Chapter 22
Most villages made announcements of major importance from the kage tower, as the tower was usually the most central point and or the highest point in the village.
Not so for the village hidden in clouds. Made in the mountaintops clearing low altitude clouds, there weren't many flat spaces for many people to gather at once. And so, they made one for just such an occasion. Structured like a very large amphitheater, there were great rows of seats large enough for the entire populace to view said announcement, performance, or other such event of importance.
It was Naruto's turn to be up there. Him along with his political harem, Ai, and Bee, of whom he had just met an hour prior. He was a good man. Yugito had compared them together, which Naruto couldn't see in the slightest, yet drew sounds of confirmation from the rest of his peers.
Ai was giving a speech in front of all of them. The entire populace knew of the treaty at that point, but they were still doing rounds. Must have been for the sake of equitable treatment, or something like that. He wasn't even 100% on what equity meant or how it differed from equality. Temari had been inadvertently lecturing him about how economics and social systems worked since he arrived at the house allotted to them from Yugito's apartment. It was interesting to be sure, but he didn't think he would ever have a full grasp of its entirety.
The man was still speaking and he couldn't really concentrate on it. He was looking at the populace's faces. There wasn't a glimmer of a glower anywhere. They were all elated and hopeful. They had faith that the treaty would work. And why wouldn't they? An entire troupe of shinobi from various nations had banded together and risked everything for the sole purpose of saving one of their most respected protectors.
Naruto snapped out of it when Ai took a step back and Yugito took a step forward. She stood in front of everyone, garbed in her normal shinobi attire. Her back was rigid and her face as hard as stone.
"You know me as Yugito Nii of the hidden cloud," she said loudly, her voice carrying across the entire range. The audiences' faces changed slightly. She was respected like Bee, but there was a bit of worry present on their faces. She obviously didn't inspire the hearts like he could. And considering the way she acted until very recently, Naruto would have guessed they might even have had an amount of fear when they looked at her.
"I'll try to keep my time speaking brief. You all are very busy and we're all eating away at your time. I just feel like I had to speak about something important to me as it pertains to this treaty."
She paused. Her voice had been getting wobbly towards the end of her sentence. She looked down, took a deep breath, and looked back up to address the crowd. "Before being selected as a member of a political marriage, I didn't like the village hidden in leaves very much."
There was a murmur of slight laughter across the crowd, though many of them didn't know how to interpret her words. "And… when I found out I was going to be a member of a political marriage, I liked them even less." Her words had a lightness to them and her small, sheepish grin told the crowd that it was okay to laugh a little bit.
"I liked it so little that… perhaps when our tempers were a little bit higher than they should have been, me and… Mr. Uzumaki had a sparring session, which was little more than a ploy to beat the shit out of the other person. And… it, uhh… went a little bit too far. I almost killed him."
The crowd went silent.
"Under normal circumstances, that would be it. Treaty over. Nice try. Better luck next time. But it wasn't, or else I wouldn't be standing in front of you all today, smiling instead of grimacing in regret. The reason it wasn't was because he covered for me, said it was an accident or something- I don't quite remember. He… forgave me. He laid some blame on me, laid some blame on himself, then I helped carry him back to the house we were staying at when he couldn't do it myself. And I was walking there, with him on my back considering him. Thinking of how we were different and how we might be similar."
They didn't know how to react, Naruto could tell. There were hushed side-conversations and uncomfortable shifting in seats.
"Over the course of our coming here, much has happened, some of which you have heard about. I was… initially distrustful of everyone behind me, as I'm sure any of you would be. But as I've come to know them, speak to them, fight with and for them, I see that they are good people; people who I would be honored to call my friends… as well… as a lover."
There were those in the crowd that gasped and Naruto's eyes shot wide open. He looked to his sides and saw that he wasn't the only one shocked by her announcement. "I'm in love with him," she continued, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks. "In fact, I think I love all of them. They're the people most precious to me. And I would do anything for their sake. And I'm comfortable knowing they would do the same for me."
She paused again and looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. A flair of blue fire ignited at her feet and traveled up her body, encompassing everything, leaving a faint outline of her body. It contorted and compressed until it was like a bodysuit over her own. She smiled and raised a fist into the air. "Apart we have found strength, but together is how we know how to use it. This is a moment that will go down in history. The world will know peace. True peace."
