Ayyyyyyyy
How's it goin?
Shout out to Spark681, Carlos619 (didn't see it, I'm sticking with Tetsuyo. But thanks!), saiyan prince1, xirons20 (he really is), Arraia, KakeruPB, Dawood Saqlain, Dre17 (give her some time), Antex-The Legendary Zoroarc, jmg1988 (best be patient, mah dude. Thanks for your review!), lord 7th, OmegaRealism, Lazymanjones96, Kodos94, TheKing91, kingnarutoxqueenkushina, Banjo the Fox, dreamkiller415, zerkses, Primarx (thanks, man), biginferno (read to find out~), invoker26 and Lokitazz0. You're all awesome people :)
In the last chapter, I thought I properly showed how sceptical Naruto was with how happiness and love will keep the Kyuubi at bay, while at the very same time making him respectful of Mito (cuz she's right there).
I made a mistake in the last chapter. Tsunade is Mito's granddaughter, not niece. Also, the ink clan is in the east, the panther clan is in the west and south.
Konoha and Uzushio's alliance took a big hit. I'm not gonna lie, some of you will still be pissed about something though…XD
In this fic, everything happens for a reason.
A portion of this chapter is in the first person (I'll tell you when) and the rest is in normal POV. Just a warning.
This is really chapter. This is also not a side story
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 6
Onion opened his arms wide, his hands spread as far apart as he could. His dull brown eyes flashed red for the quickest of moments. The other orphans around him turned to him in surprise, diverting their attention from the man standing on the podium to him. The bright lighting of the underground room they were herded in shone down on him as black ops pelted to him the very second he lifted up his arms, immediately assuming he meant their doom.
Danzo, the one armed, one eyed war monger, in the half second Onion the Orphan raised his arms, saw something he had hoped not to personally encounter until a few years when he would be ready.
He saw the Power of the Darkness.
Hiden art: Magnificent Kurama Portrait: Still-life Painting jutsu.
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
…
…
No one moved as the Kurama clan genjutsu settled over the entire room, freezing all in place.
The ninjas that did not have either or both of their feet on the ground fell down in their 'flying' positions, clattering to the ground like porcelain plates. The orphans stood rigidly, frozen in their nervous whispering, hesitant back steps and scared positions.
Nothing moved.
No one breathed.
Onion brought down his arms and pushed through the crowd of immobile children, ages ranged from four to eight, until he got to the raised dais Danzo was standing on.
The man's position was different.
He looked to be about to fully turn around, pointing at where the seven year old Kurama orphan had been, roaring as his feet prepared to carry him away.
He was fleeing.
Well…about to flee.
Even for someone as young as Onion, he knew fear when he saw it.
'You've done well, Onion.' A voice echoed in his head. 'Bring him home.'
His arms moved up and he said the words that would seal Danzo's fate.
"You're coming with me."
A boy named Onion
First person POV
Six months earlier
…My name is Orion, but my sister calls me Onion.
She says it's because Orion is a boring name.
I call her Carrot; she has big front teeth and she wears these large, round glasses. She's blind as a bat if she doesn't have them on. I like teasing her about her teeth though, and Carrot makes fun of my birthmarks.
Two concentric circles on both of my palms, instead of the usual markings normal people have.
Maybe that's why she calls me Onion.
I don't like my birthmarks though; the other kids give me funny looks.
Never Carrot though, she just laughs at me but its fine.
I asked Auntie Umara why I have them and she says it's because it's a sign that I was born to do great, special things. Auntie said that about Carrot too.
I like Auntie.
She's nice to us.
She said she didn't personally know our parents and that she isn't even sure me and Carrot are actually related, but she said that the whole clan is our family. Whenever we feel alone, we always went to Auntie and she warmed us up. Auntie had a daughter about our age and when we came by we sometimes played dollhouse with her but we had to promise Auntie that we won't touch her.
I don't know why.
There were attendants with us whenever we played.
We weren't allowed to live with Auntie and we weren't allowed to visit her every day, that's what the matron said, so we were only allowed to come twice a week to play with Auntie's daughter and hear her stories.
The Kurama orphanage was ok, I guess.
Auntie didn't want to tell us but I know our parents died when we moved from Darkness to Konoha.
What she did tell us were stories about the Ghost of Dark country.
It always amazed us of what the Ghost did and what he was doing in our home country. And the way Auntie would talk about him…
It was like she loved him.
So we loved him too.
Everyone in the clan loved the Ghost. There were myths and tales always being told around the clan by older clan mates and Auntie Umara even hosted an 'old fashioned' puppet show to tell the story of the Ghost.
Ghost stories, is what we called it.
One day me and Carrot met the Ghost, and all the stories suddenly felt like lies; the stories said he was a man that knew no fear and didn't hesitate in his movements. He swept death and mayhem into the battle field while still protected under the shade of the darkness. He moved with the smoke, even in the rain and even in the sweltering heat, and he struck with deadly efficiency.
That was the Ghost we knew.
The Ghost we met was…different.
He wore a mask over his lower face, so all we could see were his gaily bright blue eyes and his messy yellow hair. We couldn't see his mouth but we knew he was smiling; he carried himself easily, walking with a friendly skip in his step and spoke with them of times he pranked his old friends and how he used to hate teaching Auntie Su but then he fell in love with teaching her. His deep voice held warmth, like sitting before a fire place with a cup of cocoa in your hands and family all around you.
We would find out that it wasn't the fabled Ghost we were talking to, it was Lord Naruto.
Lord Naruto was nice.
Me and Carrot could see nothing but kindness and honesty in his eyes, like we were the most important people in the world and he would sacrifice his own life to ensure our safety.
We knew this was true, because someone with his kind of eyes couldn't lie to us, and this was the second time we saw someone with honest eyes.
Me and Carrot, we loved Lord Naruto.
