12
Naruto and the group of rogue ninja made their way across the rooftops of Konoha, switching to the ground when they reached a gap where a house had fallen in the attack. Once they'd left Tsunade's office, Naruto had quietened significantly and he now led them in silence to the Uchiha district. The other four were apparently used to traveling like that, which could be expected, looking at what their leaders were like, and said nothing to break it.
Naruto was in the middle of arguing with himself, or more accurately, Kyuubi. He wasn't particularly mad, just confused.
Why didn't you tell me that the Fourth was my father? He asked internally.
I didn't know, Kit. I didn't think he would use his own son as a Jinchuuriki. I didn't see the message in the seal until you did. The only thing I remember exactly about the moment Minato sealed me was that he…he was crying… She answered back trailing off, realizing that Minato had been mourning for his son's future. Naruto was quiet for a few moments as he ordered his thoughts for another question.
Why did you attack Konoha back then? Was it Madara?
How did you know? She asked, after a silence that suggested Naruto was right in his guess.
Naruto shrugged internally, barely paying attention to where his body was going. I guessed. You've never seemed as mad at anyone as you did at Madara, not even at the Fourth. And that's the only subject that I know of that would make you get that mad… What did he do?
There was a pause of silence, then…
Your mother, she found a way to let me have a life of my own while I was still sealed. I was able to mate during Konoha's peacetime. But Madara took my pups, my kits. He stole them from our home while I was hunting for food. She growled then. He killed my mate. Then the bastard told me that he would kill my pups if I didn't attack the village for him. He could have, too; they were only a few weeks old.
Why didn't he just use his Sharingan? I thought that could control you.
Madara said he didn't want to waste his energy.
So you attacked the village.
It was the only thing I could do! He was going to kill my babies! She said loudly, getting defensive.
No, no, no! I'm not blaming you! I just… wait. What happened to them?! Your kits, I mean.
Kyuu's voice saddened instantly. Madara killed them anyway. The Fourth told me that, right before he had to seal me. That's why he died, you know, because he tried to save my pups from Madara. If he hadn't fought Madara earlier that night, he would have survived the sealing.
Why did he go to fight Madara? Naruto asked carefully, trying not to upset her, although, from the information that was coming to light, he was the one who should be upset.
Namikaze, A small, sad smile came to Naruto's face at hearing his father's last name, knowing it was a inopportune moment, but unable to feel sorry for the gesture, said he'd felt an Uchiha's chakra signature near my home and was worried for their life, as wandering near there was forbidden at that time in the village. She paused to grin, and Naruto figured he probably didn't want to know exactly why it was forbidden. By the time he found the Uchiha, I was already gone to the village and Madara was about to kill my kits. Namikaze tried to stop Madara and they fought. Madara eventually fled, but my kits were already too injured, and they died. Kyuubi paused, her words almost choked off by her grief, but she continued.
At that point, Namikaze came back to the village to find it defending against my attack. He calmed me for a minute or so and then told me what happened. It probably wasn't one of his better ideas. Naruto heard soft snort and added his own, seeing the stupidity of the action in retrospect. I was nearly driven mad with rage. I resumed my attack on the village. Your father tried to stop me, but because my rampage had caused a lot of stress on your mother and Madara had injured her, and Namikaze's focus was split apart so bad, he was left with no other choice than to seal me in a child. His child…you.
Then you didn't attack the village of your own volition?
If no one had bothered me, I would have never touched the village; I wouldn't have gone near it. I even hunted away from it so that the village could have its meat. Kyuu answered.
Naruto grinned at the fox. That's good! When I become hokage, they won't say a bad thing about you again. I'll bring Madara to justice.
Hearing of her host's mantra, and of his plan, the fox's mood brightened.
You'll have to become hokage first, little one. She replied.
Seeing that the old fox had cheered up, Naruto retreated to a more silent part of his mind. He knew the fox was still tired from breaking the seal and he left her to sleep. When he became more conscious of his surroundings, he realized he was smiling and his small company of rogue ninja was staring at him as if he were crazy. He realized that his emotions must have been flashing over his face throughout the conversation he'd just had.