Her fire flickered out and she returned to her position at the line-up.
For a scant few seconds, nothing happened.
Then one person started clapping. Followed by another. Another. Then a cavalcade of clapping followed. Some even rose up and started cheering.
Even despite himself, Naruto couldn't help but smile.
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"What is up with you and shopping for clothes?" Naruto asked, only to get smacked in the face by a flying T-shirt.
"I'm not shopping for clothes," Kurotsuchi replied. "We're shopping for clothes. Got it? And we're shopping for clothes for you, so be grateful."
"I don't need clothes."
Kurotsuchi looked at him as if he said something about not needing hydration, food, or another necessity. "The only pair of clothes you have left is the one you have on your back."
"They're shipping the clothes from rock over here."
"Which will take a couple of days," Kurotsuchi said with a bit of a mumble as she looked over at a pattern on a shirt. She snapped back to him, showing the front of the article while saying "I don't even know how you can operate on one pair of clothes. Anyway, how do you like it?"
It was a long-sleeved black shirt with a skull-like emblem going from top-to-bottom. Naruto half-frowned. "It's not really my style."
One of her eyebrows titled up in amusement. "Not for you. For me."
"And I thought we were shopping for me," Naruto said, putting his hands on his hips, eyebrow cocked.
"We were, but I've got a blank check for getting you garbed and I'm going to make good use of it. So back to the question: how do you like it?"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "First of all, that's a man's shirt."
"I'll get a small."
"It's a bit gothic."
She flipped a hand through her hair. "I'll get a highlight to match with it then. I've never tried the goth look."
"A hair highlight? What color are you thinking for it, pink?"
Kurotsuchi walked over to a full-length mirror, splaying the shirt over her torso. "Why pink?" she asked, half-paying attention.
"Your eyes, obviously," Naruto said, joining her, looking at their reflections. She was smiling a little bit while his face looked neutral.
They made eye contact through the mirror. She was looking at him pityingly. Turning around to face him, Kurotsuchi tossed the shirt aside and said, "Are you okay?"
He shrugged. "I'm fine. I just… don't want to go clothes shopping right now."
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"I wanna… train. I was tossed around by the mask guy and didn't help anyone in the end. I don't want to feel that weak ever again and I want to protect my precious people."
It was her turn to cock an eyebrow. "You don't sound too passionate regarding that, you know."
He didn't have an answer for her, choosing instead to bite the side of his lip and look to the side, doing his best to think up a suitable response.
She didn't give him the time, grabbing his elbow so that he would look at her and saying, "You're sad, aren't you?"
Damn. Was he that obvious? And he'd been trying to make sure she wouldn't notice. He bit his lip and nodded his head up and down. "I don't… I don't know why I'm sad. I should be… I don't know, I should be bouncing around the walls, saying stupid shit, trying on clothes, working my ass off… but I don't want to do any of that. And what's worse is that I don't know what I do want to do. I just know what I don't. And I know I sound like a… a petulant child, but-"
"You don't," Kurotsuchi said firmly. "It's fine. I understand what you're going through."
Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion. "How do you know? I don't even know."
She sheepishly looked to the side. "Well, I don't know for sure. I'm not an expert on these things. But it sounds like you're depressed."
He crossed his arms. "Depressed? I'm not depressed."
She raised her hand up and pulled down one digit for every point she made. "General feeling of sadness, lack of motivation, feeling guilty about being sad when you know you should be happy. Tics all the boxes."
He looked to the side at a rack of pants. How could he be depressed? Sure, he got sad at times, especially when he was a kid, but now he was surrounded by people who loved him and who he loved back. He was in love with three women and they accepted that and reciprocated it. He shouldn't be depressed.
Noticing he didn't respond right away, Kurotsuchi closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, putting her head against his chest. "It's… a hard thing to wrap your head around. I know that. I know that better than a lot of people. And I also know that hollow words of encouragement don't really help. And I also know that when people act like they know you better than you know you, it gets you frustrated. I know all these things."
