Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Sekirei, all characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their specific creators, Masashi Kishimoto and Sakurako Gokurakuin. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.
Author's Notes: No Naruto rant this time… I just shook my head and closed the chapter after Madara ko'd all nine beasts effortlessly with a single Jutsu. It's like DBZ all over again.
This chapter is a little slower than usual, about the same pace as the later half of the previous one. It may feel like it drags on but I feel it's all relevant information, plus it's nice to be able to just meander a bit. The pace will pick up a bit next chapter.
Oh, and could I ask that you please don't review just to comment on my review comments? It bugs me, even more than flames, to see someone comment on something that's not even part of the chapter itself. Those sorts of comments should be reserved for PM's where I can actually explain things without having to make ANOTHER review response about a review that was about a review response about a review.
This is my fourth time trying to post this chapter, the power keeps going out here before I manage to do it. Stupid ice storm.
Review Responses: I just want to reiterate about my Government speech in the previous chapter. The system themselves aren't good or bad, it's the people in them, and how they're executed, that is the problem. Democracy CAN be a good government if done properly, the issue is it's not. That applies for all other governments and systems including communism, socialism, capitalism, etc.,. They can all be good systems, if executed properly. The issue is that they are rarely, if ever, done properly. People always abuse them. Money is power, control is power, influence is power, and with power comes corruption and the need/desire to retain that power at all costs. The problem is us, not the systems, which unfortunately means there really isn't any 'true' fix for us. No matter what we do, we're screwed. It makes me a sad panda when I think about that sometimes.
Number 12 is Jack, just for reference. The only reason it wasn't in the profiles is because they don't actually have a name for him, even if we do. Remember, Orochimaru only has 12 Sekirei, and one of them has to be Jack. Since the first 9 are identified already it can't be any of them. No. 10 has already been killed once, it obviously can't be him either. No. 11 is female, which means the only other unnamed person is No. 12, which has to be Jack by process of elimination.
The reason I decided to use Negima characters was really simply. Someone mentioned Tsukuyomi in a review. When he did I realized that she was the perfect character to add to Orochimaru's slaves, she fit just too well. Jack was added in afterwards for a separate reason. After that I had 3 more slots to fill, (needed Noire from Hyperdimension Neptunia for Blanc) From there I just figured, hey, I've already got 2 from that universe let's keep it simple and keep pulling from that universe. The fewer universes I pull from the more sense it makes as well. No. 10 is an exception of course.
Chapter 39: Mission Briefing
"Why didn't you tell me Naruto-kun?" Hanabi asked in a quiet voice.
Naruto let out a low sigh as he stared down at the large octagonal table in his command center at Epsilon. His head was propped up above the table with his temples resting on his knuckles. Yellow hair cascaded around the sides of his face obscuring Hanabi from his view. He didn't want to look her in the eyes and see her accusing stare.
But more importantly he didn't want her to see the annoyance in his eyes.
He both did, and didn't, deserve her ire. He had made the right call at the time, he was certain of it. Even if he hadn't made the right call, she didn't have the right to question his judgement when it came to this type of situation. It was a decision he made as Hokage, her leader and commander.
Of course he couldn't truly begrudge Hanabi her reaction either. This was family, very close family. It would be extremely abnormal if she wasn't at least this upset.
He could hear Hanabi pacing back and forth to his side, waiting for an answer. He knew he had to give her an explanation, but he wasn't quite sure how to phrase it. No matter what he phrased it, it wouldn't be enough, but he had to make it look like he put some effort into it.
There was also only a short amount of time before everyone arrived. Yuuchi and Miya were already here, sitting at the far side of the table eyeing the confrontation with interest. Neither of them knew exactly what it was about, Hanabi hadn't elaborated herself yet, but they could both tell it was something of import.
Naruto had to placate Hanabi as much as possible right now, before the others arrived. He could feel them making their way here right now.
It was the morning after dealing with Naoki. He had sent a clone to call them all here soon after returning, neither him nor Hanabi had gotten any sleep. He and Naoki had hashed out a solid plan between them and it was up to Naruto to delegate who will carry out each mission and how each of them was to be accomplished. There were a set of folders just to the side that had an outline of each mission. Those would be handed out to those that agreed to help him.
He put on a mask of guilt and remorse and prepared himself to deal with Hanabi. He lifted his head and feigned regret as he looked Hanabi in the eyes, "All I had was that picture, nothing more. I didn't even know if it was real or not. It could have simply been someone that looked like your father," Naruto said.
"Someone that 'looked' like my father? You KNOW how unique my eyes are. That's not something that can be faked. Perhaps if we had been back in the Elemental Nations I could have believed that, but not here, not on this world," Hanabi snapped at Naruto, not satisfied with his explanation, "I KNOW you're not that stupid. You wouldn't have truly considered it anything but what it appeared to be."
He let out a small sigh, that wasn't the greatest start, "I know, and it's why I've spent a great deal of time since then trying to find out everything I can," Naruto replied. He gave her a small smile but it didn't seem to alleviate her anger. With another sigh he brushed a hand through his hair, tucking it behind his ear. "I didn't find out until the day after Higa Izumi was killed. You had just finished going through one ordeal, dealing with a man that tried to experiment on you and kill our child. I didn't want you to go through another so soon. I… wanted you to relax and wind down a little first."
"So you decided to simply not tell me anything?!"
"Yes. I would have eventually, but I wanted more than just a picture. I wanted something solid and concrete that I could give you: An address, a name, a reason for his existence, something, anything."
"My father isn't so pathetic that would leave behind clues that someone like you could pick up on!" Hanabi shouted at him.
Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly, that was uncalled for. "I had to try!" he snapped back at her, his mask cracking slightly. Seeing Hanabi's eyes narrow in anger Naruto quickly looked away and reined in his anger. Patching the crack in the mask he feigned a guilt filled sigh. "Sorry, I… just didn't want you to worry so soon again after dealing with Higa Izumi… I… wanted to be able to hand you more than just a picture, there was so much more that I wanted to give with it…"
He could understand why Hanabi was upset. He would be too if he found out his father was walking around out there but no one had bothered to tell him. But he also knew how he would have reacted to the news. He would have torn Shinto Teito apart, turned it inside out to find him. There would have been so many doubts, so many worries, plaguing him as a result of knowing.
That was not something he wanted Hanabi to deal with so soon after Higa. That was why he was certain he had made the right call, not that he expected Hanabi to accept that.
"I am a little disappointed in you, Naruto-kun, that you would keep something like this from Hanabi-san," Miya said with a voice filled with disapproval.
"I think it was a good call," Yuuchi said as she calmly sipped on a cup of tea Miya had brewed for them, "Naruto-san cannot allow emotions dictate his actions. He is a leader before he is a husband and an Ashikabi. The health and well-being of those under him, even their mental and emotional health, should be of paramount importance. If I am not mistaken Naruto had the latter two in mind when he withheld this information from Hanabi-san."
"That doesn't mean I shouldn't have told her later when I couldn't find anything else out. Hanabi should not have been forced to hear about it like this," Naruto said as he gave Yuuchi a grateful but sad smile.
It was good to know Yuuchi understood his position. It was hard to keep his mask on, to feign regret and remorse. But he had to, otherwise he would only cause Hanabi even more pain. She had to think he felt guilty about the whole situation otherwise she would feel betrayed, or worse.
"I will not argue that point, but the initial decision was the correct decision," Yuuchi said in approval.
"This is my FATHER we're talking about here! I had a right to know!" Hanabi snapped at Yuuchi.
"Of course you did, but can you truly blame Naruto-san for doing the very thing you yourself would have done if you had been in his position?" Yuuchi asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?"
"Can you honestly say that had your situations been reversed, that you would have done anything differently?"
