NARUTO © Kishimoto Masashi • Shueisha • Studio Pierrot • TV Tokyo. All rights reserved. Non-profit fun ahead!
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Against the Tide
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Chapter Eleven
Naruto stood before Iruka's house, where he was staying at temporarily for the duration of the mission. Yawning and stretching, he fumbled around in his pockets for the keys.
Just about an hour ago, Naruto and Sasuke had been searching the police headquarters high and low for traces of their guardians. Nobody had seen them since afternoon, it apparently seemed. Sasuke had sighed and grumbled about Kakashi infecting his irresponsibility to everybody he came in contact with, while Naruto valiantly attempted to defend Iruka's integrity. That all said and done, they parted ways at the crossroads a few minutes prior, with a promise to meet each other at the usual time and place the next day.
Now, however, Naruto was pissed, the good of the day just passed escaping him entirely. Where were the keys when you needed them most? He dug deep into his pockets with great disappointment. It looked like he was going to need to stay out all night until whatever time Iruka decided to return home. Or break a window or two - though he wondered if Iruka's wrath would be worth the deed.
Much to his surprise, however, there was a noise from within the house. The knob clicked, then turned, and the door was eased open. Iruka's head poked out from within, his mouth hanging on to a half eaten piece of bread. "Nanugo!" He exclaimed - or, tried to. "'Bout dime ngo godd wag!"
Naruto wrinkled his nose playfully. "Sorry, sensei, I don't speak Muffle!" Brushing by Iruka, who took the piece of bread out of his mouth, he entered the dimly lit room. The only source of light was coming from the kitchen, so naturally Naruto gravitated there. He was followed closely by Iruka.
"Where have you been?" Iruka was asking. "Do you know how worried we were when you didn't show up by curfew time?"
The boy stopped just slightly at the threshold of the kitchen and gasped. "Oh crap!" He cried out. "I... I totally forgot I have a curfew! Oh no oh no!" He quickly turned to stare at Iruka worriedly. "What do I do? What do I do?? I swear I wasn't off roving about in places I shouldn't! I was with Sasuke all the time until just a few minutes ago! You can ask him if you don't believe me, sensei! Don't remove me from the mission now just when things are starting to heat up! Please??"
Iruka was slightly stunned at Naruto's reaction about the curfew. In his previous assignments, he had never had qualms about breaking curfew time and never bothered to submit any excuse for reporting home late. When questioned he would simply shrug and try to avoid the issue.
It had been painful to watch for Iruka, for on the one hand, he knew Naruto was suffering in the mission due to lack of trust from among those teammates he had been assigned to. Yet on the other hand, he also knew that Naruto would never turn a mission down because each little task, the blond had said, was one step closer to his Hokage dream.
Never, therefore, had he seen Naruto so nervous about breaking the curfew that he would sprout excuses without being asked. He knew he should be amazed, but somehow he was not. Reaching out, he gave Naruto a reassuring pat on the head.
"Don't worry, Naruto," he calmly said, "nobody's blaming you. We've already handed in the documents about extending your curfew for today, too," he almost laughed when he saw the awe in Naruto's eye. "Naruto, I've been your guardian for years. Give me some credit for anticipating your actions, huh?" He ruffled the blond hair roughly.
After a short silence, the blond blurted, "You mean, I'm not being removed from the mission?"
Iruka laughed again. Breaking curfews had been one of the main reason why none of Naruto's previous assignments ever worked out. "No, Naruto, not unless Kakashi-sensei has something else to say about it, which I don't think he does," the Chuunin glanced into the kitchen, "do you, Kakashi-san?"
Naruto looked into the kitchen as well and for the first time since he stepped into the house, noticed Kakashi's presence. He nearly jumped. "Kakashi-sensei!" He screeched, and the silver-haired man looked up from the pile of books he had been browsing through. "Wha... What are you doing here?" Naruto asked the next most logical thing he could think of. At Iruka's lead, they both walked casually into the kitchen. They took seats around the table that had been piled ceiling-high with books.
Kakashi had not looked up from the books since the first time he did to acknowledge Naruto's presence. "We were in the library," he drawled lazily, "but the library doesn't operate till such a late hour, so naturally, we borrowed whatever we could and brought them to the nearest convenient location. Hmm..." He turned a page over and let his visible eye look through it. "Want to join us? This is all about you, anyway."
Naruto perked up at the mention, and Iruka tried to step on Kakashi's foot from under the table. The Jounin did not so much as flinch, easily lifting his feet away from Iruka's reach. "About me?" Naruto asked, curious, and unaware of the battle of the feet going on beneath the table. "Why's that?"
Iruka tried to say something, but Kakashi got ahead of him. "The Mizu-Youma is trying to harness the power of the Kyuubi." He stated simply. Iruka put a hand to his forehead with a low grumble, and Naruto's eyes became wide with fascination.
"Really?" He asked.
"That's what we're trying to find out, Naruto," Iruka sighed, deciding that there was no point in trying to hide something that was already out in the open.
