Well, looks like this fic left a hole in my heart that I had been trying to fill some way or the other. So, here's the new chapter. A few information, adjustments because of the newest informations that came out in the past months, mainly the names of the Jinchuuriki which are now changed to their canon ones (edited the past chapters too, in case you're wondering), and of course, the Kages, but that will come later. Enjoy!
Leadership
Book I, Chapter IV: Among the Clouds
"I hate fog... I can't see anything!"
"Naruto, you already said that so many times..." Gaara sweatdropped while saying the truth. Naruto had said that sentence at least once every two hours ever since they had entered the central region of Kumogakure, famous for its mountain ranges, surrounded by fog and battered by thunderstorms.
"That's the point of fog, Naruto. You would be surprised how many ninjas use techniques to reproduce it as a distraction." Itachi commented, a possible way to make Naruto stop repeating himself finally coming to mind. "If you stop being such a crybaby, maybe I could even teach you it, once you start using chakra."
"... Alright, I will stop, now." Naruto pouted, but inwardly grinned at the thought of Itachi agreeing to teach him a technique.
In those three days, Naruto had come to appreciate the company of his two guardian angels, and Gaara did too, since his own ones were stoic and mostly silent. Yamato was the responsible one and had all the feeling of the uncle who loved to tell scary stories, and he was damn good at it.
Itachi instead was probably the big brother Naruto had always dreamed of. Nice, smiling, protective, he found the time to joke and talk with the two children, and was an awesome ninja. What could one ask more for in a big brother?
"Good. Also, because we've arrived." Itachi declared as Yamato moved his hand from the right to the left and cut through the last layer of mist, which dispelled in front of them. Naruto and Gaara stopped at the edge of the first step of the set of stairs they currently found themselves in front of, and their mouths opened in wide 'aaaah' as they took in the scenery.
"Naruto, Gaara-san, this is Unraikyo, the Valley of Clouds and Lightning." Yamato then observed the large landscape of water and cliffs and found the rest of the Jinchuuriki and their guards waiting for them on a patch of dry land right under one of the most abitable-like cliffs. "We'll have to walk on water. So... It's piggyback time, I guess."
"Walk on what?" Naruto commented as Itachi knelt down and picked him up and one of the suna nins did the same with Gaara. Instead of a reply, they got a demonstration. The adult ninjas began to walk on the surface of water like it was a marble floor, much to Naruto's awe. "SO COOOOOL! Will I be able to do this too once, Itachi-nii? Eh?"
"Considering that it's a pretty basilar exercise and technique for a ninja, I'd say yes, Naruto." Itachi replied as they approached their destination more and more, and already Naruto could see the others. He saw a boy younger than himself raising one hand in sign of salute, and a dark-skinned girl waving an arm, for once not engrossed in her book. The others occupants, be them jinchuuriki or guardians, just stared and waited for the groups from Suna and Konoha to reach them.
"You're all here! Hi, guys!" Naruto didn't wait for Itachi to drop him. He climbed up the older ninja's back and used his left shoulder as a step, jumping and landing in front of him, before running to his companions.
"Hmm..." Itachi brushed the dirt off his shoulder and observed the blonde boy with a smile. "So eager, ain't he?"
"W-Wait for me!" Gaara immediately ran after Naruto as his own guardian let him down, reaching him just in time to witness Naruto crushing Yagura in a bear hug.
"Yagura! You've grown a lot! Hi, Utakata-nii!" Utakata nodded in acknowledgement and Gaara did the same.
"Ehm, Naruto-san, I think Yagura-san needs air." Naruto blinked and indeed realized that he had been probably too eager with his demonstration of affection, if the color of Yagura's face was any indication. He let go of him and apologized while rubbing the back of his head, before turning to Fu.
"I'm happy to see you to, Fu-chan." The simple comment got a flush as a reply.
"Ahahah... Ahh... You're welcome, gut... I mean, Naruto-san!" The jinchuuriki corrected herself, noticing her own slip, much to Yugito's annoyance.
"Honestly, how dumb can you be to not notice cutting off someone's air supply?" Yugito commented, intending on reprimanding Naruto for his behaviour, only to meet a blank look. He didn't know what air supply meant. "... Nevermind."
"Ehm, a pleasure to meet you again, Yugito-san." Gaara saluted, only for the Kunoichi to spare him and Naruto a brief glance and then turn around again, much to the redhead's discomfort. He whispered into Naruto's ear. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, I don't think so..." Naruto replied, scratching the top of his head. After all, Yagura was regaining colour already.
"Alright, settle down, boys." Two sets of footsteps approached the group from what seemed like a cave in the side of the mountain, after climbing up another set of rock stairs. Naruto grinned and started waving at the approaching figures of Roshi and Han.
"Hi, guys!" The blonde saluted and Han raised a hand, while Roshi just walked to them and started examining them with a critical eye, from head to toe. After a few glances, the old Jinchuuriki focused on Naruto, who was starting to feel confused. "Ehm, Roshi-jii-san? What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong... I was just checking something... And I noticed that you've been doing my routine daily ever since the last day we met, huh, Naruto? Pretty constant, admirable." Roshi straightened himself and smirked, while the leaf container blushed in embarrassment, not really used to people praising him.
"Ehm... Thanks, jii-san." Roshi just nodded and then turned to the whole delegation.
"Well, the Anbu from Kumo are waiting for us inside the cave. That's where you will be staying, children. After last year's... Incident..." Gaara, Naruto and Yagura exchanged a fleeting glance. "Kumo decided that it was best for you to reside in a more secluded space, for your safety."
"Or to better trap them inside." Han commented out loud, voicing his concern at the obvious weakness of living quarters situated in a set of caves.
"Yeah, that too... Come on, we're going to have a little tour before letting you settle in."
-Breakline-
"Waah, fireflies! Look!"
"But... Isn't it too cold for them up here?"
"I guess not. They're so pretty..." Ohhh, it's just like that scene where the gutsy ninja is alone with the princess and..." Fu glanced in Naruto's direction and blushed, turning the other way almost immediately. By now Yugito had understood what was going on with Fu, and every time it happened, one of her eyebrows twitched.
The other Jinchuuriki, minus the missing senior ones, were more focused on the strangely clean sky and open air above the lake, letting them witness either the spectacle of the fireflies or the bright stars in the night sky.
