Okay, people! I know I usually don't have much to say with all these author's notes recently, but it's hard for me to come up with a witty announcement every single time I update!
Chapter 13: Nibi
Naruto charged Yugito with all the speed he could muster, his entire body glowing with the acrid golden chakra that he would become so well known for producing.
"Stay back, you three! Whatever you do, don't touch him!"
Karui, Omoi, and Samui seemed a little put-out, but they followed their superior's orders regardless. With... whatever Naruto was seemingly having a Bijuu's power, it was best to pull back and let Yugito deal with him.
He threw a clumsy punch at Yugito, whose trained ninja skills allowed her to dodge it easily. However, while they were locked in battle, he smiled, and a concentrated blade of golden chakra sprung from the end of his left elbow, curving past his fist.
Yugito produced two kunai with blinding speed, trying to parry the chakra as if it were solid. Howeer, she pulled back just before her hand was engulfed in the miasma, watching as the metal melted down into an ooze from the acridity of the chakra.
Naruto retracted his chakra blades, and the metal slag that was contained within it slopped to the dirt. With a disarming smile, he took another stance, opting to wait for Yugito to strike first this time.
"Should we really be doing this right now? You can't kill me with your dumb ninja skills, and I just have to drag you out into your Bijuu form if I want to get anything done! We can both save ourselves trouble if we just transform now!" Naruto offered, still smiling that disarming smile at Yugito.
Yugito didn't say anything, and she didn't give away any expression to indicate that she even heard Naruto. However, she attacked once more when a flurry of shuriken appeared from the ridge above, heading directly at Naruto.
"A clone?" Naruto thought, not used to the more indirect style of ninja combat. He summoned chakra into his left shoulder, concentrating it to the point where it was strong enough to shield him like a sheet of reinforced glass.
The shurikens bounced off the golden chakra with a quiet clink, flying in every which direction. Naruto caught one as it whizzed by his right cheek, holding it on one finger before he flung it at Yugito.
She dodged to the left, putting her hands into a familiar seal. Naruto sensed what she was about to do and got excited, releasing more golden chakra from his body.
He deflated slightly when he realized that she wasn't going to bring out the fully transformed beast here. Instead, she used her signature jutsu of elongating her fingernails and toenails, giving her the appearance of cat claws.
"Her natural taijutsu abilities would clearly help her here... but at this point, all she's doing is wasting time. Is she hoping that there is an alternative way to fight me without bringing out Nibi's powers?"
Like a nimble cat, she pounced. Naruto was left unable to defend while lost in his thoughts, the naturally agile woman being too much in physical combat for his fake human form.
The only thing that was keeping him afloat was the natural chakra shield that he always put up whenever he fought in human form. It reacted separately from his body and usually kept blows from Yugito at bay.
"Hari Jizou!"
After several seconds of warding off taijutsu attacks from Yugito, Naruto had decided that enough was enough. Like a lizard protecting its body, he charged up chakra into his pores, not even flinching as his almost scaly skin began to open up.
But, he was not wounded. Dozens of individual spines were poking out of the holes in his skin. They were coated in his signature golden chakra, extending their range and tipping them with a deadly poison.
Yugito was unprepared for it, as it was not a jutsu like its apparent namesake. He did not give any indication that he had formed handseals. The spines merely poked out of his body with no prelude to the attack, and four of them had penetrated the left side of her body while she was performing taijutsu.
"You're not like Gaara. You can completely control your Bijuu, and activate your Bijuu powers at will. If you don't want to get skewered by my spikes, I suggest you use them immediately!"
Samui, Omoi, and Karui were also surprised by the display that Naruto had just put on.
"What the hell was that?! I didn't see any handseals!" Karui screamed, before Yugito and Naruto released how close the three of them were to the battlefield.
Yugito in particular shook her head at Team Samui, and the blue flames that gathered around the Jinchuuriki's feet and spread out told them all they needed to know.
