AN: What is a difference between a view and a visitor? Is a view someone who just reads fanfiction an isn't logged in, and if that's true then does a visitor mean that the person has an account? Or is a view just that, a view, an a visitor someone who reads the story, then based off that I loose 70% of my readers after the first chapter…WHY? WAS IT THAT BAD?
Either way I'm just glad some people seem to like the story an I'm not wasting my time pecking at a keyboard.
"Welcome" – Normal
'Welcome'- Thoughts
"Welcome"- None living entity
"Welcome"- Living entity
Spark681: In due time my friend in due time...
(Started 10/4/22 Finished 10/12/22)
"KARIN!" Naruto yelled as he blocked the katana with his hidden blade. Gritting his teeth, he pushed back as hard as he could against the man he was fighting. He had tried running to Karin, but the last of the slavers was more skilled then he had thought.
His eyes widened when the man pulled out a dagger with his free hand and tried to plunge it into the side of the blond. Removing his hand from supporting the blade he extended his other hidden blade and locked the blade in the guard of the dagger.
But by doing so he lost all balance and fell onto his back, the man above him broke off and raised his sword again to finish off the blond.
Time seemed to stand still as liquid covered the halls of the base. 'Wait Sake?' Naruto thought as he watched the man fall a broken sake bottle hanging in air above him.
"Kids these days I swear, back in my day yer'd have just been starting in the shiny new academy, but here yer are laying on yer back like we were still in the warring clan days." a disembodied voice said. Naruto looked around for the owner of both the voice and the arm. It wasn't until he focused in on the darkness with his Dōjutsu he saw that the arm wasn't attached to a body but a swirling hole. "Well kid ya gonna go check on the lass or are ya going to sit like a gaping fish?"
Retracting his blades he got up took off running towards Karin, while keeping the floating arm in the edge of his vision. Bending down he breathed as huge sigh of relief as he found a strong pulse coming from the girl. He looked down and noticed a small patch of blood on her shoulder.
Extending his blade he cut off her sleeve and inspected the wound, it was brown like a bruise. 'Poison…' he looked around trying to find the item that caused the wound and located one of the darts embedded in the stock of her rifle.
Pulling it out he inspected the senbon closely, it was just like any other shinobi tool black in color with only the sharpened tip being close to shiny. There was a slight wetness to the dart that he felt.
'That smell…' it was the same smell as the powder he had been forced to leave in the bunker because he didn't have the tools needed to use it. 'Think Naruto think, what was that powder used for?!'
Thinking back on the vials of poison he had on hand back in the bunker. There was four main ones, and hundreds of other ones with the ingredients to make them. All of them when mixed with water could be used for different effects. The green was made to make someone go insane it would commonly make those people attack the first person they saw. The yellow was a paralytic it would make a person seize making it impossible for targets to run. The blue was a pure poison, assassins would mix it with tea made in a special pot that could deliver the poison without the target knowing. The last was red…a tranquilizer, it took a few minutes to make the target pass out and there was a lot of different factors for how long it took.
'Had this second dart hit, I wouldn't have a sleeping Karin but a dead one and there would have been nothing I could do…' Naruto thought looking back at the dart in his hand. 'It was a trap set for an adult, and a kid her size wouldn't have been able to handle the shock.' he thought flipping his eye patch back over his eye.
"Kit just count your lucky stars and move on. You are still in an enemy base, your support is down and now you have to carry her out." the Kyūbi chimed in "Then you have the unknown behind you, we don't know who's side he's on and right now we cant count on his support."
'I know fox.' he reached down the grabbed her rifle slinging it over his shoulder before picking up Karin. 'I didn't know she was this light…'he had her in his arms and she felt as light as a feather to him.
"Kit I don't think you noticed yet but your body is going through a lot of changes right now, you might not be as strong as a full grown adult yet, but I would say your as strong an tall as mid-teen. In a few years you might be as tall as Minato, you can thank your eye for that."
'Why, I mean its not like I'm thankful or anything but why it is that my body is acting the way it is?' Naruto had so many unknowns when it came to his eye, there was the fact that he could see an altered sense of time, then as he was learning he could see tell friend from foe just based off of color, and as Kyūbi just reminded him his body was growing at a faster rate then it should be for his age.
"We can worry about your eye at a later date, right now get yourselves to safety."
'Ain't going to have to tell me twice.' he looked back to the location of the arm and saw that whoever it was left during his talk with Kyūbi. Shifting Karin once more he took off in a slow jog, just fast enough to make good time out of the bunker, but not so fast as to chance the sounds of his footsteps tipping off any of the remaining slavers, if they hadn't been killed already.
Once more a lone eye watched over the pair as Naruto ran through the tunnels. 'I never thought I would see that Dōjutsu again, who was the last one…was it old man Ashina, he had full control over them though, so whats wrong this boys?' the eye faded once more as the pair moved out of its sight.
The Creed Reborn
Itachi was nearing the end of the tunnel as he heard the fighting inside start to die down. Each of the freed people that he had following him barely seemed to notice they were all still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that they were indeed being led to freedom.
Some had been stuck there long enough to know that it wasn't uncommon for the slavers to use any means necessary to be able to deliver a 'Good Product'. That meant a broken human who had lost all hope and resigned themselves to the fate that was pushed on them.
But all the slaves know regardless of their length of captivity there was one girl that hadn't broke, the bald girl that was currently being carried by Itachi. The slavers had beaten her within an inch of life, starved her, burned, cut, tortured, anything they could do to make her brake.
