Chapter 2: The First Edict
Naruto had his own special hospital room. He'd only been there once before, when he'd fallen out of a tree and broken his arm when he was seven, but it was his nonetheless. The nurses told him it was made of reinforced concrete and located some four hundred meters beneath the hospital proper, reachable only by a secluded staircase and designed by the Second Hokage to contain the Kyuubi's first jinchuriki when she lost control of the beast. The last time he was here it was only a precaution, just in case the fox managed to take advantage of his injury. Now, he was here for one reason only: prevent it from reaching the surface in case the unthinkable happened.
With a swirl of smoke, the Third Hokage appeared in the room. His face, although lined and tired, still held the undeniable spark of warmth reserved for visits with Naruto.
"You've had quite the journey, haven't you?" the old man said. "I've received a mission report from Kakashi, but I think I'd like to hear your perspective on what happened on your first C-rank mission."
Naruto swallowed. "Eh, so we left Konoha with that old guy Tazuna, and we were doing okay until two guys with weird masks jumped out of a puddle and attacked us."
"Was the client the target?" the Hokage asked casually.
"Uh, yeah," Naruto answered. "We fought them a bit, but then sensei came back and kicked their asses. I got poisoned too, but then I bled it out and we kept walking. Then, when we were at the coast, another ninja ambushed us. He was way better than the first two dorks."
"Ah," said Sarutobi. "Team Kakashi encountered Zabuza Momochi on this mission, according to both Kakashi and Sasuke, but neither told me in any great detail what happened to him."
"Why's it matter?" asked Naruto.
"Missing ninja are tracked zealously by their home villages to protect secrets," Sarutobi said lightly. "If we could find Zabuza's body, we could glean secrets about the Seven Swordsmen and Kiri in general. However, I am more interested in how you killed him. There was a second ninja whose corpse Kakashi was able to seal and retrieve... tell me, how did the four of you overcome two A-ranked adversaries?"
Naruto winced. "I... might have used the Kyuubi," he admitted. "I'm sorry, really! But if I hadn't, we would have all died! I didn't want to put anyone in danger—"
"Yet you did an admirable job of exactly that," the Hokage admonished. "Naruto, I thought we discussed this. The seal holding the demon in check is unstable, and allowing too much of its chakra through is a mistake. Understand that the kitsune is a dangerous liar, and will not hesitate to make promises that it intends to betray. As long as you depend on it to help you, you are not safe."
He sighed sadly. "I am not criticizing you for doing what you had to in order to protect your teammates, Naruto. Kakashi reports that you used a Bijudama, which is an incredibly advanced technique for a jinchuriki. Typically, they have to use much more of their tailed beast's power, so it speaks to your fortitude that you could manage it. I can't imagine what else you might have used to kill Zabuza, though I would have appreciated the kubikiribocho being in Konoha's possession."
"Sorry," Naruto muttered.
"How are you feeling?" asked the Hokage, drawing up a chair from the corner of the room and sitting placidly. He took out a pipe, already filled with tobacco, but refrained from lighting it.
"I feel... okay, actually," Naruto admitted. "I wasn't really hurt during the fight. It's just my jaw. Kinda hurts, probably from those loud cracks I heard when I opened my mouth. There's just this weird tingly feeling in my belly, like that time I ate some bad ramen and puked all over Ayami's apron."
Sarutobi frowned. "I see. Well, at present there are only two practiced fuinjutsu users in Konoha, including myself. Until I can get Jiraiya to come and look at your seal, I think I'll have a second opinion on the state of your seal. They'll be here in about an hour." He stood up to leave.
"Wait!" Naruto cried hoarsely. "How- how are Sakura and the bastard?"
"Sasuke, if that is who you referring to, was never admitted to the hospital. He recovered before returning to Konoha. If, however, you meant Kakashi, he is still dangerously low on chakra. I expect he will be fine before the day is out."
Hiruzen frowned. "Sakura, on the other hand, is in critical care. She was rushed back to the village by your sensei with severe lacerations to the torso and a broken rib. I spoke to her attending medic, who added a pierced lung to the list. Frankly, it's a miracle she's still alive. Momoe, however, believes that she will make a full recovery."