"Oh, shit!" Omoi shouted. "Yugito-san! Don't tell me you're going to transform here!" the lone male shouted at his superior, who was striking a peculiar pose. She was slouched over and her hands were pointed at the ground.
"Get farther back, you three! In fact, just keep running! Go back to the village right now and request for backup! This guy has strange powers; he's not a ninja!"
"Well, duh! I told you before that I'm a true Bijuu! What, did it take me showing off some of my powers for you to finally believe me?" Naruto laughed, before his smile faded when he saw the three interlopers flash away, clearly going back to the village for reinforcements.
He would have to finish things up quickly.
He had heard that the Nibi had control over a very special type of blue fire, which was supposedly much hotter than any Katon jutsu. From the looks of things, Yugito had control over it as well.
Blue fire was pouring off her body, engulfing her in what looked like a cloak as the fire began to take shape into a familiar feline form. Naruto was soon looking at a monster cat, two fiery tails intertwined within one another.
When it was done shrouding her completely, Yugito could no longer be seen. Instead, the ghostly imitation of the Nibi was staring down Naruto with its blank white eyes, the blue fire flickering off its body in wisps.
Naruto didn't bother speaking; Matatabi herself wouldn't be able to communicate with him until he forcibly ripped her presence out of Yugito's body. The imitation right here was just a shell for Yugito, similar to Gaara and Shukaku before the Tanuki Neiri.
The Nibi opened its mouth, a red fireball materializing directly in the center. Naruto winced; he didn't want to take on his true form just yet, and his poison would be far less effective on fire than it was on sand.
The Nibi released the fireball after it had charged for a few seconds. Naruto's eyes darted to his feet, where he leaped in mid-air slightly to the right to avoid the spreading fireball which moved quickly across the ground.
While Naruto was occupied with the fire, the Nibi replica took the initiative. It was only through Naruto noticing the giant shadow that fell over him that he was able to pivot himself in mid-air to avoiding the pouncing cat.
The Nibi created a crater as it clumsily crashed into the ground, but that wasn't the real danger that Naruto was so desperate to avoid. He knew that any contact with the Nibi replica's fiery body would not end well for him.
Out of instinct, he raised a golden chakra shield even after he was a relatively safe distance away from where the enhanced Jinchuuriki was prowling. It did him a lot of good.
Streams of blue fire emerged from Nibi's body like spires. Smoke rose from the nearest one heading for Naruto, and the humanoid Bijuu growled when it impacted with his chakra shield.
For Naruto, it became a battle of wills, as his chakra shield was the only thing keeping him from being burned. However, Nibi's blue fire wasn't something that was easily corroded, so he was at a disadvantage. All he could really do was halt the stream of fire.
"Fuck!" he roared, as another shadow materialized overhead. The Nibi replica could clearly transfer its full body through the streams of fire, being as fluid as it was.
While Naruto was distracted by the first stream of fire, it had rematerialized its master directly overhead him once again, this time with a paw headed straight toward him.
"Ugh, this could really be a risky maneuver! But, if I can do it right, I can pull out the Nibi without having to tangle with the Jinchuuriki any more... I suppose it's worth a shot!" Naruto told himself, watching as the massive paw angled directly toward him.
Hand glowing with a deep golden chakra, Naruto agilely twisted his body to narrowly avoid the claw, getting singed by the small flame that touched his side. He ignored the small wound and hovered above the Nibi proudly, locking eyes as the Bijuu replica turned its gaze up to regard him.
His other hand glowed with the same golden chakra, and without handseals, his technique was ready. With a calm expression, he plunged his hand deeply into the fire that made up the Nibi's head, not caring that his imitation flesh was becoming scalded.
"Bunri..." he muttered, as the Nibi roared. The replica with Yugito within thrashed and shook, trying to peel off the human-formed Bijuu. Naruto was doing something that it clearly didn't like, something very similar to the Fuuinjutsu that the ninja villages performed.
There were a few key differences, however. The "jutsu" that Naruto was using didn't seem to be about sealing. Rather, the chakra he was thrusting into Yugito and the Nibi replica's system seemed to be sawing away at the bonds that made up her seal.
