AN: Another chapter for you lot to read, and the beginning of the 'Land of Iron' mini arc. It shouldn't take more than two or three chapters all told, after which there'll be another mini arc before the Academy. There'll be one or two mini arcs during the academy, and then we come to graduation. Hopefully I can keep writing this well enough to keep you all interested, and keep it interesting as well! Ah, well, I can but hope, can I not?
Oh, also, there's now an omake thread for this story! Check out my forum, there's a link to it on my profile!
Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord
Chapter 9 – Heading Off
When next Akiko came to visit Naruto in the forest, she was rather shocked to see his left arm being held in a sling, and what looked like mostly healed cuts on his forehead as well. She also noticed that the butterfly that usually sat on his head wasn't there, and given just how much time the two spent together, she assumed Benio was in what Naruto called her 'normal' form.
"Naruto, what happened to you?" Akiko exclaimed.
"Um, nothing." He replied evasively, but Akiko wasn't having it.
"And what sort of 'nothing' results in you getting injured, mister?" She asked. "Those look like claw marks on your head, and I know you're too good to get scratched by a bird caught in one of your traps."
Naruto looked sheepish for a moment, before explaining what happened and how he got his injuries. "Don't worry though, Hinoe has made some potions and creams to sort my arm out, and I'll have this sling off in a few days!"
Akiko folded her arms and glared at Naruto. "That was still a really risky thing for you to do, Naruto! What if you hadn't been as lucky, and what if you'd actually died out there!? Most of the village might not like you, but I do, and I'm sure your youkai friends wouldn't be happy if they lost you either."
"They weren't happy about it themselves." Naruto chuckled. "Hinoe really tore into Misuzu about it. He looked like a scared child in front of a teacher, and it got worse when Benio covered my ears. I wonder what Hinoe was yelling then? I was behind her so I couldn't even try and read her lips."
"Naruto, shut up for a moment and listen to me." Akiko silenced the young boy. "I know you're going to be a ninja, but that's no reason to be reckless. On the contrary, it's a reason to be cautious, careful. It's a dangerous profession, and very few ever live long enough to retire. I don't want to see you die before your time's up, you hear me?"
"I understand, Akiko-sensei." Naruto mumbled, the concern she showed for him turning his cheeks pink. "It's not like I have to be a ninja or anything, I mean, I could decide to become a travelling explorer or something, I really want to see more of the world."
"Oh, Naruto, you poor child. I don't think you really have the option of not being a ninja." Akiko told him.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "They might strongly encourage people to become ninja, but going to the academy is completely voluntary, isn't it?" Naruto then seemed to realise something. "Wait, this has got to do with that thing you can't tell me about, doesn't it?"
"It does." Akiko replied hesitantly.
She saw Naruto's eyes drift off to the side, and his forehead furrowed in a frown. He then looked back at Akiko with a strange look in his eyes.
"Hinoe says that the way you're talking, it's like I'm a biju host – not even those with bloodlines are forced to become ninjas – but that can't be right." He mumbled. "While I apparently 'feel' a bit like a jinchuuriki, it's different. Apparently I feel too 'incomplete' to be one."
Akiko looked surprised at that. She had thought he really was a host for the kyuubi, but the youkai thought otherwise? They'd know more about it than she would, she was just a civilian and barely knew even the basics of all of that ninja stuff.
"The Yondaime died defeating the kyuubi six years ago." She shrugged. "That's… really all I know for certain."
"That doesn't make sense though!" Naruto cried in frustration. "I read the history books as well, and apparently he used some sort of seal to summon the death god. Why would he do that though? It doesn't take a god to seal away a biju, and sealing biju away doesn't cost someone their life either! Just what did he do that he had to pay for it with his soul?"
"I think there's only one person who could tell us exactly what happened that day, and he's worse than dead." Akiko replied.
Naruto frowned. "No, the kyuubi was there too, and the youkai seem to think that I have a portion of its chakra sealed inside of me." He paused. "Maybe that's what the Yondaime did, separated the kyuubi from its chakra… Ah! That doesn't make any sense either!"
"It doesn't?" Akiko asked, confused. "I mean, if you could have loads of chakra on tap, isn't that a good thing?"
"Akiko-sensei, if someone were to 'separate' someone from their chakra, they'd eventually simply recover it. We produce chakra, and that's not going to just stop if we lose what we have available." Naruto said. "So stealing the kyuubi's chakra would be a short term solution at best, and a very short term solution at that."
