Chapter five
It was with a worried expression that Naruto sought help from the two adults standing off to the side. He could have as well been staring at a brick wall.
Jiraiya and the Fourth Raikage both looked like they had been expecting this all along, which might have been true. That wasn't the point however. Any decent human being should have been a little concerned when watching a twelve year old about to get beaten into the ground by a walking mountain of muscles.
Killer Bee approached him slowly, rapping and skipping along the way, as if he was going to greet an old friend.
"But don't worry ma' man! Its a solid plan! By the time we done, you'll turn those fuckers in cloaks to dust! Wheeee!"
A long time ago, Naruto would have charged head first into the fray no matter how big, strong or skilled the opponent.
Now, he knew he was not some "born to be badass" ninja, and he had a vastly better idea of his limitations. So he considered his next move a stroke of genius.
"Screw this." Naruto turned and hopped off the cliff.
He imagined that their faces would be a bit comical and stupefied and he thought it suited them. There was no way he was going to fight that muscle freak head on.
Too bad he wasn't given much of a choice.
A hand grabbed at the back of his shirt collar and threw him upwards. another hand grabbed his foot abruptly stopping his upward motion. He was pulled down finally seeing and confirming that yes, B was just about to pound him into the ground.
And pound him he did. The hand that had grabbed him by his collar was now on his chest, forcing him downwards to the ground. The air was literally pushed out of him, preventing him from screaming in pain as his back smashed into the unyeilding rock they stood on.
"Bitch please, I barely hit you."
Tears of pain leaked from Naruto's eyes, but he was quick to retaliate. He drew his foot back and tried slamming his sole into B's face.
Killer Bee grabbed the offending foot easily, but backed off a little allowing Naruto to roll back to his feet.
He took shuddering breaths of air, trying to reinflate his chest.
Jiraiya and the fourth Raikage continued to observe off to the side.
Naruto stepped back slowly, eyes fixed on B, looking for an avenue of escape. When he formed his thirty shadow clones, he was a bit surprised to see a total lack of surprise on B's face. When it clicked that yes, B was a jinchuriki too, so he did also have massive reserves of chakra at his disposal, his new mentor had already destroyed all his clones.
Naruto raised his arms in front of his face to block the oncoming fist and as a result got the wind knocked out of him again when it landed on his torso.
"You kno' what you're problem is? You scared to bits!" Naruto dimly registered his words as he heaved and gasped on the ground.
"When you see my fist comin' you freeze. Bitch please, that ain' gon' help you save your skin." B continued, "Lemme tell you what I see when a fist is coming for me. It's so easy for it to make a hit, just as it's so easy for me to make it miss."
Naruto sat back on his ankles, glaring at the rapper. "What the hell are you saying?"
"He means you should look at it from a different perspective."
Naruto turned his head to face the new arrivals and then his jaw hung open for a second.
Only for a second, before he realized she had a sword.
If Sakura could inflict severe pain without a sword, he didn't want to know what a girl with a sword was capable of when she caught a pervert.
Jiraiya's mouth hung open anyway.
Amazing, she's probably only what...thirteen? Still too young, but damn!
A blonde girl had arrived on their training ground, along with a red haired dark skinned young girl with what looked like a perpetual scowl and a white haired dark skinned boy with a lollipop stick poking out from between his lips.
It was the blonde who had spoken. "Keep a cool head. Instead of focusing on the fist, realize how big the space around his fist is. His fist only occupies so much space and there are a million ways to dodge, so why should it hurt you?"
The blonde jinchuriki's face scrunched up in thought. "I think I get it, ummm...?"
"Call me Samui."
Naruto nodded, and looked to her companions, his question as plain as day.
"Omoi," the boy answered.
"Name's Karui," the red-head said.
"Samui-chan, ain't no need to be spilling secrets because I got this."
"Hai, sensei."
Naruto turned his focus back on B. "So it can go both ways? I could always just dodge it. It's not some almighty rule that I must get hit? That's what you're trying to say?"
The Raikage actually chuckled on hearing that, a deep rumble that made Naruto feel like the vibrations had somehow reached him.
"I suppose that's one way to look at it," A said grinning.
The blonde grinned himself. "Good, I was never one for rules."
