Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or any of its characters as they are the property of Masashi Kishimoto.
The author of the cover image is indy-riquez from DeviantArt. You can check the link for the original image in my profile.
Chapter 5: Stranded
-Island On The Land Of Lightning-
The first thing Naruto noticed when he woke up was the foliage of the tall trees towering above him with the sunlight coming through them. The second thing he noted was a splitting headache he had and was only made worse with the glare of the sun coming through the leaves. But the third and most important thing he noticed was that he was gagged and bound. He widened his eyes in panic as the events of the day before rushed into his mind. He remembered being attacked by Iwa and then the Akatsuki showed up, and then he lost consciousness fighting one of them. How he ended up in this place was a mystery to him. He attempted to stand and yell for help from his Sensei, but to no avail. He squirmed some more while his groans were muffled by the rag in his mouth when he noticed a girl coming into the clearing. He recognized her, she was one of the Iwa bastards that got him into this mess!
The pink-eyed girl grimaced when she saw that Naruto had woken up. She had left him alone after she woke up still feeling sore from her wound and left for a moment to patch herself up with some bandages she had sealed on a scroll, and to look for food and water. She had discarded her ruined flak jacket and one could see the bandages through the blood-stained hole on her red uniform. ''So, you are finally awake, Konoha Scum.'' She continued to approach him until she was right beside him and crouched to get a better look at him. She wanted to torment the boy for the trouble they went to capture him since a lot of her comrades died for the mission. ''You really were a handful to catch, you can thank your master for that. But now that we got you we can take you back to Iwa and give the Kyuubi to someone worthier of that power.'' She could see the rage in his eyes as he started shouting at her, or at least trying to. She put a hand close to her ear in mockery at the attempt of her captive. ''What was that? Sorry, I couldn't hear you.''
Naruto got even angrier at being ridiculed, but even using all his strength he couldn't break free from his binds. Suddenly, his stomach growled which caught both of their attention and he got embarrassed at showing any further vulnerability to his enemy.
She put on a condescending grin at his predicament. ''Oh? You hungry, Konoha dog? Well, you are in luck, I found a river a little while ago and left some traps to catch a fish or two, also I brought some water.'' She said while pulling a canteen from her pouch and started gulping the contents down.
Naruto stared at her with a craving look, he was pretty thirsty too. He hadn't had anything to drink or eat in almost a day.
Kurotsuchi noticed the look that the young Jinchuuriki was giving her and after giving a satisfied sigh at her quenched thirst, she regarded him once more. ''Sorry, how inconsiderate of me. Here have some.'' She then proceeded to spill the liquid on the blond's face, making him close his eyes and groan in protest. ''Oops, butterfingers.''
''you didn't even drop it, you bitch!'' thought Naruto, hoping that somehow his glare would cause her to drop dead.
''Awww, such a shame, it's empty now, so I guess you are out of luck.'' Said Kurotsuchi with fake remorse, before returning to her more cheerful attitude. ''Oh well, nothing to be done about it. I heard that Jinchuuriki can survive for a while longer than most people thanks to their tenants, so I'm sure you'll be alright. Now that I think about it, I guess there is no need to feed you after all.'' She then went to the edge of the clearing, just about to reenter the forest, and glanced at Naruto one last time. ''I'm gonna see if I caught anything to eat. Don't go anywhere while I'm gone.'' She mocked him one last time and departed, leaving Naruto fuming and alone for a few hours.
Naruto was laying on the ground beside his crazy captor and a bonfire. Night had already fallen, and most of the fish were already eaten by the Iwa Kunoichi. She didn't even let him have any. His rage hadn't completely died down, but now his most troubling thought was that he was trapped in god knew where, and his only companion was the crazy girl that abducted him. Thinking that he may never get to see his friends and home again crushed his spirit. There were so many things he still wanted to do; he still needed to save Sasuke, he still wasn't Hokage, and he still had yet to get a date from Sakura, or any girl for that matter. He refused to let this be the end, but he couldn't think of a way out right now.