"No, not really," Kakashi's distracted voice came in again. He turned the book he was reading around so that both Naruto and Iruka could see it. Leaning forward, he continued, "Youma /can/ absorb humans, Iruka-sensei," he eyed the Chuunin meaningfully, "whatever theory you've come up with just now has to cleave to the eyewitness account this book records, I'm afraid!"
"I don't see why you should be so happy about it," Iruka was respectful, though slightly irritated. He looked at the book and began to read slowly.
Naruto, in the meantime, had gotten bored after looking at the two illustrations of what a Mizu-Youma looked like, on the same page Iruka was reading. He leaned back and looked at Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei! What do you mean, the Mizu-Youma's after that stupid fox? Does he want to catch him and put him in a cage or something?"
"Something like that, Naruto," Kakashi was very amused by the blond's way of putting it. "He wants to draw the Chakra of the fox out and use it for himself. In essence, it means that the Mizu-Youma was aiming for you right from the beginning. You better be more careful about your surroundings from now on, Naruto."
Dumbstruck, Naruto could only nod.
"All right," Iruka had evidently reached the end of the page. He put two fingers between his eyes and massaged gently. "I admit. It looks like there have been precedence in one Youma absorbing humans before in this world, but /how/ is the Mizu-Youma going to do that on Naruto? There's been no precedence of Youma absorbing Younin-"
"Iruka-sensei," Kakashi's voice was rather serious, "if even you believe that to be true, then there's no more hope for Naruto to be recognised in this village anymore."
For what seemed like an eternity, Naruto kept looking at Iruka, then Kakashi. He had barely been listening to them, choosing to flip through a nearby book for pictures, when Kakashi's serious tone of voice had forced him to pay attention. "What are you talking about, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto eventually asked, breaking the silence "I don't understand you."
"Naruto," it was Iruka this time, and he had an apologetic smile on his face. "I think you need to know something."
"Ugh huh?" The blond tilted his head questioningly.
"Hokage-sama actually gave me permission to tell you when you turned twelve, but there was no proper opportunity..." Iruka continued to mumble to himself. From the sidelines, Kakashi cast a watchful, almost interested eye on the both of them. "Naruto," Iruka stated again, this time very seriously. The blond looked at him, trying to gulp down the lump of discomfort in his mouth. Iruka continued, "Listen well - I will only say it once!"
Naruto nodded. "Yes?"
Iruka smiled. "You are not actually Youma-Ningen, Naruto. The Kyuubi was not combined with you. It was just sealed inside you, so... you're every bit a human as all the rest of us are!"
That took a literal minute to sink in.
"So?" Naruto said, after that long, nervous pause. He blinked in confusion. "What's that got to do with anything?"
This time, even Kakashi made no attempt to hide his surprise.
"So? SO??" Iruka, however, almost leapt across the table to shake Naruto by his shoulders. "Don't you get it?! All sixteen years of your life, you had to suffer discrimination, injustice and unfair treatment, were chained to the laboratory, only seeing light and day for what few, miserable times once a year when someone needed you for a mission or two, BECAUSE they purposely, wrongly applied the title of Younin on you!!! Those years weren't supposed to happen! You're a HUMAN, not some wacko Orochimaru Demon-Human hybrid experiment! You're stable! And you're supposed to be treated just like all the rest of us! All of that and all you can say after sixteen years is 'so?'?! Are you thoroughly, completely out of your mind?!"
"Woah, woah, hold on a minute, Iruka-sensei," Naruto was nearly bent all backwards in stiff surprise. He had never seen Iruka so seriously worked up over his Younin status before. "I mean, no matter what it is, I do have a demon inside of me. How does that make me different from all the Demon-Human hybrids experiments you're talking about?"
Iruka blinked in surprise. "You knew you weren't a hybrid?"
"Eeh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head. "... the stupid old fox tells me a lot of things when I'm drugged and unable to move in the lab, so whatever you were about to tell me, I probably knew it already. Heheh. Anyway!" The boy stood excitedly. "Forget about that whole Youma me Youma you thingie! I gotta tell you something Sasuke and I found just now!" He gestured wildly. "We were at the monument, and Sasuke was using some special eye-Jutsu to scan the terrain and guess what we found!"
The pause dragged.
"What?" Kakashi decided to entertain the boy.
"The precise location," Naruto flashed the adults an evil grin, "of the Mizu-Youma."
There was an air of unspoken awe.
Then Iruka frowned and shook his head. "Naruto, is this another prank of yours? It's not nice to be making fun of your caretakers like that."
The blond took on an offended front. "But it's true!" He whined. "I'm not lying, Iruka-sensei! It was Sasuke told me to write the coordinates down! And trust me, if /he/ tries to pull a prank, we can all be sure the sky will fall tomorrow." Naruto had started to rummage through his belongings, finally coming up with a notebook. He flipped it to the right page and showed it to his superiors. "There!"