Xxx
Naruto found himself lightly drifting in and out of consciousness as he was carried by his newly appointed sensei piggy-back style.
"So this is the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox. You're not really that impressive, are you?" Karui said, her tone practically oozing disappointment.
Naruto wanted to tell her he would kick ass in the next training session, but he was just a bag of bruises at the moment so he let it pass.
Besides, even he was not looking forward to the next session.
Not a 'rule' that you get hit?
What a load of crap. If a fist with the power of a rampaging ox behind it crosses the distance to your face faster than you could blink, dodging seems like a very high thing to hope for.
"Sensei," Omoi spoke up, "you never hit us that hard during our training. Are you sure you're not just wailing on Naruto-san here because he can heal as fast as you?"
Naruto's black and swollen eye widened as much as it could, which was not saying much, at this newly revealed treachery.
He especially did not like Killer Bee's nervous chuckles.
The five ninja were walking through Kumo's streets, where it felt like the slightest bit of flat ground was a crime. The streets sloped and slanted. For most buildings the ground beneath them had been levelled out, so each structure stood on its own stage.
Shinobi swarmed the streets, more so than in Konoha, Naruto noticed. He had been warned about this by Kakashi-san and his fellow Anbu on the journey to the exchange point. In terms of numbers, Kumo had the most firepower. In Konoha, becoming a ninja was a choice.
In Kumo, any family not from a major Shinobi clan with the ability to have children had to offer one up to the military program, or else pay a steep price.
Naruto had to wonder just how many then had become ninja against their own will. It was not a question he could answer immediately, seeing as discontent was not exactly written on the faces of the populace they passed.
The bustling crowd parted like a school of fish before the self-dubbed, 'Lord Hachibi' and his students. As a result, Naruto had to endure all their curious, some excited, some visibly disappointed looks.
In Naruto's state of mind and body he did not mind in the least.
He just wanted that comfy, nice, soft bed they had promised him. That bed, where I'll die peacefully and maybe this pain in my head will go.
One Shinobi did manage to catch his eye however. He supposed that it was because of her hair. A bright silver that seemed to blend perfectly with the moonlight and scarlet eyes that shone like polished rubies.
The blonde's vision began to darken again and somehow he knew this time he would be out for a long while. He did not want to sleep. Sleep meant dreams and dreams meant nightmares. No...They always catch me...when I sleep.
The image of those scarlet eyes lingered in his mind and inevitably they bled into true red, the tomoe spinning into being around the pupil.
A rough calloused hand wrapped around his throat. The blue tinge only made it look inhumane and demonic.
He scratched at it, kicked and punched but the pressure only increased as if his neck was a nut to be cracked.
He fought and fought, it was only human instinct, but when his spine snapped and his airway bent, all will fled from his body. His legs and arms fell still and the lack of air caught up with him. The last thing he felt was his heart beat that one last time.
Then he was awake, the sheets that had covered him a tangled mess around his legs, the sound of gasps of air being sucked in at an amazing rate echoing off the walls.
It was a while before Naruto's wits returned to him.
He then noticed he was in a bed, a comfy king-size bed with sheets and blankets that had elaborately drawn patterns of the colours orange and black. He then noted that he was in a room, a bedroom that felt larger than his tiny apartment back in Konoha.
He got out of bed to explore this new space B had seen fit to dump him in. Anything to distract him from his dreams.
The blonde was still in the same clothes he had worn when he first stepped into Kumogakure, but someone had seen fit to take off the Anbu torso armour, the arm-guards and his boots. That and all his ninja equipment pouches. Bee did not seem the type so he thought perhaps Samui had done it. Personally he was just glad she did not make him wear pj's. Waking up and finding he had been changed right down to the underwear had made him weary of the Third Hokage's tastes for a week.
The first door he opened was apparently the closet, which Naruto had mistakenly thought was the way out of his bedroom. Designed like a very short hallway, it was stacked with various gear and clothes and sharp pointy weapons stacked on the wall. Naruto 'oohed' and 'aahed' as pubescent male ninja were want to do when faced with badass gear. The clothes were his size and the gear such as the standard Kumo shin guards were practically made for him. Naruto thought nothing of Kumo's blatant attempt to suck up to him as he swung a katana around like some badass ninja hero.
