Foreword:
What madness convinced me this chapter would be short?
Arriving at the home he'd raised Harumi in, Naruto's heart fell to see the place was abandoned. From the looks if it, it had been many years since anyone had lived there. Of course, Naruto shouldn't have been surprised about that, he could hardly expect her to live as a hermit all these years.
She'd probably just moved to one of the nearby villages, likely the one Naruto had often taken her to as a child. There was also the possibility Nanami would know where she was. The bitterness from the decades long rift between them made him balk at the thought of asking her, but Naruto quickly stamped down on that.
He'd already let anger ruin much of his life, he wasn't going to let pride finish its work. He'd make the first move to reconciliation and go see his daughter. Resting one more night in the worn down old home he knew so well, he made an early start and pushed hard toward the village, arriving before noon. There, a young Hyuga not much past twenty made to stop Naruto.
"Halt, what business do you have here?" the man demanded of him, getting into a familiar battle stance.
"Not much for hospitality these days, are you?" Naruto noted dryly.
"'These days' are very dangerous times," the guard snapped back. "Now state your name and your business. If you're here to hire us I'm going to need to see your funds before I let you in. You don't look like the type that can afford us."
Naruto was curious as to what that was about hiring them, but he didn't want to stand here all day dealing with the guard, so he cut right to the chase. "I'm Hyuga Naruto, and I'm here to see my daughter."
"Hyuga … hah," the man scoffed. "Do you take me for an idiot? You're not a … wait … Hyuga Naruto?"
His eyes went wide as he seemed to finally recognize the name. The man looked him over, and Naruto could see the wheels turning as he matched him to whatever description he'd heard growing up. The end result was a very pale and much more respectful guard.
"Forgive me sir," he said. "I didn't recognize you. Follow me and I'll take you to Nanami-sama. I should warn you, she's been somewhat ill lately."
That didn't worry Naruto as much as it should have. Probably because he was just glad to hear she was still alive. She was over seventy now, and it was well within the realm of possibility that she would have already passed on.
The age became clear when he was led into the room. He even hesitated upon seeing the woman lying in her futon. The wrinkled, white-haired, frail looking form was so different from the barely twenty-two, strong young woman he still pictured from the last time he saw his daughter fifty years ago. If her face hadn't lit up the moment she spotted him, he might have gone on wondering if it was really her.
"Father," she called out happily. "I thought I'd never see you again."
In that moment, it didn't matter what Nanami looked like, or how many nasty things they'd said to each other over the years, Naruto was instantly kneeling at her side, looking down at where she lay.
"I came," he said comfortingly. "I should have been here long ago, but I came."
"You were right," Nanami told him. "I've wanted to tell you for a long time, but you were right. I should have kept Harumi no matter what the clan said. I know it's no excuse, but after what happened to mother and Ichiro, there was just something broken inside me."
"It's alright," Naruto told her, doing his best to comfort her, seeing how distraught she clearly was. "I abandoned Harumi too, and for worse reasons than you. At least you did it for the sake of your clan, instead of something as petty as vengeance."
"Given that is was for the sake of this clan, I have to disagree with you," Nanami replied tersely. "The clan was rotten before and it's only gotten worse. Despite my protests they've turned into a bunch of common mercenaries, doing anything for a bit of gold."
"I heard something to that effect at the entrance," Naruto agreed. "Also, I'll admit I don't think much of the clan myself."
"I have a favor to ask of you," Nanami said, suddenly growing somber again as she changed the subject. "If you ever see Harumi, tell her that I'm sorry, and that despite all the unforgivable things I did, I always loved her."
"Of course I will," Naruto promised, "but does that mean you don't know where she is?"
"She vanished less than a week after you did," she answered. "I wish I could help you, but I haven't heard anything of her since."
"Don't worry, I'll do my best to find her," Naruto assured her. "And I believe I can do something to help you. I hear you've been ill."
"Is that how they put it?" Nanami huffed out. "What they mean is that I'm dying, and they can't wait for me to hurry up and get it done with."
