A\N: I do not own Naruto or The Elder Scrolls. I think everyone already knows that.
A huge thanks to my beta-readers, GwendolynStacy, Duesal Bladesinger, fishebake, To Mockingbird and PyrothTenka.
"Hokage-sama, the Iwa delegation is at the village gates," the chunin told Sarutobi.
"Good," Sarutobi said, taking a drag from his pipe. Sitting in his office was getting more tiring by the day. He reminded himself that it was just for a little longer. "What about our honorable guests?"
"They're being taken to the tower as we speak."
"Escort the delegation here, ensure that there are no accidents on the way," he ordered. Konoha really didn't need any issues during this meeting. He would relax only when the Iwa-nin, all of them, had been escorted to the border. "One more thing, where is Harissen-san?"
"Still at the safehouse, according to the ANBU team shadowing him."
"Ensure that he goes nowhere near the delegation."
"Yes, sir," the shinobi said before leaving the office. Sarutobi had been wrong. The last thing Konoha needed was Iwa believing that the Yellow Flash was still alive because someone saw his long-lost twin.
Hopefully his little plan would distract the Nord long enough.
Conrad sighed, checking himself in the mirror.
His facial hair was still too short. It was more akin to glorified stubble than a proper beard. It would take many more months before it was back to an acceptable length again.
He finished washing his face before going back to the kitchen area, ignoring the loud sound of feet running as Naruto and Ta'Sava fought to be first into the bathroom. Ninja skills proved to be the decisive factor this morning.
"Hahahaha! I win!" Naruto crowed ungraciously, as Ta'Sava grumbled outside.
"Not fair! Ta'Sava is not as fast as Naruto!"
"Too bad, the bathroom is mine now!"
Back in the kitchen, Conrad was welcomed by the sight of Sven making a steaming teapot float across the room with his magic. With great concentration, the young wizard poured the hot liquid into five cups before letting it land on the table.
Sure, it wasn't perfect, the teapot had come close to falling from the telekinetic grasp a couple of times, but that was still better than what Conrad could do when he had been studying magic at the Winterhold College, at a much later age. Still...
"Sven, don't practice that with something that contains hot liquids," he reprimanded. "You could hurt someone."
"Nobody was in the kitchen, Master."
"You were in the kitchen," Conrad pointed out. The young Imperial just rolled his eyes, in perfect teen fashion. Was this what he'd have to look forward to with Naruto one day? Eyerolls and being ignored?
That would require Naruto staying a part of his life by the time he turned into a moody young man, though. Which seemed to depend on what Sarutobi's successor, whoever that may be, would say on the matter. Either that or ask the boy if he wanted to run away with him. That was an option, too.
The temptation to simply whisk him away without asking was stronger than Conrad wanted to admit.
Before Conrad could start mulling through a few possible plans for benevolent and totally justified kidnapping, he was distracted by someone knocking at the door. He went to answer and there was Inoichi, who stepped inside at the unspoken invitation.
"What are you doing here?" Conrad asked.
"Good morning, Conrad, what a warm welcome," Inoichi deadpanned.
"Hello, Inoichi," he said in a matching tone of his voice. "What are you doing here so early?"
The last time Conrad had showed up with some bottles of sake at the man's house, he had been told that the Yamanaka clan leader was very busy. If that was because he was supposedly the head of the entire Interrogation department or because his wife wasn't happy with the two of them having a few drinks he wasn't sure. In his defense, Conrad wasn't willing to talk about daedric lore without some drinks in his body, and the booze they had here was not very satisfying for his taste.
He couldn't wait for his mead to be ready.
"I'm afraid I'm here just for a delivery," Inoichi said, putting a scroll in Conrad's hands. "Straight from the Hokage. He would have delivered it himself, but he's busy today."
"Thanks…?" Conrad said, looking at the scroll uncertainly. "Why did he send me a letter?"
"It's not a letter, it's a sealing scroll."
Conrad looked to the scroll, then back at Inoichi. "A what?"
"Wait, you don't… of course you don't know, sorry. I should've realized. It's a sealing scroll, it's used to store things."
"What kinds of things?" Conrad asked, turning the scroll over in his hands. It didn't look capable of holding much inside of it, being a literal roll of paper and whatnot.
"Whatever you might need to keep somewhere safe," Inoichi answered. "In this specific one, things that apparently belong to you. The Hokage wished to deliver them."
Conrad stopped inspecting the scroll and opened it, revealing a complex array of runes and symbols. Given the way Inoichi was looking at him, he decided this was probably an example of weird ninja magic. He could always examine it later.
"Just ask Naruto to push a bit of chakra in the seal to activate it," Inoichi explained before Conrad could ask. "By the way, you and Naruto are invited to dinner tonight, at Chouza's place."
"Who?"
"Ah, you met us both during the invasion, I guess you weren't properly introduced. He was a friend of Minato's too, so..."
"I see, very well," Conrad agreed.
"Come to my place a little before dinner, the Akimichi clan is not far from there," Inoichi told him, before opening the door again and facing him. "I'm afraid I really have to go now."
"Already? Are you that eager to get inside someone's head?"
"My job isn't just poking around in peoples' brains, Conrad. See you soon." And with that, Inoichi nodded farewell and left, leaving Conrad to stare at the scroll. He wasn't sure what Inoichi meant about it containing his things. He'd already gotten his weapons, armor and other belongings back. Even his staff.
After the kids had showered and everyone had eaten, Conrad took Naruto off to the side while his apprentices practiced their spellcasting outside. He asked Naruto about these scrolls with seals in them.
"Oh, yeah! Kakashi-sensei showed one to us once," Naruto said. "Never had to use one before, though. Why'd the Old Man give it to you?"
"Apparently it has something that belongs to me inside it," Conrad responded, trying to bite back a groan. This was probably the Hokage trying to be mysterious by proxy. "Inoichi told me something about you having to push some chakra into it to open it."
In his opinion it didn't seem like a very helpful way to give instructions to use an unknown shinobi thing. Still, they put the scroll on the table and after unrolling it Naruto touched it, closing his eyes. There was a puff of smoke which made him cough a little bit. Before he could ask if that was what was supposed to happen, he saw how the scroll was now covered by a pile of objects. A heap of loot, clearly from Tamriel, was strewn all over the table, spilling over into the floor.
Conrad's mind nearly went into overdrive trying to figure out how this was possible. Magic, of course. But what kind? How did it work? Did the scroll contain the items through some sort of… shrinking spell? No, that didn't make sense. Maybe the items were turned into a scroll, and… no, the scroll was clearly still on the table, underneath all the other things.
Reluctantly, he decided that he'd have to figure it out later, his attention moving to said items from Tamriel laying in front of them. Valuable things.
Steel armor, slightly rusted and well worn, but forged splendidly nonetheless. A ring with a bright gem. A few books, some of which were on the floor now. A coin purse that, given the size, probably held a dozen golden septims tops. And a single ebony blade, lovingly engraved with traditional Nordic designs.
"Whoa," Naruto said. "You didn't tell me you had all this."
"It isn't mine," Conrad said, his voice thickening with sudden realization. "These are my mother's things."
"Grandma's things?!" Naruto shouted, in shock or excitement Conrad didn't know, but the boy was loud as usual. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"It's the only explanation that makes sense. I didn't arrive with these items, and I doubt the Hokage would give them to me without a reason," he explained, his eyes not moving from the gaping gashes and broken mail rings in the armor. "I guess that your Hokage thought I'd appreciate the gesture."
"Yeah, of course we do… right?" Naruto slowly asked, sounding uncertain after looking at Conrad's expression.
Conrad tried to think about how he, a grown man old enough that some of the other adults he knew had been children when he had killed his first dragon, could explain to a young orphan that had been starving for affection his whole life why he didn't appreciate being given some mementos of his dead mother whom he'd never met. He couldn't see any way to do this successfully or with the proper tact such a discussion would require, and opted to mumble something vaguely affirmative while picking up the books.
