CHAPTER SIX
Negatives and Positives!
XXX
The training schedule under Roshi was very easy to get the hang of especially after training with him for nearly three weeks. In the morning, Naruto would wake up, take a bath, then eat some rice with miso soup and an assortment of side dishes. At ten o'clock sharp, they would all take the plunge and land in the cave, something that by day 19, he still didn't understand the point of. Then came chakra control and manipulation training without limiters. The Uzumaki's record for most trips around the cavern in thirty minutes was 62, which meant he was last with Fuu recording 65, Hinata recording 78 and Gaara managing to complete 91 trips. When it came to chakra manipulation though, Naruto was second only to Fuu, who remained undefeated, having beaten Hinata six times and Gaara fourteen.
The kids would then practice their given ninjutsu for about four hours before a little bit of taijutsu training, and some sparring for two hours, which would be interrupted by Roshi telling them to get back to chakra control and manipulation training, this time with limiters. Of course, everyone besides Hinata, whose current record was two trips around the cavern, would pass out. Han would carry them all up to the hut, where they would communicate with their tailed beasts for two hours until it was time to eat, bathe and sleep.
Fuu, who was already on the verge of perfection, to begin with, had made the most progress to becoming a perfect jinchuuriki. She could already use her chakra and demon cloak before coming to Roshi's training area, but after three weeks, she'd mastered Version Two and could enter tailed beast mode with a controlled transformation. The years of practising her tailed beast skills and gaining a bond with her tailed beast had finally paid off, given another week she'd probably be entering completed tailed beast mode. When it came to tailed beast control and transformations, the young kunoichi was a prodigy.
Gaara, who'd had limited success controlling his tailed beast before training began, was on the right track, not making as much progress as Fuu, but any progress was good progress. The problem with Gaara was that his transformations were much less, him controlling his tailed beast and more, him relinquishing control of his body to his tailed beast. So, Roshi had to unbuild the negative and create a new foundation for Gaara to flourish. The sand sibling's greatest fear was that Shukaku would take over in his moments of weakness and kill the people he'd grown so fond of, to which Roshi assured him that while Shukaku was stupid, he wasn't stupid enough to have a violent episode while Son Goku, Kokuo, Choumei and Kurama were around. It took nearly a week and a half, but after Gaara let go and built a bridge of trust with Shukaku, he was able to unlock the demon cloak's Version Two.
Naruto, on the other hand, was struggling. As with everything else in life, he'd been dealt a bad hand and now he had to play the same game everyone else was. The Nine-Tails didn't like him. To be fair, the Nine-Tails didn't like anyone, but it didn't like Naruto in particular. The fox was the epitome of negativity whereas Naruto had a positive never-say-die attitude, which pissed the fox off so much that even when Naruto managed to reach his mindscape it chose rather to feign sleep than to speak to its host. It was a real predicament as without the fox's participation, the most Naruto could do was activate a basic chakra cloak. Roshi promised to find a way to get the two on talking terms but as hours turned to days and days to weeks, even he was starting to give up.
The red-haired jinchuuriki let out a soft sigh as he made his way back to the plateau from his daily shopping. It'd been nearly a month since the Konoha invasions. It was only a matter of time before the Leaf and the Sand mobilised their troops in an attempt to find their jinchuuriki, when that time came, the Nine-Tailed Fox could be the difference between freedom and death.
"Oi! You over there, old man!" someone caught Roshi's attention. The redhead slowly turned to face the source of the sound. His eyes widened.
Three shinobi. One dressed in red with a brown flak jacket over his uniform. The second dressed in navy with a green flak jacket over his. The last, a young woman, dressed in black with a beige flak jacket over her torso.
"Aren't you Roshi of the Lava Style?" the Iwa shinobi asked.
The older man's beady eyes shot down to their hands. They were already prepared to pull out their weapons. He stared into their eyes, "Who's asking?"
"We know you know where the jinchuuriki are," the Konoha shinobi growled.
"I know where a jinchuuriki is… and now, so do you… what are you going to do about it?"
"The jinchuuriki are important assets to the Hokage and Kazekage of the Leaf and Sand, respectively. We have orders to return them to their villages at all costs," the Suna kunoichi explained.
"Important assets… listen to that. Do you even know how old the assets you're chasing after are?" Roshi wondered.
"He's stalling," the Suna kunoichi warned.
Roshi chuckled, "I don't need to stall for anything. I'll simply take all three of you down, then go back home to the kids I'm training and tell them you were looking for them."
"It's no use," the Konoha shinobi swung a fist. Roshi caught it.
"You'll have to be faster than that." Both Suna and Iwa shinobi drew their swords and swung at the jinchuuriki's legs. Two bright red tails extended from the base of his spine to catch both blades. "Now, you burn for that. Lava Style: Chakra Mode!"