"Waah... I've never seen the stars so bright... Is it because we're so high, Yu-chan? We're surely higher than Konoha." Naruto asked, earning a surprised look and a frown from Yugito. Upon noticing, the spiky blonde just shrugged his shoulders. "Fu-chan and Yu-chan."
"Yugito. Not Yu-chan." Yugito remarked, before raising her head to the stars as well. "Yes, it's because we're so high, and also because there are no artificial lights around. They brighten up the sky and make more difficult for stars to be seen."
"They make shapes." Yagura stated, using his right index finger to unite various stars in the sky to make the shapes he was picturing in his mind.
"Yes. They're called constellations. If I remember correctly..." Utakata brought a hand to his chin and acquired a thoughtful look. "They are divided in three... Enclosures and twenty-eight mansions. The mansions make up four bigger constellations..."
"The four symbols." Everyone turned to Gaara, since he had been the one to talk, and who had just now raised his head to the sky to watch the stars, having focused mostly on the fireflies. After all, you had no way of seeing fireflies in a desert. "They're representations of four mythological figures, four guardian spirits, one for each of the cardinal points, but we can see only one for each season. The three enclosures, instead, are visible all year long. They're called Purple Forbidden, Supreme Palace and Heavenly Market enclosure."
Gaara stared and sighed, since the night sky was more of a companion than he himself wished. Then, he noticed that no one was talking. He turned to the right and saw that everyone was staring at him. "W-What is it?"
"... Wow! You know a lot about stars, Gaara!" Naruto exclaimed, making the redhead blush from the praise. "Four guardian spirits? Tell us more, please!"
"Yeah, it's pretty interesting." Fu pressed on Gaara as well, much to the suna jinchuuriki's embarrassment.
"Ehm... Well... Now it's summer, so..." Gaara raised an arm and pointed at the sky, painting a figure. Naruto and Yagura approached him and followed his motions as he 'painted'. "We're looking at the Vermillion Bird, Suzaku. It represents the element of fire, the season of summer and the direction south."
"What about the others?" Utakata asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and trying to picture the constellation on his own.
"Well, there's the Azure Dragon, Seiryuu. It represents spring, the east and the element of wood." Gaara brought out a hand and started counting. "The Black Tortoise, Genbu, is north, winter and water. Then the White Tiger, Byakko. It's west, autumn and the element of metal."
"Metal? They're not shinobi elements..." Fu commented, and Gaara nodded.
"No, they're not. They're an elemental classification called... Wu Xing. It's different." The redhead explained, and at this point, Yugito just had to ask.
"How do you know this much about stars?" She asked, and Gaara lowered his head a little.
"Well, when you can't sleep well at night, looking at stars is one of the only things you can do... So, I ended up wanting to learn more about them." Hearing that, Yugito suddenly felt guilty for asking.
"So... What's at the center?" Naruto asked out of the blue, and this time the attention was all on him. "You said that there's one for every direction, so what's at the center? The center can't be unprotected!"
"Ah... Ahahahah..." Gaara laughed genuinely at Naruto's words, and Yugito was secretly thankful. "At the center... There's Huang Long, the golden dragon. He makes the season change, and his element is earth."
"Cool... A golden dragon..." Naruto said, staring in awe at an imprecise point in the sky, trying to find the center. "Hey, wait. If the other four are all in the sky, maybe the center it's where we are!"
"Yeah, probably... Also, there's a part of the sky that we can't see from where we are, but people in other countries, more at south, can... And then, of course, there's the moon." That earned a chuckle from some of his friends. Naruto sighed and let himself fall to the ground, on his back. "The moon decides which constellations show and which do not."
"Man... I wish Kirabi-nii-san was here... He would have loved this..." Naruto turned his head to Yugito again. "Is there any chance that he could come... I don't know, to visit?"
"No, I don't think so." Yugito replied, a bit softer this time, still mindful of the unwanted incident from before. "Kirabi is very busy now that he's a genin, and even if he didn't have a mission, he can't just leave the village like that..."
-Breakline-
"Gonna go meet my maties, yo. I'll see you when I get back, yo. Signed, Kirabi, yo." The secretary winced as she observed A, the Raikage, crush yet another desk under his fist.
"... WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THAT LITTLE..."
-Breakline-
"Well, welcome back I guess, guys. Ready for a new routine?" Roshi said and a few of the youngsters present groaned, while Han chuckled. "Seems like just Naruto took the habit of doing the old one daily, and it shows. I can't blame you, though. He was the only one without a style, while all of you had already been put on a particular training regimen."
"Really? It shows?" Naruto blinked, confused. Roshi nodded.
"Indeed. Now you're but a young boy, but if you keep on training daily with my training regimens, your body will acquire a particular build." The older jinchuuriki then turned to his second in command. "Han, what do we have prepared for our young ones, today?"
"This time, sadly, we don't have forests where to run, and most of you don't know how to walk on water yet." Naruto could swear he had seen Fu breath out in relief. "So, that leaves swimming and climbing."
"Swimming and climbing?" Utakata commented, as he watched Han point at the water and the shore on the other side, which then sported an higher peak than the one inside which their living quarters were situated.
"You're going to have to swim to the other side of the lake and then climb that peak to its top." Roshi picked out a scroll, opened it and in a puff of smoke a set of various bathing suits appeared. "Here are some swimming suits. Change into them and then get back here."
"... Swimming." Yugito muttered under her breath, clearly annoyed as she and Fu retreated into the cave, followed suit by the others, each in a room, Naruto ecstatic that his swimming trunks were orange. In a few minutes, they were all back outside.
"So, get into the water. We'll check on you while you do." Han and Roshi began to walk on the surface as the younger jinchuuriki began to enter the water, Yugito being the last one, carefully dipping first a foot and then slowly her whole body.
"Hmmm... Jiji, do we have to run or what?" Naruto asked, and Roshi smiled.
"Oh, you can set your own pace. Only..." That's when the water rippled and something emerged. Naruto, being at the front of the small group, was the one who found himself the closest to the biggest teeth he had ever seen, divided in three rows that now he couldn't see since the huge grey shark with dark blue stripes sporting a kiri headband over his head was currently grinning at them. "If you go too slow, you'll get eaten." The young Jinchuuriki could do nothing but stare.
