Naruto: Kung Fu Guardian

Chapter 10: Naruto's Fate

…o.0.O.0.o…

Sorry for the long delay, but I've been working on my other story, which I've renamed to Naruto: A Different Beginning. It's now 4 chapters strong :D and the newest chapter has my first attempt at writing anything romantic.

Disclaimer: I borrowed Narutoverse from Kishimoto and two techniques from Jin Yong. Everything else, including the explanation of how those techniques work, though, is mine.

…o.0.O.0.o…

The malicious chakra wave was felt by all in Konoha.

There was no mistaking it. Those who had been alive twelve years ago, and old enough to remember, knew what that chakra was.

Just when pandemonium was about to erupt, Anko and Yuugao returned to the village in time to carry out Sarutobi's directives, directing several cavalries of ANBU through the village, declaring the Hokage's evocation of the Edict de Senju, an old wartime decree that was used once by the Shodaime to keep everyone indoors, away from harm's way.

No one questioned it … almost no one.

Danzou was one.

He wanted to know what was going on and sent out his ex-Root subordinates to circumvent the ANBU cavalries but were unsuccessful as they were heavily guarded by Sarutobi's forces.

Another was the double spy of Orochimaru and Madara, whose cover was an inconspicuous medic-nin of Konoha – Yakushi Kabuto.

Because of the distraction Danzou's ex-ROOT loyalists furnished, the ANBUs were too occupied to notice a certain speck-wearing silver-haired medic-nin getting away.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Three days later.

A bun-haired brunette wearing her usual pink vest outfit made her way out of the Yamanaka flower shop with a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

It was crowded, more so than she had ever remembered seeing it to be. As she walked out, she took a glance at the long line of girls waiting.

She sighed and whispered to herself, "Looks like the number of Naruto's fan-girls rivals that of Sasuke or Neji. I'm glad that I'd lined up early."

As she admired the artistry of arrangement, her thoughts went to the girl behind such skill.

Poor Ino. She'd wanted to see Naruto herself, but she got stuck helping out at the shop.

Then the brunette noticed that the card in the flowers shaped like a heart.

She blushed a little at the implication, but left it alone, and continued to walk toward the hospital.

Once she got there, she was told by the receptionist that Naruto still could not have any visitors. She then had to surrender her flowers to the hospital staff and had to watch with disappointment it getting placed in a room full of similar presents wishing for Naruto's speedy recovery.

Feeling insignificant and doubtful that hers would ever get noticed, she turned around and was about to leave the hospital when she heard someone called out her name.

"Tenten!"

Turning her head toward the voice, she saw a pink-haired girl waiving her hands and a blue-haired girl sitting next to her looking downward and pressing her fingers together.

She tilted her head slightly, trying to remember where she had seen them before.

"Sakura and Hinata?"

…o.0.O.0.o…

In Naruto's hospital room, the mood was grim.

Silence reigned as other occupants processed their thoughts on their favorite blond who'd been lying motionless in bed, with the only sign of life being the shallow heaving of his chest.

"Suma-kun, it's been three days since we brought him back," said Anko, expressing the anxiety that had been in everyone's mind. "Tell that comedian ex-sensei of yours to get off his ass and do something about this."

"Go book a room with your monkey," retorted Wu who was the only one sitting. "We'll send someone deaf to get you if there's any development."

"Oh, bite me."

"No, that's 'Suma-kun's job." Wu replied with a satisfying smirk as he watched his former student's face deepen in color.

"Hn," remarked Anko absent-mindedly. She had been going at it with Wu for days now to pass time. It amused her that he could always come up with something new and smart to piss her off and take her mind off the comatose boy for a few minutes.

Wu had never left the boy's side since that fateful day at the waterfall.

Suppressing Kyuubi had taken a lot out of the WuDang Headmaster. He himself had to be carried back by Asuma. Although the past three days had allowed him enough time to recover most of his Qi, he had yet to return to his full strength. However, his true age was once again camouflaged by the youthful vigor and appearance that his resourceful Qi afforded him. Gone were the gray hair and overly wrinkled face.

The past few days that Wu had tended to the boy's bedside was spent mostly looking out the window. It was not because he was longing for the modern conveniences that a prosperous village like Konoha could offer in comparison to his outdated and plain Taoist temple. He had spent so much time looking out because it happened to face east, the direction from which he came. It had been four long years, and he missed his disciples.

