Daze
Chapter two: A caged fox
A/N: Here's chapter two, hope you continue to read, I think the story will pleasantly surprise you as it continues to improve.
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Naruto awoke in a cramped dark space, incessant dripping, rattling at his psyche
"Where am I?"
His first thought was that he was in his mindscape but he couldn't feel the Kyuubi nearby so he knew that wasn't it.
He tried to sit up but he couldn't completely feel his arms and neck, what he could feel was a great pain.
"O-ow."
He felt the side of his face kiss the cold stone floor.
The blue slate reflected his cerulean eyes in the moonlight as small puddles of water formed below.
He tried his best to inch himself against a wall and prop himself up into a sitting position.
He kept falling back down and eventually gave up.
Rolling over onto his back he stared up and saw through a small hole in the ceiling the full moon shining down on him.
He felt small contentment and managed to close his eyes and relax.
He lost track of time and eventually fell asleep, letting the darkness overtake him.
The next day, Konoha...
Kakashi and co. arrived back in the leaf village in the lowest of moods.
Sakura hadn't stopped crying, and Sasuke was white with rage, blaming himself for his comrades death.
Asuma felt horrible, he had always liked Naruto and he couldn't fathom what it would feel like to lose a student; especially, that it happened to Kakashi out of everyone.
Kakashi himself felt a feeling of complete worthlessness.
He had failed to save Obito, Rin, Minato and now he had lost his beloved student and the last reminder of the teacher he'd lost.
'Please forgive me Minato-Sensei.'
He thought about this and paled thinking of the consequences of the situation at hand.
'Oooh shit... Jiraiya and Tsunade are going to kill me...'
He briefly considered committing suicide himself rather than face the horrible tortures they would concoct but then he would have to face Kushina and that scared him even more.
As they marched through the village, prisoner in hand heading over to the torture division, they arrived soon enough and Anko saw his expression and chuckled.
"Jeez Kakashi-kun… you're pale as a ghost, did you piss Tsunade off or something, did she say she's finally going to ban your smut?"
Asuma walked over and whispered to her and she got a melancholy look on her face.
"Oh damn.. I-I'm sorry… for your loss... I always liked that gaki."
She grabbed an iron stake.
"Well.. set the scum over there I'll get started on him."
Kakashi tossed the man into the chair and turned to leave, fearing the wrath he would soon be facing.
"Let's get this over with."
Orochimaru's Hideout, same time...
Naruto awoke to a full range of feeling but with that came the pain.
He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white as he teared up.
All his bones felt like shards of stone stabbing him, his muscles felt like they had snapped like bungee cords.
He screamed out in agony and heard chuckling from the hall outside.
He looked up to see a man with long palish blue hair and blue lipstick.
"W-What's so funny you bastard?!"
The bluette man smirked darkly.
"Your pained expression mainly."
Naruto tossed a rock at him and he caught it crushing it in his hand.
"Nice try gaki, better luck next time."
The man walked off whistling a tune.
Naruto growled and climbed to a sitting position clawing at his face to contain the pain.
He sat there fuming in silence for what seemed like an eternity before a girl with long red hair arrived and pulled up a stool looking bored.
She saw him staring and glared at him.
"What are you looking at, shithead?"
Naruto smirked.
"I'm not sure yet."
"Go fuck yourself."
She spat at him angrily.
He chuckled.
She turned away from him and began reading a music magazine, bored with her job.
He looked around for a rock and grabbed a sharp one. His gaze met the ropes wrapped around his legs and he began carving away at them.
Finally, he managed to split the ropes and spun them around putting the split end under his legs so it looked like they were intact.
The girl turned back to him hearing the rustling noise he was making.
"You're not wanking in there are you?"
He looked at her in disgust.
"Why would I do that… How.. would I do that?"
He motioned with his hands to the ropes on his wrists.
She shrugged.
"Wouldn't be the first."
He shook the mental image out of his head.
He waited for her to return to her reading and began to work on his wrist bindings.
Once they were finished he hid the rock in his palms, spun the bindings around stuffing the split ends into his shirt sleeves and laid back against the wall biding his time.
When the girl finally left, a short-older man in a sound ninja uniform arrived with a loaf of bread and a bucket of mystery stew.
