Wow, it's been awhile, and not by choice, let me assure you. (See end notes for more details.) Anyway, loving the new manga updates…even if they do screw up my own… *mutter mutter*
Standard disclaimer applies, and I hope you like!
Father,
I miss you and I've only met you once. What hurts the most is that I will probably never see you again. What do I say? What is there to say? You are not just dead; you are gone to me forever. Is there any going back? I would give my life a thousand times over if there were. My heart breaks just in knowing that you will never read this and never know how much I respect you and understand the choices you made. But at the same time, I hate you for it. I hate that you voluntarily took yourself away from me the day I was born. I hate that you weren't there for me when I scraped my knees, banged my head, and saw my first friend die. I needed you, but you weren't, couldn't, and never would be there. You couldn't be there for my wedding; you weren't there for the birth of your grandchild; and you won't be there to comfort them in my absence. And yet, Father, all this time, you have been there. I can't help but forgive you for everything. I can't help but wish you hadn't been the one to suffer an eternity of torture. And I can't help but honor your sacrifice for your loved ones with my own-not as a leader, a teacher, or a Hokage, but as a father, a friend, and a brother. Also, I can't help but love you and ask you to forgive me. I wasn't strong enough to hold it back, but I am strong enough to stop it forever. Maybe there will be a way to see you in the next life. Maybe there is a way to free you; I don't know, but if prayers are answered in mercy, you and I will see each other again. Thank you for everything.
Naruto did his best to hurry away from the base with the unconscious woman thrown over his shoulder. She wasn't injured or anything, but he knew perfectly well what his clones were about to do to the place. Besides kill everyone present (aside from the two he'd dragged out of there, anyway), they were also to take whatever notes they could and then blow up the place, and since his clones were nothing if not efficient and quick...he figured it'd be a good idea to get some distance as soon as possible.
But that wasn't the only reason he was in a hurry. Naruto had finally figured out why this mission had been different in the previous timeline. He could see it all now: the Hokage had received information via some spy or another (perhaps even from Jiraiya's network, but it's not like the Sandaime didn't have his own informants, anyway) regarding Iwa's plans to release a sort of "ultimate weapon" on them. Thinking this a Very Bad Thing, the Hokage had ordered his spy-master student and his potential successor to check the place out and, if needed, blow it to smithereens. Sarutobi couldn't exactly send a huge group to demolish the place-Iwa would surely have noticed-so a small and very capable group would have to do, and who better than the Yellow Flash, who could stand up to an entire army by himself, and one of the Legendary Sannin? The three Chuunin tag-alongs were the only backup the pair would need.
So the small team had dispatched with the Hokage using his other student to make certain the sneak-in was successful and they had arrived at the base, snuck in, and discovered something truly disturbing. The so-called "ultimate weapons" the Tsushikage had in his possession weren't machines, devastating techniques, or even amazing warriors; they were children.
Children. PLURAL. As in more than one.
Somehow, Naruto had missed reading that in the report. Not surprising, since the whole thing was very highly classified and his clearance had only allowed him to read a portion of it, but still, that definitely should NOT have escaped his attention. And, thanks to his misreading, one of those children was out for blood.
If it were just him, he would have stopped to face him, but he sort of had a passenger at the moment, making it a wee bit difficult. And he couldn't simply pass her off to a clone; they sort of had a tendency to disperse when he got hit hard enough, and Han, the jinchuuriki of the Gobi, was no slouch, kid or not.
Naruto had no doubts whatsoever that Han was the reason the original expedition had gone no further than surveillance. It would have been too risky for them to face an unknown container in enemy territory, so they'd waited a bit until they were sure he'd left before getting the girl out of there. Unfortunately, the time-traveling blonde had been left out of the loop and attacked without checking the place out first, a big mistake. Now, thanks to his over-confidence, he was scrambling for a solution that didn't involve getting his teammates involved too much.
He glanced behind him at the figure he could only sense, not see, as he leapt over rocks and whatever half-dead shrubs got in his way. What to do, what to do? he thought, surprisingly calmly. His brain was beginning to think through it finally, and a sort-of plan began to form.
The teen smirked; if things worked out the way he was hoping, he could seriously put a wrench in the Tsuchikage's plans. Oh, yeah, the guy was going to be pissed. Whoever thought he'd get to tick him off in this timeline AND the other? He'd have to remember to thank Ayu next time he saw the mysterious man.
What a weird little girl, Rin thought as she stared at the dark-haired, sunglasses-wearing eight-year-old before her. In what appeared to be a typical Jonin-style outfit, except that it was a deep red-and-black combination rather than the tans Rock preferred, the kid seemed harmless and completely ordinary...if she didn't consider the fact that the girl hadn't moved an inch since the two clones had brought her by and told her to follow Minato's and Jiraiya's instructions before dispersing. It was somewhat...disturbing.
And they'd naturally given her charge over their guest. Men. Why'd they automatically assume that, just because Rin was a girl, she'd be the perfect, mothering-type? True, she did tend to spoil her teammates with her medical abilities, but that was different; for one thing, it was her job, and for another, she didn't really like little kids all that much...
..despite the fact that she was only four years older and therefore hardly more than a little kid herself.
And the worst of it? Obito was standing next to the stranger and poking at her curiously. "Hey, Sensei?" Poke, poke. "Is she alive?" Poke. "She kinda ain't movin'."
Kakashi rolled his eyes, an impressive emotional expression for him. "Idiot," he muttered as he watched his teammate continue to poke the girl's shoulder as though he were examining a dead animal with a stick-which the Uchiha had actually done on more than one occasion, much to their embarrassment.
But even the dead animal had shown more of a reaction than this child. The medic wondered if she'd ever find a fellow ninja who was even halfway normal or at least sane. She was pretty sure she herself was, right?
