AN: Chapter three is here now, and it's the end of the 'prologue' as it were. Next chapter will start Naruto's troubles with youkai before his graduation, though while I intend to draw a lot of inspiration from Natsume's trouble with youkai, any suggestions that you guys can give would be welcome, any situations you can see Naruto getting in, or any repercussions of his actions. Once again, I state that there's a forum topic for this story here: topic/139203/149040634/1/#149159009 There's also a link on my profile to my forum if that's not working for whatever reason.
Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord
Chapter 3 – Resulting Actions
Riou arrived at Tsuyukami's shrine three hours after midday, shortly before Naruto was to pass by. Tsuyukami casually tossed him and Hinoe a peach each, the masked youkai always seemed to have a never-ending supply of them courtesy of that 'Hana' woman he mentioned from time to time.
"So one more time, I will recognise Naruto by…?" Riou asked, glancing at Hinoe.
"He's a blue-eyed blond with whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks." She told him. "Oh, and Benio might be resting on his head as well, she was this morning."
"Benio, eh?" Riou chuckled. "I wouldn't have thought her the type, she's never been particularly fussed about humans before."
"She claims that's she's hanging around so she can annoy him." Tsuyukami added his input. "I think it's a bit of that, a bit of boredom, and quite a bit of it being a novelty having a sighted human so close by."
"I can see the appeal." Riou nodded. "Now, do you either of you have any advice on how to approach this matter?"
Hinoe hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "Naruto's a cheerful kid, not a bad bone in his body, so intimidation and aggression is definitely not the right way to go about it. However, given what humans are like, violence is almost inevitable, so offering to help look after him might be a good idea, or at least helping him to take care of himself. It'll build up a good rapport at least."
"Is there anything we even could teach him if we went with that option?" Riou asked. "We're not ninja, we don't possess fancy techniques, and our physical fights are more to do with strength and speed than technique."
"Youkai are rather good with illusions and curses though." Hinoe commented. "All it would require for him to learn how to do it would be to separate the spiritual part of his chakra from the rest of it. Besides, I have a few scrolls with some old youkai techniques in he might possibly find useful against other humans."
It is important to note here that youkai did not use elemental techniques. Primarily, this was because to use them would require them to convert their spiritual power into an element, and that was rather pointless and wasteful when it was raw spiritual power that was most effective against them. Therefore, because it's fairly useless, none of them bothered with it, even if they were capable of using such techniques.
"That sounds suspiciously like the sort of things a fighter would be interested in, do you really think he will choose to be a ninja?" Riou wondered. "From what you've said, he doesn't have the right temperament to be one."
"He's an orphan." Tsuyukami decided to be the one to answer this time. "There aren't many options open to orphans, and on top of that, most people seem on edge or wary of him, if not hateful, so that closes more doors. Where would he gain an apprenticeship? Where would employ him? Given that about three fifths of the village is dedicated to the military as well, how many options does he really have?"
"Beyond that, it seems almost a requirement for ninjas to have some strange quirk or habit." Hinoe commented. "His 'sight' would fit in well with the exercise nut who runs around the village every morning, and I've heard some rather strange stories about some even more… 'unique' individuals who wear that metal plate on their heads."
"Should we nudge him in that direction then?" Riou mused. "The earlier he makes a decision, the sooner he can start preparing for it. I am sure being a mercenary for hire is quite a demanding job, and not something to be taken lightly."
"The decision is ultimately his to make." Tsuyukami reminded them. "However, I do believe that being a ninja would make Naruto the happiest, and it would probably be the best for him too. He's already an outcast from the civilians, so why not try a different group?"
Riou sighed. "Very well. Assuming that Naruto really is as good-hearted as he sounds, we shall endeavour to direct his attention towards becoming a ninja, but in doing so we will also become responsible for ensuring he has the best possible chance at surviving just such a profession, both physically and mentally."
"Understood." Tsuyukami agreed. "Though there's not much I could teach him myself."