"You seem to catch dying a lot," Naruto quipped. "But I cured you the first time, and I don't see why this time should be any different."
However, summoning his aura around him, it wasn't the familiar white aura, but the red one he'd used in his recent battle. He certainly wasn't going to use that on Nanami, but why was it even red in the first place? He wasn't angry this time. He tried to will it to turn white, but it didn't have any effect.
"Is something wrong?" Nanami asked, seeing his frown.
"Just a little problem," Naruto answered. "Don't worry though, I'll figure it out."
Figuring it out proved to be more difficult than he'd anticipated, and Nanami was growing worse as the days passed. Naruto worked continuously on a solution, to the point that Nanami eventually begged him to stop. She insisted that if she were fated to die, they had to accept that, and she didn't want to waste what time they had left.
Naruto finally consented on the surface, although that didn't stop him from working on it whenever Nanami slept, using the power of the Biju to stave off his own need for rest. Even so, Nanami's condition worsened without any sign of progress on Naruto's part, and less than a month later, she passed away.
Naruto mourned deeply for his loss, but soon set out to serve her memory by fulfilling her dying wish. He started his search for Harumi in the surrounding villages, and expanded it further when he had no luck there.
Searching for some clue of Harumi became an obsession of Naruto's the lead him all across the continent. His quest continued fruitlessly for sixty years before he finally had to face the facts that he was never going to see her again. He could only hope that she'd been happy in whatever life she made for herself.
Now, if he followed through on her idea to free himself from the Biju, he might even see her, Nanami, and Hanabi again in the afterlife. To have that happen, he was willing to put in as much work as necessary, no matter how long it took. Given that he was a century and a half old but still looked twenty, he figured time was something he had no shortage of.
Naruto concluded that the best place to start his research would be the temples of the world. There was no better place to learn of spiritual matters such as souls. It was amusing how as a child he avoided lessons on the topic whenever possible, and now he planned to devote his life to such studies.
Thankfully, in the very first temple he visited, he learned enough chakra control to block out the Kyubi so he'd only hear him if he wished to. That was a huge relief to his sanity. As good as he'd gotten at ignoring Kyubi's complaints, he found it so refreshing to not have to hear them at all.
His progress on other matters were much less profitable. He learned from his very first temple that there was some kind of energy tied so deeply with his soul that they almost became one. Yet neither that temple, nor the ten after that had any idea how to separate them, or if such a thing was even possible.
Still, he learned everything he could concerning spiritual powers from each temple before moving on, hoping that some of it might prove useful. Some temples with masters of the art he would stay at for a decade or more. Others with no skilled practitioners he might remain in only a week until he was convinced they had nothing new to offer him.
Over time, it grew harder and harder to find a temple that had anything he hadn't already learned. At that point, it became clear he would have to blaze his own trail. Naruto still did most of his work in various temples around the world.
Another person to bounce ideas off of, give a fresh perspective, or help work on theory was too valuable an asset even if they were far less skilled than he was. He would even take years out of his time to train a promising student so that they could better grasp what he was trying to do.
This worked well for some time, but despite seeming to be no closer to a solution than when he'd started, Naruto had greatly advanced the field of spiritual studies. As such, it was taking more and more time to teach the priests and monks he worked with even the foundation necessary to have a basic understanding of the advanced concepts he was researching.
This was especially problematic, as virtually everyone with significant training to begin with was already well on in years. It wouldn't exactly do much good to train someone for a decade or two only to have them retire or worse.
He considered finding some young disciples to train from youth so they would have their whole life to catch up to Naruto's level and eventually help him. It was an interesting notion, but Naruto was pretty sure he would make more progress on his own than by raising a bunch of pupils in hopes they would help him later in life.
One thing Naruto did do was write down everything he'd learned on matters of chakra and its uses into one large book. He carried it around to a number of temples letting them make copies. His hopes was that with it as a guide, the students of those temples would be much more skilled should he visit them again decades later.
Perhaps they'd even do their own research and take it in a different direction than Naruto. They might expand on certain parts and have things to teach him when he returned. All in all, by the time Naruto finished distributing his book and set off to continue his quest on his own, he had spent over two hundred years traveling to and from the world's temples.