Shifting his shoulders again Itachi looked up the stairs that he had just came down earlier in the night, it was darker then when he came down at dusk. His sharingan eyes squinted as he tried to look at the entrance.
Looking back to all of the people he had rescued he motioned with his head to follow him again up the stairs. All of them looked up at the darkness longingly since each of them had been brought down the same way at some point.
A slow clap made them all stop dead. "My, my, my, hows the old sayin go boys, when the cats away the mice come out to play, an boy do we have a bunch of mice trying to leave the nest." a voice called out down the stairs.
Itachi's eyes widened as torch after torch was lit at the top of the stairs, there was a group of people standing so deep he couldn't tell how far back they went.
"I can't let a one armed upstart like you take my profits, after all a businessman like myself needs a good side income." the smiling man in the front said before his eyes hardened and he glared down at the group "And your trying to take all of my pocket change…"
"So Cap, what should we do with em?" one of the thugs asked. He pulled out a sword and lightly tapped his shoulder waiting on the answer.
"Kill them all, I have no use for a group of slaves that tries to escape from their master." the leader said waving his hand dismissively. "Actually, belay that order I want that girl back, she's spoken and paid for." point to the girl on the shoulders of Itachi.
"Aye aye, sir. Righty fellas you heard Cap Shiro kill em all!" Itachi heard a roar of people once the man said that. Even an ANBU would have a hard time dealing with as many people he heard yell. That went triple for a former ANBU that was missing an arm, in a cramped tunnel, and trying to protect the people behind him.
His eyes morphed into its final stage as he starred down the group of crazed slavers. But one voice seemed to drown out the rest, a voice as calm as a garden pond.
"Fire Style: Guardian of Ash" Itachi's eyes burned every detail into his head as a portal opened and an ashen gray figure stepped out from it. It shot off like a thrown kunai towards the men, each punch left a little ash behind making the men it was facing scream in pain as it burned away at them. "I knew ya were a scum Shiro, but I didn't think yer were a coward too…"
"Who's there SHOW YOURSELF!" Shiro yelled drawing his own sword and looking around wildly.
"Combination Fire Style: Hell's Wine" a clear liquid rained down on the slavers, those who hadn't been touched by the ash guardian watched in horror as their crew mates caught fire. Their soul crushing screams echoed through the complex.
Those who survived threw down their weapons an tried to run. "HOLD MEN, THAT'S AN ORDER!" Shiro yelled trying to get the men he had under his command to listen to him, but it was too late hysteria had set in.
"I should have killed ya years ago Shiro, but I figured what was the point. I ain't a shinobi anymore…" Shiro turned to face the direction of the voice. A gray haired man stepped out of a vortex, hands in the pockets of his heavy pea coat. "But then a little gal, one with red hair no less, decided to light a fire in this old soul…"
"Deisui. What are you doing here?" Shiro asked still trying to wrap his head around the fact that a fellow captain was the one that caused him all this trouble. Nearly every sailor worth his salt knew that the old fisherman was once part of the Uchiha clan, but none of them took any stock in it. Now as he looked into his eyes the cold eyes that only the deepest of seas knew, he knew that the man before him was a cold killer.
"I don't need a reason to be here other then to kill a piece of shit like you." the old man said. Bending down he picked up one of the swords from the dead "Never thought I'd pick up nother one of these." he gave it a few test swings before leveling his eyes on Shiro. "En garde."
Shiro was petrified by the man in front of him. He had known Deisui for years and everyone in town knew him as a local drunk, a functioning drunk, but one nonetheless. Shakily raising his own sword he charged headlong into the man screaming like a mad man.
The sword struck home, Shiro laughed as he watched the blood start to seep from the hole he had just made in the man. Then the world around him began to change.
"You thought a shinobi would fight fair?" the voice of the man came from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time. The world around him started to spin and he couldn't tell which direction was up. "We never fight fair, hell even our fights fight dirty. And yer bout to be gutted like yesterdays catch."
Shiro felt pain on his side as he watched in slow motion a cut start to form in his gut. Slowly, ever so slowly creeping as the invisible blade ruptured organs and sliced flesh. He screamed out with all the pain that came with the wound hitting him at once. But no voice ever came from his mouth.
"Welcome to my world, for the next seventy two hours you will watch yourself die over and over until there is nothing left of you." once more he watched in slow motion as his head fell from his body tumbling end over end.
"Seventy one hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds left." the old captains voice said to him.
Itachi watched in awe at the man who had just saved him. He knew he wasn't a retired shinobi, most all of them still wore something denoting them as a retired nin, but this man wore nothing like that. He was as old as Danzo if not older, but he didn't feel the chill he got from Danzo.
That was until he turned and locked eyes with him. His eyes were that of a pinwheel, a Mangekyō, blood flowed out of them like tears as he turned away from the dead man. "Another Uchiha not corrupted by our curse, how interesting. Sorry son ain't been able to see shit for years, I can just tell your glaring at me with those cursed eyes."
Itachi watched as Deisui's eyes went back to their normal black color. Even if he was an Uchiha that didn't mean he could be trusted, since all of the surviving members were all Templars. "Who are you?"
"Sorry lad, where's an old mans manners, I'm Deisui son of Kento and Chiko, brother of Kinko." Deisui could feel the confusion coming from the younger member of his clan. "Did no one teach ya the customs son?"
