AN: Hey, guys! It's not been as much of a wait as before! Part of that is because I'm getting a new laptop tomorrow and I didn't want to leave this half finished on my hard drive and forget about it. Anyway, here's the follow up to the last chapter. The next one should continue, or maybe even complete, the Kurama clan arc. After that, I'm thinking of doing a chapter from Sasuke's point of view to change things up a bit. After that's done, then either the next mini-arc or perhaps something to do with 'Naruko', depending on what ends up happening. Anyway, enjoy!
Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord
Chapter 26 - Portents
Naruto sat on a chair and swung his legs back and forth, too short to properly reach the floor. Before him, the Hokage continued smoking his pipe as he looked over several reports that had been delivered to his desk. One of them was regarding the fire that was currently being murmured about in the village, the others were hospital records of those recovered from the fire. He glanced occasionally at a large man beside him who was also looking through a number of reports.
Hiruzen sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, looking up at the blonde eight year old as he did so.
"Naruto, please can you explain to me just what you were doing at the Kurama clan compound yesterday?" He asked, noticing the child's reaction at the clan name. He wondered what it was about them that had surprised the boy so much, and what contributed to his amusement.
"I saw smoke and felt some negativity in that direction, so I went to see what was going on." Naruto replied easily, though the Hokage believed that he was leaving things out once again.
"Negativity?" He prompted the boy.
"Something the Kyuubi granted me." Naruto explained. "It's one of his abilities that he can confer on his host."
Hiruzen frowned. "I don't recall Kushina ever having anything like that." He murmured.
"Do you really think he'd give it willingly unless he liked you?" Naruto snorted. "Kushina's seal was different, and so was Mito's. Now her seal actually allowed her to forcibly take that ability from the Kyuubi." The disgust was evident in the blonde's voice, but Hiruzen decided to overlook it for the time being.
"This… 'negativity', were you able to find its source?" The man beside the Hokage asked.
"Yeah, but it's weird." Naruto frowned. "It was coming from that girl I pulled out of the fire, but… it was kind of 'buried' within her. I don't mean that she was hiding or suppressing it, I know what that feels like, it was almost like there was a second set of emotions within her, a split personality or something maybe."
"The girl was feeling enough hatred for you to notice it across the village?" The man pressed for more information.
"Not just hatred, there was plenty of anger and resentment there as well." Naruto replied. "I got the feeling that it was directed at… one or two people? It was too focused to just be things in general, but it didn't seem sharp enough for just one person." Naruto's frown deepened as he tried to figure out anything he could about what he'd sensed.
He was capable of sensing quite a lot. His blind fighting training was all about using Kurama's negative emotion sensing to work out who was doing what, and it worked… to an extent. It was all well and good to know when someone was going to attack, but if he didn't know how… well, just imagine trying to block a punch to the face when they were actually kicking you in the shin.
It worked well with his archery though! Seeing as he got a location and an 'intent to attack', he had a target and something to keep his distance from. Still, he was going to keep working on it, getting as good as he could with the severely underrated ability.
The large man glanced at the Hokage, before looking back at Naruto.
"Kid, have you ever thought about what sort of ninja you want to be after you graduate?" He asked, giving Naruto a serious look over, noting the look in his eye. "Perhaps you might want to check out Torture and Interrogation?"
"Ibiki!" The Hokage snapped. "He's eight!"
"He's going to be a ninja, and he'll have seen plenty of blood and guts during the Uchiha Massacre. He's come out of that okay." The now named Ibiki defended himself. "Besides, if his negative sensing is really that good, it'd be a waste not to use it. You know as well as I that other villages are always trying to develop defences and counters to the Yamanaka mind techniques."
The Hokage grimaced. As famous as the clan of mind-walkers was, it was inevitable that someone would eventually work out a way to stop them working. There had been some pretty nasty traps hidden inside the heads of captured ninja before, including an etched explosive seal on the inside of a man's skull, set to go off if too much foreign chakra was detected in their brain. That little mess had cost him three people in addition to the Yamanaka actually rooting around in his head.