There would have been more people waiting by the blond's bedside had their schedules been as open as his. They had been in everyday to check on him though. Every morning, though, like today, they had all gathered for their daily unofficial meeting with the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, do you still wish to send Naruto away after he wakes up?" asked Kakashi, trying to breathe some optimism into the room. The implied if, though unsaid, rang loud and clear in everyone's minds.

"If he wakes up, he'll do so today," Wu muttered to himself from the corner.

Kakashi leered at the Taoist priest whose back was turned toward him.

"When he does, he will, but now I'm not sure if he'll be under positive influence," replied Sarutobi to Kakashi's question, equally annoyed at Wu's blunt statement.

Wu pretended to turn a deaf ear.

"What about my team, then?" inquired Kakashi with his eyes back on his favorite reading material. "I'll be one man short."

"That's where Anko comes in," replied Sarutobi without paying attention to the reactions of Kakashi and Anko.

Kakashi's facial expression was hard to read, with it being hidden behind his mask and his perverse book, but his sole visible eyebrow arched upward. Anko's face was easier to read, and at the time, it was one of confusion.

Sarutobi was distracted, splitting his attention between worrying about his comatose grandson and filtering Kakashi's questions. After a second, the portion of his attention that had been reserved for all things not-Naruto spotted the look on Anko's face; he cringed noticeably.

"What!?" shouted Anko as her eyebrows furrowed, her face showed a mixture of emotions. "You are not going to put me in Kakashi's team to babysit Prince Uchiha and his fan-girl, are you?"

"Anko," retorted Kakashi, with his eye still glued to the smut. "Technically, I'll be the one babysitting them."

Though his words sounded nonchalant, the meaning of his tone was clear. Kakashi was unwilling to share the oar on how to steer his team.

Anko was just about to give Kakashi a piece of her mind when her thoughts were abruptly jolted by voice from her superior.

"Enough." The Sandaime now turned his face toward them, making eye contact. Once he had their attention, he turned to Anko first.

"You've told Naruto that you wanted a Genin team yourself should one becomes available, didn't you?"

Anko could only nod, surprised that the boy had actually done her that favor.

"Well, with the roster already filled, you won't get your own team this year. But in Naruto's absence, you can still remain a sensei if you become one to his teammate Sakura."

"But, Hokage-sama …"

Sarutobi sagely raised his hand to silence her protest while turning his attention to Kakashi. He toke a puff before continuing.

"Kakashi, you will be focusing your attention on Sasuke … "

At the mentioning of that name, Yuugao turned her head toward them, remembering how the tone was similar to Naruto's when he was requesting to be assigned to Team 7.

" … because of Danzou's influence on the boy. My gut tells me that something big is about to happen, and it will involve him."

At this point, Sarutobi gave the ex-ANBU captain a solemn look, "Readjust the boy if at all possible, but I trust that you'll do whatever it takes to ensure Konoha's safety."

The implied directive rang loud and clear in Kakashi's mind. Even though he felt he'd owed Obito more than anything, his ANBU training made him realize that the greater good of the village came first.

Two resolute "Hai"s were given.

"Dad," interrupted Asuma, who had left Anko's side when she was called forth and was now sitting next to Naruto. "Look!"

The room focused its attention on the comatose boy whose eyelids were struggling to open. Everyone was holding their breath for Naruto to regain consciousness. All but Wu moved closer to his bedside.

"Don't get your hopes up yet," said the WuXia realist, who had remained by the windows, unintentionally putting a dampener on everyone's spirits. "What comes next will be the boy's toughest fight yet."

As if on queue, the boy's head violently turned from side to side, as if he was in the act of shaking off an imaginary grip on his neck.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Naruto: "Since you already know that this training requires me to clear my mind of all things, including you, tell me how to do it."

Kyuubi: "For you to advance in your training, you must understand the consequences of doing so. Once you do this, you cannot turn back. The only possible way for you to be rid of me is to kill me."

. . .

Kyuubi sent a blast of killer intent towards Naruto. Of all their twelve years of coexistence, this was the first time she deliberately made Naruto feel that he was in danger.

"So you want to play rough?"