Hanabi opened her mouth to protest but stopped. It looked as if she struggled with herself for a moment, her eyes flickering back and forth between Yuuchi and Naruto. After a moment she crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at Naruto, "I wouldn't have waited so long and I would have told him about it personally. I wouldn't have made him find out about it in a public setting!"
Naruto found that slightly unfair. While true, having it revealed in front of Naoki was hardly the ideal location. The basement of a secret hideout was not something he would consider 'public.'
"Of course, men are not nearly as sensible as we are," Yuuchi said as she agreed with Hanabi, "But my point stands, his initial decision was correct, his subsequent actions however are debatable."
"I'm sorry Hanabi, I never wanted you to find out like this. I really wanted to tell you personally… I…" Naruto stopped and shook his head slightly. He poured on the false emotion to try and sound as sincere as he could. "I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner."
Hanabi glowered at Naruto with an irritated look on her face. She could feel her anger subsiding a little. It was hard to stay angry when someone laid out such a heartfelt apology, especially when it was someone you loved. "Is there anyone else wandering around out there I should know about? Is onee-chan or Neji-san walking around?" she demanded.
"Hiashi is the only one I know of."
Whatever Hanabi was about to say died in her throat as Chime arrived, "Damn bro, what did you do this time?" she asked as she walked into the room. Following close behind her was Akitsu and Yume.
Naruto winced. Their argument hadn't been particularly quiet. The noise probably reached the rest of the basement, even if you couldn't make out the exact words, "I ah… made a bad judgement call," Naruto said lamely. He wouldn't elaborate on what call he made a bad judgement on, but those in the room would assume what they wanted to assume.
"More than just bad, and you WON'T be making the same mistake twice, right Naruto-kun?" Hanabi demanded as she leaned towards him.
"Right, of course, no more mistakes," Naruto said quickly as he held his hands up in surrender. He wouldn't make a mistake twice, of course he didn't consider keeping Hiashi from her a mistake in the first place but it was probably best not to say that.
Chime eyed Naruto thoughtfully for a moment. Then suddenly a sly smirk crossed her face, a chill went down his spine, "Did she catch you sneaking mitsuba into her salad again?" Chime asked with an innocence that seemed so sincere Naruto instantly knew that it was faked.
"Uzume, this isn't the time…" Naruto started, addressing Uzume directly instead of Chime.
"That was YOU Naruto-kun!?" Hanabi snapped as her anger flared again, coming back full force.
Naruto sighed, it was too late, Hanabi was blowing up again. A couple weeks ago someone had snuck mitsuba into Hanabi's salad. She hated the stuff. The eruption that had happened when she bit into it could have rivaled that of Mt. Fuji. She had thrown the entire meal out afterwards, theirs as well, and had made something new for her to eat. Everyone else had gone hungry.
They had all spent the rest of the night walking around like they were stepping on eggshells.
Naruto had thought it odd at the time that there would be ANY mitsuba in the house considering Hanabi's dislike of it. Now he knew how it had got here.
"That wasn't me!" Naruto protested, more than a little annoyed by the situation, both by having it brought up again and by its bad timing.
"Might want to check his workshop, I think I saw a box of it down there," Chime said mischievously.
"Na-ru-to-kun!" Naruto could see flames appearing inside Hanabi's eyes. She really didn't like mitsuba. If anything she almost seemed more upset about the mitsuba than she had been about him keeping the knowledge of Hiashi from her.
Naruto was not in the mood for this, not after dealing with Hanabi's earlier tirade about her father, "Uzume, that's enough," he snapped irritably, trying to head things off before it got any worse.
"Oh? Bro can dish it out but can't take the heat?" Chime said with a laugh.
Naruto slammed a fist on the table hard enough to cause the entire thing to jump, "What part of ENOUGH do you not understand?" he shouted at her.
Chime recoiled in shock. She held her hands to her chest as she stared at him in confusion as hurt and worry began to creep into her eyes.
"Don't you dare shout at Chime-san!" Hanabi snapped at him.
Naruto's mouth almost curled into a snarl. This was getting ridiculous. He threw himself back in his chair. Leaning his head back against the head rest, he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead roughly. He could feel a migraine coming on.
"Naruto-kun…?" Yume asked worriedly as she stared at her Ashikabi. She couldn't just feel, but could see, the emotions boiling inside him. He looked like a kettle that was about to blow. There were so many tiny little negative emotions pulling him every which way inside.
Getting upset over the whole situation offended Hanabi, "That's it! I'm confiscating all your ramen. Consider it gone for the foreseeable future!" she snapped her ultimatum.
A vein popped on Naruto's forehead. It throbbed for several seconds before Naruto was able to calm down. Right now he wanted to just drop this entire situation and move on, it was stupid and had nothing to do with why they were all gathered there. Hanabi was more than welcome to blow up at him at a later time when there wasn't something important to discuss.
Besides it wasn't like he couldn't just go to Charlie Point and eat it behind her back, he had a significant stockpile there that he'd be damned before he let her take that away.
"Fine, whatever," Naruto said, swallowing the bitter words he wanted to say. It was hard, with all those emotions boiling inside him. It wasn't any one thing that made him this upset, but a multitude of things that rubbed him the wrong way and that people just would not drop.
"Good," Hanabi said in satisfaction as she took her place at her usual spot at the table.
Chime nervously sat down in her usual spot, now more than a little guilty and worried about the entire situation. She didn't look nearly as amused as she had when she had first entered the room. Regret began to worm its way into her as she realized her impromptu jab at her Ashikabi had probably come at a very bad time.
Naruto didn't move for several long minutes as he wrestled with himself, he needed to be calm going into the mission briefings; this wasn't a time to let his emotions rule him. He took a couple deep breaths, grabbed hold of the annoying emotions and burned them to ash.
He heard a small gasp come from Yume but he ignored it, there were more important things to worry about at the moment.
Feeling better, or at least that he was capable of conducting the meeting now, he opened his eyes. Raising his head he took a looked around the table, almost everyone was there. The seating arrangement had changed little since the last time they had all gathered here although some people were still in the same places. The spot to his left was still Blanc's. As the individual in charge of most of his information he needed her close by. That spot was still empty however, as Blanc had yet to arrive. She would be here soon though, he could sense slowly making her way through the house.
Going clockwise around the table from there was Yume. She was looking at him with deep concern in her eyes, along with a smattering of horror. He was aware of what she could see so he wasn't surprised by what he saw there, for the most part. It didn't matter what mask he wore, Yume would always seem through it, and right now she was probably seeing how truly upset he was, or had been. The little bit of horror he saw in those eyes confused him though.
Yume was no longer clothed in Musubi's old outfit, she had gotten rid of all of those old clothing, mostly because they didn't fit anymore. She was wearing something reminiscent of her time as head of the disciplinary squad. It was a tight fitting long-sleeve shirt that went doubled up as a thigh length skirt. On her hands was a pair of gloves, identical to the ones Musubi used to wear, but black to match her clothing. On her feet were a pair of black heels and black stockings covered her legs, stopping just a few inches shy of her skirt.
To her left was Yuuchi. The Second Sekirei Pillar looked as calm and collected as always as she sipped on her tea. Naruto idly wondered if anything was capable of rattling her. She was dressed as she was when Naruto had first found her. She seemed partial to that particular outfit. There were several more sets of the same outfit sitting in her closet, although there were a few of differing colors. She had settled nicely into their daily lives. Naruto still didn't know what her plans were for stopping the Sekirei Plan but she seemed intent on learning as much as she could about the modern era as possible. She spent almost as much time in the library as Blanc.