Kurotsuchi was sitting just a few feet away and was currently cleaning her sword. She took great care of her mother's blade and the battle from the previous day had left it quite dirty. She took a side glance to her captive. He had stopped squirming a while ago and she wanted to confirm that he was still behaving and not trying anything sneaky. When She confirmed that he wasn't up to anything she went back to her weapon. Her usual confidence was gone and she had a look of worry instead. She wondered if her father and Akatsuchi were alright. Last she saw them they were fighting one of the strongest Shinobi she had ever seen, and they had two more monsters of his level on their tails. She couldn't bear to think about losing them, but she had to have faith that they managed to get out of that situation. They must have, they were strong. She also wished with all her being that was the case. And even if they were fine she didn't have a way to know where they were, or where she was for that matter. She had scouted the island earlier in the day and she was surprised by what she found. She managed to see what appeared to be a tail and legs attached to the island, so it had to mean that it wasn't just an island, it was a living creature, big enough to have a large sized forest on its back. It even had its own ecosystem and everything. She massaged her temple, wondering how she even got into such a complicated situation.
The burning embers of the bonfire were the only things that could be heard as both of them pondered on their respective problems. Neither of them could sleep that night with such troubling thoughts plaguing their minds.
-Land Of Lightning-
Kitsuchi, Akatsuchi, and most of the survivors of the Iwa force were resting in a small camp that they had set on the seashore. After their failed assault they looked for any signs of Kurotsuchi and the Jinchuuriki until they decided that with their wounds they weren't in any condition to be looking around, and begrudgingly they decided to go back to shore to rest and tend to their injuries before they could continue. It had almost been a day now since they got separated from the girl. Right now the few Shinobi that hadn't been severely hurt were continuing the search, which left Kitsuchi and the rest to wait for any update on their progress.
Kitsuchi currently was sitting on a small log that he was using as a makeshift chair. He was heavily bandaged and in a bad mood. He turned to see the rest of his men, and most of them looked just as somber as he was; losing so many comrades in such a short time left them feeling depressed. He saw Akatsuchi and the boy had a gloomy look rarely seen on the happy-go-looking young man, he was obviously sad about their losses and worried over his missing friend. And along with his entire torso bandaged he looked pretty miserable overall. Kitsuchi couldn't blame the boy, he was worried sick about Kurotsuchi too. She was injured, alone in foreign lands, and was responsible for taking care of the objective of an S-ranked mission that also happened to be the Jinchuuriki of the strongest Biju in existence. He put his head in his hands, wondering how did they end up in such a mess. ''this mission is a disaster'' Thought Kitsuchi with a heavy sigh. When they started the mission they had close to a hundred ninja, give or take; and now they were down to thirty or so, and that was without taking into account his missing daughter. ''could this get any worse?'
''Captain Kitsuchi!'' He heard one of the men he sent to continue the search call out to him, he was approaching fast and seemed to be in a panic.
Kitsuchi stood up fast, dreading to hear any bad news about his daughter. ''What is it? did you find my daughter?'' He hoped that she was alright, he couldn't bear to lose her too like her mother.
The young Tokubetsu Jounin halted before his leading commander and shook his head with urgency. ''We haven't found her yet sir, but we just got a messenger bird from the village, and it's an emergency!'' Said the Shinobi holding up a letter.
Kitsuchi snatched the letter rapidly and starting reading its contents. As he continued his face got paler and paler until he finally clenched his fist around the piece of paper in anger. ''We got played!'' Yelled Kitsuchi with fury. He turned swiftly to his subordinates who seemed disturbed at his sudden outburst. ''We have to go back to the to the village at once, we were attacked by the Akatsuki!'' The news got looks of shock and anger on the faces of the remaining Iwa Shinobi, but then quickly got to pack their tools and tents as fast as they could. While the camp was hastily being packed, Kitsuchi was trembling with rage. He now understood that the Akatsuki were waiting for them to leave to attack the village, the timing was just too perfect, which it also had to mean that the bastards somehow managed to set up this whole thing. ''I knew this mission was a bad idea'' He turned to the Tokubetsu Jounin once more to give him a new order. ''You and the rest of the search team stay here to continue looking for Kurotsuchi, the rest will come back with me to Iwa.''