"A child needs more than teachers." Hinoe countered. "Become his confidant, a friend if you will. You like making new friends just as much as lord Riou does, and beyond that, perhaps you could introduce him to the kappa or kogitsune, meeting childish youkai such as them would probably be good for him."
"Enough, you two, I believe young Naruto is here." Riou interrupted them before Tsuyukami could say anything back to Hinoe, and all three youkai looked towards where a blonde boy with a butterfly on his head was indeed approaching them.
"Hello, Naruto!" Tsuyukami called out cheerfully, waving at the blonde.
"Hey, Tsuyukami!" Naruto waved back. "Hello, Hinoe!"
"Hello, little Naruto." Hinoe smiled at him. "We have someone to introduce to you here, like we told you about this morning."
"Hello." Naruto greeted the winged youkai. "You're lord Riou, right? I'm Naruto Uzumaki, it's nice to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well." Riou replied. "Hinoe and Tsuyukami have spoken of little else since yesterday, and I found myself curious about you."
"You want to know about me?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, I do. Shall we walk?" With Naruto's agreement, he and the blonde child walked beside each other into the trees, only Benio, still resting on Naruto's head, accompanying them.
After a few moments of silence, Riou spoke again. "I am curious about you, Naruto, very much so. There was once a time where those with the sight were rare, but not impossible to find. Now, you are the only confirmed person who can see us, and the only other one we know of with the potential is a priestess in Demon Country. I'm sure you can see why I might want to know more about you."
"I'm weird, different." Naruto's head drooped at that.
"I will not deny that you are different, everyone is, especially youkai." Riou comforted the boy. "However, I feel a need to warn you about the future ahead of you. As I'm sure you've already heard, having the sight is both a blessing and a curse. You have the opportunity to clearly see what no other human can, to become part of something wonderful
"However, as much as I may wish it were, the world of youkai is not some paradise for all. There will be those who would seek to use you as a tool, or make you their thrall. There will also be those who wish to devour you, your sight being proof of you having high spiritual power." Riou sighed.
Naruto frowned at that, not fully understanding every word Riou said, but getting the gist of what he meant. "There's going to be monsters coming for me, ones who want to eat me… and th-thrall me?" He stumbled over the unfamiliar word, not entirely sure what it meant.
"A thrall is someone who is akin to a slave." Riou explained. "And yes, there will be those who will want to eat you. It will be impossible to keep your abilities a secret forever, and sooner or later, news will spread beyond my own forest, drawing foreign youkai here."
"I'm sorry." Naruto apologised. "I didn't mean to make any trouble for you."
"Think nothing of it, Naruto." Riou waved off the apology. "While, yes, news of you will cause some stirring amongst youkai, having you frequent my domain also grants me a certain level of status amongst my peers." Seeing Naruto's confusion, he chuckled. "Don't worry about it, the ways of politics, both human and youkai, are complex, and not for children to worry about."
"So what should I do now?" Naruto asked.
"That is something only you can decide, Naruto." Riou responded. "However, I can give you some advice of my own. Your future will involve conflict, either with youkai or with others, and so I will suggest you seek to learn how to protect yourself. To that end, I want to know whether you wish to be a ninja or not?"
"The old man always has really awesome stories about ninjas!" Naruto exclaimed. "They can do all sorts of cool things, and they can go all sorts of places! Being a ninja sounds really cool, they get to save princesses, and fight dragons, and so much more!"
"Which old man told you that?" Riou asked.
"The one in the funny hat, the Hokage." Naruto replied. "He comes around every now and then and talks to me and some of the others."
Riou sighed. "I guess becoming a ninja is inevitable then." However, he wondered why exactly the village leader bothered with this one child in particular. "There are a few things that you need to know though, a few truths you need to be aware of before you think about being a ninja."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"While it is true that a ninja may 'save' a princess, the stories you were told are likely very rare. There are simply too many ninjas and too few princesses who need saving for it to happen all the time." Riou told him. "Ninjas are for more likely to have to save diplomats and the like, or maybe some more minor nobility."