Naruto's lips pressed into a thin line. He looked at their reflection again. His face was not the face of a happy person. His jaw locked and he leaned forward until his head was on top of hers. "I don't like feeling this way. How do I… How do I get better?"
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't know," she said. "It's probably different for everybody. I got depressed when I realized nobody was trying to get to know me for me. All my peers put me on this pedestal and I didn't want that. It lasted for… a while. And I got out of it when I stopped caring what they thought of me. But I don't think that'll work in your position."
Kurotsuchi disengaged and looked him in the eyes. "It hasn't really been a long time since we met, but we've got history, you and I. Some bad, some good. But I'm not going to abandon you. I care about you, you know that. And no matter what you need to help yourself out of it, I'll do my best to give it to you."
He smiled a little bit. Hearing her words made his heart flicker around a little bit. Despite her brazen attitude to a lot of things it was nice to affirm every now and then that she was a nice person. "Kurotsuchi, I-"
A feeling of utmost dread and horrific, bone-chilling disgust swept through the store like a flood. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing to look up, eyes wide. Naruto knew that feeling all too well and Kurotsuchi was feeling a major sense of de ja vu.
It was the ghastly feeling of tailed beast chakra swamping over everything. The fellow shoppers started murmuring amongst themselves.
"I don't know-"
"Is that Bee?"
"Couldn't be."
"Yugito looked like she was in control."
"It feels different."
"Are we safe?"
Naruto and Kurotsuchi met eyes. Wild, alert, scared eyes. If everyone was in control of their tailed beasts then that only left one logical conclusion.
They were being attacked.
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A few minutes ago.
Despite being the oldest at the table, Yugito felt like she was wilting under the unflinching gaze of the two girls. They were sitting around a wrought iron table outside a café. There were cups of tea in front of each of them that sat cooling. Past pleasantries, little of substance had been said as of yet. They had gotten a couple of odd stares since coming there, but nobody had approached them.
"I guess I should start," Temari said, prompting Fu to reach forward and take a sip of her tea, only to summarily recoil from it.
"Is this what tea tastes like?" she asked, interrupting Temari's train of thought.
Temari blinked and looked at her. How had she already been derailed? "That… strand of tea, I suppose."
"It tastes like dirt."
"They all taste like dirt," Yugito remarked, taking a sip of her own tea and frowning at it.
Temari balked at that statement. "No they don't. Personal tastes aside, there are some strands that are quite relaxing."
Yugito shook her head. "Nope. Dirt."
Temari's eyes went half-lidded. "You aren't making a good case for yourself."
"I think she's making a wonderful case," Fu said, casting her gaze to the side.
Temari pinched the bridge of her nose and leaned on the table. "This is going to be a long marriage," she groused.
"Hopefully a long, happy one," Yugito said in consolation.
Temari sat back, rubbing some life back into her face as she did. "What's he to you?"
Yugito's eyebrows scrunched. "How do you mean?"
"Naruto."
"I guessed that. It's the line of questioning I'm uncertain of."
Temari took a sip from her tea. "Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me. What's he to you?"
Yugito tapped her finger on her thigh. "Uhrm… he's a good friend and hopefully a good lover."
That caught Temari's interest, if nothing else. "So you're open to the idea that we'll refuse?"
"I mean…" Yugito looked at the ground. "I would hope you wouldn't. But I don't want to sour any existing relationships by my coming into this little…"
"Harem," Temari said resolutely.
Yugito stalled. "I was hoping there would be a more euphemistic way of stating that."
"But there isn't. We're a harem. I know you love him; that's obvious enough, but have you given really any thought about what that means? What being part of a harem means?"
Yugito gulped, not tearing her gaze from Temari's own. "I… not… really, no I haven't. I'm okay with it, if that's what you're asking. I, er, like you both. I'm not the jealous type, or at least I don't think I am. We can work any of the logistical problems regarding… erm, times of when we would meet for… nightly activities." The woman was doing her damnedest not to be blunt with her words.
"Would you like to have sex with us?" Temari asked, face set in her normal stoic demeanor. It was like she was asking for clarification on a serious question.
Yugito's eyes widened from shock and her face flushed a deep red. "That's… er… like, right now?"
