Hey there guys! I'm back and I've decided to go ahead and give Naruto a summon and a summon arc! I'm storyboarding the arc and doing a little research and development as we speak. Special thanks to everyone who followed, reviewed, or favorited my story! We just recently hit 100 followers! Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy the update and have a good time!
Chapter 10: Unforgiven
Naruto sat in his bunker thinking to himself quietly. It was times like this where he felt most alone. Meeting with Might Guy and his team had revealed an opportunity that few academy students would ever hope to achieve…..but what was the hidden cost?
Might Guy analyzed the young boy dressed in shabby clothes after pulling Tenten off of him.
"He's built like a tank." He surmised
It was an unnatural sight to the Jonin's eyes. Here lies a boy whose body was forcefully kept in perfect…..no, better than perfect condition. He ran through the possibilities and potential the child might have in his head.
"His tenant is obviously shaping him to have a monstrous physique. With my tutelage….."
He spoke to the boy.
"Naruto my boy! I stay true to my word! Here, a gift for you!"
He handed off a pair of weights and their slings to the boy.
"If you wear those, then you'll get much more out of your training sessions than you would normally! To get the most out of the weights please ensure that you are eating a complete diet and getting plenty of rest after your workouts! Do that and you'll be as magnificent as me and Lee here in no time at all!"
He took a moment to gesture to his star pupil and strike a pose.
"I was also quite serious about my offer. I can see that you have great potential in the physical arts! Please feel free to join our practice sessions if you have the time! I'm sure Lee would love the extra practice against someone who's built for a closed fist style of fighting!"
As the flashback came to its conclusion. He frowned.
"He seemed genuine but, in the end, he'll report to the Hokage like any other ninja. I can't be sure that he won't hand me over to Inoichi on a silver platter."
He looked over to the weights that he had placed on the bunker's little table.
"That doesn't mean I can't still use those."
Nodding to himself, he strapped on the weights and began his nightly exercise routines.
"Tomorrow is another opportunity to get closer to my goals. I can't afford to slip up."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hiruzen sat behind his desk with his hands steepled together. In front of him was one of his academy instructors. A Chunin, one of his more level headed ones at that.
"Lord Hokage, I wouldn't bring this to your attention if the concern wasn't real."
The teacher in question wrung his hands together in nervousness.
"I've never seen anything like it before. There was nothing behind his eyes when I was talking to him."
The teacher swallowed lightly, resisting the urge to pace the room.
"If I had been any slower he would have severely injured, maybe even killed, a clan heir today. On top of that, he put a civilian student in the hospital. He showed no remorse. There was no guilt. When I talked to him about his attitude during the spars he was confused. As if he genuinely didn't understand what was wrong with the situation."
He paused once more, desperately trying to gauge the Hokage's reaction to his words. He continued his speech only when the silence grew heavy in the room.
"I can't, in good conscience, allow the boy to continue to participate in spars or activities with the other students knowing he is willing and able to kill them at any time. I recommend a full psychiatric evaluation be held and based on the results the child should be put through therapy and rehabilitation programs until he is ready to rejoin the rest of the class."
When Hiruzen heard this he gave a dark chuckle.
"A psychiatric evaluation huh?"
The wizened Hokage shook his head lightly in shame.
"If only that were still on the table."
Sparking up his pipe and taking a deep drag he continued.
"Your concern has been noted Iwana. Please continue on with your classes as normal. I will address the situation. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Rest assured, actions will be taken. You are dismissed."
Iwana stiffened slightly before giving a tense bow and exiting the room.
Seeming alone, Hiruzen called out to the empty space in his office.
"So…..do you have any thoughts Jiraiya?"
The shinobi in the room allowed his cloak to shimmer out of existence. He promptly marched over to a vacant seat and crashed into it with gusto.
"I leave for a few years to prevent a total collapse of our power infrastructure in the land of fire and this is what I come back to?"
He looked his sensei in the eyes with barely held contempt.
"Sensei, you've possibly ruined Minato's kid's life. What thoughts do you want me to have?"
The toad sage tilted his head up towards the ceiling.
"If I had known what you were up to while I was away, I would have just taken him from this place."
Hiruzen scoffed.
"Oh and have Konoha fall to her enemies? You're right. That would have been a much more successful way of preserving Minato's legacy."
Jiraiya looked at his old mentor with a sense of incredulity.
"For fucks sake sensei, it's not just about Minato's legacy!"
The sage stood up and approached the desk the Hokage was situated behind. Jiraiya took a deep breath and slammed his hands down on the expensive wood before softly proclaiming.
"That child is all that's left of a man I considered to be my son. I was named his Godfather. When Minato died, I knew that my lifestyle combined with the responsibilities I have didn't make an environment one can raise a kid in. A kid needs a place to call home. Naruto needed a safe place to make friends and be carefree and happy."
