Chapter 2: The Longest Night

~ I I I ~

Ten Years Six Months After the Fall of Uzushiogakure…

"OI! Oioioioioi!OI! Stop breakin' down the damned door!" Jiraiya, the Mighty Toad Sage, was not feeling very mighty at the moment. As he groaned his way up to a sitting position, head thumping all the way, one hand blindly reached out to grab and shake what he discovered to be an empty sake bottle. 'Damn it all to hell and back! Someone wants their skull caved in for this.' It was still dark in his hotel room but the sleeping bodies lying next to him wouldn't have budged if the soddin' hotel were ablaze.

Everything from the neck up still hurt from last night's information gathering session but, if the shapely leg draped across his own was any indication, it was a highly successful endeavor. He cast a quick glance under the covers of the barely covered bottom on the other side and grinned at his own superiority.

'Mortal men quake in my presence…' and, thinking it a clever little jibe, began looking for his trusty pad and pencil seeing a brilliant introduction in his near future.

Then the impatient bastard trying to break down his hotel room door started trying to raise the dead again. To make matters worse, the heavy fog trying to squeeze his brain was winning and the white-haired legend was considering ripping off a limb or two to make the fool ruining his lay-in vanish into the Suna desert; he needed to finish up negotiations with that bastard Rasa today before shooting off to spy on Kumo. 'Oh, the beauties they have there…' A weary hand gripped the bridge of his nose as he considered the ramifications of Kumo or Iwa, as neither by themselves could do much after the Third Shinobi War, managed to drink enough booze to work out an agreement threatening Konoha's safety. That thought almost made the carpet lining his tongue palatable.

A quick wince, a muttered prayer to whatever wine gods favored him for the day, and a grumbled wiggle out from under the exhausted tangle of flesh, and he was off at a stumbling shuffle.

Flinging the door open with an irate, "WHAT?!" caused the knuckles barreling towards the formally closed door to freeze in place and hover.

Or… maybe it was the fact that he was bare-assed naked and the confused kunoichi bearing his village's crest on her forehead was turning a brilliant shade of red while imitating a lion fish. Normally such a reaction would have been priceless but he was far from impressed – he thought the rules spelled out clearly at the beginning of this mission, even for his village's ambassador to Sunagakure, had been pretty explicit.

"Despite how comfortable I am in my skin, this had better be important. We talked about this-," Jiraiya began in the exhausted voice he often used to berate detractors of his literary genius.

He jerked to a fuzzy-brained halt once she slapped a scroll against his chest and bolted for the end of the hallway without a word.

"Hnh, nice speed on that one," he gruffed out with a chuckle before closing the door to the outside world. That was better than arguing. Maybe he should use that tactic more often? Who knows, maybe he'll get lucky from time to time.

With a light giggle, despite his pounding head, he staggered back to his crowded bed. 'Oh well, another three or four hours should hit the spot.'

Without thinking, he tossed the unopened scroll onto his pile of things in the sitting area and trudged back to his warm bed and the two unconscious piles of curves awaiting his return. He'd get dressed later and revisit the "Do Not Disturb Before Noon" policy with twitchy ambassador once more. 'Career bureaucrat, hmph!' If he was filling particularly generous, and he was after last night's escapades, he might treat her to round or two to smooth over the hurt from her naked encounter with the Great Jiraiya.

He chuckled again even has he crawled across the bed to face-plant between the twins, his eyes growing heavy as they slid shut with a sigh. Too bad the third sister couldn't get off shift otherwise Triplets would have been awesome!

What? It wasn't like Konoha was burning or anything. There wasn't anything that blond bastard of a student he loved like a son couldn't handle, the cheater.

~ I I I ~

Meanwhile, back in Hi no Kuni…

Year 11 Day 283: Unlike so many days before I began this pilgrimage, today is a day worthy of note. As such, I shall endeavor to strike prose to passage as I document what precedes me.

A few hours from the Hidden Village of Konohagakure no Sato I came across signs of her passage. All about me lay strewn the whirlwind of her rage, the earth at my feet embracing the great Youko's paw not more than one hundred yards from some nameless haven of humanity. As I look about me, straw and wood hovels lay smashed to so much kindling, the dead, bleeding, and wailing stagger about equally dazed or cling to a loved one now passed.