"No that's not it, Itachi son of Fugaku and Mikoto, grandson of Kinko and Yume." Itachi looked on the man before him, the man who if he was to be believed was close family. "That would make you my great uncle…"
"I guess we have more to talk about then we suspected. But first I need a dam drink burned all my sake killing these fucks." Deisui turned and started to walk away he didn't hear anyone moving "Yer coming? None of ya will get out of this port unless ya leave by sea and my trolly ain't big enough for all of ya."
"Where are we going?" one of the freed slaves asked still trying to make sure this was real.
"Well last I checked Itachi and his party needed to get to Uzu, as soon as you all try to make a brake for it the smaller slave traders will start a small war trying to get free product, an I ain't got a big enough ship to take you anywhere." he kicked the mind dead body of Shiro "But this lackey here has a ship big enough to take five times your groups size anywhere, just need to teach ya the ropes. An a ship that big is bound to have a nice stockpile of sake!"
The Creed Reborn
Finally reaching the surface Naruto was greeted to the sight of burned bodies and dried blood everywhere. He didn't know which was worse the stench below ground or the one above. Silently he was thankful that Karin was asleep or she would have lost it at the sight before him.
"Naruto. Is Karin ok?" he looked up and saw Itachi sitting on a crate above him.
"Yeah, she just had a run in with a tranquilizer dart. You make this mess?" the blond asked once more eye balling the carnage before him.
"No, someone else did, but if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to get the people out safely." Itachi told him. There might have been a small chance, but even if he had won the fight solo there most of the people he was fighting to save would have died in it.
"And where is this mysterious person?" if he was a betting man Naruto would guess the same man that saved him was also the same man that saved Itachi.
"On the ship we are going to be taking to get out of port, that's where the rest of the people are as well. He told me if it wasn't for Karin he wouldn't be taking us anywhere." Itachi picked up Karin's bag and motioned for Naruto to follow him.
Naruto looked at the sleeping girl in his arms, if you were to just look at her you couldn't tell she had killed for the first time tonight. Just thinking about that gave the blond pause. 'Which is going to mess with her more the death of her mom, or her first kill…'
"How did she do, you know first fight an all?" Itachi asked as he held the door open for Naruto. "It sounded to me that you both made a good team."
"She was good, going to have to teach her to watch out for traps, but she didn't panic, and she made sure that each shot counted. Of course, the biggest flaw in her plan wasn't her herself it was the rifle."
Naruto told him "Like the smaller guns on my wrist, you have one shot before you have to reload. The issue with hers is the time to reload is nearly a full minute where as I can have mine reloaded in half that."
"Your going to have to explain the difference to me since I'm use to a kunai as my ranged weapon of choice."
"Look at it like this, the fastest you can throw a kunai is what two hundred feet per second?" Naruto asked.
"Two to three hundred, a little faster if you are a wind user." Itachi replied thinking of Asuma who was one of the only wind users he knew of.
"The way I understand it is that the trade off for the range and reload you get nearly unblockable speeds. Even with a kunai traveling a three hundred feet per second, if your fast enough you can deflect it. But with the guns we have its near impossible." he could see the masts of ships over the warehouses now meaning they were getting closer to the port.
"That would explain how you were able to break my mask back when we first met." Itachi replied looking at the rifle on his back in a new light.
"Yeah, but that was with the smaller ones on my wrist, the range on those is a fraction of what Karin is able to do, and its more accurate. Her rifle has about a hundred yard range, mine has maybe a ten yard before it becomes to slow to be deadly."
The pair continued to weigh the pros and cons of each weapon, Naruto had to concede that the kunai was more versatile and was the best choice for stealth, and Itachi conceded that the muzzle loaders had the edge in pure killing.
"We're here." Itachi said looking at the ship that Deisui was on. It was an unassuming ship, with dark wood and tan colored sails that seemed to glow in the moonlight. The side of the ship had a soild rail that had holes that met at the floor to allow water off the deck.
"Doubt we have enough cash to pay for this voyage…" Naruto said as he looked at the ship.
"Aye, that you wouldn't lad. Thankfully for ya there won't be a charge for this voyage, since the owner of this fine schooner won't be needing it anymore." a voice said as Naruto tried to make out the shape of its owner.
"Permission to come aboard Deisui?" Itachi yelled up to the man standing on the deck.
"Granted." Deisui said as he stuck a match allowing Naruto to finally see his face when he touched it to the pipe he was smoking. Deisui watched as Naruto and Itachi walked up the gangplank and on to the deck. "Hows the little lass?"
"Alive but she's going to be asleep for a while. You must have been the man that used a sake bottle as a club and saved us." Naruto said looking back up from the sleeping Karin. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me lad, thank the firecracker in your arms. That lass has more spunk then I've seen in sailors twice her age, and honestly it warmed this old sailors heart just a little." Deisui said before taking a drink of sake "Not the good stuff but it'll do, now go ahead an take the lass down below deck and me an the rest of the people who are able to work will have us out of port before low tide."
Naruto nodded and walked past the man before wondering something "How long until low tide? I ain't good at the sailors speak."
Chuckling slightly Deisui turned to walk up the stairs to the helm "Bout an hour or so from now." walking up to the helm he looked at the few freed slaves that were able to do some work. "Alright ya lot we have a short window of time before someone sees us! Three of ya head lift the anchor! I need two more to climb the rigging an loose the tie downs! The rest of ya free us from the peir and raise the plank I want to be out of here in thirty!"
"What about me Deisui? Itachi asked.
"Well I can't have ya climbin like a monkey can I? Head down below deck an hand out food to the rest of them, make sure they eat plenty of oranges cant have the ship come down with something while we're at sea."