Naruto entered the cage and sprinted towards his prisoner in attempt to punch her in the face.

"You imbecile, haven't I taught you anything? What did you hope to accomplish other than getting yourself killed? Is this how you want to die?"

Kyuubi grabbed Naruto by the neck.

Naruto could feel his life force slowly being choked out of him. He did the only thing he knew to do, though he had no hopes of succeeding. He molded even more chakra, giving it his all.

When molding chakra, Naruto found himself enclosed in purple hue and an unfathomable amount of power surged through his body. A part of this power felt unnatural and foreign.

With eyes widened at the possible implications of his actions, he struggled even harder under Kyuubi's choking grip and managed to whimper, "What … have … I … done?"

Closing his eyes, he stopped struggling against Kyuubi's choking grip and resigned to his fate as a jinchuuriki – the tragedy of human sacrifice. A satisfying grin graced his face. He felt serene, carefree, and unburdened. His death would ensure the death of the Nine-Tails and the safety of everyone precious to him.

'I will protect ….'

"… everyone!" screamed the hospitalized boy as he sat himself erect with eyes wide open and sweat beads forming on his forehead, rolling down the sides of his face.

He looked around and blinked his eyes several times. Slowly the imagery before his eyes cleared as they readjusted themselves to sight. He called out the names of his loved ones as their faces became distinguishable to him.

"Dad … Jiji … Anko-sensei … Yuugao-sensei … Kakashi-sensei…." He paused, trying to think if he knew who the strange swordsman standing next to the window was. Not trusting himself, he pointed there and asked Asuma, "Dad, there's a strange-looking person standing there, right?"

"Yeah, son," reassured Asuma while letting out a soft chuckle, relieved that Naruto was himself. "How do you feel?"

"Uh … weak," replied the twelve-year-old whose stomach just rumbled its own response, "… hehe, and hungry."

"Oh, I'll go get you some ramen," volunteered Anko, her foot already out the door. Although she was glad that the gaki had made it, she was never good at these happy-feel-good-I'm-so-glad-you're-alive scenes.

"Thanks, Anko-sensei," he called out, but she had already left.

"Naruto," said Sarutobi, "tell us what you remember."

Naruto wanted to, but silently nodded his head toward the stranger, his body language asking if he could speak freely.

Sarutobi nodded and said, "Not to worry. He knows everything and was a big help. I'll explain later. Just tell us what you remember."

Naruto scratched his head and twisted his lips briefly as if he was trying to wring the answer out of them.

"Well, I remembered the water washing over me and then I entered my mindscape and had my chat with Kyuubi …." He went on to relate the scene his mind repeated countless times before he woke up.

"So, what happened to me anyway? I probably overdid it and fainted, right? It was a bad dream, right?" asked a worried Naruto as he puzzled over his condition and everyone's facial expressions as what he'd said was being digested. "Why do I feel so weak anyway?"

"Probably because you can't draw on Kyuubi's chakra or her healing property."

Hearing his adoptive grandfather's solemn words and grave facial expression confirmed the worst of Naruto's fears. He clutched his fists in a handful of bed sheet, trying to focus inward and access his tenant.

Once he entered his mindscape, he found the cage of Kyuubi where it always was, at the epicenter of the walls of labyrinth. Except, unlike his previous visits, the seal engravings on the walls were not pulsing with Kyuubi's vibrant chakra. Another very significant difference was that now the gargantuan cage was completely covered by a giant taijitu symbol of Yin and Yang draping over it.

Naruto was about to call out to his tenant, but his mind got pulled back into reality by Sarutobi's voice echoing down his ear cannel.

"You can do that later Naruto. Right now I need your mind back on what we have to tell you."

Shaking his head to rid the mind-numbing effect of exiting his mindscape, the twelve-year-old was about to protest and plead for a few more minutes of quietness when his eyes caught movement from the strange swordsman, whose taijitu symbol on the back of his cloak now became visible. His eyes then widened in shock as his mind registered how that symbol was exactly the same one he saw draping over Kyuubi's cage.

"You!" Pointing his finger at Wu, Naruto shouted in the loudest voice his weakened condition allowed him to muster, which only made it come out sounding rasp and coerced. "What did you do to my Kyuubi-sensei?"