"So they save less important people?" Naruto wondered.
"Yes, but even then that sort of mission probably isn't too common." Riou cautioned him. "Ninjas are mercenaries, they fight for money, so depending on the needs of people, you might end up doing very different missions to the ones you have been told about."
"What sort of missions would we be doing?" Naruto questioned Riou.
"Well, I think escort missions are rather common." Riou racked his mind to think of examples. "Erm, likely for merchants who are wary of bandits on the roads. You might get delivery missions as well, and possibly search and destroy missions if bandits or raiders attack somewhere. You might get investigation missions, where something has happened, or tracking missions if someone or something is lost."
"That sounds really complicated." Naruto said.
"It is, as all things are." Riou told him. "Aside from that, there are various parts of the village which involve ninjas as well. I believe the hospital staff also have some level of training, and the administration for the village leader, the teachers will be able to look after themselves, and so many more will. On top of that, I believe the village also has a number of ninja 'clans', all of which at least have some level of training. It's a dangerous world we live in, it's better to be prepared for it than not."
"B-but what can I do?" Naruto burbled quietly.
Riou looked down at Naruto and saw tears had started to gather at the corners of his eyes. Ah, he had forgotten that he was speaking to a child, one only half a decade old at that, and not someone older who could understand the world better. Ignoring how Benio was still present, Riou knelt down and wrapped his arms around Naruto in a hug.
Feeling the boy freeze in place, Riou continued on as comfortingly as he could. "Naruto, I don't mean to scare you, far from it in fact. I just want you to know what sort of problems you may face in the future. The more you know now, the better you can prepare for it, no?"
"But how would I prepare?" Naruto asked, his voice muffled by Riou's arms and wings.
"You learn." Riou told him. "Apply yourself in your lessons during the day, take all you can from them, and on the afternoons… well, youkai may not be ninja, but that doesn't stop you learning a few things from us. Illusions is something we are naturally gifted at, and while there are few who do so, we can manipulate energy if we so choose.
"Actually, let me give you your first lesson. Come, sit with me." Riou took a seat at the base of a tree, Naruto sitting beside him. "Now, everything that happens can be broken down into three things. There's an input, a process, and an output. In other words, something is put in, something happens to it, and something comes out of it.
"Now, the most common thing used as an input is energy, whether that be the spiritual power we use as youkai, or the chakra that ninja use." Riou explained. "Now, can you think of what the three most easily used outputs are?"
Naruto frowned in thought. "Fire?" He asked. "Ninja can spit fire can't they?"
Riou chuckled. "Good guess, and your example displays all three things, but an element wasn't what I was thinking of. Would you like to guess again?"
"Wind?" Naruto tried.
"Close yet again, but not quite what I wanted." Riou said. "The three simplest expressions of energy are motion, heat, and light. Wind can blow things along, and fire provides both heat and light." Riou held up a hand, and after a few moments of concentration, a ball of blue-white light hovered over his palm.
"Here we have light." He then dismissed it, before placing his palm against Naruto's cheek, which proceeded to warm up far quicker than was normal. "Here we have heat." He took his hand away from Naruto before pointing it at a low hanging tree branch. A burst of wind blew several leaves off the tree. "There we have motion."
"That was awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, his earlier tears already forgotten. "Can you teach me how to do that? Can you? Can you?"
Riou laughed lightly. "Calm yourself, Naruto, and yes, I can teach you. However, you may wish to ask Hinoe for lessons instead of myself, she is as close to a scholar as youkai get, and she knows far more than the basic tricks I can do. The only reason I am lord of the forest and not her is simply down to the fact I am stronger than she is. If it ever came to a fight between us, though, I am far from certain about my victory over her."
"Would she teach me?" Naruto wondered aloud.
Benio, finally having enough, transformed back into her usual form and snorted. "Hinoe would love having a brat to teach. Like lord Riou said, she is as close to a scholar as we have, and she would delight in having someone to talk to about all of those musty scrolls she keeps."