The lower ranked Shinobi nodded in understanding and left in a hurry to get to the rest of the search party.
Kitsuchi felt terrible for leaving without finding Kurotsuchi first, but they were Shinobi, and they had to do what was best for the village, and right now returning to Iwa and helping with whatever they could was the right thing to do, even if as a father it killed him inside. He just hoped that his village and daughter would be fine.
-Merchant Island in the Land of Lightning-
Jiraiya was resting on the same inn he and Naruto had previously stayed at, and he was tired as hell. He had been looking for any signs of Naruto for a whole day, and for the life of him, he just couldn't find even a trace. He was already exhausted to begin with because of his long battle with Iwa and the Akatsuki, and spending several more hours searching fruitlessly just added to his fatigue. And on top of that, he had to pay the wrecked ship that he had borrowed, and he still got an earful for that. He heard a knock on his window and turned to look at a small red toad banging the glass from outside. He got up in a hurry and let the little amphibian enter the room.
The small animal found himself a nice comfortable spot on the bed and looked at Jiraiya. The toad was red with blue markings around his eyes, and had the kanji for 'gold' on his back, he was also wearing green goggles.''I have been keeping an eye on the Iwa squad just as you asked me to, old man. They didn't even notice me hiding nearby.''
''What did you find, Kosuke? Did they know anything at all about Naruto?'' Asked Jiraiya anxiously, he was not in the most patient of moods, not with the current issues.
The toad gave his report. ''They really seem to not know anything about the boy. However, it appears that they have lost one of their own too, and not only that, but it seems that both Naruto and the Kunoichi were lost together.''
Jiraiya was troubled by that information. He didn't like the blond to be stranded along with one of their enemies. And while he knew Naruto could handle himself against a single enemy, even a skilled one, he didn't know the situation he was in. The boy could be injured, or captured, or worse. The point was that he could be in an unfavorable position and he had no way to know or help him at the moment, and that made him feel impotent.
However, the toad wasn't done talking. ''There was something else. They got a message from Iwa, and apparently their village was attacked by the Akatsuki, so they went back to Iwagakure, leaving only a small search party here.''
Jiraiya widened his eyes in surprise at hearing about the attack on Iwagakure. Now a realization hit him; so that was how Iwa found out about Naruto. The Akatsuki probably found a way to put the boy on Iwa's radar to make them commit some of their elite forces and leave the village undefended, which in turn gave them a window of opportunity to invade them. If he had to guess they used that chance to get Iwa's Jinchuuriki and planned to get Naruto too once the Sannin and the Iwa platoon were too weak from their fight to put much resistance. Jiraiya felt like a fool, he had miscalculated. He didn't expect the Akatsuki to make such a daring move so soon, they still had a couple more months to train but he should have know better than to drop his guard. Now not only was Naruto officially out of time, and earlier than expected to boot, but the boy was out there, lost in Kumo's ocean with an enemy Kunoichi and a search party out for his head.
If only he could make Shima or Fukasaku Reverse Summon the boy, but is wasn't as simple as a regular summon; For a Reverse Summon the user had to know the Chakra signature of the person they are trying to summon, and the couple of elder toads had never met the boy personally, they couldn't know someone's Chakra signature if they had never seen the person before. Yes, they had been in the battle helping against Iwa just as Naruto had been, but Naruto had been using the Kyuubi's Chakra at the time, so even if they picked up a feeling for the blond's Chakra it would do them no good if it was the Kyuubi's. So that only left to find a toad that knew Naruto and also knew how to Use the Jutsu, but as far as he knew only Fukasaku and Shima knew how to do it. With all things considered he was running out of options and He needed to make a choice now, there was no time to rest. ''I'm going back to Konoha to get a proper tracker team to help. Kosuke, you continue keeping watch on the Iwa team searching for Naruto, if they find him first, tell me immediately.'' Said the Sage going for the door with the intent of leaving as soon as he could.
