Devil's Advocate
Chapter 2, (Un)Familiar Faces
I do not own a thing pertaining to the Naruto franchise.
[DA]
A week.
Madara's unknown guest had been unconscious for an entire week.
Smuggling him into the compound without alerting any of her clansmen had been relatively easy, as she navigated the darkness and used her familiar chakra signal to announce her arrival before they would bother investigating.
Being the leader of the Uchiha had the benefit of affording her a bit more leniency in the rules than the rest, considering she was the ultimate enforcer of said rules at the end of the day. By her will they would serve, as she had her father when he was Clan Head before her.
Madara wasted no time in undressing him to get a better look at his injuries before proceeding to clean his wounds, body and hair from the dried muck, rubble and blood. She was surprised by the rate at which he had healed in the few miles distance between the Uchiha compound and the crater she found him in, the difference in the mangled and fried mess the stump where his right arm used to be noticeable to even the naked eye.
His heart beat had grown faintly in strength as well, proving his will to live far too strong to be snuffed even by the grievous injuries he bore.
It was one of the most fascinating experiences of Madara's life, both as a person and as a Shinobi.
One did not simply survive catastrophic damage and then try to limp away without enormous will power and strength of body, let alone heal at a rate that would have taken her weeks in the span of some twenty minutes.
His chakra, oh. It was something else.
She could compare it to Hashirama's, but it wouldn't do her enigmatic guest justice in the least. Madara was never one to like colorful displays, finding them pointless as beauty did not equate to survival for the strong.
At its very base form his chakra was a deep, oceanic blue, vast in both size, strength and density. After just a day of rest, he had more chakra concentrated in his body than what she considered previously possible, and from the rate at which it continued to grow it was likely only a quarter of his reserves at best.
From the depths of oceanic blue came shades of green, orange, yellow and red, all in varying sizes and working in different capacities, from what she could decipher with the Sharingan. As she cleaned his wounds and doused them with alcohol concentrates to burn away the impurities, reddish orange chakra with hints of blue sprung forth within his damaged network and began to heal everything it touched with precision she had never seen.
His right arm, or what was left of it, had healed over completely within two hours of her cleaning the wound of loose debris. Such a thing shouldn't have been possible and should someone had told her a story of such happenings in passing, she would have scoffed and dismissed them as hearsay.
Madara could safely say her understanding of chakra had grown under the close scrutiny of his body as it healed, showing her new ways to mold her own life force and chakra in ways that vitalized her like no cup of tea could, like an unconscious medical tutor.
His face and body had begun to heal as soon as it became obvious that his life was no longer in danger, though Madara had a good idea what he would look like before it had begun to do so.
She was far from disappointed. His cheeks showed signs of little fat, hinting that he might be nearing the age of maturity, though she had only guesses to work on. Beneath the swelling, blood and grime coating his features, the wounded blond was a sight to behold. His whiskers were less like tattoos and more like birthmarks from what she could tell, as there was not a single drip of ink on his body save for a strangely complicated seal upon his stomach that she couldn't make heads or tails of, and the palm of his left hand.
Both his stomach and left hand held concentrations of chakra that far surpassed her understanding of sealing, and both seemed to be symbiotic with his own chakra. It was, dare she say it, revolutionary in the way that his body contained so many nuances and quirks.
Her own chakra held but three different distinguishable traits, relating to her natural chakra alignments and bloodline. His... was beyond her.
An entire week beneath the gaze of her Mangekyou had been enlightening, and an entire week beneath her tender caress as she cleaned his body and visually dissected it had emboldened her.
His presence alone was enough for her to go out of her way to keep him comfortable while he healed, acting as a natural stress reliever in a way. She had posed questions to him, even in unconsciousness, as if he would hear her and understand. His silence was telling, but sometimes she could swear his chakra would respond in a way that unconsciousness could not produce.
It would flare up as she cleaned him, only to settle after a few minutes of a soft, wet rag being the only thing she pressed against his body. Madara would take her time with the process, first cleaning him with water before applying oils specific to her clan to help facilitate his healing and chakra regeneration, even if it appeared wholly unneeded.
It was when she cleaned him that she spoke, mostly. At first she would pose her questions, watching his chakra carefully as she did so, trying to glean what she assumed were unconscious responses to external stimuli. Then, she would speak of her day and all that it entailed. She didn't reveal anything too vital to the inner goings of her clan, merely her gripes with rebellious children and adult-children who refused to fall in line and later the elders of the clan who had thrived beneath her father.
