Sekirei Unbound 3 – Burn It Down
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Sekirei, all characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their specific creators, Masashi Kishomoto and Sakurako Gokurakuin. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.
Notes
Third chapter done on 22 Jan 2022!
As usual, I write because no one else seems to writing what I want to read. But there's only so much motivation and pleasure I can derive from reading my own works by myself. So please review, it gives me encouragement to keep writing.
Playlist
Moon Halo – Honkai Impact 3rd Valkyrie Theme
Burn it All Down (ft PVRIS) – Worlds 2021 – League of Legends
****Sekirei Unbound****
Light grayish-brown hair hung down greasily as Mutsu nursed a steaming cup of coffee with a gloomy expression.
His chest and stomach were heavily bandaged underneath a halfway buttoned black shirt and he had a large ice pack practically taped to his left cheek, leaving his hands free to cradle the cup of coffee.
It was already nearing lunch time, yet he hadn't had a chance to eat anything yet, especially since he had only just woken up barely twenty minutes ago. It was rare for him to wake up so late, but he figured that after the events of the previous night, he was due a break. Even now his entire body felt sore, his gut and chin in particular were still throbbing painfully despite his enhanced regeneration.
And then, just to rub salt into the wound, his entire night had been spent being plagued by nightmares.
Well, he called it a nightmare, but it wasn't the usual type.
There were no mad men with white lab coats chasing him down with overly large needles or bone saws for one.
Instead, he dreamt of long winding corridors, with walls of mirrors and flapping white curtains.
And a specter, colored with splashes of orange, yellow and blue, always hanging just out of sight in the peripheral of his vision.
You'd think something with that kind of coloring would have stuck out like a sore thumb in a maze made of nothing but varying shades of grey, but no. He had not been able to look directly at the specter at all. Trying to track the specter every time he had gotten the briefest glance at it was nothing more than an exercise in futility.
The only reason he knew he hadn't been imagining it at all in that labyrinth was due to the all-pervasive impression that he was being watched.
The fact that he could remember all of it with a crystal-clear clarity even after waking up and the bone deep tingling that still plagued the back of his neck even now told him that whatever this was, it wasn't natural.
The door to the kitchen opened and a disturbingly haggard Ashikabi shuffled in like a zombie, wrapped up in a blanket. His empty eyes looked around the kitchen for a moment when he caught sight of Mutsu cradling a cup of steaming hot coffee.
Both of them stared at each other for a long moment.
Mutsu internally winced at the flash of fear that crossed those light brown orbs. Realizing how close he had come to having his own head crushed at the hands of his own Sekirei had probably unsettled the boy a little, especially since he had considered them nothing more than toys to collect before that.
Hayato opened his mouth as if to say something, before he shut it with a click again, and plodded over to the table where he took a seat at the head of the table as elegantly as he could before he poured himself a cup of coffee from Mutsu's kettle.
The effect was ruined by the blanket wrapped around him like a sushi wrapping, the remainder trailing along behind him on the floor.
Mutsu watched his Ashikabi struggle to wake up with the help of coffee, and took note of the deep bags around his eyes when the fifth Sekirei frowned as suspicion crept through his limbs.
"Did you… have a nightmare too?" He asked hesitantly.
Hayato scrunched up his brows, "I'm a not a kid. I don't get nightmares." He muttered mutinously.
Mutsu pressed on regardless, "So you didn't dream of that goddamned maze? With the mirrors and cloth everywhere?"
Hayato's eyes snapped wide open, "What?" He breathed out weakly, "How?"
The fifth Sekirei just grimaced.
"I think…." He replied slowly, "We were cursed."
'Cursed?' Hayato mouthed soundlessly and disbelievingly.
"There is another Sekirei, #21, who can do something similar to this." Mutsu murmured slowly, "Mira had zero combat ability, but all she needed to do was touch you, and as long as you slept, she could do anything she wanted to you in your dreams… that kind of ability represented an incredible threat to all the other Sekirei and Ashikabi in this Plan, so a part of me was a little relieved when I heard that she was one of the first to get disqualified because she couldn't fight at all, but…." He trailed off.
Hayato's brow knitted as the boy slumped in his chair, "Are you saying that the man from last night was actually an Ashikabi? And he was just pretending to not know about us while this… Mira was somewhere nearby?"
"I wasn't." Mutsu immediately denied it, "I was simply providing an explanation of what happened to us by comparing it with something a Sekirei I was once acquainted with could do. Whether it is really her or not, is still unknown."
"Then what are you saying?" Hayato grumbled in frustration.
"I'm saying he let us go too easily, and now we know why." Mutsu replied wearily, "If it was really Mira nearby, and I still don't think it is because she has never been able to use her ability from a distance, unless it was a part of her Norito that I did not know about, then her Ashikabi couldn't have been the blond man we fought since he would have had to activate even before we started fighting, and it would have run out by then. Which means that the worst-case scenario here is that we might have been facing a minimum of two teams."
The light brown-haired boy worried his lower lip as his eyes roved around the kitchen restlessly, trying to think of a way to counter their unknown opponents. Mentally, he formulated plan over plan and discarded them just as rapidly.
"Does this Mira have a maximum number of people she can simultaneously use her ability on?" Hayato wondered.
"Unknown." Mutsu answered curtly.
Hayato just grunted again.
Finding that man again physically was never going to be a problem.
He had plenty of satellites he could access with his family's authority.
The issue was, what exactly was he supposed to do once he found said man?
His strongest Sekirei, Mutsu, had already been curb stomped once.
In a straight up one vs one fight no less.
Alright, fine, if he was really an Ashikabi, who had somehow trained his martial skill to that insane kind of level like in the mangas where sufficient skill could trump pure physical ability, then sure, let's go with that. Now the problem was, it turns out that he also had an allied Sekirei that was his exact opposite. The two of them covered their bases extremely well if that really was the case, but it wasn't without its weaknesses. Mutsu had said it hadn't he?
This Mira allegedly had zero combat ability nor was she any stronger than the average Sekirei.
So, if they had a distraction, and attacked both of them at the same time, the man would be forced to defend his Sekirei instead of retaliating…
However, if he had other people on his side, that wouldn't work either. He'd just let them do the defending then come over and personally kick his ass.
What were his other options?
Throw his money around and hire mercenaries?
Was he really going to break the rules of the game for something like this?
Wait, no. It wouldn't work anyway unless they knew #21's maximum limit.
Find and wing more Sekirei?
Possible, but also not really feasible unless they went hunting for more Sekirei. Those weren't exactly something that dropped onto his lap just because he wished it was so.
"Don't."
Hayato snapped back to reality with a jerk. He looked around a little wildly before he met Mutsu's firm gaze, "Wha-"
"Don't." The fifth Sekirei repeated a little too firmly, "I know you're thinking of fighting them. Don't. If it's really #21, then as long as she has power over you, she will also know your general location and if you're planning on doing something against her. That was probably the whole point of last night's debacle."