While Iruka examined the scribble on the notebook, Kakashi took to interrogating the blond. "How did he find the location out?"
"Ugh, I'm not sure," Naruto scratched his hair and thought about it carefully. "He said that the clouds blocked the village's view so most of us didn't know, but the air of the village is actually under some sort of a minor Genjutsu by that demon."
"What!" Iruka almost broke his neck when he snapped upwards to look at Naruto. Kakashi held a palm out to stop him from saying anything further.
"Minor Genjutsu around a hidden village is not uncommon. Enemies usually use it to get people used to their Chakra so that when they strike, people are less likely to notice them. But go on. This is beginning to sound really interesting."
Naruto perked up even more, nodding his head furiously. "Yeah! Yeah! Then it's like, Sasuke's eyes began to seriously BLEED! It was all bloody red! He started to scan the terrain and said something like 'I see him'. Then we took down the coordinates and left the monument. We were trying to look for you to report this, but none of you were in the station, so we decided to go home instead! He said 'see you tomorrow', though!" Naruto started to absolutely bounce on his feet. "It's the first time someone's said that to me, and I feel kindda good!" He laughed. "Like I got myself a new friend! How's that!"
Kakashi chuckled along. "Sasuke saying that does indeed sound impressive." He agreed. "It looks like the coordinates can be trusted, though. Now I'll just have to wait a bit and Sasuke'll probably email me the same story you just said..." He clicked a few times at the laptop that was on the table top, hidden previously by the tall piles of books. "... there we go," he laughed. "Email by Sasuke. Report about this evening's activities. Right on time. Hmm... lemme see..." He took a few seconds of silence to scan through the report. "... perfect. Fits your testimony right to a T, Naruto. Aren't you glad?"
Naruto snickered openly. He flashed a wide, toothy grin at two adults.
"I need to think about what to do about this demon for tonight," Kakashi's tone was back to being serious, as he switched the laptop off and closed all the books in front of him. "Besides finding out about Youma-Ningen absorption, we've also found out that Mizu-Youma are among the higher ranking demons in the hierarchy. This means it is highly possible that we're up against an S-rank demon. And this definitely calls for a reevaluation." He stood up and stretched with a yawn. "Go to sleep, everybody! We'll meet at the usual meeting room tomorrow, same time!" His smile was almost visible through the mask.
"It's time for us to strike-back."
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Later that night, Iruka would remember wandering into the kitchen for a midnight snack, finding Kakashi still seated at the table, face set in deep concentration.
"Aren't you going back yet?" Iruka would ask.
"It's raining," Kakashi would answer.
And there would be brooding silence.
"It was raining that night too."
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Naruto could not believe, as he dashed through the pouring rain, that Iruka had not bothered to wake him up. That morning, when he finally came to, it was already nearly afternoon, and he gave a literal yelp of surprise before scrambling out of bed. Outside, the biggest rainstorm of the century was beating against the window pane, and he had stuck a tongue out at the offensive weather. Too flustered to grab an umbrella, he had exited the house in just his usual garb and raced to the police station. The only time ever in his life he had an appointment with someone, and he was so late! This was going to look so bad on his record, he pouted to himself.
He arrived at the station, dripping wet. Ignoring the glares of the other people hanging around, he ran straight to the usual meeting room and burst in. "Yo! Uzumaki Naruto makes his grand entrance!" He announced cheerily. In the distance, there was the sound of something hitting the ground.
"Oh sheesh," Shikamaru picked himself up and sighed. "You really haven't changed a single bit, Naruto."
Naruto stared. "Shikamaru!" He pointed. "What are you doing here?" He glanced around the empty room with slight disappointment. "Where's Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei? Or that bastard Sasuke for that matter?"
Shikamaru did not reply immediately. He walked towards Naruto, all the while grumbling under his breath. "I really didn't want to be the one to have to do this, but hell, who am I to defy a Jounin." Brushing by Naruto, Shikamaru stood by the doorway. "Follow me, Naruto."
Intrigued by the sudden development, Naruto did as told. The duo walked slowly, and in silence, until they stepped out of the building and into the pouring rain once again. Slightly bothered by Shikamaru's enthusiasm, however laidback, Naruto looked at Shikamaru's back with fear and suspicion. He was about to ask the billion ryou question, when Shikamaru turned around very carefully to regard him.
"Don't be surprised at what you're going to see."
After saying that, Shikamaru took off steathily in the direction of the forest, leaving a baffled Naruto no choice but to follow him. They vanished quickly, simultaneously, leaving not a trace. Back in the building, the rest of the police continued their normal affairs.
Outside, the rain poured down harder.
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"Looks like we won't get to deliver the report personally," Sasuke's face was almost set in a pout. He was walking along the corridors of the Taiyoubu storey with Naruto, after having checked every possible room (and every impossible room) they could for traces of their guardians. They were simply nowhere to be found.
Beside him, Naruto grinned anyway. "S'okay! S'not like any of us is gonna die tonight or something. We can always tell 'em tomorrow!"