"He's still far too young for that type of work." Hiruzen tiredly sighed. "Even then, his sensing ability can't ferret out the truth, merely emotions."
Naruto felt rather slighted at having Kurama's negativity sensing dismissed as 'merely' emotional, but held his tongue.
"He can detect more than just simple emotions though, who's to say he can't detect a lie? Perhaps even a partial lie, or when someone's insinuating something, or even when they're using misdirection?" Ibiki retorted.
The Hokage silently stared at Ibiki, and after a few moments the man stepped back, but he still didn't seem happy with the Hokage's dismissal of his idea.
Naruto looked between the two men curiously. While he knew that the Hokage wasn't omnipotent, the village was still technically a dictatorship, and this was the first time he'd personally seen someone disagree with the old man this strongly. It was rather weird actually.
"Do you need anything else?" Naruto asked, wanting to get out of there.
"No, Naruto, you're free to go." The Hokage told him. "Just… keep in mind that with this now, and with the Uchiha incident happening so recently too, you're building up something of a reputation. People are going to be watching you much more closely than they did before."
Naruto bid them farewell before leaving the two men in the office.
Ibiki grumbled. "He's hiding something. He's good, letting us know one thing, like he's letting it slip, but there's still more that we don't know." He growled low in his throat. "I don't like it."
"Nor do I." The Hokage sighed. "But what am I to do? We have no proof, and if I just tossed him into T&I… The remaining Uchiha almost revere him right now, and the Kurama clan now thinks of him as a hero for rescuing the main family. On top of that we have the general ninja population turning their eyes his way… No, this needs to be handled very delicately."
The Hokage set down the reports in his hands and picked up another one. This report regularly appeared on his desk every two weeks, and it put all of Jiraya's spy reports to shame. Of course, things couldn't be that simple, and literally no one knew exactly who delivered them, though Hiruzen suspected that Naruto was at least partially behind it.
As paranoid as it sounded, the blonde seemed to be part of everything recently.
xxxxx
Naruto stumbled slightly as he left the Hokage's tower.
I'm almost there, almost free
His eyes widened and darted around, before catching sight of something yellow in a window.
To wander where I wish eternally
It was his reflection, but different. A twisted smile graced it's lips and a glint of madness danced in it's eyes.
To do whatsoever I choose
The reflection's smile grew wider and wider, until it split in half, literally. A smile Naruto had only seen once before outside of his nightmares.
For in the end, you will lose
The emphasis on the single word was not lost on the blonde. It was a statement of fact, rather than a choice being given, an inevitability.
And an endless war I will wage
Visions of blood and destruction flashed before Naruto's eyes, everyone he knew and cared about littering the scorched grounds lifeless, their blood soaking the ground a crimson red.
To finally be free of you, my cage
His reflection shifted, becoming truly female, before giving him a playful wink. It drew a finger across it's neck as it smiled at him, before fading back to normal, Naruto's own reflection now staring back at him, misting up the image with how close he was to hyperventilating.
He jumped out of his skin when he felt a cool hand on his shoulder, jerkily looking up into Tsurara's eyes. Her own eyes were wide as her other hand reached for Naruto's neck, and pulled away with them coated in red.
A thin line had been cut straight across Naruto's neck.
"Naruto." The yuki-onna murmured. "Ar- are you alright?"
"I will be." He replied quietly. "I just need to figure out how to deal with this."
"We will work things out." She corrected him. "You're not alone."
Naruto didn't verbally reply, but he did lean into Tsurara's hand, drawing comfort from the touch. He also felt the buttefly in his hair move around until it was on his face, covering his eye much like Benio's hair ornament did. The symbolism wasn't lost on Naruto, who smiled at the gesture.
"And it's not just us who are here for you." Tsurara added, turning him to face down the street to see Akiko heading right for him.
"Naruto, are you okay? I heard that you'd been called to see the Hokage, I came as quick as I could." The teacher fussed over him.
"Where did you hear that?" He wondered.
"Some of the parents who were collecting their kids were talking about you being escorted to the Hokage by an Anbu." She explained. "I threw my stuff into my bag and headed off straight away. Now tell me, is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine." Naruto told her, keeping one hand on his throat to hide the blood. "He just wanted to talk to me because of the fire yesterday, it's just a standard procedure thing I think."