"Near future."
"I- I- I mean… I haven't thought about… that. I haven't ever really seen women in that light. I'm… open for trying it though. I probably won't be very good at it," Yugito laughed nervously, hoping to lighten Temari's mood.
Not even a twitch of the lip. If there was ever a time to feel social anxiety for the cat woman, it would be now.
"You're being a bit hard on her, don't you think?" Fu asked. "All I had to do was ask. And I'm pretty sure I was the one who suggested we all get it on together."
"I just want to make sure all the communication that needs to happen, happens," Temari said, taking another sip from her tea.
Fu waited a beat for her to continue. "Is that it then?" she asked when Temari didn't continue.
Temari shrugged. "I didn't write a list or anything. Did you want to bring anything up?"
Fu narrowed her eyes and stared at her hands. "How old are you again?"
"I… er, I turned 29 this year."
Fu's eyebrows shot up. "29? You look a lot younger than that."
Yugito blinked and took a gulp of her drink. "I'll take that as a compliment?"
"It was more of an observation than anything else," Fu said.
"Actually," Yugito said suddenly. She shifted in her seat a little bit and looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them. After that, she leaned in and, with mischievous eyes, asked "Should expect anything?"
Temari looked at her quizzically and was about to ask for clarification when Fu grabbed the table and leaned in explosively "He's gigantic."
"Oh, god," Temari said putting her face in her hand, realizing what the question was about. "He's not that big."
Fu looked at her, aghast. "What are you talking about? It was… it was… whoo," Fu leaned back, covering her eyes. "Can't even describe it. Wouldn't do it justice. Just prepare yourself for a whalloping."
Yugito's eyebrows went up. "Really?"
"If my healing factor weren't through the roof, I wouldn't have been able to walk in the morning."
"You're exaggerating," Temari remarked, going unheard by the two of them.
Yugito leaned in closer. "Is he long? Thick?"
"Why choose?" Fu answered with a question.
"Notice the difference of the frames between the two of you," Temari said. "One of you is going to be affected by it at a greater amount than the other."
"Just talking about it is making me drool," Fu said under her breath.
"From the… mouth?" Yugito asked, noticing the girl's lack of drool.
"From the lower mouth," Fu clarified.
"This is going to be a long marriage," Temari repeated to herself.
"And thick apparently," Yugito said with a smirk.
Fu barked out in laughter and raised her hand for a smacking, one which Yugito was all too happy to comply with. "Where is he anyway?" Fu asked.
"Shopping for clothes with Kurotsuchi," Temari replied.
"Oh, I can help with that," Fu said, jumping up from the table. "Oh, wait, do I have to pay?"
Temari shook her head, reaching into her pocket for some change. "I'll get it. You're going to fly down to him, right?"
Fu nodded.
"Just don't do anything in the changing rooms," Temari said, putting the correct amount on the table and getting up. "I'll be at the house. Try not to take too long."
Fu crossed her arms and wiggled her eyebrows a little bit. "Looks like I'm not the only one drooling."
Temari's eye twitched. "Like I said…"
"Right, right," Fu said, turning to Yugito. "Do you want a ride?"
Yugito got up as well. "Sure. I've never flown before. Sounds nice."
Fu quickly hopped up on the woman's back and wrapped her limbs around the woman. "On your marks, get set, go!"
Instead of being lifted off her feet into the air, like she had been expecting, Yugito's back started burning from caustic tailed beast chakra. She yelped and threw Fu off her back like she would an article of clothing that was on fire, and backed away. The girl landed with a thud in front of them. Red chakra was swallowing up her entire body and was quickly turning black from a radiation point on her back. Her face was a twisted mask of fear and confusion as Chomei's chakra ate her up from the outside. Her face was covered and a skeleton quickly manifested, settling above her frame.
The monster that was Fu stood up and looked at them like a wild animal would, sizing them up, seeing what kind of threats they could be.
Seeing who would be the easiest to kill.
Chakra wings sprouted from her back and lifted her up in the air, where Chomei's true body began to manifest itself.
Temari and Yugito couldn't believe their eyes at what they were seeing. How had the girl lost control? She always had control over herself. "We need to alert the sealing team!" Temari shouted. "Where are they?"
