JEP.V2
Not a 'by the power of friendship fic'. Not a 'badass who pwns everything' fic either.
Chapter two
In the marshes of Kusa, deep within the surface of the earth, in an enormous cavern big enough to house all thirty feet of the crouching Gedo Mazou, ten ninja gathered in secret in a hellish ceremony that would herald a new world order, bring peace and other life goals that did not necessarily sound as pure as the first two.
The statue's hands were outstretched, palms facing upwards and fingers seeking to pierce the heavens.
The ten men stood on the tips of these fingers, their own hands clasped in some seal. Only two of these ninja were actually present though, the others represented by silhouettes the colours of the rainbow.
On the floor between the outstretched hands, Han's broken and bloodied body lay enshrouded by a light blue aura that extended up into the mouth of the statue. His red armour was cracked and in pieces and if one looked past the dried blood they would see the gash that could only have been opened by a large curved blade.
"You say you ran into another jinchuriki?" the figure on the left thumb voiced his question.
Kakuzu replied, he himself standing on the right ring finger, "He was a child in the attire of an Anbu agent. At that size I would put him at fourteen or thirteen years of age."
"Daaaaamnnn, that brat was annoying. Does the fucker know how painful it is to fix a broken jaw, sternum and ribs!" Hidan did not hesitate to exclaim.
"Shut up. It was your slow ass that couldn't dodge my jutsu in time."
"Go wank off to your money, you bloody heathen!"
A light sheen of sweat broke out over Hidan's forehead.
Kakuzu's limbs tensed.
This jutsu was a truly amazing piece of work, if it was able to convey just how little patience their leader had for their antics in the form of pure malicious killing intent. With their abilities, these two were practically immortal, yet when faced with an ancient power said to be handed down from the gods themselves, they were forced to realize their place.
It was not fear so much as something primal that awoke the 'flight' instinct in them while ruthlessly suppressing the 'fight'.
"Stop this foolishness and tell me what you encountered."
It took an extra second for Kakuzu to respond, as he fought down the annoyance at the fact that he had actually been cowed into silence. "This jinchuriki did not use his powers freely. It is possible that he has no skill with that chakra. We only saw him use it once to heal his wounds by channeling the chakra quickly. That was how we even identified him as a jinchuriki. But even using the chakra like that seems to add some risk to his self as when I severely injured him, he did not heal himself again. Also, Hatake Kakashi of the leaf appeared to assist him."
"I see…then that means the boy you encountered is actually the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox. Konoha has apparently began to actively send him out on missions, or perhaps they have been for a while time."
"There are some rumours floating around that Hayama of Kusa's assassination was carried out by a child."
"Either way, the fact that he escaped means that Konoha will now be wholly sure of our existence and our goal to collect all jinchuriki. Therefore, they will be actively investigating us. They might even prevent their jinchuriki from leaving the village for a long time. If they spread word of us to other villages it will be even worse. At this stage of our plans we do not need such scrutiny. A distraction is in order."
"I hear that tensions in Konoha are rising as the Uchiha continue to act up."
"The Uchiha are over-estimating themselves as always. With their numbers they can only hope to eliminate the top brass to gain control, that is, if they do carry out a coup. They must be aware that any civil war would only serve to give an opening for invasion and in these lands, the Uchiha are not exactly popular. The village's destruction could be carried out before any other village has the chance to intervene. We need something that could affect all villages."
"In that case, Sasori," a short hunch-backed rainbow colored figure perked up at being addressed, "you have confirmed the jewel's authenticity?"
"Yes," Sasori replied in a strangely deep yet toneless voice.
"Then give it to them. Supply them with whatever other information they will need to find the other jewels. We will give them a chance to have their revenge."
"It will be in their possession within the month then."
Complete and clear consciousness of his surroundings was a slow and difficult process to complete. It felt like he had been plunged into the dark depths of a sea of tar, and pushing his way to the surface was a task he could not speed up no matter how hard he tried.
The first sense that returned to him was sight, and an impeccably clean white wall was the first image that greeted him.
Feeling was next, and he realized his back was pressed against soft fabric, while a blanket above him provided the warmth that currently enveloped his body.
Hearing was what followed, and the words he heard first were the first indicator that something was seriously wrong.
Mind-numbingly wrong.
"Oh yeah…take it off…take it all off, show me, show me all of that beautiful dark skin. Oh dear god, that chest!"
Naruto decided then that it was in his best interests to wake up and to do it very fast, because this was not his idea of a hostage situation, that is, if he was the hostage.
He sat up, as fast as his sluggish limbs would allow him and turned his head in search of the aggressor responsible for this disturbing situation, only to find a large man bending over a telescope that was aimed at the balcony windows and the building beyond.
Dressed in a green short shirt kimono with matching pants, a red haori over it and a mop of white hair on his head tied in a ponytail that flowed down his back, Naruto immediately recognized this man. Exasperated the red-haired boy realized the goofy laughter that accompanied his disturbingly perverted words should have been his first clue.
Naruto eyed the drool that dripped slightly from the man's lips with slight disgust. He was on good terms with the man, had gone on a training trip with him for a month; enough time to build some form of companionship that allowed him to forgive some of his more perverted tendencies. Jiraiya was one of the few Naruto did not mind holding a conversation with.
But this, this was enough to make anyone feel overly uncomfortable.
Presently, he knew of no ways to even slow this man down through his own power, that is, without using some extremely destructive jutsu. Another method was righteous female anger, but there were no dignified women present.