Rin decided she should stop asking questions she didn't want the answers to and turned to observe their team leaders instead. They had wandered off a short distance from the group, sitting down behind another large boulder, and were talking quietly. Too quietly for her to hear under normal circumstances.
However, she had excellent chakra control, and as she focused just the right amount to her ears, she managed to get a nice chunk of their conversation as she sat down, closed her eyes, and rested against her pack.
Minato looked rather disturbed as he addressed the older Sannin. "...do you think the Hokage would allow that? You'd be gone for-"
"I don't have much of a choice. Can't just leave them all on their own like that. He's the child of prophecy, I'm sure of it, and if he turns...it won't be pretty, believe me. I think I don't have any choice."
"But how can you be sure he was telling the truth?" Minato's almost desperate voice whispered.
Jiraiya snorted. "Because it's Danzo, that's why. You saw how badly injured he was when he came back to the village that day. And what about the sudden disappearance of half his ROOT forces on a single mission? No one except a very small handful of people knows about that. And with how ambitious the creep is? It just makes sense, and it'd be just like Ol' Band-Aid to try it."
Rin noticed her sensei had gone rather mute as the Toad Sage added one more piece of information that surprised the medic more than anything else she'd overheard.
"Besides, do you really think your nephew would lie, much less have bad information?" The white-haired man chuckled. "I'm telling you, that kid is a regular gold mine when it comes to other people. Whatever his spy network is, it makes mine look like an amateur created it."
The Jonin chuckled, as well. "Yeah, he does know a lot more than he's letting on, doesn't he?"
"Oh, you have no idea. Did you know that he can actually go inside his own mind to view his memories any time he wants?"
The eavesdropper blinked. What the...? Was such a thing even possible?
Apparently, Minato agreed. "Are you serious?" His voice expressed awe and more than just a tinge of shock.
"Yup. That would explain why he has such an impressive mental block on him, too. But ya know, it's also kind of surprising that he can do half of the things we've seen."
"Why?"
Why, indeed? Rin echoed.
"Looks like someone messed with his mind a bit when he was younger. Too young."
Rin didn't like the way he emphasized that, and neither did the boy's uncle. "What are you talking about?"
"Someone used genjutsu on his mind, and it's a miracle that he isn't a broken wreck right now."
At that, the Chuunin stopped listening. There was no more need to. She'd seen the effects of that on little children whose minds were still in that very fragile stage. If the technique was strong enough, it was entirely possible to completely destroy the victim. It was one of the reasons that genius child-ninjas, like Kakashi had been, were so incredibly rare. That teammate of hers was no doubt a pain in the butt (a very hot pain, but a pain nonetheless), but even so, he was a brilliant and extremely talented kid with one of the most advanced minds the village had ever seen. It was that advanced, genius intellect that had made him first a Genin and then a Chuunin at the youngest age in Konoha history. Even at the age of five, genjutsu (the lower levels of it, at least) was nothing to him.
She'd bet her life savings that Naruto was not at all the same. Other children had become vegetables, a few had committed suicide, and a larger percentage than she was comfortable with had been sent to the psychiatric wards. Some from just a single exposure. And if what Jiraiya had implied was true, that Naruto had suffered more than once, then it was a miracle for him to be alive, let alone what he had referred to as "a broken wreck."
But at least it explained a few things to her mind. Brain damage. So that's why he's such an idiot. Hmph. Figures it'd be incurable... It only took a second for her to connect the dots to her other teammate, Obito. The Uchiha and the Namikaze acted so much alike...was it possible?
After all, weren't the Uchiha known especially for their genjutsu capabilities?
Just thinking about it sent a cold shiver up her spine. But even with the similarities in personalities, Rin doubted that was the case. Yes, they were well known for it, but her teammate's family was also well-known for their insistence on having the most powerful warriors the Hidden Villages had to offer. No one would mess with a kid whose parents had been genetically chosen specifically to produce him, right?
At least, she was pretty sure they wouldn't...
Rin was suddenly and almost violently broken from her thoughts by a new pressure in the air. Chakra-and a lot of it-had just been released in what had to have been a massive attack. Several seconds later, the sound of it reached the small group.
BOOM!
Startled, she stood up and glanced in the direction of the base, only to find what looked like a smoking pile of debris even from that distance. She really hoped Naruto was alright. He really should've been back before he blew the place, in her opinion. What was going on?
And...what was up with that other feeling? It was almost as though Hell itself had opened up, her senses were registering so much pure evil. A shudder ran up Rin's spine, and she saw from her fellow teammates' expressions that she wasn't the only one.
Obito had stopped poking at the girl-with his finger stopped half a foot from her shoulder-and had turned his head in the direction the smoke was coming from. Kakashi's normally droopy eyes had widened, and a cold sweat had started at his brow.
W-what is this?
She looked over at her sensei for answers, only to see him frozen in fear and Jiraiya muttering expletives not quite underneath his breath. The words "jinchuuriki" and "weapon" registered in her ears.
"S-sensei?" she called to Minato, nervous as a train wreck.
His eyes turned to hers slowly, and as soon as he looked at her, it was as though he snapped back to reality. Turning towards the Sage, he said, "Jiraiya-sensei, I've gotta go back him up. Stay here with the kids, 'k?" And with that, the Yellow Flash disappeared in a yellow...flash. Huh. Guess he must've put one of those seals on his nephew's clothing. Couldn't do that otherwise. Makes me wonder if we have them, too...
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! Minato's mind screamed at him. I knew I shouldn't have let him go by himself! But he was rooted to the ground and couldn't seem to move. It had nothing to do with the chakra itself. No, he'd dealt, or at least encountered, jinchuurki before, so that wasn't the problem. Instead, it was the overwhelming fear that Naruto might be hurt.
That very fact in and of itself was shocking to him. He'd known the boy for such a short time, but already he was that attached. Was that how all uncles saw their nephews? Maybe, but all the Jonin knew was that he would die before he let anything harm his only living relative. If only he could move-!
