Guest: Well, I would consider escorting her home when there is no clear danger present as a C-Rank mission at best, something that doesn't necessarily warrant a team of Chuunin.
Guest: If this story actually makes you sick, then you need to get out more.
Chapter 9: Two Forces of Nature
Chiyo had realized how stupid the Kazekage's plan was the moment she had heard the orders behind it. She was expected to unseal a Bijuu when she didn't know the mechanics behind the seal, what the dangers of unsealing would behold, and so forth. In all likelihood, it was possible that she would be disintegrated by the chakra before she could even begin to seal the beast into the tea kettle.
Most likely, the Kazekage had known this all along. The fact that there was such a high probability that she would die on this mission; he probably just didn't care in his desire to get another weapon for the village.
Despite all this, Chiyo expected herself to carry through with her orders regardless, for the sake of the village.
She did not expect herself to hesitate at the last second, in what appeared to be a last ditch effort to allow Yukiko to draw some more chakra from her Bijuu's reserves. The plan was moot now; she had messed up in her mission.
She had steeled herself after a few seconds of hesitation, going in to draw more seals on the girl's stomach so she could begin, but it was already too late. That turned out to be one of the worst ideas she could've ever done.
Because as soon as she had done that, Bijuu chakra flowed from Yukiko's body faster than she could've ever anticipated. She had expected Gaara and his siblings to take care of any disturbances while she went through the two-day unsealing process, but then Gaara had gone out of control. Kankuro and Temari could probably handle the other Konoha shinobi by themselves if they decided to get up, though.
She heard rustling from over to the side; apparently the Konoha Jounin had gotten back up, and was trying to protect her other two downed students from Temari and Kankuro. Gaara had lost consciousness.
Hinata would shoot a glance over in Chiyo's direction every few seconds, unable to comprehend the sting of betrayal. She couldn't possibly leave her other students, but she once threw a kunai towards Chiyo, which the retired ninja caught on its ring easily.
Immediately after that, Yukiko began thrashing, and even more golden chakra poured from her eyes, mouth, and stomach. It really was at an uncontrollable rate; the tea kettle wouldn't be able to handle such an oncoming rush of chakra.
The twelve year old redhead screamed in pain as her eyes rolled to the back of her head; the seal on her stomach was starting to dissolve in front of Chiyo's eyes. The ink was crumbling off and mixing with the air, as all of the chakra continued to pour from the seal.
An explosion of golden chakra happened, and it was no longer safe for Chiyo to stand in the seal on the ground. She jumped back quick as a flash, as the girl's eyes glowed yellow and the chakra output increased.
There was no stopping it now; she would have to override the seal while making sure the chakra didn't kill her. That was something she couldn't do.
Another facet of why the Kazekage was an idiot. The seal was configured so that if the Jinchuuriki used all of the Bijuu's power without having mastered it, then the Bijuu would be released. There was likely some kind of safeguard to make sure that didn't happen, but her meddling with the seal had likely stopped whatever it was.
The chakra stopped flowing from the girl, and lingered in the air. With her last bit of breath, Yukiko looked at Chiyo, and the old woman froze.
Her stare was not one of determination, anger, or hatred, like so many of her enemies. Rather, her stare was one of unprecedented sadness and betrayal. Chiyo turned away from the gaze in shame, but Yukiko wasn't done yet.
"C-Chiyo-san... Why?" she asked, in barely a whisper. After she had said those words, the girl collapsed to the ground, her open eyes unmoving and unblinking.
The chakra had begun to materialize, a clear sign that the Bijuu was now unrestrained and free to move of its own will. It was far from safe in this area. Chiyo cursed to herself, before she jumped towards Yukiko's body and picked her up bridal-style.
"Wait! Where are you taking my student?" Hinata shouted, as she tried to hold off Temari and Kankuro. Chiyo had already disappeared into the trees with Yukiko.
