I do not Own Naruto
Chapter 2: Death can see you
x-x
No sooner than Naruto had the mask on his face, than his arms were yanked to the sides and his body exploded with pain that made him scream. A pale blue chakra engulfed him before everything went black and he collapsed backwards. Being so young, Naruto had never used his chakra before, nor even unlocked his chakra, so when it was forcibly unlocked by the possession, he could not handle the sudden loss of most of his chakra and passed out.
The pale blue chakra surrounding him did not diminish and Naruto's chakra began to slowly drain and would continue to do so until the possession was ended. Looking down on the unconscious boy, the Shinigami was puzzled at the strange turn of events. Being called to the plane of the living was not something that happened very often and he doubted one so young had allowed the possession in order to undo the recent use of the Shiki Fujin.
However, looking around the rundown temple, he found no one else. No one was putting the boy up to using the mask or lurking just out of sight. In fact, he couldn't feel a single soul within a few miles of his current location. 'He put it on of his free will or by accident.' he thought and looking back to the boy, he examined the name that appeared above the boy's head and the number listed. Both were easy to see for him and appeared in fiery reddish-orange letters. '
'Uzumaki Naruto. Twelve years, two months, and thirteen days.' he read and was curious that the boy was an Uzumaki as he did not look like the other members of the Uzumaki clan that he was familiar with. 'He won't be alive much longer either.' he noted at the short amount of years remaining on the boy's lifespan, though in his experience, it was perhaps a normal amount of time left for many ninja.
Examining the Uzumaki more closely, he began to see something familiar. Even with boy's face covered by his mask he recognized that it was not his first time seeing him. The last time had been when the boy was only minutes old and someone had used the Shiki Fujin to summon him. 'So your that man's son.' the Shinigami thought and the ends of his mouth twinged slightly. Feeling into his stomach he could feel the particular sealed soul of the person he was thinking about but decided not to say anything to the man about it.
'Then perhaps it wasn't a mistake that he put the mask on to let himself be possessed.' he briefly thought as it was possible that the boy wanted to release his father's soul. Looking around the room he had been summoned to, he frowned ever so slightly at the other masks on the wall and the state of the temple.
'This was where my mask was being kept?' he questioned at the disrepair of such a place. It had likely taken the Uzumaki years to complete that mask, possibly at the cost of several souls, and apparently they chose to keep it in a temple that was falling apart. Also with 26 other masks that looked absolutely nothing like him.
Looking back down at the child, he realized that it would be quite a while before the boy woke up, if the boy ever woke up. After a brief period of waiting, he decided to test how far he could wander away from the person he was possessing. Usually when called to the realm of the living, it was all business and over with in a few minutes. This time was evidently going to be different.
Leaving the temple, the Shinigami's large formed phased through the broken entrance and hovered over the ground as he looked up into the air. 'So this is rain?' he thought, reaching out on instinct to let the water droplets fall into his hand. The droplets however went right through his body and instantly froze before dropping to the grass and mud below.
He had no physical form in this realm and only a portion of his overall power, so nothing could touch him but he could also not touch anything, save for a soul. A flash of light caught his attention and he looked in time to see lightning and could hear the thunder that followed. This was the first time he had been brought to the Living World during a rainstorm.
Looking to the nearby trees, he decided to take a closer look at them as well. He had only seen leaves from afar and never up close. Watching as the water impacted a leaf and then ran down to the tip, it formed a larger droplet but stayed there and didn't fall. Reaching his spectral hand closer. As it near the leaf, the edged of the green plant began to curl and wither. The closer his hand got, the darker the leaf became until it died completely and fell off the branch with several others that had also been affected by his reach.
He knew that would probably happen but the knowledge did not stop him from reaching out to see it happen. 'So different from my own realm.' he mused as he examined other trees and noted the differences in varying species. He then watched the clouds move for a while. Some humans would perhaps find the scenery he was looking at beautiful but to him it was just strange and that made it slightly interesting. Despite overseeing souls for eons, he was never able to understand them or to interact with the Living World, only viewing it from afar.
