A/N: Not dead. Not dying.
"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
'"Talking within mindscape"'
"Tenant Speech"
'Tenant Thought (rare?)'
*"Tenant Outside Speech (probably never, just setting precedent)"*
"You hate me because I am not my father,
but you will miss me soon enough.
The Darkness is coming."
- Sage of the Crescent Moon
Naruto's sessions with Bull were to begin the day after the meetings. Just after his life-altering choice, the blonde had returned to his messy dorm. 'Childhood is over. Fun is over. My dreams of kicking ass in the Academy and taking the hat off that old man's head are all probably over. I'm going to curl up in a ball of pain and hate, and never wake up.'
Instead, anxiety made its presence known as he cocooned himself in blankets – something he'd thought he would never have to experience again. It had been easy to push away the fear of falling asleep after moving out of his old apartment, and in with the Inuzuka. The compound was safe.
Now there was nowhere safe. 'The Fox... It's there when I sleep.' Naruto had conveniently forgotten, in his rush to wallow in misery, that something else was sharing his body. When he day-dreamed, closed his eyes, or even blinked for too long, he could feel the Fox inside of him, enraged and without solace.
With a groan, Naruto flung his covers across the room, and with a crude handsign toward the Hokage Monument, began a quick lunch. As water boiled and rice steamed, the words of his protectors and mentors echoed through his mind, urging him to look closer at recent events, to try and piece together what was going on.
Having nothing better to think of, and in no mood for pranking or training, Naruto turned what cunning he had toward divining the consequences from all of the ripples he'd stirred up.
It turned out to be no easy task for a young, if determined, child. A lot of things went on during the meeting, with subtext he couldn't fathom and context he was lacking. Many avenues of induction were closed to the blonde, and so an exhausted Naruto went about making his late breakfast, willing thoughts and insights to come to him through the fog of confusion that had clouded him since his birthday.
'They need me for something... Maybe even something besides being a walking weapon. Jiraiya is supposed to train me when he gets here – the name sounds familiar. I wish Hokage-jiji had told me more in the hospital, even though what he's said has hurt so much already.' Pain? Pain, Naruto could take. Betrayal, even for a good cause? That might take a bit longer to heal.
As it turned out, Naruto had good reason to remember the name of the illustrious Sannin. 'That's who wrote my book!' With a slightly manic glint to his eyes, the blonde retrieved his book of forms reverently from its hiding place. Maybe he would have time to master everything in it before Jiraiya came? That would be sure to impress the legenday ninja!
'Not at the rate I'm going so far.' Naruto sat back on his bed, reading and following along as religiously as he could. It wasn't until his rice boiled over and burned that his single-minded purpose broke, and after turning the stove off he became forlorn and directionless once again.
Emotional exhaustion eventually won out over anxiety and fear, and Naruto slipped into a restless sleep. A breeze through the open window of his dorm rustled the pages of his book, and a single slip of paper fell to the floor.
Naruto awoke in his mindscape, as he had every time he'd lost consciousness since his birthday. The first time it had happened, he had ignored the Fox and its rage, opting instead to simply cover up once more, safe in the darkness that was his mind.
The second time, in the hospital after the Hokage had met with him, he had raised a small island above the pulsing waters, a bastion against the ripping winds. Naruto weathered the storm in his dugout – staring out from a patch of the black fabric that he had rubbed clear. For what seemed like hours, he watched the Kyuubi, the Fox inside of him, as it bashed itself against the impossible cage.
After hundreds, possibly thousands of slashes, snarls, and fruitless tackles, Naruto figured that the Fox would never cease spending its energies in furious impotence. 'I might as well get used to sleeping with the scariest monster in the world a couple dozen meters from my face.'
Of course, the Fox chose that moment to keel over, asleep before it hit the ground in a booming thud. Naruto took a moment to take in the scene, and the chamber around him became surreal in the silence after so long without. Then, after staring dumb-founded for a moment, he began to gag. Without the riptide and hurricane, the air settled enough to carry the Fox's scent – burned skin and hair, blood, and death.
Naruto did what only he could in that moment – with wavering resolve and the fear of lowly prey pressing back against him, he forged out of his dugout, through the still-rippling waters. Still churning in the deeper sections, the blonde was forced to sometimes tread or paddle his way forward as the disturbances settled around the chamber.
He reached the edge of the cage, and then hastily raised a staircase in order to reach its lip, shaking madly with fear. His hands didn't stop shaking until he saw the extend of the damage to the Fox up close – with eyes wide and full of pain, Naruto clambered up and in between the cage bars, wider apart than his arms outstretched.
With nothing but his own shirt to use, soaked and dripping, Naruto began to squeeze water wherever he could reach burned skin, hoping to at least sooth the pain. 'Nothing is better than cool water on a burn – even a big, dumb fox can appreciate that!'
