Byakuya

Chapter 19

Character Profile:

Name: Kisho Hidoishin (Kisho "cruel faith"- as his surname says.)

Age: 24 (male)

Status: Samurai from the Coven with ninja skills. Is the leader in charge of the Coven. Has one of the four independent votes, as said by a tattoo on his shoulder.

Jinchuuriki: Hosted the demon Gobi no Houkou, the five tailed demon that takes the form of a dog, before he became one with it in the eve of his "awakening", the day he turned 20.

Looks: Dark brown spiky hair, green eyes and slashes painted with red on his face. Wears always sun classes (Which Naruto loves to steal, as you will see later.)

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Naruto groaned as he shook off the last remains of sleep off his eyes before ducking under the warm covers again; not that Naruto didn't want to be awakened from the nightmares he seemed to have of lately, he just couldn't bring himself to appreciate the bright morning sun shining into his eyes.

Jumping slightly as the shrill noise of the alarm clock went off, Naruto slammed his fist on top of the bright orange clock in the same way he had done it four years ago.

The difference was that four years ago when he slammed his fist on the alarm clock, the said clock didn't become a mutated pile of useless metal. Naruto looked at the clock he had gotten from the Sandaime on his eighth birthday with an edge of horror in his eyes. His lower lip trembled slightly before he buried his face into his pillow, reminding himself that starting the day with crying over the old Hokage would do no good.

Naruto smiled bitterly at the memory of the old man; one of the only people ever to treat him with kindness, and the first human ever to show any sign of affection towards him. Naruto slipped off his soft bed silently, while throwing a look at the crushed orange alarm clock, and then at the clock on his kitchen table which showed that it was just past seven.

Good, then I have time to eat breakfast and time to try the sensing chakra thing before Sasuke-bastard shows up, Naruto thought to himself as he walked into the shower, slipping off his pajama bottoms. In mid-movement he froze, before blushing furiously, suddenly remembering what had happened the previous night.

Oh god, I kissed Sasuke.

The previous night after the talk with the Hokage the ninjas had all spread towards their own homes; which of course meant Naruto and Sasuke had walked the same way as their homes were on the same side of the town. The walk had been silent, each of them happy to be in each other's company, and when they had separated, Naruto had said 'good night, Sasuke-teme', and had kissed the side of the raven haired boys lips. Sasuke had stood still, surprise evident in his normally closed face, and Naruto had run off before the Uchiha had time to say anything.

Naruto blushed one last time before stepping out of the shower, fresh to face a new day. He caught the blush on his face from the mirror and frowned to himself.

Why have I started blushing suddenly anyway? It's not like I've been embarrassed by my sexuality or flirting in years, for gods' sake, I was morphing into a naked woman when I was twelve! …and it's not like I'm not experienced with sex either; I've been with Gaara, and Tala, and that Geisha from the thunder country capital, and I've had my S-A missions… frankly, I'm surprised I'm not outright perverted after reading all Jiriya-sensei's books…

Naruto tipped into his kitchen, clad in a new pair of bright orange cargos and a black t-shirt with the usual red spiral in the back; a symbol he knew now that meant a lot more than just his last name. After all, the Yondaime, his father, he corrected; had a reason to actually naming him 'Naruto Uzumaki'. Something other than the blonde man's grazed obsession with ramen of course.

God, I hope it doesn't run in the family or I'll be eaten broke by my future kid.

Naruto opened the fridge out of an old habit, not remembering that he hadn't actually stayed at his apartment in four years, and he hadn't had really time to settle in after he came from his training from Jiriya. The stale air that escaped from the fridge made Naruto wrinkle his nose and he slammed the fridge door close, remembering that he hadn't actually had time to shop for food. He'd only stayed a day or so in Konoha before they had left for their missions and that time he had been at Sasuke's house.

Scrambling through the few cupboards in his kitchen he was happy to notice that he did at least have some ramen left. Good thing that the stuffs expiration date had been only a month ago or so. One month there or here never hurt anyone. Licking his lips slightly at the thought of the long-awaited treat Naruto quickly boiled his ramen and waited for the appropriate three minutes to pass.

Fast inhaling the ramen from his favourite bowl Naruto caught the sight of the boxes by his door. The three boxes illustrated by running foxes and random swirls at the sides stood by the doorway innocently enough. Naruto knew he had a lot of stuff to unpack in the though, and threw a glance at the clock once again.

Seeing it was only 7:39, he decided that he could take some time to unpack things before trying to get his 'chakra sight' working, something he quite feared trying. And making the bastard wait in the process wasn't that bad either. Naruto quickly cleaned his almost empty ramen bowl in the sink before leaving it to dry and dragging the first box into the middle of his living room.

Naruto's apartment wasn't big, but it wasn't really that small either. It had a bathroom, complete with a cramped up bathtub. The rest of the apartment consisted of the bedroom and the shared kitchen/living room. The kitchen and living room were separated by a bar desk, so he felt just calling them separate rooms. The bed room was small, only having space enough for his huge chest of drawers and his big not-quite-double-bed. The biggest space however, was exactly that; big. The high ceiling was brought out by the mahogany poles standing in the corners. The walls were a nice cream colour and the floor was made of shiny parquet.