Their training sessions were coming along quite nicely as well. Having someone actually teach him proper Fuinjutsu, instead of fumbling his way along through trial and error, had helped his ability group with leaps and bounds. With every new technique or methodology Yuuchi taught him, he figured out a dozen other ways he could incorporate it into what he already knew.
Miya sat to Yuuchi's left, her brows furrowed indicating she was lost in deep thought. This was directly across the table from where he was. He could still see traces of pain and sorrow in her eyes from the incident at Izumo Inn but she was definitely faring better now than before. She didn't talk about it, none of them did. Naruto had been sending clones back to Izumo Inn ever since the incident, to go over the place. The first few days had been spent digging their way through the vines and plant life. Everything that was still intact had been recovered and returned to Epsilon Point. The kitchen on the ground floor of Epsilon had been stocked with everything that could be recovered from Miya's ruined kitchen. His own belongings, and those of his Sekirei, had been moved to Epsilon Point a long time ago so they hadn't lost anything of import. Minato's belongings were in a box in a small shed at Izumo Inn. He'd return the belongings when he had the time. That was something he wanted to do personally, or at least be there when he used his clones to deliver the items.
The clones had just recently begun clearing away the property. It was obvious that there wasn't any way to salvage the Inn and Miya herself said she no longer wanted to be the proprietor of Izumo Inn. Naruto expected that the place would be cleared out in a week's time. After that he could sit down with Miya and plan out what she wants to have there in its place.
Naruto had ideas of what he wanted, a safe house for Sekirei on missions, but it was Miya's property so it was only fair that she ultimately made the decision. With his clones and the money he had at his disposal he could build anything she wanted. The land was already paid for and the lot wasn't large enough for anything truly extravagant so there wasn't really anything she could request that would strain his funds.
Naruto's eyes shifted to Miya's left. Chime sat, dressed in her usual clothes. Her head was hung low and her shoulders were hunched. She was more than a little depressed and upset over the earlier situation. He could see her lips moving, Chiho was probably chastising Uzume for teasing him earlier. That was an interesting relationship Naruto found out early on. While Uzume was definitely the dominate personality, whenever Chiho put her foot down Uzume listened. Uzume only led because Chiho was happy to let her.
They were the only one he had yet to propose to. In a sense his winging of Miya could also be considered a proposal, albeit one without a ring. He had everything planned out for Chime's proposal; he just needed to find an opening where he could implement them. After Akitsu's wedding both of them seemed keen on adding that ring to their finger. Whatever doubts Chiho had prior to that disappeared afterwards. He didn't want her to feel too left out for too long so he would have to address that.
Unfortunately with the way things were said event may not occur until after the war against Minaka.
Next to her was Akitsu. Her gaze rested on him but every now and then he could see it shift to Hanabi and cloud over with disapproval. She had always been loyal to him. He had rescued her, taken her in, accepted her, and then fixed her. After that her devotion to her had been absolute. Now though? After the wedding ceremony?
There were no words to describe it. It went beyond loyalty and devotion, beyond adoration and worship. She showed all of those, of course, but there was something else there that wasn't easily identifiable. It wasn't any one aspect about her that gave rise to it. It was everything from her actions to her speech, her feelings for him and the look in her eyes. The look in her eyes when she looked at him was very reminiscent of how Kusano looked at Ayesha. The only differences between them was that he hadn't forced Akitsu to be this way, it was a conscious decision on her part, and that it didn't prevent her from caring about others.
It was just that he superseded everyone and everything else combined. He was certain that if he asked her to commit mass genocide and wipe everyone out she would do so without hesitation, present company excluded of course. She would ask for clarification first to see if they were included in the order before she set about wiping out humanity.
He would never ask that of her of course, but there was nothing she wouldn't do for him. She didn't even know what the argument between Hanabi and him had been about but Naruto could tell that she felt Hanabi was wrong for taking her anger out on him.
Shifting his gaze to his right his eyes fell upon the last spot at the table. Beside Akitsu, to his immediate right, was Hanabi. She still had a slightly irritated look on her face but she appeared to have calmed down greatly.
That was good, he wanted this meeting to go smoothly, not get bogged down by shouting matches and flaring tempers.
His eyes were drawn to the door as Blanc made her way into the room. She was staring intently at the tablet in her hands as she slowly made her way to her spot. He could almost see her eyes glowing red as she glared at the tablet.
"Is everything alright Blanc?" Naruto asked as she took her place at his side.
Blanc looked up from the tablet and glanced over at her Ashikabi. Her features softened a little but he could still see the anger within them. There was also a smattering of confusion, concern and curiosity lurking within those depths, "Is your damn father's name Hiashi?" Blanc asked as she shifted her gaze to Hanabi.
Hanabi started in surprise, "How do you know that?" she asked in confusion. As far as she was aware the name Hiashi should be completely unknown to everyone else at Epsilon.
Blanc placed the tablet on the table in front of her as she pulled her chair out. "Matsu frickin hacked into my tablet while you two were away last night," Blanc said spat out. She wasn't really upset at Matsu, but what had been sent. She couldn't stop the anger from bleeding into her speech however, "The bitch sent me a damned audio file! A file that cost Takami her life."
"Wait what do you mean cost Takami her life?" Naruto demanded.
Takami was essentially the overseer of the Sekirei Plan. She was the rationality and control behind it. She was the one that essentially made sure everything went smoothly. With Karasuba deactivated and her dead the Sekirei Plan was essentially running wild with no one to steer it in the right direction or keep things under control.
"Forget Takami-san, I want to know how you know about my father!" Hanabi said as she shut Naruto's question down. Right now Takami was the furthest thing from her mind. She had just come to grips with Naruto keeping the existence of her father from her, she wasn't going to allow anything else to be hidden or buried.
"Hanabi…" Naruto started, his voice low and tinged once more with annoyance. She could be upset at him for keeping her father secret from him but he was still in charge. Naruto had a very good feeling that whatever news Blanc had didn't fall under a category where Hanabi was allowed to override his authority. Standing Naruto held a hand out in front of Hanabi, silencing her, "Ignore Hanabi, please continue Blanc," he said as he moderated his voice.
Blanc looked back and forth between the two of them as she debated who to answer. Hanabi was in a very irate mood right now, if the fact that she was trying to burn a hole through Naruto's hand with her glare was anything to go off. Going against her when she was like this was rarely a good idea. However this wasn't really the time to let emotions rule the decision making process. More importantly however, Naruto was her Ashikabi, he took precedence over Hanabi. Blanc turned to Naruto, "From what Matsu told me, Takami took a squad of soldiers to the hospital where Yukari was at. They bought them enough time to escape. Minaka apparently ordered their deaths and the deaths of their Sekirei."
That stopped Hanabi short. Her anger disappeared in an instant as she suddenly realised the gravity of the situation. Blanc now had everyone's undivided attention. Naruto always knew that there was something wrong with this whole Sekirei Plan but this was beginning to take it to an entirely new level. It went against everything that the rest of the plan had been about.
"That… doesn't make any sense," Naruto said as he sat back down in his chair. There was a bewildered look on his face as he mulled over the sudden turn of events. "What happened after that?"
"Minato and Yukari got away, their Sekirei as well," Blanc said. "Seo helped them with their escape. They're in hiding right now."
"And what about Hanabi's father?" Naruto asked, things couldn't get any crazier than that.
"I'll play the entire audio clip for you," Blanc said as she worked to hook her tablet up to the speaker system in the room, "But the short version is basically someone by the name of Orochimaru has ordered his Sekirei, Hiashi, to attack his daughter, Hanabi, to tear out her Sekirei Core and kill her child while videotaping it."
Naruto blinked, he was wrong, things did just get crazier. The kind of bat-shit kind of crazy one would normally associate with psychopaths.
"Could you… repeat that a second time, I think I misheard you," Naruto said as he tried to process what Blanc just said.
