Chapter 19: Akuma defies Kami
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, fanfiction belongs to the people!
After two weeks of training, Naruko was showing definite signs of improvement. She was learning everything that was being taught to her, but she seriously needed a break.
Naruko fell to the ground, exhausted. She had a lot to learn during this time and only her toughness, stubborn streak and the increased learning rate she gained due to the curse seal's twisted influence allowed her to do so.
"Hmm. Hmm. Naruko-sama, you're doing good, so now I suggest you rest," Kayako ordered.
Naruko lifted herself up a bit. "I can go on for a bit longer. I need to raise the power levels a bit," she insisted.
"Naruko-chan, anymore and you'll probably break yourself for a month or so. Let's get some food in ya, rest up for a few hours, then ya should be right as rain," Fukasaku suggested.
Seeing as how Naruko wasn't willing to take that break, Shiratama sat on the girl's back, keeping her pinned to the ground. "If you can force yourself up with me here, then I'll allow you to keep going," she said. As expected, Naruko tried her best to get up, but two solid days of training had worn her out completely. "See? You need the rest, Naruko-sama. If you rest, you'll realize that what you call 'weak' is nothing more than strength that has been worn to the nub by exhaustion," Shiratama explained.
Naruko sighed as the kitsune got off her back. "Fine, but I'm going to make up for it tomorrow!"
"Hai, hai," Kayako muttered, somewhat amused by this girl's overflowing spirit.
[Konoha, twenty hours later]
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Within moments of those multiple explosions, a giant centipede appeared and started tearing apart the village. This was quite confusing, since both attacks came from different areas, something that would be impossible for a single intruder. To make matters worse, a string of ninja were quickly found dead, no outward signs of battle, just corpses.
And Pain, or at least the Deva Path, was making rounds, decimating Konoha ninja who refused to answer him. Kakashi quickly engaged him in combat. During this, two other Paths were doing their best to level as much of the village as they could, all to hide the quiet search and, though he wouldn't admit it, sate Nagato's need to get back at the village that killed his parents.
It was hard to believe that one ninja was destroying what had once been the strongest hidden village. Everyone in his path fell, everyone who opposed him found him nearly untouchable or unstoppable. Even Kakashi quickly learned that this man was no normal ninja. To combat the mounting injuries and casualties, Tsunade summoned Katsuyu to heal the wounded, regardless of whether they were alive or not.
The village's resistance lasted less than an hour, much longer than normal. Pain got what he wanted and then used a jutsu to reduce Konoha to a giant crater with the rubble of houses and a wall surrounding it. When Pain dropped into the crater, he realized he wasn't alone and the casualties were nowhere near what he had expected.
"Where are we?"
Pain turned to see that three massive toads and a few humans were standing a little ways behind him. He figured it was more resistance, so he approached, only to run into something he didn't expect.
It felt like...like his own Shinra Tensei, but it wasn't a wall of force, it was just a fog of chakra. It was heavy, thick, almost viscous, and filled with darkness. He found the source: a girl with red hair. She wore black shorts that were almost hidden under a long sleeveless black turtleneck sweater and a long red jacket with no sleeves that was open at the front, black flames along the bottom hem.
"Shiratama, Kayako, Kyou. Go look for Konoha," the girl ordered, the three other people stopped, looking about in confusion.
"Naruko-chan!" an old, female toad shouted as she hopped up, "I'm happy you arrived!"
"What's going on, Shima-san? I though you were bringing us to Konoha," Naruko said as she looked around.
"You're standing in the remains of it," Shima said as the dust started to settle.
"What?!" Naruko yelled as the Hokage Monument came into view with blasted ruin at its feet.
"This chakra, Pain's nearby," Fukasaku warned.
Naruko didn't have to look too far to find Pain, who stood within speaking distance of her now.
"You must be the Kyūbi's broken jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruko," Pain stated rather than asked.
Before Naruko could move, five more figures dropped in. "Those four are the rest of Pain, that girl must be a new one," Fukasaku said.
"You bastard!" Tsunade suddenly roared as she and her ANBU guard appeared, "I'll make you pay for what you did to Konoha!"
"So you finally seem to understand pain, but, like all others, you have been consumed by rage. No matter, you are of no concern to me anymore," Pain stated, the puppet one rushing at Tsunade, "my concern, my target-"
A double ended spear appeared in the puppet Pain's way, ripping it nearly in two as it tore through the shoulder and came out at the hip on the other side, the two halves of the body smashing into the ground behind Tsunade.
"Me! Namikaze Naruko!" the red haired girl shouted, holding a most unusual spear in her hands. It was black with gold edges, the heads being flame-like in appearance.
The ninja who were still alive started muttering about the girl's last name, wondering if she truly was the legendary Yondaime Hokage's daughter. Now that they thought of it, he had been very close to Uzumaki Kushina, a well known and feared redhead, and Naruko had red hair, so could she be a child of the two? She also acted similar to the deceased Yellow Flash, and she even had, on occasion, vanished in a red flash. And that temper of hers, so much like the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero's. Not to mention her outbursts...
'That baka gaki...She just had to drop the bomb now...' Tsunade thought.
"This trash isn't worth your time, baa-chan. Go do a crossword puzzle or some bingo," Naruko suggested, "this one is mine."
"Namikaze... That man is dead and his line ended with him," Pain stated.
Naruko growled, a second tail forming as chakra whirled around her hands. "That's true, but his spirit as a Hokage, as a protector resides within me! I will defeat you for crushing all that he protected!" she shouted.
Everyone who witnessed the Asura Path's destruction in one blow were surprised, since it had seemed to be one of the toughest bodies Pain had. Those who couldn't see that were informed and the surprise and admiration for Naruko grew. If she was this strong when they had ignored her, how powerful would she have been if they had trained her properly? The whole village felt that Pain would have avoided attacking if they had not been selfish and obtuse when it came to the young kunoichi. All this death and destruction was their fault, nobody else could be blamed. They tried to avoid her, thinking she was a monster, and made Sasuke as powerful as possible, only for it all to blow up in their faces. Sasuke was the monster, Naruko the hero. Every jutsu and skill Sasuke had been given for the purpose of justice had been warped into evil, and Naruko was supposed to defeat him with the meager abilities that she scraped together over the years. Suffice to say, a number of ninja wanted to teach Naruko now, and they would teach her in any way so that she may forgive them, even though they didn't deserve it.
"Everyone, go help the villagers. Gamakichi, take baa-chan away from here," Naruko lightly ordered, then glared at Pain, "what's the matter? Scared because I crushed that thing in one hit? Are you freezing up now that I'm here?"
