Title: New Future of the Legends
Author: Nakora-chan
Email: nakora(dot)chan(at)gmail(dot)com
Series: Naruto
Rating: T (may end up M later on)
Pairings: None (If I have time later on, I will create an alternate version with pairings)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Three years have past since Naruto has left Konoha. It is about time that he returns, but when he does, he reveals things about himself and Konoha that has never been known to the public. Despite what he has become, he strives to break free from all bonds.
Warnings: AU, OC, OOC, blood, abuse, mutilation (last three will occur later on)
Chapter 5: Hope Confused With Foresight
"We've been waiting. This way, hurry."
They arrived at the only entrance into Suna hurriedly and out of breath. Taking in the condition of the group, he knew that they couldn't do anyone any good until they rested up. The entire group had sprinted the whole time, resting only when members of the group just had to have rest, and even with the brief reststops, all of them were worn ragged.
Casually observing the outcast of their group, he almost directed a confused and slightly angry thought at Tsurugi. Tsurugi wasn't as winded as the rest of the group though the bishounen too was panting for breath. Just like everyone else, his clothes were dusty and dirty, but unlike the others, he still held a dignified air and a posture that shouldn't have been possible with average normal shinobi. But then, Tsurugi was hardly an average normal shinobi.
None of them said a word as they passed through the slit of a wall that surrounded the entire village protecting it from almost all and any attacks. This protection was said to be infallible and everyone thought that the tiny slit could be protected, so thus the protection of the village was truly infallible; yet all were proven wrong when Akatsuki breached the wall and captured Suna's very own Kazekage right under (or literally above) their noses.
As he surveyed the villagers for the effects of the Kazekage's capture, he promptly saw the fear and panic constant in their eyes; everywhere, Suna shinobi tensed at every little sound, their instincts and paranoia going haywire. The psychological effect of the Kazekage's capture affected the village as a whole, almost like Akatsuki had planned it this way. But he knew it was different.
He knew that Akatsuki's objective were the nine demons, the Bijuu, that were trapped inside human containers. Though he didn't know much about the demons themselves, he had heard rumors as he was going about his missions ever since he had first heard about the group from Jiraiya. There were rumors that several individuals were given by their respective village to pairs that wore straw hats and black cloaks adorned with red cloads.
Glancing at Tsurugi, once again, he saw Naruto standing where Tsurugi was, wearing the exact same clothes. Deep down, he wished that whatever he saw was real, that Tsurugi was really Naruto in disguise, but he would never admit it to anyone or to himself.
The hospital coming up in front of them, he realized that he had missed parts of the conversation and the highly condensed briefing.
"But the Kazekage was abducted," their guide said. "After that, Kankurou pursued them, but he got wounded."
Temari shouted out in surprise, "What? They got Kankurou too?"
Horrified shock. He knew that feeling very well. Living through and fighting in a war always brought about terrible tragedies, and often times, he wanted to wallow in his pains, to have an excuse to not do anything but just wallow in pains that left him feeling more hurt than when he started.
The guide nodded and continued, "Yes, and he was caught by the enemy's poison. And we have no way to neutralize it." He paused and looked down for a moment before returning his gaze to the only member of the family physically unharmed. "At this rate, he has half a day at the most."
Some took sharp intakes of breath; others hissed.
Her face set into a scowl, she grit her teeth together and cursed, "Shit."
Keeping up his emotionless façade, he caught the look of horrified and scared shock. This girl was about to lose both her brothers to a pair of S-rank nuke-nin, and she couldn't do anything about it because she had arrived too late and she wasn't strong enough to battle them. The possibility of loss weighed heavily on her mind as panic started creeping into her eyes.
"Let's hurry, Temari-san."
Temari looked back at the one that spoke, so did the others.
Sakura's eyes were hard and determined. Her stance was completely different from the unsure composure that she had during much of the time of their three day travel from Konoha. Maybe it was just when faced with a situation that she knew that she could handle that she could have such a determined demeanor, mused Kakashi. He wasn't one to argue.
The medic-nin declared, "I'll examine him."
Inwardly, he let himself have a sad smile. Sakura had grown up and he hadn't seen it happen. For the past three years, he had been constantly sent off mission after mission, the number of high ranking missions at a constant high. Ever since the Sand-Sound invasion, shinobi were constantly hired for high ranking missions, and because of the invasion itself, there were fewer number of shinobi that were available to take on those missions. He, like many others, had taken on many more missions to alleviate the total number of high ranking missions. Because of all the missions he had taken, he had rarely seen his former student though they did occasionally meet up at Ichiraku's for lunch.