Akiko shrugged her shoulders. "Then what could he have done?"
"I don't know." Naruto replied. "And I don't know how to find out either."
"Just be careful, okay?" Akiko told Naruto.
He grinned at her. "Hey, at least now I have a good idea what that 'secret' is, everyone thinks I'm the kyuubi's vessel, don't they?"
"There's a law that prevents me from confirming that, so I think I'll abstain from answering you." Akiko smiled.
Naruto huffed. "A village full of ninja, and it's a civilian that finds a way around the rules."
Akiko grinned. "As you said, it's a ninja village, even us little people had to pick up something."
The two of them smiled at each other, before they began to laugh.
Unseen by the teacher, Benio and Hinoe smiled at the two of them.
xxxxx
Two days later, Naruto made the journey to the Valley of the End. He packed a small backpack for the journey, as well as some supplies to make more shiki to replace the ones he'd lost fighting the rouge youkai. He'd gotten into the habit of making several packs a day now, so he would have a stockpile of them.
Hinoe had explained how to create shiki in different forms, and Naruto had his notes to look back on, but he wasn't going to make any of them any time soon. The shiki he currently used were created with his own reiryoku, and thus emulated him to a certain degree. To create different shikigami, he'd have to 'flavour' his spiritual power when making the shiki, on top of adding an extra symbol when writing up the talismans.
The talisman portion of it was simple, he just added one extra symbol, he was using ones representing wolves and falcons himself, in order to create two new types of shiki, one for tracking and another for sending messages and aerial reconnaissance.
Just making the talismans wasn't enough though. When he'd first attempted to use them, he'd gotten a misshapen mutant hybrid of bird and man. The wolf ones were easier, but they still seemed stuck half-way between canine and human. They had the general body shape of a person, but with longer arms with clawed paws instead of hands and feet, a muzzle for a face, and triangular ears on their heads.
Oh well, all that meant was that he had to practise, practise, and practise some more.
Hinoe told him that once he had that down, she'd teach him more complex seals and might even start him on illusions as well.
However, that wasn't what was really on his mind at the moment. He was thinking about what Akiko-sensei had said. While she hadn't come right out and said it, she'd pretty much told him that everyone thought he was the kyuubi jinchuuriki. However, all of the youkai agreed that he didn't feel quite right for that to be true.
When they looked for the seal, and found it on his stomach, that pretty much confirmed that something was sealed inside of him, and something quite powerful at that if the seal itself was anything to go by. Unfortunately, Hinoe didn't know enough about human seals to fully understand everything about the seal, but they had managed to work out a few things.
One, like all biju seals, the entire thing was based upon a chakra storage seal.
Two, the seal was constantly leaking a small amount of super dense chakra into his body.
Three, rather than the expected one, there were apparently three consciousnesses within the seal.
Four, it was lucky that no youkai had attempted to possess him, as apparently the souls were linked to his own mind.
Five, there was some sort of lock on the seal that could be opened and closed like a valve.
It was that third part that really confused Hinoe. Why would a seal meant for restraining a biju have other ocupants? Or if it wasn't restraining a biju, but just a massive reserve of chakra, why would there be any thinking creatures in there at all? The rest made sense at least, and the valve really interested Hinoe.
If they could figure out how to open and close it, that would give Naruto even more power than he already had on tap. He doubted he'd ever need such power, he did already have massive reserves of spiritual energy, reiryoku, and physical energy, ki, so any more than that was simply overkill.
It wasn't power that was Naruto's greatest barrier at the moment, it was the application of that power. Before he could learn powerful techniques, he had to learn weaker ones and build up from there. Not that Naruto was complaining or anything, he loved what he was learning, and thought the techniques he currently knew were awesome!
Naruto huffed to himself as he made his way towards the Valley of the End as fast as he could. This would be so much easier if he could fly, but no, Hinoe said that was something youkai found themselves naturally capable of, and while she could figure it out to teach him, it would be really difficult to do.
She was working on something else at the moment though. She said Tsuyukami had had an idea that she was making work, and that Naruto would really like it when she was finished, but the research needed to pull it off would take a long time to produce anything worthwhile.
Channelling reiryoku to his legs, Naruto sped up a bit, though not too much. Reiryoku, after all, was spiritual power, not physical. However, Naruto was not going to mess around with ki until he could find out more about it. Youkai were spiritual beings that used reiryoku, which was essentially the polar opposite of ki.