Before she left, Tsunade had Fukasaku take one of Katsuyu's divisions to Naruko, where the small slug slipped into a pocket in her new jacket. She told the girl that Katsuyu would inform her of all they learned, not wanting to share a certain grim bit of n-
"Baa-chan, where's Kakashi-sensei?" Naruko asked, then remained silent for a moment, "is he...in the village?" When Tsunade didn't answer, Naruko lowered her head slightly. "I...see...Gamakichi, take her somewhere safe."
"Kuchiyose no jutsu," the Animal Path stated, a rhino appearing before it. The beast snorted, then rushed forward, aiming for the girl's shoulder.
Naruko summoned her second tail and jumped over the animal summon, her tails lengthening as they zeroed in on the rhino. They wrapped around it and Naruko pulled herself down, driving the spear straight through the summon's head, destroying it.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" the Animal Path snapped, obviously getting unnerved by Naruko's show of ability, mostly showing its frustration due to it summoning a bull and a dog at the same time. Fukusaku and Shima took care of them, allowing Naruko to rush forward, twirling her spear to increase the power of the stab she was planning to put through the Deva Path. She knew that the summons could be taken care of by her toad allies.
"Naruko-sama! The Pain in the middle is immune to ninjutsu, taijutsu and weapons! After he repels things, there are five seconds where he can't do it again!" Katsuyu shouted over the sound of the spinning spear.
Naruko saw one of the other Pains coming at her, so she swung the spear at him. The Path ducked under the blow, but Naruko's chakra coated tail smashed into his face, knocking him away from her.
The Deva Path noted that Naruko seemed to be able to use the tails of Kyūbi and she could control them as deftly as her own limbs. Close range combat would be a problem, especially with that spear and her chakra reserves.
Naruko stabbed the spear into the ground before her, letting go of it and taking a deep breath. She was consumed in a burst of red chakra, a sensation rolling off of her that even Sakura, despite the distance between them, recognized.
'Naruko's about to use that armor again? Did she master it already?' the medic thought. If that was the case, maybe she could defeat this guy.
"Armor," Naruko stated as the chakra died down, some sort of armored sleeves and gauntlets on her. Those without dōjutsu wondered what was going on, those with dōjutsu were stunned into silence as they stared at the girl.
The Deva Path narrowed his eyes. 'What's going on? That armor... it seems to be boosting her chakra reserves. I feel that there is something more to them, but no matter. This girl cannot hope to match Kami.'
Naruko took up her spear again and slung it onto her back. "This time, I'll take more than one out at once," she warned
"I don't understand you. Jiraiya-sensei taught you, so I expected you to come here with a half mastered sage mode or something, but you seem completely reliant on the Kyūbi within you," Pain stated.
Naruko glared at the man. "You have no right to call him sensei."
"I do have the right. He taught me ninjutsu years ago," Pain said, "we can relate that way. We can both say with confidence that our master strove to bring peace to this world."
Naruko formed her new jutsu with just one hand, surprising everyone who knew about her terrible chakra control. "You call this 'peace?' Is this what Jiraiya-sensei wanted?"
"Can't see the forest for the trees. You, child, have no idea what peace is. Your death is necessary for this world's peace," Pain stated.
"Just die already! Rasenshuriken!" Naruko roared, throwing the violet chakra shuriken at her foes. Pain's Paths scattered, though the Human Path was unfortunate enough to be in the path of the blade. When Naruko saw that it hit, she decided to finish it. A high pressure stream of deep orange flames struck the Path and the disc, making the dome of razor winds turn into a burning Hell of blades, utterly decimating the body.
The Animal Path glared at Naruko. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" it snapped, a large bird with a spear-like beak rushing forward. Naruko had obviously dodged the attack because another Rasenshuriken raced towards Pain, but they dodged it completely this time.
"Time to end this," Pain stated, knowing that he still had an advantage.
A dust cloud produced when Naruko punched the ground stole 'victory' from Pain. He couldn't see through it due to the chakra within the dust, but the end result was quickly seen: Naruko standing there with a black sword with golden flame-like blades, his Animal Path severed in two at the shoulder.
"A new weapon... What happened to your spear?" the Deva Path asked.
Naruko held the sword forward. "Right here."
"Don't take me for a fool," the Deva Path warned.
"Flamme Vierge can take on multiple forms," Naruko stated, the weapon breaking into fire that reformed into twin blades of some sort, ones that curved down over her hands like guards with two gently curved blades, almost like sickles, "I can fight anywhere and any way I want with this weapon in hand."
"You may be able to fight anywhere you want, but those blades are worthless before Kami's might," Pain stated, sending his Preta Path after her from behind, the Naraka path gathered the remains of the Asura Path, abandoning the Animal Path as one of the toads crushed it completely under its weapon.
Naruko turned, swiping at the Preta Path in an attempt to wound it, but it stepped back, avoiding the blow. The Naraka Path tried to back off so it could restore the Asura Path, but the toads would have none of that, so it dropped the remains on the ground, not wanting to needlessly hinder itself.
Pain frowned slightly. He had made a mistake bringing all his Paths before this girl. He had thought that, since he defeated Jiraiya while only losing the Animal Path, he'd be able to defeat this broken jinchūriki with even more ease. It was hard to admit this, but the girl was stronger than Jiraiya, or at least she was harder to fight. Could her damaged seal be the reason for this power? Also, why wasn't she being ruled by the bijū within her while using its power so heavily?
The armor on Naruko's arms cracked.
'This is my chance!' Pain thought as he moved forward, throwing a pair of chakra receivers at the girl's arms, the nigh indestructible weapons reducing the girl's armor to fragments.
"Should we fuse with her so she can use sage mode?" Shima asked.
Fukasaku shook his head. "Not much use in that."
Pain managed to get around the toads in spite of their stall tactics. He found it laughable, mere animals thinking they could hinder Kami. He'd defeat the girl and rip Kyūbi out of her so he could bring the world peace, if only for a short while. He got before her and created a chakra receiver blade to stab her so he could use his rinnegan to control her.
SNAP!
Fukasaku grinned. "She didn't learn it in time, but she got a new trick up her sleeve."
Naruko glared at Pain, whisker-like marks across her cheeks, her nails as sharp as steel and four tails swaying behind her. Fragments of the black blade fell to the ground before her. She reached out and grabbed Pain, swung him around, then threw him at a still standing structure, collapsing the ruin with Pain under it.
