Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Jiraiya spent some time looking at the seal before grunting and turning to Tsunade, "It's definitely not a seal I'd normally think of but for the problem the kid has it's pretty much perfect. I think there might be an opportunity for improvement though."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "And what would that be?"
"Well your strength of a hundred seal basically takes chakra and stores it right? Why couldn't we do the same with Ko?"
Tsunade seemed to consider it before she shook her head, "Apart from the chakra control required the seal constantly keeps you low on chakra. OK for a medic but for a front line fighter? Not what the kid needs."
Jiraiya deflated a little, "Well then Ko I'd say this is pretty much perfect then, good job adapting this by the way, I always struggle to manipulate Uzumaki style seals for different uses and using this design you can restrict or open up your yin chakra production at will."
I smiled accepting his praise and said, "I'll need some help applying it since it will be on the base of my neck, do you want to help."
"What, you think I've got nothing better to do with my time?!" He said incredulously before breaking into a grin, "Sure thing kid, set up the seal and I'll drop by around 5."
"It will need to be done here at the hospital, we can't be sure it's entirely safe until after it's applied so you'll need help on hand should anything go wrong." Tsunade interjected.
Jiraiya thought for a moment before clicking his fingers, "Do you still have that room set up for when the, er, seal needs transferring?" He said cryptically.
Tsunade rolled her eyes "The brat knows about the nine tails and yes it's still there, I'll take Ko and get him prepped."
It was a good thing Jiraiya had decided to come back later in the afternoon. Or perhaps he knew looking at the array how long it would take to write the unsealed version across the floor of a room, in some places it had even stretched up the walls.
In the end I was left waiting for him to arrive since I had drawn the seal across the room without thinking about my position and had ended up trapped in the middle of the room with the seal written around me. I daren't try and leave in fear of messing up some part of the seal so I was forced to sit and wait. I could see Tsunade barely holding back her laughter behind a glass window in an adjoining room.
When Jiraiya finally arrived he took one look at where I was before laughing hysterically, "Rookie mistake kid" he got out between bouts of laughter. Eventually he calmed down and took a look around the room at the seal, after a few moments he must have decided it passed inspection because he gave a short nod and said, "Good work kid."
"That's all well and good but how're you going to get to me without messing up the seal." I groaned.
With a smirk Jiraiya took a step back before flipping upside down and sticking himself to the ceiling. I felt myself imploding with embarrassment, I should have thought of that.
Jiraiya made his way over and, standing directly above me, he wrote the final part of the seal on the base of my neck. My hair had been taken out of the way with an improvised topknot.
"Ready" he said, his hand poised over my neck.
"I guess" I replied, I had never applied a seal like this before, much less to myself.
"Fuin!" Jiraiya exclaimed and I felt an odd sensation I can only describe as being similar to my ears popping due to altitude but taking place somewhere in the middle of my head. It made me dizzy for a moment but I quickly regained my equilibrium and was left to feel the tickling sensation of the remainder of the seal making its way from the floor and up my body.
Apart from the brief disorientation it didn't seem to have any detrimental effect on me. Tsunade came bustling into the room anyway followed by Miku and Kakashi, I had almost forgotten he was doing medical training Wednesday evenings. He greeted me with a nod but seemed distracted watching instead tsunade's hands which were running over my upper body with chakra glowing in a nimbus around them.
"Do you feel OK Ko?" Tsunade asked, I responded with a nod.
"Could you try performing a jutsu for me? doesn't need to be anything complicated." She requested, one hand now over the seal the other over my stomach.
I performed a quick hand sign and Tsunade was staring at a second Jiraiya, I smiled at her.
"You can drop it now, we don't need two of him." She made a few notes on a scroll before looking back at me again, "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your chakra manipulation or your yin chakra production, the seal seems to be working as intended and acting as a sort of dam for the yin chakra your body creates. With this seal you'll still see an accelerated growth rate but it will be slowed and it should top out in around 6 years time. So whilst you probably won't get any taller than you are when you're 11 by the time you reach that age you will be…" she made a few quick brush strokes on her scroll before making a low whistle. "Between 8 and 9 feet tall"
"But my body won't rip itself apart like it was going to before?"