It was Rin's voice that broke him out of the paralysis-an embarrassing situation for such a respected war-hero as himself-and he turned to his old teacher before he activated the seal he'd placed on his nephew's jacket.
The world around him seemed to pause, each flying insect appearing to freeze in time, and even the molecules in the air themselves stopped as he called upon his chakra and sent it towards the seal he'd placed on his nephew. With that, the world around him disappeared for a brief moment as he entered a dimensional void, only to appear a few feet away from Naruto less than a moment later.
It'd taken him a lot of work to get Hiraishin, the Flying Thunder God technique, just right. The reason for that was in how it worked, which was literally on the theory that one traveling fast enough, past the speed of light, could go back in time (1). Minato, being the genius he was, had figured that light could only go so quickly, given the laws of nature and physics-his, in particular. A person going so fast within the Earth's gravity and friction would be shredded.
So, he'd created a unique seal that was originally supposed to only negate the effects of gravity-and any other laws of nature that could harm him at that speed-on his body while using the Hiraishin. But when that presented its own problems (such as staying on the surface of the planet without anything holding him there), he realized there'd have to be more to it than that. Much more.
It wasn't until he'd read the notes of space-time ninjutsu that a certain past Hokage had left behind that he had been able to get past the roadblock to his progress. The process had taken him three years to create and four to master afterwards. He'd invented the Rasengan at around the same time just to give himself a break and keep from getting frustrated with the difficult procedures.
Kushina had been one heck of a great help with her clan's knowledge of seals, and so, here he was now, staring at his young nephew, whom he had not even known for a year, as the boy calmly faced down his opponent—the jinchuuriki.
I wonder which bijuu he has... the Yellow Flash thought idly. He figured he could just watch for a bit and step in only if Naruto seemed to be in trouble. After all, the young Jonin did seem to be holding his own quite effectively; the massive crater they were standing in told him that much.
Besides, Naruto's glare pretty much dared him to even think of getting involved. Whoa! I could've sworn that only Kushina knew how to give the Glare- of-a-Thousand-Deaths-if-You-Don't-Back-Off. Apparently, I was wrong. Yeesh..!
But apparently, he didn't mind an audience. "Pay attention, Sensei; you're about to see what a true master of the Shadow Cone and Sexy Jutsu can do," he said as he just stood there, eyeing the newcomer with one eye and the container with the other, all while keeping completely still even as the wind ruffled his jacket.
"True master, eh?" Minato chuckled. "I'm looking forward to seeing that."
And he did. Oh, did he.
Right after Naruto, with the biggest, thousand-watt grin he'd ever seen, struck up a conversation with the Iwa nin. Minato shook his head in confusion. Since when did enemies chit-chat on the field of battle? He had one strange relative.
"Yo, Hanny-chan! How's life been treatin' ya? Gobi-chan been a little restless lately?"
As the fumed, the older Leaf nin's eyes widened. He now knew what bijuu the teen carried, but-
"How did you know about that?" the recently-labeled Hanny-chan hissed, taking the words right out of his mouth.
At that, the young Jonin turned dead serious. "I know more about the bijuu than almost anyone alive; of course I'd know about you, Han. But I wasn't aware that you'd be here in this nightmarish hole."
Han gulped. Well, at least Minato thought he gulped; it was just a little hard to tell with all the bandages around his face, arms, legs, and pretty much whatever other skin was showing. If it weren't for his red pants and vest, he'd look like a mummy or maybe a hospital patient. And what was that thing on his back?
Naruto wasn't finished, though. "They're the ones who did it, aren't they? They sealed it in you not too long ago. But in order to do that to someone your age..."
"SHUT UP!" Han screamed, enraged.
"Insane much?" Minato quietly quipped. Naruto snorted slightly with the effort to hold back his laughter.
The teen continued without hearing the brief interruption. "YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT! I do this gladly for my Tsuchikage. My grandfather knows what he's doing, and I will NOT have you slandering his name!" At that, the furious teen attacked with a vicious charge.
That is, he tried to, only to be stopped dead in his tracks after getting five feet from Naruto. There he stood, frozen, one foot up in the air as though he had been about to take his next step towards his target. Han's eyes widened as he stared at the young Jonin, who was staring him straight in the eyes just a few dozen inches away, kneeling with his hand on the ground. But he couldn't move his jaws enough to speak.
"Yeah, that's what I was getting at with the whole 'True Master of the Shadow Clone and Sexy Jutsu' thing. It's an attack that ya just never see comin'!" the blonde remarked happily, while his uncle figured he'd just take a seat and see how it all turned out.
He was looking around for a spot when he saw her, some woman in a lab coat lying several meters away from the crater. Interesting, Minato thought as he moved next to her and sat down after seeing she was just unconscious. Well, nice view of the fight, at least. And the woman's legs, too, but he was pointedly looking away from them. Besides, Kushina's were better. He wondered if he should ask her out on a date when they got back...
In the meantime, the boy had been speaking to the p.o.'ed in an almost carefree, amused manner. "You should know that there are some drawbacks to using this kind of transformation. For one thing, each clone that becomes a creature has to lower its chakra level to whatever would be normal for it, or else you'd sense something off for sure. And that is especially hard to do with objects."
His opponent glared from behind his mask (it was just about all he could do, after all). Minato-who was rather fascinated at where this was going-could only assume he didn't care for the younger blonde's explanation, but that didn't seem to matter to the other Leaf shinobi, as he continued with one gigantic grin on his face.
"In order to transform back, you have to raise your levels at just the right moment so that your enemy can't catch it in time. If you can do that, you have truly mastered the Sexy Jutsu, 'cause, you see, it ain't what you transform into that makes it sexy..." Naruto's grin changed to a smirk and his voice dropped as he continued, "...it's how you use it."
And with that, what appeared to be hundreds of Naruto clones sprang up from rocks, dirt clods, and...was that dust?
