A/N:: First thing... Loooong chappie! O_o;;
Second... ano ne... I have a lot of spoilers in this chapter... if you don't like spoilers, please avert your eyes from the chunks of italics and just skip them. You probably will understand that story without the memory trips back anyhow. ^_^;; Thank you. *bows*
His eyes were still glinting sinisterly, but there was a new tone in his voice and his slowly spreading grin. His teeth were bared to reveal sharpened fangs that Naruto never usually had.
"I have the impression that you do not know of this boy's past fully,"
He said, his voice an oddly low growl, and Sasuke's anger ebbed away as he thought about this. Sakura's arms fell away from his sides. Come to think of it, all he had known about Naruto before he had joined in three-man teams with him and Sakura had been three major facts; one, Naruto had failed his exams more than once, and therefore the second fact had been 'because he's an idiot'. But the third had been 'understandable, since he's an orphan...like me'.
Sasuke had never been one to care about others, but for some reason, Naruto had always struck him as something different. He was a jerk who constantly irritated him - still playing stupid pranks at the age of sixteen! - but Sasuke had always sensed that he was smarting beneath his noisy exterior. And Sasuke could definitely relate to pain.
"He never had parents,"
Sasuke said slowly, and the girls looked at Naruto tentatively to see if this had been an appropriate answer.
"Is that it?"
When there was a suppressed silence, the blonde rolled his eyes.
"You prove my impression correct then, I see."
He said, and seemed to relax in his position against the rock slightly more.
Hinata bit her lip as thoughts raced through her head.
Naruto-kun is not himself right now. It was this... person before me who tried to hurt me. But Naruto is...? I...
"I don't understand fully what is going on,"
Sakura said carefully, unconciously completing Hinata's thoughts,
"Are you from another village? Have you possessed Naruto temporarily, or--?"
"Hardly,"
Naruto said shortly. He took a deep breath before exhaling slowly, closing his eyes as he did so. He looked as though he was collecting his thoughts. Then he spoke slowly and clearly.
"Sixteen years ago, a demon fox wreaking havoc in the Leaf Village was 'destroyed'. You do know of this...?"
Sakura nodded as a representative response for the three; Hinata looked too withdrawn to reply, and Sasuke seemed only interested in listening and not complying. Naruto snorted at the attitude, but continued to talk.
"The Fourth Hokage, at the expense of his life, sealed Nine-Tails into the belly button of a newborn baby. It's a very old but, quite unfortunately for me, very effective seal. Nine-Tails has been imprisoned within the body of a mere child for many years."
This time, there was no response because the three ninjas looked too stunned to speak. However, Sakura took it to herself once more to barely manage a reply of,
"Unfortunately for you...?"
"Yes. This boy has been my vessel for sixteen years uptil now."
Sasuke's eyes were strained as he murmured in a tone of disbelief,
"Nine-Tails...?"
There was a single twitch of a smile in Naruto's lips before it stretched into a grin, sharp teeth bared. The reflecting glint of darkening orange sky in his irises sharply contrasted with his slit-like pupils as the bag-like lines below his eyes darkened. The whiskers seemed to stretch and thicken before their eyes, and the image triggered as series of scenes, flickering past in mesmerising detail...
The moment Sasuke and Sakura had chosen to accept Naruto--
"Where's Naruto?"
"Don't change the subject... who cares about Naruto? All he does is get in fights with you. Well, he hasn't had a normal childhood. He doesn't have any parents. He can do whatever he wants. If I acted like him my parents would get so mad at me. He's so lucky, parents never getting on his case."
"That's why he misbehaves so much... All alone..."
"Huh?"
"The sadness of having your parents yell at you is no where near the sadness he feels."
"What's this... all of a sudden...?"
"You're... annoying."
..... You're annoying. Is this how Naruto feels?
"Maybe next time... I can be a little nicer."
--and Naruto had never shown any signs of the demon fox - always working to not be the burden he usually was--
"With this kunai... I'll protect the old man. Let's continue the mission!"
-- they hadn't even known they had entered his heart in ways more than one - how could they have been so stupid not to realise it earlier?- back then, back--
"EAT SHIT!!"
Naruto has snapped... but... why is this Naruto so strong?
That is Naruto?
"Hey...you...alright... Scaredy-cat?"