As Naruto plunged his arm in deeper into the Nibi replica's forehead, wisps of the fiery blue chakra began to disperse from the Jinchuuriki form's main body. This happened at the expense of the Nibi's body, which was rapidly deforming as the cloak of chakra surrounding Yugito was disappearing.
This went on for ten agonizing minutes, as Naruto endured the pain that the fiery chakra was instilling into his arm. The discarded chakra was beginning to gather into one form as Naruto's special chakra extracted the Nibi from Yugito's body.
With a speed and efficiency that Akatsuki would be envious of, the Bijuu was fully unsealed with Naruto's special chakra in a matter of minutes. The miniature Nibi had been dispersed completely, not being the true form of the Bijuu.
As the final touches of the unsealing took place, the Kumogakure kunoichi in the middle of it all slumped to the ground, her eyes closed. Naruto knew that the Jinchuuriki did not survive his technique.
With the last of the Nibi's chakra swirling around him, he could now move on to the second part of the his technique. He had separated Jinchuuriki from Bijuu, and it was time to absorb that chakra of Matatabi, the Nibi.
The last of the blue fire was swirling around him, taking the true, much larger form of the Bijuu herself. The Nibi was nearly identical to the Jinchuuriki form that Yugito had used, though she was much larger and her eyes shown with sentience and understanding.
"Ichibi..." she boomed, her voice a deep female contralto. Naruto didn't turn around, though he sense the contempt and anger she held for him from her voice alone.
Matatabi was apparently fairly close to her container.
"Is this all worth it? I have not been able to completely suppress the desire to destroy you and take your power for myself, but you have killed Yugito-san. The Jinchuuriki must suffer because of beings like us. You show no regard for them or your own kind, simply wishing to add to your own power..."
Well, she was definitely smarter than Shukaku.
"I'm surprised. Shukaku was even more of a raving nutcase when he saw me, and the Kyuubi made his intentions clear that he wanted to take my power. To think you'd be able to retain some semblance of sanity when you have a clear source of new power in front of you. But, let's not kid ourselves into pretending that there could be any other way..." Naruto said.
The Nibi growled neutrally.
"In fact, I imagine you'll get over your container's death in a few minutes, and focus any and all energy into trying to absorb me. I know you can't resist taking more power. It's in our nature..."
Naruto turned around and faced the much larger Bijuu for the first time.
"Those humans seal us so they may use us; it's been that way ever since the Shodai Hokage decided we were little more than presents for the other nations. Even the Jinchuuriki are usually not against using our power for their own benefits. I don't care how much suffering they must endure..."
"You were once one of those humans, though. You also cannot say that you were there when the Shodai Hokage made his decision," the Nibi retorted.
"I suppose. But, my human body was completely destroyed when the residual chakra in that forest decided to make me the final Bijuu. I am no closer to human now than the rest of you. And, I have seen firsthand the pissing contest that the Shodai Hokage created when it came to these village matters..."
The Nibi seemed to grimace at his vulgar choice of words, but Naruto couldn't exactly tell.
Nevertheless, Matatabi seemed to be done trying to reason with Naruto at this point, as she no longer had anything of meaning to say to the young Bijuu.
Naruto was beginning to groan at this point, gathering his golden chakra around himself as his fake human body began to break down and dematerialize.
When it broke down into the familiar golden chakra completely, a yellow vaporous cloud began forming in the air around the battlefield. As it began to condense, the Nibi realized that Naruto was taking on his true Bijuu form, which she had never seen before.
The streamlined yellow lizard that emerged was about her size, as she expected. However, when she saw the new Ichibi is all his Bijuu glory, she felt the bloodlust overtake her once again, and she had the incredible urge to take his power.
"Your power... it is intoxicating! I must have it, to prove myself greater than all of the other Bijuu!" Matatabi said, before roaring. The call of the Bijuu stirred both of their spirits.