The other door led to the bathroom and Naruto chuckled in embarrassment as he realized this was not the way out of the bedroom. The bathroom was a sparkling white, already filled with towels, soaps and shampoos. He stepped up to the shower, which loomed above him looking like some evil senbon-launching machine. Naruto immediately made the decision that he was going to take a shower and it would be a damn long one.
To his pleasant and mind-blowing surprise the hot water did not die on him. Summed up, it was the best shower Naruto had taken in recent memory.
He stalked the rest of his new home in naught but a towel, gasping at the size of the television in the living room, moaning in comfort at the way he sunk into his orange and black couch and cursing at the fact that the well stocked kitchen had no absolutely no packets of ramen. Finally after putting on a shirt and a pair of loose pants he sat down at the balcony, his legs protruding through the bars of the railing and hanging over the edge.
They had given him a penthouse. Naruto's only complaint was that he had no ramen. For now though, he had nothing to do. Even with a T.V so big, it was apparently still possible that there was nothing good on.
A ninja's mentality, it was often said.
The night still dragged on. Naruto still found it difficult to sleep through the night. The sky was filled with clouds that the night made appear dark and ominous. Kumo's night lights did well to illuminate the world around him so that he was not blanketed in total darkness.
It was cold and Naruto's skin erupted with goosebumps but he did not mind. All that mattered was that he had found a small measure of peace here on 'his' (he was yet to get over the fact that this was his house) balcony in a village he barely knew.
Dad, are you watching me? Am I making you proud?
Memories from his time at the academy surfaced. Memories of seeing fellow former classmates like Shikamaru or Chouji being praised by their respective fathers. They had made their fathers proud, but their achievements seemed like an anthill compared to the tasks his own father had apparently set before him.
It seemed obvious that Sasuke was a favourite for rookie of the year, yet he had neither a parent nor a sibling waiting to pick him up at the end of the day. No one to go home to either.
Itachi too, Naruto had been told his story on the trip to Kumo. While murdering your whole family was a terrible way to prove your strength, as Naruto saw it, the fact that stood out was that he had not needed his family to be strong.
Naruto's logic then put it this way; being the son of the fourth did not make him an automatic badass.
Even with the support of two whole villages, the only one who he could rely on to become strong was his own self. If the village suddenly decided to cast him out and he became a nuke-nin, unwelcome even in Konoha, he would find a way to become strong.
His survival depended on it.
That was Naruto's silent declaration to the night.
The moment was ruined though, when a mop of white hair obscured his vision.
"What's this brat? Every night you're always out sulking. If you're not careful that face will stick."
Jiraiya of the Sannin hung upside down from the edge of his roof, a cheeky smile dancing across his face. In a display of grace that belied his size, he did a perfect back flip to land on the top of the railing. His large figure dwarfed the blonde such that Naruto was blanketed in shadow.
Naruto did not like the way Jiraiya's eyes bore down on him so he looked away. "Shut up ero-sennin, I don't brood," Naruto sulked.
"Jeez, you show people you're passion and suddenly everyone's calling you their own things. It's a good thing I won't be around to listen to your disrespectful arse." Naruto was reminded of when the legendary ninja gave him the first, and would perhaps always be the most, perverted piece of literature. The title 'ero-sennin' was nothing but appropriate. In fact, he still had that book in a sealing scroll somewhere. He'd rather nose-bleed until he died from blood loss than be left to his thoughts.
The blonde's eyes then widened in alarm, "You're leaving already?"
Jiraiya nodded, "Yup! I'm just from the most boring meeting trying to set you up with this village. You better be grateful brat. I do not like village elders, whatever village they're from. How I'd like to just shove 'Bunta's sword up their asses." The way Jiraiya's eyes gleamed, even in the night, unnerved Naruto. Still, did the old man know what he was saying?
"We just got here and you're already leaving me alone?" Naruto blurted out.
Naruto did not expect the answer he got.
"Ah, you'll be alright." Jiraiya said with a wave of his hand, obviously dismissing Naruto's concerns as unimportant.
"What?!"
"C'mon, I don't expect to be hearing this from you, considering who your father is, much less if we include your mother."
