There was a silence, nobody said a word. Kiyoshi sat, tied up, with his eyes closed, in total relaxation. Ino cowered in a corner, terrified. Naruto and Hinata were astonished by what they saw before them.
It was indeed Hikari, yet at the same time it wasn't; two black ribbons moved around her invisible figure, as if caught in a draft. The astonishment of this left everyone speechless.
A wind whispered through the hallways and echoed through the room, "Hi..."
Ino screamed and ran out. She was going straight to sleep once she got home.
Hinata stepped up to the two ribbons, "Hikari?"
Another wind moaned through the stone paved underground, "Hai..."
Kiyoshi called Naruto over; Ino had freed his hands so that he could execute a technique, but he was still tied up. "Would you mind undoing the ropes?"
Naruto rushed around Kiyoshi, squatting to untie the chakra ropes. "What's going on here? We heard you scream... is that Hikari? What's happening around here?"
Kiyoshi sighed as his ropes became loose. He got up and started rubbing his wrists, letting blood flow through his veins, "I guess it's about time I explained a few things."
Hinata came up to the ribbons in motion, staring directly into the emptiness that would be Hikari's face if her body wasn't nine feet underground and contained her soul. A ribbon passed through Hinata's focus, indenting the passed away girl's face. Hinata stepped back, startled, "It really is you."
Kiyoshi couldn't take it, "It's hard for her to speak to you, and I▓ll do it for her."
"Can she hear me?"
Kiyoshi nodded, "She can see and hear everything in this world. But at the same time she's in the next."
"How can this be happening?" asked Naruto, not able to rephrase the question in any other manner.
Kiyoshi braced himself for a rather long conversation. "She's a spirit."
Naruto stared at Hikari's outline in disbelief, "But... how?"
The longhaired boy would have to start explaining from the very beginning. "When she died, I started searching for history of my clan, and the ability of my second transformation."
Naruto and Hinata pulled up dusty chairs and sat down in front of Kiyoshi.
Kiyoshi started stretching his arms and legs, muscles creaking from lack of use for a long time. "I only found bits and pieces of information. My clan was slaughtered due to their refusal to submit to a higher order. The blood limit ability that I have is known to the public as 'Foresight'."
Hinata's eyes widened, "Foresight? I thought that was just a myth."
"Oi, Hinata, do you know something about this?" asked Naruto
The girl nodded, "It's a long-lost ability. Nobody who is currently alive knows any details. The only things that're known right now are legends and theories of how the ability worked."
Naruto looked up at Kiyoshi, "But didn't your clan get killed when you were a child? How can it be a mythical ability if it existed a mere 16 years ago?"
Kiyoshi sat down and shot Naruto a glance, "So you knew about my clan, yet didn't tell me anything?"
Naruto couldn't believe that he got so careless. "I'm sorry, I didn't get the right chance to tell you."
"Never mind," replied Kiyoshi, surprising the two teens in front of him. "I don't really care. It's not something to fight a friend over."
"It's your past. It's important," said Hinata, "How can you not be angry?"
Kiyoshi smiled, "And is it wise to destroy the future with the past?"
The girl was speechless, "What are his priorities?" thought Hinata.
"Back to my findings," continued Kiyoshi, "I found out how to use my second transformation, but couldn't find out how it works... up until yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?" asked Naruto.
Kiyoshi waved his hand to signal Naruto to calm down, "Let's backtrack for a moment... to the day I found Hikari all over again."
"How did you two get reunited?" asked Hinata, "Why isn't she in heaven?"
Kiyoshi turned to the two freeform ribbons, after a short pause he smiled, "She says, what's more heavenly than being with your loved one?"
Hinata turned to Hikari, "That's romantic, but still... why didn't you go to heaven?"
"She says, what is heaven? There is no single heaven that everyone goes to; each person has their desire, their own idea. Being with me was her wish," replied Kiyoshi. "Anyways, the ability was passed on, but concealed by my clan."
Hinata was curious; a legendary ability that is said to be the big sister of the Byakugan. "How does it work."
Kiyoshi sighed in relief; the conversation was now starting to get interesting. "I wasn't sure up until I fought your father, but some sort of creature stopped time and gave me the key clue right before Hiashi blew my ear off."
"A creature?" asked Naruto.