Simply viewing the Living World told him little about it and due to the rules that all Shinigami must follow, he could never do more than view it from his own realm. Most Shinigami had no interest in the worlds where the souls came from but he wanted to know more about at least one of them. That was one of the reasons why he allowed himself to be summoned by the Uzumaki Clan when they devised the Shiki Fuijin. That jutsu had been created centuries ago in human terms but mere moments in terms of his own lifetime. It had been interesting to be summoned to the human realm by a human in order to help that human remove the souls of enemies. It only happened less than a dozen times but it had still been worth it.
Shinigami were not allowed to keep souls for themselves, however the Uzumaki Clan's use of the jutsu, bypassed many normal Shinigami rules. With the use of the jutsu, he received the soul of the user and whatever souls were sealed away into the user. Those souls were his to keep and do whatever he wanted with inside his stomach where they were sealed. The souls did make him more powerful but that mattered very little to him. Aside from the Shinigami King, there were no rankings among the other Shinigami. It was also exceedingly rare for Shinigami to ever fight each other whereas it was commonplace for humans. Despite this, it was interesting to be able to accumulate human souls when other Shinigami were prohibited.
Besides the souls he received for sealing away enemies, for a brief moment was able to see the Living World up close and later he could look through the memories and experiences of each soul. The arrangement was fine until one or more of the Uzumaki managed to craft a mask in his likeness. He actually didn't know how they had managed to perform such a feat, as the only ones that saw him had their souls sealed right afterward. He wondered if they truly comprehended what they had done when creating the mask.
'Perhaps those 26 in the temple were the failures.' he idly thought before continuing his previous thoughts.
Putting on his face, the Uzumaki were able to be possessed and essentially become him. By becoming him, they could undo the Shiki Fujin, having him cut open his own stomach and causing the release of whatever souls they chose. In turn, the person using the mask would have their own stomach cut open and subsequently died with their soul moving on and not becoming part of his collection.
'They never did release any of the other souls they had sealed. Only the ones of their clansmen.' he mused and remembered the last time the mask had been used for that purpose. Four decades prior, an old Uzumaki on his death bed had used the mask and managed to release all of the previous Uzumaki souls that had used the Shiki Fujin. No one had worn the mask since then to release anymore souls but the jutsu had been used on several occasions, especially during the destruction of Uzushio.
Looking away from nature and coming back to the present, the Shinigmai proceeded back to the decrepit temple and the boy who put on his mask.
Chakra and a small portion of his own power were still enveloping the body, though there was a noticeable lesser amount of human chakra than before. This signified that they boy's life-force was slowly being used up and he would eventually expire if he did not wake and remove the mask or complete the ritual.
x-x
Hours passed as the Shinigami patiently waited for the boy to wake up or die. Looking to the blonde hair he noted that the spikes had grown by one-sixty-fourth of an inch since the first time he looked upon him which had been nearly eight hours beforehand. Despite such a long amount of time passing, he found it interesting. The longest anyone had worn his mask before was...'three minutes, thirty eight seconds.' he remembered and the blonde had far elapsed that time.
The scene playing out before him was most interesting because he wasn't sure what would happen. During the few times he had come to the Living World, the humans he saw had writing over their heads. The fiery writing told him their names and the amount of time that they had left until death, which usually dropped almost instantaneously when he removed their soul. The boy on the floor beneath him was different. His writing had yet to decrease. He believed it may have been a result of wearing the mask as the others who had been possessed by him did not have their lifespans decreased until they cut open their stomachs during the ritual. It also meant that he had no idea if the boy would die from chakra depletion or wake up.
While either of the two possibilities could occur, there was also a third and fourth possibility where someone found the boy and removed the mask right before it was too late. In those scenarios, it was possible that Naruto would have the mask removed before dying or have it removed too late and be stuck in a coma for the rest of his life. Still alive but never far from death.