Despite the chance to watch Sakura grow up, he sacrificed it since whenever they did meet up at Ichiraku's, they too were too tired or down to properly talk.
When they finally reached the hospital, their guide stopped to inform the others in the hospitals that he had brought help, letting the rest of the group head up to the medical room that Kankurou was staying in. None of them slowed down as they sighted Medical Treatment Room 3, but they had to stop.
Both Sakura and Temari turned the corner and headed into the room running. The rest just skid to a stop, content with watching at the door. The two threw their bags away, urgencry written plainly on their faces and insane worry on Temari's.
Someone in the room turned sharply, scanning the faces of the newcomers, stopping as she saw someone of the group in particular, and immediately whispered harshly, "The White Fang of Konoha!"
Kakashi's first thought was 'Eh?' before that someone in the room jumped towards him.
Thump!
"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself, Chiyo-baasama?"
Those in the room stared at the interaction between the two. Chiyo's fist was stopped by a loosely open hand, and the old woman looked up at the face of the person who stopped her from attacking the Cyclops of the team. She squinted before widening, her fist retreating back to her side. Chiyo and Tsurugi apparently had a relationship before the current interaction.
No one expected the old woman to suddenly attack or to do anything but greet them cordially. The old woman surprised everyone by launching that unexpected hit, but the young man that had stopped the attack furthered their surprise and confusion.
"Tsurugi? What are doing here? Why are you protecting White Fang? You know what he did!"
Putting up his hands in supplication, Tsurugi tried to futilely sooth the Chiyo's anger. With a shaky smile, he asked, "Now, Chiyo-baasama, don't you think that Hatake-san looks different from his father?"
Chiyo, ignoring parts of Tsurugi's questions, glared at the group darkly and nearly snarled out, "I remember that name, that White Fang of Konoha! My son's enemy! I will get my revenge for him today!"
At that moment, Kakashi allowed himself a moment of panic. After all, it wasn't everyday that some random old woman claimed that he killed his son; this was an old woman; he wasn't one to actually attack the old hag, even though he suppressed the urge to do so. Holding out his hands in supplication like Tsurugi did, he tried to assuage the situation, "Ah! No, I'm not…"
"There's no use arguing!" Chiyo yelled threateningly.
A shifting from a person on the other side of the room redirected everyone's attention as the person moved in front of Chiyo, preventing the old woman from even starting her assault, surprising many including Chiyo herself. The old man raised a hand to emphasize his prevention of attack. "Sister, take a good look. There's a strong resemblance, but he isn't the White Fang of Konoha."
The gray-haired old woman looked at the other elder in the room in question, "Huh?" Not receiving an answer, she then peered at the target in question and cracked open the swollen eye, squinting with difficulty. For a moment, she said nothing, but she shouted out self-confidently, "No way! I was just pretending to be stupid! Gyahaha!"
No one said anything, but Kakashi still gave out a relieved "Whew."
"More importantly, Kankurou-san needs to be quickly treated!" Sakura shouted to everyone as she hurried over to the only unconscious body in the room, shoving people aside imperiously, and moving medical equipment around to her liking, all around taking charge of the situation.
Temari nodded and gave them a pleading look. "Please."
Drip…
Drip…
All around one side of the room, people just sat waiting for the only medic-nin capable of healing and curing a grievous wound that Kankurou to finish, none of them knowing exactly how long the process would take. Chiyo had taken to Sakura's side and assisted the young medic-nin with whatever needed to be done to heal the injured jounin, and Temari, being the closest of kin to the victim, remained right by Kankurou, though she wouldn't go through with holding his hand during the process.
Kakashi glanced around his side of the room, noting that most of their group was catching their breath and firm on recovering as much as energy possible for the fight they all knew was surely ahead. Gai and his team were sitting down and resting, all of them cautious of their surroundings and taking turns resting deeply. His eyes shifting to his defender, he immediately noticed that the raven-haired enigma closed his eyes and sat in a meditative position. Not that many shinobi meditate on a regular basis, and the ease the position gave Tsurugi only proved that he had meditated for a long time. The more time that he spent with the unique shinobi, the more he learned to expected the unexpected. Just the way that he used to do for someone a long time ago.