On the one hand, Minato's jaw dropped. For 13-year-old to casually use an extremely draining Jonin jutsu, combine it with his own brand of Transformation, and then to explain just how difficult it was and use it at a level like this? It was unreal.
He'd had individual clones transform into particular colors of dirt clods so that the couldn't see the ink seals underneath. And so what if they got stepped on? Who would notice a small poof of smoke from stepping on dirt? It was the fact that he hadn't gotten his chakra levels down low enough with those dirt clods that made it so risky. Any enemy that had been paying enough attention would have noticed a slight reading in a certain patch of ground, enough to alert said enemy of a trap.
However, Naruto had had a plan for that; all he'd needed to do was get Han to focus only on him and then angry enough to charge ahead without thinking or checking his surroundings, and-presto!-the teen stepped into the seal and essentially trapped himself. It was pretty ingenious, really; the kid was brilliant.
"Not bad, Naruto. Not bad," the Yellow Flash muttered under his breath.
On the other hand, Minato just had to wonder about this young nephew of his. What would he do with his captive? Would he kill the Iwa nin with all his attacking clones? It'd be the safer option, but that also depended on the seal used to keep the bijuu prisoner...
...and speaking of said prison and prisoner, it looked like one was attempting to stage a break-out.
A strange, silvery chakra began emitting from his pores even as Naruto's seal was sucking it away. But Naruto didn't seem worried in the slightest (although Minato was certainly a bit more tense than before-that chakra radiated pure, unadulterated evil).
"Nuh-uh-uh, Hanny-chan. I'm no fool. I know very good and well you can't break out of that seal even with the Gobi's help, so quit trying." Despite his words, it was obvious that this was taking a lot of concentration from the blonde. How he was still able to carry on a conversation, Minato didn't know.
A feral growl was his only response as the levels of demonic energy kept growing. (Right at the same rate as the Yellow Flash's blood pressure, strangely enough.)
Naruto pretended he understood the animalistic noises, though. "Oh, you say you wanted to know how I could do that?" he asked, pretending to be deeply engrossed in the conversation even as the bits of silver chakra simply sank into the seal at the nin's feet. "Well, like I said, I know a lot about the bijuu, so of course I have at least some ability to counteract them. Geez...give me some credit..."
An expletive left Minato's mouth at that. He'd just connected the dots. His nephew's knowledge of bijuu and sealing (not to mention Madara Uchiha), his horrible childhood, repeated mentions of someone trying to make him a weapon, his ridiculous chakra capacity and stamina-heck, even his birthmarks all pointed to one thing: at some point, Naruto had been a jinchuuriki. All he ever seemed to talk about in his past had to do with suffering and death.
"The man. He called me a monster, said that demon-boys couldn't do anything about it..."
"When I was born, one of the leaders of the village decided I'd make a nice 'experiment.' That's how my father died-protecting me..."
"After my sensei died, I got very angry and depressed. He'd died trying to get rid of those jerks who wanted me either dead or used as a weapon and succeeded at the cost of his life..."
"I'm not dead now, but I did manage to get rid of the thing that was causing me all the trouble...I'm finally free of that thing..."
The Jonin began shaking slightly-very slightly. Naruto, his only living relative (so far; who knew what other surprises his father had gallivanting around the Shinobi Nations?), had slit his own throat just to get out of being a jinchuuriki. Sure, it may have been to keep those around him safe, but still!
What other things was he capable of?
The more he watched the boy as he drained away the jinchuuriki's chakra now faster than Han could draw it out, the more he wondered. Just who was Naruto Namikaze? And how in the world could anyone forget him?
But before he could ponder on those questions any longer, he saw something that truly chilled him to the bone.
Rin had followed him.
She had known it was stupid, not to mention downright reckless, but she was worried, darn it! And when she was worried or scared, Rin tended to do stupid things. It was in her nature, perhaps; her father had been rather similar. The difference was that she wasn't going insane while he did. At least, that was her hope.
How in the world Naruto had ever found out about him, she didn't know. But only the Hokage and maybe two or three others were supposed to be aware of that information. It wasn't that she didn't actually have a clan name; she simply couldn't use it.
After all, the daughter of the daimyo of Kirigakure was supposed to be dead, or in hiding, at the very least. And it was all his fault. All of it. That...monster had done something to her father-to his mind. It was the only explanation; he would never have done that on his own. No, it all started after the daimyo had received a visit from Yagura, the Mizukage. What had he told or done to him to make her father murder the mother of his child and almost the child, as well?
It just-it didn't make sense! Jiro wasn't a monster! It was that THING! He was the one who cut her open with the edge of a sword, not her loving parent. But why? It was a question she might never find the answer to, but she asked it daily nonetheless.
Yagura...only a single day after his visit, the daimyo had gone positively crazy. He'd picked up his sword and literally hacked through whatever objects or too-slow servants were in his way just to get to the both of them. No guards interfered; they worked for him-had sworn to protect and obey him-so of course they'd stay out of it!
...all except one, that is, and he was the one and only reason Rin had survived. Never having been told his name, she was shocked when her newly-assigned personal bodyguard stepped in his employer's way.
She remembered that hour very clearly. As her mother finished reading her a bedtime story in her room, her father-drenched in blood and bits of random debris-had burst in with a sword in his hand. No amount of pleading seemed to get through to him as his crazed and bloodshot eyes fell upon his intended victims. He'd started with his wife. It was over for her within moments, but he'd still...kept going for so long.
Then, he had turned his head and moved towards her, his wife's blood dripping from his hair and down his face. Rin had shivered in terror, having lost her lunch some time ago, and was shaking too badly to move away; her pink, frilly, and all-around girly nightgown was stained with the remainder of her dinner, and even with her fear, she had wondered if perhaps her shaking wasn't partially due to the now-damp clothing. (The Land of Water was typically quite chilly, after all.) It wasn't until years later that Rin realized that she'd gone into shock and wasn't thinking clearly in the least.