"No need," Blanc said as she slid her hands across the surface of the tablet, "The tablet is hooked up to the audio system."
Everyone was silent as the audio played. The moment 'his' voice appeared on the clip Naruto knew who it was, there was no mistaking it. It had given him nightmares as a child, and chills as an adult.
Hanabi's face became a mess of conflicting emotions as the clip went over the orders given to her father. On one hand he had been asked to do horrific things to her, and had agreed to do so. However he had also flat out refused at the start and only accepted to spare her a far worse alternative.
Further details as to what happened to Karasuba arose as the clip played on; the betrayal and the reason for her defeat. Yume seemed to take that particularly hard. Even if she had been beaten by Karasuba it didn't mean that Yume didn't care. She still wanted Karasuba to find that special someone, and to be beaten in such a way wasn't right.
What hit them the hardest however was the revelation of what the Sekirei had always meant to be: a power source.
After that it was mostly information on dispatching the Sekirei to various fronts to do various tasks; most of which Naruto and Hanabi already knew about through their discussion with Naoki. It was good to have confirmation however.
Everyone was silent for several minutes after the audio finished. Each of them was absorbed in their own thoughts. Hanabi about her father, Yume about Karasuba, Yuuchi, Miya and the other Sekirei about the revelation of what they were created for, and Naruto the plans that were to come and what these recent revelations would mean.
"This… complicates things," Naruto said as he mulled over in his head how things would change due to this recent revelation.
If he was honest, the revelations more than complicated things.
Opening his mouth seemed to have opened the floodgates as everyone started to clamor about what they just heard.
"Well I refuse to be turned into a damn power source!" Blanc growled angrily. No matter how many times she listened to that clip that particular line always upset her.
"We need to find out what happened to Karasuba," Yume said worriedly.
"It seems we know for sure who the First is now," Yuuchi commented in a cool voice. Although she sounded calm Naruto could see her staring intently at the tablet with a concerned look in her eyes.
"Naruto-kun, my father… we need to—"
"Hold up! One thing at a time!" Naruto said as he held his hands out before him. Having everyone clamor at once wouldn't help anything.
The worst part about this entire thing wasn't what they heard, but the fact that it was Orochimaru of all people. Naruto had suspected that someone from his time had lived on but he there had been so many possibilities it wasn't possible to plan for them all.
Orochimaru was probably one of the worst possible people they could go up against. Anyone that survived would have had ten thousand years to get stronger. However Orochimaru was not only powerful, vicious, cruel, inhuman and evil. He was intelligent and cunning as well.
MBI HQ was off limits for now. Walking in there was a death sentence with Orochimaru walking around. It was no wonder Kakashi had been found out and his clone never reported in. Orochimaru would have caught on to something like that easily.
He was going to have to take extra precautions when approaching his contacts as well.
However this did reinforce the need to follow through with Naoki's plans. Orochimaru's Sekirei also needed to be taken out as quickly as possible. Orochimaru with ten thousand years to power up was going to be difficult enough without having to deal with twelve other powerful individuals at the same time.
To be honest he didn't even know how to begin dealing with Orochimaru. The assault on MBI HQ was going to end in failure unless he found some way of neutralizing Orochimaru or drawing his attention elsewhere. He would probably have to face down the snake by himself while the others deal with MBI, backing him up after they were finished.
"First off, no one is going to become a power source, not while I still draw breath. From the looks of it they need to eliminate and retrieve the downed Sekirei before they can do anything. I won't let that happen. Even if you do get beaten I'll be there in an instant to recover you."
That seemed to ease some of their worries. He had placed Hiraishin marks on all of them, with the exception of Yuuchi. He was able to teleport to them in an instant.
"I am concerned about my other charges," Miya said worriedly.
"They're too scattered to protect them individually," Naruto said without feeling, "The best way to protect them is to take out Orochimaru's ability to take them down."
"His Sekirei and his MBI forces?" Miya asked.
"Yes, I will lay out some plans for that soon," Naruto said. Turning to Yume he gave her a small smile, "Don't worry about Karasuba, I was able to recover her. They killed her Ashikabi so she's deactivated but I have her body at Charlie Point. If all goes well you'll be able to speak with her soon."
"You're planning on reactivating her?" Hanabi asked incredulously.
"I do not agree with this course of action Naruto-kun," Miya said with disapproval in her voice. When she said she was concerned about her charges she hadn't really included Karasuba amongst them.
"She's not that bad, no worse than half the people I had to work side-by-side with in the past. Plus after this betrayal I'm certain she'll be more interested in tearing apart 'Minaka' and his Sekirei than us." He gave them all a reassuring smile, "Plus if I can reactivate her, it means I can reactivate all of you."
That seemed to grab their attention.
Hanabi sighed, "Well I suppose you're right," she agreed reluctantly, "she is a sight better than your best friend Gaara. He was a homicidal maniac that tried to kill you on several occasions and wipe out our entire village."
"Hey, he got better!" Naruto protested, "He was just lonely and needed a friend."
"Bro… you sure have an… odd definition of friend," Chime said lightly, she almost sounded hesitant to speak.
Naruto let out a nervous laugh. Chime had a point there but he wasn't going to mention that. Half his friends had been his enemies when he had first met them. He never really did figure out how he managed to befriend people by beating the shit out of them but it seemed to work often when he was younger.
It stopped working later on in life, after his innocence was taken away by the harsh realities of war.
"Kazekage Gaara?" Yuuchi asked curiously, "The true history never mentioned that part of him. It said he was the youngest individual to ever achieve the title of Kage and that he died fighting against Uchiha Madara in the Great War."
"I'm not surprised. Gaara changed a lot after we became friends and all of his memorable deeds happened after that fact," Naruto said. He turned to Hanabi, "Well at least this is good news about your father."
"Good news? How can you consider 'that' good news?" Hanabi demanded as she pointed at the tablet. Her father was now looking for her so that he could kill her child and rip the Sekirei core from her body. Had she been thinking logically she would have come to the same conclusion but being 'logical' was the last thing she wanted right now.
"It's good news because he's very much an unwilling Sekirei right now," Naruto said with a comforting smile on his face. He could probably be reasoned with, unlike some of the others like Sakura. He could tell it was her from the voice but she sounded so dead and mechanical, like there wasn't any life or personality behind it. "That means if we offer a solution to this situation, he'd be willing to take it. If we can deprive Orochimaru of his Sekirei while keeping you away from your father then it should be easy to convince him to resist the orders."
It was very apparent from the way Hiashi responded that he'd rather burn in hell than harm his daughter. He only accepted the orders to spare Hanabi worse.
"Do you think you can free my father?" Hanabi asked.
"I'll see what I can do," Naruto replied. It would be good to have Hiashi back, although he was a little afraid of what he would do to him when he found out he got his daughter pregnant outside of wedlock.
"If you do I'll consider letting you have ramen again."
"Consider it done!" Naruto replied instantly feigning relief and gratitude. He didn't need her permission to have ramen if he truly wanted it, but the mood was starting to improve, no need to jeopardize it. "On that note, that's the reason why I called you all here. As you all know Hanabi and I met with Councillor Naoki last night. We discussed how we would deal with Minaka's Sekirei, although I suppose it's more accurate to say they're Orochimaru's."
"This makes the missions a bit easier, Naruto-kun," Hanabi said as she finally tucked her emotions away and got down to business, "We now know that No. 12 is not in the country and we have confirmation of certain movements." Hanabi stopped and gave the others a thoughtful look, "Naruto-kun maybe it's time you told them your goal."
"Oh dear, that doesn't sound promising," Miya said worriedly. "I fear for the well-being of Shinto Teito."
"Hey! It's a sound goal!" Naruto protested.