Moving his eyes away from the thought-provoking figure, he watched as Sakura's hands glowed green above the two slice wounds that were made on Kankurou's torso. With her right hand placed right on one wound, she pumped green healing chakra from one wound to isolate the poison in the jounin's system, and with her left hand hovering above the other, she extracted the poison, the green chakra as the connection between the open wound and the rest of the collected poison. Carefully, she kept extracting the poison, staying in the same position for the entire time, and finally, the poison extraction slowed until none came out.
She held up the entire bubbling orb of poision surrounded by healing chakra in one hand and declared, "Got it!"
The green chakra disappearing from her right hand, she quickly snatched a vial and meticulously filled the vial with the poison before capping it and reinforcing the cap with a sudden burst of chakra.
Her hand wiped off the sweat dripping down her face. "Heh…" she said to everyone in the room, "I don't think there's any need to worry about his life anymore. I've directly removed the poison."
Temari, on the side, had let go of Kankurou's hand to slide to the ground against the wall. Her hand against her chest in a way to calm down her pounding heart, she tilted her head back against the wall and gave out an extremely relieved "Whew…"
As soon as Sakura declared Kankurou safe from dying, the other members of the team had gotten to their feet and moved around to surround the table, all their attention towards Sakura even though they stared at the unconscious Kankurou.
Gesturing to Kankurou, Sakura continued on in her plans. "Now I have to make an antidote for the little bit of poison left in his body. We can't relax yet." She turned to Chiyo, the only person the medic-nin knew would be able to assist her. "Please gather what I say."
"Take all the time you need, Haruno-san."
Everyone's heads turned to Tsurugi, who once again stole away the spotlight from everyone. Stepping out of the circle everyone had formed around Kankurou, he moved around to the side of the bed to stand beside Sakura as he pulled up his sleeves and tied them out of the way. His hands, which were previously hidden in the vast enormity of his sleeves, were still completely covered with bandages but oddly enough were illuminated by a green chakra with blue tints.
He concentrated on Sakura's confused and slightly distrustful expression after gazing for quite a while at Kankurou. "I will extract the rest of the poison."
Only the shinobi from Konoha stared stunned at the kimono-wearing jounin. Seeing Gai frown lightly, Kakashi fought to keep his face aloof; he too was asking the same questions Gai seemed to be asking in his mind. A seal master doing the work of a medic-nin? It was highly irregular; from their knowledge of the training of seal masters, nowhere in the training requirements or curriculum was there anything about healing or poison extraction. So for a seal master offering services in extracting a poison which should have been impossible without medic-nin training was inconceivable to the two elite jounin. Even they as elite jounin did not have the detailed knowledge of how to delicately extract poison left in the body after the initial extraction.
Sakura, who knew exactly what the elite jounin knew, at once protested, "But you're a seal master! You don't know how to—"
Tsurugi interrupted her with a gentle smile on his face. "I'll be performing a chakra explosion purification."
Those who knew exactly what a chakra explosion purification was sucked in their breath sharply, holding it in, but not everyone knew what it was. Apparently, the people that did not know were several Suna shinobi and Team Gai sans Gai.
Kakashi had tried to keep his face looking detached, but the knowledge that Tsurugi, a boy that he had only meet several days ago, knew such dangerous technique and was willing to use it so freely made it difficult for him to keep all emotions off his face. Not many people knew about the technique despite the greater number people in the room that did know.
The technique called for chakra that reached from the simple physical energy into the complicated life energy, life chakra, which sustained life in each person. People that used the technique may survive the process but won't have too much longer to live, probably a year or two at the most; so thus the technique was only used for a live-or-die situation. Kakashi mentally frowned as he dug through his memory and found the little tidbit that most people that did know about the technique did not know: only trained monks and special daimyo guards were taught the technique.
A chakra explosion purification in the past has only been used on daimyo of countries or very important individuals by the guards and the monks respectively, and it has only been used when the daimyo or the protected were in danger of dying and nothing else could be done for them. To die because of the purification to save the life of the protected was usually expected, but it was an honor because the inevitable death was honorable.
From conversations with daimyo guards he had worked with, Kakashi had learned that the purification was designed to not at all harm the patient, but everything depended on the chakra control of the wielder. Just one slight fluctuation in chakra control could bring about the death of the wielder and the death of another since someone had to perform the technique, he was told.