"Kankuro! It's not safe here anymore! The plan has failed, the Bijuu has been released. We need to take Gaara away from here so he can recuperate. Just leave that Konoha-nin alone and help me!" Temari shouted. She had already left the scene of the battle and had headed to where Gaara was unconscious, Chiyo's seal making it so the Shukaku wasn't released.
Hinata snapped out of her daze, and tended to her students.
Moegi in particular seemed to be waking up.
"Moegi, are you alright?" she asked in concern.
"Somehow... What is that!" she said, clutching her head in pain, before she looked at the mass of golden chakra. Hinata looked over to where the three sand siblings were, to the forming mass of golden chakra that was rapidly taking a shape, before she looked into the sea of trees where Chiyo had taken her final student.
"Moegi, put Konohamaru on your back and follow me. Our client, Chiyo-baa of Suna has been involved in a direct attack of aggression on Konohagakure no Sato. She has taken Yukiko in the woods. We need to pursue her and get Yukiko back at all costs. Do you understand?" she told her only conscious student.
"Yes, sensei. But, what about...?" she trailed off, looking over to where the Sand Siblings were. Hinata looked at her students, before she shook her head.
"Leave them for now. Our main priority is retrieving Yukiko from the hands of the enemy. Any fighting right now would only result in wasted time..."
Moegi had already gotten Konohamaru onto her back at this point, standing shakily from the added weight and her injuries. Hinata looked over the area once more, before putting her hands in a seal.
"Byakugan!" she cried, the trademark kekkai-genkai of the Hyuuga appearing in her eyes. She scanned the woods for a little while, before she spotted a figure carrying away another figure.
"They're going this way! After them!" she said, her normally shy voice gone in favor of a professional Jounin. The Konoha shinobi rushed into the woods at top speed, the still forming Bijuu and the Sand Siblings never escaping their minds.
Speaking of the Sand Siblings, the two older members had now reached their younger brother, whose Shukaku form had faded. He was hunched underneath a tree, unconscious, with a seal strapped onto his head.
"Grab Gaara and let's get out of here! We need to get back to the village!" Temari cried, as Kankuro slung their brother over his shoulder.
"Temari... Kankuro..." hissed an unnatural voice that came from Gaara's mouth.
"Let me go..."
The now conscious Gaara smacked away both of his siblings, never breaking his gaze from the rapidly forming mass of chakra in front of him.
The look on his face was more than his usual thrill for killing or even his bloodlust. It was a stronger, more primal instinct than both of those, one that took a perverse pleasure in battling what was in front of him. His Bijuu was going even wilder inside of his seal, screaming at him to "absorb". It was an intoxicating void of emotions that was screaming at him to get more power for himself. Shukaku wanted nothing more than to be freed as well.
Gaara's head thumped one more time, before he clutched his head in pain. The Shukaku form was already beginning to take him over once again. This time however, it wouldn't merely stop halfway.
The Suna shinobi stalked over to where Chiyo and the Konoha shinobi had disappeared into the trees. He could smell it, his prey. His lovely, wonderful prey, with its lovely, wonderful smell. Shukaku was screaming for it, and so was he. That wonderful smell... the ability to add that thing's chakra to his own. It was a creature like him... a Bijuu. Shukaku was screaming something in his mind; it sounded like "Reibi".
But despite that, there was an even bigger fish to fry, that Gaara longed for even more. And luckily for him, it was right in front of him. He allowed the sand to take him a little bit more, creating a miniature Shukaku, complete with markings and everything. It was different than the half one he had used before.
Naruto hadn't really been paying attention to the battle that Yukiko had been participating in... in fact, he had been sleeping as best as he could with spikes in his limbs. He really wasn't paying attention at all... until she started to sap him of all his chakra.
"What the?" he rumbled, as he positioned his lizard body to see his golden chakra pouring out of the seal at an alarming rate. It was the first Yukiko had used so much of it at once, definitely enough to form the Zero-tailed state.