Tsunade shook her head.
"And I go back to training and missions?"
"... You'll be taking weekly medical exams for the foreseeable future but… sure kid." Tsunade handed her scroll to Miku, "Take the brat to an examination room and give him the standard medical." she said before leaving the room with Jiraiya in tow.
"She doesn't really mean it when she calls you a brat." Miku said conciliatory.
"I know, she's always been like that, she cares much more than she pretends she does." I replied.
I followed Miku to an examination room and talked to Kakashi on the way, he seemed to be enjoying his medical training, a sentiment which Miku confirmed saying that if anything his interest has intensified since our last mission.
Once I was finished at the hospital Minato met me outside, he was speaking to Jiraiya but turned to me when I approached.
"Hey Ko, I heard your seal went well, I was just on my way to let Kakashi know we'll be meeting at training ground 7 tomorrow as usual, I've got a surprise for you both." He said grinning.
"Oh," I said glancing down at the tri-pronged kunai at his waist, "It wouldn't have anything to do with that seal I helped you with would it?"
Minato put a finger to his lips "shhhhh" he said before disappearing in a shunshin.
Jiraiya turned to me, "Remind me when I next see you I still need to take you to see the toads." Then he too disappeared in a shunshin.
Arriving home I examined my shelves of fuinjutsu scrolls for the first time since getting back from the mission and saw that there was a puzzle… of sorts... for grade 5. A blank scroll. No clues or hints just a blank scroll. I shrugged my shoulders assuming there would be something in the previous scrolls that might help and went to get some sleep.
Kakashi arrived at my house the next day bright and early but I was already training outside, it felt good to finally be able to stretch myself after the weeks I had spent basically grounded, he wanted to take a look at the seal and after I consented he pushed apart large armfuls of my hair to see the back of my neck.
"It doesn't look like much" He said skeptically
"Appearances can be deceiving, that might be the most complicated seal you will ever see." I replied
He hummed non-commitantly and shortly after we departed for the training field.
Minato was waiting for us when we arrived with his trademark grin.
"Today I thought we'd have a little catch up before we go grab a mission, so how have you been doing with your chakra natures?"
Kakashi Held up a leaf and I could see electricity lighting up through the veins of the leaf before it suddenly became too much and it combusted, he threw what remained to the side in disgust. Then they turned to me. I wouldn't be telling anyone but this was the one exercises I still dared to do when I was banned from training. As a result I could make a small jagged cut that went through perhaps a quarter of the leaf.
Minato nodded looking pleased. "That is more progress than I expected to see. It takes many Jonin months to make the progress you have made, now as for me i've got a surprise…"
Minato pulled out one of his tri-pronged kunai and threw it, disappearing a moment later in a yellow flash and reappearing where his kunai was. Kakashi's jaw very nearly dropped enough to take his mask off and to be fair even I, despite knowing what was coming, was impressed - it was like short range teleportation.
"That's not all though!" Minato exclaimed and, twisting a part of the kunai handle, he threw the it again but this time when there was a yellow flash a second Minato appeared who through another kunai and a third Minato appeared. That seemed to be the limit though as I was beginning to notice golden arcs of light jumping across the skin on all the Minatos present, something Minato confirmed moments later when, in a final yellow flash, only the last Minato remained standing.
"I can delay the teleportation and leave a kind of clone in my place but 3 seems to be the limit before the technique starts to lose stability, there's another problem as well since if any one of the… mes get injured that injury will still get carried over when the technique completes." He explained to us.
Kakashi was looking at Minato now with something approaching hero worship though you'd have to know him to recognise it. Eventually after a few more demonstrations we set off for another mission. Or at least Kakashi did, I stopped Minato before he shunshined to meet us at the tower.
"Sensei, about the last mission, there was something strange." I began
Minato cocked an eyebrow "Strange how?"
"I'm usually able to locate people, or at least shinobi by their chakra, civilians and bandits usually have too weak of a… signal I guess and I struggle to sense them. The ninja that attacked me though I couldn't sense him at all." I explained.