The Creed Reborn
Itachi was leaned back in a chair as he read one of the few books he was able to find on the ship. In front of him was the last of the people who had not ate yet the teen he had to carry out. From what he was able to gather from the rest of the freed slaves she was a special case, the one that wouldn't break.
The few that had been there for longer then a month or two knew about the hell they put her through, and he was surprised that someone who hadn't been trained as a shinobi could hold out as long as she did. If nothing else he was surprised by her will power.
Sitting the book down on his lap he flipped a page and glanced towards the girl. She had to be closer to his age then Naruto or Karin, making her the youngest of the group as well as the most malnourished. He had done what he could for her once they got aboard, cleaning and bandaging her wounds and making sure she was in a bed instead of one of the sailors hammocks that was everywhere.
Glancing out the porthole he started to see the sun come up from the reflections coming off the water. 'Hard to believe its already morning…" it felt like an hour ago he was still in the tunnels with a bunch of scared civilians, now here he was on a ship headed to an island that Kami gave up on decades ago.
A small groan pulled him out of his musing as he looked to the girl in front of him. "Why does… it feel.. like… I'm rocking…." she asked as her eyes tried to focus on the world around her.
"That's because your on a ship." Itachi said closing his book. "I brought you some food, if you can eat some."
Her eyes tried to focus on the bag he held up. "Heh...nice try...fucker… last bit...of…food…was laced…."
"If your talking about the food the slavers tried to give you I can assure you that this food isn't laced with anything." Itachi pulled out some bread and took a bite of it before trying to coax the girl into eating some. "See would I eat it if I had laced it?"
Reaching out slowly she grabbed the bread and tried to pull a piece off, her strength failing as she did. Itachi took the bread an pulled off a piece of the soft inside. "I…can...do it my...self…"
"Right now the only thing you can do yourself is chew this." he held out the bread for her to take, which she reluctantly did. He picked up the water bladder and poured a cup of water for her watching as she eyed the clear liquid. "It ain't laced either…" he deadpanned before taking a sip from the cup.
Holding it out she took a slow sip of water before she tried to grab it and chug it forcing Itachi to pull it back. "Easy, you can't handle that much at once in your state." he sat the cup down and tried to pull off another piece of bread for her.
"Why ain't...you...using two….hands?" she asked her vision still blurry and unable to make out finer details.
"As you so eloquently put it 'Saved by a one armed cripple' kind of hard to use two hands when I only have one." he held out another piece of bread for her to take.
Her eyes widened as she remembered faintly that he had indeed saved her, and her colorful choice of words. "Sorry…" she said taking the piece of bread.
"No you had every right to be suspicious of me, a man comes out of nowhere and saves not only you but the rest of the people you were imprisoned with." Itachi told her "Lets restart here. How about your name?"
"...Tayuya…" she said.
"Last name?" Itachi asked.
"Never had...one…"
"Okay Tayuya, my name's Itachi Uchiha and along with three others we saved you."
"Hooray...from...future salve...to indentured…servant…" she said sarcastically "Same..shit different...name…"
"Wrong from future salve to free human." Itachi said cutting some of the orange off, which was much harder to do with one hand on a rocking ship. "As soon as we are able we are going to take all of you to wherever you wish to go and let you live your lives as you see fit."
"Ain't no...where I… can...go…" Tayuya said trying to watch him cut the orange.
Holding out the only slice he was able to cut she took it in her mouth. "Then your free to do whatever you please. I'll be right back I need some help cutting this food for you." as soon as she heard the curtain close she started chewing the orange.
And cried tears of joy at the taste it had.
The Creed Reborn
Naruto awoke to the rocking of the hammock he was in. He didn't know what time it was, but his body was telling him it was after sunrise.
Slowly edging off he landed with a muted thud as his boots touched the hard wood of the deck. He had been told by Itachi to go an get some sleep and he would wake him the second Karin was up, but he knew that Karin would be out for rest of day at minimum.
Pulling the curtain to the side he looked in at the sleeping red head. He smiled when he saw that she was okay before closing the curtain.
"She'll be fine kit, right now all she needs is to sleep it off." Kyūbi said before yawning himself "Speaking of sleep that sounds like a great idea right now."
'That's all you do is sleep, try doing something else for a change.' walking down the deck headed to the stairwell above.
"All there is to do in here is talk to you, sleep, and stare at darkness." the Kyūbi replied "And if you want my unfiltered honest opnion, talking to you ain't the best conversation I've ever had."
Grabbing the railing of the stairs Naruto feigned a heart attack 'An I thought you enjoyed my company?'
"About as much as a flea, your just barely tolerable at best and damn annoying at worst. I mean look at all the stupid ideas you've had since leaving Konoha." he yawned once more "Now if that's all I'm going to take a nap."
"Damn furball…" Naruto mumbled as he pushed the heavy wooden hatch up. Now with his head above the deck he could finally see the world around him.
The sun which had just risen showed the world in a red orange hue. The few clouds that were able to be seen made the open ocean around him look like a huge blue plains complete with swaying grass in form of small waves.
Never in his life had Naruto seen something so peaceful.
"Surprised a lubber like you is walking this early!" Naruto heard someone yell before turning to face the voice that yelled at him "An color me impressed ya ain't feedin the fish with your breakfast!" Deisui laughed before taking another swig of sake.
"Ain't it a little early to be drinking old man?" Naruto said walking up the stairs to the helm.
"Nay lad there is no such time as too early, just too late." He told him "What shall we do with a drunken sail-or what shall we do with a drunken sail-or what shall we do with a drunken sail-or earlie in the morn!"