With no sound besides the laboured breath of the Kyuubi, no sun or change in light, no chiming clocks or street bustle, Naruto had been able to lose himself in his labours. 'Soak shirt, run up stairs, find a dry spot I can reach, ring shirt out, run for more!'
It was during ring shirt outnear a rear paw when Naruto felt the shift. A shuddering of what little fur remained, from snout to tails. Ever so slowly, he turned to watch all nine of the massive appendages begin to lift into the air, waving as if each was a living thing of its own. Hypnotized by the tails, the blonde failed to notice the rest of the Fox turn on itself, too silent for its size as it circled back on the morsel that had wandered into its lair.
"Fortune favours the Fox!"
It had lunged with a roar, unable to miss. A squeal of diamond fang against metal tore the air, as great chains – each made of the same glowing Kanji that surrounded the chamber – grabbed its snout, directing the gnashing maw into the seemingly indestructible cage bars. The chains retracted only once Naruto had gathered his wits and removed himself from the prison, polished-black stairs fading with the blonde's retreat.
Two crimson eyes had glowed like embers with hatred - flecks of black Chakra hovered aimlessly above the iris, unable to penetrate fully into the world beyond, unable to bore a smoking hole into the back of their retreating warden. Two cerulean eyes grew molten with tears unshed – glistening drops formed around their edges, unable to fall into the water below, unable to overcome the will of their owner holding them in check.
All of that had been before. Now, Naruto knew what the fox was, what it meant for him. He knew some of the limitations and privileges of the seal, and he understood some of the benefits it provided his mindscape. 'Yamanaka-san never really did explain why it's called my mindscape, if this is all taking place in my gut...'
The same will that earlier allowed him to share a cage with the burned, sleeping fox had since been hardening with resolve. 'I will not let this big, dumb, angry fox-hole shout mearound in my own seal!'
So, as he lay passed out on his final night of freedom, the dugout that had barely weathered the Kyuubi's outbursts was renovated. In a building frenzy, the hill turned first into a cube, and then into a childish – if serviceable – stronghold. The black-on-black material of the chamber had been shaped into ramparts jutting out from a hollow dome, and Naruto had hoisted a flag, waving high above in the hurricane winds.
He felt he had enough space within the hollow fortification to spend his nights far from the storm around him - Inoichi had assured him that the quality of his sleep would improve with the quantity of space he'd left his mark on, and that the organization of this internal world would reflect in his thoughts and habits.
The Jinchuriki had smiled and nodded at that, understanding at a rudimentary level what it would mean – it was simple enough to understand that a bastion in his mindscape would be a bastion for his mind.
Though he still couldn't change the colours or textures of anything within the chamber itself, the pipes and channels outside of it were fair game, and once "Castle Naruto" had been completed, the blonde had spent his remaining time unconscious exploring and vandalizing his own inner sanctum.
It was here, during the creation and desecration of yet another secret hide-away within the pipes of his subconscious that Naruto was rudely stolen from his reprieve – awoken to the glossy black gaze of Itachi Uchia.
"Dress. Grab whatever supplies you will need for some time away – a day, maybe two. Keep up when we leave."
Naruto scrambled to do so, stopping once to retrieve the scrap that had fallen out of his book. 'It's going to be a long month...'
"Again." Two steps back, kick, duck, swipe, two steps forward, lunge, slide, two steps forward - "Again."
'Mastery through perfection.' That had been all the slip of paper had said, when Naruto had read it. He couldn't find which page it had fallen out of. He didn't know why it mattered. But now the blonde was using it as a focus for the pain, ache, and exhaustion wracking his normally indomitable body.
Two days had gone by since his meeting with the Hokage. Two days where his entire schedule, training regimen, and life had been turned upside down. Naruto didn't notice.
Naruto and Itachi hadn't slept. Neither of them had bathed, or eaten much. The Anbu had been leading Naruto non-stop through a single form, restarting at random points for no reasons Naruto could discern, skipping portions after Naruto had either failed them beyond hope or completed them to perfection.
Naruto didn't notice. There was only the form, and mastery through perfection.
"Again." Itachi's voice had never raised, but Naruto could sense his disappointment, his impatience. The Uchiha was waiting for something, and he, as the village's Jinchuriki – it's secret weapon - was not delivering. 'I'd spit at the thought if I didn't feel it was true – there's something I'm not getting here.'
'Survival will do where motivation is lacking.' Itachi had spoken little to Naruto when after their first day of training together. When Naruto had attempted to quit after barely twenty for hours had gone by, the Uchiha's face had let slip a single, scathing moment of disdain, and those seven words had followed.
The memory of those words came unbidden to Naruto as he stumbled on the first kick of the form. A shiver went down his spine as the blonde caught his breath.
Two steps back - "Stop." Not 'again'? That was good. 'Stop is good, right?'Naruto couldn't decide. He couldn't think. He couldn't remember.
