Just when I was sure I was back on track, I sleep in til 1pm. Well, that's plenty of time to get to work on the next chapter, so I suppose I'm officially back to form with my "update first thing" deal... well, ALMOST anyway. Man, complication after complication, I've been giving these chapters the same name for about three chapters now, onbly to change them when I realise the events I was looking to reach aren't quite here yet.
Disclaimer: Come on Naruto... please fight Kyubi head on! You took on the Ichibi, you can take on him! ... Pretty please?
A fallen barrier
Yagura and Fuu slowly made their way back to the base, taking their time as they passed through the wilderness. They had both been silent since they turned around, but to Yagura's surprise Fuu seemed to be in a pretty good mood. In spite of all that had happened in the past half hour she was smiling to herself, looking out among the trees with a serenity that few had after opening up like she did.
Yagura on the other hand felt a lot of guilt; guilt at what he'd said and done to Fuu, guilt to his own hypocrisy and worst of all, guilt to the thoughts he had had before realising he was wrong. If he compared how he felt to how Fuu looked, he would feel almost certain that they were from different situations. He wished he could feel as light hearted as she appeared to be, but in truth his heart felt heaviest of all.
However, a few moments later that thought was contradicted as Fuu gained a troubled expression. She looked for a second almost like she had lost something, raising her hand to her lip worriedly. But then she looked over to Yagura, and the cause for her anxiety became clear. "Hey um, I just realised something." she said, her voice small but clear. "I never asked you permission, did I? To call you Yagura-kun I mean."
Yagura blinked in surprise; he hadn't been expecting such an ordinary thing to be the source of her concern. "Well actually, that has been troubling me a little." he said, closing his eyes and rubbing the back of his head. Fuu let out a tiny gasp of shock, thinking the worst of the situation. Yagura opened a single eye, looking over to her from its corner. "I mean, we live in the same house and all, so why not just call me Yagura?"
"Eep!" Fuu squeaked, her face flushing in surprise. Yagura noticed her reaction and raised his brow, wondering if that really was as big a problem as her expression suggested it was. Nervously, Fuu lowered her hand from her mouth and gripped her other in front of her. She seemed embarrassed for some reason, but not resistant. "Is that really ok?" she asked, before deciding to try it out. "Ya… gura… KUN?"
She flinched at that last part, closing her eyes tight and recoiling like she'd been shocked. Yagura dropped his hand and smiled weakly at her, quietly taken aback by her eccentricity. "Hey, you don't have to push it." he said, trying to compensate for his earlier attitude by being nice. "Call me what you want, it doesn't matter much to me."
"Um… I… ok!" Fuu said positively, giving a sharp nod of her head. Though her embarrassment still seemed very much present, she also seemed more confident from Yagura's words. After a moment's hesitation, she hurried in front of him and turned around, trying to give him her best determined look. "Then… can you show me how to get stronger?" she asked, fixing her both positive but uncertain eyes upon Yagura's.
Yagura, who had stopped when she ran in front of him, raised his brows in surprise. It seemed there was no end to how quickly Fuu's mood would change; a quality that he couldn't help but wonder if it would become bothersome. Still, after what had just happened he knew he had no right to deny her. "Uh… are you sure you want me to train you?" he asked, finding that his own confidence had taken a sudden decline. "I'm pretty sure Utakata would be better suited for someone with your style."
Fuu shook her head rapidly from side to side, her hair flailing madly as she did so. Her expression grew more serious, but considering it was Fuu she failed to look like more than a temperamental child. "I want to be able to look after myself, so that I can always be helpful!" she declared, her hands clenching into fists as she got herself pumped up. "But not just that, I don't want everyone to worry about me!"
She stared hard at Yagura, who had to admire her resolve if nothing else. He scratched the back of his neck and glanced down to the ground; accepting that nothing he could say would change Fuu's mind. "Alright then, I guess I'll do what I can." he said, rolling his stiff neck as he prepared himself for what would be coming. "But I gotta warn you; I can't use Doton chakra. Same with Fuuton. I'm a Suiton specialist, but I know some Katon and Raiton. So for that area, we may need to find someone who knows about it."
