As hard as finding the village itself was the actual gate proved no challenge to find now that Naruto knew where he was looking. The gate guards, usually dull and inattentive to their duty except during important occasions, gave him a curious once-over, especially fixating on his headband and the girl on his back. He made a move to place Fuu on the ground but the girl was having none of it, she just clung to his back harder like a tick.
"Uhh Fuu, we're here. You can get off now." She just laughed slightly in his ear, a sound that Naruto had come to enjoy hearing ever since he had rescued her.
"What if I don't want to get off?" Naruto gained a cheeky grin as he craned his neck to try and look at Fuu who just moved back so he couldn't see her small blush. She usually wasn't this bold about anything; it wasn't productive in the village where subtlety and deceit got her food and clothing.
"I'm not a free taxi service you know." Fuu just nodded her head in disagreement of him furiously.
"Yes you are, that's part of being a big brother!" Both jinchuuriki froze; Naruto because he was so shocked and Fuu because she hadn't meant to say that out loud. Naruto carefully set Fuu down, which she allowed him to do without protest, and looked down to her with an enormous smile. Fuu could barely comprehend what was happening before she found warm, strong arms envelop her thin shoulders in a brotherly hug.
"I'm glad I found you imouto." A small tear trickled down her cheek at hearing those words and she dived back into the hug to wipe them off on Naruto's chest.
"Not as much as I'm happy you saved me Oniisan!" Naruto's smile grew before he swivelled and motioned for her to once again jump on his back, to which she did with enthusiasm.
"Umm identification please?" Naruto had almost forgotten the two were standing outside of the gates to a major hidden village. Currently the male gate guard didn't know what to make of the scene he had just witnessed while the female member looked ready to shed a tear at the emotional display. The man was rather large, impressively so, with muscles rippling along his body. Naruto guessed when it came down to it his chakra-enhanced strength would match up but he couldn't rule out the possibility the man could do something similar.
The woman was more lithe but with the definite air of somebody at least used to getting in and out of conflicts. Both of them were dark, darker than Naruto had ever seen anybody before, even Fuu. He had been told that many people from Kumo and Iwa had a brown complexion but he wasn't sure what that meant until now. However both were now staring firmly at him and the passenger on his back who peeped her head up over his right shoulder like a parrot.
"Uhh what do you mean identification? I'm Naruto Uzumaki." The gate guards looked exasperated and Naruto sighed thinking this was probably a regular occurrence with outsider visitors.
"Everybody in Lightning Country must have identification cards to help prevent trespassing into certain areas." Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly, he didn't know about that, nor had he been warned. In any case he certainly wouldn't have had identification for Fuu and she didn't even know her last name.
"Umm, couldn't somebody just steal the identification card and henge into the person?" The gate guards just narrowed their eyes wondering why an outsider with a strange headband was questioning their security measures. "Um anyway I don't have anything like that. I'm from Suna with a message from the Kazekage for the Raikage." Again the gate guards were suspicious but he quickly whipped out the scroll and showed them the Kazekage's seal.
"Okay, but during your time in the village, unless allowed by the Raikage, you must have an escort with you at all times." Naruto raised an eyebrow, as far as he knew the other hidden villages were nowhere near this tight when it came to security, it would slow many things down. Naruto didn't have that much of a problem with it anyway; he wasn't a spy so he had nothing to hide. He nodded and shrugged and the male gate guard went to find an available jounin to escort him.
"So you call each other siblings but from the looks of you, you can't possibly be related." It was the female who had spoken, usually she wouldn't have pried into private affairs but they had genuinely piqued her interest. Naruto wasn't sure what to say. 'Technically I kidnapped her from a hidden village because they were mistreating her, oh and also she's a jinchuuriki like me!' somehow didn't seem to cut it.
"Yeah, she never had that many people to trust before I came along I guess." The woman just smiled kindly and thankfully stopped prying any further as she caught Fuu's uncomfortable look. They waited around for a bit with both Naruto and Fuu getting highly bored. Fuu began to hum to herself which Naruto smiled at and didn't make an attempt to stop. The tune was familiar to him yet he didn't remember hearing anything like it recently. He internally shrugged and dropped it just before the gate guard came back with their guide.
