So far, the poll is very close. If you haven't voted yet, go ahead and do it if it pleases and sparkles.
"There are two tragedies in life: One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it." - George Bernard Shaw
Chapter 20: Desideratum of the Predator
'I just left Konoha...by myself...without a fucking definite plan in mind.' Naruto thought to himself. Mentally, he cursed himself for his impulsiveness. Naruto had ultimately decided to combat the Akatsuki head on. Take the fight to them, so to speak, but he never really thought out how he was going to go about that. With no leads, no clues, or even an educated guess as to where he might find the Akatsuki leader or even a single member, Naruto was essentially running blind.
After soaring through the air for over an hour, Naruto was a decent distance away from Konoha. Constantly Air Dashing in the sky where there are no obstacles in addition to Naruto's abundant chakra allowed for much quicker travel, but as soon as Naruto realized that he was, in fact, entirely clueless, he nearly tumbled to the ground headfirst.
Another thing occurred to Naruto. He reached up and untied his forehead protector. There was a chance that the hokage marked him as a missing-nin and placed in the bingo book, so Naruto, donning a Konoha forehead protector while travelling, would draw even more unwanted attention that his appearance didn't already warrant. Instantly, his bangs fell over his eyes. 'Damn, my hair is too fucking long.' Naruto sighed. 'First order of business, find something to hold my hair back or cut it off altogether.'
Naruto had landed in the middle of a forest and cracked open the map that he had enough sense to bring. Naruto already had a vague idea of where he was since he had taken a similar path out of the village once before on the mission to Taki. Glancing at the map, Naruto confirmed his position.
'Fū might be still be in Taki unless she already decided to leave.' Naruto thought to himself. 'The Akatsuki work in pairs, so if I keep travelling alone, I'll be fighting with a handicap everytime I find them.'
Naruto vaguely remembered seeing a Taki forehead protector tied to Fū's arm, so he could safely assume that she had some semblance of shinobi training.
'Travelling with her might not be a bad idea. It could even the odds in a fight against the Akatsuki, and they'd probably be easier to find.' Naruto scoffed, 'They'd probably see it as a jinchuuriki bargain deal.'
With that new objective in place, Naruto took to the air and soared toward Taki.
Naruto landed near the waterfall entrance and focused on gathering nature chakra. When he entered Sage Mode, Naruto thoroughly searched through the chakra signatures in the village. When the second largest chakra signature was Shibuki, finding a jinchuuriki is an easy task, or at least it should have been.
Naruto couldn't sense Fū's chakra any where in the village. Takigakure wasn't a large place. Even from outside the village, Naruto could sense every chakra signature within the village.
'She already left.' Naruto noted with a sigh. Since he didn't know how long ago she left, Naruto's chances of finding her weren't very high.
'There goes that plan.' Naruto shook his head and departed from the village.
Hiruzen sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. It hadn't taken long for word to break out that Naruto had flew out of the village. Literally minutes after the news spread on a larger scale, the village elders started hounding Hiruzen and demanded immediate action to retrieve the wayward jinchuuriki. Hiruzen wisely hid the letter Naruto left him as that would cause even greater trouble with the elders and Hiruzen didn't dare think of what Danzo and his merry band of emotionless misfits would do.
It pained him to admit it, but Hiruzen was truly at a loss for a solution. He trusted Naruto and his judgment. If Naruto believed he could take on the Akatsuki, then Hiruzen believed so as well, though that didn't mean the hokage wouldn't aid in any way possible. The trust Hiruzen had in Naruto prevented him from branding the jinchuuriki as a rogue-ninja.
Hiruzen noted that there was only one way he could completely bypass marking Naruto as a missing-nin, and in that solution, lied another.
Hiruzen took a few more minutes to completely formulate his idea and its merits. With a tentative solution decided on, Hiruzen grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and began writing.
'This day sucks!'Fū thought to herself as it began raining and there was no decent shelter in sight. 'Scratch that: This whole month sucks!'