Sasuke stiffened slightly. "Stop talking about dying, stupid!" He almost snarled.
"But it's true!" Naruto whined back. "Nobody's gonna die, okay?! And /you're/ always talking about it anyway! Death, blah, curse, blah, angst, blah and stuff like that." He made a face by wrinkling his nose. "You have no right to ask me to shut up about it! No wonder people stay away from you! Even without the curse, you're a boring and negative guy to hang out with!"
"I'm not boring and nega-!!" Sasuke roared, then cut himself short. "I... I don't always talk about death!"
"You DO!" Naruto leered, sticking a tongue out. "You do and you know it! Don't be such a wussy, asshole. There's nothing to be afraid of!"
Sasuke's eyes immediately narrowed. "I am NOT afraid of death."
"You ARE TOO," Naruto poked him at the shoulder. "Otherwise you wouldn't always be talking about death with a look in your face like you're its next target or something."
A fire began to spark from within Sasuke. He stopped walking, prompting Naruto to stop as well. They had exited the building some time ago and had been trudging along the empty night streets of Konoha. Sasuke had stopped at just nicely a crossroads - where all paths branched out into thick darkness. The clouds masked the moonlight, so all the duo had to see each other with were the occasional street lamps. Slowly, Sasuke turned around.
"You've never lost someone close to death before," he stated, while staring hard at Naruto.
Naruto opened his mouth to rebutt, but realised that it was true. "So?" He frowned. He couldn't see why it mattered. "I've seen death in the face enough times to know he's not scary."
"So you don't understand," Sasuke's eyes were downcast, instead of fiercely angry, "that those who live... suffer more than those who die..."
In the silence that followed, Naruto's thoughts began to fly. He knew that he understood the meaning of those words perfectly well.
But he also knew could not understand the emotions behind it.
Though he was had always been alone, like Sasuke - he had never quite truly lost something - having had nothing to begin with.
That was what set their solitude apart.
"Come on," Sasuke's quiet voice pulled him back from his inner thoughts. He watched, rooted to the spot as Sasuke walked further and further down the path that would take him home. "It's getting late. You better go home." His footsteps slowly came to a hesitant stop. "... I'll see you first thing tomorrow."
Naruto gaped at Sasuke until he was swallowed whole by the darkness. His grin slowly came back with full force though, as he shouted his reply, "Yeah!! Last one there owes me ramen!"
He thought he could hear a snort. But it could have just been the wind.
Naruto did not know why that particular scene kept flashing by his mind.
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"Shikamaru, are we heading for the northern forests?" Naruto asked.
Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, that troublesome place," he sighed, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. He did not elaborate any further.
Naruto was very confused.
"Why the hell are we going there for? Where's Sasuke? Iruka-sensei? And Kakashi-sensei?"
"They're there," Shikamaru wisely kept his answer short. He made a sharp turn to his right. "This way."
Bursting through the large, opened gates of the northern part of the village, Shikamaru landed in a kneel before the threshold of the forest, followed closely by Naruto.
Even though it was morning, the storm clouds had obscured every single ray of sunlight. As they walked towards the initial layer of tall, thick foliage, it felt like dusk had just embraced the land, not dawn. Shadows flickered in the rain. A flashlight was being shone about frantically. Shikamaru led Naruto right into what the blond would call the aftermath of a scene of slaughter. One he had seen many times in his entire life. Enough to have numbed him. Enough to have made him callous to the unfortunate victim of the heinous crime.
Only this time, everything was very, very wrong.
That was Uchiha Sasuke lying motionless on the ground.
That was Uchiha Sasuke's blood mixing with the rain.
That was Uchiha Sasuke being surrounded by a mass of panicking medic Ninjas, yelling at each other to pass this syringe and administer that drug.
That was Uchiha Sasuke - who owed him ramen for not showing up when he should have.
Uchiha Sasuke, who was supposed to be hitting him and yelling at him and calling him names while sporting an inferal smirk. Definitely not supposed to be on the ground. Battered. Broken. Bleeding.
"All right, one, two... HEAVE!" A stranger's voice commanded, and suddenly, the limp figure of Sasuke was hoisted upon a stretcher and carted away by the medics. For a long, painful moment, they brushed by the frozen Naruto. Naruto tried to turn, when they passed him, but his senses were in so much shock they refused to obey. And it was a good thing that he had not turned, for he would have missed the single sheet of plain, white paper that fell from Sasuke when the medics jostled to get him to the hospital.
He picked the paper up out of pure reflex. He stared at it for a whole minute, never noticing that Shikamaru hovered around behind him with a frown in his features - or that Iruka and Kakashi had walked up to him from where they were talking with a few medics, the former looking very concerned, the latter looking very disturbed. All his attention was upon the piece of paper - wet and torn, but still legible.
/Come alone to this location tonight./
The strange handwriting on the note had read.
/Or your partner dies./
The last thing he heard, before he fell into induced darkness, was Iruka's voice, calling out his name.