-- they'd seen it - seen his pain before, --
"You'll never understand what it's like to be burdened by a symbol you could never rid yourself of!!!"
"...Yeah... I can... ...And...? So what? Pft... stop acting so cool... you're not the only one that's special...!"
-- how blind could they have been?
It suddenly made sense... why no adult wanted to know Naruto, why no one would accept him the way he was... why people would ignore him, pretend he wasn't in the area - it suddenly made electrifying sense.
Naruto-- he had been controlled to assault Hinata-- and Sakura's eyes rounded as she realised how much Naruto related to her, how much he understood her-- and because of that, how much Hinata would mean to him--
"Hinata too... she's suffered as much as you!! A member of the main family... but not acknowledged, trying her best to change herself... thinking that as she was coughing blood while fighting you!"
Sasuke remembered -- after Naruto's fight with Gaara, his words:
"Alone and incomplete... that pain, I understand it... but the people who are precious to me... if you are hurting them... if you are trying to hurt the people I hold dear to me..."
And Sasuke felt his blood run cold as he remembered what Naruto had said.
"They saved me from the hell of loneliness... They acknowledged my existence. And that is why they are the most precious people to me..."
He stared at the figure before him, slouched against the rocks and looking back with disconcerting eerieness.
"Naruto... is lost in his own mind. You said that, right?"
Sakura spoke almost too quietly, but before Naruto could even reply she went on, the pace in her voice quickening,
"Naruto -- the one that -- he never even showed that -- he'd always try to prove himself, he's never shown that he'd had a m-monster-- why did he if-- if he knew why--"
"He was oblivious about me until he graduated from his academy."
Naruto muttered, causing Sakura's jaw to drop open.
"B-but-- that means if he didn't know-- then--"
"Why else would he try so hard?"
Naruto said with a smirk, a hint of amusement in his voice, and Sasuke's expression visibly darkened in anger.
"He was unaware of why people would not accept him. He didn't understand their harshness or their coldness to him. And when he did discover the fact he had a demon sealed in his navel, he chose to show people exactly who he was."
That was when Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise. Because the tone in the voice of Nine-Tails through Naruto's growl was not a mocking one. It held an almost suppressed amount of pride.
"In a way, you can say Naruto chose not to ignore me, nor to let me take control. Naruto decided to tame me. Nine-Tails, the demon fox - tamed by the hands of a mere human boy. One might think it to be impossible, and it is, but... he has managed to make me... respect him."
Then the slit-eyes narrowed suddenly in a twist of anger that seeped into his next words.
"There are times the boy has failed and infuriated himself and me. I am a demon-fox, and I need outlets for certain... desires. When the boy was younger, he was far too small for such a huge entity as I. But as he grew... so did his capacity... and his ability. And I was able to increase my space in him without affecting the seal's chemistry... and little by little, I could exert small amounts of control over him when I had... sexual desires."
There was an almost comic pause as the three stared at Naruto, and Sakura mumbled,
"You're in heat?"
That seemed to irk him slightly as he twitched.
"I'm a demon, but I'm also a fox. A male fox. Fortunately enough for me, the boy is also a male. He tried to deny me several times, of course, he tried..."
Sakura remembered with a jolt the look Naruto had passed at her one day. She had never been so shocked and scared at a look like that... it had been penetrating and so frantically hungry... and he had fought against it to protect her from himself. And not wanting to trouble Sasuke or her, he had taken Sasuke's yelling and apologised profusely.
"Yet who should happen,"
Naruto said with a very small smile,
"by his doorstep this morning but that girl?"
Hinata head snapped up, startled at the glance the blonde shot at her, and she stepped backwards quickly as fear clawed at her from the desire she saw in his eyes. Then Naruto let out a short chuckle, the desire dissipating, and Hinata realised he had been pretending, just to scare her. Resentment and anger filled her, and she looked away.
"I should have known he was attached to her. The boy will not actually respond to my control unless he wishes to comply himself. And seeing that I wanted the girl and he let me accomplish that through his body... he wanted her too."
Hinata flushed, sneaking a glance at the blonde, not flushing from the fact Naruto was attached to her but from the fact that Nine-Tails could still be amusedly smiling at them as he spoke.
"Are you implying,"
Sasuke said through clenched teeth,
"That Naruto wanted to rape Hinata? That it is not your fault?"
Naruto only smiled as he said lightly,
"Take it as you wish."