The closer the insane man had stalked, the further she tried to move away, but already being against a wall ruined that, and so he came closer and closer as she ceased her frenzied crawling backwards.
If it weren't for him, the man whose face she had never seen and whose name she would almost certainly never know, the daimyo would surely have murdered his own child. But instead, he had come bursting through the door-just as she'd always imagined a hero would-and promptly...sliced off her father's head.
It landed in her lap.
After that, Rin's memory became fuzzy. She did, however, have the distinct impression that he had cleaned up what he could of the mess, put a blindfold over her eyes, and carried her out of there, away from the city, away from the dangerous and unstable Mizukage, and away from what very little remained of her childhood. Then, somehow, he'd gotten her out of the nation itself and handed her to what must have been either a contact or a friend who had taken her to Konoha-the only place, she remembered him saying, that she would be safe.
Two months later, she was enrolled in their ninja academy and the rest was history.
Except she still couldn't kill, and that, for a shinobi, was very, very bad.
So perhaps it wasn't merely due to fear or worry that she had gone after her sensei to help Naruto. Sure, his safety was a concern to her and she wanted to be able to heal any injuries he sustained, but was that it? It had only taken her a moment to find that an honest answer would be no. No, Rin had really wanted to prove she was a capable kunoichi to her teammates and to herself-to prove that she could be ruthless, that she could and would kill if necessary, and that she wouldn't break like a china doll as the blood dripped off her fingers.
Of course, now she realized what a colossal and foolish mistake it was. Now that Minato's left arm had been burned, now that Naruto had been thrown several yards in some haphazard direction, and now that darkness was beginning to close her eyes-yes, she finally understood just how stupidly she'd acted.
I'm sorry, Kakashi...Mother...Minato-sensei and Naruto...I guess I just keep failing...
Naruto had to chuckle. He'd seen the look on his father's face as he held a rather one-sided conversation with Han. It was priceless! And it was pathetically easy to read. "You're actually chit-chatting with the enemy?" he might as well have screamed.
Eh, Minato had a point there; most sane ninjas would simply kill the guy and be done with it.
But Naruto wasn't normal and never had been. He used talking to focus himself on his task. When he and the rest of Team Seven had faced Zabuza and Haku, he'd talked-talked the enemies into helping them, even. When he'd faced Orochimaru the first time, he'd taunted both it (seriously, which gender had that body been?) and Sasuke enough to hold the freak-show off...for awhile. He'd carried on a conversation with Kiba and managed to focus so efficiently that he'd actually farted himself to a win. Oh, and then there was Neji; a lengthy discussion on the virtues of family and a nasty uppercut to the jaw later, and the guy's whole worldview was changed. Then, there was Gaara-a simple yet audacious beat-him-up-till-he-stops-ignoring-my-words approach did the job just fine.
Yes, those were all well and good, but the best? The most ultimate one? Pain. First, he'd beaten the guy into submission, and then he'd talked him into fighting for them rather than against them (much like Zabuza).
Yeah, Naruto definitely wasn't ordinary.
And he was very, very focused on draining every shred of Gobi's chakra he could with that seal he'd created just for this purpose. Took some time setting the darn thing up, too. Maybe he shouldn't have blown up the base quite so quickly...both it and the Oodama Rasengan had hit at the same time, making the noise at least twice as loud and his team twice as likely to be nosy.
He really didn't need nosy. But he got it in the form of a Yellow Flash. He'd better keep out of this. That's all I have to say, he thought to himself as he glared at the older Jonin. Minato noticeably flinched and backed off after a bit, choosing to sit next to the Doc, as he'd decided to call her, while pointedly ignoring the fact that the woman was wearing a skirt that was somewhat...hiked up.
Hilarious. Who'd' a ever thought the famous future Yondaime was nervous around an unconscious woman? Then again, it was probably in self-preservation, considering Kushina was rather well-known for her hot-blooded temper.
Anyway, at least Minato was keeping his mouth shut so that Naruto could open his and concentrate better on drawing the chakra towards himself. At least it wasn't demonic, thanks to the converters he'd made sure to draw in the seal; he wasn't sure this body could handle it anymore, so better safe than very sorry. But it would probably take awhile, because tended to have a butt load-
A familiar chakra presence rushing towards his location caught his attention, and his concentration faltered.
"NO!" he cried, but it was too late. The seal shattered and let the transforming teenager free. Correction: The seal shattered and let the furious, not-quite-sane teenager transforming into the deadly, five-tailed dolphin horse demon free. Yeah, it sounded much better like that.
Within half a second, he was upon him, attempting to crush him with a chakra-enhanced stomp to his head, but Naruto was faster than that. He quickly rolled out of the way...
...only to be caught by one of the "tails." Unlike the Kyuubi cloak, it didn't transform into the shape of a hand; it stayed in its tail form and simply wrapped around his waist and tossed him aside like he was little more than a pebble-ironic, considering most of my clones had been just that, Naruto thought to himself as intense agony engulfed him from head to toe.
It didn't take a genius to figure out why. After all, every jinchuuriki knows that a bijuu's chakra is toxic to ordinary humans. It was the reason why he'd had to be extra careful when sparring as he neared the end of his other life. Still, it wasn't until the higher-tailed states that it became uncontrollable, and at the lower levels, it had to be willingly forced into another's system. Clearly, Han had done just that, the little booger.
However, those were the least of his worries right now. Yes, he realized as he lay on his back and sucked in air greedily after every scream of agony, he really should be concentrating on containing their enemy who now seemed to be up to two tails.
But first, he needed to deal with the poisonous chakra eating away at his insides like acid.
"AND JUST HOW THE CRAP AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" he yelled out loud as he curled up into a little ball, insides continuing to spasm. Seriously, how was he supposed to do that when he didn't have the Kyuubi anymore?