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4/10/2004
Part 12 of 16
(email XD!) XD (at) tougenkyou (dot) net
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Against the Tide
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Chapter Eleven
Naruto stood before Iruka's house, where he was staying at temporarily for the duration of the mission. Yawning and stretching, he fumbled around in his pockets for the keys.
Just about an hour ago, Naruto and Sasuke had been searching the police headquarters high and low for traces of their guardians. Nobody had seen them since afternoon, it apparently seemed. Sasuke had sighed and grumbled about Kakashi infecting his irresponsibility to everybody he came in contact with, while Naruto valiantly attempted to defend Iruka's integrity. That all said and done, they parted ways at the crossroads a few minutes prior, with a promise to meet each other at the usual time and place the next day.
Now, however, Naruto was pissed, the good of the day just passed escaping him entirely. Where were the keys when you needed them most? He dug deep into his pockets with great disappointment. It looked like he was going to need to stay out all night until whatever time Iruka decided to return home. Or break a window or two - though he wondered if Iruka's wrath would be worth the deed.
Much to his surprise, however, there was a noise from within the house. The knob clicked, then turned, and the door was eased open. Iruka's head poked out from within, his mouth hanging on to a half eaten piece of bread. "Nanugo!" He exclaimed - or, tried to. "'Bout dime ngo godd wag!"
Naruto wrinkled his nose playfully. "Sorry, sensei, I don't speak Muffle!" Brushing by Iruka, who took the piece of bread out of his mouth, he entered the dimly lit room. The only source of light was coming from the kitchen, so naturally Naruto gravitated there. He was followed closely by Iruka.
"Where have you been?" Iruka was asking. "Do you know how worried we were when you didn't show up by curfew time?"
The boy stopped just slightly at the threshold of the kitchen and gasped. "Oh crap!" He cried out. "I... I totally forgot I have a curfew! Oh no oh no!" He quickly turned to stare at Iruka worriedly. "What do I do? What do I do?? I swear I wasn't off roving about in places I shouldn't! I was with Sasuke all the time until just a few minutes ago! You can ask him if you don't believe me, sensei! Don't remove me from the mission now just when things are starting to heat up! Please??"
Iruka was slightly stunned at Naruto's reaction about the curfew. In his previous assignments, he had never had qualms about breaking curfew time and never bothered to submit any excuse for reporting home late. When questioned he would simply shrug and try to avoid the issue.
It had been painful to watch for Iruka, for on the one hand, he knew Naruto was suffering in the mission due to lack of trust from among those teammates he had been assigned to. Yet on the other hand, he also knew that Naruto would never turn a mission down because each little task, the blond had said, was one step closer to his Hokage dream.
Never, therefore, had he seen Naruto so nervous about breaking the curfew that he would sprout excuses without being asked. He knew he should be amazed, but somehow he was not. Reaching out, he gave Naruto a reassuring pat on the head.
"Don't worry, Naruto," he calmly said, "nobody's blaming you. We've already handed in the documents about extending your curfew for today, too," he almost laughed when he saw the awe in Naruto's eye. "Naruto, I've been your guardian for years. Give me some credit for anticipating your actions, huh?" He ruffled the blond hair roughly.
After a short silence, the blond blurted, "You mean, I'm not being removed from the mission?"
Iruka laughed again. Breaking curfews had been one of the main reason why none of Naruto's previous assignments ever worked out. "No, Naruto, not unless Kakashi-sensei has something else to say about it, which I don't think he does," the Chuunin glanced into the kitchen, "do you, Kakashi-san?"
Naruto looked into the kitchen as well and for the first time since he stepped into the house, noticed Kakashi's presence. He nearly jumped. "Kakashi-sensei!" He screeched, and the silver-haired man looked up from the pile of books he had been browsing through. "Wha... What are you doing here?" Naruto asked the next most logical thing he could think of. At Iruka's lead, they both walked casually into the kitchen. They took seats around the table that had been piled ceiling-high with books.
Kakashi had not looked up from the books since the first time he did to acknowledge Naruto's presence. "We were in the library," he drawled lazily, "but the library doesn't operate till such a late hour, so naturally, we borrowed whatever we could and brought them to the nearest convenient location. Hmm..." He turned a page over and let his visible eye look through it. "Want to join us? This is all about you, anyway."
Naruto perked up at the mention, and Iruka tried to step on Kakashi's foot from under the table. The Jounin did not so much as flinch, easily lifting his feet away from Iruka's reach. "About me?" Naruto asked, curious, and unaware of the battle of the feet going on beneath the table. "Why's that?"
Iruka tried to say something, but Kakashi got ahead of him. "The Mizu-Youma is trying to harness the power of the Kyuubi." He stated simply. Iruka put a hand to his forehead with a low grumble, and Naruto's eyes became wide with fascination.
"Really?" He asked.
"That's what we're trying to find out, Naruto," Iruka sighed, deciding that there was no point in trying to hide something that was already out in the open.