Those factors made the scene the most entertaining that he had ever witnessed since he started being summoned to the Living World by the Uzumaki Clan. If he had a heart, he was sure it would be beating faster than normal in anticipation of the outcome.
As Naruto's chakra dropped below the critical level needed to sustain life. The apparition-like being leaned forward and was enraptured as the boy's heartbeat and breathing slowed. Organ failure was soon to follow as the body attempted to divert all the remaining chakra it had to the brain and heart. A few moments later he stopped breathing. Looking up to the boy's head, he was surprised when the numbers shown began to decrease rapidly as the length of his lifespan dropped.
He watched as the fiery writing disappeared entirely without ever reaching zero. 'His death is certain. No one is coming to help him.' he realized as he couldn't feel any souls near them which meant that Naruto would not be staying in a coma for the rest of his life.
The blonde's heart beat became slower and slower until it eventually stopped and Naruto could be declared clinically dead by that point. The chakra depletion continued and eventually no more chakra was being produced in Naruto's body and even the amount from the seal was not sufficient to counteract the drain from the mask. At that point, the brain began shutting down completely until all brain function had ceased and Naruto was beyond the point of any resuscitation.
If the Shinigami was honest with himself, he was a bit disappointed with the conclusion. He knew that in end, death was inevitable, but a part of him thought the boy would regain consciousness and take off the mask before dying. 'He did have over twelve years left when he initially put the mask on.'
'I suppose it's time for me to go.' he thought but surprisingly, nothing happened. As he wondered when he would be forcibly pulled from the Living World and sent back, the blonde's soul began leaving the body. The blue form of the soul was in the exact shape of the boy, however it had few of the distinguishing features or details of the body.
Watching the soul move a few feet above the body, the Shinigami was surprised when it stopped moving and stayed where it was. He had expected it to disappear and travel to his own world but that was not happening and furthermore he was still not disappearing.
Normally, after the body had died, souls left the Living World and arrived in the Shinigami World. If they were ready to move on, then a Shinigami would transport them to the correct place. Should they not be ready to move on, then they stayed in limbo until they were ready. Some souls chose not to move on in order to seek forgiveness or apologize to other souls that would soon arrive.
Other souls were sometimes just too afraid to go on and were stuck until they came to terms with their death and some souls knew exactly where they were headed in the afterlife and tried to run away from the inevitable. So they either continue to stay in limbo or were hunted down by the Shinigami.
Minutes passed as nothing happened and the Shinigami, for one of the few times during his very long existence, was confused. Something was different and the boy's soul was not leaving the Living World. Thinking over the situation, he determined that it must have something to do with his presence.
'The other humans that used the mask either took souls with it and their souls were thus sealed in me, or they cut open their stomachs and soon died...' he thought but quickly remembered something else, 'All of the ones that cut themselves open to remove souls, took off the mask before they died.' That was the difference. Uzumaki Naruto had died with the mask on.
'He died while allowing himself to be possessed by me.' he realized and then knew why the soul was staying where it was.
'It belongs to me now.' he reasoned and knew that to be correct. Since he was there, the soul was not moving on because it was his property now. Thinking that it would be another one of the many souls sealed into his stomach, he stopped that particular train of thought as another realization dawned on him.
He hadn't done anything to receive the soul. It was freely given to him without any compensation. Normally the payment was the use of his weakened abilities, but that was not the case now. The boy's soul was not going to be sealed in him and he was free to do whatever he wanted with it. The souls in his stomach were there for all eternity and while he could do as he pleased with them, they couldn't leave his stomach unless the mask was used.
However, he could do anything to Uzumaki Naruto's soul. He could eat it and add it to the collection in his stomach, cast it into hell or send it to heaven. Perhaps send it to his own world like a normal soul or even leave it in the Living World where it would become a spirit doomed to walk alongside the living for all eternity. Such freedom was never given to a Shinigami, or that he knew of it was never given to a Shinigami. Whereas he once thought his dealings with the Uzumaki Clan were simply unique, the current situation was even more outside the natural order of things.