"I'll tell you all I know about it a bit later," replied Kiyoshi, "I have to explain the ability before I do anything else."
"What about it?"
Kiyoshi couldn't believe that he was so certain about what he was about to tell them, "It's a spiritual power."
"A what now?" asked Naruto, "You mean like spirit you get before combat?"
"You can call it that," shrugged Kiyoshi, "But spirit is much more deep than a stimulation of the mind."
"What do you mean?"
Kiyoshi sharply bobbed his head to the right and a small crack could be heard, "Spirit is as real as blood or chakra."
The two teens in front of Kiyoshi jumped up from their chairs in shock, "What?"
"It flows not within us, but rather guides us."
"What do you mean?"
"Back when my second transformation took place, I started seeing trails of light that I thought were chakra. I was wrong. Chakra flows within us, where as what I saw was something that guided your bodies, took shape of your actions before you executed them."
Hinata found it hard to conceive; a whole new and unknown entity that flows through every human. The fact that Kiyoshi could see it, was stunning. "You can see spirit?"
"Yes, and at some points this ability is somewhat like your Byakugan. Although not as strong, it has the potential act as a scout of the surrounding area," replied Kiyoshi, "I have managed to find Hikari using this ability. Rather not find, but spot her. She has been following me ever since I came to visit her grave."
Naruto couldn't believe it; his friend, the psychic, was telling him about a whole new world of spiritual sense. "If you knew she was around, why didn't you come back to Konoha?"
"Before I tell you that, please know this. Foresight and Byakugan are like sixth sense abilities. They open a whole new way of feeling, seeing and interpreting one's surroundings," replied Kiyoshi, "If I had come earlier, the whole village would have died."
"What?" exclaimed Naruto, "Why?"
"There was something following me, something that I thought was bad luck, or my being a death god. The whole fault was my own, yes, but it was not me that brought all the mischief around me."
"What was it?" asked Hinata.
"An actual death god," replied Kiyoshi, "It had been following me ever since my first kill at age 9."
"Why was it following you?"
"It saw potential in me... potential to kill."
"So it brought the scum of the world to you?"
Kiyoshi nodded, "Every living thing that I've killed, was a soul for the death god to eat. It became stronger with every person I killed."
Naruto swallowed, "Did you get rid of it?"
"Hai," smiled Kiyoshi, "When that pirate ship exploded, the death god became a monster. It had grown huge, consuming the escaping souls one after another, and growing more with each one."
"You got rid of it, right?" repeated Naruto.
Kiyoshi ignored the interruption and carried on, "It grew bigger and bigger, but couldn't consume Hikari. Her spirit was too great. Eventually I found an old man who helped me get as close to death as I could get, giving me the time I need to help Hikari send the beast back into the soul gate."
"You died to save her..." guessed Hinata
"Hai. But it wasn't my time to die just yet, that's not what Hikari wanted for me. She pushed me back into my body."
"What did the monster look like?"
Kiyoshi looked up as if recalling the moment, "He didn't look like anything."
"What do you mean?"
"Spirits have no form unless they are in a body or they desire to have a form. Even when they do have form, it's a form of bright light, bright shine of the color that defines the personality of the being. This thing wasn't light at all; it was darkness that consumed light... a black hole."
Naruto was curious as to what color he was, but didn't want to carry the conversation on any further. "Let's get you home for now. We will hear the rest of your story over a bowl of ramen or some tea," he looked around, "A dark bunker filled with spider-webs and dust doesn't strike me as a cheery place to discuss spirits."
"Oh god..." sighed Jiraiya, "I shouldn't be saying this, but I sort of feel sorry for him."
For the previous half an hour, Sakura had been telling Jiraiya what she knew about Kiyoshi. Apparently, the perverted excuse for a sennin didn't take idea of the scarred kid too lightly. "He has helped everyone in multiple ways, even though he has very little motive."
"He's stupid," stated Jiraiya, "He should value his life a lot more than he does."
"He feels that his life brings suffering to the world," replied Sakura.
Jiraiya stood up to find this kid, "Everyone has the right to live. He has it no less than anyone else."
"Do what you will, but I have to get back to the hospital," replied Sakura, "And if you touch a single hair on Kiyoshi, you'll have to go to the hospital too."
"I know what I'm doing."
Sakura shook her head, "Seriously, the former generation is so unwise."
