It became rapidly apparent just what sorts of things Konoha was intending for Gato.
The Hokage had taken tremendous offense at Gato's impertinence, and intended to show to everyone in the Five Elemental Nations just what happened when you felt yourself the better of the Daimyo's chosen guardians of the provinces. The number of jounin who showed up in the wake of Team Seven's disaster of a mission was truly extraordinary. A statement would be written in blood—it was just a question of when and where.
As a consequence, the healthy members of Team Seven were being kept very busy. Naruto and Hinata had been put in the usual genin role of running messages, while Kakashi was the Konoha jounin closest to the real intel on the situation. He ended up spending much of the ensuing weeks conducting briefings, seeming to find it all very dull. The irritating thing, he told Team Seven, was that he wasn't actually gathering intel. That task had fallen to Team Minami, which was doing a combination of vanishing into the woodwork and appearing at odd hours to deliver large packets of information on par with the best in Konoha. After several weeks of this, a team of intel analysts had eventually shipped out and, while initially skeptical, quickly warmed up to the "provincial ninja team" that Team Minami professed to be.
Minami clearly found it all very gratifying.
Several chunin teams were deployed out to Senfuku as well, and word started to come in of mysterious events in the docks. Things going bump in the night, offices mysteriously rearranged, shadows flitting about in the dark—things that spoke to something coming but not to what. Team Minami's reports began to speak of increased enforcer patrols and civilians being beaten for little or no reason by jittery and apprehensive gang members, while stockpiles of weapons and ammunition began to appear alongside shipments of smuggled goods. The criminal underworld seemed to be gearing up for a fight to defend what they considered theirs, even though they had no right to it.
Team Seven would never admit it, but they were glad when the day came to go back to Konoha. Their return was quiet and, to anyone who wasn't familiar with Team Seven's dynamics, they were returning home in good order. Kakashi knew better: Sayaka wasn't back up to strength, Naruto was being oddly reluctant to eat anything but seafood, and Hinata was visibly worried for the both of them. Kakashi had a quick word with the gate team to have them process their paperwork quickly, and he had intentionally arranged for their post-mission debrief to be postponed a few days so that they didn't need to go straight to the Hokage's tower after checking in.
"Head home, team," said Kakashi. Team Seven had arrived at the gates of Konoha late in the evening, with the setting sun casting the village in gold and amber. "It's been a long mission."
"Meeting time?" asked Sayaka.
"Ten," said Kakashi. He held up his hands at their noises of disbelief. "I know, it's later than usual, but I don't want us taking D-ranks yet and aggressive training isn't a good idea for Sayaka. We'll do some advanced chakra control exercises together, talk about team combat some more, that sort of thing."
Sayaka tilted her head at him, then nodded. It was all very fair, even if it was a little irritating. She'd lost a lot of progress, and needed to make up for it.
But, with a sigh, Sayaka acknowledged that aggravating her injuries would just set her back further. So she left for home, walking along with Hinata and Naruto in companionable silence until she turned off for the street to her apartment. The walk was familiar, lined with the same shops and the same vending machines that sold the same drinks even during winter when nobody wanted iced tea. It was the same walk she'd taken for years to and from the Academy. Ever since she'd started living with Hiroyo.
Sayaka turned a corner and went a short way down an alley before taking the steps up to her apartment. She felt her lips curl into a smile, and something in her chest twinge. Was she taking the steps too fast? She was sure she wasn't that injured anymore.
Then she reached her apartment, and fished the key out of her mission pack, before inserting it and turning. The locks opened with a series of clicks, and Sayaka pushed the door open.
"I'm home."
Sayaka's apartment was just like it had been before she'd left. The front door still squeaked, and her house sandals were where she'd left them. In the kitchen, Sayaka heard the sound of the water in the sink being turned off. Hiroyo was probably preparing something for dinner later.
Sayaka sighed and felt something in her chest loosen that she hadn't realized she was holding tight. It was a set of sounds that she hadn't realized she'd been missing until that moment. Her eyes began to well up, and she sniffled as she took off her mission pack and let it down in the threshold.
Gods, she was being such a little girl. She needed to stop crying like this if she was going to kill her brother. She needed— she needed—
"Oh Sayaka," said Hiroyo, and she swept Sayaka up in a hug. The sniffles turned into actual sobs as Sayaka held herself stiffly and tried to stop the crying, but Hiroyo kept running her hands over Sayaka's hair like she had when Sayaka was younger and still hurting so much from the loss of her family, and it kept pulling out more tears.
"Sorry," Sayaka murmured after a moment, and pulled away to wipe her eyes. "I'm— I shouldn't be crying so much."
"You got stabbed in the chest and died for sixty seconds," said Hiroyo, and Sayaka saw that she was crying too. "Everyone's allowed to cry after that."