He said that it broke his heart, each and every day, that our clan was stuck in Konoha, and we knew that was true too. He and Auntie Umara were working on it. He also said that it saddened him that we couldn't speak to him somewhere nice and far away from Konoha; mainly because the Leaf was watching our border and sneaking us in would be hard. Auntie Umara said that her artwork could trick the village border seals but it couldn't trick the sensors at the country border.
Me and Carrot, we didn't mind, just as long as we could talk to Lord Naruto.
Lord Naruto was very nice to us.
We had to meet him somewhere out of Konoha border, that was where Auntie Umara could take us. She said that she could paint us a clear path to the forest but the Leaf could sense if we painted past the Konoha-Darkness border.
Lord Naruto noticed I had been sitting on my hands for the past hour since we met and my hands were getting numb.
"What's wrong with your hands, Onion?" he asked me and I shook my head; I didn't want him to see my freakish palm marks. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Is it cuz of your birthmarks?" shocked, was what I felt, and it increased as his face glowed. "I think they're really cool."
He laughed when Carrot leaned to him, clearly fishing for her own compliment.
"Your glasses make you look super smart, Carrot."
"Thank you!"
He got up from the stump he was sitting on and knelt down on one knee before me and held out both of his hands. He nodded with a faint smile in his warm eyes and I placed my hands in his. He turned my hands up and marvelled at the circles on my palms. "Give you a few years and you'll be a Master of Illusions, just like Umara."
I couldn't smile wide enough. "Really?"
"Really, really."
Then…I saw some of the light leave his eyes. I wasn't scared he would reject me for my hands, not anymore; I was worried. "What's wrong?"
He let go of my hands and looked between me and Carrot. "I don't want to lie to you two…I need your help. Both of you."
There wasn't a word in existence that could describe our surprise; it was taking a shock right to our hearts. It couldn't be possible, right? The mighty Lord Naruto needed our help? What could two orphans possibly do to help the most feared village leader in all the world?
These questions spun in my head and Lord Naruto laughed, his nice, short but warmth saturated laugh, and sat back onto his stump, patting our heads. "A really, really bad man attacked our home two days ago. He said he was going to hurt our friends and families if we didn't give Konoha all of Darkness." He nodded to our wide eyed looks. "I don't have any right to ask this of you and if there was another way I would do it right away." He looked really sad now, almost like the thing he wanted to say was tormenting him, ripping at his conscience. "I…we don't know when he is going to attack again or who he is going to attack…it could be Uzushio…it could be Suna…it could even be your clan…none of our friends and family are safe, and I hate how he thinks he can threaten us, the People of the Dark, into being his slaves-"
"Lord Naruto, sir," I cut in, pushing past the horror of interrupting my supreme leader. "What do you want us to do?"
The corners of his eyes crinkled. "Before I can tell you you're missions…I need to explain some things to you guys."
Carrot pushed her large glasses back up her nose. The sounds of forest couldn't bore into our group. Auntie Umara said that she was using a huge painting to mask our presence and Auntie Su was watching in case someone wanted to attack.
"Onion…you see…your hands are very special. You can cast genjutsu from your hands and you don't even need to use hand seals but," he held up a finger when I looked at my palms, confused. "You need a lot of training. I mean, you haven't even activated you chakra yet. You can still go on this mission though but I'm going to need you to trust me. I promise I won't hurt you, Onion, neither of you." He looked at us again, his blue eyes searching ours for hesitation or fear. "Do you trust me?"
I nodded.
"I can't explain exactly what you're going to do, not now, but my student, Sueki, is going to take a small drop of your blood. I'll make sure it doesn't hurt. The best way I can say this is that…she is going to control you, for a little while, I promise, so that we can get that bad man that wants to hurt all our friends."
Carrot then asked. "What-what-what am I going to do, Lord Leader?"
He tapped her nose and, funny enough, her face went red. It was funny because she looked like a tomato with orange hair. I wanted to laugh at her. "You, my friend, have another very important job. When Onion here catches that bad man, which I know he will, and an old Uzumaki friend of mine still goes through with something I keep telling him is a bad idea I want you to make friends with the Uzumaki girl that comes to the village. Her name is Kushina. It's very important that you do this because I know the kids from Konoha won't be very nice to her. A time will come that she will be in a lot of trouble and I might be too far away to help…I want you to be there for her. Can you do that for me, Carrot?"
Her chest puffed up and she pushed up her glasses again. "I'll do it."
"I know it doesn't sound as cool as Onion's mission but it really is. My Uzumaki friend is too old fashioned and he might not listen to reason. The people of Konoha can be very stupid, so I want you to be her friend. I'll tell Kushina all about you so she also knows she's got a buddy in Konoha. Being her friend could save all life on earth."
Carrot nodded.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Normal POV
Naruto had a lot of doubt in the fact that only happiness and love was enough to keep the maliciousness of the Kyuubi at bay but with the complacency of Konoha citizens, it was the best he could think of to keep Kushina level while in the midst of Konoha's idiocy.
The Uzumaki were infamously temperamental-especially the young ones-albeit a few knew how to perfectly control their emotions. Carrot was going to be the one to keep Kushina calm when things went bad for the little redhead. The Kurama clan could help but Naruto suspected that it would draw suspicion from the Sandaime that the clan that had been forcibly removed from their home was befriending the soon-to-be Kyuubi holder.
Happiness and love were emotions that were too muddled in other emotions hence why Naruto didn't believe in them but he certainly felt them from time to time.
Being calm was something that had never failed the assassin and it wouldn't fail Carrot either.
Carrot's mission might very well be the most important.
Naruto had a feeling Torune wouldn't listen to him, like he hadn't been listening numerous time before, when he said that Konoha wasn't going to be a safe place for Kushina to stay in.