"Always so quick to denigrate, Benio." Riou sighed. "That mouth of yours will get you into trouble you can't get out of one day."
"What does denigrate mean?" Naruto asked curiously.
"It means she has a sharp tongue, always ready to insult someone." Riou told him. "She's a good sort though, and her words hide who she truly is, a good and loyal youkai."
"L-Lord Riou!" Benio stammered, her cheeks red.
The winged youkai chuckled. "It is true, Benio."
"B-But that's no reason to..." She trailed off.
Naruto gave her a look. "Are you alright, Benio?" He asked her.
Benio huffed, before grabbing Naruto and rubbing her knuckles into his scalp. "I'm fine, brat, but you're not going to be so if you ask me that again!"
"Careful with your new friend, he's not as durable as we are." Riou chastised the butterfly youkai.
"Of course he's not, humans are such fragile things." Benio retorted. "As easily snapped as a twig and alive only as long as a youkai's single breath."
Riou watched as Benio let out a yelp when Naruto's flailing legs caught her in the shins, making her drop him and hop about on one leg for a moment. The two of them seemed to forget he was there as Benio proceeded to chase Naruto all around the forest and nearby clearing.
Riou smiled.
It looked like the next few years were going to be quite interesting.
xxxxx
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, frowned in worry and concern. Over the last few months he'd noticed a change in one particular inhabitant of his village. He'd kept as close of an eye on Naruto as he could, both because of his own fondness for the blonde, as well as believing it his duty to his successor cum predecessor, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, Naruto's father.
From what he'd heard, the boy had thrown himself into his studies at school, learning as much as he could as quickly as he could, and while his diligence was commendable, his social life had suffered even more than it already had. Not that Naruto really had a social life.
Even before Naruto's change in behaviour, there was no one really who the small boy interacted with. His status as a jinchuuriki alone scared a lot of people away from him. Civilians knew virtually nothing of the workings of ninjutsu or genjutsu, and the art of fuinjutsu was even more mystical to them, and as was human nature, they did not trust what they did not comprehend.
On top of that, Naruto's frequent tales of monsters only he seemed able to see had further served to isolate the boy, and even those that might have given him a chance otherwise were driven away. Finding no friends among the children his age, Hiruzen knew that Naruto had begun to spend his time amongst the trees and the animals therein.
Now, however, Naruto rarely left the woods. He ate in the orphanage, learned at school, and disappeared amongst the trees for the rest of the day, and often nights. It was becoming more and more rare for him to even come back to the orphanage to sleep, and he'd heard that the matrons were wondering if he still counted as being under their care.
Hiruzen… had a sort of answer to that.
Minato had had an apartment when he was a genin, one he'd kept up on payments for as he'd advanced up the ranks. Even when he and Kushina had bought a house together – one that had been destroyed by the kyuubi – he'd still had that apartment, and had in fact bought it rather then kept renting it.
Perhaps it was time for Naruto to move out of the orphanage, and into his father's apartment. No one would remember whose it had been, so they weren't likely to discover the connection between the two blondes, and as Minato was now dead, the apartment was technically now Naruto's.
However, could Naruto be self-sufficient enough to look after himself? The boy had no knowledge of how to cook or clean, and there was the matter of having to pay bills, namely water and electricity. Heating wasn't much of a problem in Konoha, as the land of fire in general had very mild winters.
Hiruzen sighed. Glancing at the stack of paperwork on his desk, he then looked back at the crystal ball he had set on his desk. Grumbling about paperwork being able to wait, he tried to get a lock on Naruto using his Telescope Technique Jutsu. However, it proved difficult.
Whenever Naruto disappeared into the forest, he had quite a bit of difficulty finding him, and he often had to manually scan the forest a section at a time to find the boy. It was strange though, if he didn't know better he'd say that something was interfering with his jutsu, like the trees themselves were shielding Naruto from whomever might be trying to find him.
Hiruzen despaired over Naruto ever gaining a friend within the village. It seemed to him that, even if he hadn't left the village, they had driven him out. Thankfully, the few times he'd seen him, the blonde had still been his cheerful self, but there were a few more oddities that had cropped up.