Naruto sighed, frustrated. His reiryoku was getting easier and easier to manage, and he didn't know if that was a good thing or not. He knew that chakra was a mix of the two energies, spiritual and physical, and that when he'd first started, they'd been intertwined with one another. However, recently, it felt like his reiryoku and ki were… becoming separated from each other.
That made it much easier for him to use the skills Hinoe had been teaching him, but he didn't know how it would affect any human skills he might learn in the future. If worst came to worst, he might have to work out how to copy a technique and alter it to fit his circumstances.
Anyway, never mind that, he was off to visit Ran at the moment, he'd borrowed some more story books from the library to read to her. Hopefully she would like them, and maybe share a story of her own with him!
xxxxx
While Naruto was off visiting Ran the mizuchi, Hinoe was experimenting with seals, trying to get the shunshin to work for youkai. She was having rather limited success at the moment. Oh, she could accelerate an individual's movement, but if she went above a certain threshold, then the shiki would start to show signs that would suggest internal damage in something with actual insides to damage.
Trying to go beyond that limit was proving a difficult obstacle to overcome. If she tried strengthening the body before it moved, it turned the internals inflexible, causing worse damage than leaving them alone did. If she tried to add in a sort of air cushion at the end of the technique, then the shiki tended to bounce off it and crash into something.
It was frustrating knowing that this was a common ninja technique, and she was unable to figure out exactly how they did it.
Then again, a lot of ninja techniques didn't quite make sense either. For youkai, you had to know how to do something, and then practise a skill until you were capable of actually doing it. For a ninja technique, all you had to do was know the hand seals they used and practise until you got it right.
Hand seals themselves were quite strange to Hinoe as well. She could understand using them as a mnemonic device to remember something and make something easier, but apparently the hand signs actually moulded a ninja's chakra. That just didn't make sense, how would your hands affect your internal energy?
That hadn't stopped her sending the kappa into the Ninja Academy and asking them to try and memorise anything they could from the teachers' demonstrations. It was from that she learned what the twelve hand signs were, what they were named, and a few other titbits, like the fact the snake hand sign was often associated with earth techniques.
Those hand signs hadn't helped her at all! Even using them felt weird, like she was trying to do one thing, and her reiryoku was being forced to do something else. No, it was far better that she use what she was more familiar with, what the humans would call shape and nature manipulation.
Hinoe held back a wince as two of her newest batch of shiki slammed face first into trees, one of them doing so hard enough to 'kill' itself. Oh, why did human techniques have to be so nonsensical?
xxxxx
Ran the mizuchi smiled to herself as she heard Naruto read her the story called 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'. Both she and Naruto got a laugh out of it, imagining and describing to each other what various characters might look like, and how Naruto shared a name with the protagonist.
"Hey, I may even be named after the character for all I know, this book was published before I was born after all." Naruto said. "I don't get why it's not more popular though. I mean, it just seems to draw you in, and you want the guy to win, you want him to struggle past all of his problems."
"Who is it written by? Do you think they might have written more stories?" Ran asked.
"I asked about that at the library." Naruto replied. "It was written by one of the most famous ninjas alive today, Jiraiya of the legendary three ninjas. This is the only book of his in the public library though, the others apparently contain 'adult material not suitable for public display'."
"Adult material?" Ran asked. "Are you saying he stopped writing stuff like this and started writing erotica?"
"I guess." Naruto shrugged. "His other books, the 'Icha Icha' series apparently, are supposed to be way popular though, so maybe he's just writing something that sells better."
Ran sighed – which was quite something considering her size – and shook her massive head. "Pandering to the public's desires, an unfortunate flaw many authors suffer from. Though I suppose it is how they get paid, and appealing to the greater majority would make them more money."
Ran considered things for a moment.
"I know! Why don't you write something, Naruto? You could even write down all of the stories I know of." She seemed to get rather excited at that. "Imagine that! Spreading wonderful stories to the distant corners of the continent. Oh, how amazing would that be."
"Me write something?" Naruto asked in surprise.
"Of course." Ran nodded her head up and down. "You might even like it. It's something else to do after all, isn't it? Hobbies are good for children, at least I think they are, and writing is a… a… creative talent thing, it would help exercise your mind, wouldn't it?"
"I guess it would." Naruto admitted. "I don't know how I'd get it published though, maybe the old man would know something..." He paused. "Of course, that'll have to wait until I come back from Iron Country at least."
"Iron Country?" Ran interrupted him. "Why would you want to go there?"