Mutsu drew a deep breath and elaborated, "They were most likely uninterested in fighting us for real, they just wanted to tag us so that they could keep an eye on us and maneuver around us. Until we know more, trying to fight them is an exercise in futility. That is probably the reason why #21 was targeted so early on. Her ability to provide information on, and monitor her targets, was unparalleled, even more so than the strongest Brain type Sekirei, #2, who still had to depend on external equipment. As long as she was kept physically safe, there was literally no other Sekirei who can get by her as long as she was given time to set up her network. And this is assuming she didn't already tag all the Sekirei she could while they were all growing up together."
Hayato's mouth opened and closed soundlessly in shock.
Mutsu sighed wearily.
[Play Honkai Impact – Moon Halo]
Ironically… Mira had actually been one of the reasons why he had left MBI.
In the beginning, there had only been one tuner, Asama-san, who had successfully activated Miya in 2013 and subsequently the rest of the Disciplinary Squad. All of them, barring Miya, were rushed from embryos to toddlerhood in the incubators, before they were awakened and then accelerated once more to adulthood and prepared for combat with minimal tuning.
All of that, in less than a year.
For obvious reasons, none of that had done their mental states any favors, and every single one of them was broken in one way or another, himself included.
Amongst all of them, Miya was probably, and somewhat ironically, the one who had suffered the most, even more so than Karasuba.
She had woken up as a complete adult, not having had a childhood at all, and therefore, had no frame of reference for all the emotions she had felt, for all the knowledge she had, for all the memories that weren't hers, beyond the instincts her genetic memory gave her. At least the four of them had about half a year after they had Awakened from their incubators to acclimatize.
He had heard her talk about it once, to Kazehana, the one closest to her at the time.
She had woken up knowing she had to fight. She had woken up knowing how to wield a sword like it was second nature to her. She had woken up knowing she had to protect the rest of the Sekirei.
But…
What was she supposed to fight?
Who was she supposed to fight?
When was she supposed to fight?
Where was she supposed to fight?
How did she stop fighting?
She had known none of that.
He didn't know for sure, but he reckoned that that was the reason why she had practically imprinted herself on to the first person she had met; her tuner, Ashikabi or not, and clung onto him like a lifeboat in the midst of the raging storm that was Kamikura Island.
It had worked, to some extent.
Miya mellowed out greatly.
The her from before Asama-san, and the her after she obtained a surname, were two entirely different people if he said so himself.
The rest of them coped in their individual ways. Matsu was one step short of being a full-blown rapist, Kazehana was all but trying to drink herself to an early death, while he preferred solitude above all, but the most obvious casualty of this accelerated childhood was Karasuba's sanity.
Sometimes he wondered the kind of person Karasuba could have been had she woken up when Kamikura Island wasn't on the verge of an invasion. Would she still be the same? Or would she have been someone more like himself?
It was around 2015 when more staff had been employed and trained so that they could more carefully awaken #6 to #10. An experimental phase as he understood it, to understand how to properly socialize a Sekirei before introducing them to society, and a test bed to test out how a Sekirei could be tuned before they woke up the rest.
Miya had fervently disagreed with that and he had been morbidly surprised that, for one reason or another, the first Sekirei had not directly lopped off Minaka's head for even suggesting it. Though he wouldn't be surprised to find it had something to do with her tuner considering he had agreed to do it anyway.
Instead, she had simply left MBI.
Then #11 to #20 had been woken up next in 2016, to verify the results of their tests.
Whatever those results were, it had apparently satisfied Minaka, because #21 to #108 had been awakened shortly after, and if he remembered correctly, Miya's tuner had also passed away right after that, in rather suspicious circumstances.
Again, he remembered being rather morbidly surprised that Miya had not come storming back to MBI to tear the whole place down owing to the rather suspicious timing of his death, as if he was being discarded after his work was done, given that as a member of the Disciplinary Squad at the time, he would have had to fight Miya to stop her from doing exactly that…. and probably wouldn't have walked away from that confrontation in one piece if he was being honest with himself.
That said, he hadn't heard about insane, crazy, powerful aliens going batshit crazy on the street yet, so he would offer MBI the benefit of the doubt on that point at least.
Either way, the Sekirei would then start being tuned in groups of twenty, starting from #21 to #40 in 2017, #41 to #60 in 2018, #61 to #80 in 2019 and finally, #81 to 108 in 2020. The entire process would take up to a year each, accelerating their growth to adulthood, modifying their abilities and implanting knowledge into their heads before they were finally introduced to society at the end of their tuning.
This meant that the smaller a Sekirei's number, the more time they had to learn how to fit into society. However, this group was also the most mentally unstable, likely due to their significantly shortened childhoods.
Conversely, the younger the Sekirei and the more time they had as children, even if it was just a measly three to four years, the less issues they would have after their tuning. However, due to the time they spent with their now older compatriots who were undergoing tuning and being filled with information/propaganda on how wonderful it was to find their Ashikabi, to love then, to fight for them, and their relatively shorter time spent in society, most of them were also incredibly innocent and naïve.
He had, at one point, wondered why this tuning process was necessary at all.
Why not just let them grow up normally if there were so many issues with the process?
Was there a rush or something?
Was there a war coming that needed all of them active and combat capable?
He himself had been a sacrifice for that exact reason, and he did not begrudge his younger siblings for that, but what about them?
What were they being sacrificed for?
At the time, he had kept his mouth shut, his head down, and his sword sheathed, as he was wont to do.
And he had continued doing so until the news had reached him while he had still been on the frontlines repelling the invasion around 2018.
One of the Sekirei had been deactivated without rhyme or reason and no number of supposed investigations had managed to unearth the culprit, which had struck him as strange given that, later in that very same year, MBI had been able to track down #88's kidnappers.
The kidnappers who had been able to somehow get past the entire goddamned First Disciplinary Squad without them noticing at all, who had somehow bypassed all the security on the ship itself, and who had somehow spirited her back past all the ship's security AND the First Disciplinary Squad without being detected even once.
And MBI had still managed to find them despite the entire laundry list of countries, companies and armies that could have been responsible for it, and sent the second Disciplinary Squad to successfully retrieve her, albeit not before the damage was already done.
Given her number, no other Sekirei outside the first twenty, who would have already been awoken and tuned before Mira's batch and thus would not have come into contact with her because they had either already left the island or were busy fighting off the invasion, could have defeated Mira without her first knowing they were coming for her and hiding away. And he was absolutely positive that none of the first twenty, even Karasuba, was interested in defeating other Sekirei outside of the Plan, assuming they even knew about the Plan at that point in time.
Which meant that the people who had deactivated her were most likely normal humans.
And the only normal humans who knew about them at that point in time and had access to the island….
Was MBI itself.
He had resigned immediately after that.