"Wrong question, baka!" retorted Wu as he moved in closer to let the boy get a better look at him. "Not what I did to her, but what she did to herself. Besides, you're not exactly blameless here … what were you doing inside her cage anyway?"

On the side, Yuugao and Kakashi reflected on what Naruto had just said.

"My Kyuubi-sensei? And it's a she?" mouthed Yuugao in an undertone. She knew that Naruto had the bijuu sealed in him, but she did not know that he was communicating with it – or, now that she knew, her – much less being taught by her or his having such bond with her. 'Could that explain why sword art comes so easily for him?'

Kakashi's thoughts were 'Is this the secret Asuma was talking about, or is there more?'

Naruto looked away in shame as he reflected on how easily his emotions had gotten the best of him, causing him to make such a grave error. He had known that the Nine-tails was taunting him, but he did not stop himself from taking the bait. His only hope now was that his foolishness had not caused any irreversible damages.

"So, what now?" asked Naruto after he finally got back the resolve to face the issue again.

Wu said in a mocked comforting tone, "Don't worry, you DID protect everyone." That solicited a few chuckles in the room and a blush from Naruto, knowing they were poking fun at his loud declaration of bravado.

Sarutobi answered him next, wanting to make sure the boy did not end up being too tough on himself.

"Your tenant was trying to force a merger, willingly sacrificing her existence and erroneously thinking that it was the best way to help you achieve more power."

"But I don't want more power, especially not at the cost of her life," interjected Naruto in his defense. He did not want to be associated with those traitors who had left the village whom he had learned about in the history books; namely, Orochimaru, Itachi, and Madara.

"She didn't finish the process," stated Wu, still looking outside the window.

"Duh, I may be a kid, but I'm not stupid," retorted Naruto, finally glad that he had somewhat of a retort against Wu's verbiage, albeit a weak one. "If she had, I wouldn't be in bed still, feeling weak all over."

Wu turned his head toward the whiskered blond and growled with a comment of his own, "If she did, you'd probably be dead by now."

"Wrooong!" said Naruto, stretching out the word for emphasis. "If she did, I'll be so strong right now that there's no stopping me from ripping you a new one in a spar!"

For reasons Naruto had yet to understand, this Wu guy was getting under his skin.

"Oh I would love to make you wish you hadn't uttered those words," taunted Wu.

"H-hum!" interjected Sarutobi while deliberately clearing his throat to get their attention. "Naruto, since you can't access Kyuubi's chakra or detect her presence, you are correct that the merging was incomplete. However Master Wu here was correct … "

Naruto heard a vindicated "Hn!" coming from the direction of the window.

"… if the merge had been successful, you'll be a mini-hybrid of Kyuubi without any control of yourself at best or a dead Genin at worst. It was very fortunate that Master Wu was with us when we found you. To save your life, he had to take drastic measures to arrest the merge."

"What … drastic … measures?" whispered Naruto nervously as he prepared for the worst.

Sarutobi looked away and gave a short nod to Wu to queue him on.

"I had to suppress her Qi."

Naruto snapped his head toward Wu and shouted, "What the hell does that mean?"

Asuma chastised in his fatherly tone, "Naruto …."

"Sorry, Dad, but this guy, acting all cool, just irks me!" said Naruto in his defense.

"Haha," Wu burst out laughing. "Probably because we have so much in common …."

"Why you …." Naruto growled as he flipped aside his sheets, ready to attack.

In a blink of an eye, Wu had covered the distance between the window and the bed, with his fingers having already sealed off 3 pressure points on Naruto's chest, temporarily immobilizing him. The shinobis in the room were ready to come to Naruto's rescue, but Wu simply held his hand up to call them off.

A few in the room had already realized that if this had been a real fight, they would not have stood a chance against him.

With his attention still on the boy, Wu stared into the twelve-year-old's eyes and said, "Listen gaki, I've had to be away from my disciples for 4 years to search for you. Kyuubi is small fries compare to what's really in store for you. You have within you the ability to change the world, and if I could help it, for the better. Men have killed in the past trying to get their hands on the two manuscripts sealed within you. And if I don't get you ready for your enemies soon, you'll become like all others before you who have failed to become the Guardian of the Two Nines, a mere asterisk in the pages of history."