"I d-didn't after, though, in the hospital," said Sayaka, and she swallowed thickly. "I'm better than this."
"Oh silly girl," Hiroyo sighed, and pulled Sayaka close again. "You nearly died. Everyone who goes through that needs to cry afterwards, even from relief. Besides, a good cry is better for everyone, even men who are idiots about it."
Sayaka pulled away and roughly wiped at her eyes with her palms. "I have to be stronger. Crying all the time—"
"—doesn't change how strong you are, silly girl," said Hiroyo firmly, tapping Sayaka on the nose. "You saved it for after the fight, didn't you? You finished the job, you got everyone home, and you made sure everything was safe and secure. You did better than most chunin and held yourself together until the fight was well and truly over, so stop being silly and come give me a hug."
Sayaka's lips trembled and she buried her face into Hiroyo's shoulder, hiccuping as she started crying again. It made her feel small and childish and not at all adult, but maybe it was okay, at least here, and besides Hiroyo was right—she had waited until she got home. She hadn't done anything stupid, had kept herself calm even when Naruto had been freaking out, and she'd finished her mission. She had packed all her emotions away properly, and, now that everything was over and she was safe, unpacking them didn't change that she'd done a good job as a ninja.
It took a while, but eventually the tears stopped, and Sayaka was able to take a breath without hiccuping. They moved to the kitchen, where a large fish had been laid out in the sink and was being descaled. Hiroyo let it be, for the moment, and instead started making a pot of tea. Sayaka sat down at the table and held herself tight, sniffling a little but much better now than before. The sound of the water kettle rumbling as it brought the water to a boil echoed in the apartment.
"The Hokage sent round a runner with the report on your mission after the attack," Hiroyo said as she brought over the teapot and two cups.
"I'm sorry," Sayaka said, looking down at the table. "I tried my best, but—"
Hiroyo stopped her. "A-class missing-nin are far beyond what any genin has the right to stand up to, much less manage to wound," said Hiroyo firmly. "The Hokage only had praise for the way Team Seven conducted itself. If this were still the war, you would all be slated for field promotion."
"Really?" Sayaka asked. She looked up at Hiroyo in surprise. "Is that how that works?"
"Of course," said Hiroyo. "I made chunin that way, though I never made it to jounin."
"Why not?" asked Sayaka.
"Go for jounin you mean? Well, maybe as a tokubetsu jounin, specialized in kenjutsu. But the way those missions end up working is very hard for having a family. Back then, I had just gotten married, and my standing in the clan was never high enough to warrant making jounin before having children and settling down. But then the Kyuubi attacked, and my husband…"
She stopped, and Sayaka looked away. Hiroyo had never really talked that much about her husband, or her family in general, and Sayaka always had the impression that Hiroyo had never gotten on well with her clan.
Sayaka reached over and poured Hiroyo a cup of tea, then poured another for herself.
"Thank you," said Hiroyo with a smile. "But well, we tried to help where we could. The jounin and the Fourth Hokage were the only ones with a real hope, but some of us chunin could be distractions at least while we evacuated the civilians. It worked, a little, but we both sustained serious injuries. My husband died, and I was left barren."
Sayaka winced, and held a hand to her abdomen sympathetically. That… that would have hurt. Not just physically, though Sayaka knew what that pain was like. She imagined if Naruto's kunai had ended up slipping lower, and gone into…
Sayaka shivered again, and took a sip of tea. It was annoying, all this about boyfriends and getting married, but she was still a girl. Losing that capability was terrifying to think about.
"Well, it's why I ended up here, so it worked out in the end," said Hiroyo with a small smile. She looked up at Sayaka and smiled more broadly. "I'm glad that I'm your guardian, Sayaka."
Sayaka's throat closed up at that, and she looked away.
"…mother," she said after a moment. "It's— that's the word you should use."
Hiroyo blinked in surprise, then put her cup down to put her hands to her lips. "Sayaka?"
"It's— that's what you do anyway," said Sayaka. She twisted her hands together in her lap. "A-and, you know, if it weren't for you, I— you— you know what I mean."
Hiroyo pulled Sayaka into another hug.
"Yes, I do," she said quietly.
It could never be formalized through adoption papers or anything. The politics would never permit it. And in general, nothing really changed in Sayaka and Hiroyo's relationship. It was odd for Sayaka to call Hiroyo "mother" and neither could get used to it. But they had acknowledged it to each other, and it was enough.
For all that Sayaka had changed since her mission had begun, life, it seemed, hadn't. It had stayed in the pattern she had known for the last several years, with the same routines that she had come to expect. The shopkeepers offered the same wares, the neighbors were still noisy, the way the sun came through her window in the mornings still blinded her. Nobody seemed to really notice that she had been gone for over a month—or rather, they noticed but didn't really seem to care. Everything was the same and life had just… continued.