He hadn't been particularly close to #21. In fact, he had never even met her personally. At most, he had only come across her profile and a description of her abilities in a personnel file. That said, he did not know if it was done on Minaka's orders or something to remove such a capable Sekirei, despite her physical weakness, in order to make the game more fun, but he wasn't about to stick around and find out or be party to something like that.
He had had some reservations about leaving the Disciplinary Squad thanks to the continuous attempts at invading Kamikura Island, however he had gotten lucky. The following year, 2019, would be the year that the plague finally arrived, causing such a commotion that the invaders finally stopped trying to get on to Kamikura Island, probably because they were too busy trying to keep their own countrymen alive. Seeing that the attempted invasions had finally stopped, Matsu and Kazehana also resigned, leaving Karasuba to be the lone member left of the First Disciplinary Squad.
The Second Disciplinary Squad who had lost their captain, Sekirei #08, Yume, would promptly be folded into the First, and placed under Karasuba's command.
From that moment on, there would be no First or Second Disciplinary Squad, just Karasuba and her Disciplinary Squad… and then, as if all the conditions of some obscure scheme had been fulfilled, Minaka had announced his Plan to all the Sekirei.
And thus, the First Phase of the Sekirei Plan started.
"… Then… What do we do?"
Mutsu blinked and looked up at Hayato who was looking at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry, did you say something?"
The light brown-haired boy frowned, "If we can't fight back, what do we do about this then?"
Mutsu blinked again as he tried to gather his thoughts.
That in and of itself was an admission that Hayato had no idea how to deal with this, and as much as he despised doing so, he needed to rely on Mutsu.
"We find him first." Mutsu eventually replied, "We can decide what to do after that."
Hayato was silent for a long moment before he nodded glumly.
The two of them went back to staring at their respective cups when the kitchen door opened again and another of Hayato's Sekirei entered.
A statuesque woman with pale blue hair swept through the doors, her skimpy white dress with long sleeves trailing along behind her while her heels clicked on the linoleum when she stopped short as she realized that the two of them were already there.
"You woke up late today." The Sekirei observed plainly as she carefully maintained her distance from the two gloomy males in the kitchen, her eyes lingering on Mutsu's bandaged chest and the awkward looking ice pack slapped onto his face, "Did… something happen?"
While it wasn't uncommon for her Ashikabi to wake up late, especially if he had been binging on anime or games the night before, Mutsu maintained a strict schedule and woke up at 6 am every day to start training. The less said about his current injuries, the better. She did not know anyone who could even hurt the fifth Sekirei to such an extent.
Maybe one of the other single numbers?
Hayato sluggishly looked at her with a dazed expression, while Mutsu kept his face down, quietly watching the two of them with his peripheral vision. Taki, Sekirei #65, had been one of the Sekirei that had been winged by Hayato but hadn't been reacting to him. Luckily, she was also one of the rare ones that hadn't been forced into the winging either.
She had apparently accepted that she was one of the weaker Sekirei because her powers over mist meant that her primary advantage was in terms of providing distractions and stealth and, in sufficient quantities, was actually a rather efficient defense against most ranged attacks provided it wasn't fueled by electricity.
That said, she wasn't exactly suited for direct combat. It didn't mean that she couldn't fight, because she could. Her offensive skillset was actually extremely similar to Kazehana, who could be rather destructive if she was in the right mood, however Taki needed to exert far more effort over her mists to produce them in large quantities, and then control them, in order to achieve the same results as Kazehana's wind.
The Sekirei had concluded that this, coupled with her much smaller energy reserves, apparently meant that her chances of surviving to the end of the Tournament in one piece, and awake, was pretty low unless she joined up with a team who would be able to take advantage of the misdirection and cover her ability provided.
So, the blue haired Sekirei, who considered herself more rational and logical than the rest of her peers, had simply accepted the first invitation with potential that came along, that being Mikogami Hayato who already had Mutsu and two other Sekirei by his side when they approached her.
"It's nothing." The brown-haired boy eventually replied dismissively.
The powder blue haired Sekirei in the white skimpy dress simply nodded, not having expected anything else. She just took her drink and made to return to her room when Hayato spoke again.
"…Taki."
The Sekirei halted and looked at him curiously, "Yes?"
Hayato worked his jaw soundlessly for a moment as if he hadn't expected himself to say anything either. It took him another moment to gather himself before he continued, "Are you… Do you have any plans today?"
That seemed to blindside the rational Sekirei who just stared at her Ashikabi before shaking her head slowly, "No, I was just going to read in my room. Do you need me for something?"
"I…. no." Hayato pursed his lips and tried again, "Do you…. read manga?"
Taki almost shook her head before she caught sight of Mutsu who was now watching them openly over the rim of his cup. Something in his eyes told her to just go along with it, so she hesitantly nodded, "I haven't seen any that have caught my eye before." She elaborated slowly, "Do you have any recommendations?"
"I… yeah. Yeah, I do."
Mutsu smiled to himself.
There had been something else he wasn't saying.
They had only been discussing the events of last night from the perspective of their nightmares, however it appeared that Hayato had forgotten the fact that the man could apparently teleport as well. From what little he had been able to observe while he had been busy getting his ass handed to him, it was likely limited by line-of-sight, or could only be used to swap positions with someone else, or something else.
This, however, was completely irrelevant.
It was the fact that he had been able to do it at all.
There was no such Sekirei that had such an ability, which meant there was no way of attributing this incredible feat to someone else like their nightmares.
He had no idea if the man's ability to control their dreams functioned in a manner similar to Mira's, but if it did then he was also most likely able to detect their general location as well as detect if they were thinking of him in a hostile manner.
Combine this with his ability to teleport and the blond man was basically a walking security nightmare.
No number of bio-scanners, security guards or locked doors was going to stop him from wandering somewhere close by to keep an eye on them and then just teleport straight in at night for a quick and simple assassination.
Based on that, attacking him again after what they had already promised him was no different from serving their necks up to him on a silver platter.
At least he hadn't shown any hostile intent and he had been genuinely confused about Sekirei.
Hence, Mutsu felt that he should reserve judgement for now.
He wanted to talk to the man first.
Because in all honesty, he didn't see the dreams as a bad thing.
If the man wanted to be the villain spanking Hayato so that he would grow up a bit, Mutsu wouldn't like it, but he was perfectly willing to stand back and let him do it.
****Sekirei Unbound****
All three dumbfounded Sekirei were staring at the blond incredulously.
The blond just rolled his eyes.
Homura felt slightly offended by that.
Like, what was wrong with them being surprised at that? How many people alive could summon and control the elements with ease today without being Sekirei? Was there some sort of society of super powered humans out there that they didn't know about?
How else were they supposed to react?
Rather than answer his unasked question, the blond man sighed as he casually surveyed the destroyed room.
Then the blond looked back down and winced as he noticed Uzume was still naked. He reached back and pulled off the worn coat he was wearing before carefully wrapping it around the stunned girl, studiously ignoring the way she had flinched away from him, when they heard a loud thud of flesh meeting wood from outside the room.