As soon as those that knew about the purification understood the consequences of exactly what Tsurugi was going to do, their faces must have appeared worried since Tsurugi gave a brighter smile and reassured them. "I've done this plenty of times, and I haven't died yet, so please don't worry about me."
His words weren't reassuring. The boy had done the purification more than once? And he still had enough chakra to effectively hold off an elite jounin in a spar? From the rumors he heard from those conversations with the daimyo guards, Kakashi found out during the period after the purification but before death set it, the wielder's body functions would slowly shut down, starting with the workable chakra. It was unbelievable that Tsurugi's chakra system was still working even now if his claims of performing the technique more than once were true.
His left hand, bandaged entirely down to the fingertips, glowing green with blue tints, reached out to Sakura, who held the vial close. Her eyes flicked from the raven-haired boy's face down to his glowing hand, and she hesitated.
Tsurugi, who apparently caught her hesitation, told her, "I just need you to keep the poison exposed for me to sense with chakra."
Still hesitating but willing, Sakura reopened the vial, her other hand once again covered with healing chakra, and poured a small amount of the poison onto her hand. The poison came together into a ball, hovering above her palm.
Sitting down on the edge of the examination table that Kankurou lay on, Tsurugi hovered his hand above the poison. Sakura's hand was shaking lightly, but she did not pull back or flinch as his hand hovered over hers.
With his left hand hovering above the poison and exposing his chakra and mind to the specifications of the poison, he placed his other hand on Kankurou's bare chest, the hand glowing the same as the other, and closed his eyes. A minute or so passed as nothing happened, but as soon as someone wanted to start to say something, Tsurugi took in a deep lifting breath and flicking his eyes back open.
Those that were more attuned to chakra in the room fought the urge to hiss as a large amount of chakra near Tsurugi shifted. The feeling wasn't a good feeling but it wasn't a bad one either. The feeling was just… uncomfortable.
"HA!"
The moment that Tsurugi gave his shout, the chakra that had been shifting around focused into his right hand and literally exploded as it subtly yet forcefully moved from the right hand spreading into and through Kankurou's entire body. Everyone felt the explosion of chakra and immediately shuddered; the chakra amount and its effect on everyone in the room was enough to cause anyone near believe that the technique was a mass-destruction jutsu.
Right before their eyes, Kankurou started shuddering and the Suna shinobi were about to protest and start a fight in case something fatal had truly happened to the brother of the Kazekage. But Kankurou arched up and coughed horribly. They blinked unbelievingly as a small blob flew out out of Kankurou's mouth as he coughed. As soon as it flew out, Tsurugi caught it with his right hand, the hand that had been placed on Kankurou's chest, and dumped it with the rest of the poison hovering above Sakura's palm as he moved his left hand away from Sakura's.
Still sitting beside the body on the table, he untied the straps that were holding up his sleeves and reached into his sleeves. He pulled out an ink well and a brush. Setting the inkwell down on the table, he turned to Sakura and Chiyo and told them specifically, "I will finish up here. You two go make that antidote. I have to put a seal on Kankurou-san to finish up the purification."
Temari frowned and spoke up, "It's a purification; he's supposed to be purged of the poison."
Inwardly, Kakashi agreed with Temari. He had never heard anything about finishing up the purification once it was done, but then again, none of the guards he had talked with were too willing to go into the actual purification. They only talked about why and the effects of the purification on themselves, not on the patient.
Tsurugi nodded. "The seal inject an altered form of the antidote into the bloodstream so it will remain in his body forever. Though it won't negate the poison itself, the seal will aid the altered antidote in isolating the poison to the wound from which it entered for a medic-nin to more easily extract."
The blonde bit her lip and seemed to want to retort. From the looks of it, she couldn't find the exact words to use in argument.
The boy had a good seal to use them in case of any future exposure to the poison. Kakashi thought that just maybe… this boy may be a good—no, a life-saver for the team against the members of Akatsuki they were surely going to face.
"But the seal will only work on someone who's been exposed to the poison before."
Okay… maybe not a life-saver.
Something cold and wet was moving across his skin, and shivers went up his spine as he slowly came to. The trail that the thing left was cold as the air hit it, and it roused him into consciousness even further. The world was dark but he could make out the presence of many people around him. Many of the chakra signatures in the room he could recognize but there was one that seemed familiar and almost family but the identity eluded him, which in turn confused him as well.