"Teach him how to carry a tune…" Naruto mumbled as he leaned against the rail, drunken captains aside he could feel the freedom that came with the tune. "We never really spoke when I came on to the ship, Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto held out his hand to the old captain.
Taking the hand and shaking it the man eyed the young blond before him. "First time I've seen an Uzumaki with blond hair, ain't most of your clan red heads like your sister?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed at the comment "How would you know my sister's hair is red?" slowly he readied himself for a fight.
"Kid your fifty years to yung to stand a chance against me, an that girl that was in your arms ain't your sister?"
"Karin, no we are part of the same clan but other than that I couldn't tell you how far or how close she is to my mother." Naruto replied with a slight blush before slowly letting go of his tension "My bastard of a father is Minato Namikaze."
"I know Itachi told me bout him when he told me about what happened to my niece an the rest of the clan." he raised his bottle to the sky "Sorry ya had to go out like that Mikoto."
"Wait your niece was Mikoto Uchiha?"
"Aye, my name is Deisui Uchiha, and with Itachi being Mikoto's son that would make him my great nephew. I was surprised to find that out meself, the family I left long ago was knockin at my door hopping to leave the country. Hell sounded too fishy for me." Deisui said tossing his now empty bottle into the sea "Real piece of work that one, ain't he, that hokage of yers. Made me glad I went rouge back before a bingo book was a thing."
"I thought those books had always been around?" Naruto had seen them before back in the village, and from what he was able to understand each village posted either their missing nin or their most wanted in there as a way of informing the public and bounty hunters of people to watch out for.
"Kid those things have only been around since the second shinobi war, I left soon after the first." he told Naruto pulling out his compass and checking the barring "Back before I left then the academy was so new it had every clan in village pissed off. But old Tobi said that it was his bothers wish to let kids be kids as long as they could. Hell he even raised the age of graduation to fourteen just to give kids time to figure out if the shinobi life was what they wanted."
"Why would the clans be mad at the academy?" Naruto asked as he watched the man turn the wheel slightly.
Seeing the blond looking at the wheel Deisui chuckled "Interested?" Naruto nodded slightly and he stepped over to allow the blond to have it. "As soon as I let go its going to jerk, you gotta show her who's boss and take control."
"Got I…HOLY SHIT!" Deisui couldn't help but laugh at the kid as he tried to manhandle the wheel.
"To answer that it was still fresh in everyone's head the days of the warring clans. Most clans thought it was foolish to send their kids to a combined school, and since most of them were either veterans of the first shinobi war or of the warring clan days, they viewed it as stupid to let anyone else teach their clan how to fight." he grabbed another bottle of sake from the crate behind him and laying back on some ropes "Wake me up when ya finally loose strength to hold er straight, we need to be going south east remember that."
"Ro...Ger…" Naruto said as he gritted his teeth trying to hold the wheel steady as the schooner cut through the waves.
The Creed Reborn
Karin awoke to the sounds of someone snoring near her. She had heard that snore enough to know who's it was at this point, but what she didn't know was why she was rocking.
Opening her eyes she looked around the small room that was illuminated by moonlight, she could hear the sounds of water hitting the side of wood. Immediately awake she frantically looked around and saw that Naruto was indeed asleep beside her in a chair. "Naruto wake up, we were caught!"
"Huh…" the boy said raising his head up off his hands, "I ain't steering the ship again till morning old man…" his head landed right back on his hands again.
"Let the poor boy sleep lass, his body ain't use to steering a ship. Kinda reminds me of myself back when I started." she heard someone say as a head looked in the room. "An ya weren't caught either, that lad carried you out."
Looking up at the doorway she saw a face she didn't think she would see again, much less on a ship. "Old man Uchiha…" she said half in shock an half making sure the person before her was real.
"Names Deisui lass, and from what Naruto here told me yer name is Karin, he was quite chatty about ya when he was trying to hold the wheel today." Deisui replied. "When he wasn't at the helm he was down here with you or sleeping right outside, needless to say he kept checking in on ya lass."
Looking down at the sleeping blond she smiled slightly at the idea of him checking in on her. The sound of water pulled her away from Naruto and once more made her look out the porthole. "Where are we anyways?"
"Yer on a ship we borrowed, well more like took commandeered of, headed to Uzu. We left port nearly a day an half ago and ya been conked out since." he held up a bag "You must be hungry, hell ya ain't ate fer two days nearly."
As if on cue her stomach growled and she nodded happily accepting the bag. Inside was some bread a full water bladder and some other thing that was wrapped in rice paper. Holding up the log of mysterious food she looked to Deisui for an answer.
"Its erbswurst, an old sailors food. Stuffs been around longer then ive been alive an ya basically live on it out here. Might look like paste, an believe me it basically is, but it will keep ya going." he said taking the food and cutting on a slice. "Take it an place it on the tongue let it just sit, bout all ya can do with this stuff sides making a shitty soup with it."(1)
Taking the piece offered to her she placed it in her mouth. Nearly as soon as she closed it her face scrunched up in disgust, it wasn't the worst thing she had ever eaten but came real close. She glared at Deisui for even calling this food, a light chuckle escaped him as she did.
"Never gets old, you had the same face I had when I first ate the shit." he told her still chuckling at the girls face. "Rice flour, fat, an onions its loved an hated by sailors cuz its the only thing that doesn't go bad out here."
"How do you even eat this stuff?" Karin asked finally able to choke down the small piece she had.