It helped a lot, for Sayaka at least, and she couldn't imagine Hinata or Naruto were any different. The return to normalcy gave her time to adjust and take a metaphorical breath before continuing on. By the time of their debriefing Team Seven looked like they were feeling much better, something Kakashi accepted with cautious relief.
Their time was spent waiting for Sayaka to get back to speed. She still couldn't train at the pace she wanted, but it was better than nothing, and she was tracking slow improvement so it seemed okay.
There were a few anomalies though—blips in her week that stood out. For one, she did actually end up on a date with Shikamaru within a few days of returning home. It hadn't gone badly but hadn't gone well either. They'd mutually agreed that they had no chance of standing each other in the long term, made the appropriate noises at each other at the end for their parents' sake, and then never made an attempt at another date. Rumors were starting to spread that she'd already made a decision, and Sayaka started replacing her time in the practice ring with time in the library, reading up on clan law and making sure she understood how these contracts worked and what they meant.
She also celebrated her birthday, in a very restrained kind of way. Planning a big celebration wasn't the sort of thing Sayaka enjoyed, if only because it brought up a lot of old memories that she didn't want to think about. Her team gave her a few tokens in celebration, but she didn't want anything, really, except to be given clearance to train, and that was never going to happen, so whatever. It was fine.
It was a little weird to think about being thirteen. The day of her birthday, she woke up and found that being thirteen didn't seem any different from being twelve. It was just another year, and she had a lot more of them to go through before she really hit any major milestones in her life. At the same time, though, being thirteen mattered a lot, because it meant that she needed to "start thinking carefully about her future". Normally, there wasn't much expectation until she turned seventeen, but it was always different with clans, and even then anyone with ambition started worrying about these things when they turned thirteen. Things about their career and getting promoted and specializations in the village where they could win money and prestige. And of course, for clan heirs, it also meant thinking seriously about friendships and alliances, which, well, Sayaka sort of had a leg up on? But she couldn't be complacent there either.
It all sucked the joy out of birthdays, to be perfectly honest, and Sayaka was perfectly fine treating it as nothing more than a chance to have something particularly nice for dinner.
The other anomaly came when Naruto reported that he would need to skip training that day.
"I'm real sorry," he said sheepishly to the gathered team. "It's just, you know, some stuff came up, and I really can't."
"Uh huh," said Kakashi with the least believing expression Sayaka had ever seen, its disdain for Naruto's excuses so powerful it transmitted through fabric. "Stuff, huh."
"Yeah. Can't really talk about it."
That said so many things. Sayaka looked at Hinata, then both of them looked at Kakashi, who looked back at them. The three of them turned in unison back to Naruto.
"Secret bloodline training should involve us," Kakashi said. He reached out and snagged Naruto by the ear before the boy could run away. "Take us to the Hokage, Naruto, and we'll get this all sorted."
"B-but I—!"
"No buts, Naruto," said Hinata, and she took one of his arms and held it close. "W-we're coming with you."
"You cannot go with him," said Hiruzen firmly, and Sayaka was absolutely sure that Kakashi was about to set him on fire.
"Why not?" asked Kakashi.
"Because it is very dangerous."
"So?"
The Hokage rolled his eyes. "Kakashi-kun, you are not twelve. You know precisely why."
Kakashi's glare intensified. "I am also much better than when I was twelve, Hokage-sama."
"And your students?"
"Can watch from a distance until the all-clear is sounded."
"An excellent plan," said Danzo as he walked in and shut the door behind him. "Let us have the scions of Konoha's two most prominent clans in the vicinity when we test to see what happens when we provoke the Kyuubi's containment seal."
Naruto quailed and the rest of Team Seven collectively turned their ire upon Danzo.
"Don't talk about my student that way," Kakashi said acidly.
"Don't talk about the security of our village that way," Danzo retorted, stamping his walking stick against the floor. "There are many ways for this to go terribly wrong, and we would be fools to ignore them. Naruto is a very strong genin, but he is still a genin."
"He would never—"
"I know that," said Danzo, holding up a hand. "He would fight with everything he had to crush the demon fox before it could hurt his friends. But what if he loses?"
The room went quiet.
"We must take measures to ensure Naruto has everything he needs to succeed if it comes to that kind of fight," Danzo said quietly. "To do that, we need as few people in the room as possible. It may simply be the case that Naruto needs a few moments to tame the demon, and if we keep him isolated it will all be fine. But imagine if Hinata was in the room for those few moments. It is unconscionable."
Naruto trembled. His team closed ranks around him.
"I think, Danzo, that you are laying it on a little thick," said Hiruzen with dry disapproval. "These are the worst case scenarios, Kakashi. We are not going to try and have Naruto do anything crazy, like say transform into a miniature Kyuubi. There is a very gradual testing and training plan in place, and in all probability the safeguards Danzo intends are excessive beyond the wildest nightmares we could ever imagine."