"Dinner time gaki, try anything and I'll make you regret it."
Naruto nodded in faux compliance.
When the man came in and set the bucket down Naruto lunged stabbing him in the neck with the rock he held his hand over the man's mouth to muffle his surprised shout.
Naruto grabbed the loaf of bread and took a bite before tossing it on the man's, now dead corpse.
"Thanks for the food!"
Konoha...
Kakashi and co. entered Tsunade's office in abject terror at what she would do.
She seriously loved the blonde boy and she was notoriously short tempered.
Kakashi took a deep breath and went to give the mission report.
"The mission was a success, we captured the target, rescued the caravan, and killed the bandits."
She nodded looking around for the orange clad jinchuriki.
"Naruto didn't cause any problems did he?"
Kakashi stiffened.
"Kakashi where is he, usually he'd be here complaining about wanting another mission or bragging about his exploits?"
She chuckled.
"Well?"
Kakashi stammered.
"Well he.. He- I mean I-"
Kakashi grabbed his headband over his eye, bowing his head.
"He was compromised."
She looked at him confused and annoyed.
"What do you mean by 'he was compromised'?"
Although she looked annoyed, inside her heart was slowly shattering into pieces, piece by piece, painfully.
Kakashi sighed and looked up at her with pain in his eyes.
"He's dead.. a rogue ninja caught him by surprise..."
She stood up from her desk clenching her fists.
She looked at Kakashi with murder in her eyes and turned white with rage.
"He was what… don't play games with me Kakashi!"
Shizune gasped, covering her mouth in shock, tears welling up in her eyes.
Tsunade turned to Kakashi.
"What did they do with him?"
Kakashi choked on his voice.
"They took him, they were after the Kyuubi."
Tsunade paled.
"Shizune fetch Jiraiya at once!"
Shizune nodded and ran off full speed.
Tsunade gritted her teeth.
"One way or another someone is paying for this."
She broke down into tears.
'Why does this always happen?'
Back at the hideout...
Naruto acted quickly.
Stripping the man, he switched clothes with him and stuck him in the shadows, it would buy him some time and time was of the essence at the moment.
Naruto slipped the sound ninja uniform on and pulled the balaclava over his head.
Grabbing the bucket he went to feed the other prisoners; if nothing went awry they wouldn't check on him till morning.
Once he was done feeding the prisoners he followed another guard to what he assumed was a barracks of some kind.
Naruto grabbed a kunai, twirling it as he looked around the room and counted the number of ninja inside.
He acted like he saw something by the fridge and pointed.
"What the hell is that?"
When the rest of the ninja looked he ran over and slit their throats.
"Now to hide the bodies."
With agility and precision the likes only a shinobi could muster he hid the corpses in beds, fridges, wherever really.
When he was done he walked calmly into the hall closing and locking the door behind him.
'Now to find the exit...'
He walked down the winding hall trying his best to look as cruel and aloof as possible.
Finally he saw a doorway with white light flooding out of it, sun-light.
He could barely contain his excitement as he walked out the door and ran off into the forest.
He ran for what felt like ages, his legs burning and his neck hurting.
Once he was sure he was in the clear he stopped for a break.
Pulling the balaclava off he pulled a loaf of bread from his pocket and began to eat drinking from a flask of water.
When he was done he put the mask back on and continued heading east. He ran well into the night and early morning.
He had no idea where he was going, but he sure as hell wasn't going back.
At some point he fell against a tree and went to sleep. He woke up the next morning to the sound of battle.
Thinking fast he jumped into the tree and hid watching from behind the leaves he was ironically enough hidden, in the leaves.
He tried to see what was going on but couldn't make out much other than clashing swords and cries of terror.
When the battle was over a voice masculine and soft called out to him.
"You can come out now."
He hopped from the tree, kunai in hand, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
He walked out to the clearing, and saw a white-haired boy with bones protruding from his back.
'Must be a Kekkei Genkai.'
He thought silently to himself.
"Did Orochimaru-sama send you?"
The boy asked.
Naruto paled.
"Uh no, I was just headed to the nearby base."
Kimimaro nodded.
"It's just behind the waterfall that way."