He tried to tell what was going on outside the seal, but he couldn't really get a grasp on things. Yukiko's mindscape was rumbling fiercely, and more and more chakra was pouring out of him.
Things began to rumble for a little while longer, before the rumbling fell silent. A few chains, similar to the ones that tied him down but not identical, appeared out of nowhere in the water outside the seal.
Just when Naruto thought that Yukiko's mindscape had grown quiet, the chains that were in the water began to act strangely, as they danced around, jingling in the din as if they were alive.
Once they hung stiff, the chains shot forward towards the cage. Two of them supported the entire Fuuinjutsu by attaching to the side of the seal, another attached itself to the paper binding the seal, and the last two shot into the cage itself, binding to Naruto.
They wrapped around the spikes that bound Naruto to the floor. Naruto looked at them quizzically, before his eyes widened as he began to feel the chakra getting sucked out of him.
He bucked and struggled as he tried to free himself of the chains, the energy getting sapped from him was part of his body, and he was getting fatigued already. This wasn't like when Yukiko drew chakra from him; this jutsu was determined to get all the chakra out of his body.
He thrashed a little more, before he lifted his head and fired an energy attack from his mouth, hoping to destroy the chains while he had the chance. It missed completely, but Naruto noticed something else at that point in time.
Yukiko... was still fighting back.
She had gone silent for a little while, and Naruto assumed that she had been defeated. The chains could only mean that he was being unsealed at this point, but Yukiko apparently hadn't lost consciousness after all.
She was still trying to pump out more chakra from him, albeit at a much lesser rate. Coupled with the already draining Fuuinjutsu being worked on him, it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.
Naruto let his mind relax, despite the relatively painful experience that he was going through at the moment. There was no way that Yukiko could pull out more chakra on her own.
As he relaxed more, his body began glowing with yellow chakra, and Naruto began pouring more and more of it into Yukiko's body in the hope that she could fight off whatever threat this was.
"It's all up to you now, Yukiko..." he said, as he felt Yukiko's body accept his chakra. She could begin to mold it on her own now. And when she did, something even Naruto didn't expect happened.
The chains all but disintegrated, save for a few inches of their lengths that remained in the water outside the seal. To Naruto's surprise, the spikes holding him to the floor began to rumble and loosen, and Naruto watched in awe as the impaling seals were pulled from his body before they disintegrated.
He gasped in relief as he was able to move for the first time in eleven years, and he stretched his muscles which were understandably taut after being in one position for so long. His body was a little unresponsive, but he supposed that would go away with time.
"Wait... what's happening? Am I being freed? Really?" he asked himself, happiness creeping into his voice for the first time since he was sealed so long ago. The seal wasn't done yet, as the piece of paper holding the doors shut burned into dust as paper would, and the doors flung open.
He laughed more than a little crazily as his body dissolved into its base chakra form, and flowed out the open door into the sewers. He would escape this situation yet! Some of his chakra was already leaking out of his mindscape and into the real world.
Chiyo couldn't help but see her grandson in the figure of Yukiko. The relatively awkward child with the exact same shade of red that her grandson had. She was a victim of the circumstances, and if she was going to extract the Bijuu from this child, the least she could do was not allow her to take the fall.
"I'm very sorry about your life..."
Chiyo's eyes widened as she recalled last night's conversation with Yukiko.
"That's what she said, right? What am I doing?" she thought to herself. Yukiko was completely still now, an unmoving corpse that had no life left in her whatsoever. Her eyes were unopened and unblinking, and her skin had turned clammy. Something about that face stirred something up within her, a feeling that she had long thought dead.
She thought back to the briefing of this mission, when the Kazekage told her his stupid plan to extract the Bijuu from its Jinchuuriki. It had occurred to her that the Kazekage didn't care if she came home in one piece or not. Unsealing a Bijuu was a dangerous job in general, and there were many things that could wrong during it, especially if it was done alone.
How long had she unquestioningly fought for the village, no matter how corrupt or sadistic its policies? No matter how much it hurt all of the people, involved, including herself.