There weren't that many Uzumaki left in the village, as a shocking majority had left for Darkness ages ago, while the rest were still getting their affairs in order or were too deeply rooted to just up and leave. The video of Orochimaru and Tsunade threatening him and attempting to assassinate him hadn't shaken the man and another video of the suicide bomber, as well as eye witness testimonies from the Pansa-Senshi and the Sandaime Kazekage himself hadn't changed his mind.
Naruto had to ask him, he really did.
Why can't he, Torune Uzumaki, listen to reason and take the Kyuubi from Konoha?
The Leaf was certainly not superior to Uzushio and then Darkness would go to the aid of the Whirlpool right away. Konoha would be able to do anything, not even with their allies.
Torune said that he was an old fashioned man.
He was a man that abided by tradition.
He made a blood pact with Hashirama Senju, right after the Shodaime split the nine beasts and distributed them around the continent to maintain the balance of power, that Uzushio would entrust them with the Kyuubi on the grounds that the Leaf indeed maintain peace and didn't start any wars. This blood contract was born from the shared ancestry of the Uzumaki and the Senju, the obligatory trust they had for one another.
As long as Torune was alive, as long as there were Senju in Konoha and as long as the Leaf didn't start or spark any war, then the Kyuubi would stay with them.
Naruto wasn't too keen on killing Torune.
The two videos of the attempted assassinations could be classified under the 'Leaf starting a war' but Torune didn't feel it was.
What the Uzukage did though was to sever their military and trade alliance with Konoha.
That was enough for Naruto, for now anyway.
Naruto called Torune's resolve in their alliance into question and the old Kage, behaving like a petulant child, wasn't talking to Naruto.
Naruto took it upon himself to ensure Kushina's safety.
"Really stupid reason, Torune."
"Sensei?"
"Ah yes," Naruto shook himself out from the short flashback of his conversation with Torune and faced his students.
"Umara and the Kurama children are now safely in the village. As far as I know they are undetected and unsuspected." She was sitting on a tree branch with her legs crossed and her hands folded together into a Snake hand seal. Her eyes were closed in deep concentration. "Movement to the Konoha orphanage is now underway."
Onion could still see, hear and talk but his body wasn't his to control anymore.
It was Sueki's.
They had to shave his head completely bald; to remove all trace that he was a Kurama clan member, and cover his bald head with a black and white beanie Naruto had gifted the boy as an apology for taking away his hair.
The boy was very brave.
Umara had been able to do some light espionage work and discovered that Danzo, even as an elder of the village and an advisor to the Hokage, was seldom ever seen and his location was hardly ever known. Then there were the bi-yearly disappearance of orphans from the village's orphanage that had gone unreported by the matron.
Even though it had long since been proven that Danzo led an underground, fairly independent army of ninjas called the Roots of the Great Tree or ROOT, it was still farfetched to tie the secret black ops to the unreported Konoha orphan disappearances. The Kurama clan head proposed to Naruto that it was their best chance of finding Danzo.
Onion was to infiltrate the orphanage and wait patiently until the next wave of disappearances.
Carrot was heartbroken to hear that she wouldn't be able to see or speak to her brother until about six months. Though she patiently waited for Kushina to arrive; Umara was teaching her how to write letters so that she and Kushina would be pen pals until six days later, which was when the little redhead would be in Konoha.
For now, until they could get to Danzo, Naruto ordered his ninjas to be wary.
Constant vigilance.
They set up a system in which if Darkness and any of its allies were to go on joint missions or any other association with each other, there would be a different word every day to signify that they were the real person and not a ROOT imposter. The leader of the team-whether Suna, Darkness or any other new alliance-would inform his team of the chain of words for the week, though this was after they had rigorously drilled them with questions to confirm their identity.
Naruto didn't want his shinobi to distrust each other, so to celebrate a successful mission above B rank they would get a free coupon to eat out at any Pansa-Senshi restaurant as a team. Naruto had taken permission from Daichiharu, the shapeshifter clan head, and had said that the bill for each dinner would be on him.
In spite of the looming threat, the Leader of the Dark tried his possible best to maintain normalcy to keep his people calm.
Even as the effort to maintain the Hiden art: Demon blood release: Blood Puppet Bond jutsu with Onion in Konoha was evident on Sueki's face; she was adamant that she didn't want any other person to serve as his assistant.
She'd be damned if she let some floozy get close to her man.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Onion was a strange boy.
He often sat alone and, from what the other kids could see, he spoke to himself in murmured, subdued tones.
Then they found out his real name and his birthmarks.
They made fun of him.
Teased him.
Pushed him around.
Humiliated him.
They bullied him.
The best the little Kurama boy could do was run as fast as he could and hide in the smallest, most inaccessible corner he could find. Sueki had ceded control of his body to him but was a lingering phantom in his mind, her reason being that they didn't know how long till the next wave of disappearances so she wanted to conserve her chakra until it was direly needed.
Onion ran from them with his own power, which was very little for a bald child of seven years old. Fighting them would draw attention to him and, in his mind; it would jeopardize the mission Lord Naruto had entrusted him with.
A month of nothing but enduring the Konoha orphans and its severely understaffed, mostly neglected facilities, and Sueki resurfaced in the back of his mind and told him that the Leader wanted her, Sueki, to teach him, Onion, how to meditate. He wanted his student to teach the lonely orphan how to create his own mindscape and how to build his memory stores.
Brain exercises, is what she called them.
During each lesson, he used every chance he could to talk to her.
"Auntie Su?"
'…Yes?'
"What is-What is Lord Naruto doing now?"
'Having lunch with the Mizukage.' She was currently eating a small scone and Naruto and the older Kage were subtly scarfing down their turkey sandwiches.
"Mizu…Kage…?"
'…The Leader of Hidden Mist.'
"O-Oh…" he went back to focusing on his meditation, mentally carrying small building blocks to fortify his mind and develop his mindscape. He cleared his throat and the voice of his mentor asked.
'What is it?'
