Caught in the Middle
Chapter 19
Inner Demon
Hey guys, what's happenin! I would have gotten this little number out sooner, but I wanted to get my newer fic on two feet first, plus I was having a little trouble deciding on what exactly to do here, but what I decided on I think came out pretty good. This chapter is the set up for the more exciting next chapter, but this one still has some decent action in it, so you won't be getting bored.
Read and be stupefied!
Two days, two damn days and still nothing but more and more failures. Sunset was just about over and done, leading into night, and Naruto had been trying non-stop to try and compact the Rasengan into a tight sphere, but he just couldn't hold it together. He'd been training with almost no sleep, and no one, not even Karen could get him to come back to the cavern. The short time he'd actually slept, he did outside.
He stood leaning his head against one of the only trees nearby that wasn't completely mutilated, and panting like he had just coughed up a lung. His hands hurt so much they wouldn't stop shaking; he could barely even clench his fist anymore. His fingers were practically locked up in place.
"Damn it…what am I…doing wrong," he murmured to himself between gasps of breath.
He slumped down onto his knees and closed his eyes. There was no way, no way he was mastering this in two days. His week would be up in two days, and what did he have to show for it; just a spell that he still struggled with even in its incomplete form, that's what. Of course no one ever expected him to finish it in a week, but to him, it wasn't a matter of just mastering it, it was a matter of taking another step to fulfilling his dream. He needed to know, he needed to know if he could actually be like his father, this was his self-imposed way to improve. If it weren't for the fact that his hands were about to fall off, he would have punch the bark of the tree in frustration.
"How…how did my dad do this? Was he really…really this strong; how can I possibly measure up…to that?"
His breathing was becoming slightly less labored, but it still ached in his chest every time he inhaled air.
"Naruto?"
The blond weakly lifted his head and felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and sat up against the trunk of the tree and saw Karen standing over him.
"Hey Karen…what's up?"
She had a small smile on her face and knelt down in front of him.
"I came to see how you were doing; I guess I got my answer."
Naruto lifted up his damn near broken hand and looked at its sorry shape. His skin was ripped and shredded from the constant Rasengans.
"Yeah…it's not too good right now. I can't do it Karen, this last step is unbelievable. I can't keep the rotation and the power up at the same time and still keep it all together."
She sighed and grabbed both his hands. He winced at first, but patiently watched to see what she was doing.
"I can't really help you with the Rasengan, but I can do something about the pain at least."
As she held both his hands, her own started to glow in a dim green light, and little by little he felt his pain slipping away. That was when he remembered something she said back when they had first met.
"Right…I almost forgot kitsune have healing powers."
She nodded. "Mine's not very strong, but I can at least help ease the pain in your hands."
After a moment, the light faded and she let his hands go. He lifted them up again and clenched them a few times; the pain was almost non-existent.
"That's a lot better, thanks. I'm still pretty much out of gas, but at least my hands aren't burning like they were."
Karen moved to the side and took a seat on the ground next to him. "Glad I could help."
They sat like that for a few minutes, not saying anything. It was a comfortable silence, one that the blond honestly missed after training for almost three days straight. It was a serene and calming atmosphere.
There was something nagging at Naruto's mind though, an idea he'd been considering since this morning. There was still one card in his hand that he had yet to play, one that might give him the edge he needed to pull off the Rasengan.
"Hey Karen, I had an idea this morning. There's still one thing that I still need to master, and I think it might help with the Rasengan to."
She already suspected what he was going to say, but asked anyway. "What's that?"
"Those demonic powers I got a while back, when I died. I haven't really tried tapping into them since back when we were still back at the FBPS headquarters. I've gotten stronger, and I'm able to control magic better, so maybe I can control some that to."
"I guess that makes sense, but I don't think you should try it unless Jiraiya is around. If something went wrong, he might be the only one who can fix it," she warned.
Naruto seemed to agree and nodded. "You're probably right; doing it alone might be dangerous."
"Don't think about it right now, right now you need to get some sleep. I'll talk to Jiraiya about your idea once we get back to the cavern, you just rest."