It was rare for her to see such a big-hearted girl such as this, but there was something about her in particular that would make her hesitate when she was supposed to be carrying out her mission.
She halted on one of the wider branches in the tree, setting Yukiko's body down on it. She could already hear the girl's sensei and team following close behind her. Oh well, it didn't matter much at this point.
"What are people in other villages like?"
This girl was far too young to die, and she had a unique power that Chiyo had never seen before. With a simple conversation from the night before, she had managed to call to attention Chiyo's issues with her life, and help her realize things that even she didn't know.
She performed a few hand seals, before her hands lit up with chakra. She placed her glowing hands over the girl's limp body, watching as the energy poured into her.
Her sensei and teammate touched down beside her on the branch. Hinata glared at the old woman as she worked her apparently sinister technique over the girl's body. To the untrained eye, this hardly looked like a healing session.
Hinata pulled out a kunai from her weapons pouch, and desperately lunged at Chiyo, who looked from this perspective like she was killing her student right before her eyes.
Chiyo looked at the oncoming attack, before she grabbed Hinata's wrist and slipped her finger through the hole of the kunai, twisting it from Hinata's grasp and sending it flying. She followed up with a quick palm thrust to Hinata, knocking her from the tree.
She looked down at the young Jounin neutrally, before she turned back towards Yukiko. Hinata winced, the old woman definitely had some strong Taijutsu under her belt. Chiyo's speed was much greater than her own, despite the woman's advanced age.
Like she hadn't even been attacked, the old woman once again crouched down and placed her healing jutsu over the young girl's stomach. Yet again, Chiyo's hands glowed with an unearthly blue, and pallor was beginning to return to Yukiko's face.
"Don't be so hasty, girl..." she said, as Hinata was preparing to attack her again. Those words alone made the Jounin halt in place, coming to rest on the branch that Chiyo was healing Yukiko on.
"If you disturb me one more time..." she trailed off, as the flow of chakra was beginning to get distorted. The old woman was clearly running out, and it showed.
.
.
"... She will not live," she finished. Hinata looked from Chiyo to her apparently deceased student, furrowing her brow in thought. Moegi remained below, leaving the adults to their work.
Hinata didn't look convinced, and she grit her teeth again. How was she supposed to know whether or not the old woman's intentions were benevolent?
"What do you-" she started, but she was cut off.
"Look, I know you don't trust me at all with this procedure, considering what I did back there. But, for all intents and purposes, your student is dead. The Bijuu extraction takes one's life away from them. You saw it yourself back there, so don't bother trying to deny it."
"So why don't you shut up and let me continue my work in piece. This resurrection jutsu isn't something that is to be used lightly, you know." That last sentence made Hinata look at the old woman even more suspiciously.
"A resurrection jutsu? Why would you, a ninja from another village... who recently attempted to murder my student..." she trailed off. Chiyo didn't look up from her work.
"... Suddenly have a change of heart, and now attempt to revive the same student she killed earlier?" she said. The pale-blue chakra sputtered out a little bit, as Chiyo's reserves ran drier and drier.
Chiyo didn't answer the Hyuuga girl, but after around thirty seconds of contemplating the question, she sighed.
"And here I thought the ninja world was getting better at inter-village relationships. Now I can see that they're just one giant sham. The villages still hate each other as much as ever."
"What are you-?"
"Oh, hush. If you must know, I was never supposed to come back from this mission; my Kage was betting on my death when the Bijuu's chakra was released from Yukiko."
"This plan was a mess from the beginning; it would be a wonder if we didn't trigger a war or get caught after what we did. I guess Suna was betting on our victory, though," she explained to her, before he attitude took a tonal difference.
"This girl that lays before us... she's a special case. I thought the shinobi world was nothing but a gilded illusion, but I can see that's not the truth, now. This girl has awakened something in me that I thought long dead... and I'm grateful for that." Yukiko was now looking far better, like she wasn't even dead anymore.