Naruto looked downcast. "Okay," he murmured. "When can I leave?"
"As soon as we're sure that the seal is undamaged," said the Hokage. "Good day, Naruto."
Naruto soon drifted off into what felt like a waking dream. It was Konoha... and yet it was not. He stood on the second tier of the library across from his apartment building, looking out over the village as it burned. Spreading out from the centre, flames licked slowly at the wooden buildings, turning them black. The Hokage Tower itself was toppled, the simple action writing the Leaf's obituary in Naruto's mind. The mountain was the same, but the Fourth's face had been defaced by a massive gouge in the monument, some titanic force having driven a fissure into the stone. The sky was dark, laden with black clouds and thick with the scent of ozone.
The Kyuubi stood proud over the remnants of the mighty village, unfettered save for a blue ribbon winding around its left hind leg, burrowing deep into the ground. Nevertheless, the demon's tails seemed noticeably dimmer, and it wasn't exactly leaping to devour him. Naruto supposed that his continued ability to draw breath meant that the seal was as secure as ever. The gigantic being peered down it him with eyes that glittered in the firelight.
"Thank you," said the demon, "for killing them. I am Kurama, patron of rage, and it's been far too long since I've been able and ready to kill ninja."
"That's kind of sick, but what else should I expect from the demon that wiped out so much of Konoha?" Naruto reflected. "Thanks for the power, I suppose, and the Bijudama was pretty cool too, but we're done."
"Really?" Kurama drawled, his tails swishing lazily in the evening breeze. "I was under the impression that we were going to have a discussion, and that you were going to stay here and listen to me. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"
"No, that's what you wanted," Naruto corrected. "I want to leave. In fact, I want a few bowls of ramen and a cool new jutsu, but since you can't give me either I'll take the leaving."
"On the contrary, I've given you both of those," Kurama said smugly. "The Tailed Beast Ball is an advanced skill, one which requires my cooperation to actually use. Certainly neither Mito nor Kushina could do it."
"Were they your jinchuriki before me?" asked Naruto.
"Indeed they were, and what a pair of self-righteous kunoichi they were," Kurama recalled. "I'm rather hoping you might be more amenable to what I have to tell you."
Naruto's face scrunched up, like he'd bitten into a dango and found it was lemon-flavoured. "Aren't you going to try and trick me or something?"
Kurama sighed. "On divine honour, I swear that nothing I tell you is falsehood. Satisfied?"
"Not really," Naruto admitted. "On the other hand, I don't see the ramen anywhere, and I don't think I have anywhere to be, so you may as well say whatever it is you have to say."
"Very well. Before I start, may I ask what it is you believe I am?"
"What is this, a trick question?" Trick question or otherwise, Naruto thought hard for a few moments before he answered the behemoth. "I think... that you're a kitsune demon, who escaped from whatever you were being held in to take revenge on Konoha for sealing you in it. Then, the Fourth Hokage saved everyone by sealing you in my belly."
"That's what you think happened, but what do you think I am?" Kurama stressed.
"A demon," Naruto said promptly.
"No," the kitsune rebuked. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
"What do you... no. There's no way you could possibly be-"
"Be what? Be a god?" Kurama laughed throatily. "No, I am not a god, for if I were then Konoha would not stand. I am merely an emissary."
"An angel?" Naruto giggled, suddenly overcome with mirth at the thought of a haloed Kurama clad in white robes sweeping its tail across the ocean and causing a hurricane. "Ain't angels supposed to have wings an' trumpets and stuff?"
Kurama sighed again, shifting angrily as the ribbon chafed at his leg. "That may be what you perceive an angel to be, but I assure you that I am one. As are my brothers and sisters, the other tailed beasts on earth. We were sent here on a mission, and it seems I must convince you to allow me to continue."
"Huh," Naruto muttered. "So, God is like, your Hokage or something? Yeah, okay."
"Not God," Kurama corrected. "The tailed beasts are the servants of Kazan, Lord of Fire and Eye of the Sun. We have a common goal, and it is his will that brings us here."
"So there are, uh, other gods?" Naruto wondered.
