"A worthy reaction to my glorious presence, wretched human."
The booming voice deafening as it reverberated loudly, shaking the very walls of the cavern that Mikasa was in from its power. The fearsome part was that it was merely speaking. It wasn't even shouting or yelling.
"W-what… are…" Mikasa struggled to speak, ignoring whatever strange sewer liquid she had just fallen into.
"Unable to formulate words puny worm?" The massive form asked, taking obvious pleasure at her fear.
"Where are we?" She swallowed as she gathered what remained of her dignity. She pulled herself to her feet as she began to realize that whatever this beast was, it was behind a cage. One that didn't seem like it could be destroyed easily, otherwise she was sure it would have broken out by now. The knowledge that this thing was somehow trapped and couldn't reach her helped to ease her terrified mind.
"We are in the mindscape of my jailor," the creature responded. "Welcome to my humble prison."
"Jailor? You mean Naruto?" Mikasa asked as she began to try and piece things together while she recalled that yes, she had indeed entered Naruto's mind. But she hadn't been expecting this. She had thought that maybe it was simple enough that she could calm him down once she hypnotized him. What was she even supposed to do now? As she thought about matter however, she couldn't help but notice its striking resemblance to a fox. Albeit it was a monstrous nine tailed one but it was still a fox.
"Hmph. That pathetic human you call Naruto, he does not exist." The beast snorted in amusement.
"You lie!" Mikasa snapped back at the entity despite the situation. It had struck a chord within her and she couldn't help it. There was just no way that such a fundamental aspect of her life had never been there. Naruto was not an illusion cast on her or anyone, her eyes definitely would have seen through it if that were the case.
"Why do I need to sully myself with something so trivial as lies? Such a thing is beneath me, especially when the truth is so much worse," the fox said as its grin widened even further in amusement.
"We have lived with him for years! We ate with him, fought with him, slept with him, and trained with him! It is impossible for that all to have been imagined. It wasn't a trick, so how can you explain that?" Mikasa demanded. This creature was obviously trying to upturn her life or understanding to throw her off balance, she just didn't know for what. But as much as she could, she wouldn't allow it to mess with her.
"You interacted with him, that is true. But he was never truly alive, simply because he was never actually born in the first place. Why do you think he was in an orphanage all his life, shunned for being different? Did you never question what made him so unique?" The fox questioned as it encouraged Mikasa to arrive at the answer herself. "Everyone can feel that he is different. Just because he looks human, doesn't mean he feels human or is human."
"Because he is a shinobi?" Mikasa tried. It sounded like a weak argument even to her ears, but she had no other reason to explain why he might be different to them. She had felt it before of course, when they had first met. She had been wary of him and had only learned to accept it more fully as a part of her life the longer they stayed with him. Something had always felt off but she had learned to ignore it. Now that it was being mentioned however, she had to admit that the fox had a point. That strange vibe she had gotten from Naruto on the day they met didn't feel human, and it had never fully gone away.
"Fool. You have interacted with these shinobi and yet they do not feel like he does," the fox said in a disappointed tone. "Would you like to know why he feels different?"
Mikasa knew better than to blindly trust the words of a malicious, caged entity that was trapped within Naruto for some reason or other. But at this point she was curious for an answer as well. Maybe there was really something different about Naruto, but that wouldn't change how she felt about him. If anything she just felt even more inclined to help him with whatever issue he had. But to be able to help him with it, she had to know more about what was wrong in the first place.
After a moment or two of thought, she nodded.
"The boy you have lived with and looked up to all these years was never a person of his own, with his own mind or own self existence. Everything that exists in this world is unique, be it a different combination of genes or something else. No two things are exactly alike. Biological siblings are unique from each other, even identical twins are unique and separate from one another with a clear distinction…"
"Can you get to the point?" Mikasa interrupted. Just because she had agreed to listen didn't mean that she had the luxury to let it ramble on pointlessly.
The massive fox just raised an amused eyebrow before he continued.
"I am getting there, impatient brat." The fox chuckled ominously.
"But for you to understand better, you need to know more about me. You see, there are multiple planes of existence alongside this world. We all occupy the same space, but any being can only exist in one realm at any time. These planes were all separated long ago even before I was formed. Then on this plane of yours millennia ago, two foolish girls by the names of Ymir and Kaguya tore a rift between our worlds. I am unaware of what exactly they did, but they made deals with some of the strongest demons that exist in my realm. Ymir called on a fallen angel known as Satan, while Kaguya called on a god-tree known as Shinju. As far as I am aware they gave something away in exchange for unfathomable power to subjugate this world of yours."
"These titans and titan shifters as you know them, are descendants of Ymir. They have two forms, human and demon. These demons exist on my plane in Gehenna. But whenever they shift, there is this yellow lightning because they tear a rift between the realms and their demon forms in Gehenna materialize here in Assiah. You wondered why that other boy Eren was as wild as he was? That was his demon form in control. Over time they learn to enslave their demons to their will."
"Kaguya on the other hand, was given a fruit to eat. This gave her unrivaled power, but as she was only human it gradually drove her insane. With her power after years of destruction she finally had the brilliant idea of opening a gate from Gehenna into this world to let the Shinju cross over, which was probably the Shinju's side of the deal. Unfortunately for the Shinju, before the rift between the two realms was big enough for it to pass through, my siblings and I managed to get through instead. You see, aside from the Shinju and Satan, my siblings and I are the strongest of the demons in our realm. And when we saw how much fun of a playground Assiah was, we couldn't just let those two wander here and turn it into another Gehenna. So naturally we disposed of Kaguya and permanently disabled the rift. Unfortunately that Kaguya had already begun spreading her powers among you people and ended up forming shinobi. My siblings and I didn't mind, we went our separate ways to enjoy this place."
"But after a few millennia of chaos, there arose a man capable of trapping my siblings. Not only that however, he was capable of absorbing their power and turning it into his own. All eight of my other siblings have been absorbed, and naturally he set his eyes on me. Unlike my siblings however, I am the most powerful. Even after having absorbed all eight he couldn't defeat me. But it amused me however and vouching for a little fun, I let myself get captured. He soon found out however that he couldn't absorb me, since I dwarfed his own capabilities. So he decided to keep me contained until he became strong enough no matter how long he took. I would say he unlocked a pseudo immortality through absorbing my siblings so time was on his side after all. Soon he realized that there was nothing that could hold me for very long. Mere objects laden with fuinjutsu weren't enough. They needed something alive. But no matter the animal or human they sealed me into I drove them insane within days, either that or their body ate itself alive. I enjoyed their feeble attempts and didn't resist their efforts because it amused me what you puny mortals came up with. This went on until he eventually had the idea that the only thing powerful enough to contain me, was myself. You see, this 'Naruto' of yours did not have parents of his own. He was made artificially for a specific purpose by that man. And that sole purpose was to contain all of my glorious power!"