Danzo snorted. "Perhaps for you."
"Danzo, your mind is an abyssal horror that nearly put Inoichi in the hospital," Hiruzen said flatly.
The tension in the room broke, and everyone had a quiet chuckle at that.
"It is fair to say that I am terribly afraid of what might go wrong," said Danzo after a moment and a sigh. "I think you will not blame me for my fears, and I am old enough to acknowledge that, yes, it is fear that drives me. We all know what happened the last time the fox visited us. I am right to be fearful of what might happen if it comes back."
"It won't," said Naruto fervently, and he pushed past Hinata and Sayaka to stand in front of Danzo. "This is my home. I won't let it."
"Very good," said Danzo. He tapped Naruto on the shoulder with his walking stick in acknowledgment. "So then, do we have your approval to go to our training, Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi gave Danzo a very wary look. "You're leading the session?"
"Danzo has my full confidence," said Hiruzen. "I understand you two have had your conflicts in the past—"
Kakashi turned back to Hiruzen with an incredulous expression. "'Conflicts' doesn't even begin to cover it, Hokage-sama."
"Be that as it may," said Hiruzen. "His loyalty and service record is unquestionable, and as for his… manic-depressive tendencies—" Danzo snorted, but acknowledged the point "—I'm sure that working with Naruto-kun will help him to overcome both his crippling cynicism and the well-cultivated bitterness of his very old age."
"I feel like I should be offended," said Danzo with a sigh, "but honestly, that was a good insult."
"I practiced in front of a mirror, did I rush it?"
"No, it was very good. I'll owe you a cup of tea later."
"In any case, it would be better if someone else was supervising," said Kakashi. "If you won't allow me to—"
"Actually, you're correct," said Danzo. "I have been too close-minded. If you wish to come alone, without your team, then it would be perfectly reasonable for you to supervise."
Kakashi blinked, then looked down at Sayaka and Hinata. "What do you think?"
"Do it," said Sayaka immediately. She scowled at Danzo. "Keep Naruto safe."
"I agree," said Hinata. Her expression was the fiercest Kakashi had ever seen her make.
"Very well," said Kakashi. "I'll take you up on your offer then, Danzo."
Danzo nodded. "Very well. Let's be off."
Naruto shivered in his hospital gown. They had decamped to… somewhere, and he'd had his head put in a sack to keep him from seeing where they'd gone. If he had to guess it was probably ANBU headquarters, because where the fuck else were they going to have a bunch of equipment to hold him down?
Gods.
The room they'd ended up in had seals upon seals, running along the floor and the walls and the ceiling. Naruto was sitting on the icy cold floor in the middle of it while a ring of ANBU stood watch along the edge. Danzo was standing at the far end, and next to him was Kakashi.
"This is called the Hypnotic Stasis Array," Danzo said. "It's one of the most powerful seals known to humanity, rivaled only by the seal on your belly. We tried to modify it for use against the Kyuubi, but as you can see it requires the target to be surrounded in three dimensions. There wasn't time to construct a seal array large enough, but in the end the Fourth managed to find a different solution."
"How's it work?" Naruto asked, teeth chattering.
"The array puts you into a hypnotized state that allows you access to your inner mindscape," said Danzo. "From there, we're not sure what will happen. You will receive an escape token that will allow you to be pulled out of your mindscape, and it will take the form of something familiar to you. Use it to get out if you feel you are about to be overwhelmed."
Naruto nodded. "And uh, what do I do with the fuzzball?"
Danzo sighed. "We're not sure. The seal is unlike anything we've ever seen, and there's no way to know what will happen. Your goal should be reconnaissance. Figure out what it is you're dealing with, then get out so we can talk it over and come up with a plan for later."
"And uh, we have a plan for right now, right?" Naruto asked, looking around. "Other than turning on this seal to see what happens?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Seriously?"
"This is an unprecedented experiment," said Danzo. "There is no history to pull from. The best we can do is pile on safeguards. All of the ninja in this room are experts in sealing and containment techniques. We will be able to keep you safe, and if the worst should happen we will keep Konoha safe."
Naruto gulped, and wondered if he was about to ask a stupid question. "And uh, what's the worst that can happen?"
"The worst case scenario is probably that you find out the Kyuubi is secretly living in your subconscious, and this seal array ends up forcing you two into immediate contact," said Danzo. "You would have to hit the escape token instantly to survive, and when you fail to do so you'll be consumed by the Kyuubi."
Kakashi turned to fix Danzo with a glare that could probably outright kill a genin.
"That probably won't happen," Danzo continued blithely. "We may find that the demon fox was tragically misunderstood and is now willing to give its chakra to you freely, but this seems unlikely as well. You will probably end up somewhere in between."
Naruto gave Danzo a look of deepest discontent. "Thanks, Geezer. That's real encouraging."