Naruto nodded and went to leave when the boy smirked and suddenly slashed at Naruto with a blade made out of bone, removing his mask.
"There is no base that way, what are you doing out of your cage fox?"
Naruto paled, quickly getting in a stance to defend himself.
"Come, we're going back, now!"
Naruto growled.
"You think I'm just going to listen and run back to that hole you threw me in."
Kimimaro shrugged.
"You can come willingly or I can make you, it's your choice."
Naruto responded aptly by summoning an army of clones and charging a rasengan.
"Up yours!"
The clones all dashed at Kimimaro but he slashed most of them to pieces.
He was caught off guard however when he caught a kunai tossed from a tree and it transformed into a clone, latching onto his arm the others took the opportunity. Dog piling him.
Once he was restrained, the real Naruto had a clone toss him at the man, driving a Rasengan into his chest.
"Eat this!"
Naruto shouted enraged.
Kimimaro sighed in annoyance and activated his curse mark.
Naruto felt a blast of chakra and was suddenly impaled in his arms and legs by bones that popped out of his shoulders and knees.
"W-what are you."
Naruto asked in a fearful tone.
Kimimaro smiled callously.
"I am Orochimaru's perfect vessel now, come, we've wasted enough time!"
He pulled his spine from his back, bending it around Naruto's wrists.
Naruto tried to pull it off or break through it but to no avail.
'It's harder than steel!'
Naruto clawed and fought, trying his best to resist being dragged back to hell.
Kimimaro was annoyed so he shot a bone bullet into Naruto's neck quickly incapacitating him.
Konoha, Same time...
Jiraiya arrived in the village and ran like a bat out of hell, straight through the gates and to the hokage tower.
He rushed up the tower and burst through the doors to the office.
"Uh.. here.. Naruto.. Wha-"
Tsunade paled seeing her half dead teammate.
"Relax Jiraiya you're of no use to us if you're half dead."
He took a second to collect his breath.
"I got Shizune's message and I ran here as fast as I could, what's going on!?"
Tsunade took a melancholy look.
"You'll.. want to sit down for this."
He nodded and took a seat.
Tsunade pulled out a bottle of sake and took a swig before speaking.
Jiraiya could already tell this was going to be bad.
Tsunade tried to tell him, holding back tears.
"It seems.. Naruto.. was killed in action."
Jiraiya's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What.. no.. h-h-how?"
Tsunade looked grim.
"A rogue ninja."
Jiraiya paled, he couldn't believe this.
First he loses his parents, then the Ame Orphans, then Minato, and now Naruto.
What Tsunade said clicked within him.
''A rogue ninja?'
"Shit what about the Kyuubi?!"
Tsunade nodded.
"That's why we called you here, you have a copy of Minato's seal don't you?"
He nodded digging into his pocket.
"One second."
He pulled out a summoning scroll and bit his finger as he shouted.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
He slammed his palm on the ground, a second later a frog with a scroll for an abdomen appeared.
"Jiraiya-chan, why have you called me here, did the seal slip again?"
Jiraiya looked at him with a confused expression.
The frog merely raised his eyebrows, wondering why Jiraiya would summon him.
"What do you mean, The seal should be broken... Naruto's D-Dead..."
It took him a lot of courage to say that.
The frog looked at him annoyed and pulled open the scroll showing a seal matrix.
"Have you gone senile look right here, the seal is in tact, which means he's very much alive."
Jiraiya fell to his knees in relief, tears of joy pouring down his cheeks.
'Thank Kami!'
Tsunade let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, wiping a tear from her eye.
"I'm so happy to hear that. I was afraid we'd lost him!"
Her lip quivered at the thought.
Jiraiya looked grimly.
"But still if he's not dead then that means he's being held prisoner and who knows what they plan to do with him!"
Jiraiya stood, having found a newfound motivation to track Naruto down.
Tsunade paled at the thought of Naruto being tortured, she broke a handful out of her desk, wood cracking as she thought about it.
Orochimaru's hideout...
Naruto awoke in the same cramped hell hole he'd been in before.
"Kami damn it... I thought I had finally escaped!"
He punched the wall with all his might blood dripping from his shattered knuckles.
"Great strategy dumbass."