The red toad gave a salute in obedience. ''Leave those guys to me, and I wish you good luck. But you better hurry, we don't know how much time we can spare.''
''You don't need to tell me that, I know. I'll be back soon, good luck to you too.'' Jiraiya finally left the inn, he would get to Konoha in a couple of days if he traveled at full speed, he just wished that Naruto could hold on until then. Jiraiya would never forgive himself if something were to happen to his godson.
-Island on The Land of Lightning-
Kurotsuchi was coming back to her improvised camp where she left the blond idiot. She had come to the conclusion that they needed to change locations as fast as they could. After having been up all night she decided to look for food once more and in her little expedition, she encountered gigantic insects and larger than normal tigers, enormous bears, and a lot of other kinds of abnormal predators. She couldn't afford to keep leaving the Jinchuuriki at the mercy of the bizarre beasts or she risked getting the moron killed and fail her mission. So she needed to find a more secure location to set up her camp, in fact, she was surprised that they had lasted as long as they had without being attacked by one of those animals.
When she arrived at the clearing she saw the orange-clad idiot still struggling to free himself, but to no avail. She approached him with the same disdain as always and gave him a kick to the ribs to make him stop moving. ''Hey bastard, stop making a fuss, will ya? We are changing locations so stay still and don't give me any trouble.''
Naruto glared at her in defiance. He didn't care for his vulnerable position, he just wanted to free himself from his bindings, and if he couldn't then he at least hoped to give the Kunoichi as much trouble as possible just to show her that he wasn't just gonna give up without a fight. Along with his death glare, he started spewing insults at her, but of course, since his mouth was covered, only angry groans could be heard.
Kurotsuchi put on the same condescending look that she gave earlier and stared down at the boy with eyes that promised nothing but pain. ''What did you say? I think I heard 'please Kurotsuchi-Sama, beat my ass senseless until I can no longer move because I'm so retarded that I can't follow simple instructions'. Well since you asked nicely then I guess you earned it.'' She cracked her knuckles and got on one knee and pulled him up by his jacket, ready to punch him in the skull.
But Naruto was quick enough that when she grabbed his jacket, he gave her a headbutt to her face.
She dropped him in surprise at the unexpected hit and brought a hand to her lip, and inspected her fingers to see blood. The idiot had busted her lip! She snarled in fury and looked at the Jinchuuriki with hatred. ''Now you are really in for it now!''She lifted her arm, ready to deliver a crushing blow to the blond when she felt something wet touch her forearm. She stopped the delivery of her punch at the sensation, and realized that the liquid substance was dropping from above, so she looked up and paled at what she saw.
Above them were countless spiders staring at them with their fangs bared and salivating, which explained the dripping liquid. The arachnids were the size of small dogs and were black in color with red stripes, which meant that they were probably venomous.
''This is exactly why I didn't want to stay here anymore!'' Thought the Kunoichi in panic.
Naruto wondered why the girl stopped her assault so he too glanced up, and joined his captor in her shock as the army of small red eyes of the spiders made their stomachs turn.
After staying still for a moment the spiders leaped from the trees and started to descend fast towards them. The aggression of the arachnids made Kurotsuchi prepare her weapons to fend the creatures off, and Naruto started his squirming once more.
Kurotsuchi rapidly started throwing kunai and shuriken at the foul creatures, making them fall dead before they could even reach their targets. As for the ones that did manage to reach her, she slew them with her sword in fluid motions, hacking and slashing left and right.
