"Kiba? How can you be so sure?" asked Kiyoshi. He put on an expression of confusion and doubt at the word 'Kiba', but Naruto held his ground and kept his speculations aimed at the fellow canine master.
"For one thing, it has to be a shinobi, because the scratched floors are a sign of training, and that excludes most of Konoha's population."
"Alright," agreed Kiyoshi, "Why Kiba?"
"Well," said Naruto, "The way I see it, every technique in existance has its own prerequisites. Many require advanced chakra control, others elemental control, there are more types of control springing up every day. There's elemental mixing, magnetic, sound, and now you even found the entity of spiritual techniques."
"In simple terms, yeah," Confirmed Kiyoshi, "There's more to it though."
"I know," said Naruto, hand motioning Kiyoshi to shut up. "What we're dealing with is a sound technique. But it's even simpler than that."
Kiyoshi folded his arms, "Much simpler."
"There's a certain frequency which only dogs are able to hear that humans like us can't. Through that frequency it's possible to send out something that sort of sounds like a yell to the inexperienced ear."
"Alright, what's Kiba have to do with this? Many people know how to use sound techniques."
Naruto grinned at the fact that he knows something that Kiyoshi doesn't. "Not true," he replied, "Perhaps some very advanced shinobi, like Kakashi-sensei or an ANBU member have basic knowledge, but none of the ANBU members know me, and Kakashi is a close friend."
Kiyoshi shrugged, "So what?"
Naruto stood up, set down his tea cup, stretched his back out, and walked over to a filing cabinet. "On my records," said Naruto, pulling out a batch of documents, "I have listed only two groups that have fair knowledge of sound techniques."
"Groups?" asked Kiyoshi.
"Yes. Each family and clan is considered a group, because although their key techniques and styles differ, each member usually practices the same style as their parents and former generations."
"So what are the two families?"
"Both of them use the sound techniques to make it easier to work with animals," replied Naruto, "There's Shino's clan. They use minimal sound techniques to be able to communicate with the little buzzing things. But he wasn't in Konoha when this whole thing started."
"So you really think it's Kiba?"
Naruto was about to open his mouth again, but then paused and looked over to Kiyoshi, who was amused by Naruto's arrogant display of deduction. "You were just messing with me, weren't you? You already know all of this."
"Another case solved," clapped Kiyoshi, then started laughing.
"Tch." Naruto turned away, and looked out the window at the village that was now in his hands. "You know..." he said, "I can't do this. I'm not ready to be Hokage yet."
Kiyoshi stood up and walked over to the window to join Naruto's side. Looking out the window, he spoke, "Have you ever though what a Hokage is?"
Naruto loked up at Kiyoshi from his seat, then burst out with a stream of words, "A Hokage is the strongest ninja of the..."
"Stop quoting the textbooks and think about it," interrupted Kiyoshi, "Not everything in the textbooks is correct."
Naruto froze and kept his eyes on the blond boy for a moment. He then looked down at his table, and turned to watch over the village from his window once more.
Hinata's dream was a strange one. There was a dock, Naruto was sitting on it, watching the lake reflect the forest across from him. She came up to Naruto but did not speak, there was a silence, they didn't look at each other. Just watched the reflected trees in the water.
To follow a path is to blindly follow a belief. Billions of people have drowned in the abyss where their path had led them, to never come back up and to never choose another path. What is the true path to follow? What is it that we are truly meant to do?
She awoke like she had never done before. The awakening was as smooth as a hawk gliding through the air. Such calm she had never experienced, and the feeling she felt was that of someone's soft chakra, much like the moment she felt back on the ship during the summer's mission.
"Naruto..."
She opened her eyes and remained still for what felt like an eternity, but it was no more than two minutes. "If I could freeze time, it would not matter. Because he would not be there frozen with me."
"Therefore cherish each moment you have with him," replied a familiar voice, too familiar to be true.
Hinata turned her head, but there was nobody there.
Naruto and Kiyoshi walked down a path that was too familiar to Naruto, but then again, they all were.
"It's just that I'm not dealing with nearly as much as Tsunade had to put up with," said Naruto, "The senate doesn't trust me, and my access is very limited to the files on Konoha's insides."
"I don't know, it looked like you were in charge in that office..." suggested Kiyoshi.