"W-Why is Lord Naruto having lunch with the Lord Mizukage?"
Sueki felt somewhat pleased the boy had caught on, knowing the proper way to address the Mist Kage. 'They're discussing a Yearly Genin Tournament between Darkness, Kiri and Suna. To train up their genin and increase cooperation.' Suna and Kiri weren't allied but they could set aside any differences they had for the betterment of their budding ninjas. 'At the moment, Kiri wants to host the 'Genin-to-Chunin Exams' in their village and Naruto-sensei thinks it would be a good idea. Our comrades in Darkness could learn a lot from fighting in an environment of low visibility like Mist.' She stopped herself when she felt like her 'big words' were confusing him. 'It'll make our home stronger, Onion.'
Dark country's alliance with Hidden Mist was more focused on the mutual advancements of their ninjas in joint missions and joint training assignments. It looked a bit shaky at first but Gengetsu Hozuki was sincere in his intentions that he wanted a relationship with his comrade in the subtle arts.
'Focus on your meditation, Onion.'
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
'Something's wrong.' Sueki said aloud to the Kurama boy. 'What's wrong?'
The boy turned over in his ratty, paper thin bed, curling up into a ball and nursing a bruised rib. "Nothin'" he felt the mental projection of his vampire mentor sitting behind him on the edge of another overused bed. The white haired lady crossed her right leg over her left and her burning red eyes bored into the back of his head, silent and patient. The boy huffed, groaning weakly as his rib throbbed. "I'm hungry."
The woman only he could see and feel swept her eyes over his thin form. 'Why didn't you say anything? I can send Umara a message to leave behind food somewhere for you to find from time to time.'
"I can go and steal an orange." He mumbled into his knees. "I don't want Lord Naruto or Auntie Umara worrying about me."
The vampire's eyes softened fractionally and her lips turned down unnoticeably. 'They…no…we worry about you because it's our job worry about you.' The boy remained silent. 'None of us want to see a child beg or steal when he doesn't have to, not especially if it's a Child of Darkness and we can do something about it. Never again.' The boy grumbled again, unmoving. Sueki, or at least the mental projection of her, sighed quietly. 'Why are you being stubborn, Onion?'
"…I want to show…Leader Naruto that…that…I can be strong too…I don't want hand outs."
'Technically, they're not hand outs; they're rewards for your perseverance and hardwork. It's the very least we can do to help.'
"Leader Naruto is already too busy with home and Auntie Umara is still blocking the Hokage." He relished in his mentor's impressed shock. "I'm a kid, I'm not deaf. I hear things too."
The Hokage had been having numerous talks with the Kurama clan head on introducing them into the Konoha ninja force but, since Naruto hadn't notified her to do so; she had been sending the proud Kage back each and every time.
"I want to be a super ninja like Lord Naruto. I want to look after myself."
The image of the white haired lady stood up and sat down behind the boy, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, something his mind felt but not his body, and she said. 'How about this? Umara makes you breakfast and dinner and hides them. Some days, not every day. All you have to do is find them.' she rolled her eyes at the unasked question. 'I'll give you clues and it won't be too hard. You're a kid, you're not stupid. Deal?'
Onion turned around and looked at her invisible form. "Deal."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Thirty days later
"What is Leader doing now, Auntie Su?"
The response took a little while to come back. '…Meeting the Kazekage in the Suna farm.' She bent down on one knee before Naruto, placing a hand over her heart and looking down as Naruto looked around at the neatly arranged corpses. 'The…bad man sent his rats to burn it down.'
Onion screeched to a halt, almost crashing into the back of another orphan as they sluggishly moved along their supper line. The bigger boy glared at the small Kurama over his shoulder, promising a painful beating later. "Is-Is everything ok?"
'Yes, I handled it with the Suna shinobi.' Coincidentally, the day Naruto had set aside to visit was the day the ROOT ninjas had tried to burn the far down. 'Sensei isn't happy.'
Naruto blue eyes burned as they looked over the laid down carcasses as they lit on fire by themselves, no doubt from a seal to ensure no evidence remained. The farm wasn't seriously damaged, only half of the corn was razed down before the Sand ninjas swept in with Sueki and two Gado shinobi assigned to escort their leader. The matter had been dealt with but it raised the issue of the farms security.
Onion felt a jab to his lower back and he stumbled forward on the line, raising his metal plate up and wincing at the slop the matron slapped onto his plate. He looked down at it with a well-hidden scowl, wrinkled his nose and turned away to find a table. The mumbling of the mess hall covered his silent words.
"I saw some strange people talking to matron this morning."
'Strange how?'
"They kept saying that they'll need more 'feet' in three months. He said 'we've lost too many feet'"
Sueki gave this information to Naruto. 'Sensei wants to know if you remember any of their faces.'
"I remember one; he had black goggles, a black coat. I couldn't see his mouth cuz of his collar. He had brown hair. He didn't talk much."
She relayed this to Naruto and they both reached the same conclusion. 'Aburame.'
"He didn't have their clan symbol on him though…" he reluctantly added.
'ROOT. Good work, Onion. We'll get Umara to track him down.'
"What-What if we can't find him? Should I have followed him? Did I mess up?"
A smile ghosted over Sueki's lips. 'No, you did really well. It's good you didn't follow him. Keep your eyes open and your ears on the ground.'
"Roger."
Onion slowly looked up as a shadow loomed over his shoulder. Three large teens sat down before him and large, meaty hands clamped down on his shoulders.
"Sup, weirdo."
Onion sighed and handed them his evening slop.
There goes dinner.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One month later
Sueki had confirmed, after taking the tiniest drop of the daimyos blood, that the man had died of natural causes.
No poison, not even an undetectable one.
The vampire would know if there was foul play at work.
Naruto was at least glad the old daimyo had died peacefully on his bed, surrounded by his family.