Upon finishing his last statement, Jiraiya turned his head to the framed picture of the fourth contained in the office.
"I left him here hoping that you and Konoha could give him what I never could. Only, now I found out that he's had everything taken from him…..even his memories….."
The Hokage took a deep drag of his pipe and pinched his brow in exacerbation
"Look, I know it wasn't the best idea to alter his memories, but at the time we were in a dangerous situation. The cloud ambassador had just attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heir. After Hiashi killed their ambassador, the cloud village was demanding blood. When I approached the Hyuuga looking for a peaceful resolution they refused to even see me. I was informed by the guards at the gate that Konoha had the full support of the Hyuuga in the upcoming war."
Hiruzen shook his head lightly.
"Alluding to the fact that we had the nine-tails Jinchūriki went a long way in negotiating the terms of the ceasefire. If he had decided to hate Konoha and refuse any sort of training then the entire village could have been caught up in a war with Kumo. Given the state of our alliance with Suna and the fact that Iwa still hates the very idea of us well…..let's just say that the council was in favor of just giving the child to Danzo."
Jiraiya shot up from his chair once more.
"That's the problem sensei! You've practically lived in fear of the council and Danzo for years now! When are you going to stop bowing down every time they exert a little pressure?"
Hiruzen merely held up a hand as a response.
"I've come to understand the error of my actions. I don't need someone thirty years my junior telling me that I've made mistakes. Look, whatever bridges I had with him are burnt. I get that. Please, just…..go check up on him. You don't have to report or anything but…..well…I'd appreciate it if you tell me whether or not we turned an innocent child into some soulless timebomb."
Jiraiya stood still for a moment considering the request.
"I was going to go see my godson anyway, but I guess I can check up on him a little while I'm there. I guess I'll let you know how bad off the kid is too, just don't expect a full psychiatric evaluation."
Hiruzen sighed gratefully.
"Thank you Jiraiya…..and good luck."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Another day had come and gone in the academy. Naruto had managed to hold himself back during the sparring sessions just enough to avoid detention. Unfortunately, that would mean that he had to train harder later in the day to make up for the lack of exercise.
As Naruto sat at his desk planning out the rest of the day, the other children rushed and fought to get out the door. When the flow of rampaging academy students had quieted down to a trickle, Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts by a child who seemed to be waiting for him to notice his presence.
"The hell does this guy want?" Naruto thought.
Standing at the end of his desk, staring intensely, was a young boy.
"Black hair, black eyes, pale ski…..oh….."
Space seemed to warp around the two young boys for a few moments once they met eyes. The hustle and bustle of the children leaving and the teacher packing up had become deafened to their ears. Instead, the most prevalent sound that could be heard was the quickening of their blood as their heart began working overtime to provide the body with enough oxygen for…..whatever was going to happen.
Finally, the young Uchiha spoke.
"I'm pretty sure I know you from somewhere."
Naruto stared neutrally at the young boy for a few moments, desperate not to give away the fear that had gripped his insides.
"What does that mean? I swatted this fucker through a stall and took one of his clansmen…..does he honestly not recognize me?"
Coughing slightly into his fist, Naruto coolly gave a response.
"I doubt it…..I don't get out very much and I don't have, want, or need friends."
The Uchiha boy furrowed his brow in concentration, grabbing his head slightly with one hand, as if he were suffering from a headache.
"No, I definitely remember you. You came to our compound a couple times with my distant cousin Kiyu right?"
Naruto's expression turned ice cold and he clinched his hands into fists at his side until he could feel his nails begin to pierce his skin.
"Don't say her name. You have no right to pick a fight and cause a scene because I was friends with her."
The boy lowered his hand from his head and gave what couldn't be mistaken for anything but a soft smile.
"I'm sorry."
The eavesdropping teacher nearly choked at hearing the Uchiha heir utter these simple words.
"I recently had a really severe concussion and I'm still having a hard time remembering what has gone on in the past week. I just want you to know that…..I know how you feel."
Naruto stood abruptly and lurched forward, grabbing the boy and lifting him off of his feet.
"What the hell are you going on about? I don't know you and you sure as hell don't know me. I don't want or need your fucking pity."
The Uchiha made no effort to move or remove Naruto's hands from his jacket.
"You're an orphan aren't you? I wasn't really friends with Kiyu so we didn't talk much, but I do remember that the only thing she ever mentioned was this kid named Naruto…..Is that you?"
Tears began to well up in Naruto's eyes as he slowly lowered the softly speaking heir back to the ground and bowed his head ever so slightly.
*Sniff*
"Yeah…..that's me. Kiyu was my only friend…..the only family I really had."
Naruto shook his head angrily and raised his chin to look the Uchiha in the eyes once more.