Naruko growled, throwing her cloak aside as she used her enhanced power to summon the full version of the armor to herself again, wincing as the curse seal acted up and spread across the armor slightly. As opposed to last time, the armor was less like bone and more like traditional armor, but it was somewhat scaled and had a more regal appearance. The 'suit' part had divided in two, the upper half becoming a short robe while the lower half remained as trousers, but were looser and the armor had become a separated set of greaves, the foot of the armor forming into claws. Naruko's hands were similarly armored, but it was much lighter and has similar scaling to it. Mini-Katsuyu hitched a ride on the coat tails, crawling up to Naruko's shoulder.
The rubble was blown away as Pain used an earth jutsu to free himself. He had suffered from that last attack, his robe torn in places, some blood dripping from his left arm. "You...What is that form?" he asked, panting slightly.
Naruko calmly stared back at Pain, then held a hand up and formed a katana out of chakra, one without a hand guard. "Now? I'm just a young woman out to kick a grown man's ass," she said, "overall, I am the Sanban Kyūbi, the empress of all Kitsune."
"You're insane, jinchūriki," Pain stated as he appeared a small distance from her.
"Think what you will," Naruko said.
"But I'm the real deal," she finished, standing behind Pain.
Before the man knew what was going on, a horde of Naruko clones assaulted him with their chakra swords. He created his own blades to fight with, shattering the pure chakra weapons with ease, but the sheer volume of the attack was beyond even his ability to deal with alone. He knew if he used Shinra Tensei, the rest of the clones would swarm him. Besides, he couldn't use it yet, not after crushing an entire village not too long ago.
"Kakashi-sensei said I was wrong about my jutsu before, but I'm not anymore," Naruko said as her tails came up, assisting her in creating a rasenshuriken, a bright red one.
Pain was somewhat stunned. How could she do this? There was no data on her having a kekkei genkai! How had Zetsu missed such a thing?
"Shakuton: Rasenshuriken!" Naruko shouted as she threw the burning disc. She fully expected the jutsu to hit the man and explode violently, much like before. To be honest, Naruko had only managed to produce the jutsu recently, so she didn't know what it did when it hit a target. It drained her more than a rasenshuriken and a kitsune fire breath, but it had to be worth it!
The Pain Naruko defeated a while ago appeared and, just by standing there in some weird pose, negated the deadly attack.
"What was that?!" Naruko asked nobody in particular, "I destroyed that one, so why is it back?!"
"Naruko-sama, look to the right," the mini-Katsuyu instructed. When she knew that Naruko had looked, she explained that the one by the giant head had to be able to revive the defeated bodies while the one that blocked the jutsu was a chakra absorber. She warned the girl that the one that seemed to be the leader had the ability to attack or defend himself with invisible force, or he could drag people towards him, though he hadn't used the ability in a while.
"So the 'medic' is my target then," Naruko said, then grinned wickedly as her predatory instinct awoke and further merged itself with the curse seal's influence, "I'm going to enjoy this!"
Naruko swung her tails down, catapulting chakra filled dust everywhere, blinding Pain again. Once more, a purple rasenshuriken flew out, which the Preta Path absorbed, saving the Deva Path, but it didn't notice til the last moment that what he caught was a shadow clone, which stabbed him in both legs with solid kunai, something the Path couldn't defend itself against.
Pain noticed the second rasenshuriken coming at him, this one being red. 'Scorch Release...'
The cloud cleared a bit, revealing a pair of glowing lavender eyes with a bit of a wild look to them. "Got you," Naruko growled, grinning.
The attack seemed to hit, but the flames were suddenly blown back by an invisible force. "Did you think I would fall that easily, girl?" Pain asked, looking extremely smug.
"Of course!" Naruko shouted, bursting out of the ground behind the Naraka Path, using her tail blades and Flamme Vierge to shred it into pieces. With that Pain down, Naruko and her clone rushed forward, intent on defeating the main body.
"Shinra Tensei!" Pain shouted, a dark chakra barrier appearing and throwing both Naruko back, the fake being dispelled, the real one losing its weapon.
Naruko got up and watched as Pain and the other one, the chakra absorber dodged around the attacks of the toads, making a mockery of their abilities. "So that's his power. Damn, he got it back already and used it quite quickly. How am I going to get through that?" she asked mini-Katsuyu.
"That Pain's ability is a much smaller version of the one he used to crush Konoha. I guess that the larger the jutsu effect, the longer the cooldown. I remember hearing that it takes him five seconds to recharge or recover from using the small version he just used," mini-Katsuyu explained.
"So I need to destroy that chakra absorber, which renders ninjutsu useless, then force that Pain to use his barrier and then hit him in a five second window?" Naruko asked.
"Yes, Naruko-sama," mini-Katsuyu said.
"We'll create an opening with genjutsu, just like before," Shima suggested.
Naruko thought of it for a moment, then she grinned again. "Alright...Heh."
Fukasaku wondered how much longer Naruko could keep it up. Her personality was already warping a bit, too much longer and she'd go completely psycho again and he was pretty sure that Gamabunta would grumble about her injuring him if he tried to stop her again.
"Shinra Tensei!" And with that, the only toads that were able to do anything at all were Shima and Fukasaku.
"Damn! Naruko, go tear into him while we get ready for our genjutsu!" Fukasaku shouted, knowing it would set her off.
Naruko created a pair of katana from chakra, then started to walk towards Pain.
"You are strong, forcing my hand the most out of all those I faced, but..." Pain said, holding his hand out. Naruko instantly felt the pull of the jutsu, Katsuyu falling off her as the kitsune was pulled towards Pain's outstretched hand. Pain tightened his grip around Naruko's throat after she made contact, pulling her closer to him as he glared into her eyes. "Nobody can defeat me," he finished, shoving her away from him, into the Preta Path's waiting arms. "I'll make you more docile by absorbing your chakra. When you have calmed down enough," Pain stated, a chakra receiver coming out from under his sleeve, "I will show you how I control my other bodies, using yours of course."
"Heh... Heheheh. You think you can hold Kyūbi back?" Naruko asked, a wild grin and slitted eyes greeting Pain, "I'll- Ahhhh... Huh?" She felt a tugging at her, one of her tails receding, another starting to shrink down as well.
"No matter what you claim to be, you cannot defeat me, ever," Pain stated as Naruko calmed down, losing all aside from her non-chakra constructed tail, the armor losing most of the shine, looking more like dull bone now, "Kyūbi is mine now."
"Damn you..." Naruko weakly growled. She had no choice but to try and revive her hunting instinct by unleashing the curse seal a bit more.