"No, not really," Kakashi's distracted voice came in again. He turned the book he was reading around so that both Naruto and Iruka could see it. Leaning forward, he continued, "Youma /can/ absorb humans, Iruka-sensei," he eyed the Chuunin meaningfully, "whatever theory you've come up with just now has to cleave to the eyewitness account this book records, I'm afraid!"
"I don't see why you should be so happy about it," Iruka was respectful, though slightly irritated. He looked at the book and began to read slowly.
Naruto, in the meantime, had gotten bored after looking at the two illustrations of what a Mizu-Youma looked like, on the same page Iruka was reading. He leaned back and looked at Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei! What do you mean, the Mizu-Youma's after that stupid fox? Does he want to catch him and put him in a cage or something?"
"Something like that, Naruto," Kakashi was very amused by the blond's way of putting it. "He wants to draw the Chakra of the fox out and use it for himself. In essence, it means that the Mizu-Youma was aiming for you right from the beginning. You better be more careful about your surroundings from now on, Naruto."
Dumbstruck, Naruto could only nod.
"All right," Iruka had evidently reached the end of the page. He put two fingers between his eyes and massaged gently. "I admit. It looks like there have been precedence in one Youma absorbing humans before in this world, but /how/ is the Mizu-Youma going to do that on Naruto? There's been no precedence of Youma absorbing Younin-"
"Iruka-sensei," Kakashi's voice was rather serious, "if even you believe that to be true, then there's no more hope for Naruto to be recognised in this village anymore."
For what seemed like an eternity, Naruto kept looking at Iruka, then Kakashi. He had barely been listening to them, choosing to flip through a nearby book for pictures, when Kakashi's serious tone of voice had forced him to pay attention. "What are you talking about, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto eventually asked, breaking the silence "I don't understand you."
"Naruto," it was Iruka this time, and he had an apologetic smile on his face. "I think you need to know something."
"Ugh huh?" The blond tilted his head questioningly.
"Hokage-sama actually gave me permission to tell you when you turned twelve, but there was no proper opportunity..." Iruka continued to mumble to himself. From the sidelines, Kakashi cast a watchful, almost interested eye on the both of them. "Naruto," Iruka stated again, this time very seriously. The blond looked at him, trying to gulp down the lump of discomfort in his mouth. Iruka continued, "Listen well - I will only say it once!"
Naruto nodded. "Yes?"
Iruka smiled. "You are not actually Youma-Ningen, Naruto. The Kyuubi was not combined with you. It was just sealed inside you, so... you're every bit a human as all the rest of us are!"
That took a literal minute to sink in.
"So?" Naruto said, after that long, nervous pause. He blinked in confusion. "What's that got to do with anything?"
This time, even Kakashi made no attempt to hide his surprise.
"So? SO??" Iruka, however, almost leapt across the table to shake Naruto by his shoulders. "Don't you get it?! All sixteen years of your life, you had to suffer discrimination, injustice and unfair treatment, were chained to the laboratory, only seeing light and day for what few, miserable times once a year when someone needed you for a mission or two, BECAUSE they purposely, wrongly applied the title of Younin on you!!! Those years weren't supposed to happen! You're a HUMAN, not some wacko Orochimaru Demon-Human hybrid experiment! You're stable! And you're supposed to be treated just like all the rest of us! All of that and all you can say after sixteen years is 'so?'?! Are you thoroughly, completely out of your mind?!"
"Woah, woah, hold on a minute, Iruka-sensei," Naruto was nearly bent all backwards in stiff surprise. He had never seen Iruka so seriously worked up over his Younin status before. "I mean, no matter what it is, I do have a demon inside of me. How does that make me different from all the Demon-Human hybrids experiments you're talking about?"
Iruka blinked in surprise. "You knew you weren't a hybrid?"
"Eeh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head. "... the stupid old fox tells me a lot of things when I'm drugged and unable to move in the lab, so whatever you were about to tell me, I probably knew it already. Heheh. Anyway!" The boy stood excitedly. "Forget about that whole Youma me Youma you thingie! I gotta tell you something Sasuke and I found just now!" He gestured wildly. "We were at the monument, and Sasuke was using some special eye-Jutsu to scan the terrain and guess what we found!"
The pause dragged.
"What?" Kakashi decided to entertain the boy.
"The precise location," Naruto flashed the adults an evil grin, "of the Mizu-Youma."
There was an air of unspoken awe.
Then Iruka frowned and shook his head. "Naruto, is this another prank of yours? It's not nice to be making fun of your caretakers like that."
The blond took on an offended front. "But it's true!" He whined. "I'm not lying, Iruka-sensei! It was Sasuke told me to write the coordinates down! And trust me, if /he/ tries to pull a prank, we can all be sure the sky will fall tomorrow." Naruto had started to rummage through his belongings, finally coming up with a notebook. He flipped it to the right page and showed it to his superiors. "There!"
While Iruka examined the scribble on the notebook, Kakashi took to interrogating the blond. "How did he find the location out?"