"Excuse me Jiraiya-sama," Naruto called out, deciding to use the tactic most likely to fail.
"Ah so you've woken up brat?" the boy was honestly surprised that Jiraiya had taken his time to actually turn away from the telescope to face him. Being ignored was the more the norm.
"If you're doing ok, then come here for a second. I want to show you something. Thirteen is a good age for learning these things."
"There's no need," was Naruto's immediate reply.
Jiraiya's smirk only served to put the red-head on guard even more. "I haven't even told you what I'm looking at."
"To this day, I have only ever heard of Jiraiya using a telescope for one purpose."
"Then you should know what lies at the other end of this lens. Can you honestly tell me you're not the slightest bit interested?" Jiraiya asked wagging his eyebrows in a mischievous manner.
This man is impossible. To think he was responsible for my father being labelled as one of the strongest ninja on the continent, Naruto thought.
When Jiraiya's eyes danced with delight and his grin grew wider, Naruto realized that the pause he had used to think those thoughts had been interpreted in an entirely different and completely impure method by the toad sage.
Flustered, but refusing to give this man anymore satisfaction, Naruto hurriedly changed the topic. "Pushing that aside, Jiraiya-sama, you have not informed me of the reason why I have woken up here."
"Oho~" Jiraiya apparently found more reason to grin.
Abruptly changing the subject could also be interpreted as false denial. Naruto mentally cursed himself for forgetting that key fact.
His words may betray him but his face did not.
Naruto's stern stare forced the older man into a compromise.
"Ok brat, this here is a letter from your Hokage," he said, pulling out a tiny scroll from his coat, "it'll tell you what the Hokage was thinking when he authorized this mission and answer most of your questions."
Naruto crawled off of the impossibly large king-size bed, and reached out to receive the scroll, but Jiraiya pulled it back just out of his reach.
"Now, I'll give it to you, if," Naruto mentally groaned at this, "if you take a look."
'take a look' obviously meant peek through the telescope and cross a line Naruto would have trouble forgiving himself for even putting an inch of his toe past.
His odds were not favourable. Jiraiya was a legendary sennin, one of the most powerful ninja on the continent today. That ruled out force.
Jiraiya also showed no openings. Trickery was ruled out too.
Oh well, as long as the lady on the other end never found out, then it should be fine.
Naruto sighed, "We'll do it your way then."
Giggling like a delighted school-girl, Jiraiya made room for Naruto, as if carrying out some holy ceremony even though it was anything but.
"Five seconds should be enough for you."
Unbelievable, Naruto rolled his eyes at the thought that man could still be stingy.
His eye descended on the eye-piece.
Five seconds later, Naruto straightened, thoroughly shaken in both mind and soul. He turned away and placed his palm over his eyes, as if penance for the sin he had just committed constituted robbing his eyes of light until the ends of time.
"So…you probably don't want to know this…" he paused for dramatic effect, "but you took ten seconds instead of five."
Naruto whirled round so fast, he actually got a little dizzy from the blood rushing to his head. Apparently his body had not woken up completely.
Ten? Impossible! He was not a pervert…was he?
Jiraiya's amused and mischievous expression greeted him and Naruto knew he had been had.
Good, if confronted with the knowledge he was even slightly as bad as Jiraiya, it might have resulted in a form of mental trauma.
He plucked the scroll Jiraiya had tossed at him out of the air. Time to put these shenanigans behind him. Forgetting what he had seen was a tall order, but he promised himself he would find a way to move on.
His eyes traced the brush of the strokes with practiced ease.
Naruto-kun,
Despite this being a mission in an official capacity, you may notice that this letter is not an actual mission directive, or rather, not formally written as one. I have done this in order to reach out to you in a way I have tried time and time again but have failed repeatedly, that is, as a friend.
Officially, your mission is to master the chakra of the bijuu sealed within you. Kumo is the only known village whose containers have come to be known as perfect jinchuriki. With the recently signed treaty coming into effect, this has been seen as a valuable opportunity.
You'll be surprised to know that this was a plan engineered by the Fourth Hokage, your late father.
Naruto's eyebrow rose by a milimetre, like it already had a few times while reading this letter, but overall it was nothing special, a fact the pervert noted with concern out of the corner of his eye.
He was engaged with talks with the Fourth Raikage about this matter by the end of the war. Your father's relationship with the man is perhaps the primary reason Kumo has accepted this treaty. So do not forget to be nice to him, Naruto-kun.
Nice? How was he supposed to be nice? Did the Hokage's definition of nice run parallel with polite? Wouldn't anything other than polite spell serious trouble for him?
He did not dwell long on his complete misinterpretation of what was supposed to be a joke, because he had other concerns he hoped the Hokage would settle for him with this letter.
Either way, you are to remain in Kumo until your skill in using the bijuu's chakra is deemed satisfactory, or until we call you back. I'm sure you have some concerns? Let me shed some light as to why you have no need to worry.
The most pressing issue is perhaps Danzou, right? And the seal he most unfairly cast upon you?
The seal is off, both the one above the Eight Trigrams Seal and the one that forbids you to speak of the former seal and Danzou. You may extend your thanks to Jiraiya, who is probably with you as you read this.
The boy raised his eyes slightly, catching a glimpse of the man who was currently on his hand and knees before the telescope, begging for a certain curtain not to be drawn.
Needless to say, he quickly ignored the man in favour of going through the rest of the scroll.