He nodded. "Alright, to bed I go."
Karen stood up and extended her hand to him. He took it firmly, and she helped him through the whole walk up the mountain back to the cavern, and his bed.
Night passed quickly and the next day came into light earlier than Naruto would have liked. He rubbed his eyes and groaned as he sat up. After some stretching and yawning, he crawled out of bed and threw on some fresh clothes; a simple T-shirt and some jeans.
He immediately went in search of Jiraiya to talk to him about his plan. Karen said she would mention it to him yesterday, but he wanted to be sure. He exited the cavern and found the gray haired sage sitting cross-legged near the ledge overlooking the mountainous forest.
"That you Naruto?" asked Jiraiya.
"Yup, I'm up and at em'; so, did Karen talk to you yesterday?" the blond asked as he walked up beside him.
He nodded. "She did, and I have to admit it's a pretty interesting idea. Believe me, there's definitely things that could go wrong, but I think the ups outweighs the downs. Karen and Kakashi went out to do some quick workouts about an hour ago, so they should be back soon. As soon as they're back we can give it a shot."
"Really, you mean we can actually do this!?"
"It was our next stop after the Rasengan anyway, but I you think it might help you master the technique, then I don't see why we can't try."
"Can't try what?" asked a calm voice.
They both looked over to see Kakashi walk up the trial with Karen trailing behind.
"Oh good, you're back. I guess we can start this now then."
Kakashi sighed. "I ask again, try what?"
"We're going to see if Naruto can tap into his demonic powers and use them to help with mastering the Rasengan," answered Jiraiya.
Kakashi looked to Naruto, obviously concerned. "Are you sure you want to do this Naruto?"
He nodded. "I've got it; I might as well use it."
"Alright, if we're doing this, we might as well get on with it now. Naruto, I need you to sit down. Karen, Kakashi, I'd recommend standing back just in case."
They agreed and stepped back to the rock wall of the mountain, and Naruto took a seat across from Jiraiya. As soon as everyone was settled in and ready, Jiraiya started by explaining Naruto's situation.
"From what Kakashi has told me about your situation, you haven't fully awakened the abilities to the point where they've become basic to your bodies natural functions. For you to be able to access them at any given point, not just when your life is in danger, you're going to need to awaken them from within."
Naruto just gave him a blank look. "What?"
Jiraiya sighed. "You'll need to travel to your inner mind and access them there."
"How do I do that?"
"Well it's quite simple actually. See the interrogation corp. use people called Mindwalkers to extract information from people's inner minds. Now while entering another mind takes quite a while to learn, entering your own mind is much easier. All it takes is five hand seals and you let the spell do the rest, now watch closely."
Jiraiya slowly went through five hand signs and Naruto committed them to memory. The sage went through them two more times just to make sure Naruto understood it.
"Now, once you're enter your inner mind, it'll be up to you to access the power. If you succeed, or you can't figure it out and want to come back out, then just do those hand signs in reverse, and you'll be pulled back out."
The blond nodded. "Right, got it."
"Good, are you ready then?"
"Yeah, I'll see you guys soon."
Naruto closed his eyes and flew through the hand signs to activate the spell. As soon as his hand movements were finished, he felt a tugging against his head, and he felt the sensation of falling backwards. Suddenly the blackness around him shattered like glass, and he suddenly felt the sensation of being wet. He looked around and from what he could gather, he was in a sewer.
"Oh, wonderful, my brain is the equivalent of a damp sewer; this is doing wonders for my self confidence."
He sighed, but knew he wasn't going to accomplish anything by complaining and sitting around, so he headed off down the hallway. The constant dripping of water was annoying and it really made him want to go to the bathroom. It was dim, narrow, and wet, not exactly his idea of a comfortable inner mind. He must be more messed up that he thought.
He felt like he was walking around in one maze-like circle for hours until he came across a hallway with a weird light at the end. He picked up speed and ran to the end of the hall and into a much larger room. It was a bit brighter; the walls were lined with torches but the actual room was empty save for a large statue of a fox with nine tails on the left end of the room.