The Konoha shinobi leapt back just in time to keep his hand. The other two lost their swords, which fell to the earth as molten metal. "Oi, Iwa-nin, you're the expert here. How do we fight this guy? Iwa-nin…"
"I… I don't know," the shinobi adorned in red realised. He took a step back, "We've never… had to fight him…" Roshi obliterated the man. After coating himself in lava, he punched through the Iwa shinobi's face, melting his flesh and shattering his skull.
"Lava Style: Glowing Armour Palm!" he quickly turned his attention to the Konoha-nin, who panicked.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Roshi burst through the flames and swung again. The man dodged, but the chakra mode's flaming aura charred his cheek as he skipped away. "Do something!" he begged the Suna kunoichi.
"Wind Style: Tempest Wind!" she kicked up dust with her breath. Roshi used it as a smokescreen to appear behind her. He dropped his lava armour to grab her by the hair and slam her against a tree. The Konoha ninja grabbed a paper bomb and slapped it against the jinchuuriki's side.
They watched it light up.
The explosion was cancelled out by the Lava Style: Chakra Mode. The Leaf ninja stumbled. "Lava Style: Glowing Armour Lariat!" with a straight arm, Roshi decapitated the stumbling man. His body fell limp. His head landed elsewhere. His neck had melted off.
Roshi dropped the chakra mode and scanned the area for any witnesses. The Suna kunoichi had survived but she was unconscious, so it didn't matter. Roshi needed someone to tell the story anyway, so the Leaf and Sand knew this was Roshi's doing and not Naruto or Gaara's.
XXX
"Ready?" Han asked before turning to Gaara and Fuu, who stood on opposite sides of the six-foot-tall jinchuuriki. Fuu gave him a thumbs-up, Gaara nodded.
"Who's your money on?" Naruto asked Hinata, who was more focused on a tear in her pants than she was on the sparring match about to take place.
"Huh? Oh… uh… I don't know… who's your money on?" she asked.
Naruto leaned forward before replying, "I think Gaara takes this with ease, dattebayo."
"If you think so, then I'll agree with you," Hinata decided.
"Begin!" Han stepped back, just in time for Fuu to flash past him. Her fist was stopped inches away from Gaara's face by a wall of sand.
"Finally, I get to see your Absolute Defence in action, ssu," Fuu smirked.
"What do you know about my Absolute Defence?"
"Not much. I'd read about it in a textbook Hisen brought back for me from the Hidden Sand Village. I was hoping seeing it for myself would teach me a thing or two," the mint-haired jinchuuriki floated back in time to dodge the sand arms creeping up from behind her. "At first, I thought it was just a side-effect of being the One-Tails jinchuuriki, but no other tailed beast has fought so hard to keep their host alive, not even previous One-Tails jinchuuriki. It's fascinating… but let's test the limits of your defence."
"You're welcome to try." Fuu didn't need a second invitation. She fluttered around the redhead blasting him with bursts of wind and supersonic punches but everywhere she went, the sand met her there. Behind him, the sand was there. An attack from above, the sand formed a dome around him. An attack from below, the sand underneath his feet hardened.
"Wow, you're right. Fuu can't even land a hit on Gaara," Hinata said.
"I know… I'm a genius," the Uzumaki replied, throwing his hands behind his head, and sitting back on his chair. "Ever since the Chuunin Exams, I could tell Gaara's a pretty strong guy… I could take him of course but being the second strongest in the group isn't something to take lightly, dattebayo."
Hinata knew that was a lie, "You really are… but… why don't you face him then?"
Naruto opened one eye to stare at the Hyuuga heiress before shrugging, "Hehe, I just don't want to embarrass him is all."
"I understand," Hinata replied before returning her attention to the tatters and tears on her pants. The Uzumaki let out a soft sigh. If it were anyone else but Hinata, they would've definitely called his bluff.
"Secret Ninjutsu: Scale Powder Sneak Jutsu!" Naruto turned to the battle just in time to be blinded by fine powder that Fuu had released from her mouth. "You're finished!" all he could hear was a loud thud.
When Naruto's vision returned to him Fuu was behind Gaara. Trapped in the jinchuuriki's sand coffin. If he had to guess, Fuu probably tried to blind Gaara, then strike him from behind. Unfortunately, she got caught in the redhead's sand shield, which quickly swarmed around her to form a sand coffin.
Just like that, the battle was won. Having Gaara on board was going to be a real game-changer, that was for sure.
"The battle has come to a conclusion. The win goes to the One-Tails." Han announced. "As a sign of no-hard feelings, make the Seal of Reconciliation."
"Fucking cheater, ssu," Fuu grumbled.