"Sorry…just having a talk with Kyuu. Oh! Hey, we're here." The group turned as a whole to examine what Naruto was now pointing at.
They now stood at the beginning of the dark, lampless main street of the Uchiha district. Looking at it at this time of night, as it was nearly full dark by now, the abandoned houses and streets looked unnaturally haunted. Apparently, Sasuke had never felt the urge to use his inheritance to repair the old district. Not that Naruto would blame him for it.
The little group kept moving at Naruto's initiative and, after a few minutes of wandering through the deserted streets, found Sasuke's old home. It was not in as much a state of disrepair, as the other houses of the block were, as it was of disuse. Being the type of person Sasuke was, even if it was the place where such a great tragedy took place, he would not have left it to rot. But it was rather dirty and unkempt, which was to be expected since Sasuke had not occupied the place for a few years.
There were untamed shrubs and trees throughout the yard and a thick layer of leaves littered the ground. One could see a thin layer of dust covering the wrap-around porch that surrounded the old-style traditional home.
Naruto stepped up to the front door and slid it open easily enough; it hadn't been locked in a long while. He ushered his four companions in before him and then followed them, shutting the old wooden sliding door behind him. Using the light that flowed in from a damaged rice paper door, he went up to one of the wall mounted lamps on the wall of the hallway and touched it, sending a small amount of chakra through it and activating the chakra circuits, which slowly lit the other lamps, leaving them in a moderately lit hallway.
"We're gonna have to clean up the house for when Sasuke gets back." He said, grinning at them. "But we'll work on that later. If you go down this hallway and to the first branch-off on the right there are two bathrooms. You can use them at the same time, and since they haven't had the guts to mess with Sasuke's property yet, the water is still on. The first hallway to the left leads to the bedrooms. You guys- and girls-" He interrupted himself as the two women of the group raised their eyebrows "-can use any of them except for the last three. Those were Sasuke's, Itachi's, and their parents' rooms.
"And last, but definitely not least, the second branch to the left at the end of this hallway leads to the kitchen and the exterior of the house. I'm going to go in the kitchen now and see if there are any stores of dried meat or anything like that. Maybe I can find some sealed up rice. Or Ramen." He patted his stomach as if to say he was hungry and his grin widened further.
"Feel free to sleep lightly, but I'll go around and activate the old Uchiha perimeter traps. If someone comes near the house, believe me. We'll know it. Even a Special Ops Anbu can't get through them. I've seen them try, too, several times." Naruto barked a laugh at the memory of Anbu hastily retreating from the estate as alarms screeched, and as paper bombs, along with summoned kunai, shuriken, and even animal summons attacked them. They'd tried to get in not long after Sasuke had left, while Naruto had watched from afar. Thankfully, it seemed that they had deactivated over time.
A similar picture seemed to come to Suigetsu's mind as well, because he was smirking as he started down the hall, turning towards the bathrooms. Karin muttered something under her breath resembling 'scatter-brained idiots' (Naruto wasn't sure whether she was referring to the Anbu or him and Suigetsu, because she had a small smirk on her face as well.) before heading the same way. Juugo and Konan just bid Naruto their goodnights and left to claim their bedrooms.
The blond stood by himself in the empty hallway for a few moments. He shook his head in amazement at how fast the four had made themselves at home. He started down the hallway and followed his own directions to the kitchen. It was a rather wide and long hallway, unadorned by pictures of any kind. An empty vase stood atop a small table at the end of it, where it branched off to the left and right.
Naruto kept to the left hallway and, after a minute or two, it opened up into a spacious but cozy kitchen. Waist height cabinets rose from the floor and were topped by what seemed to be granite, or at least some sort of precious stone, countertops. There was a small fridge next to the doorway from which he'd emerged and a tall pantry to his left, on the opposite side. In the center of the room was a large table that seated six; with two chairs on either of the long sides and one on each of the shorter ends.
Naruto didn't go towards any of these things, however. He walked around the table and to the other end of the room. From there, he continued through the open doorway to the smooth wooden deck overlooking a traditional garden, as overgrown as it was, complete with a small pond. The garden extended out nearly twenty yards before being taken over by a small forest of trees.
