Naruto had been pacing through the door for minutes. He ignored Sora whom stayed out as well with a long frown. Yamato sighed for the tenth time while Sai read a book, as they waited for the petite woman and Chiriku finish whatever was going on there. Fidgeting and strolling wasn't his thing, Naruto reached out for the door but Sora stopped him.
"Just a peek! Leave me in!" But the boy scoffed.
"Lord Chiriku said to wait, so better listen or I will made you"
"Yeah, right. I just want to see her!" Naruto wasn't intimidated easily, so his stupid metal claws didn't surprised him.
"Not my problem that dumbass got herself…" He punched him, HARD. And it felt just good, Naruto took the boy by his collar and shouted.
"Ok that's it! WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH MY FRIEND? Ever since we arrived you had been a pain in the ass" Sora bumped his head, taking distance but with a similar scowl.
"YOU MUST BE JUST AS STUPID! Can't you see a cursed bitch right on your nose? Konoha shinobi are so blind"
He lost it, ignoring everything as he chased after Sora with wild fury. No one insulted his friends, specially her, the boy will pay for it. Neither Yamato or Sai attempts to stop him worked, until he painted purple his face. Couldn't he see? He was acting exactly like those monks. Sora didn't have any right to judge them, it felt just right every punch and kick he landed.
Unfortunately they were interrupted by that monk whom taken them inside. Chiriku hold on his jacket prevented anyone move toward her teammate. On the middle of the temple, glowing embers of purple while her hands focused on the growing orb light. Her wings materialized again and this time Isamu made his entrance from her back.
Stupidly ignoring Chiriku warning Sora dashed forward with his claws ready to strike. Isamu hold him off so easily then.
"What did we tell you? Chiriku start doing your work as well" The rough voice was insulted, Naruto approached now ready to wipe Sora frown.
"But-But what? Chiriku-sama what is happening? just why?" Sora asked confused.
"Shut up and apologize. He is not a demon." He paused, forcing Sora to stand up and bow to the spirit. "Forgive this insolent child, Isamu-sama. I'll make sure this won't happen again"
"Humans…" Isamu massaged his forehead and turned, strolling around Kaoru who continued silent with eyes closed.
"Can someone say what's going on here?" Naruto asked to the spirit, silver locks flowing as is the wind swirled around him, scarlet eyes amused as the man spirit with white royal robs laughed.
"Let me explain it, clear and easy just for you to get it" That was an insult but the Soul King shut him with a glance. "My Hime right now is gathering the spiritual energy of this temple, calling for some help with Suna as well." Then he stopped right next to Sora.
"You will have to be purified, once that is done we will hunt the little group of pests. Is that clear?"
"Purified?" Yamato asked worried.
"Relax, I won't kill him. I'm just doing my job. The purification process requires a lot of natural energy, but this time we are preparing for different instances. We will extract the foreign chakra and return it to its rightful place."
"Excuse me, why did you think this is the best? We don't know who are our enemies and…" Yamato was interrupted again.
"I do, I'm sure you are not a stupid human and can already deduce the little group came for the clawed brat" Naruto gazed at Sora's surprised face, Chiriku frowned. "I requested this mission, the group can be easily stopped, once we took out the "miracle force" they were after, we will set a trap for them on our way back home."
Naruto did get what he said, as Chiriku explained a little part of the fox chakra had been sealed on Sora. If nothing were done soon, the powerful chakra will consume the boy. Chiriku had to knock out Sora after that revelation since he got wild and the ritual had to be done tonight.
Naruto tried later talking with him once his anger cooled down. On those hours Yamato made a plan with the information Isamu had confided. Naruto tried not to freak out for his friend, since he had seen little of her. It was latter while they eat dinner that Sai conforted him saying she looked tired but fine. When Chiriku returned with Sora, the team returned to the main temple.
Kaoru faced with curiosity at the pair in front of her. Naruto smiling encouragingly and Sora, the boy she fervently disliked. Isamu and her were fused as one, he knew she had doubts but assured it will go well. The others were on the side, waiting for her. First thing done was creating a barrier around the three.
She summoned the ropes for both, just for the next step. Following Isamu lead to concentrate her energy on her fingers, they opened the simple seal on Sora. The boy shouted, he started to change and Naruto shouted a bit worried for his partner. The ropes tightened around Sora as Kaoru stopped, feeling something familiar with that scene.
"Hime, start now. There is no time for that" Kaoru felt he was avoiding something important but complied nonetheless. Kaoru positioned right in front of him, with a glowing hand of Reishi pierced through his chest. Naruto cried, but calmed down once he see no blood falling and Sora freezed.
"There will be no more pain or anger." The little speech perplexed Naruto. "You don't belong there, I'm sorry I could not do more for you"
Kaoru felt truly shameful, Isamu regretted something about this entity. Gathering every bit of it before pulling out, his emotions mixed with hers were a bit of a mess. With her other hand glowing she started to pass a bit of the natural energy to him, calming down his worry and slowly restoring the chakra flow. Slowly he returned to his normal appearance and she didn't give as much when her hand inside his chest finally pulled out.
She contained the now tamed energy, it was glowing like a little amber between her hands. Sora had passed out, the ropes vanished leaving him rest on the ground.
"Are you sure this is…" She asked, Isamu answered back using her own lips. "Yes, this belongs to him. Now prepare" Naruto freaked out when Kaoru approached his abdomen.
"Wait! It could be dangerous, Kao-chan. You don't know what…" However she smiled at him and assured.
