AN: Okay, this was a difficult chapter to write, not least of which is because I've been typing it up in my breaks at work. Note to all of you students who don't have jobs yet, school and work are very different things, and regardless of whether you have a physically active job or desk work, both can tire you out quite easily. Anyway, moving on, I'm quite surprised how many of you were wondering about Yugito's attitude last chapter, as I thought I'd made it quite obvious without outright stating it. She wants information. Didn't you notice how she carefully took note of what skills Naruto had? His movement technique? His fuinjutsu? Even his knowledge about demons is something she can add to the mental profile she has on him. This is not fanon Yugito who can fall in love with someone half her age, who can easily become a Konoha kunoichi. This is Yugito who is loyal to Kumo, whether that be through conditioning or personal belief is up to the writer, but she's not about to change her allegiance just like that, and she knows that Shinobi Wars happen often enough that she might well end up fighting Naruto herself. Anyway, I've gone on long enough, please enjoy the chapter.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 18 – Old Lair

Kurama yawned widely, his tail twitching in the light breeze as he laid on the roof of Naruto's cabin. He paused momentarily as he thought he felt something shift in the wind, but then the moment passed and he laid down again. It was probably just the brat getting into some sort of strange trouble, as always happened when he was away from the village that was supposed to be his home.

It was none of Kurama's concern though, he was content to simply while away the time, relaxing and enjoying himself. If Naruto needed biju help, Isobu could do it in Kurama's place, the three-tailed turtle being a lot more conscientious than the nine-tailed fox was.

An added benefit of Isobu being away was that the damn turtle couldn't nag Kurama about being lazy, and because of how similar their power levels were when possessing 'talismans', he couldn't simply overpower his weaker sibling and show that stubborn reptile who was boss.

"What do you want, shrine spirit?" Kurama opened one eye to glare at Tsuyukami, who now stood between the sun and the fox.

"Nothing much." Tsuyukami replied. "I just have a few questions I'd like answered, if you don't mind."

"Ask your questions then, and I may answer them if I feel like it." Kurama sighed.

"Thank you." Tsuyukami politely responded. "First off, the kappa have unearthed some rumours about a group named 'Akatsuki' that have apparently shown a lot of interest in you and your siblings. Do you have any idea, aside from being used as weapons, that someone would want the biju?"

"Aside from making a force of jinchuuriki soldiers? I can only think of a few things that would need all of us to accomplish." Kurama told him. "The most basic of them being fusing us all together to once again create the juubi. Obviously, that is something I do not want, and if humans actually had brains then they wouldn't want it either. The ten tails actually is a mindless beast of destruction, much how Konoha believes me to be.

"Another thing we biju could be used for would be as a power source of sorts. We are sources of self-replenishing chakra after all, so using us as a rather powerful battery would allow someone to do some rather insane things. Aside from those two things… well, there is a story the sage told us before his death..."

"A story?" Tsuyukami prompted.

"The sage's mother, Kaguya… Apparently, there was a time before chakra, and a noble girl wished to stop all of the wars that raged across the continent. This girl climbed a forbidden tree, and ate the single fruit that grew on this tree, gaining the power of chakra. With this power, she stopped all of the fighting, and she was revered for her power. However, this power supposedly drove her insane, and when her two sons were born with chakra of their own, she only grew crazier." Kurama paused, remembering when he had first been told this story.

"Apparently, the woman tried to take the chakra back, but her two sons didn't want that, and so they fought their mother. Kaguya, who had descended into insanity was transformed into the juubi… well, she summoned it, created it, or something – that part was never very clear – and she fought her sons. They won, however, and sealed her away inside the moon, or created the moon from the juubi's corpse – another part that was never made particularly clear either – and that is the only other thing I can think of that we might be used for. In bringing us together, someone might be able to revive the sealed Kaguya, someone who was only matched and defeated by both of her sons at once, the sage of six paths and his brother." Kurama finished his tale.

"Thank you for that interesting story, Kurama." Tsuyukami said. "It at least gives us some ideas about why this 'Akatsuki' group may want you and your siblings."

"Why can't those kappa just find out and tell you themselves?" Kurama asked, mildly curious.

"Well, from what we've heard, Akatsuki is based in Rain Country." Tsuyukami began. "Unfortunately, Rain Country is right in the middle of several major territories, and whenever there's a war, they suffer quite a bit. That suffering, anger, and resentment builds up and gives birth to some of the most aggressive and destructive of youkai. There's also several demons that make their home near there, making it somewhere that most 'normal' youkai tend to avoid."