"Ugh, I'm not sure," Naruto scratched his hair and thought about it carefully. "He said that the clouds blocked the village's view so most of us didn't know, but the air of the village is actually under some sort of a minor Genjutsu by that demon."
"What!" Iruka almost broke his neck when he snapped upwards to look at Naruto. Kakashi held a palm out to stop him from saying anything further.
"Minor Genjutsu around a hidden village is not uncommon. Enemies usually use it to get people used to their Chakra so that when they strike, people are less likely to notice them. But go on. This is beginning to sound really interesting."
Naruto perked up even more, nodding his head furiously. "Yeah! Yeah! Then it's like, Sasuke's eyes began to seriously BLEED! It was all bloody red! He started to scan the terrain and said something like 'I see him'. Then we took down the coordinates and left the monument. We were trying to look for you to report this, but none of you were in the station, so we decided to go home instead! He said 'see you tomorrow', though!" Naruto started to absolutely bounce on his feet. "It's the first time someone's said that to me, and I feel kindda good!" He laughed. "Like I got myself a new friend! How's that!"
Kakashi chuckled along. "Sasuke saying that does indeed sound impressive." He agreed. "It looks like the coordinates can be trusted, though. Now I'll just have to wait a bit and Sasuke'll probably email me the same story you just said..." He clicked a few times at the laptop that was on the table top, hidden previously by the tall piles of books. "... there we go," he laughed. "Email by Sasuke. Report about this evening's activities. Right on time. Hmm... lemme see..." He took a few seconds of silence to scan through the report. "... perfect. Fits your testimony right to a T, Naruto. Aren't you glad?"
Naruto snickered openly. He flashed a wide, toothy grin at two adults.
"I need to think about what to do about this demon for tonight," Kakashi's tone was back to being serious, as he switched the laptop off and closed all the books in front of him. "Besides finding out about Youma-Ningen absorption, we've also found out that Mizu-Youma are among the higher ranking demons in the hierarchy. This means it is highly possible that we're up against an S-rank demon. And this definitely calls for a reevaluation." He stood up and stretched with a yawn. "Go to sleep, everybody! We'll meet at the usual meeting room tomorrow, same time!" His smile was almost visible through the mask.
"It's time for us to strike-back."
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Later that night, Iruka would remember wandering into the kitchen for a midnight snack, finding Kakashi still seated at the table, face set in deep concentration.
"Aren't you going back yet?" Iruka would ask.
"It's raining," Kakashi would answer.
And there would be brooding silence.
"It was raining that night too."
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Naruto could not believe, as he dashed through the pouring rain, that Iruka had not bothered to wake him up. That morning, when he finally came to, it was already nearly afternoon, and he gave a literal yelp of surprise before scrambling out of bed. Outside, the biggest rainstorm of the century was beating against the window pane, and he had stuck a tongue out at the offensive weather. Too flustered to grab an umbrella, he had exited the house in just his usual garb and raced to the police station. The only time ever in his life he had an appointment with someone, and he was so late! This was going to look so bad on his record, he pouted to himself.
He arrived at the station, dripping wet. Ignoring the glares of the other people hanging around, he ran straight to the usual meeting room and burst in. "Yo! Uzumaki Naruto makes his grand entrance!" He announced cheerily. In the distance, there was the sound of something hitting the ground.
"Oh sheesh," Shikamaru picked himself up and sighed. "You really haven't changed a single bit, Naruto."
Naruto stared. "Shikamaru!" He pointed. "What are you doing here?" He glanced around the empty room with slight disappointment. "Where's Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei? Or that bastard Sasuke for that matter?"
Shikamaru did not reply immediately. He walked towards Naruto, all the while grumbling under his breath. "I really didn't want to be the one to have to do this, but hell, who am I to defy a Jounin." Brushing by Naruto, Shikamaru stood by the doorway. "Follow me, Naruto."
Intrigued by the sudden development, Naruto did as told. The duo walked slowly, and in silence, until they stepped out of the building and into the pouring rain once again. Slightly bothered by Shikamaru's enthusiasm, however laidback, Naruto looked at Shikamaru's back with fear and suspicion. He was about to ask the billion ryou question, when Shikamaru turned around very carefully to regard him.
"Don't be surprised at what you're going to see."
After saying that, Shikamaru took off steathily in the direction of the forest, leaving a baffled Naruto no choice but to follow him. They vanished quickly, simultaneously, leaving not a trace. Back in the building, the rest of the police continued their normal affairs.
Outside, the rain poured down harder.
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"Looks like we won't get to deliver the report personally," Sasuke's face was almost set in a pout. He was walking along the corridors of the Taiyoubu storey with Naruto, after having checked every possible room (and every impossible room) they could for traces of their guardians. They were simply nowhere to be found.
Beside him, Naruto grinned anyway. "S'okay! S'not like any of us is gonna die tonight or something. We can always tell 'em tomorrow!"