Gaara turned to stare into Fuu's lively orange eyes. Even though the battle was over, the bug jinchuuriki was still trying to wriggle her way out of the sand coffin like a fly trapped in a spider's web. Her fate was already sealed but she continued to fight as if it wasn't. Once caught, no one had ever escaped the sand coffin, and once fully encompassed, no one had ever lived to tell the tale.
"Oi, One-Tails, you can let go of her now."
The mood began to shift. Large low-hanging clouds soared across the sky to block out the late morning sun which sat high above the Land of Earth's plateau. The carp-shaped windsock sitting atop Roshi's little hut clung to its reed pole as the wind picked up, spraying leaves and dead grass across the opening. Naruto sat up.
"Gaara," Han called his name.
Fuu stopped wriggling to glare into the tanuki jinchuuriki's cold blue-green eyes. "Oi, what's gotten into you?"
"Oi, Gaara!" Naruto stood up off his chair.
"It's been a while since Shukaku tasted blood."
"What was that? Speak up, you little twerp!" Fuu replied.
Roshi landed between the pair, tearing Fuu out of the sand coffin and throwing Gaara back, only for him to land on his sand gourd. "You need to get going," Roshi began, "Konoha and Suna shinobi are searching for you. I ran into a couple just a few hundred metres from here. It's only a matter of time before they close down the whole Land of Earth."
"A few hundred metres?" Naruto asked looking out at the arid plainlands below.
"I killed the Konoha shinobi, but the Suna kunoichi survived. I'm sure she's already told her village of my presence and they're sending a larger search party to this location."
"You killed a Konoha shinobi?" Naruto asked, "What… what did he look like? How old was he?" the Uzumaki began to worry.
"What does it matter?" Roshi asked.
"I might've been my friends or my sensei. What if you killed Shikamaru, or Sasuke, or Kakashi-sensei?"
Han rushed into the hut with Gaara and Fuu as Roshi walked over to the Uzumaki and placed his hand on the young jinchuuriki's shoulder. "Naruto, there is a line running through your forehead protector. That means your allegiance to Konoha no longer exists. Your friends… your sensei… probably have orders to kill you on sight, and if it comes to it, as your jinchuuriki sensei, I'm giving you the orders to do the same to them. Out here, it's a kill or be killed environment… so forget your friends. The only friends that matter now, are the ones around you at this very moment… and the ones you'll pick up in Kumo… and the ones you'll pick up in Kiri… nothing else matters now."
Han emerged from the hut with a large scroll on his back. The same for Fuu. "If Konoha and Suna shinobi are already within a few hundred metres of here, then they'll probably have the land border with Taki already closed," Han explained.
"We'll have to escape via the ocean," Gaara suggested.
"Already thought about that," Roshi said. "You'll have to take the plunge one more time. Han, there's a little boat in the 13th chamber of the Cavern of Immortality. Bring it out and the kids will jump in after you."
"Right," Han leapt off the cliff and dived into the water to retrieve the ship as Naruto and Hinata readied themselves to leave.
"But we're not done with our training," Naruto realised, "What are we supposed to do without you?"
Roshi chuckled, "I've given you the tools needed to build your future, Naruto. Practice, practice, practice, meditate. Practice your chakra control. Practice your chakra manipulation. Practice the jutsu that I've given you. Meditate as much you can until you create a bond of trust with your tailed beast."
"But my tailed beast doesn't even want to speak to me. How will I ever get him to like me?" he complained.
"Trust and like are two very different terms. I don't like my tailed beast and he doesn't like me, but we have a bond built on trust. I trust him as my tailed beast. He trusts me as his host. Every leap of faith I take he's always got my back and vice-versa."
"I'm ready," Hinata said softly, as she emerged from the hut.
"If everyone's ready then get going. From here, your next stop should be in the Land of Iron."
Gaara nodded before taking the plunge and leaping off the cliff.
Fuu saluted goodbye before doing the same.
Hinata bowed deeply before following Fuu down.
"Will I see you again, Old Man Four-Tails?" Naruto had to ask. As Roshi had said before, out here, it was kill or be killed, so Naruto needed assurance that Roshi would always be the killer and never the killed.
Roshi smirked, "I promise that we will meet again in paradise."
That wasn't the answer Naruto was hoping for, but he had kept his team waiting long enough. The Uzumaki took a few steps forward before, for the last time, taking the plunge and diving off the cliff.
He hit the water. When he surfaced, Gaara and Hinata were floating on clouds of sand while Fuu fluttered overhead using her wings. "Guys?" Naruto yelled.
Fuu scooped him out of the water before apologising, "I missed."
Han rowed the long and narrow boat out of the cavern, allowing all four children to sit. Even with Han's tremendous strength, they'd reach the Land of Iron by nightfall. But at least this was what Naruto wanted, from here on out they were heading east. The next eight stops would be the Land of Iron, the Land of Sound, the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Frost, the Hidden Cloud Village, the Hidden Mist Village, and then paradise.