He started heading off down the street towards his cabin. When he was facing away from Akiko, his left hand emitted a slight black aura as he healed up his throat and spat out the black goo that came with the healing technique. A small amount of water manipulation later and the blood was washed away too.
Akiko walked beside Naruto as they wandered through the village, both of them aware of all of the looks they – or more specifically Naruto – were getting. Both of them felt more than a bit uncomfortable with the scrutiny and hurried themselves along.
"I heard that there are rumours about me going around." Naruto broke the silence. "Have you heard any of them?"
"Oh, yes I have." Akiko replied, taking a moment to realise what he'd just said, too distracted by the muttering she could almost hear. "As I've heard, there are basically two groups; one of which is saying you're a bit of a hero, and the other side saying you're either like a bad luck charm or actually causing problems." She grimaced in distaste at this, knowing that wasn't something he'd do.
She shivered as she felt the temperature drop, certain that Tsurara was both there and that she was not happy with the aspersions cast against Naruto's character. Seriously, that snow woman could almost go to yandere levels at times with Naruto. Luckily she wasn't that bad yet, and she hoped Tsurara never did become that bad either.
She hurried them along, but at the edge of the forest they once again stopped.
A man with distinctly Uchiha features stepped out from the shade of the trees, stopping right in front of them.
"Uzumaki, I have a few questions I'm hoping you are willing to answer, and possibly an offer as well." He stated.
Naruto gave him a curious look, but asked what it was he wanted anyway.
"The Uchiha Military Police are supposed to be responsible for all petty crime and general law enforcement in the village, but after… what happened, there aren't enough of us to handle our duty. Clone techniques aren't an option either, it'd waste too much chakra to be properly effective." He explained.
"You're telling me this… why?" Naruto prodded.
"Your talisman creatures, can you tell me how much chakra they take to use?" The Uchiha asked.
"Very little." Naruto answered him. "The overcharged ones take more, and are more powerful because of it, but will disintegrate after a few hours. The standard ones will last pretty much indefinitely once activated though." He paused. "They do take one hundred percent pure Yin chakra though, so as far as I'm aware, only I can use them."
Akira Uchiha cursed under his breath, pure chakra like that was impossible for him. Heck, Tsunade Senju's famous strength technique was rumoured to use around ninety eight percent Yang chakra, and she was considered to be a strong contender for 'best chakra control' in the history of the Elemental Nations. If she couldn't get one hundred percent purity…
He sighed. "Sorry for the bother then, but that's useless for us."
"Wait!" Naruto spoke out, seeing the man about to leave. "You might not be able to activate them, but I can, and I can also instruct them to obey you." That caught Akira's attention. "Ultimately, their loyalty will be to me, their creator, but if I order them to follow your instructions then they would do so."
"Okay then." Akira considered that idea. "Now, just how strong are they?"
"Low to mid genin." Naruto admitted unhappily. That was not even cannon fodder for a decent chunin, and barely even an annoyance to a jounin. He was only slightly stronger than them, but with his fighting style and techniques, he could slaughter hundreds of them at a time, though they can beat him in a two on one battle with close quarters weapons alone.
"That's… acceptable. The Military Police deal primarily with civilian disputes and a number of them were genin and lead by a chunin." Akira nodded his head. "Now, while the technique is useless to us and so not something I will purchase, would you be willing to sell some actual… what do you call them, talisman creatures?"
"Shikigami, and I would be agreeable to selling some." Naruto agreed, amused that in one day he'd had too different people suggesting ways he could work and earn money. Ibiki obviously wanted him in Torture and Interrogation, and now this guy wanted to use his shikigami as a police force. "How many would you need and of what type?"
"What types can you make?" Akira asked.
"Falcons, Wolves, fighters, and crossbows. The first two are obvious, the fighters carry a tower shield on their left arm, a spear in their right hand, and a short sword sheathed at their waist. The crossbows are either repeating crossbows or arbalests, heavy crossbows."