The kitchen was only six feet wide or so, but it was long, covering the whole cabinetry and the cooking surface. The cupboard doors were a dark red colour that melted beautifully in with the dark brown of the parquet. In the living room he had a television on front of the sofa, in one of the corners. Across the sofa was a kotatsu that served as the living room table as well, and if the two lush arm-chairs and sofa were mowed back, the kotatsu could easily fit four people. In the coldness of the winter Naruto even often slept under the table covered in blankets, something that made him want to lash out on everyone threatening to interrupt his sleep.

After he had learned about the Kyuubi he had supposed that he had dubbed subconsciously the kotatsu into his 'nest'.

All in the entire apartment was fashionably furnished, mostly with dark wood, blood red and golden colours on the sofa pillows. Years ago, before the Sandaime had died, he had actually wondered how he got such an amazing place to live in, if he was the hated Kyuubi. After Sandaime had died, he had actually learned that the Hokage had bought the apartment to Naruto, something that brought Naruto's eyes to tears every time he thought about it.

Naruto shook his head to himself, settling the one foot high and two feet wide box on top of the kotatsu before making a simple dragon seal. The box shimmered with a faint blue glow before fading to normal, and Naruto open the bow, knowing he could proceed safely. He opened the box slowly, smiling softly as he saw the pile of pictures inside. Some of them were from the coven, some of them from around the five great countries, and some of them were taken when he didn't know about it, like when he was drunk, was too small to remember or had just looked the other way.

Naruto looked at the empty cream coloured wall before him, between the walls with the window and the door and was suddenly caught with an idea. Returning to the kitchen, where he raided the kitchen drawers in search of tape; grinning in triumph when he located the small roll from under a collection of kunai, shuriken and even some random senbon. Naruto flinched at the thought of the senbon that had once belonged to Haku.

Damn it, I'm remembering way too much bad stuff today, Naruto said to himself as he neared the completely empty and, boring cream wall, armed with a roll of tape and a pile of pictures. Taping a picture of himself with Gaara in the middle of the wall, Naruto smirked. Now this would be fun.

The clock ticked 8:13 when Naruto finally finished spreading the pictures and posters, along with some random club entrance tickets and trinkets with the help of some clones. Somewhere halfway through the act Naruto had discovered that despite the huge poster of Club Vertigo and all the pictures the wall still looked a bit bare. He had returned to the kitchen and found a black marker.

This was why now all the pictures were somehow connected or interlinked with each other. On the left side of the wall were all the pictures of his family he had, most of the about his mother and him, as a baby, in her arms. His father rarely showed in the pictures, and when he did, his haircut was quite different. Instead of barely reaching under his ears as the Mt. Hokage showed or all the pictures about the famous Yondaime, he often had his soft and long hair tied into a low ponytail.

Behind the pictures, and interlined with them, was a sakura tree; something Naruto made to reflect a 'family three' of sorts. From left to right the wall morphed however. A tiny bit from the three he had the only picture of team seven he had, and after it the pictures came more and more. Behind the pictures about him, Gaara, Yuki, Tala, Mika, Yei and Kisho, along with dozens of others were places he had been in, and even the dark kage of the Kyuubi with dark trails of chakra leaking from it. The wall was also crossed with different links between him and his friends.

The link between him and Sakura was a thin, slightly flailing line that had sakura pedals twisted in it… In his mind showing his and Sakura's sister/brother relationship.

From him to each of the Jinchuuriki, especially to Gaara, went several straight and wide, black lines. Such straight lines went also to his parents, but so thin that they almost weren't noticeable.

Naruto turned from his form of art (the wall, obliviously), to glance at the clock. The happy grin from his face faded into shock as he realized the clock was 8:17 already. Hurriedly putting the tape, marker and the box (enforced with a seal again) away, he sat cross legged on top of the kotatsu, smiling as the familiar hard wood pressed into his thighs.

He closed his eyes and straightened his back before starting to meditate.

When Naruto was finally calm, he started to search within himself.

All right. Now all I need to is to find that focus that latches on other people's chakra.

Noticing that he could find himself in the grey hallway of his mind again that led to Kyuubi, Naruto nodded, satisfied. He had guessed something like this would probably happen. Instead of turning left, as he had last time, Naruto turned to right instead. Stepping through the doorway he stared in shock at the seemingly never ending hallway filled with doors in black, grey, white and even one orange he could see in the distance.

Oh great, this is going to take a while.

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A/N: All right, here comes chapter 19. Sorry if it's a bit boring, what with Naruto just being in his apartment, but I need it to give some ground to later chapters.

About the profile, Kisho's last name if made of hidoi(cruel) and shin(faith). I try to make everyone's (of the OCs) names to actually mean something, so I'll just drop off small hints here now and then.

I don't think I'll be able to update tomorrow, as I got a birthday party to go to, but I'll try to update on Thursday.

Next chapter is Naruto vs. Sasuke, and a bit more of Sasuke POV of the goodnight-kiss.

--Dark