The fox began to laugh uproariously at Mikasa's horrified expression as what he was explaining to her began to sink in.
"Are you starting to understand? He purified a sliver of my chakra with the help of a death god that they summoned from Gehenna. Unfortunately for them, all they managed to purify amounted to as much worth as my spit. I'm sure they would have gladly purified me in my entirety if they could. But for all their power it was all they managed. I am the very embodiment of hatred and wrath given form, one cannot simply purify my energy. I am sentient chakra if you wish. From this basis they molded my purified chakra and in doing so gave it sentience of its own, the perfect jailor for my power."
"So Naruto is…"
"Yes now you see. That Naruto you thought you knew is simply me. He never existed, it has always ever been me! And what you see happening now, it is an oversight of the one who tried to keep me jailed. I am simply reabsorbing what was taken from me. And once my rebellious chunk of chakra returns to me I will be whole again and free once more."
"But then how did he end up at the orphanage? Where is the one who did this to you?" Mikasa asked in confusion. It was all she could do to keep from panicking as she tried to make sense of all this information. Demon or not from another realm she didn't care. She hadn't even been outside the walls so she couldn't even begin to imagine what this fox had been implying. What she had to find out however, was if she could get Naruto back.
"That's what I find amusing. You see as a baby, my jailor was stolen from that man's laboratory. Hiruzen was an exemplary thief and a powerful man to have accomplished such a legendary feat. It is such a shame he perished in that battle. He left a shadow clone before he died however, which was what took care of my jailor afterwards."
Mikasa ignored the fact that Hiruzen, the man who had shaped Naruto, had been nothing more than a clone. As far as she knew the shadow clones were exactly like their owners even in thoughts. Right now her priority had to be helping Naruto somehow from whatever this ancient fox demon was planning. She was going to take advantage of the fact that in its arrogance or whatever, it was willingly dishing out information.
"What do you mean you mean Naruto will return to you? All you did was make him rampage earlier." She accused. "If anything it's like you two aren't compatible."
"Still full of hope?" The fox snickered. "You see, think of it like water. When you take a bucket of water out of the river, you separate it from the river. Then if you boil it and add whatever spices you wish, you turn it into soup. It is now different from the river, isn't it. But if you take that bucket of soup and throw it back into the river it came from, what happens to the soup? It mixes with the river once again and ceases to be soup. It is now fully part of the river again, except the difference here is that the bucket was taken from an ocean of chakra. And now as 'Naruto' has drawn on my power however accidentally, he has connected the soup back to me. In a while there will no longer be a 'Naruto'. There will only be me. A free nine tailed demon fox. The Kyubi Kitsune no Yoko!"
"No! That won't happen, not if I can stop you!" Mikasa declared resolutely as she glared at the fox.
"Oh by all means feel free to try and stop it, if you can even save any of him." The fox chuckled. "It amuses me how desperate you pathetic humans can become against the inevitable. For that I will reward you with a warning. The longer you stay here, the more danger you are in."
"What do you mean?" Mikasa asked, alarmed by the sudden reminder that this wasn't actually her body or her head.
"Your consciousness has been projected into this mental space, which is all me. The more contact you have to my chakra, the more you get poisoned. If your consciousness dies in here then your outside body will be reduced to a vegetative state," The fox replied with a careless shrug. "And since I doubt you'll heed my warning and still try to save this 'Naruto' anyways, amuse me by struggling to free my stray chakra. He's in that corner, slowly losing his identity."
"Naruto!" Mikasa called out. She ran to him as fast as she could despite being hindered by the water to the small boy huddled in the corner with his back to her and hugging his knees in fear. In her haste she didn't even consider that she could walk on water. He was a lot smaller than she was used to. The Naruto that ran their family was a grown man. But this? He was barely the size of a small child and if not for the golden hair she would not have recognized him at all. She reached the child and put a hand on his shoulder to turn him to face her, only to let out a horrified gasp a moment later and pulled her hand away in shock.
The child had no face.
It was a featureless, smooth oval of skin. It was unrecognizable. Mikasa didn't even know where to begin to fix this situation and somehow stop the fox from absorbing Naruto. She refused to believe everything they had shared together had been fake. Naruto was not that fox. She never felt the malicious vibe of a demon emanate from Naruto aside from today. Yes something had always felt off with him and now she knew why, but she firmly believed that despite coming from a demon he wasn't one himself.
"Tick tock," The massive beast teased as it settled down and rested its head on its front legs. The twisted smile never its his maw as it watched the interaction with barely concealed glee.
Mikasa looked downwards and frowned. Bubbling red chakra that looked a lot like sludge was slowly climbing up her body and her feet were starting to fade because of it. She didn't want to think of what would happen if the suspicious looking substance reached her head.
She turned a determined gaze back to Naruto, who looked like a creepy doll that was facing her with no expression. She closed her eyes and held her hand out to his forehead out of instinct. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in strange setting she didn't recognize. The stupid fox was still behind her and she could feel its watching gaze but she ignored it in favour of trying to better understand her surroundings. When she noticed how many kids were around her, she surmised that she was in the orphanage Naruto had grown up in. With that in mind she hurriedly searched for a sign of golden hair.
He wasn't that hard to find. Everyone was avoiding him like the plague. Mikasa witnessed how much he was getting shunned, both by everyone and the two figures who had shaped Naruto into who he was.
"What's happening?" Mikasa asked in genuine confusion, mostly to herself. Iruka was furious with the kid, and then she had to watch as Hiruzen practically washed his hands clean of Naruto and had him thrown out of the orphanage. Mikasa hadn't known the old man for that long, but she knew that this wasn't in character at all. And that man definitely wasn't Iruka, the one who had watched over them in the immediate aftermath of Shiganshina was far too gentle to ever harm another person, much less a kid.
"Oh, he seems to be living in a nightmare of his own making. Everyone has insecurities, and he is just falling prey to his and losing his identity in the process. Once he fully forgets who he is, he will have been fully absorbed back into me. It must be the effect of my chakra on his psyche." The gigantic demon fox mused.
Mikasa hated this. This wasn't Naruto. Their rock, their foundation as a family wasn't this weak. Yes he had fears and insecurities, but he had always overcome them and accepted them as necessary hurdles he had to outgrow. He wasn't affected by his insecurities anymore, his only fears that actually affected him nowadays were fears for his family's safety. This hopeless wreck wasn't who Naruto was supposed to be. He was a bastion of light, a force of will to drag them through any storm.
With that as a starting point Mikasa had an idea. She needed him to remember who he was, and what better way to do that than to see his family? Focusing on her own will, she tried to affect what he was seeing and imagined Armin, Eren, and herself appearing into the scenario. She smiled as the trio manifested around him. Maybe they would help him remember who he was.