Naruto felt like smacking the man, but his arms were still painfully sore.
"A lot of good it's done me right? Being his son and all!" Naruto shot back.
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two. Naruto instantly realized he had said the wrong thing, to the wrong person. He backed down and once again turned away from the toad sage's burning gaze.
He focused again on Kumo's nightlife, following the various ninja who still had some duties jump about the buildings like fleas until a tired sigh brought his attention back to Jiraiya.
It was the one moment when Naruto could truly say the sannin looked his age, when past experiences and mistakes weighed down on him as if his very shoulders held up the sky.
"Look kid, I know you have a tonne of questions and you ain't getting a lot of answers. I'm not gonna spell it out for you. It's what your choices are that will lay down the path before you and along the way, you may or may not get your answers."
Naruto was confused.
"What?"
The answer to that question was a flick to his forehead by Jiraiya's massive fingers. "Patience brat. If you can't find the answers, let the answers find you. Your father understood that."
Naruto was about to complain about the pain that would definitely lead to a pounding headache when the hand that harmed his shifted to his mop of blonde hair. Naruto was surprised, pleasantly surprised, that the legendary ninja had decided to rub his head affectionately.
"So kid, since I'm going and you probably won't see me for a while, we could spend some quality godfather time at the baths in this village. Come on, it'll be cool!"
The blonde thought about it for a moment, then nodded. A relaxing hour in some hot steaming water would definitely come in handy if he had to face Bee in training.
...xXx...
"Oi, Ero-sennin. This is not what people do when they say they are going to the Baths."
"Hogging my peep hole is a poor way to complain, brat."
The words registered in Naruto's mind and he recoiled as if a snake had just struck out at him. With his heart racing and his cheeks flushed a deep red, Naruto could practically feel the shame pouring out of him. Still, his traitorous feet took a step forward back to the tiny hole, only for the space to be occupied by Jiraiya.
The light of dawn had arrived too early in Naruto's opinion, further dampening his spirits what with the lack of sleep. It was a Saturday however, and his appointment with Bee was not due until the late afternoon.
That morning he had eaten a crappy breakfast filled with vegetables and absolutely no trace of ramen, listened to Jiraiya tell heroic tales of his life (obviously exaggerated) with enthusiasm comparable to his own when faced with a bowl of ramen and picked out his new outfit.
The jinchuriki of the nine tailed demon fox had switched out the shirt under the armoured grey vest for a turtle-neck short sleeved sweater.
Someone in Kumo had thought of him as eccentric as Killer Bee. On his arms he wore fingerless black gloves that almost touched his elbow. On the fabric of those gloves were wickedly curved white plates that acted as arm guards.
Naruto had taken them only because to have a chance of blocking Killer Bee's blows, he needed some protection. Also, Itachi and Kisame might have scared the part of him that really loved orange into extinction but he was still an adolescent boy, and such boys loved badass things.
He had looked into that mirror and decided that the arm guards fit into the category.
Naruto had then proceeded to accompany Jiraiya to the springs and had been flabbergasted when the Sannin had introduced him to the pleasures of the female flesh.
Those lumps of flesh... were those what people called boobs? And as lumps of flesh why did they look so appealing?
"Brat, go and act as a lookout. Warn me if someone's coming. We'll take turns." Jiraiya advised.
Naruto only left because those images were messing with his head and he did not want to become as bad a pervert as Jiraiya.
"Hoho! Epic research material quality has been achieved! You there, why don't you show me a little more skin?"
Ugh...that's just a new level of weird.
Jiraiya's mad chuckles died away as Naruto walked round the circular structured establishment. However once in view of people walking along the street, a group of girls caught sight of him and called out in shrill voices.
"Look! It's jinchuriki-sama! Isn't he cute?!"
"It's the whiskers! They make him look so exotic!"
"Oh Kami, he's so dreamy!"
"Jinchuriki-sama, may I have your autograph!"
A while ago, Naruto had had dreams of women coming onto him like this. The women in his dreams though, had never had that thirst, that hunger that shone in the eyes of these women like a beacon. The blonde backed away slowly, more than a little freaked out by the bunch of rabid girls beginning to approach him.