Focusing his attention to his eyes, he forced them open slowly, but the light was too blinding. As soon as the blinding light hit his eyes, he flinched before squinting. After a while, his eyes were getting accustomed to the light, and the feeling of something cold and wet was reinforced as it kept moving along his chest, he soon realized.
Blinking helped clear away the blurriness and as soon as he could see that he was inside a hospital room, he craned his neck to see what was cold and wet and moving on his chest since the rest of his body apparently wasn't complying with what he wanted.
"BLOODY MURDER!"
The long-haired person drawing a seal on his skin looked up, not startled at all. Since the person had long hair and at first glance was slim and not at all thick in figure, he concluded that the person was a female, but as soon as he saw his attendant's face, he blushed lightly in embarrassment. He should have known better than to assume long hair and a slim figure meant a woman, but how often did he see a pretty man?
The young man looked at Kankurou and sighed, stopping what he was doing. With the brush still in his hands, he waited for Kankurou to say something.
"What the hell do you think you're doing to me?" Kankurou bellowed, shaken a bit. It wasn't everyday that he woke up to a person putting a seal on him. The last thing he had remembered was… that man taking Gaara away. Gaara unconscious, and they still took his brother away. And he couldn't do a single goddamn thing to stop them.
His attendant blinked and dipped the brush into a inkwell beside him on the table. As he started drawing out the seal again, the raven-haired boy explained, "You were poisoned. Our medic-nin extracted the poison and is right now making the antidote for you to drink, even though you're clear from dying. I'm giving you a seal that aids the body in isolating the poison long enough for a medic-nin to extract."
Kankurou blinked at the explanation. As a jounin, he was able to catch onto things in words said that normal people wouldn't notice, and the moment his attendant finished his spiel on what happened, he noted that several points in the explanation were left out and didn't add up. But he noticed the hitai-ate on the forehead: Konoha.
Though he knew that a nuke-nin could put on a Konoha hitai-ate and trick him into something, there was a feeling he got from this person. He felt that this person meant no harm, that he could trust this person. He recognized this person's chakra signature as the one that felt familiar and almost family; but every time he tried to put the face to the chakra signature, he kept coming up with a blank. Deep down, he felt and knew that the person's appearance wasn't his true appearance.
"Who are you?" he asked quietly.
The attendant, this time, didn't look up at all. "Tsurugi Tenkou, seal master of Konoha."
Setting his head down on the table, Kankurou let Tsurugi continued his work. Even though the ink on his skin made him shiver from the cold, he found the constant feel of the brush moving across his skin soothing. Unconsciously, he started letting his mind drift away but kept his senses aware of everything happening in the room.
"Excuse me, there is something I would like to ask. What came of the pursuit of Akatsuki after that?"
A voice answered, Baki he thought, "Kankurou went alone after them. There were no others."
The same person that asked the first question then asked in response, "Then have we completely lost them?"
"Yes, we have." His old jounin sensei sounded upset and disappointed, not at anyone else, but he was upset, disappointed at himself.
"Hmm… Well, could you please guide me to where Kankurou-kun was fighting? Though I may not seem it, I am an expert of pursuit… even if a small amount of their scent is left behind…"
Kankurou wanted to speak, to say something, to have his input into the conversation, but his body was in so much pain. The constant feel of brush of skin was soothing and lured him into oblivion, but he knew that whatever he could say, he needed to say.
The brush stopped moving, and he knew Tsurugi wanted him to speak whatever he knew about Akatsuki and the pair that attacked his little brother. Complying with his and Tsurugi's wishes, he slowly sat up and grunted out, "That's not necessary."
With Tsurugi helping him sit up, he bit his lip trying not to scream from the pain in his muscles. He was a shinobi of Suna; he should be above biting his lip trying not to scream. He should be able to endure it and talk, and he certainly shouldn't have let Tsurugi help him sit up. In a way, it was all a blow to his pride.
Ignoring his inner rant about his pride, he informed everyone what he had learned about Akatsuki. "There are two enemies. One abducted Gaara. You should follow Gaara's scent." Scowling as another wave of pain crashed upon him, he bit out in a strained voice, "Even assuming they split up, the other caught a bit of his clothing on Karasu's hand."
"Making a success out of a failure… you are indeed a shinobi of Suna."
Kankurou looked to the voice and realized that the person that had asked those questions and had spoken as he was falling back into a lull had been Hatake Kakashi. The statements that Hatake had said now made sense; those statements had confused him for a while since he couldn't put a face or name with the voice.