"Then your bastard brother took her from me. He strung me to a tree, left me to bleed like some sort of stuck pig while he hunted down the only piece of joy I had in my life. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Naruto's eyes slowly began to bleed that familiar, boiling red. His pupils elongating into the vulpine slits.
"Well I'll tell you a little secret. One day, I'm going to find Itachi. When I do, I'm going to disassemble him. I'm going to break down every piece of his life that he's come to know or love…..and I'm going to burn it all to ash. I'm going to end him and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop me! Understand?"
The Uchiha gave a soft smile as Naruto finally released him. Looking at the taller boy without a sense of doubt in his mind, he gave a steady proclamation.
"I understand you perfectly, Naruto. I might be the only person in the world that understands you…..and I think you might understand me too."
The pale child took a moment to smooth out his jacket before finalizing his statement.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. Our goals are the same and our hatred is the same. I'd like us to work together."
Pain danced across Naruto's features as he heard those words. The week of near complete isolation combined with a conversation that reminded him of his lost friend combined in this moment to feel like a blow to the gut. Thankfully, Sasuke wasn't finished.
"You don't have to say anything right now. You know where the compound is. If you decide that it's worth working together I'll be waiting. Just come by."
With those final words, Sasuke turned and left, leaving both Naruto and the teacher in a state of confusion.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
After Sasuke left, Naruto packed what little stuff he had up and began leaving the academy. He moved through the hallways, passing through from door to door until he shuffled through the entrance of the building and began to trek the long path to the bunker. However, he was pulled out of his morose contemplation as he noticed a towering figure at the gate. The figure was staring directly at him.
Squinting against the afternoon sunset, he was able to make out a horned headband with the kanji for oil resting atop a mane of spikey white hair.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
He had been independently studying up on the top listed shinobi produced by Konoha for a while now. The man's description was spot on, so there was no mistaking it. The goliath who was waiting for him at the gate was none other than the toad sage Jiraiya.
Naruto slowed his walk to a complete stop approximately 30 feet from the towering figure. He waited for the man to break the silence between them for a solid three minutes before finally gritting his teeth and breaking it himself.
"Well? What the hell are you waiting for? If the Hokage sent you to bring me to Inoichi then just get it over with already!"
Little did Naruto know, Jiraiya was silent because Naruto's eyes hadn't stopped showing the bijuu's influence yet.
"He's subconsciously channeling the bijuu's chakra through his body. I didn't know that he could access it already….." Jiraiya thought to himself.
Naruto settled into a rigid combat stance.
"I need its power to make it through this. I know that it's linked to strong emotion so all I should have to do is….."
He reached inside himself in an effort to make contact with that hidden source of power. He dug through the memories of his grandfather figure betraying him, the loneliness and paranoia he had experienced this past week, and finally, the day he failed to stop Itachi from ruining his life.
He finally felt it. The red chakra was like a great pool of water within him. A pool that he could only find by letting in all the pain, hurt, anger, and frustration he had experienced and, oh boy, did he let it in.
He drew deep into his own mind, conjuring up the object of his obsession: Kiyu. The reasons he was fighting: revenge…..justice…..bloodlust. Once he felt that familiar burn of the red chakra pulse throughout his veins he gave a vicious snarl.
"If you think that I'm just gonna go nice and easy like, then boy do I have news for you….."
Jiraiya's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight. The kid went from having traces of the Kyuubi's chakra within him, to being covered by a stage one shroud, then a one-tail cloak, in under five seconds and the amount of chakra he was pulling out was still climbing.
Jiraiya made an effort to diffuse the situation.
"Hey now kiddo! It's not like that I swear! I just wanted to come and check up on you and see how you were doing. We haven't formally met yet and well…..I guess you don't know much about me, but I'm Jiraiya the Toad Sage!"
Jiraiya waited a few moments for realization to set in, but when the only response he got was more of that acrid chakra and the formation of a second tail he quickly continued his attempts to de-escalate the situation.
"Seriously! I swear! I taught your dad you know? It isn't that weird that I would swing by to see how you were doing…..hehe….."
Naruto just stared at him in shock and for a moment, the dark chakra finally halting its overwhelming climb upwards, but not dissipating.
"You…..knew my…..father?"
Jiraiya gave an enthusiastic smile and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Well yeah! Didn't Sarutobi-sensei tell you about me?"
Naruto became quiet. He weighed his next words carefully and his next statement came out in small, quiet fragments.
"The Hokage…..taught you…..and you…..taught my father."
He shuddered out a ragged breath as tears welled up in his eyes.
"The Hokage…..had to have known who you taught…..and he…..he knows who my father is….."
Jiraiya squatted down to meet Naruto's eye level. It was hard to tell what exactly was happening to the kid but given his experience with dealing with different Jinchūriki, it was probably safe to assume he was wrestling the Kyuubi for control of his mental faculties.
