For better or worse, I do not own Naruto.
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Beta read by the wonderful OceanLord2017 and BlandonM!
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Chapter 7 Snapshots of Time—Fu
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Previously:
Forced to flee from the Leaf Village, Naruto, Karin, and Haku, make their way through the world, working to carry out an unknown plan of Naruto's. Meanwhile, Kurama schemes to free himself and his siblings.
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Land of Waterfalls
Takigakure
Residence of the Guardian
"You did very well during your training today, Fu," her jonin sensei for ninjutsu praised, patting the young Jinchuuriki on the shoulder in an affectionate manner. "The others and I are proud of you." Then he cocked his head at how she did not seem as enthusiastic as usual. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes. No. I, you know," the orange-eyed girl let her eyes be shaded by her green hair for a moment. "It's just, I wish I could do what the other kids do after training. Go somewhere together to relax, and drink, and talk, and play together."
The man gave a regretful sigh at how her voice dripped with longing, putting both hands on her shoulders now and patiently waited for her to look up at him. "You are proving how valuable you are to Takigakure, and thus people will start seeing how precious a person you yourself are," he promised, his eyes brimming with sincerity. "It will take a while, since people are slow to change their minds, but before you know it you will have more friends than you can handle."
He really was an excellent actor.
"Notice how he praises you, and offers you all that you want, and all you have to do is keep on being their weapon?" Lucky hissed from within Fu's head, unheard by the Jinchuuriki's handlers.
"Thank you!" beamed Fu. "I'll continue to do my best then! Can you stay for dinner this time?" For as much as she knew already the truth, she still ached for this.
"Now Fu," the jonin said with a little chuckle, letting a shade of regret be seen in his eyes. "I've told you before, the rules are that whoever teaches you, can't have that kind of relationship with their students. It's not just you, those rules apply to all ninja here."
"Okay," she said quietly, not seeming offended, and stood properly to attention until he left. Afterwards, she sat on the ground to hug her knees.
"I'll never understand why you torment yourself so," Lucky noted, the sting to her voice making Fu flinch a little.
I'm sorry, she thought. But I just had to try. Again.
For as long as she could remember, they had been manipulating her like that. Every ninja up to the Village Headman. All trying to make her into an obedient weapon, while secretly hating her. Offering treats and patting her head to make her happy to stay, to hide how they were also trying to leash her with chains of false love and loyalty.
And they did hate her.
Hated and feared her for something they themselves had done to her. No matter how hard they tried to hide it.
If not for Lucky and the powers she had granted Fu, doubtless she would now be an obedient drone, willing to slaughter people for the barest sign of affection from these people.
Disobedience or lack of cooperation meant isolation. Obedience earned her the attention she had so craved since she was a little girl.
Even the official name of her home where she lived all alone, the "Residence of the Guardian," was to try and make her feel like she should be loyal.
Yet what the Villagers were all unaware of, was how all Jinchuuriki were, to varying degrees, empathic. People sensitive to the emotions around them.
Honestly, Fu suspects that is why so many Jinchuuriki end up succumbing to their Tailed Beast. They grow up feeling all the fear, hatred, and greed directed towards them from childhood, even if it is really meant for what is sealed within them. It makes them too vulnerable to the their prisoners, who use every advantage they can to try and be free.
While Fu's own ability is relatively minor, it was still enough to pick up hints of what the carefully selected ninja who interacted with her really felt. Especially since unlike most other Jinchuuriki, Lucky had made her consciously aware of it. Even then, the dissonance between what they said and did, and what she had felt from them, might have driven her insane if she had not realized the truth behind it all. Understood what her teachers were trying to turn her into.
It was Lucky who had saved her in the end. Despite her previous hosts, and her own desire to free, the Seven Tailed Demon Beetle had been disgusted by what she had seen happening to the young girl. Also boredom she claimed, having nothing really to do in her cell. She remained very clear she would still kill Fu to escape her prison, except in the meantime she saw no reason to not frustrate the efforts of her true jailers.
Fu had sobbed and cried throughout the night when Lucky had approached her in her sleep and spelled out just what was really happening to her and what they intended to use her for, and what those strange sensations Fu had been feeling really were.
For the briefest moment she had considered going along with what they were doing to her. Accepting what they wanted her to be. Yet even in her darkest moments, she could not stomach betraying herself so.
It was not just because of how she was disgusted that they would try to do such a thing to a human being—and she was human! Whatever they said behind her back! It was her iron refusal to live a lie. Plus a nice dollop of spite and indignation.