"Oh… ok!" Fuu replied, nodding vigorously. She was only slightly put off by that prospect; much of her previous training had gone to nature manipulation. Though now that she thought about it, she was probably given that tough training so that she could be kept out of the way. But she wasn't going to let herself be discouraged by that, there was a lot more she could learn in place of that. "Then what'll we start with?"
"That's the question." Yagura muttered, turning to his right and leaning on a nearby tree. He folded his arms and closed his eyes as he thought about it, before looking sharply at Fuu with a frown. "That kekkei genkai, Nikusui… just how versatile is that anyway?"
Fuu looked back at Yagura curiously, cocking her head as she thought about it for a moment. "Well… I know that it works from just about any skin to skin contact." she said, before her cheeks reddened and her head bowed. She raised her hands in front of her and lightly prodded her forefingers together as she suddenly looked self-conscious again. "Also… if I get overexcited… it sort of runs over, and well…"
Yagura waited for her to finish her sentence, but soon realised that wasn't going to happen. Still, she had made him curious enough to test a little theory of his. He straightened up from the tree and walked towards her with his arms still folded, coming to a stop when he stood right in front of Fuu. "So what you mean is like last night, when Utakata said that thing?" he asked, watching her with a single raised brow.
The response came quickly; though Fuu remained silent she jumped a little from the memory. Her face also flushed harder and her head bowed further, Yagura could almost feel the heat of embarrassment radiating off of her. But more than that, he found the thing she spoke of. A thin vapour had suddenly begun rising from her body, disappearing into the air a few seconds after it emerged. It almost looked like she had stepped out of a sauna or something.
Fuu glanced up at Yagura, her eyes widening as she caught the glimmer of a smirk on his face. Suddenly realising she was being teased; she threw her hands down to either side in an irritable manner. "Yagura-kun!" she protested, giving him a fierce look that had little to no effect. Though her skin had stopped steaming, her discomfiture hadn't changed.
Yagura, realising he'd been caught, decided to stop hiding his smirk. Though he felt a little regretful for harassing her like that, for some reason he just couldn't help himself. "I see… I didn't know you felt that way about Utakata." he said, slipping his hands behind his head as he awaited Fuu's reaction.
"W-w-I- no!" Fuu exclaimed, taking a step back in shock. She was no longer sure if Yagura was making fun of her, or just misinterpreting the situation. In truth, she had hoped that what she had done earlier might make things a little clearer, was she wrong? "It's not Utakata-kun I-!" she cried, before clasping her hands to her face. Now she was fairly certain she had said too much.
"Huh, not Utakata?" Yagura repeated, raising his eyes to the sky with a curious look. He had definitely caught something in her words, he hadn't missed it. And after a moment's thought, he remembered something that happened not too long ago, something that made the answer obvious to him. "Oh… well…" he muttered, dropping his wide eyes to Fuu. She stared back at him with strong, almost pleading eyes that made him waver for a moment. "You mean…?"
Fuu said nothing to confirm or deny, but kept her attention fixed to Yagura. In truth there was a growing sense in her, a desire to just cry out and run away. But she stood strong, as strong as she could. If she wanted to get through this, she would need to prove she had the confidence to see it to the end.
"Well… I don't think it'd work." Yagura sighed, folding his arms and lightly cocking his head to the right. Fuu blinked in shock; was he going to give such a casual rejection? Her knees shook lightly with the rising pressure, why was he tormenting her like this? "I mean, Naruto is kind of dense."
"CAN WE JUST GET TO TRAINING?" Fuu demanded, the pressure forcing her to yell out at the top of her lungs. She had officially given up, why was this so difficult? She was beginning to wonder if Yagura was slower than she thought he was. Even now he just looked at her with a raised brow, taken by surprise from her outburst.
"O…k." he said, before chuckling faintly to himself. He felt this game had gone on long enough anyway, if he went any further he might be left in the situation he had not too long ago. And so he concluded it was time to get on with things, his expression became a little more serious. "Well then I guess we should get to it."