"There are four," Kurama confirmed. "Kazan, my father, is one; there is also Orochi, the Seneschal of Undeath; a powerful entity whose name is lost to history; and one who elevated himself to godhood: the Sage of Six Paths."
"Hey, I've heard of him," said Naruto. "Iruka says he's the guy who invented ninjutsu, right? But Sakura says that's just a legend to explain where all of the awesomeness comes from."
At the word 'chakra', Kurama hissed like a snake and began glowing with rage. Naruto hurried leapt away from the bright red kitsune as he vented his rage into the surroundings. With a tremendous bang, the rookery exploded in a shower of feathers and magma. Only when it was relatively safe did Naruto dare to return to the area by roof-hopping.
"Chakra," the Kyuubi growled. "That foul substance ought to be scourged by fire! It is a stain on the tapestry of creation!"
"Aren't... aren't you made entirely of chakra?"
Kurama muttered something that sounded like a curse, then answered his question. "I am no more made of chakra than you, imbecile. I am a manifestation of Lord Kazan's will, made of his rage given form and direction. I am here for a purpose, and that purpose gives me strength."
"What purpose?" Naruto demanded, bristling over the imbecile comment.
"To kill all shinobi."
That wasn't much of a surprise to Naruto. From what little history the Hokage had given him on the subject of the Kyuubi, it had spent most of its existence hunting and destroying Hidden Villages. Smoke, Mud and Bark were three of several mentioned villages that the demon had swept away with its massive tails and crushing ire. It was only until the First Hokage had devised a way to create jinchuriki after the Battle of the End that the Elemental Nations experienced any peace from the threat of annihilation. What really puzzled Naruto was—
"Why?" he blurted out. Why did all ninja need to die? What possible grudge could a god carry against them?
"Because my Lord is a god of progress and enlightenment. Fire is a symbol of light and knowledge as well as heat and destruction," Kurama remarked. "Ninja are knives in the dark, serving both money and the whims of the Kage. Countless times, innovation and technology have been stifled by the hand of a ninja. Your profession is a bane to life itself, and the Hidden Village system is a flawed ideology. Until every last shinobi has been crushed beneath our paws, my siblings and I cannot rest."
"As soon as I get out here, I'm telling the Hokage that—"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi is a coward of the worst sort!" Kurama roared. "The third ruler of Konoha is everything the gods abhor: a murderer, a thief, and a liar! Were he not the leader of your city-state, I'm sure he would be a traitor, too."
"You take that back!" Naruto returned angrily. "He's a great leader, and I'm proud to serve him as a member of the Leaf Village! The Hokage would never agree to kill innocent people!" It sounded strong, but a neglected voice in the back of his mind told him that Sarutobi had indeed killed and stolen in service to the Second, before taking the post of Hokage himself. He had even lied, saying that the Fourth had killed the Kyuubi instead of sealing it into a baby.
"You think him blameless?" asked Kurama. "I'll admit that Sarutobi is idealistic, but he lacks the drive to make the precocious notion of a Will of Fire reality. Humans are loyal only to themselves and their own interests, save for an exceptional few. How can you possibly believe in the innocence of a man who takes up the blade and kills?"
"Fine," Naruto seethed. "You want proof? I'll get your proof! If I can show you that the Hokage is a good man, you have to pipe the hell down! I'm sick of hearing all this bullshit about ninja needing to die!"
Kurama rolled his eyes. "And what if he is not?" the angel wondered. "Will you release me, then? If Hiruzen Sarutobi is any less than a saint, will you allow me free to purge ninja from the world?"
Naruto was struck by an errant thought. "How do I let you out?" he asked. "I mean, not that I plan to, but is it even possible?"
Shifting a bit, Kurama showed the ribbon winding down his left flank. "Cut it. It's immune to being burnt, torn or snapped, but a pair of scissors ought to do the trick."
Naruto thought for a bit. "Alright, if you win, I'll come back and we can talk some more. Sound fair?"
"I'm hardly negotiating from a position of advantage, so that will suffice," Kurama conceded. "Good day, Naruto. Enjoy your ramen."
Naruto awoke again, his mind awhirl with the possibilities of what the dem- angel had told him. If it were true, that meant that the whole of Konoha was in violation of divine will. That meant that Iruka was wrong, and Konoha was the bad guy! That meant that the Uchiha clan deserved to die! That meant that...