Naruto for his part was desperately trying once again to free himself, as he wasn't particularly fond of being defenseless as an army of deadly animals were trying to kill him. His blood froze when he felt one of the spider start crawling over him until he was face to face with the damn thing. He attempted to scream when the creature bared its fangs, ready to inject its venom into his body, when a kunai planted itself in the arachnid's head, courtesy of the crazy Kunoichi, and the animal fell lifeless to the side. Relief washed over the blond at the demise of his predator. But he soon perked up when he noticed that the Kunai that killed the spider was still embedded in its body and was within his reach, and started crawling towards the corpse of the animal. Once Naruto closed the distance he turned his body and used his hands to search the corpse over, and ignoring his goosebumps at touching such a repulsive creature he continued touching the body until he grasped the handle of the kunai. After a moment of pulling the weapon, he finally felt the kunai detach itself from the dead body, and without wasting another second he started cutting the ropes in his hands. Luckily his captor was too busy fending off the rest of the spiders to notice his actions.
Meanwhile, Kurotsuchi was still slashing relentlessly the swarm of arachnids. It was difficult to keep both the idiot and herself out of harms way that she didn't get a single moment to catch her breath. After a few minutes of non-stop cutting, she finally finished off the remainder of the spiders. She gave a sigh of relief, glad to be done dealing with such disgusting things. ''Ewww, some of them touched me! I hate spiders'' the thought made her queasy, but at least it was over. Suddenly, she heard the distinctive sound of metal cutting through the air. She got a cut on her cheek as she barely managed to dodge a Kunai aimed for her head. She turned around and saw that the Konoha moron had somehow freed himself, and he looked pissed. She narrowed her eyes at the new threat and unsheathed her sword once more. ''So, you used the distraction that the spiders provided to your advantage, clever. But I'm done being nice. Next time I'm gonna cut off your limbs and cauterize the wounds, maybe that will keep you still.''
Naruto's face showed nothing but ire for the Kunoichi. He knew he wasn't in the best state to be fighting. He hadn't eaten in two days, neither did he have anything to drink and on top of that he didn't even get any sleep the last night. All thanks to the Iwa bitch. But right now he didn't care about that, he was resolute to get her back for all that she put him through, tenfold. He joined his hands and made a hand seal. ''Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!(Shadow Clone Technique)''
Ten copies of the blond appeared around Kurotsuchi. She clicked her tongue in annoyance at seeing the technique once more. ''Is that Jutsu the only thing you can do? You really are a one-trick pony, aren't you?'' She readied herself as the Shadow clones rushed at her with an enraged yell. Her dexterity allowed her to evade the attacks and countered with slashes of her sword, dispelling them one by one.
The young Jinchuuriki responded by making double the previous amount of clones, and once again the small army of clones rushed at the Kunoichi, ready to beat her to a pulp.
''give me a break, I hate that Jutsu!'' thought Kurotsuchi with exasperation at the repeated use of the annoying technique. She quickly made some hand seals of her own and put her palms on the ground. ''Doton: Doryousou! (Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears)'' In an instant, countless spikes made of stone starting extending from the ground, impaling and dispelling the rampaging clones. However, she noted that all the blonds had disappeared, which meant that the original wasn't among them. ''where did that idiot go?'' She thought while looking around attentively for any kind of sign that gave the boy's location away.
''Rasengan! (Spiraling sphere)''
She looked up in surprise and saw the Konoha Shinobi with a ball of blue Chakra in his hand coming directly at her. As the attack closed in, she barely managed to erect a small dome made of rock around her. But the earth structure couldn't stop the attack completely and she was sent sailing through it, but she righted herself and managed to land while standing. She had at least weakened the sphere of condensed Chakra enough that it didn't hurt her too much.
As soon as Naruto saw the Kunoichi smash through the stone shelter, he quickly grabbed one of the kunai still laying around and rushed at the pink-eyed girl.
Said girl saw him coming and pulled out her sword to parry the kunai stabs. The sound of steel meeting steel resonated in the clearing as both fighters attempted to get the upper hand.
Finally, their weapons stopped as they clashed against each other and both users glared daggers at the other. While both Shinobi pushed trying to overpower their enemy, Naruto remembered the bandages in the girl's torso. So he took his chance and kicked in place to the Kunoichi's midriff.