"Hello." He said. The group screamed as one and then began to swim ahead, ninja shark in tow. "Ahhh, you won't get away, my little morsels! Zanzanzanzanzanzanzanzan..."
"A SHARK! IT'S A SHAAAAAAAAAAAAARK! AND IT'S HUMMING A SONG WITH JUST TWO NOTES!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?" Naruto was more focused on the fact that Roshi and Han knew fully well about the shark, unlike Gaara who was focusing on the shark itself. Then, Naruto blinked when he saw Yagura swim past them, being at least twice as fast as the others in swimming. "HOW THE HELL CAN HE SWIM SO FAST?"
"Kiri, remember?" Utakata said as he passed them as well, his voice calm but his face showing that he still shared the sheer terror.
-Breakline-
"Alright, compliments on not getting eaten by the ninja shark and on managing to climb up here with your bare hands." Most people were panting, while Naruto was still thinking of the scare he had gotten. It was a sight to behold as he got out of the water and immediately started climbing the cliff without even pausing to rest like the others.
In the end, the top of the cliff was pretty bare apart for a large three that provided them with shade. Han suddenly pulled out something from his armour, and Naruto recognized it for a set of ropes. He started to tie them to the tree and the other end around their waists.
"Ehm, what are these ropes for?" Fu asked as Han tightened her own one a bit too tightly for her taste.
"For the next part of your training. We've been working on your endurance and speed, now it's time for agility." Roshi explained as he checked the ropes' length, ensuring that they weren't longer than a certain measure. Then, he glanced at Han and the five-tails' container nodded and kicked the tree hard, then the two older jinchuuriki jumped off the cliff and landed on a lower ledge. "If you want to survive, you'll have to dodge all the enemy attacks!"
"Enemy attacks?" Yugito repeated, not sensing nor seeing anything dangerous around. Then her years caught a strange noise that kept getting stronger and stronger, coming from the tree. A buzzing sound, like a swarm of... "BEES!"
"Uh? Nii-san?"
"NO, YOU DOLT!" Naruto, Gaara and Fu screamed again as they saw the swarm of bees get out of the tree and starting to span out in various directions, stings first.
"Didn't the retired Tsuchikage ban this training because they were deemed too dangerous even for us?" Han commented as the two heard screams and howls of pains every once in a while. Roshi just lighted himself one more cigar.
"We're not in Iwa, are we?" The four-tails answered, earning a groan from his younger colleague. "Also, they work. I was quite surprised to see that Naruto had kept it up all year long without anyone telling him, though."
"With how young he is and the fact that he didn't know about being a container, I assume that it was the first time everyone gave him any kind of interest or attention." Han crossed his arms and looked at the sky, seeing a bee flying past them as it had been swatted away before going back in attacking formation. "While this probably scares him and will hurt like for a while, I bet that when he goes back home, he will search for a lake and a tree with bees."
"Heh... The next year we're probably going to hold the camp in Iwa. It will be funny seeing him plough through fields barehanded." Han palmed his forehead. "Also, about that other thing... Tonight?"
"It should be fine, yes. I'll distract the two Konoha Anbu... And I'll make sure they don't hear you." Saying that, a whiff of steam shot out of Han's armour.
-Breakline-
"Argh... Are you sure that was the last sting, nii-san?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Itachi said, his smile a little strained as he observed the poor shape of a stung all over Naruto. Out of all the children, Naruto and Gaara had been the one who had been stung the most, because they both had not been trained in dodging, for different reasons: Naruto because he had never been trained, point, Gaara because thanks to his sand, he was positive that in the future he wouldn't need to dodge anything.
"Owie... I need to train more... And I have to go through that every morning?" The blonde shuddered, and Itachi was thankful that the iwa jinchuuriki had prepared a good dose of antidote for the bees' poison.
"Such's the life of a ninja. Sometimes, you have to push yourself to the limits... Even of sanity, it seems." Itachi sighed and then patted Naruto on the head affectionately. "But don't overdo it, alright? If you feel like it gets too much for you, just say so."
"Nah, it's not too much. It's just a pain in the ass... And the arms... And everything else." Naruto winced as he felt a particularly vicious spot pulse in pain right under his lower lip. Itachi chuckled and waved slightly at Naruto before disappearing from the room, leaving him with a sleeping Gaara. "He's sleeping so soundly? But I thought he..."
"If the demon took control of him right now, he would experience the pain of each and every sting on his body." Naruto blinked as a new voice suddenly echoed from over his shoulders. He turned back to see Roshi standing in the middle of the room. "The Ichibi is crazy, but not stupid."
"If you say so... What are you doing here, Roshi-sensei?" The older man chuckled at the honorific then smiled fondly, before sitting on Naruto's bed.
"Naruto... I know for a fact that you're an orphan, right?" The blonde jinchuuriki was confused at the sudden argument proposed but he nodded.
"Yeah, but... I wonder..." Naruto muttered, earning Roshi's full attention. "I mean, Gaara isn't an orphan... Even if his mother died, he knows about her... And look how well that turned out. Also, a girl I know back home..." The older container nodded, understanding what Naruto meant. "More about who they were... I wonder about what kind of people they were."
"Hmm... I think you're gonna rethink that, in a few minutes." Naruto blinked and raised his gaze from the floor to turn it back to Roshi who was in the process of rolling himself a cigar, when he remembered they were in a closed environment. "Naruto, you see... Last year, when you got hurt because of the attempt on the life of Gaara... I took a bit of your blood, to analyse it."
"Analyse... My blood?" Naruto mouthed the words, not really understanding the implications of such a gesture.
"You see... By analysing a part of someone's body, you can read his dna, that it's like... A signature. A signature that is unique to that person, and can tell lots of things about him." The leaf student was able to follow Roshi if the thing was explained to him like this, and he nodded. "If he's healthy, if he smokes, his age... And most importantly, the people he's related to."
"Eh? Then..." Naruto wasn't intelligent as in not on a genius level, but he was smart, able to catch the small details if they were presented to him and combine them. His eyes widened. "You... You found out who my parents were?"
"Yeah. I know. Only... Are you sure you want to know, Naruto?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I want to know!"