"What did I say?" Naruto mocked, proving how their previous conversation was now a moot point. Even the normally gentle and respectful Matatabi gave in to her Bijuu nature the moment more power was on the line.
Too bad he was going to hers for himself, as his own Bijuu nature was telling him to do. Nibi was the one who attacked first, however, with a special version of the fireball he had seen earlier.
Obviously it was on a much bigger scale.
The blue fireball flew toward him like the famed Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu, but faster and with a much hotter flame. It incinerated the ground before him, forcing Naruto to use agility to leap into the air to avoid having his claws burned.
He was surprised when Nibi met him in mid-air before he could even react, slashing her claws at him, which he was forced to counter with his own. The two dueled like animals, being surprisingly nimble for creatures their size.
"She's not slow like Shukaku was..." Naruto thought, releasing some golden chakra into the spines all around his body. He thrust his body forward, his acrid chakra penetrating Nibi's body while she bit into his neck.
"Argh!" Naruto growled, as he felt a burning sensation where she was biting him. Even her teeth seemed to carry the properties of her signature blue fire.
She had made the mistake of leaving his front claws free, and Naruto managed to pry the monster cat off of him by slashing her in the belly with five of his poisonous claws, forcing her to withdraw the bite.
As soon as she loosened her grip, Naruto pushed off from her, eying the black teethmarks that Nibi had made with barely contained anger. Nibi had sustained a wound in the belly, and from the way it was pulsating and swollen, the poison was making it worse. Even if she was made of that fire, his chakra had special properties. She couldn't completely nullify a direct hit from it.
"The village is right over there! This is definitely going to alert some people, and I'm going to have company if I don't finish this up quickly!" Naruto thought to himself.
Matatabi herself seemed to be finished toying with him, because she raised her right paw while regarding him with an expression that seemed to promise pain.
After that, she placed her front paws together, and Naruto watched as a stream of blue fire seemed to connect the Nibi's two limbs together. Whatever the case, she was charging up another attack.
"Katon: Bakanekoyari!"
"Oh, crap!" Naruto said outloud, as Nibi grasped her paw around the massive, gilded javelin of flame that she had formed with her chakra. What's more, she seemed to be waiting for the perfect opportunity to spear him with it.
He levelled a few trees with his tails as he tried to bound away from the fiery cat, who had clearly gained an edge in their battle. Nibi hefted the fiery javelin as if it were weightless, hurling it directly at Naruto.
Reaching out with a claw, he pivoted to the right, catching the javelin with his front right claw in an attempt to slow it down. It succeeded partially, but the flaming spear still grazed the side of his underbelly.
The fire was hot enough to cut through his natural armor, and the wound was semi-deep. It was enough for the golden chakra that made up his life's blood to leak from the wound, instead of blood that he didn't have.
Like the beast that she was, Nibi wasn't human enough to pause between her attacks. As soon as she saw that the spear hit, she was on him immediately, trying to cut his body into ribbons.
How that would give her his power, Naruto didn't now. But, he needed to hold her down if he himself wanted to use his technique on her. The cat's fiery skin was still burning him, however.
"You stupid bitch! How the hell are you gonna absorb my power anyway! Just get off!" Naruto roared, angry over the constant slashing of claws and burning of fire.
Naruto charged his chakra into his perfect barrier, releasing it from every pore in his body to coat himself in his poisonous chakra. But it was still a matter of whether his poison was strong enough to ward off Nibi's fire.
Naruto began pushing, using all of his weight in an attempt to pry off the admittedly heavier Bijuu. He shoved one of his free claws underneath her belly, using his limb as a lever while he exuded poisonous chakra.
He was doing all this while simultaneously keeping Nibi's animalistic slashes at bay. He grimaced; thinking to bite into Nibi's flesh with his incisors. He didn't even stop to think that Nibi's fiery body would burn his mouth.
Nibi gave a roar of her own, because Naruto was biting into the sensitive neck of the cat while trying to pry her off him. By sinking his teeth into her flesh, he was able to hold her in place to the point where he could prevent the brutal claw slashes from Nibi.