As of this moment, you are currently out of reach of Danzou's influence. You are no longer 'ash'. You need not worry about him bothering you anymore. Hopefully by the time you come back (hoping also it will not be too soon) Danzou will be a problem neither of us have to deal with ever again.
Naruto easily read between the lines. What the Hokage was alluding to, while dangerous was also a welcome thought.
Knowing this for the red-head was equivalent to taking the weight of the world off his back. Muscles he did not even know were tense suddenly relaxed.
Leave it to us Naruto-kun. There is no need to involve yourself in this.
Secondly; the manner in which you were 'prepared' for this mission. As you may have realized by now Kakashi was acting under my orders. We felt it better that he applied the Gogyo fuuin without your knowledge, just in case you did not feel like you could trust us pull you out of Danzou's grip. Also, the Gogyo Fuuin was implemented in order to increase the slim chances of removing Danzou's seal without the original breaking down completely.
After your 'capture', you were handed to my three students. Tsunade kept you stable while Jiraiya and Orochimaru worked on the seal. If you are still with them, do not forget to offer them your thanks.
As soon as they can the three of them will leave you in Kumo for they still have their own duties to attend to. Your last mission in Iwa created quite a stir.
While there you will soon meet with their Raikage who will flesh out the remaining details, as well as your training regimen and your accommodations.
Those are the details of your 'official mission'.
Sky-blue eyes narrowed.
This part is not all that pressing, but would still benefit Konoha greatly, as well as yourself. It sounds quite simple really.
Make friends.
Build relations with Kumo's people so that this treaty will extend past our generation and far into your own. It may be hard to accomplish, after all I am uncertain whether you see me as a friend, but I ask that you try, so that when you are in trouble, you have someone to turn to. You may turn to them for the village, but personally I believe that it's important you do so for your own sake.
Naruto did not raise his eyebrows in alarm, nor accept what he had just read like an emotionless machine that only worked to accept commands he had been given.
He sighed, and it was a deep sigh, but it was only in mind and not in body. The only outward reaction he showed was a slight tilt of his head and his eyes may have stayed shut for a second longer than it took to blink.
All reactions that Jiraiya observed as closely as if Naruto had been the lady on the other end of the telescope.
I believe that that is all I have to say, Naruto-kun. Stay safe, do not make me regret this treaty, do not give the council or the Fire Daimyou a reason to regret this treaty, and do not forget those who care about you that you have left in Konoha.
Until the next time we meet,
Yours truly,
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage.
The scroll rolled up with a snap, before Naruto placed it down.
"Got any questions, kid? I don't have that much time left," JIraiya said.
Naruto's eyes shut in quiet contemplation. "A few," he said, "In all respects Konoha just gave away their one jinchuriki to Kumo, a village which has two which are both highly trained. What does Konoha stand to gain?"
"Simple, open up a few trade routes, get back some stolen artifacts, some random secrets here and there and a jinchuriki," he said it as if he were skimming through a newspaper.
"A jinchuriki, you say…so this is an exchange?"
"Yup, an untamed fox for a house-broken cat, interesting eh?"
"And this is for as long as it takes for me to master the chakra?"
"Yup"
Naruto concluded that this must have been the first treaty of its kind. Leave it to his father to come up with something like this.
He stood up and twisted his body, feeling joints snap back into place with loud popping noises. "Another question; how long was I out?"
Jiraiya answered immediately, "Two weeks, just got here in fact, with Tsunade keeping you stable and alive the whole way while Oro and I worked to remove the seal. You lucky bastard," Jiraiya chuckled bitterly at this part, "the way Tsunade held you as she fed your unconscious body. Even Dan would feel jealous. If I were you, I would not wash that face for weeks."
Naruto froze. "Just what did she do?" he was almost afraid to ask.
"Tell you so you can rub it in with that 'it means nothing to me' face? I'd rather die." Jiraiya said while imitating Naruto's still-developing voice. "You'll have to hurry it up though kid, clock's ticking."
The older man blinked in surprise at the sight of Naruto bowing to him.
"Allow me to thank you Jiraiya-sama. I know for a fact that Danzou's seal is very complicated. It must have caused you an extraordinary amount of trouble to remove it. For that, you have my eternal gratitude. Please, while I have little knowledge concerning Danzou's dealings, I would glkadly assist in any way I can."
Eternal gratitude, eh? Jiraiya repeated in his mind. His large hand fell upon the boy's locks of untamed blood-red hair, ruffling it up even more. "It was nothing, don't even mention it. And forget about Danzou. He's none of your business anymore. Really, you know I'd do anything for my cute god-son."
Naruto accepted the rough treatment without a word. It got even worse when Jiraiya saw the slight up-turn the corner of his lips made. The pervert laughed, "Good, good, that makes what?...like four now? Can't wait to tell Oro, Hime and the old man. They have to realize I'm kicking their asses by now."
"Ok, so you be a good boy. I've left you all the currently out books in my Make-Out franchise out in the living room of this house. It's time you were introduced to my art, boy. And there's a cute girl next door, so you have to take advantage of that. If you need advice on it, just consult my books."
"I'm thirteen," Naruto blandly replied.
"Never stopped me, and sure as hell didn't stop your old man," was Jiraiya's witty reply.
What kind of pervert was he?
"Till next time, Naruto," and Jiraiya burst into a cloud of smoke, disappearing after forever tarnishing Naruto's image of the Fourth Hokage.
Naruto realized that was a shadow clone. Jiraiya's own mission must have been quite important if he could not afford to stay.