Unfortunately even her imaginary constructs were affected negatively by Naruto's own imagination and the trio of children were warped into different versions of themselves that then turned on Naruto. Armin was afraid of him, Eren had punched him and viewed him as a threat, and Mikasa had kicked him away and called him a freak. That had backfired spectacularly.
She turned back to the laughing fox in frustration at her attempts.
"Do you now see how hopeless this task is? But by all means, do carry on. Amuse me with what little time you all have left."
Mikasa grit her teeth when she noticed that the disappearance on her body was now nearing her knees. Maybe it wasn't that simple. But he didn't have to remember his important people. The fox had said that Naruto was purified, sentient chakra. The only thing that kept the chakra together was Naruto's own consciousness of himself. It was this awareness of self that was slowly slipping away the longer he was drawing on the fox demon's power. She just had to help him reaffirm his identity.
It wasn't enough to show him the people he cared about however. Since he had already reacted badly to the constructs she had made of their family and it had only worsened the situation. She had to show him an idea. She had to show him a foundation of his character that defined him. A characteristic that Naruto could connect to his own independent identity that was separate from the fox demon. What characteristic defined him as a person however? What characteristic of his was so unlike the fox's that he could draw a distinct line between them?
It wasn't his determination to get something done. It was a big part but on its own it did not define him. It wasn't a sense of ambition or bravery. It wasn't that he was smart or loyal. So many people had these general traits in them anyways. It wasn't his caring nature, or his power and skill.
One thing that stood out to her however, was that he did keep his promises. He would never promise something he wouldn't do. His promises would and could create hell for him afterwards and yet no struggle would be enough to stop him from fulfilling them. But he never broke his promises. He never went back on his word. It defined his very character. He had made only a few promises to people, but they had been big ones he had been guarding ever since he made them. She just had to find a way to get it across to him. She couldn't treat him as a mature person however. There was a reason he had taken the form of a faceless child, and therefore she had to interact appropriately to what she saw. That didn't mean she knew how to deal with kids however.
"Hey, are you okay?" She asked softly as she knelt down next to the kid at the side of the road.
"No," the kid whimpered pitifully. Mikasa sighed. It wasn't much, but at least he was still responding to her. It would have been so much worse if the faceless child had already been so withdrawn into himself that he no longer reacted.
"Why aren't you okay?" Mikasa asked gently, urging him to think for himself. Spoon feeding him the answers as she had tried to do earlier wasn't going to help. His imagination would just twist and morph the answers.
"Because I'm alone," the kid replied sadly.
Mikasa winced a little. While she knew that Naruto had suffered from loneliness before, she could never fully relate. She had loving parents for most of her young life, while Carla and Grisha had taken her in afterwards before Naruto finally took the role. Loneliness was something only Naruto and Annie had ever truly experienced and was something they shared that the others couldn't quite understand. She didn't know how to help with loneliness either, since she hadn't been in the forest when Naruto had confronted Annie about hers.
"What's wrong with being alone?" Mikasa asked, urging him to continue thinking for himself.
"I have nobody, and I don't like it. It hurts so much. I am nobody. Why am I even here if nobody wants me?" The child sniffled.
Yeah, that wasn't a good sign of someone retaining their identity if they were questioning their existence. Thankfully it had opened up an opportunity for Mikasa to use.
"Do you want anyone else to feel the way you do?" Mikasa probed.
"No! Nobody should ever feel like this!" The faceless child shouted back violently. For the first time Mikasa wondered how she was hearing his voice but then remembered that they were in his mind so to speak and just chalked it up to that. What got her attention however, was that the child now had a pair of whisker marks forming where they should have been. That was a good sign, she was making progress.
"So you don't want anyone else to feel this way? What if you had children of your own? Would you let them feel like you do?"
"Never!" The child responded violently as a mouth suddenly formed on the otherwise blank skin of his face. It was twisted into a snarl but it was better than nothing.
"Then what would you make them feel?" Mikasa asked softly. While riling him up had the desired effect of him becoming more vocal it would only carry the conversation so far. Naruto in his childlike and near faceless form sat back thoughtfully.
"I want them to be happy. I'll show my love for them all the time. I'll give them everything they want. I'll keep them safe. I'll protect them. I'll care for them. They will never feel bad or alone, ever." He listed with conviction.
It was strange to hear Naruto speaking with the same simple language of a seven year old, but no less intense as proved by the nose that had formed to complete the lower half of his face.
"What do you think your daughter will be like?" Mikasa carried on conversationally.
"I think she will look like me. Blue eyes and yellow hair. But maybe she will be quiet, and very good at fighting. I can teach her. Maybe it will make her happy?" The child contemplated as eyebrows began to form.
Mikasa smiled despite the situation. He was somehow remembering Annie and she hadn't even fed him that information. There was hope.
"Would you call her Annabeth?"
"No. It doesn't sound good. Annie sounds better." The child mused.
"Any last name?" Mikasa asked hopefully. Maybe if it jarred a memory as well then they would be back on track.
"I don't know. I don't even know my own name." The child frowned at the thought.
Mikasa sighed. Maybe that had been a little too fast.
"What about the rest of her family? Is it just you two, or are there more?" Mikasa continued, hoping to go down a different road.
"Of course there's more!" Faceless Naruto said excitedly. "I want a big family! So there's going to be mom, and she's going to help me take care of lots of children!"
"And what do they look like?" Mikasa prodded further. She ignored the fluttery feeling in her stomach when he announced that. Now wasn't the time.
"The mom is strong. She can take care of the family when I'm not there. She can make everyone happy and safe! She's going to be pretty and have long, beautiful, black hair. Then the daughter has two brothers. One also looks like me but is very shy and smart, and the other looks a little weird but is very strong and scary. And we all take care of each other!" That was a good sign to Mikasa as two ears developed on either side of his head.
"What if you put your family in danger? What if you put Annie in danger?"
"That's impossible! I'd never do that!" The child denied vehemently.
"But why? Why wouldn't you do it?" Mikasa pushed further.
"Because I promised to take care of them! And I never break my promises!" The boy shouted back fiercely as one blue eye formed on his face and glared at Mikasa.
"And who taught you that idea?" Mikasa asked.
"The old man!" Naruto defended.
"He taught you not to break your promises?" She clarified.
"Yes! And old man Hiruzen taught me everything I know! He taught me how to fight, how look underneath the underneath and he told me to find something precious to protect! And when you want to protect something you can sacrifice yourself for it like he did for me! That's how I know he cared about me and set an example for how I should care for my family! And he said…"
"What? What else did he tell you?" Mikasa asked excitedly.