Reaching out, his hand grasped the small soul and he pulled it closer. Two of his long spikes of white hair began instinctively wrapping around the soul to secure it but the Shinigami didn't move as he thought about what to do. There were many avenues available to him but there was yet one more option that benefited him more than any of the others.
Moving closer to the corpse, the Shinigami pushed the soul back into the body. Despite the boy being brain dead, he had enough power in the Living World to reverse the damage and revive him. Once the process was started it would continue until the boy completely recovered, however there was one thing left to deal with and it was the most cumbersome part of his plan.
Since the mask was still on, he would have to remedy that himself as the boy was too weak to revive and take it off. The chakra drain from the possession was too much for his recovering body and Uzumaki Naruto would die for a second time if the mask was not promptly removed. While it was the best course of action to complete the process of revival, it would also mean that he would probably lose his anchor to the Living World. Unless the boy put the mask back on, he wouldn't be able to return. It was a risk but he was more of a risk-taker than any of the other Shinigami, which was one of the reasons why he let the Uzumaki Clan summon him.
Making a few adjustments, he was finally confident that the boy would not leave his mask in the temple, at least not for long. He knew from the memories he viewed in the soul that Naruto had seen his face before and the mask was therefore familiar to him. Holding up his spectral hand, the Shinigami manipulated the boy's soul. Naruto sat up from the floor and proceeded to stand.
Naruto was not conscious and still a corpse that was being controlled. Eying the peg on the wall where his mask rested, the Shinigami judged the distance and in one smooth motion, he had Naruto removed and tossed the mask at the wall.
Unconcerned that he was fading from the Living World, the Shinigami watched as the boy collapsed to the floor as if his strings were cut and his lips twinged slightly when he glanced to the wall and saw the small ribbon on his mask catch the peg. As he left the world, the mask stopped swinging back and forth, coming to a rest on the wall without any damage and exactly where it had been before Naruto had picked it up.
x-x
Sitting in the dark, the Kyuubi waited to be released. Hours previously, a foreign chakra had come to his attention. He couldn't properly place it but stayed alert in case something happened. During the hours that he waited, he eventually noticed that the lighting outside his cage was dimming. After that, complete darkness began to creep in from the hallway, edging closer and closer to the gate.
He had never experienced anything similar with his previous hosts so he was at a loss concerning what was going on. The darkness continued to move closer and he finally realized that his container was dying. When the darkness moved inside his cage and then began to envelop him, he panicked but eventually realized that nothing was happening to him.
Having never had a host die while he was still sealed inside, he didn't actually know what his fate would be. A small nagging doubt in the back of his mind thought that perhaps he would die along with the boy. However, seeing as none of his fellow Bijuu had ever died and had been sealed in hosts many more times than he had, it seemed that he would just need to wait. Breathing in the cold air of the dark void he was in, his keen eyes managed to see the faint shadow of the gate in front of him. The gate seemed to be fading away and he expected it to vanish the moment the seal to fail.
While he waited, he wondered what had happened to his container, 'It must have been a very slow death.' he imagined and smiled. 'He doesn't seem to have made it past five years old.' he guessed as he contemplated how long it had been since the sealing. Wondering who had done the boy in, whether it was the villagers or a single person getting revenge, he inevitably thought that it was rather sad for Kushina's son to live only live for only a few years but pushed those thoughts down.
Another presence in the void caught his attention and he saw someone he that he had not expected.
Standing in the darkness was the Yondaime Hokage. The former Hokage stood in the center of what was the sealing chamber and looked around the darkness. 'Where I am.' Minato thought as he looked around the dark void. The chakra he poured into the seal was supposed to be summoned in the event that Naruto lost control of the Kyuubi's chakra and the creature was about to be freed. But was that where he was?
"Am I in the seal?" he wondered out loud as he turned and jumped back in surprise when a dark appendage tried to grab. The appearance was followed with a loud clang as something was struck. Peering through the darkness from his position, Minato could finally see his attacker as red chakra began to pour off the creature and outline it's body. The chakra also outlined the bars of its cage, which were still in place and had stopped the attack.