She was definitely a jounin; there was that aura of accomplishment and confidence in her abilities that came with the position. Other than that Naruto would have said she was chuunin from her age. She couldn't have been more than nineteen with flowing sandy blonde hair that would have cascaded down her back except for the bandages that kept it in a waist-length pigtail. She was slim in build but she looked graceful and agile like a kunoichi should.
She wore a tight-fitting shirt that was black across the shoulders and arms but a light purple from her chest down. Fingerless gloves adorned both her hands while odd beads wrapped around her left forearm. Her pants were standard shinobi in black with a small purple cloud decal over her left ankle. They cut off just above the ankles and below that her legs were bound with tape and she had the standard-issue black sandals. Naruto thought it was a strange look but he couldn't argue with it if the girl was successful enough to earn full jounin so young.
"High, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." The girl just stared at him disinterestedly; Naruto suddenly felt something when he was near her like an innate familiarity. He shrugged it off as just a weird feeling or maybe something he ate and followed when the woman motioned for him to do so. "This is Fuu." The woman seemed to take more interest of the girl on his back than Naruto himself which he was a little disgruntled about but soon she went back to her normal air of apathy.
They walked for some time through stone hallways cut from the mountain and impressive bridges spanning the peaks, always heading in the direction of the blue dome-like structure around the largest mountain. Along the way the woman kept throwing them both curious glances but hid them well, afterwards he would look at nothing in particular and just shake her head as if in disbelief. Naruto had also begun to feel strange, he could feel the energy signatures of Kumo's jinchuuriki nearby but like in Taki he had no way of narrowing it down without first getting some information.
"So what's it like being a kunoichi for Kumo?" He asked it innocently enough but the woman rounded on him suddenly.
"Stop asking question, why do you even care? Once you're gone you'll probably never see me again and if you do it will probably be alongside those bigots the Raikage calls villagers." The woman turned back around, obviously in a huff while Naruto walked after her, now confused.
"What do you mean about the villagers?" The woman sneered slightly, more out of irritation that condescension.
"Like you would know anything about it." Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"Try me; I've had my share of problems with ignorant villagers." The woman just scoffed and kept walking
"Please, I bet you had a few bullies when you were younger and felt your childhood was terrible." Naruto's eyes narrowed again dangerously and he was beginning to dislike this woman for the way she arrogantly put her problems above others. Naruto wasn't shallow enough to believe he had the worst childhood out of anybody in the world but this woman didn't even care to ask.
"I would hardly call mobs of townspeople armed with weapons all out for my blood a few bullies. You've obviously had some hardship in your life but that gives you no right to belittle mine or Fuu's past. We've both had to live through being punished for something we both didn't understand and had no control over." The woman seemed to hesitate at those words, her annoyed sneer turning into a frown as she looked at both of them closer, finally noticing the kanji engraved on Naruto's forehead.
"Wait, are you a-?"
"Jinchuuriki? Yeah I am. I had hoped to keep that a secret so me and Fuu could at least have some peace while we're here but now it looks like I'm going to have to find somewhere else after speaking to the Raikage." The woman just seemed visibly shocked, her eyes latched onto the girl wrapped almost protectively around Naruto's back. Yeah, Fuu is too." He answered her unspoken question as she looked at them both before narrowing her own eyes.
""What is this, some cruel joke the villagers are pulling? Who put you up to this? Did Bee put you up to this as a joke because if he did I'm going to kill him. It's not funny!" Naruto just stared at her slightly disbelieving in.
"What are you talking about?" The woman just walked over and grabbed his shirt rather harshly.
"I don't believe you, prove it!" Naruto pulled her hand off his shirt despite her unnatural strength and backed off a little.
"I can't, flaring Kyuubi's chakra would bring a lot of unwanted attention and Fuu can't even access hers." He cursed, not wanting to have revealed which biju he carried; then again his headband was a dead giveaway. The woman looked a little awed, she had suspected from the kanji on the forehead protector but he had just confirmed it. It wasn't everyday you got to meet the container for the most powerful entity in the elemental nations.