Sasuke let out a very colourful string of words as he advanced at a frightening speed towards the blonde, but was quickly intercepted by Sakura as she held him back by grabbing his arm.
"How-- how can we get Naruto back from his state? Were you serious when you said-- that there was nothing we could do?"
This time, Naruto's amusement fell away from his face to leave an almost grave-looking expression of doubt.
"I took control of the boy because I was not able to recognise his emotional ties with the dark-haired girl. I will tell you that I have under-estimated this boy and am now paying severely for my doubts. You may have already noticed, but I cannot move an inch properly without experiencing excruciating pain."
He demonstrated by gently flexing a hand and letting out a sharp yelp and a shudder of pain, the hand dropping uselessly to the ground before he continued,
"Unfortunately, I had neglected the memory of what happens when this state continues for long periods of time.
"What has happened is that the boy has shut down his mental system. This is why I am here; his body supplies me for its conciousness simply because he has a second one sealed in him. What the body doesn't realise is that the boy - despite his rapid growth compared to before - is nowhere near the capacity necessary to allow me to take control for this long."
"Your control takes up chakra?"
Sasuke said, his voice weighed down as he hoped that what he was thinking was not what was happening. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I'm controlling myself to not completely take control, ludicrously enough. Unfortunately, I am not suited for this small vessel, and my control is slipping. I will most likely burst out of this body if I am left for too long."
Sakura let out a gasp of horror at these words, Hinata's eyes widening, and Sasuke's eyes strained further as he asked,
"What's stopping you from killing Naruto now? Why not re-introduce the demon-fox back to this world?"
"What's stopping me,"
Nine-Tails growled, scowling at Sasuke irritatedly as though he was an idiot,
"Is the fact that I am sealed. Do you not understand the ramifications of that? Naruto is not my medium, he is a prison in which I have no windows and no lock. I will kill myself as well as the boy should I even attempt bursting out of my cage."
Hinata looked too shocked and too speechless to do anything else but start shaking quite violently at that precise moment, her eyes sharply stinging with hot tears. Sakura immediately went over to her to hold her around her shoulders, and Sasuke asked,
"How can that be stopped?"
Naruto sighed as he relaxed against the rock, looking deflated all of a sudden.
"During the hours it took for someone to discover the boy, I did think of ways. But in the end, I could only think of three options."
"Three?"
Sasuke repeated, unable to hide the surprise he felt at this fact.
"The first option is to leave me be. I will kill myself, destroying my medium and one of the worst threats to the world in process."
There was a pause in which there was a lot of disbelieving stares at Naruto, who snorted and said,
"I felt that would have been what many would have considered the best option, but this is turning out rather different. All right. The second and third options involve a jutsu."
"A jutsu? Like a counter-spirit-lock jutsu?"
Sakura mused, and Naruto made a noise of annoyance.
"Of course not. It is not that simple. I speak of a forbidden jutsu that is incredibly difficult to maintain and is very dangerous in physical aspects... but has most potential harm to the mental mind."
Sasuke and Sakura looked at him in full concentration, Hinata likewise looking resolutely at him although her lower lip was still trembling, and Naruto sighed.
"I suppose it cannot be helped. The third jutsu is a special genjutsu. By merging two entities' chakra together and performing a seal, you are able to literally enter anothers mind. However, it requires full control and a lot of chakra. You, jounin,"
He said suddenly, referring to Sasuke,
"most likely have the most chance of success in this jutsu than the rest."
"...what is it supposed to achieve?"
Sasuke asked quite uncertainly.
"Using this jutsu, there are two options. One option is to remove the seal that is found in this boy. That way, I will be able to reign in the body and tear it apart easily without any restraints."
Sasuke glared at him.
"I did not think you would agree, although I would prefer that choice over the other two... very well. The last option is to convince the dimwit, whom you will need to find within the confines of his mind, to stop torturing himself. He had locked himself away, and therefore is unable to take control. Once he does, I will stop doing this to his body."
Sakura's eyebrow quirked slightly.
"Doing what?"
She asked, then let out a short, stifled shriek as something blasted around Naruto all of a sudden, misting the air with a powdering of dirt and dust. But the screen was thin, and it was very visible to see what had sprouted quite suddenly. Hinata let out a choked gasp.
Naruto had two fox tails lightly curling over his torso from behind. Sasuke could not stop himself from gaping as the dust settled.
