Sealing Salientia - Chapter 4: Senses - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia:
A soft thud of landing feet indicating the person had completed their jump. Someone had just leapt toward the wall. Judging by the outfit, probably an ANBU off to patrol. And then a secondary sound of footsteps, and an almost imperceptible blur shot by in a slightly different direction. Another soft sound of landing feet approached her ears, and she now thought she must have been imagining things. Why would someone sneak out of the city by following an ANBU of all things?

Konoha
Nightfall, October 11th, Year 65

A flex of well-trained leg muscles and an expenditure of energy was all it took for the white-haired sage to feel the breeze passing through his spiky mane once again, leaping over the partially destroyed wall. He heard no shouts or noises to speak of. Which usually meant that he hadn't been spotted. Landing in the soft grass outside of the barricade for the village, he covered the ground carefully. Trying to avoid detection and not wanting to cause any more commotion than absolutely necessary, he stuck to the rule of 'low and slow'. Chakra use would disturb the camouflage technique currently covering him, so he didn't want to risk anything. As it was, the tufts of grass bent beneath his feet and a slight distortion in the air around him were the only things to give his position away.

Considering the options that lay ahead of him, he decided a good place to start would be Tanzaku town. Not only was it large enough that he could have a ready source of any materials he might need for the kid, but it was known for having plenty of lovely ladies. Yes, he had a reputation of a womanizer, but the brothels and red town districts were always one of the best places to pick up rumors. The skin trade, both for pleasure and for slave, was very profitable and attracted much interest from innumerable parties. Truly, it was the best method of gathering leads. And if he happened to have to spend a large quantity of time with beautiful ladies, well, that was just the price he was willing to pay.

Making up his mind and remembering to wipe the trace of drool off of the corner of his mouth, he skirted around the edge of Konoha, headed southwest towards Tanzaku. Reaching the tree line about 200 feet away, he took to the nearest sturdy tree branch that he could find. Using as much stealth as he had, he continued to leave the village he served behind him. The usage of chakra enhanced jumps made the illusory appearance of transparency shatter around him and he was visible once more. Once he was clear of the immediate sightline of the Hokage monument on the stone cliff above Konoha, he opened up his pace, utilizing the fact that Naruto was still under a genjutsu-induced sleep to make some serious headway. Tanzaku was only a short trip away by his standards while moving at higher-than-Jonin speeds. While the trip would take days if he had to match a civilian pace, with his chakra enhanced muscles propelling him upwards of 100 miles per hour, the trip would be complete in just a couple hours. He could make it there under cover of darkness, set up the requisite shelter and make preparations for the next day's work once completed.

Leaves whipped past his face as he continued his travel. He wanted to make quick progress before Naruto would need to be awake again, it wasn't safe to leave such a small child under genjutsu for extended periods. While he didn't know the side-effects of such a thing, it did make for easy headway at the faster pace he could travel. Plus, he could move without worrying about waking the child and have a screaming outburst to reveal their whereabouts. Once he got to a different city, the cover story would takeover and he could claim that a woman had been pregnant with his child and he had wanted to keep it a secret before birth. Taking care of a child would be a difficult path for him to follow, but he knew that it could be overcome just like any other obstacle. After all, parental responsibilities spanned all types of lifestyles. While he lived in a more dangerous profession, ninjas had kids all the time. He would hardly be unique.

What bothered him more as his voyage continued was how to deal with the newly found limitation he had received. He wasn't too concerned about battles, he rarely fought these days, his reputation alone was enough to dissuade most would be attackers. And his speed would allow him to outrun most ninja. If he was forced to fight someone faster than him, he was probably already in pretty big trouble, even without the handicap from his arm. So, while annoying for his normal lifestyle, it wouldn't be life-shattering until he figured out a solution. He had two choices, either find a way to fix the problem or find a workaround. Jiraiya was always a fan of brute-force plowing through any obstacle, this would not be much different.