Minato looked a little surprised, "You can sense chakra? That's at least a chunin level skill. Unfortunately for you most shinobi at chunin or higher learn to hide their chakra from sensors by habit and that missing nin was once ranked a Jonin," He shook his head, "I wouldn't expect our best sensors to pick up someone of that caliber unless they were a hyuga. The mistake you made was to get separated from Kushina, you got overconfident and lost sight of the mission." He finished reprimanding me.
I looked down suitably chastised, "Yes sensei"
"No more of that, Let's get out next mission."
"A D rank sensei?" I groaned
We had been assigned a mission transporting iron from a refinery to local blacksmiths, nothing too difficult but even for me the loads we were carrying were ludicrous.
"I wouldn't want your muscles atrophying with all that rest you've had." Minato joked.
I had no idea how blacksmiths got through so much iron, it was late afternoon before we were even reaching the back of the store we were supposed to transport and I was feeling the pain of carrying them in my bones. Kakashi looked ready to drop but perked up every time Minato encouraged us.
When we had finally delivered the last one I took the opportunity to look around at the wares of the blacksmith. I'd never thought myself a specialist in weapons but that didn't mean I didn't know how to use them. Many of the weapons in this shop just didn't feel right when I ran my hands over them or even in the rare cases when I picked them up.
I decided not to choose any at that moment but I made a mental note to return when I had more time, for now though we had to return to the tower to report our mission complete. By the time we had gotten up to the mission desk I felt every bit as tired as Kakashi looked, I wasn't surprised that once we had finished and Minato told us he would meet us the next morning Kakashi decided to head home.
I took some time walking back through the tower, idly thinking about some of the seals I had been reading about, when I reached the entrance I was nearly knocked down I was so surprised, I giant of a man fell from the sky and landed in the dust in front of me, I quickly realised it was Jiraiya though, the hair was a dead giveaway.
"Oh hey kid, sorry didn't see you there." He said
"Do you usually take jumps from hokage tower?" I asked sourly.
"Only when Sensei isn't busy." He replied
I wasn't sure what he meant but suddenly a thought from the back of my head pushed itself to the fore, "You said to remind you about… Ma and Pa?" I finished making the last sound like a question. I couldn't remember in my tired state what it was about but I seemed to remember it was important.
"Oh right yeah!" He exclaimed slamming a fist into his other palm, "Lets go now."
"Now? but - "
I didn't get any further, Jiraiya's hands moved in a blur, there was an outpouring of chakra and I was enveloped in smoke.
I coughed waving away the smoke but then realised it wasn't the smoke I was choking on; it was the air.
It was like the air itself was thick enough you could drink it like a soup, it took me a few seconds to realise it was suffused with chakra.
I looked to Jiraiya who grinned at me, "Welcome to Mount Myoboku kid, wait here I'll go get Pa" I nodded dumly and as he sprang away I scanned the ethereal place he had taken me.
The area around where we were was like something out of a painting, it was a landscape I could have never imagined existed in reality.
Huge spikes of stone became mountains and others wilted, waterfalls springing forth from many of them, closer at hand huge statues of toads prostrate in what looked like meditation stood. Life-like but very ancient if the moss gathering across them was any indication. Before me in the valley stretching in front of me huge mushrooms grew, I could not gauge their size for they seemed too large to be credible.
It was too much all at once so I returned to analysing the air and the chakra I could feel thrumming through it. It was a marvel. If you could find a way to harness it you could have infinite amounts of chakra. I gathered some chakra into my hand but was dismayed when I sensed the surrounding chakra was pushed away even as I expelled chakra from my tenketsu.
I thought for a moment and instead withdrew my chakra, creating a vacuum for the chakra in the air to follow and tentatively it came. And then everything went wrong.
Suddenly the chakra was rushing into me, I felt my feet becoming heavy, incapable of moving, my head expanded, my eyes moving to the sides of my head. Webs grew between my fingers.
Strangely after it initially started happening I wasn't panicked, an odd sense of calm washed over me. This was alright… everything was going to be alright…
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK
3 blows rained down upon me in quick succession and I felt the chakra leaving me, something that I lamented until my mind cleared and I saw Jiraiya stood looking concerned and a small green toad with grey hair holding a stick that I now realised he had smacked me with.