Kurotsuchi gave a loud cry as the kick connected with her stomach and momentarily stumbled at the sharp pain from her still-healing injury.
Naruto rushed to continue pressing the attack, but she once again parried the kunai and used her other hand to deliver a solid punch to his face. The force of the blow was reinforced by her newly reignited anger and sent him a few meters away from the girl.
The irate Kunoichi took the moment of respite to examine her wound with her hand, and her rage increased at seeing her blood stained palm. Her wound had reopened. ''To hell with the mission, I'm gonna fucking kill him!'' She glanced at the blond that had started to stand again and yelled at the top of her lungs. ''I'm gonna kill you, moron! You hear me?! You are fucking dead!'' She gripped her sword tightly and charged at Naruto before he could fully pick himself up, and poised her sword to pierce his heart. But before she could close the distance a bolt of lightning struck the earth between her and the blond and stopped her dead in her tracks.
''Both of you, drop your weapons and stand down!'' Both Naruto and Kurotsuchi looked around them to find at least a couple dozen of Kumo Shinobi surrounding them. You could tell they were from Kumo by their dark gray uniforms with white flak jacket and forehead protectors.
One of the Kumo ninjas took a step forward. He had spiky brown hair and had a green line on the length of his nose. Aside from the standard Kumo uniform he also wore a gray scarf. ''Drop your weapons and stand down, I won't repeat myself again!'' As he said that, the rest of the Kumo ninja drew their weapons, ready to put them down if they made a move to attack.
Naruto was still surprised by the turn of events but complied nonetheless. He dropped the kunai before standing up completely.
Kurotsuchi was still furious and sore, so she hesitated for a moment. But after thinking it over she finally gave a resigned huff and threw her sword and took off her weapon pouch, letting it fall off to the floor too.
When the Kumo Shinobi saw their cooperation, they relaxed a bit, but they were still on guard. ''What is the meaning of this? Why are a Konoha and Iwa Shinobi trespassing in Kumo's territory? You better answer truthfully if you know what's good for you.'' Continued to ask the same Shinobi with the green stripe on his nose.
Naruto was the first to speak. ''This crazy bitch is trying to kill me, that's what happens! She and her Iwa friends attacked me and my Sensei. And somehow I ended up here after that.'' He said pointing at the girl accusingly.
''Shut up, Konoha scum!'' said Kurotsuchi snarling at Naruto with hatred, before addressing the Kumo Shinobi. ''This guy is a target of my village. Kumo and Iwa are on good terms, aren't we? Well, you would be doing Iwa a great service if you help me apprehend this son of a bitch.''
''W-wait a minute! Konoha and Kumo are neutral too! You can't just let this hag do as she wishes!'' Said a nervous Naruto, worried at the possibility that they would listen to her.
''No one wants your opinion, trash! And what do you mean 'hag'?! You don't look that much younger than me!'' Replied the pink-eyed girl with indignation.
''Well, you could have fooled me! You are so ugly you don't even look like a girl!'' Retaliated Naruto, with as much venom in his voice as the girl.
Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes in contempt at the blond. ''Keep digging your grave deeper, you piece of shit. Just wait until I get my hands on you-''
''Silence!'' the thundering yell of the brown haired man made Naruto and Kurotsuchi halt their argument and returned their startled looks to him. ''I won't tolerate you fighting within our borders. And despite what you say, there is no evidence to say that you are not spies. People aren't supposed to be able to find this place easily after all.''
This caused both teenagers to get equal looks of disbelief. ''Spies? I would rather die than work alongside this asshole! No way we would be spying together.'' Said Kurotsuchi trying rid herself of any suspicion.
''That's right, you got it all wrong! There is no way I would work with this crazy bitch!'' Agreed Naruto with the girl.
