Chapter 4: Fate
-Hinata
Fate has I strange way of choosing people who it wants to twist their life around. Everyone has been touched by fate once in their life, some fewer than others. But when fate truly chooses to mess up someone's life, you can tell. And that was how I could tell that he had been touched by fate. You could tell from the look on his face; his life was about to be turned upside-down.
-Naruto
I looked at all the requests that had come in from the nearby villages. "Are we going to have enough shinobi?" I asked Tsunade.
"I'm not sure… All I know is that I don't want to go through all this paperwork…"
Sakura burst through the door. "Bad news you two, I just did a headcount."
"And...?"
"We only have 23 today."
"What?! That's like…Half our ninjas…"
"Yeah, so what should we do?"
"I don't know…"
This time, Shizune burst through the door. "Tsunade-sama, more requests have come."
"Not more…" I groaned. "We're already low on shinobi and the requests just keep flooding in…"
"Sensei, should we give each ninja more missions?"
"We'll have to. Sakura, Naruto, divide these stacks into Jounin, Chunin, and Genin level missions."
"Yes ma'am!" We exclaimed in unison.
-Hinata
The shinobi of the Leaf Village had worked hard for 7 days straight. Not to mention the fact that Naruto dropped dead yesterday. According to the Hokage, he's going to be out of commission for the next few days but, knowing Naruto, he's probably going to be at it tomorrow. I feel sorry for Naruto; he's gotten twice the number of missions as the rest of us and completed them all flawlessly. And he had once called himself a failure…
-Naruto
I stared at myself as a young boy, looking into the eyes of someone who had been hated. Was this an old memory? Why was I dreaming about this now? I heard soft footsteps behind me and turned around, seeing a wild animal or… what was that?
It looked like Kyuubi but was white with 8 tails instead of 9. It looked to be a girl with blue eyes shaped like his. Were they related? I stared after her as she got in front of my younger self.
"Naruto," she said in a motherly tone. I stared into her eyes and backed away.
"W-Who are you?" I had asked.
"Kazuma is my name. I'm a member of the Demon Fox tribe and sister of Kyuubi Kiru, the legendary Nine-tailed Fox."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about…"
"You're his Jinchuuriki are you not?"
"Jinchuuriki…I'm sorry… I think you have the wrong person…"
"Naruto Uzumaki? Is that your name?"
"Y-Yes but… I'm not a Jinchuuriki or whatever…"
"Hmm, they must've kept it a secret until you came of age…" She turned her head and took something out of the bag she was carrying. "Take this. It's a scroll for you to use when you realize that Kyuubi is inside of you. Just write your name in blood in the first column and put your fingerprints under that. It will teleport you to our village. Well, I must be going now. Goodbye, Naruto Uzumaki." And with that, she was gone.
-Sakura
Turmoil was the best word to describe it. Naruto had gone missing yesterday, disappearing and no one knew where he went. This morning, the shinobi of the village had begun a wild search of the town, searching everywhere from restaurants to hotels yet no one had even caught a glimpse of him. Where could he have gone?
-Naruto
I found myself in a small area, forest on almost every side with worn pathways through the trees. Nothing but short buildings was lining the road I was standing on, homes. "Hello?" I called out and suddenly, every sound had stopped. I heard movement from one of the more frontal buildings and a young fox popped out, 5 tails attached.
"What do you think you're doing here human?" he growled at me, bearing his teeth. "If you know what's good for you, you'd turn around and leave our village."
"Um, I'm looking for Kazuma. Do you know where she is?"
"Of course I do. Everyone who is supposed to be here knows where she is. Why do you want to talk to her, outsider?"
"Uh, because I know…her brother."
"Ha! If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that. Just leave this town, boy."
"No! I came here to talk to her."
The young fox moved lightning fast behind me, putting his claw against my neck. "I said LEAVE."
I swallowed hard. "I'm not going to…"
"Then you doomed yourself to this fate…" and he slid his claw deeper into my throat.
"Wait Kouga!" Someone shouted. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the same white fox that talked to me that day. She was twice the size, not as large as Kyuubi, but still bigger than me.
"You're…Kazuma, right?"
"So you remembered Naruto, steel trap memory?"
"Wait, is this THE Naruto Uzumaki?" Kouga asked.
"That's right," she answered him.
"I'm so sorry!" he told me, bowing his head. "I had no idea of your identity."
"Uh, don't worry about it…"
"Kazuma, will you teach this boy?"
"Yes, that was my intention." She stared at my face with such intent that it made me feel uncomfortable. Her eyes drifted down to my stomach.
"Uh, you're not going to touch the-"I was cut of as she used some sort of seal breaking jutsu on the seal. A flaming pain spread from my stomach to the rest of my body while I tried to keep my cry of pain contained. "Why did you do that?"
"Hmm, that's a pretty strong seal. I guess I shouldn't underestimate your father now should I?"
"How did you…?"
"Oh, I know all about your parents. I knew your mother in particular. Quite the woman I must say…"
"How did you find my mom in the first place?"
"Oh, she stumbled across this village as a young girl but kept it all a secret for years until she met your father. She told him everything, introduced us too. I offered him a chance to summon but he said he already had a toad summon so I didn't bug him about it. Then, it was like fate had interfered when I learned that my brother got sealed inside of you so I went out on a quest in search of you. I finally stumbled across you in the Leaf Village and by the looks of it; you became a ninja of Konoha didn't you?"
"Yeah…I did."
"Well, with that out of the way, do you know of a way to get Kyuubi out here?"
"No, he doesn't, but I do."
I turned around and saw him. "Kyuubi! How did you do that?"
"Oh, the secrets kept from you Naruto."
"Kyuubi, has it awakened?"
"Has what awakened?" I asked, looking between the two of them.
"No, it hasn't. How do we do it?"
"We can't force it. He has to do it himself. If that ever happens, come back here and I will teach him how to control it."
"Okay. We should probably get going, Naruto, the village is probably going crazy right now looking for you. Goodbye, my dear Kazuma."
She smiled. "Goodbye, my brother." And I didn't see her again until it happened.