"You too, I can see right now that you care for your students. That's something that is increasingly rare in this day and age, and with you youngsters leading the next generation, I'm going to place my bet on you. And besides..."
By now, it was Chiyo who was beginning to lose pallor, as it poured back into Yukiko. The young, red-haired girl was breathing again, and Hinata gasped as she effectively saw her student come back to life.
"Can't an old woman give up her life so she can save a little girl? She doesn't always have to follow her village blindly!" she breathed out heavily, as she put her hands on her knees. Hinata yelped as the old woman collapsed onto her stomach, choking and gasping for breath.
Through the corner of her eye, she witnessed Hinata pick up her now unconscious student who had been brought back to life, her thoughts drifted onto what made Yukiko so memorable in the first place.
"She's a special case... a big heart. The daughter of a Kage... she has the power to change the shinobi world. Make sure you take care of her..." Her thoughts were beginning to get hazy, and she shut her eyes, the aftereffects of the jutsu kicking in.
"Konoha..." With that final thought, her eyes shut completely, and her thoughts went blank...
"Blurry..."
One thing about being in chakra-mass form meant that his vision, as well as his other senses were hardly usable. As Naruto's body began to change from a vapor-like state into something more solid, he had trouble seeing what was going on.
There were a few small blurs that rushed off to one side, but he couldn't make out what they were doing beyond that. There was a golden blur that was a little bigger right in front of him, and a few more off to the side.
The golden blur was not moving.
However, as his body solidified and things became clearer and clearly, he saw the small golden blur get far bigger, shooting upwards towards around his size.
Naruto's chakra swirled around him as his body was now fully back in its normal state, his Bijuu chakra petrifying anything within a suitable distance of him. There were a couple humans resting under a tree right beside him, and they were clearly afraid of him.
He squinted his eyes, being unused to the bright sun that he had gone without for the past eleven years or so. He chuckled, a deep rumble of a laugh that almost seemed like an earthquake.
He moved his claws in front of his face, testing them for the first time since he had gotten sealed. It was a glorious feeling, being free and capable of movement yet again. He brought his claws down to the crest of spikes that adorned his neck, testing out the feel of them. They were deadly weapons, and Naruto knew this.
Naruto's freedom didn't keep his attention for long, however. A heavy bloodlust had fallen over him in the last thirty minutes, and he just couldn't identify what was causing it. It was a feeling that made his scales stand on end, and his yellow skin to become even clammier. He locked his lacertilian eyes on the being in front of him, opening his mouth and growling slightly. His body was just begging him to absorb power, to grow stronger. It was animal instinct at its finest. And now that he was finally out of the seal, he got his answer.
There, in front of him, was another beast like him. A Bijuu... and it was only the second time he had ever encountered one. This time, however, there was no barrier there to prevent the other one from ripping him apart.
Still, this one's chakra was nothing like the Kyuubi's, which apparently meant that it was a lot closer to his level. Not to mention, he had seen its picture in a book before.
"Ichibi no Shukaku..."
The sandy yellow Tanuki was around the same size as himself. He was covered in ugly blue veins that wrapped around his sandy body. His skin looked almost layered, as it was packed in ridges that pointed downward. A single, very large tail was coming out its back end, very similar to the rest of its body.
Despite this, there was something off about the other Bijuu. It didn't look like he was all... there, to say the least. His eyes were completely lifeless, and didn't shine with the drunken mirth that Shukaku was infamous for.
Then, there was the human that was emerging out of the beast's head. It was a red-headed child, probably around the age of what his first younger sister would be now.
"What's with that manic look on his face..." Naruto thought to himself, as the red-headed kid's eyes were focused on him. He was drooling from the mouth, and seemed to be making this obligatory hissing noise while he stood there encased in the sand.
"So, Shukaku isn't out yet. That means the red-headed kid is his Jinchuuriki... The Jinchuuriki is in control of this replica Bijuu right now, but I can coax the real one out with a little fighting. I'll have to unbind Shukaku once it's over though," he thought, going over battle tactics. If just a replica could inspire such the urge to kill, he wondered what the real thing would be like.