"Years and years of eating it. Stuff like that bread will go bad in a few days, then its on to hard tact, the oranges were all handed out to the survivors because Kami knows they need it more, as for the sake….well that's mine." he said pulling a flask out if his coat pocket. "Cheers!"
"You have issues…" Karin deadpanned.
The old man had a long stare when she said that "More then you know lass…" he turned an started to walk away "Make sure ya eat, and when ya finish get yerself use to the ship. All of those people want to thank ya for saven em."
Karin looked at the spot that he was just at before glancing down at Naruto. Her mind all over the place as the ship rocked with the waves. They had done it, they had gotten those people out, but she had to kill to do it.
'Am I murderer…' she thought as she looked down at Naruto 'If I'm a murderer then does that make him one to… No Naru is Naru he protected these people.' she looked to the floor where her rifle was laying.
"I need to get some air…" she mumbled to herself before sliding off the bed and picking up her rifle. Its weight and coldness adding to the already chilled feeling she had.
Opening the curtain she looked around at all the people that were there, most were still sleeping, but nearly each one of them had a calm look on their face. 'I wonder how they looked before…'
Walking up the stairs onto the deck she saw Itachi at the helm his sole arm holding on to the wheel and his ANBU cloak swaying in the wind. The moon was behind him hiding his face in shadow, but she could feel his eyes upon her.
"Glad to see your awake." he said as she walked up to the upper deck. "Naruto went to check on you after Deisui made him steer the ship, but he fell asleep there."
"Its fine…" she said looking out onto the water. Watching the moon reflect off the water seemed to calm her nerves somewhat. "How do you deal with it?"
Knowing what she was referring to Itachi had prepared himself and by extension Naruto for it. "If you had felt nothing I would have been more worried." Itachi said "You never get over it really, but you learn to accept it."
"How can you accept the death of someone else?!" she yelled back "They were alive as well, and I snuffed them out like they were nothing!"
"The people you killed traded in the lives of others." his tone never changed after the outburst "Look around below us, those people would have been used until there was nothing left and then they would have been tossed aside like trash."
She had seen it, the people who were sleeping peacefully below them, and the few who stayed up to help around the ship at night. Some were sitting around a barrel playing cards, smiling an laughing. Each one knowing that they were in fact free.
"When you fight, you fight for a purpose. Be it those you love, or those you hate and when you take a life it will always be one of those things driving you to fight." Itachi told her "You have to decide that if you will fight for those you love or remove those you hate. But let me warn you, hate breeds more hate, and love can blind you from the darkness in people."
"Then what do I fight for?" she asked tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"I can't answer that, no one but yourself can answer what you are willing to fight for, what you are willing to kill for. For me I use to fight to protect the village because those I loved live there. I still will fight to protect it even if those I love are gone, but it won't be to protect it from people outside of the village, but those within it." Itachi turned to look at her "What are you willing to fight for, and what are you willing to die for?"
Karin didn't have answer. And the more she thought about it the more her mind drifted back to the darkness she felt with Naruto and her frantic rush to him. 'Naru…'
The Creed Reborn
'Day 10 September 17th
This is the tenth entry in what I'm going to now call my Book of Sanity, or a record at least of the last days of it.
Today Minato informed the teachers that for the practical side of classes I would be headed with the Uchihas, something about making sure Sasuke at least has someone his age to talk to an work with. Why would I want to be anywhere near that brooding little fucking Templar and his family of psychopaths!
Sadly I cant refuse him because like he said he really is the key holding my mother at bay.
On another note I have finally made a break through on the project. I cant even begin to replicate the inner workings of the blade, nor could I come close to it. The way I figured is that it would take my whole life to be able to even make something that uses the same function, but if I use natures pull, or as the old books I was reading called it, gravity, I was able to make something with the same concept.
Those old books, the ones I pulled from the bunker, are full of information at least the ones I can read. Reading them is becoming more an more easy with each book, I am starting to make sense of the words and letters used and whatever I cant translate is starting to be easier to read because of it.
Some of the books on history, some on science, and loads of them are about the Assassins and their fight with the Templars. I'm really just glancing over them for now but when I have more time later I am planning on reading them in depth, because some of the stories are just insane.
The last thing of note I am working on is a seal. I cant get rid of the one my mom put on me but soon I'm going to test one that should help me in the long run...if it doesn't kill me that is. The idea behind it is since I cant escape, and the knowledge I have could be used to further the plans of Minato I need to keep it hidden.
I already have fixed a place in my room here that I can use to hide this book and the scrolls I have with the rest of the books, but that doesn't help me with my own memories. The idea came from one of the history classes we had at the academy, at least it was good for something. We were learning about the different ANBU units and one of them used a seal to keep them from talking if caught.
My mind jumped at the idea, but then I remembered that I cant just not talk about it, I need to not remember it at all.
I'll try an figure this out since this would be by far the most complex seal I have made to date.'
Naruko closed the journal and stood up. Each day she had written in it, even if it was just a few words to ground herself. Picking the book up she pulled the loose wooden board from the edge of her window frame and placed the book back.
When she the book and the board inside touched the book disappeared in a small poof of smoke.
She had found the spot by accident the other day when she was looking out her window and noticed an ant crawling out from in under the board. It took a while but she was able to get the board off. Now she had a fairly good hiding spot for her Assassins info.
Would it fool a jonin if they were really looking for something, no, but it would keep the eyes of someone who was just looking around her room off of the seal.
Placing the board back she opened her desk draw and pulled out her prototype hidden blade.
