--: Chapter 03 - Essupa :--

Sunrise; Konoha was still silent, only a few shinobi who had early missions or training were down on the street, walking to the Hokage tower or training fields. The main streets, with the shops, were deserted as the sun slowly spread its yellow, golden light over the area.

Naruto stopped with jumping from branch to branch when he felt the first rays of sunlight falling on his shoulder. He turned around, seeing the sun in its golden glory raise up into the sky. He frowned, cursing he turned around, his gaze trailing over his surroundings. "Already sunrise and I still don't have a clue where Sasuke could be."

Sighing, the young blond Jounin sat down on the branch he was standing on before. He ran his hand through his golden locks, looking at the rising sun once again, "Sasuke, where have they taken you?" Of course, the question stayed unanswered since he was one, totally alone in the forest, or at least he hoped so, he wouldn't like it very much if he had to fight someone, and two, like anybody knew where Sasuke was, hell why was he searching if somebody knew?

Shaking his head, and hopefully, shaking off the thoughts about Sasuke a bit, he took his rucksack from his back, and pulled out a cup with ramen.

He ate the ramen quietly, sitting down on the branch he was currently standing on. When he finished his cup, he put it into the plastic bag he had brought with him; He was convinced of the fact that if you didn't throw something away properly, you'd only have yourself at the end.

-Knack-

Naruto immediately stood up straight. He had heard a twig being broken, not too far away. Listening carefully, he waited for more signs.

-knack—knack—knack-

'He or She's running…' Naruto thought, jumping into the direction of the sound. The frequency of the sound was increasing, which meant he or she he was following was speeding up. 'Damn it! He noticed me!' Speeding up as well, Naruto tried to take over whatever he was chasing.

It took him a long time to actually get equal, "Damn he's fast!" Naruto said to himself, right before speeding up once more, using his chakra to strengthen his feet's pushes to do so. Naruto did that for ten seconds, before jumping down the branches right onto the one he was chasing's way.

It slipped, and as Naruto looked closely, he saw what he had been chasing; a young male wolf, probably running because he had picked up a female's scent, it was spring after all. Naruto knelt down in front of the wolf, which was currently recovering from the potential heart-attack Naruto had given it when jumping in front of him from out of the blue. "You're not Sasuke, are you?" He asked the wolf, smiling a bit as he scratched it behind the ear.

Naruto stood up, the wolf bolting around him, running away into the direction it had been heading before. Smiling, Naruto climbed back onto the tree. "I will find you Sasuke, no matter what." He promised, though it had fallen to deaf-ears.

Tsunade was in her office, looking of the missions that had to be carried out, when there was being knocked on the door. "Come in." She said, without looking up from the list.

Shizune came in quietly, stopping just in front of Tsunade's desk, who still was concentrating on the list. "Tsunade-sama, there is a little girl here, who claims she is an acquaintance of you."

Tsunade finally looked up from the list, "Let her in…" She said, before looking at the list again, and making corrections in it.

A girl came in, she had white hair, and her eyes were as black as onyx. "You called for me?" She asked, not showing any emotion at all.

Tsunade laid down the list of missions, looking up at the girl, "Yes I did." She stood up, and walked over to the window, "I wondered if you know how Sasuke is…"

Naruto walked through the gates of Konoha at sunset. He had searched for three days straight, and still no sign of Sasuke at all. He had finally given up, not knowing what to do anymore. 'I can't even find Sasuke, how can I be a ANBU if I can't even find my own lover.'

"Hey Naruto!" A voice said from behind, and, as Naruto turned, he saw it wat Hinata.

"Hey Hinata." He said quietly, walking on. Hinata slowed down, and walked next to him, "Hey, I heard that it's Sasuke's birthday pretty soon, isn't it?" She said quietly, pointing her fingers together while looking at them, like always.

A shock of disgust went through Naruto's body as he suddenly remembered. How could he have forgotten a day like that, and also in this circumstances. He looked at Hinata, who was still looking at her fingers, "Yeah, it is." He said quietly, trying to show no emotion, but failing miserably.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"I know, I'm just a little sad about the fact that I now have to live my life without him…" Naruto bitterly walked on, leaving Hinata behind. When he calmed down, he turned around, but he saw that in his fit, he had already walked into another street, and Hinata was out of sight. "I shouldn't have been so harsh… I mean she can't help it that Sasuke's gone."

(Aww, poor little gacky is missing his poor little boyfriend.) The nine-tailed fox's voice boomed mockingly through Naruto's head.

"Shut up!! Seriously! Shut Up!!" Naruto screamed at the fox out loud, punching in the blue, before regaining his senses for as far as it was possible. "You know, you should try to seriously shut up sometimes before I decide to seal you away completely."

Kyuubi laughed, (You seriously think you can defeat me, and seal me away? Besides, even if you could, you can't do anything without me!)