If it meant that, the Fourth Hokage had still done the right thing by protecting his home. Even if every ninja on the planet really did deserve to die, Minato Namikaze had no way of knowing that. Even if he did, he had sacrificed everything to Konoha. There was no way he could allow so many people to die, not without an explanation and perhaps not even then. Whatever else happened, Naruto refused to undo that act of devotion and doom all of Konoha.
The room was quiet for a few minutes, save for the buzz of Kurama's words in Naruto's skull. They pounded deafeningly against the barriers of his mind, demanding to be made into actions. He dropped his head into his hands and moaned, trying to shut the ideas out.
Hiruzen Sarutobi is a sinner!
Chakra is an abomination!
All ninja must die!
"No... no..."
"Naruto? I'm sorry, I need you to take your shirt off for a moment, please."
Naruto grudgingly opened his eyes and looked into the face of the speaker. She was a tall, dark haired woman, wearing the standard jonin jacket and red pants. Her most striking feature was her eyes, which were red throughout and laced with black. She looked a bit like Sasuke's mother, only Sasuke's mother had a softer face. His visitor looked weary, like she'd just run a marathon and still made time for the silly antics of children.
"What?" he repeated dumbly, staring into her captivating red eyes.
"Could you please take your shirt off?" the woman repeated. "I have to take a look at your seal."
"Sure." The shirt slid back over his chest, and the kunoichi took out an inkwell and a feather quill.
"Channel a bit of chakra," she commanded.
The seal appeared, bright blue and just as implacable as the man who made it and the beast it restrained. The woman smeared a new, smaller seal just above it and added some of her own chakra, creating new lines on Naruto's stomach as previously invisible parts of the seal were made visible.
The woman took out a magnifying glass and held it to a portion of the seal that looked a bit like a duck, if you squinted hard enough. She squinted, and Naruto thought that she might be looking for the bill or something to appear. He honestly didn't know much about fuinjutsu. The fact that something as powerful as a kitsune could be held back with paper and ink was mind-boggling.
'Paper, ink and human sacrifice, that is,' he thought bitterly. 'That just makes even less sense. What does killing yourself hafta do with sealing something?'
"I suspect that Minato wasn't able to seal all of the demon's chakra by himself," the woman drawled. Too late, Naruto realized that he'd spoken part of his sentence aloud. "In order to finish the ritual, I believe he needed to call on some higher entity to finish the job. Such a being would have demanded payment, and in a moment of desparation the Fourth offered his own life."
"You mean he summoned a god?" Naruto whispered, mouth dropping open in shock.
"Could be," the kunoichi agreed, moving the magnifying glass over another part of the seal. "A god, or a different demon, or maybe something we don't have a name for. The other main argument is that he simply burnt himself out in the process. I personally don't believe that, but who can tell? Only the jonin were in the village to see it, and I didn't have that rank until two years ago. All we know for sure is that he didn't die in battle, and that his corpse was completely drained of chakra.
She considered the seal. "I'm no expert in creating jinchuriki, but this seal looks undamaged. Of course, Minato was way out of my league, and this is so complex that for all we know, the Kyuubi might be escaping as we speak. On the bright side, that is a remote possibility at best, so I'll give the director clearance to discharge you."
"Gee, thanks for the reassurance," Naruto grumbled.
The woman stood up and put the sealing equipment back into her flak jacket. As an afterthought, she reached back in and pulled out a bundle of small scrolls.
"Here," she said, offering them to him. "These'll tide you over until the Hokage gets back."
After she left, Naruto bit his thumb and tentatively wiped a drop of blood over the first seal. Instantly, the paper disappeared, replaced by a piping hot bowl of miso ramen.
"Did... did you do this?"
Kurama's laughter echoed in his ears, drowning out the unpleasant thoughts as Naruto began to slurp down his belated lunch.
Kakashi was well and truly drunk by the time the Hokage called for him. In a haze, he had stumbled out of his hospital room while at the same time warding off nurses and hiding from medics. In all his years as a ninja, this was the worst case of chakra exhaustion he'd ever experienced. Chidori wasn't meant to be used so many times in the same week, much less on the same person. It was unbelievable that he'd even missed, and then to have his ass covered by Naruto of all people...