Wait a second… It dawned on Naruto right then that, while his tenant might be gone, the seal on his stomach was still very much present, even if it was a bit…run down.
Still, if it had managed to hold the most powerful demon in existence, then surely a little Gobi backlash would be no problem!
He closed his eyes and REALLY concentrated, pulling the demonic energy away from his organs and sending it to the seal on his stomach, gathering whatever other foreign chakra he encountered along the way. It was agonizing and, though only dimly aware of it, he was screaming. It only took two seconds of that for him to pass out, body still tense and drawn into itself.
In his mindscape...
A blonde man stood in a room, floor covered in water up to his shins, with a gigantic cage directly in front of him. And directly in front of that? A silvery mist was taking a spherical shape even as Naruto began pushing it through the banged-up bars.
"Gah-!" he cried out, struggling with the effort. It was mainly an exercise of the force of his will, not the force of his muscles, but it was searing his hands, making concentration difficult. He could literally hear the sizzle as his skin began to look extra-crispy. (Naruto wasn't sure he'd ever be able to eat fried chicken again after that.)
Little by little, he was able to herd the almost-glittery substance into the cage, and there-he sighed in relief-it quickly dissipated as the seal did its job by taking the chakra and converting it into his own. It had done it with the Kyuubi for over twenty years; what was a little bit of Gobi overflow even with its somewhat decrepit state?
And with the deadly chakra finally gone, he snapped back to reality and stood back on his feet to see something that made a cold shiver run up his spine. There was no telling how long he had really been out; one hour in his mind could easily have been no more than a quarter of a second in the real world, but Naruto had a sneaking suspicion that he'd been out of it for longer than that.
Han was at three tails, his face almost unrecognizable as human. The bandages had seemingly been stripped off his face and merely dangled in the air, blowing in the wind haphazardly, and the teen's face had become rather…odd-looking. It was almost as though it were nothing but a giant snout, covered in what appeared to be silver scales or even veins. No wonder he wears a mask… Naruto thought to himself with amusement.
Thankfully, for the moment, his father was holding his own, giving Naruto a little more time to plan. He didn't want to kill the jinchuuriki, but it might be for the best; Leaf was at war, and there was Madara's Moon's Eye Plan to consider, after all. Still, it would only stop the bijuu for a short time. Eventually, it'd just reform, and then what?
The blonde quickly came to a solution that wouldn't kill the teen but also wouldn't let the bijuu free.
Seal it up, Orochimaru-style.
So, he created around a hundred Shadow Clones or so (numbers really meant nothing to someone with his stamina) and charged towards the transformed bijuu container, only for his eyes to widen in shock as another tail began forming. Even from two hundred yards away, Naruto could still hear Minato curse as Han got faster, stronger, and…more out of control.
One silver tail raced through the air at such speed that Minato was forced to throw his one special kunai (darn man had raced off after him without thinking to grab more, much less his weapons pouch, which had his unknown-son fuming) in order to dodge it.
Naruto absently wondered how many times the famous Yellow Flash could actually use that thing before its batteries ran out.
Apparently…a lot. A flash here, a flash there, and BOOM! Han was thrown right back into the crater Naruto's Giant Rasengan had formed. Minato stood at the edge, foot still extended into the air, breathing heavily.
Hiraishin Version Two took a lot more chakra than Version One, it would seem.
No more than two seconds had passed since Naruto had begun running towards them.
Ooookay, now I see why Iwa nins have a flee-on-sight order whenever they see him. Without wasting a single moment, Naruto made the short leap towards the rising jinchuuriki, five of his clones forming Wind Swords, another one going to help Minato, a few others grabbing chakra-laced paper from the original's pouch, and the rest "politely suggesting" to Han that he stay down.
"Nuh-uh-uh! No moving around, now, Hanny-chan. Boss-man over there wants to have a few—" POOF!
"—words with you," another clone finished for the recently dispersed one.
Yes, all in all, it was very polite.
Minato landed beside him, clearly trying to catch his second wind. Just how long was I out of it, anyway? He didn't realize he'd voiced his thoughts out loud.
"About five minutes, give or take," his father replied. "If I had just remembered to bring my weapons pouch—"
"Why don't you use the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu?"
"…the what?" Minato asked, clearly in confusion.
A light suddenly dawned in Naruto's head. His father wasn't using it because it hadn't been invented yet. In fact, if forced to guess, he'd say that the Yellow Flash himself was, er, would be, the one to invent it in the near future for this exact reason. So that made it somewhat…difficult to use.
Another "Oops" moment to add to Naruto's rapidly-growing collection.
"Oh. I take it you've never heard of it, then?" the blonde asked nervously.
"Obviously not." The Yellow Flash's irritation was pretty clear.
"Ah. Um, I'll tell you about it later, then."
"Great. Now, can we get back to handling the transforming jinchuuriki or are we just going to stand around talking all day?"
"Huh? Oh, that? Relax; my clones have got it under control for now," he insisted, even as one sailed over their heads, slammed up against the wall of the crater, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY AROUND, NARUTO!" The younger blonde stepped away from the furious older one in surprise. Since when did Minato yell? "Rin's hurt. I've left a clone of mine with her, but it's bad and we need to get her help fast, alright?"
Naruto went cold at that news. Deathly cold. Was that what Ayu had meant when he'd told him that he couldn't save everyone? He gulped even as he struggled to contain his shaking hands before turning to his future father. "A-alright, but we'll have to seal him; we can't simply kill him or we could make things worse for us in the long run."
Gritting his teeth, the older Jonin said, "And just how the h*** do you suppose we do that, Naruto?"
Ah. Yet one more "Oops." He smiled sheepishly. "Guess you haven't heard of the Five Elements Seal, huh?"
"…"
"Right. Later. I just need an opening to his jinchuuriki seal before I can put it on over it."