Akira thought about it for a moment, before asking Naruto how many he thought would be required to cover all of Konoha.
"I'd suggest several dozen falcons making regular sweeping patrols from above, and small squads of six fighters patrolling the streets. Perhaps have the commanders, the actual humans, have a small pack of two to five wolves apiece." Naruto suggested. "All in all, you're looking at… maybe sixty falcons, three hundred fighters, and three dozen or more wolves, minimum."
"Can you even make that many?" Akira asked. Those numbers would make a small army, and if they played to their strengths… they might even give some of the smaller ninja villages something of a challenge.
"I can make thousands, possibly more." Naruto told him.
Akira paused, processing that thought and mentally raising the blonde kid a couple of rungs on the 'don't make an enemy of him' ladder. Thousands of those things? Numbers like that could win simply by overwhelming their opponent, and several small ninja villages could be conquered like that.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked, after a period of silence from the man. "If you want to talk about purchasing some of my shikigami another time, it's not difficult to find me."
"Ah, I believe I will do so." Akira agreed, getting his thoughts back in line. "I will discuss things with the other Uchiha and get back to you within the next few days. Farewell for now, Uzumaki."
"Bye." Naruto bid him farewell, before heading into the forest and back home.
xxxxx
"I'm home." Naruto called out upon reaching the clearing his home stood in.
"Hello, Naruto." A youkai smiled at the blonde, making him jump in surprise.
"Riou?" He exclaimed. "I haven't seen you for… a while."
"I've been busy." The local youkai lord told him. "Like I told you years ago, many youkai will come looking for you in order to devour you. I have to keep my territory, and of course my underlings, safe, you know?"
Naruto bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry for causing you such trouble." He murmured.
Riou laid a hand on Naruto's head and gently ruffled his hair, disturbing Benio from her resting place.
"Nonsense, Naruto." He chuckled. "This sort of thing happens all the time, it's just been more intense recently. Having you here is also a good thing. The amount of reiryoku you're always leaking all over the place has actually strengthened many of the youkai around here, and some of them might even go up in rank if they stay around you."
"Really?" Naruto asks him. "I didn't know I was so 'leaky'."
Riou smiled at him. "Whenever anyone uses a technique of any sort, there's always some excess, no matter how little it is. You might not be wasting very much – in fact I'm almost certain you regain it faster than you lose it – but you do use far more techniques than anyone else."
Naruto thought about that for a moment. Given that he practised his archery every day and used spell arrows for it, and he also used moulded earth weapons in his spars with Takame, he guessed he might go through a lot of power every day. On top of that, of course, was his talisman experiments with Hinoe, and they probably gave off loads of excess, especially when they went wrong.
"So… everything's okay?" Naruto asked hesitantly, and it was times like this that Riou remembered that Naruto was eight years old.
"Yes, everything's fine." He said. "No one has anything more than scrapes and bruises, and with the way youkai keep flocking here..." His eyes slid all around the clearing, seeing literally dozens of youkai flying overhead or lounging in trees. "Well, there's no real danger for us or you."
Naruto clenched his fists and looked Riou right in the eyes. "But there might be, and so I'm going to get stronger until I can protect everyone I care about!" He declared.
There was a moment of silence as many of those around him heard his bold statement, and all could clearly see the determination burning in his young eyes. The serious mood was not to last though.
"Oh, aren't you adorable!" Masami, the kusari-fundo tsukumogami, exclaimed as she tackled him in an enveloping hug. "Oh, I just want to take you home, dress you in pretty kimonos, and-"
"He's not a girl, idiot." Benio scoffed, shifting into her true form. She looked irritated and disheveled, probably from being dislodged from Naruto's head by her enthusiastic greeting.
"He'd still look pretty in a kimono, everything does!" Masami stuck her tongue out at Benio, before getting a mischievous grin on her face. "If that's not an option though, I guess I could always join with him and he could practise wielding me."
With that, she vanished from sight. Naruto, just regaining his senses, felt her settle into his mind. He could also feel a weight in each of his sleeves, and after a moment's thought, a length of chain with a small ball of metal on the end emerged from each sleeve.