Having little to no success in my travels, I am set to return to this village hidden amongst the leaves in search of a young maiden of crimson locks spied those short days after Uzushio fell. The few after images of her likeness found cast throughout the other lands held neither her spark nor furor and, to this revelation, I must again cling in the hopes that her bond with the Nine has deepened enough that I may perceive it.

The great roars in the distance have ceased and it is with heavy heart that I hope my haste of these past eleven years have not dimmed my successful culmination of Matron's ambition.

Praise be to Inari that I may be fortuitous at last.

-Toru, The Silver Ghost

~ I I I ~

Four Years Later In the Great Tree Itself…

Like tinkling bells and silver wind-chimes, the tiny child's laughter rang out in the late rainy morning. Her bare feet skipped along the cobblestones kicking up water from errant puddles. The rosy hue of her yukata sleeves flapped like soggy wings, the many imprinted butterflies and snapdragon flowers delicately embroidered on the delicate silk flickering with every twirl and hop. Golden thread sparkled just enough when the clouds parted to catch the eye. Her laughter trilled as her face scrunched up to the heavens, eyes closed in a squint as she blew raspberries to the angry clouds above. Her single bun had disintegrated through rough and tumble play, her honeyed skin covered in fresh rain and auburn hair plastered to her face through the morning showers.

Raising her tiny hands to the sky as if she could grab the clouds and wring them dry, the child spun in a circle calling for her brother to come and play. Hearing no response her laughter died as she stopped her dizzying spin, her flailing hair partially blocking her eyes.

"Nii-san!"

The girl spun quickly to look behind her, her eyes wide open, their crimson color fading to gold the closer you got to her oval-shaped irises. Her cherubic face broke out into a particularly feral grin, long canines piercing her lower lip causing blood to dribble down her chin, her voice dropping four octaves.

"Come play with me, nii-san!"

Then the world erupted into flame.

~ I I I ~

At That Exact Moment, House of Hope Orphanage, Konohagakure no Sato…

Somewhere in Konoha, a small child cried out in fear, his nightmare shocking him awake in the dank and dismal room filled with the smell of his own sweat and bodily wastes. Amethyst-blue eyes tried to pierce the darkness of his windowless cell while his frantic gasps tried to calm his furiously beating heart. There were noises outside his room, footsteps followed by angry voices stopping just outside the door, one of them familiar: The Orphanage Matron. He could hear keys jingling and then the lock started to make familiar clicking noises.

All too familiar.

Panic set in and the small boy scrabbled along the wall furthest from the door sounds frantically trying to make himself as small and nonthreatening as he could in the darkest corner he could find. It wasn't a difficult thing to do in a pitch-black room barely bigger than a closet.

Something threw the door open nearly ripping it from its frame and the flood of light nearly blinded him. His eyes always hurt with any light even when he wasn't kept in this room for... how many days had it been now?

He could vaguely hear the Matron pleading with someone, something about needing to discipline the beast. The child knew she was referring to him because she never called anyone else that bad word, not even the Koga brothers and they bullied everyone.

With a whimper, as he knew crying out would only get him beaten again, the boy curled up in a ball with his face as far into the corner crevice as he could push it, his arms flailing about trying to cover as many areas of his body and head as possible, the growing silence from the blurry figures by the door growing louder with each passing second. Everything was suddenly so loud right before the silence became deafening.

He must have called out in his bad dream and they gotta really be angry now.

To be honest, it didn't matter if he did or didn't cry out. They always blamed him… and they always beat him for it. He hated that spoon.

The quiet grew almost too much to bear and his heart was beating so hard it was echoing off the walls and thundering in his ears. He couldn't see movement with his face pressed into the small corner, but he could feel the heat from the person that had to be standing right behind him, their breath hot on the back of his neck. That chilling fear that started as panic was now full-fledged terror. He bit his lip to keep from crying out and reflexively jerked as his arms became desperate trying to ward off the blows he just knew were coming soon. They always came but why were they taking so long this time?

They were so close now.

When gloved hands grabbed his arms, the shock became too much, and, with a final shriek of terror, he passed out.