Pain merely narrowed his eyes as the Preta Path absorbed more of Naruko's chakra. She was annoyingly tough, but everything had its breaking point. "Does it anger you that much? I killed Jiraiya, I destroyed your village, I even killed hundreds of people, all to capture you," Pain said, "and here you are, unable to move, unable to do anything aside from watch." He frowned at her continued resistance. "Do you love your village that much, so much that you'd kill yourself for it?" he demanded.
The Preta Path suddenly mutated, various limbs erupting from its back as its body withered away. Naruko herself roared as she entered a three tailed stated, but the curse seal spread again, much quicker than ever before. Naruko looked at Pain as her left eye's sclera turned almost black. "Love this village? Love this village?! WHO WOULD LOVE THIS VILLAGE?!" she roared, the air vibrating, "a village full of people who praise forgiveness, acceptance and harmony, then decides that one of their own is undeserving of those same things?! Who would love a village full of hypocrites?!"
A number of people, the few civilians that survived, wondered what the girl was going on about? Of course a demon didn't deserve any of that. The shinobi, the few still stuck in their ways, frowned at the girl's outburst. A hand full of civilians and many shinobi lowered their heads in shame, knowing that it was finally happening, that the village would finally hear the voice and pain of the one they muted and hurt, the one who held their lives in her hands. Nobody, not even Kami Herself, would blame Naruko if she just walked away, especially after how she had been treated by the people.
"Let me tell you a story of a little girl," Naruko started, "a little girl wanted nothing more than for people to accept her and love her, but all they did was hate her, whisper to each other when they thought she couldn't hear them, pulled their children away when she just wanted to play, tried their best to make sure she was a stupid loser with no future. She grew bitter and started to do what she could to get back at the people, mostly just messing with them. She had learned to hate because that was all she knew, all she had been taught by the villagers."
"After a year at the ninja academy, she had a new teacher take over her class halfway through, a man who believed that teaching the next generation was a privilege. She quickly made him regret it, made him yell at her for all the pranks she pulled on him. He spent a lot of his free time watching her clean up her messes or struggle to do work he assigned her to correct her behavior. After five months of this, just before the academy classes switched, he stopped her after class and decided to try and bond with her, to learn of why she hated everything without a clear reason. He forgot that it was nearly the end of the month, a week before he got his paycheck, so he had no choice but to take her to a small ramen stand."
"That tiny ramen stand, in the presence of a worn out teacher, a young girl learning to cook and an older man who was a master of noodles and broth all broke the girl's wall down with their sheer kindness. She told them that she was lonely, that she just wanted to disappear because nobody wanted her around, because everyone hated her very existence... Do you know what happened next?" Naruko paused for a moment, then took a deep breath, "the girl was hugged. At nine years old, she was hugged for the first time in her entire life. Maybe she was hugged by her mother before she died, maybe nobody had ever hugged her before, but to that girl, it was the first time another person toughed her. The young girl who was learning to cook had hugged her, telling her that there were people who wanted her to live, people who liked her. The academy girl knew it was true because she could feel hot tears on her shoulder. The older man joined in the hug and, after he hesitated for a few moments, the teacher was pulled in as well. The girl had finally learned something good from people: love and forgiveness."
Naruko gestured to the various people lining the crater. "Most of those people, they're the ones who taught me to hate, to despise everything around me. I don't know what happened to the cook, his daughter or the teacher. Maybe you killed them, maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter at all," Naruko growled, the curse seal doing nothing to her in the face of her rage, "I also learned to be true to myself not too long ago. I despise most of Konoha, but I listened to the Sandaime and he always said we need to accept and protect each other, even if we don't like each other." The girl took a deep breath. "I hate them, but I won't let the likes of you to kill them, because that would make me as pathetic as all of them."
There wasn't a single person anymore who hated the girl, not after hearing her story, hearing of how they had betrayed the very beliefs that the village had been founded upon. How could they hold their heads high and claim to be kind when they mistreated an innocent child? How could they ever think she was a monster when all she wanted was acceptance? Thinking back on it, many realized that they had noticed the girl's loneliness, her pain, but they told themselves that it wasn't real, no, they lied to themselves, tricked themselves into thinking she had no emotions other than murderous rage, the very rage that they taught her. With those realizations, dread took hold of their hearts. Naruko could, at any time, let Pain kill them, or even help the man do it. It wouldn't be revenge, it would be justice.
"I'll show you power and I'll teach you the true meaning of pain!" Naruko shouted.
Pain said nothing, just held his hand out. Within a moment, Fukasaku flew over to him, only to be cut down by the man. "I've had enough of your horrible song," he stated.
Ino and the investigation team had arrived at Shikamaru's location. After relaying the information on Pain, and hearing Naruko tell her own story as if it were the past of some long dead person, everyone watched in shock as Pain claimed one of the toads as his newest victim. It tore Ino apart to hear all that her girlfriend had gone through, knowing that she had ignored the girl just as much as anyone else. But seeing that toad die, seeing Naruko's face twist into a pained rage, she knew that Pain was dead, whether or not he had a hundred bodies, Naruko would utterly destroy him.
"RASENGAN!" Naruko roared, trying to hit the man with the jutsu as lava hot tears ran down her face. Her attack was stopped when Fukasaku was thrown at her, then Pain struck her hard in the collar bone, flipping her over so she landed on her back. With her down, he stomped on her stomach, hard, making her cough up blood.
"That love makes you weak," Pain stated, driving a chakra receiver stake through each of her palms. He produced more stakes and stabbed them through her tails as well, then forced his chakra into her. Seeing her eyes widen, saliva escape her mouth as her breathing hitched for a moment, it all told him what he wanted: she was nearing her limits.
"Why? You want me, but you did all of this?! Why?!" Naruko demanded.
Pain decided to indulge her, since nobody could defeat him anymore. Konoha was dead, never to return from its own ashes. He told Naruko of his wish to bring peace, that after his entire, pain filled life, he came to the conclusion that sharing the pain that made him into what he was today was the only way. He asked her how she, as a student of Jiraiya, would bring about peace. He mocked her, called her childish when she admitted that she didn't have an answer. He told her that the term 'understanding' was a lie, a false word made so people could feel better about themselves.
Naruko tried to force herself up a few more times, but she couldn't do anything aside from turn her head and talk. Her entire body was dead weight, almost like Pain had somehow broken her spine, but left her with the ability to feel. She was utterly powerless and the man went on and on about how the only way she could bring about peace was to die.
"Stay away from her!"
Pain, having used his jutsu to shut Shima up a moment ago, merely tilted his body enough for the kunai to barely miss him. He looked to the thrower, a Yamanaka girl.
"Ino-chan...Run," Naruko half ordered, half begged. She couldn't lose Ino, not after the girl became so much to her.