Many saw her unfit to lead, most due to her gender and some due to her latest leniency in not breaking the peace between the Senju and Uchiha before their rivals could do the same.
Such proposals had been shot down every time they arose, which had become almost daily as of late. Madara did not wish to be the one to break the so-called truce for the time being, instead using it to her advantage to not only better arm her clansmen, but to have them better prepared for the inevitable struggle to come.
If that conflict happened the following day or a year from then, Madara would be damn sure they were ready.
It was the seventh day after the unknown blonds rescue did she feel a spike in his chakra that denoted his consciousness once more springing to life, causing her to cease her complaints as she stood and put a few feet of distance between the two in case things turned hostile.
She knew she was taking a gamble, aiding an unknown and obviously powerful shinobi in his recovery within her own home, but something about his chakra and its calm but powerful presence spoke of his nature before his words and actions could.
Ocean blue eyes sprung open and his once immobile body began to lean forward, the blanket of woven wool covering his body falling away to his lap as he did so.
It didn't take long for his gaze to find Madara's, and she almost took another step back in shock at what she saw stirring beneath the surface.
[DA]
Naruto Uzumaki was hurt.
It wasn't quite a physical pain, as his and Kurama's chakra made short work of his injuries within hours of sustaining them, but emotional pain.
Deep emotional pain that threatened to spawn another incarnation of his inner darkness and disturb his inner peace. Despite his body falling unconscious, his mind did not quite fall into a comatose state and instead retreated inwards, to the domain created within his Seal to house the souls and chakra of the nine Biju.
There, he wept beneath the protective embrace of his now closest and only friend, if he could call the shade of his Biju partner a friend. Whatever Sasuke had done had left nothing but a ghost of his partner behind to reside within the seal, reliant on his own chakra to exist and eventually rekindle.
If not for the ability that mastery of Senjutsu had brought the two beings, they would have perished from the wounds that Sasuke left upon Naruto's body.
It was a long week for the two, to say the least. Naruto took his time to come to grips with his loss, understanding the technique used on him well enough to know his chances of finding his way back home were slim to none. Not only did he not have the Rinne-Sharingan, which was absolutely mandatory for the dimension hopping ability, but he had no idea on how he would even begin to pinpoint the exact dimension that was his.
He and Kurama had talked long and hard on the subject after the first day of his consciousness retreating from his physical body to reside within the seal on his stomach.
The only thing the two could know for certain was that whatever dimension he found himself in had trees, rocks, dirt and breathable air. If this dimension had trees, it likely had water as well, so the odds of Naruto's survival were higher than they could have been should Sasuke have sent them to one of the many more volatile dimensions they knew existed.
That was all they had to go on from the outside world, at least until the second day of their recovery. The only thing they could be for certain of from the outside world until Naruto returned to consciousness was that someone had cleaned his wounds, but he was still in danger due to the state of his body.
By the second day, whomever was treating him had begun to dress his wounds and apply some form of oil that helped the two draw in ambient Senjutsu chakra at a slightly heightened pace. It was a boon that they were not expecting, but one they capitalized on none the less.
Despite the blonds despondence, he had settled into a meditative trance to help Kurama gather chakra in an effort to speed up his recovery. While Naruto had no idea on how to actively use his chakra to heal, Kurama had a good clue due to both of their chakra's having a natural healing nature.
Due to the help of their enigmatic helper, the two were able to gather up enough chakra from the surrounding area to refill nearly a quarter of Naruto's reserves while the rest went to helping Kurama.
They couldn't take too much, however, as it would send his physical body into its enhanced state and would probably raise questions neither felt like explaining to their benefactor, at least until they could be sure they were trust worthy.
The presence of their benefactor was both a boon and a cause for concern. They had indeed facilitated their recovery and kept them from being wounded further by the chakra sources they could faintly feel around them, like a distant ringing that they couldn't pinpoint. Their presence, however, confirmed not only the existence of a chakra wielding species existing in a world that had natural occurring processes necessary for life to exist.
They both knew what the existence of foreign chakra meant.
Shinobi. Namely, they found themselves in a world where Hagoromo had split the chakra of his mother and dispersed it into the natural population of humans. This, too, meant that they were in a dimension where Kaguya was likely to have existed as well, if the dimensions were similar to one another with only minor variables different.
The chances of that, however, were so slim that the two had chosen that to be their least likely explination. Then again, they wouldn't and couldn't know until they woke up.