"Kyuubi." Minato said out loud and the mention of the creatures name was met with laughter.
"What have you done?" he quickly accused and the beast's laugh merely deepened, "What have I done?" it questioned and soon continued, "You should be able to guess what has happened and though I would like to take credit, it is nothing that I have done which has caused this." he said and his head motioned to the surrounding blackness.
Collapsing to his knees, the Yondaime realized what was happening and said, "Naruto." in a small voice that still picked up by the Bijuu.
"He has slowly been dying for the past few hours and is now deceased. Who knows, maybe the precious villagers that you protected finished him off. However, it will only be a matter of time before I am release and can continue my rampage. Don't worry, I'll get revenge for you." said the Kyuubi before laughing again. As it thought about a few more things to say, the Kyuubi had finally realized what had been keeping it locked inside it's dead container, 'The chakra used to create the seal came from Kushina and the Yondaime, not the boy. Once it is used up, I will be free.'
Thinking about his situation, Minato determined that if tried to fight, he would expend his chakra which was the only thing holding back the Kyuubi. The longer he held on, the more time he gave for someone else, likely the Sandaime, to try and seal the Kyuubi into another container. Realizing there was nothing else he could do to stop the Kyuubi from getting free, he asked, "How long?" and despite the vague question, the Kyuubi knew he was not referring to how long it would be before he was released, "Your son lasted until the age of five, I think." He informed his sealer and smiled at how much the information was taking it's toll on the Yondaime.
"Only five." Minato repeated and he couldn't stop tears from streaking down his cheeks.
While the Kyuubi wished he could make the Yondaime's grieving worse, there was still the matter of the bars to deal with. Grasping the pitch black metal bars with both hands, he began to try and rip them apart. He could feel them give, even if just a little, as if the bars were losing consistency and bending to his strength.
The Kyuubi continued his endeavors until he felt something happen. The Yondaime seemed to notice it as well and they both looked around to see what was going on. The area at the center of the bars, where the seal tag was, began to return to normal as the darkness slowly receded from the bars. A ripple effect began as the floor and walls regained their color
"NOOOO!" Roared the Kyuubi as the return of everything to how it was meant that the container was somehow revived. Banging on the cage bars did nothing as the seal was as strong as ever. The Kyuubi watched helplessly as the Yondaime's chakra disappeared back into the seal and everything returned to normal inside his prison.
'No, its not normal.' the Kyuubi corrected himself as he sensed that something was...off. Leaning forward and sticking the tip of his snout through the bars, he sniffed and tried to determine what was going on. Humans weren't supposed to just come back to life and he smelled something familiar, yet he could not place it as had happened before with the strange chakra. He could not feel any negative emotions or chakra, however he knew something had changed with the boy. Whether it was a mental, physical, or change in his hosts chakra, he could not be sure.
x-x
Naruto woke up with a start as he fumbled with the tattered blue curtain and got to his hands and knees. He looked around the room the room he was in while kneeling. Trying to remember what had happened, he found his clothes sitting next to him and looked for the mask that he had put on. Not finding the item, he then looked to the wall and found that all 27 masks were still present.
'Weird.' he thought as he clearly remembered putting the mask on and then nothing after that. 'Maybe I just dreamed that.' he thought and, attempting to get up, he stumbled and looked to his feet which he realized were numb. He would have tried to touch his feet his hands but they also felt numb, in fact his entire body felt numb. Wondering what was going on, the numbness soon turned to a pins and needles feeling over his entire body.
Rolling around on the floor, Naruto yelled out, "Make it stop! Make it go away!" as he tried to rid himself of the odd feeling.
When the sensation finally left him and feeling returned to his body, Naruto looked out one of the holes in the roof and realized that the sun was already out. 'I spent the night here.' he realized and removed the curtain in favor of the dry clothes that were sitting nearby. After changing he moved to leave the temple but looked back at the center mask before leaving. 'I may not be able to find my way back.' he though and even if it was a dream, he had really wanted to keep that mask.