"Guardian of the Two Nines?" asked Naruto who was still struggling to free himself from Wu's Pressure Point Immobilization Technique. "What are you talking about? What does this have to do with whatever you've done to Kyuubi-sensei?"

Wu had only immobilized Naruto's body, but left alone his speech.

"The Prophecy foretold that the next coming of the Guardian of the Two Nines would fall four years ago, around the time when those two manuscripts in Kyuubi's possession were stolen from their place of keeping. I believe the thief wanted the Kung Fu manuals so he could be the Guardian of the Two Nines. And a baka like you, though for reasons I can't comprehend …"

Naruto growled.

"… evidently had the grace of Fate, destined to become the next dual Guardian when someone handed those manuscripts to you four years ago."

"I don't want to be a caretaker to some really old manuscripts!" Naruto responded furiously.

"Why you …" As Wu said that, he walked away in disgust. He did not want to lose his cool and take out his frustration on a twelve-year-old.

Sarutobi continued in his place and said, "Well, you don't have to. If you really don't want to, just give Master Wu the two manuscripts, and he'll be on his way."

Naruto's facial expression was that of relief, while Wu's was confused as to where the old man was going with this. He was about to ask, but stopped when Sarutobi continued his reasoning.

"But know that the next Guardian isn't scheduled to appear again for a few hundred years, Remember what our friend-in-common" – both knew he was referring to Itachi – "had told us about Madara and how he's after these manuscripts too?"

Naruto had calmed down and could start to see where his Jiji was leading him.

"All right," he quietly stated, "I'll think about it some more."

Then his anger returned as he replayed what Wu had told him. Pointing his finger at the swordsman, he shouted, "You still haven't told me what you did to my Kyuubi-sensei!"

"Simple," Wu replied unfazed, "I put her into a state similar to hibernation. She'll be out of commission for three years. Unfortunately, that's the longest I'm able to suppress her with Qi alone. During this time you must become strong enough to withstand her influences in the future."

"What! Who asked you to do that?!" the boy shouted passionately while struggling ever more so against the immobilization.

"Relax, Naruto. That will wear off soon," reassured Asuma, who had been a recipient to the same technique couple of times during this tenure with the Guardian Monks. "For now, listen to this guy. Master Wu is a very capable teacher. He can teach you many things that we couldn't to do while in the village. He will help you realize your full potential."

"What do you mean, Dad, by 'while in the village'? You're not saying …"

One look at the faces of Asuma and Jiji told him what he needed to know.

"… that means …."

Naruto looked away as tears swelled his eyes and askied, "How long will I be gone?"

At this moment, Anko came back with Naruto's favorite ramen orders, in tote were Tenten, Sakura, and Hinata.

Anko had already known about it so she was not surprised at all. The girls on the other hand had looks of disbelief on their faces.

…o.0.O.0.o…

—Omake—

During Wu's three-day wait for Naruto to wake up from his coma, he'd spent time in Konoha trying to get to know the ninjas better. One incident was particularly noteworthy.

The day after rescuing Naruto by the waterfall training area, Wu saw Maito Gai and Hatake Kakashi by a river washing their signature attires.

Kakashi was scrubbing the stains off his mask fabric, working through a month's worth of laundry, apparently down to his last clean mask.

Gai too was in a similar situation, down to his last clean spandex. The only remarkable difference was that his stains were more noticeable and, because of their location, had more potential to cause embarrassment.

Both were using powder detergent for added scrubbing power.

Kakashi was trying his best to keep his cool while his ears were begging to be shielded from Gai's constant ramblings about the Power of Youth and about how proud he was of his prized protégé, Rock Lee.

Wu watched their interaction from a distance. At first he found the scene somewhat interesting and amusing, but after a while, he too got tired of Gai's whimsical nonsense. Then he started to feel sorry for Kakashi who had so much longer to endure, considering there still remained a month's worth of masks to be washed.

'After all, there's a thin line between insanity and humor.' Wu believed Gai crossed that line a day before he was conceived.

The Taoist priest figured that the best way to assist Kakashi was to help them get those stains out of their clothing faster. Reaching into his sleeves, he found a vial of the WuDang laundry powder and with a performance of Tai Chi he managed a small breeze that carried his powder concoction into theirs.