Fū had decided to leave Taki a little less than a month ago, and thus far, she was having a bad time trying to locate Naruto or even Konoha for that matter.
In between fruitless searching, Fū was training with Chōmei to fully realize her potential as a jinchuuriki. The training was rather difficult to undertake due to the fact that Chōmei was little more than a voice inside Fū's head.
Fū's frown lessened when she spotted a cave up ahead. She picked up speed and dashed into the cave without a second thought. Bears be damned. No bear would want to fuck with Fū at the moment.
Fū sneezed suddenly and she rubbed her nose. 'Great. Just when things couldn't get any better, right?' She thought to herself as she sneezed once more.
A large, bulky man with with three orange tufts of hair on his head grunted in irritation as he and his three teammates bounded through the trees. "This seems like a whole lot of effort for one single brat. I'd really rather not be doing something so stupid especially in the rain."
An equally irritated red-haired girl with a black cap situated on her head growled in annoyance. "Quit complaining, fatass! I'm just as pissed off as you, but you don't see me whining like a bitch, now do you?" She barked out, openly displaying every bit of displeasure she felt with the situation and her complaining teammate.
The large man took offence to the jab at his size, but before he respond, a dark gray-haired man with two heads, named Sakon and Ukon, cut in, "Now, now. Calm down, Tayuya. You, too, Jirōbō."
Jirōbō and Tayuya reluctantly stopped glaring at each other, and kept to travelling silently.
"Man, I can't believe Orochimaru sent us to handle one brat. What's the big deal with this kid, anyway?" Jirōbō and Tayuya were irritated, and the six-armed man, Kidomaru, wasn't any different.
Sakon turned to regard Kidomaru, "Orochimaru has taken a special interest in this boy, and according to him, this boy is formidable. Apparently, there's a possibility that he took down Kimimaro by himself, so don't underestimate him." Sakon, though usually rather confident, was on edge. Back in the day, Kimimaro was able to defeat the Sound Four by himself. Even though each member of the Sound Four has improved since then, it was still troubling to know that they were on their way to battle someone who might be even stronger than Kimimaro.
"Remember the plan. Don't mess this up or we're going to be face-to-face with death, one way or another." Sakon stated firmly. Screwing up in the battle meant death by their target. Screwing up the plan meant death by Orochimaru.
Failure was not an option.
As soon as it started to rain, Naruto quickly sought out a forest to use the many trees as cover from the rain. Naruto always hated the rain. It was easily relatable to the universe pissing on him in continuous bursts. The rain water always got in Naruto's ears and it felt weird as hell. Naruto just hated being wet in general.
Rain was just a hindrance as far as Naruto was concerned, and Naruto wholeheartedly believed he would always hold that sentiment.
Suddenly, Naruto found himself in the center of four individuals. Each of them were oddly irritated.
"What's it going to be?" Jirōbō broke the ice, "Are you going to come quietly or are we going to have to drag your unconscious body with us?" Jirōbō grumbled. His teammates grinned wickedly at their target.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the four. His eyes landed on the six-armed one, or more specifically, the forehead protector in his possession. The symbol on it was that of the sound shinobi.
"The real question is which one of you stupid nuisances wants to die first." Naruto questioned, placing his hand on the hilt of one of his scimitars, "Work it out between the four of you. You got five seconds."
That was all it took for the Sound Four to get straight down to business. Each of them activated their first level Cursed Seals, and readied themselves in their own unique way. Tayuya simply pulled out a flute, Jirōbō, Sakon and Ukon got into fighting stances, and Kidomaru spout out a spider web from his mouth that stuck between several trees and he latched onto it.
A ghost of a smirk found its way on Naruto's face. 'Orochimaru and his little servants may not be my first priority, but since they've went out of their way to seek me out, I might as well be nice and kill them here and now.'
"So, have you decided yet? I'd like to know the order of my victims." Naruto called out. He quickly dashed over to where Sakon was and elbowed him in the jaw before he could react. Then, Naruto grabbed him and threw him straight into a tree.