Easier said than done. Even his clones with the Wind Swords were having problems cutting through the incredibly dense chakra. Heck, in his own four-tailed state, even the Kusanagi hadn't been able to pierce through, and although this chakra was definitely weaker, it was still powerful enough to cause headaches.
A blast of steam from Han wiped out a group of three clones who had been preparing to launch one of their members above the enraged teen. Two had just hoisted one into the air when the contraption on Han's back spouted the deadly steam in their general direction. Naruto absently noted that the jinchuuriki's aim wasn't all that great and had blasted it over a wide area to catch them.
That told the young Jonin how to dodge, but not how to counteract it. It was very troubling, considering the Steam sub-element was created by mixing water and fire, and neither one by itself would stop the combination. So, wind would have to do.
The five clones with the Wind Swords it was. (He'd finally broken down and decided to name a few of his more-used techniques…secretly, anyway. He'd fibbed a bit when he'd told his team that it was because he'd made so many that it was pointless to keep up with them. In truth, Naruto was just sick of the annoying, little twit council members forcing him to get them all copyrighted and approved—something about too many Forbidden Techniques in the world as it was.)
On the one hand, Naruto got a great idea for a new movie: "When Clones Attack." On the other hand, he had to tell his father to "stay out of it or else you'll get diced." Minato wasn't too pleased to hear that, but he did at least keep away as the copies attacked.
Clone 1 leapt from the ground, spun in the air, and brought the sword down on the enemy's left arm, leaving a small but negligible cut.
Clone 2 was hoisted into the air and propelled forwards by three other clones and headed straight for Han's heart. The teen, who was now more beast than human with his altered physical features, twisted at the last moment and roared in fury as the incredibly sharp instrument grazed his side and several ribs.
Clone 3 merely lunged from ground level and managed to plunge his Wind Sword (darn kids naming things got to him again…) into the ninja's right ankle, severing the tendon. A screech of intense agony greeted Naruto's ears.
Clone 4 simply did his best to sneak up on him from behind and made an attempt to slice his head off. That was a complete failure, as Tail Number 1 stabbed him through the brain and therefore dispersed him.
It was Clone 5 who had the best results, however. He got a thumb, meaning no ninjutsu, if Han even knew any other than whatever that Steam contraption could do, that is. Very few people in Naruto's time were even remotely aware of the theories behind seal-less jutsu, so he doubted that was an option for the jinchuuriki, either. Yup, it was one heck of a lucky shot.
All of those clone attacks hit within the same three-second timeframe, working in almost perfect synchronization with the surrounding clones, who threw random and sometimes insane techniques (the Double Female version of the Sexy Jutsu, for example) at Han to keep him occupied long enough for the five to even hope to get a hit or two in; they'd used mostly wind and water, thinking a little liquid might help cool the steam down a tad, if nothing else.
And then…
The jinchuuriki, wounds bleeding freely, let out a roar that made Naruto's hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. He had a bad feeling and grabbed hold of Minato with his right hand.
"Uh, Sensei? I think you'd better get to Rin and the lady. It's best you get them out of here right now, because, if I'm right…" he drifted off for a moment as he watched the four tails demolish every single clone remaining and then point to a spot above the jinchuuriki's head. "Great, he's doing it, alright! Get out of here! Move it!"
"What are you—"
Naruto cursed. He didn't have time to explain this to his father! He created a herd of clones once again and used a group of them to grab his startled sensei and literally toss him as far as they could (which was pretty far, considering they all used chakra). While Minato was taking his first clone-inspired flying lesson and Han was forming a giant ball of pure chakra, Naruto quickly phased underground as, in groups of four, his remaining copies created the same type of barrier that had been used during the Chuunin exams that had claimed the life of the Third, each one of the barriers fixed right behind the other in a straight line in the direction the other Leaf nin had been tossed.
It was a technique that he really didn't like using all that much, to be honest. He'd only used it twice in the future, and he'd never told a single soul how he'd learned it, and nor did he intend to now. Some things were simply best left unsaid.
As that thought ran through his mind, an incredible shockwave ran through the dirt around him. All he could do was hope and pray he'd thrown Minato far enough away and that the barrier would provide some form of protection. Naruto knew that he himself was safe; he'd managed to suppress his chakra and travel through the earth till he was situated directly underneath the jinchuuriki.
Of course, he was a quarter of a mile underneath him, but hey, it had paid to be cautious more than once before.
He waited there as he received the memories of all his dispersed clones, wincing with each one and at least grateful that the Gobi was weaker than the Kyuubi, meaning that, while the barriers were being destroyed, they were also slowing the blast down considerably. He sighed in relief as the last one survived and the clones dispersed on their own to let him know it was safe to come out. If it weren't for his chakra augmenting his oxygen, he would've suffocated—not a pleasant experience.
But he wasn't going to spring up any old fashioned way. Oh, no. Naruto was going to come out in style!
Shooting through the ground at a very high speed, the little blonde headed straight for the confused jinchuuriki; he could imagine the Gobi's thoughts: "How the heck did that blonde airhead survive? And where's he at, anyway?"
In all of Naruto's many, many battles, it had always fascinated him to find that the most arrogant and powerful of enemies never bothered to make sure the chakra coming from under them was actually theirs and not their enemy's. And what a handy observation it was! Thank you, future Kakashi, he thought to himself, just as he popped out of the ground and…
…decked Han in the chin. Oy, is this familiar, or what? Ever since fighting Neji, I swear this has happened at LEAST ten times!
The teen flew up and back several meters, and Naruto quickly got the seal ready and on his fingers. The moment the jinchuuriki landed, he was on the other teen like Hinata on cinnamon buns.
"Five Elements Seal!" he yelled, more for his father's benefit than his; he wanted the old man to know he was still alive, after all.
"AHHHH!"
Naruto had to pity him. He remembered how much it had hurt when Orochimaru had put it on him and felt kinda sorry for the guy.
He shrugged. "Better him than me."