Temari, who apparently had fallen asleep on the floor beside his bed, had woken up and made for his bedside. The bags under her eyes were clearly from the stress of not knowing whether he would live or die and what befell their little brother. Her stance conveyed her fatigue, and he knew without a doubt that she had traveled from Konoha with few to no breaks for three straight days. She asked worriedly as she saw that he was sitting up despite the pain he was in, "Kankurou, are you okay?"
Looking at her, he wanted to tell her the truth and tell her that he felt like shit, but she was the oldest. She was the one that had looked out for both he and Gaara when they were younger, and so she knew them in ways that no one else could ever know them. In a way, the truth would hurt as much as lying would, so either way, he was damned. Just to keep appearances up, he answered, "Yeah… I'm feeling a bit better now…"
A raspy voice from his right asked slowly, "Kankurou-san… Are you absolutely sure that one of the two was Sasori?"
He turned towards the voice. "Chiyo-baasama and Ebizou-jiisama?" It was really surprising to see the two elders away from their everyday routine; nowadays, they had no desire to meddle in the affairs of the outside world, the outside world referring to anything that didn't include either of the two and fishing. Because they didn't immerse themselves in the affairs of the ninja society anymore, rarely anyone went to ask them for their opinion or advice. So to see them away from their fishing was rare.
"What about that… Kankurou?" reminded Ebizou.
With his eyes still on the two legendary sibling shinobi, he hesitated before answering, "Yeah… It was Akasuna no Sasori. He said it himself."
Looking at the two elders that had the respect of the entire village before Gaara, he, or Temari were born, he noted Chiyo-baasama's slightly drooping head. Her eyes were downcast, remembering a time too painful. He hadn't wanted to confirm to Chiyo-baasama that it was indeed Sasori. Despite all the bad Sasori had done in the world, Chiyo could never truly and deep down fault him in all his actions; that was something that Kankurou could not understand; maybe it was just a female thing.
"Akasuna no Sasori, ka? Please tell us more about the Akatsuki," Kakashi asked.
"Did the other one use explosives?"
Everyone turned to look at Tsurugi as he continued his work on Kankurou's chest. Kankurou hadn't even noticed when Tsurugi had restarted the seal as he talked to Chiyo and the rest of the group, and he inwardly cursed himself for not being so attentive. But then, Tsurugi was very good at surprising people and being unexpected.
Finally remembering that the other had asked a question, Kankurou watched Tsurugi's face for a sign of anything, but Tsurugi's face was a like a solid wall. Mentally sighing, he gave a tentative nod.
Tsurugi looked away from Kankurou's face to stare at the seal that he worked on. "I thought so." He paused and everyone waited for a reason for his question. "I've been doing my own research on Akatsuki, and I've been able to garner who works with whom and their names in Akatsuki."
People in the room stared at the seal master in surprise; Kankurou sure did. From the information Gaara had given him, he knew that Akatsuki worked in pairs but no one knew exactly who was in Akatsuki except for Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigake Kisame. He also learned that Akatsuki's targets were the jinchuuriki, the vessels of the Bijuu, and there were several incidents in other countries where some hidden villages just gave up their jinchuuriki without a fuss or fight. It vexed him that none of them would stand up for one of their own, but he knew he was a hypocrite. Not too long ago, he had done the same to blood kin, Gaara.
"The one with explosives is a nuke-nin named Deidara from Iwagakure no Sato. He mainly uses explosives made from a special clay that he carries with him. His partner is Akasuna no Sasori." Tsurugi stopped and looked over the Suna shinobi in the room, staring pointedly at Chiyo. "And I'm sure that you know more about Akasuna no Sasori than I do."
In that instance, Kankurou shivered. The cold. This was Suna! It wasn't supposed to be cold in the middle of the goddamn desert! Moving one hand to hold the other arm, he realized his skin wasn't cold, the room wasn't cold, nothing around him was cold. The cold had seeped into his bones so quickly that it shocked him, and he spun his head towards the young man that was still drawing a seal on his chest. Tsurugi had stopped talking and went back to his work with the seal.
His eyes observing everyone in the room, Kankurou frowned as he saw only several people shiver in reaction like he did and look with realization at Tsurugi. Something about Tsurugi was cold, not literally cold or figuratively cold, but something cold. Tsurugi exuded the cold, and no one would or could notice it until something sparked and set Tsurugi's emotions afire. He didn't know if Tsurugi's emotions were really moving or if they shifted and not in control.
