Here's an update! Hope y'all like it!
Disclaimer: I, Raymond Smith, Own Nothing
Road to Nowhere
Chapter 2: An Idiot's Curious Sister
Another sleepless night…
Another cluster of hours spent pouring over notes…
Another morning where it was someone knocking at his door that pulled him from his work…
It was with red, baggy eyes that Naruto opened his door and saw Inko standing there looking quite stern. Not a good sign.
"Onii-chan!"
At least Hanabi was with her.
"Morning, Nabi-chan," he greeted tiredly with a small smile enjoying the hug she gave him.
"A cyclops came to the estate looking for you. Did you open another door?" she asked with a sense of wonder only a child could have.
He chuckled and rubbed her head. "Nah… He's actually my sensei. He must've thought I was over at your family's house."
"And why would your sensei be searching for you, Naruto-kun?" Inko asked with a small frown.
"I pulled another all-nighter, Aunty…" he confessed. "But I have a good reason this time!"
"You always have a good reason, Naruto…" she reminded with an exasperated sigh. "Your mother was very committed to her sealing ventures too; but she knew when to step back and take breaks."
The Uzumaki cringed at that, knowing that he didn't have many other interests from fūinjutsu, except for gardening. He could still remember the pout on Ino's face when he showed more of a "green thumb" than her.
"I might as well hear what you have to say… Why did you stay up this time?"
Despite knowing he was still in trouble, Naruto couldn't hide his excitement when he explained to her the events that led to his all-nighter. From testing his newest variation of the Summoning Formula, to having it create a crack in space-time, and finally to seeing a girl in a void full of intersecting colors.
"It was incredible!" he finished, pure enthusiasm radiating from him while Hanabi hugged her super cool Onii-chan.
"I can only imagine," Inko conceded. "So, what is your plan? To keep running yourself ragged trying to find the right formula that will lead you to this mystery girl?"
"I… I just wanted to keep trying…"
"I know, Naruto-kun… But you can't deprive yourself of what your body needs… Like sleep," she stressed. "Do you understand?"
With a resigned sigh, he nodded. "Yes, Aunty…"
Smiling softly, the Hyuuga Matriarch ruffled the young Uzumaki's head affectionately. "Get some rest, Naruto-kun. Hanabi will make sure you sleep. Won't you, dear?"
Seeing the determined nod that she gave was almost too much for Naruto. Truly his sweet little sister was too pure and adorable for this world.
"I'll make sure Onii-chan gets lots of sleep, Kaa-chan!" she promised before grabbing Naruto's arm and tugging him. "Time for bed!"
Chuckling, Naruto gave Inko a farewell smile before allowing himself to be dragged to his bedroom. He absently heard his door close before getting on is bed and lying down. A wide yawn escaped him while Hanabi crawled onto the bed and snuggled up against him with her head on his chest.
"Sleep now, Onii-chan…" she adorably demanded.
Another tired chuckle left him, and he nodded. "Yeah… Sleep sounds good…"
He was out not long after, and Hanabi soon followed by being lulled to sleep from his heartbeat. Just before she entered the land of dreams, she whispered, "I love you, Onii-chan…"
A couple hours had passed, and the same spot Naruto had used his seal on the previous night suddenly gained some cracks. Breaking off like pieces of glass were fragments of space-time, creating an opening of the same size Naruto had succeeded in making the previous night.
If one were to look through the opening, they would see the same dull gray eyes of the girl Naruto had encountered. From her side of the "wall" that separated Naruto's apartment from the void she resided in, she was observing the interdimensional crack she had recreated.
"A Human managed to make this and access the Void…" she muttered to herself. "Humans always seem to perish before reaching their potential, or they are recruited by other Factions…"
An ethereal snake slithered out of her sleeve, coiling around her arm as its head leveled up to the crack.
"But this Human managed something I had once believed impossible… His potential is impressive, but he needs help to improve it."
The snake dove through the crack, leaving the Void and landing on the floor of the apartment. Tasting the air, it obtained two scents and made its way towards them just as the interdimensional crack closed.
"I await your next attempt, Human…" she mused, knowing that, while she didn't witness it, her snake had merged itself with the intriguing Human.