How could they not see that lives mattered!? That a mindless killing machine was wrong!?
Of course, Fu had killed before in training sessions, because her handlers had wanted to be sure she could. That she could 'protect herself.' So they had set her against criminals, and foreign prisoners of no value, who were just strong enough to challenge her, and forced her to kill in self-defence. Because they cared about her.
Only she knew there was a world of a difference between fighting to stay alive and being dispatched to a battlefield, or town, or even a Hidden Village, with orders to slaughter everything before her . . .
A line that she would not cross.
So it had continued for years, with the ninja trying to twist Fu into their ideal weapon, with Lucky sabotaging it from within her as she whispered in words of doubt.
I'm so glad to have you as a friend, Lucky, Fu projected with her thoughts, as she said every day. And yes, I know that if you see the chance to free yourself you'll still kill me to do it.
She said that every day too.
"Foolish human."
XXX
[Flashback]
Years ago
Fu's Mindscape
"Why do you want to know my name?" growled the Seven Tailed Beetle, chained down amongst red water, with enclosing pillars of stone around it.
"Well, calling you 'Seven Tails' seems kinda silly," grinned Fu. "That's probably what we Humans called you, right? And since you hate us so much, you've got to call yourself something else, right?"
For an endless moment the giant beast stared down at her.
"You're lucky I'm too chained up to kill you," Nanabi finally threatened, except Fu noticed there was not quite as much bite to it as usual.
"Oh! That's it! I'll call you 'Lucky'!"
". . . What?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Fu jumped up in down in joy. "I'll call you Lucky and that way you don't have to hear that old name anymore! And it's perfect because you keep saying 'lucky'! Lucky seven! Yes! What do you think, Lucky!?"
". . . Go to sleep. You're obviously suffering from sleep deprivation." With that, the Seven Ta—no. Then Lucky pointedly looked away from Fu, signaling she was done talking.
XXX
Present
With another sigh, Fu finally got up and went to her private library.
It was the only luxury she was really permitted. Even the powers-that-be recognized that she needed some form of entertainment between endless training. Otherwise they risked the girl carrying a monster, snapping from the stress.
Reading had originally seemed like a great idea, as she received only books that spoke of ninja loyally obeying their masters. By the time she was ten however, she was devouring them with such increasing fervor, her teachers had decided it would be more productive to take her to a bookstore as a reward for good behaviour.
At first they had been careful to make sure she only had books which endorsed what a 'proper' shinobi should by. As time passed though, her 'escorts,' who did not care much for reading themselves, had gotten sloppy, and failed to miss how many different genres and worlds she was discovering in ink and paper. Oh, nothing remotely traitorous, but certainly material which got her thinking. And once you started silently thinking questions on one topic, you could learn how to do so for others . . .
Even so, the Village had been careful in doling out this privilege, using it spur her into training even harder to meet their ever-growing expectations. Lucky made a constant point of noting how they were always being careful to keep her from feeling too valuable, too irreplaceable. Doing their best to keep her from thinking her power gave her any authority.
Except whenever she came home, Fu would look upon her rows of bookshelves filled with romance, shadowy figures who were still heroes who made the world a brighter place, strange lands with stranger creatures. As she stared at them, she wondered if she would have the same level of courage as those fictional characters.
What would they do if they were in her situation?
Deep down she knew the answer, and wondered if she would find both the opportunity, and bravery to do so.
Fu was fourteen years old when her whole world changed.
XXX
It was her first C-rank mission. Nothing special really, just to take care of some wild animals which were causing trouble for some farmers. The main test was to see how Fu reacted while being outside of the Village, hence the two squad escort.
The only real challenge had been her having to kill and clean the animals herself, and with a sick certainty she knew it was them preparing her for having to do it to other humans. A part of her made her wonder why they were taking so long to do so, with her best guess being that they wanted to see how stable she was before they got 'serious.'
"FU!" rang in her head, making her stumble and fall as she was leaping from tree branch to branch. Reflexes took over, and she grabbed onto one without issue.
"What's wrong!?" barked the Jonin Captain in charge.
She ignored him, and yelled inside, Lucky! What was that!? Can't—
"You need to run. Now. Head to your right as fast as you can. Now!"
Buh-wuh!?
"Do you trust me?"
Fu hesitated a heartbeat longer, and then heaved herself up. Living in her belly or not, this was her one and only friend asking.
The instant her toes were planted, chakra surged through her, and she took off as fast as she could.