Standing in the mangled doorway, Hiruzen observed everything that transpired and was incensed. Anger and killing intent began to freely flow causing the rotund matron standing behind him to cower on the other side of the hallway. At some point, she lost control of her bladder and sank to the floor babbling incoherently as the very air closed in on her. Somewhere in the back of her petrified brain, images of her own gruesome death began to flash before her eyes.

With a carefully restrained flick of his wrist, he sent Neko off to the hospital to get the boy looked at by a trusted friend. That done, he slowly turned to face Matron Nagara, the glare in his eyes promising long-lasting pain, until her growing dread turned her into a blubbering, whimpering mess.

"Find a replacement for the good Mother until Ibiki is finished with their upcoming conversation."

Two swooshes of shadowy air and the Hokage was alone in the hallway while his anger cooled, the stench of the now-empty larder wafting out into the hallway as his only company. He conveniently forgot to tell the pleading orphanage manager that her conversation with Ibiki would be the last conversation she would ever have.

~ I I I ~

At the same time that the House of Hope was undergoing a managerial shift, a hooded and heavily cloaked figure slipped from the shadows of an alley, his nondescript hood pulled low enough to shadow any recognizable features. Tall and lean of build, the gate was smooth and gender-neutral, no swaying or swaggering to betray form or function of the so inclined. The gate maintained an even tempo and ate up ground as the figure shuffled, dipped left through one alley, scaled a wall like a wraith before leaping back two rooftops to emerge from another alley headed in a completely random direction.

A half-hour of this peculiar behavior and the figure paused by a nondescript door. Above it lay a wooden sign depicting a single kunai blade, the bland colors on it weathered and faded through years of rain and relentless sun.

Standing there in the stoop, the figure waited in the flickering light of the doorway as if waiting for something or someone. Some unknown catalyst occurred, and the hooded phantom turned to enter the dilapidated establishment, nodding once to the barkeep before making an abrupt right just past the entry door and passing through another portal just past the restrooms.

It ignored the semi-conscious shinobi spattered about the drinking room and smirked at the jaunty "A Hard Day's Night" playing from the ancient jukebox. Show tunes among shinobi? Who knew.

Once the "Employees Only" door closed behind it, the figure lifted a glowing hand to back-light the short hallway leading to another door not more than a half dozen meters away. Closing one gloved fist and extinguishing the jutsu, the figure lifted another to the aged wood.

Knock…Knock-Knock…Knock.

The door opened silently on well-oiled hinges. Inside the room sat a circular table with four chairs, two of which had their potential occupants standing behind them. On the table sat a nondescript white bottle and four saucers, each one turned upside down in front of an empty seat.

The hooded figure entered and stood directly behind one of the chairs. After the soft "click" from the closing door echoed in the silent chamber, the masked and equally nondescript door opener moved to stand behind the only remaining seat.

The tension rose briefly as the four figures cautiously observed each other, the only light in the room centered over the small table and chair set. The sparse bulb was barely enough to show no sandaled feet lurking in the far corners.

As one, four gloved pairs of hands reached up slowly enough to pull back their hoods showing four ANBU-style masks.

The Monkey looked across to the newly joined Dragon and nodded. Tiger and Rooster nodded once he glanced their way. Again, and as one, all four raised their hands in the same foreign sign, the right fist closed and held chest high with the left palm opened in a knife-like fashion, the flat palm resting against the knuckles of the right fist. As one they lowered their hands and the tension lessened minutely.

"I hope there is a good reason for calling us here off-schedule," Tiger intoned, his voice almost growling in displeasure.

"They are moving up the timetable. Subject is being extracted as we speak." Dragon was neither anxious nor annoyed. He just was.

"What of our plans?"

"Nothing has changed for us, Rooster."

If not for their masks they would have been identical. That was the point of the identical henge after all – anonymity.

"Do we know yet?" Monkey seemed…nervous.

"Not yet. We have narrowed it to a dozen primary. Anything less will take more time, years maybe."

"If nothing has changed for us then why call us here?" Tiger didn't move their feet but there was a… hitch in their shoulders, almost like a settling of their balance.

"We must adjust the plan for our subject's new environment." The other three tensed simultaneously.

"Which one?" was all that Rooster said.

"Echo."

