Thank you.
Chapter Seven
Scarring Students: 101
School was boring. He had said it before and he would say it again, since it obviously bore repeating. The ghost-teacher was droning on and on about some war that happened seven hundred years ago. It should have been interesting. Sadly, not so. Half the class was nodding off.
Something the teacher said caught Naruto's attention.
"And that's when Arrmand met the great nine-tailed demon fox-"
Nine-tailed demon fox? That can't be good.
As Naruto paid closer attention to the lecture – no easy feat considering the dry delivery – he could feel Kyuubi stirring in his prison. The feeling immediately set him on edge. His stomach clenched spasmodically.
A small gasp startled him out of his focus. He looked towards a timid Huffelpuff girl. She was staring at his hand. Hardly surprising considering that it was dripping with a steady stream of warm blood. Unclenching his fist he scowled when he noticed that his fingernails had lengthened and hardened into claws. Proof that Kyuubi was exerting his will over his host and prison.
Biting back a curse he fished a clean square of cloth from a pocket and wiped the blood away even as the puncture wounds healed over before his eyes. He dropped the cloth on the floor and used his foot to push it around, picking up the worst of the blood from the floor. Lovely.
"Are you alright, sir?" the girl asked. Naruto nodded. She looked uncertain, but was clearly unwilling to press the matter. He turned his attention back to the lecture.
"I heard a rumor that you were bleeding today in a History of Magic class," Sasuke commented offhandedly. They were both sitting up on one of the high window ledges in the Great Hall watching the children eat their dinner.
"So?" Naruto shrugged.
"What happened?"
"A particularly lecture on the battle between some guy called Arrmand of the Southern Lake and a certain nine-tailed demon fox,"
This gave Sasuke pause, "Oh?"
"Indeed. It seems the old fox remembers it well. And apparently they got the ending wrong. They said that the Fox died," Naruto laughed without humor. "How wrong could they have been,"
"You are sure it was the same fox?" Sasuke asked carefully.
Naruto nodded. "With the way Kyuubi's been acting up ever since he heard it, it can't be any other,"
"Wonderful,"
They lapsed into silence. Naruto brooded over the lesson he had sat in for. He wanted to ask the old fox about what had really happened. Unfortunately, that took a meditation so deep that he would loose the control he had over his chakra, forcing the levels to drop. Which made the idea dangerous, considering that the only reason he was staying put on the window ledge was because of expert use of sticky chakra.
"I'm going for a walk," he murmured, starting to push himself off of the ledge. "I've been inside for too long,"
"Tell me when you come back," Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded and flipped off the ledge, teleporting outside before he landed. Sasuke shook his head, "Show off,"
Of course, Naruto's antics stirred the students into a buzz of amazed chatter. And poor Sasuke had to sit through it.
Naruto landed on the grass of the front grounds and dashed for the forest. It was windy. The moving air played havoc with his hair and pulled playfully at his cape. He felt like laughing. Some things could not be helped once you twisted fate's thread for her. Thanks to the Yondaime Naruto was special.
He was as much a Fox as a human could get.
And as such he needed to be outdoors. It was only logical. The seal could only shield him from so much and most of the time that was enough. Naruto was mostly human but the presence of Kyuubi in his body since the day of his birth had subtle effects on the jinchuuriki. Most of the time he was perfectly normal. Then again, most of the time he was not cooped up in a stone castle for days on end.
As the case was, Naruto had cabin fever. The only thing he could think of was to get out of said accursed castle and stretch his legs, maybe kill some deserving and evil forest creature while he was at it.
A scent caught his attention. He paused to test the air. He sighed, pulled out a kunai and stuck an explosive tag on it. with a flick of his wrist he sent it careening towards the creature that smelled of so much human blood. It landed right where he had aimed, the shoulder, and the tag exploded. The creature screamed as his arm was blown off by the shinobi-style grenade. Naruto dropped down beside it and tacked it to a tree with several more kunai, these ones tag free.
"Good morning," he said with a deceptively mild voice, "I have a few questions to ask you,"
Naruto would not be surprised if he had scarred a few innocent students when he came back. It had gotten dark outside and the moon was shining as bright as it could. The torches and other various means of lighting that did not involve electricity cast eerie shadows on the ANBU Captain. His mask was in both dark shadow and gleaming with pure white. His cape billowed about him majestically.