Even if they were his mother's, it didn't mean they deserved to stay on the kitchen floor. Urag gro-Shub had taught him better than that.
Just as he finished placing them on a small pile on the table, he saw the boy's hand drifting closer to the ebony blade, and lightly slapped it.
"Don't touch anything until I tell you it's safe," Conrad ordered after Naruto retracted his hand.
"But... they're Grandma's things. Why wouldn't they be safe?"
Conrad suppressed a sigh. It was a reasonable assumption for a child to have. But still one that could get him killed or maimed if he ever found himself to deal with magic in Tamriel. "Look… This stuff is from my homeland, it may be magical," he explained. Actually, Conrad was ready to bet on it. "Some magic items can be downright nasty."
Naruto scrunched up his eyes in confusion. "Nasty? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Some items have magic that can be dangerous if you don't know how to use it," he started explaining. "Others may be cursed."
"Cursed?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.
"It means that bad stuff may happen if you use them, or touch them, or…"
"I know what cursed means!" Naruto exclaimed. "Just, what kind of bad stuff?"
"It depends. Some may just be annoying… Once, I found a quill that would write on its own, but that only wrote down swear words."
"That doesn't sound so ba―"
"And another time, I found a guy who had been killed by the ring he was wearing: it had sucked out all of his blood."
At that, Naruto leaned as far from the table as his chair allowed him to. "Ew. So... no poking the things."
"No poking the things until I poke them," Conrad corrected.
"But Uncle, why do you think that Grandma might have had some cursed things with her when…?" Naruto trailed off, uncertainly.
"When she died?" Conrad completed the question. "I'll admit that it's… improbable. But not impossible."
Maybe it was petty of him, but if he had to deal with his mother's belongings, he was going to treat them the same way he treated any loot gained during his trips around Skyrim and beyond.
"So… why is that sword black?" Naruto asked, pointing at the nordic blade.
"Ebony. Very rare, very strong." He picked it up carefully, using a rag to avoid touching it directly and hefted it, testing the balance.
"What's ebony?"
"The strongest natural metal in existence. It's hard to forge and even harder to find, since the biggest veins in Tamriel are unreachable thanks to a volcano."
Naruto looked at the sword appraisingly. "And Grandma had something like that?"
Conrad shrugged. "Looks like it. I don't know much about who she was or what she did, but she must have been pretty good if she had a blade this rare."
"Yeah, Grandma must have been the strongest!" the boy cheered.
Conrad carefully ignored that. He had just said that the woman had probably been skilled, after all… and it wasn't like he didn't know already. One of the very few things his father told him was that his mother had been a very skilled warrior. He just had not seen proof of it until now.
Conrad moved his hand along the blade, being careful not to touch it. He felt... yes, there was something in this blade. Something that had been mostly spent by now, the soul trapped in the blade was almost gone. It probably had a good fight or two left. Still, what kind of enchantment was it…? Conrad tried to remember the lesson that he had not been that interested in.
Closing his eyes, he tried to reach the magic inside of the blade. He felt a disconcerting warmth that contrasted to how cool the blade was supposed to be. There was a drive to consume... no, not consume, damage, destroy, in the magic. Destruction magic, then.
If his mother had been a swordswoman, and given the almost-spent charge inside of the saber, Conrad was fairly sure that the weapon wasn't cursed. He carefully grasped the hilt in his right hand and held it tight. He felt as the blade stirred under his magic, unnatural embers sparking to life across its surface, glowing bright in the runes carved into it.
"Flame enchantment," he said to Naruto as fire spread along the blade. "Anything cut with this will burn."
"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed, mouth hanging open.
"First time seeing a magic weapon, boy?"
"Well, yeah! Can I have it?" Naruto asked, briefly surprising Conrad. He should've expected such a question. He had been a kid too once, and spent quite a few afternoons pretending that a stick was an enchanted sword out of some legend. Except Naruto didn't want to pretend.
"Do you even know how to use a sword?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. He had still not seen many shinobi using blades, with the exception of those masked guards and some of the invaders he had killed. He wondered why. Going around without a proper weapon just seemed… odd. Those overly small knives the ninja seemed oddly fond of didn't count.
"Well… no," the boy admitted. "But Kakashi-sensei could teach me?"
"Not with this weapon," Conrad shook his head, putting the sabre back in its sheath, smothering the glowing runes and flames.
"Aww, come on…" Naruto whined.
"It's not for practice, boy," Conrad scolded. "You do not learn to use a weapon with a magical one."
"But isn't your axe magical?" Naruto asked, looking at it. "Does it fly back in your hand or something?
"No, it's not," Conrad answered, picking up the axe and freeing it from its leather sheath so that Naruto could inspect the weapon for himself.
"But…" Naruto hesitated, clearly confused when no magic appeared on the axe's edge . "Aren't you a wizard?"
"I am," he nodded, in a tone that made it clear the boy was just stating the obvious as he re-sheathed his axe.
"Then why isn't your weapon en... ench... ?" Naruto tried, struggling with the word.
"Enchanted," Conrad helped him. He just hoped he didn't mess up the translation, it would've been embarrassing if a scholar found out.
"Yeah, that."
"Because everyone remembers someone going around with a weapon that spews fire or lightning or pure evil energy or whatever was available when the weapon was enchanted. Nobody bats an eye when they see someone with a completely normal weapon. Do you understand?"
"Not really, Uncle," Naruto admitted. "Wouldn't it be better having an axe like Grandma's sword?"
"It's... it's a bit like when you shinobi go around, being sneaky and unseen," he said, picking up the rag again and trying to figure which item to take a look at next… the ring would do.
"Oh," Naruto said, realization dawning on his face.
"Besides, I'm not very good at enchanting things," Conrad told the boy as he examined the ring. Sure, there was also the fact that seeing the Soul Cairn had squashed whatever remote interest he'd had in experimenting in the field until he managed to get it out of sheer stubbornness, but that place was something Naruto didn't need to know about until Conrad figured out if it was possible to get Minato's soul out of it. Or if it was impossible.
The ring was a simple band of gold, with a square-cut ruby in the middle. Absolutely unremarkable, similar to many rings Conrad had used as a more portable substitute for a heavier sum of Septims. He didn't care for the ruby or the gold though, he was more interested in the specks of magic he could feel even through the rag.
Whatever had been used to enchant the ring had been a powerful creature once, that was sure. He slowly moved his fingers closer to the ring, trying to listen through them to the sorceries bound to it. A soothing sensation that only he could feel reached his senses, singing in the language of the Restoration school. A soothing choir of healing and good vitality.
He grinned when he realized exactly what the ring did. "Here, boy. Put this on and keep it on."
"What? Why?" Naruto eyed the ring dubiously. "Aren't rings girly?"
"Girly?" Conrad asked, bewildered.
"You know, for girls!"
"Don't be stupid. Rings aren't girly." Honestly, where did that logic even come from?
"They are!" Naruto insisted childishly.
"Look, it belonged to your grandmother, and I'm giving it to you now. It's yours," Conrad said pointedly, looking Naruto in the eyes. If he had to use his mother's memory to let the boy keep something that would make him less keen to die, so be it. "Now, wear it."
"Alright, alright! But why do I have to?" Naruto whined, putting the ring on his finger and grimacing all the while.
"This ring has a very strong magic that makes you heal faster, and given how much you wind up getting hurt, clearly you need it."
Maybe with this Conrad wouldn't have to worry about rushing to his bruised and battered nephew's side with all the potions he could carry. Of course, it'd be best if his nephew simply never got hurt at all, but something told him that was a tall order.
"But I already―" Naruto paused and very deliberately stopped himself from saying whatever he was about to say.
Conrad eyed him suspiciously. "What, boy? Spit it out."