Tayuya was the next to make a move. She quickly summoned three massive demons. Kidomaru followed up with a summoning of his own. A giant spider appeared beneath his feet on the web.
Tayuya began playing on her flute, and in response, the three demons jumped at Naruto. The one with the club swung in a downward arc, forcing Naruto to jump back out of harm. The heavily bandaged demon tried to stomp on him since it didn't have arms. Naruto Burst Stepped on to a tree to avoid that demon as well. He unsheathed his scimitar, swung it by the chain on the end, and channeled wind chakra into it. When he expelled the chakra, the Slicing Twister cut into the demon with the club, practically slicing a large hole in its chest.
Tayuya's eyes widened in shock when she saw Naruto destroy one of her summons. She was even more shocked when Naruto jumped into the air and met the other two summons head on.
Naruto Air Dashed above the bandaged demon and swung his scimitar by the chain, performing the Slicing Twister on that demon as well, slicing through its head.
Before Naruto could finish off the last summon, a massive horde of spiders started raining down on him. The spiders left a strand of webbing behind them as they fell. The spiders began falling on him before he could avoid them.
Kidomaru grinned from his spot on top of his giant spider summon. "Got him grounded." He boasted.
With all of the hundreds of spider webs sticking him to the ground, Naruto could barely move. He almost rolled his eyes when he saw Jirōbō smirk at him. The large man slammed his hands on the ground and rocks started forming into a dome with Naruto in the center. Eventually, the dome closed, trapping Naruto inside.
"I'm going to drain you of your chakra until you can't move. Then, you're all ours." Jirōbō said, placing his hands on the rock dome, "Thanks in advance for the meal."
In the darkness of the dome, Naruto smirked as Jirōbō's last words reached his ears. He felt his chakra slowly leaving his body.
'So, he's absorbing my chakra, huh?' Naruto thought to himself as an idea came to him, 'You're in for one hell of a surprise, big guy.'
Naruto started gathering nature chakra, but he could never hold enough to actually enter Sage Mode because Jirōbō would steal the chakra before it could properly mix.
Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon looked on in confusion and then horror as Jirōbō started developing warts all over his body. Eventually, Jirōbō turned into a man-sized toad, and then, into a toad statue.
Naruto felt that his chakra wasn't being drained anymore, yet strangely, the dome stayed intact. Naruto stretched his limbs and scowled at the webs covering his entire body and limiting his mobility.
Kidomaru started to sweat. With Jirōbō entirely petrified, the plan was essentially ruined. "Sakon-"
"The plan isn't lost, but we cannot afford to lose anyone else or it really will be ruined." Sakon interrupted Kidomaru. Sakon and Ukon entered their second level Cursed Seal. They split from one another and reformed themselves, so they had two fully functional bodies.
Naruto created a Shadow Clone that started freeing him from the webs. When he completely free from the annoyances, Naruto channeled lightning chakra to his scimitar and cut through the dome with several rapid sword slashes.
The entire dome fell apart around him. Naruto slashed the larger rocks that threatened to harm him. As he stepped from the rubble, Naruto smirked at the toad statue in front of him. He channeled wind chakra to his scimitar and released a wind slash that shattered the statue.
Naruto was only mildly alarmed when he realized his other opponents weren't directly in sight. His senses told him that they hadn't run away. Also, Naruto heard them when they were speaking about some plan apparently not being lost.
Naruto felt two chakra signatures spike around him. From his fight with Kimimaro, Naruto recognized the black seals that spread around his opponents' bodies. Therefore, he knew there was a second level to it, so he wasn't surprised that they were utilizing it.
Unexpectedly, Naruto felt a presence behind him that he knew for a fact wasn't there previously. It wasn't any of the Sound Four. This presence behind him felt far too sinister for any of them. The killing intent the man exuded was oppressive enough to get Naruto's hands to tremble.
"Hello, Naruto. We finally meet face-to-face, and dare I say, I've been anticipating this moment for some time." The voice came across as predatorial.
Naruto glanced over his shoulder with a scowl present on his face to regard the man behind him. "Orochimaru."