"Is it anything like your other 'goals'?" Chime asked with a genuine laugh. It seemed her good cheer was back.
Naruto gave Chime a hard look, "Ha, ha, no this one is legitimate. I made a deal with Naoki last night."
"Coerced him is more like it," Hanabi replied.
"Whatever, anyways after Mina-Orochimaru is dead, and his Sekirei is taken care of, the Sekirei Plan is being abolished. All of the remaining Sekirei, active or otherwise, will be brought under my control," Naruto said.
Naruto was greeted with a half dozen startled looks at that proclamation. Even Yuuchi seemed a little surprised. Naruto couldn't really blame them for it either. It was certainly a shocking development and not one any of them could have foreseen.
"I… bro… I'm not quite sure what to think of that," Chime said, befuddled, "I mean we all promised to be with you forever and ever but..." she trailed off.
It didn't need to be said that he had quite the reputation out there. The other Ashikabi and Sekirei were wary of him, some were even outright scared, and for good reason. Naruto wasn't known for leaving very many people alive in his wake. When he moved, entire cities got turned upside down, sometimes literally.
"You should probably clarify before they have a mental break down," Hanabi said dryly.
Hanabi was probably right as he saw the confused and worried looks in their eyes. The looks were understandable considering his modus operandi up until now. "Ah, right. What I mean by control is similar to what MBI currently has over them," Naruto explained, "The Sekirei need to be managed, for their own safety. With few exceptions all of you are new to this world, and none have the ability to resist the foreign powers for very long if they decide they want to take you. So to that end I plan to gather all the Sekirei under a single organization. I plan to call this organization: Akatsuki, and our home will be a new village that I plan to create: Konohagakure, or Konoha for short."
Akatsuki was never originally meant to be a criminal organization. It was meant to usher in peace for a warring nation. It wasn't until much later when things had started to go very wrong that the organization changed from one of hope to one of pain.
Naruto would not walk down that same path. And he had six others to make sure he didn't go astray.
Looking at his Sekirei he could see realization dawning in their eyes. Mixed in with the understanding were looks of relief, hope, and approval. "From what I know, we can't go home; and even if we did there's nothing left for us there." Miya and Yuuchi had made that much clear to him. Their world was a barren dead thing, or at least it would be by now, "My feeling is that if we can't go home, let's bring a piece of it here."
"While I have no problem with the idea I think you may have trouble convincing the other Ashikabi to work under the 'Sekirei Slayer'" Chime said wryly. Naruto had a rather unsavory reputation amongst the other Sekirei. Most went out of their way to avoid him as much as they did the former Disciplinary Squad.
Naruto flashed her a grin, "That's not going to be as much of a problem as you seem to think. Councillor Naoki is going to become emperor after Orochimaru is pulled down. From there he'll enact laws that give me complete control over the Sekirei."
It was probably best not to mention the penalties for resisting or going rogue. That was also one of the reasons he wanted Karasuba back. She would be perfect for the job of hunting down rogue Sekirei.
He hoped it wouldn't come to that but he wasn't that naïve. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
"So you wish to bring back to shinobi system of old; a hidden village that trains special individuals capable of carrying out covert missions?" Yuuchi asked.
"Yes," Naruto said, he quickly hurried on as he saw worried looks reappear on their faces, "But like any village it will need a lot of support. I'm not going to force anyone into a role they're not suited for, nor have any desire to be in. A village needs doctors, teachers, businesses, and many other different facets to function correctly. This one won't be any different. If a Sekirei is incapable of or has no desire to fight for their home then there are plenty of ways they can support those that do."
He already had the roles decided for his Sekirei, he knew they'd accept them. Yume would make a great teacher; Blanc would do well part-time alongside Matsu in the information procurement department. Karasuba would do well as a Hunter, Chime as his administrative assistant, Hanabi as both the head of the ANBU and his representative at court, and Akitsu would fit well anywhere. Miya could work well anywhere as well however her declaration that she wanted to bear some forty-seven children would probably leave her home bound for quite some time. Perhaps being a teacher would be a good fit for her too, she'd be able to instill discipline in the little ones easily enough. Yuuchi he couldn't make a judgement call for, but she would do well as an advisor.
As for others like Seo and his Sekirei, they'd be good hunters like Karasuba, they did something very similar during the early stages of the Sekirei Plan. Minato's Homura would be a good ANBU or regular soldier like a Jounin and Matsu would probably love to be part of the intelligence division.
Of course he'd ultimately leave the decision up to them.
"It seems Naruto-kun has put more than his usual amount of thought in to this," Miya said.
"I always put a lot of thought into the things I do!" Naruto said indignantly, "Anyways the reason why I explained all this is because it ties into what's to come. If we are to take out Orochimaru's Sekirei it has to be done within the month. To that end I'll be handing out missions to everyone in similar style to how they will be handed out in the future. Since we only know where they're going, and not when they'll arrive, these missions could end up being anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks in length. You don't have to accept, I won't force you, I'll make do, but your help would be appreciated."
"You already know I'll help," Hanabi said, "And we've already discussed which mission I'll be taking."
"I will help Naruto-sama," Akitsu said.
"You're not leaving me out of this. There's no way in hell I'm going to sit by and do nothing while that bastard tries to turn us into frickin batteries!" Blanc said, throwing in her support.
Hanabi smiled at Blanc, "Good, because you're with me."
"I'll explain more later," Naruto said as Blanc gave the two of them a curious look.
"I will help as well Naruto-kun," Yume said. There was a look of fierce determination on her face, "I will not let this Orochimaru have his way with us!"
"Yes, I believe my feathers have danced to his tune long enough," Miya agreed.
"Me and Chiho will back you any way you want bro!" Chime threw in her agreement, eager to make up for her earlier mistake.
"Thank you everyone," Naruto said with a grateful smile on his face. He looked at Yuuchi, "I know you have plans of your own so I didn't include you in mine. I trust you'll be able to adapt whatever it is you have in mind to my plans?"
"Of course," Yuuchi said with a nod of her head, "I never had any intention of dealing with the First's Sekirei. So long as he exists, he will simply create more. I will focus my efforts on disrupting his plans."
Something didn't sound right here. Naruto eyed Yuuchi intently as a niggling suspicion tickled the back of his mind, "You knew Minaka was the First?"
Yuuchi nodded her head, "Yes I did. I was unaware that he was Orochimaru but I was aware that the First is immortal and enjoys being in charge. Who else would he be if he wanted to oversee the Sekirei Plan to its completion?"
"And you didn't think to tell us?"
Yuuchi lazily shrugged her shoulders, "You did not ask, and I did not think it was necessary to inform you. I am quite certain you already had suspicions of your own long before now that this Minaka was something much more than a simple human."
Naruto let out a long sigh. There was no use arguing the point now. "Yuuchi, please, if you know something important like that please let us know, even if you think we already know." Naruto asked.
Yuuchi tilted her head slightly and nodded, "If I feel it is important."
Naruto rubbed his eyes and sighed, "Well that's better than nothing at least," he muttered under his breath.
"Did you say something?" Yuuchi asked curiously.
Hanabi gave Naruto a dry look.
"Nothing worth mentioning," Naruto said quickly. He quickly changed the subject, "Let's get back on track," he said as he grabbed the stack of folders beside him and began to distribute them across the table. "Inside each folder is the mission briefing. An outline of the targets, their projected destination, estimated time of arrival, and your objectives along with what would be considered acceptable outcomes and situations in which an abandoning the mission is feasible."
The last one was critical. Back in the Elemental Nations there were many villages and people that felt the mission superseded your comrades and even yourself. Naruto didn't believe that was the case at all. There were times when sacrificing one's self was necessary but those were extreme circumstances that rarely arose. Letting yourself get captured, even if it meant completing the mission, was not acceptable. Neither was losing your life. One failed mission does not equal the number of successful missions you would end up doing over the course of your life.
