for the sake of the village. Consequently, they were highly respected and even liked. They were treated well, and the few who were afraid of them didn't act on their fear.
But Yugito had been trained as the epitome of all that was ninja, and while she was a credit to her calling and her country, she had never been trained to deal with the softer aspects of her sex…namely, the raw male appreciation Naruto was showing, unabashed and with all the subtlety and grace of a sledge-hammer. This, coupled with the fact that no-one had ever regarded her in such a manner regardless of whether they were aware of the Nibi's presence or not, was like a physical blow, one that none of her training had conditioned her to resist. Involuntarily, she felt her cheeks burn.
The Raikage coughed once, and all eyes turned to him. "If you two are quite finished flirting," he said, playing with his neatly-tended goatee as his dark eyes sparkled in amusement, ignoring his kunoichi's embarrassed sputtering, "I would like to get to business. You," he said suddenly, flicking out a finger towards Naruto, "what is your name and your purpose in being here?"
"Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto," said boy stated with a broad grin, "and I'm gonna be the next Hokage, believe it!" Yugito rolled her eyes as Kirabi pinched his nose in exasperated disbelief at Naruto saying something so inflammatory to the leader of an unfriendly nation. "I'm here to ask you for help."
One Kage-level eyebrow rose on dark skin, and the Raikage cocked his head. "Help? Young man, are you not aware that Konoha and Kumo are not on the best of terms at the moment?" He regarded the blonde boy standing across from him for a moment, surprised that he couldn't detect the slightest hint of unease. "I could have you executed as a spy; you're in our village, wearing a Konoha headband, and there would be nothing your village could do about it."
If the leader of Kumogakure was expecting the young man to lose his composure at the threat, he was gravely disappointed. Naruto nonchalantly interlaced his fingers behind his head and gave a half-shrug. "Well, yeah, I know that. I'm not stupid. But there's some really nasty shit going down that concerns all the Elemental Countries." He shook his head. "Trust me; we don't have the luxury of getting into little pissing contests right now."
The Raikage leaned back in his chair, forming a steeple with his fingers as he regarded the last remaining legacy of Namikaze Minato. "If you're talking about the Akatsuki organization," he smiled thinly, "I assure you that we have no reason to fear. Both Kirabi and Yugito are capable shinobi, and should be able to handle a ragtag group of nukenin with little difficulty. Kumo appreciates the concern of Konoha, but-"
"Listen to me, you old fart," Naruto said irritably, taking two quick steps forward to lay his palms flat on the broad desk of the village leader. Yugito made as if to pull him away, but to her surprise, Kirabi's hands found themselves on her shoulders and brought her back to his chest. "Not so fast, kitty-cat," he murmured in her ear. "Killer Bee says 'wait and see'."
Naruto leaned in until he was nearly nose-to-nose with the Raikage. "Akatsuki isn't some group of stupid bandits or runaway chuunin, old man," he growled. "They're all nasty fuckers, S-class or higher. Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame are members. Orochimaru of the Sannin was a member. Deidara of Rock is a member, Sasori no Akasuna was a member, and you can bet your ass that everyone else in that organization is as strong as they are or worse.
"Gaara, the Kazekage," he continued, his voice rising in pitch as he worked himself up, "The Jinchuuriki for the Ichibi, was taken down and had his beast extracted, and the only reason he's still alive is because the second-greatest medic-nin in the world, Chiyo-baa-sama, brought him back to life using a forbidden technique that killed her." His right index finger stabbed out, and involuntarily, the Raikage's eyes crossed in order to focus on the digit that was hovering just above his nose. "These aren't amateurs, you old bastard, and they're hardly ragtag! These fuckers are nasty, super-strong, and they come in pairs."
Nonplused, the tanned village leader brushed the offending finger away. "I don't know how you Konoha-nin work," he stated dryly, "but here in Kumo, we teach our shinobi how to fight off multiple enemies."
Naruto's hands clenched. "Tell me something; could you fight off Itachi and Kisame by yourself?"
"I wouldn't have to; I have ANBU who would assist me in battle, each of whom would gladly lay down their lives for me." The Raikage actually jumped when Naruto bellowed in his face.