'Mastery through perfection. Survival will do where motivation is lacking.' He caught his breath as quickly as he could. There was a tension to the air that had put him on edge - something his senses had taken a keen focus to, given his upbringing. Danger.
During the short breaks for water and sustenance Itachi had allowed, the blonde's Chakra was freed from its seals, and Naruto was forced to still himself, to stifle his impetus in the face of the unstoppable and untamed energies that had lain dormant while training.
In order to speed this recovery, he had sat, unmoving, until his inner power had calmed. If he took too long, Itachi would punish him during the training that followed. Once mellow, his Chakra was re-sealed, and the pain of muscle and bone abused too long would hit Naruto full-force. Then, training began once more.
'Something about this break feels different, more final. Itachi's up to something...'The blonde's suspicions were confirmed shortly after Itachi undid the seals on his life-force for a final time. Elegant Fuinjutsu retreated from his skin, tendrils of Chakra receded into his back and chest, and the space around Naruto seemed to flare, as it had so many times before.
Naruto sat, and his Chakra settled almost immediately as each seal came undone, tamed as if in response to the blonde's heightened alertness. His heart began to thunder double-time as Itachi, standing across from him, dropped into the same stance for the form that Naruto had been stranded in for the past 40 hours. His brow began to sweat as the Uchiha motioned for him to do the same.
"Again."
Naruto didn't stop to think. His form was sloppy, rushed as it was. Two steps back, kick, duck, swipe, two steps forward, lunge, slide, two steps forward – Naruto ran straight into Itachi's fist, the older ninja not even having to extend his arm.
"Again." Itachi's voice had raised that time. Naruto's vision collapsed in on itself, a tunnel of hyperfocus as flow and adrenaline took over.
Two steps back. Kick.
Mechanical motions became fluid, and then lost cohesion altogether, allowing thought to enter where once had been nothing.
Duck, swipe.
The purpose of the Form became clear to him, hours of advice and training, directions from the Uchiha both subtle and blunt swam into resolution, finding context in the light of a proper demonstration. Advance, stay low, feint, advance, guard left, two chances to end the engagement coming now, and...
Naruto snapped his foot toward Itachi's head as he Kawarimi'd away, imparting as much momentum to the boulder he had traded places with as his Chakra could manage, a not inconsiderable amount after being locked away for so long.
Naruto gasped as he caught his breath – an action that cost him, as Itachi disappeared less than a moment after avoiding the stone. The blonde's neck prickled before the rest of his senses had caught up – the point of a Kunai was held with a steady pressure to his skin as he turned to face the Uchiha.
The pressure abated after a moment of tension between the two children of Konoha. Finally, the Uchia broke the silence. "Be here tomorrow." Itachi dissolved into the darkness of the night, and Naruto somehow knew he'd learned an important lesson – one he would have to fully explore... after he passed out forever.
The Jinchuriki didn't remember making it home, or into his bed that night – but he did remember to set his alarm for the morning. 'Anyone would, after suffering one of Itachi's punishments.' It was odd for the blonde to refer to Bull as Itachi, but the Uchiha had been insistent. Sleep claimed the blonde on simple thoughts – food, and the smells of a Summer long gone.
Naruto awoke in his mindscape, gasping. He could feel every hideout, every cranny of his subconscious mind – every hair on the Fox's mangled body, every brush stroke on the seal that bound that same Fox within him.
Everything began to make sense, from the inside out – the life energy as it trickled through his Gates from the Pure World, his Coils and how they interacted with those Gates to feed Chakra to his Tenketsu, the dormant suppressor seals on his back and chest, even the great seal on his abdomen...
The sensation overwhelmed him for a moment, as every atom, every cell and nerve caught self-awareness as if it were a contagious disease. Then, much faster than it arrived, the sensation – and the understanding – subsided. Naruto's senses retreated back to his immediate surroundings, back to their usual origins in his sensory organs.
His system was no longer flooded with the dense Chakra that had been holding his body and mind together through sleep deprivation and overwhelming physical strain. He had the sense of mind to retreat to his stronghold before true unconsciousness took him.
a/n: Hello everyone. Apologies for the temporary hiatus. I should be able to churn out a decent post rate in the coming months, but no promises. The chapters coming up will hopefully present a believable and enjoyable representation of a troubled young genius teacher attempting to bring out the full potential of his troubled young hard-nosed student. They will culminate with Naruto and Sasuke's perspective of the Uchiha massacre, and with Naruto meeting his god father.
The arc should span about 40,000 words and ends with Godlike Deathnote Naruto riding the Three-headed blue-eyes white metal dragon with his harem into the webway, to do battle with a Voldemort-possessed Star Child, a distraction from the real threat: Dr. Drakken and Skeletor have teamed up to bring down the Atlantis stargate, cutting off Earth's last hope... and saving it at the same time!
When in doubt, kill it with fire. As always, leave a review. Suggestions and critique are appreciated :)