XXX
No one knew much about the Land of Iron. The country was so secretive that normal shinobi only knew three facts about it: it was the most powerful land outside of the five great shinobi countries; under normal circumstances, no shinobi would ever receive missions involving the country; it was freezing cold. So cold that as afternoon turned to evening and evening turned to night, Han knew they wouldn't be able to continue walking.
The jinchuuriki had reached the country earlier than expected and used the daylight to march onwards to the Iron-Sound border. The less time they spent on Iron land, the better. It was only when a tiny village popped up and the cold, dry evening air turned to early night snow that they decided it would be best if they put a halt to their marching and stopped in an inn or something.
"Fresh travellers!" a feminine elderly voice yelled as they walked through the cold village's streets. Naruto looked around for the source of the voice. He jumped when he noticed an elderly woman dressed in full black, with a hood over her head, walking behind them. How had this old bat managed to sneak up on five shinobi? "We haven't had visitors in a while. People don't usually come this far north unless they're looking for something."
Han spoke on behalf of the jinchuuriki, "We're not looking for anything, ma'am. Just a place to stay."
"That's perfect," her cute wrinkly face lit up, "I've got a decently-sized place that you could stay the night in for just under 150 ryo per person. I've got a heater, warm blankets and fresh tea with your names on it."
"Thank you so much," Han bowed, "Speaking of names… I never got yours."
The old lady giggled, "Oh, you don't need my name. If you have the money, just follow me to my home."
They found shelter just in time. The temperature in the village dropped below zero and the world outside became uninhabitable especially for Naruto, Hinata, and Gaara, who were so used to the hot and humid climate of the south.
All five shinobi sat shivering, wrapped in blankets, around a table as the heater filled the room with hot and moist air. The old lady had allowed them to spend the night in her attic where she had six futons laid out on the floor around a small, round table. Through the tiny attic window, all Naruto could see was a frozen wasteland covered in inches of snow. No one said a word until they could finally speak without seeing their own breath as condensation hovering in front of their mouths. "How on earth do the Land of Iron's shinobi survive and go on night-watches in this horrible climate, ssu?" Fuu asked, teeth still chattering.
The old lady answered this question as she made her way up the stairs with a tray of tea. "Oh, the Land of Iron doesn't have any shinobi, baby. They have samurai," she explained, placing the steaming-hot cups of tea on the table, one by one. "Expert swordsmen who've trained for years in the northernmost, and coldest, parts of the Land of Iron. Their bodies are so acclimatised to this weather that they could fight for hours in it while wearing nothing but their undergarments."
"That's insane," Naruto shivered. "I don't think I could fight in this weather for a minute fully dressed in my jumpsuit… let alone for hours in just my underwear."
"I heard rumours of the Land of Iron's shinobi being bat-shit crazy, but I didn't know they were that level of bat-shit crazy… nor did I know that they were samurai," Han said.
"Neither did I… it must have been a very well-kept secret," Gaara added.
"Well, I guess it's not a secret anymore to you guys," the old lady chuckled. After placing a cup of tea in front of everyone, she bowed a little before taking her leave, "I'll see you all in the morning. Goodbye."
Gaara stared at Han, who glared at him back. "I was so parched from all that walking," Hinata giggled, "It appears the fact that I'm the only one without an entirely separate entity feeding me chakra is finally starting to catch up with me." Hinata was starting to breathe heavily and for once, it wasn't because she was sharing a room with Naruto. She was right. Everyone else in that room had at least ten times as much chakra as her without their tailed beasts, 100 times more with. After three weeks of intense training and hours of walking, her body was simply struggling to keep up.
Fuu placed her hand on the Hyuuga's back as she gritted her teeth and tightened her fists into a ball. "From tomorrow onwards, I think we should slow down. After all, Kumo and Kiri aren't going anywhere," Naruto said.
"I shouldn't have come," she admitted.
Han was the first to interject, "What are you talking about?" his booming voice questioned.
"Naruto-kun just said it himself… you have to slow down because of me… all I've been is a burden… who knows where you could've been by now if it wasn't for me."
"Wait… I… I didn't mean it like that…" Naruto began but Gaara shut him up with a glare.
Han let out a fatherly belly laugh before placing his hand on Hinata's shoulder and explaining, "You've done more for this group than you can imagine. You say you're not a jinchuuriki like it's supposed to be a bad thing. Look around you, you're surrounded by jinchuuriki and they're a pain in the neck to be around. That girl to your left sounds like a siren even when she's whispering…"
"Oi," Fuu sat up.