"Naruto, listen very closely to what I'm about to tell you." The rapid exchange got interrupted with that sentence, that prompted Naruto to calm himself down and listen closely as Roshi said. "Yes, we've discovered who your parents were, but the implications... I mean, knowing who your parents were will consequently make you know and understand a few other things... Some not very pleasant."
"Not very... W-What are you talking about?" Naruto was starting to sink back onto his bed as he felt himself starting to sweat and feeling uneasy under the hard stare of Roshi, who was for the first time since Naruto met him, deadly serious.
"Naruto... What would you think of Konoha? Of your village, of your home... If you knew that they had been telling you lies ever since the day you were born?" Naruto's eyes went wide. "What would you think if you knew that the people closest to you had been withholding from you the truth about your parents, after withholding the truth about your status as a container? That they have, on purpose, stopped you from getting foster ones?"
"... That..."
"If knowing who your parents were would mean this and more... Would you still want to know?" Roshi finished, and the room was suddenly permeated with a very heavy silence, so heavy that Naruto felt it on top of the perspiration that now donned his skin.
All those things that Roshi had said sounded really, really awful. If this Naruto had been different, a bit more loyal to Konoha, he would have had second thoughts, but this Naruto's best friend lived in Suna, his other friends lived in different countries around the world, this Naruto had only one friend in all of Konoha who was mistreated by her own parents.
This Naruto had no second thoughts. He was starving for an identity, something to identify himself with. An heritage, even something that implied all those bad things, sounded good to him. "I want... I want to know. I want to know about my dad... And my mom."
"... Very well." Roshi pulled out something out from behind his back, a brown envelope that he opened in front of Naruto on his bed, letting documents and most importantly pictures falling out of them. "Your father was..."
-Breakline-
"It's a shame Jiraiya-sama never wrote a sequel, right?"
"Yeah... From what I heard, the book didn't sell well." Yugito narrowed her eyes at the wall, while she imagined the collective of every person who didn't like the book. Then, she remembered she had been stung right above the left eyebrow. "Damn, good thing they had a salve, or these things would burn a lot more."
"You're incredible, Yugito-chan... You've only gotten stung twice." Fu said, observing the most uncovered body of her room-mate, which presented just two stings, one on her forehead and the other on her right tight.
"Hmm... Well, I cheated a little, I must admit." Saying that, Yugito focused her chakra around her palm, which got suddenly covered in a thin dark blue layer of chakra. "I bet you've noticed a lot of burned bees around my feet once Han made the others retreat back, right?"
"Yeah, I did... But I saw no flashes of fire nor anything else... It has something to do with your bijuu? The nibi?" Yugito nodded and then observed Fu's body as she got undressed to get into her pyjamas.
"Well... I see you cheated a little too." While Fu had gotten stung almost as bad as Naruto and Gaara, who were the ones who had gotten out of the whole ordeal worse than anyone else, her stings were already disappeared, just a couple of red spots remaining because they hadn't been that bad in the beginning. While all the others' stings had turned into large red bumps, Fu's ones had just produced small red spots and the bee's stings hadn't even stuck.
"Hehe... Not on purpose, though. It's a side effect of the Nanabi. They say that by the time I hit puberty, I will not have to worry about anything that's not imbued with chakra." Fu scratched the back of her head and stuck out her tongue, blushing at her own praise.
"That's pretty hard skin." Yugito said, slightly in awe... And then realized that she shouldn't be doing this, that Fu had just told her a big secret. "Why did you just tell me that? I mean, that's a pretty big advantage over your enemies."
"I know, they told me lots of times. But you're my friend, Yugito, right?" Fu said, a bit confused by her fellow reader's words who then stared at her like a deer stares at a gun. Then she bit her lower lip and lowered her head.
"Yeah... That's true..." Yugito inwardly cursed as she got off her bed and got dressed again. "I'm going for a walk."
"Uh? Alright..." Fu stared in confusion at Yugito as she crossed the room and closed the door behind her, silently but firmly, which startled the green haired Jinchuuriki a bit. "Did I say something wrong?"
-Breakline-
"This is wrong... Good thing this is the last year for me..." Yugito muttered as she walked out of the caves and near the shore, feeling upset by the conflicting feelings in her mind. Fu were right, they were friends, the Nanabi jinchuuriki was the only friend the future kumo kunoichi had, but they shouldn't be.
She had seen too much to believe that this whole joined camp was anything else than a show or worse, another little war. She was certain that most if not all the ANBU surveying them were reporting back about them to their villages. A war of intelligence. The point was that they were from different villages and on top of that, they were Jinchuuriki, created with the intention of using them as weapons... Against other weapons. Yugito was sure that sometime in the future, two or more of them would fight each other.
"... We can't be friends." Yugito repeated to herself like a mantra, trying to clear her mind and probably to persuade herself. Then, noticing what predicament she had put herself into, she sneered, disgusted at herself. "I'm pathetic..."
"At least you know who you are." She almost tripped. So self-absorbed with herself she was, she had walked to the shore and hadn't even noticed Naruto, sitting on the shore, hugging his own legs to the chest.
"Na-Naruto... I didn't see you there." She received no reply, as if she had never talked. Naruto was simply ignoring her. That wasn't like him, from what little she knew about the konoha resident. His posture, the tone of his voice... He seemed sad. "... What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"... Half an hour ago, I discovered who my parents were." Naruto declared, with Yugito keeping her distance and staring at his back. She caught the grip Naruto had on his own legs tightening. "I also discovered that... They all knew. And nobody told me. Not even... The ones who were supposed to be my friends."
"... And why?" Yugito inquired as she sat beside Naruto who seemed to gaze at nothing or his reflection in the water, either of the two.
"I don't know... Roshi-sensei told me that it was because my dad had many enemies, and that it could put me in danger... And that they couldn't have me adopted because of the same reason... But that doesn't make any sense." The blonde's tone took a tinge of anger in those last words. "Because... If they did that to protect me... Because they didn't want people to know... Then why did they tell the whole village about the Kyuubi?"
"... They told the whole village?"
"Roshi sensei told me... That Sandaime-jiisan told the whole village in a ceremony that I contained the Kyuubi... Because they wanted them to see me as a hero..." Naruto started to tremble, if in anger or in sadness, Yugito couldn't tell. "Roshi-sensei said that it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard someone doing, and I can't say I don't agree with him..."