Hiruzen had, of course, subtly encouraged him to become a shinobi. Naruto was a jinchuuriki, and there was no way he could become a civilian with a beast like that sealed inside of him, and as much as Hiruzen was fond of Naruto, he was also the Hokage, and that meant making tough decisions.
Naruto's enthusiasm for the tales he'd told him had eased his mind about Naruto being made a shinobi, and yet… recently he'd been asking some very odd questions. Rather than heroic tales of rescuing princesses, Naruto had asked to hear about the most recent shinobi war, of Sakumo Hatake, and of Hanzo the salamander. Naruto must have been reading quite a bit of Konoha's history to come across those two names.
Nevertheless, Hiruzen had indulged him, and told Naruto of two of the strongest men he'd known. He'd told the boy of how Sakumo had valued his comrades' lives above that of a completed mission, and of his proficiency in kenjutsu, as well as the other ninja arts. He regaled the boy with tales of Hanzo's strength, his strong bond with his summons, and the way he wished for peace despite being so accomplished at waging war.
Naruto's questions had then taken an even stranger twist. He'd asked what sort of missions ninjas of different ranks undertook, and Hiruzen had told him. C rank missions were the most common for all ranks, aside from fresh genin who had to contend with D ranks. Occasionally a chunin team would take a B rank, while Jonin would take A ranks every now and then.
He'd told Naruto about the different divisions as well, the cryptology department, the administrative group, the medical organisation, the hunters, and so on and so forth. Part of Hiruzen was actually quite pleased that someone was taking such an interest in ninja that wasn't purely based around field shinobi teams, and it spoke well of Naruto's developing mind.
Still, something seemed… off about Naruto, something was different, but what it was he could not even guess. Naruto at least seemed happier than he had before, but that did only so much to quell the unease that Hiruzen felt. That unease did anything but abate whenever he caught sight of that butterfly that had spent the last few months riding around on top of Naruto's head.
That was not natural behaviour for a butterfly, and he'd wondered for a time if it was a summon. Naruto having formed a contract with a summon clan would explain a number of things, including his questions about some of the famous ninja he'd asked about.
It would also explain why his jutsu was so often unable to find Naruto, it had a limited range after all, and the summon realm was not inside of that. If Naruto was reverse summoned by the butterflies every day, it would make sense that he couldn't find him, and Hiruzen would not discourage him!
Well, he might insist that Naruto spent more time in the village, he didn't want the boy growing apart from humans, but that in itself was difficult. What friends did Naruto have amongst humans? Himself, the Hokage? He could only devote so much time per month to one boy, and that was precious little. If he made friends amongst the summons, would he ever want to come back to the human world?
So far, it seemed Naruto was quite happy coming to school, and indeed his focus on learning and his drive of self-improvement was greater than it had ever been before, but he wasn't staying around after school to play with children his own age. Even during lunch time, he sat apart from others.
Perhaps when Naruto joined the Ninja Academy in three years he would find people he could get along with. After all, ninja had weird habits and wouldn't discriminate against him because of them, and on top of that, the clan children wouldn't be as wary of him as the civilian ones would, their parents having a greater understanding of fuinjutsu, and just what a jinchuuriki actually was, and therefore wouldn't warn their children away from him.
Yes, that's what he would do, wait and hope for the best.
If things got worse though, then… perhaps he would do something else.
xxxxx
For Naruto, the past few months had been absolutely brilliant!
Like Riou had suggested, he worked hard in his lessons at school, and while the teachers didn't like him, they had not sabotaged him, allowing him to learn more and more as quickly as he could manage. He'd also asked Hinoe to teach him things, and she had agreed as well, though lessons with her were very different to the ones in school.
The first thing she tried to teach was how to separate his spiritual power from his physical power. Chakra, what naturally flowed through his body, was a mixture of both, but all of the things Hinoe could teach him would only work with one of them.