Spending the next hours zoning out, he attempted to come up with various methods of bypassing the issue. Numerous possibilities flitted through his subconscious, some immediately discarded and others bookmarked for later perusal. He landed outside of the town of Tanzaku, no closer to a solution than when he had started, though several possibilities lay before him. Deciding to shelf the problem for the night, he walked up to the gates of the town. They were wide open, spilling the sounds of the nightlife from the town through the parted wooden barriers. Gleaming lanterns lit the town with a bright orange-yellow glow, pushing back against the inky blackness that had taken hold in the overcast sky. Having traveled here plenty of times seeking information, he knew right where to find a place to stay for the night. Deftly maneuvering his way through streets crowded with party-going civilians, he arrived at a brightly light building, emblazoned with various text in windows offering rooms and company, if one so desired. Going up to the receptionist, he admired her figure for a moment before slapping a few coins to reserve a spot for the next couple days.

Dressed in an elegant green and white patterned kimono, tied together with a red and gold sash, she looked back at him with emerald eyes and asked, "And what might the fine gentleman be desiring tonight? Food? Wine? Sake? Company? We certainly have whatever it is you may need." He knew better than to completely decline all services, as that would just lead to animosity between the matron of the establishment and him. All places of such repute expected their customers to indulge a little and would be upset if there was no additional money exchanged. "I'd love some plum wine sent up in just a few minutes if you would. Thank you. And please let the mother know that Icha Icha is here to talk business." The lady behind the counter gave a shallow bow and held out a key for a room with the appropriate number listed. "We will be sure to have that up to you in just a few minutes, as requested. I will inform the mother as well."

Making his way down the somewhat extravagantly furnished hallway, passing a couple of ladies of the house along the way, he reached the door with the number marked on it. He entered the room, closed and locked it behind him, and quickly unpacked the basics of supplies that he would need for the next couple of days. Unraveling the sealing scroll, and using his right hand, he forced a small amount of chakra into the release point, making the appropriate goods appear alongside a small puff of chakra smoke. Unpacking and readying the basic food and provisions for one adult and one infant, as well as necessary cooking equipment, he started some water to boil for formula for Naruto and a small dinner for him. He would be able to order more from the house if he needed it anyway, the more important factor was going to be having something ready for Naruto when he woke up. The matron of the house would not appreciate a baby screaming, regardless of the amount of money a paying customer had. A couple of minutes later, with Naruto's meal ready for consumption, he finally ended the genjutsu on the infant, with a gentle application of chakra from his hand, applied to the child's head.

The nine-tailed fox had been sulking in the darkness for a few hours now. When the child that he was entombed within had been placed under a illusion-enhanced sleep, all of his containers sensory inputs were shut down. This meant nothing incoming to the connection that had started to open due to his own chakra intrusion. Encased within complete blackness aside from the blue spider-web of chakra leylines above, the only thing that he could move was his head. Turning from side-to-side to try and wriggle free of the debris of the seal had been useless. If it had simply been a pile of rubble this size in the real world, a burst of his chakra would have sent it flying. Even his own natural strength would have ripped it asunder in mere moments. But, the damnable seal that had trapped him within appeared to still be functional after the interruption, and all attempts to change the current arrangement was futile.

He had tried to use his chakra as a wrecking ball to bash the remnants away. He had formed a sheet of chakra to push it down and out. Even concentrating it as a ball similar to his tailed beast bomb technique to use as an explosion was attempted. All attempts were to no avail. As soon as the energy had touched any part of the crumbled remnants of what had been his cage, it dissipated back into him, exactly as it had when it stood intact. Meanwhile, tiny droplets of it were still being absorbed into the electric turquoise veins above any time that the energy was present. He assumed that was part of the seal, ever so slowly depriving him of his energy. If he didn't expend it though, he was sure he would recharge it back faster than the current miniscule absorption rate.

Accepting that there was nothing that he could change about the current situation through the methods that he was already trying, he began to try and think about ways to escape. This meant that he needed to have a better understanding of each thing that had taken part since his capture, in order to unravel and rewind them, or even just brute force break them.

He had seen the specter of the Shinigami behind that miserable little cretin with blindingly bright yellow hair that had sealed him. That meant that the death god himself was involved, which made it unlikely that breaking the seal from the inside would be possible. The technique used would be linked to that god permanently, and he didn't think that the literal god that ruled over the domain of death was going away anytime soon. One thing that he knew, it might be possible to get the god of death to remove the seal if whatever was offered to him to make him appear for the sealing was revoked. Option 1 was therefore finding out what the death god had been offered, and start from there to either provide a better offer or work to repeal the original offering.