"Fū, wake up. I think I've found what, or rather, who you're looking for." The voice inside Fū's head, Chōmei, alerted a tired Fū.
Fū, half asleep, merely rubbed her eyes, grumbled an incoherent mess of words, turned over, and went back to sleep.
"Wake up, would ya! I said I found the boy you were looking for!" Chōmei repeated, this time, with extra oomph.
Fū shot up quickly with that said. "Seriously?! Why didn't you say so?" Fū ran out of the cave with a smile. "Lead the way, Chōmei."
"He is in battle against formidable enemies. I could feel his power from here, and I can tell we are quite some distance away from him. This boy you are seeking is a strong one." Chōmei remarked.
"That's cool. Now how about pointing me in his general direction?" Fū impatiently requested. Chōmei sighed in response, but complied regardless.
Orochimaru grinned maliciously, "You are quite an incredible specimen, Naruto. You, with your potent chakra and your remarkable abilities, have greatly interested me."
'I really don't like the sound of that.' Naruto thought to himself with disdain. He finally managed to keep his hands from trembling at the killing intent.
"Is that so?" Naruto questioned, gripping his scimitar tightly. With the use of his Rapid Strike, Naruto spun around slashed at Orochimaru with the speed of the Burst Step. To his dismay, Orochimaru caught his sword hand.
"Impressive speed." Orochimaru commented. Then, he chuckled, "You may have even wounded me if you hadn't telegraphed your attack."
Naruto scowled at the man before him. He formed a Rasengan in his left hand and got ready to slam it in Orochimaru's chest, but before he could make contact, Orochimaru kicked Naruto away with a firm side kick to the chest. When Naruto was dazed, Orochimaru followed up with a series of punches and finished with a kick that sent Naruto crashing through a nearby tree, dropping the scimitar he was holding in the process.
At this point, the Sound Four, minus the deceased Jirōbō, jumped from their hiding spots. Sakon and the now separate Ukon, Tayuya, and Kidomaru got into formation, boxing Orochimaru and the downed Naruto in. They formed a single hand sign and clapped their hands, and in result, a violet barrier formed in front of them. Naruto and Orochimaru were inside the barrier, Tayuya, Kidomaru, Sakon, and Ukon were outside.
"Four Flames Formation!" They each called out after the barrier was formed.
So far, Orochimaru was very pleased as his scheme was working perfectly. He walked calmly toward the downed Naruto.
"I know you are still conscious, Naruto. Stand and face me." Orochimaru demanded with his ever-present smile.
Naruto's eyes snapped open. He vanished in a black blur from his spot on the ground and appeared behind Orochimaru. Orochimaru noted that Naruto was significantly faster than before, and he understood why when he turned and got a good look at the sage-enhanced jinchuuriki.
Orochimaru dodged a fierce roundhouse kick from Naruto, and jumped back to put some distance between himself and Naruto. While Orochimaru was still in the air, Naruto Air Dashed straight to him and used his Rapid Strike to deliver a strong, Sage Mode-enhanced right hook straight to Orochimaru's jaw.
Naruto watched with satisfaction as Orochimaru was sent spiralling to the ground. Naruto focused lightning chakra to his index and middle finger. When he expelled it, he formed the Lightning Whip. He stretched it out until he wrapped around Orochimaru's foot.
With his right hand, Naruto yanked the whip toward him, pulling Orochimaru with it, and with his left hand, he quickly formed a Rasengan.
"You're fucking dead!" Naruto bellowed as he slammed the Rasengan straight into Orochimaru. Naruto released the Lightning Whip and let Orochimaru fly straight through a couple trees before he slumped against one.
"Is that it? That's fucking sad, you know, to get your ass handed to you by the guy you sought out." Naruto called out. He turned and looked around at the violet barrier that trapped him. "You three better start praying, because when I break through this barrier, and you'd better fucking believe I will, I'm going to rip you apart." Naruto growled out.