"I heard that most weapon tsukumogami call that place home, and if I'm to become a ninja, I need to learn how to fight. I'm hoping that one of them would be willing to teach me what they know." Naruto replied.
"A… ninja?" Ran asked hesitantly. "You want to be one of those killers… why?"
"Apparently, I don't actually have much of a choice about it." Naruto told her. "It's better to go willingly than be dragged into it, and I don't want to be like the ninjas fighting in Water Country at all. If I fight… I want it to be because I'm protecting those I care about, or defending myself and my home."
Ran raised herself higher out of the water until she was at the same height as Naruto, her large eyes looking right at the small six year old child. As uncomfortable as he was with the silent stare, Naruto didn't move and allowed Ran to look for whatever it was she was searching for.
"A defender, a protector… a far more admirable person than one that kills simply because they are told to do so." Ran mused. "Do not worry, Naruto, I do not think less of you for wanting to learn how to protect yourself and others. It would be a different case if you thirsted for bloodshed."
Naruto was silent for a few minutes.
"You know, I actually found out what was going on in Water Country." He eventually spoke. "Apparently, the Mizukage has decided that bloodlines are evil and are part of the reason behind shinobi wars. He's trying to wipe them out, every last one. The civil war has him and his loyal ninjas on one side, and the bloodline faction and their sympathisers on the other side."
Ran huffed. "A pointless slaughter then. One's natural abilities do not dictate their disposition, and to think otherwise is foolish."
Naruto nodded his agreement. "Yeah, and it's really weakening Kiri's forces. While there aren't as many bloodline clans there as somewhere like Konoha, it's still a sizeable chunk of their ninjas. With them killing regular ninjas in retaliation as well, I don't really see how Kiri will survive as one of the five great Ninja villages, or even at all really."
The two of them fell into silence for a while, both of them watching a beautiful sunset together.
Just as the last rays of the sun began to disappear, Ran let out a loud, sighing breath.
"Naruto, when you go to Iron Country, I will accompany you." Ran told him. "In return… in return, there's something I'd like your help with. There's a youkai I want dead. Would you be willing to assist me?"
"Why do you want them dead? And no offence, any youkai you can't handle yourself isn't something I can really do anything to." Naruto frowned, lifting his injured arm. "I couldn't even handle a small group of low-class youkai, even with the back up of my shiki."
"The youkai I want dead could be considered the lord of a chain of islands in Water Country." She told him. "His 'subjects' live in fear of him, worried that they might be the next ones he eats. He's obsessed with power, you see, and envisions himself as the ruler of all youkai." She paused here. "He believes that such a strong ruler should have a powerful… mate, I believe that's the most appropriate term at least. He wants me to be that for him."
"I didn't know youkai had 'mates'." Naruto frowned.
"We don't." Ran replied. "It's a human concept that he's adopted. Youkai simply do not reproduce like humans and animals do."
"O-kay. I guess I can get behind the idea of stopping someone like that, but it still stands that I'm far too weak to do anything to him." Naruto told her.
"It doesn't have to be any time soon, Naruto." Ran sighed. "He might have adopted some human ideas, but he's still a youkai, and decades mean nothing to us." She chuckled. "I also think you're underestimating yourself, and I believe you have the potential to be truly great one day. I just ask that, when the time comes, you are willing to help me stop him."
"I will." Naruto quietly promised her.
The two of them remained silent for the next half hour, until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky, whereupon Ran took him back to the village herself.
xxxxx
Several more days passed, and Akiko found herself once more going to see Naruto in his little camp. His arm was out of its sling now, and he had a wood-frame pack next to him. He also had a small pile of stuff that he was checking off against a list to make sure he had everything he would need in Iron Country.
She wasn't particularly happy about him going so far away, but at least this time he had three powerful youkai accompanying him, though she wished she could see them, even if only for a moment. He had Misuzu, a powerful horse youkai, Madara, an inugami, and Ran, a mizuchi.
"Okay, I've got enough food to last me a week. I have a small tent to sleep in. I have my cooking gear. I have spare clothes. I have furs because it's going to be damn cold, and I've got my first aid kit too. Have I missed anything?" Naruto checked everything over. "I need to fill up my water bottles before I go, but I think that's all I need."
"Have you got a weapon to defend yourself with?" Akiko asked. "I know you have help going with you, bit it's better to be safe than sorry."
"I've got my club and shield, don't worry about that." Naruto replied. "I don't intend to get into any fights unless I absolutely have to."