Yugito's chakra cloak lit up her body and an arm wrapped around the other girl's body. "I'll get them. You alert Jiraiya. You can fly, right?"
"I can… glide, a little bit," Temari answered, regretting every word coming from her mouth and thanking whatever religion was in charge that she brought her war fan with her.
Without another word of warning, Yugito's chakra arm wound back and threw Temari at the general direction of the hospital… halfway across the village.
It was going to be a wild flight to be sure, Yugito knew. But they all had jobs to play when the shit hit the fan.
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Naruto and Kurotsuchi ran out the store, eyeing around for where the intruder was. Sakura had told everyone what had happened when she woke up and knew about the masked man's conversations with his would-be ally. The way they conversed made it seem like they had time, a week or two at least, to shore up their defenses and prepare for another attack.
No such luck, as it would seem.
"Where do we go?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"The house?"
"Nobody's going to be at the house," Kurotsuchi said, looking down at the ground as she tried to think. She remembered back to the siege of Konoha, fighting for her life in the streets with no direction at all. She didn't want that again. A stratified chain of command with some sense of direction does a soldier good.
The clothing store they ran out of was on one of the inner mountains making up Kumogakure and also part of the commercial district. Added to that was a good view of the center of the village, where the kage administration was; a building that almost completely enveloped the tallest mountain in the range. And from behind that building, a giant beetle with a strangely armored head and six wings flew from behind of it. It landed on top of the mountain and undulated its body up and down to screech terribly across the range.
Even from the distance they were from it, Naruto and Kurotsuchi had to hold their ears to their head lest their eardrums explode. "Is that Fu?!" Naruto yelled out, his hearing dull and muted.
"Unless you know any other Jinchuuriki for a giant flying fucking beetle!"
"We need to help her!"
She looked at him like he was speaking in tongues. "I'm not a monster like everyone else. I'm sure you could do your thing, but I get near that, I die."
A mass of crimson blackness percolated around its mouth and began to grow in monstrous size. Naruto didn't know what it was, but he surmised that it couldn't be anything good.
And then it turned to look at them, its head and upper chest obscured by the beast bomb. Naruto's eyes widened and red chakra flowed up his body, manifesting in a two-tailed cloak. He grabbed Kurotsuchi and launched himself away to another of the mountain peaks. His chakra ate at her a little bit, but it was leagues better than being in the path of whatever was in Chomei's mouth.
For Kurotsuchi's part, she grunted and winced, but never cried out in pain. She was a trucker, that girl.
He impacted the base of the peak and set Kurotsuchi down on the nearest path, standing up to get a good look at the tailed beast rearing up and getting ready to obliterate part of the village. A cold hand of helplessness rooted him in place.
Not again.
Another situation where he couldn't do anything. Another situation where everyone's lives depended on action and he had no action to give. The chakra cloak dissipated and he crouched down, hands grabbing the dirt.
Why couldn't he do anything?
Giant purple tentacles flowed from inside the building out to wrap around the beetles head and body, wrenching its aim upwards and jettisoning the bomb into the sky. The rest of the purple monstrosity flowed out – a giant with the torso of a human and the head of an ox – and began struggling with the monster in turn.
No.
"Naruto?" Kurotsuchi asked, running up to put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay? We need to get out of here.
He stood up and stared at what Fu had become. What was he going to be if he couldn't leap into action when someone he loved was in trouble? The cloak came back, enhancing his features and making him look more bestial. Kurotsuchi took a step back.
"I'm going to help her," he said with a strained voice. "I don't know how, but I will. I have to. And don't say I don't. I do."
"You… you have to do whatever you have to do, but-" Kurotsuchi interrupted herself to look at the titans tangle together.
"But even if it looks hopeless I have to try."
"You might die. You might die for no goddamn reason." Her voice scratched and broke at the end. Contemplating his end was too much for her.
"I… I love her. You get that, right? I can't not do anything." His voice was pained. He was battling with himself. One side knew that if he jumped in the fray he would be nothing but a hindrance. Another part found it unacceptable to sit back and not do anything.