He was covered in deep red blood spatter.
It dripped from his mask. It clung to his cape – probably going to stain to. Blood trailed after him in interesting footprints.
And his aura was mad. No one could see his face for the fox mask but the aura that surrounded him dripped of anger. He stalked through the halls to the Gryffindor tower. He almost wrenched the portrait of the Fat Lady off its hinges as he entered. Some of the girls screamed. Almost everyone backed away and cleared a wide path for him.
"Sasuke!" he snapped. Sasuke shot to his feet and Naruto joined him where he had been sitting by the window.
"What's wrong?" the Uchiha handed over a handful of clean squares of cloth. Naruto gratefully accepted and took off his mask to start cleaning. He wiped the blood off his mask and hands. He shed his cloak for later cleaning.
"Advance forces arrived," he bit out, "I ran into a couple just after I left you. They stank of human blood. I got some information out of them before I killed them. A few minutes later I ran into more. And then more. There must have been at least a hundred or two,"
Sasuke considered Naruto's words, "This can't be good. What's got you so worked up?"
"Do you want to know who they had leading this pretty little escapade?" Naruto's hands clenched. His nails dug deep into his palms. He did not wait for a response, "An untrained child! He can't have even been any older than us and hopelessly untrained to boot! He was walking to his death and he knew it!"
Sasuke shook his head. "I can't believe that they are in the middle of a war. The way they are fighting it is bound for failure. This Dark Lord is an idiot,"
"I second that," Naruto sighed wearily, "Problem now is that I have to find a sink to wash my cloths in,"
"Bathroom is upstairs,"
Naruto nodded, gathered his things and trudged away. Harry, Ron and Hermione scurried over to Sasuke.
"What happened to him?" Harry asked.
"Is he alright?" Hermione looked worried.
"What's up with all the blood?" That from Ron.
"Naruto is uninjured. Even if he wasn't it would not be a matter to worry about. He was in a fight, yes. Let's just say that he came out the victor,"
"He was in a fight!" Hermione sounded shocked. Sasuke stared at her.
"That is what I just said," he said slowly. Hermione blushed a little. But Sasuke obligingly continued, "Yes. Naruto had gone into the Forest to blow off some steam. He ran into some trouble and took care of it,"
"And he walks back into the school dripping with blood," Ron muttered, pale.
Sasuke snorted and said seriously, "It wasn't that much blood. You could still see white,"
Now Hermione and Harry joined Ron in paling. Sasuke felt like cackling in sheer antagonistic glee. He refrained. After all, it would not be very polite, as if he cared about that but Tsunade would have his head if there were too many complaints about his public relations tactics.
"Not that much?" Harry swallowed, "I've never seen so much blood on one person,"
Sasuke shrugged, "Not surprising considering how many nuisances he killed,"
"I'm going to be ill," Hermione covered her mouth and backed away.
"Nuisances?"
"What else could you call them? They obviously did not put up a worthy fight considering he didn't even get scratched,"
"Sasuke!" Naruto called poking his head into the common room, "I need your bleach. Where is it?"
"Usuratonkachi, don't tell me you forgot your own," Sasuke sighed. Naruto shrugged.
"The old hag just said to bring weapons. I was tired and wasn't thinking this far ahead,"
"It's in the left side of the bottom of my pack. The bottle,"
"Thanks!" and he was off with a carefree wave.
"How can he act like that right now?" Harry was bewildered – along with every other Gryffindor student.
"Defense mechanism. Naruto's like that," Sasuke shrugged, "He rarely gets angry. He hardly ever gets sad. People follow him because of his blind determination and unwavering optimism,"
"You included?"
Sasuke glanced at Harry and shook his head, "I follow him because I know him,"
Harry nodded and moved away.
"Lord Voldemort, the advance army has been demolished," reported a quaking Deatheater. Voldemort glared at him in the dusky light of his lair.
"Demolished?" he repeated. His minion nodded.
"To a man,"
"Is that so?"
"Yes, Lord Voldemort,"
"Are you sure?"
The Deatheater hesitated, "…Yes?"
"How?"
"We don't know,"
Voldemort felt like swearing. But that would not do, so he held his tongue. "I see,"
Time for Plan B.