However, he was still getting burned.
"This isn't working. I can't use my technique while constantly getting burned, even if I am holding her down. I need a way to bind her in place without actually touching her..." Naruto thought, his mind drawing to the spines that covered much of his body.
With a guttural roar, Naruto shoved his limbs into the body of the cat, ignoring the burning sensation that was erupting all over his body. With a great shove, he moved Nibi off of him, allowing himself to put distance between the other Bijuu and avoid getting burned.
"She's more agile than Shukaku. If she was like him, I'd be able to pin her down without a second thought. But, I need to catch her at the right moment, where she can't avoid my attacks!" Naruto thought. She also didn't know about certain attacks of his; that was an advantage.
Naruto breathed in, his giant lizard face taking on an expression of calm as little wisps of golden chakra flowed off his body. A loud cracking noise resounded throughout the air, like bones shifting and muscle tearing.
The row of spines along his back were getting broader, prominent spikes jutting out of the main cord to cover his abdomen completely, and sticking out from body as a type of defense. Two main spikes from the crest around his neck jutted out, giving them a distinct important within that crest. If he tried to bite an opponent, they would also get punctured by those two spines.
Even his claws seemed lengthened.
"Not something I have ever seen before. It is a very creative move for such a young Bijuu. I can tell; our natural defenses will make any further fighting more painful than it needs to be... Very well!" Nibi trailed off for just a moment, having come to some sort of epiphany.
"In response to your improved technique, I will show you my dance!" Nibi roared. She seemed somewhat happier than normal, a different sort of happy than the instinctual kind that she had at the prospect of more power.
"First Cycle!"
Matatabi did something strange at that point. She threw herself onto her hind legs, standing upright like a human, a gesture that could no doubt be seen for many, many miles.
Naruto watched her in bewilderment as she started to move to invisible movement, dancing like a cat would. Her paws bounded back and forth; she was very light on her feet for a being of her size. The flames upon her head lit even brighter, and from Naruto's angle, it looked like a cloth or napkin of deep blue flame had been lit on top of her head.
She wasn't attack at all though, which lead to Naruto's confusion. The one-tailed Bijuu simply stood his ground, watching cautiously while readying his defenses.
"Second Cycle!"
Matatabi was done with the initial dance, and the moment she finished, she thrust forward with the second cycle. The movements were crisp and fluid like a true dance. She moved with no wasted movement, twirling and pirouetting while flames sprung from every limb she moved.
Naruto avoided the first strike just in time, the blue fire incinerating one of his spines as it barely missed him. Nibi brought her paws around in a circle, the flames following on command as she pushed it toward Naruto.
The first circle hit him, burning a patch in his underbelly. But, Naruto was resistant, and his thick chakra scales and spines were able to resist being completely incinerated.
Naruto retreated backward, charging up his chakra once again. The moment she paused, he would hit her with everything he had, in preparation for his technique.
The complex movements of Matatabi meant she had to recover sooner or later, and when she did...
"Third Cycle!"
Naruto's eyes widened when Nibi came to rest, but the flames surrounding her body seemed to be getting even stronger. She was holding her paw up with the pads downturned, like the symbol of beckoning. Her right front paw was charged with a bright blue flame.
"Maneki-Neko!"
A massive wave of flame erupted from Nibi's body, signaled by the downturned paw of her doing. It rocketed toward Naruto with all the explosive force of a true Bijuu; a great wall of flame enclosing in on all sides.
It was bright, bright enough that he couldn't even see Nibi anymore the moment it was activated. He knew that she couldn't see him either, however...
The wall of flame locked in on all sides of its target, with a resounding crack! that could be heard for miles around. Like a brilliant supernova, the flame wall exploded into a plethora of colors the moment it collided, spreading wildfire through the stony landscape.
Nibi watched with barely contained delight, giving in to her instincts. The thought didn't even register that she may have obliterated Naruto in the blast, and thus would be unable to absorb his power. But if there was a body...
Matatabi standing there was her biggest downfall.