"That's what you think, but I can easily go on on my own, that's what Kakashi said, and even though he reads Icha Icha Paradise, about Ninja-things he is damn right." Naruto walked into the mansion he and Sasuke shared before.

(Yeah right.) But with that, the Kyuubi shut up, and withdrew back to behind the seal's gates.

Naruto kept listening for a moment, to see if Kyuubi had really withdrawn, sighing to himself in a relaxed way when he found out that Kyuubi had indeed withdrawn to it's usual spot.

Naruto didn't feel like doing anything that day anymore, and went straight to bed, falling asleep once his head had hit the pillow.

Wasn't this supposed to be a happy day? It was supposed to, but now it had turned dark and al bitter. Even though the sun was shining, warming the area up, Naruto felt like it was raining outside. Today, it was the day of Sasuke's birthday, and even though Naruto had always treasured this day in his heart, now it felt like it had no meaning, in fact, it felt like the worst day of his whole life.

Since he still didn't want his lover's birthday go by unattended, he organised a small ceremony in the Hokage's tower. Even though it was supposed to go about Sasuke turning twenty-one, the subjects mostly went about Sasuke's strange disappearance. "Hey Naruto." A hand was laid on his shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw it was Sakura.

"Hey Sakura." Naruto said quietly, turning away from her again. He knew that she'd start talking about Sasuke if he didn't do something about it. He just didn't want to talk about him yet, it just hurt him too much, "Well… the ceremony turned out more crowded then I expected."

Sakura sighed, her eyes softening as she knew that Naruto was trying to not get the subject to his disappeared lover, "Naruto…" She touched Naruto's arm, but her hand was slapped away by his other hand.

"Sakura…" He looked deeply into her eyes. She could see, that he hadn't been sleeping for days. Dark circles had formed around his eyes, and the mostly bright sparkling blue, had lost its shine, and all that was left were empty, and tired eyes, that were a mere shadow of what they were supposed to be. "Look at you, Naruto, you're not yourself anymore, you're a mere shadow of who you were before, you're not enjoying life… as you were supposed to be."

That was when something knacked in Naruto's mind, as suddenly anger took him over, "Do you have any idea how it feels to lose the one you love the most? Who you want to share your life with? With who, you want to grow old, and maybe even die?!" He hissed, advancing on Sakura slowly, "Nothing can replace him, Sakura… Nothing… It doesn't matter what will happen, I'll wait till his return, always. I'll wait days, weeks, months, or even years for his return. I'd sacrifice the earth, to get him back." Naruto stood still, inches away from Sakura looking into her eyes. Blue into green, anger into shock. He bowed forwards, and whispered into her ear, "You have no idea, what it's like." With that, he walked away, leaving a frozen Sakura.

Naruto walked away, lost in his thoughts, when he suddenly he heard Sakura's voice from behind, "I do know what it's like Naruto… Because I had that, when you took Sasuke away from me." He turned around, his eyes growing wide has the words found registration. Sakura had her arms crossed, and looked at him crossly, "You can wait Naruto, you can wait an eternity, but remember Sasuke's faith probably is at the mercy of his brother, and for as far I know, he doesn't have any."

Naruto's mind turned all dark, mist formed in front of his eyes. He heard voices, screaming, and a loud thud of somebody falling to the floor. He felt a firm grip on his arms, as suddenly the world returned to him. He saw Tsunade, who had grabbed him by the arms to restrain him from something. He looked down, and saw Sakura sitting on the floor, blood dripping down her face. It flooded out her nose, which must have been broken. "How can you, Sakura?! How can you say this to me?!"

Sakura stood up, letting go of her nose, "You knew I had been in love with Sasuke since the very first day he moved over here, and you dared to snatch him away from me, while you knew that he was the one who I loved the most in the whole world. Naruto, at first when Sasuke disappeared, I felt sorry for you, that you had to deal with all this rumpus without your lover…" she paused for a while, swiping away the blood of her lips and using a little bit of chakra to heal her nose, she'd take care of the forming later. "But then I started thinking… Why… Why would I care, feel sorry, and even help someone, who took away the love of my life. The only thing I actually lived for, you say you'd sacrifice the earth, but you're not the only one, Naruto."

Blood started to trickle down Sakura's neck, but it dried. Sakura had reached a level of anger that her chakra would show itself outside of her body, without being summoned. Blue rays of energy ran over her skin, making it red, and hot. Sakura fisted her hand, "When you and Sasuke got together, I had been crying for hours. But nobody ever looked at me, not even you. But I just thought, 'Why won't I just be happy for them.' And so I did, and everything went on, as normal as it could get."

"What does this have to do with what's happening now?" Turning the word to himself, Naruto walked over to Sakura, looking into her eyes, "What does it have to do with the situation now, what does it have to do with me being alone because Sasuke's gone?"