"Well, we all are confident in you, myself most of all," said Danzo. A normal person would have given an encouraging smile, but Danzo wasn't normal and didn't bother. "Do your best."
Naruto took a deep breath, then nodded. "Right. Let's start then."
Danzo raised his walking stick. "ANBU, on my mark."
The assembled group, Kakashi included, all raised their hands and wicked through three handsigns, then pressed their palms against activation sigils.
"Ready."
Chakra glowed. Naruto gulped as he felt himself levitate off the ground. Absurdly, the thought that was most important to him was that whatever ANBU was standing behind him could see his underwear. Did they really need him undressed like this?
"Begin."
Sayaka and Hinata were playing a game called "snapdragon" in a tea parlor a few streets down from the Hokage's tower. It was a simple card game based off of mahjong that doubled as a chakra control exercise. The gist of it was, each player was given an array of cards as a hand. Each array was to be held floating in front of them in a grid. Cards were laid out between the players, and cards in the hand were matched to the columns of the grid to create sets of combinations based on the layout of the grids at the time they were revealed. The player with the highest set of combinations won, with rules about moving cards around complicating the matter. The maximum number of players per game was four.
"Mind if I join?" asked Kiba.
Sayaka shook her head, examining her hand. Hinata pulled out a chair and signaled to a server to bring another cup, and to refill their pot.
"Strange seeing you two out here playing snapdragon," said Kiba. The teacup arrived promptly, as did the refill. "No training to do?"
"We're waiting for Naruto," said Sayaka. She moved her cards around, pulled one card from her hand to place it on top of one in the grid of exposed faces, then drew from the deck.
"What's Naruto doing?"
"Getting a b-bloodline examination," said Hinata. She tilted her head at her hand. "It is t-taking a long time."
"Y'all seem pretty tense for a bloodline examination," said Kiba. He poured himself a cup of tea and lounged back, watching both girls play.
"It is extremely d-dangerous."
Kiba raised an eyebrow and thought that one through. Nobody had ever really confirmed what exactly Naruto's awakened bloodline actually did. The only consistent part of the story had been that it'd given him enough power to catch and eviscerate an A-rank missing-nin with the epithet "Demon of the Hidden Mist". Nobody just got an epithet like that, which said certain things about what disposed of it.
"Well, in that case, I'll keep you company," said Kiba. He waved down the server.
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah, lemme get three sets of yakidango," said Kiba. "Two with the soy glaze, one with the strawberry."
"Right away sir."
"Yakidango?" asked Sayaka as Hinata made her move. "Stress eating is bad for you Kiba. They'll go to your hips."
"You'll find me cute anyway," Kiba said dismissively, and drank his tea.
Naruto was rather displeased that his internal mindscape was a sewer.
Well, then again, that wasn't so surprising. Naruto was well aware that he wasn't exactly the brightest kid in class and could have worked harder at learning some of the boring stuff. He was also the kid who thought posing as a naked girl to get a rise, literally, out of Iruka-sensei was hilarious. Even he could admit that he'd probably earned a dirty mindscape.
…he really ought to clean up his act.
"This blows," Naruto said to himself, twirling the escape token around his finger. It'd taken the form of Gama-chan, his lucky toad-shaped wallet, though annoyingly it'd gone all flat when it'd turned into a mental construct.
"I like you better when you're fat," Naruto muttered to his wallet, and squeezed its middle. His real Gama-chan was acceptably plump, though he'd burned a lot buying Hinata-chan ramen that one time in Senfuku at the fancy noodle joint that had mostly been worth it but wow it had been expensive. Still, Zabuza apparently had a hell of a bounty, and Naruto was getting all of it, which was—
—well, okay, he wasn't super happy about that, but he'd buy Hinata-chan something nice and feel less bad about being paid real money to kill real people.
He shivered and sneezed, the smell of blood invading his nose.
It kept doing that. He was sure he'd blown his nose a million times but he kept smelling it. That beef back in the Aoyagi mansion had made his stomach turn something awful because of the smell, which was stupid as all hell because, one, beef was fucking good, and also two, he wasn't fighting anyone, so why the hell was his body still reacting that way?
"Stupid brain being stupid," Naruto muttered, and kicked at a pipe. His foot connected with a clang that had him hopping in pain.
The moment passed and Naruto sighed, deciding that he should probably figure out what the hell he was doing. The tunnels he was walking through all flowed away from something. It stood to reason that going downstream would send him off to nowhere, but upstream probably ended somewhere. Hopefully that "somewhere" had a fucking map.
So he began the trek, twirling Gama-chan. At first he had been nervous, but now he was bored, and honestly it wasn't that intimidating at this point. He'd been afraid that he'd open his eyes half inside the Kyuubi's belly, but he guessed that Gramps had been right about Danzo. The guy really was a huge paranoid ass.