"Gosouboshi!"
From within the blinding inferno, the Nibi could not see the five massive spines flying at her. By the time she did notice, it was already too late. The first one had come rocketing out of the inferno, puncturing her right shoulder as four more followed not more than a split-second afterwards.
The corresponding projectiles punctured complimentary parts of Nibi's body, and were fired with enough force to push the Bijuu back. Nibi roared and growled the strike carried her back, and she slammed into the nearest mountain behind the battlefield, creating a webbing crack where she had impacted.
Nibi's eyes fluttered over to the objects holding her. They looked like the spines that covered Naruto's body, but it was like they had been inflated to an even greater size. The fact that they were glowing with a familiar golden chakra gave away what they were.
The inferno she had cast was beginning to fade away, but a large shadow covered the sun before it could completely. Matatabi's eyes widened as Naruto crashed down from the sky, looking only slightly worse than he was before.
Nibi tried to move her limbs, but the jagged spikes impaling her body were reinforced with Naruto's own chakra. Her first thought was to harness the power of her flames and melt the boney spike to nothing.
Of course, Naruto was there to make sure that didn't happen.
Matatabi let out a feral growl as her fellow Bijuu approached her, a cold look in his eyes. She noticed the crest of spines missing from his neck, and the mystery of the technique became clear as day.
Her own technique had been turned against her. If she hadn't used Maneki-Neko and created such a blinding inferno, she wouldn't have given Naruto the cover necessary to hold her down with his own technique.
She cursed her own foolishness. Her instincts were overriding her rational thought, something that she had taken eons to develop. It was something she held a great deal of pride in.
"Well, Nibi, let's get down to business!" Naruto said, sauntering up to the bound Bijuu. His neck spines were already regrowing , the bone getting larger before their very eyes.
Nibi opened her mouth, feeling the black and white chakra swirling around in a vortex inside her mouth. Naruto only looked somewhat annoyed, however. Even as the Bijuudama fully developed, he never lost his cool.
This perplexed Matatabi. He should know full well what this was. Pushing it to the back of her mind, she finished forming the Bijuudama and held it in her mouth.
"It seems like whenever you're cornered, the Bijuudama becomes your last resort. That happened with Shukaku too! But I'm not about to let it happened a second time!" Naruto snarled in an annoyed tone, thrusting his arm directly into Nibi's midsection, just like he had down with Shukaku.
He didn't care that it burned him. That was a small sacrifice to be made for his continued evolution. Mirroring his encounter with the previous Bijuu, he pulled his claw out of Nibi's midsection, leaving behind a thread of golden chakra connecting the two of them.
"I wouldn't fire that if I were you... You can't possibly know what the merging of two Bijuu is like. Firing that now will have negative... consequences on yourself."
That seemed to make Nibi pause, her mouth hanging open as the Bijuudama stalled inactive. The pain that shot through her body made her regret the decision though, as the Bijuudama disappeared.
She hadn't willed it to deactivate, but the pain and weakness in her body was telling her that her chakra was being drained. She couldn't possibly upkeep a full Bijuudama while that happened.
Nibi's fiery body began to take on a dull hue as she faded in and out of existence. She was getting weaker by the second, and since her body was made of chakra, getting it drained would cause her body to lose its blue pallor. Eventually, she would just disappear, and she was already getting a little hazy.
Naruto meanwhile, was feeling the thrill of witnessing his power grow for the second time. The more chakra he absorbed through the cord, the weaker Matatabi got. After he got his hooks in, there was no more resisting. That was the beauty of his technique.
It took longer than Shukaku, well over an hour before the Nibi's body was almost completely faded. The cat's mustard yellow eyes had faded into a dull white, along with her once fiery body.
"M-My chakra..." she groaned out weakly. "I-I see... I underestimated you, Ichibi. My t-thirst for power and my instincts made me forget everything that I've ever held dear. C-Curse the Bijuu... we are truly damned creatures..."