That was until around the fourth day. By then, the two had gathered enough of the ambient chakra existing in nature to facilitate around four tails worth of chakra for the Biju, which was far more than either could have ever hoped to recover without whatever oils were being applied to their body. Whomever was helping the two did not seem to be aware of the tremendous growth, however, as it was all done hidden behind a seal that not many could see and even fewer could comprehend, should they be in a dimension where Fuinjutsu was never discovered.
While this could be the case, neither Naruto nor Kurama banked on it.
It was only on the fourth day of their recovery, however, that their benefactor had begun to speak. Naruto was hardly connected to his body enough at the moment to completely understand the garbled whispers that echoed within the antechamber of the seal-space, but Kurama was.
Kurama had long learned to decipher the world around him in the presence of seals far stronger than the one currently holding him within Naruto's body.
The once whispers had grown in strength over the days, as did the cause for concern within the two.
Their benefactor asked a lot of questions, and a lot of them couldn't be answered without compromising who they were before they knew it was safe. Most of them lingered on what Naruto was capable of, probing questions that had no real weight behind them as the one questioning them was well aware there would be no response to them.
They were obviously female, whomever they were, as Kurama had been able to tell by the tone of voice. That was all they had to go on besides that their benefactor may as well be a captor, and that her efforts were both benign and dangerous at the same time.
"You know, you can wake up any time you want." Kurama noted almost boredly, his still growing body laid down with his forelegs crossed beneath his chin.
"We both know that's not a good idea right now." Naruto was subdued when he spoke, not displaying his usual zeal or exuberance since his defeat at the hands of his spiritual brother, "We have no idea where we're at and you said the person taking care of me is strong, right?"
"There is no doubt about that. Whoever they are... they are familiar. I know that chakra from somewhere, but I can't really put a face to it." Kurama admitted with a snort, concern obvious in his voice despite his efforts to cover it with sarcasm, "They could be a survivor from the war, though... I want to say that our captor is an Uchiha. Their chakra certainly feels like an Uchiha's would."
That knowledge, too, was a large cause for concern between them.
Naruto was hardly eager to go throwing himself at a powerful Uchiha until he was better healed. With a missing arm and his chakra reserves still below half, not to mention a weakened Kurama, Naruto was far from his peak during the war.
The only consolation to their current weakness, in Naruto's eyes, was the presence of the Yang Seal given to him by Hagoromo, the mirror of the Yin Seal that Sasuke bore.
The seal went more than skin deep, and his missing right arm was hardly going to stop him from being able to use the abilities that came along with it.
"I can only use Sage Mode for a few minutes at best with the shape I'm in right now." Naruto admitted after a few moments, trying his best to understand and measure the amount of chakra currently present within his body, finding it far more difficult to do than when he was conscious. "That'd be enough to get away, but I'd be running off fumes after that."
"It's still too risky. If I'm guessing right, it will be another month before we are both back to full strength, and even then..."Kurama glanced at the right arm currently present on Naruto's body, knowing that his representation within the seal was not congruent with his actual body, "You'd have to fight them off left handed and without a good few of your jutsu."
This was Naruto's most pressing concern, one he felt would impact him for the rest of his life.
There was nothing Kurama could really do to grow back an arm, something the blond had accepted without too much fuss as there was no point in fussing. Crying and screaming and moping would hardly get him his arm back.
His resident Biju had recommended just using chakra manipulation to constantly create an arm out of either his own or Kurama's chakra, something that Naruto felt a good idea and perhaps his only real option until he could figure out if a prosthetic would even be possible. Considering that his skill with shaping chakra was one of the highest in existence, thanks to experience and the presence of the Yang seal, this would be a non-issue for him in most cases.
He couldn't really use a chakra construct to do his handseals, however, so he would still be limited in his techniques until he could practice his one handed seals. This meant that Rasengan and its many variants were all he had to rely on outside of Kage Bunshin and perhaps Kawarimi if he had enough time to concentrate.
"What are the chances of whoever that is helping me trying to kill me?" Naruto questioned after a few more moments of silence, considering his options as carefully as he could, "Where do we even go? There is no Konoha here, at least I don't think there will be."
It still hurt to think about his situation, so he tried to keep it in the back of his mind as best he could during his recovery. It didn't bode well for his mental state that he was actively recognizing and admitting his chances of going home to see his many friends and comrades at arms were basically non-existent.
Sasuke didn't screw up his Jutsu, and with the Rinne-Sharingan and the many abilities it came with, copying Kaguya's technique perfectly was hardly out of his skill range.