"… the blonde one, he never shuts up. It's always dattebayo this and dattebayo that. Let's go east. I never give up. The fact that he's quiet now is a miracle…"
Naruto wondered why Han was being so personal all of a sudden.
"… then there's the redhead… yeah, he's got issues…"
Gaara just grunted.
"What I'm trying to say is, sometimes it's good to just have someone normal like you and me." Fuu scoffed at the 'me' part. Han glared at the mint-haired kunoichi, who was obviously giving him the finger but didn't want to remove her other hand from underneath the blanket otherwise it would've hit the floor. "Don't worry about where we would be without you. Focus on where we've made it with you by our side. We're in the Land of Iron; tomorrow, we'll be in the Land of Sound; the next day, in the Land of Hot Water; so on and so on…"
Fuu stepped in. "We can do a little exercise Hisen-sama did with me whenever I was feeling down or felt like I was not enough. He always told me in order to stay perfectly balanced mentally, one negative thing weighs about as much as three positives. So, whenever I'm feeling down, I express what my greatest fear is and then I counter that negativity with three positive things that are happening in my life, be it accomplishments, emotions, traits, whatever," she explained, "I'll go first. One negative: even after a month, I still feel lost… the world is so big and I feel so small, and it's scaring me. Three positives: for the first time in my life, I'm not surrounded by Taki's massive walls and I'm free to go wherever I want. I'm surrounded by people who, until a month ago, I had only met in movies and textbooks. Third, I'm one transformation away from officially becoming a motherfucking perfect jinchuuriki, ssu!"
Hinata was supposed to be next, but the Hyuuga princess insisted it go clockwise because she hadn't thought of anything yet. To give her time to think, Han spoke up next. "My biggest fear is that I'll never be able to start a family. My girlfriend back in Iwa was pregnant, but I'm worried that because I never had a father to look up to, I won't be able to be the type of father my child could look up to… on top of that, her parents just didn't want me to be around her to begin with, so the fact that I got her pregnant… I… it was why I was so willing to leave with you guys… I just needed to get away from everything for a moment," the large man admitted.
"You're going to be a father?" Fuu's eyes lit up. She paused for a moment before kicking Han from across the table, "I will not let you be a deadbeat father, ssu! When this is all over you and your girlfriend are gonna start a beautiful life together! Do you hear me?"
"Oi! Cut it out and let me name three positives!" Han whined. Seeing the giant of a man squirm and dodge as a tiny lady kicked him repeatedly brought a smile to both Naruto and Hinata's faces. Fuu finally let up.
"Before you continue… do you at least know the baby's gender?" Fuu asked.
Han stopped squirming to reply, "I'm having a daughter."
"I'm gonna be an aunt!" Fuu squealed.
For the first time in a month, Gaara threw his hands over his face and burst out laughing. "You're right, but that's not how that works," the cynical man replied through fits of laughter.
"What do you mean?"
"Ignore him," Han said trying to calm the redhead down. "My three positives are: for once, I don't feel like the whole world is against me… even though it technically is, now more than ever. Two, if all goes well, I can find a new place to start a family, a place that isn't as ruled by politics and traditions as Iwagakure. Three, I have a family now, with kids that show me, day by day, that maybe being a father wouldn't be so bad."
"Aww," Fuu said.
"Not you, you're the problem child."
"No, I'm not. That's Naruto's job."
"Oi!" how did the Uzumaki manage to catch a stray again?
"You're two sides of the same coin!" Han said, which Fuu couldn't argue further. "Now, let's move to my favourite."
Hinata twiddled her thumbs as she spoke, "Um… my fear is that… because I'm not a jinchuuriki, I feel like I'm not supposed to be here… but… being here with you guys, it gives me the chance to express myself like I never could back while training and practising to become the next leader of the Hyuuga clan. Out here, I can be with Naruto… uh… and… and Gaara and everyone else as much as I want and form bonds for the future. And I'm becoming more confident out here than I ever could've been in Konoha. Hopefully, just as you all wish to achieve your goals of reaching your paradise, I can achieve my goal to become a stronger, more confident kunoichi and med-nin in my own right," Hinata announced. Fuu and Han clapped as she finished, ending her moment of confidence as she dropped her head and blushed.
"Gaara?" Fuu called the redhead's name.
Knowing that there was no way to escape the sharing circle, Gaara chose to participate. "My greatest fear is… is… my negative is… is," unable to think of a logical response, Gaara tapped into his cold empty heart to find something, anything, "… I'll never be human and that scares me. I've been called many things in my life… a monster, a failed experiment, a brat, a weapon… but I've never been called human."
Han and Naruto could definitely relate to that statement. "And the positives?" Han asked.
"The positives are that I am surrounded by more people that care about me than I have ever been at any point in my entire life… also… thanks to you, Naruto, slowly but surely, I am beginning to understand the concept of friendship and having people who are precious to you… and third… third is that I was able to figure out that the tea is poisoned."