Naruto looked around inside until he heard a low growl and looked behind him. There, in a crouched position, was a red fox. It was larger than any fox he'd ever seen, at least the size of a bear, and it didn't look happy.
"Okay boy, just heel alright, I don't want any trouble," he said, holding up his hands trying to show he meant no harm. It didn't do any good, and the fox pounced.
On the outside, Naruto was still. His face was calm and he was sitting in a cross-legged stance, like he was meditating. Kakashi, Karen, and Jiraiya were waiting around for him to finally come out of it, but the sage knew it might take a while.
"Is he alright in there?" asked Karen.
"I don't see why he shouldn't be, but then again everyone has a different inner mind, so even I'm not sure what exactly is going on in there," answered Jiraiya.
"Don't worry Karen," assured Kakashi, "I'm sure Naruto will be just fine; he's been through harder stuff than this."
She returned her gaze to the meditating blond boy. He looked calm enough, but then again that wasn't really saying much considering everything was happening on the inside. She couldn't explain why, but her instincts were telling her that something was wrong here. Normally she would just say she was being paranoid, but she was learning more and more to trust her instincts over what she just saw and heard.
Far down the slope of the mountain, Sasuke looked up to the cliff where Naruto sat. Orochimaru and Kabuto stood with him, the snake man with a sickening grin on his face.
"You all know the plan," he said, "I will summon one of my great snakes and hold off Jiraiya, meanwhile Kabuto will combat Kakashi. Sasuke, it will be your job to capture the girl. Once she is in hand and the rest are dealt with, Naruto will be easy prey."
They both nodded. Orochimaru went threw hand signs and raised his hands.
"Art of Summoning!"
He slammed his hands down to the ground and suddenly black marks extended across the grass and dirt. Smoke exploded up from the ground and Sasuke felt himself being raised up from the ground quickly. For a few seconds, the smoke was so thick he couldn't see anything, but eventually he was raised up high enough that he could see everything.
They were atop a giant three headed snake that at it's tallest was able to raise them all the way up the length to the cliff where Naruto was. Sasuke was on the left head, Orochimaru on the center, and Kabuto on the right. He looked down and saw them all. Jiraiya was already going through hand signs, probably to do a summon of his own, and Karen and Kakashi were heading for Naruto. Meanwhile the blond himself was sitting perfectly still, as if in some sort of trance. Either way, Orochimaru took notice of it and smirked.
"Sasuke, Kabuto, go!" shouted Orochimaru.
Sasuke and Kabuto jumped off their respective snake heads at the same time to intercept their targets. Sasuke flew down and tried to nail Karen with a punch, but she was able to leap back in time to dodge it, and hit fist slammed into the rock instead, shattering the stone against his clenched fist. Kabuto landed in front of Kakashi and threw a few well aimed jabs at him in order to hit several pressure points. The masked agent was able to dodge the strikes and slid back, gaining distance.
Jiraiya ran forward and abandoned his hand signs, being the only one to still not be drawn into a fight, and tried to reach Naruto. He reached out his hand for the boy, but before he could reach him, the left head of the snake Orochimaru summoned came down with its mouth gaping and closed its jaws around the edge of the cliff where Naruto was still in his meditative state. In an instant, the snake had eaten Naruto whole.
"No!" shouted the sage.
"Naruto!" he heard both Karen and Kakashi cry out.
Clenching his teeth, the flew through the hand signs he was originally using, and jumped right off the edge of the cliff. After biting his thumb and letting blood flow down a bit, he extended his hands downward.
"Art of Summoning!"
Another huge plume of smoke poofed out and Jiraiya too felt himself being raised up higher. Once the smoke cleared, the giant Toad Boss Gamabunta was revealed and stood on the mountainside along with Orochimaru's snake.
"Eh, Jiraiya! Why did you summon me?" the Toad Boss demanded.
"Take a look Gama, we've got a snake to deal with."