"Me neither..." Yugito admitted, truthfully. Her own status had been discovered by words passed around. At the beginning, only the highest ranking ninjas knew, and even when word got around with Yugito starting to train and experiment with her bijuu's power, the thing was somewhat guarded, no one went out of their way to tell other people about it. That a Kage would hold a public ceremony to announce it after the village had been almost destroyed by the same beast was unbelievable.
Little did they know that the fact that Naruto was to be viewed as a hero was a late wish of Naruto's father, and that would bring some to guess who was the more naïve of the two fire shadows. "So, now I wonder... I mean, my dream was to become Hokage... But now, I don't care much for it anymore. I wanted to become Hokage so that I could be acknowledged, but then I found out just how easy that is if you don't live in Konoha. You people acknowledged my existence just by looking at me... So, what do I have left?"
"... Your village." Yugito replied immediately, which caused Naruto to sharply turn his head in her direction. "I heard what you just said, but what about it? You just have it a bit worse than others, but the fact remains that it's not like you were supposed to have a choice in the first place."
"W-What are you saying?" Yugito was suddenly glad that she had found Naruto, since it was a good occasion for her to reaffirm her resolve by speaking it out loud to someone else than Fu, who she just didn't have the heart to break in to cruel reality yet.
"We get our demons sealed with the intent to become human weapons. Nothing more, nothing less. That very fact precludes us to search for any other purpose in life than being one, since the only thing we are left with is our duty." Yugito continued, standing up again and brushing her legs. "There's no use fighting against it so just embrace it."
"The point is, my village never wanted to do anything with me, otherwise they would have told me and trained me, no? What am I supposed to embrace? Nothingness?" That made Yugito froze, since it basically broke all her plans to deliver a speech.
"... Whatever. The point is, as long as you're a container, you will have no choice but fight. Be it for your life or your village, you will be made to fight. And probably, you will fight one of us too, in the future." That prospect made horror surface on Naruto's expression, making him stand up. "Human weapons against human weapons. I think this is the first time ever all the bijuus have been sealed in a human being at the same time, and be assured... They're gonna use us. You have a choice it seems, but it's an illusion. Even if you don't become a ninja someone is gonna come for you, sooner or later, and that someone could be..."
"Stop!" Naruto covered his ears and turned around, not wanting to hear more of what the older container was telling him. "W-Why are you being so mean? Why are you saying all those terrible things?"
"Because it's the truth! This camp is just a little show put on by the villages to appear peaceful! The truth is that all the people in here sooner or later will become enemies! We belong to different villages, it's inevitable!" Yugito counter-shouted and Naruto shook his head and turned his head towards the ash blonde girl, his eyes on the verge of tears and narrowed at her.
"So, you're saying... That if they ordered you to fight and kill Fu-chan, you would do it?" That question, Yugito didn't expect, if her eyes widening were any indication. She bit her lip and lowered her head, and silence reigned for a while.
"... Yes." Naruto just narrowed his eyes at her even more and rubbed them with the back of his hand to clear them from any incoming tears.
"... You're the worst, Yugito." He walked past her, not so subtly bumping into her body as he did so, while a person watched them from the top of the mountain on their little island.
I guess it was to be expected... It's another thing we'll have to correct.
-Breakline-
"N-Nee-chan... How much longer do I need to do this?"
"A few seconds more." Ami gritted her teeth but obeyed nonetheless, even if she was really starting to feel the effects of that exercise. She had been molding and holding in shape chakra for more than half an hour, and she was starting to feel burning from inside her own arms.
Little did she know that was the effect of holding chakra inside your body once properly formed for too long. Yugao had been impressed by her younger sister's resistance as she observed the chakra and the reactions the seal she had impressed on her forehead gave out. "... Alright Ami, you can stop now."
"Ahhh!" Ami cried out as she let go of the chakra she had created, which flew out of her body in a blue flash of light, leaving her panting, holding herself off the ground with her hands and knees only. Yugao leaned her palm on her forehead and removed the seal. "Ah... Ahh... Now... Can you tell me..."
"You will need a bit of theory, first." Ami groaned, not really in the mood for learning while being that tired, but she knew Yugao wouldn't expect anything but her full attention. Her sister was a slavedriver like that. "Do you know why most ninjas at a certain point in their growth start specializing their techniques and training?"
"Because... Because each person has its own strengths... I mean, some ninja are good at certain things while they suck at others, and viceversa..." Ami panted out her reply between ragged breaths. "I mean... Why train yourself in something you cannot be good at when you can train into something you can become very good at?"
"Exactly. For a ninjas, these characteristics are their ability to control chakra, its quantity, their resistance, their bodies... Many others. The one I focused on discovering with that exercise though, was another, subtler, less known one." Yugao made her sit, knowing that it would be easier for her to regain her breath that way. "Do you know how chakra is made?"
"Yeah... They taught us this year... You mold physical and spiritual energies... Together..." Ami's breath was almost back to normal and Yugao nodded in acknowledgement of the correct answer.
"Yes. Only, there's something that they don't teach you in the academy." Ami's focused her gaze on her sister's eyes. "To tell the truth, most ninjas go through their careers without knowing this. Mostly because it's irrelevant to most."
"What... What is it?"
"Not everyone shape their chakra in the same way." Yugao replied, pausing a few instants to let the words sink in. "They teach you that to mold chakra, you have to perfectly balance physical and spiritual energies, but not everyone can do that. Most people never realize this, but the reason some people are more adept at genjutsu it's because they mold chakra more with spiritual than physical energy, and viceversa for taijutsu."
"Ah... So, what you were checking with that seal..." Ami instinctively brought a hand to her forehead.
"Yes. It seems you have a strong disposition towards molding chakra with more physical than spiritual energy, and that's not only because being a seven years old you haven't put in that much training yet. Your chakra is almost pure physical energy." The small student frowned at that, but Yugao just chuckled. "Now, you might be asking yourself, why I did this? It's because... Well, let's say I'm about to enter you into a special training program still under development by the Anbu."
"... Say what?"
-Breakline-
"Naruto seems to be making progresses. I mean, the stings number only in the double digits, now."