"How unfortunate for you. However, I don't see why you're bothering me with this. It's hardly uncommon for villages to want power, and jinchuuriki are seen as easy ways of getting power quickly. To properly extract me, they'd need to catch Naruto, and even I have to admit that he is rather fast for someone of his age and experience." Kurama grudgingly admitted.

"The rumours are that Akatsuki is made completely out of S rank ninjas." Tsuyukami said. "As much as I am fond of Naruto, I can easily say that Naruto is not yet ready to deal with even regular ninja, much less someone powerful enough to be a kage."

"True." Kurama agreed. "As fast as he is with that technique he likes, Naruto would have trouble with an intelligent genin that can work out his limitations, particularly with his abysmal skill in hand to hand combat."

That was unfortunately true. Because of how hirenkyaku worked, it could not be used to enhance taijutsu aside from dodging. If Naruto tried to punch someone when using his technique, rather than have the speed enhance his blow, his hand would instead take the brunt of the hit, likely reducing it to little more than pulped meat. As it was, his arrows were currently limited by how fast they moved through the air, and while that speed was increasing, a sufficiently fast and skilled genin could dodge them, albeit with serious effort and focus.

"Naruto doesn't yet have the arm strength to use a bow heavy enough to release arrows fast enough." Tsuyukami sighed. "Given how 'well' his experiments with using pure ki are going too… well, at least Hinoe's quick treatment stopped him losing his arm."

Even Kurama had to wince at that, remembering the explosion of flesh and blood from the time Naruto used a small amount of ki to enhance his own muscles. While the theory was solid, and if he actually got it to work right he'd have strength enough to make Tsunade Senju look pathetic, he had two major obstacles at present.

The first was his body, he was after all a child, and he was far from fully developed. When he was older, his physical body should be able to handle more power than his current one did. That was one of the reasons why even 'genius' prodigies weren't a match for most seasoned veterans, their younger bodies simply couldn't handle large amounts of energy, and those with great enough reserves tended to suffer from 'burnout'.

The second problem was, well, Naruto was using pure ki. Without a reiryoku buffer between him and the very direct energy, the yang chakra was applying all of its power to his child body, which resulted in the previously mentioned incident. Also, Naruto's ability to manipulate ki was nowhere near as good as his proficiency with reiryoku, resulting in greater difficulties and frustration.

It was because of this that Naruto had a preference for ranged weaponry and techniques. While he did persevere in his spars with Takame, and he did try his hardest, close combat was likely something Naruto would never be particularly good at. However, with his hirenkyaku technique, he had the mobility to disengage from melee quickly and easily, allowing him to get the range necessary to effectively use his better skills.

He was playing to his strengths while trying to overcome his weaknesses, which was rather admirable and sensible really.

Kurama sighed. "If it comes to it, Naruto can rely on biju chakra to enhance himself. Our energy is so dense and potent that even a small amount of it will enhance his physical abilities quite a bit, regardless of how skilled he is at actually controlling our power."

"Your chakra is also so potent and corrosive that it causes Naruto's body to start breaking down whenever he uses it, or did you forget how the skin on his palm was flayed off and his flesh hung in tattered strips when he first started making those talisman bodies for you to possess?" Tsuyukami pointed out.

"The more he uses it, the easier it will be for him to handle. It's like building up a resistance, small and frequent doses that are increased as and when necessary." Kurama shrugged. "If he's ever going to make me an actually good body, he's going to have to need to handle far more of my chakra than he can right now."

"You do realise that it will likely be years, maybe even more than a decade, before Naruto reaches that point, don't you?" Tsuyukami asked.

Kurama snorted. "Yes, I realise that. That damn turtle being around both helps and hinders his progress at the same time. On one hand, he gets more practice as he's got two biju to make bodies for, which is on top of Isobu's chakra also stretching his pathways even larger. On the other hand though, Isobu's chakra being inside of him makes his reserves grow larger and makes it harder for him to control it."

Tsuyukami agreed with that point, however he had noticed something else. "Is it just me, or is Naruto finding it easier to control Isobu's chakra than he is yours? I know that he has trouble with using 'chakra' seals, more than he does with 'ki' seals, but it seems to be a lot smoother and more gentle than when he's working with your energy."

"Well Isobu is weaker than me, both the capacity and density of his chakra is less than mine." Kurama smirked in his superiority. "However, my chakra also channels my rage and hatred, whereas Isobu is more submissive, as I'm sure you've noticed. The emotions in my chakra does make it more dangerous and corrosive than it otherwise would be."

"Have you ever thought of trying meditation and calming down?" Tsuyukami asked.