He knew from being sealed before that the death of the container would usually lead to the demon within being released. However, this came with risks. This seal was much stronger than the previous ones, reinforced by the god of death. It may drag him down to death as well. He may only be a living entity of energy, but the god of death was greedy and would gladly consume him if it could. If he could find a way to ensure that the seal wasn't strong enough to bring him with, that could work. Option 2 would be to find more information on the seal to its' durability, and potentially find a way to prevent him being dragged into the hells when his container died.

Then there was that terrible disturbance that had happened after the seal was constructed, when that mystery chakra had entered the system and thrown everything into chaos. He wasn't sure what technique had been performed to create the disarray of chaos that surrounded him now, but he knew that there was always a way to reverse any technique. Option 3 was going to be to find the man and work out what had been done to him. Perhaps even use the same thing to temporarily break apart the seal even more and escape this time.

All three options led back to a source problem, he was stuck on the inside of a disgusting human child body, too weak to even fend for itself, much less exact any of the actions necessary to reverse the wrongs inflicted upon the chakra being held within. Since having a feeble and incompetent container would not serve in any way to help him accomplish progress towards any option, he resolved to make his container strong enough to at least be able to work on one option.

Finally, he knew that if the container was aware that they were about to die or fail, the pesky humans would be aware of the situation, and take countermeasures to try and stop him from escape. He needed to be surreptitious about it and try not to let his plans be easily discovered by the outside world. Subtlety was going to be his keyword here. Being subtle wasn't really something that a gigantic construct of conscious energy was capable of, but he had patience and years with nothing to do but plan.

He didn't know much about human anatomy; they were a pestilence on the world that he didn't care to learn about. But he had been stuck inside two other ones previously and knew at least a very limited amount about how the body grew and healed from having his chakra forcibly ripped from him and used to patch up cuts and scrapes before. It seemed that these humans were weak and fragile, being made of flesh and blood. As a construct of chakra, he had never had the need to heal, he hadn't even really understood the concept. If the part of the energy that he was created from dissipated, it just slowly reformed. If all of it was dispersed in a short timeframe, something that had only happened once, he regained consciousness as it coalesced over years. He had communicated with his brothers and sisters from time to time, and their experiences were similar.

For millennia, he had equated humanity to insignificance, just as they would regard a fly or a gnat. Over the past hundred years or so though, everything had changed. The gnats had started to master the chakra that his father had helped distribute throughout the world. And instead of using it to try and bring peace, they constantly warred. Even worse, with the mastery of different techniques arose the occasional human who now approached the power of the tailed beasts. Some of his siblings were captured and sealed into various containers, human or otherwise, until he remained, indomitable. Then came that tree grower and his red-eyed partner. Together they subdued him, the mightiest of the Bijuu, and turned him into a ridiculous puppet for fighting. Sure, they said fancy words of "peace" but never seemed to mean it, creating factions of fighters, telling them to fight against their enemies, rather than try to make peace amongst those whom differed with them.

From his experiences inside his previous two hosts, he knew that chakra could be melded to force their easily pierced flesh to regrow faster, to guide the fragments of their support structure called bones to form back together, and that with careful use could even temporarily make their bodies stronger and more resilient.

Using that knowledge and continuing to push his chakra up against the pathways illuminated above, he worked on making sure his container had as much chakra as possible, to try and develop as quickly as possible. His ideas on self-preservation afforded no lesser decision. Perhaps if he had been more comfortable in his current circumstances, he would be able to be a bit more relaxed and complacent. In the situation he was in now though, he had much less of an option to sit back and relax. Namely that he could not physically sit back, nor relax.

After coming to his decision that he would create a container strong enough to break his bonds, he slowly released as much energy into the cavernous opening above him as he could without flooding everywhere, and just held it there, getting the body used to the poisonous red chakra until it was second-nature.

While doing a more carefully controlled manipulation at a larger scale, he noted something that had previously escaped his attention. It seemed that part of him was missing. Exploring the concept further and he could feel that the energy had still had within him contained his vitality, life force, his dedication and stamina. The powerful nature of his life force that his father had termed as 'yang' chakra, which suffused into the fiber of his being and gave him the ability to withstand nearly anything, fueled his stubbornness and allowed him to even give life to the inanimate. That all still existed. But the counter to that component of his chakra being, that his father had termed 'yin' chakra, which was his illusory ability, creating items from nothingness, controlling light and dark and energy, and the power of his indomitable spirit, that was all missing.