Running back back to the wall, Naruto grabbing the center mask and ran out of the temple with it, scared that something might happen if he stole it. As he ducked underneath the partially collapsed entry way, the seals on the mask failed to activate as the fuinjutsu placed on the temple to keep the masks inside had been broken overtime by the damage and partial collapsing of the building from decades of neglect.
x-x
Walking through the woods, Naruto breathed heavily as he found that he was incredibly winded with his short run out of the temple. It nearly making him stop and take a break before proceeding. Unsure of why he was having trouble, he pushed on as he needed to get back to the village. It was now Friday and he was supposed to get his check from the village today which was his stipend for food and other items. Since he hadn't eaten in over a day, and no longer had his coupon, he may need part of that check to help fill stomach. He also knew that if he didn't get the check out of his mailbox before the landlord checked his own mail, then it would disappear and he would have to go to the Hokage and get another one.
He followed the path that he had discovered the day before but it eventually ended in grass and trees so Naruto was left to wander through the woods outside the village. Moving past bushes and over exposed roots, Naruto noticed that his muscles began to hurt. It started out as a dull pain that slowly increased. The pain was not localized to any one muscle either as it seemed that all of them were hurting. A loud grumbling from his stomach proceeded to remind him of how empty it was, so he kept going despite the pain.
Dragging his feet, Naruto finally made it to a road. Looking both ways he tried to determine which was the way that would take him to the village. Seeing a wagon approaching in the distance, Naruto leaned against a tree and let himself slide down the front and into a sitting position as he waited for the merchant to arrive.
'What's wrong with me?' he wondered as he had never felt so terrible before. 'Maybe I'm sick.' he guessed as it did make sense after being completely soaked and running around. He seemed to remember hearing that people got colds in that manner and got sick from time to time but it was a first for him as he had never been sick before.
Hearing the wagon getting close, Naruto raised his head from its resting position on his knees and looked to the merchant guiding the beast of burden.
"Are you okay kid?" asked the man with concern as he stopped the wagon and looked upon the boy sitting on the side of the road.
"I've been better." replied Naruto honestly and he asked, "Are you heading to Konoha?"
"Yeah, its just up the road." said the man as he looked upon the boy with concern and Naruto then asked, "Can I...maybe get a lift?" while scratching the back of his head.
Considering the state the boy was in, the merchant knew he couldn't possibly leave him there so the he motioned that Naruto could get on the wagon and ride with him. Naruto used the tree to steady himself as he stood and moved to the wagon to climb up side and sit on the bench beside the merchant.
Out from under the shadow of the tree canopy, the man saw that the boy was very pale and seemed to be sweating, possibly from a fever. The wrinkled clothing spoke of the fact that they had probably gotten wet and air dried. Using the reins, he urged the animal to move at a faster pace than he had been going in order to get to the village faster.
As Naruto's head was swimming from the movement and he found himself dizzy, the conversation between the two was silent until the man spoke up, "You don't look so good kid."
"I think I'm sick." replied Naruto and the snorted as that much was obvious and asked, "If you're gonna hurl, make sure you do it over the side." to which Naruto nodded.
"You running away from something?" asked the man and Naruto thought about his answer but decided to tell most of the truth, "No, I kinda got lost in the woods and spent the night outside."
"Your parents must be worried sick." commented the man and Naruto waited a few moments before replying, "I don't have any parents. I live by myself."
Slightly embarrassed by his comment, the merchant decided to stay quite for a while. This was fine for Naruto as he wasn't in the mood to talk or say anything at all. The sun had just come over the trees and he put his forearm over his eyes to block it out, thinking, 'Man that's bright.'
x-x
When the village gates came into view, the merchant was about to mention something to his passenger until he heard the rhythmic breathing and found the boy was asleep on the bench. The man looked him over and found some color had returned to Naruto's face which he felt was a good sign so he pressed on and would wait to wake him until after they arrived.