Not that his research into chakra and the human soul were the only things he did during that time. He picked up a number of other skills along the way. Cooking was one such example. Naruto had become a fairly competent cook from raising Harumi on his own.
Traveling the world by himself and given him lots of opportunity to practice. And since a good meal was great way to keep ones spirits up on a long road, Naruto made it a habit to pick up what recipes he could wherever he went. Naruto both could and had prepared a different dish for every meal for an entire year.
He'd also had chance to improve his skills in carpentry and add masonry to the list. Many temples were a bit on the rundown side, and Naruto was always happy to help with repairs, or even a few new construction projects. It was a simple physical task he could do while his mind still worked on other problems. Sometimes a bit of physical activity was just what he needed to get his creative juices flowing.
One other skill he'd been almost forced to pick up was swordsmithing. The roads were commonly filled with brigands who took him for an easy target. Even a well made sword didn't last forever, especially when Naruto got a bit too energetic with his fights.
After the first time he'd needed to replace his sword he realized that they weren't cheap. Sadly wandering around the world and studying at temples wasn't a great source of income. So he'd found some time to learn to make his own, as the raw materials were much cheaper.
Although the savings turned out not to be needed for long. On his travels, Naruto soon learned that with the roads being as dangerous as they were, people were willing to pay considerably more for a good produced in a far away city than that city charged to buy it.
Soon Naruto was doing a bit of a trading wherever he went and was astonished by how much coin he was able to make in that manner. Not that it stopped him from continuing his swordsmithing. It was another simple activity he could do while thinking over a problem, and he took pride is the ever higher quality swords he crafted. Naruto eventually even came up with a way to imbue them with chakra to make them much stronger and more durable.
Taking his spiritual studies, and all the other skills he'd learned, Naruto decided to withdraw from society completely for a time to work on a lesser problem that he believed he might finally be able to solve. Namely the corruption of the power the Biju had given him.
He wanted to solve this not just because it would be nice to be able to heal others with it again, but because it had impeded his studies as well. Even calling on the power was painful to him, and dangerous for anyone else to probe with their chakra.
Being able to examine the power in use could go a long way toward figuring out how to sever it from his soul. Unfortunately, the more deeply one probed, the more agonizing the pain, and he'd never been able to get as clear a look as he wanted at the heart of that mass.
During his years of travel, Naruto had successfully learned to purify the parts of his chakra that were corrupted. The issue was that the corruption would spread back to the areas he'd already purified from those he hadn't gotten to yet.
When Naruto had set himself up a little abode in a cave by a waterfall, he tried several different approaches to overcome that issue. Purifying faster than the red chakra could spread itself again proved all but hopeless.
Trying to charge up one big blast of purification looked more promising at first, but always missed thousands of tiny pockets of red chakra that would grown to many times their original size before Naruto could even track them down.
The method that showed the most promising involved a technique Naruto had discovered to split his chakra in two in such a way that they wouldn't mingle. He could then purify it one tiny piece at a time and quickly move it to the pure half before it could be corrupted.
This wasn't as easy as it sounded, as their was much that could go wrong. If he failed to completely purify the section he was going to move, it would pollute everything he'd already purified. If he was a little too slow to move it, it would already have been tainted before it was removed.
If he overcompensated for that had pulled it over too forcefully, he would bring along some of the chakra that had never been purified in the first place. If he lost his concentration for even a moment, the barrier separating the two halves would break down. If he failed in any of these areas, he would lose all the progress he'd made.
As if all of that weren't enough, his connection to the Biju gave him a lot of their special chakra. At the rate he was able to purify it, it would take him more than a month of constant work to clean it all. Not even to mention that he had to do it all while his body felt like it was on fire.
The level of frustration this caused was almost beyond describing. Early on he'd mess up hundreds of times in a single day, but as he got more skilled, he would frequently loose a whole week of work as fatigue set in and made him careless, which was even more demoralizing in his opinion.