"Before he sacrificed himself, he told me my name was Uzumaki… something. Uzumaki what?" Naruto mumbled almost to himself as his final eye formed on his face. He then clutched his head in pain as he was assaulted by the multitude of memories he had after that day in Shiganshina and Mikasa could only watch as his body began to grow into the man she knew. It was a slow process however, and would probably take a couple of minutes.
"Now that was unexpected, I will admit. And as touching as that voyage of self discovery was, I'm afraid I can't have that." The booming voice of the fox interrupted.
Mikasa turned in fear as massive tendrils of red chakra began to leak out of the cage and surround both her and Naruto. To her dismay, once the red chakra came into contact with Naruto it halted his growth and he even began to regress back into the faceless child. That wasn't her only problem however. When she looked down at her body, only her upper half remained. Her legs had all but disappeared. Naruto wasn't the only one running out of time.
"You aren't leaving this place. I won't let you. Consider it a reward for almost thwarting my freedom." The massive fox bellowed.
"You know, this explains why you were taking so long," another voice sounded from behind Mikasa and her head snapped back to see someone she hadn't been expecting. It was Armin, and the small blond was glaring back defiantly at the fox.
"Oh? Another one? How many more of you should we be expecting in here?" The fox asked sarcastically in a slightly annoyed fashion.
"Armin what are you doing here?" Mikasa asked urgently. If he was a mental projection like herself then he suffered the same risk that she currently did.
"Whatever you had going on wasn't working and he just kept growing more tails outside despite not moving. I kept applying seal tags but I couldn't make enough and Annie is approaching her limit. She can't stay near him much longer or her body will just stop healing. I couldn't enter Naruto's head either, and I can see why now," Armin accused. All the while he never rescinded his glare at the massive fox.
"So I entered through your head. And I know what you've been doing. It is pretty impressive actually. Just remember everything in here is a mental construct. Our own force of will dictates what happens. When, and not if, Naruto regains control I can guarantee his own force of will can keep this son of a bitch locked up for good. But until then it's up to you and me to buy him time. Mikasa, use your own willpower and keep this disgusting chakra away from him. I'll keep this interference away from you both."Armin ordered bravely as he set himself up between the fox and his siblings then settled into a comfortable stance.
"Do you even believe your own words? I've been alive for millennia you whelp. I am hatred and anger incarnate! Even now your legs shake in fear of my presence and you think your pitiful will can stand against mine?" The fox roared and the entire sewer shook dangerously.
"Oh you're right. I'm absolutely terrified out of my mind. Knowing about Gehenna and Assiah and whatever else you were telling Mikasa earlier." Armin admitted.
"But my family is at stake so I'm at least going to try. I may not last long, but I can last long enough. You've been alive for millennia and yet here you are now, reduced to a cage like some common animal. And you don't like it. You allowed yourself to be captured because you were bored, arrogant enough that nothing could hope to match your power or contain you. That's why you didn't lift a finger even when they purified your chakra, you gave it willingly and dared them to contain you. And they did. And now you yourself are terrified because you know how absolute this prison is over you, and you also know how much Naruto Uzumaki is going to hate you once he realizes what you've done. You're going to be stuck here forever, and for the first time in your long existence you are truly afraid aren't you?" The small blond replied with a defiant grin.
"Wipe that smirk of your face mindwalker! You haven't won yet!" The nine tailed fox snarled as it threw itself against the cage and forced as much of its chakra through the bars as it could. The chakra then morphed themselves into giant, corporeal hands with claws that it then used to try and squash Armin.
"Was it wise to piss him off?" Mikasa asked exasperatedly as she slowly but surely willed away the corrosive red chakra from Naruto's body. It was stuck on firmly like a swarm of bloodthirsty leeches and it felt like she was pulling them off painstakingly one by one. It was something she could persevere through, so she would keep at it.
"Probably not," Armin admitted as he formed a force field around them that held the red chakra arms at bay as they bounced off it. He then froze the chakra arms in ice and then imagined an unorthodox set of giant handcuffs to begin binding them together. Once that was done he projected a giant, wooden hammer to smash the frozen chakra to smithereens which he then blew back into the cage with a gust of wind.
"But this is a fight that lets me use my imagination however I wish, so I can keep this up for a while. He doesn't seem very creative if he can only use chakra claws."
He narrowed his eyes a moment later when a horde of titans manifested in front of him, all blindly charging. With a thought of his own, Armin summoned an image of Eren's own titan which then began to rip apart the fox's constructs. The fox made them even bigger in response and they began to overpower Eren's berserk titan. Armin just raised his eyebrow and stretched out his hand and the entire horde tumbled into the hole that formed underneath them and swallowed them all up.
Their standoff carried on for a few moments, and Armin was beginning to get slightly suspicious at how he was managing to constantly out think the fox at every turn. He was aware of his own capabilities and that he was nowhere near incompetent in a battle of the minds or imagination, but this was fishy. Especially since his opponent was as old as he claimed to be. With age came experience and wisdom. He was proven right a moment later when he heard Mikasa scream in pain and he whirled around to notice that a red chakra claw had slipped by him unnoticed and had wrapped around Mikasa, squeezing her as it sped up her disappearance.
"Did you really think you were beating me human? Even if I wasn't as old as I am, the fact that I am a fox demon should have warned you. We are tricksters, though I do not lie unlike the lesser fox spirits. I let you beat me because it took your attention off the prize. You are only here and interfering because you entered through the girl, but you failed to guard her. Game over whelp."
Armin didn't get to say another word before he was forcefully ejected from the mindscape as Mikasa's own consciousness flickered, threatening to fade out of existence entirely. Only her head remained as the fox laughed evilly in the background.
"A valiant effort. I will commend that at least," the fox complimented.
Mikasa ignored him and looked desperately at Naruto who was fully grown now. He wasn't responsive however, and without Mikasa to force it away the red chakra was once again shrouding Naruto.
"Remember who you are!" Mikasa yelled out weakly with what little strength she could still muster. It was taking everything she had left just to stay awake as her eyes threatened to shut forever. But she couldn't accept this. Not when they were so close, and not after all they had been through to get to this point. It couldn't have all been for nothing.
"Who are you!?" She cried out desperately.
"Mikasa, stop shouting."
She felt a coarse hand gently caress her cheek and with it, Mikasa suddenly experienced a comforting warmth quickly spread from the point of contact across her body. It was refreshing and cooling in a way, vastly different from the searing heat that she had grown accustomed to while in the mindscape. She was no longer afraid. Mikasa opened her eyes and saw the rest of her body had reformed, and she was shrouded in dense blue chakra that held the red at bay. At least now she was in no danger of disappearing. She felt two arms wrap around her and she leaned into the embrace before she looked up at the two pools of cerulean blue eyes that gazed back at her lovingly.