"Good." Akiko nodded her head.
"Well, goodbye then, sensei, I should be back in a week." Naruto bid her farewell.
"Stay safe, Naruto." She said, taking a step back.
A gust of wind threw some dirt into her eyes, and when next she opened them, the blonde boy had vanished.
xxxxx
In the air and riding on Madara's back, Naruto couldn't help but be awed by the sight of the land laid out below him. Despite having seen it like this several times before, it still remained one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen, and he reaffirmed his desire to learn how to fly himself, one way or another.
He opened his mouth to say something to Benio, before he shut it, remembering that she'd had to stay behind. The north was too cold for her, and if she had gone with him, she would have been far too weak to really do anything at all. Neither of them had been happy about it, but it was what it was, and so she had stayed.
Instead, he made conversation with the three youkai currently with him.
"So, does anyone have any idea where I should start looking in Iron Country?" He asked.
"There are two places I know of where youkai gather in the Land of Iron." Misuzu told him. "Deep underground, in the abandoned mines and old tunnels, or in the shadows of the Three Wolves mountains. You should start your search there, see if any of the weak youkai can point you in the right direction."
"Right, I'll do that." Naruto nodded his head. "I just hope I don't have to go too deep into the tunnels, you guys are too big to follow me down there."
"If anything happens to you, Hinoe will skin me alive." Misuzu snorted. "Even if I am stronger than her, she scares me more than anything I've ever come across before."
"That's because she's got something you lack, namely brains." Madara mocked Misuzu.
The horse youkai glared at Madara. "If you didn't have Naruto on your back right now, we'd see just how warm a fur coat you would make for me to wear."
"If you really want a fur coat, you must be even less intelligent than I took you for." Madara shot back. "You live in the Land of Fire, the second hottest country around, only beaten by the deserts of Wind Country."
"And maybe you should move to Fang Country, isn't that where all the rabid dogs go?" Misuzu retorted.
Naruto winced at that. Madara was an inugami, and he knew what that meant. After all, an inugami was created through a rather cruel ritual. A common dog must be buried up to its neck, leaving only the head free, with a bowl of food and water placed just out of reach. After several days of this torment, as the dog is about to succumb, the head must be cut off and then buried beneath a busy street.
After at least a week, both the head and body must be dug up and then placed in a prepared shrine. The dog would then awaken as an inugami, often under the control of the one who created it, and would be used as a curse, being the cause of much misery, criminal activity, and murder.
That Madara was as rational as he was, despite his nature, was a testament to his own will, and quite possibly his age as well. He must have either had an immense sense of self to fight through his rage and aggression, or it was tempered by time and living.
Misuzu's comment was therefore rather harsh. The fact Madara didn't immediately go for the horse's throat was rather commendable on his part, and that he only replied with more mockery, albeit more insulting than before, was also a credit to him.
Naruto ignored the two of them though. Neither would listen to him, and he'd been told that the two of them had been like this with each other for centuries. Letting their words flow over him, he focused instead on making sure they were heading in the right direction and didn't actually go too far.
It would be just his luck that the youkai would be too distracted by their argument, and complete miss Iron Country on their way past.
Ran passed her time listening in amusement to the two bickering youkai. While the two obviously didn't like each other very much, both of them were working together to watch over a human. Oh, she knew that one had been bribed with human treats, and the other was honouring a promise in accordance with his own pride, but it was still something to see multiple high-level youkai work this closely with one another.
The further north they got, the colder the weather turned, and with how high in the sky they were, Naruto could clearly see his breath. Pulling his fur cloak around him – something that was simple enough for him to make at his current skill level – he channelled just a small amount of reiryoku into it and warmed it up slightly.
His eyes glittered though, as he was once again seeing more of the world than just the village and forest around it. The colours shifting as they flew over one country after another entranced him, and the landscapes he was seeing brought a look of wonder to his face.
Maybe he should take up painting, though he doubted he'd ever be able to properly capture the sights he could see on canvas. He might get the colours right, but it just wouldn't be as vibrant, and no one looking at it would be able to smell the sharp air, feel its chill against their faces, or hear it blowing around them.
He was distracted some time later as they began to descend, and Naruto focused ahead and downwards, where three large mountains loomed ominously. All three were covered in snow, as was the land below, though he could see what appeared to be several villages or towns scattered about the place as well.
That wasn't where they were heading though.
They were going directly to the Three Wolves mountains.