He'd even had one attempt where he choked just minutes from completion. When all was said and done, Naruto's efforts paid off and the Biju's chakra was as pure white as it had ever been. The price he had paid to do so was over hundred years of solitude as best as Naruto could figure.
He'd lost track of the exact number of years somewhere along the way. One thing that was certain was that he was going to be very careful to never let his rage pollute that chakra again. Now, however, he could finally get back to the reason he'd started this journey to begin with.
Naruto spent the next few years making the greatest strides into his understanding of the Biju ever. He didn't yet have any ideas for a solution, but for the first time in a long time it actually felt like he would eventually find one.
Even no longer needing solitude, he might have stayed in that cave for many years to come if his training had been interrupted by a howl of rage from the Kyubi that smashed through all the barriers he'd put up to prevent being bothered by the leader of the Biju.
Not appreciating the interruption, he tried to query Kyubi as to what had possessed him to do that. When he got no answer he became more than a little annoyed and continued to send ever increasing numbers of questions Kyubi's way.
Still receiving nothing but silence in answer he gathered his power and gave his own blast across the line to pay him back for the one that had caught Naruto by surprise. That caused a reaction as he heard a yelp through the connection.
That was followed by a quick thanks with no explanation for why before he went silent again. Trying to question him further made it clear that Kyubi was now blocking Naruto's attempts to chat, much as Naruto had been doing for centuries.
Giving up on that route, Naruto decided to make a more direct investigation. With all the power flowing through their link, Naruto had been able to sense more or less where the Kyubi had been. When he completed the journey, what he found was a large valley with a waterfall that looked to have taken some major damage recently.
That was almost certainly the Kyubi's work, but he could find no signs of where the Biju had gone or what had precipitated this rampage. Deciding to search the surrounding countryside, Naruto was surprised to find a nearby village that seemed to be run by Ninja.
Back before he'd become a hermit, ninja were already popping up like weeds, but he'd never imagined them getting together and forming their own community. And looking at this Konoha, it was a decent sized village too.
They were currently celebrating a major victory of their leader had over some guy names Uchiha Madara, but Naruto cared little about that. There was no mention of the Kyubi, and Naruto soon gave up on finding any leads there. Leaving he continued searching around the area before smoke drew him to a second, much smaller village.
At first he thought he might have found the lead he needed, but it only took a glance at the devastated town to realize this had been the work of men. He'd seen situations like this before and knew what would have happened. A group of armed men had come in, killed all the villagers, looted it for valuables, then, just because the could, set everything left on fire.
To his surprise, Naruto's finely tuned senses detected that someone was still alive in there. Hurrying to the source, he heard crying coming from under the rubble of a collapsed building that was still partially burning.
Permeating the rubble with his chakra, he got an image in his mind of exactly how it was distributed. Then, taking out his sword, he cut a path to the source of the crying, doing his best to avoid removing anything that was holding up the rest of the mess.
He still barely had time to grab the small girl that had been buried and pull her free before the whole thing collapsed in on itself again. Looking over the sobbing little brown-haired girl who couldn't have been more than five, he saw that she was in terrible shape. Her legs had been crushed under whatever had pinned her, she had some nasty burns, and she was still coughing from the smoke between sobs.
Still, it was a miracle she was alive at all. She had managed to hide from the robbers and survive a burning building falling on top of her. To add to her luck, she was found by possibly the only person in the world able to heal her. Some kami must be watching out for the little girl.
Summoning his white chakra, and still relishing how pure it felt, he forced it into the small frame he held. The burns quickly faded away, and the coughing stopped soon after. The legs took a while longer, but eventually there wasn't so much as bruise to show they had been crushed just minutes ago. The sobbing slowed to sniffles as Naruto finished healing the girl.
"You'll be alright now, little girl," he said soothing. "What's your name?"
The girl just looked at him wordlessly.
"What does your mother call you?" he asked, trying again to get a name from her, but she just started sobbing again instead.
Naruto cursed himself for a fool. He was standing here in the middle of this carnage interrogating the poor girl and bringing up a mother that was probably one of the corpses spread around the village. Cradling the child, he ran off, heading out into the woods and away from the scene.