Fuu nodded fervently as he passed by, before following him through the trees. She was more than a little steamed, but her personal discomfort of the past few minutes kept her from showing it too much. However, she was definitely ready for training, anything that could let her sweat out her shame and frustration.
Now the secret was out, the fight had become more like a war between beasts. Akira, Hotei and Koyane were openly taking on the sloths while the Kage Bunshin backed them up. Daisuke managed to match the sloths for speed, forcing the timid beasts to focus on him while Kunimei snuck around and attacked from their blind spots. Shinmaru was the only one not directly fighting, instead confusing the apparently half blind and deaf sloths by marking the area. Naruto and two other Kage Bunshin took on the lone Shinobi; they were having little trouble overpowering him.
"FUUTON: REPPUSHO!" they cried, surrounding him in three places. The wind that blasted from their palms struck the Shinobi with crushing force; if he wasn't dead he was unconscious. In either case, he lost his grip on the wall and plummeted down to the abyss below. Naruto let out a breath of relief; he had expended a little too much effort here.
"Alright, guess it's time to move on." he thought, as he headed to the place where Eko was. He tried not to notice the sloths that were tossed off the walls; in truth he didn't much like harming animals when it wasn't necessary. But even with their masters gone, the beasts continued to claw and slash. So he had to let the dogs have their way with the beasts, and instead focus on what needed to be done.
"Have fun?"
Naruto ignored Eko's moody comment and pulled him out of the wall. To be honest, the fight hadn't lasted nearly long enough for him to get into it; his thoughts were still on what he needed to do. He looked up as the last of the sloths were finished off, and his Kage Bunshin dispersed. It was time to move on; he needed to alert Gaara and Deidara.
"Shinmaru, find Gaara!" he ordered, as he placed Eko back onto his back. The large dog barked in reply, the rest of the dogs dispersing back into the shadows. Naruto leapt up the walls and landed on a rooftop with his best tracker, before climbing onto his back and ordering him to move on. Shinmaru immediately obeyed and took off; reaching a greater speed than Naruto could manage on his own.
They darted through the buildings, following the debris left by Deidara's passing. There was no more sound of explosions; there was no longer any need for them. But the artistic arsonist had left an easy enough trail to follow in any case. However, that served only as a guiding post, since the person Naruto sought was not Deidara.
"It's gonna be tough to find him with his scent masked by the smoke."
"You think I should use the Resonance Jutsu?" Naruto asked, replying to Eko's statement with a thought. He wasn't sure how well it would work here, there were too many walls in the way. Plus, using it could provide an unneeded distraction, what if Gaara was in a situation of some sort?
"Nah, but it might be a good idea to get to the rooftops, get a better view Y'know?
Naruto nodded in agreement; that made sense enough. With a slight tug to Shinmaru's fur, the dog understood too. He changed direction when he landed on a perch and made a higher jump to one of the taller structures. Not too long later, they were looking out to a view of a village filled with rising plumes of smoke. "Man, Deidara really gets into his work, doesn't he?" Naruto thought, as Shinmaru sniffed through the air. His giant head then turned around as he let out a low whine; he had caught Gaara's scent. "Good boy, go find him!"
The dog barked again before taking off across the buildings in the direction he detected the sand wielder, wasting no time and in fact picking up speed unnecessarily. Naruto almost considered telling him to slow down, but pressing matters restricted that thought. Had it been him on his own, he'd probably be moving at top speed too.
"Hoi, Naruto-kun!"
Naruto whipped his head back as a shadow passed over him. The large clay owl that he had seen Deidara leave on was flying overhead, with the creator in question standing on top. He looked over the edge at Naruto, grinning at Shinmaru with an impressed look upon his face. Naruto however could hardly return the gesture. "You couldn't wait a minute longer?" he asked, his expression dry and tired. Deidara cocked a brow at him in reply, clearly seeing that things didn't go as planned.
"Guess that means they got word out, yeah?" he said, his smirk fading as he rubbed his chin. Then he gave a light shrug of his shoulders, apparently it wasn't a big deal to him as it seemed like to Naruto. "It's no problem; it just means we gotta work quicker. The distraction's done its job, so I'll see what I can find; you do the same."