Han's eyes lit up. He'd been so preoccupied with this cute little moment that he forgot, "Holy shit, the tea is poisoned," he remembered.
"The tea… it's poisoned?" Hinata asked. She was moments away from drinking it earlier.
"I didn't get to share my-."
Naruto was cut off by Han explaining, "Before we left, Roshi told me to expect a blockade across the Land of Fire and another country. We suspected it would be the Land of Iron since the Land of Sound is infamously controlled by Orochimaru and the Land of Hot Water is a neutral zone, meaning shinobi nations can't carry out their business on the Hot Water soil. We must've stumbled into their trap," Han shuffled over to the window to try and see if he could spot any shinobi, "Even worse, the Five Kage Summit is held here, which means, worst-case scenario, the five Kage have been notified of our presence and if we're captured, will converge on our location in a matter of minutes."
"Make a call," Gaara demanded.
Han shuffled back to the table and sat for a minute to think, "We're at a real disadvantage here. We can't fight inside, it's too cramped, plus that'll mean we can't bring our tailed beast into the mix otherwise we'll crush those who can't transform… we also can't fight outside because it's freezing cold and us, even fully wrapped, won't stand a chance against samurai whose bodies are more used to this climate than ours, we'd lose this battle in seconds. We also can't run because, odds are, they have the building surrounded and we'll just be walking into their freezing cold trap. We also can't drink the tea because we don't know what type of poison it is… it could be a paralysis poison that's meant to keep us stiff or limp until the Five Kage arrive… if that's the case, even as jinchuuriki, four of us are mere children, we stand no chance against the Kage… I… I don't know."
"Choumei's saying sleeping agents," Fuu announced while licking her finger. "It's pretty strong… they're planning on having us sleep for hours."
"It's probably to give the Kage time to come get us. Then the Five Kage probably aren't in the Land of Iron," Gaara deduced. A stroke of luck. "But that still leaves the Land of Iron's samurai."
Han punched his open palm, "I got it. Let's pretend to be asleep… then when the samurai come in, we ambush them, get as much of an advantage as we can. After some scuffling, just to make sure we make enough noise for all the samurai to enter the building. Then, we make a break for it, out through the window. Hinata and Naruto first so you can get as much distance as possible, I'll leave last because if things are that bad, I can use my completed tailed beast mode transformation to take as many of them out as possible and run after you guys as Kokuo."
"That's a good plan, but no plan survives first contact, so what do we do if things aren't going our way?" Gaara asked.
"You're a jinchuuriki, there's only one possible backup plan. If things go wrong, Naruto and Hinata get as much distance as possible and the three of us just fill the battlefield with as much raw tailed beast energy as we can muster. We'll destroy anything and anyone who stands between us and freedom, rip them limb from limb if we must."
Gaara nodded. "We'll ambush them on your mark then."
"Remember, we're fighting for our freedom here. No one said this would be easy and no one said this would be clean, win by any means necessary," Han threw his hand out over the table. Fuu put hers on top of his. Hinata followed. Naruto was up next. Gaara was last. "No shouting. Throw your tea in the flowerpots, find your space, pretend to sleep. Let's go."
XXX
Three knocks at the old lady's door.
Footsteps.
"They're all upstairs," the old lady didn't mince her words. Suddenly she wasn't so cute.
Naruto could feel his heart in his throat.
"Win here and nothing is stopping us from going east, dattebayo."
"I'll… I'll have to keep my eyes on Naruto-kun and try my best."
"Choumei, now's our chance to show how strong our bond has gotten."
"I can't fuck this up. These kids depend on me."
"I'll kill all of them… every last one of them… even if they run… this battlefield will be their final resting place."
Naruto shut his eyes and bawled his fingers into a fist. A small hand wrapped around his trembling digits. Naruto opened his eyes to see Hinata's soft lilac eyes staring back at him. "When this is all over… I'd like to hear what your negatives and positives are…" Hinata shut her eyes as a shadow loomed over the pair.
The Uzumaki's heart eased as he feigned sleep with Hinata's hand around his.
"Tell the others they're here… there's only five of them, including the Hyuuga heiress."
"Five? So, the Four-Tails must not be with them… regardless, four jinchuuriki and the future head of the Hyuuga clan… that sounds like a war averted to me."
War?
The Nine-Tails woke up from his slumber. Dark chakra moved from Naruto's hand to Hinata's, forcing the Hyuuga princess to activate her Byakugan. Her eyes shot open as she sat up, spooking the samurai.
"There's 199 of them outside!" Hinata yelled. Her hand was quick to cover her mouth. Why did she say that?