However, even when he had set up camp well away from the scene of destruction, the girl still refused to say a word. He wondered if she might be mute, but considering she wouldn't so much as nod her head yes or no in answer to questions, it was more likely a result of her recent trauma.
Having raised two girls himself, Naruto had more than a bit of a soft spot for them, and felt compelled to try to help, even though he wasn't sure what to do. In the end he just decided to talk to her. He knew she wouldn't answer any questions so instead he told her stories.
He recited a few fairy tales at first, but somehow he got into talking a bit about his own life and just ran with it from there. Nothing profound like his life goal or his family, he wanted to keep the stories as light and cheerful as possible. So he talked about adventures he had been on, places he'd seen, funny stories he could remember.
She would listen intently to all of them. She also ate whenever he served her food, meals which Naruto did his best to ensure were top-notch. Yet she stubbornly remained silent. However, if she were trying to outlast him, she picked the wrong person. Naruto had lived a very long life and had no shortage of tales to tell. Finally, after a week long story time, the girl spoke up.
"Ko-chan," she said simply.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Naruto replied, not sure what to make of her words, but thrilled she'd spoken them.
"My mother called me Ko-chan," she clarified.
"Well then Ko-chan, I know you just went through something terrible, but how about would you like it if I found someone nice to take care of you?"
"I want to stay with you," Ko-chan replied stubbornly.
"I'm afraid my life isn't a good one for raising children," he said in attempt to dissuade her. "Besides, I abandoned the last little girl I brought up, probably best not to get too attached. I'll find you a real family, a great one. You'll be much happier that way."
The girl didn't look convinced, but neither did she argue. He just hoped she wouldn't lapse back into silence over this. Naruto took the girl back to Konoha, that seeming as good a place as any to look for someone to take her in.
Finding Ko-chan a family was slightly problematic at first. It seemed a village of ninja had its fair share of orphans already. Naruto was a determined person, however, and had quite a few resources at his disposal.
They may not use any of the coins he had on him anymore, but gold was still valuable. Once he'd greased a few palms, Ko-chan was soon being shown around to some nice potential families. From there, one was quickly found that would take her, although that was mostly due to the girl's innate sweetness and charm.
Despite them being more than financially capable of taking care of her on their own, Naruto left them a little something to thank them for efforts. Their eyes had nearly bugged out on just how much that 'little something' was. Then, so he wouldn't feel too guilty about basically cutting the line for Ko-chan, he gave a slightly larger donation to the orphanage, to help take care of those children.
Finally, he prepared to say his goodbyes. Before he could go, Ko-chan insisted they needed to get a picture together. This seemed a reasonable request, so Naruto said he'd go find a painter, a statement that elicited a laugh from the child.
"No, with a camera, silly," she said.
Naruto didn't recognize what a camera picture was, but not wanting to admit that, simply said that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Asking around the town had confirmed that to be the case, and he was soon standing with Ko-chan in front of a man with a rather strange contraption.
It was a large box over a foot on each side that was resting on three metal legs. The man who was going to be using this 'camera' ducked his head under a curtain behind the box and held up a strange T shaped rod of some sort.
"Hold still and smile," the man told them.
As confused as he still was, Naruto did as he was told and was soon treated to a bright flash of light from the rod, which then started to smoke a bit. He wouldn't have thought that was supposed to happen, but neither the man nor Ko-chan seemed at all surprised.
Naruto had to wait until the next day for the picture to 'develop,' but he was quite interested in the result. The picture was limited in color to white and different shades of gray, but other than that seemed to capture the scene more accurately than any painting he'd ever seen.
They even had two copies of which Naruto couldn't find the slightest variation between them. Mystery still unsolved, he nonetheless took one for himself, while Ko-chan kept the other. Then he said his goodbyes and went on his way.
Having put aside his quest to find the Kyubi, Naruto decided to make another tour of the world's temples. He could see if his book had borne any fruit. What he found in temple after temple was an almost disgusting level of incompetence.