Jiraiya was about start lecturing the girl about watching her mouth and all, but Sakura interrupted him, "He has a right to live, as well as the right to die," said Sakura. Jiraiya was speechless; he didn't know what to say. "He has the right to choose for himself."
Jiraiya nodded, "Considering his history, he has every right to be so pessimistic, but..."
The girl corrected him again, "Who said he's pessimistic? He was the cheeriest guy next to Naruto up until Hikari died," said Sakura, "Everything was taken from him, and he knows nobody's to blame. Who else can he blame but himself?"
"How do you know so much about him? You didn't spend that much time with him."
Sakura turned around and resumed walking back to the hospital, "Just think about it before lecturing him."
"Kids these days..." mumbled Jiraiya unhappily, shocked by the fact that a person five times younger than him just outwitted him.
Kiyoshi fell asleep on the instant his back came in contact with the bed; the whole drugging had tired him out, and his circulatory system was weak against poisons.
Hinata stared at the boy, "Naruto, can you fall asleep as fast as he does?"
Naruto shook his head in disbelief. Naruto then remembered something, "Shit..."
"What is it?"
"I have to get back to the office, there are papers piling up, and I've spent too much time hunting Kiyoshi down," he looked down at Kiyoshi and back at Hinata, "I..."
"It's alright, go ahead," replied Hinata and pecked him on the cheek, "I'll take care of Kiyoshi."
"Thanks," grinned Naruto and darted out the front door.
On the way back to work from his rather long lunch break, Naruto ran around a corner and sent Jiraiya flipping to one side, his frog to another. He was too focused on the piercing pain in his lungs to notice that he just sent an old man flying.
"Today's not my day," groaned Jiraiya as he was getting up. "Where does this guy live?"
Hinata made herself some tea and started looking through various books on Kiyoshi's shelf. She then turned her attention to his sleep-mumbling, she leaned closer to listen to his quiet words."
"Table... monkey..." grumbled Kiyoshi, then screamed without a warning, "Oil paint pudding!" so loud that Hinata tumbled back in surprise.
Jiraiya knocked on Kiyoshi's door; there was a shuffle inside. "Anyone home?" asked the frog hermit. The lock clicked, and the door opened; Hinata had greeted the old man inside.
"Hinata? What are you doing here?" asked Jiraiya, walking past the still surprised-by-Kiyoshi Hinata. "Well?" he asked again after a short pause.
Hinata snapped out of her stunned self, "Ino kidnapped Kiyoshi, Naruto and I saved him, and then He had to go back to work, so I stayed to watch over Kiyoshi."
Jiraiya stared at her for a moment, then nodded, "I see..."
"He's sleeping," said Hinata, nodding, aware that her input was a very obvious piece of information.
"Right..."
Hinata looked at Jiraiya for a moment, "Sennin-san..."
"Call me Jiraiya," replied the man.
"Osu," said Hinata, "Jiraiya-sama, how do summoning jutsu work?"
Jiraiya was surprised by such a serious question so soon after all the random and pointless events. "Well, it's not something that could be studied, because summonings are instantaneous phenomena."
"But how did we figure out summoning jutsu then?"
Jiraiya recalled an old lesson he received from his sensei, but the only thing he could remember was the fact that he fell asleep five minutes into the lecture and woke up five days after. "I'm not sure..." replied Jiraiya, "I think humanity just stumbled upon it."
Hinata looked at the legendary sennin and something inside her told her that the man in front of her was a spoiled brat; the kind of childish attitude that usually resided in six-year-olds and famous writers. "Stumbled upon it?"
Jiraiya thought back to his lessons, the wretched training sessions when his sensei taught him to summon. For three weeks straight, he could only manage to summon a tadpole. "I can't remember the history of it, but I think it happened when there was an all-out fight between seven ninja. They waited for the fight to start, and simultaneously created the seals that are required to summon," suggested Jiraiya, and then chuckled, "I could only imagine their surprise."
Hinata stared at the happy old man, "Naruto's more mature than you."
Jiraiya stumbled and fell to the ground. "That's not nice at all..."
"That doesn't prevent it from being absolutely true."
Jiraiya shrugged with agreement, "Although he doesn't have my experience, he will grow up to be ten times greater..." nodded Jiraiya, "Each generation will surpass the previous."