"Y-you're already..."
He said, his voice weak, and Naruto spoke with a roll of his eyes.
"Yes. Several hours have already passed. It is only a matter of minutes before all nine tails appear to signify my full take-over of this body."
"Th-then hurry Sasuke-kun!!"
Sakura blurted out, her voice panicked,
"Do that genjutsu!"
"What do I do?"
Sasuke asked, determination returning to his features as he realised he had to this now, and he had to do it quick.
"Open the vest and lift his shirt up. The seal is visible at the bare stomach."
Sasuke knelt in front of him and hurriedly pulled the shirt upwards, revealing a very prominent and blood-red seal that was churning round in circles as he watched.v
"Press your left palm against the seal, pushing your index finger against the elephant seal."
Sasuke did as he spoke, and the seal stopped moving as the touch. He winced - Naruto's skin was burning hot. Naruto lifted a hand up, wincing all the way as he spoke.
"I-- I will perform a jutsu seal with one hand. You will follow with only one hand, but my other will complete it. It is a full-combo genjutsu. I will start now. Do you understand?"
Sasuke nodded curtly, ignoring the collective holding of breaths behind him by Sakura and Hinata.
Naruto performed the seals with one hand. Not only were there at least fifty seals in a row; Naruto did each seal in lightning speed. It was difficult to follow, to say the least - even for Sasuke. However, Sasuke brought out his sharingan and used the copy skills of the Uchiha inheritance to concentrate solely on following each seal precisely.
He was so concentrated he did not hear Naruto's continuous growls of pain, nor did he notice the blood running down from Naruto's palms and dotting the dusty ground from the strain.
The jutsu seal ended at its fifty-second seal with a tiger seal, and Naruto's pained voice said clearly,
"Mind Entrance no Jutsu."
And before Sakura's and Hinata's eyes, Sasuke let out a sudden, sharp cry, his eyes blanking out completely as his expression settled from pain to listlessness before slumping over.
Naruto quickly grabbed the hand touching the seal to keep it in place, the blood on his hand making it slippery and the movement paining him, and Sasuke lost his conciousness to the physical world.
A/N2:: Thank you for your patience and your kind words. I do not deserve them. I have finally planned an ending for this story and I think it will end on chapter 9. Heehee - nine tails, ne? ^^; So thanks again.
His eyes were still glinting sinisterly, but there was a new tone in his voice and his slowly spreading grin. His teeth were bared to reveal sharpened fangs that Naruto never usually had.
"I have the impression that you do not know of this boy's past fully,"
He said, his voice an oddly low growl, and Sasuke's anger ebbed away as he thought about this. Sakura's arms fell away from his sides. Come to think of it, all he had known about Naruto before he had joined in three-man teams with him and Sakura had been three major facts; one, Naruto had failed his exams more than once, and therefore the second fact had been 'because he's an idiot'. But the third had been 'understandable, since he's an orphan...like me'.
Sasuke had never been one to care about others, but for some reason, Naruto had always struck him as something different. He was a jerk who constantly irritated him - still playing stupid pranks at the age of sixteen! - but Sasuke had always sensed that he was smarting beneath his noisy exterior. And Sasuke could definitely relate to pain.
"He never had parents,"
Sasuke said slowly, and the girls looked at Naruto tentatively to see if this had been an appropriate answer.
"Is that it?"
When there was a suppressed silence, the blonde rolled his eyes.
"You prove my impression correct then, I see."
He said, and seemed to relax in his position against the rock slightly more.
Hinata bit her lip as thoughts raced through her head.
Naruto-kun is not himself right now. It was this... person before me who tried to hurt me. But Naruto is...? I...
"I don't understand fully what is going on,"
Sakura said carefully, unconciously completing Hinata's thoughts,
"Are you from another village? Have you possessed Naruto temporarily, or--?"
"Hardly,"
Naruto said shortly. He took a deep breath before exhaling slowly, closing his eyes as he did so. He looked as though he was collecting his thoughts. Then he spoke slowly and clearly.
"Sixteen years ago, a demon fox wreaking havoc in the Leaf Village was 'destroyed'. You do know of this...?"
Sakura nodded as a representative response for the three; Hinata looked too withdrawn to reply, and Sasuke seemed only interested in listening and not complying. Naruto snorted at the attitude, but continued to talk.