The only temple that had been at all worth his time was run by a priest who had once trained to be a ninja. He had this amusing little technique called a Bunshin that would create an insubstantial copy of the user.
Naruto learned it quickly, and his mind was already going through some possibilities. Perhaps there would be some way to create a copy of himself and trick ritual into taking it instead of him. It was certainly worth looking into.
With that in mind Naruto began experimenting with modifying and improving the Bunshin ability as he traveled around. The temples may have been mostly a waste of time, but the cities and villages proved to be quite educational. It was shocking how much civilization had changed while he'd been out of the loop.
Cameras were only the start of it, what with electricity, and light bulbs and all manner of strange machines. It was also continuing to change at what seemed lightning speed to Naruto as they were constantly coming up with new innovations over the sixty years he'd traveled.
He'd made much progress with his Bunshin as well. Naruto had improved the technique to use the elements to make a copy that would fool a doctor and leave a corpse when it 'died.' And using his extensive knowledge of chakra, he could make it indistinguishable from him to anyone's spiritual senses as well.
At least if they didn't probe deep enough to where they'd find Naruto's connection to the Biju, which he could not copy in any clones. Nor did it change the fact that it was still a soulless creation. The soul was the important part too. No matter how similar the body, it could never replace him in the ritual even if he did find some way to finish it before he was yanked through as well by the chain on his soul.
He could leave behind a body with all his memories and personality, but without his soul it still couldn't move on to any afterlife, and the original Naruto would be stuck with the Biju. No, it had been an interesting thought, but it was almost certainly just another dead end.
His tour around the world was eventually cut short when he finally felt a tinge of the Kyubi again. He'd been watching his connection closely for the last sixty years, and that had finally paid off. Naruto had no idea where the Kyubi had been, but he figured it might be related to the first incident. As such he should start his search there.
The plan was a sound one, as before he'd even completely arrived, he sensed the Kyubi much stronger than before and not too far from valley he'd found near Konoha. Redoubling his efforts, he soon found the Kyubi, rampaging wildly. There were several dead bodies around the Biju that looked to be ninja from the nearby Konoha.
Naruto tried calling out to Kyubi, starting through his link and after that physically, but the first had no effect and the second only made him the enraged Biju's new target. Dodging a swing from a claw Naruto's mind was racing furiously trying to come up with a way to dispel whatever madness had possessed the Kyubi before more lives were lost. Particularly his own.
He tried blasting energy through their link, but that proved futile. Dodging another claw swipe, Naruto decided maybe a more direct application of his energy was in order. Summoning up as much of his white chakra as he could, Naruto focused a huge portion of it around his fist, until it was blazing almost as brightly as the sun.
Charging the Kyubi, he dodged a tail lash, and another attempt to shred him with a claw before jumping into the air and socking the Kyubi to the jaw with his charged fist. The blow wouldn't really have added anything to the process, and Naruto could have just as easily projected his aura at the Kyubi, but he had simply felt an irresistible urge to punch the stupid fox.
He was hopeful his plan had worked, as the fox shook his head and the fury seemed to fade out of him. "Naruto, it seems you've freed me again," Kyubi said, physically speaking to him for the first time since he was six.
"I assume you're referring to what happened sixty years ago," Naruto replied, "but what's this about freeing you?"
"We have been in your realm far longer than we ever should have stayed," Kyubi informed him. "The time has left us weaker and put great strain upon us. It drove the Ichibi mad to the point that the humans had to seal him away. Even I have been left vulnerable to manipulation."
"I'd like to meet the person who was brave enough to 'manipulate' you," Naruto quipped, although in truth he was quite impressed with the feat.
"You would do well to stay away from Uchiha Madara," Kyubi warned him. "I will attempt to do so as well. However, he has already found me twice, and I suspect he will a third time. The world will surely suffer when he does. That is, unless you perform your role as the conduit, as is your duty."
"If this is so terrible for all of you, why don't you just release me as I've asked all along?" Naruto inquired. "Find someone else to be your conduit and this can all be over."