Plus none of these missions were so critical that he felt his Sekirei needed to risk their lives at all costs. If worse came to worst he could step in personally. He couldn't be with all of them, there were many things he needed to set up and organize apart from the mission, but none were so important he couldn't drop them and step in if his Sekirei were forced to abandon their mission part way through.
"I'll address yours first Akitsu," Naruto said as he looked at his most loyal Sekirei, "Your target is Yuki Haku, your predecessor. You're the best one to face her especially since the confrontation is expected to take place at high elevations: The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route to be precise. There is a lot of snow and ice there right now. I would love to send someone with you but there is no one that I can. I don't know how long the mission will be and you're the only one that's immune to the cold weather. Haku is also expected to be traveling solo unlike the others."
He didn't like sending any of his Sekirei alone but he couldn't justify sending anyone else with Akitsu and she was the best one suited for this mission. He had thought about sending Chime with her but had ultimately decided not to. Chime wasn't really suited for the kind of mission Akitsu was being sent on. Aside from the extreme cold, and the fact that Chime could be better used elsewhere, it was a nasty mission. Although he hadn't mentioned it aloud the details of the folder had stated it was an assassination mission and most of the methods described therein had suggested sneak attacks and under-handed tricks.
Chiho wasn't ready to be introduced into that kind of world yet, no matter how badly she had been corrupted in the bed.
"I understand Naruto-sama," Akitsu replied.
Akitsu's face didn't give anything away but he could feel a hint of loneliness flitter across their bond. Naruto gave her the best smile he could, "I'll visit when I can and leave some clones behind. They won't be of much use in combat, not in that environment, but they can keep you company."
Naruto caught a hint of a smile on her face, "Thank you," she said.
"Anything for you," Naruto said. He turned to Blanc and pointed at her folder, "As Hanabi mentioned earlier the two of you will be working together. I'll need the two of you to leave this afternoon. Two of Orochimaru's Sekirei attacked a military bunker near Osaka yesterday. Most of the standing forces were taken out but the higher ups, including a General that was allied with Naoki, were taken for questioning. They're trying to ferret out Councillor Naoki's bunkers and safe houses so that Orochimaru can capture him. You're going to take out Orochimaru's Sekirei and rescue the prisoners. We already have the location of where they're being held so this should be a quick mission provided nothing goes wrong."
Blanc frowned as she flipped through the information in the folder, "It says here that there are some of MBI's Special Forces alongside them."
"We're going to meet up with some of Councillor Naoki's troops before we move in," Hanabi explained as she got up and moved over beside Blanc. She pulled out one of the pages in the folder, "They will take care of the MBI Special Forces while we concentrate on the Sekirei."
"Can I trust you to work out the finer details with Blanc?" Naruto asked his wife.
"Yes."
"Good, you're the team leader," Naruto said, "You should leave now and discuss it on the way. Time is of the essence with that mission."
Hanabi nodded her head and tapped Blanc on the shoulder, "Naruto-kun is correct, we should go," she said and started to make her way to the door.
Blanc gathered up the folder and quickly caught up, "How are we getting there?" she asked.
"By train," Hanabi said.
"Aren't all the trains leaving Shinto Teito searched by MBI?"
"Yes, but I found a gap in their checks," Hanabi said. She paused at the door to the room. She glanced back, "We'll be back in a few days. Miya-san, you'll keep an eye on Naruto-kun for me won't you?"
"Of course Hanabi-san, that goes without saying," Miya said.
"And make sure he doesn't try and sneak any ramen."
"Oh I'm sure he won't, isn't that right Naruto-kun?" Miya said as she gave him her usual smile. The one that hinted at unspeakable horrors if he so much as tried to step out of line.
"Yes Miya…" Naruto said as his head drooped.
Hanabi flashed Naruto a triumphant look and left the room.
Naruto grumbled for a moment under his breath. He took a deep breath and pushed the punishment aside for the moment. He glanced at Yume and Miya and pointed at their folders, "The two of you will be working together on your mission. There is a pair of Sekirei down in Okinawa taking out military bases, both foreign and domestic. The two of you are to rendezvous with the base commander at the designated location. Based on how quickly they're going through the bases you should reach the base a few days prior to their arrival. That's assuming they're not held up or move quicker than anticipated."
"Why aren't we leaving right away Naruto-kun?" Yume asked as she looked over the report. The report mentioned that they were taking a ship to their destination, one that didn't leave for several days, "If we left now we could make it to one of the other bases before them, minimize casualties."
"Your ride there is being arranged by Councillor Naoki. Neither the boat, nor the landing point, will be ready for four to five days. So that's when you'll leave. If we could get you there sooner we would but I don't have any markers down there to teleport you," Naruto explained. "Any other attempt to get you there sooner will make too much noise. Half of this plan hinges on them not knowing you're there until it's too late."
"I wish we could get there sooner," Yume said with a disappointed sigh.
"I know, but this is the best we can do while keeping a low profile. I don't want Orochimaru to know we're on the move until it's too late for him to recall his Sekirei and plan alternate strategies."
"Hey, bro, hate to interrupt but why did we not get a folder?" Chime asked. She sounded more than a little put out at not being included.
"Because you're with me," Naruto said as he fired Chime a smile.
"Oh!"
That seemed to make her feel a lot better.
"I'm going to be doing several things that will leave me open and vulnerable," Naruto said, "I will need someone nearby to guard me while I'm doing that. Plus once the plans start moving Hanabi and I will become primary targets, Hanabi already is with her father looking for her. Neither of us is allowed to be alone. Hanabi could probably easily do her mission solo, but I won't let her work alone in case Hiashi ambushes her. I don't even want to send Akitsu alone but the nature of her mission makes it difficult to send anyone else with her. I intend to leave some clones with her to help alleviate that issue."
"Naruto-kun isn't going to be doing anything reckless is he?" Miya asked suspiciously. She seemed more protective of him than ever these days. It seemed now that she finally had an Ashikabi she didn't have any inclination to let him do something that could potentially cause her to lose him.
"Of course not, I'm just being cautious. Nothing 'should' happen but I would be a failure of a leader if I didn't plan for the worst," Naruto reassured Miya. He glanced around the table, giving each of them a long look, "The folders go into greater detail about the mission. I suggest reading over it a couple times to familiarize yourself with it. If any of you have any questions for me, don't hesitate to ask."
With that said Naruto pushed his chair back and stood. The meeting was officially over but he knew his Sekirei would have questions for him soon enough. He would do the best he could to answer them.
This was the first step in deposing of Orochimaru and stopping whatever scheme he was hatching. He just hoped that it was enough because the other side seemed to be accelerating their plans as well.
x~X~x
The warehouse at Charlie Point had been at one time merely decorative. Empty crates and shipping containers were all that had resided within. That wasn't the case anymore. After Epsilon became their staging point for everything Naruto had decided to transform Charlie Point into a supply dump. Unbeknownst to any of his Sekirei, or even Hanabi, Naruto had acquired a wide range of interesting things, some legitimately and some less legitimately.
The empty containers were empty no more. Most of them were filled with supplies that Hanabi would have approved of: Non-perishable food, toiletries, weapons, clothing for disguises and other miscellaneous items that would be of use to them at some point in the future.
Some of the items would have caused Hanabi to have a fit.
Such as the Patriot Missile Launcher sitting one corner of the warehouse with four dozen missiles stacked beside it. Naruto had gone back for that later and had transported it to the warehouse. A missile defense system was just too cool not to have, despite Hanabi's misgivings.