"The Fourth Hokage, at the expense of his life, sealed Nine-Tails into the belly button of a newborn baby. It's a very old but, quite unfortunately for me, very effective seal. Nine-Tails has been imprisoned within the body of a mere child for many years."
This time, there was no response because the three ninjas looked too stunned to speak. However, Sakura took it to herself once more to barely manage a reply of,
"Unfortunately for you...?"
"Yes. This boy has been my vessel for sixteen years uptil now."
Sasuke's eyes were strained as he murmured in a tone of disbelief,
"Nine-Tails...?"
There was a single twitch of a smile in Naruto's lips before it stretched into a grin, sharp teeth bared. The reflecting glint of darkening orange sky in his irises sharply contrasted with his slit-like pupils as the bag-like lines below his eyes darkened. The whiskers seemed to stretch and thicken before their eyes, and the image triggered as series of scenes, flickering past in mesmerising detail...
The moment Sasuke and Sakura had chosen to accept Naruto--
"Where's Naruto?"
"Don't change the subject... who cares about Naruto? All he does is get in fights with you. Well, he hasn't had a normal childhood. He doesn't have any parents. He can do whatever he wants. If I acted like him my parents would get so mad at me. He's so lucky, parents never getting on his case."
"That's why he misbehaves so much... All alone..."
"Huh?"
"The sadness of having your parents yell at you is no where near the sadness he feels."
"What's this... all of a sudden...?"
"You're... annoying."
..... You're annoying. Is this how Naruto feels?
"Maybe next time... I can be a little nicer."
--and Naruto had never shown any signs of the demon fox - always working to not be the burden he usually was--
"With this kunai... I'll protect the old man. Let's continue the mission!"
-- they hadn't even known they had entered his heart in ways more than one - how could they have been so stupid not to realise it earlier?- back then, back--
"EAT SHIT!!"
Naruto has snapped... but... why is this Naruto so strong?
That is Naruto?
"Hey...you...alright... Scaredy-cat?"
-- they'd seen it - seen his pain before, --
"You'll never understand what it's like to be burdened by a symbol you could never rid yourself of!!!"
"...Yeah... I can... ...And...? So what? Pft... stop acting so cool... you're not the only one that's special...!"
-- how blind could they have been?
It suddenly made sense... why no adult wanted to know Naruto, why no one would accept him the way he was... why people would ignore him, pretend he wasn't in the area - it suddenly made electrifying sense.
Naruto-- he had been controlled to assault Hinata-- and Sakura's eyes rounded as she realised how much Naruto related to her, how much he understood her-- and because of that, how much Hinata would mean to him--
"Hinata too... she's suffered as much as you!! A member of the main family... but not acknowledged, trying her best to change herself... thinking that as she was coughing blood while fighting you!"
Sasuke remembered -- after Naruto's fight with Gaara, his words:
"Alone and incomplete... that pain, I understand it... but the people who are precious to me... if you are hurting them... if you are trying to hurt the people I hold dear to me..."
And Sasuke felt his blood run cold as he remembered what Naruto had said.
"They saved me from the hell of loneliness... They acknowledged my existence. And that is why they are the most precious people to me..."
He stared at the figure before him, slouched against the rocks and looking back with disconcerting eerieness.
"Naruto... is lost in his own mind. You said that, right?"
Sakura spoke almost too quietly, but before Naruto could even reply she went on, the pace in her voice quickening,
"Naruto -- the one that -- he never even showed that -- he'd always try to prove himself, he's never shown that he'd had a m-monster-- why did he if-- if he knew why--"
"He was oblivious about me until he graduated from his academy."
Naruto muttered, causing Sakura's jaw to drop open.
"B-but-- that means if he didn't know-- then--"
"Why else would he try so hard?"
Naruto said with a smirk, a hint of amusement in his voice, and Sasuke's expression visibly darkened in anger.
"He was unaware of why people would not accept him. He didn't understand their harshness or their coldness to him. And when he did discover the fact he had a demon sealed in his navel, he chose to show people exactly who he was."
That was when Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise. Because the tone in the voice of Nine-Tails through Naruto's growl was not a mocking one. It held an almost suppressed amount of pride.
"In a way, you can say Naruto chose not to ignore me, nor to let me take control. Naruto decided to tame me. Nine-Tails, the demon fox - tamed by the hands of a mere human boy. One might think it to be impossible, and it is, but... he has managed to make me... respect him."