"You stupid old shit!" The boy roared. Yugito struggled to escape from Kirabi's iron grip to teach the blonde punk a lesson, but the treacherous fingers of the giant white-haired man dug into her collarbone, pinching a nerve that made her gasp with pain. "Those are your people you're talking about," Naruto continued, his face reddening with anger. "They aren't toys, they aren't pawns…they're soldiers who are trusting you to do the right thing for the good of the village! I'm just a dumb kid," the blonde snarled, "but even I know that you need to protect them as much as they need to protect your village! Are you honestly saying that you're going to abandon your own people, your own brother, even, and just let them die?!"
"Enough!" The Raikage commanded, slapping his palms on his desk and rising quickly to his feet. Naruto hopped back, startled. In a surprisingly athletic manoeuver for a man of his age, the Raikage hopped over the desk himself, rapidly narrowing the distance between himself and the blonde boy. In a parody of the exact same manner that the boy had confronted him, the thickly built man invaded Naruto's personal space.
"Of course I care!" The Raikage snarled. "Yugito is one of my best Jounin, and Kirabi is my brother! I have complete faith in both of them! Who are you to dare question my feelings or my responsibility towards my own soldiers, let alone my family!?"
"I'm the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and I'm going to be the Hokage!" Naruto bellowed, not giving an inch. "I'd die to protect my village, even though almost everyone hates me; your shinobi would die to protect you, but don't you have the same responsibility towards them?!"
"I'd do everything possible to protect my village!" The Raikage roared back. "If I have to die or destroy the rest of the world to keep my people safe, then I'd do it in an instant!" There was a tense silence for several minutes as the two glared at each other, breathing heavily. Yugito's face had turned white at the sheer amount of killing intent saturating the room; it seemed to her that her country's namesake element was just a hairsbreadth away from arcing between the two men…and then Naruto grinned and relaxed.
"Okay, ya old bastard," the blond chuckled. "I guess I can respect you. But you better live up to your promises!" He warned. "'Cause those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades or their people are lower than trash!"
The older man blinked, and ever-so-slowly, a smile crept over his features, crinkling the sharply-trimmed moustache above his upper lip.
"Young man," he said warmly, "I think I can respect you, too. It takes an enormous amount of either stupidity or passion to talk to a Kage that way. Although I'm not sure of the one," he chided, taking pleasure in the blonde's modestly offended squawk, "you certainly have plenty of the other." One white eyebrow arched in amused approval. "I think Konoha will be very well off with you as a Hokage; if I'm still in office when you finally attain your goal, I'd be honoured to be considered a friend of the Leaf."
Naruto nodded once, his own foxy grin suffusing his features. "Believe it!" Feeling the last of the tension evaporate, Yugito sagged into Kirabi's arms, staring in boneless disbelief at the young man who'd just insulted her village leader and won his admiration in doing so.
"He's quite the guy, and I don't lie," Killer Bee murmured. "Just a kid, and I don't know if I'd have the balls to do what he did." Yugito nodded as she watched Naruto take a seat across from her Kage, cracking a joke that caused a burst of honest laughter from the older man.
"Quite the guy, indeed," she muttered sotto voice. What kind of person is this Uzumaki Naruto, she wondered in awe, who can act in such a manner and in doing so put an end to a bitterness that's lasted for two decades?
Suddenly, the prospect of this boy becoming Hokage didn't seem quite as ridiculous as it had earlier, and she felt the corners of her mouth twitch upward involuntarily. Things were going to get very interesting, she decided, and she had the feeling that it would be because of this young man from Konoha.
Interesting suited Nii Yugito just fine.
I really like this chapter. Although the Raikage's character is unknown, I decided that his looks best suited a rougher, coarser version of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. I envision him as a hard man, but one who honestly cares for his people; that canon Yugito leaves Kumo in order to protect it speaks well of his character, as I doubt anyone but Naruto would have the strength of character to be so protective of their village if they weren't treated well.
Canon-wise, it's been almost thirteen years (post-three-year-timeskip) since Kumo's failed abduction attempt of Hinata, and assuming that Minato Namikaze was abnormally young when he rose to the Kage rank, assuming the average age for such an ascension to be in the early-to-mid-thirties, and taking into account the Raikage's appearance of middle-age, and also deriving premature aging (due to the stress of the position) from the mid-sixties Third Hokage's appearance…well, I think it's entirely possible that the current Raikage was not the Raikage who ordered the Hyuuga kidnapping.