Kurotsuchi's lips thinned. There had to be an answer. Any one would work. "She's going to be okay," Kurotsuchi blurted out as his crouched down and got ready to jump. He looked at her questioningly. Kurotsuchi nodded. "We have Jiraiya, Bee, and Yugito. They can wrestle her down. You make sure no one get hurt with collateral. You can help. But you can also be safe. That's okay, right?"
Right?
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Jiraiya stumbled down, nearly swiping ink across the entire scroll and ruining his progress. He was still dizzy and grumbled and in pain and still not accustomed to having only one arm. And now, he had to subjugate a tailed beast.
No pressure, right?
Mabui, Ai's secretary, walked back and forth in front of the window. She had a calm outward demeanor, but Jiraiya knew she was freaking out mentally. She was looking at a battle of tailed beasts from outside a window for the love of god.
"Do you… need anything?" she asked. There was a quaver in her voice, which she ruthlessly suppressed.
"Concentration," he said, blinking out the black from his eyes. "That, and pain meds."
The woman nodded and darted out of the room, probably very happy to no longer be in such immediate vicinity of the fighting. Not that that would do her any good if Fu got a good hit on the building.
Jiraiya closed his eyes and rubbed them with the back of his wrist. The whole one-arm thing was taking some serious getting used to. And a trial by fire including a Jinchuuriki battle in the middle of one of the most populated places on the continent wasn't something he wanted to face. What happened to retirement? He knew he would never be allowed to completely retire, but come on, not even one day?
Christ, he needed to teach Naruto how to seal. And also how to run a spy network. And also the secrets of sage chakra.
But first, he needed to make sure everyone made it out alive. And that meant inscribing a seal on paper that will relinquish a Jinchuuriki, who has gone into their full-tailed beast form, of their power, while suffering from a lack of sleep, while buzzed up with hospital drugs, with one arm.
It was going to make for a hell of a story, that was for sure.
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Yugito alighted down next to the sealing corps., who were preparing their chakra chains that would hopefully work for a different tailed beast. By theory, it should, but tailed beasts had a knack for being unpredictable in the strangest of ways.
"Is everyone here?!" Yugito shouted.
Bee had managed to wrestle Fu to one of the unoccupied peaks of the range, where he was trying to bring her to some solid ground and hopefully rip enough parts off of her that the regeneration of said parts would tide some of her ferocity. They were on the opposite peak, waiting to give Bee the signal to move Fu over within range of the sealing corps. and their chains.
She didn't want to join in immediately as there would be too much risk of cross fire. Cross fire, which could kill thousands of civilians within a single second.
Despite all the potential of destruction and loss of life, despite Bee wrestling a tailed beast that lost control and despite everyone else that depended on her, she was worried most for Naruto. She hadn't felt his chakra surge so that meant he was still in control, but that also meant she didn't know for sure if he was okay.
She really hoped he was okay.
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Karui held up lit rods to signal her position and usher children down a hall into the interior of the mountain. Its insides were sturdy enough that it wouldn't crumble through anything smaller than a direct impact with one of those beast bombs. Each of the peaks had their own evacuation procedures that were currently going underway, but most of the shinobi had been delegated to the one she was on, the nearest to the fighting.
"Come on, come on, this way. No pushing. We're all going to be fine." She tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but no matter what she said, the kids wouldn't stop crying. From the faces of the older people, it looked like they had gotten used to tailed beasts flying around and causing mayhem, but this was a new sensation for the children.
"Do tailed beast fights usually take this long?" Omoi groused. Though he was doing his best to sound like normal, there was a shake in his voice that he couldn't hide. He was frightened and he had right to be.
"They do when he and Yugito spar," she responded.
The interior of the mountain shuddered, letting loose dirt and dust that had accumulated in the ceiling, prompting a wave of cries from children. Something had hit the mountain. "This isn't a spar," Omoi reminded her sourly.
She narrowed her eyes as the tide of oncoming children started to slow to a trickle. Something didn't feel right. This wasn't the only time she was doing that job. Hidden cloud drilled often in the case of an emergency and was pretty damn efficient at it, terror and fear aside. Karui had a sense for how many kids should have walked by and it was off by quite a bit.