Naruto woke up with a yawn, blearily looking out his window to see that it was late in the afternoon. Still feeling Hanabi snuggled against him, he carefully moved away from her and got off his bed before heading to his restroom to freshen up.
Standing at his sink, he started to run the tap and splashed his face to help him wake up. Rubbing watery hands up and down for a basic wipe, he then removed them and dried both them and his face before looking at his reflection. To his relief, the sleep had helped remove the bags from his eyes, which were no longer red.
He was about to step away when he noticed something on his upper chest thanks to his wrinkled shirt exposing some skin. Grabbing the collar to lower it, he took in the sight of a mark on his skin that looked like a snake eating its own tail and twisted into the symbol for infinity. The snake was black, but it had a diamondback pattern that was a dark violet shade.
"When did that get there…?" he mused, leaving the restroom to draw up a quick diagnostic seal.
Placing it over the mark, it produced a holographic image of the mark in an enlarged scale. Thanks to his earlier tweaks to what was once a basic seal, Naruto was able to interact with the image before him by having chakra running through his fingertips. Turning it around and prodding at several different spots, he didn't see anything particularly worthwhile about it. There was no chakra at all placed within it.
"Guess Anko must've pranked me with a tattoo…" he guessed with a shrug. He and Anko liked to prank one another to both keep the other on their toes and to try and prove themselves superior.
Her getting him tattooed was good, because they both knew how Inko would react to him getting one. She took it upon herself to fill in for Kushina, after all.
She'd rip him a new one.
"Gotta think of something extra special for Anko… This was a god prank, but she knows how scary Aunty gets…"
"Onii-chan…?" came a sleepy voice, and he turned to see Hanabi standing at his doorway and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Hey, Nabi-chan. Sleep well?"
"Mm-hmm…" she mumbled before yawning. "Did you sleep okay?"
"Yep! Totally rested and ready for the rest of the day. I'd better go and find Kakashi-sensei and apologize for missing training." He grabbed a new shirt and put it on before gathering his gear. "You can lock up, right?"
She nodded. "I'll do it before I go home."
"Thanks, Nabi-chan." Pulling her close, he kissed the top of her head and headed out, missing the blush on her face. "I'll see you later!" the Uzumaki bid as he left.
Hanabi grabbed her things and took the spare key Naruto had hidden in his room. The only people who knew about it were her, her sister, and her mother; the three women who checked on him the most.
Before she left, she walked over to his desk and looked at the many different sealing formulas that littered it and the walls thanks to tape or tacks. After hearing how her Onii-chan had saved her and her mother, Hanabi had become interested in fūinjutsu; but it was mainly because her Onii-chan was so good at it.
While she wanted to be as pretty and graceful as her mother and sister, Hanabi really wanted to follow in the footsteps of her Onii-chan and become a fūinjutsu expert like he was. Before she could even begin to be tutored by him though, her parents were adamant that she perfect her calligraphy skills.
While she found the lessons boring, her Onii-chan assured her that good calligraphy was essential for fūinjutsu. If the kanji or markings were sloppily inscribed, the seal could malfunction in the worst way. He demonstrated this to her by showing her two sealing scrolls.
The first had perfect kanji, so it worked without any problems.
The second was sloppy in some places, and while it sealed away the log used for the demonstration, the scroll became engulfed in flames that reduced it to ashes.
And according to her Onii-chan, that was a good outcome of a badly inscribed seal. So, while boring, Hanabi was diligent in her lessons. It was also thanks to these lessons that she learned how to read more advanced words.
One such word was Transformation, and it was on a seal formula that was placed on a premade tag on the corner of his desk. She grabbed it and looked it over curiously, able to pick apart of few of the words in the markings which helped her decipher what it was meant to do.
Or at least, what she believed it was meant to do. Curiosity in a child was a wonderful thing.
But it was also a dangerous thing because overactive curiosity sometimes leads to making poor decisions.
Smiling, Hanabi placed the seal on her stomach and formed a Ram Sign with her hands. "Onii-chan said that the Transformation Jutsu could turn someone into anything." With a giggle, she gathered chakra and aimed it for the seal tag. "Kaa-chan says he looks like a fox sometimes. So, I'll become one too!"