There were no lights on in this part of the property and it was completely dark now, since the sky was filled with clouds and there were no stars or moon to see by, but Naruto stepped off the deck easily and walked slowly to the edge of the pond, unhindered. He took off his shoes and rolled up the legs of his pants before stepping into the water and sitting down on the edge of it. The family of surviving koi in the pool darted away quickly as the surprisingly warm water rippled with the movement.
Naruto stared down at his reflection in the water. He barely noticed a second presence as it came up behind him.
"It's not going to change, you know. 'Mirror, mirror on the wall' and all that; you know the fairytale. It's not gonna give you any answers either. Believe me, I would know. If water told you the answer to any questions you had, I would know everything." Suigetsu's unusually quiet voice floated to him.
Naruto leaned his head back to see the man standing behind him. He closed his eyes and turned to look out at the dark forest as he motioned to Suigetsu for him to sit beside him. As the man silently settled himself down, Naruto sighed.
"I just want to know what to do. I've chased after Sasuke for years, then he finally comes back on his own, only to have Madara-,' He spat out the name like poison. "-come and take him away. I find out that I've got a kekkei genkai that's apparently extinct and that my father's the yondaime hokage-!" his voice rose in volume until it finally broke and he pulled his knees up to his chest and pressed his forehead against them.
Suigetsu studied the overwhelmed blond for a moment, and then he spoke.
"Well…it seems to me that you only have to do what you've been doing. The last two seem like good things. Just think of this as another retrieval mission for Sasuke. This time is only different because we get to kill a very big git in the process."
Naruto snorted involuntarily but then sobered. "But, I don't know if I can do it this time. Madara… I don't know if I can beat him. I…I just have a bad feeling about this whole situation."
"Well, you've been doing well enough from what I've heard. You took out Pein's clones without too much trouble. If you can get that kekkei genkai in working order, you might just be better than Boss Sasuke," Naruto scoffed at Suigetsu's title for Sasuke. "With all of us together, we can beat Madara easy. Then we can get Boss back and figure out what to do from there. That feeling you're getting is probably just nerves or something."
Naruto went quiet. He released a pent-up breath in the form of a loud sigh. Suigetsu saw the blond's muscles relax and then tense again as the demon container rose to his feet. He looked down at Suigetsu and put a hand out to the man.
Suigetsu grabbed the hand and allowed himself to be pulled up.
"Thank you." Naruto said quietly. "I needed that."
"I know."
"You don't seem the type to give helpful speeches. Why?" Naruto asked curiously.
"I'm not usually, but you remind me of Boss. The only real difference I can see is that you have less of a killing aura around you all the time. Team Hawk can't get him back by ourselves, like you said, so we need help. Your words were sincere, back in that forest. I trust you."
The two men's eyes met, and an understanding was silently forged. Naruto nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement. Suigetsu nodded back at him, and then turned around. Walking back into Sasuke's houses, he raised his hand in a gesture of farewell. "Night." Naruto watched him go. After a moment, he walked to the perimeter of the house to begin activating the traps for any unwanted intruders.
xXx
He stepped back into his boss' home only to see his red-haired comrade leaning against the inside wall.
"He's right, that's definitely not like you." She said.
"I know. It's strange. I just feel like I want to help him. Like, if I don't, I'll be sorry."
Karin pushed off the wall to fall in beside Suigetsu as he walked through the kitchen. "I got that same feeling listening to him today. He's a rare person. I think he'll get Sasuke back if it kills him."
Suigetsu nodded then he turned to her as they reached the split hallway and walked straight across it and through the branch to find a large, furnished living room. Once there, he put his hands on her shoulders and pressed her against the wall.
"You know, I think that you enjoy making me jealous, Karin." He said possessively. "First Sasuke and now Naruto."
She grinned mischievously at the man. "Oh, but it's fun, Sui." She reached up on her toes to whisper in his ear. "I love to make you jealous…"
He grinned back. "You'll be sorry…" he leaned down to place his lips gently against hers. More gently than one would have guessed he could be responsible for. She deepened the kiss easily, making it more heated. They parted for breath. She smirked.
"Maybe… or maybe not…"