Karui looked to Omoi. From his facial expression, she could tell he was thinking similar things.
"Something's not right," she said.
"Just what I was thinking." He dropped his lit rod and started jogging for the exit with Karui bringing up the rear.
They were going to get those kids, goddamnit.
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Naruto landed on a heap of rubble and looked around. Kurama's chakra had supercharged his senses. He could hear and feel things no one else could. And he could hear sobbing. The sobbing of children.
He looked around some more. Most of the peak was untarnished, but there were a few places that got hit with stray chakra blasts. The fight looked like it was getting resolved, with Fu struggling against both Bee and chakra chains.
Where was that sobbing coming from? He could hear it. Hell, he could practically feel it.
Wait. He could feel it. He knelt down and pressed his ear against the rubble. The sounds of crying intensified.
That was unexpectedly easy.
He grabbed the pieces of rubble as easily as one would lift pebbles and threw them aside. Piece by piece, bit by bit, he uncovered an alleyway between two buildings that had partially collapsed, trapping its inhabitants inside.
They were all kids with one delirious chunin, probably a teacher, huddled down in various states of mental disrepair. They looked up, dumbstruck by the sight in front of them. Naruto let the chakra cloak dissipate and fell down to them. "Is anybody hurt?" he asked.
All the kids looked at the chunin. There was rag wet with blood on his temple. It probably wasn't serious, but he wasn't lucid enough to communicate. "Are you all students at a ninja academy?"
One of them stepped forward. A little girl with her chin stuck forward. There were tracks of tears rolling down her cheeks, but her eyes were resolute in the moment. "Azuma-sensei is the only one hurt. And yes… we're all academy students."
"What happened?"
"We were evacuating when our path got closed off. Azuma-sensei tried to get us through a different way, but then something hit near here and everything got blocked off."
Naruto nodded. "Right, well, the fighting's nearing the end. We're probably safe from those two, but we need to get everyone out as soon as we can. Can any of you wall walk?"
"We haven't learned that yet," the girl said.
Naruto put his hands on his hips and smiled at them like a fox. "Then hop on and I'll get you out." He turned around and knelt down. "Two at a time. Single file. Come on."
As he carried the children up and out of the hole, he made sure to keep a close eye on the subjugation of Fu. Whatever kind of fight it was supposed to be, it was close. Fu, or whatever was in charge, didn't want to go down without a fight and did everything she could to break free. Even with the chains wrapped around her appendages and wings, she managed to fly Bee up and down a couple of times before slamming back down to the peak. The fighting wasn't pretty, but the sealing corps. looked like they knew what they were doing.
"Are we going to be okay?" One the kids asked from his back.
"Of course," Naruto said with a pointed thumbs up and a wide grin. "Your ninja know what they're doing."
Soon, they were all out except for the little girl and the teacher, who she was dragging forward for him to take.
"First you, then him," Naruto tried to say as sternly as he could.
She shook her head. "I'm the leader. I go last."
"You're also a kid. Kids go first."
"I'm not a kid. I'm a ninja."
He wanted to argue more, but a pained scream from Fu reminded him that there wasn't much time to waste. "Okay," he said, shouldering the older man. "But get ready to point me to where the evacuation route is."
On his way up, he heard distant murmurings and the voices of two others, adults probably. When he crested through the hole, he saw two shinobi questioning the kids. "Do you know the way to the evacuation route?" Naruto asked, hefting the man to the ground.
The female shinobi nodded, taking the new development in stride. "Come on kids," Karui said. "We need to go back to…" Karui muddled on, looking at the titan fight. Her eyes were wide with horror. "Run! Now! That direction! Go Go Go!"
Naruto saw what got her so scared. Fu's head was pointing in their direction, a scarlet black ball forming in her maw. "Shit!" He dove back into the hole after the last girl.
"We don't have time for that!" Omoi warned. "We need to get out of here."
"Of course we have time!" Naruto shouted back, while grabbing the girl. He hurried up the hole and broke out into a sprint after the backs of Karui and the rest of the children. Omoi was in the back, casting a fearful glance in his direction.