"Yeah yeah." Naruto grumbled, as Deidara took off again. He couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the person who had to be the partner to such an impatient guy. But at least with the message passed on to one person, he could relax a little more. He let out a breath of relief, just as Shinmaru began to descend from the rooftops. "Huh, we're there?"
He looked out to see if they had reached Gaara, but couldn't catch sight of the red haired boy. That was understandable enough, for all he knew Gaara was inside or something. All that he could do was wait for Shinmaru to take him there.
But then the big dog stopped, standing just at the gap between two buildings. He looked over at Naruto and let out another whine, jerking his head into the shadows to the right. Naruto frowned at the sound the dog made, what was the problem? However, turning his eyes to the right, Naruto found that answer for himself. "Hey, Gaara!" he called, waving to the boy not too far away.
"Hey uh, Yagura-kun?" Fuu called, looking over her shoulder as she lifted up a bundle of sticks. Her shin and clothes were flecked with dirt, and sweat gave her an odd sheen in the cold but humid air. She was also breathing a little heavily; she'd been doing quite a bit of lifting and dropping things. "What are we doing this for? I thought we were training."
Yagura didn't respond right away, he was busy focusing on the task at hand. He was in the process of tying sticks together with creepers that were clinging to a nearby tree. Finishing with the one he was working on, he laid it aside and rested his arm on his knee, wiping his brow as he looked back at Fuu. "We're making training dummies, so you can practice close combat without injuring yourself on hard wood." he said, gesturing to the irregularly sized bundles piled next to him.
"Oh… ok." Fuu muttered, as she carried the sticks she was carrying over to him. She could kind of see the sense in doing something like that, but she had really been hoping to get straight to training instead of this strange labour. "So… what kind of things will you teach me?"
Yagura shifted over so he was sitting on the ground, looking over at Fuu who sat down beside him. He was still giving that topic some thought, he believed even now that Utakata would have been a better choice of sensei. "Well… based on what I've seen, I don't think you're a Genjutsu type." he said, with a half thoughtful and half tired look about him. "And I can't help you with Nature Manipulation… I think it'd probably be better to work on your advantages; the Nikusui and your Biju control."
Fuu looked at Yagura in shock, fear appearing on her face. He didn't blame her for that reaction; he doubted she had any reason to see the Nanabi in anything other than a negative light. "Oh… well… ok." she said, her worry clear in spite of her efforts. "I… I guess I could give that a try…"
Yagura shook his head at these words, Fuu was misunderstanding what he was telling her. "It'll be a while before we get there, there's still a lot of work to be put into Gaara first." he replied, as he picked up a stick and began roughly drawing into the dirt. "So far what he's done is completed the first step." he explained, showing Fuu a rough outline of a person. "He found his inner self and calmed it."
To indicate this, Yagura drew a line at the figure's feet before scraping in an upside down version of that same person. However to contrast, he scraped out the insides to make it look like an inversion. "It's this inner self that acts as the medium between him and the Ichibi." he continued, before adding to the drawing by turning the lines between their feet into a large figure eight. "So what he's essentially done is taken down his mental barrier to the Ichibi."
Fuu watched the picture as it grew into something larger, her expression blank as she did her best to follow what Yagura was saying. So far she was having a tough time doing that, but she was at least trying. "You mean… he's not afraid of it anymore?" she asked, looking to Yagura in the hope that she had hit the mark.
"Something like that." Yagura replied, lightly tapping the sketch with the end of the stick. "It's more like he no longer resists it. But that's where it's most dangerous. See, now that there's nothing stopping him from taking all the chakra he wants, there's nothing stopping the Ichibi from pushing its consciousness onto him at the same time. This is where a lot of the Jinchuriki died; they didn't have enough self control. But Gaara seems to have that and then some. That's why we're even doing this, because I'm sure that Gaara won't use that power unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Is it really that bad?" Fuu asked, raising her knees to her chin and hugging them tight. She knew absolutely nothing of what it meant to be Jinchuriki, knew nothing of the dangers that came with it. She had yet to be troubled by the Nanabi, though she had always wondered why this was. "What'll happen if you're wrong?"