His retreat was a brisk walk back to Jiraiya, hoping the girls would be intimidated by the man's size and have the decency to back off.
The young often make foolish mistakes.
"Oi, brat I told you you'll have your turn. You cannot rush a super pervert."
"I have bigger problems now." Naruto replied.
Jiraiya snorted, "Like wha-" and was cut off by a glass shattering scream. "EEEEEKKK! PERVERT!"
A corresponding and collective yell of "WHAAATTT?!" rose up from inside the baths and suddenly the skies darkened and thunder rumbled ominously.
The toad sage glanced at the girls who followed Naruto and then at the blonde himself before gasping.
"You fool,"
Grabbing Naruto by the collar, the perverted author took off in a blur of motion. Unfortunately, women who had not even been in the Baths and just happened to be nearby, responded to the call to beat up a pervert with a wild passion. These women also happened to be ninjas and with the righteous fury of a woman scorned they were on Jiraiya's heels in a matter of seconds.
His self preservation senses tingling, Jiraiya pushed his feet to carry him faster, enough that he was able to turn a corner and throw Naruto in a dumpster like a discarded doll before the women saw him.
The blonde wanted to scream at the pervert, but the stampede of women that thundered past him two seconds later instilled common sense in him and he wisely shut up, trying to ignore the pain in his neck that stemmed from his awkward position in the bin. His head was at a ninety degree angle to the rest of his body in this cramped space of the dumpster. Also, the smell was enough to make him gag.
He had just taken such a nice shower!
Jiraiya had a lot to answer for, assuming he survived.
Naruto jumped out of the dumpster and dusted himself off. He needed to get to Bee-sensei, yet he had no idea where he was. The blonde sighed and mentally added this to the lost of stuff to blame ero-sennin for.
"Come on Sen, I want a piece of that pervert too!" a voice yelled.
A yellow blur turned the corner and slammed into Naruto, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him onto his back. Naruto cursed from his position on the floor and was about to yell at his offender but she beat him to it.
"Watch where you're going jackass!"
Naruto's glare could have melted steel. "I think it's pretty obvious dumbass, that you ran into me!" He sat up only to find that she was already standing over him.
She was already taller than him, he concluded even without him standing up. Her blonde hair seemed to glow in the sunlight, giving Naruto his first glimpse of hair that was a brighter shade than his own and wilder, though maybe it was because it was longer, going all the way to her lower back.
She peered down at him behind oval glasses and behind a developing bust, which Naruto's eyes were finding it troublesome to stray away from. Her outfit was simple, being a purple shirt and a short black skirt with black stockings going up to her thigh and Shinobi sandals.
She reached down and grabbed his collar, lifting him up with surprising strength. "They say the pervert was with the jinchuriki of the nine-tails. Now I'm not sure, but you kinda look like him."
The lie that left his lips was so smooth Naruto almost believed it himself.
"I ain't got no idea of what you're talking about. The guy you're chasing ran that way, but he was alone."
Her light purple eyes locked onto his own. "Look me in the eye and tell me you did not just see naked bodies of women today."
Naruto was about to, but then the pictures of what he had just seen flooded his mind and he shut his eyes. There was a stiffening in his pants that he knew he must fight. Whether he had the strength to however was the true question.
He need not have worried about that as his face, which was as red and burned like the flames of hell sold him out.
There was a resounding smack that echoed off the walls of the alley they were in and Naruto was back on the floor, with a handprint that actually stood out against the blush on his face.
"Hmph, perverts!" and she stormed off, full of righteous female fury.
Naruto lay there for a few minutes wondering why the gods hated him when another strange voice interrupted him.
"Sorry about that, but you are guilty of peeking," a soft female voice said.
Naruto was about to groan about possibly meeting another of Kumo's crazy females when she stepped into his field of view. It was her, the girl from last night that he had seen right before passing out completely on Bee-sensei's back.
Silver hair and scarlet eyes. She looked like she had walked right out of his dreams. Naruto accepted the offered hand and she pulled him up. He touched his face and winced at the sting.
"You are a jinchuriki right? So that will heal right away, won't it?" she inquired.