Naruto's senses immediately alerted him to another presence within the barrier. He shot a quick glance at the downed Orochimaru. He cursed to himself when Orochimaru turned into a pile of mud.
'I don't even know why I thought it would be that easy.' Naruto thought to himself as he prepared himself for another round with Orochimaru and whatever other person happened to be in the barrier as well.
'I gotta deal with Orochimaru, three of his little pets each donning that mark, and some other guy.' Naruto was cursing his luck. Orochimaru, by himself, is a pressing problem. Throw in a squad to go along with that, and things suddenly become a shit-fest. 'The future looks bleak.' Naruto thought blandly.
Naruto quickly avoided an open-palm strike from a silver-haired man. Naruto vaguely remembered seeing the man during the mission to invade Otogakure. Back then, the guy was just a masqueraded puppet who Kazumi fought. She had said the body double was a man named Kabuto Yakushi. Naruto had a feeling that he was dealing the real one this time around.
Naruto ducked under another open-palm strike. From this point of view, he could clearly see the chakra aura around Kabuto's hands.
Naruto kicked Kabuto away and was forced to jump away from a rather large snake. On top of the snake's head stood its summoner, Orochimaru, smiling down at Naruto as if everything was falling into place for him.
Naruto absolutely hated that confident expression.
"Smile while you can." Naruto said as he dodged various chakra scapel swipes from Kabuto. When Kabuto over extended on one particular strike, Naruto Burst Stepped straight into his defenses with a Rasengan. He slammed the spiralling blue orb into Kabuto's chest, sending him flying away with a scream of pain. After eyeing Kabuto's disabled body, Naruto turned a smirking gaze on Orochimaru.
Unnervingly, Orochimaru's smile never left his face and he made no motions to rejoin the fight.
'Well, that's just fine by me. Die standing still if you want.' Naruto thought to himself as began charging up a Scorch Bomb in his hands. Just as he was about to throw it straight at Orochimaru's snake summon, hands shot up from the ground beneath him, tightly grasping his feet.
'What the hell?' Naruto thought to himself. He glanced over to where Kabuto's unconscious body ought to be, but he wasn't there anymore. 'He shouldn't have gotten up after that. I'm sure he didn't sneak a substitution in, so how?'
Naruto suppressed a scream of pain as he felt something in his ankles sever just about where Kabuto grabbed onto him. Kabuto let go and Naruto fell to the ground in pain. He couldn't stand up at all.
Kabuto jumped from the ground with a confident smirk present on his face. "I severed your achille's tendon, so fair to say, you won't be doing much moving." Kabuto remarked with amusement, "Now, I'm going to stop the movement in your arms as well. Can't have you swinging at us while we work, now can we?"
Naruto watched with narrowed eyes as Kabuto strode over to him. The wound on his chest from where Naruto slammed the Rasengan was a raw pink, but otherwise, it was completely fine, meaning Kabuto somehow healed himself within a matter of minutes after he was hit.
Naruto's eyes narrowed even further and he vanished in a black blur and appeared in the air behind Kabuto. He had slashed at Kabuto with the scimitar he still had in his possession, only managing to leave a shallow cut on the silver-haired medic's chest. The thing was Naruto didn't need mobility in his legs to move. The Burst Step provided all the mobility he needed.
Naruto turned in the air, getting ready to Air Dash back down and finish off Kabuto, but Orochimaru suddenly appeared behind him.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." Orochimaru stirred up a strong gust of wind that slammed Naruto down to the ground.
Dazed from the impact, Naruto couldn't get up in time to avoid Kabuto's chakra scapel jabs to his arms. Naruto cried out in pain as Kabuto severed integral muscle tissues in his arms.
Orochimaru appeared before Naruto's eyes, flashing through a series of hand signs before he jabbed Naruto in the throat with three extended fingers on his right hand.
"Cursed Seal of Hell." Orochimaru uttered as he focused malicious nature chakra through the point of contact. As the polluted chakra flowed through Naruto, he screamed in agony as a seal began to form where Orochimaru jabbed him. It took the form of three dark red rotating fangs before the fang-shaped marks stilled in such a way that each pointed inward and were almost touching.