"And Gaara seems to have developed a new way of manipulating his sand." Indeed, if down along the years someone would ask Gaara how and why he developed the armour of sand, he would feign of it having been the result of weeks of thinking about possible ways of protecting himself in case an enemy faster than the shield of sand would ever appear, while it was just fast thinking on how to protect himself from the numerous bees.
"Hmm... Still, there's something with Naruto..." Han observed as Naruto instead of just dodging the bees, had started squishing a few that wandered too near his feet as well. Overall, his mood wasn't as Roshi and Han had foretold at all. The revelations about his heritage were supposed to sadden him at most, but piss him off? That was because of something else. The big jinchuuriki suddenly clapped his hands, signalling the end of the exercise as he expelled a cloud of steam from his armour that made all the bees go back into their home. "Alright. It's enough, for today. Good work, everyone!"
"... Finally!" Fu shouted out to the heavens, falling on her butt. Even if the stings couldn't get deep in her skin, it still was a very fastidious things to be stung by all those bees at the same time. "Now, lunch and then a bath! We're gonna catch lots of fish today, right, Yugi... Yugito?" Fu was calling out to her friend, only to find her already going down the steps, completely ignoring her. "Did... Did I say something wrong?"
"... I can't believe this..." Naruto muttered under his breath, much to Gaara's confusion.
-Breakline-
"Yugito, did you..."
"I'm going out to train." Again, Yugito ignored her room-mate and friend's words, leaving behind a sad Fu, who just couldn't understand what had happened in less than twentyfour hours to make her best friend dislike her so.
On her part, Yugito was feeling like someone stabbed her in the stomach each time she gave Fu the cold shoulder, but she kept on repeating to herself that there was no helping it, that otherwise in the future it could be worse. She would feel worse. She had to force herself to acquire the mentality of a ninja again.
"Nii Yugito." The young kunoichi to be stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, her stance one ready for fighting, before she noticed that she had just laid eyes on an ANBU from Kumo. She recomposed herself and bowed.
"I'm sorry... You startled me." Then, she realized something. She had seen the two ANBU that had been assigned to survey her, and she was certain that this one wasn't one of them. "... Who are you? You're not a member of my escort."
"Very observant, young lady. It just goes to show why so many people expect great things from you." Yugito blushed at the praise, even if it came from a stranger who she was still wary of. "That is also the reason why we decided to test you."
"Huh? Test me?" She said, confused about the mention of a test. Her promotion to Genin was assured, and the test would take place in the first week of September.
"Yes. It's a different test from the genin one, but it's even more important to your future. It's a test about your loyalty and your devotion to the village." Those words clearly had an effect on the young girl, the dilemma she was having earlier still so fresh in her mind. She stared at the ANBU, her whole body stiff as in determination. "I will bring you the details of the mission tomorrow night... Of course, if you do accept."
"Of course I accept." Yugito replied immediately, her eyes narrowing instinctively at the ANBU. "My life is... For the village to use."
"... A good choice. You will make a fine weapon, Nii Yugito." That said, the adult ninja disappeared in thin air, and Yugito found that she could breath again. Now she had something to focus on, to help take her mind off just how coldly she would have to be treating Fu. Her resolve settled, and eager to receive the details of the mission the following night, she retreated into the caves.
"... Strange." Unknown to her and her interlocutor, a ninja not much older than herself but that had the same rank as the person who had just told her about this mission, had observed the whole thing, with a vision exclusive to him. Munching away on a stick of pocky, he thought about the implications of such a meeting, since his eyes had revealed something that the young girl ignored. "... I will leave this alone... For the moment."
After all, Uchiha Itachi was, if anything, patient. He wanted to have the full picture before deciding on a course of action.
-Breakline-
"And then, and then she said that she would!" Gaara, having noticed Naruto's distress and the burning glares he had been directing all day long at Yugito, had no choice but to ask his best friend what had caused his distress. Now that he knew, he probably would have preferred not to have had to. "She's the worst! The worst! I... Gaara?"
"... Naruto." Naruto had stopped his rant when he heard the redhead calling his name. Turning around, he immediately noticed Gaara's downcast gaze.
"What is it?" The blonde sat down beside his friend on his bed, jumping off his other one and landing in one move.
"She's right." Those words made Naruto's heart sink and the blonde boy stare at his friend like he had grown wings. "I mean... We're going to become ninja, and..."
"So what?" Naruto erupted, and he saw that his anger had made Gaara flinch. "Ah! I'm... I'm sorry..." He settled down, turning his gaze to the floor again. "... It's just..."
"What if we have to fight against each other, Naruto? What then?" The redhead pressed on, the thought of having to fight his best friend to the death, even just the hypothesis of it, making him sick. "I... I don't want that to happen..."
"... This sucks." Naruto said, grimacing. He didn't really have an answer to that, if not that he didn't want to do that either. He knew that sometimes ninja fought each other, he had learned that much in his first year, but he had never really thought about having to fight someone he considered a friend.
"Don't fight." A third, familiar voice, suddenly broke the heavy silence that had suddenly been born in the room. The two room-mates turned to the door to find Yagura standing under its arc, closing slowly the door behind him. "If you don't want to fight... Then don't fight."
"But... I mean..." Gaara swallowed and then looked at his dangling feet again. "Ninjas who don't follow orders... They're punished, right? I..."
"So what?" Yagura continued, earning the attention of both of his older friends, finding themselves staring into his eyes, finding a fire, a determination, a resolve... Something that should have no place into the eyes of someone so young, but both Yagura and Utakata had been forced to grow too much too early.
Kiri was known as the village of the bloody mist for a reason. Many children saw things that they shouldn't see just by walking the streets in the days of the bloodline purges, and the two Jinchuuriki had been reliving a bit of that because of their status as living weapons. The doctrines and techniques they had to be thought weren't something that they could learn by studying only.
"If you're strong enough... No one can tell you what to do." The little boy continued, staring right back at his friends. "No one can hurt you."
"... What are you saying?" The Konoha Jinchuuriki asked, a bit unnerved by Yagura's words. The young shinobi to be just fell silent and walked to Gaara's bed, sitting on Naruto's right. "... Yagura?"