"I need to take you to see the Raikage immediately." Naruto just looked at her strangely while rubbing the back of his head, a gesture Fuu always found amusing because she knew it meant he was embarrassed.
"Um, aren't we going there anyway?" The woman just looked at him blankly for a moment before scowling and turning to go, just hiding the smallest of blushes as they quickened their pace through the village.
"Yugito Nii." It was barely a whisper, even Naruto didn't quite catch it with his impressive hearing.
"What was that?" The woman didn't turn and just carried on walking in the direction of the domed building.
"My name Is Yugito Nii." Naruto grinned broadly but that was missed as Yugito hurried on through stone passageways and across tremendous bridges. They kept winding through the village until finally they entered the Raikage Tower and the difference was noticeable. Outside it was cold and very windy, in the glass casing it was actually rather pleasant, warm but not enough to make somebody sweat. Yugito continued to lead the two of them as they climbed higher and higher into the building.
Naruto just kept gazing out into the village, his breath taken away by the sight from this altitude. Their journey came to an end outside a rather plain looking door that clearly had 'Raikage' inscribed in the wood. A kindly-looking and very attractive woman with short silver hair and dark skin nodded at them to enter and Yugito did so without another word. Naruto could honestly say that the sight inside was almost as awe-inspiring as the view of the mountains.
Sat behind a comparatively small desk sat the largest and most muscled man Naruto had ever seen in his life. Just the sight of him exuded power and respect without him having to twitch a single one of his enormous muscles. His platinum blonde hair was done back in thick dreadlocks which flicked outwards at his neck and had a matching goatee and moustache. The man wasn't wearing a shirt and the desk hid his equally impressive legs so all Naruto could see of his clothing were the two golden bracers around his wrists.
"So you're the messenger from the Kazekage?" Naruto nodded; annoyed at being called just a messenger but he didn't want to say anything in front of this behemoth of a man. He politely nodded and quickly reproduced the scroll he had shown to the gate guards, handing it over. He noticed that the man's hands dwarfed his own and had to keep reminding himself he was only fourteen of else he might have felt inadequate. The man looked over the scroll with a practised eye, his brow quirking every so often as the only indication he was reading at all.
"This is interesting, I will have to give this some thought but many of your Kazekage's requests are very reasonable. It is impressive for such a young man." Naruto smiled a bit at the praise his friend was getting, not really caring if it might be mistaken for patriotism, he knew where his loyalties lay. "I will have my reply ready in a few days for you to return to Suna with." Here came the part that Naruto suddenly became very nervous with. Despite having known four different Kages the man in front of him still cast an intimidating shadow.
"I'm sorry Raikage-sama, I will be unable to return with the reply." The man looked questioning but thankfully there was no suspicion in his eyes.
"And why is that? You are a messenger aren't you?" The bulky man looked Naruto over once, including the young girl who was still clinging to his back.
"Actually no, I am just a close friend with the Kazekage and was on my way here anyway so he thought the message would be safe with me." The Raikage raised his large brow but nodded, accepting the answer.
"And why, might I ask, were you on your way here then?" Naruto stood a little straighter subconsciously from the natural authority in the man's voice.
"I was instructed by Gaa-the Kazekage to go on a two year training trip to better prepare myself for future threats." Again the massive man nodded even though it was obvious he was now in some thought or another.
"And why would you come to Kumo when Konoha are not only closer but currently allies with Sunagakure?" Naruto held back his smirk, now rather thankful for the list of reasons Gaara had rattled off.
"There are rumours that the two jinchuuriki that currently reside in Kumo have somehow gotten perfect control over their biju." The Raikage nodded very slowly, now extremely wary as he noticed Yugito tense slightly from her position by the door. "I have come to request similar training, or at least guidance from one of them to better control my own." The man in front of him didn't even look fazed by Naruto's sudden revelation.
"And you contain...?"