Naruto placed his hand on the old man's coffin and closed his eyes, offering a short prayer that the man was content wherever he was now.
"Thank you for coming, Naruto." Kawasatoru said from the Dark Leader's side. "It would have meant a lot to my father."
"Lord Abumi was a good friend of mine. I would have come no matter what." He patted the grieving young man's shoulder with a strong, stable hand. The prospective River daimyo nodded solemnly, looking down at the casket his father was in.
"Did-Did-"
Naruto shook his head and a gentle light entered his bright blue orbs. "Your father died a happy man, Kawa." the man rubbed his eyes with the back of his forearms and nodded, thanking the Dark Leader from the very bottom of his heart. They turned to a small group of black clothed mourners nearing them. Naruto removed his hand from the new daimyo's shoulder and bowed slightly to the late daimyo's wife. "My condolences, Madam."
The woman dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief and gave him a watery smile. "My husband thought so highly of you, Lord Naruto." Naruto bowed again, now in acknowledgment. The woman ushered forward her three other children introducing them to the Leader of the Dark. Naruto shook their hands, even as they made to bow deeply to him.
One of the widow's children brought forward her own kids, and the tiny boy and girl bowed politely to the tall masked man. Naruto familiarly ruffled their hair, his eyes glowing with happiness as they giggled.
Sueki stood to one side, after she had gone through her own round of intros to the late daimyo's family, watching as her teacher chatted with them, leading them away from the coffin and trying his possible best to take their minds off their sorrow.
'Sensei is very…special.'
"Yes." Onion agreed. "He has two faces." but he wasn't twofaced.
A face for his friends and another face for his enemies.
"Has anything happened since?"
'No…It seems the bad man is laying low again after he failed to burn the Suna farm.' She murmured. 'Our allies have tightened their borders and our home is blocking all known and unknown holes. It'll only take someone of sensei's skill to break in.'
It was another way of saying that only an act of kami would break Dark country's ranks.
Within the Dark country, the shinobi of clans and the clanless were mingling more and more during missions. The panther clan, the Chui-Inku clan and the wasp clan usually made up ninja squads, for their abilities complimented one another. The three clans were assigned tracking, capture and retrieval missions. The Gado and Hogo made up the country's Defence Corps slash Police Force, mostly remaining in or around the country for their defence-based skills, and the smoke clan accompanied them on missions outside the country. The three clans, ability-wise, could shift from powerhouse to infiltration.
The clanless were speckled within each team from time-to-time but most of the clanless chose to function as soldiers in Dark country's Defence Corps, the Police Force or the rapidly growing BLAK. The Defence Corps and the Police worked hand in hand because their roles were every much the same, except the police maintained order, investigated crimes and detained criminals, while situations that were too much for the police were given to the Defence Corps, like prospective or suspected invasion, major crimes-like terrorism-and anything that couldn't be handled by the police.
The Defence Corp was the oldest of the three organisations in the country. matter of fact, Naruto had personally set it up during the 'Re-education and Rehabilitation' phase to ensure internal and external security. The rise of low level crime became apparent, mostly from delinquents that hadn't gotten over the civil war, and the corps became swamped with the small crimes as well as the large crimes. So Naruto established the Police Force. Naruto finally created BLAK when it became obvious that, as other non-allied nations and villages were taking notice of the mission success rate of his ninjas, more high classes, dangerous missions flood in and this was also taking into account the share of missions from Suna and Whirlpool.
A good majority of escort or retrieval missions from River alone was B class at least.
Naruto's country, now in their seventh year after the civil war, had an abundance of mission requests and a long list of loyal clients that trusted no one but Dark shinobi to accomplish. Naruto gave a fair portion to Suna and Kiri-only those clients that didn't specify in their mission.
BLAK was an idea that had been manifested roughly earlier that year, after Naruto returned from Uzushio. It had been going around the upper ranks of the country's ninja force for years; a ninja association that performed covert and deadly missions that were mainly in the S to double S rank category. The idea had been pitched to Naruto from time to time but the country never had enough to completely sustain them, not until Whirlpool agreed to the alliance. BLAK was a force that worked deeper in the shadows of the country, running about on missions and protecting their home for any perceived threat. Their level of professionalism and secrecy couldn't be emphasized enough; they were the shadows in a country of assassins.
That's saying something.
Naruto was having a large hidden base built by the very same BLAK shinobi and Kunoichi somewhere in the wide expanse of the Dark forest, increasing the level of secrecy.
BLAK was a force of Dark ninjas that were deathly loyal to Naruto, daresay more so than normal Dark ninjas.
In Naruto's shinobi and civilian council meeting, he had offered them a chance to select who they wanted to command the BLAK forces. They returned a week later with Sueki's name.
Ketsueki Sakenomi, also known as Blood, the Vampire Empress, was immediately given the title of BLAK Commander. She still wished to be Naruto's assistant but on days she was too swamped with missions and mission reports, she would appoint a subordinate of hers to serve Naruto for the time being.
The vampire could take credit for being an active force in preventing eight separate attempts from Danzo to ruin Darkness, all through Naruto's BLAK ninjas. The Defence Corps took credit for five attempts and Naruto's main ninja force, while on missions to allied nations, prevented four.
The usually composed vampire scoffed. 'Author of Death my ass.'
"…What about Auntie Umara finding that Aburame?"
'It led nowhere. But in her defence, she isn't the tracker kind.' They could get a panther clan team into Konoha, or maybe a wasp manipulating team but only when the ink clan had come up with a seal to silently bypass the Leaf's border seals. Umara had been able to do that for Onion and Carrot because their chakra cores were small and ignorable.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A week later
Onion bent down into a trashcan and looked through, picking out an old worn out booklet on safe sex. He gave it one look and threw it over his shoulder, digging through the trash again.
"How is Carrot, Auntie Su?" the waste bins of the redlight district always bore some sort of surprise.