It had taken him two full months to be able to do as Hinoe asked, and even then it was a very difficult thing for Naruto to do. Not to mention that it just felt so wrong. Humans weren't purely spiritual creatures like youkai were, and every time he practised what Hinoe taught him, while it did get easier, it felt like he was twisting something inside of himself.
Now though, now that he was capable of doing it quickly enough for Hinoe to judge it usable, even if it was 'only barely', she was going to teach him the next step in his learning, actually doing something with that energy he'd managed to call up!
She sat him down next to herself, and drew a design on a torn off section of a scroll.
"Right, Naruto, what I've drawn is a very basic seal, and it is composed of three parts. Would you care to take a guess as to what each part is?" Hinoe asked him.
Remembering what Riou had told him several months back, Naruto answered her. "Is it input, process, and output?"
Hinoe blinked in surprise. "That is correct, Naruto. Here, let me show you." She indicated one part of the seal. "This is where you push your spiritual power in. Take note of the shape of it, how everything is focused inwards from the outside of the symbol, pulling things into the middle." She indicated the next part. "This is the process. Notice how it changes, how one side becomes the other gradually." She then pointed at the third section. "Now see how the symbol here is expanding, pushing outwards from the middle. Do you see it?"
"I do." Naruto confirmed. "So what does the seal actually do?"
"Not much right now, it is incomplete. Can you guess what is missing?" Hinoe asked.
Naruto didn't know and told her as much.
"Never mind, Naruto, I'm surprised you could tell me as much as you did." Hinoe ruffled his hair with one hand. "Now, what is missing is the binding part of the seal, what will transform it from a series of disconnected symbols into something that actually does something."
With that, Hinoe traced a circle around the symbols and channelled a small amount of her own power into it. The paper writhed and twisted for a moment as the symbols seemingly faded and lines of ink spread around the whole thing. Eventually it settled, and the paper was left with two circles on it, one on each side. One circle was filled in with ink, making it black, while the other was just an outline.
"Right, Naruto, pass your hand here." The blonde obeyed the blue-haired youkai, who put the paper against the palm of his hand, before tying it on properly.
"Now, call up some of your spiritual power, and push it into the circle against your palm." She told him.
Naruto did that. Being as still and as silent as he could, he reached inside himself and quickly found his chakra. Visualising it as a rope made up of many different strands, some light blue, almost white, and others a darker, almost green, blue, he began to try and pry a few of the lighter coloured strings away from it.
Just like every other time he did this, Naruto felt the uncomfortable sensation of separating his yin from his yang, but he nevertheless managed to do so. Carefully guiding the blue-white strands of spiritual power along his arm and out of the palm of his hand, Naruto opened his eyes in time to see a bush near them be stripped of some leaves as a blast of wind shot out of the other side of the seal on his hand.
"Well done, Naruto, you did it exactly right." Hinoe congratulated him. "The seal transformed your energy into motion and expelled it on the other side of itself. Motion is considered one of the safest energy transformations to practise, and also requires the least control."
"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, a wide grin splitting his face in two.
"Oh, don't get too far ahead of yourself, Naruto, we've got a lot of work to do before we move on any further than this." Hinoe chastised him. "We need you to call up your power a lot faster, and you're going to have to learn how to control this before we move onto anything else."
"How long will that take?" Naruto whined.
"Oh, I'd say a good few months before we can safely move onto light." Hinoe told him. "We don't want to blind anyone after all, and light requires more control than motion does. A few months after that and we might be able to safely move onto heat as well. You've got a very long way to go yet, Naruto, but don't despair, you've taken your first steps, and they're amongst the most important."
Naruto smiled at her, earning himself another ruffle of his hair.
"Now let's try it again, and try to be quicker about it. We can worry about control when you can call up your power within a second or less." Hinoe commanded him. "If you get it down well enough, I'll let you go see the kappa again, Tsuyukami tells me they want to see you again, and I know you had fun with them last time."
Naruto smiled and got back to work.
Truly, fortune was smiling on him now.