"Well I'll be, if it isn't Orochimaru. Well, in that case, let's get on with it; I've always wanted a snakeskin wallet!"
With that, the six different combatants engaged in their battles, unaware of what was happening inside of Naruto, and the power that was about to be unleashed.
Naruto rolled to the side, just barely dodging the fox as hit swiped it him with its paws. He made the hand sign for the Shadow Clone spell and created three clones of himself to aid him. The fox leaped into the air again and landed on one of the clones, knocking him out of existence. While it was momentarily distracted, the two remaining clones rammed into its side, knocking it over. The fox rolled on its side twice before sliding to a stop. It rose back up to its feet and growled angrily.
"Look buddy, I don't want to hurt you, but you're not leaving me much choice here!"
The fox gave no indication that it understood or cared about what he said. It charged him again, its four paws pounding against the concrete floor of his sewer-like inner mind. Naruto's two clones used a transformation spell and molded themselves into combat knives. The blond took both knives in hand and rolled underneath the fox as he landed. He was now completely behind the fox, and he jumped onto is back and stabbed one knife into each of its shoulder joints. The fox roared in pain and thrashed from side to side trying to throw him off somehow.
"You brought this on yourself ya furball!"
With a quick jerk to the left, the blond was suddenly thrown to the side and landed with a hard 'thud'. Before he knew it, the fox was upon him and had its front paws against his chest. It's jaws opened wide and its jaws came down, leaving him just a second to throw up his hands in defense. He caught the jaws before the fox had a chance to deal him a blow, but its sharp teeth were piercing into his palm, and his blood was leaking down his arms and off his hands.
The fox roared in rage right in his face, and Naruto screamed right back at him out of sheer spite. The teeth were getting closer despite his best efforts and his arms were beginning to burn from the strain. In an act of desperation, Naruto brought up his right leg and delivered a kick to the beasts underside.
He heard a yelp of pain and the fox immediately backed off. Naruto didn't waste any time and rolled backwards, slamming his back into a wall but successfully holding him up. He watched the fox creep around, stalking him, waiting to move in for the kill.
'Okay Naruto, think, how are you gonna win this?'
The fox charged forward again, and his heartbeat spiked. He didn't have any weapons on him, and shadow clones would only get him so far against this Juggernaut of a fox. There was still one last technique he could fall back on, but it would take timing and precision. He just hoped he could hold it long enough to work.
He brought together both his hands and began molding his magic just as the fox leaped into the air, it's claws reaching out and its jaws wide. He closed his eyes to block out the image and focused only on the spell he was preforming. He felt the rotation in his hand, then applied the power. Soon the orb was raging in between his palms, and his eyes shot open.
"Just need to hold it for a second here!" he growled to himself.
It was almost like watching everything in slow motion. It was a struggle to just keep the Rasengan together, but once the fox was in range, he knew what to do. He thrust his hand forward, the Rasengan heading straight for the fox's head.
"Try swallowing this!"
The Rasengan went straight into the fox's mouth and impacted the back of its throat. The spell may have been incomplete, but even in its weakened form it still had enough physical power to blow a hole through the back of the fox's head before it dissipated. The animal flew backwards and landed on the floor in a heap. Naruto instantly fell to his knees and panted.
"Oh thank God that's over!"
As he caught his breath, he watched as the fox that he had been battling was slowly dispersing into a weird red mist. Once the body was completely dissipated, the mist drifted over to Naruto and swirled around him.
"Woah, okay what's that!?"
All of sudden, his entire body started hurting. At first it was just a bunch of prickles, but it grew exponentially and it soon felt as if all his bones were being broken. He screamed in agony as the mist solidified into a sort of aura and began enveloping his body. As soon the aura completely took over his entire body, the pain faded away quickly, and it was replaced by a feeling of lightness. His entire body felt lighter, in fact, everything seemed brighter and the air smelled different than it did before.