Well, there was only one cure for the bizzare and inexplicable: copious amounts of alcohol. As he sat in his quiet corner of the bar, nursing a glass of shochu, he ran over a fond list of the people who'd turned to drink. There was Tenzo, of course, who drank every once in a while when the stress of ANBU got to be too much. There was Genma, who was a natural alcoholic with a tolerance that was every bit as strong as his chauvinism. There was Tsunade, of course, who couldn't handle the death of Dan Kato and subsequent defection of Orochimaru. Kakashi looked pensive behind his mask for a second. Did Hayate drink? No, but his stoic inability to admit he was dying even while coughing his lungs out might have put beer on tap for Yugao.
"Sir," said a chunin. Kakashi peered over his shoulder at the boy. He was sixteen, maybe, and his face had a few bandages wrapped around it. His eyes were dark and unreadable in the shadows of the bar.
"Yeah, I'mon it," he said lazily. Normally, Kakashi went out with friends to mitigate the cost of drinking (by skipping out early and making them pay). He was alone, however, and one look at his escort told him he couldn't easily dupe the guy into paying. Reluctantly, he pulled out his wallet and tossed a few bills onto the counter.
"C'mon, le's go," he muttered drunkenly. He stumbled out of the establishment, the peeved chunin trailing behind to ensure he didn't bolt. As they left, the money on the counter vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Do you have any idea what happened on Team Seven's mission?"
Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Y'know, I don' really," he admitted to the Hokage, as if it were just a slip in etiquette instead of a mind-blowingly stupid executive decision that smacked of incompetence and idiocy. Really, he should have known better than to fight an assassin in his native element with a genin cell present.
"Kakashi, you smell like a brewery," the Hokage said plaintively. "I expect more professional behaviour from one of my best shinobi. Please, go home and clean yourself up. We'll have this conversation later."
Kakashi leaned in. Finally, the weight of the sweat in his hair finally overwhelmed whatever dark magic he used to keep in upright, and most of it was immediately plastered to the side of his head. "Yer... kinda annoying," he confided. Sarutobi's jaw clenched, and he nearly bit the end of his pipe off.
"Get out. You're making a fool of yourself, Kakashi."
"I did that a'ready," Kakashi grumbled. "I went 'n fought some... some guy... Some guy nearly killed me!" he howled, slamming his fist against Sarutobi's desk. The Hokage didn't even flinch at the display of anger, and quietly motioned for the chunin honour guards to remain where they were. He was, in effect, stuck between comforting a distraught drunk and reprimanding a moronic decision. In the end, he decided to simply remove Kakashi from his office with judicious application of force.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital right now?" the Hokage asked innocuously.
"Uh..."
"I'm sure Momoe would be interested to know that you're out of bed with such severe chakra exhaustion. Perhaps we could inform her?"
Yes, if there was anything guaranteed to send Sharingan Kakashi scurrying it was the threat of hospitalization. Chuckling privately at the speed of Kakashi's retreat, Sarutobi glanced down at his desk. There was a backlog of requests from various clients. Most of these fell into two categories— assassination missions and the like, and protection missions. Appropriately, the more dangerous clientele were directed straight to the jonin lounge, while relatively safer missions with more black-and-white morality were provided for the younger genin and chunin. It was these that he currently shuffled through, idly discarding those that were misfiled or had the potential to backfire. Sarutobi supposed that sending Team Seven on such a dubious mission was partly his fault. After all, Tazuna had blatantly lied about his country of origin and other background information on the form for standard C-ranks.
On the other hand, such missions were typically sent with older genin cells anyways, because the off mission that went bad could be handled by the sensei. It was just misfortune that Kakashi had been unprepared for such an opponent. He picked up another C-rank mission, this one being an escort for a travelling merchant going from Fire to Lightning. He approved that for Team Eight, and idly looked over some of the border patrols that needed to be handled.
Then, a mission caught his eye. He looked over the details, scrutinizing it for facetiousness and deceit. Finding none, he smiled.
'As soon as Haruno gets out of the hospital, Team Seven will have its next assignment.'