"Nothing," Naruto muttered, taking the ring and slipping it onto his finger, taking a moment to inspect it. "It still looks girly." He got a curious look on his face. "How much faster can I heal now?"
"I'd rather not test that any time soon, but if I'm right, enough to allow you to get back on your feet after very little time. Like a troll."
"And a troll… heals quickly?" asked the boy.
"Yes, very quickly. That's why you need to kill them with fire, or by chopping them apart. Even then, just to be sure, you should set them on fire. Understand?"
"Uh… yeah... I don't think I'll ever see one, though."
"Who knows? Life is unpredictable," Conrad snorted, thinking back at what had happened in the last few months. At least the boy seemed to be receptive when it came to good old Nord wisdom. He glanced at the pile of books. Just a few volumes that would easily fit in a traveller's bag… a large one, at least. They didn't look magical, or at least they didn't look anything like the evil tomes from the Apocrypha. Granted, Hermaeus Mora didn't have the exclusive on evil tomes.
"Ugh, books…" Naruto lamented as Conrad checked the first on the pile. It seemed to be a simple herbarium. Nothing too fancy or concerning exoting plants, just what someone would find in most of Tamriel.
"What's wrong with books?" he couldn't help but ask as he noticed some corrections and notes presumably added by his mother, who seemed to have a strong opinion on authors that didn't do their research correctly or were lazy and didn't write all the potential uses for a mushroom.
"They're boring, and… hard to read," the boy explained, deflating on the table.
"They can be, yes," Conrad conceded, guessing that for a little kid a book wasn't as exciting as… running on rooftops? Sparring? What did ninja children do for fun anyway? "But how're you going to learn if you don't read?"
"But I'm not in the Academy anymore, Uncle," Naruto said.
"The Academy?" Conrad asked, glancing up from a particularly scathing cluster of notes. "Isn't that your ninja school?" He remembered Inoichi explaining something about it in passing.
"Yeah, I'm a genin now. I don't go to classes anymore, so I don't need to study."
Conrad paused and looked up from the book, staring at his now squirming nephew.
"Are you telling me you haven't read a book since leaving this school?"
Naruto squirmed even more, realizing he may have just doomed himself. "I… I just don't like books?"
Conrad closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, then closed his book. Children, honestly. "Next time we're going to buy groceries, we'll pick something up for you to read."
Naruto immediately started whining. "Do we have to?"
"It's important," Conrad tried to think of a way to put it so that Naruto wouldn't just get bored and rebellious. "You want to become Hokage, right?"
"Yeah, of course!" Naruto exclaimed. "And I need to be strong for it! How's a book gonna help me become the strongest?"
"You don't seriously think that Sarutobi, or your father, got their… hat, I guess, just by being strong?"
The look on Naruto's face was not encouraging.
"... kinda? I mean, the Hokage is the strongest and most respected ninja in the village! If I became Hokage, everyone would have no choice but to respect me!"
How had the child made it this far with nobody setting him straight?
"A ruler isn't just the strongest person, they're also in charge of keeping everything running. And that requires studying," Conrad pointed at the book for emphasis.
"But that sounds boring," Naruto complained, his face scrunching up even more at the unfairness of it all.
"Yes. Work is boring, and being a ruler is a lot of work," Conrad nodded. "Still, you should read and learn as much as you can, regardless."
"Why?" Naruto demanded, voice filled with childish petulance. Was Conrad ever this stubborn with his own father? He must have been. This had to be his own punishment for being a difficult child.
"Because it's good for you! You may never know when you may need some knowledge about herbs," Conrad explained, pointing at the book in his hand.
"I don't know, I mean, I guess that Haku knew about herbs, but―"
"Or history, or geography, or legends," he continued, opening a book after another. "Or spells!"
"Spells? But I'm a ninja!"
Instead of answering, Conrad rigidly looked down and realized he had opened a honest-to-Julianos spellbook without checking if it was safe first. He was briefly grateful that the author had not inscribed some explosive runes or something nastier in it, then he noticed the now familiar calligraphy.
"Huh," he said eloquently. "My mother was a wizard."
That was... unexpected. Especially since Conrad remembered way too well his father's stance against magic. Which actually explained a lot, now that he thought about it. Not a proper Nord thing indeed.
"Is that weird?" Naruto asked, unaware of the sudden turmoil in Conrad's mind, peering down at the spellbook but thankfully not poking at it like he clearly wanted to do. Well, at least he was taking an interest in books.
"It is for Nords, yes," Conrad replied, his fingers tracing over the arcane patterns.
"Why?"
"It's... complicated. Mostly because it's not seen as something warriors should use," Conrad told Naruto. He didn't really feel like giving the boy a whole lecture about the cultural reasons behind the legendary dislike his people had for magic.
"I don't get it," Naruto said after a moment of silence, sounding very confused.
"Yeah, me neither," Conrad nodded, flipping through a few pages of his mother's spellbook before closing its cover. Maybe he had more in common with his mother than he wanted to admit.
He'd dwell on it later, after he had checked the rest of her things. Conrad grabbed the pouch and shook it, hearing the sound of metal clinking. Aah, septims, always a welcome addition to his belongings. As he emptied the coin purse, he briefly thought that maybe he'd reconsider his opinion regarding his mother.
Then he saw the black soul gem rolling out along with the various coins.
"Boy?" he said, breaking a silence that may have lasted just a few seconds or minutes.
"Yes, Uncle?"
"I'm going out for a walk," he said, putting the gem back in the pouch and securing it to his belt. "I need air."
"Can I come too?"
"Sure, why not."
"Can we go eat ramen for lunch later?"
"Maybe," he quickly said, as he put on the large hat and cape he used to go out.
Entering Konoha had been strangely easy, especially given how tight the security was supposed to be after the events of the last Chunin Exams. Or the arrival of a delegation from Iwa, of all places.
Most people would've waited for a different day to try to sneak into a Hidden Village.
Kisame wasn't most people. Neither was his silent companion.
"How does it feel coming back home?" he asked, sipping his warm tea. It wasn't as good as the drinks in Tea Country, but not as bad as the ones in Amegakure.
Uchiha Itachi ignored his question, opting to subtly scan the street outside of the teashop and its rooftops.
They spent some time like that, drinking tea and waiting for the diplomatic meeting to begin so that everyone's attention would be on the Hokage tower. Kisame felt Samehada's hunger. It was getting impatient.
"So, how do we find a little genin in a ninja village?" he asked.
Itachi finished his tea and got up. "Naruto-kun was never subtle. We'll find him."
Sasuke had finally found Naruto.
It had taken a bit longer than he had planned, but for once his teammate's choice of clothes was helpful. Now Sasuke could just shadow him from the rooftops while Naruto kept following his uncle like a lost puppy.
What was so special about that man anyway? He wasn't a shinobi. He wasn't even from Konoha! It just irked him how Naruto would keep going on and on and on about his uncle for no reason.
So, Sasuke had decided to find out what was so special about said uncle. That was the only reason he was wasting his time doing this. He didn't care about the fact that the former dead-last had found a long-lost relative, why would he?
"Come on, Uncle, just pay. We've been here for forever," he heard Naruto arguing. Sasuke rolled his eyes. They'd been in front of a second-hand book stand for only ten minutes, of course the blond idiot would be bored already.
"Boy, when you buy something you have to haggle," the man explained, pausing the verbal spar he was having with the book vendor for just for a moment.
"But why? There's a price tag right there!"
"Yes, I saw it. I still want to teach you something."
"About what?"
"About haggling," Naruto's uncle declared, before meeting the book seller's eyes. As if in a mutual agreement, the battle over a very low price started again.
In the end, they were able to buy an extra book for just five more coins. So the man wasn't just a civilian, he was a penny pitcher, too. It didn't seem that impressive to Sasuke.