He strode out of the bedroom and along a corridor with but one goal in his mind. The living room was impressive and expansive, with obviously expensive couches, a conjoined kitchen and another balcony offering another view of Kumo's horizon.
Naruto noted all of this, before his eyes fell on the four books on the coffee table surrounded by the couches. Make-out tactics, arranged chronologically.
Right beside the books lay a blue-clothed hitai-ate on which was engraved Konoha's symbol. Naruto picked it up and felt his fingers rub against the worn metal covered with scratches and scars.
Jiraiya and the Hokage were trying very hard as always, Naruto noted. In this case, he did not particularly mind. He returned it to its place on the table.
Without an ounce of shame, Naruto then skipped the first two books for the third, looked over the cover and nodded to himself in satisfaction. In a sense, it bothered him because if Jiro and Makoto really were blood-related siiblings, he would seriously begin to consider his teacher's tastes.
After a quick shower and a fresh change of clothes, Naruto settled down at the small yet admittedly grand dining table in the apartment. Given that there was no wall between the kitchen and the living room, the dining table stood at a metre away from the couch which could probably be said to be where the boundary between the two lay.
Obviously, he was being treated as an honored guest.
He had heard the rumours.
In Kumo, jinchuriki were treated as gods. Perhaps putting it like that was an exaggeration, yet it was no lie that Kumo's people held nothing but respect and admiration for these people who acted as vessels for the tailed beast. In their eyes, they were their human champions whose will alone held back power that could obliterate mountains in the blink of an eye.
The story was not all sugar and spice however.
This adoration only blossomed out during the Third Shinobi World War, when the so-called Killer Bee had completely mastered the power in his fingertips. Shortly after was Nii Yugito, and a new chapter was ready to be written in Kumogakure's history.
If they would extend the same courtesy to him, he would not refuse. After all, Sarutobi-sama had told him to 'be nice'. Naruto however was not so conceited to believe he deserved this lavish apartment.
A ninja's level of skill dictated the type of missions he would be assigned. Amount of pay was proportional to the complexity or danger a mission posed. It stood to reason then, that the more accomplished a ninja was, the bigger his bank account. However, many of these bank accounts were barely emptied for most of the month, unless it meant weapon costs.
The reasons were simple.
A ninja never knew if the next mission would be his last.
Most of these missions meant the shinobi would need to spend weeks outside the village.
Therefore a ninja, unless part of a bigger family, would only ensure that his home offered the minimum amount of comfort. A ninja like Hatake Kakashi fit perfectly under this example, despite being the only heir to Hatake Sakumo's estate and undertaking years upon years of A to S-class missions.
Obvious exceptions to this unwritten rule were the clans, who practically flaunted their wealth and prestige as a demonstration of power. Konoha's Hyuuga clan was the first example to pop up in Naruto's mind.
The red-head obviously felt like he belonged to the former, even though back in Konoha he had settled in the Sarutobi estate. This was a far cry from his previous quarters though.
In the bedroom, there had been a double-door entrance to a huge closet.
He had felt like he was stepping into another world.
It was practically a room all on its own. It did not contain just clothes either. At its end stood a wall, mounted with a variety of weapons Naruto would be hard-pressed to find outside a hidden village.
From standard shuriken to the windmill type, from double bladed kunai to quad-bladed sword type kunai, from swords to chained kusarigama, it was enough to fulfill the fantasies of a pubescent male ninja. His ninja training had begun early, at an age where his body had not properly developed yet. To compensate for the lack of power in his blows, he had to settle for sharp pointy things and eight years down the line he was something of a weapons expert.
He proved this when he picked up the only scythe here and twirled it from hand to hand and around his back and neck, slashing through invisible opponents. The design of the staff appeared hellish, with streaks of black and red. Perhaps it was meant to embody the demonic nature of the nine tailed fox with its red fur and all.
In terms of shinobi armour, the most unique piece he found was a pair of gauntlets. They consisted of fingerless gloves that went just up to his elbows and a pair of thick white plates. The plates were shaped in the Hidden Cloud emblem, as in practically wearing the village's enlarged symbol on his sleeves. Still, declaring your allegiance like this was far from normal, so it would probably take a while for people to figure it out.
An extremely conspicuous design, yet their light nature and useful defensive capabilities overrode those disadvantages. Kakuzu's punch had left something of a dark imprint on his memory.
In terms of what he actually wore, he was obviously not a picky person so a dark long-sleeved shirt and pants did the trick for him. Whoever picked out his clothes obviously had his tastes in mind, right down to the selection of boxers. Naruto was disturbed by this, albeit mildly yet still disturbed.
The wraps that would have gone around his shins were too long, so he opted to try out Kumo's custom standard shin guards. The piece of white and red fabric fit easily around his leg. The weight on his leg was a little more than he was used to, but he could adapt with ease. If it could add even a little more power to his blows or a little more defense against impacts, Naruto would gladly welcome that practicality.
Kumogakure was situated in a mountain range as mentioned before and true to the fact that 'the higher you go, the cooler it becomes' the difference in temperature between here and the tropical Konoha was plain as day.
Naruto felt that the thick white scarf wrapped around his neck was a must. With the demon's chakra invading his coils drop by drop, there was extremely little possibility of him getting sick, but Naruto was not so much a machine that he disregarded his personal comforts too much.
As he sat down to once more drown himself in the plot of Jiraiya's literary works, the door shook as a knock reached his ears.
Frankly, he had expected it sooner, but now was as good a time as any.
He was in a foreign village and this was not any random mission. Of course, he would have to meet with the Kage. Common sense demanded it.