In his head, Naruto could just barely hear the Kyuubi roaring in anger and...pain? That was when everything went black and Naruto lost consciousness. The last thing he heard was Orochimaru's maniacal laughter.
Naruto opened his eyes slowly. His eye lids felt so heavy that it took an actual effort to open them. Naruto noted that his whole body felt heavy. He weakly looked around at the unfamiliar location. It was dark, very dark. He could barely make out anything before him.
Naruto weakly staggered forward, almost tripping over himself regularly. When he got close to a wall of some sort, he collapsed against it. He lifted his head and weakly scowled at how much effort it was taking to do simple tasks. He slowly realized that he was in his own mind as he recognized the cage he was leaning against.
Naturally, he prepared himself to be berated by the Kyuubi, but when time passed with no comment from the tailed beast, Naruto became confused. He was even more confused about why his mindscape was so much darker than usual.
He stood up slowly and began stumbling forward again. He looked around at everything he could see as he tried to get a grasp on what was happening. The last thing he remembered was Orochimaru jabbing him in the throat and all the pain that followed, so it was safe to assume that Orochimaru had done something to him. Strangely enough, whatever Orochimaru did affected the Kyuubi as well.
When it all got to be too much, Naruto collapsed to the floor of his mindscape, panting heavily. When he hit the floor, Naruto noted the lack of the water in his mindscape.
Where there was usually ankle-deep water, there was a knee-deep sea of malicious black chakra that was steadily rising in accordance with Naruto's declining strength. Before his eyes, the black chakra started taking form right in front of him.
It became a taunting Orochimaru who chided Naruto for his weak state, then it changed.
The figure standing before Naruto certainly looked like him, but there were apparent differences. The figure's eyes were entirely red and there was a dark gray shading around them. The figure smirked maliciously as a black and red shroud enveloped it and completely obscured it from Naruto's vision save for the figure's outline and those unbelievably evil red eyes.
As soon as the figure made eye contact with Naruto, Naruto felt himself pulsate as a new wave of pain racked through his body. Suddenly, repressed memories came to the forefront of Naruto's mind, taunting him, haunting him. The memories reminded Naruto of why he originally sought revenge. They forced Naruto to remember why he needed to fight for himself, and himself alone.
Naruto let out a weak, humorless laugh. He had never truly overcome those bad memories, had he? He simply repressed them and held them back with a shield of indifference. It was such a half-assed psychological strategy, but it had worked thus far. Having all those memories strike him all at once was absolutely overwhelming, and Naruto was reaching his limit, both physically and mentally.
But amidst all the darkness was a single enticing speck of light. It offered a certain salvation. Not exactly caring what the salvation was, Naruto desperately reached for the light, hoping for a reprieve from the all-encompassing darkness that was threatening to flood him.
Almost immediately, Naruto realized he made a grave mistake. When he finally grasped the speck of light, he heard the taunting, maniacal laughter of Orochimaru before everything went black once more.
The darkness overcame him.
Fū was quickly dashing through trees, following Chōmei's direction. Fū realized that Chōmei was oddly quiet all of a sudden.
"Something wrong, Chōmei, I'm relyin' on you to direct me, remember. I kinda can't find Naruto if you clam up on me." Fū stated.
"Fū, hold on. Stay still. The boy is just up ahead, but he isn't alone." Chōmei said suddenly.
"Did he come out here with allies or something?" Fū questioned curiously.
"I doubt it. I believe he was fighting on his own. He may have been defeated and is being taken by the enemy." Chōmei responded. Fū starting getting nervous. Naruto was supposed to be helping her, but now it seemed she was going to have to pull a daring rescue mission.
Fū blinked. 'Whoa, I sounded really selfish there for a second.' She thought to herself. 'Don't worry, Naruto. I got your back!' Fū sprouted wings from her back, a perk from her training with Chōmei, and flew off to where Chōmei directed.