Much to Sasuke's surprise, the various shopkeepers seemed to indulge the man's poor shopping etiquette rather than shooing Naruto and his uncle away. With each stop the two made, the more he wondered why he was still following them. He was obviously wasting his time here.
He wasn't jealous of Naruto and that was final.
His musings were interrupted when he caught a brief glimmer of movement in a nearby tree. Before he could turn around, it was gone, but he was able to notice the flash of a white porcelain mask. ANBU.
Were they following Naruto and his uncle? That... kinda made sense, considering that Naruto was Konoha's jinchuuriki and how they were both related to the Yondaime. Sasuke wasn't really sure how he felt about that yet.
He couldn't help but wonder if Naruto had had ANBU bodyguards before. Next thing he knew, an ANBU had landed beside him, his faceless mask staring at Sasuke a bit too close for his comfort.
"Uchiha-san," the ANBU closest to him asked, almost a whisper. "Why are you following your teammate and one of Konoha's honored guests?"
Sasuke tried to come up with an answer but hesitated. He didn't know why he was on that rooftop in the first place. Or he didn't want to admit it.
"Hey Sasuke!" Startled by being called all of sudden, Sasuke looked down. Naruto was right underneath him, looking up, while his uncle was busy browsing some merchandise at a nearby stand. "What are you doing up there?"
Sasuke glanced towards the ANBU. Gone, of course. Naruto called him again. "Nothing," he said. No time to hesitate. "I was just... practicing my wall-running."
That was a terrible lie. No way Naruto would fall for it.
"Oh, alright!" Naruto nodded. Sasuke really wanted to sigh. Of course Naruto would believe that. "Hey, do you want to come with me and my uncle for lunch? We were about to go to Ichiraku's."
"... Okay."
Conrad barely registered that Naruto had invited a friend to eat ramen. Not because he didn't care, but because his mind was a bit busy processing his latest discovery.
Even aggressive haggling for the few things he had bought alongside the books for the boy hadn't helped distract him from the discovery of the black soul gem. More importantly, from wondering why his mother had a black soul gem on her.
None of the scenarios that kept forming in his mind were of his liking.
"Here you go, Harissen-san!" The serving girl placed a big bowl of ramen with some extra toppings and meat in front of him. She did the same with the two boys and Naruto started digging with gusto, his serving of noodles, vegetables, and pork, all simmering in steaming delicious-smelling broth. All while exchanging enthusiastic words with the old cook and his daughter. Conrad could understand why his nephew was so fond of this place.
"So, your name is… Sasaki, right?" he asked, trying to start a conversation with the other kid.
"Uchiha Sasuke. I'm in the same team as Naruto. This is the third time we've met," Sasuke reminded him after swallowing his food. Clearly the kid had more table manners than Naruto, but for some reason the Nord could swear that he was being judged by the moody twelve-year-old.
"Don't take it personally, Sasuke," Naruto told his friend, his speech miraculously unimpaired while he inhaled his bowl of noodles. "Uncle's just terrible with remembering names."
Conrad frowned. It wasn't like he had trouble remembering names. He just didn't care. He avoided saying that out loud though, not wanting to spoil the meal's oddly mixed mood.
His thoughts went back to the gem currently hanging from his belt. Sure, he had found a large number of black soul gems back in the day. It came with the territory of exploring ancient places, ruins, killing necromancers or vampires that happened to be necromancers. And sure, he had kept those… under a floorboard back at home, to be sure that they would not be used to trap a person's soul. Selling them was out of the question, they were too dangerous.
So why would a woman bring one when she was planning a long trip by ship with her baby?
He doubted that it was because it was a memento or a gift from a loved one. Who would pick a black soul gem as a gift? Did she keep it on herself because she was willing to soul-trap a person? Did she even know what happened to them, or the dangers of using a black soul gem? Was she a cultist or something?!
"Uncle, are you not hungry?"
Conrad looked up, realizing that he had been staring at his bowl for some time. Even the cook was giving him an odd look. Picking up his chopsticks, he ate some of the toppings before trying to go for the noodles. He almost managed to put them in his mouth before they fell into the broth with a splash, sending drops of broth everywhere.
Well, at least he had given the proper way to eat this dish a try. He picked up the bowl and started drinking the broth, so that he could finish the rest of the damn thing without making a mess. He had to admit it, though, that it was pretty good.
He couldn't really enjoy the taste, though. The thoughts about his mother kept coming back, haunting him like a ghost. She was dead and gone, the black gem was just one of the things she had when she died. Did it really matter why she had it? After all, torturing himself like this wouldn't get him any answers, especially from a dead woman.
Memories of the souls trapped in the Soul Cairn flashed through his mind.
It mattered to him, though.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto yelled all of a sudden, startling Conrad. His nephew was waving eagerly at a ninja that had just entered through the ramen stand's curtains. A man with a tan, a spiky ponytail and a large scar through his face who immediately gave the boy a warm smile.
"Hello Naruto, Sasuke," the scarred ninja greeted before turning towards Conrad with a slight bow. "You must be Harissen-san, Hokage-sama told me about you."
"Uncle, this is Iruka-sensei! He taught our class at the Academy!"
"Oh, I see," Conrad said. So this was the man that taught children how to kill… why was Naruto so glad to see him?
"He taught us stuff like how to read, how to do taijutsu, math, how to use chakra and ninjutsu…"
"Not that you learned much," Sasuke commented dryly from his stool.
"Screw you, jerk!" Naruto rounded on him in what was clearly an old argument. "I passed that test fair and square!"
Sasuke only scoffed before slurping up more noodles. Iruka smiled at their antics and sat besides them before ordering some ramen for himself.
"So… how old are children when they start at this Academy of yours?" Conrad asked carefully.
"Oh, it's not mine, I'm just a teacher there," Iruka explained, most likely mistaking his reasons for asking, smiled at the apparent interest. "But to answer your question, most of the students I had started when they were five years old."
Five years old. Conrad wondered what he'd been doing when he'd been at that age. He thought of vague memories of throwing rocks at mudcrabs and then running away, or learning how to read. Or had he been six?
"It took forever to graduate," Naruto grumbled grumpily. His friend gave a brief nod, seemingly agreeing with the sentiment.
"Doesn't it only take seven years?" Conrad wondered.
"Yeah, that's a lot." It sure was from the point of view of the boy. It was more than half of his life, after all.
"It takes a long time to teach someone how to mold chakra properly," Iruka said. "And that's not considering that they also have to learn how to read and write, math, geography, basics of ninjutsu…"
"And how to fight," Conrad added, giving a side eye to Iruka.
"Well, yes. Genin have to be able to fight once they're assigned to their teams," the teacher explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Your Hokage told me that such a thing is considered… necessary," Conrad said, his distaste for such a practice dripping from the word. "Why's that?"
Iruka seemed to think about the question for a few more seconds before answering, at least. "Well, our genin need to be able to deal with possible threats, Harissen-san. Like people attacking their clients. So they need to know how to defend themselves. How to fight, survival skills, anything and everything they could possibly need as shinobi." It was obvious from his tone that the man took genuine pride in his work, but worse still was the smile Naruto sent his way.
The shinobi kept talking, saying something about fire having a will that Conrad didn't really get. Still, he had met enough zealots in his life to recognise how this Iruka character was using circular logic to justify himself, probably without even realising that.
Still, he bit his tongue for once. He knew that Naruto would speak in defense of his teacher, as much as the man didn't deserve it.
"Don't worry, Harissen-san," Iruka continued in a reassuring tone. "I realise that parents would worry about their children―"
Conrad almost swallowed on a noodle. "What?" he managed to ask.
"Well, you're Naruto's legal guardian after all," the teacher continued. "I realise you'd be worried about his safety. But genin are not supposed to fight against other shinobi. Simple bandits aren't much of a threat for one of them, and a team will be protected by a jonin. You saw what a jonin can do, right? A team led by a jounin-sensei is not supposed to fight other shinobi either."