Opening the door revealed a dark-skinned man standing behind it. Shaggy white hair that fell over his left eye covered the crown of his head. He wore the standard Kumo jounin attire, the only difference being the high coloured sleevless shirt he wore under the one-strap-over-one-shoulder Kumo flak jacket. The slouched posture and hands that were dug deep into his pockets were all too familiar.
"Yo," the man said in the way of greeting.
That lazy voice was all too familiar.
"Would you happen to be hiding a doujutsu (eye-technique) behind that hair?"
Naruto felt that this question just had to be addressed, even if ninja were prone to guarding secrets about their techniques to a selfish extent.
The man was slightly confused, as shown by how he tilted his head slightly. Chills raced up and down Naruto's back.
"No…I don't have one of those. Why do you ask?"
"It's nothing, you remind me of someone I know." It was almost scary.
At least there was no mask.
"My name is Darui. The Raikage has summoned you. I'm here to escort you to meet him," the ninja, now identified as Darui, drawled, doing nothing to hide his lazy nature. Only the thickness of his arms spoke otherwise. Apparently, this was a personality that was locked away in the heat of battle.
Putting on a pair of black ninja boots and grabbing the key, the boy stepped outside and locked the door to the apartment. Darui had already begun walking down the hallway to the stairs, so Naruto's pace was already a fast one to catch up.
The boy wondered if he should strike up a conversation with Darui with the goal of information gathering but ultimately decided against it.
His reasons were that he was bad with small-talk, even to pick up some information, and that the Raikage would probably tell him everything. After all, this man had been trusted by his own father. Naruto's high degree of faith in the yellow flash demanded he show the Raikage at least a little.
The corridor was curved, due to the structure being built around a peak of the mountain range, as most of Kumo's buildings were. This meant the stairs spiraled down to the ground floor.
Two people were coming up just as Naruto and Darui stepped on the stairs.
"Darui-san," one of them greeted. It was an undeniably beautiful blonde girl wearing a pair of glasses, whose hair was a golden waterfall that flowed down to her waist and who at the age of thirteen also showed all the signs of becoming a voluptuous woman.
Naruto failed to notice even a single thing about her.
His attention was instead fixated upon her companion; a girl of similar age but slightly shorter.
Her silver hair covered her head like a mushroom, flaring out at the ends that pointed to the floor, except for bangs that clung to the sides of her face. This hair covered her forehead messily and one especially thick lock hung right between blood red eyes that stared dully at him.
She was dressed in a tight dark sleeveless sweater and arm warmers that extended to the top of her biceps.
Small drops of sweat gathered on Naruto's fore-head, yet if you asked him, he would say the warmth had completely fled from his body. It came racing back a second later though, as memory flashes assaulted his mind and the demon's chakra thrashed against the gates.
Naruto spoke instinctively.
"S-Sena-chan?"
Right before him, the girl seemed to come to life as previously dull eyes lit with a ferocious fire.
Darui had stopped to observe the second he saw Naruto's shocked face. The blonde girl had almost spoken up until she too heard the name that spilled from Naruto's lips. Her reaction was not as severe as her companion, as she only gasped with her hands over her mouth.
'Sena-chan' grabbed Naruto's shoulders with an iron grip. "S-Sena…my sister," she gasped, "you just said my sister's name! You looked at me and then you said my sister's name! Do you know her?! You know her right?!"
Naruto blinked at the word 'sister'. Recognition as well as realization as well as another feeling flashed across his face in stages before a stern expression permanently settled there.
As the girl before him continuously demanded him to speak, he reached up and pushed her hands away, before quickly side-stepping her and making his way down the steps.
"Hey you! Stop! You know something don't you!? Answer me!" Naruto ignored her shrieks even as he passed Darui and the blonde girl.
She would not be easily denied though.
A burst of speed had her standing a few feet in front of Naruto, her defiant stance speaking in volumes of how he would not get past her without answering her questions.
Naruto however, was not in the mood. Mental power kept the Kyuubi's chakra firmly behind bars, yet her appearance had already unbalanced him emotionally enough that some had slipped through.
She was perhaps the only one capable of this feat.
This did not mean that his father's seal failed to live up to its duties. The Eight Trigrams Seal was designed to let drops of the demon's chakra intermingle with his own. This was done to acclimate Naruto's body to handle the demon's chakra with a little more ease. Other benefits were to bolster his own chakra supply as well as an increased healing rate.
However, no benefit was without risks.
The rate at which the chakra flowed into his body could be said to be inversely proportional to the stability of his mental state.
In other words a more stable mindset meant a small stream of chakra.
A less stable mindset meant anything from raging river to roaring waterfall.
Naruto had held it back…barely. Some traces still lingered though.
These traces were responsible for Naruto's aggression, and thus the reason he said,
"Stand aside girl," his eyes were as cold as ice, "don't make me hurt you."
"Answer me!"
She stepped forward and grabbed at him, and then suddenly she was being pinned against the wall face-first, with her arm twisted painfully behind her.
Naruto held her there with an unshakeable grip, even as she struggled against him.
"Let her go, Uzumaki-san," Darui commanded. His voice had long lost that lazy edge.
His heart pounding in his chest, Naruto complied and let her go. She turned immediately to face him, but the boy was already beating a hasty retreat down the stairs.
Naruto arrived at the next floor, where the floor evened out and the next couple of steps would lead him to the next staircase that led to the next floor.
The girl stopped him here again, but at this point violence was far from her mind. On this flat surface, she fell to her knees before him, her face doing nothing to hide her desperation. Rather, she had not even thought of hiding it.