"I will kill you... Mother wants your blood sooo much. She wants to add to her power!" Gaara shouted to the Bijuu, making Naruto snarl, showing his serrated teeth menacingly.
"So, he knows I'm here too, and he's channeling his emotions through the kid right now. He wants to add to his power just as much as I do..."
Naruto held out his claws at length, before he hoisted himself onto his back legs and rushed his opponent fiercely. He uprooted dozens upon dozens of trees in his charge, and the Jinchuuriki looked somewhat surprised at the Reibi's speed. Shukaku definitely wasn't known for his speed. Still, the other Bijuu wouldn't be able to break through his defense.
Naruto reared his claws to the highest point he could make them, before he slashed them downwards. The claws glimmered in the Sun, and he slashed the other beast in the shoulders, slicing off a layer of sand in the process.
The Ichibi replica jumped away as fast as its heavy body would allow, and the other force of nature darted off towards the other side. His claws were glowing with his representative golden chakra. Right now, his size and a little bit of chakra were all he had to his name. All of the other Bijuu had special abilities that they used. Hopefully his would develop with more time.
"Kid, you fucking suck. You fight too much like a human does..." he said to Gaara, who was busy growling at him. It was true... he did fight too much like a human. He was too refined and too controlled, despite his obvious instability. Any Bijuu worth his weight would be fighting instinctively. A Bijuu doesn't fight like a human, and doesn't fight like a shinobi. A Bijuu fights like an animal, like a beast.
"Interesting. You are very interesting, Reibi! It is going to be a pleasure killing you and adding you to my power!" Gaara screamed from his perch, where the Shukaku mimicked his voice.
Naruto just ran at his opponent, coating his claws and teeth in his acrid chakra to make them more potent. The whole fight was just going in his favor at the moment. Gaara would occasionally attempt to use Sabaku Kyuu on him, but with his size that made things all too easy for him to avoid.
He was outspeeding the Jinchuuriki at a ridiculous rate. With his latest attack poised, he got in very close, sinking his fangs in the shoulder of the Shukaku replica. Ignoring the sandy taste, he nearly bit threw the entire arm before he was forced to withdraw. However, he had coated his teeth with chakra, so they were there to work their magic.
Like a wondrous poison, the acrid chakra had a corrosive property to it, and it quickly burned right through the Shukaku's arm, severing it and creating little more than a stump. Gaara roared out at him in anger of the lizard bite, coming out a little more out of his shell.
"You're just going to force me to go to greater and greater lengths to defeat you, aren't you... Reibi? Interesting, very interesting! I'll take you up on it right now!" he shrieked, his bloodlust turning his voice into a manic stutter.
He smiled psychotically, before he put up in hands in a simple Ram seal. He locked eyes with Naruto, who was standing a good distance away, before he chuckled lightly.
"Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu..." he whispered, before his hands slumped to his sides uselessly. His body followed suit, slumping forward as his head drooped in obvious sleep.
"Here he comes..." Naruto said out loud, as the thought crossed him that the current fight was nothing like what was coming. With the Jinchuuriki asleep, Shukaku would be free to take the reigns. It was a trait unique only to him.
The battlefield was silent, as a few birds flew away from the chaos. The landscape was beginning to change immensely, with too many uprooted trees to count, it was turning into a valley.
A quick rumbling occurred, startling Naruto out of his daze. There came a loud beating from over where Shukaku was, before Gaara had descended back into his protective sand embrace.
One thump later, and the Shukaku replica's normally dead eyes became golden...
Another day, another chapter. But I guess that's not right, with the way I update. Still, this chapter came relatively fast for how often I update this story, so whatever.
Please make sure you review. I quite like this chapter, after all.
Translations and Other Features
Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu: Feigned Sleep Technique
That's all for now, so goodbye
Alban55