Conrad simmered over the twisted logic. He had to very reluctantly admit, no matter how much he disliked it, that there was a little of truth in the man's words. These shinobi were faster and more agile than most people, and able to use weird magic. Naruto was pretty much able to create a little army of himself. He had no idea if it was exceptional or not by ninja standards, but if such skills were normal… maybe fighting against bandits posed little danger, no matter how he disapproved of it.
"Except that on our first C-rank mission the client lied. We had to fight some shinobi," Sasu-something said after observing the scene in silence.
"Hey, he had a good reason for it and you know it!" Naruto protested.
Conrad slowly turned towards his nephew, in a silent question so loud that the boy actually stopped eating his ramen.
"It turned out okay!" Naruto said defensively, ignoring the pointed look Sasuke was shooting at him. "Well… Haku and Zabuza died, but old man Tazuna and Inari and Tsunami made it out okay! And thanks to us Wave is doing great!"
"Wave?" Conrad asked distractedly. He didn't know who any of those people were and he didn't really want to know, he was mostly wondering how any of that could count as 'okay', especially now that he knew what 'okay' meant. But figured he was supposed to say something.
"A little island by the Land of Fire's coast," Sasuke took over. "A rogue businessman turned warlord took over, forcing the locals to comply thanks to armed thugs. Our client, Tazuna, had a plan to break their monopoly and hired Konoha shinobi for protection."
"And we kicked their butts!" Naruto loudly proclaimed.
Sasuke crossed his arms and grunted, a frown on his face.
"What? We did!"
"And almost died," Sasuke muttered.
"Well, yeah, but we also kicked their butts!"
While the kids started arguing about how an enemy had apparently not been that willing to kill them in the first place, Conrad decided he needed help to process the information that these two kids were trivializing the fact that they could've died in battle. How many times had his nephew been thrust into pointless danger, all for money?
"Do you serve anything to drink?" he asked the ramen girl.
"Sure thing, Harissen-san! We have some tea, or―"
"I'll have the strongest thing you have," he interrupted, not being interested in tea or any other not-alcoholic related things right now.
"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly. "It's quite early."
"So?"
That gained him a slight frown from Iruka. After briefly glancing towards Naruto for some reason, the waitress produced a sake bottle and a cup. Conrad just drank from the bottle, finding comfort in the familiar warmth that followed. He immediately ordered another one.
"Anyway, they even named a bridge after me!" Naruto proclaimed, and Conrad realized the boy was still talking to him. "We should go visit one day!"
"A bridge?" Conrad wondered. Twelve years old and the boy had a landmark named after him? Talk about starting young. "I'd like to see it." Especially if it meant meeting the guy that had lied and put Naruto―and, he guessed, Naruto's teammates―in danger. Just to have a few choice words when Naruto wasn't looking.
"Both of you handled yourselves well, succeeding in your mission despite the circumstances," Iruka smiled fondly. "Seeing his students succeed is the best thing a teacher can ask for."
Sasuke nodded politely, but Naruto beamed. It was a bit odd seeing how utterly opposite the two were. Without saying a word, the Uchiha stood up and pushed his empty bowl towards the serving girl, fishing out some money to pay.
Conrad stopped him immediately. "Don't worry about it. Naruto invited you, so you're our guest here." He took his new wallet out and paid before Sasuke could protest. Paper money was admittedly more convenient than coinage… even if it wasn't as satisfying as shiny coins.
The kid seemed to wonder if he should accept or not, before settling for a small bow of gratitude. "Thank you, Harissen-san. Naruto. Iruka-sensei."
"Hey, where are you going?" Naruto asked before Sasuke even turned around.
"I want to train a bit, since we didn't have a team meeting today."
"Do you want me to come? We could train together," Naruto offered casually, but Conrad could hear the careful hope in his voice.
Again, Sasuke seemed to think about how to answer for a bit longer than necessary. "Sure, whatever," he shrugged, before leaving.
"Alright!" Naruto cheered, leaping from his stool. "See you later Uncle! Bye Iruka-sensei! Bye Ayame, Old Man Teuchi! Thanks for the ramen!"
Once the kids had left, Conrad found himself alone with Naruto's former teacher. And the two owners, he guessed, but mostly with Iruka.
"You know, it's none of my business but drinking is not a good habit, especially in front of kids."
Oh, great. So not only did Iruka train children to fight, but he was also a teetotaller that drew the line at drinking in front of them.
"You're right, it's none of your business" he said, taking a swig out of spite.
"The Hokage warned me you weren't easy to talk to," Iruka sighed, shaking his head. Where was he trying to go with this?
"I would like to see how you people would talk to me after spending a couple months in a cell in Skyrim," Conrad grumbled after savoring the taste of the sake. It wasn't mead but it was growing on him. "We don't have toilets, though."
"You… what?" Iruka asked, visibly confused. In his defense, Conrad would've been too.
"Our plumbing is not as common or advanced as yours," he explained. "We don't have many of the things you take for granted. Our lands are full of monsters too, and even worse things lurking around. You people don't know how lucky you are, and you ruin it by taking children, who still think they're invincible and never going to die, and throw them at your enemies."
There was a moment of silence in which the Nord could feel that both Iruka and the owners of the stand were trying to process what he had just said. Or maybe they were wondering how people could survive without running water. Or both.
Then he heard a scream of pain.
After leaving the ramen stand, Sasuke had figured he could spar for a while with Naruto and call it a day. He needed time to think.
Then, not even after they had crossed the road, that man had shown up out of nowhere. He was wearing a black cloak decorated by red clouds, and a large straw hat that obscured his features, but Sasuke would recognize those glowing red eyes anywhere. He saw them every night in his nightmares.
Sasuke's mind went blank, his Sharingan was spinning. He didn't remember activating it, just as he didn't remember sprinting forwards. He couldn't hear what Itachi was saying to Naruto of all people, or his own scream of rage. He had just coated his hand with a chidori and burst into a sprint.
The next thing he knew, he was being slammed against a wall, his jutsu carving a large chunk of the brick and mortar. Then something snapped, and Sasuke cried out as pain exploded through his limb.
"Foolish little brother," he heard that man say as his iron grip tightened around his mangled arm. Pain lanced through the limb and paralyzed his mind.
He heard Naruto yelling something as his clones were dispelled by the other ninja wearing the black and red cape with his bare hands. He had not even needed to hit them, just waving his weapon at them seemed to be enough to make them poof out of existence.
"Well, that was easy," the large, blue-skinned shinobi laughed, holding the real Naruto by the throat. The slash on his forehead protector marked him as a missing-nin just like Itachi. One from Mist. "Finish whatever family business you have here and let's go, Itachi."
Naruto was clearly struggling to breathe, his eyes bulging as his face turned red, but Sasuke felt a hand forcing him to look up, to look into his brother's eyes. Memories of that night flashed in his mind and he immediately closed his eyes shut, trying to get free. That only made Itachi tighten the pressure on his head, and he knew it was just a question of time. He had failed.
"Step away from the boys," someone commanded, catching everyone's attention. Feeling Itachi's posture shifting, Sasuke risked taking a look. Naruto's uncle was marching towards them, looking absolutely livid. Actually, he was all but snarling.
"Is that… ?" the other shinobi wondered, putting a hand against the handle of his sword.
"It can't be," Itachi whispered, eyes fixed on the newcomer. "I saw his body the night he died."
"Step. Away. From the boys," Harissen-san repeated, energy briefly coating his hands. There was a flash of purple and a smell of ozone filled the street. Heralded by an otherworldly hum, the purple light died away, and two creatures like nothing Sasuke had ever seen before appeared between the two shinobi and the still advancing man. One was a womanlike figure of nothing but molten rock and flames, who hovered a foot above the ground and moved with a strange alien grace. The other one looked like a bunch of floating rocks of various sizes, with thunder and lightning trapped between them, yet Sasuke recognized a rocky formation that resembled a face.