Tears threatened to spill out of her eye and her expression spoke of unimaginable pain.
"Please! I beg of you! I haven't seen my sister in years! She was taken from me! All I want now is to see her again! If you can tell me anything that will help me find her! Anything! I'll forever be in your debt!"
Her forehead was pressed against the floor now in a full bow.
Naruto did not notice. After seeing her anguished expression, he was suddenly in the forests of Kusa, surrounded by thin tall trees and large mushrooms alike.
Her anguished face stared at him desperately, her tiny left hand crushing his own hand while her right hand found purchase on his shirt, tearing it even more.
"PLEASE!" Her scream echoed in his ears, bringing him back to reality.
Naruto glanced at her, then looked away quickly. The image of her in complete submission would have melted the heart of any human being.
Naruto was a little different though.
"I don't know what or who you're talking about," he said, each word falling like a hammer strike. "I've never met anyone who even resembles you. You're talking to the wrong person."
His legs moved, almost not of his own accord as he continued to trace his path down the steps.
The blonde girl immediately moved to help her friend, who did not move an inch after Naruto's declaration.
"Ayame-chan, please take Sen-chan back home. Make sure she gets some rest."
"Understood, Darui-senpai."
Stifling a sigh at how troublesome this had just become, he quickened his pace. At the ground floor entrance to the building he finally spoke up.
"The reports said you were a pretty much emotionless guy. You definitely feel that way to me, but your first expression when you saw Sen-chan showed how shaken up you were."
Naruto's retort was swift.
"I don't know what you saw, Darui-san, but I will admit I am not a machine. Even I can be surprised."
"What do you think happened back there?"
"You saw it right? A girl I don't know rather enthusiastically thought I apparently know her sister. I corrected her."
"So who's Sena-chan? She didn't say her name. You did," Darui accused Naruto while amazingly being able to sound as if this was a very dull topic to him.
"I do not know what you're talking about."
Naruto already knew the evidence was stalked up against him. His only hope was to change the topic and pray to god that no one would ever ask him that question again.
These emotions were hard enough to deal with.
"Aren't we supposed to be on our way to the Raikage's office."
"Ah, you're right. The Raikage will kill me for being late." He did not sound scared at all. "Allow me to apologize for Sen-chan's behavior and for delaying you. Let's go before he sends someone to check on us."
Meeting 'Sen-chan' had set off a cyclone of thoughts in Naruto's head, none of which he had the capacity or the want to deal with. However he was unsettled enough that he was startled when they arrived at the base of the peak on which the Hokage's tower was built.
Kumo's streets were a series of anticlines and synclines.
Leave it to a ninja village to find strange places to settle.
Flat roads were rare enough. Any building not attached to a part of the mountain stood on a level platform raised over the sloppy land, no doubt the work of earth-style ninjutsu.
The streets were bustling with people going about their daily business.
Kumo had as much a healthy population of blonde people as well as dark-skinned people. Dark-skinned people were native to the Land of Lightning while blondes could be found just about anywhere up north, which was why even in the Land of Earth they were a common breed. Raven hair and brunnettes were common everywhere.
Yet red hair was a dying breed, ever since the fall of the Uzumaki clan.
As if that did not make him conspicuous enough, he was also walking around with Darui. The man with the dull look on his face was rather famous in this village, being one of the successors of the former Raikage's black lightning techniques and also considered to be the current Raikage's right hand man by many, even the Raikage himself.
Still this should not raise so many alarms by itself. The other factor was the rumours about the 'new jinchuriki' that Konoha had lent them.
Naruto had no fame to his name.
Most of the people of Konoha had forgotten he existed.
The missions he undertook under Danzou and the Hokage's orders had him wearing a mask and even in those missions, he rarely used the Kyuubi's chakra for active combat. As a result, even though the people of Kumo knew a jinchuriki is coming, they had no idea what to expect.
Seeing Darui, the man who was only anti-social due to laziness, walk side by side with a never before seen red-head was enough for people to connect the dots. Thus Naruto was the target of quite a few stares.
Add the whisker-like birth marks into the equation and it would take a special branch of ignorance to not figure out what was going on.
He noticed them, and they bothered him slightly. After all, in Konoha he had never walked about so freely. Yet that detail was forced to the back by the face of the sliver-haired girl which firmly implanted itself in his mind.
If he had paid more attention to the people around him, perhaps he would have noticed that the last thing in their eyes was hatred and disgust.
The Raikage's tower put the Hokage's tower back in Konoha to shame, in terms of height, though maybe you could say that using a mountain as a foundation was cheating in a sense. Naruto walked up and up the endless stairs of the blue tower.
He was not tired by the end of it. After all, he was a trained ninja, and they could run for a whole day if they had to, if the use of chakra was allowed.
Still, he had to admire Kumo ninjas endurance. A higher altitude meant the air had a lower oxygen content. He was already taking deeper breaths to compensate. Yet Darui beside him could have been a walking corpse, for all the movement his chest showed.
It was when they arrived at the office that a disembodied voice echoed off the walls of the hallway they stood in.
"Darui, sorry but he just left. Left through the window this time."
Kumo's Anbu, Naruto realized. Now that he had been jolted out of his thoughts, he could sense the faint wisps of presences around him, watching his every move.
To pry any deeper in order to find their actual positions would be rude, so he refrained. It was alright, since he could sense no killing intent emanating from those presences.
Darui sighed, "Reiko-chan?"