There are startled exclamations behind her, but that is it before she can hear the sounds of wordless pursuit right behind her. She has chosen to run, and there can only be one response to that.
Lucky, talk to me! thought Fu, even as she fled for her life. What is going on!?
"Another Jinchuuriki is up ahead, on the run from his Village. Alone neither of you have a chance, but together you just might. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, is twelve, and is apparently a loudmouth. Oh, and his name's Naruto."
The revelation almost make her stumble, before her speed doubles.
Another Jinchuuriki. Someone just like her.
Desperately she shoves those thoughts aside before they can overwhelm her, and poured all she had into getting there.
They almost passed by each other.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted him, going the opposite direction and looking at her in turn.
She cannot lose him!
"Help!" she cried.
Surprise and then determination flashed across the blonde boy's face, and he changed directions to come right to her, with them meeting in the middle. His approach was open, with no signs of hostility, his attention on the trees around them, looking for danger.
"What's wrong—?"
Her escort caught up.
Without hesitation a fire and water jutsu are fired at Naruto and his companions, along with a bunch of shuriken and kunai. He made a hand-sign, and a wall of clones appeared in a burst of smoke to sacrifice themselves against the attacks.
Two jonin came at Fu with kunai drawn, so she spun fast with one palm raised to fire webs to ensnare them.
"Naruto!" called a brunette girl with him. "Back to where we just came!"
"Right! C'mon green-hair girl!"
More clones served as a distraction, and Fu followed them to a clearing with a lazy river running by.
Perfect.
With open space, a pair of beetle wings bloomed into existence on her back. This was why she wore shirts which exposed her midriff after all.
Taking to the air with her new freedom of space, the area suddenly became filled with a thick fog.
"Hello?" she called out despite herself.
She barely dodged kunai and shuriken thrown at her, and heard Naruto yelling, "Don't make noise, or they can hear you!"
"Well you're yelling!"
"I'm a clone!"
A burst of wind tore the fog away, and Fu saw it was one of her jonin guards responsible. "The Hiding in the Mist jutsu, eh?" he growled. "Well, no—blaw!?"
The man took in how three of the eight pursuers were dead with needles in their throats, and the two Fu had ensnared were only now catching up.
For Naruto's team, the redheaded girl was hanging back, while a small army of Naruto clones were ready for a fight. No sign of the brunette.
"So fast!" gasped Fu, hovering above them all.
"No matter," glared the jonin captain. "Fu! You will return with us now!"
"No!"
"So be it! Wind Release: Greater Air Current Dance!" Molding wind chakra into his hands, he generated air currents which had her bobbing and weaving against her will as her wings tried to compensate, even as dust was thrown into her eyes.
Instinctively she dispersed of Lucky's power, dropping down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she hopped back before his jutsu could adjust, putting her back to a tree.
Two jonin leapt at her with kunai drawn, while the rest went after her rescuers (because they would be, she was sure, once she had a chance to talk with them) since they were acting as the more immediate threat.
Bringing up her left arm, Fu brought her elbow down and around so it snapped right through the full-grown tree trunk right behind her, breaking it in two. Using her momentum, she turned to grab it within crook of her right arm, stepped forward, and swung the whole mass at the jonin before they could dodge.
Her awesome strength was one of Lucky's cooler gifts.
A ninth guard she had not known about appeared behind her, only for him to duck from a senbon thrown at his head, which gave her some breathing space.
Glancing to the side, she saw the brunette girl with Naruto, had another jonin at her feet, and was holding back another and the jonin captain with giant, mirrors which floated about her, and senbon. Meanwhile Naruto's clones were harassing them, or guarded the redhead.
The jonin fighting Fu tried for a genjutsu now that surprise was lost, yet Lucky's power flickered and dispelled it.
"Wh-what!?" he gasped. "You can't!"
Her fist crush his head in.
She blinked, staring at the all the crimson liquid, before a screeching voice in her head got her back on track.
Be free.
Her wings manifested, and she flew right at her remaining enemies. "Hiding in Scale Powder!" she cried, forming a single hand-sign, and spewed out blinding glitter from her mouth.
The brunette compensated flawlessly as if it were her mist again, and stabbed one opponent right in the throat.
"Traitor!" screamed the jonin captain, exposing his back to the mirror-user to try and kill her with his last breath. Literally, as blades of winds shot at her.
