Author:... *a good thiry minutes pass* soooo... uuuuuhhh...
I AM AWFUL AT UPDATING, OKAY.
Seriously. I am the worst at updating stuff. I can't promise I'll update regularly, as I do have a job and have to pay bills'n'crap, but... I'm really, really awful at updating, unless it's something I'm suuuper into.
NOT that I'm not still into Naruto, I really am - I just bounce from story to story. I have a few more chapters for this particular story ready, so please don't worry, but the point is that I am just plain awful at updating. Always have been.
...thank you, though, if you've favorited this story even though I, haha... haven't updated it in THREE YEARS.
...seriously though - THREE YEARS? I legit did not even realize, haha
Inner!angelslaugh:...*breathes heavily* THREE YEARS! THREE YEARS YOU LEFT ME
Author: *shoves Inner! back into the mind closet* without further interruptions... THE NEXT CHAPTER OF THE STORY AWAITS!
~:~
Kakuzu was quite annoyed. The idiot child was annoying, and he really itched to kill her.
Plus, she was avoiding the question.
"-I mean, it's not like it's hard to see whether or not I was a demon - hold on, what was the question again?"
She looked honestly curious.
"Where. Did. You. Get. The. Necklace?"
"Why? You going to kill the person who gave it to me?" the gaki questioned.
"Yes! It wasn't theirs to begin with!"
"Actually, it's technically mine," the teen said, looking as though a revelation had appeared. Dear Kamis, what now? "...You're Kakuzu, the person who tried to kill Hashirama for money, but instead he let you go."
And let Kakuzu keep the gem, which had been later stolen from him by an Uzu bitch. He wasn't sure who - the redheads all looked the same.
"I am," he said slowly. Through gritted teeth.
"I'm his reincarnation," she said with a smug smirk. "The Uzumaki let you buy it, but by that time, it was Hashirama's. By all rights, they were right to steal it from you."
Kakuzu stared at her in shock. Could it be true?
"No, that's a lie!" he tried to say. "I bought it from the Uzumaki -"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Please let me go?"
"No." He knew how to make pretty damn powerful genjutsus, and he put the girl under it with a quick handsign.
He needed to figure out what to do.
~:~
"Gaara-san. May I take a look at your seal?" Chiota smiled at the younger redhead, who glared at him for a minute before showing off his blatantly obvious seal.
Gaara noticed that Chiota, not one for showing negative emotions, was showing his horror at the sealing configuration on Gaara's body.
"Jiraiya-san!" The seal master appeared out of nowhere. "I need your help with this. It's a mess."
"Is there something wrong with my seal?" Gaara inquired.
Chiota looked disgusted again.
"Whoever sealed the Ichibi in there has no right to call themselves a sealing expert. Insomnia is something that usually marks the containers of the Ichibi, though the one I knew was quite pleasant."
"I thought it was called the Shukaku," Gaara said quietly.
"Huh," Jiraiya said as Chiota frowned. "Two different names?"
"No, the Ichibi is its title. I warn you, Gaara, do not disrespect the Ichibi," Chiota warned. "A name widely known - such as the Ichibi's name - is not a cause to use it without earning it."
Gaara thought about it. "Okay. Why is my seal bad?"
"It's nothing more than a glorified storage seal," Chiota said flatly. "Whoever did this doesn't deserve to practice the fine arts of the Uzumaki clan. At least that Namikaze man knew how to create seals - he was a brilliant man. Pity he's dead."
"How do we make his seal better?" Jiraiya questioned.
"We'll have to wait for Naruto to come back. She knows how her father created her seal."
~:~
Naruto blinked awake. She didn't know what had happened, but really, that had been a lot of darkness.
She was unrestrained, and there was no noise. Sitting up, her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room and noticed it was pretty deserted. She spotted the necklace sitting on a side table, and she went to the kitchen.
Her stomach rumbled. She opened a cupboard and her eyes literally sparkled.
"RAMEN!" She brought out five packs of the stuff and made them in one bowl. Then, when they were ready, she sighed at not having chopsticks and having the unusual utensils known as a 'fork'. Really, sometimes normal humans were dumb.
She slurped the Holy Food up, then wandered around the house, trying the windows and the back door. And the front door.
It was all locked. And the house seemed to be made of metal on the outside.
She whistled under her breath, silently amazed. Wow, he was thorough.
She still wondered why she was even alive. He was a killer, right?
She checked all the rooms for anything interesting, not daring to touch the necklace in case he booby-trapped it.
Still, why have a house that she can still easily get out of? All she needed was a little Magnet Style and she could melt the house.
She took another glance around.
A recent Bingo Book sat on the same table with the necklace. Edging around it, she opened the Bingo Book. Pages were flipped.
She stopped on her own page.
UZUMAKI NARUTO
RANK: TOKUBETSU GENIN. A RANK.
AFFILIATION: UZUSHIOGAKURE NO SATO
FORMER AFFILIATION: KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO
KEKKEI GENKAI: MULTIPLE. UNKNOWN.
PARENTS: NAMIKAZE MINATO, UZUMAKI KUSHINA
DESCRIPTION: Blonde, blue-eyed. Whisker marks on face, three on each side. Loud, annoying.
REWARD: 4,000,000,000 RYO ALIVE, 40,000,000 DEAD.
"So I'm wanted dead or alive." She looked at her picture. It was a recent one, taken when she was unaware - she didn't recall having her photo taken when she was walking with Tsunade. "Cool." She turned the pages more.
KAKUZU
RANK: S RANK
AFFILIATION: NEO-AKATSUKI
FORMER AFFILIATION: TAKIGAKURE NO SATO
KEKKEI GENKAI: UNKNOWN.
PARENTS: UNKNOWN.
DESCRIPTION: UNKNOWN.
REWARD: NONE.
FLEE ON SIGHT.
EXTRA: DO NOT ENGAGE.
"Oh, so he's really dangerous. Makes sense." She flipped through the book again.
UCHIHA ITACHI
RANK: S RANK.
AFFILIATION: AKATSUKI.
FORMER AFFILIATION: KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO.
KEKKEI GENKAI: SHARINGAN.
PARENTS: UCHIHA FUGAKU, UCHIHA MIKOTO.
DESCRIPTION: UNKNOWN.
REWARD: 4,000,000,000 RYO DEAD, EYES PRESERVED.
EXTRA: NO EYES, NO REWARD. USES SHARINGAN TO CONCEAL HIS LOOKS.
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, he's a Sharingan user. Obviously proficient in genjutsu." She was starting to get bored. She took the necklace off of the table, and she was pushed back, kunai spearing her body.
Blood sprayed. She was lucky she healed fast.
You just had to do that, Kurama deadpanned.
She pulled out all of them, noting disinterestedly that they all avoided major organs and veins and arteries.
She put the necklace back on, its presence natural and soothing.
That's probably because of the chakra in it. It's Hashirama's silver chakra.
You're ruining it. I already knew that.
Naruto sighed and sat down in a chair.
There really wasn't much to do. And she kinda wanted to keep the house standing - who knew what Kakuzu would do to her if she destroyed it.
She'd already gotten blood on the carpet.
She took a deep breath. What was your old man's name again?
You're going to do Dad?
Only a LITTLE bit. I can't do all of it at once, since he told me that it was technically still going.
She took a deep breath.
His name was Otsutsuki Hagoromo.
"Otsutsuki Hagoromo," Naruto repeated.
And she was whisked away with an unfamiliar swiftness.