There was also the experimental I-107, the air superiority fighter jet that MBI had been developing, nicknamed the Crusader. If Naruto didn't have the memories from the clones that had 'appropriated' that jet, he wouldn't have believed how it had arrived here.
The helicopter sitting in the opposite corner of the warehouse from the missile launcher might have been able to squeak by, had any of them known how to fly it.
There were many other oddities scattered throughout the warehouse, not all of them even served a purpose such as the collection of statues that sat near the fighter jet or the water slide that sat by the front door.
In Naruto's defence most of the strange and odd items had arrived during his clones' rampage through Shinto Teito. Many of them thought it would be funny to see how Hanabi would react when she found out.
Unfortunately while Charlie Point was marked with the Hiraishin, the clones hadn't bothered to mark the military bases they had hijacked the equipment from. That made it incredibly difficult to get the items back. Naruto felt it easier just to leave them there and deal with his wife's wrath then return them. There would have been a lot of questions asked, questions he didn't want to answer.
Besides, they were cool.
Naruto and Chime suddenly appeared in the warehouse, just beside the Crusader.
"Whoa! Why do you have all this stuff?" Chime asked as she looked around the warehouse curiously.
"Ah, well, some of it just sort of ended up here, the rest of it will be of use in the future," Naruto said with a sheepish grin.
"Does Hanabi know about all this?" Chime asked him with a grin on her face.
"No, and it's going to stay that way," Naruto said quickly. He placed his hands on her shoulders and began to push her towards the hidden entrance, trying to get her away from all the toys as quickly as possible.
"I think Hanabi should know about this, what do you think Chiho?"
"I don't know Uzume-chan, will I get my foursome tonight Naruto-kun?" Chime asked him with an innocent look on her face.
A sweat drop rolled down the back of his head. By foursome Chiho was of course referring to himself and two of his clones. She seemed to have become addicted to that situation. To her, clone or not, he was the same person and the more of him she could have the better in her mind.
She had even asked once to be tied up and restrained once while he and his clones had their way with her. He and Uzume had been shocked that Chiho of all people had suggested that. That was when the two of them realized they may have gone a bit too far in corrupting the poor girl.
And both of them had vowed never to speak of it to Hanabi. If Hanabi found out just what the two of them had done to her friend she'd tear strips from their hide.
Probably literally in his case.
Naruto pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. It was getting late in the day. It had taken awhile to answer all the questions and concerns his Sekirei had about the upcoming missions. Akitsu had already left to go and accomplish hers, that had taken awhile by itself as he needed to make sure she was prepared for an extended mission. She had a couple of his storage scrolls tucked away on the inside of her dress, custom-made pockets designed to hold the scrolls had been created on the fly. Akitsu could pull out what she needed from them and he'd make sure to check on her from time to time in case problems arose.
"I'll see what I can do," he said, as he closed the phone and tucked it away. It was Chime's turn to stay with him tonight. Since Hanabi was away on mission it would be just the two of them, "So long as Miya and Yume don't try to take Hanabi's spot." He did not want to have to explain to them why Chiho wanted a foursome.
"Oh that'll be easy, bro!" Chime said, "We've already worked things out with Miya and Yume. Hanabi and Blanc won't be back for at least three days so we each get you to ourselves for one night."
A second sweat drop rolled down the back of his head. It was kind of scary how quickly his Sekirei had worked that out between them. He hadn't even realized they had gotten together to speak about it.
"In that case don't expect to get much sleep tonight," Naruto said as he opened the hatch, revealing the ladder down to the underground bunker.
He was all for having sex if that was what it took to keep the two of them quiet. He tucked his feet around the side of the ladder and slid down.
"See Chiho! Easy! Now we can try…" Naruto could hear Chime say, the end of it was cut off as he reached the bottom of the ladder.
"I get the feeling tonight is going to be… interesting," Naruto murmured to himself as he moved away from the ladder to make room for Chime. As his Sekirei made her way down the ladder he looked took the time to look around Charlie Point.
The place was surprisingly quiet considering there were always at least two dozen clones staying here at any given time, although there were many more elsewhere. Not much had changed since the operation to eliminate Mikogami Hayato. The central room was still dominated by the large table. Only now it was filled with all sorts of scrolls and pieces of parchment with different seals drawn upon them. Some were finished seals but most were in various stages of completion.
He could smell the scent of ramen wafting out from the kitchen. Despite being clones and not needing food, ramen was a requirement for him. Neither he, nor his clones, could function properly for extended periods of time without it.
Hanabi and Miya may seem to 'think' they can keep ramen away from him. But so long as he had Charlie Point they were powerless to stop him!
As if reading his mind Chime gave Naruto a coy smile, "I don't think Hanabi would approve of your clones—"
"STOP! Don't you even dare!" Naruto interrupted her.
Chime gave him a mischievous grin, "What do you have to keep us quiet this time?"
"You don't get sex for as long as I don't get ramen!" Naruto threatened.
Chime let out an amused laugh, "Oh? Is that all bro? I think-Uzume-chan! APOLOGIZE NOW!"
Naruto jerked his head to stare at her in disbelief. Did Chiho just yell at Uzume? Uzume looked just as startled by the sudden outburst if the expression on Chime's face was anything to go by.
"Ah ha… sorry bro, it was just a joke," Chime said as she winced. Chiho was probably still yelling at Uzume in her mind, "I won't tell Hanabi about this."
"It's… not a problem Uzume," Naruto said as he eyed her cautiously. Perhaps that had corrupted Chiho worse than they thought.
"Why are we here anyways?" Chime asked as she looked around curiously.
"I'm going to check up on Karasuba. I have several clones pouring over her body. Normally this is where I do my Fuinjutsu research."
"Oh!" Chime said. A moment later a confused look crossed her face. "I'm not sure I understand. What's Fuinjutsu?"
Naruto waved away her confusion, "Don't worry about it. The Hiraishin no Jutsu, the technique I use to teleport around is a type of Fuinjutsu."
"Ah, I see now," Chime said.
"Hey boss! We got a prototype finished!" A voice called out.
Naruto glanced across the room as one of his clones ran out from the sealing room. "Which project?" There were many projects he had going at the moment.
"The time manipulation one. We took the stasis seal we decoded back at Epsilon and applied it to the dimensional creation seal, tweaked it in several areas, powered it with the perpetual chakra generation seal and combined it with the Shadow Clone technique."
"Ah, that one, so what were the results?" He had almost forgotten about that experiment. He had so many going at the same time it was hard to keep track of them all.
"Erm, well the shadow clone was sent back in time, but in pieces. And before the pieces could even dispel something attacked and obliterated it. However this DOES mean that it's possible… provided we find some way of not being torn to tiny little shreds in the process or erased from existence upon arrival."
That would explain the very odd and fragmented memories he got back from a clone a couple days ago.
"Ah… Bro… did I hear that right?" Chime asked with slight trepidation.
"Don't worry, I have no intention of actually using it," Naruto said with a wave of his hand. The reason they were pursuing that area of research wasn't even for time travel but some else that was related. He didn't want to 'go back' in time, but rather 'turn back' time.
In other words eternal youth, or at least the ability to regain one's youth. Miya and the Sekirei may keep their youthful appearance until death, but neither he nor Hanabi would unless he completed that research.
"That's… not the point."
"You mentioned the dimensional seal, is that completed as well?" Naruto asked as he made his way across the room, heading for the bedroom where Karasuba was held.
"Yes, we can drill a hole in the fabric of the universe and connect with alternate dimensions, unfortunately more often than not we just get complete and utter nothingness," The clone said as he followed close behind, "It seems we need to know 'where' these other dimensions are if we wish to connect to them."
"Work on locating them without actually connecting to them. The last thing we want to do is create a gateway for some nightmare to come crawling through," Naruto said. "We already have Orochimaru here, that's enough for one universe."