"It's okay. You can return to your own body now, I've got this." He said confidently as he put a hand over her face and closed her eyes.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto," He reassured quietly with a whisper in her ear. The girl smiled to herself and her form faded away from Naruto's mindscape as she returned to her body. Her task complete.
With her gone all sense of warmth disappeared from Naruto's face as he turned a look of utter hatred at the giant fox behind the bars.
"I'm-"
"I don't give a fuck who you are or what you are," Naruto snarled dangerously as he approached the cage. The sea of red chakra around him parted like a sea of waves as it came into contact with the blue chakra shroud he had surrounded himself with. It was almost as if the red chakra was afraid of his.
"And you dare show me such an ugly face. Whether you accept it or not you are merely a part of me. You were a piece of me cut out, and to me you shall return." The fox declared ominously.
"I am not you. You said it yourself, I was cut out of you. I was given sentience of my own, either manufactured and programmed by whoever cut me off of you or I gained it myself. The simple fact is we are now separate entities. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise." Naruto announced resolutely with a firm conviction.
"You seem to have come to terms with being a clone of me rather well. As far as I am aware clones have an existential crisis of sorts once they learn they are merely copies," The fox said thoughtfully.
"I just had my existential crisis." Naruto snapped. "But in a backwards kind of way I have you to thank for this."
The fox raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"You see, the one who designed this seal built in something interesting. It's designed to constantly leak out and slowly drain your enormous chakra into me at an acceptable rate. The red chakra you leak out then reacts with and is overpowered by my own, effectively converting it. Since I am not fully human it didn't have any negative effects on my body either, neither did I notice it. It does explain how I've been slowly growing more powerful day by day however. I picture that in a few hundred years I would be at your level of power. Then again, with your logic it is my power since you claim we are one and the same. You won't disappear however, since you continue to draw even more chakra from the natural energy everywhere. But that just makes me stronger. And day by day, your chance of freedom dwindles down to nonexistent. This was your biggest chance and you blew it in your arrogance."
The look of anger and outrage on the kyubi's face did not mask the fear it felt from Naruto who just grinned savagely at it. Maybe some of its traits had corrupted him after all.
"So now you see, all the chakra you've been pumping through that seal today? It took a while but it's been converted into mine now. You've just given me an enormous boost of power. You may have temporarily overpowered me, but now that I am aware of your existence and what exactly this seal does, it will never happen again. This is my mind, my body. My will is what keeps you jailed. And while my creators never meant for me to access your chakra lest it affect me, that shinigami they summoned to bind us left in that little tidbit. Maybe that death spirit had a grudge against you from Gehenna and used the opportunity to spite you. It was an oversight on their part, making a living jail that didn't know it was containing something. But now I am aware, and I will not forget." Naruto said.
"How do you even know all of this? You had no cognizance when you were made!" The fox demanded.
"Ah that's the interesting part. You see I don't only gain your power as it leaks into me. Apparently I gained some of your knowledge and wisdom as well." Naruto revealed with a grin. "Though I do have to thank you for that information you were spoon feeding Mikasa earlier. I don't know what to do with that particular branch of information about realms for now, but at least we won't get blindsided by it anymore."
"How dare you!?" The fox yelled in outrage that its memories were being stolen in such a manner. It was violated by the theft.
"It doesn't feel nice to have your very identity absorbed now is it?" Naruto snarked back spitefully. "You almost absorbed me entirely earlier, isn't your behavior right now hypocritical?"
"Get into this cage and let me crush you!" The fox ordered as it thrashed harder against the bars.
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked confidently as he waded through the sewer water towards the cage.
"What are you doing?"
"Entering the cage," Naruto replied simply as the massive silhouette of the fox grinned maliciously.
"I dare you," the fox demon beckoned. Two massive red eyes watched eagerly as Naruto made his way closer and closer to the cage. If the idiot was stupid enough to think that he, an ancient demon, wouldn't try anything he was in for a rude awakening. Immediately as Naruto stepped into the cage between the bars, the kyubi roared victoriously and slammed his gigantic paw down onto the boy. Hopefully it would shatter his consciousness and make it easier to reabsorb since he was on the kyubi's side of the cage.
Naruto just grinned up at the confused fox a moment later, completely unharmed.
"What is this?"
"I am the jail. This is my mind. This entire mindscape and jail is something that was formed without much thought. But in the end the simple fact is, you are sealed inside me. This entire mindscape is me. This avatar you tried to squash? It's the equivalent of you throwing yourself against the bars of a cage. This is a construct of my mind that you experience. And I can form this into any way I imagine." Naruto declared as he removed the bars just for show.
The fox then realized that despite the missing bars, he could no longer move.
"Do you understand now what position you are in you arrogant demon? I hate you. No, I utterly despise you. You know what I care about most in this world. You knew that my precious people are what mattered most to me. You knew that if you took it away I would lose my identity. If you had just tricked me it would have been fine. I am your jailor after all. But you didn't stop there. When you took over my body, it led to me almost killing Armin. You blinded my body and I almost killed Eren. Because of you, Annie was being burned alive. Even then, there was a slim chance I could forgive you since it was me who lost control after all. I didn't ask to be your jailor, and you didn't ask to be imprisoned even if you let yourself get captured. We were both victims in a way, and I could understand that. But in here? You actively tried to kill Mikasa. That was all you, and you almost succeeded. There is nothing I loathe in this realm or in your realm more than you, and likely there never will be. If there is any way to kill sentient chakra, I will find it."
"Do not make promises you cannot keep," The fox warned.
"I don't. But that wasn't my promise. If I find it, then I will use it. But until then, I already have my revenge on you planned. You are aware of my loneliness. You watched it, just as you experienced everything through my senses. And that is my punishment for you, loneliness." Naruto assured.
"What kind of punishment is that?" The fox laughed, "I've been alone for thousands of years you foolish wretch! What's a few more?"
"True. You have been alone for thousands of years. But you were free to roam and do as you wished. Be it to inspire fear or cause wanton destruction. Here I charge you with loneliness and sensory deprivation. You will see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing, feel nothing. I sentence you to darkness, truly alone with nothing but your thoughts. How will that fare for you I wonder?" The Naruto asked with his own malicious smirk.
"Do you think I care about that? There are enemies in this world and in my realm you are still grossly unprepared for and completely unaware of, like the man who sealed me in you and absorbed my siblings. He currently rules these walls as his testing grounds, and everyone within the walls as his test subjects. You cannot hope to face him with your current level of power and one day soon, you will call on me again and be forced to use my power. Either against him or enemies outside the walls that you plan on facing. When that happens I will not waste it, I will overpower you completely and make you watch as you kill your precious people with your own hands."