"Because, you're just experiencing how I felt, and you know… it feels great for me, seeing you linger here, without any sign of hope, without any love. It is you, who isn't supposed to be loved, but I see through it now." Sakura laughed, as pain stabbed through Naruto's chest like a dagger. The laugh was wicked, she was laughing like she was crazy. ( but she is… )

Naruto mentally jumped a little at the sudden mental booming voice of the kisune within him. 'What are you doing here?'

( Being sealed, what else am I doing here? I think that if I had the choice of leaving your body, I'd do that instantly. )
Naruto mentally sighed in frustration, 'No you lousy excuse of a fox, I mean, what are you doing in my mind?'

Kyuubi laughed, ( Now, now Naruto, you know you always have to act politely to someone greater then you. )

Naruto huffed, 'I don't see you talking politely to the forth…'

Kyuubi's eyes narrowed, as he growled lowly, ( That mortal isn't greater than me, he gave away his life, but I still live. )

'Only because you're living on my body.' Naruto smirked, 'by the way, I know that I'm greater than you, so why don't you start talking politely to me?'

( You, greater then me? Don't make me laugh, gacky! )

-'Think about it. If I die, you die. Your life depends on mine. If I stop mine, I stop yours.' With that, Naruto walked away from the gates deep inside himself, 'Go think about that.'

"… All those years, the years of team seven, team Kakashi… all those years you've been trying to switch the roles. But that will never happen, Naruto… There is no way that a devil's child like you would ever get a place in the hearts of the people of Konoha."

"Take that back!" Naruto yelled, as once again, Tsunade had to stop him from attacking Sakura.

"Why should I take the words back I said to you, child of the devil's whore. You should be glad that I take energy to waste words to you. A person like you should be surrounded by silence. And maybe one day, turn to the darkness you were supposed to be with from the day you were born…"

"Sakura!" Sakura looked up from Naruto, surprised to hear that Tsunade had finally spoken up, "Don't you dare to talk to him that way. He is going through a lot, and you're only making it worse, I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave."

Sakura huffed, but listened to Tsunade anyways, when she walked passed Naruto she whispered: "Demon fox." And left the room.

Naruto felt sick, Sakura's malice had hurt him deeply. A soft groan escaped from his throat, but tears never came. He couldn't cry, he couldn't let the feelings out that were eating him deep inside. He felt Tsunade placing a hand on his shoulder, before she glared at the other guests.

"Go on with your conversations people, there's nothing to see here." With that, she took him to a corner of the room, which was pretty quiet. Feeling the silence around him, Naruto started to calm down, and let everything that had just happened wash over him. "How could she, I never thought she'd be able to do something like this…"

Naruto looked at the other people, whispering to each other, and sometimes pointing at him. He knew they were talking about what had just happened. "Then that makes two of us." He saw Ino looking at Naruto apologizing. She was ashamed of the behaviour her friend had shown just a few minutes ago. "And why did she do it here. It was supposed to be a party for his birthday, and now she ruined it! Why didn't I see this coming!"

Tsunade sighed, and looked at the fox vessel, who was currently curling himself up against the wall, supporting his head on his knees, he looked at the guests, who were still whispering, and pointing at him. "Nobody could see it coming Naruto. And even if you could, what was there to do about it?"

"Actually, you could see it coming…" A light voice said from a not too long distance beside them. Both Tsunade and Naruto jumped a bit at the sudden sound, and turned around. In front of them was a young woman, not older than twenty. Her hair was long and black, a few locks hanging at the front side of her shoulders. Her eyes were black, but with a faint shade of red. The rest of her body couldn't be seen as for it was covered by a long, dark purple robe, only her slim hands could still be seen. "In spring, the chakra of the shinobi is supposed to run fluently, but hers was having high paces for very short periods of time, which stands for the three emotions, anger, sorrow and envy. As for the fact that it could be for seen that she'd do it here, could be read in the muscle contrasting of her irises, which show anger, that is soon to burst out, and show itself to the outside world."

Tsunade smirked, "Essupa, so you did come to the party." Naruto blanked, who was this Essupa? Why was she here? Did Tsunade bring her here? Where did she come from? Questions twirled around in his mind, almost making him dizzy. Tsunade saw read from Naruto's face that he was getting confused. "Naruto, let me introduce you to Essupa, the daughter of an old friend of mine."

"Hi…" Naruto just said plainly, holding up his hand somewhat higher than his shoulder to greet her.

Essupa smirked, but no emotion could be read from her face. It was like she was in some sort of trance all the time, which made Naruto wonder even more who she was, and what she was doing here. "You're Naruto, correct? The spirits have told me a lot about you, you're quite infamous in that world."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, 'Spirits… what is she talking about?'

