Disclainer...
...
...
What more do you want from me!? nervous breakdown
Speech
Thought
Kyuubi
Aoirann: 'Fraid I haven't. But I'm up for a few suggestions.
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"M-My hand.." Naruto stammered, a mix of surprise and fear plastered on his face. He remembered the ANBU's sword had cut his right arm off just below the elbow. It was back now, but this one was all silvery and seemed to shine in the light. What freaked him out more was that it was moving naturally, completely under his control. He set it back down almost jumped when he realized he was actually feeling the bed sheets under the limb, "Ojiji! W-What's going on!?" He cried out, starting to panic.
"Naruto! Naruto, calm down, you're going to be ok. You're just in the hospital." Sarutobi sat a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. However the look of worry remained on his face. The Hokage sighed, "Naruto, to be honest, we aren't really sure what exactly happened to you. Some of the Inuzuka's dogs were able to finally track you down, but you were already unconscious and that.." He looked at the gleaming metal limb, "Was already there by the time you were found. That was more than a week ago.."
"A...A week?" Naruto's eyes widened, "The Acadmey! I still haven't enrolled!"
Sarutobi flinched at what he was going to have to do in response to that, "Naruto, I'm sorry..but until we can get a better idea of what happened, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here."
"But..but Ojiji.." The dissappointment was evident in the boy's voice.
"I know I promised you you'd get in at the start of term, but we need to be sure there won't be any negative side-effects."
Naruto's face fell, " All right..stupid ball..this is all it's fault." He sulked, not expecting the old man to hear.
"What ball are you talking about, Naruto?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow.
"Oh..that glass ball I found in there...it rolled off the table it was sitting on and broke when I poked it..this gross-looking stuff was inside. When it broke, the gunk stood up and jumped at me. I woke up here..."
"Wait..the 'gunk' in the ball jumped at you??" Sarutobi recalled one of the Inuzuka saying the room they found him in was akin to a small lab. From the description, the place had been there since before Konoha was founded. Naruto had been laying near a table in the center with broken glass around it. It didn't take a jounin to figure out whatever was in it had a hand in the boy's current state. The question now was what exactly.
"Listen, Naruto. I have to go for now." He lightly ruffeled the blonde's head, "I suggest you try and relax. Hopefully it won't be long before we figure things out."
The boy hesitated before nodding in assent and watched the Hokage head out of the room. He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, "I hate hospitals." He whined to no one in particular.
The Hokage started towards the stairs when he heard some call out "Hokage-Sama!" from behind him. He turned to see one of the senior doctors come skidding to a halt in front of him, gasping for air. In his hand was what looked to be several x-rays.
"H-Hokage-Sama.." The man gasped, "You..you might want to see these."
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Sarutobi was gobsmacked after seeing the second batch of x-rays, "Are you sure about this??"
The doctor nodded, "Without a doubt, Hokage-Sama. The arm is composed of some unusual alloy. It's extremely strong, yet...well, one of the healers attempted to use a chakra scalpel on it. It was as if she had run her finger over the surface of a pond, the metal simply rippled for a moment then resumed its original hardness. It's..it's completely alien to us." The man quickly took out a small flask from his pocket and took a swig before continuing, "We asked the Hyuugas to send a member to see if they could shed some light on things. Hiashi-Sama himself came." He took a deep breath, "Hokage-Sama...according to him, the arm is developing its own chaka pathways."
"Are you serious??" The Hokage felt the need to sit down, "Artificial paths..that's impossible!"
The doctor nodded, "If Hiashi-Sama says that's what he saw, I'm not going to argue with him. It's as if the arm is working to replace what Naruto lost. However..the arm is only the tip of the iceberg." He took another swig.
This time the Hokage promptly sat on the first chair he found, "There's more?"
"Whatever the arm is mad of, there's even more of the material in his body." He put up several more x-rays, "It's adhering to just about everything."
"Nerves, organs, even muscle and bone...it seems to be completely integrating itself into his system." Sarutobi said, taking note of the light-colored marks cris-crossing through everything in the images.
"I believe the arm was the first thing that showed up. The rest seems to have been spreading slowly over the course of the week. Aside from that, I'm afraid we're still in the dark as to what's going on. On the plus side, we can't seem to find anything that looks to be detrimental but I'd like keep a close watch on him for now just to be safe. Hopefully we'll figure out what it is"
Sarutobi nodded, "Very well. Let me know if anything new turns up." He got to his feet, albeit a tad shakily and started his way back home, "I hope this doesn't come back to bite us. Especially you, Naruto."
The moment he was outside he glanced around, "Nezumi, Tora." The moment he called out those words, a pair of ANBU Black Ops appeared in front of him, "I want you two to go back to the lab Naruto was found in. Go over it with a fine-tooth comb and bring back anything that might tell us what was being worked on, no matter how minor."