On the next round of wash, Kakashi and Gai were pleasantly surprised that their efforts were more rewarding this round than their previous attempts. This led Gai to boast about how brightly his power of youth was burning.

The marked improvement made Kakashi realize that relief from Gai's loud ramblings was coming soon. Gai was estatic, shouting a variation of his favorite mantra, "The Power of Youth conquers all."

However, soon their happiness and relief turned into grief and anger. Not only did the detergent removed the stains from their signature attires, it also removed some of the coloring; and in Gai's case, due to his overzealous scrubbing, some of the fabric as well.

Kakashi's dark gray masks, sporting various hues of pink and purple, now looked more like a scarf. Gai's spandex training suits now sported blotches of yellow and white, along with holes in embarrassing places that would make Anko's fishnet shirt modest in comparison.

The Copy-nin had suspected something was wrong with their detergent when its efficacy had mysteriously increased. Taking a sniff of it, he found its smell slightly different from usual. In fact, it smelled a little like the Taoist priest he'd met at the waterfall yesterday. Forming a few hand seals, he summoned his favorite nin-dog to track down Wu.

Currently Kakashi, Gai, and Wu were at training ground 7.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked Kakashi while holding up a piece of evidence, a pink and purple scarf-mask.

"Yeah?" concurred Gai, holding up his own evidence, a ... um ... something that looked like it had been chewed by a dog.

"Hehehe…." Wu could not help but crack up when he looked at what happened to their signature attires. His laughter only deepened when he pictured how ridiculous they would look were they to put these on now. "Hoho…" was what his laughter became as he was trying to inhale.

"Oh… oh …" now holding his side, regaining composure, Wu replied, "I was only trying to help."

"We're going to teach you a lesson, you funny looking man," said Gai. This coming from a man wearing green spandex only made Wu start another round of uncontrollable laughter.

Gai narrowed his eyes at Wu and said with disdain, "You will feel the power of our youth, right Kakashi?"

Kakashi cursed his karma and knew that if Gai was going to fight Wu, he couldn't back away, or he would never hear the end of how an "ex-ANBU captain chickened out" around the shinobi community or how his "self-proclaimed eternal rival bested him in something" around Gai.

With a heavy sigh, he pull up the hitai-ite covering his lone Sharingan and said to Gai while not daring to take his eyes off Wu, "You better take your weights off for this one, Gai."

The bowl-cut taijutsu specialist lightly chuckled and said, "No need to obliterate him, Kakashi. We're only trying to teach him a lesson."

He charged forward before Kakashi had a chance to explain his warning. 'Oh well,' Kakashi shrugged, 'he'll have to learn the hard way. Nothing's changed.'

Wu remained where he was, still laughing, and acted as if an approaching green blur did not even exist. When he got one meter within Wu, Gai readied himself to open his attack with a sweeping Primary Lotus kick to Wu head, aiming for his left temple.

One centimeter close to the kick connecting, Wu thrust out his left hand, extending his index finger and flicked his Qi at three of Gai's pressure points around the tibia, femur, and humerus, effectively motion-freezed Gai's flying leg to a screeching halt. The rest of Gai's body, however, was still behind the momentum of the kick and continued the follow though motions, unable to stop itself from pulling a few muscles and dislocating his hip at his kicking – right – leg.

With that simple flick of a finger, Wu, not having even touched one single hair on Gai's body, was able to not only stopped Gai's favorite opening attack, but defeated him as well.

Suddenly, Wu swung his sword and sheath out of his back strapping and plunged it into the ground. From his sleeves, he took out an elaborately designed folded-up fan that was an arm's length and balanced it horizontally on the butt of the sword hilt.

He said to the silver-haired ninja, "I don't expect you to land a punch on me or even come any closer than your companion did. So all you have to do is tip this gingerly balanced fan off my sword, and I'll admit defeat."

Kakashi's mouth hung open. He covered his hitai-ite over the Sharingan with his right hand and lifted his jaw to shut his mouth with his left. He slowly walked over to Gai and picked him up, carrying him over his shoulder, leaving for the hospital without saying another word.

"Hm," lamented Wu, "I was hoping for a little more fun to loosen up my joints… Oh well."

…o.0.O.0.o…

A/N: Just so we're clear, the Omake did not happen in my story. It's called Omake for a reason. :D