At this Tiger did take a step back. "And you are absolutely sure of this?"

Dragon nodded only once in return.

"I wish that I were not." He glanced around at his three mystery guests. "We must be flawless in our execution."

"How is… the subject?" Three masks turned to Rooster, but Monkey answered.

"The subject is fairing as well as can be expected. Today they made contact with the Rabbit. An impression was made." His head tilted slightly as if remembering something.

"Favorable?"

Monkey nodded. "Very."

Tiger chuckled in response.

Rooster reached out and popped the cork on the bottle with a kunai, the sealing tag breaking as he flipped over his cup and poured a drink of the clear liquid. The other three flipped over their own saucers and repeated the process.

As one, four cups held before their faces in one hand with the other placed in front of the saucer in a similar flat palmed gesture, the four of them drained the vessels and placed them upside down on the table.

None of them removed their masks before drinking.

Nothing else needed to be said before four shadows vanished simultaneously from the room.

~ I I I ~

Somewhere in Konoha, Six Years After Kyuubi (A.K.)…

Stumbling, falling to his hands and knees… his palms scraped raw and bloody as he scrambled shakily to his feet yet again, the small figure tore through the back alleys in terror. He could hear his own heart pounding in his ears, drowning out the ragged sound of his breathing. This was becoming an all too familiar sensation the past few months, one that he hated. It was like this last year also.

Festivals were supposed to be good things but Konoha's only festival of the year always made things difficult. People seemed to get really angry before this one came around. It was something the now frantic six-year old did not understand.

His throat raw despite the cool night air, his voice had all but failed him during the last half hour while he tripped over garbage cans, dodged angry mobs by ducking under abandoned carts, and cowered in the shadows to the sound of angry and drunken voices. This by far was the most terrifying half-hour of his miserable six-year-old existence. In a flash of golden hair dirty from grime and caked with blood, he scrambled into a darkened corner and tried very hard not to move or make a sound, each breath coming out as a strained hiss through clenched teeth.

'Wait here, kit.' There she was again, his angel. She'd never lied to him before, so he hunkered down and waited.

"I lost him!" The small child flinched. More angry words and swearing followed.

He didn't recognize that voice, angry and frantic as it was, but the sound sparked a fresh round of terror causing the frightened child to instinctively press down and away from the light of the streets, sheer panic pressing down on every square inch of his body forcing him further into the grimy corner of the alley he was hiding in. He waited just like his angel asked him to. It felt like forever for the adrenaline-fueled fugitive, the moments ticking away in reverse as angry feet splashed through freezing puddles and slammed into the hard stone.

A small, raspy whine slipped through his clenched teeth before he could silence it with tiny hands pressed to his mouth, a pitiful sound crossed between a soul-shattering sob and whispered plea for help… any kind of help. Tiny fingers clamped down frantically crushing the whimper into a hiss of leaky air. He needed to be still but it was soo hard! Maybe if they couldn't find him they would give up. Maybe they would go back to their drinking and leave him be.

Several pairs of legs landed on the ground not more than three meters from where he crouched. 'S'nobi!' his young mind screamed. Their backs were to him and he couldn't see higher than their waist, but he could tell that their upper bodies were being twisted side to side. They were searching for the small beast that got away. They were looking for him. People were talking to each other in hushed and angry tones, but he couldn't hear a word of it. All he could hear was his own heart screaming in his tiny ears.

Thump-thump…

How come they couldn't hear it? The pounding made his neck hurt.

Thump-Thump…

Couldn't they feel the terror coming off him in waves?

THUMP-THUMP!

Without warning, the legs ran off in the direction of other voices. Someone thought they found the beast and the hunt was back on again with a chorus of howls and jeers. After a few more shudders wreaked havoc on his small frame, Naruto Uzumaki released through clenched teeth the shaky breath he'd been holding then edged his way out of the shadows and away from the angry legs that called for his blood.

'Go quickly, Kit! We need to get back to our den!'

He was still hungry he just no longer cared. If he could get home, then he could look for food tomorrow. Tomorrow would be better. 'Tomorrow…' He chanted it mentally like a lucky charm. Teuchi-'jiisan would help him tomorrow. Teuchi-'jiisan never yelled or threw things at him.