"Hai, Hokage-Sama." The two shinobi said, blurring out of sight.
Sarutobi took out his pipe and took a long puff on it. Regardless of what they learned, Naruto's life was never going to be the same.
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Drip...
"Hn..hmm..?"
Drip...
"Wha..? Aw no..no..I grew out of that!"
"If you're referring to what I think you are, you don't have to worry about that." A voice chuckled.
The second it spoke, Naruto scrambled to his feet. He felt a chill run up his spine when he realized he wasn't in the hospital room. Not he wasn't complaining, but where he was instead didn't seem much better. Instead on the stark white oom, he was now in a dark, clammy tunnel. Rusty-looking pipes ran along the walls into the darkness. As he stood, he realized he was knee deep in water with a gigantic locked gate in front of him with a piece of paper carrying the kanji for 'seal' pasted over the lock. On the other side was complete darkness.
"Who..who are you?" Naruto called out, looking around uneasily, "A-And what is this place?"
"To be blunt, this is your mind, Naruto." The voice responded, this time coming from the other side of the gate and making Naruto fall over in fright.
"My..my mind...wha?"
"Let's just say it's a reflection of how you feel most of the time. I'm guessing miserable considering how those shi...slimeballs in town treat you." The voice said, though Naruto caught it catching itself in mid-swear, "As for who I am. I'll let you see for yourself." As soon as those words were spoke, a massive fox head emerged from the shadows, its glowing red eyes looking straight at him.
"Y-Y-You're the Kyuubi!" Naruto jumped back in fright, "B-But you..you can't be alive! The Fourth...he k-killed you!"
"Not quite. Even he wasn't strong to defeat me like that; so he gave up his life to seal to me away. He sealed me into you."
Naruto stood there for a moment in shock before the pieces started falling into place; his birthday and the anniversary of the fox's defeat on the same date plus the increased aggression towards him on that day, the shouts of 'demon' and other insults, "You..." He said, looking Kyuubi dead in the eyes, "You're why they hate me so much..."
"Unfortunately, yes." The fox lowered its head in what Naruto could almost recognize as..shame, "I'm not proud of I did 8 years ago. And to honest..the circumstances behind it are rather embarrassing..."
"Why? What happened?" Naruto cocked his head to the side in curiosity.
The fox sighed, "Well...the Raikage pissed me off..I'll tell you why when your older. " It added before he could say anything, "Anyway, I made up my mind ro go to Cloud and give them a piece of my mind. Unfortunately," It almost looked like the fox was turning even redder from embarrassment, "I..I was too mad to think straight and got my directions mixed up. Needless to say, I saw the Leaf Village and went in without making sure."
"So you were a baka." Naruto stated.
"Don't remind me..." The fox took a minute to regain its composure, "Anyway, I brought you here to make a deal with you."
"A deal..?" Naruto looked at the red eyes warily. 8 years of attacks had given him a sense of caution most his age wouldn't even begin to have. His excitement at going to the academy being the only thing that allowed him to be captured last time. And right now it was kicking in, "Wait, how do I know you're not just making things up to try and trick me, Kyuubi!?"
"Because what I propose can help us both." The fox pulled its head back into the darkness "And for the record, my name isn't Kyuubi. It's Kasumi"
"Kasumi? But that's a girl's name..." His train of thought came to a thundering halt as he saw what came out from the shadows in place of the fox head.
"Oh? And what would you call me?" The voice quickly shifted from its gruff rumbling and took on a more demure, feminine tone. Now, Naruto may have just been 8, but he knew what a pretty girl looked like, and the one standing opposite from him fit the notion to a T: bright orange eyes, blood-red hair done up in a pair of waist-length pigtails that draped behind her head, ending in black tips to match the two fox ears sticking up through her hair and dressed in a slightly baggy sleeveless sweater and shorts with a bushy fox tail poking out between them. She had a somewhat slender build and standing at little more than 5'4", but still attractive. He noticed a pair of small fangs peeking out from behind her upper lip, but they seemed to just make her a little cuter as far as he was concerned.
"K-kawaii..." Was all the blonde could muster, making the redhead giggle.
"Aw, that's sweet of you, Naru-chan." Kasumi said playfully, "Now, are you interested in hearing my offer?"
Naruto gulped, even though he knew what a prety girl looked like, he wasn't all that sure how to act around one, "Wha..what do you h-have in mind?"
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Ok, Im' planning to give Naruto 3 capabilities with his new additions. Since his arm is composed of nanites, it makes sense that they could possibly rearrange to form weapons, kinda like the T1000 (just close-range stuff like blades and maces, no laser cannons obviously). The other 2 I'm gonna let you guys recommend; amplified strength/speed, enhanced senses? You name it.
Next time: Enter the Nanosoul.