Naruto turned a corner and winced, shielding his eyes against a sudden brightness. His eyes adjusted, and he walked forward, legs sloshing against the current, and emerged into the light.
It was a massive, cavernous basin, lit inexplicably with vast paper lanterns that buzzed distantly with presumably-giant insects that hopefully would stay far away. Water dripped from the ceiling far above, landing on Naruto's face as he looked up. Pipes of all shapes and sizes wound their way out of the basin, reaching for an invisible sky that lay beyond the lights. It was definitely the hub of his mindscape.
What really caught his attention though was the massive gate at the end, with a single piece of paper on it. Naruto sloshed closer until he could read what it said.
"Seal, huh," he said to himself. "Three guesses what that's for."
Laughter thundered out from the depths of blackness far behind the gate. Naruto gasped, then ducked as wind lashed out of the bars.
"So, you've finally come," said the Kyuubi. Eyes, red in the way that Zabuza's blood had been when it had coated his hands, peered out at Naruto from behind the bars.
"I— I have," said Naruto, and he trembled. What the hell? This was inside him?
"Come closer, boy," the Kyuubi rumbled.
"What for?"
"So that I can see you better, of course," the Kyuubi replied, and Naruto gave it a skeptical look.
"You won't try to hurt me?"
"Does it look like I can?"
That was… fair, Naruto supposed. Carefully, he edged towards the bars.
"Closer, boy, these eyes can't see ants like you so easily, and I want to know what my jailor looks like."
Naruto took three more steps.
Massive, massive claws, as thick as Naruto was tall, swept out from between the bars of the gate, tearing through where Naruto had been standing. The Kyuubi cackled, not like Naruto did when he had pulled a particularly good joke, but something malicious and foul.
"Silly boy," the Kyuubi purred, and this time it moved closer to the light, so that Naruto could see its massive head. He had never really understood just how big the demon fox actually was. "I'd be a fool not to try. At least you're a quick little thing. I'd have fun catching you."
"Can it, Fuzzy," Naruto said, scowling. "You're not getting out of that gate."
"No, no, not today, no," said the Kyuubi, and it sighed with a breath powerful enough that Naruto nearly went flying. "Well, now that we're here, we may as well talk. What do you want, boy? What brings you into your dank and damp little mind?"
"I'm here to figure out how to—" Naruto began, before pausing. What was he really here for anyway? It was supposed to be "reconnaissance", but he hadn't learned anything except that he apparently really was a pervert. But he wanted to protect his friends better, he knew that, and he'd come to terms with the notion that being a jinchuuriki was kind of pointless if you just never did anything with all that power. Well, "come to terms" was maybe a bit strong—willing to give it a shot might be better. So: "I'm here to try and get better at protecting my home."
The Kyuubi cackled again. "The home I was about to destroy? My my, boy, you've got some guts saying those sorts of things to me."
"Yeah, well," said Naruto, sputtering, before catching on an idea and deciding to run with it. "Well, the way I see it, I'm the apartment manager of this place, and you're the tenant! And what's the point of being an apartment manager if you don't collect rent, huh?"
The Kyuubi's laughter was stronger this time, and Naruto contemplated the merits of figuring out meditation techniques that would allow him to bring a facemask full of mint extract next time he came here. The Kyuubi's breath was rank.
"Rent? Rent? The boy comes in here demanding rent," the Kyuubi chuckled. "Boy, if you're an apartment manager, your apartments are crap. If you expect me to pay any meaningful rent, you best give me some upgrades."
"Upgrades?" Naruto asked, wary. "What kind of 'upgrades' are we talking about here?"
The Kyuubi huffed.
"Isn't it obvious? Your dank little mind needs some purification, boy, and some offerings wouldn't hurt either."
Naruto blinked. The thing about cleaning up his mindscape, Naruto could probably do—after all, if he was going to date Hinata-chan, he needed to shape up to avoid getting kicked out of the Hyuuga Compound on sight. But…
"Offerings?" asked Naruto. "Hold up, first of all, how the heck am I going to get you offerings? You're in my head! I can't bring stuff here! And second of all, what the hell would I even bring?"
"Rice cakes and sake," said Kyuubi immediately. "Preferably fresh sake, bought within three weeks of its pressing. But mochi will do if you cannot get it."
"You expect me to pay tribute?" Naruto asked, incredulous. "Listen here, asshole, you tried to burn down my village! I'm not going to venerate you like you're some spirit in a shrine!"
"Then your so-called 'rent' will not be provided!" the Kyuubi roared back, and this time Naruto really did go tumbling. The force was so great that he found himself slammed up against the far wall. "I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Great Nine-tailed Demon Fox! The world has trembled at my gaze for millennia! YOU are a child, barely older than a decade! I have lived countless lifetimes, and I will not be insulted like that!"