Teuchi-'jiisan always helped.

The first few steps were hesitant and wobbly. A leg gave out in fear causing him to stumble and fall to the ground splashing muddy water all over himself and scraping away more skin in angry little patches. His head whipped around in terror as he froze. Did anyone hear him?

'Hurry, Kit!'

He lurched to his feet and pushed on to the end of the ally staying to the darker side. He could see the end now. There were fewer lights in the streets here, fewer people. His heart was racing again but this time in hope. He was very close now. So very close.

It was because he was so close that his face scrunched up into confusion and anger when his legs abandoned him again less than ten meters from the edge of the alley entrance and the ground rushed up to meet him with a dull thud.

He was vaguely aware of a sharp pain in his back below his right shoulder blade. The alley entryway spun as he fell, the street twisting in his vision so that he seemed to turn sideways, his head bouncing off the hard, stone ground. It was also getting harder to breathe almost like he was breathing through water. Funny that… 'I wonder why?' he thought. 'Oh. It must have something to do with this big guy behind me and the shiny, sharp thing in his hand. It looks bloody too.'

He was no stranger to blood. He'd seen enough of his own over the past two years.

The small child wanted to figure out why he couldn't run anymore but his attention flickered briefly over the shoulder of the sneering S'nobi standing over him to the two cloaked figures on the roof. They were wearing masks and he briefly wondered where he could get one like theirs. Did they find them at the festival? Maybe he could wear it to hide behind if he ran out of food next year. Maybe he could go to the festival like everyone else if he had a cloak and mask? His mind flickered back to the present when one of the two on the roof moved.

Why did it look like the smaller one was reaching out to him?

One of the masked people was angry and pushed the smaller one. There was a flash, some awesome smoke, and then they were gone.

He couldn't think about it any longer since the angry guy standing over him was yelling and waving to someone just off where he couldn't see. It didn't matter anyway because Naruto couldn't understand what he was saying. He sounded very happy all of a sudden and had a brief thought that it was good that this person could be happy during a festival that seemed to make everyone else so sad.

This thought popped into the small boy's mind just before his whole world erupted into pain. After an eternity of agony, a heavy sandal stomped on the back of his head and everything went completely black. He wondered no more, and his angel's voice seemed really, really far away.

~ I I I ~

Raion followed behind the Hokage, her lion-faced mask hiding the apprehension written clearly across their very human-looking face. The old man was standing atop the Hokage Tower watching nin streak across the night sky in search of the vessel. Raion felt they should have been out there with the others. Call this punishment for a job done all too well.

The lion-faced ANBU didn't even appreciate the deprecating humor of their mask. She'd never displayed demonstrable aggression (among the humans anyway) in the combative arts excelling instead in the administrative field. Her crude peerage found some humor in the mask jibe, so she sniffed, often, and let this to pass without so much as an acknowledgment.

Her disdainful attitude fit right in with the perky alter image. Absentmindedly her left hand reached up and adjusted the uncompromising wrappings around the smaller-than-average chest trying to get at the itch just beneath them. How human women suffered through the indignity was beyond her. She was thankful enough that she'd opted for a less robust figure for this new alter ego. A spy's life was difficult enough as it was.

Thank Inari-Kami for small favors.

Back to the old man standing above her with an orb in his hand… Hokage was peering very deeply in to it. Every so often he'd tap the tiny communicator hidden in his right ear and provided directions, most likely to Inu, as others closed in on his location. Was it enough? It had to be enough. Please be fast enough.

Raion really did not wish to explain to the Matron how she let Kyuubi-hime die at the hand of savages. That was a conversation that could only end one way and she'd be a thrice-cursed Inuzuka if it ended well in any way, shape, or fashion.

"Raion!" She snapped to attention, one fist to the roof next to a slender right knee.

"Hai! Hokage-sama." The lilting alto voice sounded oddly pleasant even through the mask.

"I have found him. Secure the boy until Inu arrives. Hurry!"

Pale blue eyes looked through slitted eyeholes and up into the glowing orb held low enough to peer into enabling her recognition of the alley junction as well as the shinobi stalking the boy from behind. The lion-faced ANBU leaped away so fast the Hokage thought it was a [Body Flicker] jutsu. She had to be fast enough.