"That's right kid. Me, your dad, and good old sensei were pretty close. If you want, I can tell you a little bit about him. Just…..try to calm down alright? I think that chakra you're using is messing with your head."
The first indicator that something had gone terribly wrong was that the temperature in the little schoolyard clearing shot up by ten degrees. If that wasn't enough to indicate the danger of the situation, then the utter explosion of bloodlust tainted chakra that cratered the ground and killed plant life in a twenty foot radius of the young child definitely was.
"I'm going to KILL ALL OF YOU!"
On instinct, Jiraiya wrapped himself in a cocoon of chakra reinforced hair mere moments before he was launched backwards through the streets of Konoha courtesy of an arm composed of pure bijuu chakra that cut through the air like a missile.
Thankfully, the walls of a brick building ended up breaking his fall…..and just breaking in general. He unwrapped himself from his Lions Mane jutsu to orient himself and address the kid only for panic to set in. Naruto was standing at the gate wrapped in a four tailed cloak.
The boy's skin had burnt off during the transformation. His blood had appeared to have mixed with the chakra he was surrounded by, giving him the appearance that he was wrapped in molten red amber. The coat moved like syrup, circulating slowly around his body and sizzled against anything he came into contact with.
Then, to Jiraiya's great surprise, Naruto began to speak.
"It just figures, you know? It figures that after all this time, all these years of being lonely and scared, being confused and unwanted, the only person in the world who helped me out of that hole, even just temporarily, turns out to be the whole reason I was in it in the first place. Not only did he know that I had a father, he knew him. He knew him personally."
Naruto gave a dark, wet chuckle.
"I'm done. This whole place can rot in hell for all I care. I'm leaving."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jiraiya ran through the woods, hot on Naruto's tail. He had pieced together what had happened as he followed the boy's breakneck speed to the western side of Konoha.
"Sensei you fucking jackass, why didn't you tell him about his parents? Or at least why didn't you tell me about not telling him about his parents." He muttered to himself.
Bounding from tree to tree, he wasn't quite sure what Naruto's plan was. The woods didn't go on forever, eventually he would run into the wall that surrounded the village. Even if he planned to climb the wall, a feat not easily accomplished because of the wall's fuinjutsu enhancements, the shinobi and Anbu that patrolled the walls wouldn't take a person surrounded in a mass of demonic energy leaving very lightly.
"How on earth am I going to fix this?"
Suddenly, the overbearing chakra signature he was following stopped. The trees thinned until Jiraiya stepped into the open ground that served as a precursor to the Konoha wall. Sure enough, there Naruto was. He was staring at the wall blankly. At least, Jiraiya thought he was blankly looking at the wall. The young boy's facial expressions had become difficult to read once he lost his facial skin.
Jiraiya called out gently.
"Hey kid. You're getting pretty close to the wall there. You know if you try to go over it or through it the wall ninja are gonna make some attempt to stop you. Hell, I'll probably give a try at stopping you."
As if summoned by mere words, six ninja dropped down from the gate forming a semi-circle around the young boy. A ninja wearing a flak jacket with a symbol designating village defense looked at the child for a few moments before ever so slightly turning his gaze towards Jiraiya.
"Sir, I don't have to tell you that we can't let him leave. What are your orders?"
At the end of the captain's sentence the rest of the gathered ninja began drawing their weapons. Jiraiya quickly began some attempt to negotiate.
"Hold up! The boy is completely conscious. I don't know how but he's almost completely in control. Before anything happens we should….."
Unfortunately, his train of thought was broken by the soft words that were being spoken by the monstrous child in question.
"Are you sure that will work?"
Naruto waited a few moments as if listening to some unheard voice before speaking again to himself.
"I'm willing to give it a shot…..As far as I'm concerned this village and its people are already dead."
Everyone tensed upon hearing those words.
"So all I have to do is….."
Two of the bijuu chakra tails whipped out to the side piercing deep into the ground and anchoring the child in place. Naruto then dropped down to all fours and the two free tails began gathering massive amounts of the malevolent chakra directly in front of the child's face.
Jiraiya felt his heart drop down into his stomach as memories of friends and companions dying that fateful day of the Kyuubi massacre began playing in his mind in rapid succession. He had seen this before. He knew exactly what was going to happen. Yet, he couldn't force himself to move. He was frozen in place. He was frozen as he watched the ninja surrounding his godson dash forward, sinking a dozen different weapons in a dozen different vital areas along the child's body. He remained frozen even when he heard the boy speak.
"So that's what this is called….."
Naruto took a deep breath inwards and softly whispered the name of the technique that the unknown voice in his head had given him.
"Bijūdama"
Then everything went white.