"Fuck off!" Kurama growled at him, though a tiny smile did pull at the corners of his mouth.

xxxxx

Naruto decided to take another look at the cave where the demon had initially been sealed. It really stuck out to his senses, as it carried strongest concentration of the demon's scent he could detect in the area. That was only logical, as that was where its energy had been leaking out of its prison for goodness knows how many centuries before it had eventually escaped.

Unfortunately, there was very little that the seal could tell him about the demon. It was a very generic seal, not particularly strong but effective against a wide variety of entities. The rope was low quality, as he'd noticed before, and the talismans were as generic as the seal itself.

Honestly, Naruto didn't know what he'd been hoping to find here. The demon's name, maybe? If he had that, there were a few things he could do to make finding and sealing it easier, but it wasn't like he was very experienced with demons. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever come across one, even if his lessons with Hinoe had at least covered the basics.

In theory, Naruto could summon a demon himself, but that was something he'd like to avoid. Also in theory, he knew how to seal away a demon, or at least a weak one, and he was going over the process and requirements for the minor ceremony in his head, making it as clear as he could, for when it became necessary to seal it.

Naruto paused in his search, finding something he hadn't noticed before.

"Hey, is it just me, or does the back of this cave seem strangely flat to you guys too?" Naruto asked the youkai who were carefully watching his back for him.

"It does a little." Benio murmured, looking at it. "It's not perfect, but it looks like one of your human earth techniques was used to seal up the back of the cave for some reason." She agreed with Naruto. While it did look relatively natural, the way the back wall fitted against the ceiling, sides, and cave floor seemed a little too… abrupt to be normal.

Carefully, Naruto began to scratch at the wall with a small dagger from his belt. However, rather than earth, this wall actually was made of stone, and so he needed something with a bit more power behind it if he was to cut through this false wall.

Casting a lightning javelin into his hand, Naruto stabbed it into the stone. The naturally penetrative properties of all lightning techniques allowed it to slide into it with only a minimum of resistance. He then began to cut a small hole in the fake wall.

Once that was done, and a hole large enough for him to look through had been opened up, Naruto then cast a small orb of light which he sent through the hole before brightening it up, so he could see everything that was in the next cave chamber.

A sharp intake of breath from the blonde made Masami curious enough to take a peek herself, and she frowned heavily at what she saw through the hole. It looked like a crypt, with shelves dug into the walls, and the remains of what were obviously humans could be seen on said shelves.

Quickly, once he'd gotten over his surprise, Naruto opened the hole up and made it into a doorway which he quickly stepped through. He then approached the remains that he could see and began examining them. While some were little more than bones, others looked like they'd been dried out and preserved, while yet more appeared to have been mummified by ash.

"What… are all of these doing here, behind the sealing shrine?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Sacrifices." Tsurara murmured, acting much more serious than she usually did. "I've seen places like this in Iron Country before, where humans try and appease youkai, demons, or gods by giving them what they want in return for leaving them alone, or in return for some favour or other."

Takame and Masami nodded in agreement, before the latter added in what she knew. "I haven't seen them myself, but I've heard myths and legends about them. As far as I knew though, that kind of fell out of favour at least two hundred years ago."

Benio frowned. "I've never heard of anything like this happening in the forests of Fire Country." She said. "Then again, the land there is far more fertile and forgiving than the northern snow plains or these mountains. I imagine desperate humans did what they felt they needed to do in order to survive."

Naruto sniffed the air, but found only a very faint residual scent of the demon they were looking for. "Well, as much as this is a near perfect place for it, this isn't the current lair of the flesh beast. Do you think we'll find anything useful further in?" He gestured towards a passageway he could see at the opposite side of the chamber.

"Possibly." Takame answered him. "It's probable that this was a previous lair, and its likely to have hoarded things it found or took here. There could be some clues as to what sort of flesh beast we're dealing with further in, or even what sort of methods this one employs."

Glancing around at all of the preserved corpses. "Well, given how many bodies here are relatively intact, I'll take a guess and say that it doesn't eat them for strength." His eyes landed on a pile of bones that looked distinctly gnawed on. "Well, at least not primarily."

Silently, the small group of five crept further into the creepy place. Naruto went first, his lightning javelin still in hand and his orb of light bobbing along in front of him. Behind him, Benio and Tsurara walked side by side, both keeping their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

Bringing up the back, Takame and Masami also had a light orb, courtesy of Naruto, letting them see everything. They kept a close eye out behind them because, as desolate as this place seemed to be, it was most definitely unnerving, and the group couldn't shake the feeling of something watching them, or more accurately, 'many' somethings."

This feeling only got stronger as they went deeper and deeper into the cave, and came across more and more bodies. However, what really creeped them out was how the corpses were… modified.