Inari-Kami let her be fast enough today.

~ I I I ~

Something shook him, and the shock made his eyes fly open. Pain. Pain was all. Pain was breath, life, light. What was this feeling?... Flying? No…. floating. He couldn't understand why it was still dark with his eyes open. It didn't matter. They hurt so much it was easier to keep them closed. Why was it so cold? Oh, that's right. It was October, and October weather is always cool.

He had a birthday in October, didn't he?

'Someone, please make the bees quiet down.' They sounded angry and the buzzing was starting to hurt his head. How did the bees know his name? Couldn't they tell he was tired? Soo…tired. Maybe if he closed his eyes for a little while… just for a lit-

Apparently, the bees didn't like that. They wanted him to keep his eyes open, but the flashes of light made it hard. His eyes were heavy, so very heavy especially the right one.

Were those bells he heard? Also, who would be giggling this late at night? Don't they realize people are trying to sleep? Grown'd ups got angry when people woke them up. He wanted to sleep to. He wanted to sleep so very much…

'Niiiiiiiiiiiiiii-chan!'

A cerulean blue orb shot open only to stare blankly into the cold mask of an Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (ANBU) agent streaking through the night. Hey, this ANBU had whiskers just like Naruto. That was kind of neat.

~ I I I ~

The dog-faced ANBU cursed softly. He was trying not to jostle the broken and bloody child cradled in his arms but that loose roof tile caught him by surprise and the child twitched from the pain. His ANBU-issued cloak was ruined, blood flowing from numerous stab wounds in the child's body, far more blood flowing than could possibly be in one this tiny.

He had no doubt that the child had few bones still intact. He could count the child's ribs even before the mob smashed them into odd angles. This little one did not have long left. Oh, how he wished he could kill them all. Vessel or not, no person deserved this. That it had been done to an innocent child made it all the more reprehensible.

It's a good thing the demon inside him clearly wanted to live because it was going to earn its keep tonight.

Rat and Mouse had some explaining to do but first, he needed to see to the child. Kami take pity on the resident ER doctor or nurse that refused to help the child for he would not.

It was a good thing that he was met at the entrance by a worry-faced doctor with a full team. Thank Kami that the Hokage had connections and knew good people.

~ I I I ~

Year 17 Day 283: As I sit dumbfounded by the day's events, my hands clench and unclench of their own accord. Despite drowning them in sterile alcohol and scalding water, I can still see the stains.

How has circumstance led to this? My failure is now complete, yet I cannot form the words to condemn my soul to my beloved Matron.

How can humans be so... ignorant? So... cowardly? So cruel…

Chance thus fortuned that I should soar near the heavens, my own wax wings singed in the glory of my triumph. Blindly I searched for the crimson princess only to allow the crowned prince to slip through my clutches like fine wine before pagans. The vessel lays dying even as my tears stain this the transcript of my inadequacy.

May Kami have mercy on my soul…for she will not.

It is fortunate that a feminine face stares back at me for I could not bear to gaze on my own. Now my tears no longer seem so out of place.

-Toru, The Silver Ghost

~ I I I ~

Wherever he was it was dark, and the ground was wet. No, it was covered in water deep enough to hide his hands. He was thirsty, but the water kept turning red. Everywhere he went the water turned red. Eventually, he just stopped trying to get a drink and instead tried to figure out why his right eye wouldn't work. He was a smart boy for his age – he knew his right from his left.

He didn't know what that thumping sound was, but it was everywhere around him and it was loud, slow… but loud. Lifting his head up from where he was down on both hands and knees in the growing pool of red water, he could see dingy walls with large pipes on either side of a long hallway. It almost looked like the sewers he used sometimes to hide in from the angry people only it didn't smell as bad. The water at least didn't smell as bad.

Truth was that sewers sucked no matter where you were but here the water was kind of salty.

He looked up again. The pipes to his left briefly glowed with a nice blue light every time that thumping sound came. The pipes on the right glowed an orangey-red color and both sets glowed together. The red pipe seemed to be a lot brighter right now. It was almost comforting.