Orochimaru, Kabuto, and what was left of the Sound Four departed from the battlefield with an unconscious Naruto in tow. Orochimaru was very pleased with the way things turned out. The Cursed Seal of Hell worked perfectly and Naruto was overcome by his own inner darkness.
The Cursed Seal of Hell was a very malevolent seal. The seal was very reactive with those with darkness present in their heart. The seal feeds off that darkness and creates an incarnation within the recipient's mind. In a way, the seal also enhances every latent dark feeling the recipient already possesses. During tests, the seal was successful in that regard, but for obvious reasons, Orochimaru didn't have an ideal test subject, so it was a bit of a gamble how the Cursed Seal of Hell would react with the seal present on the jinchuuriki. As it seems, the Cursed Seal of Hell was successful in suppressing the Kyuubi, a rather impressive feat in and of itself.
So caught up in his thoughts of his recent success, Orochimaru failed to notice a quickly approaching presence. A flying, green-haired drilled Sakon, the one carrying Naruto, in the head with a firm, full-power kick. Sakon was sent skidding away.
Fū immediately dropped three smoke bombs on the ground as she landed. Kabuto and the remainder of the Sound Four prepared to deal with the intruder as soon as the smoke cleared, but before it did, a barrage of kunai, some carrying paper bombs, flew at the them.
They were forced to jumped away from weapons and the explosions. That gave Fū the chance she needed to grab Naruto and take to the air.
Despite the rather spontaneous interference, Orochimaru wasn't bothered in the slightest. His smile never left his face, and when his men attempted to pursue the green-haired he stilled them. When they shot him questioning looks, he kept walking calmly.
"I know his type and I know the effects of the Cursed Seal of Hell. Naruto will seek me out. It is inevitable." Orochimaru answered each of their questions. He was the picture of confidence as he vanished in flames. His loyal men quickly followed suit.
Fū didn't know how long she was flying, but by the time she landed, she couldn't even more her wings from how sore they were. She was lucky enough to locate a small cave. Naruto was wounded and unconscious, Fū doubted he wanted to wake up soaking wet as well.
Fū had noticed that Naruto was incredibly warm when she was carrying him, feverishly so.
Fū took his sage cloak off him as it was wettest article of clothing Naruto was wearing. She wrung it out to get some of the water out of it. She didn't want Naruto getting any sicker than he already was. She took out some of the spare clothes she brought with her, and briefly toyed around with the idea of putting Naruto in her clothes. She laughed boisterously at the thought. Instead, Fū rolled the clothes up and placed them under Naruto's head. She figured it had to be better than having no kind of pillow at all.
With all that done, Fū sat down beside the unconscious Naruto. She watched him for a bit with a smile. Everything was supposed to be looking up from now on now that Naruto was here, right? Even Chōmei said he was strong.
'He was just badly outnumbered. If he wasn't, he would've definitely kicked ass!' Fū thought confidently.
Fū stared ahead toward the entrance of the cave. She prepared herself to watch over Naruto until he awoke.
An hour later, Fū was playing a card game with herself to pass the time. She stopped suddenly when she saw Naruto stir.
"Well it's about time ya woke up! You shouldn't keep a girl waiting, you know." Fū stated jokingly with a slight laugh. Her laugh stopped abruptly when she felt a dark red and black aura begin to shroud Naruto. A dark gray shading appeared around his eyes. Her breath hitched at the increasing bloodlust Naruto was exuding.
She stood and backed away slowly as Naruto stood. From where she was standing, she could see the dark red mark in the center of Naruto's throat blazing as its power came to life. The sheer killing intent Naruto expelled had Fū trembling.
Then, he laughed. The sound was akin to a low rumbling in his throat. Naruto's eyes snapped open and he stared at Fū with a predatorial smirk.
In that moment, Fū found herself staring into the red eyes of the devil.
I don't have much to say this time around. Vote on the poll if you haven't already, and I'll catch you all later.
..Actually, I do have something to say. Naruto's got some shitty luck, huh?
Now, I'll catch you all later.