"I-I give in to you, Ichibi. Y-You have bested me, and truly deserve to wear my rank. But before of those who came after me; some of them are more bloodthirsty than me, but above all else..."
Matatabi was nearly a shadow by that point.
"Beware of the Kyuubi..."
Naruto's eyes snapped open further upon Nibi's final words, and he thought back to his conversation with the Nine-Tails. The Kyuubi was the one who had told him of his unique ability... but what did that mean?
Matatabi was gone completely now, having been broken down into pure chakra. She would live on as a part of him; he could feel the power within himself now.
His chakra supply grew, and as he looked behind himself, he could see a second lizard-like tail sprouting out of his backside, identical to the first. The two tails hung parallel to one another, and Naruto felt a bubble of pride well up within himself.
Within the mountain range, a battle between two titans had taken place, and he had come out victorious. Down below, Kumogakure was sure to take notice, however. Luckily, this remote training ground was far enough from the village that there was no way that pursuers would be able to get here this fast, even if they were trained ninja. Yugito's followers were probably just getting back to the village now.
He put his hands into a "seal", concentrating as his body compressed once again into his much more inconspicuous human form. Once he was done transforming, he looked to where Yugito was laying on the ground, lifeless from the loss of her Bijuu.
Directly or indirectly, a ninja of Kumogakure was now dead. Naruto knew he needed to get out of Kaminari no Kuni soon, before the ANBU showed up, but he recalled that there was another Jinchuuriki within Kumogakure.
Still, he didn't know the number of tails that the other Bijuu had. If it was any more than he was prepared for, he would be in for a heap of trouble. And when they discovered one of their Bijuu had already been taken, Kumogakure would double up on the security, and likely protect the remaining one with everything they had.
"It's too risky to go snooping around in this village. I need to lay low for a while to get the heat off me, maybe head to another country before my reputation gets too big, and ask around about the Sanbi..."
Taking one last look at the nearest mountain, he camouflaged himself into the background with his latent abilities, taking off down the mountain range in the opposite direction of Kumogakure.
Ten minutes after Naruto had left, a single squad of Kumogakure ANBU arrived on the scene, discovering the fresh corpse of Nii Yugito.
The two sisters stared at each other in stony silence as they stood at the village gates. The new that they had just received not too long ago had put a damper on Yukiko's day. Even Haruki, who generally thrived at being the center of attention, looked a little put-out.
Their father had apparently told them about the prophecy of the Great Toad Sage. The Child of Prophecy who was apparently destined to bring the ninja world to an era of enlightenment was apparently the elder Namikaze daughter. As a student of Jiraiya, she fit the bill perfectly.
This obviously put a lot of pressure on Haruki, but Yukiko could tell by looking at her that her older sister had a fair bit of pride in being told that she was basically the big cheese of the ninja world. As such, Yukiko felt her sister become even more distant.
Here she was, on a mission to go retrieve the Bijuu that she didn't even want back. But, as she looked at Haruki, they both knew that they couldn't possibly let down their family's expectations, but it wasn't fair.
The other side of the story was the Harbinger of Destruction. Minato had told them how he thought of Uchiha Madara as the counterpart to the Child of Prophecy, and Uchiha Madara was dead. There should be no one to oppose Haruki from bringing peace to the ninja world.
Recent events had led Minato to develop a new theory, however. With the recent escape of the Reibi into the ninja world, their father was convinced that it was the Harbinger of Destruction wrought about in the legends.
If they tracked down the beast, Haruki would be able to fulfill her duty as the Child of Prophecy, and Yukiko... well, Yukiko would have a Bijuu back, with nothing more than a thanks to show for it.
Yet, here they were, standing outside the great gate of Konoha. Yukiko knew that she didn't want to let her parents and village down, so she would do this for them.
The two sisters had a Bijuu to track down...
Okay, chapter finished finally.
Translations and Other Features
Bunri: Separation
Katon: Bakenekoyari: Phantom Cat Spear
Gosouboshi: Five Claw Star
Maneki-Neko: Beckoning Cat
That's all for now,
Alban55