The first thing Naruto noticed was the contrasting eye colors, red and blue, it was something rare and interesting. Then he heard the grudging apology incited by the adult vampire. "Don't sweat it, you gave me quite the good scare." He grinned, being mirrored with a fanged smile. "Now that it's settled, go back to bed, you will need the rest." The Uzumakis were yawning and thanked the chance to resume their sleep. "You know, can we talk tomorrow?" Naruto saw the girl nod before he got escorted to his room. Nobody noticed the smirk held by the magician but her familiar, she had seen something interesting~
-In the morning-
Menma was going towards the dining room when he saw a certain girl setting a trap onto her aunt's room, a pot full of seeds rigged to be spilled once the door opened. "Some things never change." The urge to count that had varying degrees of severity all across the vampire populace. She must have one of the milder ones, as she wasn't trying to do it with the pot's contents. Odd eyes were fixated on him, daring him to snitch. {I saw nothing, I'll go get my breakfast, bye.} - The scream of frustration was the sign the prank worked along with the giggling girl who ran past him. He had a small premonition, and if she were to amplify his twin's tendencies for pranks? {Well, damn.}
It was a simple affair if you disregarded the massive frown of annoyance on the Lady and the wine glass that was obviously made of some metal to withstand her current mood. Sakuya served the food and refilled the tea with ease, briefly speaking with the guest if they directed word to him. Menma spoke with Remilia of some yōkai affairs in their language, leaving his relatives to inquire the researcher about their routine for the day. Naruto had to sharpen his mind, Kushina wanted to regain her previous fitness, and Karin had decided to stay in the mansion to learn from the mage.
Sasuke had seen the yōkais mingle slowly with humans, remembering the time in Nami. "They all hold so much power in their bodies..." The Uchiha needed to be strong, to make his hatred grow deeper and blacker so it could impact his brother. He had to do it so his brethren could live in peace, to let the kids and his mother live without fear. Mikoto had expressed her worries over the seal, urging him to seek help, but he had avoided bringing more attention to it, vaguely telling her that it had been taken care of. He would try to get those creatures to give him power, the humans weren't helping him by denying the instruction he deserved.
Kerberos, the brother of Orthros, the one who almost killed Sasuke and made him unlock his sharingan. That man was comparable to the Hokage in strength, so the Uchiha had sought him so as to receive some sort of guidance. The hellhound was munching on some nikumanjū in a park when he sighted blue clothing. {That boy...} He watched as the kid stood before him with a proud countenance, there was zero humility in his action even though he was the one about to ask for a favor. "What do you want?" The man threw the last bite in his mouth, red eyes flashing as he glimpsed the other side. "Train me. I need to be strong so I can kill someone."
The dog was no idiot, he had heard the tales, from living and dead mouths, but this had nothing to do with him. {Besides that... this soul is far too tainted... is he one of them?} Runaway spirits, they evaded the rivers and shinigamis, reincarnating without paying their dues. Some were good, but most were cesspools of utter wickedness that could make even the Cerberus gag. "Sorry, my techniques are such that only I can use them, a kekkei genkai of sorts if you prefer." He saw the tomoes flash into existence for a second, with the shadow of... something behind. {That thing... such malice...} A being full of miasma must have influenced this soul every time it reincarnated, as the evil was closely matched. But he couldn't reap this life... yet.
Kushina was training with the wyrm with her chains, sparring so as to take away the rust, as her new body was unforged by her previous life. Meiling combined grace and power, skill and brawl, she was a challenging opponent comparable to the Hyuga with her ability to pinpoint the exact place of her foe, countering flawlessly even under the Kirigakure jutsu made by the Uzumaki. Like with the Onis, there were high stakes for a human to fight head-on with draconids, with their force and claws. But Meiling knew how much to hold back, so her blows only left bruises, not mangled bits. Because the wyrm could make her bony scales surface to block strikes, Kushina had to use weapons so as to not be left with injured hands.
Sakuya was a different story, for his physical level was close to regular humans, but he was fast, reminding Kushina of her husband's Hiraishin, although he used a different method. Time control, he could freeze his surroundings for a while, usually a few seconds so as to spare his stamina, preparing traps she had to make supreme effort to avoid. "Tch-! Ow!" She always ended up like she went through a grinder against him, for he used his metal feathers as throwing knives, being from a Stymphalian breed of tengus. "May I?" Kushina flinched as the man put disinfectant on her nicks and put bandages.