"Bro, you're starting to scare me," Chime said nervously
"Aye boss! Oh, we were also able to successfully create matter from nothing. It's linked with the dimensional portal. If we pull in a chunk of that nothingness between dimensions we can mould it into whatever form we want."
"Interesting, how does that work?" Naruto asked curiously.
"If we channel earth elemental chakra into it, it gains earth like properties. Then it's just as simple as embedding our will of what we 'want' it to be and it becomes that. Of course the further away from the base element it is, the harder it is to get it to form properly and the less complete it actually is when it does. However we can create a wide variety of things by pouring in multiple elements at the same time in varying ratios," the clone said excitedly. "If we were able to naturally manipulate the secondary and tertiary elements like scorch, thunder, ice, wood, dust or any other one we could theoretically expand our options to anything."
"Good, and what about the upgrades to the Hiraishin no Jutsu?"
"It's coming along, we can transport anything up to the size of a small island right now, say one the size of Hokkaido. We're still a long way from our goal though. We're also still having trouble trying to project the markers with just chakra."
"Wait, how would you test something like that?" Chime asked in alarm. She could only think of a single way they would be able to estimate something like that.
Naruto stopped. That was a very good point. He turned to his clone and blinked at him owlishly, "How DID you test that?"
The clone swallowed hard, "Ah, well, you know, Hokkaido may, just MAY be a little further north than it used to be?"
"…"
"…"
"Oh, alright then, that's fine," Naruto said.
"No it's NOT alright!" Chime snapped as she smacked Naruto across the back of the head.
"What? It was just moved a few inches. No one will notice," Naruto said as he tried to reassure her. He noticed sweat beginning to bead on his clone's forehead. "You DID only move it a few inches?"
"Miles actually," The clone said nervously.
"…" Naruto and Chime stared at the clone with deadpanned expressions.
"You did put it back right?" Naruto asked.
"..."
"Go put it back."
"Yes boss," The clone said and disappeared.
"Naruto," Chime started. She was unusually serious, dropping her usual term of endearment for his name, "What are you doing to this world?"
Naruto nervously scratched the back of his head, "Ah, we should check on Karasuba, we've delayed long enough," he said as he hurriedly made his way through the bunker.
"Don't avoid the question!" Chime cried out and hurried after him.
"I'm not avoiding the question! I'm just focusing on something else at the moment," Naruto said as he stopped at one of the rooms and pointed inside, "See? Karasuba! Gotta make sure everything is going fine."
"That's called avoiding the question," Chime said in a dry voice.
"No idea what you're talking about."
"Just promise me you won't try to break Earth?" Chime pleaded with concern in her eyes.
Naruto looked over his shoulder and gave her a sad look, "I'll do my best to fix any damage I do to it."
"That not very reassuring," Chime said worriedly.
Ignoring her comment Naruto entered the room and found three of his clones gathered around Karasuba's prone naked body. The physical wounds on Karasuba's body had been taken care of, they had been superficial at best the only real danger being in how many there were. She still drew breath, but beyond that she was completely unresponsive. Her clothing, or rather the rags that had survived her battle, had been discarded and burned.
The clones had been analyzing her since she had been brought in. One of them had Karasuba's head in his lap and his fingers pressed against her temples as he probed the seal in her head. A second was standing over her torso, his hands pressed firmly against her chest and the last had his hand between her legs, his fingers inside her.
"What do you have for me?" Naruto asked as he approached them.
"We're getting close to figuring it out," said the clone holding Karasuba's head, "We've got the activation sequence down, the problem is it takes a few moments for the core to activate and fill the body with chakra. Before it can do that a deactivation command is sent again to lock her down."
"So we have to disconnect her from her Jinki if we want to reactivate her?" Naruto asked as he stopped at the side of the bed.
"Yes, although we have determined that the activation can be achieved more quickly through her vaginal entryway. We almost had her conscious using that method before the deactivation command was sent."
"Vaginal entry way? Did you have sex with Karasuba while she was unconscious?" Chime asked, horrified at the prospect.
The clone shook his head, "No, nothing beyond simple insertion such as this," he said as he pulled his fingers out from inside Karasuba, they were damp with vaginal fluid. "Although on that note a full semen injection, something akin to a norito activation, may give her a boost powerful enough to fully activate her before the deactivation command can be sent."
"Let's avoid that," Naruto said, much to Chime's relief, "Karasuba is going to either be very aroused that we raped her or very pissed off that we did so and I'd rather not deal with either situation."
"Knowing her she'd be aroused," Chime said in disapproval. She didn't like Karasuba at all, she was too domineering and violent. She'd probably find being raped by Naruto exciting and would try to rape him in return, a battle using a different kind of sword. "I don't want her to get any ideas; she's already too interested in you as it is."
The clone shrugged and stuck his fingers back inside Karasuba.
"Can we separate her from the Jinki that's sending the deactivation commands?" Naruto asked.
"I don't think it's the Jinki that's actually sending the commands," the first clone said, "I think the Jinki is just a conduit used to guide the command to the right individual."
"My question still stands, can we break the connection?"
"Easily, but we're not sure what side effects it will have on her."
"Do it."
"Are you sure?" The clone asked with some trepidation, "We may end up completely ruining her."
Naruto sighed, "I know. I don't like this option either but I can't afford to be gentle here. With Orochimaru in control of the Sekirei Plan I can't move forward without the ability to reactivate my Sekirei in case he shuts them down."
"Wouldn't the connection with Kurama stop it?"
"We don't know that for sure," Naruto said with a shake of his head, "As he is now, yes, basic deactivation commands are ignored. However is he able to stop something more forceful such as what happened with Musubi? I don't know and I'm not risking it. I'm not losing my precious people ever again and if breaking Karasuba is what's required to keep them safe then I'll break her a thousand times over! Ten thousand times if I have to!" If he knew how to reactivate a Sekirei he may have been able to bring Kusano back.
Chime was both touched and a little unnerved that Naruto was willing to go so far for her, for all of them. While she would have been rather horrified that Naruto would be willing to break anyone for any reason, it was hard to feel sympathetic for Karasuba.
Naruto may not have any issues with her personally, but Karasuba had been a nightmare many Sekirei hoped they'd never run into.
"That's strange…" the clone bending over Karasuba's chest said.
"What is?" Naruto asked.
"The connection repaired itself. I severed the connection but it was restored almost immediately. I think we need to remove the entire Sekirei crest to sever the link," he said. The odd thing about that was that this hadn't occurred when they had worked on freeing Kusano from Mikogami. Either their barrier back then had shielded them from more than they realized or something had changed since then.
Naruto frowned. Removing the crest wasn't acceptable. The crest was connected to the bond formed between the Sekirei and the Ashikabi. If he had to remove the crest to re-activate the Sekirei, that wasn't a feasible option to use on his own.
"How about a block? Something similar to what Akitsu had. Or perhaps a secondary seal around the crest that mimics the response of a deactivated Sekirei so that the source believes she is deactivated when she's not."
"It may be possible, it'll take time to work it out," The clone replied.
"Good, do it, I want results within the next few days. Don't worry about being gentle. I only care that she becomes activate again and it doesn't compromise her ability to maintain a bond with an Ashikabi."
With that knowledge it wouldn't matter if his Sekirei were taken out. Nothing short of death its self would be able to take them from him and even now he had several clones developing techniques to prevent that as well.
He may be stuck in a mortal body with a finite life span but he was going to make sure for that limited span of time that he held absolute power. He was never going to lose another precious person again, no matter the cost.
Author's Note: The I-107 air superiority fighter jet doesn't actually exist, I made it up. The I stands for Interceptor. As for what it looks like, look up EVE Crusader on google, you'll see it. It's not as big, but it's the same shape.