'She is with Kushina and Mito.'
"Is she ok?"
'…She misses you too, Onion.'
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Two months later
11:59PM
Sixth Annual Historical Art Exhibition
Eastern region
Dark country
The assembled band played soft music as people of all walks of life-Dark country clan, clanless, Uzumaki, Suna, River and Kiri-milled around the massive Chui-Inku museum, marvelling at the paintings on the wall and the few recovered pieces of clothing excavated some months ago, dated a few hundred years ago and proven to have been used by older members of the ink clan, as well as the Hogo clan, when the Dark and Light release user that unified the country.
Naruto, wearing full Dark Leader robes and half mask, minus the hat, slowly moved with his hands behind his back and a reflective gaze in his eyes as he looked over the paintings hung on the walls of the immaculately white museum.
The Chui-Inku clan head walked beside her leader, pointing at some paintings and giving a short summary of their history-or suspected history-as Naruto listened attentively.
Amara was a petite lady with straight lime green hair that gradually turned white at the tips, reaching down to her lower back and fringed over her forehead. She was pale with delicate, aristocratic features; a sharp nose, small black painted lips, black eye lined, lime green eyes. She was in a knee-length black dress with white and black striped leggings going down into black ballet flats.
Her last physical feature was something she shared in common with the rest of her clan.
She had a pair of three and a half inch horns sprouted out from both sides of her temples, pointed upwards. All of the members of the ink clan-ninja or civilian, clan bloodline or not-carried their heads up with pride at the distinguishing feature. (A/N: Think Kaguya Otsutsuki's horns and how they're positioned.)
Naruto wasn't sure why Sueki or her parents didn't have horns; maybe it had to do with her controlling blood instead of ink.
Naruto nodded with furrowed eyebrows as the duo walked to another painting; Sueki was nowhere to be seen at the moment but the white haired vampire had discreetly entrusted her teacher into her clan head's care, after the Goth ink user had sworn on her eternal soul not to make any advances on Naruto.
Amara motioned at the next painting, making sure not to touch the surface with her thin fingers; it was simply an oil painting of the sun rising over calm blue and white water. There was a fleet of boats on the water sailing towards the sun from all sides.
"This is the first known Kurama painting in existence, dated all the way back before the country was founded." Amara said in a low voice. "All the records my clan mates were able to find were that this was some years before the Kurama Curse. I think it symbolizes the Kurama clan's migration from the west towards the east and onto the continent, their search for a new beginning and their hope for a new future."
Naruto scratched his chin, asking. "Why did he use oil?"
"Right, because the Kurama people now use anything but oil." She shrugged. "That, Lord Naruto, I'm not sure of. What I'm sure of is that this is the only Kurama oil painting in existence; other oil works might have been lost. I suspect it's from the first Kurama clan head." Amara was the youngest clan head in Naruto's council-she was in her late twenties-and this was because during the movement of the Kurama clan from Dark country to Konoha, her mother had been killed. Even if she didn't look like it, she was the most enthusiastic to prove herself, as she was the youngest in a group of veterans. Her combat experience had been during the civil war but with how blood that had been, it was more than enough experience. "We excavated it from the southern sea. It was in a chest of other paintings. If you turn the painting around, there is an ancient inscription Umara translated for me a while ago that says that 'Only one with Kurama blood can unlock the secrets of the oil.'"
Naruto chuckled. "Cryptic."
The woman smirked and jabbed his side, ushering him to another archaic piece of artwork, this one from ancient Chui-Inku recovered just last week from a newly discovered cave within the ink clan's eastern territory. "If you think this is cryptic, then you're gonna love this-"
Sueki came in abruptly and Naruto leaned down as she tilted her head up and whispered into his ear.
"It's happening."
"Right now?" she nodded. He stood back and his eyes turned up. "You remember the jutsu, right?"
She nodded again, recalling the privately trusted Hiden Kurama clan jutsu. She was not to mention it to anyone and it shouldn't be used by her on any other occasion; the essence of sharing the two techniques is for the mission. Clan techniques were extremely protected, comrade or not. Konoha to Darkness, at a leisurely, civilian pace, was exactly four hours forty minutes but a ninja could slash that down to an hour thirty minutes.
"Wait for your opportunity and then throw up that genjutsu. I don't want Onion wasting away his chakra. Make sure they take their time coming here but no Leaf ninja is to see them leave." He quietly ordered his student.
"Hai, sensei. I'll have Umara cover their exit. The Defence Corp can draw away the sensors from the border." Misdirection was an important class being taught in the Dark country's Shinobi Academy. Any ninja, or assassin, worth his salt should know the bare basics of misdirecting an opponent without using too much if any chakra. The Kurama clan head was knowledgeable in this, even if her painting art used chakra. "They'll be here in a few hours."
Naruto apologized to the mildly confused clan head and left the art exhibit.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
About the same time
Somewhere underground
Konoha
It was all a blur of colour and motion.
They were shaken awake by their matron and herded out of the orphanage into a tunnel under her office desk. He barely had enough time to grab his beanie and hide his freshly scraped bald head.
Some strange, harsh voices they haven't ever heard before yelled at them to keep moving, bellowing at any child that was unfortunate enough to trip onto the ground from the lack of visibility and congestion of the subterranean tunnel.
They couldn't see anything.
They could only move forward.
Then the black started moving at the end of the tunnel and they saw many men and women in black combat clothes, featureless white masks and holding the handles of sheathed blades. Their empty, hollow eyes bared down on them and the less of heart fainted from the thick tension.
Onion helped a sobbing girl, no older than a toddler, back to her feet, supporting her with his hand until her older brother pushed to where they were and took her out of his hands with a silent, begrudgingly thankful look. Onion didn't see it though; his eyes were fixed firmly on each and every ROOT ninja staring at them from each side of the widening tunnel, standing like statues.