Some of them were ordinary, nothing special about them, but there were others. Cadavers with extra arms sewn on at the shoulders, armpits, or even their sides. Barely preserved carcasses with extra legs, two heads, and bones protruding from them in all sorts of twisted ways, the expressions on their faces showing nothing but agony and pain.

They eventually found the deepest part of the cave, and when Naruto took a step inside, he jerked back. Looking down, he saw some sort of strange 'carpet' in this particular chamber. Crouching down, and bringing his light orb with him, Naruto found that the ground was covered in some sort of thick, fleshy membrane.

Benio's hand fell on Naruto's shoulder, and she pulled him upright before pointing him towards the other side of the relatively small chamber.

There, on some sort crude table, were several objects.

Standing on the membrane, Naruto approached the pile and examined them closely. There was a set of stone tablets, some form of strange writing on them that he couldn't understand. There was a crude lance made out of some kind of bone, which was also etched in writing that Naruto couldn't read.

There were pendants shaped into all sorts of things, none of which he recognised, and several other miscellaneous items, such as old-fashioned combs and what might possibly be coins of some description. What really caught Naruto's attention though was something etched into a stone tablet, something that looked rather like a map.

On it, he could see a land mass that looked vaguely like the Elemental Nations, but that wasn't all. There were other lands around it, ones that Naruto didn't remember from what he'd read in some geography books. Unfortunately, the map was quite obviously not to scale, and the writing that was between the landmasses wasn't in a language Naruto could understand, which frustrated him to no end.

Naruto's dream was to explore. Whether that be delving into the depths of ancient ruins, or travelling to other lands that were currently unknown, he didn't want to be stuck in a single village, occasionally leaving it for a mission. As much as Naruto knew that he had little choice about being a ninja – being a jinchuuriki and all – he wanted a great deal more than that, he wanted true freedom, to be able to go anywhere and do whatever he wanted to do.

If he did that though, he'd be labelled a missing nin, and he'd be hunted down. If there were other places he could go though, places beyond the Elemental Nations… well, perhaps when he was older and more powerful he might decide to try and find these places.

"Have you found something interesting?" Benio asked quietly, looking over Naruto's shoulder.

"Maybe." He murmured. "Do you know anything about lands beyond the Elemental Nations?"

"Not really." She answered him. "If there are places like that, then they're far away, beyond the range of human ships at the very least."

Naruto sighed, before looking at the other things piled in front of him. "What should we do with all of this stuff?" He questioned himself.

Tsurara was the one that answered him though. "We should hide it, or at least take it out of reach of humans. Some of these things are heavily cursed, and I don't want to think of the damage they could do in the wrong hands."

"You can tell what they can do?" Naruto asked. He could tell that there was something strange about it all, but nothing more than that.

"I can tell you that their effects will most likely be unpleasant." Tsurara responded. "I'm sure you can feel that vile sensation coming from them, and demons aren't exactly known for their love of the cute and cuddly, unless they are tormenting and destroying said things of course."

Naruto sighed again. "I really shouldn't have opened this place up." He grumbled. "Now though… how am I supposed to get all of this stuff back home? It's too much for me to fit in my bag, and I can't just carry it all back to Konoha."

"Use your shikigami, idiot." Benio flicked the side of his head. "Your little birds might be too small, but your wolf shiki should be strong and fast enough to get this all back to your place in a reasonable amount of time."

"It's probably for the best." Takame agreed. "Maybe when we get back, Hinoe could try and work out what this all does, but I don't think they should be left lying around for just anyone to get hold of."

"Let's at least get it out of these caves first." Naruto suggested. "Once outside I'll be able to strap it all to my wolves, assuming that I have enough rope of course."

Reaching out, Naruto picked up the lance and set it on his shoulder, but as he did so, a thud from behind made him spin around, along with the youkai stood with him. Not seeing anything immediately, they all stretched their senses as best they could, and in doing so heard a strange shuffling noise.

A moment later, shambling around the corner, came something that resembled a human.

It resembled a human so much because it was one, or at least a corpse of one.

Remembering how many cadavers they'd walked past to get as deep into the cave system as they had, Naruto had only one thing to say.

"Well, fuck!"

xxxxx

Isobu, who had separated from Naruto, began to investigate in his own way. Finding the village's water supply, which was a well fed by an underground river, he dived in. You could tell a lot about somewhere by the water that they drank, and Isobu was in tune with the element enough that he could draw even more information from it.

He could feel the 'flow' as it were, and everything that was in it. He could tell how pure the water was, whether there were any traces of pollutants or contamination, how constant the supply was, whether there were times of drought or flooding, and could even get an idea for their diet and farming produce.