He turned to see the same red-haired girl from the day before.
"Why do you care, You probably just sit here to watch me suffer, huh, I swear all of you are sick!"
She smirked.
"No but that's an added bonus."
He flipped her off before returning to stare at the wall.
After a precious few moments of silence he turned to her.
"So, how is it that someone like you came to run with a creep like Orochimaru?"
She shrugged.
"What do you expect me to say, that I was some mislead orphan and he took me in, that he threatened my family... that I'm shagging him?"
She shuddered at the thought.
"I was hungry and tired, he had food and a place for me to sleep; I didn't want to die, he let me live, It's as simple as that."
Naruto nodded.
"Reminds me of someone I knew once."
He thought back to the boy in the Land of waves who sacrificed himself for his precious one.
"Yeah well they're an idiot, and so am I; nothing matters in this world we eat, we sleep, we shit, we die it's as simple as that."
Naruto smiled, a cold smile.
"You're a real optimist you know that?"
She smirked.
"And you're a smartass, dickless, shithead; shut up and let me read or I'll make sure you don't get dinner tonight."
He shrugged and leaned against the wall closing his eyes.
Before he knew it he fell asleep.
When he woke up the same girl he was arguing with before was currently standing over him.
He jumped in surprise.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
She chuckled.
"I know you're planning to off me in my sleep aren't you?!"
She looked down at him, annoyed by his remark.
"If I was gonna kill you I'd make sure you knew it was me."
He sighed, "Then what were you doing?"
She looked curious.
"I was just looking at those marks on your face, are you some kind of furry?"
Naruto growled annoyed.
"I was born with them due to Kyuubi, not that it matters, get out of my face."
She shrugged.
"Whatever shitbird."
She closed the cell door behind her and resumed her reading.
Naruto sighed in annoyance.
He did find it amusing though how she came up with nicknames for him.
'This blows.'
He rolled onto his shoulder and began rocking back and forth in boredom.
Eventually he faded into his thoughts and began wandering the halls of his mindscape.
He heard the familiar dark chuckle of his tenant and went to speak with him.
"Hey Kitsune-baka what's so funny?"
The Nine Tails continued to laugh hysterically.
"This ningen... I quite like her... You should consider making her your mate."
Naruto looked at him confused.
"Mate... What do you mean by that?"
The ninetails put a giant furry paw to his face.
"How dense can you be kit... Talk about being a dysfunctional human being..."
Naruto growled.
"I might not know what you're talking about but I know when you're calling me stupid you damn fox!"
The ninetails growled at the boy.
"I call it like I see it and you are the most idiotic ningen I've ever had the displeasure of sharing a soul with."
Naruto smirked and pointed a finger at the Kyuubi.
"Yeah well the feelings are mutual you damn baka fox!"
Naruto growled.
"Now if you'll excuse me I have things to do."
The fox snorted sarcastically.
"What, compare jail cells?"
"Bite me you damn fox!"
It laughed to itself while Naruto ignored it leaving his mindscape.
Naruto huffed in annoyance.
"Can you just kill me already it's preferable given the circumstance."
Tayuya smirked.
"And miss out on the witty conversation?"
Naruto gave her the finger.
"Wit this."
She chuckled.
"Oh, testy."
She stood up folding her book and turned to leave.
"Welp, my shifts over have fun in your box!"
She waved, turning to leave, stick of takoyaki in hand.
Naruto growled.
"I hope you choke!"
She chuckled on her way out.
Naruto sighed.
'I wonder what everyone back home is doing?'
Back in Konoha...
Sasuke punched the training dummy, it's wooden facade shattering and flying across the garden.
He felt an intense burning rage within himself. He had been greatly relieved that Naruto was alive, but the feeling had only grown stronger.
He had allowed his best friend to be captured by the enemy.
As he imagined the smug face of the blue-haired bastard he felt a familiar sensation in his eyes.
Suddenly black flames shot out of his eyes, engulfing the training dummy.
"What the hell!"
He stared at the blazing flames in shock and wonder, they ate through the dummy completely engulfing it in a sea of dark fire.
"Black flames…?"
He knew then, as his fist tightened… he had a lot of research to do.
X END X
2/2/21: Chapter 2 is revised.