Miya groaned quietly as she trotted over to the shoji separating the living room from the rest of Maison Izumo and pulled it open to reveal a red headed woman Naruto had never met before. Her glasses had fallen askew and she wore a rumpled white dress as she pointed at Naruto with a curiously excited yet terrified expression, "W-W-W-What was that?!"
"Matsu." Miya greeted the woman with a bit of irritation coloring her tone. She should have known #2 would have been too curious to stay put after watching that commotion from her little cubbyhole.
The red head blinked slowly, turned to look up at Miya and then gulped.
"Why don't you join us in the living room?" the purple haired landlady invited the red head sweetly.
The smile pasted onto Miya's lips on the other hand, was a whole 'nother story.
Matsu gulped even harder and quickly scurried into the living room where she promptly occupied the closest corner and huddled into herself like a terrified squirrel as her eyes flicked between the amused blond man and her former compatriot.
The so called Uzumaki shook his head at the mess he had accidentally found himself in and lifted one hand.
Immediately everyone in the room stiffened again.
He couldn't help but smirk at that again before casually snapping his fingers.
Everyone's jaws promptly found themselves on the ground again as the man with long fuzzy yellow hair wavered like he was a mirage in the desert and all of a sudden, there were not one, but three blond men standing there.
"Sorry bout this, Miya. I'll fix it." He promised her rather seriously as one of the absolutely identical newcomers, right down to the whisker marks on each cheek, the plain dark orange flannel shirt and the clean but worn jeans, casually began putting the overturned furniture back together.
Miya stared at his clones impassively as she mentally revised the blond's potential number of Sekirei ancestors, though it was starting to get a little… farfetched (did one of the ships have an orgy or something?), and nodded slowly.
He looked at the other one on the left, "Get my wallet and go and buy what you need." He instructed.
The… newly manifested triplet just looked around the room and sighed with a rather put-upon expression but obeyed nonetheless.
The one in the middle, presumably the… real one(?) since he wasn't the one doing the grunt work, just knelt back down and straightened the pillow he had been sitting on before and the table he had knocked over in his haste to deal with the situation before sitting down again with a tired sigh. Then he nonchalantly lifted one hand and all three scrolls that had been lying forgotten on the ground until now suddenly zoomed straight back to his hand, as if they were pieces of metal drawn to a magnet, where he snatched them out of the air with one smooth and practiced move.
Matsu squeaked again, "T-T-Telekinesis?!"
"More like magnetism." The blond man commented a little distractedly in response as he unfurled all three scrolls and laid them onto the somewhat beaten table, "Let's see if these managed to get any information before that whole mess." He murmured half to himself and half to the rest of the room.
"Magnetism?" Homura echoed dryly, "Just how many elements do you actually control?"
Naruto stopped and blinked at that.
He really hadn't kept count.
And it wasn't like he used elemental jutsu very often. The ones he did know were mostly for their utility and a bit of flexibility. He was more of a punch-first-then-spam-giant-orbs-of-destruction-talk-later guy.
"I lost count after twenty." He finally admitted somewhat embarrassedly.
Even Miya was left speechless at that.
"What?" The blond asked with a mildly surprised expression, "You really expect me to keep hiding when I know all of you can do similar things to me?"
"We can do one thing. Each." Uzume pointed out dryly, "We don't get to make… make whatever those twins of yours were or control fire and water in the same breath."
"I dunno. What's to say I can't teach you how to do something like that?" The blond replied with a playful smile.
Uzume blinked, "Really? We can learn how to do those things?"
"Uh." The blond had to scratch the back of his head, "I actually don't know until I look at these." He gestured at the scrolls, "You might, you may not. And then I still have to consider how I feel about 108 people running around doing what I can do and how am I supposed to hide all the dead bodies." The blond absentmindedly rambled as he squinted down at the scrolls.
"Wait, wait, wait." The red head in the form fitting white dress suddenly squeaked, "Can we go back a minute?" Matsu pleaded, "You're just gonna ignore…." She waved around the room with a vague gesture, "Everything?"
Homura and Uzume just nodded along emphatically.
Akitsu's eyes were still set on the blond. She looked strangely unfocused, with an intensely, deliriously happy expression stuck to her face as she swayed back and forth a little in place.
He was getting a little worried about the ice user.
"It's nice to meet you too, Matsu-san, don't think we've been introduced yet." The blond cheerfully replied with a deliberately obtuse smile, "And I did just promise I'd fix this up."
Matsu bounced in place, somehow looking insanely terrified, incredibly excited and amazingly curious all the same time, "Are you really just gonna not tell us anything? Are you one of us? Are you some sort of super soldier? A youkai? C'mon, you can't just leave us hanging like that. Tell him, Miya!"
Miya shot her housemate a slight glare before reluctantly nodded, "I do admit, I am rather curious."
Naruto just quirked an eyebrow at her with a half-smile, "Is that an admission I finally hear from you?
The purple haired landlady stuck her nose up to the sky with a huff as she replied archly, "I admit nothing."
"Right… You're just a totally normal but curious landlady who has seen people throw the elements around like candy as if it's totally normal." The blond man retorted dryly.
"That does sound rather nice." Miya confessed with some amusement.
In her corner, Matsu's went as wide as dinner plates at the two of them as she focused on keeping her mouth shut because Miyawasgenuinelysmilingatsomeone and shedidnotwanttodieyet.
She was so focused on keeping her traitorous lips together that she could hear her teeth grinding together. She glanced at Homura and Uzume and noted that the two of them were sending her rather sympathetic looks, as if they understood perfectly what was going through her head.
The blond just sighed exasperatedly and waved at the scrolls before him, "We can discuss that after I've taken a look at this. Seriously."
He placed his fingers together in a strange symbol; his fingers interwoven together while his index fingers touched each other at the tip, looking like a triangle sticking up above a ladder before tapping the scrolls one by one.
All of the Sekirei once more felt a pulse of energy from him before the writing on the scrolls suddenly lit up with an unearthly glow and a bright cone of light unfurled from each of the scrolls.
All of them felt shock wash over them again as the projection of light formed into three separate 3D silhouettes, one for each scroll, and presumably, for each Sekirei.
The silhouettes did not contain any defining features other than body shape and was clearly transparent, so that everyone could see a high defined network of…. wires and channels crawling throughout the entire body and wrapped around the silhouette's opaque skeletal framework and musculature.
None of them knew what to make of what they were seeing and it was starting to get rather tiresome being completely in the dark about… everything.
Elsewhere, a skinny young man with dark, frazzled hair and accompanied by a young girl with a pixie cut hairstyle and dressed in a set of shrine priestess styled robes, only with a dangerously short skirt, sneezed hard and loud.
"Minato-san! Is everything okay! Are you sick?!" The girl in the skimpy clothes immediately asked loudly and worriedly.
The young man simply smiled wearily, "I'm alright Musubi. Just a little cold, I guess." He pulled his simple white shirt around himself a little tighter.