The pair was clearly intimate in Kushina's eyes, and the kid that chased Meiling was the proof. Even though they stayed separate and acted professional, there was affection and love. It made her feel nostalgy for the time with Minato and guilt for missing a decade of her twin's lives. Then she wondered about the girl of yesternight and her parents. Remilia did make an offhand remark about how her sister was out with her husband. This place had an initially oppressive and imponent aura, but now she could feel the underlying warmth, everybody here cherished each other. The master treated her servants better than some families did with their members.
Minato was standing before a window in his office, looking into the distance, wondering about his family. "Kushina, take care... I don't want to lose you again." Naruto had advanced farther than he thought, the reports stated that his twins managed to figure his Rasengan by themselves, and the blond now held the scroll that was once thought of as a myth. It was rare for someone to manage to visit that realm through the summoning contract, usually, they were stuck with a small poll of creatures to call and never met Mokou. A man entered the room. "Jiraiya." "Hokage-sama." The door and windows were closed, privacy seals briefly glowing.
"What have you discovered?" The sage scratched his head, sighing heavily. "The Red Dawn has a bigger scope than I thought." They started as a revolutionary party for Ame, but that was long ago. "They are taking many dangerous missions from Iwa and the lesser nations, yet they rarely fail." Iwa was the most critical to get intel, given the hostility still lingering. And this group had unknown ambitions, they might become a future danger. Like with Suna, who had once been relegated as a lesser priority for Intel, yet came to try and invade Konoha, they couldn't afford sloppiness. The Gama Sannin blamed himself for not seeing how the Kaze Daimyō was relocating missions and weakening his own village, maybe they could have prevented Orochimaru's tempting offer.
"Itachi said that it's difficult to sneak out information, because of one of them, and that they rarely meet in person with each other or the leader." The Konoha mole had stepped into a swamp, where a wrong move could get him killed by his 'allies'. The sage was trying to find out everything about all the members, but for now, the only defining trait was that they were all nukenin with high notoriety. "Still, we must keep them under check, they might become a danger for this continent if we let them run rampant." Minato had received not-so-subtle hints to tighten his surveillance towards other nations, with tengus sometimes offering intel in exchange for favors.
"Still, I wonder how they do it. They find some things before even me." The usual gossip and market fluctuation was one field that those yōkais excelled in scrutinizing, but the more sensitive info didn't escape their eyes either. Birth rate, mission success/failure rate, potential allegiances recently made, village stats, nothing escaped their watchful eyes. They knew the value of their intelligence, for the prices shown to Minato weren't cheap. "We're in an arms race against them, we can't let them dictate the song our land must follow." Jiraiya had a smarting pride, so he decided to help Minato neutralize the Red Dawn before the yōkai did. The village may have welcomed them, but it was still a human nation at its core.
Naruto had been reading a more complicated book, furrowing his brows and glaring at the pages. "Want some help?" He looked up, the vampire girl was hanging on the top of a bookshelf. "Yes." She landed beside him. "By the way, my name's Naruto." Her bright eyes twinkled with mischief and cheerfulness. "I'm Katherine, but call me Kate." She looked over the subject of the book and began explaining it to him, receiving a thankful smile. - The pair of blondes established a friendship where he would tell her of the ninja lifestyle while she helped him comprehend the stuffy books given for study. - "By the way, how did you do those tricks?" Naruto watched as the girl's hand became mist before reforming. Then she gave him two small mirrors, she wasn't reflected on one of them. "I can't be seen on silver surfaces, that comes with being a vampire." Naruto noticed how she didn't explain that creepy chime, but it could be left for later.
She had helped him develop a new insight on yōkai, adding to what he knew from interacting with the two previous groups and with his brother. There was almost no difference between the races. Both could be selfish, both could be selfless, the bad and the good things could be done by either side, depending on their morals. It was a simple fact, but sometimes it was easier to simply brand what was unknown or from the opposing side as evil and wrong. It was hard to admit that the world wasn't as clear-cut as his academy days led him to believe. Maybe, if his brother hadn't been one of them, Naruto would have grown to hate yōkai and blame them for the evils of the world. Even in his own village, there might be evil people who plotted to do harm unto others...
"Can I see one of those phoenixes?" She got curious about the summon and watched as he readied for it. "Eh- Atchoo!" As the fairies were dusting the place, some got in his nose and distracted him. Result? Instead of a macaw-sized bird with pretty feathers, he got a big honking griffin who ended up toppling some bookshelves with its hippo-like heft. "... Did you intend for this?" Godric was staring at his master as a certain mage came closer, rapidly chanting an entrapment spell to keep the animal put. "I heard your talk... Do this again and you all will be my guinea pigs~" Three shuddered at the aberrant visage that promised madness, only able to squeak out a 'yes' until she went away. "She's creepy..." Kate could only agree while the griffin fled back to his realm, scared of the crazy researcher.