He never wanted to feel that cold ever again.
The boy hadn't been as quiet or aloof when he was in Suna a few months ago. There was always a smile on his face and all anyone could hear from him were pealing laughs that made everyone smile and feel lighter. He wasn't ever like this a few months ago; he certainly changed once he went back to Konoha.
She didn't even know his real name, but everyone outside of Konoha knew the name of Tsurugi Tenkou. Secretly, she wondered how no one in Konoha knew about Tsurugi, but she attributed it to the fact that Jiraiya had somehow stopped the news from reaching the village.
That was how she met the boy. Jiraiya had introduced her to the boy two years ago; even though she absolutely despised the Sannin's teammate, he couldn't begrudge the old fart her 'friendship', if she wanted to call it that. Jiraiya had, one day, brought him to her and asked her to help the boy with a seal that he was creating. Then the old fart had upped and left her with the insufferable brat that smiled like there was no tomorrow.
When the fart left, she immediately started ignoring the boy, but the boy was persistent. Wherever she went, he was there asking and point out things on a scroll; she had even gone out of her away to avoid her usual fishing with her brother just to avoid the unavoidable brat.
The one thing that she was eternally grateful for during that time of great crisis was the arrival of the Kazekage. She never knew how the brat was friends with the Kazekage, but she often suspected that the brat was the one to change the Kazekaze during the Suna-Oto invasion on Konoha. The Kazekage would often come at the most opportune times and drag the smiling brat away for sparring or ramen. There were two things that she absolutely hated about the boy though: he was a genius at sealing, and he idolized ramen like a god.
The ramen part she could ignore, but the genius at sealing she just couldn't. As a puppet master, she had a affinity with sealing and anything that needed the subtle and delicate use of chakra; in her own way, she could also be considered a genius at sealing. But compared to the sealing skill that the brat showed, she was just a mere dilettante. And that frustrated her; to be shown up by a pretentious upstart was irritating, but to truthfully be shown up was beyond humiliating. The skill that he had whenever he performed a sealing always amazed her during the sealing itself, but afterward, she cursed herself for being amazed and angrily wondered why wasn't able to show that level of skill.
Tsurugi had already been a genius at sealing, so when Jiraiya explained why he wanted her to help the brat, she reluctantly agreed since she had no idea how much her newest trainee knew about sealing. When the brat had started asking her questions and her advice, she looked at the seal that he wanted her to help with once and never again. She had never seen that complex and complicated of a seal, and she suddenly understood why the old frog fart had dumped the brat on her. Jiraiya didn't have the skill to help, so he turned to someone that he thought may have the skill. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
It was because the old frog had dumped a sealing genius on her without explaining and because the brat was a sealing genius that she avoided the boy at all costs just so she could avoid the humiliating experience of admitting that some unknown upstart was better at the shinobi art than her. She avoided the brat for weeks.
One night, she came back from a brat-free fishing day to a brat slumped over the table, papers and scrolls around him, asleep. The brat really was serious about the seal that he wanted her to help with. She peered over the papers and immediately spotted a weak area of the seal. Grabbing an inkbrush, she circled the area and wrote a few notes, fixing up the seal. She placed a blanket around the brat's shoulders before retiring. That night, she felt like maybe geniuses weren't the best at their thing as most people suspected.
"Stop."
The group did stop, looking at Tsurugi in surprise. Kakashi had been leading the entire group, most of them looking out at their surroundings for ambushes. Tsurugi on the other hand had been studying a scroll as they had been traveling, much to the annoyance of all the other members of the group. When he said "Stop", everyone stopped to look at Tsurugi in surprise. Since he had been studying a scroll most of the time, none of them expected that he would also be paying much attention to his surroundings, but apparently, he sensed more than they did.
"We are being followed."
Without any warning or need for an order, the white-eyed kid did something that made the veins around his eyes pulse. He said, "They're not too far but they'll reach us soon."
Fixing her eyes on both Tsurugi and Kakashi, she watched as Tsurugi gave Kakashi a look. Kakashi frowned behind his mask and told them, "We'll have to split up." He turned to Gai and told him, "Gai, take your team, and I'll take Sakura, Tsurugi, and Chiyo." Forming seals with his hands, he slammed his right hand down on the ground as kanji sprang up in a circle around his hand. With a POOF!, a small dog appeared that raised its paw and greeted everyone with a "Yo." Kakashi then said, "Pakkun will lead you."