That was when the ANBU that Sasuke had seen earlier chose to leap out of the shadows. Three rushed towards Itachi, and two more jumped at the blue-skinned ninja. The two creatures that Harissen-san had summoned, because they had to be some kind of summon, joined the fray as well.
Itachi, no doubt deciding that Sasuke was not worthy of his attention anymore, threw him to the ground like a sack of garbage. Being dismissed like this from the man that had ruined his life made Sasuke's blood boil. He wanted to get up, despite the broken arm, and try to go straight at his brother again, to hell with the consequences. But Itachi was already a distant blur, effortlessly dodging ANBU on the rooftops on the other side of the street.
Sasuke saw him grab a kunai that was thrown at him and send it back to the clavicle of the shinobi it belonged to, before having to avoid a barrage of fire and lightning from Harrisen-san's summons. Despite their efforts to pin him, he was always a step ahead.
Nearby, Naruto was still being choked by the former Kirigakure shinobi. He formed his usual hand seal, but before any clones could be formed an ANBU lunged at the missing-nin from above. The former Kiri shinobi had to let Naruto go to grab his weapon with both hands, and then swung. The clones immediately exploded in a cloud of smoke before even being able to yell as loudly as their creator, but the Konoha-nin had just the time to scream. It wasn't a clean cut, it was like the bandaged weapon had shredded the ANBU, tearing him apart while still mid-air. Pieces fell everywhere as the swordsman laughed like a maniac, readying to strike again.
That was when Sasuke felt someone grab him and drag him away, and his good hand went for his kunai pouch before he realized it was Iruka-sensei. Fortunately, even as stupid as Naruto was, he was smart enough to run towards Sasuke and give Iruka a hand while the enemy was distracted.
"Sasuke, can you walk?" Iruka asked, after he had brought the two genin behind the first corner. The battle still raged on and scared civilians were running away from the busy street.
"I think so," Sasuke nodded as he tried to get up without wincing. He failed the latter as he leaned against the wall.
"Hold on, Sasuke, I think I have a potion for that!" Naruto said as he quickly rummaged through his equipment bag.
"A potion?" Iruka asked in confusion. Apparently the Academy had not been informed of the newest piece of equipment available to Konoha shinobi.
"Uncle always makes me leave home with one! Can't believe he was actually right about me needing it inside the village―"
"Naruto, I don't know what you're talking about, but you need to get Sasuke and get away from here as fast as you can," Iruka interrupted.
"No way! I'm not leaving Uncle in trouble!" Naruto exclaimed, fishing out a vial containing a red liquid and pointing it accusingly towards Iruka. "Family should stick together!"
"And I'm not letting that man get away," Sasuke seethed, grabbing the vial and downing it. It was terrible, but he forced himself to swallow every drop. He immediately felt a pricky, but not unpleasant sensation around his wounds. His arm was still sore, but he was able to actually move it.
"Wait, 'that man'?" Naruto repeated the two words. "What man? The blue guy?"
"No, you idiot! My brother!" Sasuke snapped.
Naruto's eyes bugged out at that. "Your own brother broke your arm?!"
"Hey!" Iruka yelled, using the same tone he used with students at the Academy to gain their attention. It worked, probably because it hadn't been that long since they'd graduated. "Are you even listening to yourselves? I know you've both become much stronger, but this is way over your heads!"
As if to emphasize Iruka's point, a shark made of water and one of the fire creatures summoned by Naruto's uncle came barreling down the road, trying to kill each other and leaving a few embers and puddles in their wake.
The trio couldn't help but stare at the odd spectacle for a few seconds, as the two creatures kept fighting, seemingly unaware of their presence. Then the shark managed to savagely bite off the fire-creature's head. The ensuing explosion consumed the shark as well, all but vaporizing it in the blast.
Naruto immediately went to take a peek from the corner. Sasuke followed suit, and he was pretty sure that Iruka would, too.
The street was absolute chaos. There was water and mud everywhere. Sharks made of water as well as actual flesh and blood prowled around thanks to what looked like a mix of various water-based jutsu, biting and charging recklessly at the other summoned creatures on the battlefield.
The other side of the localized battle was… Sasuke really didn't even know how to begin describing it. Alongside the fire creatures and the floating storm, there were bipedal colossi made of ice that seemed to freeze each water jutsu directed at them or their master. That made some sense to Sasuke, because he had figured that Harissen-san had forged a contract with such vaguely humanoid, elemental-wielding beings.
But there were other kinds of creatures, too. There was a small pack of ghostly wolves that were chasing and killing sharks using pack tactics that would have made the Inuzuka proud. There were other ghostly wolves, but these were also on fire, and they didn't employ any tactics at all. They just charged towards the sharks and blew up like an explosive tag, taking as many of the ravenous beasts as possible.
And at the center of everything was Naruto's uncle, currently busy wrestling a shark that had tried to bite his arm off, only to find out that his teeth broke at the contact with the man's skin. How on earth was that possible?
"My uncle is so cool," Naruto whispered. Sasuke was so entranced by the odd sight that he didn't register the figures of Itachi fighting with Kakashi and Lee's sensei until they crashed through the abandoned stalls nearby.
Then something bright flew from Harrissen-san's free hand.
Sasuke couldn't help but look, and saw the whole thing being repeated, deconstructed and examined by his Sharingan in the blink of an eye. If he wanted, he could've done the same movements with the fingers, so different from shinobi hand seals. The doujutsu was also telling him that he would accomplish nothing by doing it, because it wasn't a jutsu at all. There was no chakra, and yet lightning formed and fried the upper part of the shark's head, leaving a horrible smell of burnt fish.
The lightning bolt didn't stop there though, it flew across the battlefield and hit the summon that looked like a bunch of floating rocks. The continuous blast was absorbed by the creature, who seemed to not be in pain at all. Actually, its features seemed to shine brighter and brighter as the space between its stone chunks filled more and more with raw energy.
There was a high-pitched whine for a moment, before whatever seemed to keep the rocks that made the body of the creature together vanished in an eruption. A wave of lightning storms and red-hot shards of electrified rocks exploded from where it had stood. Everything in its wake, sharks or bizarre summons alike, couldn't escape its fury. A chain reaction started as some of the creatures summoned by Harissen-san blew up as well. A couple of stores caught fire. The water jutsu raging on the street lost cohesion, having been consumed as well.
The swordsman intercepted the lightning bolts with his weapon, as if he was parrying an annoying strike. The sound made by the sword almost reminded Sasuke of a scream, as if it was alive and in pain. That seemed to surprise the swordsman as much as it surprised Sasuke.
"Zun Haal Viik," Harrisen-san shouted, running towards Itachi's companion. The bandaged sword flew out of the missing-nin's hands. Sasuke blinked, but his eyes didn't lie. The sword had just thrown itself away of its own accord. Harrisen-san's axe took advantage and fell downwards with a brute power behind the swing, but it was slow, slow enough that Sasuke wouldn't have needed the Sharingan to follow it.
Unsurprisingly the missing-nin caught its haft with ease, stopping it with a single hand. Sasuke could see the eyes of Naruto's uncle widen in surprise as he was pushed back. "Nobody hurts Samehada," the missing nin growled. "Nobody."
As if summoned by its owner, the huge sword actually moved through the street, almost slithering on the ground. The handle quickly found its master's hand, who raised it one-handed in the air to strike down the man who had dared to disarm him.
Naruto's uncle did something with his free hand and a hot, roaring jet of flames exploded towards his opponent at point-blank range. The sword slammed between them, shielding the shinobi from the fire. Again there was that peculiar scream of pain, and the sword very noticeably writhed in its bandages. A brutal kick sent Harrisen-san away, though he managed to halt his momentum by slamming his axe into the dirt.