Noticing something in the boy's waistband, he lifted the back of Naruto's shirt and found a very disturbing clay mask. Putting the shirt back to how it was, he decided to just ignore it. The last thing he needed was bad luck from some kind of cursed mask.
x-x
Naruto was roused from his sleeping by someone shaking his shoulder. Sitting up faster than he should have, Naruto's world began to spin as he tried to focus on where he was and what he had been doing. When spinning subsided enough to get a good look at the buildings, he realized that he was in Konoha
"Hey kid." said the merchant for the third time as he tried to get his passengers attention. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." said Naruto in a daze as he looked around and started getting off the wagon. Watching the boy stumble and nearly fall trying to get off, the merchant looked around for any signs or indication of where the hospital was. He had been to Konoha before but only ever went to certain areas of the village and never remembered passing the hospital.
Trying to call someone for help, he pointed out the boy to a nearby villager and asked the man to escort him to a hospital. The villager however gave him a dirty look and soon left. When the merchant looked back to Naruto, the boy was already making his way down the street and so he decided to yell, "Make sure you at least stop by the hospital, you stubborn brat!" He wasn't a young man anymore and chasing down a obstinate youth and marching him to the hospital was not how he wanted to spend his day.
Naruto gave a response and waved to the old merchant before heading to his apartment. Pulling the back of his shirt down to better hide the mask, he took the backstreets which worked out well as he didn't encounter many people and no none noticed him stumble along or when he knocked over some trash cans.
'It must be a hundred degrees out.' complained Naruto as he looked to the sun and thought it was beating down on him. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Naruto ran his hand along his apartment building wall to steady himself. He went through the open walkway to the main staircase and mailboxes for the building. Not finding it any cooler in the shade of the building, he found his mailbox and realized that he needed his key to get in it. Leaning against the mailboxes, he looked at the staircase and despite it being only ten feet away, he knew that it would have to go up three flights and it seemed a monumental task given how he was feeling.
"Uzumaki Naruto." a voice came out of nowhere and Naruto looked at the entrance to the apartment to find one of the masked ninja standing there. He hadn't heard the man approach so he was quite surprised. The ANBU looked over the boy leaning against the wall but continued with his orders, "The Hokage wishes to speak with you, now." he said, emphasizing the last word and the fact that Naruto wouldn't have a choice in the matter.
Knowing there was no way out of the summons, Naruto began looking for somewhere to hide the mask. He had hidden it thus far and didn't want to walk to the Hokage tower with it or have to answer the Old Man's questions about it. As he moved to follow the ANBU, while trying to stay upright and ignored the fact that the world was spinning. Noticing that one of the mailboxes hadn't been shut tight, he told the ANBU, "Lead the way."
The ninja turned and proceeded out of the apartment complex, giving Naruto enough time to remove the mask and shove it into the mailbox marked Apartment 7. '
Lucky number 7.' Naruto thought and wondered who that apartment belonged to. Having never gotten to know any of his neighbors for obvious reasons, he had no idea if anyone was even renting that apartment.
The ANBU heard the noise of the box shutting and turned to find the boy innocently following behind him. Unsure of what the boy was up to he decided to keep a better eye on him and waited just outside the apartment building for Naruto to catch up.
Naruto took four steps out from his apartment complex and promptly collapsed on the ground.
The ANBU took a moment to decide if it was a trick or not, as he knew the body liked to play practical jokes but knelt down a moment later to check the pulse. 'Erratic.' he noted and found that the boy's forehead was extremely hot. The symptoms coupled together meant that in the next moment, the ninja was carrying Naruto onto the roof of a nearby building and heading straight to the hospital.
x-x
Opening apartment door number seven, a middle aged man peered down the staircase to the bottom floor. The landlord could have sworn that he heard voices and that one of those was the Kyuubi brat. Saitoma walked down the staircase to investigate further but he found no sign of anyone in the buildings entryway.