From an outside perspective of Naruto's apartment complex, a brilliant flash of light erupted from the windows. Unfortunately, thanks to Naruto's hijinks and countless tests with new sealing formulas, the flash was ignored by the passing villagers and neighboring buildings.
Too bad for them, he wasn't home, and a little girl was the one to make the flash.
"Try not to make this a habit," Kakashi calmly admonished Naruto, who was sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"Sorry, sensei. This was bigger than a breakthrough, though. I couldn't stop looking over all of my old notes, y'know?"
He sighed at that. 'This kid's gonna make me gain early stress lines… I can't say gray hairs since I'm full of them naturally…'
"So, what did I miss today?"
"Just some more practice on Surface Walking and a couple of D-Rank Missions. They're simple missions around the village to help promote teamwork and for Genin to earn some income."
"Ah… Well, I'm good in terms of income, and I think I can work with Sakura and Sasuke well enough. We haven't really done much together as a team, but I don't really have any problems with them."
"That may be true, but I need to see it for myself. As your sensei and your squad leader, I can't just take you at your word without evidence to back it up."
"Fair point. I promise, unless an emergency comes up, I'll be there for tomorrow's training and missions, sensei. I'm gonna go make sure Nabi-chan got home safely before I get some stuff for dinner. I'll see you tomorrow, sensei."
With a wave in farewell, the Uzumaki made his way to the Hyuuga Compound. However, when the guards at the entrance informed him that Hanabi never returned home, he grew worried.
Making a cross handseal, Naruto used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to spawn a dozen copies of himself that all took off in search of his missing little sister.
Because of Naruto's Uzumaki heritage, he would forever be unable to use the standard Clone Jutsu on his own without assistance. To remedy this, the Third Hokage taught the young man the Shadow Clone in lieu of a monthly payment for his work maintaining the village's barrier. For Naruto, the jutsu was an amazing boon for him.
After all, with an army of himself, he could exponentially increase the efficiency of making extra seals. That, and multiple people of the same mind working on a very large seal cut down the time to a fraction of doing it alone.
The real Naruto also joined in on the search. After a frantic couple of minutes, he felt the memories of a Clone enter his mind and immediately changed his course for his apartment. Rushing through the door, he saw a mass of dark green fur curled up on the floor by his desk and knelt beside it.
Carefully turning it over, he saw that it was Hanabi with some new animal features. He gingerly picked her up into his arms while a tag with dulled out ink remained on the floor where she once lay. A brief glance was all he needed to see that she had used a prototype seal for a Substitute Transformation.
It was commissioned to him by Might Guy who wanted to help his young protégé, Rock Lee, have some sort of ninjutsu despite his chakra being unable to do any. Naruto had spent months working on the formula and different variants – even testing a couple on Rock Lee with his permission – but the endeavor proved to be a failure since Lee's chakra flow was too damaged to effectively use. Naruto held on to the prototype, hoping to return to it someday.
But it looked like Hanabi had grown too curious and tried it on herself, changing her form to what could only be described as a fox girl with dark green fur that matched her hair. He used another Diagnostic Seal on her, and she was perfectly fine; much to his relief.
However, while she was "fine", that didn't mean that this didn't have consequences. And the result was that the tag made this transformation permanent. For all intents and purposes, Hanabi was now a kitsune girl.
"…Aunty is gonna kill me…" he muttered, his voice one of absolute dread.
Knowing there was no way out of this, Naruto held Hanabi close and headed out the door.
Naruto was on the ground in a dogeza position as he faced Hanabi's parents. The new kitsune girl was conscious again and was being looked over by the head physician of the Hyuuga Clan.
"I'm so sorry… I should've been more careful about seals left about in my apartment," Naruto apologized sincerely, feeling incredibly guilty about what had happened. "I knew Hanabi was growing more and more curious about different seals and was eager to have me tutor her, but I did nothing to prevent her from grabbing one of my old prototypes and using it." He lowered his head further down, pressing his forehead to the ground. "Forgive me…"
Hiashi sighed and rubbed the crease between his brows while Inko sadly looked to her surrogate son. She knew it was an accident, but she also knew that what happened to Hanabi was possibly the best outcome. Naruto worked in a dangerous field of study, and her child could've been killed if the seal was something even slightly more dangerous than a Pseudo-Transformation Jutsu.