'Oh, is Naruto admiring my pretty form?' Masami's words echoed in his head. 'Well I am different to Takame, I am far more 'flexible' than she is' The way she said that indicated something far less innocent than simple ease of movement.
Naruto lowered his arm, watching the weighted chain as he worked out how to get it to move how he wanted it to. It wasn't easy, and it took a lot of concentration, but he slowly had it moving in a circle in front of him. The movement was jerky and disjointed, but practise would sort that out.
'You wanted to practise?' Naruto mentally asks Masami. 'Shall we challenge Takame to a spar then?'
'Oh, that's brilliant!' Masami exclaims. 'Do it! Do it now!'
With her giggling inside his head, Naruto did just that.
xxxxx
Takame grinned to herself as she dodged the chain that flew straight for her.
Okay, so she was a little unhappy that Masami worked better with Naruto than she did despite how often he practised using her, but she guessed it was simply due to Naruto being a much better mid to long range fighter, and claws didn't really give you a great deal of range.
The metal weight on the end of the chain ricocheted off a tree and came at her again, leaving Takame to dodge out of the way of the ball and the seemingly endless length of chain that was still coming out of Naruto's sleeves. She'd been tricked into a literal cage of metal earlier, and she wouldn't fall for that trick aga-
She dodged an arrow of lightning.
Okay, there was another advantage Naruto had with Masami, he could use her a lot more independently than he could her, and his hands were unoccupied unlike when he wore her.
She dashed forwards and sliced Naruto's forearm open, making him yell out in pain.
"Then again,when she joined with Naruto, her claw form extended along his arms and up to his shoulders – and possibly further in future if they could improve their synchronisation – giving him armour that kept him safe at close range. Naruto's enchanted bracers that he'd made were good, but they weren't anything a tsukumogami like her couldn't cut through.
On the other hand, rather than 'generating' armour for him to wear, Masami's special attribute seemed to be producing endless lengths of chain and controlling the weights on the end with something akin to telekinesis. Thankfully, the chains weren't particularly dexterous and couldn't, for example, wrap themselves around the hilt of a sword and wield it.
Still, they were good for limiting mobility and trapping someone in a disadvantageous position. The two of them had quickly worked that out, and the chains attempted to corral her while Naruto took pot shots at her with his shiki-bow and arrows.
However, Naruto was still Naruto, and he did have a weakness that she could take ruthless advantage of.
She darted up into his face again, kicking his hand, bruising it and dismissing his bow. She'd have kicked it out of his hand, but the charm was around his wrist, and as long as he had that he could keep summoning it.
She rested one of her claws on Naruto's cheek, almost like a lover would, and the other went around his neck, even as she felt chains around them bind the two of them tightly together.
"It's my win, Naruto." She said, her claws drawing the slightest amount of blood from his neck. "You're getting better at hand to hand, but it still remains your weakness. You really need to fix that before an enemy takes advantage of it and kills you."
"I'm trying, Takame, and I will get better." Naruto replied.
"Good." Takame smiled. "Now undo these chains before someone says something inappropriate."
"Too late." Naruto winced. "Masami's been going on and on about it inside my head constantly."
Takame smirked lightly. "Now you know how I felt stuck with her and Tetsuyama up in Iron Country."
Naruto grumbled under his breath, before the chain dissipated and Masami appeared behind Naruto, giving Takame a suggestive grin.
"Not a word, pervert." The claw tsukumogami warned her as Naruto yawned, the joining with Masami having really taken it out of him.
"Oh fine." Masami huffed. "Spoil my fun, why don't you?"
"Neither myself, nor Naruto – judging by how tired he is – desire to hear your lewd comments right now, Masami." Takame stated.
"Okay, okay!" Masami threw her hands up in surrender. "Let's go put little Naruto to bed."
"An excellent idea." Takame agreed.
"And then crawl in there with him!" Masami finished. "Ow!"
Takame lowered her hand after smacking her companion over the head.