Han blasted the samurai with a jet of steam so intense that it melted his chest plate and the front of his helmet. The samurai quickly covered his face with his arms and dashed downstairs. "199? How do you know?" Han wondered before staring at the Hyuuga princess and noticing the veins welling up along her temples, "My goodness, how could I have forgotten that you're blessed with the Byakugan?"
Gaara sat up, "They sent 200 samurai after us?"
"Someone must've forgotten to tell them three-quarters of the jinchuuriki in our team are only thirteen years old," Han said, sitting up, "In that case, we can't run. There's no way we're outrunning 200 samurai in this weather."
"They're awake! We've been tricked! Bring the whole house down!"
Chakra blades, of all shapes and sizes, dug into the building's wooden exterior and carved the home up until it had no choice but to collapse.
"Oh shit… looks like we're fighting them outside," Han noted as the floor gave way from beneath him. The roof collapsed but Gaara formed a sand dome around his allies to keep them safe. He couldn't stop them from falling through the ceiling though. Fuu hovered above the floor below. Han caught Hinata. Naruto landed with a thud. Gaara floated down on his sand cloud. Han put Hinata down and prepared for battle. "Take them out before the cold takes us out! Gaara! Drop this dome and let's fight!" the Five-Tails jinchuuriki roared.
All the sand surrounding them came down. It was Naruto, Gaara, Hinata, Fuu and Han vs hundreds of professionally trained samurai.
Han roared.
The first wave of samurai charged. Gaara turned the sand into sand spikes, killing at least thirty of them. The next wave climbed over their deceased brethren and charged.
"AHH!" Naruto charged to meet them head-on. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" one Naruto turned to a hundred. Like two bulls butting heads over a mate, the samurai wave collided with the Naruto wave.
The real Naruto took one samurai down but four more stomped and slashed at him. Han blasted them with steam to pry them off the Uzumaki.
The samurai were levels above him. It took five clones to match one samurai, and it only took one swing of a chakra-enlarged sword to dispel five clones, but Naruto made sure that he never let up, wave after wave. Each wave, each punch, each headbutt brought him closer to freedom.
Han shot through several samurai with one steam-propelled kick as Fuu fluttered over him dropping scale powder. The scales exploded ahead and behind him, lighting up a path for Han to escape.
"Stay close to me," Gaara demanded. Hinata complied.
A samurai lunged at her. Two sand arms formed. They twisted his spine, severing him in half. Gaara let the man's blood pour into his gourd as more sand arms reached out, grabbing more people and crushing them.
For a moment, the jinchuuriki were invincible. That was until the weather caught up with them.
Han began to slow down, needing more time to breathe with every taijutsu attack. He steamed himself up to keep warm before bracing himself. Four chakra-infused samurai swords cut through his armour and drew blood.
Fuu's wings froze. She landed. It was all fun and games when she was floating several metres over the battlefield, but now that she was grounded, the earth felt so cold and the skies so grey. The samurai descended on her. She threw a stray punch but just broke her hand on a warrior's armour. She spat scale powder at her pursuers and lit it up to escape.
Naruto's fingers froze. He couldn't make a single hand sign. How pathetic of him. Shadow Clone Jutsu needed only one hand seal and he couldn't stop shivering for one moment to make it. He curled into a ball and tried to absorb as many slashes as he could.
Everyone knew they were in trouble when Gaara threw a kick. "My sand's absorbed too much moisture from the snow and ice around us. This is where you come in," Gaara told Hinata. "Set the sand alight," he demanded.
Without hesitation, Hinata did as Gaara commanded, using what little fire ninjutsu she knew. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" she inhaled air and exhaled searing hot flames that dried the circle of sand Gaara had formed around her.
They created a system. Gaara lays half his sand around Hinata. She burns it. He switches between halves. All while the sand in his gourd, slowly mixing with the blood of his enemies, automatically flicked out to protect Gaara and Hinata whenever an Iron samurai got too close.
"I need help!" Fuu cried.
Han rushed over to her, using a burst of steam to clear his path, "Where's Naruto?"
"I don't know, but I can't feel my hands," Fuu yelled into what remained of Han's armour. The petite kunoichi clung to the larger man for warmth.
"Stay near me, I'll warm you up!" Han embraced the kunoichi. He had to use his body as a shield. Kokuo's tails did their best to slap samurai away. "Naruto! Naruto!"
"I gave you a warning… and you did nothing about it!"
An opening appeared in front of Gaara, who'd single-handedly cut the army's numbers in half but Hinata, who was already exhausted, to begin with, was running out of chakra. "Han! Let's get out of here!"
Gaara didn't think twice. He grabbed the back of Hinata's shirt and ran.
"But… Naruto… Naruto!"
No response.