The flames had singed the shinobi and all but burned the bandages wrapping his massive weapon, revealing not a blade, but a mass of sharp scales. Sasuke wasn't sure if the thing even was a sword. "What type of jutsu is that?!" the missing nin demanded, freeing his weapon from the remaining bandages. "How can Samehada not eat its chakra?!"
He never got an answer. Harrisen-san straightened and breathed in deep. "Mul Qah Diiv!" he shouted, and again there was that moment that Sasuke's eyes couldn't make sense of.
Little wisps of smoke came out of Harrisen-san's mouth and wrapped around his body. The mist solidified into a spectral armor, one with a blue and orange blaze. Every edge was covered with wicked sharp spikes, and horns crowned his skull, while a powerful tail swayed behind his back. Most of all, though, Sasuke noticed Harrisen-san's eyes. They were cold as ice, with slit pupils. Not snake eyes like Orochimaru's, but something that felt even worse.
"Since when does Konoha have two Jinchuuriki?" the swordsman asked nobody in particular as the phantom tail swung back and forth from his opponent's back, though he did take a wary step back. Harrisen-san regarded him with an unnerving silence, completely at odds with the somewhat loud, grumpy man Sasuke had stalked the whole morning.
"Uncle is…?" Naruto whispered, eyes wide.
"Hey, Itachi, did you know about this?" the missing-nin asked his partner, who was still observing everything regardless of Kakashi-sensei and Maito Gai's attempts to get his full attention.
"That's not a Jinchuuriki, Kisame," Itachi stated, before going back to his own fight.
"But he has a tail, right? So―"
"Wuld Nah Kest!" and in a heartbeat Naruto's uncle moved faster than someone that hadn't received shinobi training had any right to, colliding head-on with the missing-nin with a crunch, so unexpectedly fast that the ninja actually stumbled back. It was just for a moment, for he immediately regained his footing, but it was enough for three other words echoing through the street. "Su Grah Dun."
Harrisen-san's weapon was enveloped in what looked like a localized tornado. The axe swung again, so fast it was nothing but a blur. And again, and again and again, as the man moved almost fast enough to keep up with it. If he hadn't had his Sharingan, Sasuke wouldn't have been able to keep up at all, but still the former Kiri-nin managed to deflect the axe and keep the warrior at bay.
Another one of those fire creatures materialized, appearing right behind the shinobi as he and Harrisen-san fought. She pointed her hand at Kisame and a spray of fire was shot at his back. The swordsman ducked, avoiding the flames and using his momentum to swing at the creature.
Fire exploded outwards as the scaled sword rended the creature's armor, almost as if the dark metal had been the only thing keeping the flames inside it. The ninja used his own cloak to shield himself from the worst of it. The creature's summoner, seeing an opening, aimed his axe straight for the ninja's neck.
There was no finesse in the blow that followed, it had been rushed, from a position with odd footing. Still, it was a brutal show of force that sent Naruto's uncle flying into one of the now-abandoned shops by the sides of the street and, from the sounds of it, breaking a lot of fragile stuff too.
"Already done?" the shinobi wondered out loud, resting his sword against his shoulder. "A pity, it was just starting to get interesting…"
"Uncle!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, already starting to sprint towards the Kiri missing-nin. Only Iruka's arms stopped him, and that was only because the teacher actually lifted his former student to hold him back. That didn't stop Naruto from sending a wave of yelling clones with very little self-preservation even by their usual standards. They would've been no threat to him even if the ninja hadn't had that strange weapon of his. It just ate the clones, literally. Sasuke could see it now: the damn thing was consuming the chakra they were made of before they even came close enough to try to stab Kisame.
As the last of the clones were destroyed, the missing-nin started walking towards the two genin and the chunin with an amused smile that showed all of his sharp teeth. "Is that the only jutsu you know, brat?"
"Run," Iruka ordered as he put himself between the enemy and his former students, kunai at the ready. "Run away, now!"
"It's cute that you think you can actually protect them," Kisame snorted, circling around them like one of his summons. Between his peculiar appearance and his predatory gaze, he looked like a shark in human form. "I only need the Jinchuuriki, and my partner would get cross if I hurt his little brother… that's something he'd rather do himself. You, though? You, I can squash like the bug you are."
"You won't hurt Iruka-sensei!" Naruto roared, trying to move past Iruka to snarl at the former Kiri ninja. Sasuke could swear the blond's teeth were sharper, almost fangs, and his eyes…
Oh. He had seen it before, but now that he knew the reason behind it... Sasuke wasn't sure how much channeling the Kyuubi's chakra in the middle of Konoha would help.
Something moved, and then Iruka was laying on the ground groaning in pain, his vest, the shirt underneath and a good bit of the skin underneath was shredded. Hoshigaki Kisame and his terrible sword were towering over them. Blood was dripping from it.
"Well, would you look at that," Kisame mocked. "Turns out I can hurt your sensei after all."
Naruto looked ready to lunge at the missing-nin's throat, and Sasuke could swear that a faint red aura had started forming around his teammate. The Uchiha grit his teeth and braced himself for his own lunge, prepared to follow along even if he knew they were utterly screwed. At least they would go down fighting.
Then, everyone in Konoha felt it.
The air became much thicker, and Sasuke felt his throat dry and choked on his breath. It reminded him of what had happened in the Forest of Death, but worse. Almost as bad as with Gaara. It made Sasuke feel more akin to prey than a ninja and he just knew that whatever was causing it was out for blood. At first Sasuke thought that it was Kisame's doing, but the missing-nin had stepped back, clearly feeling it as well and searching for the source.
Then, a long growl echoed from the inside of the shop Harissen-san had been sent careeining to. It almost sounded like words, but there was something bestial about it.
Slowly, Naruto's uncle walked out. Visibly wounded, bloodied, unarmed and stumbling a bit, but alive… and flanking him were three spectral figures. One was the ghost of a giant of a man, oddly armored and wielding a two-handed battleaxe. The other two, though similarly armed, looked like empty floating suits of armor, made by a spiky and scaled aura, not very different from the one coating Harissen-san. How many strange summons did he have?
Kisame just stared, meeting the man's eyes, before glancing at Naruto. "Don't get too far, Nine Tails. I'll be back." Then he slowly walked towards the opponent he was sure he had killed earlier.
The only thing that stopped Naruto from attacking was that Iruka had picked that moment to try to stand up and fail miserably amid a mix of pained groans.
"Come on!" Sasuke told him. Naruto seemed to finally snap out of it and hurried with him at Iruka's side. "Do you have any more of those potions?"
"No, I only had one!" Naruto nearly screamed in frustration, before his eyes widened and he took off a gaudy ring he was wearing, one with a large cut ruby on a thick gold band, and shoved it onto Iruka-sensei's finger. "Please work, please work, please work…"
"What are you―" Sasuke started to protest, but his words stopped as he noticed that Iruka's body visibly twitched. Their teacher's breathing also felt less like the deathly rattle fitting of his current state. "Uh."
"Is it working?" Naruto asked, sounding a bit desperate.
"I... I think the bleeding has slowed," Sasuke observed. It was still a lot of blood. He opened his equipment satchel. "Do you have any bandages?"
Naruto quickly checked his own bag. "Yeah! Come on, help me!"
They rushed to drag their injured teacher to the side, doing their best to dress the wound and apply pressure to his injuries, while down the road the former Kiri-nin laughed out loud at Naruto's uncle. Naruto's very, very angry uncle.
"I have to admit, you know some interesting tricks," Itachi's companion grinned, with teeth as friendly as a shark's. "My name is Hoshigaki Kisame. Who are you?"
Not moving his eyes from his opponent, Harissen-san held out a hand to one of the ghostly summons. The figure seemed to cock his head in confusion before giving its master the two-handed axe it had been wielding.