Back with Naruto, the blond frowned as he examined the projections with a gimlet eye.
"Hmm…. interesting…" Naruto let out a quiet murmur, he hadn't been sure if the Sekirei had held the scrolls long enough for the chakra in the scrolls to circulate throughout their body, starting from the mouth, like a sonar before it returned to the scrolls with a precise imprint of their entire bodies, but it appeared that they had.
The seals on the scrolls themselves was nothing but a simple chakra containment seal and a projection seal that allowed him to display an image of the imprint the scrolls' contents.
He had not been looking forward to asking them to re-do the whole thing again.
To practically everyone else, it would simply feel as if they were taking deep refreshing, energizing breaths while they held the scroll in their mouths.
How the hell was he supposed to know it would have affected the Sekirei like that?
On the other hand, the extreme clarity of the projections was absolutely fascinating.
In most cases, the average human's chakra starved body would absorb almost all of the chakra from the scroll, leaving just a bare minimum when it returned, just enough to provide an image that was usually fairly blurry. The ones he was looking at right now, on the other hand, shone bright and strong, with a sharpness he had not seen before, and he was not sure why, although he had a few theories on that.
Likely it had something to do with the way his chakra had resonated with theirs, and because they already had chakra, they also hadn't absorbed much of his.
Relatively.
What wasn't much for him, usually constituted enough chakra for a supercharge a human, especially when you considered the inherently Yang traits of his chakra, turning them into Superman.
For about ten minutes before they promptly exploded.
There were a number of things he had been able to deduce from that alone.
For one, it meant that the winging process he had seen from them and Mutsu was not powered by the Ashikabi, like he had originally hypothesized due to the way they looked for, deferred and treated their Ashikabi, making them sort of parasites that needed a human's chakra to live. Instead, it was closer to a… switch. A limiter that held most of their powers in check until their Ashikabi gave permission to them to use it by injecting them with chakra.
And since most of the humans nowadays lacked the capacity to control their chakra, they were limited to a more primitive mechanism, namely by physically transferring their chakra through contact between the mucous membrane.
The interesting part here was the fact that the chakra did not need to belong to their Ashikabi, which seemed rather at odds with the whole concept of a destined person for each Sekirei.
Perhaps chakra in sufficient amounts was enough to override what was essentially a biometric security lock? Another question to add to the growing pile of bullshit he had basically waltzed into.
That said, the way they had gone berserk when they absorbed his chakra was probably an indicator that they could only accept chakra from their Ashikabi without their powers going nuts, nor was he sure what that meant to them culturally.
Would be it something like NTR for them?
From the few Sekirei he had personally met so far, he didn't think any of them would take it rather well if he suggested that they could get a powerup by kissing any random person on the street.
Sort of like an energy vampire.
The idea amused him.
Either way, it was more questions for the bullshit pile.
Then there was the fact that he had no idea if this was a natural thing, or if it was something implemented through MBI's modifications.
A limiter was not an alien concept in nature, everyone had one, but it was usually meant to prevent damage to the body. From what he had seen, they were able to handle the burden of the additional power just fine, provided it wasn't activated by him, which gave him reason to believe that the limiter wasn't rational or natural.
"What's interesting?" Matsu immediately asked excitedly, "Do you see something?"
"Some good, some bad." The blond replied blandly before meeting Uzume's complicated gaze, "I'm fairly sure you don't have to worry Uzume. It appears that your connection with your original Ashikabi holds steady."
The blond man waved one hand and made a pulling motion.
The three projections immediately zoomed into a spot near the upper spine of the three silhouettes, at the junction where the neck met the shoulder and where the wires and channels were thickest.
He pointed the leftmost one where there was a strange growth and cable like structure growing outwards, "Unlike the other two, you have some sort of connection originating from this point that leads externally. I figured that this is what bonds you and your Ashikabi, and since it doesn't connect to me, then it means I've thankfully not changed anything beyond… activating whatever it is that causes those wings."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the newcomer was the first one to figure out what the projections were actually showing.
So, the red head yelped loudly, "Wait, is that what we're seeing?! A Sekirei's energy pathways? You can actually map them out?!" The red head exclaimed in shock, "Not even MBI can do anything like that! Supposedly it only exists metaphysically and even they only know about because of the equipment on the ship!"
"Ship?" The blond queried wryly before facepalming, "Wait, never mind. My bullshit pile is already overflowing. Let's leave that for after."
He sighed wearily, "This energy is actually called chakra by my people. Everyone has some amount of chakra because their bodies naturally mix their internal and spiritual energies just by being alive. Most aren't even able to detect or sense this energy within themselves because they have so little. It is only in larger amounts that they obtain the ability to control, and therefore actively use this energy in a meaningful manner."
Everyone there just stared at him again as he dropped another bombshell on them.
"Your… people?" Miya slowly questioned with a doubtful expression.
"Right. We're doing this now I guess." The blond groaned quietly, no matter how he deflected, it seemed like everybody else was fully intent on dragging him back to the story of his life, before shrugging, "I come from a galaxy far, far away, from a group of rather aggressive people who have the ability to harness the power of Chakra to perform feats far beyond what is considered the norm, even there. Then one day a race of space godlike alien parasites wanting to suck our planet dry showed up," Naruto deadpanned.
The expressions on everyone's faces could only be described as 'What the actual fuck?'
"So, I and ten other individuals worked together to kick their asses." He continued with a perfectly straight face and a lazy gesture of someone who couldn't be bothered to deal with the minor details, "Long story short, we won, but in our last fight, a last-ditch attempt by our enemies sent all of us scattering through the galaxy. Only one of us had the ability to transport us home safely, and without him, I had no option but to stay on this planet where I crash landed." Naruto finished by folding his arms and smirking in amusement at the looks frozen on their faces.
Matsu in particular looked as if her brain had suffered from a blue screen of despair.
"You know what, fuck alien space parasites." Uzume finally concluded gamely, desperate to get away from whatever-the-fuck-mess the blond's origins represented, "As long as you can't transform into giant glowing apes like Ultraman or something equally stupid like that, I'll be fine."
"Meh, basic shit. I learnt how to do that when I was seventeen." The blond replied playfully.
"Of course you did." Uzume just chuckled helplessly, "So… uh, I'm sorry bout earlier, bro."
"I as well." The blond admitted, "I didn't realize what using those scrolls would have done to you, Homura and Akitsu. I was planning on at least showing you how to use some of your powers more efficiently as an apology."
Uzume frowned, "Hold up, I thought you said you can't teach us how to do what you can do?"
"Technically, and ignoring my logical side screaming at me that that is a horrible idea, we just don't know whether you can learn to do what I can do." The blond replied blasély, "But that's not what I'm offering."
He snapped one finger and Uzume yelped as she was suddenly yanked from the ground and strung up in midair, "What the-"
Naruto casually waved his other hand, and the dark-haired girl was silenced as whatever was holding her up started glowing.