The wind stopped, and Naruto caught a pipe as he fell. It brought him to enough of a stop that he could land gently on top of the water.
"Say I do bring you offerings," said Naruto, wiping away a trickle of blood where he'd bit his lip. This was not going well. "How would I even do it? This is still a mindscape, and I can't shove a jar of sake into my brain."
The Kyuubi chuckled. "I have my ways. I can make it happen, even constrained as I am by this seal, so long as you agree."
Naruto considered. If he agreed, he might find himself walking into a trap, but on the other hand it seemed pretty clear that he'd screwed up his chance to negotiate with the demon fox. He should have kept his mouth shut, ugh.
"I'll consider it, but I can work on, ugh, 'upgrading' my mindscaping first," Naruto tried. "Pay me some rent for that, and we'll talk about offerings."
"No," said the Kyuubi. "You were going to improve this cesspool anyway. With insolence like yours, I'll not give a drop of rent unless you can do better."
Fuck, what an asshole. "Gods above, fine then you—" said Naruto, and the Kyuubi grinned, and Naruto knew instantly he'd made a huge mistake.
"Excellent," said the Kyuubi, teeth bared as Naruto tried to back away, but the chakra surged again, faster than before. Naruto screamed and—
—he opened his eyes with a gasp, body crackling with red flame as the ANBU around him drew scrolls from pouches and Kakashi raised his hands, chakra crackling from build-up. His forehead protector had been pulled back, revealing a red iris swirling with black tomoe.
"Naruto," Kakashi said calmly. "How's it going, Naruto?"
"I'm fine," Naruto rasped, and he raised his hands to his throat. "I sound weird."
"You look pretty weird," said Kakashi, chakra still live on his fingers.
Naruto looked at his hands, which had gained claws at the end. His teeth poked at the inside of his mouth, and his hair felt like it had all risen up off the top of his head. And of course, he also appeared to be literally on fire.
"Can you turn it off?" Kakashi asked conversationally. "We uh, would like to take a look at you."
"I'll try," Naruto said. The whole "being on fire" thing didn't seem to be burning his clothes, which was weird, but also probably meant that nobody wanted to touch him at the moment. So Naruto closed his eyes and tried to focus on what he was feeling.
…it felt really good, to be honest. Like he could jump over mountains and carve open valleys. As if with one stroke of his tails, he could—
—what the fuck was that thought. He did not have any fucking tails.
Right, Naruto needed to shut this down. The chakra blazing through him was centered in his abdomen, where his usual chakra well was. If he just… grabbed it and…
The chakra stopped, shoved into a little ball right behind his navel, and Naruto gasped again as he fell to the ground, landing on all fours. He looked at his hands. The nails were human again.
There was a pause, then a collective sigh of relief. Kakashi pulled his headband down again.
"In retrospect," Danzo said. "The Sharingan would have been an important tool to have, which I overlooked." He turned and bowed shallowly at Kakashi. "Thank you, Hatake-san. I was wrong to exclude you."
Kakashi looked over at the old ninja dryly. "The Sharingan had nothing to do with it. Naruto was in control the whole time."
"Oh, yes, that's true," said Danzo, almost absentmindedly. His gaze was now fixed on Naruto, who was being examined by one of the ANBU who was also a medic. "I only meant as a backup."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow but didn't comment, turning back to Naruto and walking up to him.
"Well, Naruto, you sure did give us a scare, but I guess it worked out," he said, patting Naruto on the head and giving him a smile. "You didn't do anything stupid in there did you?"
Naruto winced.
"About that."
"You did what?!"
Naruto winced and held his ears from where he was sitting on the hospital bed. "Sayaka, don't shout."
"You cut a deal with the Kyuubi!" Sayaka raged. "You idiot I will shout AS MUCH AS I WANT."
"Man it is really good that we soundproofed this hospital room," one of the ANBU commented idly, looking around.
"Okay look, I know it was a mistake, but hear me out—"
"I will not hear you out!" Sayaka yelled, before grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. "You—"
"Alright, Sayaka, that's enough," said Kakashi. He grabbed Sayaka by the lapel and pulled her back. "We're all well aware of how stupid Naruto is at this point."
Naruto cringed further, and rubbed unconsciously at the spiraling foxtails that adorned his chest. The seal—if it even could be called a seal—had appeared as soon as he'd turned off the Kyuubi's chakra. It was proof positive of his bad life decisions.
Naruto looked over at Hinata, who had been utterly silent the entire time. She was sitting quietly, staring down at her hands, which were clenched tightly in her lap.
"Ne, Hinata-chan," Naruto said quietly. "I'm sorry."
Hinata looked up at him, eyes shimmering, then looked down again. She took a long breath, then reached out and took Naruto's hand.
"Please be more careful," Hinata said quietly.