"Was that a threat? Because even if I wasn't fully convinced you were dangerous, that wasn't very smart of someone who calls themselves cunning. But very well then, if you wish to leave that as a parting threat then meditate on this. I promise you, I will never resort to using so much of your despicable power that you have any semblance of control over me. This seal will just constantly keep leeching off you and making me stronger. And I promise you if I can find a way so that you can no longer absorb any natural energy and replenish yourself from what I take, I will use it. I will use it to bleed you dry until you cease to exist." Naruto promised earnestly with a conviction that shook the fox to the core.
"Will you still be aware once you have no more chakra? I don't care. But even if I don't find a way, I will keep you locked up forever. The entire world once feared you, both this realm and in Gehenna, but you have been reduced to a myth in both. I will keep it that way, and I will smite you from history. No one will remember you. No one will remember you even existed. Although, with millennia of total sensory deprivation, will you even remember yourself? I cannot decide which punishment is more fitting. Is it to find a way to kill you and make history forget, or to imprison you forever in eternal darkness?"
"This is unlike you. For you to be this cruel-"
"Maybe we are more alike than I thought. But I am Uzumaki Naruto. I am not you. You only have yourself to blame for this. I want you to know however, that if you had reached out to me another way and became my friend… I probably would have found a way to let you out where we could both be free. With your knowledge and our power what could stand against us both? But after what you have done, I can never forgive you. I hope this regret eats you alive since all you'll hear from now on are your own thoughts. Any last words?"
"Wait I-"
"Fuck you," Naruto interrupted as he plunged the kyubi's world into darkness.
(Outside Mindscape)
"Annie?"
"Still alive," The burned husk that was hugging him croaked out.
"I'm sorry," Naruto breathed out heavily. The entire outer layer of Annie's skin was completely gone, leaving behind nothing but raw flesh. That must have been an agonizing amount of pain she had been in and he didn't even know for how long she had suffered.
"It's okay, you came back. Family takes care of each other right?"
"Do you need to crystallize for a while?" Naruto asked after a nod. He knew without her saying it that the reason she wasn't feeling overwhelmed by the pain was that the burns had most likely destroyed a lot of her nerve endings and she was numb to it. It would hurt like hell once it grew back though. Another reason was also her lack of any sort of clothing, although her modesty was mostly preserved due to the fact that she looked like a charred corpse at the moment.
"Probably for a day or two as I heal," Annie admitted.
"It's okay to sleep now Annie. Papa's here," Naruto comforted her as he pulled forth his chakra and saturated the surrounding air with it. This had previously been the demon fox's, but he had now converted it into his own. It still retained the density and power that belonged to the demon, but it now reflected his inner spirit. In contrast to the fox's, his spiritual energy was not malicious.
The girl smiled in the presence of such dense, blue chakra that now surrounded her. It made her feel safe, like nothing in the world could touch her. With that in mind she blissfully lost consciousness as she succumbed to the exhaustion and let the crystal encase her completely.
"Okay this was my fault," Naruto muttered to himself when he began to get encased in the crystal alongside Annie. He didn't really require stasis at the moment, but Annie did seem to want a teddy bear of sorts. He couldn't begrudge her that, especially not after what she had just been through. With that in mind he formed a shadow clone next to him that then nodded at the original and swapped places with him in the crystal.
"You alright there buddy?"
"Don't worry about it boss. I'll keep our little girl company."
"Yeah that sounds weird." Naruto admitted with a raised eyebrow. The clone gave one last smirk before it was fully encased, embracing Annie as the clone exuded small amounts of Naruto's new chakra. He didn't have to worry about her too much anymore, since her crystal was near indestructible and she was capable of healing herself.
With his daughter sorted out Naruto then turned to Mikasa, who was struggling to stay awake after her experience, but despite that had been patiently waiting as she leant on Annie's crystal for support. She had a small smile on her face, understanding that Annie had needed his more immediate attention and knowing that she would have done the same. The girl called her mama after all.
"And it's your turn," Naruto said as he walked up to her and caressed her cheek before he placed his forehead softly against her and they stared into each other's eyes. "Sorry about this. It's supposed to be my responsibility to keep you all safe."
"Shh," Mikasa whispered as she put a finger on his lips. "Annie already said it; family looks out for each other. If you're so willing to get in harm's way for us it is hypocritical if you expect us not to do the same. Either way, the matter is solved now isn't it?"
"Yeah. We aren't seeing him anytime soon," he reassured her before he formed another clone that picked up Mikasa into his arms bridal stile.
"But for now get some rest. You've earned it." The clone ordered with a chuckle.
Mikasa's sleepy gaze drifted from the clone to the original with a slightly dazed smile. "It always feels like I'm cheating on you when I feel this comfortable with your clones." She admitted.
The original Naruto laughed and ran a hand through her hair. "Because they're me but also not me me?"
"It's how I can usually tell if you're the original or not. If it feels like I'm cheating on you, it's a clone."
"That's both confusing and reassuring to hear." Naruto said thoughtfully as a placed a hand over her eyes and placed a kiss over her head. He then exerted a little more of his newfound chakra so that Mikasa would experience the same safety that Annie did and she drifted off into an exhausted sleep.
Naruto then nodded to the clone who then transformed into a box around Mikasa, eerily similar to a coffin. The original Naruto then held out his hand as a storage seal emblazoned on his right wrist glowed to life and Annie's crystal and Mikasa's box were sucked into it. Storage seals were slightly complex to make, but relatively simple in concept that they stored whatever you wanted to in its little pocket dimension, provided you had the chakra to do so.
The more you stored in, the more chakra it took to both get something in and then back out. Unfortunately it mostly applied to sealing inanimate objects, either that or something lifeless. From his experiments sealing a living thing tended not to have the best of results. Sometimes the birds never came back. Curious Naruto had tried sealing one of his own shadow clones, since he received their memories when they dispelled. None of them had come back out, and only a few memories had reached him. They were memories of floating in a large empty space.
Fortunately it only applied to when the clones were aware of their surroundings. When he transformed them into something else and kept them asleep, the storage seal treated it as an inanimate object, as well as whatever was inside. This loophole allowed him to place both Annie inside her crystal and Mikasa in the coffin without worrying whether or not he could get them out. He wasn't sure how exactly the storage thing worked but hey, if it worked a few thousand times then it was pretty reliable for him.
Next he then turned to Armin's prone phone, remembering how the boy had been forcefully ejected from his mind. What he hadn't been expecting was how Haku was now protectively hovering over Armin with her hands glowing green from medical chakra as she struggled to find what was wrong with Armin's head. She was completely ignorant of Naruto's return, wholly focused on Armin. Naruto had been suspicious at first, as he was now plagued by the memories of attacking his siblings, and he had seen Haku use ice against him. She was a shinobi as well, one they knew nothing about. Naturally that was to be met with suspicion and caution. But with how she was behaving now, it was difficult for him to doubt her intentions. He had strongly advised both Eren and Armin against their closeness with Kurotsuchi and Haku respectively, but he was glad the two boys still had their own minds and desires that they would fight for. Kurotsuchi's worth remained to be seen, but Haku had already proven her dedication to Armin in a way. The trust had paid off.