Bright golden threads, connected to the man's fingers to the ceiling, and to her.
Another twitch of the wrist suddenly had Uzume back on the ground, her hair neatly styled back into a side pony tail looped around itself neatly so that it held its shape even without a hair band, and the golden thread retreated back to the man's fingers like a bizarre spider sucking up its own web.
Everyone just stared blankly.
Again.
The silence was deafening.
"You're fucking with me, right?" Uzume finally breathed out dumbly, not even feeling the bonk on her head courtesy of Miya's magically reappearing ladle.
"Nope."
Uzume threw up her hands in frustration, "Is there anything you can't do?"
Naruto actually had to think about that for a moment before he nodded seriously, "I've never managed to make the perfect bowl of ramen. No matter what I do, I can't get one to taste just like the one I used to love."
"Fuck me." Uzume uttered again with a slightly hysterical look in her eye as she ignored another promptly delivered bonk, "I thought we were strange. But then I met you and now the world's getting crazier and crazier and I'm scared to know what else you can do. Because fuck you, fuck your alien space parasites and Fuck. My. Day."
Naruto just watched somewhat sympathetically as the girl raged to herself before shooting up and storming out of the room. Heaving a quiet sigh to himself, he dispelled the projections and rolled up the scrolls again.
He bit his thumbpad and expertly smeared blood on each of the three scrolls in one smooth movement. The scrolls briefly shone with light before he neatly stacked them up on the table and pushed them towards a flabbergasted Homura, "Please take care of these until she returns." He instructed the fire user.
"Wait, wait," Homura spluttered disbelievingly, "We're not continuing? And you're giving them to me?"
"I felt that it would be best not to proceed without Uzume considering this information is extremely sensitive and personal. Besides, it won't hurt me to wait a bit more until she's calmed down." The blond informed him seriously, "Plus, I need time to analyze what I've seen. It's not like I'm some miracle doctor that can instantly understand an alien's body from one glance and I'd prefer not to give wrong medical advice."
Homura just blinked slowly, "Okay…. just to make sure, we're not winged yet right?" He gestured at himself and Akitsu.
"I don't actually know for sure." The blond admitted, "Most of my medical skills were only obtained about twenty years ago. Other than myself, I have never actually had to chance to examine someone else with access to energy similar to mine."
He paused momentarily before continuing, "Correction, I have examined other people with access to that energy, but it was almost always subconscious, and almost never in any meaningful amounts, meaning they were no different from normal people beyond a more robust body anyway."
The silver haired man's eyes went wide, "You mean there are others like us? That originated from this planet and not yours?"
"Not quite." Naruto replied with a measured tone, "In your case, the many, many, pathways you saw winding around the body are what gives you access to your powers. In appreciable amounts, it gives you the ability to… express that energy in a meaningful manner. In the people I've encountered, these pathways are almost always absent, or much fewer in number, much like an atrophied limb."
The blond man shrugged carelessly, "With so little energy in their veins, they are unable to detect it, much less control it, and therefore express it. Either way, it means that beyond the things I've actually tested on myself, I don't actually know with 100% confidence what I'm looking at here, just what I can observe, guess and theorize. Short of doing a before-and-after full body inspection, it would be more appropriate to ask you if there are any physical indicators associated with one of your people being winged."
Homura glanced at Akitsu and noted that she still had the brand on her forehead, "I should have thought of that I guess." He admitted wryly, "Normally when we get winged, we obtain a seal, or brand like the one on Akitsu's forehead, only ours will be on our upper back."
Naruto only nodded before looking at the right most silhouette with a frown, "Let's take a step back. How does a Sekirei get winged?"
"I keep forgetting you haven't actually winged a Sekirei yet." Homura chuckled lowly when Matsu interjected, "You wing us with a kiss, a nice, deep kiss, preferably with tong-."
Miya promptly used her ladle on Matsu's skull, hard enough that the two males left in the room could actually see the shockwave travel from the point of impact all throughout the red head's body to her tippy toes, where it bounced back to its point of origin, whereupon the red headed girl was knocked out instantly.
The blond man just nodded as if he had not seen a possible murder, "Perverts aside… It appears that I was right that introduction of DNA is necessary. The process is not due to the actual winging, they just happen to be coincidental due to the method of introduction… In conclusion, so much bullshit." The blond groaned to himself.
"Right…" Homura drawled awkwardly as he made to stand up before suddenly stumbling as his legs went weak.
One hand shot out and Homura's fall was halted by several golden threads again.
Homura had to visibly gulp at the sensation of the threads winding around his chest and arms and promptly went a bright red as he struggled to stop his tattered clothes from falling off altogether, "Th-thanks for that." He squeaked.
Naruto immediately frowned, "Are you alright?" He squinted even harder at the visible patches of skin on the squirming man, "Your skin is a bit reddened and your pores are inflamed."
The blond man rummaged around in his pocket before retrieving a small flat container that he threw over to the silver haired man, "Wipe that evenly on your skin, it'll help soothe the irritation. I'd offer you something stronger, but I'm not sure what that would do to you, so that's all I can give you for now."
Homura fumbled with the container and scrolls for a moment before nodding uncertainly, "Ye-yes. I will- ah, go rest now."
The blond's frown didn't leave his face, "Are you really alright?"
"Guehehe…" A creepy laugh suddenly floated out from somewhere around floor level, "He's reacting to you.".
Homura flushed even redder, "Matsu!" He snarled at the other Sekirei who was still face down on the tatami.
Both them ignored the way Akitsu suddenly stopped swaying by herself, her spine stiffening as she slowly turned around to look at Homura with hooded eyes.
"Kiss him~" The red head crowed in a muffled tone, "Tongue hi- BAM"
Miya laughed softly, "Fufufu, my, it looks like I'll have to trouble you to patch another hole in the floor, Uzumaki-san."
"Your will be done." Naruto replied dryly he leaned back with a knitted brow.
Homura was reacting to him?
The wording implied it was an indicator of suitability to be an Ashikabi, but why now all of a sudden?
Was it because he had absorbed some of his chakra from the scroll?
Then why did Akitsu seem fine? Was it because of her condition?
Was that why Matsu seemed unaffected?
There were too many variables for him to guess at right now.
Wait.
The golden thread retreated back from Homura, causing him to stumble as the thread's support left him.
The wobble silver haired man visibly gasped in relief as the silent blond placed his fingers together in an "O" shape and frowned harder before crystal blue eyes opened once more, "Is it better now?"
The baffled silver haired man almost slouched in relief, and maybe a bit of disappointment, as the itchy feeling between his legs disappeared while his awareness of the yellow haired man faded away, his presence became muted again, like most other normal humans he had met.
He stared at the other male in the room and choked out disbelievingly, "W-what did you do? The feeling is gone."
"In short, I re-sealed myself." The blond replied plainly, "I don't usually walk around with my energy flaring all over the place. It's a bit annoying when I'm trying to focus. Plus, it's good training."