"I trust you." Yes, easier said because she didn't knew what was inside, that was his last coherent thought as he felt himself on a trance. When he opened his eyes again, Naruto felt like Gamabunta had jumped on his body more than once.
"Don't move, you still need to recover" Yamato was besides him, the light on the room hurted his eyes a bit. He had to blink until he adjusted, the orange hue was strange. Wasn't it supposed to be dark outside?
"What happened?"
"We will talk about that later. Now that you are up we have to go back" Yamato left soon, passing to another room where Sai and Kaoru were talking. The woman was healing the burn up her thigh, after some ointment Sai wrapped the bandage for her, since her arm was not fully healed.
"How is he?"
"Much better than you? Are you sure we have to go now? Yamato could not deter her.
"Yes, the more we wait we put on unnecessary danger these monks." She assured him with a smile, one Sai knew was fake. He didn't know what disturbed her, had more questions than answers but decided it could be postponed for later. Kaoru stood up, walking a bit just to be sure it didn't seem suspicious. He recognized the essence of one of the jars, spilanthes used as analgesic, a great tool to avoid the pain and endure a long training on ROOT.
Sai offered his short black jacket when they were out in the night and ready. Their mission was about to finish, soon they will be back and he had to report back, just what would he say?
Kakashi POV
Kakashi had a habit of reading "scandalous" books all around, no one had ever asked seriously for the reason. It had been at first a escape route, later evolved to amusement, he seek from surprises. Pleasant and controllable, something normal. For that, when Tsunade requested for him to search traces of Akatsuki, he didn't think Sakura will be the one putting her name as well. It was around those days he got to see another side of Sakura. The stronger female whom crushed his enemies with her hands and the intelligent strategist whose quick survey of the terrain and medical knowledge could give a deeper insight of previous battles debris and clues around crashed homes.
Startled more than once, he had to realize a truth. After the bell test, Kakashi didn't trusted fully her abilities. It pained him to admit, he couldn't trust his life to her before, he felt it had to be HIM protecting her, just like before. Sakura proved to be caring and scary at the same time, one night they had to sleep next to each other to pass as a married couple, he noticed the differences. Now, Kaoru words chased him like bees. He had underestimated them, crossed out any sense of interest since his sight was focused on the boys. They proved him wrong, without his teachings or guide both surprised Kakashi. Sakura did the report to Tsunade, as he reflected on a way to make up for being stupid.
His day got more interesting once the little boy with orange hair practically dragged him on Ichikaru for an interview about his "adoptive mother". He tried, for the sake of his sanity not to indulge too much information and answer what he could. It was a bit funny, in a sense as the boy chased him the following days. He almost feel bad leaving him with Gai and Lee once. Discovering the consequences of messing with a little boy with ice, his cheek burned like hell the whole afternoon. Other day Kakashi opened the door to a pissed of Hikaru, both men got some quality time. It seemed his last mission had left the ninja with a crushed ego and lots of questions about women Kakashi didn't wanted to answer. Instead he borrowed few of his books to Hikaru, he almost snickered when the man returned his books with a red face.
That kid had a skill to entertain without trying, Hikaru proved to be an easygoing man. It was easy to tease him with colorful topics, when he wasn't a gruffy. Walking back from Ichikaru after lunch did a great scandal near the entrance interrupted their talk. Kakashi was the first to react when he distinguished Yamato carrying someone on his back.
The group looked awful, with dirt and torn clothes, Hikaru ran looking at Kaoru hobbling besides Sai. Naruto carried a boy like a potato bag and Yamato had a man with white hair on the same manner. Kakashi distress just piled up on the oncoming hours. Naruto acted strange, distant and silent, nothing like him as he guarded the boy. Hearing from Yamato the details from the mission he understood. Explaining to Sakura had been a matter of endurance, Kakashi HAD to stop her from chasing the young monk and help Ibiki on the interrogation. Personally, he wanted to knock some sense as well, if it weren't for Naruto intervention at the ambush, the monk would have seriously injured the kunoichi.
A pair of days later, Kakashi walked alongside Shikamaru, whom insisted on strolling right next to him in silence. Their destiny was Kaoru's home, the teacher saw an opportunity to apologize and try to amend his mistake leaving the girls behind. Scratching his neck when she was finally right in front of him. She looked a little pale, but continued smiling for the young boy with orange hair. It might be a normal moment of bonding if it were not for the pair of Hyuga and the Akimichi on the backyard. A scrabble of notes, bottles, half eaten lunch and diagrams. Hearing something about pills, herbs and food. Waiting for a chance to talk to her alone had been impossible, Shikamaru had intervened more than once, it could not be a coincidence. When Hikaru came out of the house yelling the food was ready did Shikamaru tugged his shirt.
"Aren't you supposed to train Naruto at this hour?"
His tone, uncaring could have deceived anyone but Kakashi noticed the slight frown on the Nara face.
"He insisted… I should come" It was half the truth, Yamato needed the rest, therefore he paused the training but Naruto didn't pressured him to be here. His answer enhanced the displeasure on Shikamaru tone.
"... if you want to do something, then just focus on him." Kakashi stood there a moment, with more questions than answers. Instead of asking forgiveness when she accompanied him out, his student broke the silence.
"How is Naruto doing?"
"Why don't you come tomorrow? Sakura and Sai might be there…" Kakashi was sure once both of them talked, things would flow smoothly. Now the cat was out the bag, Naruto was avoiding her, it affected his concentration. As he strolled out, gazing at the flowers at the entrance he thought of the missing member whose path diverted, wondering if Sasuke was one step forward on his goal. Increasing the distance between them, proving how Kakashi had failed once again.