"When I'm strong enough..." After that, Yagura fell completely silent, leaving again the three containers with only their thoughts to keep them company, nobody noticing that Utakata hadn't just left after bringing Yagura to the two best friends' room and listening to Naruto's outburst. He had just walked past the nearby intersection and stayed to listen to the rest of the conversation. He slipped his pipe out of his mouth and placed it back in his sash. "... Strong enough, huh?"
Being the fourth, unknown person to listen to Yagura's words and to be left to reflect on them, he then left his hiding place and headed back to his room. The question that everyone shared though, was, how strong was strong enough?
-Breakline-
"Hmm... Something's been happening in the past days." Han commented as the two observed their protects once again working with the bee-hive exercise, noticing how everyone seemed to have find his own way to deal with the insect attack.
Gaara was stable and confident with his sand armour, and was the only one who hadn't been stung once thanks to his strategy. Even in battle it would serve him well, until he started to run out of chakra, that is. They had been at that exercise for a while now, and holding all that sand in the shape of an armour consumed a lot of energy.
Yugito came in second place. They didn't know exactly what kind of abilities possessing the Niibi implied, but even if the girl possessed enough control to use so little chakra to the point of making the layer covering her body invisible, they didn't miss the tiny blue flames that sparked every time a bee came in contact with her body.
Utakata used a similar tactic as the kumo girl, and it was more noticeable. Every time a bee came into a certain range, a bubble shot out from the semi-transparent layer covering his body, trapping the insect before exploding. Though, it wasn't as fast nor as precise as Yugito's own tactic.
From a trio who focused on blocking attacks, they moved to the remaining three who focused on dodging, alias Fu, Yagura and Naruto. The three kids didn't have any particular kind of technique that could focus on blocking attack, and so they just focused on dodging the bees, the original intent of the exercise, with mixed results. The one who was peculiar even in this was Naruto, who had taken to also counter-attacking the bees' attacks when he could, swatting, punching, or stomping them into the ground.
But it wasn't the exercise routines that now worried the second eldest Jinchuuriki. It was the young ones' attitudes. Everyone seemed to have something on their mind, something that, in the case of Gaara and Fu, made them also miserable with the latter of the two sending many glances in the direction of the two-tails. Yugito instead was focused, her eyes possessing the sharpness of a blade as she went on with the exercise.
"And yet... I have a feeling that it's all connected." The five-tails continued, earning a nod from Roshi.
"I guess it is... We'll know soon enough, though." Roshi commented, rubbing his beard in thought as usual.
-Breakline-
Yugito hadn't gotten any further details regarding the next meeting with the Kumo ANBU, but she guessed that getting out of her room at the same hour and heading to the same spot would suffice. She wasn't wrong.
"You guessed the details of the next meeting on your own. Logical, but still, a good work." The masked man said again. Nii only bowed slightly to acknowledge the words as a compliment. "So, it's time to tell you about the details of your mission."
"Yes." Yugito nodded.
"You must know... That the current balance of the ninja world is very feeble." The ANBU started with something that didn't really concern the mission itself, but she guessed that they wanted her to know about the background that caused the mission to be requested in the first place. "After the last great ninja war, the balance shifted so that the five great villages emerged victorious again and on a similar level of power. It's that balance that prevents another war from breaking out."
"... They taught us that in the academy." Yugito commented.
"Yes. What they don't teach is that the five villages are to always be on the lookout for anything threatening to disrupt this delicate equilibrium, any sudden rises in power, to keep alive the current stalemate. That includes the growth of minor villages past a certain level of importance." Yugito just kept on listening in silence. "Recently, one such village has shown a worrying increase in power, quality of their ninjas and consequently in requested missions and income."
"What village?"
"The Waterfall village." The container couldn't stop her eyes from widening slightly, gears starting to turn into her head despite herself. "As you know, their rise has been so significant that it has guaranteed the presence of the village's leader at a table with the five Kage."
"... This..." Yugito tried to ask more clearance, but the older ninja immediately cut her off.
"One of the most worrying things is the fact that they managed to find the long-lost Nanabi and create a functional Jinchuuriki. That has been the turning point for their growth in notoriety." The man continued, and Yugito's hands started to shake. "The course of action to be taken is easy to come to, being aware of these facts."
"You're... You're asking me to..." The man nodded.
"Good. Your deduction skills are top notch too." The ANBU continued, and Yugito's skin tone was becoming paler and paler with each second's transition. "Your mission is to assassinate the Waterfall Jinchuuriki."
"Fu..." Yugito murmured her room-mate's name with dread and fear.
"Exactly. Your familiarity with the target makes you the perfect executor. You will be granting a great service to your village and the shinobi world in general." Her hands by now weren't the only part of Yugito's body which were trembling.
"But... I mean..." She swallowed, forcing herself to calm down, grabbing her right wrist with her left hand. "I will be discovered. We're guarded by eight ANBU plus the two Iwa Jinchuuriki..."
"I know. There are more ways of elimination than a simple throat-slitting." The older ninja continued. "The plan is for you to bring her in this same spot tomorrow night, at this same hour. The combination creates a hole in the surveillance routines and to be on the safe side I will hide the area with a genjutsu."
"But... If they just find her dead..."
"That's why there will be no body to be found." That shook the young girl even more, if possible. "It will be a good way to experiment the usage of your Jinchuuriki's ability on a human being."
"My... My Aohi..." Yugito gripped her own wrist to the point of digging her nails into it, drawing blood, the wounds sizzling as the chakra of her bijuu immediately started healing them.
"You will bring her here and then dispose of it using your ability and the water." The ANBU finished, before making a single hand-seal and starting to disappear, his voice lingering a bit more than his body. "We know you'll make our village proud... Shinobi."
"... Shi... Shinobi..." As soon as the ANBU disappeared, Yugito fell on all fours, heaving and feeling her dinner about to come back out and say hi to the sand, but she forced it back down, an acid feeling all thorough her throat. "I'm... I'm a Shinobi..."
She repeated like a mantra, her hands grasping the sand and water dropping from the corners of her eyes as she thought of an eager aquamarine haired girl talking happily about the protagonist of her favourite book.
Again, spinning eyes had observed and memorized the entire scene, narrowed in reaction to its implications. "... That's really messed up. How can they... How can they ask of her..." Then, Itachi thought of something else. If he had been in her shoes, what would he do?