"No!" Ino shouted. "Chasing after Sasuke destroyed my life, drove away the only friend I really made on my own, almost made me useless as a kunoichi. Did you know that my father was thinking of passing me over at one point, that he felt I wasn't fit to be a clan head? I spent so much time trying to get Sasuke and so little time training that Sakura nearly beat me, and I was the second best ninja in our class." Ino felt shame at her own past. "I was one of those people who ignored you, lied to myself so I didn't feel guilty about ignoring you all the time. But I changed. After I lost to Sakura, all my reasons for breaking off our friendship seemed stupid, and soon after, I saw you fighting for your beliefs," she stopped for a moment, "it was the first time I saw a ninja that Sandaime-sama wanted to see all over the world. You and many others inspired me to finally step forward and become a serious kunoichi, earning my friend and my father's respect again, I also, after a while, found someone I could fight for, someone I could die for, someone I could love. Naruko, even if I die, I won't let him take you from me!"
Pain didn't waste any time at all, he pulled Ino to him and, just like with Naruko a while ago, choked her while holding her off the ground. A memory came to his mind as he produced a chakra disruption blade. "Konoha shinobi killed my parents in front of me, so it is only fitting that I show you what happens when those you love die before you."
"NO!" Naruko shouted, but Pain still shoved the blade through Ino's chest.
"Now you know pain," the man stated as he pulled the blade out of the girl.
Naruko screamed as she forced her body to move. She tore her hands apart, shredded her tails, all to stand up and rush at the man, shoving a mass of chakra that burned away the left sleeve, forcing him to drop the blonde into the redhead's arms.
"Ino! Just wait, I'll get you to the medics!" Naruko shouted, gently touching Ino's face. When she got no response, Naruko slightly shook the girl. "Ino? Ino? Ino!"
"It's useless. She's already dead," Pain said.
Naruko looked at Ino's face, seeing her partially open eyes, seeing how dim they were, then she screamed. Miles away, people felt the bitter agony of the girl as her distant wail was heard by them. People who were watching from Konoha's ruins suddenly burst into tears as Naruko's raw emotion slammed into them like a world drowning tsunami. Sakura felt her heart shatter as Naruko screamed and screamed and screamed, holding the dead girl with her torn hands as her ruined tails lay upon the ground like corpses. Everyone flinched when Naruko's tears turned red with blood.
"She's dead and it is all your fault. Everything that happened here today is your fau-" Pain started, but stopped when Naruko gently lay Ino on the ground, then stood up and stepped past the body. "I can see it, jinchūriki. You hate me. You are suffering from the same disease as the rest of the world," he stated.
Naruko glared at the man with slitted eyes the color of fresh blood. Her chakra picked up, becoming darker, rougher, more violent as she advanced. "You killed her. She loved me and you killed her for it..." Naruko muttered.
Pain frowned. "I killed her because you resisted and ran. Had you given yourself to Ita-"
"NO! YOU, YOU killed her! It has nothing to do with me, with Kyūbi or with peace! You killed her because she was a Konoha shinobi, like the ninja that killed your parents! You talk about revenge being a disease, an unbreakable chain, but you are more sick and bound than anyone in this world! You crushed Konoha because YOU hate us, YOU HATE EVERYTHING! You could care less about anyone, it is all about you getting even!" Naruko shouted.
Pain narrowed his eyes. "You, who has no answer to ending war, are accusing me of being like the very people who start wars for their own gains? You are more deluded than I could have imagined."
Naruko felt like she couldn't feel anything anymore, like Ino's death had stolen her soul away. She was numb, probably in shock, but she didn't care right now. "You can't take me," she said, then looked to Pain with drying blood under her eyes, what would probably be her final tears, "Ino gave her life so that I would live. I can't deny her dying wish."
"Konoha and its will of fire. Fitting, considering fire is destructive," Pain said.
"Yeah, it is," Naruko said, then unleashed a stream of fire at the man.
Pain dodged the flames, not wanting to risk using his jutsu and leave himself exposed to the grief stricken girl. In her current state, she wouldn't be above sacrificing parts of herself or even her entire being if it meant killing him. "I saw your pain, I told you of mine, and this is your response. Understanding is impossible," he stated, then got ready to go on the offensive, "but your pain, it pales in comparison to mine."
Naruko's necklace reacted, trying to seal her rage filled chakra without the aid of the mokuton. Naruko gripped the crystal and, surprisingly, it drew its power back. With that done, Naruko shot forward at incredible speeds, her armored claw held back, aimed for Pain's heart.
"Shinra Tensei!" Pain shouted, but Naruko dug her feet and tails into the ground, anchoring herself in place much like Kakashi had earlier, but she succeeded. Naruko swung her arm forward, ripping through Pain's chakra and knocking him back. 'She withstood that, but not this!' he thought as he used his power to throw a large chunk of earth at her.
"Bijūdama!" Naruko snapped, spitting a chakra blast at the stone, decimating it and part of the crater as well. The blast wound up being quite large too, easily dwarfing the power of any katon that Konoha had seen in well over a hundred years. "I need more," Naruko growled, her tails repairing themselves as three more formed. The tears in Naruko's hand closed as if they had never been there, armor and skin neatly knitting themselves shut.
Pain, the Deva Path, for the first time ever, was damaged. All his other paths had been damaged to some degree in the past, but never the Deva Path. Now the orange haired male body was burnt, most of its robe burned off its chest. He now appreciated the power Kyūbi held. If he was Kami, then Kyūbi was the Akuma. He realized that fighting here was leaving him at a disadvantage, so he decided to leave. Using that jutsu in a massive crater would just slow it down, he needed a large area for it. That and he wasn't close enough to the original to receive the amount of chakra he needed.
Naruko jumped after the man. "You call yourself Pain because you understand it, but you seem more like Fear right now!" she commented.
Pain put some distance between himself and the girl before facing her, then activated his greatest jutsu.
"Chibaku Tensei."
Naruko noticed the thrumming ball of chakra thrown into the air, but she assumed it was some kind of time release jutsu, something that wouldn't bother her for a while, but she was wrong. Trees and small bits of earth tore themselves apart, being drawn to the chakra sphere. Naruko felt the tug herself and, assuming that the jutsu couldn't take large sections of earth, dug in with her claws and tails. It failed and Naruko was lifted up. She tried to throw a rasenshuriken at the growing ball of earth, but the shaking and the pulling force disrupted her control of wind and the jutsu didn't form at all. She looked up in time for the chunk of earth she was on to join the rest, pinning her between them.