Sasuke stiffened slightly. "Stop talking about dying, stupid!" He almost snarled.
"But it's true!" Naruto whined back. "Nobody's gonna die, okay?! And /you're/ always talking about it anyway! Death, blah, curse, blah, angst, blah and stuff like that." He made a face by wrinkling his nose. "You have no right to ask me to shut up about it! No wonder people stay away from you! Even without the curse, you're a boring and negative guy to hang out with!"
"I'm not boring and nega-!!" Sasuke roared, then cut himself short. "I... I don't always talk about death!"
"You DO!" Naruto leered, sticking a tongue out. "You do and you know it! Don't be such a wussy, asshole. There's nothing to be afraid of!"
Sasuke's eyes immediately narrowed. "I am NOT afraid of death."
"You ARE TOO," Naruto poked him at the shoulder. "Otherwise you wouldn't always be talking about death with a look in your face like you're its next target or something."
A fire began to spark from within Sasuke. He stopped walking, prompting Naruto to stop as well. They had exited the building some time ago and had been trudging along the empty night streets of Konoha. Sasuke had stopped at just nicely a crossroads - where all paths branched out into thick darkness. The clouds masked the moonlight, so all the duo had to see each other with were the occasional street lamps. Slowly, Sasuke turned around.
"You've never lost someone close to death before," he stated, while staring hard at Naruto.
Naruto opened his mouth to rebutt, but realised that it was true. "So?" He frowned. He couldn't see why it mattered. "I've seen death in the face enough times to know he's not scary."
"So you don't understand," Sasuke's eyes were downcast, instead of fiercely angry, "that those who live... suffer more than those who die..."
In the silence that followed, Naruto's thoughts began to fly. He knew that he understood the meaning of those words perfectly well.
But he also knew could not understand the emotions behind it.
Though he was had always been alone, like Sasuke - he had never quite truly lost something - having had nothing to begin with.
That was what set their solitude apart.
"Come on," Sasuke's quiet voice pulled him back from his inner thoughts. He watched, rooted to the spot as Sasuke walked further and further down the path that would take him home. "It's getting late. You better go home." His footsteps slowly came to a hesitant stop. "... I'll see you first thing tomorrow."
Naruto gaped at Sasuke until he was swallowed whole by the darkness. His grin slowly came back with full force though, as he shouted his reply, "Yeah!! Last one there owes me ramen!"
He thought he could hear a snort. But it could have just been the wind.
Naruto did not know why that particular scene kept flashing by his mind.
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"Shikamaru, are we heading for the northern forests?" Naruto asked.
Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, that troublesome place," he sighed, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. He did not elaborate any further.
Naruto was very confused.
"Why the hell are we going there for? Where's Sasuke? Iruka-sensei? And Kakashi-sensei?"
"They're there," Shikamaru wisely kept his answer short. He made a sharp turn to his right. "This way."
Bursting through the large, opened gates of the northern part of the village, Shikamaru landed in a kneel before the threshold of the forest, followed closely by Naruto.
Even though it was morning, the storm clouds had obscured every single ray of sunlight. As they walked towards the initial layer of tall, thick foliage, it felt like dusk had just embraced the land, not dawn. Shadows flickered in the rain. A flashlight was being shone about frantically. Shikamaru led Naruto right into what the blond would call the aftermath of a scene of slaughter. One he had seen many times in his entire life. Enough to have numbed him. Enough to have made him callous to the unfortunate victim of the heinous crime.
Only this time, everything was very, very wrong.
That was Uchiha Sasuke lying motionless on the ground.
That was Uchiha Sasuke's blood mixing with the rain.
That was Uchiha Sasuke being surrounded by a mass of panicking medic Ninjas, yelling at each other to pass this syringe and administer that drug.
That was Uchiha Sasuke - who owed him ramen for not showing up when he should have.
Uchiha Sasuke, who was supposed to be hitting him and yelling at him and calling him names while sporting an inferal smirk. Definitely not supposed to be on the ground. Battered. Broken. Bleeding.
"All right, one, two... HEAVE!" A stranger's voice commanded, and suddenly, the limp figure of Sasuke was hoisted upon a stretcher and carted away by the medics. For a long, painful moment, they brushed by the frozen Naruto. Naruto tried to turn, when they passed him, but his senses were in so much shock they refused to obey. And it was a good thing that he had not turned, for he would have missed the single sheet of plain, white paper that fell from Sasuke when the medics jostled to get him to the hospital.
He picked the paper up out of pure reflex. He stared at it for a whole minute, never noticing that Shikamaru hovered around behind him with a frown in his features - or that Iruka and Kakashi had walked up to him from where they were talking with a few medics, the former looking very concerned, the latter looking very disturbed. All his attention was upon the piece of paper - wet and torn, but still legible.
/Come alone to this location tonight./
The strange handwriting on the note had read.
/Or your partner dies./
The last thing he heard, before he fell into induced darkness, was Iruka's voice, calling out his name.
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4/10/2004
Part 12 of 16
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