Looking to the mailboxes, he pulled out his master key and opened the mailbox for apartment thirteen, which was the only apartment on the third floor. Finding a single letter inside, Saitoma smiled as he began completing his weekly ritual. Taking out the letter, he walking outside the building and ceremoniously dumped the letter in one of the trashcans.
With his task complete, he slowly walked back to the mailboxes. The boy had brought him nothing but hardship grief since moving in from the orphanage. Half of his tenants had left, with the other half demanding lower rent if they stayed. Before the boy moved in, he didn't have a cockroach problem which was now quite prevalent with the other tenants demanding the entire building to be sprayed. All of these troubled had occurred within a month or two of the Kyuubi brat moving into apartment 13.
He had tried to cut off the boy's power and water a few times but had eventually been warned against it by one of the Hokage's ninja. Now he had resorted to the more petty practice of throwing away the boy's mail but it made him feel better and hindered the Kyuubi boy. Moving to his own mailbox, he opened it with his key and found a large stack of mail. Pulling the stack out, he literally came face to face with something that he had not expected.
Sitting on the top of his stack of mail was a very elaborate and well made mask. It also scared the shit out of him. He quickly realized that it was either of a demon, an oni, or a shinigami. 'None of which I would prefer.' he thought as the color in his face drained as he stared at the particularly bad omen that lay on his Friday mail.
Saitoma was a very superstitious man. The moment the Hokage had told him that Naruto would be staying at one of his apartment, he had viewed that as an extremely bad omen and taken proper measures. That was one of the reason for him choosing to live in apartment number seven and giving the Kyuubi brat thirteen. He also kept many good luck charms and other items in his apartment. Some even on his person at all times to overcome the malady of his apartment building being chosen for the demon's den.
His hands started shaking at the item that seemed to look directly into his very soul with the lifeless eyes that it had. A chain letter was one thing but the mask in front of him was on a completely different scale. 'It's about a thousand times worse.' he thought and couldn't bring himself to look directly into the eyes of the mask again.
Had someone sent him the item? 'They would have had to get into my mailbox,' he realized as the slit on the front of the metal box was not large enough for the mask to fit. Only he had the key to his own mailbox. Was it some kind of omen to let him know that his death was approaching? Did the mask carry some kind of curse? He wondered as he looked around to see if anyone was watching him. Holding it out in front of him at arms-length, he panicked as he tried to figure out what to do with it.
"What could I have done to possibly deserve this?" he said out loud as his breathing was nearly at hyperventilating. Setting the arm-full of mail down on the ground, as gently as possible, he practically ran out of the apartment and nearly jumped into the dumpster. Fetching the letter, he walked it back into his apartment complex and put it through the slot in the number thirteen mailbox.
If it was karma that was affecting him, then the action should have helped but such a simple action would not redeem him completely given all the previous times he had thrown out the Kyuubi's mail. Turning back and finding the mask still sitting on the floor on top of his mail, he went and picked the stack back up. Saitoma was careful in not touching the mask and making sure not to let it slip from the magazine it was resting on. Letting it fall and break on the ground was not conducive to prolonging his life.
Starting to walk to his apartment, he stopped as he looked down at the mask that was still on his mail. He quickly looked away from it and knew that he could not take it to his apartment. Such an action may curse his apartment or lead to other terrible things befalling him. Going to leave the building, he again stopped as he thought better of it. Glancing down at the foreboding item, he wondered what he should do with it. He certainly wasn't going to take it with him anywhere or leave it somewhere for an innocent person to find. And there was no way in hell he was putting it in the trash but he still needed to get rid of it before something happened.
Glancing back at the mailboxes, he looked to number 13 and made his decision. Setting the stack of mail back on the floor, he ran up the stairs to his room. A minute later he came back down the staircase and was prepared. Wearing arm-length rubber gloves and holding a pair of metal tongs, he gently picked up the mask with the tongs and kept it away from him. Reopening box thirteen, Saitoma gently stuck the mask on top of the envelope and then closed the box back up. Walking to his apartment, the only thing he could think about was, 'I might be going to hell.'