"W… what was that?" I asked bewildered, instead of replying the elder toad turned to Jiraiya.
"You taught him about nature chakra, at his age Jiraiya-boy? And then you brought him here?" He gave Jiraiya two quick swipes with the stick, one at each question.
Jiraiya held up his hands trying to placate the toad, "I taught him nothing Pa I swear it."
Pa stared at Jiraiya for a few more moments before seemingly accepting what he had said as the truth, he deflated slightly "Well then, we'll discuss this later"
Jiraiya picked up the conversation from there, "Ko this is Pa, one of the two great sage toads, Pa this is Ko… my son."
Pa's eyes nearly bulged from his eyes, "Your son?! But he must be approaching adulthood and you're only…" suddenly he looked faint.
I smiled, "I'm younger than I look, I'm actually only five. I have a… unique chakra problem that causes me to grow quicker than usual."
Pa seemed to mouth 'five' whilst looking over me before shaking himself, "What are we doing, you're the new toad summoner, we must celebrate! Come Ma was just making dinner"
The food was definitely an acquired taste but nowhere near as bad as Jiraiya had made out on our way to their home, he had made some excuse to avoid getting a full serving of food himself and the few times I glanced over at him whilst we were eating he seemed to grow greener and greener much to my amusement. Over the course of the meal Pa explained to Ma that I was the new toad summoner and about the accident I had when I arrived. Ma seemed to take all this in her stride and more than anything else appeared extremely happy that I had even tasted her food never mind cleared my bowl.
"So," I began, "what is nature chakra?"
"It's the lifeblood of the world Ko-boy" Pa replied, "Just as humans require chakra to sustain themselves so does all of nature. Plants however have no chakra system so they expel excess chakra into the air to be shared amongst other plants and, after a certain amount of training, sages such as myself and to a certain extent, Jiraiya-boy"
I nodded in understanding, in hindsight it seemed an obvious idea that in this world if humans need chakra to survive other forms of life might, "But then what happened to me?" I asked
Pa gestured around, "Mount Myoboku has always been an area suffused in an extraordinary amount of nature chakra, when you arrived you must have somehow accidentally drawn some in. In such cases where nature chakra is absorbed in large amounts or without proper mixture with the users chakra the nature chakra will attempt to transform it's user into something befitting the landscape around it before turning you to stone." He paused to cough into a fist, "Toads have lived here for so long now that the natural chakra has attuned itself to our presence, as a result the thing an unwary user of nature chakra gets turned into is a stone toad more often than not. I'm afraid the process is quite irreversible if I had not come along when I had you would have been just another toad golem."
Suddenly I didn't feel so well, "I could sense the nature chakra so it wasn't really an accident - i was trying to draw it in… but youre saying all those other statues were…" I choked out.
Pa nodded, "Unsuccessful attempts at becoming a sage. Or just accidents. We leave them out of respect and as a warning."
"Do not depress the boy too much!" Ma exclaimed, "You'll discourage him and don't forget about the message from old man gamamura."
"Discourage? You can't mean-" but Pa was already nodding.
"Jiraiya has already trained to be a sage, though he has yet to make a perfect transformation, you too will be trained, in time. That you can sense the chakra so well only bodes well for your training Ko-boy but I wouldn't worry too much it will be some time before you are ready for such an undertaking and longer still before you attain such a feat. Anyway Ma is right. Old man Gamamaru knows you are here and has sent a message arranging a meeting with you, he has grown very restful of late it would be unwise to make him wait. We'll be leaving as soon as Jiraiya-boy eats his dinner."
Jiraiya looked like a man condemned.
"Who is Gamamaru?" I asked Jiraiya, we were approaching an area beneath one of the mountainous outcroppings, it seemed to give way to a cavern.
"He's the great toad sage, we don't know how old he is but I've hear Pa say over 1000 years old. He's very old at any rate. He might seem like ahhh…. Like he's missing a few marbles upstairs but don't let that fool you he's still very wise and deserves respect." Jiraiya explained as I nodded, "He sits in the hall of records where everything that happens in history is recorded but what's more important are his prophecies. Toads don't dream but Gamamaru does and his dreams foretell the future."