"A less intelligent idea. Not even Benio or Tsurara have attempted that… yet." The claw tsukumogami reluctantly tagged that bit on the end, fully believing that the yuki-onna would attempt to do so at some point in the next few years, most probably during his early teen years.
Takame then directed a stern look at Masami. "And if you did, I'm fairly certain Tsurara would be most… put out with you."
Masami shivered slightly.
That snow woman could have one hell of a temper on her at times.
xxxxx
In Konoha's hospital, Yakumo Kurama sat on her bed.
She wasn't particularly injured, suffering only a minor case of smoke inhalation. Her parents had both suffered some pretty nasty burns in addition to parts of their home collapsing on them and breaking bones.
Apparently, they had been saved by a boy, the same one that had saved the Uchiha clan from complete annihilation. That should have made her happy, that she had her own 'knight in shining armour' - or whatever the hell the Japanese equivalent is – so why… why did she feel so disappointed?
She didn't understand it. Was she going crazy? Was that why Kurenai Yuuhi had told the Hokage to have her kicked from the shinobi program? And that only after she'd been paid with a number of genjutsu that had previously been Kurama clan secrets?
She felt her anger rise, only for her eyes to droop as she was overcome with a sudden surge of sleepiness.
The last thing she saw before she fell asleep on her bed was the evening sky, and she thought of how beautiful it was.
xxxxx
In another part of the Land of Fire, Kurama ran freely through the forest with his fur soaked in blood. He'd sated his blood-lust with a particularly nasty group of bandits that had set up shop on a well-travelled merchant trading route. None of them were in his bingo book though, no. Held in his tails he had the ones who were actually worth a damn, and coincidentally the better fighters as well.
They'd fought so hard that he was going to have to have Naruto create him a new body when he got back to Konoha, he'd drained most of the reserves stored in this shiki-body and needed a recharge.
Heh, maybe he'd bring Naruto with him on his next hunt, him and the brat made a good team. It would also get him away from Konoha, and sage knows just how much trouble the blonde got into if he had nothing to do. It was like he was a magnet for such things.
On the other hand, at least things would never be boring with him around, and Kurama did genuinely enjoy Naruto's company, and was even coming to consider him almost like a brother. Yes, they did mock each other at times, and yes they did get into physical fights and roll around on the ground like children, but all children did that… didn't they?
He certainly remembered 'rough-housing' with Shukaku back when they were only weeks and months old.
Then again, Shukaku was a crazy son of a bitch – or a crazy bitch, the biju were genderless – and comparing anyone to that nut-job wasn't exactly a compliment.
xxxxx
Elsewhere, in Water Country, Isobu swam through the waters between the islands.
He was currently in the form of a slightly larger than average turtle, with no indications he was anything irregular at all. Part of the reason he was here was to be a sort of scout for Naruto, as he'd heard some things about the civil war that was tearing the country apart.
A second part of Isobu wanted to be there to try and find his sibling, Saiken's, host. While they could meet and talk over the mental connection all nine biju share, Saiken's jinchuuriki, a man known as Utakata, had suffered some sort of mental trauma and absolutely refused to even think about the biju trapped inside of him.
Isobu was not happy about this, especially as Saiken was one of the most gentle and reserved of all of the nine biju. He wanted to give the human a piece of his mind! However, that was a rather dumb idea, and Isobu instead considered asking Saiken to think about jumping hosts.
At present, only Isobu himself had transferred himself. Matatabi would if Yugito ever died, but was currently happy to laze about inside of her host. Shukaku… well, none of them had actually heard from the youngest of the nine biju at all, the damn brat seemed to be ignoring them! Son Goku had agreed to transfer over in the event of Roshi's death, as had Kokuo with regards to Han, but niether were in any particular rush to do so. Chomei actually liked her own host, and would only leave her if she died. Even then, 'lucky number seven' would do all she could to keep Fu alive. Gyuki was actually quite fond and friendly with his own host – the rapping aside – and was perfectly content where he was. Kurama was, of course, with Naruto and happy with it.
Now, all he had to do was find something, anything!
He had not thought this through, he'd not really considered just how much slower a regular turtle travelled compared to his true biju form.
Oh, well, slow and steady wins the race, right?