"The Kyuubi Raikage-sama." That time the man did show some surprise, the last he heard the Kyuubi was under the control of Konoha, not Suna. Not only did this mean that the Land of Fire was lying but they were substantially weaker thanks to that loss.
"And what are your other reasons for coming here?" Naruto had to physically prevent himself from breaking out into a sweat; the man was a fearsome interrogator despite the seeming innocence of his questions.
"I have a lightning affinity that until now has gone untrained. The Kazekage and I thought it was wise to fix that in preparation for my eventual conflict with Akatsuki." Everybody in the room visibly tensed at the mention of the organisations name, all of them knew of it and the dangers it posed to the jinchuuriki. "I should also probably note that Fuu here..." he motioned in an obvious way to the slightly frightened girl on his back "... is also a jinchuuriki, container of the Nanabi." If the Raikage didn't look all that surprised before he certainly did now.
Not only did one jinchuuriki just walk into his village, but two and both were relatively young. If he was his father the two would probably have been already restrained and examined for ways to extract the creatures inside of them into more acceptable hosts. As it was the Raikage already knew that it required an Uzumaki to house the Kyuubi, nobody else would have the sheer chakra reserves at the required age of sealing. The girl was a different matter but she seemed to be under the protection of the blonde and the wrath of the Kyuubi was something A had no intention of bringing down on his village.
"I agree that it would more than likely be in everybody's best interests if you two gained control over your biju." Naruto looked a little surprised that the man had included Fuu in that statement but he didn't show it. In honesty he hadn't really thought about Fuu using her abilities, the other chakra couldn't get through yet so she was safe. "However I cannot ask the two jinchuuriki of this village to give up their time to train two outsiders. If they agree then I have no qualms whatsoever."
Naruto smiled and would have shaken the man's hand if he didn't fear he might not get it back afterwards. The man just nodded to Naruto's right and he turned only to see Yugito looking at him strangely. She seemed to be eyeing him up and it made him rather uncomfortable the way her eyes roamed over his body. It wasn't anything romantic or lustful, more like a predator eyeing up its prey to see its worth as a kill.
"Bee will be fine with it I'm sure, if the kid really needs it that badly I'll help out where I can." The Raikage nodded his agreement as Naruto just stood blankly between them before turning back to Yugito.
"Wait, you're one of the jinchuuriki?" The woman nodded rather grimly and Naruto suddenly felt bad about the way he had spoken to him earlier. "I'm sorr-"
"Save it, you didn't know. Besides it was also foolish of me to assume my problems were worse than your own." Naruto nodded equally solemnly, out of the three of them Fuu still probably had the worst of it. This woman looked like a capable and worthwhile jounin so at some point she either found the approval she was looking for or life cut her a brake like it had for Naruto. "Come on, we better go find Bee and tell him about it. He'll probably be alright training you but with that man sometimes even I can't tell." Naruto nodded again, following Yugito out of the room while the Raikage took it all it with a curious eye, wondering what to make of this situation.
Naruto was once again led through winding passageways but this time deeper into the mountains; further from the entrance to the village. After a while the cramped stone hallways seemed rather oppressive and seemed to bear down on him with all the weight of the mountain. To say it was intimidating would have been doing it an injustice; he wondered what kind of person regularly walked down these hallways.
They emerged into a large plateau that overlooked yet more mountains around the back of the village. In the centre of it stood a man Naruto could almost compare to the Raikage in size and sheer intimidation. Like the Raikage his hair was a platinum blond bordering on white that was pulled into flatter dreads that better matched his clean-cut beard. He wore a standard white armour vest but nothing underneath which showed off the tattoo for 'iron' inscribed on his shoulder. He also had two blue bull horns tattooed on his left check below his sunglasses.
He had an assortment of swords crisscrossing his back and Naruto wondered what each of their uses were considering there were seven and he couldn't use them all. He had a white bandanna around his neck and a brown belt around his waist that supported his normal navy pants, also crisscrossed by white belt-like strips of cloth. To complete the look he had a matching set of white bracers and greaves to make him look, in a word, fearsome.