He brought up his hand to look at it, but almost ended up smacking himself in the face, unprepared for how fast his movements were now. He blinked in disbelief for a moment, then grinned and turned to the stone wall he was standing near. He brought back his fist and threw a punch at the rock. Before when he punched something like rock, he would usually just chip away some of the top layer, or make some minor cracks in the surface, but this time, his punch carried enough left over energy to send cracks all the way across the length of the wall after his main punch, which buried almost his entire arm into the wall.
He pulled his arm out and surveyed the damage. He grinned to himself and nodded.
"Oh yeah, this'll be fun."
He quickly ran through the reverse of the hand signs Jiraiya taught him and felt the world shatter around him.
On the outside, Naruto's body was squished tightly in the summoned snakes esophagus. His eyes shot open suddenly and he growled; this was not what he was expecting when he woke up.
"Oh great, what is this!?" he shouted.
He could barely move his arms or legs, but took in a deep breath and calmed himself. He still felt the lightness he felt in his inner mind; things seemed easier and slower now, he could get out of this.
"Alright, let's see just how much of this demon power I can yank out," he said to himself and he closed his eyes again. He could feel it there, it was easier to grasp than before. Before it had just been this dim light in the back of his mind, but now he could literally feel it, and he grabbed ahold of it, taking as much as he could.
He felt his body begin to tingle, and he opened his eyes again. There was a orange-red energy leaking off his body, almost like he was on fire, but he felt no pain whatsoever.
"Well, no better time than now to give this a shot."
He gathered his magic together again and began rotating it in his right hand. He was amazed at how much easier it was now, the rotation was almost automatic, and even with all the power he was pumping into it, he felt much less drained than he used to. Holding it all together was still a bit difficult, but he found that this fiery energy that was coming from his body made it easier to keep it all in one place, like it was helping him hold it down.
In no time at all, a complete and stable Rasengan was in his hand. With a push of his muscles, he was able to push it against the squishy muscle of the snake's innards, and began driving through them like a drill.
Gamabunta deflected another blow from Orochimaru's summoned snake. Jiraiya glared at his former friend when something caught his eye. The left snake head's neck began to bulge outward. Just a moment after he noticed it, the snakes neck exploded in a shower of blood and the sage could have sworn he saw something fly out of it. This was soon confirmed as that something landed on Gamabunta's shoulder.
Jiraiya was able to make out patches of blond hair under the drenched layers of blood and saliva. The blond leaped up onto Gamabunta's head and landed right in front of Jiraiya. He could make it out in detail now; there was blond hair standing on end, a blood drenched orange T-shirt and jeans, ruby red eyes, and a orange-red fiery arua surrounding him.
"N...Naruto?" asked Jiraiya.
"Hey Jiraiya, hate to leave ya hangin' but I gotta move."
With that, the blond ran past him and off the side of Gamabunta's head, down his arm, and leaped down to the cliff where they had made camp. Kakashi and Kabuto had moved their battle further down the mountain, but Sasuke and Karen were still duking it out. As he flew down, he saw Karen charging at Sasuke with her new technique that Kakashi taught her, the Chidori. Her strike missed, but Naruto was impressed when he saw her blow away a huge chunk of the cliffside, causing a minature landslide.
Thanks to the strike she was off balance and unable to counter as Sasuke moved it for his strike. Just as he was about to make contact with a knife to the back, Naruto landed feet first and grabbed ahold of his wrist, squeezing tightly.
Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw Naruto not only alive, but with his demon powers active. The blond stood up straight and grinned when he met the raven haired demon hunters gaze.
"You know, there's only one thing that I can think to say right now."
He pulled Sasuke forward towards him and pulled back his other hand. The back of his free hand collided with Sasuke's cheek with loud 'thud' and he flew clear across the cliffside.
"Bitch-slap!"
Now things start to heat up. Naruto's got a new trick up his sleeve now that his demonic abilities are now free to use, now the only problem is knowing how much of it he can control and using it correctly. Naruto and Sasuke have another showdown, and we see just how much of an advantage the fox powers give our favorite blond.
By the by, that last "bitch-slap" line, came from the DBZ abridged series. Check them out on Youtube, totally worth the watching.
Reviews are always welcome.