It was a basic kunai fitted in a desk track, with a spring hooked to the kunai ring. Slinging her arm down the kunai sprung out and locked on the hook she had fitted in the track. Lifting up on the hook the blade returned to its place at the end of the track.
Putting the new design down she placed some leather she had bought on the table and started to mark the places she would have to make holes. Each step taking here closer and closer to the desired finished product she had in her mind.
Looking at the loosely attached blade and bracer she tied it to the bottom of her arm and slung it out sideways.
Thud.
She glanced at the wall that was over her bed and her eyes twitched. The force of her swing had sent the blade flying into the wall with enough force for it to stick. "I'm going to have to get a better locking system…" she mumbled as she pulled the blade out of the wall.
A weapons designer she was not...
The Creed Reborn
Naruto was once more at the helm with Deisui looking over his shoulder. Everyday they would take turns steering the ship towards its destination with Naruto learning from the old man, Deisui taking over at dusk, and Itachi sometime during the night. He would commonly see Itachi headed below deck when he came up, the bald girl trailing right behind him.
"That's it lad use yer legs to turn the wheel, not yer back." Deisui said as Naruto turned the wheel to face in the direction they needed to go. "Bout another week till Uzu, give or take a day. Whats yer plan when ya get there lad?"
Holding the wheel straight Naruto turned to look at the man. "Me I won't be there long, my goal is an island to the south of Uzu. My idea is once we make landfall an get enough supplies to see if you would be willing to come with me to the island."
"Lad which island you talkin bout, the only island south...of…" then it hit him the island that Naruto was talking about, "Son let me be straight with ya, there isn't a sailor alive who is can get to Bakemono. That island is cursed an any that enter its veil of fog is never seen again. I heard stories of whole ships going missing."
"I need to get there, there must be some way to get through." Naruto said. He knew there had to be a way for him to get through, it was supposed to be the main hub for every Assassin, their headquarters.
"Sorry lad the last person who could was the last leader of the Uzumaki, Ashina Uzumaki. The old man was the only person I ever knew who was able to enter an return from the fog." Deisui said looking out at the water.
"How do you know he was the only one?"
"I don't, but I can say this I was the cappin of the ship he used to get there. He had us anchor a few miles off the shore of Bakemono while he used a rowboat to enter. I remember it like yesterday, he said I had proven to be a friend of the clan an needed my help with something, I agreed since I was one of the few ship cappins who even knew how to get into Uzu. When he told me bout Bakemono I thought he had lost his marbles, that island was infamous in the world of sailors." picking up his bottle of sake he took a drink "Most of the sailor think that there is a mountain of treasure on the island and that an Oni guards it. If somehow ya get round the demon ya can claim the riches it guards. I know the truth, there is no treasure, just something that Uzumaki guard. Heh, now that I say that I suppose there is an Oni guarding it."
"If the Uzumaki guard it then in theory me or Karin could get through." Naruto said thinking that the fog must be some kind of test to see if the person is a Uzumaki or not.
"The old man made me swear that I wouldn't tell anyone outside of the clan, an in a way I still ain't telling anyone out of the clan. He told me the that once a generation or so there was someone who was born with a unique gift and with that gift he or she could pass through the veil. Something only a handful of members had in recorded history, and when another was found it was required for them to go at least once during their life." He looked at the hooded blond "He had eyes similar to yours, but he could control them, yer eye reminds me of a runaway sharingan."
Naruto's head whipped around at the mention of his eye. So many questions coming back full force trying to figure out what his Dōjutsu was and how it worked, but his biggest question was how does he control it. "When I keep my eye uncovered, it has adverse effects. From what I could tell overuse of it would kill me."
"Odd, then it is more like a runaway sharingan then I thought, Ashina never told me much about it I just knew it was a Dōjutsu. The man could go toe to toe with Madara and Hashirama at the same time from what I heard, wasn't around to see it sadly." Deisui told him thinking back to the day he heard that "I didn't know if it was the drinks that made him say that or if it was the truth, but I will say this the one time I saw him train was against ten of the best Uzu had, and not a one could touch him."
"Did he have it in both eyes?"
"Are ya daft boy, I said he had em in both eyes...I think I did at least. Ah shit I need more sake to remember!" he yelled before tossing the empty bottle and running down the stairs to get another bottle. "I'll be back lad! Don't sink er while I'm gone!"
"Kit that might explain why you have issues with your eye. You might not have the full Dōjutsu because of you not being full Uzumaki." the Kyūbi said as Naruto watched the old Uchiha duck into the hold.
'It's a possibility, I wonder what the full power of the eye was?'
"Who knows…"
The Creed Reborn
Naruko was walking towards the Uchiha compound after lunch. She had been doing this now for nearly two weeks, and while she wasn't thankful for the excuse to get of class she was annoyed with the reason she had to do it, her dad wanted the ever broodful and pissy Uchiha heir to have some form of friendship.
Walking up to the front gate she saw the guard standing there. "Naruko Namikaze here to see Kae and Sasuke Uchiha." at this point the guard didn't even need to be told why she was here since she had been coming everyday. 'Welcome, you know the way correct?' something said in her mind. An overlay of the man moved as he unlocked gate and allowed her in. 'Odd eye color, is she wearing a contact.'
"Welcome, you know the way correct?" the guard asked before unlocking the gate and allowing her in getting a nod as she passed by him. "Odd eye color is she wearing a contact?" he mumbled watching her leave.
Looking around the Uchiha clan compound she noted signs of the battle that had taken place weeks ago, it was hard to believe that nearly the whole clan had been had been killed in one night. All by Itachi.