Pain watched as the jutsu completed, the struggling power of Kyūbi fading away, but not vanishing. "Know your place, Akuma, and hide beneath the land, hide from Kami's might," he said.
Without warning, rage, grief and pain radiated from the orb as Naruko's emotions came back to her. The wound of losing Ino tore deep into her and she started to move again, wanting to live again in spite of losing what she strove so hard for in life. Her struggles didn't amount to a whole lot, but they prompted Pain to add another layer of earth to his artificial moon. Despite that, Naruko tore through the layers and she was bathed in light, just enough for Pain to see that she had changed. Her ears were longer, pointed slightly, her fangs had lengthened and her armor was more like an armored robe than before. Just as a stone collided with Naruko, burying her again, he thought he saw something different about her, but he decided it didn't matter. He kept packing more and more on the sphere, wanting to completely suppress the girl.
Naruko was in her mind. She had never been here before and she didn't know what was going on. She could hear an anguished wailing, her own voice, and she could feel it, a feeling she hoped to never feel: defeat. What really hurt was the image of Ino's dead body, her empty eyes. The image got worse as her friends replaced her lover, showing everything she cared about destroyed.
Naruko was being swallowed by her despair, her agony at losing the love she yearned for her entire life. She didn't want to suffer anymore and she felt the curse seal throb slightly, as well as something deep within her breaking.
A hand touched on Naruko's shoulder, one she didn't recognize, but that one touch brought her to a place that was pure white, a place away from her pain. She looked up after a moment and saw the Fourth Hokage looking down on her, concern in his eyes.
"Now is that any face for the future Hokage of Konoha?" he asked her. He shook his head, a deep sadness reflected in his eyes. "After all you went through, you finally broke."
"You...Why?" Naruko asked, confused.
"Of course I would come and save my child when they were at the brink of losing themselves," Minato said as if it were common knowledge.
"But I'm not your child in any way, aside from being signed onto your family registers," Naruko said, looking away, "your son was stillborn, I'm just a pitiful substitute."
Minato felt a little pain at the girl's words, so he placed a hand on her shoulder again, making her look at his face. "I never told Hiruzen about what I did on that night, the atrocity me, Kushina and Tsurenai committed on that day."
"What are you talking about?" Naruko asked.
"You are not just Namikaze Naruko, Sanban Kyubi, you are also Namikaze Naruto, my son," Minato said. When he saw that the girl was confused, he went on, "my son's body was born dead, his soul was intact though. Tsurenai's daughter, the only one to survive birth, was soulless, her siblings having taken her to the other side with them. A soul with no body and a body with no soul. We agreed and, with the last of our strength after that masked man's attack, I used the Shinigami to bind my son's soul into the new Kyūbi's empty body. Kushina bound the life force she'd never be able to use into a seal that Tsurenai created with my help, so that the soul wouldn't break free of its new body." He lowered his head in shame. "We made it so that the seal would make you appear as Naruto would have until the seal was no longer needed, until Naruto's soul and Naruko's body were one, as if you had been born into that body from the beginning."
"How are you here?" Naruko asked, shaking. What was she? If everything the deceased Hokage said was true, did that make her human, bijū, was she even really alive? In a way, she had been the same as Sasori at one point: a puppet body..
"We all placed our chakra, life force and a fragment of our consciousnesses into the seal, into you. I would come when you started to give in to despair, something I prayed would never happen," Minato said, "Kushina and Tsurenai will come if whatever they didn't want you to suffer would come to pass, so that they could save you from it, so they could give you the strength to overcome it."
Naruko punched the man in the stomach. "What am I? What did you make me into?!"
Minato realized that she had one hell of a punch. He was a Kage and he was wheezing a bit from it. "You...are what you have always been: Namikaze Naruko. No matter what anyone says or does, no matter how you came into being, you are who you have always been." He looked down at the crying girl. "What happened to crush your spirit?"
"Ino-chan...My girlfriend, she was killed in front of me," Naruko said.
"Girl...friend..." Minato muttered, turning a bit red. The soul had originally been male, but he didn't think that it would remain male after being bound to a female body. To hear that the child that would have been his son had grown into a beautiful young woman and was dating another beautiful young woman(?) was a bit too much for the Legendary Yellow Flash. Jiraiya always did say he was a bit too pure.
"Yondaime-sama...Are you a pervert too?" Naruko flatly asked. He had been trained by Jiraiya, the legendary Ero-sennin, so there was always that possibility.
"Wh-What?! No! Not at all. It's just...I thought that your preferences would change as you merged with the body," Minato explained, then frowned slightly, "your soul was originally going to be in my son's body, so you can call 'dad.' Hmm. That's got to be confusing: two mothers and one father."
Naruko thought that talking to a legend, who was technically her father, was dead and somehow existing inside of her mind was even more confusing.
"How old are you, eh, honey?" he tried, obviously a nervous on what to call Naruko. He never was that good around girls, Kushina beating him up numerous times at the academy being proof of that. He was also the first victim of her ultimate jutsu, One Thousand Years of Death, all over some other perverted brat who went around poking girls in the butt.
"S-Seventeen," Naruko stuttered, feeling weird. Nobody called her that, though Ino did have a ton of affectionate nicknames for her.
"And you already completed the Rasengan and mastered a good portion of your powers, and that's in spite of that seal on your neck," Minato said, "you may not have natural talent or anything like that, but you give more than any genius ever could hope to give. Guy probably really likes you."
Naruko started sweating, remembering the taboo jumpsuits buried deep in her closet. "D-Don't remind me..." she muttered.
"Naruko, remember how I mentioned that there was a masked man the night you were born?" Minato asked. Naruko nodded. "He was the one behind the Kyūbi attack. He called himself Uchiha Madara and he somehow fully extracted Tsurenai from Kushina, then made her attack the village. I confronted him, but most of my attacks couldn't harm him."
"You mean he was faster and stronger than you?" Naruko asked, amazed. The Yondaime was used as an example of the fastest shinobi in every country that had a hidden village.
"No, he was slower than me and I'd wager weaker as well, but he could somehow make jutsu, weapons and people pass through his body. It was like fighting a ghost. I never beat him and I'm certain he'll come for you sooner or later," Minato explained, "Me, Kushina and Tsurenai did our best to help you. You got what was left of our life forces, some of our chakra and a small fragment of ourselves so we could help you. Me and Tsurenai also wrote the Hiraishin into your body and very soul, as a fail-safe."
"I know the Hiraishin? A jutsu you made?" Naruko asked. That was two jutsu from the Yondaime Hokage under her control.