"It is not that I will not release you," Kyubi answered. "Even I cannot break the bonds that tie us while we yet remain in the realm of man."
"I don't believe you!" Naruto shouted at him. "All these years you've been saying you wouldn't. If you couldn't, that why not come right out and say so before now?"
"You were morning the loss of your wife," Kyubi explained. "I have been led to believe humans act irrationally under such circumstances. I was concerned if you knew there was no hope you might simply kill yourself out of spite."
"And you don't think hundreds of years is a bit long to wait to tell me?" Naruto snapped back. "How long to you think humans remain 'irrational?'"
"I may have erred," the Kyubi admitted. "It is difficult for me to think of spans of time in the same way as you mortals."
Naruto was beginning to believe the Kyubi's words. He supposed it really didn't change much. He'd been living on the assumption that the Biju wouldn't release him, just because they couldn't didn't change the fact that he'd have to find a way himself. That didn't mean the Kyubi's explanation hadn't left him bitter.
"You seem awfully worried about me killing myself," Naruto pointed out. "What would happen if I did so now?"
"We would still return to our world, and you with us," he answered. "However, if we return improperly in that manner, we would lose the thread that binds our world together. We would never be able to find it again to return."
"Yeah, and where would you be without a bunch of humans to boss around, huh?" Naruto jeered.
"There are more ninja on the way," Kyubi informed him, not being provoked by his words. "I suggest you depart, as they may not take kindly to your presence here."
The Kyubi took his own advice and raced off. Naruto attempted to follow him, but couldn't keep up with the Biju, weakened or not. At least he seemed to have lost those ninja that were heading his way.
Minato didn't know what to make of this situation. He'd received reports of the Kyubi rampaging toward the village. Yet the beast had simply killed of their front line of defense and then fled for reasons unknown.
"Recall all ninja ranked Chunin or higher," he ordered to the ninja that accompanied him. "Stay on high alert. Triple the number of scouts we have in the field and have them searching out twice as far as usual."
He hoped the Kyubi truly was gone, but he wasn't about to take any chances. He had a feeling they'd be seeing it again some day. He just prayed that day wasn't anytime soon.
Given that one of them had managed to perform some sort of mind control the Kyubi himself, Naruto was beginning to think that it might be worth investigating these ninja to see what techniques they had. If nothing else, he might want to look up the Madara guy, despite Kyubi's warnings. Perhaps he could influence the Biju to force them to help him find a way to break their link.
Still, before he did that, he wanted to look into the other Biju. Kyubi's news about the Ichibi going mad had him a bit worried. In a way, any death caused by the Biju could be lain at his feet and Naruto's conscience wouldn't let him ignore that threat.
So, he started another journey around the world, this time trying to find the Biju. Locating them proved slightly troublesome. As their whereabouts tended to be rather closely guarded secrets, he wasn't able to exactly locate them all. However, in less than five years, he was able to at least confirm that all of them, save the Kyubi, had been safely sealed.
So it was finally time to look into what tricks the ninja had, and what better place to start than in Konoha?
Author's Notes
Prologue chapters complete. As I said in the foreword, this turned out much longer than I anticipated. I did extend the chapter a little beyond what I'd planned, deciding I wanted to include Kyubi's attack and show that Minato was alive.
Still, I kept getting ideas of things I wanted to add, most of which were quite small. However the bit about his chakra remaining tainted was an idea I came up with while writing this chapter that just fit so well I couldn't leave it out despite all the extra writing it added.
Anyway, the pacing will slow down starting with chapter 4, which I consider chapter 1 of the main story. It will cover less than a decade in all, an absolutely glacial pace, I know. One thing I do want to assure everyone is that I'm not just going to forget about Harumi like that. You will find out the details of what happened to her. Some of you have already guessed it in part.
Now, I think this chapter ended at a great place to lead to wild speculation over what will happen next. Also, like last chapter, there was a hint to an important plot point dropped. I guarantee you didn't miss this one without skipping down to the Author's Notes, but you may have easily failed to make the connection. It is tied to a much less prominent piece of Naruto canon.