The Kurama kid tried his best to control his breathing, keeping his mind from falling into fear by squeezing his hands, opening and closing them, slipping back and forth from his mindscape to reality, somewhat faltering in his step from each unseen movement.
This was it.
It was really happening.
They entered a large, oval domed room at the end of the hall with a high wooden stage with a podium on top. There were doors to their left, to their right and behind the stage, and of course the one they were herded through.
A man walked out and stood behind the podium; he had an 'X' mark on his chin, bandages covering the upper right side of his face. He was in a robe and his right arm, or apparent lack apparently, was completely hidden while his left held the top of the podium. He looked down at them with eyes devoid of emotion and some of the children shuffled from him, or at least tried to, for the door behind them was jammed shut.
White masked ninjas lined the walls.
No one dared speak.
"Children of the Leaf," Danzo began, his voice loud and deep, echoing in the deathly silent room. He surveyed them again, subtly nodding to himself. "I am Danzo Shimura and from now on I will be your one true master. My dedication is to the Leaf, your allegiance and dedication is to me. Until the end of your training you are nothing but filth, impure iron that will be bathed with the flames of hell that will ready you for the world you will be tasked to save. You will all be conditioned to look only to me for salvation, for I am the only one that can save this wretched world from impending devastation. You will all be fashioned into the finest tools, the sharpest and swiftest of weapons. My tools." He slammed his fist down onto the pedestal, narrowing his eyes at the whimpering children. He then stood back and sniffed. "For those that…perish…in the course of your training are not worthy to be referred to as my tools. Those that…fall back…stumble…fail me in any way…will be…promptly disposed of." his fist cracked. "Service to me is eternal. Your life and death are mine. Your souls are mine. For the sake of maintaining peace on Konoha, your all is mine." The corner of his lips twitched up at the fearful gaze of the children.
He looked through them again, skimming over each face, then he stopped at one.
One looked back at him, his dull brown eyes glazed over with tears and emotions he knew all too well.
Anger.
Rage.
Wrath.
Danzo took this all in within the split second the emotions surfaced. Then the man blinked and he saw none of those emotions again, only an empty gaze.
The emptiness of the boys brown were bottomless.
Almost like the void in the eyes of the person that had crippled him.
…Void…
Fuck.
The boy lifted his arms and he swivelled on his heel.
The air warbled and shifted, the colourless world he had created changed to bright colours; bright red, neon green, light yellow, and more eye piercing shades. His body failed him, adamantly refusing to move as he saw his skin turn a childish pink and his dark brown clothes shift to bright orange. The people around him were no less affected by the illusion; his ninjas were in pink and green gear, the children had inhuman coloured skin and the air itself was a serene shade of blue.
It could only be a Kurama illusion. The clan of painters had an illusionary kekkai genkai that he had not had the opportunity to steal and study.
"Kai!" his voice rang around but he didn't feel his lips move. "Kai!"
He needed to get out of here.
He needed to get away from that brat.
"Kai! Kai! Kai!" his voice rattled around in his head. His chakra felt like thin water, slipping from between his fingers as he dipped his hands into his chakra pool to push away the bloodline illusion. "Kai-"
The boy slipped into his line of sight, the only one with normal skin in the room, and he said. "You're coming with me."
The boy stood on his toes and his hand, his ringed palm, touched his face. Foreign chakra flooded into his body and he bent down, picking the boy up and slinging him onto his back (piggyback ride).
"Where are you taking me?" Danzo grunted, moving through the room of colourfully painted statues. "To your filthy pig lord?"
"Shush." Onion hissed and the man's tongue lost its strength.
His ninjas, the ones outside and not frozen in time, stared at him as he carried the boy on his back, passing them. He tried to yell for them to attack but, like before, he couldn't speak-
"Return to your quarters. Now!" Onion yelled, not sure if it was him speaking or Auntie Su. The ninjas followed his order.
Danzo then realized something…
He was the one that made the order.
How did this genjutsu even work?!
His perception was distorted, his reality was warped, his limbs betrayed him and his chakra left him.
There was a reason Naruto had chosen Onion. Not only for the obvious reason that his clan-the Kurama clan-were already inside Konoha, but because of his hands and his unique-even for a Kurama-chakra.
It was a long story, the short form being that the man that had sealed Mania into the demons very first holder, an uncountable number of years later, performed a long lost forbidden technique to loop back his chakra and his power back into his clan to ensure that Mania, the wrathful demon cursed on his people, would always have an adversary that would battle it into submission and seal it back.
In essence, Onion was the reincarnation of the First Kurama clan head.
Mania was too much of a threat to his clan and to all of humanity to not have a semi-reliable countermeasure to combat it. If it meant his soul and his chakra not finding eternal rest then he would have done it again and again.
Even if Onion didn't know it and he didn't know the extent of his abilities, he was the best candidate to subdue the thorn that was Danzo before said thorn could become a bigger problem.
It was because of the power of the Kurama clan, not just the first clan head, that they had been cursed.
Umara whipped out an average sized canvass and, with a few elaborate strokes, she drew the attention of the guards from their post and into the village as Danzo and Onion passed them, quickly dipping into the a run into the dense forest.
The current clan head often told Onion, Carrot and her daughter the story behind the Kurama Curse.
Onion's mind went to it as they blazed towards Darkness, under the shade and protection of the night. Umara stayed back to erase the presence of her genjutsu from the environment.
Before the Kurama clan had their first head, some records say that the first community of them were born from an Angel of Kami that had been combatting Mania. After winning the annual bout, the angel fell in love with a human male and she defied kami by staying on earth for an extra day, giving birth to twenty children with orange hair and brown eyes. This was seemed to be the stretched fairy tale portion of their history, for no one was a hundred percent sure about it. The Kurama father ran away and drowned himself as his lover went back to heaven, and his twenty children increased in number, not having a true head, until they set out on a fleet of boats to the elemental continent. They settled in to where was presently the and finally selected a man to lead them but Kami noticed their existence and deemed them a threat to her heavenly rule because of the part angel blood pulsing through their bodies, so the goddess convinced her sister, Yami, to send Mania to wipe them out.