"NARUTO!" Minato called out.
"Yeah, right here!" Naruto replied as he turned around…and got a good look at the new landscape developments. "Holy sh…"
The place that had once had a nice-sized crater now had one big enough to fit a small village, all except for where the barriers had been. The Leaf ninja found it very amusing to see a square-shaped path that looked like an upraised road, since all around it was gone. Han himself was unconscious and probably would be out of it for a few days. With that kind of damage, no way was Naruto feeling guilty now.
Being turned into fried chicken of the extra-crispy variety was not exactly on his list of things to do.
"Naruto!" Minato once again called, but this time standing on the edge of the "road."
"Yeah!" he replied, again.
"Hurry and get up here! Rin needs your help! HURRY!" he repeated.
Crap! Rin! I forgot!
Thirty seconds later, he was at her side, and what he saw chilled him to the bone.
If it were just a matter of poisonous chakra, he could probably use a seal and draw it out.
This wasn't that.
She had a hole through her stomach. There was not a doubt in his mind it had been caused by the Gobi's tail, probably in a one-tailed state, as there was no foreign chakra floating about the bloody injury. The hole itself seemed to be a couple inches in diameter and didn't seem to go all the way through.
No doubt a medic-nin could handle the injury—although, it'd be taxing—but he wasn't a medic-nin. All he had were seals…and all she had were five minutes.
It would take at least ten for him to create the proper seal for a wound that severe.
Rin was going to die.
Minato must have seen it in his eyes, because he took the younger blonde by the shoulders. "Naruto, you can do this. I know you can, and even if you feel you can't, you have to at least try!"
The young Jonin was hyperventilating slightly. "I-I can't! The seal—not enough time! I—"
"You have medical training, right?"
"I—"
"Right?"
"Yeah, for seals! Not for—"
"What do you mean, not for this? A Seal Master who can create those seals is extremely rare for a REASON! It takes years to learn all that medical crap, and they have to go through the exact same training as any one of those nins! Not even I have gone through that! But you have and you can save her!"
"I CAN'T! ALRIGHT! My chakra control sucks; medical techniques require it to be nearly perfect! I DON'T HAVE IT! THAT'S WHY I LEARNED THE SEALS IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Besides, jinchuuriki can't take that risk; what if a pulse of Kyuubi's leaks through? It'd only do more harm than good.
Then, to his shock, Minato grinned. "But that's just it, Naruto. You said so yourself: half the chakra that you used to have is gone."
And that was when he understood. He should have gotten tired a thousand times by now; how many hundreds of clones—all using extremely high techniques—had he been using with absolutely no sense of exhaustion? He would have expected to be able to do less with the Kyuubi gone, but it was almost as if…
Naruto slapped himself on the forehead. It was almost as if the Kyuubi had been holding him back, and surprise, surprise, it was. But now, Kyuubi was gone, so his control was better and there was no more poisonous chakra to interfere!
But that didn't mean he wasn't nervous. Oh, no. Even as he carefully placed his hands over the wound, they shook. Then, he concentrated, speaking his thoughts out loud.
"Ok, change it to green, change it to green, change it—" His emitted a soft, green light.
"Alright, now, how did Sakura say to do this? 'Locate the vital organs first and heal them.'" The liver was damaged, there was a nick in her small intestines, and the stomach had a rip.
"Stomach first. Gotta get the acid out fast," Naruto said as sweat began pouring down his brow and he brought one hand up, holding what looked like smoking, red liquid—acid mixed with blood. As soon as his hand was away from Rin's body, he let it splash on the ground, where it sizzled.
"Now, what next? Um, 'Use chakra to hold the edges of the wound together. Then, while injecting the healing energy, take the patient's own normal chakra and create a bond—'" he grunted. It was incredibly difficult.
Breath rasping, Naruto continued, "'—c-create a bond with the patient's chakra and yours, and his or her energy will become healing, as well. Direct it to the injury and it will instinctively begin fixing the wound; keep feeding yours until there is a light coating covering the organ. The patient's chakra will continue to draw yours in and use it to heal the body. Now, move on to the next one…'"
The world around him darkened until all the light that remained were the stars overhead, as there was no moon that night. He never noticed it when the rest of the team came upon them and made a fire. He never noticed it when the seal on his shoulder activated, letting loose a steady stream of chakra when he had exhausted his own. He never noticed the girl waking up at the end of the procedure, healed enough to finish by herself. And he never noticed the look of pride he never thought he'd see on his father's face again.
He, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, was too freakin' tired.
(1) See wikipedia's article on this. Can't say how scientifically accurate it is and all, but who cares? Ain't like this is real life, anyway :) .org/wiki/Time_travel
Ok, I have to say this. This chapter took such a ridiculously long time to write—seriously, I rewrote this sucker at least FOUR TIMES in the hopes of getting it just right. And you know what? I'm still not completely satisfied! (Perfectionism is such a pain sometimes.) But I figured you all had waited long enough to read this, so…here it is!
As for the edits on the other chapters, well…with the recent manga updates, I've had to rethink my story's entire ending. I'm also going to edit some of the older chapters to show that. Unfortunately, I have not yet finished doing so. However, there are a few that I have completed, one of which I am especially proud of: Chapter 6. I would suggest you go back and read that one, and as more get edited and I get them up, I'll let you know by putting the word EDIT in the chapter titles.
By the way, the girl that they got out of the base is my one and only original character. Well, so far, anyway, and she won't have a huge, important role; she's mostly there for Obito's sake, as well as the rest of the team's. She will not, I repeat, will not save the world. We're talking main-character development. But on a side note, I do hope she'll be awesome enough for you to like her J
Also, I hope you like what I did with Rin. For all the crap she went through for her bratty teammate and crush, I figured she deserved a great story, even if it is a little tragic. And she will definitely have a nice role to play in the future J
By the way, how's the fight scene? Hope it's alright and worth the wait!