"Hey Bee, you'll never guess what washed up in Kumo!" Naruto was rather surprised at the relaxed and friendly way Yugito addressed the man compared with the much colder way she spoke to him. The large man, identified as 'Bee', saw them and walked over with his features set in an impassive, unemotional look.
"Yo little miss two, what can I do for you?" Naruto watched him for a moment as the plateau went eerily quiet. 'Did he just rap?'
"This is Naruto and Fuu." Bee looked at them, his eyes hidden by his sunglasses but still obviously looking them over as everybody seemed to be doing.
"Well look at the new jinchuuriki additions to Kumo; Miss seven Fuu and Mr Nine Naruto." Everybody looked at the man with astonishment, he had instantly known they were both jinchuuriki, but not only that, he knew which Biju they held. "Don't look all shocked or Hachibi's pride'll get mocked." Naruto sighed in relief, so this was the container for the eight-tails, maybe he had some kind of ability to sense other Biju.
"Yes, while not the most level-headed out of us, Gyuki certainly was a perceptive little oxtopus." Naruto looked inwardly strangely at Kyuubi.
Don't you mean octopus?" He just heard chuckling from his head.
"You'll see, maybe." Naruto just huffed in annoyance; Kyuubi could really get to him sometimes when she held back information. He still hadn't fully forgiven her for hiding her name for so long.
"How did you know which biju we had? Or that we were jinchuuriki at all?" Bee looked at him seriously, as if he was considering the question completely. He walked over and placed one of his large fingers against Naruto's forehead protector.
"It wasn't all that hard to find, I just had to use my mind." They all heard a snort from Yugito but Bee ignored it. "You made it easy with your forehead protector, for little seven I had to be an inspector. Suna has one, Iwa five and four, but that's a bore, you want to know more. Three and six belong to Kiri so here's my theory that little Fuu isn't so teary because I'm right and Nanabi is in sight! Aww Yeah!" He used hand gestures to punctuate his rhymes and Naruto didn't quite believe what he had just seen.
Everybody just stared at the man for a few seconds, not even crickets could be heard chirping in the background it was so quiet. He looked up in pride with his arms crossed and while Naruto was rather impressed that he had managed to work all that out so quickly he was still incredibly wierded out.
"Why are you talking like that?" Over to his side Yugito just face-palmed and muttered something obscene under her breath. Very suddenly Naruto found himself enveloped in Bee's muscled arm as he wrapped both him and Fuu in a large semi-hug.
"Lemme tell ya Naruto, rap's the music of ma' soul so be very clear when I say that for me there ain't any other way." Naruto managed to work out of the man-hug quickly and went back to staring at the large man in front of him. He didn't want to make a bad impression on the man because it was his decision whether or not he would receive training.
"Well nice ta meet you Bee, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, this here is my little sister Fuu and we came here to get training from you!" Everybody on the plateau just stood slackjawed at Naruto's back, except for Fuu who giggled a little at his on-the-spot rap. Yugito's eyes just stared at him disbelieving while they flickered back and forth between him and Bee who was equally shocked. In a flash of lighting Naruto felt his bones being shattered as he was enveloped in an even more deadly man-hug. Fuu didn't fare much better being on his back at the time.
"Lil' nine understands me; this is how it should be for jinchuuriki!" Naruto didn't exactly appreciate being called little but he couldn't complain right now because he didn't have full use of his lungs. When he started to see images of his life flashing before his eyes Bee finally let go, letting both him and Fuu fall to the ground in a heap. "What about you little Fuu, got any sick rhymes to spew?" Yugito's eyes nearly shot out of their sockets and she quickly ran over and grabbed Fuu's hands.
"No way, I'm not letting you corrupt this one." With that she pulled Fuu onto her back much like Naruto had done and ran away. Naruto looked frightened and made a move to go after her but Bee put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, the entire hand engulfing his shoulder.
"Don't worry about little miss seven, with Yugito she gonna be in heaven." Naruto wasn't entirely sure what that mean but Bee didn't give him the time as he swung him around to face him. "So you come to the Killer Bee for training?" He smiled almost wickedly "For you, draining; for me, entertaining." Naruto suddenly got a sinking feeling growing at the pit of his stomach as he looked up at the Hachibi jinchuuriki.