Naruto felt his heart collapse in horrified guilt. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just— why couldn't he just be better? Seeing Hinata-chan like this because of his screwups was like getting shoved underwater and held down as he drowned. He was such an idiot.
"I will," Naruto said. "I don't know what I was thinking."
Hinata squeezed his hand tightly.
"I'll… I'll think harder next time," Naruto continued. He swallowed thickly.
There was a knock on the door, and Hinata let go as the Hokage came in, Danzo following behind like a grumpy specter.
"Well, Naruto, you've certainly done it this time," Hiruzen sighed.
"Sorry, Gramps," Naruto said quietly, looking down at the floor.
Hiruzen sighed again, tucking his hands behind his back, and shook his head. "Naruto, my son, your hot head has firmly landed you in hot water. I had hoped that one day you'd learn your lesson about jumping without looking, but I had also hoped it wouldn't be like this."
"I know," said Naruto. He looked miserably over at Hinata before looking back up at the Hokage. "I screwed up, Gramps. No excuses."
Hiruzen sighed a third time. "Well, let's not dwell on it too much. I have with me some research that I have been doing for the last several years using the Hokage's private archives. Records are sparse, but despite that I have learned a few interesting things."
He pulled a long sheaf of papers out of his sleeve and swatted Naruto several times to make him scoot over, then unrolled them out onto the hospital bed.
The first page was a shock to everyone. It depicted a human being, tied down to a slab of rock, being disemboweled by a priest wearing a ceremonial headdress. It was a painting, stylized, and its brush was unable to depict the full horror. But the eyes of the priest stared out from the page, boring into Naruto with irises of crimson and pupils turned to slits.
Naruto recoiled. Was that— did he look like that?
"What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room," Hiruzen said, seeming not to notice Naruto's reaction. "It's mostly speculative, but it still could have tremendous implications."
He looked around, giving everyone a look and making sure they took him seriously. Satisfied, he continued:
"What we know about the mark on Naruto's chest is very limited and rife with embellishment and bias. The accounts I can find are written by priests of the Fire Temple, who have a vested interest in stamping out what they're writing about."
"According to them, before the clans we know now were founded, when the Hyuuga and the Uchiha had not yet received their names, there were cults scattered throughout the land that stood in devotion to the heathen deities that ruled over the five elements. Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and the great Void, from which stems Lightning. In this ancient time, the heathen gods did as they pleased, some wandering the earth and others presiding over their own kingdoms. Some were kind, and others were cruel, but all ruled with great and terrible power."
"It is said that the first practitioner of ninjutsu, the source of all ninja arts, was the Sage of the Six Paths. This is not true. The truth is that the Sage was but one of many who could control and direct their chakra. Of these Practitioners, the most powerful were undoubtedly those who served the nine Demon Lords."
Hiruzen turned the page over to reveal the Kyuubi in all its monstrous glory, tails ringed around it as it towered over mountains and rows upon rows of worshippers pressed their heads the ground before its feet. Incandescent fire scorched the earth, boiled rivers, and cracked the sky with its fury, but left the Kyuubi's followers untouched.
"One of these lords was the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, Lord and Master of Fire," Hiruzen continued. "Those who pledged their eternal service to him were bestowed the privilege to borrow their lord's fire, a flame so hot and hungry it could burn for thirty days and thirty nights. Provided, of course, they paid a price."
Hiruzen turned the page again, and the image this time was simply the mark that had appeared on Naruto's chest. Nine fox tails, curling in a circle, with a triangle pointing downwards in the center, long and sharp like a fang.
"This was the mark that identified any who had made such a pledge," said Hiruzen. "As you can see, it is identical to the one Naruto now bears."
The room was filled with dead silence.
"Well," said Kakashi at length. "That… could be worse, I suppose."
His entire team boggled at him.
"How could this get worse?" Sayaka asked with incredulity. "Naruto— if the stories are real, Naruto's just pledged himself to a demon!"
"Sure, but it is a pledge of service," Kakashi pointed out. "It seems to tell us that the Kyuubi needs Naruto to do things for it. If the Kyuubi could break out or take over Naruto's mind, then why would it make a sigil for service?"
The room contemplated this. That made quite a lot of sense, if they were realistic about it. But:
"What does it want from me though?" asked Naruto. He rubbed the sigil uncomfortably. "I— it said that it wanted sake and rice cakes, and that I needed to 'purify my mind', but that can't be it right? The Kyuubi's got to have other stuff it wants."
"Who can say," said Hiruzen. He slid his pipe out from his sleeve and went to light it, before remembering that he wasn't allowed to smoke in the hospital and sliding it back with a sigh. "In the legends, the Kyuubi is never dangerous solely for its power. What makes it so dangerous is its cunning and its guile."
Danzo grunted. "For once, appeasement may be the best course of action."
Hiruzen glanced over at the clock. It was just turning noon.
"Perhaps lunch would be appropriate."