If Jiraiya hadn't told me so seriously I wouldn't have believed him and even so I still struggled. Where did that leave determinism or free will? I had little time to ponder for we entered a hall with a colossally sized toad sitting upon a throne with what appeared to be huge scrolls stacked behind him, he wore a hat with an orb on it and whilst he looked docile enough I could notice he was steadily muttering to himself.
Map and Pa leaped to two daises in front of the toad and announced us.
"We have brought the one you asked for." they proclaimed.
"Who he asked for? how could he know I-" I began but was quickly shushed by Jiraiya.
"Of course I know who you are, that is to say I know what you are, how could I not!" Gamamaru exclaimed
"Erm, great toad Sage, I apologise if I've caused you any grievance." I said, it seemed best to approach this diplomatically considering his riled up state.
Gamamaru deflated, "Of course it is not your fault child, fate has its own ideas and seems to have blinded me to them with your existence."
Pa turned to the great toad sage, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that two years ago I had another dream." He replied
"But you never told us!" Ma and Pa protested
"There was little to tell. The dream was the end of my dreams, my previous prophecies that were never wrong, that always came to pass can now no longer be trusted because of this boy, this changer." He said, it seemed to take a great deal out of him for he took a drink from a glass resting nearby.
"What did I do?" I asked
For a moment he said nothing as if gathering his thoughts, "Nothing, you existed" his eyes opened slightly and suddenly I felt like I was pierced by them, "You are as different as I expected you to be, it seems I was a little insulting to call you 'child'."
Suddenly Jiraiya stepped forward, "Toad sage, what does this mean for my prophecy, for the cause I have dedicated my life to?!"
Gamamaru again remained silent for a few moments, "It is unclear and becomes more unclear everyday. You may never find your student, you may have already found your student. All I dream now is white, a canvas with infinite possibilities. But I do have a warning. The edges of this canvas are threatened with a great darkness. I make it your responsibility changer to prevent this and Jiraiya I ask that you aid him."
Jiraiya looked crestfallen but then he steadied himself and set his face stern as if he had already digested the information and made up his mind. But how could I? I was supposed to stop a great darkness coming in the future. I'd be happy to try but I was 5 years old, surely the toad sage had the wrong guy.
"Toad sage, are you certain of this?" I asked
"I am certain of little these last few years now that my dreams have failed me, but of your part in this I have no doubt. You will return here before you are ten years of age to learn senjutsu." He proclaimed.
Map and Pa turned to him "Surely that is too early, he is still a boy despite how he looks." They protested.
Gamamaru though stared at me with eyes wider than ever and said "We must take all safeguards against this darkness that threatens to engulf us. And you see him falsely, he is older than he looks." He finished cryptically.
'What did he mean by that?' I thought 'He can't have been able to tell I lived another life no matter how wise he is could he?'
I had no opportunity to ask for Gamamaru laid his head back and promptly fell asleep.
Before leaving Mount Myoboku Jiraiya and Pa introduced me to two more toads, a large toad called Gamabunta and another smaller toad called Kosuke with the instruction that I was only to summon Gamabunta in the most dire of circumstances. I nodded silently throughout all this despite the bad impression it apparently made on gamabunta I just couldn't concentrate with my thoughts on what the great toad sage had said and when we finally returned to Konoha Jiraiya tapped me on the shoulder and told me not to worry about it though there was still that steel at the edge of his gaze. He then immediately headed back into Hokage tower shouting back that he had to make a report to the Hokage.
I went home and layed in my futon still shellshocked. How could I prevent a darkness from befalling the future? By the time I woke up the next day however I had decided there was little I could do about it either way and put it to the back of my mind, fretting over a future you had no information to prevent was worse than useless, all I could was prepare myself to meet it.
Of course now that I was awake it helped that I was distracted since I had been manacled to a wall in a cell.
"Kukukuku so you finally awake Keiko, I've had my eyes on you for some time." A voice rasped from the darkness inside the cave.
He stepped forward, the light from his torch illuminating a pale face I vaguely recognised from a picture of Jiraiya's genin team.
"Orochimaru!?"
AN: I don't have much to say with this one, I think it's progressing a little quickly so I may slow the pace a little going forward. But I hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next chapter.