"Sakura-chan… Kakashi-sensei… Sasuke… someone! Help!" the cold was doing a number on Naruto. He couldn't even speak. His body, thanks to muscle memory alone, managed to fight its way through the crowd and into another building. Everywhere he went, blood followed. He was stumbling, staggering, and seeing doubles at every turn.
The samurai. They were right behind him.
He lifted his arms. The cuts. The bruises. How was he alive?
About fifty samurai remained. Han spotted a surge of them moving into one of the buildings. That had to be where Naruto was. He picked Fuu up and made a split-second decision.
He ran away.
He needed to get Fuu far enough from the battlefield, so he could come back and save Naruto as the Five-Tails. There was no use balancing heating up Fuu with half his body and burning through samurai armour with his other half. It was only a matter of time before he accidentally blasted Fuu with a melting pot of steam and warmed up a samurai with a gentle spray.
Yes. That was the right decision. At least that was what Han told himself as he sprinted away from the battlefield. Who was he to be judge, jury, and executioner? Who put him in charge? He had never led a team in his life. Who made him the father figure? He had never had a family to begin with. Why was it his job to play the hero? Han was scared. Just as scared as Fuu, just as scared as Hinata, just as scared as Naruto. Why did they have to be scared in the first place? What did they do to deserve this? Other than to be born into this cruel world where jinchuuriki had to be seen as nothing but political bargaining tools and weapons of mass destruction. Han looked down at Fuu, who was on the verge of consciousness. Her speech slurred, she didn't know where she was, the poor girl could do nothing but shiver and mutter "Hisen-sama", does that sound like a weapon of mass destruction to you?
Naruto coughed into his sleeve. Everything felt so hot. In fact, everything felt so cold that it burned. He couldn't feel his fingers. He could feel neither his fingers nor his face as he placed one against the other. He was crying. He couldn't feel it, but he knew he was crying. Why did time feel so slow? He swallowed. His spit was so thick with blood that he could feel it coursing down his throat. He couldn't feel his legs though. Was he still walking? Had he fallen? Was he dead?
"Iruka-sensei… Hiruzen… mom… dad…"
"This way Naruto," someone motioned for Naruto to dive into one of the rooms and close the door.
He could hear the samurai opening one door after the other, following the path of blood the Uzumaki had left in his wake.
Iruka wrapped his arms around the fragile jinchuuriki, catching him in a warm embrace, "Where have you been? I've been so worried about you," the scar-faced teacher wept. "It's okay. You can stop shaking, you're safe now."
"You're always so emotional, Iruka-sensei. You'll never catch me crying like that," Konohamaru folded his arms. "Oi! Are you crying too, Naruto-niichan?"
Sakura punched the Third Hokage's grandson to shut him up, "Shannaro! Let Naruto and Iruka-sensei cry for once! Don't you know that it's perfectly healthy for two guys to share their emotions, especially in a moment as delicate as this?"
"I think it's lame," Sasuke sighed, "but who cares? Whatever pleases the usuratonkachi," he teased. Since Sakura was too awe-struck by the Uchiha to shut him up, Kakashi had to pat the top of Sasuke's head to do so himself.
"You can stop shivering, Naruto… get some rest. We can handle it from here," Kakashi said.
"Yeah, stop crying, you big baby, get some sleep."
"Yeah, Naruto, close your eyes for once and just let the rest of Team Seven handle it."
Iruka whispered in the blonde's ear, "Yeah, close your eyes, Naruto… get some sleep."
"How pathetic… in your final moments you think about the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I refuse… I refuse to let a jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox be caught dead in such a precarious situation. Relinquish control to me."
Naruto's eyes shot open. "The Village Hidden in the Leaves. They're the reason we're in this situation. The Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Village Hidden in the Sand, they organised this attack. They organised to have us dead! Konoha wants you dead and you dream of their shinobi on your deathbed? You're gonna survive tonight and you're gonna hate… hate everything as much as you hate yourself! Do you hear me? I only let you live tonight because I want to see you hate!" The skin. It was peeling off.
An angelic presence hovered over Naruto in his final moments. Two sinewy pale hands brushed against Naruto's tear-laced whiskered cheeks. His distressed eyes stared at the heavenly figure's face, "When this is all over… I'd like to hear what your negatives and positives are…"
Han reached a forest to the east where Hinata had started a fire to reheat her body as well as Gaara's. "Where's Uzumaki?" Gaara asked.
A flash of light.
Raw vibrations in the earth.
A rush of chakra.
And then, the sound. A quick and powerful bang followed by a steady roar that echoed throughout the clearing into the forest.
The fire went out. Trees lost their leaves. Han hit the floor. His lungs burning with every breath.
The Five-Tails jinchuuriki glanced over his shoulder, "Oh no…"
Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox, for the first time in thirteen years, was back.