Warashi was minding his own business in the apartment when a crow landed on the windowsill. {What's on today?} Every subscriber could choose which kind of articles they preferred, and in his case, it was economics and world news. Lately, he had been hearing of a group of S-rank nukenin who kept trying to catch yōkai for the black market. The Tengus and Ratatoskr would have none of that and were doing their goddamn best to find every hideout so they could smoke the criminals out for an elimination group to erase them. But some targets had specific traits: tanukis, catpeople, kappas, kakuen, centaurs, slugs, giant insects, minotaurs, and kitsune.
One thing would be obvious for those who knew a certain group, the Red Dawn were after the Bijū and probably mistook these people as humans warped by their chakra. {Kurama, you better take care.} And the man knew what the Bijū entailed, it was part of a legend that most in the yōkai continent knew almost by heart, spread by Hamura as a small guarantee. The Jūbi... "Why the scary face?" He looked up at raven hair and rose eyes. "It seems that my guild is passing by some financial issues, as there was an attack by monsters on a big filial." Kurenai was unable to read the language, it scrambled itself under her sight, but the photo of a large boar with people fighting it corroborated his words. "Are you trying to not make me worry?" Oh well, he was entitled to his secrets and she to hers.
"Well, I'm sure that Boss will be able to solve it." Then he flipped to a page with the photo of a masked dancer holding fans. "Oh! She's going to make a new tour?" The Yūhi scanned the female with pale lavender hair, peeking at her eager boyfriend. "Heh, I should reserve a pair of tickets for us, her performances are truly entrancing, even more with this band." She was surprised to see his face look like a kid admiring a new toy. "These guy's performances are unforgettable, I hope you like it." Everybody from his continent had attended at least one event from this troupe, they had several subgroups that sometimes livened up a festival or ceremony.
Karin thanked Menma in her mind for giving her the opportunity to be mentored by Patchouli, the guidance was one she had yearned for and the Uzumaki was growing steadily. Her training on seals had also progressed at a prodigious pace, as even Kushina got surprised at how she absorbed the theory and managed to covert it to reality. Patchouli had once spoken of those who are born to be mages or researchers, despite coming from battle-oriented families. This made sense for her, as she wasn't one for physical confrontation, assassination, or mind games. Her role on a battlefield would be more supportive, as her master did with Remilia and the household in skirmishes with rival families. One second she could keep the enemy trapped was one her allies could use for a beatdown, or she could prepare a devastating technique while the others guided the enemy towards it.
The girl caught the Knowledge with a smirk and inquired her. "Have you head of a certain red string?" Her eyes widened at that, was her master implying that...? "Mukyu... This spell can be a bit cumbersome for the sight, but it makes for a nice hidden joke sometimes." Karin received a simple chant and used it, seeing a faint line with a light red color around her that ended at arm's length. "Can you see something different between us?" Patchouli's string was dark red and went to the distance instead, it meant she had already found her other half. "Oh. How convenient, look there." Naruto was being carried by Kate, she was much faster and knew her way around the mansion, as a furibund Menma chased after them, rainbow-colored hair waving wildly.
The kitsune had a thick shackle around his neck with an equally sturdy chain going towards Konoha, being such a deep scarlet coloring that was bordering on black. "True soulmates, those whom even the rivers of the afterlife can't separate." Only a handful of people had these on them, and all those Patchouli saw were from a certain group, and the mage already had an idea of who the other half of Menma was. "Are you curious about your bond, my dear pupil?" Karin couldn't lie, she really was itching to find that mysterious person. "But keep one thing in mind, you may fall for another girl, you may hate your other half, and there might be a huge age difference."
Forgive me if this chapter isn't up to par.
Red string exposition: in this fic, one can choose their other half to a degree, for some are really set in stone. If one hasn't found their mate and starts feeling attraction for someone who is also unbounded, there's a chance their strings become linked and then reinforce the now mutual attraction until it becomes love.
About the Phoenix summonings: they all came from eggs rescued and hatched by Mokou lo~ng ago, as their parents either abandoned them or got killed, they ended up taking some of her fire in their bodies, getting the rebirth by flames, but it's limited and must be refilled, or they might die for real. That's why you see Naruto summoning a griffin.
P.s.: the one who figures out Katherine's father might get a little prize, for her mother is Flandre. But put your guess in a review/P.M. so I can check it.
P.p.s.: I put Red Dawn because of Akatsuki, the girl, she will appear in the future with Hibiki.