Then the slit-eyes narrowed suddenly in a twist of anger that seeped into his next words.
"There are times the boy has failed and infuriated himself and me. I am a demon-fox, and I need outlets for certain... desires. When the boy was younger, he was far too small for such a huge entity as I. But as he grew... so did his capacity... and his ability. And I was able to increase my space in him without affecting the seal's chemistry... and little by little, I could exert small amounts of control over him when I had... sexual desires."
There was an almost comic pause as the three stared at Naruto, and Sakura mumbled,
"You're in heat?"
That seemed to irk him slightly as he twitched.
"I'm a demon, but I'm also a fox. A male fox. Fortunately enough for me, the boy is also a male. He tried to deny me several times, of course, he tried..."
Sakura remembered with a jolt the look Naruto had passed at her one day. She had never been so shocked and scared at a look like that... it had been penetrating and so frantically hungry... and he had fought against it to protect her from himself. And not wanting to trouble Sasuke or her, he had taken Sasuke's yelling and apologised profusely.
"Yet who should happen,"
Naruto said with a very small smile,
"by his doorstep this morning but that girl?"
Hinata head snapped up, startled at the glance the blonde shot at her, and she stepped backwards quickly as fear clawed at her from the desire she saw in his eyes. Then Naruto let out a short chuckle, the desire dissipating, and Hinata realised he had been pretending, just to scare her. Resentment and anger filled her, and she looked away.
"I should have known he was attached to her. The boy will not actually respond to my control unless he wishes to comply himself. And seeing that I wanted the girl and he let me accomplish that through his body... he wanted her too."
Hinata flushed, sneaking a glance at the blonde, not flushing from the fact Naruto was attached to her but from the fact that Nine-Tails could still be amusedly smiling at them as he spoke.
"Are you implying,"
Sasuke said through clenched teeth,
"That Naruto wanted to rape Hinata? That it is not your fault?"
Naruto only smiled as he said lightly,
"Take it as you wish."
Sasuke let out a very colourful string of words as he advanced at a frightening speed towards the blonde, but was quickly intercepted by Sakura as she held him back by grabbing his arm.
"How-- how can we get Naruto back from his state? Were you serious when you said-- that there was nothing we could do?"
This time, Naruto's amusement fell away from his face to leave an almost grave-looking expression of doubt.
"I took control of the boy because I was not able to recognise his emotional ties with the dark-haired girl. I will tell you that I have under-estimated this boy and am now paying severely for my doubts. You may have already noticed, but I cannot move an inch properly without experiencing excruciating pain."
He demonstrated by gently flexing a hand and letting out a sharp yelp and a shudder of pain, the hand dropping uselessly to the ground before he continued,
"Unfortunately, I had neglected the memory of what happens when this state continues for long periods of time.
"What has happened is that the boy has shut down his mental system. This is why I am here; his body supplies me for its conciousness simply because he has a second one sealed in him. What the body doesn't realise is that the boy - despite his rapid growth compared to before - is nowhere near the capacity necessary to allow me to take control for this long."
"Your control takes up chakra?"
Sasuke said, his voice weighed down as he hoped that what he was thinking was not what was happening. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I'm controlling myself to not completely take control, ludicrously enough. Unfortunately, I am not suited for this small vessel, and my control is slipping. I will most likely burst out of this body if I am left for too long."
Sakura let out a gasp of horror at these words, Hinata's eyes widening, and Sasuke's eyes strained further as he asked,
"What's stopping you from killing Naruto now? Why not re-introduce the demon-fox back to this world?"
"What's stopping me,"
Nine-Tails growled, scowling at Sasuke irritatedly as though he was an idiot,
"Is the fact that I am sealed. Do you not understand the ramifications of that? Naruto is not my medium, he is a prison in which I have no windows and no lock. I will kill myself as well as the boy should I even attempt bursting out of my cage."
Hinata looked too shocked and too speechless to do anything else but start shaking quite violently at that precise moment, her eyes sharply stinging with hot tears. Sakura immediately went over to her to hold her around her shoulders, and Sasuke asked,
"How can that be stopped?"
Naruto sighed as he relaxed against the rock, looking deflated all of a sudden.
"During the hours it took for someone to discover the boy, I did think of ways. But in the end, I could only think of three options."
"Three?"