"Who else?" the mysterious Anbu answered with a chuckle, "He should be over at Unraikyo valley reshaping the landscape with B-sama."
"You can take a shortcut through the window he broke," another disembodied voice offered, but Darui scoffed, much to the amusement of the Anbu if the disembodied chuckles were anything to go by.
"Doors were made for a reason. Let's go Uzumaki-san." Darui turned on his heel and went back the way they came. He really was going to leave this place through the front entrance.
Naruto followed, a little perturbed and a little interested in the happenings. Anbu that freely had a conversation while he was present, even though they were concealed? Was this village really that lax? Was this some attempt to make him feel more comfortable here?
If he had to choose, he would go with the latter, but for Naruto who had trouble accepting good will even if he tried, this only caused the opposite effect.
They made it out back outside, where Darui turned to him and said, "Unraikyo valley is a little far from here. It would be better if we ran there. You don't mind taking to the rooftops do you?"
From the mouth of any other foreign ninja, those words would have only been seen as a challenge. Darui made it seem like he himself would mind going to all that trouble. It almost felt like a plea to walk.
However Naruto felt like a good run would only wake up his slightly sluggish body and if he had to watch his step then he could keep his mind off of silver hair and red eyes.
He nodded, and a moment later, the body flicker jutsu carried both he and Darui to the rooftop of a nearby building.
"It's this way," Darui said while coiling his leg muscles. Naruto meant to copy his actions when an alarm went off in his head.
Someone was watching him a little bit too closely.
It was not killing intent. This could probably just be called pure intent. This person was so focused on him, the village around her could have been swallowed into the depths of hell and all this stalker would be interested in would be which foot he used to take the next step.
Anbu were better than this, so he felt that he just could not ignore this as village security. A slight turn of his head, allowed him to catch a glimpse of silver moonlight in the shadows.
Naruto wanted to scream.
He opened his mouth to call her out and tell her to leave him alone, but instinct made him shut up. He would rather not face her. Perhaps if he ignored her, she would give up and leave? This were his thoughts as he rushed to catch up with Darui who was calling out for him.
Ten minutes later though, as he leapt off of steep slopes with Darui, his senses told him he was so wrong it was almost funny.
Naruto was not laughing.
Darui had to have noticed, but those dull eyes gave no sign that he was willing to do anything about it.
Fortunately enough, the rumbling of earthquakes and the roar of avalanches provided a welcome distraction.
Those Anbu were not joking when they used the phrase, 'reshaping the landscape'.
'Unraikyo valley' as the Anbu had called it, was a valley unlike most that Naruto had seen.
Putting it plainly, it was an oversized trench, whose floor was completely covered with water. Rock masses rose out of this water, spearing into the sky like some humongous spike death trap meant to trap and pierce titans.
They were like icebergs, only instea of icebergs, this was stone and soil.
On these rock masses, various craters of various sizes could be seen and on some entire portions had been blasted away.
In the centre of all of these, one rock mass had been excavated so that at its peak sat a small training dojo. From its entrance were a long flight of steps that led down to flattened ground, and that was where the two beasts in human skin, locked in fierce combat, battled for superiority.
Two men, whose bodies could only be described as pure concrete blocks of muscle dashed towards each other, their arms outstretched. Their arms collided with each other's upper body, and Naruto watched in awe as a cloud of dust expanded from their feet.
He had actually 'heard' the earth tremble beneath their might.
The one in a large dusty coat, that was once probably white, raised a foot and slammed it down, pushing himself forward and breaking in a new crater beneath his sole. His forearms was encased in some yellow metallic cylindrical objects, that looked like they weighed twice Naruto's own weight.
The other demon, dressed in Kumo's jounin garb, but with only the flak jacket covering his torso and a scarf roared out his defiance. The tips of his toes dug deep trenches in the worn ground, yet they lead away from his opponent.
His opponent roared back in kind and gave one more final titanic heave, completely lifting his opponent of his feet and sending him crashing into the stairs.
"We're in luck. Looks like their done."
Darui's voice broke Naruto out of his reverie.
Naruto had been in training since he was five years old. At that age, his muscles were far from developed, so he had to rely on tricks, jutsu and sharp weapons to take down his opponent.
Ninja in general, did not usually allow physical strength to win battles. If your earth dragon could crush a ribcage while your fist only left a bruise then the earth dragon was an obvious choice to take down your opponent.
Konoha's taijutsu expert, Might Guy, relied on a style called 'Strong Fist'. His punches could break bone, yet those were strikes. His punches knocked you out before you had a chance to retaliate with your own strength.
This was perhaps the first time Naruto had seen a battle where physical strength was used to determine the victor and not as a last resort.
For a first time, it did not disappoint. In fact, his expectations had been completely blown away.
The victor walked forward to his defeated opponent, with a scowl on his face. He seemed disappointed. His next words proved Naruto right.
"B! You're still too weak! All these years and your lariat still can't match mine!" He did not sound happy at all as he stood in front of the sprawled form of B. "Punishment: IRON CLAW!"
With one arm, he lifted B up…by his temples, as if this battle that had decimated portions of the valley had not been physically taxing at all.
B's shrill scream was not something Naruto had been expecting from such a large man.
"Bro! Let go! I can tell you fo' sho', next time I'll have it down yo!"
To rhyme poorly while in a very painful hold, Naruto wondered if he should be impressed or disturbed.