Naruto practically had to drag himself through the threshold of the house, for the first training session he would be having with Bee of many he hadn't held back in the slightest. Bee had told him that the first step to controlling the biju was to control his own body, or at least rhymes to that effect. To that effect he had been doing physical exercises until his muscles screamed at him to stop and then he was forced to carry on anyway.
That was interspersed with 'light' spars with the man himself, spars that Naruto had been beaten in repeatedly. He had even pulled out the Fuijin no iki at one point, much to Bee's surprise, but still hadn't been able to win. Bee's honed and conditioned reflexes combined with his training and his own biju allowed him to dodge most of Naruto's attacks; and all of that was before he pulled out the swords. Naruto had at first thought it was some kind of joke when Bee entered his seven-sword stance but like many people who had faced him before Naruto quickly found that it was no laughing matter.
It left absolutely no defences open, the man was like a whirling maelstrom of death which was ironic considering who he was fighting. To a non-kenjutsu-user like Naruto it was almost impenetrable; Naruto had been forced to use kunai sharpened with wind-chakra just to survive the initial onslaught. That wasn't to say Naruto was considering kenjutsu, he was more of an upclose and personal or ninjutsu user anyway.
He stumbled in through the open door and nearly collapsed on the soft carpet right there and then. He only stayed standing because he realised Yugito and Fuu were sitting on the couch in the room he had just entered. Both were looking at him with amused expressions as he just stood there, battered and bruised and barely conscious. Well, Yugito was amused; Fuu immediately sped over to check on him.
"Oniisan!" The mint haired girl was already trying to check him over but he quickly put a placating hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright Fuu, I was just training." The girl was still upset; she didn't like seeing the man who had saved her looking like this.
"But you're hurt!" Naruto chuckled a little, any more and he probably would have erupted into a fit of coughing.
"That just shows how hard I worked." Fuu just furrowed her brow, eyes watering slightly.
"But why do you work so hard if it just hurts you?" Yugito had gotten up to leave them alone at this point but she stayed by the door, watching with interest as Fuu asked that.
"I have to get stronger Fuu; there are lots of dangerous people in the world who want to hurt me and the people precious to me like you. I need to get stronger so I can protect you and them." By now Fu's eyes weren't just watering, tears were streaming down her face as she ran into Naruto's body, once again doing her best to hug him.
"Oooph! Careful Fuu, I'm still a little sore." The girl immediately backed away and blushed embarrassedly. "Don't worry about it; just know that I'm doing this for a reason that's important to me." Fuu nodded, now understanding somewhat; she may have just been a kid but she understood protecting what was precious to you, but before now she never had anything precious to protect.
"Then I want to train as well so you don't have to bear that burden by yourself!" Naruto chuckled again, ruffling Fuu's hair a bit which she didn't really appreciate much.
"I'd be happy to train you but if you want anything better you would have to ask Yugito or Bee-sensei." He turned to look at said woman who was stood in the doorway who until now had been smirking to herself. Now she felt rather caught in the headlamps as Naruto looked at her expectantly and Fuu just stared at her with her orange puppy-dog eyes. There was no force on earth that could stand against those innocent, recently watery eyes.
"I guess I could show you some basic taijutsu but if you only have two years for the training trip, and I don't suspect you'll be spending it all here, in that case she won't be able to get very much of the biju training in." Naruto just nodded, he had already resolved to train Fuu as much as he could. The better she could defend herself the better and she was a jinchuuriki, she would be able to pick things up pretty quickly once she got in touch with her biju. Chomei seemed nice enough so he suspected she would want to help out as much as possible which was only plus.
"Alright, that's cool then!" Yugito just chuckled and Naruto raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"It's nothing, you just sound like somebody I know, you'll probably see her around, all the guys do eventually." She said that with a knowing smirk that was more for herself than Naruto but he just nodded.
"Well alright then." With that Naruto promptly fainted to the floor with a heavy thump.