That little experiment had also confirmed to him that the Sekirei weren't actually sensing his usage of chakra intentionally. It seemed more like it was part of their biological process, like an in-built radar of sorts, specifically designed to detect people with larger amounts of chakra that would be suitable for the winging process and they didn't seem to be able to control it.
Ironically, it reminded him of migratory birds.
He still needed more information before he knew exactly what was and what wasn't actually part of a Sekirei's natural biological makeup. He couldn't do that with the present Sekirei because of how they were all already so intrinsically modified.
He could tell the Seal was practically tied into their entire nervous systems, but what exactly was it doing?
Did it affect their hormones?
Let them grow new organs?
He had no idea.
Naruto's face grew darker again as he remembered what Homura had said about the tuning process, but he restrained his temper with an iron will. It had been a long time since his temper had control over him. Besides, he needed to verify it first, Homura had been personally involved in the matter and his view might have been colored by his experiences.
The blond tapped his knee with a complicated expression as he watched Homura scurry out of the room, followed by Matsu, crawling like a caterpillar on her face.
"That woman is sexual harassment lawsuit just waiting to happen." Naruto observed sardonically.
"She has her moments." Miya replied ruefully, neither defending or accusing her old friend, "How do you plan to analyze the data you obtained now that you gave the scrolls to Homura?"
"I have enough memorized." The blond replied offhandedly as he turned his attention to Akitsu who had been inching closer and closer, her eyes steadily on him.
Miya and Naruto watched the ice user with complicated eyes as she adorably made her way to him, inch by inch, until she was practically nuzzling his side.
Her light brown eyes searched Naruto's bright blue ones for a long moment before her head bowed with disappointment.
Instead, she buried her face in his side and murmured a quiet but firm, "Ashikabi-sama."
Naruto just grimaced and looked to Miya.
The purple haired landlady looked equally torn as she observed the two of them.
The blond man clearly had no desire to wing a Sekirei, that much she was certain of.
His discomfort at thinking of the Sekirei as anything more than children was incredibly obvious.
But at the same time….
This was Akitsu, who had not had a single shred of hope of being winged up till now, until this man burst into all their lives like a blazing sun, or a rampaging storm.
Knowing what he did now, the thought of just clearly saying "No" to Akitsu was clearly tearing him up too.
So, the blond just soothingly patted the girl's back until she was resting on his lap, her face buried in his stomach.
"I'm going to hate this." The blond finally muttered.
Miya closed her eyes in resignation, "I do not think this needs to be said, but I will do so anyway. If you accept her, do not do it halfheartedly. It will hurt her even more than to be rejected outright."
The blond nodded with a heavy sigh, "Do you have space for a long-term rental for two people? Just one room will be enough."
Miya smiled slightly, "Of course." She bowed her head politely, "So long as you fix the living room up."
"I will be in your care, Asama-san." The blond returned the bow.
"And I, yours." The landlady smiled somewhat impishly, "It will be good to finally have someone paying proper rent."
Naruto looked at her with some surprise, "The others don't pay rent?"
"Matsu doesn't." Miya confessed honestly, "But that's mostly down to her circumstances. As far as I am aware, only Homura has a job, and even that is more like a part time thing for him to meet more people to see if he can find his Ashikabi. Throw in his extracurricular activities and he doesn't really earn much from it. So he, like Uzume, relies on MBI for funding, which means that all the income I get from rent actually comes from MBI."
The blond just shrugged, "You can stop taking their money if you like. I'm happy to pay for all of them." Naruto pursed his lips, "I'm actually considering buying out a whole plot of land nearby. Build a place with enough room for 316 people. Put up some defenses and stuff."
Miya's lips thinned as she stared at him for a long moment, her dark crimson eyes shining strangely.
Finally, she bowed her head slightly with a quiet, "I see." Not indicating her opinion on that particular bit of knowledge, "Where will you get the money?"
"I have plenty." The Uzumaki replied with a rueful smile, "Or rather, my friend has plenty."
Miya's head tilted slightly, "Was he one of the ones that arrived with you?"
"Yep." Naruto replied plainly, "Eight."
"Ah." Miya nodded slowly, "…Would that make the one that was separated from you, Ten?"
"Sasuke?" Naruto smiled briefly at the irony, "No. Not quite. He's my best friend, but we didn't really have the same… social circles. Of the people you saw in that picture, I think only Eight and Nine were really acquainted with him in any capacity."
Her eyes went slightly misty, "Eight... ah, Takehito-san's other friend."
That reminded him, "I still need to find out what that idiot was trying to tell me." Naruto groused.
"Tell you?"
"The cypher in his note." Naruto thought for a moment as he recalled his friend's note, "I pray for atonement at the central pillar. I assume that what he really wanted to tell me will be found wherever that central pillar is." The blond concluded with an irritated click of the tongue, "It's why I asked if you worked at a shrine."
Miya shook her head slowly, "I'm afraid I don't follow. What does a central pillar have to do with me working?"
The blond hummed thoughtfully as he continued to stroke Akitsu's back with one hand, "The term he used for central pillar, shinbashira, is actually a term specific to Japanese pagodas or similar structures in Buddhist architecture. Currently, most pagodas in Japan have been converted into museums or shrines. I had been wondering if I needed to search all of them one by one until I saw what you were wearing." He gestured at her clothes with some amusement.
"I see." The purple haired woman returned his amusement with a playful smile of her own, "I'm afraid I'm not able to help you there. Unfortunately, I am nothing but a simple and sheltered widow who has no knowledge of a shrine's internal workings. May I leave the detective work up to you?"
"Of course, Asama-san." The blond rolled his eyes, "I'll let you know the moment I get a lead."
The woman hesitated for a moment.
"Just call me, Miya." The purple haired lady avoided his gaze studiously, "I've noticed you don't use honorifics with anyone else."
The blond jerked one shoulder with a laconic smile, "I'm fairly good at reading people. I can tell they don't care either way, but you do, and I've long since stopped trying to make everyone address me the way I like. Why make other people uncomfortable over such a small matter?"
"Perhaps its not that they do not care. Perhaps it's because most Sekirei do not have a surname." Miya replied obliquely, "To have a surname… doesn't it mean they have been tied to their destined ones in a way that is acknowledged both openly and publicly?"
The blond looked surprised for a moment before he nodded thoughtfully, "That's something I didn't think of before."
"You didn't know." Miya replied demurely as she stood up slowly, "Will you be having lunch?"
Naruto looked down at Akitsu before looking back at Miya with a wry smile, "Doesn't look like I'm going anywhere anytime soon. Please and thank you."
"Of course." Miya bowed and left for the kitchen while the blond leaned back on the wall with a heavy sigh as he began planning for his next step.
If they were already so shocked by something like this, they were going to love it if he ever got around to introducing Kurama and the gang to them.