However, the Kumo ninja remained firm in his conviction. ''It's true that it would be extremely unlikely for Iwa and Konoha to work together. but be as it may, we can't just trust your word. So I'm afraid that we will have to put you both into custody until we think what to do with you. If you resist we will use lethal force.'' He signaled the rest of his Shinobi to arrest both Naruto and Kurotsuchi.
Both the blond and the girl didn't put any resistance. As things were right now, they were in no position to be fighting a squad of Shinobi, not with their injuries, and starvation in Naruto's case. So they begrudgingly refrained themselves from starting a fight as the Kumo Shinobi started tying them up.
-Turtle Island Prison Cells-
Naruto and Kurotsuchi were kept in separate but adjacent cells, just in front of each other on opposite sides and they both could see each other through the metal bars. The room and cells were small, so it was obvious that the island wasn't meant to hold prisoners and the cells were just temporary solutions should the need arise. The ropes binding them had their legs completely wrapped and they couldn't move their hands at all with another set of ropes tightly adjusted to keep their wrists behind their backs. And even if they somehow could find a way to set themselves free, a couple of Kumo ninja were guarding the only exit outside.
Naruto was especially miffed. He had just managed to free himself from the Iwa banshee just to end up as someone else's prisoner. And they still didn't even let him eat anything!
''Konoha scum, this is all your fault!'' The Jinchuuriki turned to glare at his cell companion, But the girl continued her rant anyway. ''If you had just obeyed when I told you to, we could have avoided the spiders and we wouldn't be here right now!''
The boy got angry in indignation at the girl's accusations. ''Oh so now is my fault?! If you and the rest of the Iwa bastards hadn't bothered me, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place! So I think is pretty obvious who are the biggest assholes here! And stop calling me that, I have a name, it's Naruto!''
''I don't give a rat's ass what you are called!'' She yelled at the boy, not caring at all for what he had to say. ''And they even took away the sword my mother gave me! If I don't get it back I will make you pay for that with your head!''
Naruto was dumbfounded that she would care about such a thing at the moment. ''Who cares about a stupid sword?! We have bigger problems than a lost weapon! Have your mom give you another one or something for fuck's sake!'' Naruto didn't think it was possible for the girl's gaze to become any colder, but somehow it did.
She stopped her outburst and looked at him darkly.''My mother is dead. She was killed by Konoha trash like you.'' The malice in her voice could have frozen anyone's blood.
That made Naruto's eyes widen. He remembered what Jiraiya had said about the bitterness that the war left between Iwa and Konoha, but the girl was young, so he hadn't expected her to have lost someone too. Even with recent events, he couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the brash Kunoichi. As someone who grew without a family, he could sympathize. The empty feeling of longing for the love of a parent was something that Naruto knew all too well.
She noticed the blond's surprised face, so she continued her tirade. ''Such a shame that we weren't allowed to kill you. It goes against my principles to spare any of you, murderers. If it was up to me, I would see you and your kind dead at my feet.''
Naruto's pity vanished as fast as it had come. He couldn't tolerate his home and comrades being labeled murderers by the ignorant girl. ''Not all of us are like that! You don't even know me or my friends!''
''Tell that to the families of all the people that Konoha assholes like you have killed!'' Threw the Kunoichi back at him.
''That was a long time ago! It's precisely because you idiots can't pull your heads out of your ass to live in the present instead of the past, that this enmity still exists! If you guys were reasonable we could have peace!'' Said Naruto, grinding his teeth in frustration.
She gave a laugh filled with ridicule. ''Hah, You really are a moron if you think such a thing is possible.''
''You can't know that! In fact, when I become Hokage I will try to fix the relations between our villages. Living with bitterness is not the answer.'' Said Naruto with determination.
Kurotsuchi looked baffled at the Jinchuuriki. ''Wow, your stupidity never ceases to amaze me. You Hokage? Peace? You are just a brat living in your own little pink-colored world filled with unicorns and rainbows. Wake up, this the real world! If anyone is gonna become a Kage is me. And let me tell you, once I become Tsuchikage the first thing I'll do is crush your pathetic village!''