Having a mental reckoning of what happened, he supposed that that yellow rat hadn't had enough energy to seal him completely, being in the heat of battle and without the domineering effects of the tree-growers techniques, and that he had been put under another of the red-eyed men using mind-controlling techniques to enhance his rage even more. Not that he was against razing Konoha to the ground, he would have gladly done so without the mental suggestion, but that made him even more uncontrollable and unstable. If he had to guess, his 'Yin' energy was either dispersed into the atmosphere during the sealing process, sealed into another body somewhere or in the hands of the death god himself. He really hoped the first was the reason, or even the second would be preferable, as to get both his yin chakra back from the death god AND to have the same death god break the seal to release him was a leap of imagination that even he couldn't believe would happen. If his 'yin' had been left out in the world on its' own, it would slowly consolidate over time and he should be able to lead his container to it and have the other half of his body destroy the boy to let him free. That would be the best-case scenario.

Regardless, the only avenues left open for him to follow were to sit back and nothing, or to try and mold this disgusting piece of flesh that housed him into an acceptable warrior to fight for his furthering goals. After all, if the Kyuubi simply did nothing, the boy would likely become a warrior for a different master anyway. No point in denying the inevitable.

Moments later, a familiar energy signal washed over him. 'Good' he thought while recognizing the signature. That same white-haired imbecile was still around, meaning that he could still potentially fix whatever was wrong with the seal that had caused it to be so disheveled. Feeling the chakra fade from the system, he noted that the pitch black was being relieved by a screen of vision, and sounds had begun to return to his tumultuous chambers. While the vision was still blurry and the hearing muted, he was able to make out some details. The place they were in appeared soft and comfortable, filled with the sort of baubles and trinkets that the humans loved to adorn their dens with. The fool of a man stood front and center, dominating his visual field, appearing to hold something. Watching from the child's perspective as what appeared to be some sort of food was given to the infant, it appeared that the man who stunk of oil and toads was acting as their caretaker, at least for now.

Growing tired of dealing with such muted senses, liking to be able to perceive what was happening around him with much more clarity, he decided his first priority would be to improve the child's sensory abilities. That way the vessel would either be aware of an issue in the immediate vicinity and capable of alerting someone to protect them, or simply handling the situation themselves once competent enough to accomplish such a task. Those silly humans had always relied so much on their sight that it was disgusting. By simply not being where their head was facing, they had a decidedly harder time dealing with you. Plus, there were so many ways of dealing with vision. Even the world itself was dark as much as it was light. Shadows, nighttime, fog, water and earth all blocked their visual capabilities.

He had always been much keener of sensing energy signatures and smell. After all, the energy that every creature had within them propagated throughout the environment without hindrance, only being slightly muffled by the metal and wooden structures those humans put up. And smells were absolutely everywhere and lasted for what seemed an interminable time. With his sense of smell, he could tell if his siblings had been anywhere nearby within the last year. Particles carrying scent stuck to so many surfaces, and emanated from almost every part of the body, it was nearly impossible to cover all ways of being tracked by the sensory adept.

He continued stretching his chakra into the streams above to continue improving his ability to perceive the world, as well as snaking what he could down the corridors and tunnels that connected to his chambers, now that the cage around him did not provide a complete barrier. He hoped to find some other means of exit from this place, as it would mean the difference between life and death.

AN: Another somewhat shorter chapter. I was going to write the rest of what happened in the house of ill-repute, but felt that would be better in it's own segment. It'll be a bit more comical and humorous than the rest of the story so far, which will probably be a welcome respite.

Tell me what you think, constructive criticism welcome!

I am using a timeline created by "Keepyourpantsongohan" on Tumblr which seems very thorough as to keep track of events that happened pre-divergence point. According to that timeline, this story starts in later afternoon of October 11th, Year 65 post Konoha founding. Everything form before that should be canon, unless I've made a horrible mistake. Unless someone finds fault with that particular source, I'm using it as my reference.