Turning to her husband, she conveyed her feelings through her gaze, and smiled gently when he nodded to her. The two turned back to Naruto, and Hiashi spoke.
"Raise your head, Naruto."
The Uzumaki complied with the order, changing from a dogeza position to a seiza.
"What happened could've been prevented… However, this outcome is the best we could hope for considering what type of sealing formula you prefer to tweak."
Naruto cringed at that. His go-to formula of choice was the one for the Summoning Jutsu. Hanabi could've accidentally sent herself to one of the uninhabitable realms Naruto had found during his earliest tweaks.
"We're just grateful that her studies in calligraphy have helped her vocabulary, and that she was fortunate enough to have chosen a rather simple transformation," Inko added. "But, despite how the outcome was relatively harmless, I expect you to be more considerate about your workspace and any old seals you have scattered around."
Nodding firmly, Naruto replied, "I have some Shadow Clones putting old seals and prototypes in storage scrolls and labelling them. The more dangerous ones are also kept separate from the ones on my desk. I know that's not much, but I promise I will do better in the future."
Inko smiled at him while Hiashi nodded once. "We'll hold you to that, Naruto," the man stated. "You claim to be a man of your word, and I expect you to prove that in the coming days."
"Yes, sir. And once again, I'm very sorry about what happened."
"It'll be fine, dear," Inko assured him. "Now, why don't we go see how Hanabi is doing?"
With that, the three of them made their way to where Hanabi was being examined. When they arrived, they saw Hanabi running a brush through her new tail while humming the melody of a song Inko sang to her a few times before. After a moment, she noticed them and smiled brightly.
"Tou-san! Kaa-chan! Onii-chan!" she greeted excitedly, getting to her feet, and wagging her tail happily. "How do I look? Kaa-chan calls Onii-chan a fox a lot, so I wanted to be more like him!"
While Hiashi fought the urge to face palm at his daughter's reasons for changing herself, Inko and Naruto were fighting the urge to gush over how her new fox features only enhanced her natural adorableness.
And that fight ended in failure when Hanabi stepped up to Naruto and hugged him, nuzzling her head against his chest, and purring contently. Naruto choked on nothing, frozen and mentally shut down, and Inko cooed at the scene before her.
"Sweetheart, you look so cute~!" she gushed, grabbing her youngest child, and hugging her close. "And your fur is so soft~!"
Hanabi could only giggle when her mother ran her fingers through her new fur, feeling ticklish at the woman's ministrations. Turning to the still frozen Naruto, she pouted at him, which rebooted his mental functions.
"Mou~ Onii-chan! You never answered me!" she called to him, her cheeks puffing at his silence while her fox ears flattened in annoyance.
Swallowing hard, Naruto awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and averted his gaze with reddened cheeks. "…you look…very cute, Nabi-chan…" he muttered.
Thanks to his averted gaze, Naruto once again missed the blush on Hanabi's face and how her tail went from a calm sway to a joyful wag while she held her cheeks. Inko and Hiashi saw this, and while the matriarch mentally squealed, Hiashi mentally groaned.
It seemed like their youngest child had a crush on the Idiot Genius of the Hidden Leaf.
That's that!
Short chapter, I know… But I wanted to get this story updated for you all since you, my lovely readers, gave me the inspiration to start this one!
So, little Hanabi-chan has now become a Fox Girl because of childhood curiosity! What will this mean going forward?
And what will happen now that Naruto has been unknowingly injected with some of Ophis's power?
Before I go, I wanted your opinion. Should this be STRICTLY a Naru/Ophis idea, OR should I have Hanabi's crush on Naruto lead to being paired with him?
Let me know your thoughts and ideas in your reviews! Or you can PM me too! I love to hear from you all, and I promise to get back to you as soon as I can!
Edit: I've gotten a LOT of comments on how I never specified how "foxy" Hanabi has gotten. I apologize for this. For future reference, Hanabi ONLY has fox ears and a tail (like how Yasaka and Kunou are portrayed).
Until next time!
Stay safe, healthy, and positive!
Dreaming of the Future
pain17ification