The man that she dubbed green freak nodded and gestured to his team to move away from the rest of the group. Pakkun, as soon as he got a whiff of what he was scenting, nodded to Kakashi before jumping off and leading Gai's team towards their mutual destination.
Without another word, they left, Kakashi leading them and taking them in a different direction but still following the general scent trail that the Akatsuki left behind. Both she and that other girl took up observing the surroundings while Tsurugi went back to his scroll.
In a way, Tsurugi's carelessness annoyed her. His senses and his observational skills were above hers even while he was studying a scroll as avidly as he was at the moment. His training she had learned of from Jiraiya had taught him how to multitask spectacularly, and she envied his skills. The brat did the same thing every single day when he was in Suna a few months ago. He would be practicing his taijutsu forms in a sandy training area, and at the same time, he would be tracing a complex seal on the sand with his feet movements.
Abruptly, Tsurugi rolled up his scroll and secreted it away inside his right kimono sleeve. They looked at Tsurugi in surprise since even when they had stopped to split the group up, Tsurugi hadn't put away his scroll.
As they neared the ground leaving the forest cover, Kakashi yelled, "Everybody, halt!"
Chiyo passively stared at the figure before them. She hadn't ever faced him or seen him. But she certainly knew what he looked like and what his name was. He after all was probably the most famous Akatsuki member.
Beside her, the pink-haired girl frowned and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Obviously, her teacher hadn't given her a crash course of the nuke-nin of Konoha or the most powerful shinobi in the shinobi countries. Quietly, she asked, "Who?"
"Well, this is sudden…" Kakashi murmured, his eyes only on the person before them.
Squinting, she wanted to see. To see the most famous eyes of Konoha. "Those eyes." There wasn't a single shinobi in the world that couldn't recognize those distinguishable eyes. After all, there were only two left in the world.
To Kakashi, Sakura, and her surprise, Tsurugi gave the most unusual and shocking response to the appearance of the figure before them. "Ohayo, Uchiha Itachi-kun."
To be continued…
Author's Notes:
YAY! I've finally finished this chapter. This chapter was really hard to finish since I had to keep on referring back to canon; I skipped so much in canon that I'm like… how did this thing move so fast? I'm just 5 chapters into the story and BOOM! Itachi. My favorite character in all of Naruto save the Yondaime, who is dead unfortunately. Anyway, I put in parts of Naruto's past, just a bit of history that happened a few months ago from the current time. I had a lot more written in this chapter, but I had to cut out a paragraph or two because it didn't fit in with the rest of the chapter and didn't feel right with the rest of the plot so I decided to forgo that idea and just move on. I hope that you liked Chiyo's characterization during her POV; halfway through the chapter, I was seriously thinking of breaking my promise to everyone and changing the POVs but I had to press through. So the chapter is only Kakashi, Kankurou, and Chiyo's POV. Next chapter, I'm still wondering whether I should use Itachi's POV. I would love to do it but I'm not sure since canon doesn't really go into Itachi's thoughts as much as the other characters so I'm not sure how I should proceed.
I'm sorry that I didn't have this thing up several weeks ago. I finished the last Harry Potter book in almost exactly 6 hours, so ever since then, I was raving whether or not I should start another fanfiction on Harry Potter since I have this great idea, but I decided that once I'm more than half way through the fanfiction will I start the HP fanfiction, so don't worry about that. But since I was so distracted these past few weeks, I haven't had the time to work and finish this chapter. Now that I have finished, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the next chapter, but rest assured. It will come in time and soon.
A lot of people have been asking me when I'm going to reveal to everyone that Tsurugi is really Naruto. I've finally decided that I will reveal it when . That is all I'm willing to tell, so you're going to have to wait, but I can warn you that it's going to be within the next two to three chapters.
I shouldn't make a too long AN so I'm not and I'll leave you here. Wait for my next update!
If you have any questions or concerns that you need me to address immediately, just email me or send a review (which I really want by the way) and I'll try to respond as quick as I can. Just to let you know, I'll probably address all questions in my author's notes or in the story itself, so don't worry too much about some things.
This chapter hasn't been beta'd so I'll need someone to beta this chapter as well as the rest of this story for me. Please send me an example of your work.
REVIEW!