Since he didn't know where he was and still needed help, he rose tiredly to his feet to begin staggering along the dark hallway, or at least he tried to. He was having a really hard time standing up at the moment. He figured he'd just follow the pipes not caring that there were torches lighting up as he moved along the tunnel. It just helped him to see better with his one good eye; the right one didn't seem to work right now.

He could hear the tinkling of a small bell off in the darkness. It sounded familiar…

He lost track of the number of times he fell. Everything hurt bad and it was hard to breathe. He thought it odd that his hands didn't want to work right and his legs kept falling out from underneath him. Eventually, he just pulled himself along and half crawled along the tunnel. He stopped moving only when his head hit something hard and metal.

"Oh, my! They hurt you pretty badly."

For several moments, the boy just lay there in the water not moving, his forehead pressed against the cool metal. The bells tinkled again as someone approached him on the other side of whatever metal thing he bumped his head on. Then he slowly looked up and blinked his one good eye to clear out the blood.

In front of his face was a thick block of metal with lots of writing in it. The writing and pictures were very thin and covered every square inch but, since he couldn't read, it was just pretty to look at. When he tried to look up he couldn't see the end of the bar, but this wasn't the only block of metal. There were many others on either side of this one. It sort of looked like the metal gate at the front of the Hyūga mansion only the bars were thicker and golden-brown in color. There was a sharp gasp of air just passed the bars so that brought his attention from the very large gate to the pretty face peeking at him through the gap in the fence. In his daze of pain, he found her very pretty and he felt bad that she had to see him the way he was.

Her mouth was open with a sleeve of her Yukata covering the lower half of her face, the silken cloth a mix between a soft pink and a very light purple color. The butterflies on the fabric were golden like the coins in the greedy merchant's shop with all the jewels.

She lowered her sleeve to speak again and he could see a collar around her neck made in black material (he didn't know it was silk), covered in silver symbols with a shiny golden bell just below her chin. Her eyes were wide in fear and sadness, a single tear sliding down the side of her face.

"You look very hurt. I can help you if you like?"

Her eyes flicked to the trail of blood slowly spreading out into the water covering the floor and away from his broken body, her golden-red eyes with the black slits held tears that started racing down her pretty cheeks. Her skin was the color of honey and looked very soft.

She reached out with one-sleeved hand and he instinctively flinched, leaning away and to the side. His reaction made her cringe, her sad face scrunching up as more tears welled up into her very large eyes. He thought she had very pretty eyes.

"No, no… I won't hurt you. We are one and the same."

Naruto had never had anyone say that to him before. Heck, he didn't have the first clue what that even meant but it sounded nice. She sounded nice.

Except for three people in his short life, no one cared, as far as he knew, whether he lived, ate, or breathed. Trust, as a result, did not come easy for the orphan, but he could tell he was dying. His normally hot-running body was starting to get very cold, the room was getting darker, he was getting weaker, and he was wet and miserable. What else did he have to lose at this point? It's not like he could outrun her if she could squeeze through the bars.

Slowly, very slowly, his body righted itself and, as his tired eye started to close, he leaned forward enough to touch his forehead to her tiny hand hovering between the gate.

The little girl's response was a shuddering sigh that turned into a happy giggle. With his remaining eye closed, Naruto could not see the red chakra oozing from her sleeve as it coated his body.

He could not see the many pulsing symbols along the walls and bars of this girl's cage surge to life.

He could neither see nor feel his body rising from the water nor feel her soft hand caressing his cheek as her chakra deadened his receptors.

He couldn't even feel the tender kiss she gave him through the bars nor hear her soft words as she began to shut down various senses and unnecessary functions prior to starting the repairs to his wrecked body.

She spoke to him nonetheless.

"Humans think they know but they are unseeing, unknowing children scrabbling about in the darkness."

He could not see the statue rising from one corner of the room on her side of the bars, the figure on the pedestal looking very much like a certain blonde-haired jinchuuriki with thick manacles wrapped around its neck, waist, and wrists – wrists which were further shackled together like a prisoner.

"They cannot see the light of their salvation and have spurned what is good and just… and they call me monster."

On the walls of her cage, larger seals began to appear in rows with smaller seals near the bottom, and within her short reach, while more and more seals appeared above each row growing in complexity.