However, that was not what Isobu was currently looking for. What he was searching for was any signs of demon taint. It was a rather sneaky, and unfortunately common, tactic employed by demons and humans alike. When a location relied on a specific source of water, affecting that could have a massive impact on the people that drank it.

Fortunately, this flesh beast did not seem to have done anything to the underground river. Perhaps it didn't know a way to use it for its own purposes, or perhaps it thought that doing so was entirely too obvious and traceable. Whichever it was, Isobu was happy at least that they wouldn't need to go through all the effort that purging the river would require.

Once he'd climbed out of the well, Isobu then moved on to his next task.

It didn't take him long to get to the fields that grew the village's crops, and he once again began to search for a demonic taint there. Unfortunately, his senses weren't perfectly clear, as there was at least a small amount of taint hovering over the whole village, like a miasma or thin fog.

This ambient taint, while not an immediate problem, could cause problems if it began affecting the village's food, making them more susceptible to the demon and its ways. That just would not do, and fortunately there actually was something that Isobu could do about it.

Being careful to keep it as minimal as possible, Isobu began to emit a small amount of chakra that then began to 'layer' itself over the plants, like a faint barrier from the demonic taint. While not the best solution ever, it would stop food supply from getting 'infected', and as an added bonus, the villagers might end up with ever so slightly better chakra development than the average civilian because of Isobu's chakra.

He couldn't do this too much though, otherwise he'd leave traces of himself too obvious to miss, and Isobu really didn't want people questioning what his chakra was doing in Lightning Country when he was supposed to be sealed inside Yagura back in Kiri. Naruto, being the obvious outside element, would come under suspicion then, and that was the last thing that Isobu wanted.

Still, he did what he could, and his chakra only had to protect the crops long enough for the demonic taint to fade. That would take at least a week following the demon being removed from the area, or even sealed away once again, so Isobu tried to cover the plants with two weeks worth of chakra, an utterly unremarkable quantity for even the Ichibi.

He spent several hours doing that, and ensuring that no humans saw him as well. While the jinchuuriki girl, Yugito, had seen him, she hadn't recognised him as the Sanbi, and he doubted Matatabi could be bothered to tell her container about his identity, no matter how curious she was herself. Matatabi was lazy like that sometimes, like the feline form she wore.

Once done there, Isobu began to slowly make his way around the village, seeing if he could narrow down wherever the demon was staying. Unfortunately, with the taint in the air spread about as it was, he doubted he'd be able to do much, but then again he might get lucky.

He paused when he felt something off coming from the shrine where the demon had initially been sealed, and the connection he shared with his current host flared with shock, confusion, and a little fear. It seemed like Naruto had gotten himself into trouble.

xxxxx

Yugito was patrolling around the village, having spoken with everyone that was 'involved' in the investigation she was conducting. While she did give her current task the attention it required, a part of her mind was also going over everything she knew about one Naruto Uzumaki.

As a loyal Kumo ninja, she knew that she may well have to fight against Naruto one day, and it was even fairly likely. Given how frequently the ninja villages had fought, even in the time since they'd been founded – which was less than a century – there was probably going to be another war within a decade or two, maybe three if they were lucky.

No matter how little she may want to fight him, she still would though. With this in mind, she mulled over the skills he'd mentioned or shown. First off, Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. Being an Uzumaki, a clan renowned for their skill in that area, that wasn't much of a surprise. Secondly, high speed movement. While he was only seven years old, he had matched her speed when she was going at the average ninja travelling speed, albeit with the use of some sort of technique rather than skill. Third, some form of sensor skill, though the limits of that was something she was currently unaware of.

That was just a sample of what he could do though. He had proven that he could sneak into another hidden village if he so chose, like when he'd met up with her inside of Kumo, and how he'd been able to slip away just as easily afterwards. That was something noteworthy on its own, even if he claimed that 'no one noticed a little kid'.

She'd have to see what other secrets and skills she could either work out or get him talking about, as while she did see the young child as something of a friend, despite the age gap between them, she was realistic enough to know that she and he could easily be called on to fight, and even kill, one another.

As unpleasant as that sounded, that was how the world worked. It was one of the reasons that relationships between ninja of different villages rarely, if ever, worked out. It was also one of the reasons that most said 'true peace' could never be established, the distrust between ninja villages, even allied ones, was just too great for any peace to last.

Even the current peace was more of a ceasefire until the next generation had been born and raised, ready to fight once again.

Unnoticed by Yugito, the demonic taint around the village grew a little thicker, muffling her mind and encouraging her negative thoughts, all the while leaving her unable to sense Naruto's flaring chakra signature as he tried to get her attention.