"Being a jinchuriki doesn't make it any less painful though," he replied. They stood there awkwardly, she studying him like he was some work of art and he just...standing there like a statue.
"Umm...you're name is?"
"I am Sen Yarizui, Kyuubi-sama."
"Uzumaki Naruto, just call me Naruto. Kyuubi-sama makes me a little uncomfortable." In Konoha, just saying Kyuubi out in the open could instill the fear of god in people, either for the beast or the Anbu that would snatch them away for talking about the issue openly.
Kumo ninja held no such reservations. "I find Kyuubi-sama most appropriate, Kyuubi-sama."
These people are nuts, Naruto thought with his expression saying pretty much the same thing. He could not waste any more time here. Bee had kicked the living shit out of him yesterday as part of training. He did not want to find out what counted as a punishment.
He was still lost though.
"Sen, at the moment I'm a bit lost. You mind showing me the way to Unraikyo valley."
She bowed. "It would be an honor and a priviledge, Lord Kyuubi." This made Naruto rub his head in embarrassment and smile nervously. "My friend, Ayame Shaga, the one who hit you, will realize I'm not with her for a long while, enough time for us to reach the valley."
That's her name, Ayame Shaga. Well she's definitely not like the Ayame I know back in Konoha.
She led the way and Naruto took the time to study her profile. She at least was of a height with him and considering Naruto was short for his age, it dampened his spirits to know almost everyone he would ever meet and was at least his age would beat him in that regard.
She was dressed in a dark purple sleeveless shirt made of thick material. Arm warmers covered her arms from wrist almost touching her shoulder. Dark pants with the standard Kumo shin protectors and Shinobi sandals completed the outfit.
Her gait was calm and relaxed, showing no excitement or nervousness from walking with someone she called Kyuubi-sama. Her expression was unreadable, as if this was a routine that had become tedium for her. Naruto who was usually quick to decide whether he hated or liked someone was at a loss with this Sen Yarizui.
Both ninja and kunoichi leapt into the air, first running up the side of a building and then leaping across rooftops in an unhurried pace.
He took the moment to memorize the landmarks of the village, from this towering skyscraper to the fountain at a street intersection. Built in the mountains, Kumo's space for expansion was limited so they looked to the sky, as if seeking to establish their own kingdom in the clouds.
Once the village was behind them, Sen sped up leading Naruto on a merry chase through the mountain range.
They arrived at the training ground to find the 'Lord Hachibi' already smacking his children around in the name of training. When he caught sight of Naruto, Bee immediately launched into his antics.
"You're late, Mr Nine. Now you know you gotta pay the price!"
The man kept his eyes on Naruto, not even sparing Omoi a glance when he knocked the wind out of the boy with a well-timed kick.
"C'mon you can join them and watch their backs, that way I don't have to hold back! Wheeeee!" B rapped and rhymed.
The blonde gulped and Karui froze mid-charge on her way to skewer her sensei.
She gave Naruto an ice- cold foreboding look that meant his death if he gave Bee any incentive to go even a little harder on them.
It was at that moment that Naruto decided he still had business back in the village. After all, he still had to find a place that sold ramen.
He looked to his guide to escort him back (and give him a valid excuse), but found little more than empty air next to him. Her mission complete, she had already seen fit to return to the village.
He had only known her for little more than thirty minutes, but Naruto had never felt so betrayed.
"Naruto, why'd your friend just up and leave? I could have trained her too for free!"
"Bee-sensei, you know how infamously uncool your training methods are. Even Sen Yarizui would not dare go anywhere near you on a training field," Samui spoke up.
The blonde had already turned round to head back to the village. Hopefully Bee laying the smackdown on his own students would satisfy the madman for today.
No such luck.
Naruto's shoulder was in the man's grasp before he'd taken his second step.
"Now Mr Nine, no need to go back for her. For now, you'll serve and then we'll ask her to take a turn."
In the dark recesses of his mind, a chibi version of Naruto was crying.
AN/
A filler chapter really, since the original turned out to be too long.
We'll get down to business soon, with a bunch of significant events coming up.
By the way, Pain here is healthy Nagato with full use of his legs. I like overwhelming odds and it would be fun to see how the elemental nations match up against one with the power of a god.
Remember, there's no such thing as overkill