Haku only noticed Naruto's presence when he finally knelt down beside her and her attention snapped to him with worried eyes.
"What's wrong with him? He just fell and he isn't moving but I can't find anything wrong anywhere!"
"Don't worry about it. He went into my head through Mikasa's and he got forcefully ejected due to some… circumstances. He's just suffering from the backlash that usually comes with being thrown out of someone's mind. He'll be fine by tonight." Naruto reassured.
"May I… Um…" Haku struggled after a moment to voice her thoughts. For all intents and purposes Naruto was in charge and the one in control of the situation. If he didn't agree with her, there was nothing she could do.
Fortunately for her Naruto could understand her predicament from a similar viewpoint and just placed a comforting hand over her shoulder as he smiled reassuringly at her.
"Yeah I don't mind. I won't separate you two."
Haku smiled back gratefully in return. She then moved to stand, but stumbled as she tried to rise to her feet and Naruto was forced to catch her. "You're exhausted. I would suggest you rest alongside Armin and let me care for you as well. It's the least I can do after all the trouble I put you through."
He laughed sheepishly at Haku's suspicious face. It was warranted considering he could just leave her behind once she fell asleep. But it wasn't what he was planning on doing. Haku made Armin happy in a way only she could, and Naruto wouldn't take that away from him.
"If you need further reassurance you can wrap yourself with Armin so I'll have to carry you both together," Naruto chuckled. "I'm not leaving him so you'll just be along for the ride either way."
"I apologize. It's just difficult to be so trusting at the moment." Haku admitted, referring partially to what had just transpired.
"Not my best moment huh," Naruto said sheepishly as he unconsciously scratched the back of his head.
"I wasn't referring to only that. Yes, you and your siblings are shinobi or shifters but that's a reasonable thing to hide. I was referring to Sasuke. He almost killed Eren and tried to get both him and Armin eaten."
Naruto's eyes hardened. Haku had no reason to lie about something like this. Naruto had never liked the raven haired boy both for his attitude and overall behavior towards him. The feeling had always been mutual but this? This deserved retribution. But that could wait, right now his family was at their most vulnerable and he wouldn't be able to fight with them in this situation. There was a nagging thought however of how she knew this.
Haku recognized the question in his look and answered before he voiced it.
"I was assigned alongside him by Shikamaru to Armin's squad. I didn't realize it fast enough but he struck in the middle of battle and I couldn't stop him." She admitted with a downcast look.
"And yet you did more than I did. You were at least there, while I wasn't. And you being there, well, it was enough. They're alive and arguably they're only as bad off as they currently are because of me. So don't feel guilty, if anything that should be me at the moment. You on the other hand deserve my thanks for risking your life and going against your team. Now, is there anything else that is urgent for me to know?"
Haku shook her head as her head drooped a little. The density of the chakra he was exuding was calming to a great degree and she was quickly losing her fight against unconsciousness.
"Then I suggest you get some rest now," Naruto said as he set her down next to Armin and smiled down at her. "Don't worry, you'll wake up next to each other. I promise."
Despite logic dictating otherwise Haku couldn't help but relax in this presence and trust him. She could now finally understand the almost blind devotion his siblings had towards him in that moment. She could now see him not through the lens of a potential enemy, but as a guardian. It was the first time in her life that someone filled that position.
Naruto sighed as he noticed the girl finally fall asleep, but not before she grabbed a hold of Armin's hand. The small gesture made him smile. With another clone that he transformed into a protective casing, he sucked the pair up into the storage seal on his wrist.
With that done he then turned to Eren and sighed. He was pleased to know that Eren didn't just heal like crazy, but Naruto was also wary and slightly afraid of his brother's newfound power. These titan forms of Annie and Eren were apparently demons, summoned from a different plane of existence. While now Eren wouldn't be dead weight outside the walls, there was also a sense of foreboding that wouldn't stop nagging at him. Annie had said a sickness was running rampant among the shifter community, and Naruto had a bad feeling that it had to do with whatever deal their ancient ancestor Ymir had made with the devil. Naruto resolved to find this solution somehow, because the prophecy given to Annie had said that they would find the resolution to their problem within these walls. For Annie and Eren's sake Naruto had to find whatever that vague prophecy alluded to. What would this Satan want in return for granting this type of power? Nothing came for free. There was always a cost.
If he had to venture into Gehenna for answers, he would. He was after all a demon himself apparently. That was something he would discuss with Armin whenever the boy awoke. He would worry about this later.
"Will you let him join his siblings?" Naruto jokingly asked Christa, who had been checking Eren for any injuries. Thankfully he didn't seem to have any and if he hadn't been spattered in titan blood with shredded clothes, anyone would assume he had simply been asleep.
"That depends. Is it really goldie we are speaking to, or a more controlled reddie storing up his food for later," Ymir interrupted defensively as she stood in front of Christa and Eren.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at her behavior and just shrugged. "Honestly the only reason I'm not treating you as enemies is because you're Annie's friends and because Eren tries to take care of Christa occasionally. But I think we both know that I didn't really have to ask your permission now did I, brownie."
Ymir bristled but calmed down just as fast as she smirked back. "Well look who's back."
"If you say so," Naruto replied immediately with a grin. "Now what's the plan with you two? You coming along?"
"And where exactly are we going leader goldie sir?" Ymir asked with an irritating smirk plastered on her face.
"I'm taking them somewhere safe to rest, annoying brownie underling." Naruto replied immediately, mirroring her look.
"Sounds good. You're not telling us where though are you?"
"Nope!"
"Do we have to get sucked into the weird tattoo on your wrist as well?" Ymir asked with narrowed eyes. "Because that's creepy as fuck and doesn't look safe."
"Well, I wouldn't put my family in here if it wasn't safe," Naruto countered. "And unless you want to do a ton of running I strongly suggest it."
"I take it we have to be unconscious?"
"Yup."
"How do we do that? I can't just sleep on demand." Ymir blurted out sarcastically.
"True. Hold this," Naruto said as he tossed her a piece of paper.
"Asshole," Ymir muttered as she fell forwards and another clone of Naruto caught her.
"What did you do to her?" Christa asked.
"Sleeping fuinjutsu. It doesn't have much battle application since the adrenaline burns through it immediately, but if it isn't fought against then it just helps you sleep faster."
"Oh, that's convenient." Christa said unsurely but accepted the slip of paper anyways when Naruto handed it to her.