Naruto had already lost all his patience at her close-mindedness. ''You are such a detestable girl, you know that?! Your sight is so clouded with hatred that you can't see anything else!''
''And you are a delusional moron that thinks he can change the world if he wishes hard enough! You are ridiculous!'' Said the girl just as pissed off as her fellow prisoner.
They stared hotly at each other, breathing heavily with anger, until they both gave a huff and turned their heads away, not bearing to look at the other right now. They stayed silent after that. Having spent all their remaining energy yelling at each other left them a bit more mellow.
After a considerable amount of time had passed, Naruto realized something concerning his cell partner. ''Hey.'' He called to the girl on the other side of the room.
She was resting her head against the wall. When she heard the idiot talk she turned her pink eyes to him, not bothering to move her head. ''What do you want, Dipshit?''
''I didn't catch your name.'' Asked Naruto with a serious face.
She gave him a look of utter disbelief. ''is this guy for real?'' They had tried to kill each other just a couple hours ago, and now he wanted to make small talk? ''My name is not your business. And why the fuck do you care anyway?''
Naruto gave a shrug and squinted his eyes. ''Well, we don't know how long we will be here having to put up with each other, and calling you by your name seems a better option than 'Iwa bitch'. Besides, I already told you mine.''
She just continued to stare at him with incredulity. ''Don't call me anything. Don't even talk to me at all. Period.'' She then proceeded to continue staring at the wall, ignoring the look of annoyance of the blond at her dismissal. After a moment, she closed her eyes and sighed. If she had to tolerate the moron for who knew how long, she supposed that it was preferable to have him call her by her name than with undesirable nicknames. And he didn't seem like the type to keep quiet, so she might as well make the best of the situation, as hard as it may be. ''Kurotsuchi.''
Naruto looked at her, puzzled. He hadn't expected her to say anything anymore. ''Huh?''
''My name is Kurotsuchi! There, you happy? Now stop bothering me!'' Said the young prodigy in exasperation at the boy's lack of attentiveness. She then turned her head to the side to avoid looking at the idiot anymore.
Naruto was starting to get peeved again at her insufferable attitude. ''Fine! is not like talking to you is enjoyable anyway!'' He finally decided to stop concerning himself with the troublesome girl. She was acting so obnoxious that it wasn't even worth it to try to have a civilized conversation. And he had bigger things to worry about anyway. For instance, he didn't know what happened to the Ero-Sennin, but he had faith that the old pervert was alright. He knew the Sage was strong, even if his quirks didn't reflect that. He guessed that Jiraiya had to be looking for him at the moment. He could only hope that he managed to find him soon.
Kurotsuchi's anger had mostly died down by now and was replaced instead with fear. She worried about what would happen to her. She didn't want to die so far away from home, and it wouldn't even be a glorious death on top of it. She didn't even care for her mission right now, she just wanted to return home with her friends and family.
And so both teenagers found themselves lost in their thoughts. Knowing that the only thing they could do now was to wait for the Kumo ninja to decide their fate. They just hoped that they could get out in one piece.
Author's note:
And there it is, the fifth chapter! This one took me longer than I thought it would, mainly because even tough I have a general idea of how I want the events to unfold, I have trouble deciding EXACTLY how they should. And the other thing that kept this update for so long is that someone got me a copy of MGS V for my birthday, and OMG is that game good! literally I did nothing for 4 days straight but play that thing, if I hadn't, this chapter would have been up much earlier. But anyway, I'm hoping you like this chapter, we finally got Naruto and Kurotsuchi to interact, but it will be a while until any real connection can be build between them, they are bitter enemies after all. Actually, I'm lucky that Naruto has such a talent for forgiving people easily and for making people trust him if he didn't I literally wouldn't have ANY faith of this pair working out. So that's all for now, I'll try to update sooner next time, and as always please review if you have the chance. Thanks for reading!
Update: Yes I know that's not how reverse summon really works(I think), but I'm cheating a little bit to keep the story moving along.