Sasuke repeated, unable to hide the surprise he felt at this fact.
"The first option is to leave me be. I will kill myself, destroying my medium and one of the worst threats to the world in process."
There was a pause in which there was a lot of disbelieving stares at Naruto, who snorted and said,
"I felt that would have been what many would have considered the best option, but this is turning out rather different. All right. The second and third options involve a jutsu."
"A jutsu? Like a counter-spirit-lock jutsu?"
Sakura mused, and Naruto made a noise of annoyance.
"Of course not. It is not that simple. I speak of a forbidden jutsu that is incredibly difficult to maintain and is very dangerous in physical aspects... but has most potential harm to the mental mind."
Sasuke and Sakura looked at him in full concentration, Hinata likewise looking resolutely at him although her lower lip was still trembling, and Naruto sighed.
"I suppose it cannot be helped. The third jutsu is a special genjutsu. By merging two entities' chakra together and performing a seal, you are able to literally enter anothers mind. However, it requires full control and a lot of chakra. You, jounin,"
He said suddenly, referring to Sasuke,
"most likely have the most chance of success in this jutsu than the rest."
"...what is it supposed to achieve?"
Sasuke asked quite uncertainly.
"Using this jutsu, there are two options. One option is to remove the seal that is found in this boy. That way, I will be able to reign in the body and tear it apart easily without any restraints."
Sasuke glared at him.
"I did not think you would agree, although I would prefer that choice over the other two... very well. The last option is to convince the dimwit, whom you will need to find within the confines of his mind, to stop torturing himself. He had locked himself away, and therefore is unable to take control. Once he does, I will stop doing this to his body."
Sakura's eyebrow quirked slightly.
"Doing what?"
She asked, then let out a short, stifled shriek as something blasted around Naruto all of a sudden, misting the air with a powdering of dirt and dust. But the screen was thin, and it was very visible to see what had sprouted quite suddenly. Hinata let out a choked gasp.
Naruto had two fox tails lightly curling over his torso from behind. Sasuke could not stop himself from gaping as the dust settled.
"Y-you're already..."
He said, his voice weak, and Naruto spoke with a roll of his eyes.
"Yes. Several hours have already passed. It is only a matter of minutes before all nine tails appear to signify my full take-over of this body."
"Th-then hurry Sasuke-kun!!"
Sakura blurted out, her voice panicked,
"Do that genjutsu!"
"What do I do?"
Sasuke asked, determination returning to his features as he realised he had to this now, and he had to do it quick.
"Open the vest and lift his shirt up. The seal is visible at the bare stomach."
Sasuke knelt in front of him and hurriedly pulled the shirt upwards, revealing a very prominent and blood-red seal that was churning round in circles as he watched.v
"Press your left palm against the seal, pushing your index finger against the elephant seal."
Sasuke did as he spoke, and the seal stopped moving as the touch. He winced - Naruto's skin was burning hot. Naruto lifted a hand up, wincing all the way as he spoke.
"I-- I will perform a jutsu seal with one hand. You will follow with only one hand, but my other will complete it. It is a full-combo genjutsu. I will start now. Do you understand?"
Sasuke nodded curtly, ignoring the collective holding of breaths behind him by Sakura and Hinata.
Naruto performed the seals with one hand. Not only were there at least fifty seals in a row; Naruto did each seal in lightning speed. It was difficult to follow, to say the least - even for Sasuke. However, Sasuke brought out his sharingan and used the copy skills of the Uchiha inheritance to concentrate solely on following each seal precisely.
He was so concentrated he did not hear Naruto's continuous growls of pain, nor did he notice the blood running down from Naruto's palms and dotting the dusty ground from the strain.
The jutsu seal ended at its fifty-second seal with a tiger seal, and Naruto's pained voice said clearly,
"Mind Entrance no Jutsu."
And before Sakura's and Hinata's eyes, Sasuke let out a sudden, sharp cry, his eyes blanking out completely as his expression settled from pain to listlessness before slumping over.
Naruto quickly grabbed the hand touching the seal to keep it in place, the blood on his hand making it slippery and the movement paining him, and Sasuke lost his conciousness to the physical world.
A/N2:: Thank you for your patience and your kind words. I do not deserve them. I have finally planned an ending for this story and I think it will end on chapter 9. Heehee - nine tails, ne? ^^; So thanks again.