There was the sound of a loud snap reverberating across the mountain tops. Naruto looked over and saw the ball of death barreling towards him. Thinking quick and acting quicker, he lobbed the girl as hard as could at Omoi.
The last thing he saw before getting blasted away was her caught in his arms, yelling back at him.
00000000
Jiraiya slapped the seal on the nape of Fu's neck and jumped away from the struggling beast. Almost immediately, it had an effect on her. She stopped struggling and fell slack against the chains holding her down. It didn't take long at all for her to shrink down to a fraction of her size.
He stepped back and looked at the last bit of defiance that Fu had. No matter what they did, they couldn't get her to look away from the surrounding mountains when she launched that beast ball. It was much smaller than it could have been, but it still left a sizeable crater in its wake.
Yugito stepped up next to him. "That took way too long," she mumbled.
Jiraiya nodded, wanting nothing more than to fall in a bed and not wake up for a week. "That looks like it took out a lot of houses. Did they evacuate in time?"
"They should have," she said. "Otherwise, they're dead."
"Yup." Jiraiya glanced down at Fu. She was back to being a normal girl. Knocked unconscious, but normal by anyone's judgement. "She's going to feel terrible when she wakes up."
"Does the seal have side-effects?" she asked.
He gestured to the destruction she caused. "Can you imagine how someone would feel after causing… something like… this?"
By the time he was done talking, Yugito's face had lost much of its humor. "Quite clearly."
"Well, then you're best for her to talk to when she gets up," Jiraiya said, not breaking stride and also leaving the scene in search of a suitable bed and more pain meds.
00000000
One day later.
Naruto woke up to the sound of muted and very spirited arguing. The voices were familiar, but unrecognizable. He was back in a hospital. In fact, it was the same hospital he had woken up from days earlier. Hell, maybe even the same room.
"You're up."
Naruto looked over and saw Temari sitting down by his bed, looking down at something she was fidgeting with in her hands. He took in a deep breath and sat up. Everything from the chest down was covered in bandages and his right arm wasn't responding very well to his commands. "Is the girl safe?" he asked.
Temari let a small smile come to her lips. "Everyone made it out. I heard the kids' accounts. You're quite the hero, you know. At least to them. If it weren't for you, they'd all be dead."
He looked down at his bandaged arms. "I don't feel like a hero. If I were faster, I wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"And how should that stop you from feeling like a hero? Some people don't feel good at all unless they've sacrificed something like that."
"Because then, you wouldn't have worried. And I'm guessing just about everyone else was worrying too."
She stopped doing whatever she was doing with her hands to look at him. "I… want to shout at you and yell at you for being careless. I want to berate you for making me worry. But that won't solve anything. Because I know that if you stood by and did nothing for my sake, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself."
It was Naruto's turn to smile. How perfectly like her. "And everyone else?"
Temari shrugged. "Fu woke up a couple hours ago and hasn't said anything. Kurotsuchi was in hysterics. Mei was… well, it's always hard to tell what she's thinking, but she looked sadish. Yugito didn't look too pleased either. And now, she's arguing with Jiraiya over something. I don't know what, so don't ask me."
"Sakura, Kakashi?"
"Sakura stitched you back together. Your arm flew off. Good thing we still had it, else you'd be walking around with a prosthetic. Which, not the worst thing in the world; especially if we had Kankuro here. And Kakashi just looked exasperated if nothing else. You pull this type of thing quite a lot, after all."
"Can't deny it."
The arguing stopped with a fizzle and a pop. She held up what she was working on with a half-grin. It was a piece of fabric with two needles at the top of it. "I'm taking up knitting," she said. "I know it's pretty domestic, but it's relaxing. I like it."
Naruto nodded. "Good for you… what now?"
"We're all going to mist. Except you and maybe Fu, depending on what Yugito and Jiraiya agree on."
Naruto's brow crossed. "What?"
The door flung open with a grim Yugito striding in followed by an irate Jiraiya. "W-" her voice broke at the sight of him. She coughed into her arm and addressed him again. "We're going to get you and Fu mastered with your tailed beasts' chakras. Then you're going to train with Jiraiya."
Naruto blinked and waited a couple of seconds for any follow up.
"Okay," he said, once he realized nothing else was coming.