"I don't know, brat." Kurama eventually admitted, his voice falling from a room shaking tone to one barely capable of causing a pebble to bounce. "I'm... we'll come up with something, just focus on resting up while we can."
The blond hadn't needed to be told twice, falling into a trance like sleep as he focused his attention on gathering and filtering the Senjutsu present in the world around them through the seal upon his stomach.
It was only after seven days of resting and allowing himself to be cared for did the two deem Naruto's body fit enough to support himself in a fight, should violence become an option.
The plan was simple, if identifying their captor and escaping captivity could be considered simple. If whomever they were indeed turned out to be an Uchiha, that meant that the blond shinobi and his Biju partner were most likely in for a fight.
Kurama had long since admitted to hating the Sharingan for its ability to mentally enslave him, and that fear was passed down to Naruto as a result.
If their captor could somehow enslave Kurama through the seal, both of them would be in for a world of trouble.
"You ready, brat?" Kurama questioned as he watched Naruto mentally prepare himself for waking up for the first time since losing his arm, "You look nervous."
"Well, yeah..." Naruto admitted after a few seconds of consideration, knowing that it was pointless to lie about his feelings to the ultimate emotional sensor, "I really don't want to get in another fight right after waking up, ya know?"
Kurama scoffed but nodded in agreement none the less. "You and me both, brat. I think we've fought enough to last a few decades after the last month we've had."
The Biju had settled his humanoid shape into the lotus position, both hands near where his navel would be as he continued to gather ambient Senjutsu, "Just say the word and I'll get Sage Mode ready."
"Thanks Kurama... well, wish me luck."
With that said, Naruto's mental representation began to fade from the seal, a visual process only symbolic in nature.
"Be careful, Naruto."
Kurama couldn't help but worry for his host and himself. The questions his captive asked... the Biju shivered at the ideas said questions formed, and instead posed his own questions on why such a thing would be asked in the first place.
It wasn't just Naruto's life he was worried about, but his chastity as well.
[DA]
Madara felt her heart flutter in her chest as ebony eyes met ocean blue.
Her guest looked far more alert than a man sleeping for seven days had any right to be, his body only sluggishly following behind the obvious order to assume a defensive position, if raising his knees slightly and squaring his jaw could be considered defensive.
Fear, anger, confusion and dare she say recognition were present there for her to see, though the final one was only faint if she could guess his expression.
"Ah, you're finally awake. I'm glad." Madara eventually broke the silence between the two, placing a hand on her hip and cocking it slightly and a position that would allow her to lash out with a devastating snap kick, despite looking casual in nature. "I was worried you were going to keel over on me before I could even get your name."
"Uh..." Naruto blinked twice at the tone the very-obviously Uchiha took with him, taking note of her appearance as he tore his eyes away from theirs to give their body a brief once over.
Long, black hair that was styled in an obviously familiar way covered her right eye, leaving only the left to peak through wild locks of ebony. Her face was thin but molded into a beautiful shape with what appeared to be skin made of porcelain. Her eyes were full of fire, passionate to say the very least, and the blond knew that something dangerous lurked beneath the surface.
Loose black robes covered a slender body, barely covering her bandage covered breasts to be considered decent. Long, creamy legs peaked from beneath the loose robe tied tightly around the waist, long enough to only cover what was necessary for decency and nothing more.
Naruto snapped his gaze back to her face in an effort to keep it from roving her body once more. He could feel a slight trickle of something on his upper lip, forcing him to realize his nose must have been running.
He wouldn't say it aloud, but whoever he was looking at was one of the most beautiful women Naruto had ever seen. Something about her slender body, wild hair and equally as threatening gaze stirred something within him, only faintly being recognized. It was only after another moments of study of her face did he slowly start to put pieces together within his head that didn't quite make any sense.
The hair, the heavy bags beneath their eyes, their confident stance...
The woman in front of Naruto reminded him of Madara Uchiha from appearance down to the attitude, the cocky smirk that most Uchiha were likely born with present on her, dare he say it, beautiful face.
He couldn't help but stutter that very name in confusion, as he couldn't be sure until he confirmed his suspicion.
"Are... are you... Madara?" Naruto had a hard time forming his words, one part due to disuse of his vocal chords for a week and another due to his shock.
When the female before him nodded her head in a silent 'yes', Naruto glanced down at his blanket covered waist, scrunched his brows together in confusion and then back up at her face.
'Is... is this what Jiraiya-Sensei called a hate boner?'