Yagura paused for a moment there, his stick halfway to the ground. The idea of that training not working had been something he was almost certain about, and was the main reason he hadn't wanted to do it. But from the week that Gaara had been recovering from his stab wound he had shown no desire to use that power; none that Yagura had seen anyway. But he couldn't deny it, the worry still lingered somewhere in his head. And so, to indicate this, he began drawing a large circle around the figure eight. Then, once he had done that, he lowered the stick down to the figure representing Gaara, and lightly crossed it out.
"Something… kinda like that."
A black claw reached out into the thin slither of light, its sharp tip dragging across the dusty stone. As it moved along, it pulled a trail of red, a morbid kind of ink. The red liquid pulled from a nearby corpse, whose form was obscured in the darkness. The claw absent mindedly scrawled across the stone, forming seemingly random kanji in a strangely neat writing.
"Life… is existence." muttered a harsh, gravelly voice from the shadows. It seemed to belong to the owner of the claw, but as to who that was, that was a mystery. All that was clear was that strange extremity, and the voice that quietly raved in time to the writing. "Existence… is desire… desire… is death…"
The voice continued to mutter itself, undisturbed by the world around it as it rambled on. It failed even to acknowledge the dull thud that came not too far to its right, so immersed was it in its task. "Hey, Gaara!" called a voice, also harsh, but energetic. The voice… Gaara, ignored it however, distracted by something more meaningful; there wasn't enough blood.
A blond boy jumped off of a large dog as the being he called Gaara reached out to the shadows. The claw grasped at something there, before a gut wrenching crunch could be heard. The claw then pulled back, bringing with it a dismembered arm that dripped with blood. Gaara held it over the words he had written, before squeezing the arm tight. "Everything… washes away in blood." he said, as he tossed the arm off to his right. Lazily, he looked over as he heard the squelch of the arm rolling across the stone. It was there for the first time that he acknowledged the stranger, who was squinting to make him out in the darkness.
"You… you don't cling to life, do you?" Gaara asked, his face becoming slightly visible as his head swayed lightly from side to side. His eyes were faded, he seemed barely aware of what he was doing. Sand gripped his neck, clinging to it like it was his own skin. That sand dragged down his shoulders, before disappearing into the shadows. However, the mystery of that sand wasn't to last long, as Gaara slowly straightened up. "You… have a reason to live, but not a strong one."
Naruto took a step back, his brow creasing and his eyes widening at the sight he saw. This was Gaara, but not like he had ever seen him before. The sand that covered his body seemed almost like that new form he had been training with just the other day, but it also seemed like the form he had used a long time ago, back when he was a different person entirely.
The claw of sand still clung to his arm, but this time there was another on his left arm too. What was more; those arms had grown to a colossal size passing by Gaara's shoulders like they belonged to the body of a beast behind him. That sand also formed a large tail behind him, swishing lightly through the air as Gaara stood hunched over from his own sheer weight.
"Gaara?" Naruto called again, an uncertain look on his face. But from the look on Gaara's face, there was no way of knowing if his words were even reaching him. But that didn't make sense, how could he be like this when he'd been training against it? "Hey, Gaara, what's going on?"
"Your… reason for… existing…" Gaara muttered, as he slowly stepped out from the shadows. Naruto took another step back as he saw Gaara fully. His entire lower half was drenched in blood, trailing from a disfigured form in the shadows. But Naruto's attention was removed from that as he looked straight at Gaara, who was baring his teeth in an angered glare. "Will not… surpass… MY OWN!"
Then, with a roar of rage he charged straight at Naruto, swinging his massive arms aside as he tried to break his friend apart. Naruto was saved by Shinmaru, who roughly grabbed his master in his large mouth and jumped back to another building. They landed in an open hallway, where the dog dropped the still stunned Naruto back onto the ground.
"Snap out of it, he's going to attack!"