"If we cannot make them see the truth, then we will thrive without them and make them choke on their foolishness and fear."

She reached up to one of the seals placing the flat of her palm across the center of it. There was a burst of blue-white flame that engulfed her hand and the seal flared violently for a second before its crimson color flashed to a dull and burnt black. Only once it was completely charred did she lower her hand and look to the boy floating in a cocoon of her chakra.

"This will help for now but soon they will see. They will all see." She went back to the bars and reached out to the unconscious boy with concern etched across her entire face.

"I promised when that one-eyed bastard lost his control over me that I would help you. I promised that I would make good on the pain I've caused you, to your family."

She lifted her hand and the boy's body rotated so that he hung upright and freely in the air.

"I cannot embrace you as I would like, not yet anyway, but I can help you now that we are properly linked."

Several circles three feet in diameter appeared on the wall beneath the seals in her cage, each with an oval pupil slashing vertically from top to bottom. She placed her palm in the middle of one and her chakra once again flared to life as flames flowed from the center slit to the outer rim like fire chasing oil, the tendrils connecting to complete the eye's form. When the flames died, she lowered her hand and was rewarded with a colorless circle minus the eye slit. She grunted in disappointment.

"This will never do."

She pushed another tendril of chakra through the dark sphere and an image appeared as if a human eye flickered open. She could see into a sterile hospital room while a nurse puttered around changing out bandage supplies, the sound of paper rustling and medical tools clanking on a sterile table transmitted nicely through the circle. Otherwise, the room was empty. Seeing no need to observe the poor creature any longer, she broke the connection with a wave of her hand and turned back to her floating model, her smile seemed ravenous at this point.

"Well that worked nicely."

~ I I I ~

Nurse Tamako froze when a chill shot down her spine. She didn't know why but she was compelled to turn around, her heart racing in her own ears to see… nothing.

There were no windows in the room, the only light coming from the bright overheads. A bed, a nightstand, and the beeping monitor were the only man-made items in the room. With a quick check in the private bathroom, she turned to check over the lone occupant one last time. The child was breathing steadily, his one visible eye closed and the other wrapped heavily in bandages.

It was silly to assume that the child would be conscious given the Herculean effort needed to save his life. They'd only moved him from ICU to here just that morning. It was silly to even consider, right? He was just a boy after all.

With a soft grunt at her own paranoia, she clicked off the lights and left the room for her break.

~ I I I ~

A/N: Behind the Scenes

Greetings to returning (and new) fans of this fanfic! As previously stated, Nature of the Savage Beast will be a compilation of the original Nature of the Beast and its sequel, Nature of the Beast: Taming of the Savage Beast. To that end, I will be including this section at the end of most chapters to kind of fill in the blanks intentionally left in the first version of the story.

Some of you asked me, "Why did you remove the original?" The answer to that was several-fold.

One, it was a very rough piece of work, as to be expected as my first attempt at any sort of writing. If you've read No More, you know I've said before that I'm not a writer, not even one attempting to be published. I write as a relaxing hobby from work and a brief escape from life. I enjoy it, therefore, I do it. However, as a first attempt, there was a lot wrong with Nature of the Beast.

Admittedly, it was too dark. Rereading the final piece even I can say it was but that's okay. That's why we write – so that we can learn, improve, and get better at it. I must forewarn returning readers that some of the more controversial sections will be adjusted. In the end, I feel that they will flow better with the timbre of the story and the true nature of the main character.

This opening scene, cliché though many of you will say that it is, must stay. It remains vital to the character's development based on my Kyūbi Kitsune (yes, another cliché story tool, get over it) and her motivation for helping her "Kit." It also ties heavily into some of the story developments near the end of the original Beast fanfic, which I will be able to explain in fuller detail with this version.

Believe it or not, the story timeline – and the character adaptations that come with it – were planned at the outset and you'll see why as we move along.

Finally (for this opening note), some of the sections I meant to use as flashbacks or fillers in Taming will be used to fill out story sections or Behind the Scenes notes as we move along; if something doesn't make sense, check there first. This should make understanding the whole story easier without people having to continuously go back and read two different fanfics just to remember what happened before.

As always, thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy Nature of the Savage Beast. Questions and reviews are always welcomed.

~Siva'a