Naruto shook his head, "I'm just a secretary right now, everything serious is in their hands," replied Naruto, "The Akatsuki missions, Sasuke's retrieval, even ANBU affairs are all under the senate's direct control."
Kiyoshi gave off a deep sigh, "But you are able to handle the work you currently have, right?"
"Yeah! But..." Naruto drifted into thought, quietly speaking the words "I can do so much more..."
Kiyoshi punched Naruto in the shoulder, and grinned. "Look on the bright side, if you can do more for Konoha, then you clearly have the time! And if you have the time, you can use it to study or train!"
Naruto discarded the punch and thought about what was said, "I guess you're right. I'm not a full pledged Hokage yet, so I shouldn't be too surprised about the secrecy."
Kiyoshi's grin faded into a smile, but a cheerful smile never the less. "Have you thought about what a Hokage is?"
Naruto didn't answer. He was sure he knew the answer, but it wouldn't come out into words. 'Something dependable' was the best he could describe the title of Hokage as, but he knew well enough that it wouldn't suffice as an answer to Kiyoshi's question.
"No," lied Naruto, "I haven't."
"Don't worry," said Kiyoshi, "You still have time."
"There's Kiba's house," said Naruto, there was a chill in his voice and in the air.
It was cool, and somehow dark even though the sun was shining from the cloudless sky. Physically it was bright and sunny, but the feeling was too grim to accompany the light.
Kiyoshi froze, took a sharp look around in the street where he was sure somebody was standing. His eyes found nothing, nobody was in the street to blame his disturbance on. "Naruto, we may be in trouble..."
"I feel it too," said Naruto, slowly shifting his eyes from one direction to another, "I think we're being watched."
"Yes," agreed Kiyoshi, "We are."
Then the feeling lifted, comfort once again flowed through the nerves of the two teens.
Naruto glanced over to Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi nodded. They went on towards Kiba's house.
Naruto stepped up to the door, but before he could knock on it, it burst open and out came Kiba on Akamaru. The door sent Naruto flying into Kiyoshi and both of them tumbled several times before getting their senses back and catching their own footing.
Kiba and Akamaru took a sharp turn around a corner and galloped away from the two blond boys.
"Get them!" exclaimed Naruto and dashed after them.
Kiyoshi got up and dusted himself off before turning around and not findng Naruto anywhere in sight. "Yeah..."
"Kiba!" Yelled Naruto.
"Never!" replied the canine runaway.
Kiyoshi left the chasing to Naruto and entered Kiba's house after knocking on the door. When he entered and called out to see if anyone would respond, the response he got was the same as when he knocked on the door; none.
He froze when he felt a chill come down his right shoulder, much like the one he felt moments before being projected down the street moments before. He sprung to the left, slid across the floor and activated his blood limit. "Hikari, time to have some fun."
Naruto took his chance to make a clone when Kiba made a sharp turn around a corner so that the technique wouldn't be seen. The clone made a sharp turn around the corner and kept chasing Kiba, while the real Naruto took a shortcut over the roofs to cut Kiba off further down the road.
Kiba took the chase rather negatively, feeling like a buffalo being chased by an underdressed species of monkey weilding a sharp branch and weighing a mere 200 pounds. For a moment he woke up from a dream of confusion that he'd been dreaming for the past several weeks, and felt a strong temptation to stop and confront Naruto. But before he could make any action of such sort, he was once again thrown into a world of dull and angry insomnia.
Akamaru barked in time for Kiba to duck under an incoming projectile kunai, but got tossed aside when a tag exploded. He assumed that the explosive tag was attached to the kunai and brushed that realization off to keep his concentration on catching his footing and making a good comeback to the overused sticky-bomb.
Naruto and his clone blocked both sides of the road to keep Kiba and Akamaru from escaping.
Kiba took an brief moment to sulk over something, then started thinking over the next plan of action. He could've either attempted to escape using the roofs, but knew that Naruto probably had more clones lurking about, and climbing a 90 degree angle was not a good way of not getting shot. Or he could have stopped his running and started combat with the man who assumingly ruined his life.
He took the second choice, which was his intention to do from the very beginning, but any earlier he'd be outnumbered and outclassed by an unknown enemy that was now Naruto's right-hand man. He wasn't really sure whether he felt betrayed, heartbroken, or humiliated, but he knew that he wanted to do very unpleasant things to Naruto involving pitchforks, broken glass, and other pointy objects.