Fu weaved around them, yet knew she would pass too far away from him to reach. "Hidden Waterfall Style: Watercutting Sword," she muttered, and a sword of water appeared in either hand, and she removed her wings again to roll in a circle mid-air, both blades flashing out to cut through his leg and side.
A barrage of shuriken from the clones finished him off.
Silence.
The man's accusing eyes seem to be glaring at her still, so she felt the need to say, "I guess I—"
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" exploded the blonde.
XXX
Naruto stabbed a finger at green-haired girl with the surprisingly pretty (orange!) eyes. "Why were they after you? Why did they try and kill us!?"
"Naruto," Haku softly cut in. "We have to go."
"Not until we find out what just happened."
"Uhm, right," the new girl said a bit nervously. "Uhm," she repeated, "I'm Fu. Look, your name is Naruto, right?"
"And how did you know that?" Haku softly asked, somehow now behind Fu, with senbon at her throat.
"Lucky told me and she's the Seven Tailed Beetle so I'm a Jinchuuriki and she told me to come find you and I swear it's true!" she rushed out as fast as she could.
Except she did not look afraid.
More than anyone, Naruto knew how scary Haku could be. Mostly because either his best friend hid it so well, or (this was his bet) nobody else lived long enough to see it again.
Instead she was looking at Naruto with something somehow more unsettling.
Hope.
What?
"Karin?" Haku tersely said.
"Ah, she's telling the truth," said his cousin, looking both quizzical and agitated. Possibly because of the sudden fight they had just hand. "And she really does have a lot of chakra. She's the one we were trying to avoid before she came barreling at us."
"Wait what, you believe me that easily?" asked Fu with a touch of surprise, before a smile lit up her face. "That's great! Oh, you're a sensor who can tell if I'm lying! Awesome! I totally want to leave this Village, have for years, but I didn't have anywhere to go, and they'd have hunted me down. Only now there's two of us, and that's better, and I've now got people to talk to! Can we be friends? No wait, we just went through a fight together, we're definitely friends!"
He blinked as he tried to follow the bubbly chatter, yet the last part definitely stuck.
"Of course we can be friends!" he gladly assured her.
With a sigh, Haku put away his weapon. "Naruto, as much as I love the idea of helping another Jinchuuriki, and this will certainly make parts of our plans easier, we're also talking about another one of the nine Tailed Beasts, and the third strongest at that. It's not just Waterfall's strongest weapon, it is used to keep the international balance. With just you we're going to cause an uproar. Maybe, no, probably, cause a war. If we have two, reserved only for the Great Nations, then everyone will attack us to try and get you two first, or pre-emptively take us out!"
"Then we'll just beat them up!" Naruto boldly declared, shooting a fist in the air.
"Yeah!" Fu cheered, imitating him. "They won't stand a chance!"
"There's two of them now, we're doomed," Karin sighed, but then found herself smiling all the same, with Haku doing the same.
"Yep," he agreed. "Let's make sure they don't have kids."
". . . Wait what?" a blushing Naruto squeaked, while Fu cocked her head in confusion.
"Right now though," Haku continued, "we need to get out of here. Naruto, we're going to need another false trail.
XXX
"So Fu," said Naruto as they ran from tree branch to tree branch. "Tell me about yourself."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, my name's Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen, but not the time it takes to cook it. My friends and family. Oh, and I also dislike people who betray you for no good reason. And my goal is, well, I'll tell you later. It's kinda a long story."
"Karin Uzumaki," his cousin primly said. ""I like perfumes and okonomiyaki. I dislike gyoza, and people who pick fights with my family. For my dream," she paused in thought, looking conflicted. "Nothing too specific beyond surviving, and what Naruto was talking about."
"Haku Yuki," the final member of the trio introduced himself. He had a pleasant smile which radiated 'Dangerous? I'm not dangerous? What makes you say such a silly thing like that?' "Friends and family for me too, and I dislike needless violence. My dream is to see Naruto's come to fruition."
"Okay! My name is Fu, and I like reading books, and gambling since it makes Lucky happy."
"Is its name really Lucky?" asked Naruto.
"Nah! It's just better than calling her, 'hey you!' What do you call yours? Actually, which one do you have?"
"Uh," Naruto blanked. "We don't really talk. And it's the dumb fox."
"Oh," she blinked in surprise. "That's weird. And oh man yeah, us being together is going to reeeeeeally freak people out."
"Are you on a sugar high?" asked Karin with genuine curiosity.
"Like I said, this is the first time I've been able to really talk to people. Nobody cared back there! So yeah, I guess what I dislike is how nobody wanted to really talk to me before. Not honestly."