Actually, now that he thought about it, seeing their faces when he introduced Kurama to them was a perfectly logical reason to do exactly that.
They were all technically chakra users too, weren't they?
They were just like him, weren't they?
They were even doing the secret-hiding-in-plain-sight thing already, so it wasn't like they could go around telling everyone there was an alien shinobi from another world running around the place.
Kurama and the gang would love the Sekirei.
And the Sekirei would love them right back.
Right after they were done collectively crapping their pants.
Really, it was a win-win situation.
…..
Okay, fine.
He was mentally arguing with himself because he was lonely and he wanted everyone with chakra to be friendly with each other, like their very own little hidden village.
Sue him.
Still, he needed to at least inform the gang about this whole mess.
Especially Matatabi.
Then his ears perked up as he heard something.
"Ashikabi-sama, Ashikabi-sama, Ashikabi-sama…."
Naruto pursed his lips.
Akitsu was softly chanting in her sleep.
That was both incredibly adorable, and yandere level creepy.
Fuck his life.
****Sekirei Unbound****
[Play Burn it All Down (ft PVRIS) – Worlds 2021 – League of Legends]
It was that time of the day when Day was about to transition to Night when a silhouette quietly left Maison Izumo on soundless feet.
It looked back at the well-lit building for a moment and left the sounds of talking and cheerful dinner behind.
In his place at the dinner table was a clone, a Yang chakra reinforced one, because Akitsu was being extra clingy.
As the blond man aimlessly walked down the path, he placed one hand in the nearest shadow, clenching his hand into a fist, before gently pulling.
The shadows tore with a quiet rrrrippp and the blond was left holding a mass of dark material that hung limply like actual cloth. He slung the cloth over one shoulder, melding his chakra through it until he was left with a raggedy black cloak that wavered between real and ethereal as black wisps of smoke wafted off it.
That done, the blond continued walking, orientating himself towards the highest building nearby.
One benefit of this afternoon.
Now that he knew why and how they were detecting him, he also knew how to deal with it, and that cloak was part of it. Even if it did make him look like a hobo.
Pure Yin chakra muffled anything he was doing, absorbing the stray pulses of his chakra.
The downside was that the Pure Yin cloak worked both ways.
As long as he was wearing it, he wouldn't be able to sense anything himself either, but until he thought of a better solution, this would have to do.
As the blond walked, shadows unseen to everyone but him began to gather behind him, one by one, until there were nine of them trailing behind him.
Large, monstrously sized shadows that warped and wobbled dangerously.
The only things remaining constant were their gigantic, glowing eyes, watching him curiously.
Other people walking around couldn't see them, but the stifling, choking atmosphere emanating from the building sized shadows was more than enough for everyone to unconsciously give the tall man swathed in the black cloak and his unseen parade of ghostly shadows a wide berth.
As he walked, the closer he got to the tallest building in sight, the shadows behind him began shrinking.
By the time he had scaled up to the roof, he was being trailed by nine vaguely human shaped shadows, the only things that remained unchanged were still their bright eyes, all of them a different color, all of them glowed with power.
Once at the top of the skyscraper, the blond looked over Tokyo for a moment before he sighed and turned to the nine shadows.
"Hey guys." The blond began awkwardly.
"….."
"'Hey guys' he says." One of the shadows muttered, its voice was quivery, ethereal and whispery like the rest of its form, only the bright glow of its eyes was solid and stable, "Fucker."
"S'not like you were busy. All you do is suck sand." The fourth retorted dryly.
"What was so urgent you needed to call us like this?" Another of the shadows interjected before its siblings could start quarreling.
The blond man just pinched the bridge of his nose and waved one hand, prompting three illusions to pop into existence.
All nine shadows studied the illusions silently until the ninth one began chuckling, "You fucking serious, Naruto? Where'd you find these fuckers? After twenty-eight bloody years, you just randomly stumble on three of them?"
"There are supposedly 108 of them in Tokyo actually. I haven't personally met more than six, but I've sensed another twenty running around at least." The Uzumaki replied simply.
"108?" The fifth shadow muttered disbelievingly, "Damn. I was just there a few years ago. How did we not notice them? Is this a spontaneous evolution or something?"
"They're…. I really don't know how to explain it. It's a long fucking story and a goddamned dumpster fire of mess." Naruto paused distastefully, "No wait, I take that back. This ain't a dumpster fire. This is the mountain where all the dumpsters get sent to be set on fire."
The ninth shadow whistled quietly, his best friend was not the type to curse, so whatever he had bumped into was probably even more of a mess than he was saying, "You need back up?"
"Physically? No. Emotional support would be nice though. You gonna let me cry on your shoulder?" The blond retorted dryly.
"Fuck off."
"Yeah. I figured."
"So? What can we do?" The eighth shadow cut in before the two old friends could start bickering again.
"Long term? I'm probably going to try and get them all away from this mess, assuming they're even willing to come. There's some serious brainwashing and indoctrination going on here that I don't even know how to start fixing." Naruto admitted wearily, "Short term, maybe a bunker or something. We still got those cafes?"
"I'll send you the keys for the cafes." The eighth shadow didn't argue, it simply continued with an icy calm, "How many for the long term?"
"316 at maximum. Possibly more depending on fertility."
Again, the eighth shadow didn't dispute his words. It simply nodded, "Based on what we've seen, I should prepare for them to be… rambunctious as well?"
"Power levels range from Academy level to high jounin, with one in particular that can probably match a Kage on physical terms. Actual skill level is iffy at best. Combat instincts seemed ingrained at birth, but most have zero practical training."
"Wonderful. I've always wondered what babysitting a toddler with Kage level strength would be like." The seventh muttered sardonically.
The sixth shadow tilted its head, "Any defenses?"
"Probably local only for now." Naruto cocked his head thoughtfully, "I've heard some things that imply that they may already be known internationally, but I need to confirm that before I can get back to you."
"Five and I will see what we can do." The sixth shadow promised flatly.
"Thank you." The blond bowed gratefully.
Now came the unpleasant part.
As the shadows began to dispersing, the blond looked at the second shadow and the eighth shadow, "Matatabi, Gyuki, can the two of you please stay for a moment?"
The second shadow that had been about to leave turned back and tilted her head at him curiously.
The third and eighth shadow stopped as well.
"What's wrong, Naruto-chan?"
The blond's tongue darted over his lips nervously, "I'm sorry, Matatabi, Gyuki," He began softly, "I've received news that Asama Takehito has passed away. I have yet to visit his grave, but it should be within the coming week."
The second shadow froze while the eighth shook in surprise.
The third shadow placed one hand on the second's shoulder.
"I see." Was all the second shadow said before it faded away without another sound.
"Please take care of her, Isobu."
The third shadow bowed gracefully, "Of course."
Gyuki's shadow remained silent for a long moment before it nodded and faded as well.
Once all the shadows were gone, Naruto just sighed.
"Fucking dumpster fire mountain."
****Sekirei Unbound****