"I am Dovahkiin. I am Ysmir, Dragon of the North," he declared, hefting the large weapon with clear practiced ease. His voice was deeper, commanding, and proud. The titles were strange and foreign, but the way Harrisen-san spoke them held weight. "I am the One They Fear."
Kisame sneered at that, assuming a better stance and holding his sword with both hands. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"It will," Naruto's uncle promised before he tensed, as did the ghostly summons flanking him, and when they shouted, the sky shattered.
"FUS ROH DAH!" From four mouths came the same devastating jutsu. Sasuke's eyes couldn't comprehend any of it, even as they committed each and every detail to memory. The ripples of pure force as they tore through the air towards Kisame. The way the street, the buildings, everything succumbed to the pure unrelenting power. The missing nin barely managed to jump out of the way, but not completely, as the attack somehow clipped him and he was sent careening through the wall of a building.
The old shops on the other side of the street were hit by the full brunt of the strange jutsu. Wall after wall crumbled as the unrelenting shockwave ripped them to shreds, bricks flying everywhere while the most fragile buildings were torn right off their foundations.
A moment passed, then Kisame resurfaced with an erruptiont of pieces of rubble and mortar, his cloak half-torn to shreds and murder in his eyes. He lunged at Harissen-san, leaving a trail of chalk as he ran.
"Fus Ro―" the summoned ghost warrior started to shout, after putting himself in harm's way. He wasn't able to finish before Samehada crashed down on him. There was no blood, but his ethereal form fell just like he had been killed before simply disappearing, as if he'd never been there in the first place.
"Yol Toor Shuul!" one of the floating suits of armor boomed, and a stream of fire spewed out of where the figure's mouth would've been. Kisame easily dodged, the jet of flames carving through the rubble behind him and setting it alight, and swung Sadehama at the summon… only for the sword to pass through it with no effect.
"What?!" Kisame cried in confusion. He swung again, and once more Samehada just went through the spectral armor. That gave enough time to the other summon to flank Kisame and throw a jutsu of its own.
"Fo Krah Diin!" A wave of chill air enveloped the whole street but Kisame got the worst of it, being enveloped by temperatures so low his body was covered in frost. The thermal shock was settling in when he found himself face to face with Harissen-san.
Their eyes met again, and three words echoed through the street.
"Krii Lun Aus."
Maybe it had been on purpose, maybe it was because Kisame was trying to tear the man apart even if he was being slowed down. Maybe Harissen-san missed. Whatever the reason, the strange energy of a jutsu that wasn't a jutsu hit Samehada instead of Kisame.
The sword started screaming. It wasn't like before, when it had stopped lightning. Samehada was howling in pain and anguish, a visceral, primal sound. Its sharp scales vibrated as it rebelled against the hold of its owner as if trying to get away.
"What did you do?!" Kisame demanded in panic and rage as some scales fell off from his weapon. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
The only answer he got was a battle axe aimed straight at his head. Kisame intercepted it with Samehada and one more scale went flying from its frame. Undeterred, Harissen-san swung again and again, getting faster with each swing as if regaining his strength. Even his wounds weren't bleeding anymore.
Samehada screamed anew with every strike, and Sasuke finally realized: whatever Naruto's uncle had done, it wasn't just hurting the living sword. It was killing it, and somehow it was also healing him, like he was stealing the weapon's vitality.
Kisame was starting to look desperate and, after trying to put some distance between himself and his opponent, slashed his own arm against his weapon. A grunt turned into a painful roar as the missing-nin fell on one of his knees. Samehada seemed to calm down a little, as it consumed its owner's chakra.
The Dragonborn advanced, slowly readying his axe as an executioner would. Kisame faced him with bared blood-stained teeth, unable to stand but undaunted nonetheless.
He silently lifted his axe, then swung down, the weapon arcing straight for Kisame's head.
Then Uchiha Itachi was right in front of him, looking straight in his eyes.
Everything was black.
Conrad couldn't move, he felt his limbs wrapped by some kind of manacles holding him upright on a cross.
What happened? He remembered the man that had been strangling Naruto. He was about to split his head open like a rotten melon. Then… then he woke up in whatever this place was.
"You're not Namikaze Minato," someone said. Conrad looked up, and found himself staring at two red eyes glowing like embers in the darkness. The ones he saw just before blacking out. They belonged to a young man that didn't even look twenty winters old yet. "Who are you?"
"Fus Ro Dah!" was Conrad's concise answer, because if someone was stupid enough to capture him and not gag him deserved to be broken apart by his shouts.
When nothing happened, Conrad couldn't help but stare awkwardly. That just wasn't something that happened. Or didn't happen.
"I see that your strange jutsu only requires you to shout those words," the man said, stepping closer. "I ask you again, who are you?"
Conrad stared at the man, whose whole figure seemed to be made of the darkness, except for those strange eyes and their ever-spinning pattern. Utterly unnatural. "This is an illusion," he finally said.
His captor didn't bother to deny it. "Everything here is under my control. Your powers won't work here."
Conrad frowned. That explained the unnatural darkness and why the Thu'um didn't work, but illusions were created for a reason. "What do you want?"
"Are you a Namikaze?" the illusionist asked. Conrad suppressed a snort at that.
"Are you an enemy of Minato? Is that why you attacked the boy?!" he asked, feeling his anger rise.
"You care for Naruto-kun. That's why you intervened. If you are related to Minato, where were you all these years?"
Had he not been held in place by the illusion, Could would've recoiled as if the words had stung him. "If I had known, I would've―" he immediately started, before biting his own tongue.
"You didn't know about him."
"Enough with this. I'm not going to play your games."
"This is no game," the man said, almost scolding. "Do you realize how much your presence changes things?"
There was something odd about the tone used for that question, almost of there was a layer of hope deep in it somewhere. Still, Conrad couldn't find enough empathy to care. "Let me guess, me being here disrupts your master plan? Something like that?"
His captor didn't answer. Those eyes of his pierced Conrad unblinkingly, intent as though he was a puzzle to be solved.
Conrad resisted the urge to squirm in his bonds. "You attacked those children," he said, hoping to prompt a reaction other than that soulless stare.
It worked. "Do you know why we attacked Uzumaki Naruto?"
Conrad thought about it for a moment. "It's not because he's MInato's son, is it?"
His lack of a reply was answer enough. Had this guy even blinked since they'd started talking? "You're now a piece on the board," he said slowly, almost as though to himself. "One who is unknown, and one who doesn't know all the answers himself."
Conrad thought about what he knew. Naruto had a secret, one the Hokage didn't want to tell him and the boy had seemed to be on the verge of spilling a couple of times. Could this be about that? It didn't make sense, though. What kind of secret could that be?
"You'll be disappointed if you want answers. I don't like answering questions, especially from someone that attacks my kin. Or children."
For a moment, the young man remained silent. "You wouldn't understand."
"Oh, sure. The twelve year old child was the real threat there, I bet your parents are proud of you."
A spark of irritation flashed through his captor's eyes, enhanced by their crimson red color. It was gone almost immediately, but it showed Conrad he was taking it personally. He felt a bit of satisfaction.
"You will answer my questions. I have seventy-two hours to make you."
So there was some kind of time limit to the illusion? Excellent.
"Let me tell you something, young man. I have faced the worst filth in Tamriel, killed monsters, vampires, dragons, stared down daedric princes and refused to bargain with them. I'll be damned if I'll answer the questions of a troll-bait, basket-wearing, milk-drinking, red-eyed skeever-scat son of a horker who barely looks old enough to shave," Conrad spat the last word like if it was the worse insult in existence. "I dare you to do your worst."
And so, Uchiha Itachi did.
A\N: This one… took a while. Would you believe that I thought I could reach this point in the story ages ago?
I know that the Dragon Aspect in the game doesn't have a tail… but where's the fun in that?
A friend of mine just informed me that there's a Tv Tropes page for this story now!
No omakes in this chapter because finishing it was very tiring.