At the same time Kiba's house contained a spectacular light-show that only Kiyoshi could see, and was also the only physical contestant of. He dashed out of the way of an incoming black free-form shape, making a turn as he slid across the room. He pulled out a set of headphones and his favorite music to mark the occasion of a fight that only he could be a part of.
The free-form shape attempted a strike at Kiyoshi by stretching out like the bubble in a lavalamp, but Kiyoshi evaded by turning his body upside down and clenching the extended blob between his legs. Then, while in handstand, he spun around with enough force to break a bone if it were clenched between his legs. Instead, the blob only shook amusingly, as if laughing at his failed attempt.
Kiyoshi didn't stop spinning around. He saw different kinds of souls and spirits, and from what he kew, the tentacle would either stop stretching and fling the creature at a wall, or the tentacle would rip off.
Neither of Kiyoshi's theories passed as facts. The creature's wrapped tentacle melted and molded itself atound Kiyoshi's ankles, then flung him at a wall.
Kiyoshi fell to the ground after the impact with the wall, and landed on one knee, keeping his attention focused on the enemy while wiping the blood off his lower lip.
Hikari was tastefully sending projectile black blobs into directions other than Kiyoshi's or her own. While Kiyoshi stepped in and out of combat, Hikari was deflecting enough attacks to keep several dozen squids occupied. She moved at speeds that would burn up a body in its physical form, thus such speeds can't be picked up upon with a normal human eye or be comprihensible in the physical world. If not for Kiyoshi's blood limit ability, she would have no human witness to see her striking velocity.
The creature showed nothing less than Hikari when it came to velocity, because the rapid flow of circling attacks didn't falter for a mere second.
In no time at all both, Kiyoshi and Hikari got tired out to the point of tenderness. As they'd long ago realized, the measure of a soul does not work in capacity, but in the emotions that they carry. For example, a soul that feels love is powerful, but can be stacked with other emotions such as hope or the rush of battle. Negatve emotions such as guilt or hate can be contradictory to those of love, but it's more a matter of intention than classifying emotions as good and evil. Some emotions like hate can be considered noble in the form of vengence, but whether a vengeful obligation is a virtue or not is a matter of interpretation, so any sin can be stacked with a positive feeling.
"Hikari," panted Kiyoshi. "We need to do something. Fighting this thing head-on is pointless."
Hikari didn't pant, as she no longer depended on breathing to survive. "What can we do?"
Kiyoshi stood up, closed his eyes, then moments later he opened them and his breathing was no longer heavy. "Remember the hellgate we opened for the thing that followed me around?"
Hikari's saturated violet outline gave Kiyoshi a nod. "What about it? We can't use it while you're physical?"
"But what if I really wanted to?" asked Kiyoshi, totally oblivious to the fact that his question would be considered silly to any other human.
On the contrary, Hikari found the suggestion a very reasonable. Most people don't realize, but whatever the battle may be, be it physical or spiritual, the side with the stronger will usually wins.
"Alright, let's give it a shot. But Kiyoshi," she said, "If this works, then killing you back then would have been pointless."
Kiyoshi grinned like a cat would if cats could grin, "No regrets there, you shouldn't have any either."
Naruto dashed out of the way of an incoming storm of sharp fur and landed sideways on a wall. He pulled a kunai out of his sleeve and shot out of the way of another incoming attack.
"Hey kid," said a voice that Naruto hadn't heard speak for a long time. "I'm bored, how about letting me come out and stretch my legs for a bit?"
A/N: I decided that this should be a two-part chapter, and this was the first part of it. Some questions may arise, theories are quite welcome, but I won't give any definite answers until they show up in the story. Same technical difficulties as the several chapters before; no spell-check.
There have been inquiries as to whether or not I'm a "Kiba hater", and I would like to reassure you that I am not. If I were a Kiba hater I wouldn't have made him lead guitar during the dance in one of the earlier chapters. However, I am quite interested in a Kiba-related theme/idea which will be uncovered in the next part of this chapter.
On a totally unrelated note, I finished my music album called "Echo" and most of it is available in my facebook profile. You can either hear 4 of the songs by going to my homepage (a link to a purevolume account), or adding me on facebook by the name of Dmytro Lipchenko.
Well, until next time. I hope you all enjoyed my crappy fanfic and hope you come back because you did.