Minato shook his head. "I didn't invent Hiraishin, I just perfected it. Nidaime Hokage-sama, Senju Tobirama invented it, along with the Edo Tensei and numerous suiton. None of that matters because, right now, I am going to help you learn to use Hiraishin at will and I'll unleash more of your power."
"COOL!" Naruko boomed.
"You won't be able to go that far or focus as well as I could, not yet anyway, but it should still give you an edge, especially against the Rinnegan user," Minato explained.
"Y-You saw?" Naruko asked.
Minato lowered his head. "Yes. Konoha was crushed. This Pain might be under orders from the masked man, Uchiha Madara."
"Why would Madara use Pain to attack Konoha? Couldn't Madara destroy Konoha on his own?" Naruko asked.
"He's a shell of his former self. The Madara I faced was barely an ANBU level fighter, and that was without his ghost-like ability. He doesn't have the power to lay waste to Konoha on his own, so I think he somehow took control of Akatsuki to do it for him," Minato explained.
"But Pain said that he was going to achieve 'peace' through fear and mutual pain," Naruko cut in.
"He's most likely being deceived. Madara probably said that Pain could use them for that, but Madara will probably take the bijū for himself after they've been collected," Minato said. He sighed. "Pain is right though, as things stand now, peace is impossible. Someone needs to stand up and change the shinobi system." He spoke of how even pure emotions could breed hatred, something Naruko herself knew now. It had always puzzled Minato as to how one could bring about peace without stripping humankind of all its emotions. It seemed, sometimes, like humans were bred to be flesh and blood war machines.
Naruko thought about it. How could the pain and hatred be stopped? She was stupid, untalented, her only good personality points were her attractiveness, her tenacity, her creativeness and the fact that she was the most stubborn woman to ever exist. She even told her father this, but he merely chuckled a bit at her.
"You'll figure it out sooner or later," Minato said as he placed a hand on her head, then used his chakra to start weakening the seal on Naruko and teach her Hiraishin. "Konoha may have been crushed, but it won't die as long as the people survive. For now, free Pain."
Minato faded away.
Pain's eyes widened as the sensation of the Kyūbi suddenly vanished. "What?!" he gasped.
Naruko appeared in a red flash a small distance away from Pain. She was injured, her armor cracked and torn in places, but she glared at him with ever defiant eyes. She could feel something: weak hatred. She now knew what Jiraiya meant with his dying message.
"You aren't the real body, merely a puppet," Naruko stated.
Pain narrowed his eyes at the girl. "So you figured it out, but it will do you no good. You are too weak to defeat even this body."
Naruko closed her eyes and, for the first time ever, felt that she wasn't just one person. Her father was wrong. The 'real Naruko' hadn't gone with her siblings, not entirely, a piece of her remained with the soul that would have, in a sense, been her brother, possibly her best friend. She was here to help, to give strength to the one who now owned her body. She opened her eyes again, glaring at Pain.
'Her eyes...' Pain thought. She had no kekkei genkai, but her eyes brought a deep, primal fear up from deep within his soul. She was evoking the instinctual flight response that was coded deep into every being's very DNA. "It is time to finish this. Kyūbi will be mine," he said as the massive sphere he had made crumbled, falling to the ground and obscuring part of the battlefield with dust.
"I will never belong to anyone! And I will find a way to bring peace to this world!" Naruko shouted.
Pain had expected Naruko to still be broken over the blonde kunoichi's death, and she was, but she wasn't going to make any mistakes in fighting him. Time for another approach. "Uchiha Sasuke. He's a prime example of why your ideals will never work and breed more hatred."
Naruko sighed. "Talking to the puppet is useless. I'll find the real you without your help then," she said, then was consumed in purple light. As Pain watched, the armor shape shifted, the sleeves separating from the rest of the top half, becoming a more streamlined version of the armor she had first summoned against him. The upper armor receded off her shoulders, the collar rising up on her neck as it divided at the front, as the armor became more streamlined and lighter. The 'shirt' lengthened, becoming a sort of long jacket with four ragged tails on one side, a half skirt on the other, Naruko's own tails covering the back. Pain only just noticed that the armor had split on her legs, leaving her with greaves and shorts.
"What is that form?" Pain wondered aloud, watching her chakra levels grow larger.
"Kyūseishu," Naruko stated.
"Savior...Do you really believe you can save anyone?" Pain asked.
Naruko blasted forward, a deep purple chakra sword forming as she advanced. Pain created a chakra disruption blade to parry Naruko's weapon, but was shocked when she started to cut through it. He shifted aside, allowing the girl to pass by him a bit. He wished he could just hit her with a Shinra Tensei, but he couldn't, so he tried to kick the girl in her ribs.
Naruko twisted around in mid air, using her tails and chakra sword to do so, putting her still armored leg in the way, making Pain hiss at the moment of impact. She got to her own feet, ramming her tails into Pain, knocking him a good distance away. "Time to finish this!" she shouted.
Pain frowned. "And how will-"
"Yōko Rasengan Rendan!"
Pain turned in time to see a horde of glowing purple rasengan coming at him, making him realize that Naruko had created clones during the time the dust blinded him. He attempted to move, but a pair of Naruko came at him from the sides, kicking his legs out from under him, then they pinned him down with the help of a few new clones Naruko made. Effectively...fox piled, Pain remained in place long enough to be bombarded by eighty high powered rasengan, more than enough to permanently disrupt the connection between the Path and the original body.
Naruko stood back, waiting for the dust to clear. "Wow...That was more powerful than I imagined..." she muttered to herself. Once she had a clear view of the Path, she walked up to it and pulled a loosened chakra receiver out. "How am I going to find this guy?" Naruko wondered.
The necklace started to glow through her armor. She took it off and looked at it for a moment. She touched the receiver to the necklace and the pendant changed its position slightly, almost like it was pointing to something. She put it back on, leaving it outside of her armor, then moved around a bit, noticing that the glow got stronger only in one direction: north. She looked and saw a large mountain. Treating the necklace like a compass, Naruko started going to that very mountain.
After a few minutes of travel, Naruko ran into Ino's father and a few other people, who she convinced to stay back, that she alone would confront 'Nagato.' The man tried to protest, but Naruko said that she had to do it alone, for her and Ino's sakes. Inoichi's eyes widened and he had the team turn back as Naruko stood there, head lowered in shame.
'It's my fault...' she thought. If it wasn't for her, Ino would still be alive right now. Because Ino was one of Naruko's vulnerabilities, because Ino wanted to protect her, the blonde kunoichi had been cut down.