It took a moment, but then Karin got it. "You can tell when people are lying too."
"Yup!"
Naruto blinked a few times, and then it belatedly occurred to him how accepting Fu had been of them all. Guess it made sense now.
"So wait, you're on the run?" Fu realized.
"Yeah, the Fire Daimyo called for my head," scowled Naruto.
"More specifically," corrected Karin, "they didn't trust him as a host, and wanted a new one."
"Hey wait, if you were trying to lay low, and didn't know I was a Jinchuuriki, why'd you help me?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked quizzically, wondering why she would even. "How else am I supposed to act if someone comes up to me needing it?"
Karin loudly groaned into her hands, and Haku raised his gaze to the sky to shake his head. Except Fu could not shake the feeling they were exaggerating it. More importantly, he had done all that for her because . . . she had ask him to? Just like that?
In the ninja world, most people would refer to a person like that as one and only one thing: a fool.
For Fu? She would call such a person a 'hero.' Just like in all the story books she had devoured, and now here she was in the presence of one!
Oh no! Does that make me the princess who needs to be saved all the time!? I can't let that happen! I've got to kill some guys, and save him, to make that go away!
Fortunately she was not the only one who wanted to change the subject.
"Those were some pretty impressive moves," said Haku. "Are you a swordsman?"
There was a long, loooooong history in the swords-crazy Land of Water over whether or not it was sexist to call a woman a 'swordsman' instead of a 'swordswoman.' All before the ninja clans became unified. Honestly, it would not have been such a big deal if not for tempers having been stirred up by a certain misogynist taking offense to women being than him, and a female swords master with surprisingly thin skin. It had been Byakuren, the First Mizukage, and founder of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, who had ended the nonsense, declaring: "'Swordsman' is a gender neutral term, and the next one of you brats to raise a fuss over this, I'll handle you myself!"
Zabuza had loved to tell Haku that story. He had found it hilarious.
"A little bit," said Fu. "I mean, they did insist I know how to use the Watercutting Sword. It's not like real swords though, since they have none of the weight like metal ones. Would you like me to teach you it?"
Haku stumbled.
He also nearly fell off the branches they were running on.
"Wow, Haku! What's wrong!?"
Gathering himself, Haku caught up and gave a small giggle. "Sorry, it's just . . . the Hidden Mist has been trying to get that jutsu for forever. And now it's just being handed to me. Master Zabuza . . . he would be laughing right now," he finished a little sadly.
Fu blinked in surprise, but caught the frantic gestures from Naruto and Karin not to pry. So she gave her biggest smile, and said, "Well, isn't that what friends do?"
His own widening a few fractions, Haku nodded. "Indeed they do. So in that case, why don't you try out this?" He reached into his outfit, and pulled out a small scroll from an inner pocket to toss to Fu.
She opened it to find it was a sealing scroll, and promptly released its contents.
It was not a sword.
That was like calling a shark a fish.
A slab of steel with a razor edge.
The blade itself was taller than she was, and heavier too. To say nothing of the long handle.
With her Demonic Beetle enhanced strength, Fu just hefted it up to look it all over.
Kubikiribocho.
The Executioner's Blade.
The weapon of a demon.
"Ooooooh," and Fu felt her smile becoming sharp. "I knew having friends would be the best!"
Naruto grinned, and made a V for victory sign. "Believe it!"
XXX
Tailed Beast Mindscape
"If Fu dies because of this, or your brat's hero complex, I'll never forgive you," warned Chomei, her six wings and one tail twitching.
Kurama snorted in derision. "Bah! With Akatasuki after us, and by extension our jailors, she'd have been in danger just staying there. Besides, I notice you didn't put up much resistance when I got a hold of you. If anything, you should be grateful of me."
"Puh-lease, it was my luck which made sure she was close enough for you to call out to me." The massive beetle tilted her head in thought. "They make a cute pair though, don't they?"
"Pft. Don't get attached to him. You can wallow in your host as long as you want, but the first chance I get, I'm breaking free! And won't let anything or anyone get in my way!"
And having both children away from any Sealing Masters, or other pesky elite Village ninja, would make that all the more easier.
XXX
Author Notes:
A crude meeting between Naruto and Fu, including how the Waterfall ninja are portrayed. But like I said, I am rushing through this to get to the main story.
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Obviously pursuit teams were sent out by Hidden Waterfall, led by their best trackers. Yet Naruto and his companions stumped them as badly as they did the Leaf.
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