Grabbing her head as pain shot through 'That's not right…' she had been dealing with this pain in her head an eye for nearly a week now and every time she wanted to tell her father or mother about it something told her not to. No something Screamed at her to not bring it up to either one of them.
Shaking her head to clear it she watched as some of the remaining members tried to clear the rubble from a house. She had been told that it would take years for the clan to rebuild all the buildings, but it would take a few generations for the clan to rebuild itself back to its former glory.
That was assuming that each of the surviving members weren't killed in some manner. 'Where did that come from…' shaking her head once more she looking towards the training ground that she was supposed to meet Sasuke on.
Walking out into the field she stopped and dodged a kunai thrown from the brush. "This how we doing it today, we playing tag?!" she yelled at no one pulling out some shuriken from her holder and peppering the brush, a blue blur shooting out to dodge them. Trying to watch the woods a thought crossed her mind 'Deflect…' her mind said before slinging her wrist and deflecting the shuriken sent back her way.
'Back…' leaning back she watched as a blue blur passed over her. "Predictable, you throw those as a way to distract me all so you can try to engage me in taijutsu. How many times have we proven that the Uzumaki style is better!" she turned to look at Sasuke.
"Hm, we will see…" he replied before standing in the Uchiha style taijutsu. He shot off towards Naruko and tried to engage her in a fist fight.
'Left' she blocked the strike to her left, 'Below' taking her knee she landed a hit on the boys leg before he could even raise it. 'Kunai right' she used her newly designed hidden kunai bracer to block the slice, her long sleeve shirt getting cut in the process.
"Aww, I like this shirt…" she said breaking off from Sasuke.
"Yeah an Kae likes that blade design of yours." Sasuke replied pulling out a second kunai and holding them in a defensive stance. "Come at me…" his newly awakened sharingan blazing. He had only awakened his sharingan a week ago, but even that didn't bridge the gap between them.
"With pleasure." she said holding the wrist mounted kunai between her middle and ring finger. Running forward she stuck hard an fast, blocking the strike Sasuke rolled with it allowing the sparks from the strike to rain down.
'Kunai left' Naruko reached out with her hand and grabbed Sasuke's arm locking the two in place. 'Headbutt' leaning her head back she dodged the last ditch attack from Sasuke before doing to jump kneeing him under the chin sending him flying back.
Pressing the advantage Naruko took off running once more towards the air born Uchiha. Before retracting the blade and grabbing him by the shirt slamming him into the ground. Putting her knee on his chest she looked down at the still dazed Sasuke. "Yield?" she got a half nod from him before she stood back up off of him.
"Good fight!" she said offering a hand to Sasuke. 'Dust' closing her eyes she jumped back before he could throw the dust in his hand. "Aww an here I was trying to be a good sport…ungrateful prick…"
A blunt force to the back of her head sent her into the ground. It wasn't hard enough to knock her out or anything it was just hard enough to semi stun her. She could see a rubber ball rolling past her while she was sitting on her knees. Rubbing the back of her head where the rubber ball hit her vision swimming from the strike.
"What did I tell you about your language Naruko?" a voice yelled behind her. Naruko didn't even need to turn to look at who said that to her knowing the voice by all the times she had heard it yell at her about something training related over the past two weeks.
"Sorry Kae, I didn't mean to...it just kinda slipped." she said still rubbing the back of her head. 'That hurt more then it should have.' she thought before standing up and facing the Uchiha clan head.
Kae's eyes widened when Naruko turned to face her. "Naruko are you alright?"
"Yeah just a bit of a headache from the ball…" she said opening both her eyes and looking at Kae. 'Why is she going to run towards me in a second.' she thought once more getting an overlay of the woman running to her.
Kae looked at Naruko's bleeding form. There was blood coming from her nose, from her right ear, and...from a golden eye. "Naruko…" she watched in slow motion as the red head fell. Her body moving in before her mind could comprehend what was happening. "NARUKO!"
The Creed Reborn
Minato was not having a good day as he walked down the hall of the Konoha Hospital. One of the Uchiha's had barged in during a meeting with some of the council and told him Naruko was in the hospital for reasons unknown.
Looking up he saw Kae standing outside his daughters room, looking inside through the glass. Walking up beside her he looked in an saw the laying form of Naruko in a bed, the doctors hooking up various machines to her as they tried to keep her stable.
"You had better not say this was a training accident…" he said his eyes never coming off of room.
"I wish it was that simple, sir, but I'll be honest I don't even know what it is." Kae said still trying to make sense of the events that lead up to it. "I sent another messenger to the academy hopping that Iruka has more info for us…"
They watched as a tube was put down her throat, each with different thoughts running through their heads.
'We can't loose her too…' Kae thought as closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer up for her safe return.
'First the trigger takes off, now the host is laying here with an unknown issue. She was supposed to be impervious to damn near everything…' he punched the wall in anger. 'This is the newest issue to add to my growing list of unknowns…'
AN: Well folks that's all for this chapter, let me know how I done below. One more y'all until get full steam forward I cant fuckin wait. Oh an one last question, look I know I ain't the best at writing an I try my best to keep the story going forward, but I'm just one man who works a lot an really just has time to beta a chapter once or twice, so if ya could do me a favor an anyone who wants to be a beta reader and maybe assist time to time that would be much appreciated.
1. Erbswurst (Pea Sausage) a high calorie high fat food that had near limitless shelf life, known as the iron ration it fed the Prussian military, later German military as a standard survival meal for over 100 years.