Tsunade laughed at Naruto's expression, "Essupa is from the village hidden in the mist. She was born with the special gift of the rare Kekkai Genkai, the Rokugan, which allows her to look into the past, present, future, minds of other people, deeper body language and the world beyond."

"That's impossible… Kakashi told me there were only three Kekkai Genkai which had to do with eyes…" Naruto said, crossing his arms and cocking an eyebrow, "Come on ba-chan, I thought you'd be a little more wiser than Kakashi at least…"

"What Kakashi told you is correct, there are only three Kekkai Genkai that have to do with the eyechakra flow… But, this one has to do with the third eye." Essupa's glance fell on the guests, who were now trying to pick up the atmosphere there had been on the party before Sakura's burst out, "The third eye, also known as the spiritual eye, is so uncommon, that the Kekkai Genkai that can has never really been traced, since the chance of getting a spiritual eye is already a chance of one on a billion, but you have to have the Kekkai Genkai as well, which is only in my clan."

"You mean there is another Kekkai Genkai?" Naruto said, looking at Essupa from head to toe, "Tell me…"

"Well, it happened really long ago… My clan has always been a clan of witches, and fortune tellers. The could tell the future, by reading what is written in the mist. At one time, There was a witch, Sharevina, She got six children, all girls, each with a different sixth sense." Essupa lifted her hand, and touched Naruto's forehead. Suddenly, Naruto saw everything that Essupa was telling about, as she continued, "Those six daughters grew up to great witches, only they used their powers to destroy, blackmail and steal. Sharevina didn't know what to do, since they all had a different spiritual eye, she couldn't control them. And so she decided that there was no other way than to give up her magical abilities, and forge all the six sixth senses of her daughters together into one great power. Her daughters all died, and the magic in the clan disappeared… but the city had been saved from ages of tyranny. The power Sharevina had forged was too great to ever be used, and so she sealed it away deep inside her body… Years went by, and Sharevina got a new baby, a boy. She named the boy Hono, for he had the ability to suddenly also perform fire jutsus… But he couldn't read the mist, even though he also could perform water jutsus."

"But then how come you can use the Rokugan if all magic disappeared from your clan, which means you can't have a sixth sense?" Naruto said when he opened his eyes, and shook his head. Essupa's powers had made him quite dizzy.

"Because I got my sixth sense like any other person would get one…" Essupa said, as she looked up from Naruto to just stare at the wall in a deadpan. "By a collision of my soul with the one of somebody else when I was born…"

"Excuse me…" Naruto was getting even more confused, what did a sixth sense have to do with the fact that her soul had a collision with another soul when she was born… how could her soul get collided anyways?

"When you get born, your soul descends from the spiritual world, only this goes at a rapid speed… with other words, your soul falls from the spiritual world, but when your soul falls on that of somebody else, it falls with your soul, only it falls right through your body, but does leave a little amount of energy, which, if properly used, allows you to contact the spiritual world." Telling Naruto this, Essupa still continued her deadpan of staring at the wall, which annoyed Naruto a bit, but he decided that he'd better not comment on it.

"And if the Rokugan is a Kekkai Genkai, than which elements does it combine?" Naruto asked, cocking an eyebrow once again.

"Water and fire." Essupa finally broke with her deadpan, and looked at Naruto, "Which is why people like me should be careful… Emotions can do weird things with your chakra flow. But if it really goes wrong, and people like me get really emotional, then the water chakra smothers the fire chakra, and I'll die."

Tsunade, who had been silent for the entire conversation finally decided to speak up, "Yes, but Essupa, I still need to talk with you about some problems I have with the chakra flow of some of my patients, would you follow me, please?"

Essupa smiled, and stuck out her hand, "It sounds like our conversation has come to an end, I'd be pleased if our paths would cross once again, and the spirits say that that would happen more than once."

Naruto gave her his hand, and that was when something weird happened…

He had to run away. Corridors… Corridors, endless corridors, all the same. He had to run, he had to escape. They were going to do terrible things to him, he knew it. Naruto… Where was Naruto… He had to warn him… He had to warn him… he had to…

It was done… The flash ended and Essupa shook her head. He had fear, terrible fear, something was going to happen, the spirit were already singing about it, but it was worse than she had expected. She had to warn Tsunade, but not where Naruto was, he had already been through a lot.

"Are you alright?" Naruto saw Essupa thinking about something, something bad, though he didn't know what.

Essupa grunted, "No I'm fine, Tsunade, we need to talk." She said, taking Tsunade's wrist, she immediately exited the room, leaving a stunned Naruto.

A/N: Because I'm going on a wintersports holliday this weekend, I can't update on Saturday, so I'm doing it today. Now don't think now friday is the regular update date, 'cause that's still Saturday every two weeks... Well, I'll see you next update! Okay... stole the lines I put in between the scenes... well, here they are again -