After sealing the remaining three Naruto finally turned to the last person as his gaze hardened. He could feel her desire to disappear, but she was aware he had been watching her in his own way and that if she moved in a way he didn't like he would attack her without hesitation. While the sheer density of his chakra provided a sense of comfort to the others, it terrified her. It was almost no different from the red chakra earlier, except that there was no maliciousness in it. The power was all there however, and this time he was in control. It had taken the combined efforts of so many people just to stop him in berserk form, and right now she was alone without her battle fan. She had to ask Shikamaru about getting a storage seal like Naruto's on her wrist, that would be incredibly useful.
"Curious as to why I haven't attacked you yet?" Naruto asked conversationally.
Temari simply nodded, not letting down her guard for even an instant. She had a kawarimi at the ready. The second he so much as made a sudden move she would do her damned best to substitute out of the way and try to regroup with Shikamaru. She wasn't confident they could stop him but it did raise her chances somewhat.
"I remember your efforts earlier. Let it not be said that Uzumaki Naruto doesn't know how to recognize debts. You saved Mikasa and Armin from me when you didn't have to. I don't care about the motives, maybe self preservation because you knew you need them or whatever. The action of saving them and working with them to stop me has my gratefulness." Naruto commended truthfully.
Despite the lightness of his words, Temari didn't ease up. He was fast, and shinobi were masters of deceit. He could be trying to put her at ease then use his speed to catch her off guard and blitz her.
"You can ease up. I won't attack you now, you have my word." Naruto promised as he sat down and crossed his legs to show that he was being serious. Temari despite herself eased up slightly. That was a very difficult position to spring an attack from and she would definitely see it coming.
"For now I need you. I know Shikamaru is the captain of your little group. I want to schedule a meeting and talk to him. You see, Haku seems to have joined us so I could just ask her for information regarding your mission and abilities. We even have a mindwalker to confirm her words. But we don't have to be enemies, and the one deciding that is Shikamaru. I'm willing to talk and who knows, we may come to an agreement to work together or something. Honestly how I treat your group from now onwards depends solely on one condition. Let him know that I want Uchiha Sasuke, dead or alive. If you can't provide that, then at the very least abandon him and I'll deal with him myself." Naruto explained his offer slowly.
"But if your team values him more than this offer, I will treat all of you the way I intend to treat him." Naruto said with a serious gaze as his eyes flashed an ominous shade of blue.
To Temari, she could not outline just how much their team needed this. If Naruto truly was the power they were searching for and there was a chance he would be willing to go with them back home then this mission would finally be over. She would finally be able settle down into a slightly easier life with breaks in between her missions. Maybe even finally spend more meaningful time with Shikamaru, lazy bastard that he was. And all they had to do was wash their hands of a ticking time bomb. One that had already attacked Haku. Then again Haku had probably abandoned their team by now, but if Naruto turned to their side then Shikamaru could argue it was due to Haku's efforts and therefore remove any punishment on the girl for desertion.
"Where do we meet?" She asked.
"In the forest we used to train in. You'll find me there." Naruto said vaguely.
Temari grit her teeth. In case the whole thing went south, Naruto would have the home field advantage as he set the meeting place. Another thing to factor was Kurotsuchi's own relationship with Eren. They were already outnumbered as it was and quite possibly, outgunned. On his own Naruto would be a challenge for their entire team, and that included Sasuke working with them. Then there was Mikasa, despite claiming not to be an Uchiha, who had a sharingan and enormous chakra. They had a very competent mind walker, and not to mention four titan shifters with different abilities.
"When?" Temari asked for a clarification.
"Two days. With or without the Uchiha." Naruto answered.
Temari nodded and Naruto stood to his feet.
"I will get my family somewhere safe. I suggest you make haste." Naruto said before he then slammed his hand onto the ground, throwing up a large smoke screen in the process. When it disappeared, the golden haired boy was nowhere to be seen.
Temari breathed out a relieved sigh, finally free from any sort of massive chakra signatures. She immediately leapt off in the direction of the breach, intent on finding Shikamaru to let him know of the offer. It would be unfortunate if Sasuke got to him first.
Unnoticed by her, she was being trailed. A few shadow clones of Naruto followed behind her from a safe distance. He didn't trust Temari. He didn't know how she would word the offer of a meeting, or if she would even mention it at all. These clones were an assurance that he could spare now. Usually he could only make eight shadow clones, which was far more than most shinobi who could only form one. But after converting the chakra of his fox self, making this many didn't even dip into his reserves and he felt he could make many many more. Right now they would observe, but they would interfere if they needed to. The clones thought exactly like the original after all.
He would speak with Shikamaru, and that would decide the path his family took from here.
A/N: Yeah, bigger factors coming into play hehe. Don't worry about them for a while though, that's all still quite a ways away.
I hope this chapter answered all of those wondering why a 'simple cloak' had him lose control. If not, hey I can't help you anymore haha. There is a different thing happening here. Naruto isn't the son of Minato and Kushina here. The Kyubi and his siblings weren't made by the sage of six paths from the ten tails. So yeah, might want to rethink your guesses of where we are going with this. Enemies in the wall, enemies outside the wall, enemies enemies enemies. Such odds hehe.
The mysterious dude ruling the walls should be pretty obvious by now though, I've been leaving tidbits everywhere haha. Any guesses?
Anyways yeah, don't forget to review. Me likey those. Some made me curious too, like modelling Mikasa after Sakura? While I can see that connection, I disagree simply because of the fact this is Mikasa.
She feels the need to 'mother' over the others and it's precisely what Eren hates about her. Now factor in Naruto, canon or not he isn't going to react badly to Mikasa for it. Now add this to the fact that Naruto is troublemaker, and that Mikasa does have to reign him in. I'm sorry if it annoyed anyone, but I will ask however what you were expecting? In canon, who can even tell Naruto what to do that he actually listened to? He wouldn't even look at you if you asked him nicely, and only barely listened if you shouted at him. They always had to shout at or beat some sense into Naruto. He was difficult to control. Heck even during the war where he and Kirabi were being hidden, did he listen to hide? No, he directly went against the freaking Raikage and Tsunade. He just went through Iruka before that as well. Just wanted to say that yeah it's all just teasing haha, that stuff flows when written. But it isn't always like that, because in other situations where they aren't alone the dynamic shifts and this may become more obvious in a few upcoming chapters.
Lastly. I don't know about you if you have siblings but I do, and I can affirm that most of the time we annoy the hell out of each other sometimes just by being in the same room. It's usually the sane one that gets the biggest headache trying to keep the others in line. Sometimes that role is mine, mostly it's one of the there is no real heat behind the actions, it's simply how they interact.
Yeah long rant sorry. Anyways thanks for bringing it up dude/dudette hehe, really made me think.
Anyways, see you guys in a bit hehe. This chapter was just another cut off from a larger chunk.