Naruko started moving again, thinking of those that had been lost because of Pain's attack. Ninja flashed into her mind, Guy and Kakashi most prominent in her mind, the former screaming at the latter for being so 'hip and cool.' Naruko's friends came to mind, making her realize that she didn't even know if any of her friends were alive right now. Even the villagers, those who still scowled at her and whispered behind her back included. She didn't have to like them in order to feel the pain at their loss.
[Nagato's hiding place]
Sitting upon his mechanical throne, Nagato waited for the girl to arrive. He knew that, whether it took a few minutes or a few days, the girl would hunt him down without fail. Hatred would be the thread she'd follow, leaving blood in her wake.
He closed his eyes in exhaustion at it all. He thought that he'd be able to impress the importance of his vision upon the girl. He should have known that a child that grew up spoiled in a village almost untouched by war could never understand true pain. Rather than teach her of peace, he had made her into another person out for revenge.
"A pity," Nagato muttered to himself. Zetsu's reports on the girl had painted a picture of someone out to protect people, even at her own expense. Out of all the jinchūriki, she seemed like the one who would be most receptive to words rather than violence. In the end, though, she was just another person that couldn't resist the hatred that plagued humanity.
Nagato opened his eyes and watched as Naruko tore the tree open, growling as she did so. She jumped into the artificial tree, her chakra becoming visible as she walked toward the man, her curse seal glowing as it spread across half of her armor.
"So you've arrived..." Nagato greeted, "in case that old toad wasn't listening properly, I'm-"
"Nagato," Naruko stated.
Nagato nodded. "And I believe you were saying something not too long ago, something about revenge for Jiraiya."
Naruko didn't say anything, just formed a new chakra sword and advanced on Nagato.
A/N~
I'm not too sure about all of this chapter, but I do like the story of Naruko's past (it actually brought tears to my eyes) and I believe that it satisfied one of my earlier reviews. About Naruko calling herself a Savior, or rather calling her armor that, as anyone would notice, I took how Naruto is called 'Savior of This Word' and adjusted it to what she has decided to do. Next chapter, which includes the aftermath and the appearance of a certain pettanko redhead from Kumo, reveals Naruko's plan to stop wars.
About the story of the young girl, it is a true one. A friend of mine confided in me a few years ago, because we are both outcasts who don't feel we belong anywhere in society. We're both inept at communication, hide behind nervous personas when in a new situation and the both of us know the pain of being ignored and hated for being different. I asked her if I could indirectly tell her story in this fic and she told me I could, since she wanted other people to know that alienating or discriminating against someone who isn't 'normal' can be dangerous, for the abuser and abused.
I'll look it over properly later, fix any errors I missed during my proof reading, if any. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Responses-
KennyZ93: No, this hasn't been abandoned or put on haitus. I've just had a bit happening lately, such as a tear inside of my nostril, disappointment in the original manga all around illness. I won't be updating this super fast or anything, but I can guarantee you that I won't leave it sitting for a year without an update, or at least I will do my absolute best not to do that. I need to update my computer soon or I won't be able to do anything at all because XP is no longer supported.
Irishshift: You can stop waiting for this chapter and start waiting for the next one now.
Dragon and Sword Master: Let's just say that, if I had the patience for it, I'd beta other people's work, but I don't, so I never will beta anyone's work other than my own.
I wonder if this chapter was able to evoke sadness in you, and others. I know it did with me for reasons I already stated.
Bakaneko-chan11: Bakaneko wants moar? Bakaneko gets MOAR!
Guest: SOPA can go drop the soap in a room full of randy bulls. And I've already signed a number of petitions and such against SOPA-like policies, both as my 'normal self' and Excele. Even if it is out of concern, don't post reviews like this one again because I will ignore them from now on.
Ditsy Doo: I believe I have answered the second question in this chapter, and I answered the first question long ago. Naruko will not have access to all of her tails until the war.
SonicFan12: The Greatest is, as of now, sitting on my hard drive and a USB, waiting for me to finish these two stories and, sadly, a pair of stories I have already selected as my next set. Maybe I'll post three next time, though I was planning on releasing a few 'behind the scenes' type stories. They follow the main storyline, but don't directly deal with it, meaning I won't be telling the story in full, just parts of it we don't see. For example, what a person did while the 'camera' was focused on Naruto during Pain's invasion.
chm01: You know, I peg Tobi as being the wizard type, not Nagato/Pain. He's crazy enough.
thedarkpokemaster: I always wondered who would be good with Kiba, and Hinata never, EVER comes to mind. She's too much like a meek little sister and, with all the women around him being so tough, his mother and sister most notable, you'd think Kiba would like a woman who had a bit of a tough streak in her. I chose Ami because she was created for a mere two or four pages and then tossed aside like so many other characters in Naruto. I brought her back, gave her a last name and a job as a ninja photographer that uses strong genjutsu to be undetectable in every way aside from touch. (how else would they get up-to-date pictures?) That and it allowed Sakura to close a chapter in her past and show her that she was still quite immature.
Shinkicker: For that first line, you get a grin and a double thumbs up from...Jiraiya! (okay, I admit I did it too)
The curse seal is nothing in the face of soul crushing grief! Naruko didn't go mad, she just went a little...suicidal and psychotic, mostly due to extreme emotional agony. Pain is such an ass in this fic. I bet people thought I forgot about the necklace around Naruko's neck, eh? Well I didn't, and I remember that the one from Kakashi is still there and it will serve a purpose later on.
Rather than going back to one due to not mastering the tails or anything, it is more like she returns to one tail because it is more convenient. It would uncomfortable enough to sleep or sit with one tail, imagine sitting or sleeping with nine of them. She brings them out for battle, reverts to just having one for comfort.
WolfDragonGod: Okay, here's another one.
Krazyfanfiction1: Hope this one lives up to the rest.
Naruko can manifest other things, such as swords and shuriken. The armor acts as a protector and a means of focusing her chakra better. If anything, it is sort of like the chakra armors that exist in the movie in Snow/Spring country, allowing her to use more jutsu and control her chakra much better than normal.
As for other things, Naruko can form her chakra tails into blades or claws, but she cannot form wings or anything like that. Her armor does come with a 'booster' ability by way of venting chakra from parts of it, such as the back of the elbows and the back of her shins, so she can double jump, though it would tire her out to do so a lot. The things she constructs are also simple things, so complicated things such as a mini-rasenshuriken machine gun would be impossible. Remember that Naruto/Naruko isn't all that smart and guns as a whole don't exist in the Narutoverse.
Sky Zephyrus: Hah, that's not enough to rile Sakura up. Let's put Naruko in Zessica's outfit and leave them alone for about an hour.
Keeper of Worlds: ...I'm sorry, but I'm drawing a blank here.