The first time, the clan head won and sent the beast away, then Mania came back stronger.
Each time, it came back strongerand stronger.
It became too much for the man and he sealed the beast into his eldest daughter, dying soon after from exhaustion but only having the power to loop his chakra back into the clan after his death, doggedly appointing the current holder to carefully watch Mania. The man was reputed to being so powerful that he had the ability to turn his paintings into reality, and not an illusion. Those of his direct lineage had power similar to his and even if Onion was not of the first clan heads direct blood, he was still chosen to host his chakra.
The Kurama Curse was kami's way of limiting the limitless clan.
They had to be within a certain distance of the holder of the beast or else it would wake up and escape its seal prison. They couldn't physically touch the holder or the beast would wake up. The holder always became sickly, someone that needed constant attention, making it much harder for the clan to cater for him or her.
A man made entirely out clay rumbled past the Danzo-puppet and Onion, a Gado clan shinobi, and flashed through ten hand seals. The ground under Danzo caved under him and he continued his mad speed under the earth. They heard frantic feet passing over them, though none ever turned their attention to the two people running under the earth.
"Take them into their country." a voice above buzzed, nearly muted. "Lady Sueki wants this done quietly!" there was a worrying thud from above. "Stubborn little shit, huh." A round of muffled laughter went round.
"Misdirection successful." Someone else said, another Gado ninja, this one a dark skinned Kunoichi. The lower half of her body was melded with the ground, made completely out of clay, and the upper half was saluting to who could be identified as her superior in rank. "They chased the Clay clone into some Moshi sinkholes."
"Did you-"
"Hai, I gave them the injections and healed the holes. They won't remember anything and they'll test positive for drugs." The ground Danzo was blazing over slowly sloped upwards, taking him out of the ground and into Dark country's border.
"Teams two and four, go and observe them. The rest of you, back to home base."
Four Gado ninjas, now in their human forms, ran with him in a four-point formation, stopping only for Danzo and Onion to push open the door leading into a different sentry building than the one Naruto met Orochimaru and Tsunade in.
"Well done, Onion." Naruto said, sitting behind a rectangular table. He was leaning back and he wasn't in his Leader's robe or hat but his normal shinobi uniform; a dark grey short sleeved shirt that showed strange looking black lines on his arms and black pants with ninja boots. His forehead protector was on his temple and over his torso was a black jounin flak jacket. There was a ninjato on one side of the table and a set of kunai and shuriken on another side. Sueki came by and helped Onion off the war mongers back, gently setting him down onto the ground and patting his head with a phantom smile sparking from her crimson orbs. "I'm really proud of you."
The vampire directed the one eyed man into the seat opposite the Leader of the Dark.
"Please, get him something to eat, Su. He's done a really good thing this night." The masked man said with his blue eyes beaming at the boy. Onion felt his chest swell with pride. "You can take down that genjutsu now, I've got this."
The haze over Danzo's face lifted and he was about to flip out of his chair, but a rope of smoke whipped from under the table and slammed him back down.
Sueki grabbed Onion by his shoulder, the boy being mystified by his idols effortless use of his unique bloodline. She turned him around, making sure to use her body to block his view of the leader and his captive. The man's student too wasn't in a cloak but in a long sleeved dark red shirt and black ninja pants that stopped above her ankle-like Naruto's-with red ninja sandals, instead of the ballet slippers Kunoichi in her clan mates mostly wore.
"Lemme show you something cool, Onion." Sueki said down to him, a tiny smirk etched on a corner of her lips. She lightly clicked the door shut, suddenly sapping out more of the light and leaving just a faintly shining bulb above them.
Naruto studied the glaring Konoha ninja in silence. Then he hummed pleasantly and flicked his fingers at each corner of the room, pointing at small black wisps hovering there. "Those are thunder clouds but they do more than just shock; it'll be in your best interests not to do something you'll regret, Danzo." He saw the man place his hands flat on the table, twitching to either his ninjato or his other ninja weapons, and he smiled again. "You were so far down my list of priorities. I almost even forgot about you." The masked man leaned forward on his elbows and whispered. "Lord Author of Death…you fell before you could truly find your feet in your oh so scary threat. It would have been best if you had remained in hiding. The Hokage was smart enough to stop bothering me…haven't you wondered why?"
The man snarled slightly. "What do you want, brat?"
The blonde tapped Danzo's forehead, an action that made the man snarl fiercer. "Everything in there."
"I'll never talk."
"They all do eventually. Not you. I don't need you to talk." Naruto sat back again, saying. "I'm guessing that since you haven't killed yourself already, you don't have a cyanide pill on you or you have too much going on to simply kill yourself." he nodded to his weapons. "Like I said, I don't exactly need you to talk, Danzo. A few interrogation methods come to mind but I've got something better."
His right hand went to his mask and he clicked it off, slowly lowering it and gently dropping it on the table.
Danzo's eyes widened at what he saw.
"Are you ready…to let me in?"
An hour later, the door opened and Danzo stepped out.
They heard their Leader's voice from inside, telling his subordinates as they surrounded the one eyed war hawk. "…He can go."
A small smirk flashed onto Danzo's face.
Authors note
Next chapter, we'll see what happened in the interrogation room. We'll even see what's under Naruto's mask.
Something from chapter four I'm sure you all either ignored or didn't notice will surface again in the next chapter. A lot of stuff is gonna happen in the next chapter…
Anyway, what do you think of Onion?
Anyone want to see Mania or Kyuubi in action?
Any speculations on what's under Naruto's mask?
Any idea why Naruto let Danzo go?
Let me know your thoughts in a review, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.