"Hmph, if you have any time to write more of your rhymes, then use it for training." Unimpressed, B's 'bro' tossed him away like a paperweight. He then turned, and looked straight at Darui and Naruto, the scowl on his face showing no signs of going away.
Naruto twitched.
"Looks like boss is still in somewhat of a bad mood, but you'll have to deal with it. Let's go." Naruto would have asked why he had to deal with it, if Darui had not already leaped to his boss.
He followed doing his utmost to hide any and all hesitation.
The Raikage, Naruto decided, was not a nice man. Pronounced cheekbones, a white split moustache and a white small beard, this was not a face designed to make you feel comfortable. Standing before this moving mountain, the red-head had to struggle not to inch away slowly.
This could be the man with the most intimidating appearance on this continent. A peek under his Kage's haori revealed muscles Naruto never knew a man could have.
The man's eye scanned him up and down, measuring his worth in seconds.
When he bent down and brought his face to within an inch of Naruto's, the boy only kept his poker face on because he felt like prey that would be gobbled up if he made the slightest move under the watchful eye of this monstrous predator.
The Raikage walked around Naruto. The feeling of being smothered persisted. When the man reached out and grabbed his bicep, Naruto reflexively flexed and the Raikage scoffed at the size of the muscle.
Naruto glanced at Darui, the man who he had only met less than an hour ago, but the only one who could offer some sort of help. When the man looked away nonchalantly, only the desperation of the moment made his betrayal sting so deeply.
"Impressive, for a thirteen year old, but still scrawny. Still I guess you're scrawny old man was more than a match for me." The Raikage said, stepping in front of Naruto.
The boy only bowed. "Raikage-sama," he greeted.
"You look nothing like him…except for his eyes. Yes, those are most definitely his eyes. Enough of this pointless talk. Those three bastards brought you in here unconscious. Can you fight?"
Taken aback by this question, it took Naruto a second longer than necessary to answer.
"…yes, Raikage-sama. I'm fully recuperated."
"Good, my idiot brother will train you. Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, meet B, Jinchuriki of the eight tailed ox-octopus."
"Yo, Mr Nine! With the bloody hair! We're gonna make them call you Kyuubi-sama, yeah!" It had to be the one with the horrible rhymes. Naruto cursed his luck.
The man in question, was very similar to A, the Raikage. Similar white hair that was combed back, the goatee and similar build. The similarities ended there. B wore dark sports shades, had the kanji for iron tattooed on his shoulder and tied a rope around the waist of his pants whose ends almost touched the floor. There were seven blades sheathed on his back, something Naruto found very curious.
He also wore a wicked grin that could only ever spell trouble.
Naruto disregarded the last part in favour of greeting him.
"Greetings B. I look forward to working with you."
"Don't be so stiff! Me training you is supposed to be like a treat!" B said, his arms flying all over the place as he rhymed.
And Naruto had thought Jiraiya and Orochimaru would be the strangest people he would ever meet.
"Shut up B," A commanded, "Let's get down to business. Uzumaki, you're completely in B's hands. Do what he tells you to do, go where he tells you to go, eat what he tells you to eat and shit when he tells you to shit. The timein which you may remain here is as of yet unspecified but don't use that an excuse to take your time even if you have no friends back home."
'….ouch?' Naruto was not sure what to think.
"But first, fight B. I wanna see what you're old man left behind."
B quickly took the stand. "Mr Nine, don't worry, the first to be your bro will be me, but only after getting your ass kicked by me! Yeah!"
If Naruto had the emotional capacity for it, he would have cursed. Fighting these beasts was the last thing he wanted to do.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, he was spared.
"Wait!"
Her feet hit the ground a few yards away in a crouch which she slowly stood up from. All present looked to her curiously, except Naruto who adopted a poker face stone could not break through.
Silver hair gleamed in the sun as she tossed her head back and glared at him. "I'll fight him." She asserted.
Darui asked the question on everyone's mind. "Sen-chan, why are you here?"
Her lips curled back in a snarl. "He's lying! He saw me and said my twin sister's name before he even knew my own. As my twin, she had my face so he must have known her!"
"I didn't," Naruto objected.
"Liar!" her scream was painful. Not to Naruto's ears though.
"Fight me! If I win, you tell me everything you know about her. If you win, I'll never bother you again." She put forth her challenge.
There was only one way Naruto was going to respond this and it was to swiftly refu-
"Actually this is better. B doesn't know how to go easy on someone anyway. Rather than strong defense, he is more prone to swiftly counter-attack and I don't think you're scrawny body could handle a punch from him."
"Don't worry, little guy. You still get points for housing Mr Nine, alright?"
It was at this point that Naruto realized he had to actually work for respect while he was here. Beneath the clothes, he actually had some muscles, a gift from Danzou's hard training. He was just a little short and had not hit the height growth spurt yet.
"Alright, first one's back to hit the ground is the loser. Let's make this quick." A laid down the rules in his gruff voice.
Sen stood before him, firm determination carved into her face, a mirror image of another girl Naruto had known years ago, albeit a little bit grown up.
He blinked to dispel the memories, before they captured him in their unrelenting cruel grip.
Simple movement carried the Raikage and the rest to the top of the staircase, leaving the two alone for what felt like a cruel showdown fated to happen.
She crouched like some predator ready to pounce.
Naruto sighed and loosened the scarf around his neck a little.
He would finish this fight quickly and hopefully she'd disappear from his life forever after this.
I have a little sister, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you'd like her.
The bones in his neck and shoulders popped as he twisted the joints.
"Three…Two…One…Begin!"
…Sorry, Sena-chan.
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