-Breakline-
"Hmm..." Naruto's mind was probably one of the two in most turmoil of the whole camp, his young bomb having received two, make that three bombs one after the other in rapid succession. The first had been the revelation about his heritage and about the fact that he was never told while the fact that he was a Jinchuuriki of the demon that almost destroyed the village was told to everyone but himself.
Then there was the matter with Yugito. The Sandaime had told him that it was up to him to make friends with the other Jinchuuriki, that being in the same situation didn't instantly mean to understand each other. He wasn't really sure he wanted to understand and be friends with someone who would go and kill a friend just because she was ordered to.
And finally, there was the fact that the scenario of them fighting in the future had been put on almost everyone's mind. Gaara was positively miserable about it, little Yagura gotten angry and all... All something. Utakata had been thinking most of the time, even when they played 'hunt the fish', which he had showed them last year, he was quite distant. Thought the one he felt most badly for was Fu.
She's as miserable as Gaara but she only knows that her best friend doesn't want to talk to her anymore. He cringed, thinking about what he would do if Gaara suddenly decided that he didn't want to talk to him any more, and there was the possibility now that, like Yugito, the redhead had...
"Hi, Naruto." He almost let his bokken fly out of his hands as the sudden apparition startled him. Turning around, clutching his chest as if to stop his hearth from flying out, he laid eyes on Fu, sitting on the ground and hugging her knees to her chest.
"... Fu-chan." Naruto groaned as he tried to regain all the air he had let out with the scare. He expected the girl to continue talking after the greeting, but she just kept her gaze on the sand under her feet.
The blonde container sighed and sat beside her, setting his bokken on his free side. "... Are you alright, Fu-chan?" Of course she wasn't, but he had to open up the conversation some way or the other.
"Nu-huh." She replied simply, and Naruto felt really, really bad for her.
"... Is it because of Yugito?" Fu noticed that Naruto was no longer calling her 'Yu-chan'. She nodded.
"... She doesn't talk to me any more. She doesn't read with me any more... I just... I don't understand. Did I do something bad? I don't think I did something bad..." Fu was a bit more talkative now, but considering how miserable she sounded, Naruto maybe preferred her like she was before.
"... No, I don't think you've done anything wrong, Fu-chan." The blonde shook his head, before narrowing his eyes at the ground. "It's just her being a stupid po..."
"D-Don't say that about her..." Fu cut him off, raising her head from her arms to do so before dropping it again, surprising the Konoha container. "I mean... She's not stupid. She's so smart... I think Yu-chan is the smartest person I've ever met..."
"... Then..." Naruto thought about those words and considered the conversation he had had with the girl a few nights before, she seemed to think about things maybe too much. He groaned. "I guess it's the opposite. She's just too smart for her own good..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto rubbed his chin as he thought about the situation from another point of view. He had done it before for Ami, after all, he could do it for Yugito. If Fu was this miserable, Yugito must be going through the same thing, forcing herself to be bad to her best friend. His anger at the kumo kunoichi-to-be lessened considerably.
"I think Yu-chan is worried if you'll be able to be best friends forever." He explained, with Fu staring at his face all the while. "I mean... This camp thing is going to finish in a few years. When that happens, it's going to be hard to meet each other, because we're from different villages... And what if we'll have to do missions against each other? I would feel really bad if that happened."
"... Then..." Comprehension dawned on Fu at Naruto's words.
"She doesn't want to feel bad about it, I guess... And since this is the last year when she'll be at camp, she wants to...!" Naruto never got to finish his sentence as Fu suddenly latched her arms around him, the older girl hugging him as tightly as possible, much to Naruto's blushing.
"Thanks, Naruto... Thanks thanks thanks!" She released him and then scampered back in a hurry to the caves, leaving a flustered Naruto behind. The young Konoha citizen slowly brought a hand to his face and then to his chest, feeling his little heart beating fast. He could still feel her warmth and the feeling of her hug, and it wouldn't go away any time soon. It was the first time in his life someone hugged him that tightly. Ami had been the first one to do so, when he left for that year's camp, but nobody had hugged him that affectionately before Fu.
"... It was..." That day, Naruto decided that he liked hugs a lot.
-Breakline-
"I... I can..." Yugito had been again, avoiding Fu all day long, but for another reason. If before it was because she wanted to cut all ties with the waterfall Jinchuuriki, now it was because she didn't want to meet her, to have an excuse to not carry out her mission. She couldn't see her target, so she couldn't do it. If they passed the appointed time, it would all be okay. "I can avoid..."
"Yu-chan!" Her hearth sank in her stomach as a cheerful, too cheerful voice suddenly echoed in the air of their room. She had been careless, too careless. She should have heard her coming, her steps, her breath, something. "I finally found you!"
"F-Fu..." Yugito let out like the last word of an agonizing death-row inmate as she turned around to meet the once again cheerful face of the dark-skinned girl.
"It's me!" What had happened? Why was she so cheerful? Why wasn't she as miserable as her? What had happened in a single day? Why her heart felt like someone was clenching it with both hands, trying to squeeze it to her death? Fu seemed to ignore her distress of she was just that good at hiding it as she sat beside Yugito. "I haven't seen you all day but during training and eating! What were you doing?"
"N-Nothing. Nothing..." She immediately got up and started to walk to the door. "I-I have to go..."
"Yu-chan, wait!" Fu wouldn't have any of that, though. She grabbed onto her right arm and held her in place. Yugito tried to get her arm out of the grip... Only to find that she couldn't. That surprised her.
It wasn't that Fu had used any particular grapple or anything, she had just grabbed on her right forearm with both of her hands. Simply, the strength in Fu's grip was so much that she couldn't even budge her arm out of the grapple. What... How is this...
"Yu-chan..." Fu broke her thoughts as she talked again, and Yugito found her no longer smiling, but not sad again. She saw determination, like her mind was set on something and no one would ever be able to dissuade her from it. "I have... I have to talk to you."
"... I..." Yugito bit on her tongue, copper blood flowing out of the small injury freely. She swallowed. "Actually... I wanted to talk to you too."
To be continued
In the next chapter...
The second year of camp comes to a close as all the Jinchuuriki in the camp plus one or two clandestine get involved in Yugito's ordeal. The result will be something that will change the future of all the people participating, and by reflection, eventually, the world. Stay tuned!